The village guardian did not move. Its long tongue suddenly shot out, wrapped around the banner flag, and yanked it back. It took the banner in its hands and examined it closely, looking quite puzzled.
After studying it for a while without understanding, it looked up and met Fang Zhiyi's gaze.
"How dare you offend me? Now you're going to pay the price. Hehe, humans like you can only rely on these crooked tricks. And yet you dared to offend the Immortal Lord..."
Fang Zhiyi waved a hand. After sleeping for a day, he felt much better.
"Let me interrupt you. How do you have the nerve to call me a crooked trick?"
The village guardian froze.
Fang Zhiyi continued, "Even if I'm using crooked tricks, don't you think you're one too?"
"How dare you! How dare you insult the Great Immortal! Great Immortal, please see clearly—it wasn't us who sent him to offend you yesterday!" an old man shouted.
The village guardian didn't even glance at him. It just tilted its head. "Do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "No."
"You have quite the nerve."
"Not bad."
"Your flesh must be even more delicious..." The village guardian couldn't help licking its lips, drool dripping down.
"Not necessarily," Fang Zhiyi laughed. "I just don't get it. Why does everything want to become an immortal? Madmen want to become immortals, a stinking Toad wants to become an immortal. Are you all obsessed or what?"
"Still wagging your tongue when death is at your door..." The village guardian had barely spoken when its tongue shot toward Fang Zhiyi.
But at that moment, a black shadow stood before the tongue.
The village guardian froze. The next second, it saw a vaguely familiar face—the trick demon it had fought last night? But the trick demon's face was numb, its body emitting black smoke.
It seemed to realize something and panicked, turning its head to look at the device in its hand. The tattered surface of the banner pulsed unnaturally, and then hordes of black souls poured out.
It tried to let go, but the banner stuck to its skin as if glued. At the same time, it felt something burrowing into its body from its palm, an icy, eerie chill surging through every part of it.
Fang Zhiyi stretched. "I was waiting for nightfall. What the hell were you all waiting for?"
"Why, why can you still control it even when it's in my hands..."
"Gotta have anti-theft measures, right? Ah, forget it—it'd be a waste to explain to you." Fang Zhiyi leaned back against the cage, hands behind his head, watching below as the villagers scattered, only to be pierced through the chest by streaks of black souls, twitching briefly before falling lifeless.
The village guardian was in agony. The banner seemed to have grown onto its hand, impossible to shake off. It could even feel something desperately pulling at its soul.
"You... you and I are both evil creatures! Let me go, and I'll ascend to immortality with you!" The village guardian could no longer maintain its human appearance. Its boyish face flattened into a broad, wide visage, its mouth splitting open to reveal sparse, jagged teeth—a disgusting sight.
Fang Zhiyi shook his head. "Becoming an immortal isn't important."
"Why not? What is important?" The Toad had reverted to its true form, countless black souls tearing at it.
"You not existing is very important to me."
"If that's the case, let's die together!" the Toad suddenly shouted, its body swelling rapidly. A fierce aura erupted, but unexpectedly, the scattered black souls, as if following some command, quickly converged into a massive black hand.
"I'll..."
Before it could finish, the hand came down in a slap, twisting the Toad's mouth askew.
"Tsk, tsk." Fang Zhiyi watched with interest as the black souls moved at his will. The Toad's suicidal move never carried through—the black hand simply crushed it to death. As its soul was dragged into the banner, the flag finally fell to the ground.
"Reporting, sir. I went to Elm Tree Village today to collect taxes, and I found... I found..."
"Speak!"
"All twenty-plus households in Elm Tree Village are dead. A horrific sight!"
"What?"
The officer glanced around, lowering his voice. "Sir, the manner of their deaths is somewhat similar to the Gao family's situation before..."
"The Gao family? Ah, I remember. Gao Mingzhi, right? For that matter, his uncle submitted several petitions begging for my help. Hmph."
"Sir, this matter... it might be the work of wandering sorcerers. Should we report it up the chain and request the Imperial Observatory's assistance? So many deaths."
The official stroked his beard, narrowing his eyes. "No. Cover it up. Say Elm Tree Village was attacked by mountain bandits, and the prefecture has already sent troops to suppress them." He paused. "Otherwise, someone might use it to slander my governance. Just a few nobodies dead—no need to make a fuss."
The officer bowed. "Understood!" He stepped back, then added, "Oh, sir, Zhou Lian, the young master of the Zhou family, is said to be heading our way."
"The Zhou family? As in the household of Grand Preceptor Zhou, the top official of the court? Pass the word—greet him well when he arrives."
"Yes."
"This Grand Preceptor Zhou wields immense power and still sends his younger kin to learn mystical arts. Could he be trying to become an immortal?" the official muttered to himself, then shook his head.
"Drink this bowl of medicine. Today, you can help your master succeed!" Xuan Jizi handed Xu Xiaoya a bowl of reddish liquid. Xu Xiaoya nearly gagged from the bloody stench.
Xuan Jizi narrowed his eyes. "What? Do you need your master to feed you?"
He had recently gathered plenty of materials and was fully confident in this alchemy session. Once he finished the final purification of this Nine Yin body, achieving immortality was just within reach.
Xu Xiaoya shut her eyes and drank the blood-like medicine. Doggy was dead too—now she was utterly hopeless, practically wishing for death.
Xuan Jizi nodded approvingly. "Very well. Come with me to the alchemy chamber." As he turned, his fingers made a few quick calculations. "Strange. Not an auspicious day for alchemy today?"
He glanced back at Xu Xiaoya, thought of his preparations, and suddenly burst into laughter. "Man proposes! Man proposes! That cursed heaven, if you won't let me do it, I'll do it anyway!"
He grabbed Xu Xiaoya by the wrist and virtually dragged her toward the back courtyard.
As they passed through, he barked, "All of you, shut up!"
The "failed products" locked in the cages fell silent, staring out through the cracks in the wall with wild eyes.
Just as he was about to move on, a voice reached his ears.
"Old Buzzard, where are you off to?"
Xuan Jizi looked up in surprise. He saw a garishly dressed figure sitting in the path, blocking the way. "Disciple! You're still alive? You truly have good fortune!" He raised Xu Xiaoya's hand joyfully. "Just in time! Your master is fully prepared today—we can achieve the Great Dao!"
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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)
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!
