Besides undergoing the baptism, Zhu Yan also planned to get An Xuyin a cell phone.
His impostor friends had plenty of phones, but he had no idea whether Feining could quickly format and refurbish a human phone.
Communicating by phone was, after all, much more convenient than using cards. With a phone, An Xuyin could even browse the news on his own.
As he thought about this, Zhu Yan stopped at the end of the long, cramped passageway and lowered his head to inspect himself.
Just as the mission card had instructed, he had sprayed aerosol over every inch of his skin, arming himself from head to toe.
Half the can remained, so Zhu Yan nervously sprayed another layer over all the exposed skin.
Then he pushed open the door, squeezed through the throng of horrifying creatures in the Witch Department Store, and crossed two streets.
After confirming that there were no other Hunters inside the Recitation Stage, Zhu Yan walked in openly and nodded at the Vine Cage Girl.
“Hiya, nice to see you again.”
“Here for the baptism?” The Vine Cage Girl sounded rather pleased. “Come with me!”
It led Zhu Yan around the counter and pushed open a hidden door.
Beyond it lay a long corridor. Candlelight flickered behind the lantern paper on either side, now bright and now dim.
“Keep going,” the Vine Cage Girl said.
Damp gongbi paintings hung along both walls.
Their fine brushstrokes depicted grotesque scenes of amusement. The style was ancient, yet the clothing and facilities in the paintings were remarkably advanced.
Zhu Yan saw slot machines, arcade cabinets, and even places where people could soak their feet.
“Is this where the people who turn to the second page of the catalog go?”
“Maybe,” the Vine Cage Girl replied vaguely. “In any case, it isn’t where we’re going this time.”
“Slot machines seem pretty common.”
“They can be modified,” the Vine Cage Girl said.
It turned to look at Zhu Yan, then stopped and pointed toward a door.
The door was covered in deep, scorched marks, with a brass plaque nailed to it.
Zhu Yan read the words aloud.
“Hot Spring Bathhouse?”
“That’s right.”
The Vine Cage Girl placed its palm over the brass plaque, counted to five, and then pushed the door open.
Scalding steam carrying the sweet, milky scent of buttered popcorn swept over Zhu Yan, making his head swim.
Only after the dense vapor dispersed somewhat could Zhu Yan see what lay inside.
White rectangular tiles covered the walls all the way to the ceiling. Beneath them was a pool of steaming water.
The ledge around the pool was barely two fingers wide, pressed tightly against the edge of the doorway.
The moment Zhu Yan took a step inside, he would fall into the water.
“You can leave your shoes outside,” the Vine Cage Girl said. “Put your clothes into your ring yourself. We don’t provide a change of clothes.”
“I’m supposed to soak in there?”
“For an hour.” The Vine Cage Girl nodded. “Count yourself lucky, Hunter. You have the whole room to yourself this time. Once there are more people, that may not be the case.”
Zhu Yan felt that something was off.
The Vine Cage Girl stretched its mouth into a grin, then turned its back on him.
“You can go in now. Enjoy it while you can. From now on, it’ll be communal bathing.”
Two minutes later.
Zhu Yan was submerged in the hot water, watching the door slowly close in front of him.
The water around him began to bubble and surge toward him as if it were alive.
But Zhu Yan felt nothing.
His skin had drawn tight, like a layer of rubber, firmly keeping the liquid out.
That layer of “outer skin” quickly turned red, as though it wanted Zhu Yan to know what it was resisting.
After observing it for a while and confirming that nothing seemed wrong, Zhu Yan simply leaned against the corner and fell sound asleep.
…
“Now you look the part.”
The Vine Cage Girl smiled until its eyes narrowed as it looked Zhu Yan up and down. He had already put his clothes back on.
Zhu Yan couldn’t really say what had changed about him.
He had slept soundly and felt refreshed. The popcorn-scented steam had also left him feeling invigorated.
Other than that, he felt neither any craving for human flesh nor the discomfort he had experienced the first time he was infused with Trembling Pleasure.
To keep the Vine Cage Girl from noticing that something was wrong, Zhu Yan decided to remain silent.
“Do you feel the blood boiling throughout your body?” The Vine Cage Girl was even more excited than the person who had undergone the treatment. “Paradise, you smell more like one of us now.”
“Complete your missions properly, and you’ll become a powerful being one day!”
Zhu Yan nodded without offering an immediate opinion.
The broadcast, absent for quite some time, had suddenly descended into his mind, brimming with undeniable delight.
“Congratulations on undergoing the Baptism and fully converting the nutrients!”
“The Baptism is a path that brings you closer to us. It will make the Trembling Pleasure within your body more stable, more powerful, and more active, while allowing it to expand and transform further.”
Zhu Yan thought of the law of conservation of energy.
If Trembling Pleasure could expand and “transform,” then it must have “consumed” something else.
Interesting.
After undergoing the Baptism, would a person’s mind gradually be devoured by Mad Paradise?
“Please proceed to the front desk of the Recitation Stage to collect your temporary Boss identity card and Boss mission. Then promptly fuse the identity card into the palm of your right hand.”
“Please note that after fusing with the identity card, you will gain access to a small number of benefits. Terrifying creatures will also be able to identify you.”
“Sometimes, they are not friendly toward their own kind—especially when that kind is weak.”
“For details, please refer to the back of the card.”
Zhu Yan knew this all too well.
If they had been friendly toward their own kind, he would never have been able to use the tree spirit to kill Mr. Toad.
Moreover, his impostor friend had once revealed that things were not easy even within the ranks of the terrifying creatures. Otherwise, it would never have thought of buying human skin.
“Finally, Mad Paradise is preparing with all its strength for a large-scale open-beta instance. For the sake of fun, we have suspended all minor instances and closed-beta newbie instances.”
“This is to inform Hunter No. 1. We wish you a triumphant first battle.”
“We look forward to meeting you again!”
The female voice fell silent.
Zhu Yan mulled over that strange phrase, “for the sake of fun,” as he followed the Vine Cage Girl absentmindedly back to the counter.
For the sake of fun… By normal logic, shouldn’t they increase the number of minor instances and closed-beta newbie instances instead?
After all, instances were not only a food source for the terrifying creatures. Watching humans die in despair was also one of Mad Paradise’s pleasures.
So why suspend all the instances instead?
“Here.”
The Vine Cage Girl handed Zhu Yan a beautiful salted-cheese latte and a familiar-looking black envelope.
A month ago, Zhu Yan had drawn his Ability Card from one of these small envelopes.
He said, “Thank you,” then pulled out the contents and skimmed the words at a glance.
He had undergone the Baptism, but the aerosol had kept the Baptism from reaching him. In effect, he had merely taken a hot bath.
With the Trembling Pleasure inside his body unchanged in the slightest, could this identity card really fuse smoothly into his body?
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.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
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.”
