Wang Xiaoer loved reading martial arts stories. Zhang San would occasionally read them when he had nothing to do. He noticed that the villains in those stories seemed to always die from talking too much.
Zhang San said, just kill if you want to kill, why waste so much time talking nonsense?
But the truth proved that those stories were only fiction, and reality was often the opposite. That's what Zhang San thought to himself today.
Leaping down from the sword hilt embedded in the roof, by now, the thick fog around him had nearly all dispersed.
Zhang San smiled at Hei Shanke, "Villains may prevail over big talkers, but Hei Shanke senior, I'm afraid today you will die due to your own carelessness. As an assassin, you openly stayed at the county office, abandoning secrecy for notoriety. If you don't die, who will?"
Each of Zhang San's words stabbed at the heart.
After rampaging through the underworld for over twenty years, Hei Shanke could no longer restrain himself. With a roar of rage he shouted, "Insolent brat, die!"
In his extreme anger, Hei Shanke leapt up with his heavy saber hacking down, its power and imposing manner astonishingly fierce!
Yet with just a sway of his body, Zhang San dodged the blow. He saw the ground give a loud rumble as the saber split it open with dozens of cracks.
As Zhang San evaded, he did not forget to taunt, "Senior, it seems despite being less than fifty, you really are getting on in years. No matter the righteous or sinister way, the martial world will always belong to the young. So today, I will be sure to relieve you of your worries, esteemed elder."
Zhang San's needling further provoked Hei Shanke's rage. Right now he no longer cared who his opponent was. With a sweep of his saber he attacked Zhang San once more.
But Zhang San kept evading while ceaselessly provoking him verbally.
The reason was simple. As a steady assassin, from the moment he kicked down the door to now with each sentence he spoke, none of Zhang San's actions were without purpose.
To win! But he must cut him!
Harboring this thought, Zhang San, who in his professional career had always relied on sneak attacks, poisons, traps and other such means, for the first time chose to directly confront a formidable foe!
Against top-ranked assassins like Hei Shanke, he didn't dare take any risks, there was no way he could kill him with his own skills.
One saber blow contained eighty percent of Hei Shanke's inner energy. Its power could slice any martial artist below upper stage directly in half.
Circulating all his strength, Zhang San raised his arm to meet the attack.
The saber sliced through his white clothes, chopping into the skin of his arm, causing countless sparks to spray out just like before.
Yet the result was still the same as last time!
The blade simply could not cut into his flesh and blood!
Impossible! Hei Shanke thought in alarmed fury.
After the previous exchange with Xiu Wangchou, his less than fifty percent powered "Saber Chop" could not break through. But now even eighty percent inner power had not budged him in the slightest!
It couldn't even break his skin?
I'm afraid even if I use full power, I can still only scratch him at most, Hei Shanke couldn't help thinking.
In contrast to Hei Shanke's shock and anger, Zhang San was overjoyed in his heart, as he recalled his master's words from back then...
"Xiao San, our righteous Iron Cloth Shirt is the hardest qi defense under heaven. Aside from that 'weak point', martial artists of the same stage simply cannot cut through it, even with famed blades and swords."
However, in his twenty years of only accepting assassinations below his own level, Zhang San had never truly fought top experts. And he had no interest whatsoever in finding a blademaster or swordsman to test his skills against. So this was really the first time Zhang San discovered that while he had always known his Iron Cloth Shirt was powerful, it was actually this powerful!
Master did not deceive me!
His confidence greatly boosted, Zhang San reached out to engage Hei Shanke in close quarters combat. Raising his black iron dagger, he slashed towards the scar on Hei Shanke's face!
Hei Shanke was also an experienced fighter. Noticing Zhang San's ordinary strike, his body twisted around to evade.
"As expected," Zhang San sighed inwardly, but was not surprised.
With just his mediocre stabbing skills and almost no actual combat experience, it was indeed very difficult to touch an experienced veteran like Hei Shanke.
But his dagger was laced with poison to make up for his inferior martial arts. For now, he still held the initiative in close range fighting. With his upper stage Iron Cloth Shirt, Zhang San could make countless mistakes, while Hei Shanke could not afford a single one.
The two exchanged several more moves, seemingly evenly matched.
Hei Shanke had joined the Dark Building thirty years ago and made a name for himself in the martial world for twenty years. His judgement was outstanding.
He could tell that while Zhang San's inner energy, martial arts, agility - everything - was at the upper stage, and could be considered a top expert among upper stage masters, in all their exchanges so far, Zhang San hadn't used a single decent technique. He was purely relying on his tough qi defense to block his strikes, while waiting for chances to counterattack.
This opponent didn't seem to have much combat experience or aggressive moves.
The more they fought, the clearer Hei Shanke understood his foe's abilities. He had practically concluded that combat experience and techniques were Zhang San's biggest weaknesses!
Next, as long as he could break through his sturdy qi defense, victory was at hand!
"But first, I must confirm whether he practices the Golden Bell Shield or the Iron Cloth Shirt," Hei Shanke muttered to himself.
Just as there were no perfect poisons in the world.
There were also no perfect qi defenses.
In Hei Shanke's knowledge, only the righteous sect's peerless Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt could block his Dark Building's black saber arts. However, the Dark Building's second organization "Dark Building" had always kept records on the weaknesses of those two martial arts.
Hei Shanke understood he had to identify which art Zhang San practiced before breaking through his defense.
In a flash, the two closed in on each other again.
This time, after repeatedly failing to hit his mark, Zhang San chose to counterattack, tightly gripping his dagger without making the first move, waiting for any openings Hei Shanke might reveal when attacking.
But it was precisely Zhang San's split-second decision here that gave the battle-hardened Hei Shanke the chance he was waiting for!
Everyone in the Dark Building knew Hei Shanke's black saber art ultimately trained the terrifying "Tiger Bite" as his killer move, able to instantly explode countless saber energies into the target's body with one chop. That had been the saber blow that ended Xiu Wangchou's life.
Yet now, Hei Shanke chose another supreme technique from his repertoire.
Dark Building's Black Saber, Singular Focus!
In an instant, he concentrated his inner force into razor-sharp saber energy fixed three inches from the blade's edge. The saber qi formed a singular line, unmatched in sharpness and speed like lightning!
This strike forfeited everything except two aspects - speed and sharpness!
But in a flash, Zhang San also noticed Hei Shanke was chopping precisely at his chest, the most solid point of his Iron Cloth Shirt. So he remained unperturbed, and slashed a dagger at Hei Shanke's left shoulder instead.
The saber edge cut across his chest.
The dagger sliced open his shoulder.
After the brief exchange, both men passed by each other's side, then turned around.
Zhang San looked at the blood drops on his dagger.
Hei Shanke gazed at the tiny wound on Zhang San's chest where his clothes had split open.
Both of their minds held the same sole thought. And it was the same thought.
I'm going to win!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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...
