"Haha, you rascal."
Ji Bo said, looking at Meng Wenzhou and the others: "Brother Meng, Brother Pang, Brother Ming, what do you three think?"
Liu Bo nodded with a smile: "I'm fine with it, but I think we should ask the girls on our side first. What if they don't want to go?"
"If they don't go, then we can just invite some new friends instead," Chu Qiunan laughed.
"That could work too."
"But wouldn't it be a bit rude to go have fun and leave them behind in the ancient town?" Zhang Ziming said.
"That's exactly why we ask for their opinion first. If they also want to go, then we all go together. If they want to stay and play in the ancient town in the evening, then let them do their own thing there."
"I'm fine either way. Who's going to ask?" Meng Wenzhou took a sip of coffee and looked at the others.
Ji Bo raised his hand: "I'll ask."
He said, opening WeChat, ready to @ the four girls. But then he remembered the newcomer, Zhong Qing, wasn't in the group chat yet, so he turned to Su Yang.
"Brother Yang, do you want to add that Xiao Qing to our group? So I can @ everyone at once."
Su Yang nodded: "Sure, she's decided to travel with us for the next part anyway."
"Perfect, then add her to the group."
"Okay." Su Yang agreed, took out his phone, and added Zhong Qing to their road trip group chat.
After seeing Zhong Qing join the group, Ji Bo then @'ed the five girls.
Ji Bo: @Five girls, Hellooo, beauties, check your phones.
A minute later, Meng Qianyu was the first to reply: Little Ji Bo, why are you @-ing us?
Ji Bo: We guys just discussed it. After dinner, we're not going drinking. Drinking's boring. We're planning to go to a large escape room place nearby tonight. Now we're asking you beauties if you'd like to come.
After sending the message, Ji Bo looked at the guys: "Sent it, let's wait for their reply~"
"Mhm~"
They waited about two minutes before Meng Qianyu replied: Is this escape room you mentioned scary?
Ji Bo picked up his phone to type a reply: They say it's very scary.
Meng Qianyu: Scary?
Ji Bo: Yeah, I asked a local. He said the place is out in some remote wilderness, can be a bit frightening. But that's exactly what makes it more thrilling.
Meng Qianyu: Remote wilderness?? What the heck... Okay, wait a sec, let me ask the others.
Ji Bo: Ok.
After waiting a while longer, another WeChat message came through.
Pan Ning: @Ji Bo, are you talking about the kind made from an abandoned, run-down factory?
Ji Bo: Exactly, that kind.
Tang Ziyun: Wouldn't that kind be unsafe?
Zhang Ziming: Definitely not! It's been open for years, business has always been good. Safety is guaranteed.
Ji Bo: Yeah, the guy I asked has been there before.
Su Qingci: What genre is it?
Ji Bo: Horror. The kind with NPCs playing ghosts to scare people.
Su Qingci: Ah? I wouldn't dare go to that kind!
Meng Qianyu: Me neither, it sounds terrifying just hearing about it. And it's in a remote wilderness? No way, not going. You guys go by yourselves, we'll play in the ancient town~
Meng Wenzhou: None of you are going?
Pan Ning: Not going.
Seeing this message, the six guys looked up and exchanged glances.
Then the phone vibrated again.
They looked again.
Zhong Qing: I'd actually like to go play~
Ji Bo: Oh? Xiao Qing, you dare to go?
Zhong Qing: I'm not too brave either, but I've never tried it before. I want to experience this kind of thrilling escape room.
Zhang Ziming: Then come with us~
After Zhang Ziming sent this message, Zhong Qing didn't reply.
Two minutes later, she replied again: Forget it, I better not go.
Zhang Ziming: Huh? Why not go now?
Meng Qianyu: Tonight, you boys do your thing, we girls have our own plans. Not a single one of us is missing.
Liu Bo: Oh? Where are you planning to go? Tell us?
Meng Qianyu: We met two new friends at the shop. They invited us to play an ancient-style murder mystery game together tonight.
Zhang Ziming: Murder mystery game? Isn't that pretty much the same idea as our escape room? Might as well come with us to the escape room.
Meng Qianyu: It's not the same. Yours is an escape room, ours is an ancient detective murder mystery. Completely different, okay? And ours is right inside the ancient town. It's fun and not scary. We're not going with you to play some wilderness ghost-hunting game~
Zhang Ziming: Alrighty then~
Su Yang: You're sure none of you are going?
Meng Qianyu: Not going~
Su Qingci: Mhm, we're playing the murder mystery in the ancient town~
Meng Wenzhou: Even Pan Pan isn't going?
Pan Ning: Too scary. Not going.
Seeing this, the guys smiled at each other.
......
After chatting a bit more in the group, everyone put their phones away.
Liu Bo took a sip of coffee and said, "A bit unexpected. None of them are going, even telling us to go by ourselves~"
Chu Qiunan: "Then we'll just go by ourselves."
Meng Wenzhou nodded: "Mhm, that's that then. They play theirs, we play ours. We're not kids. I figure they probably want to do their own thing too."
"I guess so~" Liu Bo laughed.
Then Ji Bo looked at everyone and said, "In that case, shall we get moving?"
"Moving on what?" Zhang Ziming turned and asked.
"Hey, didn't we just say? Each of us finds a girl to go with us. The waiter also told me you need at least ten people to play, up to sixteen people max."
"Oh right! If the girls from our side aren't going, then we don't have enough people. So Brother Yang has to join the recruitment mission too." Liu Bo looked at Su Yang and winked with a smile.
"Right, right. Earlier, we counted the girls from our side, so we didn't make Brother Yang find someone. Now that they're not going, you have to join us in finding people." Ji Bo also looked at Su Yang and said.
Su Yang thought for a moment and said, "Is it because we don't have enough people? I seem to remember you said earlier you wanted a female friend to go play with, to increase the chances..."
Ji Bo was taken aback and laughed: "Uh... of course that's also a reason. Plus, if we don't have enough people, then we have to find more, right?"
Su Yang smiled: "Alright then. But does it have to be girls?"
"Must be girls. Look, we have six guys here. Find six more girls, each forming a two-person team. Twelve people is just right."
"Right. Men and women working together, the work is less tiresome~ Hehe." Chu Qiunan gave a sly smile.
Zhang Ziming then turned and looked left and right at the bustling street: "Then let's get moving~ They'll be done with their hair soon and going for dinner."
"Alrighty! Should we make a game out of it?" Chu Qiunan looked at the others.
Su Yang smiled: "You don't want to play another game like 'see who finds a teammate first, and the last one pays the bill tonight,' do you?"
"Tsk tsk tsk, you got me. That's the idea."
"Fine, let's do it~" Su Yang said nonchalantly.
Liu Bo then looked at everyone and said, "What if, just saying what if, someone can't find a teammate?"
"What else? They pay the bill."
"Paying is the small issue. The main thing is if we don't have enough people, we can't play."
"Don't worry, escape room places are always crowded. If we have to, we can just go in the evening and join up with another group."
"Alright then."
"Let's hurry up and find some teammates." Zhang Ziming finished the last of his coffee, stood up, and led the way onto the street.
Seeing this, Ji Bo and Chu Qiunan quickly got up and rushed into the crowd.
The remaining three—Su Yang, Meng Wenzhou, and Liu Bo—were in no hurry. They leisurely took out cigarettes and lit them.
"What's the rush? These things depend on fate. Let's have a smoke first."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
