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

Chapter 278: Absolute Defense, Dual-Sword King-Slayer

“The tragic slaughter of his sworn brothers became an insurmountable knot in our ancestor’s heart, gradually driving a wedge between her and Wang Ye,” Lin Jianyuan continued, his voice heavy with ancient sorrow. “Meanwhile, the only other survivor, Song Yuanyi, had secretly harbored feelings for ancestor Lin Yue all along. He blamed Wang Ye for the entire catastrophe and violently severed all ties with him.”

“Wang Ye, equally obsessed with finding a method to ascend to a higher realm and fix his mistakes, drifted further and further away. Sometime later, he mysteriously perished.”

Lin Jianyuan sighed. “His principal wife, the Half-Demon King of the Western Region, went completely mad with grief. She launched a bloody crusade across the Central Continent, slaughtering anyone even remotely suspected of involvement. Ancestor Lin Yue was spared only because she carried Wang Ye’s unborn child. But Song Yuanyi was not so lucky. Based on nothing but a sliver of suspicion, the Half-Demon King exterminated the entire Song clan.”

“Unable to stomach the senseless slaughter, Ancestor Lin Yue secretly intervened, saving a few descendants of the Song bloodline. Forced into hiding, the Lin and Song clans changed their names and quietly passed down their lineages in the shadows.”

“But time erodes all things. Due to fundamentally different ideologies, the descendants of the two clans drifted apart. I am the sixth-generation successor of Ancestor Lin Yue. Taichu is the fifth-generation successor of the Song clan.”

Hearing this massive lore drop, Zhang Xian finally connected the dots. “So, Taichu knows the server history. He harbors a massive generational grudge against the descendants of The Drifting King and the Half-Demon King. But what exactly is he trying to loot from The Drifting King’s legacy? Why go to such insane lengths?”

Lin Jianyuan’s gaze darkened. “I suspect Taichu is after the very secret Wang Ye was researching before his death.”

“Although Wang Ye sealed that extra-dimensional entity, he didn’t permanently destroy it. Wang Ye was a peerless genius. He once told our ancestor that he had found a permanent fix—a method that would not only eradicate the threat but simultaneously shatter the absolute level-cap of this world, allowing all cultivators to break through to the Soul Formation stage, Void Refinement, and beyond.”

“Unfortunately, at the time, our ancestor was completely disheartened. She only wanted to peacefully raise her child and had zero interest in his grand ambitions. Later, Wang Ye’s attempt failed, his soul dissipated, and the limitations of this world remained locked.”

“Taichu, as a descendant of the Song clan, likely knows secrets even our ancestor was unaware of. His ultimate endgame is almost certainly the method Wang Ye failed to complete—a cheat code to break past his own limits and shatter the cage of this world.”

Zhang Xian tapped his chin thoughtfully. “So, this ultimate secret is probably locked behind that Stone Gate of Fate in the Western Region? And it might also hold the patch notes explaining how The Drifting King actually died?”

Lin Jianyuan nodded. “That is the most logical conclusion.”

Zhang Xian sighed. “Too bad I’ve already scanned that stone gate. The puzzle mechanics are a complete mess, and I have zero leads on how to crack it.”

“Perhaps your meteoric rise made Taichu think you were the second coming of Wang Ye,” Lin Jianyuan mused. “Your immense wealth and mysterious background gave him a sliver of hope that you held the key, which is why he lured you there.”

Zhang Xian shook his head dismissively. “I wish I had that kind of dev access. Whatever, theory-crafting is useless. One of these days, we’ll just catch that old thief Taichu and physically torture the walkthrough out of him.”

Despite the grim topic, Lin Jianyuan couldn’t help but smile wryly. “My only worry is that Taichu has now hijacked half of the Hatred origin. His ambitions are immense, and we are currently flying blind. That is what truly concerns me.”

The grand hall fell into a brief silence.

Zhang Xian broke the tension with a relaxed grin. “Senior Lin, don’t sweat it too much. You’re sitting at the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage with three fully leveled spiritual roots. Your base stats are completely stacked. You aren’t that far off from Taichu.”

Lin Jianyuan laughed, a bit embarrassed. “Truth be told, this Wood Spiritual Root only Awakened unexpectedly after I hit the late Nascent Soul stage. It seems to carry a faint trace of the Half-Demon bloodline—a latent inheritance from Ancestor The Drifting King.”

“Hahaha!” Xia Chengyan burst into laughter. “Does that mean when Master eventually pacifies the Western Region, he can be crowned as the new Half-Demon King?”

Unfortunately, his joke landed completely flat, earning him nothing but a profound, helpless eye-roll from Lin Xiaozhu.

The very next day, the entire Central Continent cultivation world erupted like a powder keg.

A series of earth-shattering headlines hit the major Sects and cities with the force of a hurricane.

The first viral bombshell: The Guiyuan Sect—universally recognized as the number one faction in the world—had had its mountain gate orbital-striked into a smoking crater by a mysterious powerhouse.

Before the public could even process that reality check, the second nuke dropped.

Grandmaster Taichu, the spiritual bedrock of the Guiyuan Sect and a paragon of righteousness, was officially outed as the mastermind who colluded with the Western Region’s Hatred to orchestrate the apocalypse.

Initially, the public response was absolute denial. Grandmaster Taichu’s reputation was spotless; he was the untouchable anchor of the orthodox path.

But the evidence was indisputable. High-definition recording stones capturing the apocalyptic battle at the Realm-Severing Light Wall were broadcasted everywhere.

The footage clearly showed Taichu flexing his Half-Step Soul Formation Pressure, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the avatar of Hatred, and launching lethal strikes against Lin Jianyuan and Zhang Xian. It was impossible to fake.

Watching the playback, cultivators across the continent trembled, finally realizing just how close the world had come to total annihilation the previous night.

And right in the center of that apocalyptic footage was Zhang Xian.

A mere early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator who had aggressively face-tanked a Half-Step Soul Formation demigod and lived to tell the tale. Overnight, Zhang Xian became a living legend.

The community immediately began slapping titles on him. “Absolute Defense,” “Dual-Sword King-Slayer,” and “The Unkillable Cockroach” dominated the forums, making him the hottest topic in every tavern and Sect pavilion.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Abyss Alliance was operating at maximum capacity.

Led by the newly minted Chairman Zhou Xiao, the core leadership moved with ruthless efficiency. They purged the remaining sleeper agents and immediately began drafting a massive counter-offensive to sweep the Western Region and delete the lingering Hatred mobs.

Lin Jianyuan departed alone, teleporting to the Northern Ridge to rally his old allies and prepare a united front against the looming threat of Grandmaster Taichu.

But the most frantic activity came from Xia Chengyan and Lin Xiaozhu.

Armed with an astronomical, practically infinite budget—courtesy of a certain wealthy benefactor—the duo kickstarted two monumental infrastructure projects.

First, the mass deployment of the Myriad Spirits Rosy Cloud Formation across the entire western border. This massive array network would essentially act as a continent-wide cellular and radar grid, ensuring instant communication and early-warning detection.

Second, the construction of heavy-duty, long-distance teleportation gates connecting all major cities and allied Sects, drastically reducing troop deployment times.

With the Alliance’s prestige at an all-time high, these massive quality-of-life upgrades received unanimous support from every faction.

In a surprising show of diplomacy, Xia Chengyan even authorized a massive disaster-relief grant for the Guiyuan Sect. The surviving Sect Master could only accept the funds with a deeply complicated expression as he began the agonizing task of rebuilding. However, with their core leadership gone and their reputation in the gutter, the title of the “World’s Number One Sect” was permanently revoked.

While the Central Continent was busy rebuilding its server infrastructure, Zhang Xian quietly boarded a private luxury flying ship with his master, Li Fuxi, setting a course back to the Southern Region.

Long Zhi accompanied them, eager to return home and rebuild the Spirit Ruins Sword Sect. As for Lu Yao, who stubbornly clung to the fantasy of joining Zhang Xian’s entourage, Zhang Xian didn’t entertain her delusions this time. He paid her off and immediately dismissed her, permanently cutting off that questline.

The luxury vessel pierced through the sea of clouds, sailing smoothly toward the south.

Inside one of the ship’s reinforced training rooms, Long Zhi sat cross-legged, bathed in a tempest of violent purple lightning. She was hyper-focused on grinding the Heaven-grade Purple Firmament Dragon’s Chant True Art Zhang Xian had casually tossed her.

Fueled by the premium skill manual, her leveling speed had skyrocketed, pushing her right to the absolute threshold of the third-layer Nascent Soul stage.