“Careful — he’s got the Reaper.”
Seeing Dusk hoist the Reaper over his shoulder, Li Moran spoke up in warning.
Lu Ze was inside the central control bridge, surrounded by special glass reinforced with protective runes. It was a spot Dusk could see but not hit.
The moment he stepped out of the bridge, he risked instant death.
“Facing the Reaper head-on — even Junior Brother Lu has to tread carefully!”
Zhou Yue let out a sigh.
Though Lu Ze had repeatedly shattered his understanding of what was mechanically possible, the concept of the Reaper still loomed.
Under the Reaper, all are equal.
No matter how many combos or loadouts you have — get hit and you die.
Even someone as strong as Lu Ze couldn’t escape that rule.
“Actually… in a one-on-one situation, it’s not that scary.”
Lu Ze blinked, speaking with visible interest.
Ever since he’d revealed his true strength during the competition, he’d been harvesting a flood of rewards.
Whenever righteous cultivators felt sincere awe or shock at his actions, the system would randomly copy something from them as a reward — skills, divine abilities, insights into the Dao…
Back when he was making more and more illusions, everyone had grown used to tasting delicacies, gradually losing that initial sense of awe.
Their reactions had shifted to things like “So fun,” “So tormenting,” or “So brutal.”
For a long time, Lu Ze had rarely gained rewards from this source.
Now, fighting as a player showing off skills beyond conventional understanding, he’d drawn countless players’ amazement.
The only catch: the bigger the gap in cultivation, the more valuable the plunder.
His current surface strength was half-step to Nascent Soul. Rewards gained from cultivators’ respect couldn’t compare to before — they were almost like mosquito legs…
But there were too many people!
The tournament hosted by the Heavenly Dao’s remnant spirit had drawn massive attention among cultivators.
Hundreds of thousands of pairs of eyes were watching!
All those mosquito legs added up to elephant legs!
His two just-executed gun-handling kill sequences had already netted him over a century’s worth of Dao insights.
That meant — as soon as he got his hands on the Heavenly Dao Remnant’s “Dao Transformation Art,” he could use it immediately.
Opportunities to show off and collect rewards in front of hundreds of thousands of cultivators didn’t come often. Lu Ze didn’t plan to let this one slip.
His moves just now were already pushing the limit. He had to break through that limit to keep harvesting the cultivators’ awe.
So Lu Ze decided to go big.
With that thought, he strapped both the Giant Wave and the Reaper onto his back. Instead, he grabbed the Crimson Sky in his hand and walked forward unhurriedly.
…
Heavenly Dao Livestream.
Lu Ze’s move sent the barrage of comments into a frenzy.
[What is he doing?!]
[What’s this? Walking out without a gun?]
[What kind of strategy is this?]
[Don’t tell me he’s just trying to promote the Crimson Sky skin?]
[If he doesn’t die, this young master will give away a thousand Crimson Sky skins for free!]
[Old Demon Lu couldn’t be taking bribes to throw the match, could he…]
[Damn it, we’ve been set up by Lu! He must be in cahoots with the gambling ring in the illusion!!]
[Don’t throw! If he dies, I’m bankrupt!!!]
…
Lingxiao Sect Observation Section.
“Why did Senior Brother Lu suddenly holster his guns… and switch to a blade while walking forward??”
Zhong Yi stared at Lu Ze’s perspective, his heart leaping into his throat.
“Senior Brother Lu, you’d better think carefully — the opponent is holding the Reaper!”
“And they’re not playing fair; getting hit in the chest gives too big a disadvantage!”
“He’s about to leave the central bridge… once he loses the glass shield’s protection, there won’t even be cover…”
“That’s a sure death!!”
Zhong Yi grew more frantic with each word, wishing he could message Lu Ze right now.
Then he noticed Lu Ze swinging the Crimson Sky repeatedly, as if testing the feel of it.
Zhong Yi suddenly remembered something.
While researching the mechanics of “Operation Mistshroud Abyss,” he’d once run into a Stormblade who brought nothing into Fort Puba and just went for a knife run.
At the time, he fired a spirit bullet that happened to hit the opponent’s dagger — and then the bullet just vanished.
No hit reaction at all.
Zhong Yi had suspected then that daggers could block spirit bullets, much like the shield strapped behind a Deep Blue operative.
But replicating that scenario was far too difficult, and even if the mechanic was real, it seemed impossible to use in actual combat — so he hadn’t pursued it.
Now, for some reason, that memory surfaced.
An almost impossible thought flashed through his mind.
“No…”
“No way!?”
“Could Senior Brother Lu be planning to…!?”
…
Blue Harbor Platform, high shipping container.
“Seven…”
Dusk held his breath, counting silently in his head.
After ten numbers, his “Heavenly Eye” would activate, and the momentum would shift.
“Six…”
In his field of view, Lu Ze strolled casually toward the end of the bridge, about to step out from the glass shield’s protection into his attack range.
Strange, though —
Lu Ze wasn’t holding any weapon. Just a dagger in hand.
“Five…”
[Dusk] furrowed his brow, momentarily uncertain of what Lu Ze intended to do.
But no matter what, the fact that Lu Ze had chosen not to rely on his ghostly movement technique for a forceful assault was good news for someone solely focused on buying time.
"Four..."
"Chief! He’s too arrogant, actually stepping out with just a knife in hand?"
[Setting Sun] immediately grew irate, whispering into [Dusk]’s ear.
"Exactly! In my opinion, there’s no need to wait for the ninth spirit lamp... just teach him a lesson with [Reaper]!"
[Dark God] chimed in, egging him on.
"Three..."
One of Lu Ze’s feet had already stepped beyond the glass shield, entering [Dusk]’s attack range.
[Dusk]’s eyes locked onto Lu Ze, but his finger on the trigger remained unmoved.
He was afraid.
Afraid that Lu Ze would once again pull off some unexpected move, forcing him to waste the crucial shot.
And then, the one who died might be him.
"Two..."
Lu Ze fully exited the protective range of the glass shield, his entire body now completely exposed in the open air, with no retreat possible.
There wasn’t even any cover.
"You...!"
A feeling of being belittled instantly ignited [Dusk]’s fury.
In this situation, there was no need for any "Heavenly Eye"...
Even without the auto-aim assistance of the Ten Directions Spirit Descending Array, there was simply no way he could miss!
"One..."
[Dusk] pulled the trigger.
"BANG——!"
A massive spirit bullet, wreathed in red flames, shot straight toward Lu Ze’s chest!
] [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!"
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."
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.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
