He Jiuping watched as his much-anticipated Evil God father walked into the incubation farm with his own eyes. He gave up every last fantasy. Counting on the Evil Gods to unite and turn the tide in one fell swoop? That otherworldly Guardian would probably just gather all the Evil Gods together in… a bigger incubation farm.
With the Evil Gods no longer reliable, He Jiuping found it difficult not to be anxious. His instincts kept warning him that, when his real adoptive father gave up his body to the Guardian, he must have made a few demands—and those demands almost certainly had something to do with him.
He felt he hadn’t done anything to truly betray his real adoptive father, aside from running away immediately after learning the truth about his origins and offering He Qingya some minor protection. But in the eyes of his adoptive father and the Guardian, that wasn’t how they saw it.
And as for that all-powerful Guardian—he paid He Jiuping no heed. Maybe he was busy and had no time to deal with him for now, or maybe he planned to hand him over to Zhang Jiamin and her brother Zhang Qingxing to handle personally… oh, and possibly even to Zhang Jiamin’s husband, Little Ross.
He Jiuping was honest with himself: facing the Guardian, he had no courage at all, but defeating Zhang Jiamin and her brother, he felt he stood a decent chance.
Right now, the Evil God he worshipped could only watch in horror as its own father got decapitated and, out of control, was “sent to the factory”—that is, brought into the incubation farm. It was plain to see that his own future, like a startled bird, would only mean frantically draining the spiritual power of followers around the clock, emitting those high-pitched shrieks—inaudible to all but Evil Gods—that were really just calls for help.
If He Jiuping hadn’t secretly stashed a couple of treasures and barely withstood several rounds of mental attacks from the Evil God, given he was the Evil God’s “favorite,” he’d have been the first among the ritual sacrifices to get turned into a dried-up husk.
Truthfully, he had always known Evil Gods were heartless, but now they wouldn’t even bother pretending, killing the donkey as soon as the millstone was done with it. His once-mighty Evil God… looked all out of roads, stranded with nowhere left to go.
Just as the world’s spiritual energy density was rising again and arrivals from beyond came in a steady stream, he learned through his own information channels that these visitors all came from the Spiritual Realm and planned to treat the whole world as their colony… He immediately thought of those universally-reviled traitors—and now, with his life on the line, he figured he might have to sell out, just this once.
So, using a treasure that temporarily screened his Evil God connection, he went and pledged himself to a passing cultivator from the Spiritual Realm.
That cultivator found him quite amusing, and—believing in fate—bestowed him a minor dharma technique, promising that if he succeeded, he could seek him out in the Spiritual Realm.
Even though that cultivator had been beaten up together by the Guardian-trained Extraordinaries and the official Blade Squad, fleeing in a rather sorry state, He Jiuping still decided to try the Nascent Void cultivator’s technique.
He waited until the Evil God he worshipped was screaming itself hoarse, summoning its kind, then activated the technique.
He only felt his soul slip out from his body and, with a loud smack, land on the Evil God’s forehead as it was mid-screech.
The events after that were a blur, but when he came to, he realized his body had changed. He idly twitched his own tentacles, spaced out for a moment, and only then remembered something—he looked down at his own body, now lying by his octopus legs, and had only one thought: That looks delicious.
So he went for it. By devouring—and in the process, merging with—his original body, He Jiuping felt… he became a little more human again.
But even so, he’d thrown away everything: body, race, lifeform. All he chased now was the humble wish to keep on living.
So he let out another shriek, calling his kin.
After the merger, even though the fusion was far from perfect—his original body suddenly sprouted out of the spider-leg joint by his left front side, even he felt it looked out of place and couldn’t stand the sight—he was keenly aware that his howls now echoed louder and farther.
Ugly or not, strength was all that mattered.
Having taken over his predecessor’s post, he continued shrieking non-stop for a month, and finally managed to call ten of his kind.
A few among those ten had a sharp nose. They circled the world once, had a word with cultivators from the Spiritual Realm still unwilling to give up on this world, and all quickly agreed: there was no way they could ever beat this world’s Guardian.
Low-tier Evil Gods might be dumb and crazy, but high-tier Evil Gods were exceedingly shrewd.
Though they coveted this prosperous, thriving new world, they dared not provoke the Guardian directly, but they could always target people that mattered to the Guardian, give diversion tactics a try.
Which was exactly why the Ling Jing Corporation headquarters was now under siege from Evil Gods.
Still, with plenty of talent on hand and plenty of top-tier cultivators stationed at the Transmigration Administration, if a bunch of Evil Gods could just storm the place, they might as well shut down on the spot, never mind recalling the staff for defense.
After Ling Jing advanced her cultivation, she and her System were instantly transferred back to headquarters.
With headquarters under attack by Evil Gods, she felt responsible and, as soon as she stepped off the transmission platform, sought out her superior to explain the situation.
Her superior, already at the Fusion Phase, didn’t make things difficult for her—instead, he explained gently that while headquarters had no Tribulation Phase bosses, there were several elders at the Grand Ascension Phase on hand.
On the surface, headquarters was under siege, immobilized, and forced to recall some high-level staff—in fact, it was all for show. Headquarters had coveted the Evil Gods’ lair for a long time. This was a perfect chance… to make a killing.
Ling Jing also learned from her superior that those System cores they all carried came, in fact, from Evil Gods.
She glanced up at her own System floating above her sea of consciousness, unable to keep from laughing. “Whenever I remember you started out as a little octopus, I just can’t take you seriously anymore… mostly because I can’t stop wondering what you’d taste like, hahahaha.”
Her System whimpered, “I really wouldn’t taste good!”
There was absolutely nothing truly serious happening at headquarters—in fact, they were preparing for a big fishing expedition to restock supplies—so Ling Jing could fully relax. Still, to keep up appearances, she couldn’t return to her boyfriend just yet, but secretly sending a message was essential.
Qin Jingzhou received his girlfriend’s message, and curiously asked his System, “You don’t seem like you were made from Evil God material.”
The System was very forthright. “I really wasn’t.”
Qin Jingzhou had long suspected as much. “Looks like I won’t need to prepare anything for you. You’ll be able to ascend with me just fine.”
The System was a little embarrassed now. “Yes. Actually, I’d like to hitch a ride… on Brother Zhou’s ascension express.”
When you brought an extra passenger while ascending, the Heavenly Tribulation became vastly more difficult. Brother Zhou had agreed to bind with the System and travel the worlds on missions because he never felt confident about facing that tribulation alone.
Qin Jingzhou sensed the little System’s tension and smiled. “You know, ever since I’ve cultivated to the Tribulation Phase, whenever I examined the tribulation closely, my gut told me the timing wasn’t right, the resources were sorely lacking, and forcing an ascension would mean certain death or disaster. But now, thinking about the tribulation, I don’t get that ominous feeling at all. Still, I’m not in a rush to ascend.”
The System understood, saying, “You’re attached to someone now.”
“That’s right. I should stay a bit longer with her, at least until she can stand on her own two feet in the Spiritual Realm. And by ‘stand on her own,’ I mean cultivate to Grand Ascension.”
The System smiled too.
Normally, someone at Fusion Phase was a big-shot in the Spiritual Realm, more than enough to found their own sect.
Qin Jingzhou calculated again. “And Xiao Qing and Xiao Xi are about to reincarnate into the Spiritual Realm too.”
The System asked, “Brother Zhou, do you want to bring them up to Grand Ascension too?”
“Of course,” Qin Jingzhou replied with seriousness. “I treat everyone equally.” With that, he looked over at his son and daughter, who had both taken and digested the gene evolution serum and were now training hard under his guidance—plus, of course, a dopey son-in-law.
Other than having no solution for He Jiuping for now, all the rest of the grudges among the children had settled on their own.
A few years back, the dopey son-in-law, Little Ross, had taken the gene evolution serum, and on the second day, mounted his black-tech flying sword and, with his battle gloves, went back to his hometown for vengeance.
He dragged out every Lich hiding underground from the Ross family—those old antiques who clung to life by consuming the lifeforces of their descendants—chopped them to pieces one by one, and still not satisfied at the mass of scattered bones, turned his gloves to full power and in one swoop, turned every living bone in the house to swirling ash.
Once that was dealt with, Little Ross returned, sword in hand, finally free of his biggest worry, and doubled down on his training.
With Little Ross as a role model, Zhang Jiamin and Zhang Qingxing also began their own journeys of revenge: no other members of the Zhang family were worth mentioning, and their “source of all evil,” Old Man Zhang, died in a fit of terror and endless regret. The siblings’ only target was the He family, three generations up.
At the time, the Evil God worshipped by He Jiuping was hiding here and there just to save its own skin, so he had no time for that always troublesome grandmother and father of his.
Even so, the Zhang siblings still had to go to great lengths to catch He Qingya and her son, along with He Jiuping’s birth mother, who’d spent most of her life as a mistress.
They got their revenge by beating on them—repeatedly, in their own ways. You had to admit that cultivators were tough. Even though He Qingya and her son were both low-tier, they could still take a lot.
Once they’d vented their anger, the siblings handed He Qingya and her son over to Chief Li to deal with.
As for He Jiuping’s birth mother, Zhang Qingxing hadn’t even started on her when she suffered a breakdown… so of course he couldn’t do anything more, and just stuffed her into a mental hospital.
Zhang Qingxing found it both ironic and pathetic: such a useless person had almost ruined him.
But after eating an Evil God larva and drinking evolution fluid, not to mention catching up on school for three or four years, he was no longer “suffering for his lack of education” and had changed a lot as a person. Now, he believed that all fear stemmed from a lack of vitality. He’d been soaking in misery for his first twenty years, thanks to the evil of the He family’s women and He Jiuping’s birth mother, and because of his own weakness.
Understanding that, he no longer clung to the pain of the past.
Once upon a time, he’d needed medication just to stay stable, but now, he was even more easygoing than his own sister, Zhang Jiamin.
After handing the He family over to Chief Li, the siblings soon received an invitation to visit and “check in on” the He family pair as they underwent labor rehab.
Even Zhang Jiamin was at peace after that.
From the time they let go of their emotional baggage to now, it’d been about ten years. With the siblings plus the dopey son-in-law, both mental and physical stats had all reached the standards Qin Jingzhou expected.
Meanwhile, the locals—both the Extraordinaries and the officials—had gained plenty of spoils during this period. After all, Nascent Void cultivators in the Spiritual Realm were considered the middle class, and most of them were quite well-off. Qin Jingzhou reviewed the loot and felt it was time for the next step.
He brought along engineers who had also taken the evolutionary serum, and constructed mechas that truly met interstellar standards. Members of the Hua Country official Blade Squad piloted these mechas.
A twenty-man team gave the three Nascent Void cultivators from the Spiritual Realm—who had come to rob them—a real head-on lesson. Although, in this world, Nascent Void cultivators could only exhibit Divine Transformation Stage combat power.
Qin Jingzhou was right there, observing throughout. Even though he said not a single word, he greatly intimidated the visiting cultivators.
This was mainly because one of the three Nascent Void cultivators had serious backing—he’d entered this world with a Grand Ascension Phase father behind him in the Spiritual Realm.
Unluckily for him, as soon as his father laid eyes on Qin Jingzhou, he immediately turned into an “abandon-my-son” sage, did an about-face, and ran without hesitation, not even caring for his only son of several thousand years.