"A perfect counter, just as I thought." Chen Guan felt reassured. Dealing with these weakest wandering souls required almost no effort; he could handle them relying solely on the sharpness of his weapon.
He no longer hesitated. His figure darted through the rocky beach, and the Nether Reaper transformed into streaks of black arcs. Wherever he passed, the wandering souls scattered and dissipated.
The Soul-Absorbing Crystal acted like an insatiable black hole, greedily devouring the dissipating soul remnants. In Chen Guan's eyes, these ghosts were no longer just spirits; they were clearly a bunch of walking experience points.
After clearing out about a dozen wandering souls, Chen Guan arrived at a much gloomier area on the opposite side of the creek. The gray mist here was so thick it was almost tangible, and the dry bones of beasts and humans were scattered across the ground.
Within his mental perception, several stronger fluctuations appeared, carrying obvious resentment.
"Wraiths..."
Chen Guan slowed his pace. Wraiths were the product of deceased souls absorbing more negative emotions or lingering obsessions. They possessed simple consciousness, and their strength was roughly equivalent to a stronger Tier 1 Extraordinary. Moreover, physical attacks had very little effect on them.
Farming low-level mobs was still too inefficient; switching to advanced monsters seemed like a good idea.
Chen Guan remained relaxed. As he thought this, three wraiths with twisted bodies and ghostly green flames burning in their eyes emerged from the mist. They let out hateful roars and lunged at him.
Their speed was much faster than those ordinary ghosts. Cold spiritual energy wrapped around their claws and fangs; anyone touched by it would be directly entangled.
"Perfect timing." Instead of retreating, Chen Guan advanced. Gray energy surged on his scythe, naturally triggering his passive skill, Soul Tremor. An invisible deterrent force spread out, causing the three wraiths' movements to noticeably stagnate, and the flames in their eyes flickered.
Seizing this opportunity, the Gale Boots on Chen Guan's feet flashed with light. His figure cut into the middle of the three wraiths like a phantom, and his scythe swept horizontally.
Active skill: Nether Strike!
A small chunk of his mental energy was instantly consumed. The blade of the scythe erupted with a deep, gloomy light, and a power that struck directly at the soul burst forth along with the weapon's attack.
Poof, poof, poof.
The three wraiths were like snowflakes thrown into a raging fire. The moment they touched the gloomy blade light, they let out extremely shrill screams. Their forms annihilated at a visible rate, dissipating even more thoroughly than the wandering souls from before.
Three noticeably thicker wisps of grayish-white aura were absorbed by the Soul-Absorbing Crystal. Chen Guan could feel a slight sense of satisfaction transmitting from the scythe, and even the gloomy luster on the blade seemed to have become more solid.
Chen Guan nodded in satisfaction. The lethality of Nether Strike against spiritual bodies was terrifying, but its consumption was not small either.
With his current mental energy, the number of times he could use it continuously in a short period was limited; he needed to be cautious when using it in actual combat.
Although his stats had been rising, he was only considered decent among his peers.
But it did not matter. Other people's strength came from their own cultivation, which was vain and unstable. He was different; he had leveled up by using a cheat. Those people would be surpassed by him sooner or later.
In a great mood, Chen Guan continued deeper, clearing out the wandering souls and scattered wraiths he encountered along the way. The Soul-Absorbing Crystal was like a bottomless pit, constantly devouring soul remnants. Although it gave off a sense of satisfaction, it could simply never be fully fed.
About an hour later, Chen Guan arrived at the deepest part of the mission area. It was a small mass grave surrounded by several dead, ancient trees. The spiritual energy concentration here had reached its peak, with the gray mist almost turning into liquid. Broken tombstones and rotting coffins were scattered across the ground, a clear sign that this place was entirely devoid of human presence.
In the center of the mass grave, a powerful entity—clearly distinct from ordinary resentful spirits—was slowly condensing into form.
It was the three-meter-tall phantom of a skeleton general, clad in tattered armor and wielding a rusted long saber. Two raging clusters of dark red soul fire burned within its eye sockets, and dense black resentful energy swirled around its body. Its aura had astonishingly reached the Second Tier.
"An elite gatekeeper?" Seeing the skeleton general before him, Chen Guan finally understood why these ghosts were acting so abnormally. It turned out a major boss had spawned, and its influence was what made the lesser spirits so restless.
The skeleton general spotted Chen Guan and let out a furious roar. The dark red soul fire in its eyes flared violently as it pointed its rusted saber at him, sending a wave of deathly will crashing in his direction.
Chen Guan remained as steady as a mountain. A mental attack of this caliber was barely enough to tickle him.
In his assessment, this thing was nowhere near Baal's level. Even Baal hadn't been able to instantly kill him, so what did this puny creature amount to?
The skeleton general took a heavy step forward and swung its long saber, sending a black blade beam slashing through the air.
Chen Guan rapidly retreated while a flash of gray light flickered in his eyes. He activated his illusion skill, Mirror Flower Water Moon. In the skeleton general's perception, Chen Guan's figure suddenly blurred and split into several afterimages that charged at it from different directions.
The skeleton general's movements faltered. It swept its long saber in a wide arc, shattering a few of the afterimages, but completely failed to locate Chen Guan's true body.
Hmm, this guy is quite clumsy. It seems like a perfect dummy to practice my skills on.
Controlling his strength, Chen Guan's true body dashed in from the creature's rear flank. Gray energy coated his scythe as he directly activated an active skill.
Nether Strike!
However, the skeleton general abruptly spun around, raising its rusted long saber to block. The dense black resentful energy formed a protective shield before it.
Clang!
The dark scythe collided with the black long saber, producing a deafening crash of clashing metal that blasted away the surrounding gray mist in a wide ring.
Chen Guan jumped back with practiced ease. On the skeleton general's side, its black resentful energy shield violently rippled and dimmed considerably, though it didn't completely shatter. The dark red flames in its eyes flared even brighter, clearly enraged.
However, all it could do was be angry.
Once Chen Guan had practiced to his heart's content, he effortlessly ended the creature's life. Following that, having lost interest in bullying minor mobs, he completed the mission as quickly as possible, returned to the academy, and turned it in.
"Yo, junior."
Li Yuqing, who happened to be turning in a mission as well, waved her hand cheerfully in greeting. Then, her eyes darted playfully as she casually struck up a conversation.
"Junior, the club recruitment month is about to start. What are your thoughts?"
Li Yuqing smiled brightly, her intentions clear at a glance. Huo Qixing chimed in from the side, "I heard the Star Patrol Club is looking to recruit quite a few people this time around. Are you interested, junior?"
The Star Patrol Club was one of the top three clubs in the academy. Its president, a junior named Qin Wu, had ranked fifth in the four-academy tournament for third-year students. He was undoubtedly one of the top experts in Huaqing.
"I haven't decided yet."
Chen Guan didn't rush to agree. Where he would end up still depended on where An Changqing and the others decided to go.
"Well then, junior, whenever you make up your mind, feel free to contact me."
Li Yuqing dropped the act completely, making no secret of her role as the recruitment director for the Star Patrol Club. Even setting An Changqing's group aside, Chen Guan alone was more than enough to draw their attention.
During the Four-School Tournament, Chen Guan had already proven his strength. Furthermore, Li Yuqing had inside information that an entity on the level of a Demon God had appeared in the final match.
No one knew exactly what had happened in there, but the end result was that not a single person died.
According to reports, An Changqing's group of four had faced the Demon God head-on.
Li Yuqing saw things clearly: was there a single ordinary person among them?
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
] [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!"
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!
