Chapter 100: Restoring the Celestial Palace

During this season, Ning Lian reached out to the Main World, preparing to use a temporary passage to transport ballistic missiles for a major operation. While Jianzi indulged the survivors of the far south, allowing Lan Fang’s Restoration faction to believe they were still living in a warm and tender bygone era, envoys from the Oceanic and Tianzhu realms also sought an audience.

Meanwhile, Lan Yi was in seclusion, striving for a breakthrough.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

In the private quarters of his dedicated aircraft carrier, Lan Yi had almost completed the cultivation of the Celestial Palace. For him, the final step to fully enter the realm of the Celestial Palace was ready to be taken at any moment.

Mentally and sensorially, his restless mind was like a feast—wanting to consume everything. After indulging heartily, rather than becoming lost or fearful, he mastered the external demons with a commanding force that brought them to their knees. Unshaken by the Eight Winds, his spiritual focus reached a new pinnacle.

In truth, breaking through to the Celestial Palace did not significantly boost Lan Yi’s combat power. The most notable enhancement was the refined operation of his spiritual energy at the nanoscale, making the structure of his Taoist arts more stable—impossible to dismantle without reaching this realm. The expansion of his brain’s domain due to increased spiritual energy allowed his electromagnetic doppelgänger and his true body to operate with equal precision.

This opened up new possibilities for him to explore.

Before reaching the Celestial Palace, Lan the Old Demon had already elevated his combat strength vastly—so much so that his knowledge overwhelmed his realm. Coupled with his understanding and power derived from the Taoist system, the increase in realm did little to enhance his fighting ability.

From the perspective of Taoist arts, the Celestial Palace stage sees immense differences in strength. Essentially, it is only a level of spiritual energy usage—some can barely crush ancient armies, while others can emulate the might of nature and shatter thousands of meters.

In any case, it was merely icing on the cake.

Combat power needed improvement, and so did cultivation.

A simple seclusion breakthrough, gaining strength by consuming forbidden fruit—why not?

The tomboy Da Lei wanted to do it, and the pure-hearted white moon saintess wanted to do it too. Only then could they be truly healthy! If the specialized room tore apart from their passion, they’d just fly into the sky to continue! Not just the sky—be it the sea or even the moon—Lan Yi commanded, and he did whatever he pleased!

Of course, the greatest pleasure was always the post-coital smoke time.

After subduing and consuming the external demons, Lan Yi would watch videos.

These videos were not study materials—he had far more knowledge in his mind than his subordinates could prepare. Instead, these were live broadcasts or edited clips from the underground prison in Tianhai.

They served as tools to please Lan the Old Demon.

At the same time, they were precious, nonrenewable resources. After Lan Yi assigned various tasks to his captives, they were to suffer as miserably as possible over the course of a month—only by being utterly wretched could they satisfy Lan Yi’s vindictive heart.

No embellishments were needed.

Just an honest broadcast, and Lan Yi would be pleased.

Even more enjoyable was that Li Wanzhou, like discovering a new continent, would endure the agonizing fatigue after each session to curl up on Lan Yi’s pectoral muscle and watch the miserable fate of their enemies together.

She listened as Lan Yi explained how these people had treated him before being put on the chopping block.

Si Lingluo?

Since Si Lingluo could no longer bear seeing such torment during smoke time, Lan the Old Demon had taken special care to ensure she was never fully conscious then. This left the saintly senior sister mumbling incessantly after waking at dawn, her biological clock completely disrupted, muttering phrases like “annoying,” “actually fainted,” and “really happened.”

The tomboy, every time, would mock Si Lingluo mercilessly.

“A little bored now.”

Li Wanzhou showed no shame.

For her, doing it was as ordinary as eating or drinking. Although every time felt like dying and coming back to life, watching Lan Yi’s enemies being sliced and diced was entertaining!

“Don’t want to anymore?” Lan Yi stroked the tomboy’s head, feeling oddly like a high schooler after gaming with his best friend, hearing the friend say they were exhausted and wouldn’t pull an all-nighter next time.

“Not at all! I’m talking about the show!” Li Wanzhou retorted angrily.

How could she ever get bored of such a thing?

She knew Lan Yi had been indulging himself intensely only recently during seclusion, but having tasted the thrill, she absolutely wouldn’t give her good brother any excuse to back out later.

“Look, how many of your enemies are still awake now?” Li Wanzhou pointed at the live stream on the tablet, showing prisoners in the underground dungeon, most of whom were already in a state of madness.

It wasn’t their fault.

Lan Yi’s methods were ruthless, and to satisfy their commander’s appetite, the food and even the air they breathed were laced with certain drugs.

The first to collapse were her powerful V-class adversaries.

Just as Lan Yi had planned.

The independently awakened began struggling for survival on their own.

In the first week, they could only eat raw pork. With Lan Yi absent, they initially still had energy, commanding the guards to change their meals, as if serving them was the privilege of these defective Y-chromosome carriers. Crowding together, they seemed to relive a peaceful, nonviolent matriarchal society, supporting each other while mercilessly striking out against the puny outsiders.

Even Lan Yi found this amusing.

Indeed, whether it was those scoundrels from past lives begging for mercy and confessing during live broadcasts, or their current insane daily madness forced by overwhelming pressure, these were rare pleasures.

At such times, these clowns would always bring a knowing smile to Lan Yi’s lips.

When Lan the Old Demon smiled, the tomboy accompanying him usually suffered the consequences.

“Brother, you smell so good.jpg”

Who else could he be but brothers? There was really no helping him.

“Come on!” The tomboy, who had been tearful and declaring they were no longer brothers before the last session ended, now blew air teasingly at Lan Yi’s head with a mischievous grin.

In the second week, the green-eyed awakened V-class tried the classic tactic—spreading their legs in hopes of seducing the guards.

They were truly hungry enough to have green eyes.

At this time, even eating raw pork was a luxury, because, as Lan Yi instructed, they could only consume polluted soil without roots and earthworms that week. Clearly, punching didn’t replace eating, and no amount of sharp voices earned them any favor. The temporary matriarchal clan collapsed instantly.

They began attacking each other—from blaming one another, to hair-pulling, slapping, and quickly escalating to water torture—all within twelve hours.

Truly…

Pathetic.

Lan Yi clipped these twelve hours mercilessly and sent the footage to those who had previously spread rumors, slandered, and dragged up old affairs while being ferried by helicopter. Consider it a death notice.

They were finished. Lan Yi was petty indeed!

He wasn’t in a hurry to kill them yet.

Lan the Old Demon was curious.

He wondered what expressions they would wear when they regained strength and faced the thrilling battle in the Octagonal Cage against him. These strange beings, ranging from 8 to 45 years old, stripped of the false security the internet provided, could they still be as arrogant?

Li Wanzhou yawned out of boredom.

Being a Chaos Demon, she had once endured such intense internet battles in elementary school.

By middle school, she was tired of it. She preferred beast fighting. Now that real beast fights were still possible, with Lan Yi as a true god on earth, once he unleashed his city-bursting power, all the world’s pawns paled in comparison. On the beast-fighting channel, she could walk tall, slapping any irritating internet celebrity cultivator live on their stream.

Times had changed!

None of these internet celebrity cultivators could actually fight.

The truly powerful, top-tier spiritual energy cultivators had no time for daily live streams or popular science. Even the hottest account for the Ice Fortress Frontline had stopped updating.

The Ice Fortress Frontline was the most authentic internet account applying spiritual energy cultivation to modern battlefields.

“They should start turning on each other in the next couple of days,” Lan Yi nodded with satisfaction.

These damn breeds truly pleased him.

They perfectly satisfied his murderous intent when seeing them foul the environment, harvest fools, and leave behind a mess.

“What about these materials?” The tomboy sniffed at Lan Yi’s white hair, pointing to the yoga and light diet faction in the corner of the live stream.

“They should make it to the end,” Lan Yi smiled.

No matter the faction, the humanoids had grown numb.

Whatever Lan Yi enjoyed without reason, they had to endure too—and double.

For example, they could only sleep eight hours a day, split into intervals of a few minutes. Bright, heat-emitting desk lamps shone close to their faces, giving them a feeling akin to spring. Or the prison was urgently remodeled so they could neither sit nor stand comfortably.

This made their pampered yoga and wellness lifestyle utterly miserable.

Yet they dared not commit suicide.

Lan the Old Demon had declared.

If they died by their own hand, someone would soon replace them—just like their favored relatives. Their family and friends always wanted their seat, and if one died by suicide, two would replace them.

Everyone had weaknesses.

When pressing others’ weak spots and forcing them to bow, one must remember that someday, their own weak spots might be exploited.

Only when the knife falls on oneself does it truly hurt.

You cannot claim unfairness only when you suffer.

This was also an external demon.

Lan Yi’s killing intent churned and surged repeatedly over these days, flaring so intensely in his overstimulated senses that he longed to slaughter millions, shatter the earth, and flood the rivers with blood.

All of this was firmly suppressed by the Celestial Palace he had built.

He was master of his own body.

Disobedience would be met with beaten submission.

Martial arts and Taoist arts complemented and restrained each other. Lan Yi cleverly harnessed the exaggerated sensory state brought by the Celestial Palace, using the indulgence of his restless mind to cultivate martial arts with ruthless willpower, further strengthening his mental force.

Thus, the breakthrough to the Celestial Palace—

Was complete!