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

Chapter 276: I Will Take Care of Your Wife and Daughter, Do Not Worry

The arrival of these fresh reinforcements—especially the elite heavy-hitters—instantly flipped the board.

Councilor Sun was already losing ground against Lin Jianyuan. With the addition of Zhou Xiao, a seventh-level Nascent Soul powerhouse, Sun’s defenses completely collapsed. A single, devastating sword strike from Lin Jianyuan shattered his guard, sealing his cultivation base and capturing him alive.

Hu Hui, unfortunately stuck at the mid-Nascent Soul stage, wasn’t so lucky. Annoyed by her charge, Grandmaster Taichu casually swatted her away like a pesky fly. She plummeted to the earth, critically injured and clinging to life by a thread.

After clearing the annoyance, Grandmaster Taichu shot a look at Zhang Xian. Seeing that the kid was essentially an unkillable cockroach with a bottomless HP pool, and realizing that Lin Jianyuan was now completely freed up to join the fight, the ancient mastermind decisively opted out.

Without a single grand parting word, Taichu transformed into a streak of golden light, abandoning the battlefield and fleeing toward the Western Region at blinding speed.

Witnessing Taichu cut and run, Nangong Yao was consumed by a mix of sheer shock and towering fury.

She shot Zhang Xian a look of pure, venomous hatred. Violently detonating a massive surge of demonic energy to force Li Fuxi and Long Zhi back, she attempted to dissolve into a black streak and make her own escape.

“Don’t even think about it!” The two women weren’t about to let her slip away, immediately giving chase. Simultaneously, Zhang Xian flicked his wrist, rapidly spamming layers of reinforced ice walls across her flight path.

A look of absolute desperation flashed across Nangong Yao’s eyes. She coughed up a mouthful of pitch-black blood, violently burning her lifeforce to activate a high-cost secret technique. Her speed skyrocketed, instantly shaking off her two pursuers and shattering Zhang Xian’s ice barriers like glass.

Zhang Xian was just about to fully ignite his Shadow Flame to run her down when a blood-curdling shriek echoed from the distance ahead.

“Taichu! May you die a wretched, screaming death!!”

Everyone paused, staring in bewilderment. Nangong Yao’s figure came rocketing backward at terminal velocity, her aura plummeting to rock bottom. There was a horrifying, gaping hole in her chest. The vast majority of her Hatred origin had been violently ripped out.

Seeing Nangong Yao catching up, Grandmaster Taichu had ruthlessly backstabbed his own ally. He didn’t just steal her power to fuel his escape; he used her as a meat shield, blasting her back toward her pursuers to buy himself time.

Even Zhang Xian had to admit, that was a top-tier villain maneuver.

Nangong Yao crashed into the scorched earth, spitting venomous curses.

Zhang Xian didn’t miss a beat. He descended upon her instantly, a dozen premium spirit swords slamming into the ground around her to form an inescapable lockdown array.

Staring up into Zhang Xian’s icy, unbothered eyes, Nangong Yao let out a ragged, despairing laugh. “The winner takes all, and the loser is dust! Do it, Zhang Xian! Kill me! My only regret is that I couldn’t slaughter you with my own hands and burn the Yunmiao Sect to the ground!”

“Are those your final words?” Zhang Xian asked, his tone utterly flat.

Nangong Yao glared at him, her eyes practically bleeding malice. “What is your problem with me?! What deep-seated blood feud do we have that drove you to hunt me to the ends of the earth?”

It was the one question that tortured her. She simply couldn’t comprehend his relentless aggro.

Zhang Xian looked down at her. “Two hundred years ago. In that minor pocket world. You killed me. Slipped your mind?”

Nangong Yao froze. Her pupils contracted to pinpricks as she frantically searched his face.

Seconds ticked by before the horrific realization hit her. She let out a piercing, disbelieving shriek. “It’s you! You’re that pathetic country bumpkin! I should have known!”

Zhang Xian watched her writhe in the dirt. The wretched, broken demon before him slowly overlapped with the haughty, untouchable goddess from his memories two centuries ago.

“Yep, that’s me,” Zhang Xian said casually. “But hey, to be fair, if you hadn’t kidnapped Lele and dropped that skill manual, I probably would’ve been stuck in the tutorial zone forever. I’m a man of principles. I repay grudges with vengeance, and favors with gratitude.”

Nangong Yao’s breath hitched. A pathetic, desperate spark of hope ignited in her eyes. “So… you’re going to let me live?”

“Nah.” Zhang Xian smiled, a cold, mocking curve of his lips. “Your soul is thoroughly corrupted by Hatred, and you look absolutely miserable. So, I’m doing you a solid. I’m putting you out of your misery. You’re welcome.”

The hope in Nangong Yao’s eyes instantly shattered into sheer, suffocating despair. “You—!”

Before she could spit out another curse, a wisp of abyssal black fire materialized on Zhang Xian’s fingertip. He casually pressed it to the crown of her head.

Nangong Yao’s body went completely rigid. The thick, inky-purple corruption that had permanently stained her eyes rapidly receded, leaving her gaze unfocused, hollow, and finally, dead.

Her body slumped lifelessly into the dirt.

The Shadow Flame quickly consumed her. Flesh, bone, and mechanical wreckage alike were silently erased from existence, leaving nothing but a pile of fine ash.

A two-hundred-year grudge, permanently deleted from the server.

The battle was officially over.

The Heavenly Abyss Alliance had paid a steep price, but the victory was monumental. Not only had they crushed the insider coup orchestrated by Councilor Sun and Grandmaster Taichu, but they had also permanently eliminated Nangong Yao, the nexus of the Hatred plague.

Though Taichu had siphoned off a chunk of her origin power, the Western Region’s Hatred army had lost its hive-mind commander. The demonic horde immediately fractured into leaderless chaos, their threat level dropping exponentially.

Zhang Xian and the vanguard forces rode the victorious high all the way back to Tian Yuan City.

The central council hall was an absolute wreck, bearing the scars of the intense internal conflict. Fortunately, the high-level puppets Zhang Xian had planted beforehand had executed their macros perfectly. At the critical moment, they deployed the Heart-Questioning Sword, successfully purging the Great Dream Evolution Art debuff from the brainwashed Alliance members.

Acting Chairman Zhou Xiao and the remaining sane heavyweights had moved efficiently, sweeping the city of Councilor Sun’s sleeper agents and securing the capital.

Now, Zhou Xiao sat awkwardly beside the Chairman’s throne, his face an unreadable mask of gloom. Yes, he had allied with Sun to force Lin Jianyuan out, but his goal was standard political maneuvering—not intentionally serving the Alliance on a silver platter to a demonic apocalypse.

Realizing that Councilor Sun was literally in bed with the Hatred and Grandmaster Taichu left Zhou Xiao deeply humiliated and sweating cold bullets.

Meanwhile, the victims of Taichu’s mind control—like Xia Chengyan and Hu Hui—looked like they wanted the earth to open up and swallow them whole. The agonizing realization that they had almost been the key instruments in the Alliance’s destruction filled them with crushing guilt. One by one, they practically crawled to Lin Jianyuan to beg for forgiveness.

Nobody was taking it harder than Xia Chengyan.

The very thought that he had drawn his sword against his master and bad-mouthed his sworn brother, Zhang Xian, was destroying his psyche.

He threw himself at Lin Jianyuan and Zhang Xian’s feet, bawling his eyes out. He dramatically proclaimed that the only way to wash away his sins was to slit his own throat right then and there. Several bystanders had to physically dog-pile him to keep the single-minded idiot from actually doing it.

Zhang Xian watched the melodramatic display, finding it equal parts annoying and absolutely hilarious. He lazily reached into his inventory, pulled out a completely mundane, dirt-colored pill, and handed it over.

“Hey, Chengyan. Since you’re so desperate to log out, your Big Brother has a premium Instant Death Pill right here. Swallow this, and your soul gets permanently formatted in three seconds flat. Zero pain guaranteed.”

Zhang Xian patted the sobbing man’s shoulder. “Go in peace, bro. I’ll take over management of your dad’s Great Xia Dynasty. And hey…” Zhang Xian leaned in, flashing a shit-eating grin. “I will take excellent care of your wife and daughter. You have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Xia Chengyan stared blankly at the dirt pill in his hand. He looked up, caught the absolute mockery dancing in Zhang Xian’s eyes, and his brain finally rebooted.

With a loud, blubbering “Wah!”, Xia Chengyan threw himself into Lin Xiaozhu’s arms, weeping like a giant toddler seeking comfort.

Lin Xiaozhu, caught between genuine pity and immense exasperation, rolled her eyes and awkwardly patted his back, muttering soothing nonsense to calm him down.

With the theatrics out of the way, the council meeting resumed its actual purpose.

Zhou Xiao looked at Lin Jianyuan, his expression complicated. He bowed his head respectfully. “Chairman Lin. The crisis has passed, but the Alliance cannot survive a single day without a true leader. In terms of both prestige and absolute strength, there is no one else. We humbly request you reclaim the Chairman’s seat.”

Lin Jianyuan, looking incredibly weary, didn’t hesitate for a second. He shook his head.

“I appreciate Acting Chairman Zhou’s kind intentions,” Lin Jianyuan said, his voice quiet but resolute. “But I must decline.”