Infinite Professions from a Pearl Collector

"You’re courting death!"

Li Qingyan roared as a crimson light flared around her, about to break free from her restraints.

But Chen Ye had already anticipated this.

He never expected to completely subdue a disciple of the Blood Lotus Sect with just one hand, even if she was injured and had lost her standing.

So, the instant Li Qingyan’s Spiritual Power surged, Chen Ye’s eyes suddenly changed, becoming impossibly deep and dark.

As his voice rose, a grand stage appeared from thin air; as his sleeves fell, an ocean of illusion materialized from nothing.

The Mirage Palace Actor’s Talent—Illusionary Performance, activated!

BUZZ!

Li Qingyan felt everything before her instantly twist and stretch. The walls of the room flowed like melting wax, and Chen Ye’s face, so close to hers, dissolved into a myriad of bizarre, shifting colors.

The next second, the scene before her eyes reconverged.

She found herself standing on the familiar training grounds of the Blood Lotus Sect, surrounded by the gazes of countless fellow disciples—gazes filled with mockery, pity, and schadenfreude.

On the high platform, Wang Chen had his arm around her most hated enemy, Lin Meng. He looked down on her, his eyes filled with contempt and disdain.

"Junior Sister Li, you’ve lost. Trash should act like trash."

"Hehehe, Li Qingyan, don’t you call yourself a heaven-gifted prodigy? Why are you crawling on the ground like a dog now?"

The mocking laughter of Wang Chen and Lin Meng was like the most vicious Curse, carving into her heart word by word.

The scene was so real, the humiliation and the pain of betrayal so bone-deep, that her very Divine Spirit trembled.

"No... This isn’t real! It’s an illusion!" Li Qingyan shrieked, trying to break free.

But the scene changed again.

This time, she saw her own deepest desire.

She had succeeded. Using the art of Absorbing Yang to Nourish Yin, she had drained one powerful Male Cultivator after another. Her Cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, and her power soared.

She had fought her way back to the Blood Lotus Sect and crushed Wang Chen, Lin Meng, and everyone who had ever looked down on her underfoot, listening to their desperate wails and savoring the pleasure of revenge.

She even ascended to the position of Sect Leader, looking down upon the entire Sect and enjoying supreme authority and glory.

Ultimate power, ultimate authority—the temptation almost made her sink completely into the fantasy.

However, just as she stood at the Peak of power, ready to enjoy the fruits of her victory...

Chen Ye’s figure suddenly appeared before her throne.

He was still in the attire of one of the Sinful People, but his eyes were as indifferent as if he were looking at an ant.

He simply extended a finger and pointed it at her from a distance.

"Shatter."

In an instant, Li Qingyan felt everything she had painstakingly obtained—her ocean-vast Cultivation, her supreme authority—shatter inch by inch and vanish like smoke, just like a Mirror Flower Water Moon.

She was once again that downtrodden disciple, exiled to Black Water Lake, her Cultivation greatly damaged, a person anyone could bully.

The extreme fall from paradise to Hell shattered all her mental defenses in an instant.

"No!!!"

She let out a piercing shriek as her mental defenses completely collapsed.

’Now’s the time!’

With a thought, Chen Ye activated another one of the Mirage Palace Actor’s Skills.

[Loyal Heroic Judgment]!

Within the Illusion Realm, the world itself seemed to shift and darken.

The space around Li Qingyan transformed into a blood-red Purgatory, and the vengeful spirits of countless Pearl Collectors she had tortured and killed crawled up from the ground.

Some had been flayed, their bodies a bloody, mangled mess. Some had their tendons pulled out, their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. Others had been refined into Blood Lamps, with only a pair of eyes full of venomous hatred remaining.

These vengeful spirits transformed into Fierce Ghosts, letting out silent screams as they swarmed forward and surrounded her.

Icy hands passed through her body, frantically tearing at her Divine Spirit.

The pain and despair those Sinful People had endured before their deaths were now magnified a hundredfold and inflicted entirely upon her!

"AHHHHH—!"

Li Qingyan’s Divine Spirit wailed in absolute agony. Her will was torn apart piece by piece, ground down, and finally reduced to a blank slate.

At that exact moment, Chen Ye used the power of Illusionary Performance to silently plant an indelible Enslavement Brand in the deepest part of her Divine Spirit.

This brand, like a maggot clinging to bone, was now inextricably linked to her life, death, and soul.

After doing all this, Chen Ye released his grip.

The Illusion Realm receded like the tide.

"Hah... Hah... Hah..."

Li Qingyan was drenched in sweat, looking as if she had just been pulled from the water. She collapsed limply to the ground, gasping for breath.

She stared blankly at the expressionless man before her, her eyes holding nothing but a fear that stemmed from the very depths of her soul.

Chen Ye didn’t speak. He just watched her quietly, as if admiring a newly completed work of art.

Li Qingyan struggled, subconsciously trying to muster the last remnants of Spiritual Power in her body to resist.

But the moment that thought arose, a heart-rending pain shot forth from the brand in the depths of her Divine Spirit. It felt as if her entire soul would be torn to shreds if she dared to show the slightest disrespect!

Then, Chen Ye spoke. His voice was flat, yet it carried an undeniable authority.

"From now on, I am your master. Do you understand?"

’Master?’

Hearing that word, Li Qingyan’s face flushed crimson, and a sense of humiliation erupted like a volcano.

’I am a proud prodigy of the Blood Lotus Sect’s Inner Sect, a future luminary! How could I acknowledge a filthy member of the Sinful People as my master?’

"You... What did you do to me?" She gritted her teeth, enduring the searing pain in her Divine Spirit as she made a final, desperate struggle. "The Sect placed a tracking Secret Technique on me! If you kill me, you won’t live either!"

Chen Ye saw right through her bluff and said calmly, "I didn’t kill you, and I don’t plan to. I just left a little something in your Divine Spirit."