Villain: Manipulating the Heroines into hating the Protagonist Chapter 949: Gathering Beast Cores

The phase of preparation had concluded. Now, the time for the harvest had arrived.

The Emerald Sea-Forest Isle stood as a geological marvel, unique even within the turbulent Myriad Reefs Sea Domain. Unlike standard islands composed of coral or stone, this landmass was a massive, tangled web of colossal, prehistoric root systems drifting upon the waves. These roots supported a dense mangrove forest that soared hundreds of feet upward. While the canopy drank in the overflowing wood-attribute Qi from the air, the roots reached into the dark abyss to siphon energy directly from the potent water-attribute ley lines below.

Wang Jian stood atop a moss-laden root as wide as a main road, breathing in humid air saturated with the scents of chlorophyll and ozone. He tightened his grip on his weapon—no longer the discarded blade he had scavenged in the State of Yue.

"This spot is ideal," Wang Jian remarked, his gaze drifting over the churning, emerald depths visible between the tangled roots. "The Wood and Water Qi here is so concentrated it’s practically tangible. Any beasts born in this habitat will possess cores of unparalleled purity."

Standing at his side were Yue Lingshan and Chen Ying, both similarly outfitted with superior equipment.

Over the past week, Mu Lianhua had put her expertise as a master refiner and Peak Core Formation expert to use by overhauling their entire armory. She had taken the hoard of low and mid-grade artifacts seized from the Mystic Peak Sect and the Azure Sword Clan, melted them down using her Azure Sky-Heart Flame, and forged them into Peak-Grade Spiritual Artifacts specifically designed for each member of the harem.

Chen Ying gripped her new weapon—a delicate, curved blade that seemed to hum in resonance with the breeze. Forged from Star-Iron and tempered in wind-beast blood, the metal glowed with a faint, icy blue light. Mu Lianhua had dubbed it the Gale-Severing Frostblade. It was sharper, lighter, and significantly more dangerous than her previous sword.

"A target is coming," Chen Ying murmured, her eyes locked onto a disturbance in the water.

"Lingshan, set the array," Wang Jian commanded with composure.

"Understood, husband," Yue Lingshan replied with a nod. She cast five blue flags into the air, which remained suspended, vibrating with latent power rather than falling.

Suddenly, the water erupted.

A gargantuan creature burst from the sea. It was not a serpent, but a terrifying, sentient plant-beast known as the Thousand-Year Iron-Vine Treant. A nightmare of seaweed and knotted timber, it possessed glowing green eyes and thorny vine tentacles that lashed out like cracking thunder. As a peak Grade 3 beast, its power was comparable to the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment.

"Strike!" Wang Jian yelled.

Yue Lingshan pressed her palms together forcefully. "Water-Binding Array, activate!"

The seawater surrounding the Treant instantly thickened. Instead of turning to ice, it became heavy and viscous, resembling liquid silver. A roar like grinding wood escaped the Treant as its movements were suddenly hampered. The weight of the water bore down, pinning the creature's main trunk against the island's massive roots.

"It’s healing!" Yue Lingshan shouted a warning. "The wood Qi in this area is regenerating it!"

Indeed, wherever the pressure split its bark, fresh green shoots emerged to mend the damage almost instantly.

"That won't last," Wang Jian declared.

He leaped forward, eschewing a basic attack. Channeling his Stellar Qi, he integrated it with the "Withered Wood Sword Art," a technique he had extracted from the stolen scriptures.

His sword radiated a dark, necrotic green light, twisted together with the black void of his stellar power.

Moving like a ghost, he evaded a lashing vine that pulverized the ground where he had stood only a moment before. He reached the beast's central trunk.

Slash. Slash. Slash.

With three surgical strikes, he cut the three primary feeder roots that linked the monster to the sea.

He didn't merely sever them; the Stellar Qi on his blade acted like a cauterizing flame. The void energy burned the stumps, denying the possibility of life. The Treant’s green regenerative glow flickered and failed at the site of the wounds.

"SCREEEE!" The creature let out a piercing cry of agony and terror.

Chen Ying flanked the beast, the Gale-Severing Frostblade singing through the air. Moving like a blur of wind, she sliced through the smaller vine-heads guarding the core, her speed leaving trails of afterimages behind.

With the monster trapped and its healing suppressed, Wang Jian delivered the finishing blow. He plunged his sword into the central knot of the Treant, twisting the blade to shatter its heart.

The creature convulsed violently before going still, eventually decomposing into a heap of spiritual essence and driftwood.

Wang Jian reached into the remains and pulled out a core the size of a fist. It throbbed with a vibrant, two-toned light—ocean blue on one side and deep forest green on the other.

"A flawless dual-attribute Wood-Water core," Wang Jian said, tossing the gem in the air. "The purity is high. This will serve you well, Lingshan, and bolster my own stores."

"It's stunning," Yue Lingshan whispered, wiping the salt spray from her skin.

"Keep your guard up," Wang Jian said with a smirk. "The noise has drawn the neighbors."

The sea around the roots began to churn. Numerous triangular fins sliced through the surface.

Sapphire-Scaled Terror Sharks. These Grade 2 beasts were pack hunters with diamond-hard scales and teeth that could rip through solid iron.

"Time for training," Wang Jian declared. "Lingshan, manage the battlefield. Chen Ying, pick off the stragglers. I’ll handle the alphas."

The ensuing conflict was a slaughter. Wang Jian navigated the shark pack with a butcher's lethality and a dancer's grace. He practiced his heavy strikes, using the flat of his Stellar Qi-infused blade to crush the sharks' armored heads with blunt force, ensuring the valuable materials remained intact.

Hours later, the water surrounding the roots was stained crimson.

They dragged the remains onto the dry roots, creating a mountain of resources.

"Collect everything," Wang Jian ordered, playing the part of the devoted cultivator husband. "The cores are the priority. However, save the shark skin for leather armor. Drain the blood for Ruyan’s ink. And as for the meat... we feast tonight."

He approached Yue Lingshan, who was breathing heavily, her energy spent from holding the arrays. He gently wiped a bit of grime from her face.

"You performed excellently, Lingshan," he praised warmly, his eyes filled with feigned affection. "Your mastery of the Water-Binding Array has grown significantly. You are truly learning to harness the ocean's power."

Yue Lingshan glowed under his approval, her tiredness vanishing. "Thank you, husband. I feel... I feel as though I’m finally grasping the natural flow of this world."

Wang Jian kissed her brow while his mind performed cold calculations. 'Forty-two cores. Plus the Treant core... that’s enough for three batches of dual-attribute pills. A decent start.'

They returned to Red Coral Island that night, their storage bags heavy with the day's Wood and Water harvest.

A few days later, the objective shifted.

"We require Wind, Fire, and Earth," Wang Jian stated.

He left Yue Lingshan behind to recover her Qi and study formation scrolls. This mission demanded raw power and speed. He took Chen Ying, Liu Ruyan, and Sect Mistress Mu Lianhua with him.

They traveled to the Storm Cliffs, a jagged chain of islands north of Red Coral Island where magnetic anomalies created constant gales and thunderstorms.

"This is your domain, Ying'er," Wang Jian yelled over the screaming wind.

High above, massive Gale-Wing Albatrosses circled the cliffs. With twenty-foot wingspans, they could fire blades of pressurized wind from their wings. They were exceptionally fast—faster than most flying swords.

"Go," Wang Jian commanded.

Chen Ying moved immediately. Activating her wind-attribute spiritual root, she turned the chaotic storms into her own fuel. She launched into the sky, her silhouette shrouded in a cloak of swirling air.

She took on three Albatrosses in a frantic aerial duel. It was a spectacular display of velocity. The birds shrieked as they dived, launching wind blades. Chen Ying spun through the air, parrying the strikes with her Gale-Severing Frostblade.

Under the stress of real combat, her Seven Kill Sword Technique was evolving. The killing intent in her aura gave the winds around her blade a sharper edge.

A flash of light.

She accelerated beyond human sight. She zipped past the first bird, and a moment later, its wing fell away. Pivoting in mid-air, she used the falling carcass as a platform to launch herself at the next target.

Thrust.

The blade went straight through the heart.

Within minutes, three huge birds crashed into the sea. Chen Ying floated down, landing softly next to Wang Jian. Her breath was ragged, and her eyes sparkled with the adrenaline of the hunt.

"Excellent," Wang Jian nodded. "Take the cores. The wind essence within them is volatile, which is perfect for shattering your bottlenecks."

Their journey continued south to the Volcanic Isle of Ashen Bone.

The air here was suffocating, blurring with heat. The ground was made of black basalt hot enough to liquefy ordinary footwear, and rivers of lava flowed freely.

"This is for us, Ruyan," Wang Jian said, glancing at the lustful alchemist. "And for Elder Mu."

They hunted Obsidian Fire-Scorpions—creatures the size of cars with shells of volcanic glass and tails that leaked liquid fire.

Liu Ruyan took point. She summoned her Blood Spirit Flame, which appeared as a crimson lotus in her palm, and hurled it forward.

The fires collided. The scorpions sprayed magma, but Liu Ruyan’s sentient flame was predatory. It consumed the lava to grow stronger before latching onto the scorpions and incinerating them from within.

"Your control over the flame is getting better," Wang Jian observed as she turned a scorpion to ash. "But you're being inefficient. Narrow the heat."

"Yes, Jian," she gasped, her clothes soaked with sweat and clinging to her skin in the intense heat.

Suddenly, the earth trembled.

A section of the lava river bulged upward as a creature emerged, dripping with molten stone.

It was a Lava Turtle, but no ordinary beast. Its shell was a literal miniature volcano, and its aura was suffocating.

"Grade 5," Mu Lianhua noted calmly. "Early Core Formation level."

The turtle let out a roar like shifting tectonic plates. It opened its maw, gathering a sphere of concentrated magma Qi.

The pressure was overwhelming. Suppressed by the difference in realms, Liu Ruyan and Chen Ying were frozen in place.

Wang Jian didn't even reach for his sword. He simply looked at Mu Lianhua.

"Elder Mu," he said softly. "If you please."

Mu Lianhua stepped forward. She appeared regal in the middle of the volcanic hellscape, her purple robes untouched by ash. She used no weapon and called out no technique.

She merely raised her hand and pointed a finger at the monster.

For a brief moment, her aura flared—a terrifying surge of Peak Core Formation power.

She focused her Azure Sky-Heart Flame—a heavenly fire far more potent than the turtle's magma—into a needle-thin beam at her fingertip.

Zip.

A streak of blue light connected her finger to the turtle’s head.

The beast's roar stopped instantly. The magma sphere in its mouth vanished.

A small, charred hole appeared between its eyes. The beam had punched through its skull and brain, exiting through the back of the shell and destroying the beast core in the process.

The massive creature hit the ground with a thundering thud. Dead instantly.

"Quite efficient," Wang Jian remarked.

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

As Chen Ying began butchering the turtle, Wang Jian seized Liu Ruyan’s hand and pulled her behind a jagged rock formation, hidden from view but still within earshot.

He pinned her against the scorching stone.

"You were careless with that final scorpion," he growled, clutching her breast firmly.

"Master..." Liu Ruyan moaned, overwhelmed by the heat of the rock and his presence. "Punish me..."

"Later," he whispered, pressing his hips into hers. "Tonight, I’ll provide a private lesson in heat control. I’ll make you burn until you're begging for mercy."

He fondled her, his hands roaming over her sweaty skin, alternating between praising her flame control and pinching her nipples, ensuring she remained in a state of constant arousal.

Back at the courtyard on Red Coral Island, the alchemy room had been rebuilt. It was no longer a simple lab; it was an engine of ascension.

The walls were reinforced with local materials, and the central cauldron roared with intense heat.

Mu Lianhua and Liu Ruyan began the refining process, sorting the hundreds of harvested cores by their elemental properties.

"I want specificity," Wang Jian directed. "No generic mixtures."

Using her centuries of wisdom, Mu Lianhua adjusted ancient formulas on the fly to suit the unique traits of the sea beast cores.

"For you and Senior Sister Yue," Mu Lianhua said, her hands a blur as she ground herbs, "The Oceanic Heart-Cleansing Pill. Predominantly water-attribute."

"And for the wood element," she added, mixing in Iron-Root Vine extract, "The Verdant Life-Source Pill."

"For Chen Ying," Liu Ruyan added, "The Typhoon-Spirit Pill, which uses the volatile wind essence from the Albatrosses."

"And for us," Mu Lianhua said, her eyes dropping as she looked at Wang Jian, "The Crimson Purgatory Pill for fire, balanced by the Abyssal Wood Pill."

Wang Jian stood by the furnace. He wasn't a passive observer. He activated his Verdant Eternal Spring Essence, pulling rare herbs from his spatial ring—plants he had matured in seconds within his private garden. He supplied an endless stream of pill bases that would have bankrupted any typical sect.

"The blend is unstable," Mu Lianhua noted, sweat forming on her brow as she struggled to bind the Fire cores to the Wood herbs. "The Yang energy is too aggressive."

Wang Jian moved behind her.

"Allow me to stabilize it," he whispered.

He pressed his body against hers, blaming her curvy hips and claiming their movement was disrupting the room’s spiritual flow.

"It’s your fault the fire is acting up, Lianhua," he whispered into her ear. "You’re enticing the flames."

"I... I apologize, Master," she gasped, accepting his twisted logic because it was what he desired.

He pushed her down, bending her over a workbench right next to the roaring cauldron. He lifted her sarong and entered her, his slow, deep rhythm synchronizing with the pulsing alchemical fire.

"Ruyan," Wang Jian ordered, looking at the disciple watching with lustful eyes. "Don't just watch. Stabilize the other side."

Liu Ruyan hurried over, but not to the cauldron. She knelt before Wang Jian and Mu Lianhua, using her hands and mouth on him, turning the refinement session into a scene of pure debauchery.

Wang Jian dominated them both, his Yang Qi surging. He claimed his "proximity" was balancing the Yin of the beast cores. Mu Lianhua, fully submissive, worked through the waves of pleasure, timing her hand seals to his thrusts, her cries lost in the hiss of the steam.

Hours later, the pills were complete. They rolled from the cauldron, glowing with high-purity light and radiating intense elemental power.

The consumption started at once.

The group entered secluded cultivation within the specialized chambers Yue Lingshan had outfitted with arrays.

Time began to blur.

For Liu Ruyan and Yue Lingshan, who possessed high aptitude and Dual Spiritual Roots, progress was swift. They consumed Crimson Purgatory and Oceanic Heart-Cleansing Pills like they were water.

One year passed. Then a second.

Boom. Boom.

Two powerful auras erupted in the courtyard. Yue Lingshan and Liu Ruyan broke through their bottlenecks at the same time. Their foundations shattered and reformed, becoming broader and more resilient. They had reached the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment.

Chen Ying was even faster. Her Mutated Wind Spirit Root hungered for resources, and the Typhoon-Spirit Pills acted like high-grade fuel. She spent her days dancing with her sword in the courtyard winds.

It took her only a single year to reach the Late Stage. Her sword intent became so sharp that she could slice falling leaves without even moving her body.

And Wang Jian?

He sat at the center of the array, his body acting like a vortex. With his Triple Spirit Roots, his needs were three times that of a normal cultivator.

He feasted on the pills—Fire, Water, Wood—consuming them by the handful.

His Stellar Demonic Meridian Scripture rotated violently, acting as a celestial grinder. It took the elemental power, crushed it, and refined it into pure, dark Stellar Qi.

In the first year, he stabilized his peak Middle Stage. In the second, he expanded his dantian to its maximum capacity. In the third...

He opened his eyes. They were no longer human; they resembled the deep cosmos, swirling with galaxies.

A beam of dark light erupted from the courtyard, piercing the clouds above the island. The ambient Qi of the entire city shuddered for a moment.

Wang Jian stood up, his bones popping like gunfire. His muscles surged with restrained power, and his aura was dense, heavy, and terrifying.

He had succeeded. He was now in the Late Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. However, his foundation was so reinforced by stellar energy and dragon blood pills that he could likely overwhelm an Early Core Formation cultivator with a single hand.

He looked at his clenched fists, intoxicated by the power.

"The cycle is effective," he whispered.

The cycle of hunting, refining, fucking, and consuming was a flawless engine for growth. He had established the rhythm that would lead them to the pinnacle of this chaotic world.

He stepped out of his chamber. His harem awaited him—each of them stronger, more beautiful, and entirely his.