When Stefan saw Liu Xuan standing beside the phylactery, he was scared out of his wits.
No, that wasn’t quite right. If he couldn’t stop Liu Xuan, then he really would be reduced to a wandering soul.
Normally, liches were extremely careful with their phylacteries.
Although a phylactery itself was very fragile, its owner could hide it somewhere so well that no one would ever find it. They could also set up layers upon layers of formations around it, making it impossible to reach even if someone did discover it.
But Stefan wasn’t an ordinary lich. He was… incredibly unlucky.
Not long after becoming a lich, he had eagerly begun gathering materials to make his own phylactery. After all, having an extra life made a huge difference.
During that time, he had devoted nearly all his attention to the task and had no time to worry about anything else.
Then, just after the box was finished, the monsters from the north launched their attack.
At that point, Stefan could still be called a “newbie” lich. His mind simply hadn’t caught up yet.
Just as Liu Xuan had mocked him, instead of keeping a low profile and quietly making a fortune while he had the chance, he had panicked and immediately gone into hiding.
Since he hadn’t had time to prepare a proper hiding place, he could only take the phylactery with him and hide alongside it.
And that was how Liu Xuan had managed to seize his fatal weakness today.
“Stop! We can talk this out!”
Liu Xuan placed one hand on the phylactery and suddenly lost all sense of urgency. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I… I—before I became a lich, I was a noble of Orenburg. My family has quite a lot of wealth hidden away. I can give it all to you!”
Liu Xuan seemed somewhat interested. “Where is it?”
“In Orenburg. As for the exact location, loosen your grip first and move away from it. Then I’ll tell you.”
“You’re in no position to bargain with me. Tell me the location first. My friends are in Orenburg right now, and I can contact them at any time. They can verify whether what you said is true.”
“In Orenburg?” Stefan was shocked. “But isn’t that place…”
“That has nothing to do with you.” Liu Xuan nudged the phylactery toward the edge of the platform.
Seeing half the box already hanging over empty space, Stefan hurriedly said, “It’s in the eastern part of the nobles’ district! There’s a house with a statue of a swordsman at the entrance. It probably hasn’t been completely destroyed. The treasure is hidden beneath a stone in the kitchen!”
Liu Xuan nodded. “I’ll have someone check it right now.”
“How long will that take?”
“Don’t rush me. I’m asking.”
“I…”
How could Stefan not be anxious?
His eagle-spirit companion was still attacking him without pause, and he had less than one hundred thousand HP left.
“Call off that bird of yours!”
“Look at you getting all worked up again. You were a noble once, weren’t you? Couldn’t you use more civilized, healthier language? What do you mean, ‘call off your bird’?”
Liu Xuan seemed to have finished contacting someone and turned back to Stefan. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with what you said.”
Stefan had just begun to relax.
“So—goodbye.”
Liu Xuan suddenly picked up the phylactery and smashed it violently against the floor.
The box shattered into pieces at once. A chill swept through the entire cellar, accompanied by a faint, horrifying scream.
A wisp of soul drifted out of the broken box, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
“Ahhh!”
Stefan let out a scream of agony, his entire face twisting in pain.
The destruction of his phylactery had dealt him a severe mental blow.
“You… you bastard liar!” He glared venomously at Liu Xuan. “You were stalling for time the whole time!”
Liu Xuan smiled. “You were simply too stupid. I managed to trick you twice in a row.”
“I’ll fight you to the death!”
Stefan roared, then turned and ran.
Liu Xuan followed leisurely behind him.
Hearing the footsteps behind him, Stefan really wanted to turn around and hit Liu Xuan with another Gaze of Decay to slow him down.
But he knew he couldn’t. If he did, the reflected damage would kill him!
“I have to put some distance between us!”
Whatever this accursed bird was—an ability or a pet—as long as he got far enough away, it would surely return.
So he had no choice but to do this!
Stefan’s Micro-management Master ability activated. He secretly issued orders to the surviving skeleton soldiers outside, commanding them all to head toward the cellar.
The instant he charged out of the cellar, Liu Xuan followed behind him, only to run straight into several skeleton soldiers.
And there were many more behind them. They didn’t attack. Instead, they all stretched out their arms and moved toward Liu Xuan, attempting to hold him down.
The corner of Liu Xuan’s mouth lifted as he looked at Stefan’s back, only one or two steps away.
“I’m afraid your earlier test was incomplete.”
“What?!”
“Who told you I have to be hit before I can reflect damage?”
The moment Liu Xuan finished speaking, the skeletons trying to grab him exploded.
With his current HP, Corpse Explosion dealt more than 34,000 points of true damage in a single blast. And all around the two of them were skeleton soldiers that had been gathered here through Stefan’s micromanagement.
Stefan died in a scream, just as expected.
“You have slain the lich Stefan Walsh and gained 1,600 experience points.”
“You have slain a low-level undead and gained 18 experience points.”
“You have slain an undead soldier and gained 20 experience points.”
“…”
Stefan had fallen, but Liu Xuan didn’t look pleased. Instead, he frowned.
Today, he had taken advantage of the Eye of Insight and happened to seize Stefan’s weakness.
Otherwise, defeating him would truly have been troublesome.
“Why can’t I get a skill that lets me take the initiative for once?”
Liu Xuan sighed.
He was already level twenty. He had drawn nineteen passive abilities in total, yet still hadn’t gotten what he wanted.
While he was brooding over the matter, he failed to notice that the skeleton soldiers that hadn’t been granting him experience before had begun doing so after Stefan’s death.
Because of Stefan’s orders, they had all gathered nearby, allowing Liu Xuan to wipe out nearly every one of them in a single sweep. His experience was skyrocketing.
Combined with the experience from Stefan himself, Liu Xuan—who had already been close to leveling up—finally reached the required amount.
When the slot machine appeared before him, he stared blankly for a moment before realizing that he had leveled up. He casually pulled the lever.
Thunder Aura: Every 5 seconds, automatically summon a bolt of heavenly lightning against hostile targets within a 30-meter radius, dealing 100 points of fixed damage. If the lightning kills a target, and it is the first time that type of target has been killed by the lightning, the lightning’s damage permanently increases by an amount equal to that target’s maximum HP. Killing warrior-type targets cannot increase the damage.
Liu Xuan blinked at the new passive ability. It took several seconds before he finally understood what its exact effect meant.
Then he was overcome with ecstasy.
It had come! The damage-dealing aura he had dreamed of had finally arrived!
In simple terms, the skill could initially deal only 100 points of fixed damage.
However, if he used it to kill a monster—and it was the first time he had killed that type of monster—then the passive’s damage would permanently increase by that monster’s maximum HP.
For example, if the lightning killed a Hopping Rabbit with 100 HP, its damage would increase to 200.
If it then killed a vicious hound with 150 HP, its damage would increase to 350.
In short, there were two restrictions:
First, the damage would increase only the first time the lightning killed a monster of a particular type.
Second, striking people doesn’t count.
Still, with just a little thought, it’s clear that this skill has limitless potential and an incredibly high ceiling.
If he could control it just right and have the heavenly lightning deliver the finishing blow to a boss with tens of thousands of HP, it could add tens of thousands of points of damage outright!
As long as he farms enough data, this skill’s upper limit will be even higher than [Poison]!
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?”
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."
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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...
