Just two steps into the royal city, Ye Chuan's footsteps suddenly halted.
He looked up ahead. Faint squelching sounds and the rustling of bandages rubbing together could be heard. More than one presence lay dormant in the dark, densely interwoven within the curtain of rain.
Clearly, the number of weird creatures in the royal city far exceeded his estimation.
Perhaps everyone in the entire royal city had turned into weird monsters. This was not good news for Ye Chuan, because he was still carrying Xiaogua.
He turned his head to look at Xiao Tian, who was tightly gripping the corner of his clothes. Her eyes were full of vigilance toward their surroundings, and the hand holding her spirit sword was trembling slightly.
So weak.
Trembling already. It seemed he couldn't bring this burden along.
Ye Chuan made a swift decision in his heart. Bringing Xiao Tian along meant he would have to guard against sneak attacks from the dark while also ensuring she wasn't affected by the black rain and monsters. He simply wouldn't be able to go all out in a fight.
"Come with me." Ye Chuan pulled Xiao Tian back into the mud outside the royal city's gates, then looked for a direction behind them.
"Go back and find a safe place to hide. I can't take you with me, so don't run around."
Xiao Tian froze for a moment, then shook her head vigorously. "Brother Cai Kun, I'll go in with you! I can protect myself!"
"Quiet, or I'll spank you," Ye Chuan interrupted her, shoving a handful of Curse-Breaking Pills into her hand.
"Wear your raincoat properly. Hide if you encounter monsters, and take the pills if you have no other choice."
"Once I find Tian Xiaotian or figure out the situation, I'll come back for you."
His sharp eyes carried an undeniable firmness. "Be obedient. Only if you are in a safe place can I solve the troubles inside more quickly."
Looking at the Curse-Breaking Pills in her hand and then at Ye Chuan's solemn expression, Xiao Tian finally bit her lip and nodded.
"Then you must be careful... There was a cave when we just came here, I'll hide there!"
"Yeah." Ye Chuan replied, watching Xiao Tian turn and run back. He waited until her figure disappeared into the rain before slowly turning his head to look at the dead royal city.
He raised his hand and rested his greatsword on his shoulder, casually tossing the door board aside.
The rain fell on Ye Chuan, making a sizzling sound, but it didn't affect him at all.
"Just as I thought." Ye Chuan glanced at the faint black halo on his body; that was the power of chaos at work.
After learning that this black rain was a form of pollution or curse, he knew he should be able to withstand it head-on.
Stepping into the royal city once more, Ye Chuan's footsteps were much lighter. Without any worries holding him back, his aura instantly unfurled like a dormant beast awakening.
After taking only a few steps, three slime monsters suddenly crawled out from behind a broken wall on the left. Dark purple mucus dripped from their bodies as they lunged at him with a roar.
"Get lost." Ye Chuan didn't even stop walking, casually swinging his greatsword.
With a flash of sword light, a fierce wave of air instantly cleaved the three slime monsters in half. The dark purple mucus splashed onto the ground, but the moment it touched the aura radiating from his body, it evaporated into a wisp of black smoke and dissipated in the rain.
The whole process took less than a second. The three slime monsters were completely annihilated without even having a chance to get close to him.
Walking forward for another hundred meters, more monsters surged out—
Dozens of bandage monsters staggered out from the collapsed houses, their bandages wrapped tightly around them, blood-red eyes staring fixedly at him. There were also hundreds of slime monsters crawling rapidly across the ground, closing in.
Ye Chuan's previous slash seemed to have awakened this dead city.
"Come on then, do you think my physical stats are zero?"
A smile touched the corners of Ye Chuan's mouth. He pushed off the ground, his figure darting forward like a ghost.
The greatsword danced in his hands, leaving behind afterimages. Every swing carried the momentum of a thunderbolt. He was like a heavy-duty truck on the highway, rampaging through the horde of weird monsters, ruthlessly crushing their bizarre bodies.
Subsequently, essence souls emerged one after another, all of which were collected by Ye Chuan.
There was no dragged-out fighting, no superfluous moves. Every strike was precise and lethal, and every monster was instantly killed the moment it came into contact with him.
The black rain fell on him but couldn't penetrate his chaotic aura at all; it could only slide down the hem of his clothes!
The roars of the monsters, the sound of bones shattering, the evaporation of mucus, mixed with the piercing sound of the greatsword cleaving through the air, echoed in the dead royal city, actually creating a hearty and exhilarating thrill!
A few larger weird creatures charged over. They seemed to be abomination monsters stitched together from countless rotting limbs, constantly dripping dark purple mucus.
But their fate remained the same. Ye Chuan pierced their skulls with his greatsword, and their bodies smashed heavily into the mud, instantly losing all movement.
And those constantly reviving bandage monsters were repeatedly one-shot by Ye Chuan, only to revive and be one-shot again. After dozens of times, the bandage monsters seemed to give up struggling.
At this moment, Ye Chuan showed no signs of exhaustion; his breathing remained steady.
Ye Chuan rampaged all the way. Wherever he passed, the monsters were all instantly killed. Not a single one could stop his advance.
His body was not tainted by the slightest bit of filth. Only the greatsword still retained a faint sword aura, which pushed back the approaching black rain a few inches.
The ruined walls along the way were like nothing in his eyes. His gaze remained locked on the center of the royal city as he sprinted toward the direction where the black substance was spewing out.
He didn't know how long he had been killing. The monsters along the way gradually became sparse, while the aura of the black substance grew denser, and the low humming sound became clearer.
Ye Chuan finally stopped walking and stood in a relatively empty square. According to Xiao Tian's description, this should have been the location of the altar in the center of the royal city.
But where was the altar?
Right in the center of the square was only a massive hole. The hole had a diameter of over a hundred meters. It was pitch-black, like a giant maw devouring everything, with no trace of a bottom in sight.
An endless stream of black substance was gushing out from this bottomless pit, shooting straight into the sky and merging with the black rain above.
As the black substance spewed out, it carried a bone-piercing chill and a heavy, rotting stench. The ground around the hole was covered in thick dark purple mucus that writhed continuously, as if it were alive.
"This... is where Gua Xiaotian disappeared?"
"It stinks." Ye Chuan shook his head.
He walked to the edge of the hole and looked down. There was only boundless darkness. Besides the humming of the spewing black substance, he could faintly hear muffled roars from deep underground, as if countless monsters were lying dormant at the bottom of the pit.
It seemed there were quite a few weird monsters inside as well.
It appeared the source of the black rain wasn't an altar, but this bottomless pit?
The black rain continued to gush from the hole, shrouding the entire royal city in boundless darkness and despair.
"I just feel like there's something inside." Ye Chuan pulled out another greatsword from his spatial backpack. Now dual-wielding greatswords, he jumped straight in without any hesitation.
"Whatever, time to fight! Awesome!"

] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"

ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!

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...

ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!