“No, no, this isn’t satisfying at all.”
Lu Ze let out a quiet sigh and left Zhong Yi’s livestream.
After Zhong Yi unveiled his unorthodox cultivator strategy, the atmosphere in his livestream had completely changed. Zhou Qiaoling had even managed to clear the Headless encounter in short order.
Was this really what he had tuned in to watch?
He had come to watch his senior brothers and sisters get beaten until they broke down, damn it!
Lu Ze shifted his attention to Zhou Yue’s livestream.
At this moment, Zhou Yue could aptly be called the cultivation world’s biggest hardhead. He was still locked in a grudge match with the Headless.
Amid the pale-purple fog, a streak of red light was reflected on Zhou Yue’s soot-blackened face.
It was not hard to imagine how utterly crushed Zhou Yue felt.
“Clang!”
“Clang!”
“Clang!”
Although he had perfectly deflected the Headless’s three-hit combo, Zhou Yue showed no joy whatsoever. Instead, his brows drew even tighter.
Because his Fear gauge had instantly risen by a large chunk!
“Damn it, how is this supposed to be—”
Before Zhou Yue could finish speaking, the Headless suddenly vanished. Eerie music rang in his ears.
“Fuck!”
Zhou Yue had already been on edge, and the Headless entering stealth without warning only made him more agitated.
By now, the Fear gauge had reached two-thirds full. Under the influence of the Fear-Tethering Soul Formation, Zhou Yue’s mind and body were both being restricted.
With a metallic ring, the Headless reappeared. A chill blew past Zhou Yue’s ear, making him shudder. He instinctively raised the Kusabimaru to block.
Yet this strike descended slowly.
Without a perfect deflection, the Fear gauge instantly filled to the brim!
Zhou Yue immediately felt his heart clench. His entire body went limp, and he collapsed.
[Death!]
“Fuck!! How are you supposed to fight this thing?!”
Zhou Yue could not help cursing aloud.
After countless attempts, he had already memorized every one of the Headless’s moves.
Even while affected by the purple mist and fear, he could maintain as much composure as possible and perform at his best.
But the terrifying part of the Headless did not lie in its swordsmanship. Rather, every attack it made caused the player’s Fear gauge to rise.
Even a perfect deflection would increase it; the only difference was how much.
Once the Fear gauge exceeded one-third, the resulting fear could no longer be resisted through sheer willpower.
And once the Fear gauge filled completely, the player died on the spot, no matter what!
So even if Zhou Yue could perfectly deflect every one of the Headless’s attacks, he would still be cursed to death!
As for killing the Headless before the Fear gauge filled, Zhou Yue had tried that too.
But the monster was absurdly tanky. When he brought his sword down on it, he could barely see its health bar move at all…
Lu Ze understood Zhou Yue’s predicament perfectly.
Apart from someone like Zhong Yi, who ran around exploring everywhere, only an unlucky bastard like Zhou Yue could stumble across the Headless just by taking a random turn.
It was no exaggeration to say that even if Li Moran, who had just defeated Genichiro without taking a hit, were brought over, it would still take him quite some time to beat the Headless.
The reason was simple: the encounter’s mechanics were fixed.
Zhou Yue could not damage the Headless properly not because it was merely tough, but because the Headless possessed a special “wraith defense.”
Without Divine Confetti to break through its spiritual defense, players could only deal ten percent of their normal damage.
Zhou Yue had neither Divine Confetti to break its defense nor Pacifying Powder to dispel the Fear gauge. He had practically no chance of defeating the Headless.
“Forget it… I’m done. There must be some mechanic I haven’t figured out.”
Dejected, Zhou Yue revived at the Sculptor’s Idol. This time, he finally began to consider giving up.
He had wanted to quit a long time ago.
But then he happened to see Li Moran solo Genichiro, and it had gotten his blood pumping. He had decided that a true man never gave up easily, so he plunged headfirst into the Headless’s cave and was brutally killed over and over.
“What a shame.”
Lu Ze sighed softly.
With Zhou Yue’s skills, the Headless was definitely the enemy that could help him farm the most demonic cultivation points at this stage. Seeing him give up filled Lu Ze with regret.
“Wait…!”
A flash of inspiration struck Lu Ze. He opened the backend and glanced at Zhou Yue’s death count. An idea immediately came to him.
The next moment, the special effects for a Myriad Swords Return to the Source gift lit up in Zhou Yue’s livestream.
[Realm Master Lu Ze sent Myriad Swords Return to the Source in the livestream, along with the message: Senior Brother Zhou, victory is within reach. A true man shouldn’t give up so easily!]
When Zhou Yue saw the sender’s name, he immediately laughed and cursed, “Junior Brother Lu, I knew you had an ulterior motive! There’s definitely some special mechanic required to beat this Headless!”
[Realm Master Lu Ze: How could that be? I, Lu, guarantee this with my reputation: the Headless can be beaten even without exploiting any special mechanics!]
Zhou Yue hesitated, half convinced. “Really?”
[Realm Master Lu Ze: Of course it’s true! I, Lu, never lie!]
“Fine! I’ll trust you this once! But if you’re lying to me, you’d better be ready to spar with your senior brother when you get back!!”
Thinking about how many times he had been humiliated by the Headless, Zhou Yue found himself unwilling to give up just yet. He immediately decided to take Junior Brother Lu at his word and headed back into the cave.
…
Three minutes later.
“No… No!!”
The Headless’s greatsword pierced Zhou Yue through from behind once again, eliciting a shrill, agonized scream.
This time, the blood-red [Death] did not appear in front of him.
Instead, a bright green [Noob] appeared.
The livestream chat instantly erupted in laughter.
[Hahaha, I think I know why Old Demon Lu told you to keep fighting.]
[Noob!]
[Feels like that was prepared for Zhong.]
[Old Zhou’s never going to live this down~~]
…
Seeing this, Lu Ze declared with satisfaction: Mission accomplished.
This was a new setting he had added to the illusion.
Whenever someone died more than one hundred times to the same enemy, [Death] would change to [Noob].
Lu Ze had originally thought Zhong Yi would be the first to trigger the mechanic. He had never expected Zhou Yue to be the one to repeatedly stumble at the Headless’s hands.
Given Zhou Yue’s personality, he would definitely refuse to stop until he defeated the Headless, sending Lu Ze a steady stream of demonic cultivation points…
“???”
Zhou Yue was stunned at first. Then the sight of that [Noob] made him laugh in sheer fury.
“Fine, fine… Today, either the Headless or Junior Brother Lu is going down!!!”
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
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.
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?"
