What are you doing, Mr. President? I'm just an extra!

Western suburbs of Jianghai City.

Urban villages.

The air here is always filled with the stench of sewage backflow, mixed with the smell of gutter oil from cheap barbecue stalls.

Deep in the alley, in a basement where even the windows were sealed with bricks.

Ye Fan sat in a wheelchair.

He held a half-foot-long silver needle in his hand and, expressionless, plunged it into the area above his broken knee.

"Pfft."

The silver needle penetrated three inches into the flesh.

He didn't even frown.

This pain, compared to the humiliation that woman inflicted on him, was like a mere tickle.

There was only one candle lit in the basement.

The dim candlelight flickered, illuminating the photos covering the wall.

The walls were covered with photos of Su Feiyan.

Photos taken secretly, clippings from newspapers, and group photos.

This photo shows a perfect couple.

The man was handsome and dashing, smiling slightly with his head down; the woman was noble and aloof, but her gaze was fixed only on the man.

Those were Lu Li and Su Feiyan.

"Su Feiyan..."

Ye Fan stuck out his tongue and licked his chapped lips.

"You wait."

"Once I obtain the spirit stones and break through to the Foundation Establishment stage..."

"I will make you kneel before me and beg me to take my place."

"And that pretty boy Lu Li..."

Ye Fan suddenly exerted force with his fingers, and he bent the silver needle stuck in his leg.

"I'll smash every single bone in your body and boil it into soup to feed the dogs!"

"Knock knock knock!"

A heavy knock on the door interrupted Ye Fan's daydream.

"Enter."

Ye Fan wiped the distorted expression off his face and resumed his inscrutable indifference.

The iron gate was pushed open, and the Wind Protector rushed in, panting heavily.

He was clutching a heavy lead box tightly in his arms, his face beaming with almost manic joy.

"Dragon King!"

"I have fulfilled my mission!"

"I brought the items back!"

Ye Fan's hands, resting on the armrests of his wheelchair, trembled slightly involuntarily.

"Bring it here."

His voice was filled with barely suppressed urgency.

Feng Hufa dared not delay, quickly stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and raised the lead box high above his head.

Ye Fan took a deep breath.

He reached out and pressed his hand on the lock of the box.

"Click".

The latch popped open.

Ye Fan slowly lifted the lid.

For an instant.

The entire dark and damp basement was filled with a faint blue-purple light.

The light was eerie and cold, carrying a chilling penetrating power.

The fist-sized stone lay quietly in the box, its surface pitted and uneven, but the "energy fluctuations" it emitted were extremely strong.

Ye Fan's heart started pounding as soon as he glanced at it.

"good!"

"Such domineering spiritual energy!"

"This is a top-grade water-type spirit stone!"

Ye Fan was so excited that he almost stood up from his wheelchair.

He had read in ancient books that true rare and precious materials are always accompanied by extraordinary phenomena when they are born.

This light, this energy fluctuation that makes your skin sting, there's no mistake!

This is the key to his defying fate!

The Wind Protector knelt on the ground.

He felt unwell, his stomach was churning, and he felt like he was going to throw up his dinner.

But he dared not say it.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and take credit.

"Dragon King, in order to obtain this treasure, we...we borrowed a lot of money."

"The loan sharks..."

Ye Fan waved his hand, interrupting Protector Feng.

"money?"

"Utterly vulgar!"

Ye Fan stared at the stone with a fanatical gaze.

"Once I break through to the next level of divine skill tonight, what are a mere few tens of millions?"

"By then, the entire city of Jianghai will be my ATM!"

"The Su family's assets will soon be transferred to the Ye family!"

He waved his hand impatiently.

"Get out."

"Stand guard at the door."

"No one is allowed to approach within ten meters."

"No matter what noise you hear, you are not allowed to come in."

"I'm going into seclusion to break through this bottleneck!"

The Wind Protector hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

But seeing Ye Fan's murderous expression, he could only swallow back the words he was about to say.

"Yes, I'll take my leave."

The Wind Guardian withdrew from the basement and closed the heavy iron door.

The basement returned to silence.

Only the stone emitted a faint "sizzling" sound.

With trembling hands, Ye Fan carefully lifted the stone out of the lead box.

It was piping hot to the touch.

"It really is a top-grade spirit stone!"

"Extremely yang and strong, yet imbued with the deep blue of water—this is a sign of the balance between water and fire!"

Ye Fan was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes.

He placed the stone in his dantian area.

With hands forming a mudra, he assumed a perfectly standard cultivation posture—five points facing the sky, tongue touching the roof of the mouth.

"Primordial Dragon God Technique, absorb it!"

Ye Fan let out a low roar, opening all the pores of his body, greedily trying to devour the "spiritual energy" inside the stone.

That is actually strong radiation that can kill a normal person instantly.

But in Ye Fan's perception, this was an extremely violent power.

"ah--!!!"

Less than a minute after he started absorbing the nutrients, Ye Fan let out a scream.

Outside.

The Wind Protector and several of his underlings squatted on the ground smoking.

Hearing the screams coming from inside, the group looked at each other in dismay.

"Guardian, what is the Dragon King doing...?"

One of the younger brothers shrank back in fear.

"Screaming so pitifully, I hope something bad is going to happen to you?"

The Wind Protector exhaled a smoke ring, his face displaying an inscrutable expression.

"You don't understand."

"This is called Yi Jin Xi Sui."

"Legendary masters all have to go through this process when they break through to a higher realm."

"The more pitiful the screams, the more toxins are expelled, and the greater the future achievements will be!"

The younger brothers listened with expressions of admiration.

"As expected of the Dragon King!"

"So ruthless to yourself!"

In the basement.

pain.

It hurts too much.

The "energy" that entered his body was not like warm water, but rather like scalding magma, or like countless tiny blades cutting wildly through his meridians.

His skin also turned bright red.

"Truly a rare and precious treasure!"

"This drug is potent!"

Ye Fan gritted his teeth, his forehead covered in sweat.

He didn't stop; instead, he became even more excited.

As the ancients said, "When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a person, it first tests their resolve and strengthens their body."

"What's a little pain in the face of wind and rain?"

"This is helping me cleanse my essence and marrow!"

"This is helping me remove impurities from my body!"

Ye Fan endured the excruciating pain and continued to absorb the nutrients with even greater intensity.

Inside his body, his cells are being frantically destroyed by high-energy particles.

DNA chains are breaking, mucous membranes are shedding, and the immune system is collapsing.

But he knew nothing about it.

He only felt his body getting hotter and hotter.

"The bottleneck... has been broken!"

Ye Fan was hallucinating.

He felt as if he had seen a glittering golden door.

As long as he pushes open that door, he can become an immortal and a patriarch, capturing Su Feiyan and Shen Weilan to be his foot-washing maids.

Time passed by, second by second.

Ye Fan's clothes were soaked with sweat and clung tightly to his body.

The sweat wasn't transparent; it was a greasy yellow color and smelled foul.

"Detoxified!"

Ye Fan was overjoyed.

He felt an intense itch on his scalp, as if a thousand ants were crawling on it.

"Is this also a form of detoxification?"

Ye Fan subconsciously reached out and grabbed a handful of flesh above his head.

The feeling upon first purchase was somewhat strange.

It's slippery.

There was no resistance.

Ye Fan brought his hand to his eyes.

Even in the dim blue light, the scene was terrifying enough.

He was holding a large clump of hair in his hand.

Ye Fan was stunned.

He stared blankly at the hair in his hand.

"this……"

"This is……"

"Shedding one's mortal form?"

"Yes! That must be it!"

"I'm going to be reborn!"

"I'm going to be completely transformed!"

Ye Fan threw away the hair in his hand and let out a nervous laugh.

"Hahaha!"