At first, the reply section was just a sea of question marks, but words soon began to appear.
[OP, nice pics, bring more next time.]
[Which episode did I miss?]
[ID: CheerfulNetizen9527... A new account? I've been on this forum for so long and never seen this guy, still using the default avatar too.]
After a brief moment of confusion, when people clicked on the full-size images and looked through all nine photos one by one, the mood on the forum began to subtly shift.
The first picture was of Long Ao.
Half of the young man's body was soaked in blood, veins bulging on his muscular arms, as he let out a silent roar at some unseen entity outside the frame.
Behind him was the collapsed top of the tower, and beneath his feet were the remains of demonic beasts. That unyielding ruthlessness could practically burn one's eyes right through the screen.
[Holy shit, Brother Ao looks so damn cool in this, it's so hype.]
[This composition, this lighting, this sense of brokenness—did OP draw this themselves?]
[What a delicious meal, I'm eating this up.]
The second picture, An Changqing.
He held up his longsword, blood dripping down the blade.
He wasn't looking at the camera, but gazing into the distant, pitch-black night sky, his eyes bright.
[My heart aches for our little angel Changqing, being the strongest sword cultivator and fighting the most brutal battles.]
[Our Changqing is the number one genius among sword cultivators! The gentleman's sword of noble righteousness, the lingering sword of tender affection, all things can be a sword—one sword that once held off a million troops, one sword whose frost chills fourteen states.]
[I'm eating this up.]
The third picture, Liu Feiyu.
The young man in black sat alone on a broken stone beam, his back looking desolate.
The night breeze fluttered the hem of his clothes, and the coin in his hand reflected a silver light.
He looked like a detached judge, and at the same time, a lone wolf carrying too many secrets.
[Bro Liu is eating good too, giving off that everyone is drunk but me vibe.]
[He's clearly on the battlefield, yet he seems detached from everyone else. This sense of loneliness is incredible, Bro Liu has been isolated again.]
[I'm eating this up.]
[Whose glutton is this, why are you everywhere.]
...
Nine pictures, each telling a story. There was the absolute resolve of Su Yuehe, Yin Chen, and the others standing back-to-back; there was the flying crimson hair of Hong Yuan as she swung her giant axe; and the final picture was an exhausted group shot of everyone under the lights.
Sure enough, the popularity points in the background were sensibly increasing.
This batch of viewers was really easy to please.
Chen Guan closed the forum page with satisfaction.
He was immersed in the joy of watching his balance swell when they arrived at the landing pad outside.
Because of concerns that the demonic beasts might make a comeback, the original First Academy had been evacuated; this was the Second Academy.
The cabin door opened, and Instructor Jing's lazy face appeared at the entrance.
His gaze fell on Chen Guan in the corner.
"Chen Guan."
Chen Guan stood up and adjusted the black coffin on his back.
Instructor Jing grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, and patted him on the shoulder.
"Your private reflection room is ready. The environment is nice, there's a desk, a lamp, and an unlimited supply of manuscript paper."
"Don't forget, a five-thousand-word self-criticism by eight o'clock tomorrow morning, not a single word less."
Chen Guan's movements paused for a moment.
Wait, you're actually making me write it?
He silently followed the crowd off the aircraft and walked toward the private room prepared for him.
The room was very quiet, with only a single incandescent bulb overhead.
A desk, a chair, a thick stack of manuscript paper, and a pen.
Chen Guan sat down and picked up the pen.
He pondered for a long time, and facing the blank manuscript paper, solemnly wrote down the first line.
"My name is Chen Guan, today I..."
He stopped writing, looked up at the ceiling, and fell into deep thought.
How was he supposed to make up the next four thousand nine hundred or so words?
The tip of the pen in Chen Guan's hand hovered over the paper for a long time, and a drop of ink slowly spread out.
On the manuscript paper in front of him, there was still only that single lonely line.
And then what?
He stared blankly at the ceiling for a while.
He ran through a few universal templates in his head.
For example, when I had a high fever, my mother carried me on her back through the heavy rain to the hospital, which made me understand the greatness of maternal love; love you mom, see you tomorrow.
Or, I helped an old lady cross the street, and she handed me an apple with trembling hands, which made me understand... understand what again?
His childhood was gradually blurring, and Chen Guan couldn't fit into these templates at all.
This was five thousand words, not five hundred.
Chen Guan put down the pen and leaned back against the chair.
He changed his line of thought.
Who was this self-criticism meant for?
Instructor Jing, White Tiger.
An evil big cat who loved watching drama and had a wicked sense of humor in his bones.
What did he want to read?
A sincere and deeply reflective letter of repentance?
Stop making your Brother Guan laugh. That guy just wanted to see a joke; this was just a prank by his cheap boss.
Thinking of this, he sat up straight again and picked up the pen.
This time, when the pen touched the paper, it didn't stop.
He deconstructed the entire Myriad Demon Tower incident from his own perspective.
[When I saw the demonic beasts' sharp claws tear through my companions' defenses, my heart felt as if it had also been slashed open by those claws. It hurt so much. I hated my own powerlessness, and I hated the unfairness of this world. Why must there always be sacrifices? Why must protection always come at the cost of blood?]
He felt absolutely no emotion inside, and even mentally critiqued it: Long Ao was just blasted away, but saying torn through added more tragic color and could pad out a few more words. Five thousand words was too many, and writing this paragraph was just to inflate the word count.
Throughout the entire self-criticism, he used a massive amount of flowery yet hollow rhetoric to repeatedly depict his inner pain and struggle.
What did it mean to act without authorization?
That was called "being swept up by the torrent of fate, struggling involuntarily."
What did it mean to disobey orders?
That was called "cleaving a bloody path toward the dawn for my companions in the despairing darkness."
As for why he had to write five thousand words?
Because how could my pain and reflections possibly be contained in a mere few hundred words?
He wrote more and more smoothly, his inspiration bursting forth, not even needing to make a draft.
An entire night passed, and when the horizon turned the pale color of a fish's belly, the manuscript paper was completely filled.
Chen Guan blew dry the ink on the last page and stretched his sore wrist.
He read through it once. At first glance, it looked incredibly profound and erudite, but upon closer inspection, it was absolute nonsense.
I can't be the only one suffering; White Tiger has to come and read these five thousand words of trash talk too.
Until he could actually beat Kitty Tiger in a fight, Chen Guan could only covertly oppose White Tiger in this manner.
...
Medical Center.
Long Ao lay in a healing pod, feeling a sense of injustice on Chen Guan's behalf.
"What kind of nonsense is this? Chen Guan has to be locked in solitary confinement and write a self-criticism?"
By now, Long Ao knew that Instructor Jing was White Tiger, the very same person who had saved him and Chen Guan in Jiang City. He had also given him a strange token and asked some weird questions.
His assessment of White Tiger was that he was a weirdo with unknown motives. When he asked White Tiger how he should repay the life-saving grace, the man didn't say, only replying that the time had not yet come.
This sort of unknown actually made Long Ao a bit restless. He could tell that White Tiger possessed extraordinary strength, so whatever he sought must naturally be massive.
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!
or! A blessing for those who struggle with love, a guidebook for dating novices. Quickly match with your dream goddess! Complete walkthroughs earn rewards, and perfect walkthroughs unlock limited achievements!】 Shen Yi, an ordinary office worker, accidentally downloads a mini-game called Dating Simulator. The mini-game is simple: randomly search for dating targets, simulate dates, and receive rewards upon successful confession. Rewards include but are not limited to money, attributes, and skills. The higher the evaluation, the better the rewards, with perfect ratings unlocking mysterious achievements. Shen Yi plans to use this mysterious mini-game to continuously pursue targets and improve himself, making his life better and better. ...... However, after several successful walkthroughs, Shen Yi suddenly notices something strange - the targets he previously simulated dating seem to be searching for him in real life?
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
