Cultivation Realms: Qi Refinement, Foundation, Golden Core, Nascent, Spirit Transformation, Void Realm, Unity, Grand, Tribulation.
----------_----------------_---------------_-------------
Canglan Realm.
Southern Border.
Wuji Palace, Mount Acacia.
A loud crack rang out through the grand hall. It was the sharp snap of the whip as it cut through the air like a clap of thunder.
It tore right across the back of the woman in white robes. It shredded her smooth porcelain skin and left it a complete mess of raw bleeding strips.
"Ahh!!"
Even after two earlier beatings, Xiao Qingyue could not choke back her scream. It ripped out of her throat, raw, shrill, and full of heartbreak.
If the pain had been nothing but physical, she might have endured it all in silence. But this whip was not just made of leather. It carried a vicious spiritual force that clawed straight into her soul.
She felt like a thousand blades and ten thousand needles were stabbing every inch of her body and spirit at the same time. Every single inch hurt so much.
The agony was a hundred times worse than losing a limb.
A broken whimper slipped from her lips. It echoed off the cold jade walls around her.
Something dark and violent surged inside her soul. Her vision started to blacken at the edges.
Xiao Qingyue collapsed like a beaten dog. Her cheek pressed to the icy floor. Her eyes swam with tears and exhaustion. She no longer knew why she was still breathing.
Yet she could not die.
She did not even have the right to choose death anymore.
Through the blur of her tears, she lifted her gaze to the man in black robes. His eyes were bottomless pits that looked dark, empty, and endless.
A fresh wave of grief crashed over her. If only she had never met him. If only she had never saved him all those years ago. If only he could still be that simple, kind-hearted boy from two centuries past.
He raised the whip again.
She instinctively ducked her head. She clenched her teeth and braced herself for the next strike.
But it never came.
Instead, she heard him stagger backward once, then twice. Then he crashed to the floor. The back of his skull slammed into the stone with a sickening thud.
The unbreakable jade flagstone actually cracked beneath the impact.
She froze in place.
Was he dying?
No. It seemed impossible.
A Spirit Transformation powerhouse, the most terrifying demon in the entire Southern Border, did not just drop dead from nothing at all.
He had to be faking it. He was testing her. One smile or one twitch of relief, and the real torture would begin.
This devil. This treacherous, rotten-hearted monster.
He was not the honest young man who used to wash her clothes, cook her meals, and quietly take care of her every need two hundred years ago. That boy, Little Wu, was long gone.
Now he was the tyrant of Wuji Palace. He was the top name on every kill list in the Southern Border. He was a monster that the entire region prayed would die screaming in pain.
He was a madman who burst into sinister laughter whenever the darkness took him over.
Two years ago he had rescued her only to drag her here and chain her like an animal. Last month he had thrown a fake wedding just to amuse himself.
He did all of it to feed his sick appetites.
He was a lunatic. He was a pure-blooded fiend.
She told herself to stay still and silent. But when he started to stir again, fresh sorrow flooded her chest and the tears came anyway.
"Xiao Qingyue…?" he murmured. His voice was hoarse and dazed. "Little Moon? You're… alive?"
She gave him a cold, empty stare. Of course the beast wished her dead.
He clutched his head. His face twisted in pain. Then suddenly he threw his head back and laughed.
It was a wild, broken sound.
Here we go, she thought bitterly. Whip first, then the slaps. It was the same old routine.
But the laughter cut off just as fast. His eyes cleared up.
He understood.
He had been reborn.
Even villains got second chances?
Back on Earth he had been an ordinary college kid with his whole life ahead of him. Until a truck ended it in one messy second and dropped him into this brutal cultivation world.
His childhood and youth had been cruel. An Immortal Demonic Bone lodged in his soul. It fed on him constantly and flooded his veins with a dark, uncontrollable fury that they called manic rage.
At first the episodes were rare. As his cultivation grew stronger, so did the madness.
He had forged soul chains inside his sea of consciousness to keep himself calm. It helped a little.
Until the day he met her, his old, unattainable first love. She was the most beautiful, coldest, purest, and kindest fairy the Southern Border had ever known: Xiao Qingyue.
The demon inside him finally broke its leash.
He loved her more than anything.
She did not love him back.
So he locked her away. And every time the rage took him, he could not stop himself from hurting her.
At first he tried to hold back. Later he stopped pretending it was just the demonic energy. Maybe it was him. Maybe it had always been him.
Three days would pass, and there would be a light beating. Seven days, and it would be a brutal one.
After their sham wedding he welcomed his bride with a hundred lashes.
Five long years later, she finally started to give in. She stopped fighting, stopped running, stopped trying to die. She even called him husband a few times.
He had been ecstatic.
The episodes grew further apart, one every couple of years. They lived almost like a real couple. There were sweet nights and quiet mornings. It felt like something close to love.
A thousand years passed. Convinced she truly loved him and would never leave, he finally let his guard down.
She escaped the same day.
He tore the Five Domains and Four Seas apart searching for her. He slaughtered anyone who crossed his path.
It took five hundred years to find her again.
He chained her up and whipped her until she could not stand.
The madness only grew worse.
Ten thousand years later, more than thirty so-called chosen ones, the heaven-blessed heroes of the era, came for his head.
The battle shook the heavens and cracked the earth.
In the end, Xiao Qingyue turned herself into a radiant moon to save the world. She scattered her soul forever. There was no reincarnation. No return.
His adopted daughter killed herself right in front of him.
He had driven his wife and child to death. The last thread of sanity snapped.
The Five Domains became his slaughterhouse. He dragged the entire world down into ruin just to build a tomb for his Little Moon.
When death finally claimed him, nothing remained but endless void and a faint electronic beep in his ears.
He did not know how long he drifted in that emptiness.
Until a glowing progress bar appeared in his mind.
And he woke up again.
[Ding! Rage-Fueled Plunder System activated!]
A system?
Only on the second try?
Wu Qin was a veteran web-novel reader. He knew exactly what this meant.
He was probably the final boss for this world's new batch of destined heroes.
His memories were still a mess. They were scrambled by centuries in the void. But one thing was crystal clear.
He looked down at the trembling woman on the floor.
Her fear made the corner of his mouth twitch upward.
Xiao Qingyue's blood ran cold. She shook even harder.
When the demon smiled, someone always died.
But Wu Qin was delighted.
This was only two and a half years into her captivity. The honeymoon phase was still fresh. Everything was just beginning.
In his last life it had taken five full years before she finally broke and learned to obey.
She was still breathtaking.
Her long hair was like a black waterfall. Her skin was like fresh cream. Her eyebrows were like distant hills. Her eyes were like stars. Her nose was like fine jade. Her lips were like ripe cherries.
Every feature looked hand-carved by the heavens themselves. It was flawless and untouchable.
She was one meter seventy-two tall. She had a slender waist. She had long, elegant legs.
She was perfect.
And this time, he was not going to lose her.
Not ever again.