Liu Xuan had no idea that Newbie Village had descended into such chaos. By now, he had already broken through several checkpoints and climbed about halfway up Eagle Spirit Mountain. At last, he found the deserters’ hideout.
These guys had actually built a stone fortress in the mountains.
Two ballistae had been mounted on the corners of the fortress walls, one on each side. They looked intimidating enough.
Liu Xuan swept his gaze over them with the Eye of Insight, revealing the ballistae’s attributes in full.
[Military Ballista]
Level: —
Attack: 2,000
HP: 50,000
Description: A weapon of tremendous power. When operated by soldiers, it can be fired five times per minute.
The corner of Liu Xuan’s mouth twitched. These deserters had turned this place into a military fortress. Were they really deserters?
Just how terrifying were the enemies in the north that these people had fled all the way here and were still guarding themselves so carefully?
A line of archers was already standing on the walls, arrows nocked and ready as they stared down at the mountain.
It seemed the commotion from earlier had already alerted them.
Normally, taking this fortress would require bringing plenty of ranged attackers to suppress the two ballistae with overwhelming firepower.
Even if they couldn’t destroy them, they would at least need to stop the monsters from operating them.
With 2,000 attack, not to mention someone who had only just reached the required level of 13—even a level 15 player wouldn’t have many people capable of withstanding a shot.
However, the fortress had clearly been designed to force attackers to suppress the monsters controlling the ballistae with ranged fire.
Trying to tank the damage head-on was obviously unrealistic. The ballistae had far too much HP to be destroyed in a short time.
But none of that had anything to do with Liu Xuan. He simply strode toward the fortress’s main gate without a care in the world.
One of the soldiers on the wall had just shouted, “Stop!” when a man who looked like a captain immediately shoved him aside and yelled, “Fire! Fire!”
“Why the hell are you still talking to him? He’s killed so many of our brothers! Shoot him dead!”
A dense rain of arrows descended upon Liu Xuan. To the captain’s horror, the kid below was completely unharmed. Instead, his own soldiers began dying one after another, their faces frozen in terror as if they had suffered some terrible shock.
The captain hurriedly shouted, “Cease fire! Cease fire! Stop shooting! Use the ballistae! Hurry up and use the ballistae to kill him!”
What happened next made him question everything he knew about the world.
Both ballistae hit Liu Xuan, and the tremendous impact sent him staggering several meters backward.
But his HP bar had barely moved!
The captain was just about to order his men to continue the attack when the soldier operating one of the ballistae cried out in panic, “Captain! This is bad! Our ballistae are deteriorating rapidly!”
The captain hurriedly looked over. The two ballistae were already covered in cracks.
They had not been rendered completely unusable yet, but their condition was clearly far from good.
“Captain, should we keep using the ballistae?”
“Use my ass!”
The captain cursed furiously. “These ballistae are our treasures! We’re saving them to defend against those bastards from the north. If they’re completely destroyed, can you take responsibility? Go find the boss, now!”
As the soldier hurried off to report, the fortress instantly descended into chaos. Angry shouts and curses rang out without end.
Liu Xuan had been wondering how he would break in if they refused to open the gates, but before long, the fortress’s main gate actually opened on its own.
A one-eyed general wearing ornate armor and a saber at his waist stormed out, followed by more than a hundred soldiers.
[One-Eyed Hamovi (Boss)]
Level: 20
Attack: 700
HP: 80,000
Armor: 120
Magic Resistance: 70
Tenacity: 20%
Skills: [Advanced Training: By forming a battle formation, Hamovi can raise his own attributes to a certain degree. The extent of the increase depends on the number of Hamovi Soldiers in the formation.]
[Whirlwind Slash: Swings his weapon while spinning his body, continuously dealing damage equal to 70% of his Attack to all enemies in the surrounding area.]
[Call for Reinforcements: When Hamovi’s HP falls to 70%, he summons a new group of soldiers to aid him.]
[Flee: When Hamovi’s HP falls to 50%, he attempts to flee into the fortress.]
[Eagle Strike: When Hamovi’s HP falls to 20%, he heads to the fortress core and uses a secret treasure to launch a desperate counterattack.]
“This guy…”
A level 20 boss. His attributes were indeed very high.
And with Advanced Training, they would probably increase even further.
But what Liu Xuan really wanted to complain about were the last three skills. One called for reinforcements, another involved running away, and the third, Eagle Strike, sounded somewhat normal at first glance. But when he looked closely at the description—“heads to the fortress core”—wasn’t that just running away too?
No wonder you’re the leader of a bunch of deserters.
One-Eyed Hamovi stood there and shouted at Liu Xuan, “Where did you come from, brat? How dare you cause trouble on my turf!”
Liu Xuan burst out laughing. “You sure talk tough for a deserter.”
That clearly struck a nerve. Hamovi’s face darkened, and he flew into a rage.
“Looking for death! Brothers, get him! Kill him!”
The soldiers around Hamovi were clearly more elite than the ones down the mountain, but not by much.
Under Hamovi’s command, they formed a fairly orderly formation and charged at Liu Xuan as one.
Hamovi himself stayed mixed in with the crowd, using his men as cover.
It looked cautious enough, but in Liu Xuan’s eyes, this was nothing short of suicide.
Ever heard of Corpse Explosion?
If he had fought Liu Xuan one-on-one, he might have been able to make it through several stages of his skills. After all, Liu Xuan’s fear damage and poison damage only amounted to around 50,000 in total, which wouldn’t be enough to kill him.
But hiding timidly in the middle of a crowd?
Sorry, but that meant he was already dead.
Liu Xuan did not retreat. Instead, he charged straight into the enemy formation.
“Die!”
The soldiers at the front shouted as they swung their swords and blades at him. They were instantly slain by Nightmare Avatar.
Corpse Explosion triggered immediately afterward. Hamovi felt his heart seize, and his powerful survival instinct made him turn around and run toward the fortress.
Unfortunately, it was already too late. Corpse Explosion had spread to his surroundings.
Liu Xuan’s current maximum HP exceeded 220,000, and Corpse Explosion dealt more than 20,000 damage. Just four soldiers dying would be enough to take Hamovi down instantly.
And Hamovi had positioned himself right in the center of the formation for safety. With so many soldiers dying around him, his HP bar was wiped out in an instant.
“Argh—!”
With a scream of agony, Hamovi collapsed without managing to use a single skill.
“You killed [Hamovi Soldier (Level 15)] and gained 25 EXP.”
“You killed [Hamovi Soldier (Level 18)] and gained 35 EXP.”
“You killed [One-Eyed Hamovi] and gained 2,000 EXP.”
The levels of these monsters were extremely high. Liu Xuan was only level 13, so they were several levels above him and awarded a considerable amount of experience.
The level 20 boss Hamovi in particular had given him a full 2,000 EXP!
The corpses of more than a hundred soldiers and the boss had scattered loot all over the ground.
Most of it was a metal called [Fine Iron], along with around a dozen pieces of equipment.
Liu Xuan was surprised to discover that even the [Common]-quality equipment dropped by these minor monsters came with primary attributes. For example:
[Hamovi Soldier Greaves]
Quality: Common
Level Requirement: 13
Armor: +11
Strength: +1
The [Common] equipment Liu Xuan had seen before was just like [Crude] equipment—plain white gear that only granted armor.
He had been wondering what the difference was between the two qualities.
Now it seemed that [Common] equipment above level 10 might start coming with additional attributes.
But what Liu Xuan was even more curious about was what good stuff the boss would drop.
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.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
