You were put to guard a shabby mountain gate, yet all your disciples became Immortal Emperors.

Lin Zhou had just consolidated his late-stage Golden Core cultivation and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy the joy of being a powerful figure when the system's voice rang in his mind.

[Ding! The special item [Heavenly Secret Guide] has been sent to your system space. Please check it!]

With a thought, Lin Zhou produced an ancient bronze compass in his hand.

The compass had no pointer, only circles of incomprehensible ancient seal script, with a yin-yang symbol at the center.

"Heavenly Secret Guide? How do you use this thing?"

[Ding! This item can provide clues to the next Chosen One. The host only needs to infuse it with spiritual energy.]

"Oh wow? New stock again?"

Linzhou's eyes lit up.

Disciple = Cultivation Return = Become Stronger While Lying Down!

This deal is a steal!

Without hesitation, he poured his newly solidified, genuine late-stage Golden Core spiritual power into the bronze compass.

hum!

The compass began to vibrate violently, the yin-yang symbol in the center spun rapidly, and finally a beam of golden light shot into the sky, pointing directly to the east.

At the same time, a line of small characters appeared on the compass.

[Target Location: Blackwind City, Eastern Xuan Domain, Slave Market.]

[Target's fortune: Extremely unstable (cycling between purple, gold, and gray).]

[Special Label: Reborn!]

A reborn person?!

Lin Zhou's hand trembled, and he almost dropped the compass.

I rely on!

He's a time traveler, and now he's going to take a reincarnated person as his apprentice?

What kind of insane plot is this? Are they stacking buffs?

But then Linzhou thought about it again and laughed.

It's good to be reborn!

What does it mean to be reborn?

A walking treasure map! A human spoiler!

He knows all about the cultivation methods, relics, and powerful caves of his past life.

If I take him on as an apprentice, will I still need to struggle to find opportunities in the future?

They directly had their apprentices lead the way, focusing on precise treasure hunting!

"Xiao Fan! Stop cultivating and get out there to work!"

Linzhou shouted at the top of his lungs.

Xiao Fan, who was consolidating his cultivation in the Purple Bamboo Abode, immediately ran out.

"Master, what are your instructions?"

"I've done some calculations, and I've found that you've been cultivating too intensely lately, which has made your foundation a bit weak. You need to go down the mountain for some experience and temper your character."

Linzhou was talking nonsense with a straight face.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Fan's blood boiled with excitement.

"Master, where are we going?"

Blackwind City.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll find you a junior brother."

Xiao Fan: "..."

So it's not me getting some training, it's you, sir, going to buy more goods again?

Seeing Xiao Fan's speechless expression, Lin Zhou blushed and coughed twice to cover his embarrassment.

"Ahem, the main purpose is to send you out to gain experience! By the way, I'll find you a junior brother; this is called team building, understand?"

"When there are more people on Xiaoqiong Mountain in the future, you, as the senior disciple, will have someone to help you."

"Yes, Master!" What else could Xiao Fan say? His master had been unpredictable for a long time.

"Shi Yi, you better watch the house right now. If you come back and find not a single blade of grass missing, I'll hang you from a tree and beat you!"

Lin Zhou called out again towards Shi Yi's house.

A muffled sound came from inside the room from Shi Yi.

"Yes, Master."

After giving his instructions, Lin Zhou waved his sleeves and led Xiao Fan down the mountain.

……

Blackwind City, the largest underground black market in the Eastern Xuan Region.

Here, the sun never shines, and the air is filled with a foul stench of blood, sweat, and despair.

Along both sides of the street, huge iron cages held all sorts of people.

There were defeated cultivators, members of bankrupt families, and even some demons with special bloodlines.

They are like commodities, with prices clearly marked, waiting for buyers to choose them.

Lin Zhou and Xiao Fan attracted a lot of attention as soon as they stepped into the place.

The main reason is that Linzhou's atmosphere is too striking.

Dressed in a simple blue Taoist robe, waving a tattered palm-leaf fan, and sporting a lazy smile, he seemed completely out of place in this dark and bloody environment.

"Master, what are we doing here?"

Looking at the numb eyes in those cages, Xiao Fan felt a pang of unease.

"I've come to find you a junior brother."

As Lin Zhou spoke, he activated the [Heavenly Eye of Fortune].

In an instant, the whole world changed in his eyes.

Most people's heads are covered in gray or white, representing mediocrity and decay.

Occasionally, a few guards or stewards have green heads, indicating they have some talent for cultivation.

"Tsk, the quality is terrible..."

Lin Zhou shook his head, like an old man picking through cabbages, scanning the area as he went.

Just as he was about to reach the end of the market, he suddenly stopped.

In a most remote and filthy corner of an iron cage, he saw an extremely bizarre sight.

A dirty, skinny boy, as thin as a monkey, was huddled in a corner, shivering.

Above his head, a pillar of fortune was flashing wildly like a neon light, amidst purple, gold, and gray hues!

Purple, the color of royalty!

Gold, the chosen one!

Gray, a dead end!

What the hell!

What kind of ultimate contradiction is this?

A storm raged in Linzhou's heart.

This kid is definitely the reborn one the system mentioned!

Only those who are reborn can possess both the potential to reach the pinnacle and the crisis of dying in the next second!

At this moment.

Ye Ge, the boy in the iron cage, is going crazy.

He was reborn.

From that tragic battlefield where he fought against the extraterrestrial demons and ultimately self-destructed his nascent soul, he was reborn back to his childhood when his family had just been wiped out by the lackeys of the Ten Thousand Demons Palace and he had become a slave.

He remembers it perfectly clearly.

This afternoon, a branch leader of the Ten Thousand Demons Palace will descend upon this black market and set up a blood sacrifice array to refine all the living beings here into a furnace of blood pills!

"I must escape!"

"There's a dog hole three hundred paces east of here. If I crawl through it, I can survive!"

"Taking advantage of the demonic cult's arrival, I will follow the same path as in my past life: I'll crawl through a dog hole amidst the chaos, and that'll save me!"

Ye Ge was sweating profusely, his heart pounding, preparing for the impending turmoil!

Just then, a lazy voice rang in his ear.

"How much for this kid? I'll take him."

Ye Ge suddenly looked up.

A young man dressed in a blue Taoist robe and waving a tattered palm-leaf fan was pointing at him.

The moment Ye Ge saw this man, her pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints!

boom!

His mind felt like it had been struck by lightning!

Who is this person?!

There was no such person in my memories of my past life!

It's even less likely that anyone would come to the slave market to buy people at this time!

"A variable! This is a huge variable!"

Ye Ge's hair stood on end, and an extreme fear welled up from the bottom of his heart.

In his previous life, he was a Nascent Soul cultivator with incredibly broad knowledge!

There is only one possibility for such an existence that transcends the trajectory of fate!

Extraterrestrial demons!

It is an existence just like him that has descended upon this world!

Moreover, this demon looked at me as if I were a dish!

He's going to eat me!

He wants to use my soul to complete himself!

Xiao Fan watched as his master stared at the dirty-looking boy with shining eyes, and his lips twitched.

Master, your expression makes you look a bit like a human trafficker.

Besides, this kid looks a bit crazy. Is it reliable to take him as an apprentice?

"Sir, you have excellent taste!"

A burly, muscular manager came running over, smiling obsequiously.

"This kid's a bit skinny, but he's got a good frame. He'd make a good medicine slave or a furnace for you! One price, ten low-grade spirit stones!"

Without saying a word, Lin Zhou threw over ten spirit stones.

"Keep the change, please."

"Open the cage."

The manager thought there was no need to look for it, but he still opened the lock with a smile on his face.

Everyone wants to do business!

Lin Zhou waved to Ye Ge in the cage.

"Come out here, you're with me from now on."

Ye Ge didn't move; instead, she shrank even tighter, making threatening "hoho" sounds, like a little wolf guarding its food.

"Don't kill me! I know the secrets of the Demon Palace! I know where the ancient treasures are! Don't eat me! My flesh is sour!"

As he shouted, he suddenly darted out from the corner, opened his mouth and bit Lin Zhou's arm, then turned and tried to run away.

"Hey, he's got a fiery temper."

Lin Zhou didn't dodge at all, letting him bite her.

As a result, Ye Ge took a bite and almost broke his teeth, but Lin Zhou's arm didn't even have a tooth mark.

"Master!"

With lightning speed, Xiao Fan grabbed Ye Ge by the back of the neck and lifted him up.

"Let me go! You devils! Let me go!"

Ye Ge struggled desperately in Xiao Fan's hands, kicking her two thin legs wildly.

The onlookers pointed and whispered, as if they were watching a monkey show.

Linzhou's head was buzzing.

Why are all these apprentices harder to manage than the last?

Xiao Fan is a hothead who wants to break off an engagement, Shi Yi is a vengeful fanatic, and this one is just a terminal case of paranoia!

Am I opening a sect or a mental hospital?

"It's so noisy."

Lin Zhou didn't bother with any more words and delivered a chop to the back of Ye Ge's neck.

"Well……"

Ye Ge rolled her eyes and fainted on the spot.

Lin Zhou hoisted the limp Ye Ge onto his shoulder and waved to Xiao Fan.

"Let's go, that's a wrap."

"Master, this... you've already taken it back?" Xiao Fan was completely bewildered.

"What else? Keep it for the New Year?"

Lin Zhou carried Ye Ge and swaggered out of the slave market, leaving behind a murmur of discussion.

They had just left Blackwind City.

What they didn't know was...

Immediately afterwards, an extremely terrifying demonic aura descended from the sky!

It enveloped the entire slave market!

A heart-wrenching scream instantly echoed through the sky!

Meanwhile, at the Lingxiao Sect.

An urgent message from the Eastern Xuan Domain Alliance was delivered to Sect Master Ling Xiaozhi in a great hurry.

Ling Xiaozi crushed the jade slip, and after reading its contents, he suddenly stood up from his seat, his face filled with shock!

"What?! The branch leader of the Ten Thousand Demons Hall launched a surprise attack on Black Wind City, sacrificing ten thousand people?!"

"How is this possible?! Isn't the Temple of Ten Thousand Demons supposed to be holed up in the west? How could it suddenly have moved to the east?!"

He immediately thought of the Linzhou master and his apprentice who had just come down the mountain, saying they were going to Black Wind City for "training".

A chill ran from the soles of Ling Xiaozi's feet straight up to the top of his head.

Is it...

Junior Brother Lin foresaw all of this?!