But the murderer they were looking for was at that moment stroking his own belly, having changed clothes and already left the county town.
"How is Xu Xiaoya now?" Fang Zhiyi turned to ask Xiaoxiaohei.
Xiaoxiaohei, after a brief pause as usual, replied, "Uncertain, host. You'd better find a safe place to stay for now..."
"Useless," Fang Zhiyi shot it a dismissive glance, then spotted figures in the distance—clearly officials sent by the county court to hunt him down. After a moment's thought, he plunged into the wilderness and quickly vanished into the desolate woods.
"Warning, warning... the host's assimilation rate with the world is increasing. For the host's safety, please immediately cease current activity..." Xiaoxiaohei continued its mechanical broadcast.
Fang Zhiyi picked at his ear and turned to look back at the thing.
"Say what you will, you're nowhere near as good as your old man," he said, scanning the area. "Assimilation rate? What the hell is that? Go ask your father—does it look like I'm the kind of guy who takes a beating and doesn't fight back?"
Xiaoxiaohei tried to process his words, but Fang Zhiyi didn't dwell on it. Instead, he kept moving through the woods and underbrush.
Elm Tree Village had lost many people in the wars of earlier years, and now only a few households remained. But on this evening, a convoy of wagons slowly entered the village. The man at the front directed his men to set up a simple stage and then began beating a gong.
The sudden commotion lit up lamps in the few surviving homes. The villagers came out to see what was happening and found out it was a traveling opera troupe passing through, hoping to earn some tips by performing in the village.
The troupe's old-sheng actor looked at the sparse crowd and showed clear disappointment on his face.
"Boss, there are only a few families in this poor village. Looks like we'll be working for nothing again today."
The troupe leader frowned, not expecting that the village had no more than twenty-odd people in total. Before he could speak to the bewildered gazes, one of the younger martial-art actors said, "If you ask me, we might as well call it quits. Let's stay the night and head to Chaoyang County tomorrow. I hear there are plenty of rich squires over there—maybe we can find a good husband for Little Moon."
The half-grown girl heard this and, hands on her hips, said, "Bah! I'm not marrying anyone! I want to follow my father and sing opera!"
The troupe leader waved his hand. "Enough arguing! The gong has been sounded—there's no rule saying we don't perform after striking it!" He grabbed a drumstick; since the troupe was small, he served in multiple roles, even handling the musicians.
"These poor folks can't afford to tip," muttered the martial actor. But seeing the troupe leader's stern look, he just shook his head. "Fine, fine, free work it is. Let's sing! Nowadays, who cares about rules anyway..."
The troupe leader pretended not to hear his complaints and began drumming in a strict, measured rhythm.
The others quickly fell into character with his beats. The performance was simple—an ordinary piece called "Yue Hua Seeks the Immortal." The story was about a young man named Yue Hua, raised by his mother since childhood, whose family suffered a series of misfortunes: their land was seized by a bully, his mother was imprisoned when she tried to file a complaint with the magistrate, and Yue Hua himself set out to appeal directly to the emperor. On the way, the bully's thugs intercepted him, and he accidentally fell off a cliff. When he woke up, he found he had been rescued. After some questioning, he was shocked to discover that the person who saved him was his biological father—a man who had abandoned his wife and child years ago to seek immortality.
Yue Hua demanded to know why the immortal had let his family suffer so much. Moved at last, the immortal sent his father down the mountain to seek justice for his wife and son. The ending was a happy one, satisfying the common people's hopes for fairness and for evil to be punished.
The performers on stage noticed that the villagers sitting below showed no reaction, which only deepened their irritation—their movements and gestures grew half-hearted. The troupe leader, playing the music off to the side, saw this but only turned his face away. It was hard to motivate anyone for a job with no pay.
Yet he felt something was off. Even if his troupe's performance was subpar, there ought to be some reaction from the audience.
The troupe leader turned to look at the crowd below. The twenty or so people sat motionless, staring at the stage, their faces utterly blank. A chill crept up his spine. Having led the troupe far and wide, he had seen his share of strange occurrences. Based on experience, they were in for trouble tonight.
As the final drumbeat died away, the characters Yue Hua and his father on stage joined forces to punish the bully and the corrupt official, and the family was finally reunited.
The villagers below remained deathly silent.
"What's wrong with these yokels? Not only do they not tip, they won't even cheer? Have they never seen an opera before?" muttered the martial actor, who was playing Yue Hua's father.
Just as he finished speaking, something was tossed up onto the stage, bouncing a couple of times.
The martial actor looked down and froze. It was a gold ingot!!!
He quickly picked it up, bowing repeatedly to the audience below.
But the villagers still stared at them with wide eyes, showing no sign of leaving.
The martial actor turned to the troupe leader, asking with his eyes what to do next.
But the troupe leader's face had turned pale as death.
The other performers were puzzled until the troupe leader suddenly started playing music again.
Confused, they wondered if this meant they were to continue singing. But remembering that someone had just given them a gold ingot as a reward, they went along.
Who would have thought such a small village had people with money?
Yet the longer they performed, the more uneasy they felt. The people below were like... corpses, sitting there staring at them. No cheers at the good parts, no jeers at the mistakes. It was impossible not to feel that something was eerily wrong.
During a costume change, the martial actor asked the troupe leader, "Old Gong, are we really going to keep going? These people are strange."
But the troupe leader stared at him in terror and said after a moment, "Keep singing. Sing until dawn, and we can leave."
"Dawn?" The martial actor was shocked. Even his best stamina couldn't last a whole night!
The troupe leader's voice trembled. "The last row—the last row!"
The martial actor craned his neck to look. "Last row? There's no one..." He stopped mid-sentence. They had set out some small stools in front. The villagers sat in the first two rows, leaving the last two rows empty. But in the middle seat of the last row stood a tiny figure on a stool.
As if sensing his gaze, the figure turned its head directly—without moving its body.
Just then, the clouds parted and moonlight spilled down again.
The martial actor felt his blood run cold.
It was a child in a red vest, squatting on the stool. Its face was eerily pale, and it wore a small skullcap. When it met the martial actor's eyes, it grinned. A tongue at least a foot long slid out of its mouth, quickly licked its lips, and retreated back in.
"Boss... Boss..."
"I see it! Don't say a word—keep singing!" The troupe leader shoved him. It was obvious now that all the villagers sitting in front were being controlled by this strange little creature.
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!
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...
] [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!"
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
