Meanwhile, in the real world.
With the beginning of the new campaign, the progress of the third stage had begun appearing on the sky screen above Huaxia.
That in itself was nothing unusual.
Huaxia’s progress in the second stage had already been completed three days ago. The reason it had not advanced to the third stage until now—even outsiders could guess—was probably that there was some prerequisite that required a certain amount of time to pass.
What countless other countries found completely unacceptable was that, apart from Huaxia, not a single country had completed the second stage.
Not one!
The better-performing countries were currently at 50% of the second stage, having cleared the Lumber Mill and the Quarry. The weaker ones were only at 25%, having cleared just the Lumber Mill.
As for the remaining 50%—the Orchid River Outpost—they simply could not take it down.
Since they could not see what was happening inside the battlefields, they had no way of understanding it. “How is it that things look so easy for Huaxia? Why do you all fall apart the moment you try it?”
Even if they admitted that Huaxia’s people were impressive, there shouldn’t be such a huge gap between them, right?
They were already three days behind!
The sky screen displayed Huaxia’s achievement in clear figures: 1734%.
They had taken roughly six hours. In other words, the normal pace was four to five days.
Only three days had passed so far, but many of the others had hidden classes, didn’t they?
By all rights, they should have performed better. They shouldn’t really need four or five days, should they?
What the people outside did not know was that Liu Xuan had played a major role in all of this.
If the people from the various countries had obediently spent two or three days leveling up, then under the leadership of their hidden-class users, they might have had a chance of taking the outpost.
The problem was that after Liu Xuan became the first person to clear the second stage, the results screen made it look far too easy.
Although some people understood that it was because Liu Xuan was exceptionally powerful, they still couldn’t help underestimating the challenge.
They thought that since Liu Xuan, with a score of 100, had defeated monsters with a score of 60, then as long as they had a score of 60, they could do the same.
The reality, however, was this: Liu Xuan, with a score of 1,000, had defeated monsters with a score of 100. And yet those people, with their measly score of 60, actually thought they could challenge them?
As a result, many people rushed to challenge the outpost, only to run into the Kua Nie and get a harsh lesson.
To make matters worse, failing the outpost battle meant waiting three days before they could challenge it again. That was why so many countries were currently stuck at 50%.
One by one, they cursed Liu Xuan in their hearts:
“Why? Why was it so easy for you?”
“Do you have any idea how badly you’ve screwed us over?”
…
After crossing the river, Liu Xuan found himself facing a vast expanse of muddy marshland.
There should originally have been a paved stone road running through it, but it had long since been completely destroyed.
Only a few remnants of white stone remained, poking out of the mud. From a distance, they looked like a broken chalk line drawn across a black marsh.
Moving through the marsh was extremely difficult. Fortunately, Liu Xuan had the Waterlogged Boots dropped by the Kua Nie.
Waterlogged Boots
Effect: Maintains normal movement speed in muddy terrain.
Liu Xuan walked through the marsh as if it were solid ground, completely unaffected by the terrain.
However, as soon as he entered the marsh, the monsters living there also emerged.
They were upright frogs standing on two legs, each carrying a bizarre assortment of weapons. Some wielded swords, spears, or bows, while others even carried slings.
Marsh Frogman Spearman
Level: 11
Attack: 100
Health: 1,600
Armor: 20
Magic Resistance: 25
Skill: [Ambush] Marsh Frogmen occasionally conceal themselves in the mud during battle, breaking enemy skill locks and briefly avoiding detection.
The frogmen wielding different weapons only had slightly different attack values.
Some of the people who had set out earlier were already clearing monsters in the area.
Liu Xuan watched as the frogmen fought, then suddenly burrowed into the mud. They immediately disappeared from their attackers’ locks, only to launch surprise attacks from another location.
It was somewhat annoying, but not particularly difficult to deal with.
Liu Xuan deliberately found one of the monsters and wanted to see how the Eagle Spirit Companion fought.
The result was that the Marsh Frogman Archer had only just fired an arrow at him when the Nightmare Incarnation instantly killed it.
The Eagle Spirit Companion perched on his shoulder let out a spirited screech and flew out dramatically. But before it could even reach the middle of the air, its target was already gone.
It turned back and gave Liu Xuan a bewildered look before its figure gradually faded away.
Against the second monster, the Eagle Spirit Companion had learned its lesson. This time, it took off without making a sound.
But it was still too slow.
Liu Xuan tried several more times afterward, but the result was the same every time. The Eagle Spirit Companion simply couldn’t act before the monster was dead.
By the end, Liu Xuan felt that there was a hint of melancholy in the eagle’s gaze whenever it looked at him.
But there was nothing he could do. The damage from [Fear] was simply too high right now, and it activated instantly. Any monster it touched died on the spot.
Presumably, the little fellow would only have a chance to act when they fought a boss.
Since he couldn’t learn anything from the test, Liu Xuan stopped paying attention to it and continued hurrying onward.
After leaving the marsh and crossing another stretch of plains, he arrived at a dilapidated little village.
He had run for more than two hours without stopping. Whenever he encountered monsters, he ignored them completely and simply charged ahead.
Occasionally, he came across forks in the road. Although he felt that they might hide some side quests, he still chose not to investigate.
Those could be left to Zhang Meng and the large force he would lead later.
The village Liu Xuan had reached was called Yellow Ox Village. Like the Novice Village, it was surrounded by vast tracts of farmland, but all of them had long since fallen into ruin.
Looking north from the village, he could see the outline of a city roughly two or three li away.
That was Orenburg.
Yellow Ox Village had once been attached to Orenburg, providing the city with food.
According to the Novice Village Chief, the secret passage connected to his key was located somewhere in this village.
What surprised Liu Xuan was that when he arrived, there were only a few monster corpses in the village. Judging by their condition, they had been killed only recently.
“Could someone have gotten here faster than me?”
Impossible.
Putting aside his [Fleetfooted] ability, the monsters along the road alone should have been more than enough to stop everyone else.
The monsters Liu Xuan had encountered near the village were already above Level 15, while he was currently only Level 14—the number one player on the level rankings.
“If it wasn’t another player, then did some other monster kill them? Or perhaps… an NPC?”
Puzzled, Liu Xuan carefully entered the village.
Whatever the case, he first needed to find the secret passage mentioned by the village chief.
Most of the buildings in the village had been burned down, leaving behind nothing but shattered walls and ruins. Even the trees had been burned to nothing.
Fortunately, the village wasn’t very large. Liu Xuan searched the buildings one by one and soon found what he was looking for.
It was a house that had completely collapsed. One corner of the stone steps in front of it was missing.
Judging from the traces, the damage had occurred a long time ago. The broken section showed obvious signs of wear, completely unlike the damage suffered by the other buildings.
After confirming the location, Liu Xuan examined the old house before him. The entire roof had caved in, and several walls had collapsed as well.
He circled around it, found where the window had once been, and climbed inside.
He had been somewhat worried that the entrance to the secret passage might have been buried, but fortunately, the roofs of these houses were made of wood, with only the walls built from stone. In the end, Liu Xuan found the entrance beneath a tabletop that had been burned halfway through.
He moved the tabletop aside and lifted the stone slab in the floor, revealing a keyhole underneath.
Liu Xuan took out the key the village chief had given him and inserted it. It felt stiff as he turned it with force. From beneath the ground came the strained sound of machinery laboriously grinding into motion.
“Click-clack, click-clack…”
“Crack!”
In the middle of it all, there came a strange noise, as though something had suddenly snapped.
“Oh no. Could something inside the mechanism have gone wrong?”
Fortunately, after a burst of shrill scraping, the mechanism continued to turn with difficulty.
The ground opened along with it, revealing a pitch-black entrance. From deep within the passage seeped a faint, eerie blue glow.
Liu Xuan glanced behind him, then leaped down into the passage.
And not long after he had descended, two figures quietly slipped into the same house.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
