Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist

Chapter 949: Gathering Beast Cores

The preparation phase was over. Now, the harvest began.

The Emerald Sea-Forest Isle was a geological anomaly even within the chaotic Myriad Reefs Sea Domain. Unlike typical islands formed of rock or coral, this landmass was a dense, tangled mat of colossal, ancient root systems that floated atop the waves, supporting a forest of mangroves that towered hundreds of feet into the air. The roots plunged deep into the abyss, drinking directly from the rich water-attribute ley lines below, while the canopy absorbed the rampant wood-attribute Qi of the atmosphere.

Wang Jian stood on a thick, moss-covered root the size of a highway, the humid air thick with the scent of ozone and chlorophyll. He adjusted his grip on his sword. It was no longer the looted blade he had used in the State of Yue.

”This location is perfect,” Wang Jian noted, his eyes scanning the dark, emerald waters churning between the roots. ”The density of Wood and Water Qi here is nearly solid. The beasts born in this environment will have cores of exceptional purity.”

Beside him stood Yue Lingshan and Chen Ying. They, too, were equipped with new gear.

Mu Lianhua, utilizing her skills as a Peak Core Formation expert and a master refiner, had spent the last week reworking their entire arsenal. She had taken the mountain of low-grade and mid-grade artifacts they had looted from the Azure Sword Clan and the Mystic Peak Sect, melted them down with her Azure Sky-Heart Flame, and forged them into Peak-Grade Spiritual Artifacts tailored specifically for each member of the harem.

Chen Ying held her new weapon. It was a slender, slightly curved blade that seemed to vibrate with the wind itself. The metal was a pale, icy blue, forged from Star-Iron and quenched in the blood of a wind-beast. Mu Lianhua had named it the Gale-Severing Frostblade. It was lighter, sharper, and far more lethal than her old sword.

”Target approaching,” Chen Ying whispered, her eyes tracking a ripple in the water.

”Lingshan, prepare the array,” Wang Jian ordered calmly.

”Yes, husband,” Yue Lingshan nodded. She tossed five blue flags into the air. They didnʼt fall; they hovered, humming with power.

The water exploded.

A massive creature surged from the depths. It wasnʼt a serpent, but a monstrous, animated plant-beast. The Thousand-Year Iron-Vine Treant. It looked like a nightmare of knotted wood and seaweed, with glowing green eyes and tentacles made of thorny vines that whipped through the air with the sound of cracking thunder. It was a peak Grade 3 beast, equivalent to the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment.

”Now!” Wang Jian shouted.

Yue Lingshan slammed her palms together. ”Water-Binding Array, lock!”

The sea water around the Treant suddenly solidified. It didnʼt freeze into ice; it became viscous and heavy, like quicksilver. The Treant roared, a sound like grinding timber, as its movements were instantly sluggish. The heavy water pressed down on it, pinning its main body against the giant roots of the island.

”Itʼs regenerating!” Yue Lingshan warned. ”The wood Qi here is feeding it!”

Indeed, where the water pressure cracked its bark, new green shoots were already sprouting to heal the wound.

”Not for long,” Wang Jian said.

He launched himself forward. He didnʼt use a simple slash. He channeled his Stellar Qi, merging it with a technique he had deciphered from the looted scriptures—the ”Withered Wood Sword Art.”

His blade glowed with a dark, necrotic green light interlaced with the black void of his stellar energy.

He moved like a phantom, dodging a lashing vine that shattered the rock where he had been standing a microsecond before. He reached the main trunk of the beast.

Slash. Slash. Slash.

Three precise strikes. He severed the three main feeder roots connecting the beast to the water.

But he didnʼt just cut them. The Stellar Qi clinging to his blade acted like a cauterizing fire. It burned the stumps with a void energy that denied life. The regenerative green light of the Treant flickered and died at the wound sites.

”SCREEEE!” The beast shrieked in pain and fear.

Chen Ying moved in from the flank. The Gale-Severing Frostblade sang. She was a blur of wind. She decapitated the smaller vine-heads defending the core, her blade moving so fast it left afterimages.

With the beast immobilized and its healing factor neutralized, Wang Jian delivered the final blow. He drove his sword into the central knot of the creature, twisting it to shatter the heart.

The Treant convulsed and went still, dissolving into a pile of driftwood and spiritual essence.

Wang Jian dug into the remains. He pulled out a fist-sized core. It pulsed with a vibrant, dual-colored light—deep forest green on one side, ocean blue on the other.

”A perfect Wood-Water dual attribute core,” Wang Jian said, tossing it in his hand. ”High purity. This is perfect for you, Lingshan. And for my own reserves.”

”Itʼs beautiful,” Yue Lingshan breathed, wiping sea spray from her face.

”Donʼt relax yet,” Wang Jian grinned. ”The commotion has attracted the neighbors.”

The water around the island began to boil. Dozens of triangular fins cut the surface.

Sapphire-Scaled Terror Sharks. Grade 2 beasts. They were pack hunters, their scales hard as diamond, their teeth capable of shredding iron.

”Practice time,” Wang Jian announced. ”Lingshan, control the field. Chen Ying, kill the stragglers. I will take the alphas.”

The battle that followed was a massacre. Wang Jian moved through the pack of sharks with the grace of a dancer and the brutality of a butcher. He practiced his heavy strikes, using the flat of his blade infused with Stellar Qi to shatter the sharksʼ armored skulls through blunt force trauma, preserving the materials.

Hours later, the water around the roots was red.

They hauled the carcasses onto the dry roots. It was a mountain of wealth.

”Loot everything,” Wang Jian commanded, acting the part of the diligent cultivator husband. ”The cores are priority. But take the shark skin—it makes excellent leather armor. Drain the blood—Ruyan needs it for ink. And the meat... weʼll feast tonight.”

He walked over to Yue Lingshan, who was panting slightly, her spiritual energy drained from maintaining the arrays. He wiped a smudge of dirt from her cheek.

”You did well, Lingshan,” he praised her warmly, his eyes full of affection. ”Your control over the Water-Binding Array has improved immensely. You are learning to borrow the power of the ocean itself.”

Yue Lingshan beamed under his praise, her fatigue melting away. ”Thank you, husband. I feel... I feel like Iʼm finally understanding the flow of this world.”

Wang Jian kissed her forehead, while his mind coldly calculated the yield. ʼForty-two cores. Combined with the Treant core... thatʼs enough to refine three batches of dual-attribute pills. Itʼs a start.ʼ

They returned to Red Coral Island that evening, their storage bags bursting with the harvest of Wood and Water.

A few days later, the target changed.

”We need Wind and Fire,” Wang Jian announced. ”And Earth.”

He left Yue Lingshan behind to study the formation scrolls and recover her Qi. This trip required speed and raw destructive power. He took Chen Ying, Liu Ruyan, and Sect Mistress Mu Lianhua.

Their destination was the Storm Cliffs, a jagged archipelago north of Red Coral Island where the magnetic fields caused perpetual thunderstorms and gale-force winds.

”This is your hunting ground, Yingʼer,” Wang Jian shouted over the howling wind.

High above the cliffs, massive birds circled. Gale-Wing Albatrosses. Their wingspans were twenty feet across, and they could shoot blades of compressed wind from their feathers. They were fast—faster than any flying sword.

”Go,” Wang Jian ordered.

Chen Ying didnʼt hesitate. She activated her wind-attribute spiritual root. The chaotic gales of the Storm Cliffs didnʼt hinder her; they fueled her. She shot into the sky, her body wrapped in a cloak of moving air.

She engaged three Albatrosses in mid-air aerial combat. It was a dizzying display of speed. The birds dived, shrieking, firing wind blades. Chen Ying spun, deflecting the attacks with the Gale-Severing Frostblade.

Her cultivation technique, the Seven Kill Sword Technique, was progressing rapidly under the pressure of constant combat. The killing intent in her aura sharpened the wind around her sword.

Flash.

She accelerated, moving faster than the eye could follow. She passed the first bird. A second later, its wing detached from its body. She pivoted in mid-air, using the falling bird as a step, and launched herself at the second.

Thrust.

Straight through the heart.

Within minutes, three massive birds plummeted into the ocean below. Chen Ying descended, landing lightly next to Wang Jian, her chest heaving, her eyes shining with the thrill of the hunt.

”Good,” Wang Jian nodded. ”Harvest the cores. The wind essence in them is turbulent. Perfect for breaking through your bottlenecks.”

They didnʼt stop there. They moved south, to the Volcanic Isle of Ashen Bone.

The air here was searing hot, shimmering with heat haze. The ground was black basalt, hot enough to melt normal shoes. Rivers of lava flowed openly.

”This is for us, Ruyan,” Wang Jian said, looking at the slutty alchemist. ”And for Elder Mu.”

They hunted Obsidian Fire-Scorpions—car-sized arachnids with shells made of volcanic glass and tails that dripped liquid fire.

Liu Ruyan took the lead. She summoned her Blood Spirit Flame. It manifested as a crimson lotus in her hand. She threw it.

The flames clashed. The scorpions spat magma, but Liu Ruyanʼs fire was sentient and predatory. It devoured the magma, growing stronger, before latching onto the scorpions and burning them from the inside out.

”Your fire control is improving,” Wang Jian noted, watching her incinerate a scorpion. ”But youʼre wasting energy. Focus the heat.”

”Yes, Jian,” she panted, sweating in the heat, her clothes clinging to her body.

Suddenly, the ground shook.

A massive section of the lava river bulged upwards. A creature emerged, dripping molten rock.

It was a Lava Turtle. But this was no ordinary beast. Its shell was a miniature volcano. Its aura was crushing.

”Grade 5,” Mu Lianhua said calmly. ”Early Core Formation level.”

The turtle roared, a sound like tectonic plates grinding. It opened its mouth, gathering a ball of concentrated magma Qi.

The pressure was immense. Chen Ying and Liu Ruyan froze, suppressed by the realm difference.

Wang Jian didnʼt draw his sword. He just looked at Mu Lianhua.

”Elder Mu,” he said coolly. ”If you would.”

Mu Lianhua stepped forward. She looked regal amidst the hellscape, her purple dress untouched by the ash. She didnʼt draw a weapon. She didnʼt shout a technique name.

She simply raised her right hand and pointed her index finger at the beast.

Her aura flared for a split second—a terrifying spike of Peak Core Formation power.

She condensed her Azure Sky-Heart Flame—a heavenly flame far superior to the beastʼs magma—into a single, compressed beam at the tip of her finger.

Zip.

A thin line of blue light connected her finger to the turtleʼs forehead.

The turtleʼs roar cut off. The magma ball in its mouth dissipated.

A tiny, cauterized hole appeared between its eyes. The beam had pierced its skull, its brain, and exited the back of its shell, destroying its beast core in the process.

The massive beast collapsed with a ground-shaking thud. Instant death.

”Efficient,” Wang Jian praised.

They harvested the corpse. The Wind cores for Chen Ying. The Fire and Earth cores for Ruyan, Lianhua, and Wang Jian.

As Chen Ying went to carve up the turtle, Wang Jian grabbed Liu Ruyanʼs hand and pulled her behind a large rock formation, out of direct sight of the others but close enough to be heard.

He pushed her against the hot stone.

”You were sloppy with that last scorpion,” he growled, grabbing her breast roughly.

”Master...” Liu Ruyan gasped, the heat of the rock and his body overwhelming her. ”Punish me...”

”Later,” he whispered, grinding his hips against hers. ”Tonight, Iʼm going to give you a private lesson in heat manipulation. Iʼm going to make you burn until you beg for mercy.”

He groped her, his hands exploring her sweaty curves, praising her fire control one moment and pinching her nipples the next, keeping her in a constant state of arousal and submission.

Back at the courtyard on Red Coral Island, the alchemy room had been transformed. It was no longer a makeshift lab; it was a factory of ascension.

Local materials reinforced the walls. The cauldron sat in the center, roaring with heat.

Mu Lianhua and Liu Ruyan began the refinement. They categorized the hundreds of beast cores they had harvested by element.

”We need specificity,” Wang Jian instructed. ”No generic blends.”

Mu Lianhua, with her centuries of experience, modified ancient recipes on the fly to accommodate the unique properties of the sea beast cores.

”For Senior Sister Yue and yourself,” Mu Lianhua said, her hands moving in a blur as she crushed herbs, ”The Oceanic Heart-Cleansing Pill. Water attribute dominance.”

”And for the wood aspect,” she added Iron-Root Vine extract to the mix, ”The Verdant Life-Source Pill.”

”For Chen Ying,” Liu Ruyan chimed in, ”The Typhoon-Spirit Pill. It utilizes the chaotic wind essence of the Albatross cores.”

”And for us,” Mu Lianhua looked at Wang Jian, her eyes lowering, ”The Crimson Purgatory Pill. Pure fire. And the Abyssal Wood Pill to balance it.”

Wang Jian stood by the cauldron. He wasnʼt just watching. He activated his Verdant Eternal Spring Essence. He pulled rare, supplementary herbs from his spatial ring—herbs he had grown to maturity in seconds within his personal garden. He provided an unlimited supply of pill bases that would have bankrupted a normal sect.

”The mixture is unstable,” Mu Lianhua noted, sweat beading on her forehead as she fought to merge the Fire cores with the Wood herbs. ”The Yang energy is too violent.”

Wang Jian stepped up behind her.

”Then let me stabilize it,” he murmured.

He pressed his body against hers. He blamed her voluptuous hips, whispering that their swaying motion while she worked was distracting the spiritual flow of the room.

”Itʼs your fault the fire is unruly, Lianhua,” he accused, biting her ear. ”Youʼre seducing the flames.”

”I... I am sorry, Master,” she breathed, accepting the ridiculous logic because it was what he wanted.

He pushed her down, bending her over a workbench right next to the cauldron. He hiked up her elegant sarong. He entered her, fucking her with a slow, deep rhythm that matched the pulsing of the alchemical fire.

”Ruyan,” Wang Jian commanded, looking over his shoulder at the disciple who was watching with hungry eyes. ”Donʼt just stand there. Stabilize the other side.”

Liu Ruyan rushed over. She didnʼt go to the cauldron. She dropped to her knees in front of Wang Jian and Mu Lianhua. She used her mouth and hands on Wang Jian, turning the alchemy session into a scene of absolute debauchery.

Wang Jian dominated them both, his Yang Qi flaring, claiming that his ”proximity” was balancing the Yin of the sea beast cores. Mu Lianhua, fully broken in, worked through the pleasure, timing her hand seals to his thrusts, her moans mixing with the hissing of the steam.

Hours later, the pills were finished. They rolled out of the cauldron, glowing with high-purity light, radiating potent elemental energy.

The consumption began immediately.

The group went into secluded cultivation in the specialized chambers Yue Lingshan had prepared with arrays.

Time seemed to blur.

For Yue Lingshan and Liu Ruyan, possessing Dual Spiritual Roots and high aptitude, the progress was rapid. They consumed the Oceanic Heart-Cleansing Pills and Crimson Purgatory Pills like water.

One year passed. Then two.

Boom. Boom.

Two auras flared in the courtyard. Yue Lingshan and Liu Ruyan broke through the bottleneck simultaneously. Their foundations shattered and reformed, stronger and wider than before. They reached the Late Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Chen Ying was even faster. Her Mutated Wind Spirit Root was a devourer of resources. The Typhoon-Spirit Pills fueled her body like high-grade fuel in an engine. She spent her days in the courtyard, sword dancing in the wind.

It took her only one year. She broke through to the Late Stage, her sword intent becoming so sharp it cut the leaves falling from the trees in the courtyard without her moving.

And Wang Jian?

He sat in the center of the formation, his body a vortex. He possessed Triple Spirit Roots. His hunger was three times that of a normal cultivator.

He gorged on the pills. Fire, Water, Wood. He ate them by the handful.

His Stellar Demonic Meridian Scripture spun wildly, acting as a massive celestial grinder. It took the elemental energy, crushed it, refined it, and converted it into pure, dark Stellar Qi.

The first year, he stabilized his peak Middle Stage. The second year, he expanded his dantian to the limit. The third year...

He opened his eyes. They were no longer human eyes; they looked like deep space, filled with swirling galaxies.

A pillar of dark light shot up from the courtyard, piercing the clouds above Red Coral Island. The ambient Qi of the entire city trembled for a second.

Wang Jian stood up. His bones cracked with the sound of gunshots. His muscles rippled with contained power. His aura was heavy, dense, and terrifyingly solid.

He had done it. Late Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. But his foundation was so thick, so reinforced by dragon blood pills and stellar energy, that he could likely crush an ordinary Early Core Formation cultivator with one hand.

He looked at his hands, clenching them into fists. The power was intoxicating.

”The cycle works,” he whispered.

The cycle of hunting, refining, fucking, and consuming. It was a perfect engine of growth. And he had established the rhythm that would carry them to the top of this chaotic world.

He walked out of his chamber. His harem was waiting for him, all of them stronger, all of them beautiful, and all of them his.

”We arenʼt done yet,” Wang Jian said, looking at the horizon. ”This was just the appetizer. Now... we find the main course.”