Nine Nether Venerable’s breath halted.
Whether he had forgotten to breathe or simply didn’t dare, even he couldn’t say.
In an instant, scenes flashed before his eyes once more—visions of himself being crushed like an ant beneath the merciless tread of the terrifying Ghost Buddha before him.
This time, it wasn’t an illusion conjured by the Ghost Buddha.
It was his own mind conjuring the horror.
In his dazed state,
a single eerie character appeared before him:
"Death."
Then came a second, a third…
Until his mind was flooded with the word, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.
Nine Nether Venerable, who had prided himself on dancing on the edge of life and death countless times, only now understood the true weight of "death."
He had no doubt—
he would die!
Had this been the earlier game, death would have been nothing—just an illusion.
But this was reality!
Death here was final!
A single breath from the Ghost Buddha before him would erase even his soul, leaving nothing behind!
So, despite his formidable cultivation, his terror now was a thousand times greater than when he had been unarmed in the illusion.
"I… I…"
Under the crushing weight of fear, snot and tears streamed uncontrollably down Nine Nether Venerable’s face.
Three meters away, the Ghost Buddha tilted its head slightly, a mocking smirk curling at its lips.
Its expression spoke clearly from its lofty perch:
Bow, or not?
With a thud,
Nine Nether Venerable collapsed to his knees, his mind utterly blank.
Driven by sheer survival instinct, the only thing he could do was—
kowtow.
Not a reverent bow, but a mechanical, frenzied, desperate hammering of his forehead against the ground, as if he could bury his skull deep into the earth.
Even if it shattered his skull, he didn’t care!
As he smashed his head against the ground, Nine Nether Venerable babbled incoherently through his throat:
"I… bow… I bow…"
"Spare… spare me… spare me… wuu… spare…"
"I shouldn’t have listened to the demonic whispers… shouldn’t have dared covet the power of the Ghost Immortal… I’m unworthy… unworthy…"
"Let me go! Let… let me…"
……
Nine Nether Venerable was certain he had gone mad.
Unending tremors of terror spread through his mind.
All he could do—
was kowtow! Grovel! Beg!
This was the only offering he could make before such an unfathomably terrifying existence!
Blood trickled down his forehead, staining his vision crimson, making the black deathly aura surrounding the Ghost Buddha appear even more despair-inducing!
How long had passed?
The Ghost Buddha’s expression finally shifted.
Its crimson eyes curved into crescents, its grin widening to reveal rows of jagged, indescribably sinister fangs:
"Too late."
Two simple words,
but to Nine Nether Venerable, they were the most horrifying pronouncement in the world!
"No… NO!!!"
He wanted to flee, but his body refused to move.
As if it had already accepted his death.
Helpless, Nine Nether Venerable could only watch as the Ghost Buddha peeled away his skin, severed his tendons, shattered his bones…
And in the next moment,
Nine Nether Venerable vanished from the world.
The scenery of Lingxiao Sect crumbled away.
Then, a results screen appeared:
[Match Summary:]
[Evil Entity Type: Nightmare (+0)]
[Escape a Ghost Hunt (Failed)]
[Witness an Eldritch Perspective and Survive (Failed)]
……
Meanwhile,
in Nine Nether Venerable’s livestream.
The chat exploded in shock at the horrifying spectacle!
[Wait… an illusion within an illusion?!]
[The old man thought he’d escaped the illusion… but it was still the Ghost Buddha’s trick…]
[Obvious fake! Who here would call Lu Ze "Lu the Demon"?]
[Honestly, if I were in there, I wouldn’t have noticed either.]
[This is insane! That ghost is cunning and ruthless… anyone would piss themselves in there!]
[Who the hell would dare try Ghost Immortal difficulty after this?!]
[Straup treating the old man like a demonic plaything…]
[Wait, did he just say he listened to demonic whispers?]
[Damn, he vanished!]
[Probably scared out of the illusion? Old man’s got nerves of steel—I’d have noped out way sooner…]
……
……
Lingxiao Sect, guest quarters.
Nine Nether Venerable sat slumped on the floor, babbling incoherently about "not knowing what’s real."
His mind had shattered.
Nangong Yuan and Lu Ze stood nearby, watching coldly.
Nine Nether Venerable’s earlier ramblings had exposed some unsavory secrets.
Lu Ze wasn’t surprised—his system had already hinted that the ghostly calamity was tied to demonic forces.
Nangong Yuan, meanwhile, had contacted Zhao Wendao to investigate further.
"Your illusion… why is it so hellish?"
Nangong Yuan gave Lu Ze a sidelong glance.
While it had accidentally exposed Nine Nether Venerable’s collusion with the demonic path,
the sheer horror of the Ghost Immortal difficulty was beyond excessive.
Especially the nested illusions—
even watching from outside sent chills down his spine.
"Works well, doesn’t it? Just a bit hard on the master."
Lu Ze chuckled.
Nangong Yuan’s face darkened.
The thought of being one-shot by the Ghost Buddha in front of everyone still rankled.
"You’re slandering your master! Since when am I that weak? A Ghost Buddha could kill me in one hit?"
"Ahem, the Ghost Buddha was played by a remnant of the Heavenly Dao…"
"...What I meant was, the Ghost Buddha isn’t weak enough to need that much effort to beat you."
"……"
……
……
Nine Nether Venerable’s livestream caused an uproar.
"Ghost Town’s" Ghost Immortal difficulty instantly became synonymous with "ultimate horror."
As for Nine Nether Venerable’s mutterings about colluding with demonic forces, Lingxiao Sect’s investigation confirmed it.
The "ghost calamity" was indeed the work of demonic cultivators.
Nine Nether Venerable had been involved, lured by promises of Ghost Immortal power to break through his cultivation.
The investigation method was simple:
An illusion of the Ghost Buddha, and Nine Nether Venerable spilled everything—even how many times he’d wet the bed as a child.
……
Once his sanity returned, Nine Nether Venerable’s fear of ghosts and evil entities never faded.
His proud soul cultivation crumbled, his power draining away like sand.
Across the Heavenly Profound Continent, the title "Venerable" was stripped from his name, leaving only the tale of his double-layered nightmare as idle gossip.
……
……
[Quest Complete!]
[Host has successfully accumulated terror points from righteous cultivators using evil entities within 30 days!]
[Reward: Mental Break System upgraded. Demon Path efficiency multiplier increased.]
"Whoa, the multiplier can go higher?"
Lu Ze raised an eyebrow.
Well, well. Seems the system’s pushing him to make more horror games.
But that might be tough for now—the Ghost Immortal difficulty livestream had left cultivators too traumatized to dare another attempt anytime soon.
"Any mental break counts? Maybe I’ll make a tearjerker game next…"
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!
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.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
