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

Chapter 275: He’s About to Be Beaten to Death

Boom!!

The terrifying energy from the self-destruction of Zhang Xian’s two top-grade spirit swords detonated like a localized supernova. The apocalyptic shockwave violently swept westward—and hit absolutely nothing.

On the periphery, Li Fuxi was clipped by the sheer kinetic force of Taichu’s grazing palm strike. He was sent hurtling backward through the air. Mid-flight, he forcefully wrangled his spiritual power, causing liquid light to cascade over his form as he barely managed to arrest his momentum. Swallowing a mouthful of blood, he casually popped a premium recovery pill to patch up his minor internal injuries.

Grandmaster Taichu snorted in derision. Blurring with the reality-bending speed of teleportation, he materialized directly in front of Zhang Xian, driving a finger straight toward the center of the younger man’s brow.

The finger strike carried the apocalyptic, concentrated force required to pierce through the very fabric of reality.

Shadow Flame violently erupted from Zhang Xian’s core, giving him the fractional boost of speed needed to violently snap his head to the side.

Ssshh!

The lethal wind sheared past his cheek, but the residual kinetic shockwave from Taichu’s attack still caught him squarely in the chest. Zhang Xian was launched backward like a cannonball, slamming violently into the shimmering barrier of the Realm-Severing Light Wall. The massive array flickered violently under the impact.

Hovering imperiously in the void, Grandmaster Taichu stared down at the slightly disheveled Zhang Xian with absolute disdain. “Ignorant whelp! Did you honestly believe the pathetic self-destruction of a few scrap-metal artifacts could so much as graze this seat? How tragically naive!”

“When one ascends to my realm,” Taichu monologued, his voice echoing like rolling thunder, “it matters not how potent your parlor tricks are. If they cannot strike their mark, they are nothing but utter trash!”

Zhang Xian spat out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva and flashed a feral, mocking grin. “Who the hell are you trying to flex on? I might be short on a lot of things, but my inventory of premium gear is practically infinite!”

With a casual flick of his wrists, two brand new top-grade spirit swords materialized in his grip. Shifting gears, he decided to completely abandon channeling spiritual energy into his weapons to bypass Taichu’s Qi-draining domain. He would rely purely on the indestructible physical sharpness of the top-grade artifacts for offense, dumping one hundred percent of his spiritual power strictly into his auto-defense macros.

Taichu frowned, engaging Zhang Xian in a blinding flurry of blows.

The Grandmaster’s sword-fingers and palm strikes repeatedly slammed into Zhang Xian, but every single hit was instantly deflected or absorbed by a cascade of wildly expensive defensive artifacts lighting up around the young tycoon. Meanwhile, Zhang Xian’s twin swords, devoid of a glowing aura but possessing unmatched physical sharpness, forced Taichu to constantly evade or parry.

Infuriated by the stalemate, Taichu gathered ten layers of his true essence and drove a devastating palm strike directly at Zhang Xian’s chest.

Zhang Xian didn’t even flinch. Embracing the ultimate pay-to-win suicide tactic, he tanked the hit head-on, crossing his twin swords like scissors and violently snapping them shut at Taichu’s neck.

Grandmaster Taichu swayed backward, narrowly dodging decapitation. However, the razor-sharp edges of the twin swords clipped his head, shearing off several long strands of hair.

Simultaneously, Taichu’s palm strike connected. Over a dozen phantom earth-shields violently shattered across Zhang Xian’s body. A chaotic kaleidoscope of premium protective barriers flickered, warped, and exploded, forcibly eating the vast majority of the kinetic impact.

Zhang Xian was sent ping-ponging across the sky again. But he immediately stabilized, brushing the dust off his robes and spitting, “Is that it? That all you got, old man?”

Taichu reached up, his fingers brushing the ragged edge of his ruined hair. His flawless, majestic center-part had been completely butchered. His face flushed a deep, apoplectic purple. “You insolent brat! I will skin you alive!”

A ruined aesthetic was a grudge that demanded blood!

Zhang Xian burst into laughter. “Come and get it!”

He quickly checked his internal stats. Sure, he was getting knocked around like a ragdoll, but his defensive stacking was utterly broken. Between dozens of top-tier passive artifacts, fat stacks of earth-element talismans, and the massive, passive heal-over-time provided by the Azure Emperor’s Rejuvenation Art, Taichu’s attacks were being aggressively mitigated into chip damage. It didn’t even hurt that much.

Factoring in his bottomless inventory of pills, Zhang Xian realized he could comfortably tank this boss fight until the end of time. The only downside was that visually, being repeatedly punted across the map was a bit of a hit to his cool factor.

Down on the main battlefield, the meat grinder continued. The tide of hatred crashed against the Heavenly Abyss Alliance defenders, but with constant reinforcements pouring in from the city, the line had finally stabilized at the second Realm-Severing Light Wall.

Xia Chengyan, staring up at Zhang Xian being swatted across the sky by Taichu, felt his eyes well up with hot tears. “Big Brother! Big Brother is sacrificing his own life to hold off the enemy commander! He’s about to be beaten to death for our sakes!”

Lin Xiaozhu slowly turned her head and gave him a look of absolute incredulity. “Which one of your eyes sees him dying, exactly?”

“His breathing is perfectly stable, his spiritual power pool is completely full, and the AoE from his Azure Emperor’s Rejuvenation Art is literally still healing our entire army! He is having the time of his life up there!”

She could see right through the act. Zhang Xian was perfectly fine. The fact that a first-layer Nascent Soul cultivator was currently holding absolute aggro on a Half-Step Soul Formation powerhouse was unprecedented in the history of the cultivation world.

Over in Li Fuxi’s sector, the fight was a chaotic mess.

Initially, Li Fuxi had been trading blows with Nangong Yao in a high-speed 1v1. But the moment Long Zhi saw the vanguard stabilize, she immediately rotated over to gank Nangong Yao.

Facing a 2v1, Nangong Yao’s pressure skyrocketed. Her only saving grace was that Li Fuxi and Long Zhi had absolute zero synergy. They kept accidentally clipping each other’s hitboxes, their sword qi and tribulation lightning frequently colliding and canceling out.

“Long Zhi!” Li Fuxi snapped, clearly annoyed. “I have this sector under control. Go play support somewhere else, you’re just cluttering the lane.”

Long Zhi’s expression remained an icy mask, completely ignoring the complaint. “Zhang Xian said Nangong Yao is the source of the hatred. I agree with his assessment. She is the priority target.”

Li Fuxi glanced up at the sky, watching Zhang Xian get punted through another cloud. Seeing that he was currently too busy tanking the raid boss to mediate, she huffed. “Fine! We jump this demon together, then I’m going up to assist him!”

“My thoughts exactly,” Long Zhi agreed coolly.

Nangong Yao: ???

What happened to single combat?! Do you two have absolutely no honor as sword cultivators?!

Her face drained of color as the coordinated pincer attack forced her into a desperate defensive retreat.

After a few dozen brutal exchanges, a jagged bolt of Long Zhi’s tribulation lightning slammed into Nangong Yao. The paralyzing current locked her joints for a fatal fraction of a second. Li Fuxi seized the opening, her blade cleanly slicing across Nangong Yao’s midsection.

Riiip!

Nangong Yao was nearly bisected. The only reason she didn’t instantly die was that her current physical form was merely a meat-puppet stitched together by hatred. Writhing, purple-black tendrils of demonic energy frantically knitted her bisected torso back together.

Panic clawed at her mind. She had gone all-in, commanding the entire horde of hatred cultivators to zerg rush the walls. Yet, despite their overwhelming numbers, they were completely stonewalled outside the Realm-Severing Light Wall. Total defeat was now just a ticking clock.

She cast a desperate glance across the battlefield to assess her allies.

Councilor Sun had uncapped his power, his aura peaking at the absolute zenith of the eighth-layer Nascent Soul stage. His eyes were bloodshot with exertion, yet Lin Jianyuan was casually beating him until he vomited blood. Sun’s mental state was in complete shambles.

He had spent decades playing the long game, hiding his true strength, convinced that in a fair 1v1, he would effortlessly crush Lin Jianyuan. He never could have predicted that the Chairman had secretly grinded his way to the ninth-layer of the Nascent Soul stage. Worse, Lin Jianyuan was currently radiating a tri-colored spiritual aura. He wasn’t just a dual-elemental; he had secretly awakened a Wood Spiritual Root as well. Lin Jianyuan had out-smurfed the smurf.

As for Grandmaster Taichu… yes, he was technically using Zhang Xian as a punching bag, but the boy’s HP bar simply refused to drop. Worse, Zhang Xian had fully embraced his new role as a “dual-sword barber,” hyper-focusing all his attacks strictly on the left side of Taichu’s head. The Grandmaster’s majestic center-part was completely ruined. Taichu was practically frothing at the mouth, his attacks growing increasingly unhinged, yet he still couldn’t secure the kill.

Just then, a barrage of powerful auras streaked across the sky from the direction of the Heavenly Abyss Alliance headquarters.

It was a massive reinforcement wave led by the interim Chairman, Zhou Xiao, and Councilor Hu Hui. Trailing right behind them were the elite heavy-hitters from the Great Xia Dynasty and the Yunmiao Sect.

Lin Xiaozhu’s heart leaped into her throat, but the moment Zhou Xiao hit the battlefield, he pointed a furious finger straight at Councilor Sun.

“Sun, you treacherous, two-faced rat!” Zhou Xiao roared, his voice booming with fury. “You actually colluded with the hatred and the Guiyuan Sect to assassinate Old Lin?! I must have been blind to ever swallow your garbage lies!”

Hu Hui was equally livid, her eyes blazing as she locked onto Grandmaster Taichu. “Taichu, you old dog! You dared to use your profane arts to hijack my mind and use me as a puppet?! I’ll have your head for that!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the newly freed councilors violently crashed the party.

Zhou Xiao dive-bombed Councilor Sun, joining Lin Jianyuan to turn the 1v1 into a brutal beatdown, while Hu Hui let out a piercing battle cry and charged straight at Grandmaster Taichu.