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

Chapter 285: This Is Simply Defying and Destroying One’s Master

Zhang Xian looked at his panting Ancestor-Master, his tone carrying an absolute, unquestionable certainty. “Ancestor-Master, being stubborn when you’ve clearly lost isn’t a good look for an elder. Even if we were fighting outside the ship and you went all-out, you wouldn’t have won. We both know that.”

Su Yunmiao’s flawless jade-like complexion flushed a brilliant, furious red. “You are utterly shameless! How is any of that your own personal strength? You were blatantly relying on the overwhelming advantage of your external gear! Weren’t you the one who just gave a massive, self-righteous speech about prioritizing one’s own cultivation over material objects?!”

Zhang Xian burst out laughing. “Ancestor-Master, that is precisely the lesson this disciple wanted to teach you today.”

“What exactly constitutes an ‘external object’? That is nothing but a coping mechanism invented by impoverished cultivators to justify their own lack of resources. The ability to acquire, field, and optimize external gear is a core component of one’s actual strength.”

“Are you calling me poor?”

Su Yunmiao’s almond-shaped eyes widened in sheer indignation. She almost choked on the word, yet she found herself completely unable to refute it. Compared to Zhang Xian’s reality-breaking, infinite wealth, she was practically destitute.

Seeing the sheer unwillingness burning in Su Yunmiao’s eyes, Zhang Xian leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “Ancestor-Master, believe me, I have an entire arsenal of highly unconventional tactics at my disposal. I just didn’t feel the need to use them on you.”

The unspoken implication hung heavily in the air: Defeating you was incredibly easy.

Her pride stung, Su Yunmiao’s curiosity flared, pushing her frustration even higher. “What other tactics could you possibly have? Bring them out! Let your Ancestor-Master see exactly what you’re hiding!”

A highly suspicious, incredibly wicked smile curled the corner of Zhang Xian’s mouth. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Zhang Xian lazily pointed a single finger toward the ceiling.

Instantly, without a single fluctuation of ambient spiritual energy, a massive, hyper-complex golden swastika Formation materialized directly beneath the starry dome of the sword chamber.

A soft, pulsing golden light washed over the room. The moment the light touched her, Su Yunmiao felt her internal spiritual power violently stagnate. An inexplicable, intense heat bloomed in her chest, and her heartbeat began to blindly, rapidly accelerate.

What kind of Formation is this?

She froze in confusion for a fraction of a second before the realization hit her like a physical blow. Her pretty face turned the color of a ripe tomato. She instinctively scrambled backward, crossing both arms tightly over her chest in a highly defensive posture.

“This is the ancient Joyous Zen array used by demonic dual-cultivators!” she gasped, her voice trembling with genuine, uncharacteristic panic. “Where did you even get the schematics for this?! What—what are you planning to do?!”

Zhang Xian offered a brilliant, highly inappropriate grin. “Ancestor-Master, please remain calm. This is merely a system-optimized, Heaven-Grade Joyous Barrier. The baseline debuff effects have been massively enhanced. According to my combat logs, even someone with your base stats wouldn’t be able to last more than a few minutes inside this AOE before completely losing their mind.”

Seeing the sheer, unadulterated terror escalating in Su Yunmiao’s eyes, Zhang Xian knew he had pushed the joke far enough. With a single mental command, the golden Formation shattered into motes of light, and the ambient pressure in the room instantly normalized.

He looked at Su Yunmiao, noting her flushed cheeks and heavily erratic breathing. He respectfully cupped his hands. “My deepest apologies, Ancestor-Master. This disciple merely wanted to provide a brief demonstration to validate my claims. Would the Ancestor-Master care to review any of my other unconventional tactics?”

Su Yunmiao took several deep, ragged breaths, forcefully circulating her remaining spiritual energy just to calm her wildly hammering heart.

For that brief, terrifying moment under the golden light, she genuinely believed Zhang Xian was about to do something utterly unspeakable. And the most horrifying part was that under the heavy debuff of that profane array, she had felt a profound, indescribable weakness spreading through her limbs. She wouldn’t have been able to stop him.

She hated to admit it, but Zhang Xian was right. As shameless and utterly devoid of martial virtue as the tactic was, dropping a Joyous Zen array in the middle of a high-stakes deathmatch would be a devastatingly effective form of crowd control.

The sudden mental image of Zhang Xian deploying this exact tactic against Grandmaster Taichu made Su Yunmiao violently shudder. While she was an avid consumer of romance novels and had actively promoted the literary arts within the Yunmiao Sect, the sheer scale of that particular scenario completely shattered her suspension of disbelief. It was too explosive. Just thinking about it felt like it was actively damaging her Dao Heart.

“Ahem,” Su Yunmiao coughed awkwardly, refusing to meet his eyes. “There is no need to demonstrate any further tactics. Your Ancestor-Master officially acknowledges your combat readiness.”

“So, Ancestor-Master is finally comfortable letting this disciple solo the raid?”

Su Yunmiao’s expression was incredibly complex. Finally, she let out a long, defeated sigh and nodded. “Go. Just… be extremely careful.”

Internally, she had come to a horrifying realization: unleashing this aggressively pay-to-win, morally bankrupt disciple upon Taichu might actually be the most optimal strategy available.

Zhang Xian smiled warmly. “Then let’s head out. Oh, by the way, Ancestor-Master… do you happen to have a spare change of clothes in your inventory? If the others see you looking like this, they might get the wrong idea.”

Su Yunmiao glared daggers at him. “And what ‘wrong idea’ would that be?”

Zhang Xian maintained perfect, innocent eye contact. “They might assume you were placed at a severe disadvantage during our sparring session. After all, you are the Ancestor-Master. Face is paramount. You have my absolute guarantee that this disciple will never breathe a word of today’s events to anyone.”

Having delivered his final flex, Zhang Xian turned on his heel and strolled out of the sword chamber.

Su Yunmiao stared at his retreating back, grinding her teeth in sheer frustration, completely utterly helpless against his logic.

[Ding! Current Favorability: 50.]

Over on the observation deck of the neighboring dreadnought, Lin Yinyin and Li Fuxi were still distractedly watching the primary suite of Su Yunmiao’s ship.

Almost simultaneously, they spotted Zhang Xian casually strolling out of the inner cabin. He looked incredibly relaxed, a faint, highly satisfied smirk playing on his lips.

A moment later, Su Yunmiao emerged. However, she looked absolutely nothing like the composed, ethereal immortal they were used to. She looked highly distracted, deeply flustered, and a visible blush was still creeping up her neck.

The moment she hit the deck, she didn’t even glance their way. She instantly transformed into a streak of light and shot off toward the deepest part of the ocean, clearly desperate to find a quiet place to hide and recover.

Lin Yinyin and Li Fuxi slowly turned to look at each other, sheer shock and wild uncertainty mirroring in their eyes.

What the hell just happened?

The eagle-eyed Lin Yinyin suddenly grabbed Li Fuxi’s arm, dropping her voice to a frantic whisper. “Ah! Oh my god, it’s over! He totally did it! Brother absolutely conquered her! Master, look—she completely changed her outfit!”

Li Fuxi was stunned. “You could see that from all the way over here?”

“Of course I did!” Lin Yinyin declared with absolute, terrifying certainty. “When she walked into that room, her waist sash was pure white silk, accented with South Sea spirit pearls. The one she’s wearing right now is pale cyan! The embroidery pattern on her outer skirt is different, the cut of her boots changed, and she even swapped out her hairpin!”

Lin Yinyin covered her mouth, her eyes wide. “Just how incredibly intense was it in there that she had to completely replace her entire wardrobe?!”

Initially, Li Fuxi hadn’t wanted to entertain the ridiculous theory. But recalling the profoundly lost, thoroughly ravished expression on Su Yunmiao’s face just moments ago—and combining it with some of her own highly explicit, unspeakable memories of Zhang Xian’s “methods”—a terrifying seed of doubt took root in her mind.

Could Yinyin actually be right this time? Did Zhang Xian really dare to… with the Ancestor-Master? This is the ultimate taboo! He is literally defying the heavens and destroying the Sect hierarchy!

Just as they were spiraling into a panic, Zhang Xian casually floated over and touched down on their deck.

Lin Yinyin instantly bounded over, the flames of gossip burning white-hot in her eyes. “Brother! Confess right now! What exactly were you and Ancestor-Master doing in that sword chamber?! Why did she come sprinting out of there looking like a completely different person?!”

Zhang Xian didn’t even blink, his tone the picture of absolute boredom. “Oh, it was nothing major. I just hit a minor bottleneck in my cultivation and asked the Ancestor-Master for some technical guidance. She was incredibly thorough in her instruction. It really cleared up my confusion; I benefited massively from the session.”

He shrugged. “I guess the Ancestor-Master also gained some profound new insights from our ‘sparring’, so she went into Secluded Cultivation to process them.”

“Really?” Lin Yinyin narrowed her eyes, her entire face radiating the words: I call bullshit.

Zhang Xian smoothly pivoted the conversation. “Anyway, enough about that. I’m packing up to head to the Central Continent to handle some administrative work.”

Li Fuxi immediately stepped forward, her concern overriding her scandalous theories. “Do you want me to deploy with you?”

“No need,” Zhang Xian said easily. “It’s just some minor logistical issues. Xia Chengyan ran into a minor cash-flow problem, so I’m just going over to renew his subscription. Master, you need to stay here. Keep Yinyin on a tight leash and make sure she is fully prepped for her Tribulation Crossing.”

Seeing how casually he treated the deployment, Li Fuxi relaxed, not thinking much of it. “Alright. Just be careful. When do you ship out?”

“First thing tomorrow morning.”

Zhang Xian reached into his inventory and pulled out two heavily enchanted Storage Bags, tossing one to Li Fuxi and the other to Lin Yinyin. “Here, hold onto these for me.”

The two women were so accustomed to his random drops of massive wealth that they caught the bags reflexively. “What is it this time?” Li Fuxi asked.

“Just a massive surplus of premium talismans and max-level Pills,” Zhang Xian said, waving a hand dismissively. “My primary inventory slots are getting completely maxed out. Do me a favor and help me share the server load.”

[Ding!]

The familiar, mechanical chime of the system echoed pleasantly in Zhang Xian’s mind. His automated restock protocol was successfully triggered.