Testing the house directly was less risky than testing the landlord directly.
The [Man-Eating House] was almost incapable of hunting prey on its own, which was why it had a landlord who could move around freely.
Zhu Yan's ability, [Complain], was only effective against thriller creatures of level 4 and below.
If he rashly tested the landlord, and the landlord noticed his little trick—and happened to be level 5...
Zhu Yan didn't dare take that gamble.
He followed the landlord up the old stairs, carefully observing the house's reactions.
If the house was level 4, then after [Complain] was used, it shouldn't have the energy to make noise.
Clack!
The stair plank right in front of Zhu Yan suddenly jolted, like a loud protest!
Then, the wooden floorboards of the entire house began to rattle even more violently, like someone jumping up and down in fierce indignation after suffering a grave offense.
So, the [Man-Eating House]... was level 5?
"So noisy. I called you a toad, and you really act like one."
Zhu Yan casually muttered a low-voiced [Complain].
He had intended to firmly conclude his guess that the house was level 5, but as soon as those words left his mouth, the originally clamorous house gradually went silent.
The wooden planks of the stairs tried to jump up, but unfortunately, they only lifted slightly before dropping back down, as if all their strength had been drained!
Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat.
He followed the landlord, slowly climbing up to the corner, and calmed his mind to observe.
The [Man-Eating House], which had constantly been making crackling sounds, no longer rattled violently like before.
The crackling had indeed weakened significantly, sounding feeble and exhausted.
Alright, the house was level 4.
It was just that the first [Complain] hadn't drained all its strength, and the final [Complain] was the straw that broke the camel's back!
Zhu Yan looked up. The landlord's old red bathrobe swayed back and forth in his line of sight, making him feel that things were getting a bit tricky.
The landlord was level 5.
Unlike the [Man-Eating House] which couldn't hunt on its own, the landlord could move freely, making it inherently harder to deal with.
And a level 5 entity was an existence that neither his dagger nor his offensive abilities could handle.
What should he do?
While he was thinking, the landlord suddenly clamped down on Zhu Yan's arm, dragging him upward.
"Hurry up, kid!" it said irritably.
It yanked on the second-floor lights. The rushing smell of dust and blood made Zhu Yan involuntarily wrinkle his nose.
The second floor was even more cramped than the first, with a long, narrow corridor connecting three or four doors and another staircase at the very end.
The landlord's strength was too great.
It dragged Zhu Yan to the door closest to the stairs on the second floor and fished a key out of its pocket.
"This is your room, kid."
The landlord's voice was quite chilling, echoing through the corridor where the lighting was so dim it looked gray.
Zhu Yan could even hear the sound of saliva swirling around the tips of the landlord's teeth, causing his heart to clench slightly.
This wasn't his room; this was probably—
The mouth.
The door lock clattered. Zhu Yan's free hand tightly gripped the dagger in his pants pocket.
Up until now, things had gone just as he had anticipated, with no secondary accidents occurring for the time being.
However, with one hand pinned, he had to be cautious to the extreme in order to turn the tables next!
Zhu Yan calculated rapidly.
The dilapidated wooden door let out a teeth-aching creak.
The landlord couldn't wait any longer.
It raised a foot to kick the door open and violently shoved Zhu Yan toward the center of the pitch-black room.
"You can only eat half!" it shrieked sharply at the house. "Leave half for me!"
Now was the time!
With a thought, Zhu Yan immediately activated his ability, [Impersonate]!
The next second.
He fell hard into a trap that felt disgustingly slippery and was filled with slime.
The landlord lunged forward at the same moment, and the trap also immediately realized something was wrong, forcefully pushing Zhu Yan back up.
In the darkness, the landlord's mouth opened wide.
Zhu Yan could see the cold-gleaming saliva wrapped around its rotting teeth, only a foot away from his face.
"Enough!" he shouted decisively.
His voice transformed into a slightly hoarse female voice—
Perhaps it was because of the [Impersonate] ability taking effect after leveling up, or perhaps [Impersonate] inherently had this function.
Zhu Yan didn't know.
He had never before dared to [Impersonate] a high-level thriller creature that he had only met once and hadn't even heard speak!
Under the dim light, obvious terror suddenly erupted in the landlord's murky eyes.
It abruptly twisted its body, forcing itself to miss its pounce.
Zhu Yan felt a wave of relief.
Using the upward thrust from behind, he landed steadily on the room's old, brittle carpet.
The slime inside the [Man-Eating House]'s mouth seemed corrosive; Zhu Yan felt a dense itch spreading across his back.
The itch was intense, showing signs of turning into pain.
—But he could endure it.
He had to endure it; he needed to keep this game going.
Zhu Yan turned around with an elegant posture, looking down condescendingly at the landlord groveling on the floor.
"You... You..."
The landlord trembled hoarsely. It seemed to have rolled on the ground, leaving ash stains on its red velvet pajamas.
In its eyes, the human before it had swept away all previous weakness and annoyance—no, no, this wasn't a human at all.
This was a woman wearing a gorgeous dark red dress, its Rococo-style hem occupying nearly half the room.
Her entire body was rotting and ulcerated, her skin a livid gray, and her hollow eye sockets stared at it like an abyss.
"You... Why are you...?"
The landlord looked up at Zhu Yan, its sagging facial skin wrinkling into an expression of fear mixed with a trace of confusion.
Zhu Yan didn't miss this faint trace of confusion.
This fully ulcerated woman was the noblewoman suspected of having syphilis that he had seen on the third floor of the [Hall of Mourning].
At that time, Miss Doppelganger had mocked him for staring recklessly at high-level thriller creatures and had casually mentioned the [Abyssal Eye Club].
Zhu Yan had truly run out of options.
Although they had only crossed paths once, using [Impersonate] on someone he had actually seen was much more convincing than trying to [Impersonate] an imagined high-level doppelganger.
He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing himself not to tremble from the increasingly severe pain and itching on his back.
"You really think highly of yourself! What right do you have to question the tastes of the [Abyssal Eye Club]?"
Zhu Yan looked at the landlord with a cold sneer, throwing the question back and letting out a meaningful sigh.
"Can't even afford the rent for the [Man-Eating House]..."
"I see this house of yours has been starving for quite a long time, hasn't it?"
He observed the landlord; clearly, the words [Abyssal Eye] had intimidated it.
The landlord didn't grow suspicious and trembled even more violently.
"I... I'm sorry, spare my life, Madam. I didn't mean to fall into arrears!"
Just as expected.
Zhu Yan calculated inwardly.
Being able to use the word arrears meant it had been at least a month since the rent was paid.
He maintained his silence. In this kind of situation, silence often tormented the other party's state of mind, forcing them to speak more.
A few seconds later, the landlord groveled even lower.
"Madam, I... I... I didn't mean to starve it either... No, I didn't mean to use you to feed it either, I..."
It gritted its teeth. Who could have known that high-level anomalies possessed such a twisted hobby of pretending to be human!
"I... there is an instance tonight. I will use two players to fill its stomach, I swear."
Two players. That was a new piece of information.
Zhu Yan raised his eyebrows.
Besides him, who else could it be?
Was it someone else from the police department?
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
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.
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…
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.”
