"The elders have impure hearts and cannot learn the immortal arts," the immortal said. "Go again, and this time bring back younger children, preferably child servants."
"And those people..."
The immortal glanced at the dozen or so kneeling young people and sighed. "Since you have brought them, I will take care of them. You may go."
Gousheng did not even pause to catch his breath before setting off again.
This time, he traveled farther, showing the villagers his magic tricks and bringing back those who wished to seek immortality.
But each time, the immortal said it was not enough.
Gousheng could only continue his errand-running. The immortal warned him not to go to the cities, because city folk had already been corrupted by worldly desires and were unfit for cultivation.
Gousheng took the immortal's teachings to heart. But gradually, he noticed something wrong. He had brought back several dozen people, yet he never saw them again.
But Gousheng did not dare to ask. He knew the immortal had boundless power and must have settled those people somewhere.
Yet his growing anxiety made him restless. Finally, when he heard the immortal say "not enough" once more, Gousheng became cunning. Instead of leaving hurriedly, he secretly used his wall-passing spell under cover of night to enter the immortal's gate.
He saw the child servant who had first let him in giving some kind of Body-Forging Pill to the new seekers. He recognized the pill, but had never taken one himself.
Disappointment only lasted a moment, however. He remembered well the purpose of his quest for immortality.
But after taking the pills, those people's expressions gradually turned dull.
Gousheng watched them line up and walk deeper inside. Without much thought, he silently apologized to the immortal and followed them. He wanted to find the immortal, kneel before him again, and beg for guidance.
But these people crossed the garden, passed the altar, and finally headed toward the mountain behind. Gousheng had never been to the back mountain. The child servant had told him he was only a menial worker and was not allowed to wander.
From a distance, Gousheng saw two yellow lanterns.
He crept behind the seekers, thinking how he would beg the immortal when he saw him. But the stench of rot in the wind made him frown. As he drew closer, Gousheng finally saw clearly what lay before him.
Those were no yellow lanterns. They were two eyes with vertical pupils!
The seekers, dazed and dull, lined up and walked straight into its mouth. Gousheng could not tell what kind of monster it was. He screamed in fear, but none of the people he had brought paid him any attention. Even when he tried to block them, they acted as if he did not exist.
Frantic, Gousheng called out to the immortal. He knew the immortal could surely defeat this beast.
But what he did not expect was a deep, rumbling voice from the monster's mouth. He turned to see a ball of flesh writhing in the smoke rising from the creature's maw. A moment later, the immortal appeared.
Gousheng finally understood. There was no immortal here. Only a monster!
He turned and ran. But the immortal did not chase him.
Desperate to escape, Gousheng crossed the altar, crossed the garden, crossed the corridors. He even felt as if he were flying. No, not a feeling—he was indeed flying.
Gousheng stared blankly as his legs grew faint and blurred.
"Master, this stupid wight has finally caught on," the child servant said, teasing.
Gousheng looked down. His eyes passed over the "immortal" and the child servant, then stopped on a skeleton in the corner. The ragged clothes on those bones looked very familiar.
"Now that he's awake, it's time to get a new one," the immortal’s voice echoed.
Gousheng's consciousness slowly faded away.
Fang Zhiyi frowned. "Me, then?"
Xiaoxiaohei only stared back at him with wide, innocent eyes.
"Gousheng! Go chop firewood, now! Lazing around all day!" a woman's sharp voice came from behind Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi slowly turned around. Li the Widow bustled past him, her heavy perfume making him wrinkle his nose.
"Get out now! If you delay my business, I'll skin you alive!"
"All this with no context... Where's the time traveler?" Fang Zhiyi muttered. Xiaoxiaohei just blinked at him. Fang Zhiyi sighed. He couldn't rely on the defective product Xiaoxiaohei had cooked up to be of any real use.
But that was fine. At least now his whereabouts would not be detected.
He casually grabbed a firewood knife and walked out. Not to chop wood, but to have something for self-defense.
According to Xiaoxiaohei's arrangement, the original owner must have some connection to the overall world plot. For now, he would just have to take things step by step. But if there was cultivation... Fang Zhiyi closed his eyes to sense the surroundings. To his surprise, he felt no spiritual energy.
"Old man, I've seen it with my own eyes! That dragon's body was enormous—bigger than the Blue Hua Mountain..."
"Old Cripple, you've had too much to drink again, always bragging about seeing a dragon," a villager teased. "Maybe that limp of yours is from the dragon itself."
The old man ignored the jibe. "You mortals, how could you ever see a dragon? But dragons are not benevolent celestial beings..."
"Spit, spit, spit! Everyone, go home!" A middle-aged woman shooed the surrounding children away, then frowned at the old man. "Uncle Cripple, don't just spout nonsense. If you offend the Dragon King, none of us can bear the consequences."
The old man grunted and muttered a few words under his breath before falling silent.
Fang Zhiyi studied him with interest. Someone noticed Fang Zhiyi standing there.
"Oh, Gousheng, you're out? Hasn't Li the Widow called you to serve her?"
Laughter rang out.
The middle-aged woman scolded them. "Are your fields all plowed? Talking dirty to a child!"
"Sister Zhang, everyone knows about Li the Widow. She's nothing but a madam! People are just saying what's true!"
"Pah!" Sister Zhang spat. "Enough, all of you, go!" She glanced at Fang Zhiyi with a hint of pity, then quickly left.
Fang Zhiyi narrowed his eyes. Sometimes, gossip corners in the village were the best places to pick up clues.
He had only suspected before, but now it seemed confirmed.
A widow who adopted a girl and strutted around all dolled up—any fool could guess how she made a living. Only the original addle-brained Gousheng never thought twice about it.
No wonder he never found the girl named Mengdie.
With that in mind, Fang Zhiyi narrowed his eyes and sneaked back to Li the Widow's house. As he climbed over the wall, he heard voices from the inner courtyard.
"Dear sir, I was planning to come and welcome you myself! Please, come in, come in."
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
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!
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
