Seeing Xu Xiaoya standing there with a terrified look on her face, Fang Zhiyi grew impatient. "Don't just stand there dumbfounded. Come over here, quick."
The sudden cry of a night owl made Xu Xiaoya flinch.
Fang Zhiyi sighed.
"There's no helping it. I have things I need to do later, and you don't have the slightest ability to protect yourself. If you don't learn something, what are you going to do in the future?"
Xu Xiaoya looked at the items Fang Zhiyi had laid out and asked hesitantly, "Gousheng... what are those? They look like things for the dead..."
Fang Zhiyi waved his hand dismissively. "No kidding. If they were for the living, why would we be here?"
"Gousheng, I'm scared. This place feels like a graveyard in the wilderness..."
"What do you mean 'feels like'? It is one."
Fang Zhiyi suddenly paused and glanced at Xiaoxiaohei, who stared back at him with wide eyes, saying nothing. Fang Zhiyi let out a bitter chuckle. He had almost gotten used to it. If Little Hei were here, that thing would probably be flooding him with sarcastic remarks by now.
He wondered how things were going on its end.
Fang Zhiyi lit a candle first, then began drawing talismans by its light. Since this world had demons, there must be immortals too. Though many of the talismans he knew were useless here, there should be a category of charms that worked universally—those that drew on the energy of heaven and earth.
Xu Xiaoya watched as Fang Zhiyi hunched over, scribbling on strips of yellow paper. Her fear only grew.
But before she could gather her scattered thoughts, Fang Zhiyi shoved the finished talisman into her hand.
"Hold this. Stand here and don't move. I can't count on you to help anyway," he muttered. Then he grabbed a hoe from the side, picked out a mound of earth, and walked over.
That hoe was something Fang Zhiyi had swiped when they left Xu Xiaoya's house.
Xu Xiaoya watched tremblingly as Fang Zhiyi swung the hoe and dug open several graves in a row. He grew frustrated.
Was there no such thing as ghosts in this world? Or maybe ghosts here were more like a form of energy—restless souls without consciousness that gradually dissipated over time. The ghost fires people sometimes saw on night roads were probably these things.
That meant he couldn't test whether his talismans worked.
"Gousheng, isn't it wrong to dig up other people's graves?"
"What's wrong with it?" Fang Zhiyi replied sullenly. "Once people are dead, they're nothing. All that's left are wandering thoughts."
Xu Xiaoya felt like she had never truly understood Gousheng. She never imagined he could be so twisted—why else would he go around digging up graves for no reason?
"What a shame." Fang Zhiyi tossed the hoe aside in frustration, pulled out a piece of hard bread, took a bite, and plopped down on the ground. "Can't even run into a demon or something. Then I could try out whether these talismans work."
"Demon?" Xu Xiaoya glanced around nervously. "Gousheng, no—Fang Zhiyi..."
Fang Zhiyi shot her a glare. "Call me whatever you want."
"Why are we looking for demons out of the blue? And, didn't you say you were seeking immortality?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Yeah, seeking immortality... Do you even know what an immortal is?"
Xu Xiaoya shook her head honestly.
"An immortal is a being higher than humans. There are many paths to immortality—some cultivate on their own, living a life of purity and restraint; some suddenly grasp the truth and become immortals. Immortals are those who truly understand the laws of heaven and earth... Some even become part of those laws after ascending. It's complicated. Just remember this: seeking immortality is about cultivating the heart."
Fang Zhiyi had already figured out the rules of achieving immortality in this world. It wasn't too hard—he had been through plenty of xianxia realms before.
To avoid danger, Fang Zhiyi chose to travel by night and rest by day. He had made up his mind to head toward the immortal mountain the original owner had been aiming for, while keeping an eye out for any minor demons along the way.
But after three days straight, Fang Zhiyi had found nothing. This made him inexplicably restless.
This world was just too absurd.
He glanced at Xu Xiaoya and felt a twinge of frustration. This girl, clearly meant to be a villainess, was utterly useless for now. To keep them both from starving, he even had to go to the market himself to buy food. If he hadn't swiped some money from Widow Li back then, he'd probably be done for by now.
Xu Xiaoya seemed to sense she was dead weight and barely spoke the entire time.
What annoyed Fang Zhiyi the most was that he might have gotten lost.
Looking at Xu Xiaoya, who was exhausted but still gritting her teeth to follow him, he sighed. "Let's rest here for today."
He actually felt a bit sorry for the girl. So young, and she had to endure all this hardship, sleeping rough and eating on the go.
Xu Xiaoya nodded and sat down against a tree without any concern for her dignity. Fang Zhiyi rummaged through the bag of odds and ends he carried. Their situation was tough—they couldn't afford to catch a cold, so they had to start a fire no matter what.
In his current state, forget about a demon—even a wild animal would be a real problem.
Just as Fang Zhiyi was digging through his things, a sinister voice came from Xu Xiaoya's direction.
"Well, well, what have we here? Two little brats?"
Fang Zhiyi squinted in that direction. A rusty blade was pressed against Xu Xiaoya's neck. Behind her stood a sleazy-looking man with messy hair, wearing a tattered sleeveless vest and bare-armed.
"Damn, scared me there. Thought we'd run into something nasty," another gruff voice chimed in. Fang Zhiyi frowned. Several men dressed like vagrants had appeared around them.
He reached for the cleaver tucked at his lower back.
But the sleazy man holding Xu Xiaoya clearly noticed his movement and lifted the blade slightly. "Kid, be smart and don't try anything funny! Boss, what do we do with these two?"
Fang Zhiyi glanced at Xu Xiaoya, who was frozen stiff with fear. He was confident he could fight his way out, but he really wasn't sure he could keep the girl safe.
"Let me see. Oh, it's a girl!" The leader of the group grabbed Xu Xiaoya's chin, examined her face, then flashed a yellow-toothed grin.
"Ha! Lucky day for the boys!" the sleazy man said with a lecherous laugh, and the others joined in with raucous jeers.
Fang Zhiyi quickly calculated his next move.
But the leader suddenly waved his hand. "Everyone calm down! These two brats can be sold for some money."
Fang Zhiyi felt he had never been so humiliated. He and Xu Xiaoya were tied up and forced to follow the group. By now, he had figured it out—these men were either vagrants or bandits, and dirt poor ones at that.
The smell of blood on them was thick.
Fang Zhiyi glanced again at Xiaoxiaohei, who still wore that innocent look. He sighed. If he had struck earlier, he could have at least escaped on his own. But now...
One step at a time.
The man at the front turned back and urged him and Xu Xiaoya to hurry, his tone dripping with impatience.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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!
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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...
