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.
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
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.
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!
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."
