“What do you mean?”
Chen Yuan stared at the barrage Lu Ze had sent him, utterly confused.
The moment his foot stepped out of the hidden passage and into the reed marsh, the illusion entered a cinematic sequence.
“Since we parted at your uncle’s grave that day, we haven’t seen each other again, have we?”
The tall figure deep within the reeds slowly turned around.
The young man had a handsome face, though he looked somewhat haggard, with an unnatural air of world-weariness about him.
A slender katana hung at his waist, while a massive crimson longbow was strapped to his back.
A line of text slowly appeared above his head: 【Genichiro Ashina】.
“G-Genichiro…”
Kuro’s eyes were filled with panic. He instinctively took two steps back and lowered his head.
“I…”
The boy took a deep breath and was just about to step forward and say something when Wolf raised a hand to stop him.
Wolf placed his left hand on the black scabbard of the Kusabimaru. Kuro instantly understood that he intended to engage the enemy.
“…I’m sorry.”
Kuro bit his lip and finally made up his mind.
“Leave this to me.”
Wolf’s voice was hoarse, his gaze resolute.
Kuro did not linger. He turned and ran in another direction, his footsteps gradually fading into the distance.
Wolf’s thumb pressed slightly against the hilt, and the Kusabimaru slowly slid from its scabbard.
His right hand paused in midair for a moment before closing around the sword’s grip. The blade flashed coldly as it left the sheath.
Seeing this, Genichiro Ashina silently drew his own katana. Under the moonlight, its silver blade radiated a chilling killing intent.
“Are you going to stand in my way, shinobi of the Divine Heir?”
Sekiro’s cutscenes were professionally crafted in every respect, from the scenery to the camera work.
The spectators’ barrages instantly filled the sky.
【So, we’re fighting Genichiro Ashina?】
【That guy looks really strong. His presence is clearly different from everyone else’s!】
【Is Wolf nervous? It looked like he couldn’t get a proper grip on his sword just now.】
【He must be out of practice!】
【I agree. The guards just said Wolf had been asleep for three years, didn’t they?】
…
The instant the cinematic ended, Genichiro Ashina’s name changed to the blood-red color used for enemies.
“Genichiro Ashina… engage.”
Genichiro’s face remained expressionless, but his eyes held a hint of disdain, as though he had already decided that Wolf was no match for him.
“Heh. It’s only the beginner tutorial, yet there’s already this much nonsense.”
Chen Yuan gripped the Kusabimaru firmly, brimming with confidence. He found this sort of story sequence especially annoying.
“It’s Wolf who can’t hold his sword steady, not this old man… There’s no need for concern. Just watch me take him down with ease!”
Lu Ze’s illusions had been popular for several years.
By now, cultivators were already familiar with many basic game elements.
Beginner tutorials, guided instruction, elite monsters, great demon bosses…
Lu Ze had just stated that this chapter was the beginner tutorial section.
In other words, its purpose was to help cultivators quickly get the hang of the illusion.
Stages of this kind were designed to ensure that players wouldn’t get stuck and could progress quickly.
Even when they offered some degree of difficulty, they were generally no harder than the Mountain Temple stage, requiring at most a few repeated attempts.
At this moment, Chen Yuan felt that he had completely mastered the basics. The beginner tutorial was nothing more than a formality to him, and he was therefore brimming with confidence.
It was only the boss at the end of a beginner tutorial. What could it possibly do to him?
Just as he was thinking this, Genichiro suddenly transformed into a blur in the distance.
In the blink of an eye, a flash of steel tore through the air, carrying a fierce gust of wind as it slashed toward Chen Yuan.
“What!?”
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Chen Yuan’s body.
Should he attack? Dodge? Deflect?
Relying on his instinct for survival, Chen Yuan tried to evade the strike. But it was already too late.
His body had only just begun moving when Genichiro’s katana had already struck him.
His health bar instantly dropped by half!
“What the hell!?”
Chen Yuan’s heart was rocked by a storm of disbelief. After getting back to his feet, he retreated with two consecutive evasive steps, then, with trembling hands, pulled out the Healing Gourd and gulped down its restorative liquid.
He had experienced several of Lu Ze’s illusions before.
But this was absolutely the first time he had ever felt suppressed inside one of them!
It was different from the psychological terror of Haunted Town, and it was not the kind of suppression in raw statistics that one experienced against an ordinary great demon…
Rather, it was an overwhelming sense of helplessness, like a mayfly gazing up at the heavens, that inspired instinctive dread.
Chen Yuan was certain.
Genichiro before him was definitely more than just a virtual character with powerful stats.
The character itself contained a portion of profound swordsmanship insight!
To someone whose cultivation had been sealed and whose understanding of the sword had been cut off, Genichiro was an enormous existence that could never be defeated!
Chen Yuan’s eyes were filled with shock, but Genichiro had no intention of letting up.
A second wave of fierce attacks came crashing in. Chen Yuan forced himself to calm down.
“I can’t lose my bearings… I can’t panic!”
Chen Yuan drew a deep breath and changed his battle strategy.
“This illusion focuses on alternating between offense and defense… So what I need to do is—”
“Defend!”
He gritted his teeth and raised the Kusabimaru horizontally before him.
Clang!
The crisp sound of a deflection rang out.
“I did it… Now for the counterattack!”
After successfully deflecting the strike, Chen Yuan did not dare hesitate. He was just about to follow up with a counter slash when Genichiro suddenly redirected the blade that had been knocked upward and brought it down again.
Chen Yuan was instantly smashed to the ground, and another portion of his health bar vanished.
“Damn it! That’s not fair! Fuck!”
Furious, Chen Yuan cursed aloud. The instant he got back up, he felt the howling wind of a blade approaching at close range.
Clang!
Clang!
Chen Yuan no longer had time to study Genichiro’s attacks. He repeatedly raised his sword to deflect them, and, by sheer luck, managed two consecutive perfect deflections.
“Hm?”
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow, secretly delighted. It seemed he had finally found a way to deal with Genichiro’s sword techniques.
At that moment, Genichiro bent forward and prepared to draw his blade again.
Chen Yuan was already prepared for this unsheathing strike. He instantly reacted, raising the Kusabimaru above his head in preparation to deflect it.
But in that very instant—
He suddenly felt a terrifying sense of danger.
It was a sensation he had personally experienced before, back when he had been on the brink of death.
The next moment—
【Danger】!
A small but distinct character appeared in Chen Yuan’s mind: 【Danger】.
Then it grew larger and larger, until it filled his entire consciousness.
Genichiro did not draw his sword. Instead, he shifted his body and drove a heavy punch straight into Chen Yuan’s abdomen, depleting his health bar completely.
Taking advantage of the opening created by Chen Yuan’s stagger, Genichiro drew his blade and leaped into the air. He came crashing down like Mount Tai bearing down from above…
【Death】!
It was only after his health bar had been emptied that Chen Yuan finally realized it.
He had lost.
And he had lost miserably.
Yet this time, he did not enter the death-and-rebirth screen. Instead, another cinematic sequence began.
Wolf was beaten back step by step by Genichiro. When a stumble left him exposed, Genichiro seized the opening and swung his blade with all his might.
Wolf’s left arm was severed cleanly from his body and went flying through the air, drenched in blood.
“Urgh…”
Clutching his wound, Wolf slowly collapsed.
“A shinobi is only this capable? I’ll be taking the Divine Heir with me.”
Genichiro coldly withdrew his blade and turned away.
Kuro had already been captured and dragged back by his subordinates, and the entire group disappeared into the moonlight.
By then, the barrage of comments in the sky had exploded.
【This is way too twisted. I can feel the terrifying pressure just by watching…】
【I suggest everyone leave that formation. If you watch it with your cultivation, you won’t feel so nervous.】
【What exactly are these “Danger” and “Death” indicators? Whenever they appear, the pressure is overwhelming—even through the illusion!】
【Wait… you’re saying this is the tutorial for beginners???】
【You’ve got to be kidding me!!】
【That’s an attack, and that’s a defense. Got it? Good. Now you can challenge Genichiro Ashina.】
【As expected of Old Demon Lu. He casually arranged a few minions to teach everyone how to attack and defend, then dared to have us fight Genichiro.】
【There’s no way anyone can beat him…】
…
Although none of the comments were insulting Chen Yuan, he still felt as if he were being mocked.
Furious, he immediately exited the illusion and flew over to Lu Ze, his face flushed with anger.
“Lu Ze!!”
Chen Yuan, humiliated and enraged, pointed at the scene in the illusion and shouted,
“Did you deliberately make things difficult for this old man, just to make me embarrass myself in front of everyone!?”
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.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
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."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
