My Core is the Boss

[Task complete. Reward received: one Ancestral Return Pill.]

With a flash of light, a pill appeared in Qi Yuan's stone room. Unlike ordinary pills, this one was a vivid crimson, covered in a dense bloody aura.

Qi Yuan gazed at it curiously.

[For optimal effect, proceed to the Blood Jade Wall and use the Ancestral Return Pill.]

It was referring to the blood-red wall found in every outpost, etched with bizarre demon beast engravings. Cultivating beneath it offered significant benefits to blood martial artists.

Looks like I'll need to step out. I wonder if this pill will let me meet my ancestors.

***

Elsewhere, inside the outpost, An Qiao was still in a daze. The notification of mission completion had come, and she'd finally made it back.

Lin Yeshan, dressed in his usual ragged clothes, gave her a strange look. "What happened to your group? Why did a single mission take nearly a year? I thought you’d died in there.”

Missions were generally completed quickly, often taking less than a month. An Qiao’s case was unheard of. In fact, most people in the outpost had mentally written her off as dead in the Mission World. Hence, her sudden reappearance sent quite the shockwave through the place.

A crowd had formed around her.

"What happened, An Qiao? The difficulty rating for your mission didn't look that bad. How did it drag on for a year?"

"Right, over twenty people participated in that mission, and it still took nearly a year? That's absurd."

An Qiao gulped. "Has anyone ever had their mission target kidnapped by another comrade?"

"What?"

"Kidnapped, for a full year?"

"Oh my god! What a scum!”

"They were probably trying to trap you all in the Mission World!"

The crowd were alarmed as a grim thought dawned on them. If any of their comrades had attempted the same, they could end up stranded in the Mission World forever until they finally gave out.

Shaking his head, Lin Yeshan muttered, "What utterly despicable trash! Did you catch them in the end? I bet you did. You had a whole year. Whoever that was, he must be strong and good at running. Still, you got them eventually, right?"

As an old martial arts practitioner ranked below the others, his only real strategy in the Mission World was to rely on his teammates. If something like this happened to him, he genuinely wouldn't know what to do. He'd decided long ago to be humble and not offend anyone as much as possible.

"Oh, right. Where's Qi Yuan? I remember he was at the Jade Blood realm. Don't tell me he also couldn't catch whoever did this?"

An Qiao's expression stiffened as a bitter smile spread across her face. "The one who did it was Qi Yuan."

"What?! It was him?!"

"How could he do something so evil?!”

"We need to have a serious talk with him when he comes out. Otherwise, if we ever end up in a group with him, how are we supposed to survive?"

"We have to set him straight. If..."

The group erupted in a chorus of outrage.

An Qiao said weakly, "I think it might be better not to."

“Why? Is he already at the mid-stage Jade Blood realm? Hmph, that’s something, but we can’t let him do as he pleases!”

"Don't be scared, An Qiao! We've got your back!"

"We're going to have a word with him. Abandoning your fellow comrades like that is inexcusable!"

"However strong he is, if we all rush him at once before his blood martial qi runs out, surely he can't kill all of us?"

Sweeping her gaze across them, An Qiao murmured, "He can."

Lin Yeshan froze. "What?"

Everyone turned to stare.

An Qiao's voice came out steady. "Fengyuan had 12 demon caves. A Demon Hero commanded the weakest, which had 3000 demon soldiers. Meanwhile, the strongest has 20,000 demon soldiers, led by a Demon Spirit. Over the course of a year, Qi Yuan moved across 3,000 kilometers of territory with the mission target in tow.

Her voice grew more and more agitated, until her very breathing turned ragged. "He went alone and single-handedly wiped out every single demon caves. The reason he took the mission target away was so that we wouldn't complete the mission before he could finish clearing out all the 100,000 demons in Fengyuan."

Everyone was rendered speechless. An Qiao's story was too absurd to accept.

"That's impossible. He killed 100,000 demons on his own? Not even a Martial Spirit could do that! Actually, even a Martial King would likely die of exhaustion!"

Demon soldiers were nothing like ordinary people. Even 20,000 of them, led by a Demon Spirit, could make a Martial King bow in defeat. Moreover, none of them had ever heard of any outpost having a Martial King. Even in the largest Mission Worlds, a Martial King was no more than a legend, corresponding to the Violet Palace realm.

Just then, Qi Yuan’s calm, unhurried voice came over. "An Qiao, you're here, perfect timing. Do me a favor and send this Genius Alliance token to Yang Guang."

Every person there caught a wave of blood stench so thick it was suffocating. They involuntarily trembled, as though some terrible, ancient predator had fixed its gaze on each of them.

If they had half-suspected An Qiao was exaggerating, the moment Qi Yuan walked in, they knew every word she had said was true. Killing intent rolled off him like a tsunami, its sheer weight crushing everything. Demons were core to their blood martial path, so they felt it more acutely than anyone. Every shred of bravado they had from moments ago had evaporated.

As Qi Yuan’s gaze swept through the crowd, the overwhelming blood-stench grew thicker. "Did I just hear someone talking badly about me? A few days ago, someone spoke ill of me at the Four Seasons Tavern. I killed them. Well?"

Legs turned to jelly and hearts stopped in their chests. Each one of them had the distinct sense that if Qi Yuan wanted to, he could end any of them at will.

Qi Yuan calmly scanned the crowd. “Why do you look so scared? Is that a guilty conscience? So you did speak ill of me!”

The group denied his claims rapidly, desperately trying to look as innocent as possible.

"No!"

"No, we weren't!"

Qi Yuan thought of a classic line. "Then why are you afraid of me if you did nothing wrong?"

The crowd only grew more afraid. They tried to control their expressions and not look so scared, but their facial muscles refused to cooperate.

He said a moment later, "Never mind, I'm a magnanimous person. I won't hold it against you."

Qi Yuan made a mental note to ask Canary to do something about the blood stench rolling off him. Left like this, he was giving off far too much of a villain’s aura, ruining his upright image.