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

Chapter 223: Since When Did She Become a Man?

Zhao Chengyue lay broken at the bottom of the crater. His body was a ruin; every bone had been pulverized, and every breath brought up not just blood, but charred fragments of his own internal organs.

He stared up at Lin Yinyin, his eyes wide with a mixture of incomprehensible horror and despair.

“Impossible… I am at the peak of the Golden Core realm! How… how can I not withstand even a single strike? This is impossible!”

Lin Yinyin hovered above him, looking genuinely startled. She blinked her large eyes, whispering a soft reassurance to herself.

“Phew. That scared me. I thought he was some unparalleled expert, but he turned out to be made of glass.”

She glanced at her hands. Before leaving, Zhang Xian had given her the upgraded Yunmiao Sword Scripture and a cultivation method called the Twelve Turns Jade Condensation Sutra. The former granted devastating offensive power, while the latter—allegedly—allowed one to cultivate rapidly even without maintaining virginity.

She knew she had improved during her seclusion, but she hadn’t expected the results to be this grotesque.

What Lin Yinyin didn’t realize was that her opponent wasn’t weak; she was simply a monster. Armed with a Heaven-grade scripture and Top-Grade spiritual artifacts, her power output was astronomical. Even a cultivator forcibly boosted to the Golden Core peak was nothing more than an insect before her.

To Zhao Chengyue, her innocent muttering was the cruelest mockery imaginable.

“Pfft!”

He spat out another mouthful of blood, his eyes turning a demonic crimson. His rationality snapped, consumed entirely by hatred.

“If I die… WE DIE TOGETHER!”

He roared like a cornered beast. The violent, unstable energy within his Golden Core began to reverse, compressing into a singularity. He was initiating a self-destruct sequence, intending to drag Lin Yinyin and everything nearby down to hell with him.

Standing nearby, Yu Yun screamed. “He’s going to blow!”

But just as the energy reached critical mass, a massive shadow swept over the crater, blotting out the sun.

Zhao Chengyue instinctively looked up.

Hovering silently in the high altitude was a sleek, metallic flying ship. On its underside, a cannon array swiveled, locking onto his position. The muzzle glowed with a terrifying, high-frequency hum as it charged.

“What… what is that?”

Zhao Chengyue’s madness vanished, replaced instantly by primal terror.

Hum—

A pillar of pure white energy, thick as a building, descended from the heavens like orbital judgment.

There was no scream. There was no struggle.

Under the absolute, clinical suppression of the energy beam, Zhao Chengyue—and his exploding Golden Core—were instantly atomized. He didn’t just die; he ceased to exist. Not even ash remained.

The beam cut out. The ground now bore a perfectly smooth, circular pit that plunged deep into the earth’s crust.

The flying ship’s cannon powered down, and the vessel silently ascended, vanishing back into the cloud layer.

Lin Yinyin patted her chest, letting out a long breath. “That was close! So dangerous… he almost succeeded. Thank goodness Big Brother left that ship guarding the area.”

Yu Yun stared at the bottomless pit, his throat dry. He glanced at Lin Yinyin, noting the shimmering, high-tech protective barrier rippling over her skin—a barrier that could likely withstand a nuclear blast.

Dangerous, my ass.

Even if that old lunatic blew himself up, he wouldn’t have scratched your paint job! I was the only one in danger here!

The outside world is insane. Yu Yun made a silent vow: I am never leaving my Minor World again. Being a Pillar Duke is safe. This… this is not safe.

The Western Region.

Thousands of miles away from the comedy in the Great Liang Kingdom, Zhang Xian sat cross-legged in a crude, temporary cave.

His Divine Sense stretched out like an invisible spiderweb, linking him to the network of puppets he had scattered across the wasteland.

Suddenly, a signal flared.

It was faint—a unique, rhythmic fluctuation from the “seed” he had planted in Nangong Yao’s body years ago.

“Found you.”

Zhang Xian’s eyes snapped open.

BOOM!

He shattered the concealment array at the cave entrance, his body transforming into a streak of light that tore through the atmosphere, racing toward the signal.

Half a day later, he arrived above a valley shrouded in thick, toxic fog. He recalled his puppets, hovering in the sky as his cold gaze swept over the mountain range below.

He didn’t waste time with speeches. He didn’t knock.

He raised his hand, pointing two fingers at the heavens.

The clouds churned and broke apart. Several massive meteors—wreathed in destruction and trailing tails of fire—hammered down from the upper atmosphere.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The earth groaned. The mountains shattered.

Terrifying explosions ripped the valley apart, shockwaves flattening the forest as vast swathes of rock collapsed. Dust and smoke mushroomed into the sky.

“WHO DARES ACT RECKLESSLY IN MY DOMAIN?!”

A hoarse, grating voice erupted from the heart of the destruction.

A black figure burst through the smoke and flames, hovering in mid-air. His robes snapped in the wind, radiating the oppressive aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Zhang Xian looked at the target. The target looked at Zhang Xian.

Both of them froze.

The newcomer was hunched over, wearing a wide, tattered black robe. His posture, his aura, and even the gloomy, evil energy radiating from him were identical to Zhang Xian’s current disguise.

The black-robed figure stared at Zhang Xian’s attire, clearly confused. Then, rage took over.

“Who are you?! How dare you impersonate this Old Man?!”

Zhang Xian was equally baffled.

He had followed the seed planted in Nangong Yao. Why was he staring at the Thousand Mechanism Old Demon?

Wait. The System indication and the seed mark were pointing directly at this hunchbacked old man.

He immediately pulled up the System Panel.

[Target: Nangong Yao (Hatred)] [Identity: 81-Point Daughter of Destiny] [Current Favorability: -99]

“Holy shit,” Zhang Xian cursed internally. “Since when did that bitch change sex? Did she turn into the Thousand Mechanism Old Demon? Or did the Old Demon refine her into a puppet?”

No.

If she were a puppet, the System would list her as ‘Deceased’ and the seed would have dissipated. The only explanation was… parasitic takeover. Nangong Yao, or the entity ‘Hatred,’ had somehow devoured the Old Demon from the inside out and seized his body.

In a split second, Zhang Xian understood the bizarre reality.

He suppressed his shock and, mimicking the Old Demon’s hoarse, grinding voice, shouted back:

“Bullshit! You are clearly the impostor trying to impersonate me!”

He didn’t wait for a reply.

Clang!

A pitch-black longsword materialized in his hand. He slashed downward, sending a wave of peerlessly sharp sword light cascading toward the impostor.

The “Old Demon” (Nangong Yao) retreated rapidly, hands forming a blur of seals.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The rubble of the collapsed mountain exploded outward. Hundreds of puppets—constructed from bone, metal, and flesh—scuttled out from the ruins and the surrounding forest. They surged toward Zhang Xian like a swarm of locusts, chattering and clicking.

“Hehehehe!”

Zhang Xian let out a sinister, villainous cackle. He was careful not to use any standard Yunmiao Sect techniques that might blow his cover.

Instead, he flipped his spirit sword.

Behind him, the void distorted. Countless sword shadows materialized, fanning out like a peacock spreading its tail. Layer upon layer of steel filled the sky, emitting a heart-palpitating, destructive intent.

Nangong Yao’s expression changed instantly.

She recognized it immediately. This was the ultimate technique of the Spirit Ruins Sword Sect—[Myriad Spirits Return to Ruins]!

But the scale… there were too many swords. The density was terrifying, far surpassing any master of the Spirit Ruins Sect she had ever encountered.

Swish-Swish-Swish!

There was no time to think. The wall of sword shadows descended like a torrential downpour of steel, carrying a sharpness that threatened to shred the very fabric of space.

In a single exchange, the battle was decided.

The air was filled with the ear-piercing sounds of metal shearing metal. The puppet army that the Old Demon had painstakingly refined over decades was harvested like wheat in a storm. Limbs, gears, and shattered talismans filled the air.

Nangong Yao panicked, dodging frantically while summoning two massive bone shields to cover her retreat.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sword rain hammered against the shields, forcing her back step by step, the spiritual light of her defenses flickering wildly under the onslaught.