501: To control the world, you must first control men.

"Friends?" Xiao Jingyan laughed in extreme anger as his Puppet Qi surged once again. The Giant Spirit phantom let out a heaven-shaking roar. "You killed Zhuge Mo and cut off my path to revenge, and yet you still want to be my friend?"

The smile on Liu Yan's face faded slightly, and his tone became airy. "A piece of trash like Zhuge Mo was a waste to keep around. As for you, being so fixated on this bit of hatred shows that your vision is too small."

Xiao Jingyan stared at him intently, his eyes filled with cold killing intent. "Vision? You lunatic! You killed the monarchs of every nation in the world and completely ended the national system. What exactly are you trying to do? Is it just to absorb those negative emotions?"

"I'm not trying to do anything." Liu Yan shrugged, his tone carrying a nearly cruel casualness. "I just thought it would be fun."

"Fun?" Xiao Jingyan laughed wildly. "Just because it was fun, you killed tens of millions of people? I thought I was cold-blooded and crazy enough, not hesitating to perform blood sacrifices on my own kin for a Breakthrough, but you are ten thousand times crazier than me!"

"The feeling is mutual." Liu Yan sneered, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "You simply lacked the ability. Once you truly master the power to change the world, perhaps you will be even crazier than I am."

Xiao Jingyan was speechless. Liu Yan's words were like a sharp knife, piercing through the final layer of pretense in his heart.

He had to admit that the pleasure of controlling everything during his Breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Realm had indeed caused him to lose himself.

"Everything I did was for the Xiao Family, for revenge!"

"Revenge? And after revenge?" Liu Yan pressed closer, his Black Lotus Evil Qi making it hard for Xiao Jingyan to breathe. "Will you stop? No, you will continue to pursue even greater power and devour even more living beings, just like me, immersing yourself in the pleasure of controlling life and death." A flicker of complex emotion flashed through his eyes, so fast it was impossible to catch. "Alright, little baby, I have to go find my next target. Goodbye."

Before he had even finished speaking, the Evil Qi around Liu Yan's body exploded, turning into a streak of black light that prepared to vanish into the wind and snow.

Anxiety rose in Xiao Jingyan's heart as he tried to give chase, only to find that the Puppet Qi within his body was being restrained by an invisible force. The fierce battle just now had damaged his Meridians; in a Soul Transformation level clash, even a slight lapse could lead to eternal damnation.

He knew very well that in their current state, neither could do anything to the other unless they were both willing to perish together.

"Liu Yan! Stop right there!" Xiao Jingyan roared. "Tell me clearly, what organization is behind you? You are clearly so powerful! Why do you take orders from them?"

Liu Yan's figure paused for a moment, and his blurred laughter drifted through the snow, carrying an imperceptible bitterness. "Some shackles are beyond your imagination. Live well, little baby, and don't disappoint me."

The black light completely vanished into the wind and snow of the Northern Ice Field. Xiao Jingyan did not pursue; unless they both died together, neither could overcome the other.

Xiao Jingyan stood alone in Black Wind Valley, the doubts in his heart like a tangled mess of yarn.

Why couldn't Liu Yan kill him? What were the "shackles" he spoke of? And who was the person pulling the strings behind the scenes?

These questions circled in his mind like a curse.

He could feel that Liu Yan's words hidden a shocking secret, and this secret seemed to be closely related to his own destiny.

Liu Yan was clearly a lunatic who viewed human life as mere grass, yet he had specifically shown mercy to him; this was by no means an accident.

Liu Yan's existence, his own destiny, and even the entire layout of the Eternal World were being manipulated by an invisible hand.

For example, the Forbidden Land Secret Cave he had obtained—it was so coincidental that countless experts couldn't open it, yet he could. Furthermore, inside were exactly the Puppet Qi Cultivation Technique and Puppet Qi Divine Artifact he needed to learn. This was far too coincidental!

Xiao Jingyan suddenly looked up at the sky. He was now 100% certain that behind this sky, there was definitely a pair—or even many pairs—of eyes watching.

He was never one to yield to fate. Even if "Heaven" truly existed, he would find a way to investigate Heaven, surpass Heaven, and slaughter Heaven!

In this world, everyone has a weakness, even Heaven!

The most important thing right now was to increase his strength.

After cultivating for over a thousand years, Xiao Jingyan unlocked the true function of the Divine Artifact, the Suppressing Puppet Seal—a World Artifact. Using it as a core, he spent several centuries opening up an independent space—the Puppet Realm.

This world was shrouded in endless Puppet Qi. The sky was a dark purple dome, the earth was covered in black rocks, and dots of ghostly light floated in the air, all of which were the souls of the unwilling dead.

Xiao Jingyan set a rule: anyone in the mortal world who suffered injustice or harbored resentment, regardless of race or cultivation level, could enter the Puppet Realm for refuge. He would then teach them the "Ten Thousand Puppets Dao Transformation Scripture."

Over three thousand years, the Puppet Realm had become the most mysterious and terrifying existence in the Eternal World. The number of Cultivators within the Realm reached millions, all of whom excelled at controlling souls, Puppets, and curses. Xiao Jingyan's cultivation also soared all the way to the Half-Immortal Realm, with half a foot already in the True Immortal stage, making him one of the top ten combatants in the Eternal World... Chi Yao's chosen Child of Destiny, Shu Xiaohong!

Ever since her sect was wiped out by Liu Yan, she finally understood that completely rejecting men wouldn't work. Doing so would only pit men and women against each other, putting women in even more dangerous situations.

"To control the world, one must first control men."

On a certain stormy night, Shu Xiaohong stood at the peak of a cliff. She sliced her palm, letting her blood drip into the rain, her eyes flashing with ultimate determination. "Utilization is better than exclusion; control is better than opposition! Use their power to nourish our Dao; use their wealth to build our foundation; use their Divine Soul to aid our Ascension!"

Her ideals of equal rights were completely shattered, and an extreme obsession took root and sprouted in her heart.

She gave up on rebuilding the Xiaohong Sect and instead founded the "Xiaohong Tower"—a cultivation nest that appeared peaceful and celebratory on the surface but hid murderous intent within.

Xiaohong Tower did not recruit male Disciples; it only took in orphans, abandoned wives, and humiliated women. It taught them zither, go, calligraphy, painting, charm, and schemes. More importantly, it taught the core technique she had spent ten years of blood and sweat creating: the "Remote Soul Divine Method."

This Cultivation Technique was extremely bizarre. Practitioners needed to use their own emotions as a guide to refine their Divine Soul to the limit. A woman who appeared as weak and boneless as any ordinary lady might actually possess a Divine Soul strength comparable to a Nascent Soul Cultivator. It did not rely on spiritual energy cultivation; instead, it could imperceptibly invade a man's Sea of Consciousness through contact, absorbing his True Essence, emotions, and even Divine Soul power, making him utterly devoted and willing to hand over everything.

"Men are cauldrons, they are stairs, they are the stepping stones for us to climb." Shu Xiaohong stood on the highest floor of Xiaohong Tower, addressing the first batch of Disciples, her voice as cold as frost. "You must be the most beautiful flowers and the sharpest blades. Drain them of everything and kill a path to the heavens for yourselves and for me!"

The expansion speed of Xiaohong Tower far exceeded everyone's imagination.

In just a short century, tens of thousands of Xiaohong Towers spread across every city on the Eternal Continent, from the prosperous capital of the Central Continent to remote border towns. Nowhere was without those pavilions where red lanterns hung high. Hundreds of thousands of female Disciples were meticulously trained. They were either devastatingly beautiful, gentle and lovely, or brave and heroic, catering to the preferences of different men as they infiltrated major Immortal Cultivation Sects, great Families, and even the Immortal Caves of reclusive Cultivators.

Some female Disciples became the confidantes of Sect Heads, offering up all of the other party's Cultivation Techniques and Secret Realm maps. Others became the matriarchs of great families, controlling the Family's finances and continuously sending rare spirit mines and Medicinal Pills to the main tower.

Some even bewitched Soul Transformation Cultivators, extracting their pure True Essence to help Shu Xiaohong achieve a rapid Breakthrough.

These men were immersed in a world of tenderness, completely unaware that everything they owned was being quietly plundered. When the day came that their essence was completely drained, the female Disciples would use the "Remote Soul Divine Method" to erase their memories or simply silence them forever, leaving no trace behind.

Shu Xiaohong sat in the "Soul Control Hall" of the Xiaohong Tower's main headquarters. The hall was filled with countless tiny soul threads connecting to the Sea of Consciousness of every female Disciple.

The energy absorbed by the hundreds of thousands of Disciples converged through these soul threads, turning into a majestic torrent of spiritual power that flooded into her body.

This cultivation speed was hundreds or even thousands of times faster than her previous solitary cultivation. In less than a hundred years, she soared from the Nascent Soul Realm all the way to the Early Spirit Transformation Stage. The divine fire of the equal rights sword also grew increasingly intense due to the nourishment of this energy.