Pay-to-Win Cultivation: I Get 10,000x Returns

Chapter 293: Stormy Skies, The Ocean Swallows the Stars

After that battle, the shadow of the battle puppet hung heavy over everyone’s heart.

If a single puppet was this terrifying, how horrific must the force behind it be?

A deep, gnawing fear of the unknown began to spread like a plague.

Later, Wang Ye proposed the theory of the “World Cage.” He wanted to break out.

All of us opposed him. Who knew if fortune or calamity lay beyond the cage? It could be salvation, or it could be a slaughter even more brutal than what we had just faced.

Wang Ye seemed convinced on the surface, but he continued to seek me out in private, discussing the blueprints for a massive device he called the Heavenly Gourd.

I keenly sensed that he hadn’t given up. Finally, we had a fierce argument, and he spat out the truth: the battle puppet was indeed related to the Su Clan. Worse, it would keep reviving indefinitely. He admitted he was reaching his limit.

I was furious.

He was doing this for her? For another woman?

Where did he place me? Where did he place Lin Yue? Were his closest friends nothing but collateral damage in his hero complex?

I told him to go find the Su Clan and let them clean up their own mess. He replied that the Su Clan leader had entered Secluded Cultivation and couldn’t be found. He insisted that apart from the Su Clan, only he and the Half-Demon King had the power to withstand the puppet. He believed this calamity was his burden to bear.

In that moment, I was utterly disappointed in him.

He was too arrogant. Faced with such a hopeless situation, he still insisted on having his own way. Outside the cage, there was likely no hope—only a cruel, inevitable dead end.

But he never listened to anyone. He never did.

When I saw Lin Yue again, I was shocked to discover her cultivation had plummeted from Nascent Soul down to the Golden Core stage.

Years had passed since our injuries. With Wang Ye’s alchemy skills, she should have recovered long ago.

Only then did I learn the truth. The fetus in her womb possessed a Half-Demon, plant-spirit constitution. For years, the unborn child had been ruthlessly draining its mother’s cultivation and vitality to survive.

For the sake of the child, Lin Yue had sacrificed her realm. Her life was hanging by a thread.

I was incandescent with rage. But Lin Yue’s mind was made up; no matter the cost, she was determined to give birth to Wang Ye’s child.

Looking at her pale, resolute face, I could only compromise. I swore to protect her with everything I had.

Finally, Lin Yue gave birth to a son. The boy was born directly into the Foundation Establishment stage—a prodigy.

But Lin Yue could barely maintain her Golden Core realm. She was a husk of her former self.

I felt a sliver of relief that she was at least alive. I asked her where Wang Ye was.

Lin Yue’s expression darkened. It turned out that over all these years, Wang Ye had only sent puppets to deliver Pills and Spirit Stones. He had never once come to visit her or the child personally.

Not even a single word of comfort.

My chest burned with a towering, infernal rage.

Lin Yue had sacrificed everything for him, yet he was so heartless, so ungrateful. With his wives and concubines in the West and his obsession with the Su Clan in the Central Continent, he had probably cast Lin Yue to the back of his mind.

The admiration I once held for him curdled into pure contempt.

How could such an irresponsible man be worthy of Lin Yue?

Just as my anger reached its peak, I received a Divine Sense message from Wang Ye inviting me to talk.

We hadn’t seen each other in over a decade. He looked like a different person. His eyes were bloodshot, his demeanor manic—he looked possessed.

He asked me to help him complete the final steps of the Prism Project.

When I saw the physical Heavenly Gourd, I instantly understood its principles. I was also shocked by his terrifying mechanical genius. He had left all of us far behind in the dust.

He excitedly explained the plan and the energy flow mechanics. I listened in cold silence before informing him that he was now a father, and detailing Lin Yue’s critical condition.

He was stunned at first. Then, a look of joy crossed his face. But his next words plunged me into an icy abyss.

He said he wanted to break the cage first. Only after breaking through his cultivation limits would he go see the mother and child.

I nearly laughed out loud.

Breaking the cage was more important than his dying wife and newborn son?

I argued fiercely with him. He shouted hoarsely, claiming that once he broke the world’s restrictions, his talent would allow him to easily reach the Soul Formation stage. Then, he could protect everyone. He could resolve the puppet calamity. He could heal Lin Yue.

I looked at him with cold, dead eyes.

He had gone mad.

In his heart, Lin Yue’s deep affection and the bond of his own flesh and blood were worthless compared to his grand delusions.

Once the Heavenly Gourd was activated and the World Cage shattered, we would face unknown terrors. I did not want to experience the nightmare of the battle puppet a second time.

Looking at his obsessive, pale face, a crazy, bold idea sprouted in my heart. It was a thought so dark it made even me tremble.

I feigned agreement. I told him I understood his painstaking efforts. I offered to assist him with the final calibration.

I secretly placed restrictions on the critical nodes of the formation. Then, I told him he needed to enter the interior of the Heavenly Gourd to inspect the core manually.

His mind was so consumed by his obsession that, as if guided by ghosts, he actually believed me. He willingly stepped inside.

The moment he entered, I triggered the trap.

The Realm-Severing Light Wall I had prepared beforehand slammed shut, sealing the Heavenly Gourd. Without a second of hesitation, I activated the Refining Grand Formation.

At first, he was terrified. He pounded on the walls.

But as he sensed the power gathering within the Gourd—power that surpassed the limits of this world—his panic seemed to fade. He showed a trace of relief. Of release.

He was already injured. He didn’t struggle much.

Within the formation, the legendary Drifting King turned to ash. His essence condensed, purified, and finally coalesced into a single, flawless Demon Core.

I killed him.

The man who dominated an era, the invincible Wang Ye, died just like that. It was so easy, so quiet, that even I found it hard to believe.

Wang Ye Perished in silence.

No one knew but me.

Then, the calamity began.

The Half-Demon King’s grief turned into a world-ending rage.

The human and demon races, having just achieved a fragile peace, were plunged back into a sea of blood.

The Su Clan mysteriously vanished into Secluded Cultivation. Without a powerhouse like Wang Ye to mediate, the forces of the Central Continent collapsed.

The Half-Demon King went completely insane. Any family or sect that had even a slight grievance with Wang Ye was slaughtered to the last man. My Song family could not escape. I was the only survivor, fleeing like a rat, living in constant terror.

The Lin family, because they had once ostracized Lin Yue, was also decimated. Only Lin Yue’s specific branch was spared, solely because she had given birth to Wang Ye’s child.

Lin Yue took pity on me. She forged an identity for me, and I pretended to be her long-lost elder brother.

Together, we raised her and Wang Ye’s child. I treated the boy as my own.

After the storm passed, I finally dared to swallow Wang Ye’s Demon Core. I devoted myself to cultivation.

But tragedy wasn’t finished with me.

Lin Yue’s foundation had been destroyed by the pregnancy. A Nascent Soul cultivator should enjoy a lifespan of two thousand years, but she lived less than eight hundred before she passed away in meditation.

My heart was pierced with pain, but I was powerless to save her.

After her death, I completely integrated into the Lin family. Relying on the power of the Demon Core, my cultivation climbed all the way to Half-Step Soul Formation.

Because of Wang Ye’s core, my lifespan became unnaturally long.

I assumed the identity of a Lin clansman, establishing my own branch. I pretended to pass down the torch from generation to generation to deceive the world.

Lin Yue’s child had good talent, but he died when his lifespan ran out. The demon bloodline diluted with each generation. By the time of Lin Xiaozhu, there were almost no demonic characteristics left.

At the same time, I secretly spread my seed, rebuilding the Song family bloodline from the shadows.

But a thorn always remained in my heart: the Stone Gate of Fate.

I worried Wang Ye had left a contingency plan inside. I was desperate to open it, but I never found the key.

The Half-Demon King never gave up searching for Wang Ye. The Su Clan eventually reappeared briefly. I stayed hidden.

Because I fused with Wang Ye’s Demon Core, I gained some of his abilities—his mechanical genius, his insights into formations, and a faint connection to the Stone Gate of Fate.

Chapter 294: Yellow Millet Dream Turns Cold, A Lone Lamp Illuminates the Empty Courtyard

Time flowed on, and several thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.

I no longer had the close friends of those days by my side, and I came to understand the pain Wang Ye once felt when his cultivation could not advance an inch.

But I lacked his courage. I did not dare attempt to initiate the Prism Project, fearing the tragedy of the battle puppets would repeat itself.

I knew the Su Clan had established the Yunmiao Sect in the Southern Region, and I knew there was a guardian family in Penglai. I chose to hide, silently protecting the descendants of A’Yue within the Lin family, nurturing them to become talents.

Later, among my descendants, one with exceptional talent emerged—Song Taichu, who pushed the Guiyuan Sect to the peak of the Central Continent.

And I, incidentally, founded the Heavenly Abyss Alliance. Ironically, the ideals promoted by the Heavenly Abyss Alliance were precisely Wang Ye’s concepts from back then.

I hated him, yet I most recognized his ideals.

It’s just that he failed to take good care of A’Yue and was too obsessed.

I thought my life would continue like this until I saw the end of my lifespan.

Until the calamity of the Seven Emotions descended.

On the first day the Seven Emotions descended into the world, I sensed it.

I understood that this cage of heaven and earth, even if not actively broken, was no longer stable.

Thus, I began to lay plans, attempting to gather the Seven Emotions Evil Thoughts.

The Song descendants were controlled by me from childhood using the [Mind Planting Technique], subtly influenced, like puppets.

The Southern Region was Su Yunmiao’s territory, so I was especially careful. I deliberately exiled a branch of the family to the Southern Region, secretly laying groundwork there and guiding the flow of the Four Thoughts to that area.

As for the other regions, they were all under my control.

My plan was to let the Seven Emotions grow, ultimately to be harvested by me, using them as a trump card to deal with various unknowns after opening the cage.

Later, [Hatred] unexpectedly returned to the Central Continent. I went with the flow, letting it wreak havoc in the Western Region,也算报了半妖王当年灭族之仇 (also considered avenging the Half-Demon King’s clan extermination from back then).

Then, I noticed Yang Poxiao. He had some experiences similar to Wang Ye’s. I thought he might be the key to opening the Stone Gate of Fate, so I placed him by Taichu’s side. Unfortunately, Taichu was too eager for quick success and failed.

At the same time, I discovered a more interesting person—Zhang Xian. He entered my sight when he resolved [Desire].

He was more cautious than Yang Poxiao, concealing his origins. However, after lying low in a minor world for a hundred years, I soon figured out his background.

At our first meeting, I identified him as Wang Ye’s kind—mysterious and dangerous.

After several tests, he never revealed any flaws. The more this was the case, the more I guarded against him.

This youngster absolutely cannot be allowed to remain!

So I pushed the plan forward, sending him to the Western Region. With a little guidance, I had him come into contact with the Stone Gate of Fate.

On the day he opened the gate, it would be the day of his death.

Of course, this dirty work would naturally be handled by Taichu and the Guiyuan Sect.

However, Taichu failed again, finally wearing down my patience.

I decided to step onto the stage myself, directing a play of the Heavenly Abyss Alliance seizing power.

If successful, I could remain behind the scenes, continuing my schemes; if it failed, I could still probe Zhang Xian’s depths.

Sure enough, Zhang Xian’s trump cards emerged one after another. He could actually contend with Taichu, greatly exceeding my expectations.

Thus, I meticulously designed an ending for him.

Like Wang Ye, to die within the Heavenly Gourd’s Prism Grand Formation. The prerequisite was to lure him into opening the Stone Gate of Fate—this method of death was nearly perfect.

I told him a story half-true and half-false, hinting at the secret of the stone gate, but he remained cautious and did not take the bait.

Helpless, I could only resort to a lower strategy: threatening those he cared about, using Taichu as bait to force him into the trap.

To guard against any mishaps, I personally went to the Northern Ridge and the Eastern Sea, mobilizing two Half-Step Soul Formation trump cards I had been cultivating for years. Counting Taichu, with three peak cultivators as support, four strands of Seven Emotions Evil Thoughts in hand, and myself being an invincible existence on par with Wang Ye from back then.

Dealing with a mere Nascent Soul junior, it was foolproof.

Unfortunately, reality is always filled with absurdity.

When I saw those sky-obscuring, thousands of golden battle puppets, a long-absent fear surged in my heart, accompanied by an almost ironic sense of familiarity.

It’s here.

This thought poured over me like ice water. The nightmare from ten thousand years ago had reappeared in another, even more terrifying form.

This wasn’t a battle; it was a crushing, a harvest. My ten-thousand-year schemes, the forces I had painstakingly built, collapsed instantly before absolute numbers and power.

My descendants, my trump cards, even that Song Zheng with the special Fate Pattern—all vanished like bubbles.

I tried to struggle, to attempt decapitation, but surrounded by those puppets with undying characteristics, all resistance was futile.

When Zhang Xian casually told me that those countless puppets could be elevated to the Soul Formation realm at any time, my Dao heart, my ten-thousand years of endurance and calculations, completely shattered.

So, the so-called power I pursued with all my heart for ten thousand years, the so-called conspiracies I schemed—in the face of true “absoluteness,” were so laughable, so fragile.

In the final moment before my consciousness was completely annihilated, ten thousand years of time flashed by like fragments.

The hearty laughter of my brothers, the heroic posture of A’Yue practicing her sword, the spirited discussions of ideals with Wang Ye…

Finally, it settled on A’Yue’s gentle, trusting gaze as she entrusted me with caring for her child on her deathbed.

Ha! A’Yue, I’m sorry.

My life began in freedom, became trapped by obsession, attempted to control everything, yet in the end, I couldn’t even properly fulfill the most precious task you entrusted to me.

I myself ended up scattered to ashes, ten thousand years of effort coming to nothing.

Truly a complete tragedy and joke.

If there is a next life… forget it, what next life is there.