In truth, the Five Ghosts had no concrete form.
They were like the faint glow of fireflies, incapable of human speech.
Lin Mo recited the birthdates of those individuals.
"Find the locations of these three for me!"
Five clusters of light floated in midair, as if finally locking onto a target, then darted off in a single direction.
Lin Mo immediately summoned a gust beneath his feet, using Divine Movement to follow.
As expected, the Five Ghosts flew toward the surrounding mountains.
Given the timing, the criminals were likely still traversing the rugged terrain, and Lin Mo's task was to locate them.
And then kill them.
As a child, Lin Mo had quite enjoyed Batman and Superman.
But he never quite understood why Batman refused to kill those homicidal maniacs, instead locking them away in asylums.
Yet those asylums couldn’t hold them, so the criminals always escaped.
Each breakout resulted in the deaths of guards and countless civilians.
And Batman remained steadfast in his no-kill rule.
Lin Mo often thought that if Batman truly existed, he’d kill Batman first, then slaughter every escaped criminal.
Because back then, he was just an ordinary person.
As for the Joker?
Let’s see if you can still laugh when I blow your head off.
Along the way, Lin Mo’s mind wandered through countless thoughts.
Among superheroes, his favorite had always been a character named Rorschach.
Not because he agreed with the character’s philosophy, but because he admired his methods.
If you encounter evil, eradicate it.
Lin Mo’s earlier hesitation gradually hardened into resolve.
—System: My adorable host, what kind of superhero act are you putting on?—
Wu Zongshan stretched beyond the mountains.
In the pitch-black expanse of the hills, beams from flashlights cut through the dense forest.
"Brother Ma, what do we do now? We’ve got the money, but we can’t spend it, and we’re stuck in this godforsaken place."
"Enough talking. Just keep moving. If the cops find us, we’re done for."
The silent man among them spoke coldly, "Head downhill first. If we find a house, we go in."
The youngest of the trio shot him a resentful look.
"And what if there are people inside? Kill them too?"
His fear was obvious.
The silent man didn’t respond, continuing his descent.
Brother Ma, however, stepped in to mediate.
"There’s no turning back for us now. What’s the difference between killing once or twice? If we’re caught, the outcome’s the same. But we need rest."
The three had been trekking for a full day and night, utterly exhausted.
All they wanted was shelter.
But three men descending a mountain to seek lodging was impossible.
They weren’t foolish enough to check into a hotel—they’d be arrested the moment they stepped inside.
Brother Ma took a deep breath.
"Keep moving. We’ll be down soon. Just find a remote house to hole up in for the night."
The silent man couldn’t hold back. "Find one with people. Otherwise, there’s no food."
Brother Ma waved a hand dismissively, his expression now one of reckless indifference.
"Fine, fine. At this point, it doesn’t matter anymore."
Their pace quickened as they skirted the mountainside, spotting a faint light in the distance.
"Lights! There are lights! We’re almost there," Brother Ma said excitedly.
However, at that moment, a voice rang out.
"Indeed, congratulations—your time of death has arrived."
"Who's there?!"
Brother Ma pulled out a hammer from his chest, its surface still stained with dark blood.
Another man also drew a knife from his robes.
They both tensely scanned the direction of the voice.
A flock of crows suddenly took flight, their shrill cries causing the youngest of the three to drop to the ground, covering his head in terror.
Brother Ma couldn’t help but stride over and kick him.
"Useless coward! Get up!"
Lin Mo stood atop a tree branch, observing the three men below.
The calmest was the knife-wielding man, his eyes gleaming with ferocity. Despite his exhaustion, his grip on the blade remained unshaken.
The trio cautiously surveyed their pitch-black surroundings.
Though each held a flashlight, the dim beams offered no comfort.
Hiss—hiss—
Something slithered across the ground.
"B-Brother Ma!" The youngest man’s voice trembled as his gaze locked onto the earth.
"What?!" Brother Ma followed the light.
Dozens of snakes, their scales glistening in the mud, were inching closer.
Their vibrant colors made one thing clear—these were no ordinary serpents.
"H-how are there so many snakes?!"
The young man’s composure shattered. Ignoring the others, he turned and bolted—only to trip over something unseen, crashing face-first into the dirt.
His flashlight revealed a massive python coiled at his feet.
"Help! Somebody hel—"
Before he could finish, a red-and-green viper struck his neck, fangs sinking into his artery.
The venom spread unnaturally fast. His pupils dilated, foam bubbling at his lips.
"M-mom... I regr—"
His final word died in his throat as his head lolled, lifeless.
Brother Ma glanced at the corpse. Unaware the young man was already dead, he rushed over to drag him up—only for something slick to coil around his arm.
Then his legs.
Snakes ensnared him completely.
The knife-wielder fought back fiercely, seizing one serpent’s head and slicing it clean off with his blade.
But one kill meant nothing against the horde.
Soon, he too collapsed.
Only after all three had succumbed to the venom did the snakes disperse.
Lin Mo emerged from the forest.
Without a word, he commanded the woodland creatures to push the bodies down the mountainside.
By the time villagers discovered them, the case would be closed.
As he observed the corpses, wisps of black light rose from their forms.
Souls.
Fledgling spirits not yet turned to ghosts.
Lin Mo raised a hand, and the three souls gathered in his palm.
"System, I’ve decided. I’ll forge a Banner of Ten Thousand Souls as my lifebound artifact."
[Host, what is a Banner of Ten Thousand Souls?]
"Seriously? You call yourself the Invincible Cultivation System and don’t know the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls? It’s—wait, no. Not that. The proper name is the Banner of the Human Sovereign."
[Host, is this ‘Banner of the Human Sovereign’ the thing that spews endless black smoke?]
"What black smoke? Don’t you know anything? The Banner of the Human Emperor should obviously emit golden light."
[Whatever you say, Host.]
"Now the question is—how exactly do we forge this Banner of the Human Emperor?"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
