Great Villain: Starting by Humiliating the Son of the Heavenly Fate - Chapter 393

Chapter 393: A Dangerous Gift
“That’s Worship Power. It’s weak right now, but it’s real.” Nangong Wan’s voice echoed from the Void Tribulation Soulring. “You can collect it, Jiang Chen—but don’t even think about absorbing it.”

Jiang Chen frowned. “Why not? It seems strong.”

Shangguan Ning answered this time. “Worship Power is part of the Faith Dao—one of the deepest and most mysterious Laws in the entire universe. Deeper than even Karma.”

“True Worship Power can become anything. Energy, treasure, even immortality itself. That’s how powerful it is.”

“But there’s a catch,” she continued. “It’s made from the thoughts of others. And thoughts are messy—chaotic, like raw primal chaos. The more of it you take in, the more it warps you. Your mind starts to change. Eventually, you stop being you.”

Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes. “You mean… it eats away at your personality?”

“Exactly,” said Nangong Wan. “You don’t even realize it’s happening. You slowly become the version of yourself that lives in everyone else’s minds. An ideal. A symbol. But not… you.”

“At that point, you might be called the Aspect of All Beings. Sounds grand, right?” Shangguan Ning gave a bitter laugh. “But it’s just a nice way of saying ’empty shell’.”

Jiang Chen’s chest tightened as he imagined it: a powerful cultivator, trapped in the expectations of billions, unable to think for themselves anymore.

“Is there no way to fix it?” he asked, not ready to give up just yet. “What if I purify the thoughts? Bring them into alignment?”

“That’s what everyone thinks at first,” Nangong Wan answered softly. “But no. It only makes things worse. More believers, more power, but also more pressure. Their thoughts swallow yours.”

“No one’s survived it, Jiang Chen. At best, people manage to quit before it’s too late. But even then, they’re… changed. Cold. Strange. Not quite themselves anymore.”

“Back in the Everlasting Baseless Immortal Domain, I had real Worship Power. So many people worshipped me. But even then, even when I was desperate, I never dared to absorb a single drop.”

“Because once you do… life becomes worse than death.”

Jiang Chen took a long breath. “Well… that’s horrifying.”

He could almost feel the danger of it creeping in like a fog, silent and slow. The kind of power that seduces even while it destroys.

Still, deep down, he wasn’t afraid.

He knew too well: the universe was full of freaks and monsters—protagonists who broke all the rules. Maybe one day, he would meet the one to break this curse.

“I’ll gather the power but keep it sealed. Maybe one day I’ll find a way to use it without losing myself.”

“Good idea,” Shangguan Ning said. “If you ever reach the Fourth or Fifth Step on the Cultivation Path, Worship Power might become something useful… something you can handle.”

Jiang Chen raised his hand, and the streaks of Worship Power floating through the sky flew toward him like fireflies. He guided them all into the Immortal Martial Mustard Seed.

“At least in there,” he muttered, “it won’t touch me.”

He looked down again.

All those people—the first true citizens of his new world. A trillion lives, all of them safe because of him. And now, maybe… useful in more ways than one.

If they practice the same core technique as me, he thought, I could use them to convert Spiritual Qi into Origin Power. Like giant living batteries. But it has to be the same method—or the power won’t match. It’ll be too weak or just incompatible.

He started to descend.

A group of Dao Palace realm cultivators flew up to meet him, bowing with deep respect.

“My Lord!”

Jiang Chen nodded. “Pass down the order. Everyone’s to enter the Immortal Martial Mustard Seed. Rest up. Once that’s done, we leave this ruined land behind.”

“Yes, my Lord. But… forgive me—what exactly is the Immortal Martial Mustard Seed?” one of them asked hesitantly.

Jiang Chen just smiled faintly. “You’ll see soon enough.”

With a casual wave, he opened a massive portal above the ground. Light shimmered within it like a doorway to a secret realm.

The Dao Palace realm cultivators bowed again, then flew down to relay the order. Soon, a line of people began forming. It was more like a living river—endless, flowing steadily into the portal.

It was going to take days, maybe more, to transfer this many people.

Jiang Chen turned away from the crowd and pulled out a pile of glowing crystals—Nether Soul Crystals. Some were small. Others pulsed with dark energy. The biggest one belonged to a Nirvana Peering-level nether soul demon—worth more than an entire treasure vault.

“Wan’er, Ning’er,” he said, “let’s use this time to help you both recover.”

With their help, he started the purification process.

Golden light flickered in his palms as his Immortal Origin Power wrapped around each crystal. Slowly, the dark, murky energy was drawn out, leaving only pure, glowing soul force behind.

He placed the first purified crystal between his eyebrows.

Whoosh!

A rush of clean soul energy surged into his mind, then flowed directly into the Void Tribulation Soulring.

Inside, the souls of Nangong Wan and Shangguan Ning soaked it up like starving people finding water in a desert.

Their power swelled. Their faded soul forms grew clearer, brighter.

One crystal after another turned to ash.

First, they reached the Middle-stage Transcendence realm… then Late-stage… and finally, with the last powerful crystal—Early-stage Nirvana Peering realm.

Their recovery was a huge success.

And Jiang Chen? He was glowing, too—figuratively and literally.

His divine sense stretched out further than ever before, now covering fifty million kilometers. He could see and feel everything in that vast circle—every leaf, every breath, every speck of dust.

This level of control … he thought, eyes blazing.

That kind of range was rare even among elite Nirvana Peering realm cultivators. And if he pushed it with the Void Tribulation Soulring, he could hit a hundred million kilometers—territory that only the top soul cultivators could touch.

Just then, a mental message buzzed through.

Ying Luo.

She’d finished her job—sweeping across the continent, slaying every last demon she could find. Along the way, she had run into Sun Tianlin’s army, who were doing the same thing. Together, they had wiped the land clean.

And she’d collected every demon corpse she came across.

Jiang Chen chuckled. With her and Sun Tianlin’s help, the Immortal Martial Continent is demon-free. Good.

He glanced down again.

Three days had passed. The transfer was complete.

A trillion living beings—all safely moved into his inner world.

All but five.

Hovering nearby, waiting patiently, were Ji Ruxue, Ning Xian, Xie Xiaojing, Mu Tao, and Miao Xiaoru.