Xuan Jizi stared at his chest in disbelief as three black souls pinned his shoulders tightly. Fang Zhiyi sidestepped his hand and pierced his heart with a single thrust of his sword.
Xuan Jizi’s gaze gradually faded. He raised his hand slowly toward the sky.
“Become an immortal…”
Fang Zhiyi paid him no attention. “This sword is really handy. I wonder where he got it.”
He pulled out the blade and turned around. Behind him, the three black souls fumbled to extract Xuan Jizi’s spirit.
“Let’s go,” Fang Zhiyi said lightly as he passed by Xu Xiaoya.
Xu Xiaoya’s body trembled slightly. Gousheng had killed someone.
She had seen Gousheng kill someone!
Fang Zhiyi looked back, a little puzzled. “What? You want to stay a while longer?”
Xu Xiaoya shivered. But just as she stepped forward, something struck her. “What about those houses…”
She had stayed here for a few days and knew all too well what was inside them.
Xuan Jizi had used the abducted “disciples” as test subjects for his elixirs. Some exploded upon swallowing the pills; some bled from every orifice. A few survived, but those who did were clearly no longer normal. In his madness, Xuan Jizi had tried to lecture these living monsters, but when they refused to obey, he simply locked them up in those houses.
Xu Xiaoya had seen one of them once—a person writhing multiple faces sprouting from its chest. It made her scalp crawl.
Fang Zhiyi didn’t even blink. “I understand. All pitiful souls.”
He snapped his fingers. “Get to work.”
The black souls scattered. Soon, the two rows of houses fell silent. Xu Xiaoya watched Gao Mingzhi drift out, stuffing something into his mouth without stopping. She couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, but with every bite, Gao Mingzhi’s body seemed to grow larger.
“We can go now,” Fang Zhiyi said, suddenly turning to Xu Xiaoya. “Kindness is a good thing, but in this world, kindness might lead you to a grave without a tomb.” He paused, thinking better of what he was about to say.
Xu Xiaoya followed him with her head down, watching him rummage through everything, nearly cleaning out Xuan Jizi’s belongings.
She didn’t ask what had happened to the other controlled disciples. She had a faint guess, but she only had Gousheng now. Even if Gousheng turned bad, he was still Gousheng.
Fang Zhiyi grinned, shouldering a bulging bundle. “Little Black, when I first made contact with that guy, it didn’t trigger a plot, but it triggered his life memories… So, have you been hiding something from me?”
Xiaoxiaohei shook its head. “Host, no.”
“That bastard had golden merit light? And you call that nothing?”
Xiaoxiaohei nodded. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Play it again for me!” Fang Zhiyi demanded.
Xiaoxiaohei nodded. “Alright.”
Xu Xiaoya had no idea what was wrong with Fang Zhiyi. She pressed herself fearfully against his arm, clinging tightly. After an unknown amount of time, Fang Zhiyi suddenly opened his eyes.
“I get it.”
“Gousheng? What do you get?”
“Never mind that for now. Follow me.”
“Where?”
“I’ll show you the world.” Fang Zhiyi patted the bundle on his chest. “We’ve got money.”
Two unremarkable young Daoists arrived in Huaijiang City, wearing shabby old robes. Their appearance didn’t draw much attention.
Compared to Fang Zhiyi’s carefree attitude, Xu Xiaoya seemed timid and uneasy.
“Chin up! Chest out!” Fang Zhiyi said. “Don’t act like a thief. The more afraid you look, the more people will notice you.”
Xu Xiaoya lowered her voice. “Gousheng, we… we killed someone…”
Fang Zhiyi was taken aback. “I was the one who killed. What’s that got to do with you?”
“Isn’t it the same… How dare you come into the city? And what about Young Master Gao…”
“What? Want to take him down? Want me to call him out for a Thomas spin?”
Xu Xiaoya didn’t understand what a Thomas spin meant, but at the thought of Gao Mingzhi covered in black smoke, she quickly shook her head.
“You’ve been skulking this whole time. Are you trying to ask if Gao Mingzhi is dead?”
Xu Xiaoya stared blankly at Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi shrugged carelessly. “He’s dead. I killed him.”
“Gousheng, you…”
Fang Zhiyi suddenly bumped her. Xu Xiaoya shut her mouth immediately. Up ahead, people on the street scattered to both sides as two figures approached. One was wrapped tightly from head to toe; the other walked on stilts, a mocking grin on his face.
Fang Zhiyi lowered his head, catching only a glimpse. A black wooden tag hung from the stilt-walker’s waist, with three words clearly legible: “Qin Tian Jian” (Imperial Astronomical Bureau).
He frowned, thinking to himself. He could feel the man’s gaze lingering on him deliberately.
“Oh, look—two little Daoists over here.”
“Don’t cause trouble. Let’s go. We’re already behind on business.”
“Tch, I say Grand Preceptor Zhou is making a mountain out of a molehill. Just because some junior in his family ran into trouble, he sends us two brothers out.”
“Cut the chatter. Walls have ears.”
“There are no walls in the street!” The stilt-walker laughed. “So, is that joke funny or what?”
The tightly wrapped man ignored him and kept walking forward.
Fang Zhiyi heard the voices fade and looked up, only to catch the stilt-walker glancing back at him with a grin, revealing two rows of teeth as white as bone.
Fang Zhiyi smiled back with a simple nod as a greeting. The stilt-walker laughed even more, then followed his companion away.
“Imperial Astronomical Bureau…” Fang Zhiyi’s face turned grim. Grand Preceptor Zhou? Looks like something happened to Zhou Lian. It’s good to have a rich family background—even in a broken world like this, cultivators get backers.
He took Xu Xiaoya to an inn. The waiter initially refused to serve two poor Daoists, but when Fang Zhiyi slammed some silver on the counter, the waiter did a complete 180. Xu Xiaoya, who had been about to drag Fang Zhiyi away, was stunned.
“See that? Money makes the world go ’round.”
Xu Xiaoya swallowed hard without saying a word.
So far, Fang Zhiyi hadn’t seen any sign of Xu Xiaoya turning into a villain.
Could it be that he had interfered too early?
But worrying about Xu Xiaoya wasn’t his priority now. With the Gao family wiped out, the incident involving him and Xu Xiaoya had been temporarily shelved. The city was relatively safe for the moment.
Fang Zhiyi washed up quickly and then took Xu Xiaoya out.
Xu Xiaoya had never been in a city before. Previously, she had been locked up or forbidden from going anywhere. Everything was new and fascinating to her.
For the first time, Xu Xiaoya showed the liveliness befitting her age.
“Gousheng, isn’t this pretty?”
“Gousheng, what’s that?”
“Gousheng, look at that person…”
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)
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
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?"
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
