“Final strike!”
“Clang!”
The instant he knocked the tip of the kusarigama spear aside, a deadly red dot appeared in Zhou Yue’s field of vision.
“Got you!”
Zhou Yue vaulted into the air and instantly appeared behind Gyoubu Oniwa, driving his sword through his back and into his chest.
“Genichiro… I’m… sorry…”
Gyoubu Oniwa’s eyes grew unfocused, and his struggling hands gradually lost their strength.
“What a delightful battle, Gyoubu Oniwa. I doubt I’ll ever forget you.”
Zhou Yue, still at full health, raised his head proudly and puffed out his chest.
That was the glory of defeating an enemy without taking a single hit.
At the same time, the first-kill announcement appeared once more.
[Lingxiao Sect’s Zhou Yue has achieved the first kill of the boss Gyoubu Oniwa (Normal)!]
“Ha! I finally snatched one back this time? Unrivaled Sword Sect, just you wait!”
Looking at the first-kill announcement, Zhou Yue felt even more exhilarated.
He had been stuck at the Chained Ogre for far too long, allowing the Unrivaled Sword Sect to claim the first kill of the second General.
Fortunately, he had taken Gyoubu Oniwa back for himself—and this was the first boss, no less!
That carried far more prestige than the first kills of ordinary elite enemies!
“So all the enemies we’ve fought so far are on Normal difficulty? Then just how strong are the higher difficulties supposed to be…?”
Zhou Yue stared at the word “Normal” behind Gyoubu Oniwa’s name and sighed in amazement.
The first playthrough of Sekiro they were tackling had already tormented countless cultivators to the point of despair. Who knew how outrageous the difficulty would become after the second playthrough?
Of course, Zhou Yue’s heart was filled only with excitement at the thought of challenging even stronger enemies.
Just then, his private messages suddenly began flooding in, one after another:
[Smart Little Zhou: Why can’t I leave?]
[Smart Little Zhou: Why can’t I leave??]
[Smart Little Zhou: Why can’t I leave???]
…
“Hahahaha!”
Seeing that message, Zhou Yue instantly became even happier.
Learning that Zhou Qiaoling was suffering was even more satisfying than defeating Gyoubu Oniwa without taking a hit!
Grinning from ear to ear, he replied:
“Elder Liu had me set up a barrier around you. You’re not allowed out until you clear the illusion realm… So, little sis, you’d better stay there and temper your swordsmanship!”
[Smart Little Zhou: *******!!!]
The more furiously Zhou Qiaoling cursed, the harder Zhou Yue laughed.
“That’s what you get for constantly badmouthing your big brother in the illusion realm… Hahaha! Serves you right!”
Zhou Yue chuckled merrily.
Ignoring Zhou Qiaoling’s messages, Zhou Yue did not rush to continue advancing the story. Instead, he opened the live-streaming illusion realm and entered Zhong Yi’s stream.
He felt rather like a lord inspecting his territory.
“Oh? Old Zhong, not bad! You’ve already beaten the Chained Ogre?”
Seeing Zhong Yi on the platform beyond the Ashina Castle Gate stairs, tensely facing the second General, Yamauchi Tenzen, Zhou Yue was genuinely surprised.
The Chained Ogre was an unavoidable fight. The fact that Zhong Yi had made it this far meant he had killed it.
“Heh, you’re giving me too much credit, Old Zhou… The Chained Ogre is easy to deal with if you use the Flame Vent prosthetic tool. Every elite enemy probably has a unique solution.”
Zhong Yi smiled as he explained. At that moment, he used his grappling hook to move to an open patch of ground beneath the castle wall.
“Flame Vent? There’s something like that? Then what are you doing now, Old Zhong?”
Zhou Yue was immediately confused.
“I discovered that these enemies can’t use grappling hooks… On an isolated patch of ground like this, they can only slowly make their way over.”
Zhong Yi flashed a confident smile and pointed toward the place where the open ground connected to the platform.
There was only a narrow gap. To cross it, one had to press one’s back against the wall and inch along sideways.
“So all I need to do is ambush him while he’s struggling along the path…”
With that, Zhong Yi fired his grappling hook. As he flailed around in midair, he hurriedly drew the Kusabimaru.
Yamauchi Tenzen promptly knocked him out of the air with a single slash.
“Damn it, I was too slow drawing my sword!!!”
“…Your way of thinking really is something else.”
Zhou Yue shook his head with a laugh.
After watching Zhong Yi’s stream for a while, Zhou Yue still learned quite a few new approaches.
Every single one of them was the sort of underhanded trick an unorthodox cultivator would use…
“But you can actually return to Hirata Estate from three years ago? And there are prosthetic tools and a Ninja Killer there? Amazing… I have to go see it for myself!”
Zhou Yue immediately became energized.
Now he wanted to compete with the Unrivaled Sword Sect for the first kills of every elite enemy and boss.
Besides having superior skill, he also needed to locate the elite enemies before anyone else.
Clearly, the Hirata Estate from three years ago that Zhong Yi had just visited was a hidden dungeon.
“Ninja Killer, is it? Good. Let’s see who kills whom!”
Zhou Yue smiled confidently and returned to his own illusion realm.
He did not hurry to find the old woman and obtain the protective bell. Instead, he first arrived at the Sculptor’s Idol near the Ashina Castle Gate stairs.
“Talk to the Bald Man at the Ashina Castle Gate stairs first, and you can turn him into a merchant? Not bad, not bad. Old Zhong sure has plenty of unorthodox tricks!”
After speaking with the Bald Man, Zhong Yi looked around, unable to shake the feeling that this world was somewhat unfamiliar.
Thinking back, he had kept his eyes fixed on enemies and blades throughout his entire journey, never once paying attention to the world around him.
There was certainly nothing wrong with enjoying combat, but Zhou Yue always felt a little guilty toward the illusion realm Lu Ze had painstakingly designed.
“Come to think of it, there are plenty of places I’ve never visited… Hm? There’s a little temple courtyard here too?”
After wandering around at random, Zhou Yue suddenly discovered a place he had never noticed before.
It was a small temple courtyard that had long since been abandoned, with a yellowed notice hanging on the wall.
“Beware the headless evil spirit ahead. It will take your life. Do not enter?”
Looking at the crooked, blurry writing, Zhou Yue immediately became interested.
The moment the viewers saw this, the live-stream chat erupted in discussion.
[Whoa, I think this is the first time anyone’s seen this.]
[Feels like it’s probably a new elite enemy or boss, right?]
[Old Zhou is actually the first person to discover it? His luck is insane!]
[Maybe don’t go in. It feels like it’s going to be really difficult.]
…
“Don’t go? Difficult?”
Watching the comments drift across the sky, Zhou Yue proudly folded his arms over his chest.
“The man standing before you is the first person in the entire cultivation world to defeat a boss without taking a hit! I am Zhou Yue of the Lingxiao Sect! Even Gyoubu Oniwa couldn’t defeat me. What can some charlatan playing at being a ghost possibly do to me?”
With that, he tore down the notice and strode grandly toward the mountains behind the temple.
“Let’s see what you’ve got!”
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 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?"
or! A blessing for those who struggle with love, a guidebook for dating novices. Quickly match with your dream goddess! Complete walkthroughs earn rewards, and perfect walkthroughs unlock limited achievements!】 Shen Yi, an ordinary office worker, accidentally downloads a mini-game called Dating Simulator. The mini-game is simple: randomly search for dating targets, simulate dates, and receive rewards upon successful confession. Rewards include but are not limited to money, attributes, and skills. The higher the evaluation, the better the rewards, with perfect ratings unlocking mysterious achievements. Shen Yi plans to use this mysterious mini-game to continuously pursue targets and improve himself, making his life better and better. ...... However, after several successful walkthroughs, Shen Yi suddenly notices something strange - the targets he previously simulated dating seem to be searching for him in real life?
