When Liu Xuan arrived in front of the town hall, he discovered that the barrier blocking the entrance had disappeared.
However, the doorway was still covered by a blue curtain of light. It looked somewhat like the portals used by the Ravagers.
The only difference was that the portals were irregular rifts, while this was a perfectly flat sheet of light.
Liu Xuan reached out and placed his hand against it, only to find that his arm passed straight through.
The battle objective had been written in plain terms: the next step was to retake the town hall.
So Liu Xuan didn’t overthink it. He simply stepped inside.
It felt like passing through a curtain of water. The scene before his eyes changed in an instant.
It wasn’t the interior of the town hall as he had imagined. Instead, it was a… stadium?
Liu Xuan discovered that he was standing at the center of a gigantic circular arena. The stands surrounding him were packed with Ravagers.
Their appearance, however, differed somewhat from the ones Liu Xuan had seen in the city.
Their bodies were covered in insect-like armor plates, making them look even stronger and more imposing.
Their colors were also varied. They weren’t limited to green and red—there were Ravagers of every color imaginable.
In the most luxurious section at the center of the stands sat a bloated golden Ravager several meters tall.
Several trays were placed before it, all filled with bloody meat and bones.
There was even a human head.
Liu Xuan looked around at his surroundings. The ground beneath his feet was yellow sand mixed with bloodstains and some unidentifiable fragments of biological tissue.
Clearly, countless people had fought and died here.
At that moment, a white Ravager flapped its wings and flew down from the stands, hovering in midair above the arena.
It hissed several times. Liu Xuan couldn’t understand a word, but he saw all the surrounding Ravagers grow excited and let out sharp cries after hearing it.
There was only one notification in front of Liu Xuan:
[Try your best to enrage the Golden Blade Lord and force it to enter the battle.]
Other than that, there was nothing else.
The Golden Blade Lord was most likely the golden Ravager sitting above him.
While Liu Xuan was wondering how to provoke it, the iron gate on the opposite side of the arena suddenly opened, and a red Ravager walked out.
[Minor Ravager (Mutated Elite)]
Level: 22
Attack: 500
Health: 10,000
Armor: 70
Magic Resistance: 60
Skills: [Rapid Slash: Performs a series of rapid slashes, dealing 500 physical damage 3–5 times.]
[Cut: Delivers a powerful attack with its forelimbs, inflicting 1,500 points of physical damage over 10 seconds.]
[Flame Spray: Spits out a special fluid from its body sacs. Upon contact with the air, it transforms into a high-temperature liquid that inflicts “Burn” damage on enemies.]
This creature was similar to the red Ravager Liu Xuan had encountered earlier, but it was an elite variant.
Its health had more than doubled.
Liu Xuan glanced at his Intelligence stat. With 1,900 points, [Nightmare Incarnation] couldn’t kill it instantly.
As soon as the red Ravager appeared, the audience erupted into cheers. The creature let out two excited hisses of its own, then flapped its wings and charged toward Liu Xuan, swinging its scythe-like forelimbs.
“Rapid Slash!”
Having fought the Ravagers so many times, Liu Xuan immediately recognized the motion it made before using [Rapid Slash]. He directly activated [Heavenly Man] to counter it.
The red Ravager’s scythe had only made it halfway through its swing when it suddenly froze. It was then inflicted with [Fear] and sent staggering away.
By the time it recovered and turned around, it had already died from the tremendous poison damage of [Source of Plague].
“-15,642!”
“Killed [Minor Ravager (Mutated Elite)]. Gained 100 experience.”
“Killed a poisoned monster. Base health +1.”
“[Heavenly Man] count +1.”
Not bad. Although it hadn’t increased his Intelligence, [Heavenly Man] had gained another stack.
At present, the count had reached 357/1,000.
Liu Xuan looked up at the Golden Blade Lord in the stands.
The creature remained completely unmoved. It merely cut off a piece of meat with one of its forelimbs and tossed it into its mouth.
Not only did it not seem angry, it actually looked rather entertained. If anything, its appetite seemed to have improved.
“Could simply killing monsters not be enough to provoke it?”
After thinking for a moment, Liu Xuan looked at the corpse of the red Ravager on the ground. He walked over, planted one foot on its head, then raised his weapon in a provocative gesture.
He shouted, “Who’s next?!”
“Hiss!”
Although the Ravagers in the stands couldn’t understand what Liu Xuan was saying, they could understand his arrogant posture.
One after another, they stood up and roared angrily at him.
Yet the Golden Blade Lord at the very top still looked completely indifferent.
Perhaps a single elite minion simply wasn’t worth getting angry over.
Just then, the white Ravager flew out again and said a few more words. The audience once again erupted into cheers.
Liu Xuan now more or less understood what was happening. It was probably introducing the next opponent.
Sure enough, the iron gate opposite him opened again.
This time, the creature that emerged looked different from the other Ravagers.
If ordinary Ravagers looked like humans fused with locusts and mantises, then the one before him looked more like a stag beetle.
It had a humanoid form, but its entire body was covered in black skin, and its mouth consisted of a pair of enormous pincers.
“How do these things kiss with mouths like that?” Liu Xuan wondered silently.
[Ironjaw Ravager (Boss)]
Level: 24
Attack: 1,000
Health: 110,000
Armor: 150
Magic Resistance: 150
Tenacity: 40%
Skills: [Impact: Charges recklessly across the arena five consecutive times, dealing 1,500 physical damage and stunning any enemy it collides with for 2 seconds each time.]
[Heavy Pincer Attack: Clamps down on an enemy with its iron jaws, dealing a minimum of 1,000 damage. The lower the enemy’s health, the higher the damage, up to a maximum of 2,400.]
[Corrosive Blood: When damaged, spills corrosive blood that inflicts the “Poisoned” status on anyone it touches.]
The Ironjaw Ravager swaggered into the arena and began waving its enormous pincers around. When the two jaws clashed together, they produced a sound like metal striking metal.
Liu Xuan thought to himself that if he wanted to make the Golden Blade Lord lose its temper, he would have to try something more extreme.
Thus, when the Ironjaw Ravager provoked him, he simply turned around and faced away from the boss.
He pointed at the back of his neck, then beckoned disdainfully with one hand.
You think those pincers of yours are so powerful?
“Come on, take a swing right here.”
After saying that, he even put away his shield and weapon, standing there with his arms crossed in a posture of utter contempt.
The Ironjaw Ravager instantly went berserk.
It couldn’t understand human speech, but it could understand Liu Xuan’s gestures.
Opening its massive jaws, it charged toward him.
“Hiss!”
I’ll bite your head clean off!
And Liu Xuan actually remained with his back turned, arms folded across his chest, without moving an inch.
The Ironjaw Ravager flew into a rage. It showed no mercy, clamping its jaws around Liu Xuan’s neck and biting down with all its strength.
Liu Xuan remained completely unmoved.
Instead, it was inflicted with [Fear].
By the time it recovered, the boss had already been afflicted with [Poisoned].
A single hit dealt a whopping 15,000 damage!
However, after being injured, the Ironjaw Ravager also sprayed some green blood onto Liu Xuan.
Corrosive Blood activated, poisoning Liu Xuan as well.
But even though it was the same Poisoned status, the damage was considerably lower—just over 5,000.
Well, 5,000 is still no small amount.
This was already the strongest enemy Liu Xuan had encountered so far—at least in terms of the damage it could inflict.
The value of Poisoned keeps rising.
But unfortunately, your life is already flickering like a candle in the wind!
Unlike you, I can regenerate health during combat.
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.
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."
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
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.
