While checking his passive abilities, Liu Xuan did not forget to keep moving. By now, he could already see the gates of Orenburg in the distance.
However, he soon noticed two figures lurking suspiciously beneath the city wall, poking their heads out every now and then.
“How did people get here? The defensive battle hasn’t even started yet. Could someone already be here to scout for information?”
But he quickly realized that they were probably NPCs.
After all, the commotion caused by him ringing the huge bell earlier had been enormous. It was perfectly normal for some NPC survivors capable of making their own way here to come to Orenburg and take a look.
Liu Xuan had guessed correctly. The two people were Gina and her older brother.
After hearing the bell, Gina had been determined to come to Orenburg and see what had happened. Her brother had been too worried to let her go alone, so he had followed her.
But when they arrived, they discovered that the city looked no different from before. Monsters still roamed everywhere.
“How could this be? Why are the monsters still here? Then who rang that huge bell?”
Gina looked utterly confused, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.
The monsters were still there, which meant that the city had not been reclaimed.
Her brother tugged at her arm. “Gina, we need to leave. If we stay any longer and the monsters spot us, we’ll be in trouble.”
“How could this happen?”
Gina fell silent for a moment before nodding.
She did not stubbornly insist on staying, but she could not hide the disappointment in her heart.
Her brother patted her on the shoulder. “Come on.”
“Mm…”
The two had just begun to move when they suddenly heard someone approaching.
Years of surviving in harsh conditions made them instinctively look for a place to hide.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere to conceal themselves beneath the city wall.
The only option was to enter the city through the nearby gate, but walking straight in would be no different from seeking death.
Just as the two were growing frantic, they saw a figure sprinting toward them.
“We can’t hide anymore. Get ready to fight, but don’t attack first!”
“Got it!”
Both of them were well-trained scouts. They quickly recognized the figure as the young man they had seen in Yellow Ox Village—the one who had entered the secret passage.
If nothing unexpected had happened, then he was probably the one who had rung the huge bell in the city.
But why had he appeared outside the city?
The siblings tightened their grips on their weapons and waited for him to approach.
……
Liu Xuan came running over and spotted the two standing on guard in the distance. He was worried that these NPCs might suddenly do something stupid and put an arrow through him. If they died, that would be a real headache.
He quickly shouted from afar, “You two are survivors from nearby, right? I came from the southern bank of the Orchid River. I’m a member of the Northern Expedition Army.”
Captain Finch had referred to everyone who had crossed the river that way, so Liu Xuan simply borrowed the title when speaking to the NPCs.
Gina and her brother exchanged a stunned glance.
The southern bank of the Orchid River? The Northern Expedition Army?
“You came from across the river? There are still survivors over there?”
“Of course. There are quite a lot of people. After developing for a while, we eliminated all the threats on that side and rebuilt the bridge across the river. Now we’re trying to reclaim this land. Oh, right—Orenburg has already been liberated. You heard the bell earlier, didn’t you?”
Gina could not help asking, “We did, but why are there still so many monsters in the city?”
Liu Xuan chuckled. “We left them there on purpose. You can think of them as training targets for our soldiers. But don’t worry—we’ll clear them all out within a day. At most, it’ll take one day.”
Training targets…
They were using such terrifying monsters for training?
The explanation was a little hard to believe, but Gina and her brother largely accepted what Liu Xuan had said. After all, the bell they had heard was undeniable proof.
Then excitement surged through them.
There were actually survivors to the south—and they had formed an army to fight their way back!
Seeing that the two had lowered their guard, Liu Xuan slowly walked up to them.
“There are only the two of you? Are there any other survivors nearby?”
Gina’s brother nodded. “That’s right. We’re the only two still alive.”
Although they believed Liu Xuan, they could not possibly bare their hearts to a stranger right away. They had to be especially cautious when it came to the whereabouts of other survivors.
Liu Xuan could tell that they were not being entirely honest, but he did not care. Once the monsters had been cleared out tomorrow, they would naturally know the truth.
Just then, Gina asked, “Are you going to clear out all these monsters by yourself?”
Liu Xuan replied with a beaming smile, “The main force is right behind me and will be here soon. If you two are willing, you can join us and help clear the city.”
“We…”
“Sure!”
Her brother had been about to refuse and take the opportunity to return to their hideout to tell the others what was happening, but Gina agreed without hesitation.
She had been longing to see her old home.
Liu Xuan did not give them a chance to change their minds. He immediately welcomed them.
“Wonderful! We’ll wait here for a little while. The others will be here soon.”
While they waited, Liu Xuan did not ask them any more questions.
It was obvious that the NPCs were still wary of him. They would have to see the truth with their own eyes before the barriers between them could be completely removed.
Before long, Zhang Meng and the others finally arrived.
Liu Xuan introduced the two NPCs to him, then said, “Let’s not waste any more time. We’ll enter the city now. Everyone, stay behind me. Follow the groups we assigned along the way. Whenever we reach a teleportation gate, leave one team behind to guard it.”
They had already discussed everything on the journey, so no one had anything to add. They followed Liu Xuan into the city.
Gina and her brother brought up the rear, whispering to each other.
“Brother, these people don’t seem all that strong. Are they really the Northern Expedition Army? Can they actually reclaim Orenburg?”
Her brother frowned, looking just as puzzled. “But they’re about to enter the city and face the monsters. They wouldn’t risk their lives for no reason, would they? Either way, Gina, be careful later. If anything seems wrong, run immediately.”
“Mm.”
As they entered the city, Gina and her brother stared at the ruins stretching before them, their hearts filled with complicated emotions.
The city was full of damaged buildings. There were barely any houses left intact, and they had no idea whether their old home had survived.
“Look! The people up ahead have run into the monsters!”
“Stay alert!”
Liu Xuan, who was leading the group, had already collided with the monsters.
Gina and her brother were eager to see how strong these people really were. But then they watched as the young man at the front charged straight into the horde without the slightest hint of caution.
Their hearts tightened.
Could this group really have come here just to throw their lives away?
The next second, however, the two of them were dumbfounded.
The moment the monsters touched Liu Xuan, they began dropping in swathes, like wheat being cut down.
Their corpses exploded with loud cracks. Then the monsters all around them began bursting one after another.
It was as if an invisible force had crushed everything in its path!
In a matter of moments, nothing remained but corpses scattered across the ground.
“Collect the loot quickly, then keep up.”
Liu Xuan gave the order while continuing onward.
With twenty-seven or twenty-eight times the normal experience bonus, even the Destroyers—which had originally awarded only one point of experience—looked much more pleasing to him now.
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."
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
