Tianyuan Continent, Extreme Northern Wasteland, Heavenly Demon Sect Main Hall.
Inside the hall, a young man with long black hair and a black robe adorned with golden linens sat expressionless on a pitch-black throne.
In front of him, seated on either side of the grand hall, were eight individuals. These eight included men and women, both young and old. The only thing they had in common was that none of them looked like good people.
"Sect Master, yesterday I discovered another righteous spy within my Bone Spirit Sect. Early this morning, I had him skinned and dismembered. His bones have been refined into a magical artifact, and his soul has been collected into the Myriad Soul Banner. Tomorrow morning, I'll have disciples deliver his skin to the Lieyang Sect."
As the emaciated old man seated second on the left said this, the young man on the throne twitched slightly.
But that wasn't the end of it. Soon, a bald, burly man wearing a blood-red robe burst into loud laughter.
"Sect Master, yesterday I led my disciples from the Blood Blade Sect into the territory of the Righteous Path's Clear Wind Temple. We slaughtered their third-generation disciples entirely, and I personally extracted the spiritual root of that Thunder Spirit Root prodigy they recruited a few days ago. It was truly exhilarating, kekeke~"
"If that old bull-nose Qingwei hadn't suddenly emerged from seclusion, I'd have killed every last one of them."
Upon hearing this, the black-haired youth began to feel uneasy.
Then, a seductive woman in black gauze with a black lotus mark on her forehead giggled and said, "Sect Master darling, last night I sent Xiao Qian and the others to Dongyang City. Early this morning, Xiao Qian reported back—they've already absorbed the essence of several disciples from the Haoran Academy, corrupting their literary hearts. From now on, their cultivation in Confucianism is likely to stagnate."
While speaking, she cast a flirtatious glance at the white-haired youth, filled with feigned grievance.
"Sect Master, why won't you praise me? I spent days coming up with this plan."
Before she could finish, a chubby middle-aged man holding an abacus and sitting first on the left stood up.
"Sect Master, I have an urgent matter to report."
"Speak," the black-haired youth replied absentmindedly.
"Yes, sir. Yesterday, the Heavenly Sword Sect, allied with ten righteous sects, captured ten of our Heavenly Demon Sect's spirit stone mines, released a hundred thousand mine slaves, and killed over three hundred of our disciples."
As soon as he said this, the people on both sides of the hall jumped up, expressions furious.
"Outrageous. Is the Heavenly Sword Sect declaring war on the Demonic Path?"
"Sect Master, please allow me to lead the elite disciples of the Dark Yin Sect to storm the Heavenly Sword Sect. If even a single ant survives there tomorrow, I'll bring my head to you."
"My Blood Pool Sect is willing to join Brother Ming He. If they killed three hundred of our people, I'll slaughter three thousand of theirs."
"If you ask me, the Righteous Path has forgotten the terror of the Demonic Path. Why don't you, Sect Master, lead us to show them what real bloodshed is?"
As they spoke, everyone turned their hopeful eyes to Lin Ye, seated throne.
When Lin Ye met their gaze, his heart skipped a beat. But he dared not show any emotion on his face. After a moment's thought, he spoke coldly.
"No matter. Just a few mine slaves and outer disciples. If they died, so be it. As for those spirit stone mines, you can bring people tomorrow and take them back."
"As for declaring war with the Righteous Path, now is not the time. My demonic cultivation has reached its final stage. Once I succeed, it will be the day our Demonic Path unifies the Tianyuan Continent."
As soon as he finished, the others' faces lit up with joy.
"Sect Master has already cultivated the Heavenly Demon Divine Art to the peak of the ninth layer?"
"Excellent. Once Sect Master breaks through the tenth layer, there will be no one on the Tianyuan Continent who can rival him."
"No wonder Sect Master is so composed."
"In that case, let the Righteous Path jump around for a while. Once Sect Master perfects his divine art, it will be the day we exterminate all righteous cultivators."
They laughed cruelly after saying this. Seeing this, Lin Ye quickly found an excuse to dismiss these ruthless demonic cultivators.
Soon, only he was left in the grand main hall.
"Sigh. I've only transmigrated a few days, and troubles keep piling up. Now with all this, the Righteous and Demonic Paths probably won't reconcile. Are they really going to start a war?" Lin Ye's head was pounding.
"Just my luck. It's bad enough transmigrating into the big boss of the Demonic Path, but this boss is actually an undercover agent from the Righteous Path. Once the two sides start fighting, I'll be the first to die."
"After all, to reach my current position, I've killed more Righteous Path cultivators than anyone."
"If the demonic cultivators ever find out who I really am, I'll be hunted by both the Righteous and Demonic Paths. Even if I'm in the Grand Ascension stage, I won't survive."
"At my current cultivation speed, I'd need at least a hundred years to break through the tenth layer of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art."
Recalling the cruel methods of the eight great sects under the Heavenly Demon Sect, he couldn't help but shiver.
"No. I absolutely can't let the third Righteous-Demonic War break out, nor let the Righteous Path grow too strong, and I definitely can't let these demonic lunatics keep butchering their prodigies."
"I need both sides to calm down, give me time to slowly increase my cultivation."
"But how exactly can I get both sides to calm down?"
As he puzzled over what to do, a system prompt suddenly rang in his mind.
[Ding! Host detected to have transmigrated to another world! God-Level Entertainment System successfully bound!]
[Scanning current world environment…]
[Environment scan complete!]
[Initializing basic interstellar network…]
[Network established! A 100-kilometer radius around host is now covered by Starlink!]
[Loading spatial material transfer function!]
Hearing the continuous notifications in his head, Lin Ye was stunned, then immediately realized what was happening.
"Finally, the golden finger of every transmigrator has arrived. But why does it have to be called this… the God-Level Entertainment System? This has to be a mistake. I'm in a cultivation world, not a modern city!"
Despite his complaints, clinging to his last bit of hope, he accessed the system interface in his mind. The moment he saw it, all his hope died.
This wasn't a powerful system at all. It was clearly just a giant app store. And none of it had anything to do with cultivation. Every app was some kind of entertainment app.
There were social, video, gaming, and shopping apps, including many popular apps from his past life—Douyin (TikTok), QQ, Green Bubble, and more.
"What's the use of all this stuff? Can't it give me something practical? Besides, there's no internet in this world…"
Just as he was speechless, two new prompts popped up.
[Ding! As a first-time user of this system, you'll receive one free app and enjoy 10% cashback on all future user spending!]
[Ding! Free app granted: TikTok Pure Edition! New item added to store: Tianji Model-1 Smartphone!]
Reading these two prompts, Lin Ye's expression instantly changed.
"TikTok? So I can scroll through TikTok even in the cultivation world? That still sounds pretty useless."
"And what's this phone about?"
Curious, he searched the store and indeed found the so-called Tianji Model-1 Smartphone. It even had a price—1 spirit stone.
After hesitating, he pulled a spirit stone from the pouch at his waist. Just as he wondered how to make the purchase, the spirit stone in his hand turned into white light and vanished into the system screen before him.
At the same time, a cold sensation touched his right hand. Looking down, he found a phone in his palm that looked very similar to the iPhone from his previous life.
Instinctively, he pressed the side power button. The phone lit up, and a very familiar musical note icon appeared on the screen.