Yeah, just a perfectly ordinary NPC, no different from the villagers in the village.
Bryce’s face lit up with excitement. “In that case, I’d better hurry home.”
Liu Xuan, however, was thinking that in a normal game, an NPC suddenly appearing here would most likely have a quest to offer. But this Promotion Battlefield was different, so it was hard to say.
He cautiously asked, “Did you escape when the monsters took over the village?”
“You could say that, and you could also say you couldn’t.” Bryce hesitated before finally sighing. “Well, there’s no harm in telling you. I doubt I’ll ever find that thing anyway.”
As expected, there was something to this!
“I’m the village hunter. Back when the village was still safe, I often came to this forest to hunt. A month ago, while chasing some prey, I saw a golden light shining from inside a tree hollow.”
“I thought I’d catch the prey first and come back to take a look. But when I returned, I couldn’t find that tree hollow anymore. I searched until nearly dark, then had no choice but to return to the village.”
“After that, I refused to give up and came back several times to search, but I never found it. Who could have imagined that one day, when I returned home, I’d discover the village had been overrun by monsters? With nowhere else to go, I could only hide in these woods.”
Liu Xuan glanced at the tree hollow behind Bryce. “So this is the one you found later?”
“No, it isn’t. I set up this tree hollow as a hideout a long time ago. Whenever I was out hunting and ran into rain or something similar, I’d stay here.”
Bryce shook his head. “But I’m certain that the tree hollow containing the treasure should be somewhere in this area.”
At that, Bryce’s smile returned. “I can’t be bothered to look for that treasure anymore. If you want to find it, you can give it a try. I need to hurry home. My family must be worried sick.”
With that, he handed Liu Xuan a sheet of paper so crumpled it was almost beyond recognition. “This map shows some of the places I’ve already searched. You can use it to look around.”
“You’ll be able to make it back on your own?”
“No problem. I’ve been in these woods countless times. They won’t give me any trouble.”
After thanking Liu Xuan, Bryce left excitedly.
Liu Xuan began considering whether he should search for the so-called treasure.
This battlefield was completely different from the games he usually played. The wilderness was full of monsters, yet he had never seen anything like a treasure chest. NPCs outside were also exceedingly rare.
But judging from Bell, who had been able to level up earlier, the few NPCs encountered in the wilderness were probably all extremely important. With that in mind, he decided he should at least look for the treasure.
Liu Xuan analyzed the situation. Bryce had probably been hiding here for quite some time. Logically speaking, he should have already searched the surrounding area. If he still hadn’t found it, then the treasure probably wasn’t simply lying inside some tree hollow.
Even if Liu Xuan searched the trees one by one, he would likely end up with the same result.
Still, he had no better option at the moment. All he could do was search around blindly and see if he happened upon anything.
He unfolded the map Bryce had given him. It depicted the stream Liu Xuan had seen earlier, with a simple little house drawn beside it. That was probably meant to represent Bryce’s tree-hollow hideout.
Nearby, there was a long arrow marking the route Bryce had taken while chasing his prey.
The arrow was surrounded by three concentric circles, and an × had been drawn inside each one.
Liu Xuan guessed that they represented how Bryce had gradually expanded his search area.
The innermost circle was where he believed the treasure was most likely to be, but he hadn’t found it there, so he had no choice but to search farther out.
However, the area covered by the third circle was already enormous. Bryce hadn’t found anything there either. Was Liu Xuan really supposed to expand the search area even further?
That would make the search far too broad.
Although the others would still need another two or three days to finish their 10,000 tasks, Liu Xuan couldn’t afford to waste time searching blindly.
Staring at the map, Liu Xuan considered the matter from every angle. In the end, he still felt that the treasure was most likely in the innermost circle.
As an experienced hunter, Bryce surely had excellent eyesight and an impressive memory for routes.
Although he had only caught a hurried glimpse of the treasure at the time, with his experience, he should still have been able to locate the route along which he had chased his prey.
The route itself was correct, and the forest was dense enough that anything farther away would have been impossible to see. Therefore, the treasure could only be somewhere near that route.
Unless the treasure could move on its own.
With that thought, Liu Xuan decided to search the inner circle one more time. If he still found nothing, he wouldn’t have wasted much time and could continue farming attributes.
Using the locations of the tree hollows and streams marked on the map, Liu Xuan quickly found the route.
Bryce had even left some marks along the way.
As he followed the route, Liu Xuan observed the trees on either side.
He hadn’t held out much hope of finding the treasure. Yet, to his surprise, less than a minute after setting out, he spotted a massive tree on the left side of the route—at least three people would have needed to join hands to encircle its trunk.
At the base of the tree was a waist-high hollow, and inside it lay a treasure chest made entirely of gold.
“How could it be right beside the path? How did Bryce fail to find something this obvious?”
The location was completely within the innermost circle marked on the map. Bryce hadn’t searched the wrong area.
There must be something strange going on!
Finding it so easily made Liu Xuan even more alert.
Suppose this was the treasure chest Bryce had seen in the beginning. Why, then, had he been unable to find it when he returned later?
The chest was so conspicuous that when Bryce came back afterward, either the hollow had been blocked—or the tree itself had never been there at all.
Either way, there was definitely something wrong with this tree.
Liu Xuan shifted his gaze away from the treasure chest and focused intently on the enormous tree. The Insightful Eye immediately reacted.
[Fortune Treasure Tree (Special Boss)]
Level: 1
Health: 100,000
Armor: 1,000
Magic Resistance: 1,000
Skills: [Lucky One] Each person may encounter the Fortune Treasure Tree only once every ten thousand years. The Fortune Treasure Tree will appear only during that first encounter. After its treasure is taken, the Fortune Treasure Tree will fall into a long slumber.
[Give and Take] Before taking a treasure, one must first place another item inside. Otherwise, the Fortune Treasure Tree will disappear immediately.
[Nurture] Any item placed inside the Fortune Treasure Tree will gradually increase in quality over the course of many years.
[Peaceful] Upon being attacked, the Fortune Treasure Tree will disappear immediately.
This tree was actually a special boss!
After seeing the Fortune Treasure Tree’s skills, Liu Xuan finally understood why Bryce had been unable to find it afterward. It turned out that each person only had one chance to encounter it.
Moreover, judging from what had happened when he first came across it, this boss was a special type whose identity could not be discerned with the naked eye.
Liu Xuan had relied on the Insightful Eye. Everyone else would simply have assumed it was an ordinary tree. Upon seeing the treasure chest, they would naturally think it was loot that had spawned in the wilderness and eagerly try to take what was inside.
But because they hadn’t put another item inside first, the Fortune Treasure Tree would immediately disappear.
“This Eye of Insight is way too powerful. I never imagined it could be used like this.”
Liu Xuan was thrilled. Now that he knew the boss’s true nature, there was nothing left to worry about.
He confidently stepped into the hollow of the tree and reached out to open the gleaming golden treasure chest.
Inside were three items.
Liu Xuan’s eyes immediately landed on a round shield at the very bottom, glowing with a red light. It had a red outer ring and a white center, with a large…
Uh, a question mark?
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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."
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.
] [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!"
