The fake [Hunter] raised his stiff neck. Zhu Yan could vaguely see his pale skin and bluish features hidden in the shadow of his hood.
The muscles between his brows strained to furrow, forming a reluctantly sorrowful expression.
“I’m sorry…” the terrifying creature said slowly, “I can’t give the key fragment to you directly. It has to do with my body structure.”
Damn.
What body structure?
Zhu Yan said respectfully, “Dad, please go on.”
Xu Tongguang’s eyes went wide beside him.
In his view, this Tu Shan had completely lost his mind!
He truly didn’t understand a word these two were saying, but that didn’t stop him from being terrified.
He could barely tell that this Tu Shan didn’t dare make a move against him.
But… but this Hunter in a cloak, a senior, seemed to have endless strength and tricks!
Was he really going to die?
Xu Tongguang slowly backed away. Under extreme tension, he didn’t dare take his eyes off the hooded man.
But the fake [Hunter] didn’t pay Xu Tongguang any mind at all.
It simply mimicked a “doting” expression toward Zhu Yan, using one hand to support its hood as if to reveal its whole face.
“Wait!” Zhu Yan hurriedly stopped it.
Revealing its true face now?
That wouldn’t be good, with Xu Tongguang still around!
If Xu Tongguang found out the real nature of this terrifying creature, then his own fake identity as “Tu Shan” would also be at risk of exposure.
No.
This burden of blame had to be pinned firmly on Tu Shan.
Seeing the fake [Hunter] pause, Zhu Yan immediately raised his hand and pointed at Xu Tongguang.
“Boss, knock him out. Better not to create any more complications!”
Xu Tongguang shuddered: “What?!”
The color drained from his face.
His mind went blank as he turned around, looking for an escape route.
But the stone wall behind him had somehow sealed shut. Behind him, the [Hunter] dragged itself closer with a slow but rhythmic, stiff step: thump, thump.
Xu Tongguang’s hair stood on end.
The moment that greenish-white hand swung down toward him, he suddenly erupted into a shout at Zhu Yan.
“Tu Shan!! You and your companion will die a miserable death—”
The hand struck heavily on his neck. Xu Tongguang swayed, then crashed to the ground with a thud.
Zhu Yan stifled a laugh.
Thanks for the curse from a brother, huh.
Tu Shan had already died horribly. As for Tu Shan’s companion…
He glanced at the fake [Hunter].
Tu Shan’s companion probably wasn’t far from death either, though he wasn’t sure what that death would look like.
“Alright.”
Strangely, after Xu Tongguang fell, the fake [Hunter] didn’t seem affected at all.
It only twisted its neck, then turned back to look at Zhu Yan. The face hidden in the shadows seemed to be smiling.
It slowly lowered its hood, and Zhu Yan finally got a full look at it.
Sure enough, it was a male corpse.
One side of its skull was missing, as if smashed off with a hammer.
Zhu Yan shifted to look at the wound and saw that half the brain was gone; the other half drooped limply, the bloody membrane on it still fresh.
Around the neck was a purple-black mark, exactly where Xu Tongguang had been struck.
So, this corpse was just a puppet?
“Oh, Dad.” He pretended to admire it. “Dad, this body you picked is perfect.”
“This is the best kind of death to cover up.”
The terrifying creature, controlling the corpse, puffed out its chest, looking very proud and delighted.
“I have a lot more. But look.”
It jerked its stiff chin toward a fog that looked like cotton in the corner of the room.
Zhu Yan looked over a saw that thick, cloud-like fog quickly dissolved into the air, revealing what had been hidden.
Zhu Yan’s heart jumped.
Corpses—
They were stacked two by two, piled up like goods against the wall.
Many of these dead had died in horrific ways.
Zhu Yan stepped closer and saw shredded flesh and intestines still dripping. The stench of blood and excrement sharply hit his nose.
The chest and abdominal cavities of the top two corpses seemed to have exploded; Zhu Yan could see ribs sticking out after being completely deformed.
“My son is pretty impressive, making them die like fireworks.”
The vibrating, stiff vocal cords of the corpse behind him praised everything Tu Shan had done.
“Too bad, though. Dying like that, I can’t use their bodies.”
The terrifying creature’s tone took on a hint of grievance.
“Without a body, I can’t talk, can’t grab things, can’t communicate with anything else.”
“And I can’t craft what I need.”
“Alas, why am I just a mist?”
Zhu Yan understood.
The mist was the true form of this terrifying creature.
He immediately thought of those “sunset clouds” in [Old Wolf, Old Wolf, What Time Is It?]—they were also flowing mist but scattered when stirred with a knife.
If he used this Level 8 military knife to deal with this mist…
He forced his gaze away from the pile of corpses and asked, “Dad, is this parasitism? Why can’t you just give me the key fragment?”
At the same time, Zhu Yan’s knife shot out quickly, plunging into the nearest patch of thick mist!
No reaction—
The corpse’s expression stayed normal, and the mist didn’t disperse.
Zhu Yan awkwardly withdrew the knife.
“Dad, your defenses are really strong.”
The corpse even raised a hand, rubbing its head a little shyly.
“Well… isn’t that right?”
It didn’t know what was wrong with itself.
Seeing this player named Tu Shan swing his knife at its core form, it even felt a bit excited.
It was almost like having the illusion that its precious son had grown up…
Wait, why was calling it an “illusion” wrong?
It tried to shake its head, but a wonderfully pleasing call of “Dad” quickly snatched its attention away.
“Dad, why can’t the military knife affect you? Dad, where’s your weakness?”
Two calls!
Two whole calls!
All the condensed fog in the room trembled, as if it were extremely thrilled.
“Weakness?”
The voice spilling from the corpse’s throat was excited to the point of distortion.
It stood even straighter: “I have no weaknesses! Good son, you need to know, I’m very special.”
“My level is just level 0. I have no level, but I can parasitize puppets of any level.
Once I succeed, I gain that puppet’s level and abilities…
And if the puppet gets hurt, it has nothing to do with me!”
Damn.
Zhu Yan cursed.
He knew it—something as simple as this? A terrifying creature guarding the [Key Fragment 3] in the [Rapture Land]?
This basically meant it was an untargetable enemy.
Can’t kill it, and it can parasitize infinitely.
“Oh, there is one rather embarrassing problem, though.”
The corpse tilted its head, its unfocused gray eyes staring blankly at Zhu Yan.
“Son, use your high-level item to help me.”
How am I supposed to get the corpse of a powerful player or a terrifying creature all by myself?
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
