Was it an illusion?
When did...
Ye Chuan pondered. His Indestructible Chaos Body should be immune to illusions. Subconsciously, he opened his inventory interface, only to see the two pieces of paper containing information he had just obtained.
"Rustle, rustle."
Ye Chuan took out the diary page recording the wife's entries again. Feeling the slightly rough texture of the paper, he snapped back to reality.
It wasn't an illusion.
Seeing Tian Xiaotian's confused expression, Ye Chuan described the flesh-colored monster he had just encountered—a faceless body of raw meat, skin covered in blood vessels, capable of mimicking Tian Xiaotian's and even Luo Xi's voices, and possessing the eerie ability to resurrect infinitely from the mist.
Unexpectedly, the more Tian Xiaotian listened, the more bewildered she became. Finally, she shook her head.
"Boss, I was right near you the whole time. I didn't see any flesh-colored monster. The fog did get a bit thicker just now, but I didn't hear any strange sounds, nor did I sense any energy fluctuations."
She paused for a moment before adding, "The last time I came to Plague Town, the things I encountered were infected with rotting bodies or anomalies that controlled vines. I've never heard of a monster that can mimic human voices and resurrect infinitely."
Ye Chuan fell into thought.
Is the dungeon instance different?
Could it be that some condition was triggered?
So...
The difficulty of the dungeon has been raised?
He raised his hand, took out the diary note he had put away earlier, and handed it to Tian Xiaotian. "Melon, look at this."
Tian Xiaotian took the note, scanned it quickly, and also fell into deep thought. "This is... a diary from a town resident? I didn't find anything like this when I came here last time."
She looked up at Ye Chuan. "Boss, where did you find this?"
Ye Chuan pointed to a dilapidated wooden house not far away.
"Right in there."
The two immediately walked toward the wooden house. However, when they pushed the door open, it was empty. There was only scattered rotting wood and black mud. The walls were clean, without a trace of blood, let alone any diary notes.
Tian Xiaotian crouched down, carefully examined the black mud on the ground, and shook her head. "There are no traces. It doesn't look like anyone has been here."
Ye Chuan mused, "I see."
"Let's keep looking." He didn't say anything more and turned to float toward the other houses.
Tian Xiaotian hurriedly followed. The two searched house by house, turning the main streets and buildings of Plague Town upside down.
But the results were incredibly disappointing.
All the clues had vanished, and they couldn't find that faceless monster either.
They even found the spot where Ye Chuan had blasted the monster apart earlier. The ground was level, the black mud was intact; there were no traces of an energy bombardment, nor was there any of the slime that had been splattered everywhere.
"Strange. This is too strange." Tian Xiaotian gripped the sword in her hand tighter.
"This place is different from my memory. All those clues you mentioned just now... we can't find a single one."
Ye Chuan hovered in mid-air, looking at the surrounding environment without saying a word.
He vaguely guessed something.
The text in that diary, and the heart-pounding sensation when the monster mimicked Luo Xi's voice—it was all terrifyingly real.
"Let's go deeper into the town," Ye Chuan said, drifting toward the innermost part of Plague Town with Tian Xiaotian.
Perhaps they could find useful clues there.
Tian Xiaotian quickly followed. The two passed through an area of even more dilapidated houses. As they moved forward, the surrounding fog began to thicken again, reducing visibility to less than three meters.
The two advanced through the ruins of the broken houses. The surrounding walls were riddled with holes, looking as if they had been torn apart by countless greedy hands. The exposed bricks and stones appeared exceptionally cold in the dim light.
A pungent smell of mold permeated the air, mixed with an unidentifiable stench of rot that drilled straight into their nostrils, making them want to retch.
Suddenly, a cold, gloomy wind blew past, carrying a trace of eerie energy that sent a chill down Tian Xiaotian's spine.
The two stopped in their tracks. A hair-raising, low roar came from the depths of the houses, and several figures slowly emerged from the darkness.
"Boss, it's the Plague Hosts!" Tian Xiaotian raised her sword immediately upon seeing them.
These Plague Hosts had twisted figures. their originally normal bodies had become bloated and deformed. Their skin presented a nauseating greenish-black hue, as if they had been soaked in foul sewage for a long time.
Just like the Plague Hosts in the Silent Hospital, their bodies were covered in pustules of various sizes. Thick green liquid oozed from the pustules from time to time, leaving disgusting trails on the ground.
Tian Xiaotian struck first. Her spirit sword was coated in cyan spiritual power as she unleashed a continuous barrage of Sword Qi.
The Sword Qi sliced directly through the bodies of the Plague Hosts. Following a series of scalp-numbing roars, they fell to the ground one after another.
Having cultivated the Azure Cloud Sect technique Ye Chuan gave her, handling these Plague Hosts was a piece of cake for Tian Xiaotian. This was also why she had been able to solo clear the Death Train dungeon.
"I ran into them the last time I came here, too," Tian Xiaotian explained.
From the moment they stepped into Plague Town, everything had been a bit different, with an unspeakable weirdness permeating every corner.
But seeing the Plague Hosts actually made Tian Xiaotian feel a bit more at ease.
At the very least, these guys were here last time too.
Seeing the monsters felt almost like coming home.
"Your cultivation of the technique is coming along nicely." Ye Chuan looked at the spirit sword in Tian Xiaotian's hand. Although it was a magical treasure, she had been using it at high intensity for thirty years, and it showed some wear and tear.
And magical treasures of this level could not repair themselves, nor could they give birth to a sword spirit.
Being praised by Ye Chuan, Tian Xiaotian looked a bit embarrassed. "I... cultivate very slowly."
It was precisely because of this that she realized just how vast the gap was between her strength and Ye Chuan's.
Moreover, she had never seen Ye Chuan's true power.
"Give me your sword." Ye Chuan extended his hand.
"Okay." Tian Xiaotian handed the spirit sword to Ye Chuan without hesitation.
Ye Chuan took the sword, examined it, and then directly pulled up the weapon forging interface. He added a few special ores to the blade and reforged it.
He also directly added enhancement levels to it.
The process didn't take long. When Ye Chuan handed the spirit sword back to Tian Xiaotian, she was momentarily dumbfounded to see her sword glowing with a soft white light.
The moment she gripped the hilt, the aura emanating from it made her speak in disbelief, "It got stronger?!"
"Yeah, I boosted its power a bit and added some rare ores that allow for self-repair," Ye Chuan said.
Simply put, this sword would now automatically repair its durability.
Although self-repair was nothing special in the Profound Sky Continent due to the existence of blacksmiths, for Tian Xiaotian, who lived in this world of horrors, it was undoubtedly a massive help.
"Next time we meet..." Ye Chuan paused. "Well, I hope we can meet again."
It was quite a fateful encounter.
Tian Xiaotian silently gripped the sword in her hand.
Will we really meet again?
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
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.
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
