【I just got off work and was walking down the street when someone knocked me on the back of the head. Next thing I knew, I woke up here. It’s pitch black—who knows what kind of creepy place this is? I’m so scared, come save me quick! (sob sob)】
After posting this message, Linghu Xiao vanished. No matter how the other netizens asked or prodded, he never replied.
Ruan Xuezong was stunned.
His heart raced for a couple of beats as he finished reading the post.
He ventured a bold guess: Linghu Xiao had likely caught the eye of the Flower Plucking Thief and been dragged off to some secret lair. After all, Linghu Xiao was the kind of player who had spent ten full hours at character creation just perfecting his face. The system had rated it “refined and handsome” and “a face like polished jade.” To ordinary eyes, it definitely had its appeal.
Normal people abducted to an underground palace would be cut off from the outside world, their cries falling on deaf ears—heaven and earth deaf to their pleas. But players were different. Their very existence was a glitch in the Rivers and Lakes. Even if kidnapped, they could call for help and pinpoint their exact location!
No time to waste. Whether it was a misunderstanding or not, Ruan Xuezong decided to check out those coordinates first.
He didn’t have a player’s interface, so he had no clue about the precise location. Instead, he grabbed a nearby player by the collar. “Linghu Xiao’s in danger. We need to go save him now. Show me the coordinates—I’ll take you there flying.”
The player he picked was Five-Colored Mottled Black. When Ruan Xuezong singled him out, the man looked utterly flattered. “Got it, Zongzong!”
The other players shot him envious, blood-red glares. No matter how much favorability they lost with Ruan Xuezong, this guy’s emperor-level luck never faded.
Five-Colored Mottled Black agreed so eagerly that he hadn’t even processed what “take you flying” meant. His mind raced with visions of elegant duo lightfoot skills—petals raining down from the sky as they soared far into the distance, hand in hand like lovers fleeing to the moon, spinning gracefully in the air, gazes locking in eternal moments.
Reality was… different.
Ruan Xuezong channeled his lightfoot skill, his form drifting ethereally like an immortal. His toes barely brushed the ground before he scooped up Five-Colored Mottled Black like a chick.
Five-Colored Mottled Black’s eyes bulged. The moment his body lifted off, darkness swam before his vision. After a brief spell of dizziness, he blinked and found Jiangnan City’s shimmering lakes and mountains sprawling beneath his feet—the game’s scenery was breathtaking enough to stop a heart.
He really had become a sparrow soaring through the skies.
The only downside? The pose was anything but cool! Five-Colored Mottled Black felt like a weightless sack of burlap, effortlessly hauled along by Ruan Xuezong—now swooping in dives, now fluttering in the wind. All the dashing flair belonged to Zongzong. He was just a pathetic little rag!
“Are we close to the coordinates yet?” Ruan Xuezong asked.
He wasn’t trying to humiliate anyone with the carry. The romantic duo flight Five-Colored Mottled Black had imagined was child’s play for any martial expert. But single-handedly hauling someone like this was far more efficient—faster, too.
“Almost there,” Five-Colored Mottled Black managed, steadying himself. He glanced at the minimap in the corner of his vision and saw they were closing in on [1719, 2430]. Every player watching held their breath.
The spot lay just outside Jiangnan City in a nearby valley. The minimap labeled it Fragrant Blossom Valley, where peach blossoms blanketed the woods in a flurry of falling petals. Vivid crimson blooms spread like clouds of fire across the landscape. The place looked deserted, serene, and utterly peaceful.
And right at those coordinates stood a massive ancient banyan tree in the valley’s heart—roots twisting like dragons, trunk so thick it would take four or five people arm-in-arm to encircle it.
The players, no slouches in lightfoot skills themselves, landed behind Ruan Xuezong and drew sharp breaths in tense excitement. Linghu Xiao couldn’t be inside the tree itself, which meant he had to be underneath it. After searching so long for the underground palace’s entrance, they might have finally found it nearby.
The players could barely contain their thrill.
“Shh.” Ruan Xuezong pressed a finger to his lips, signaling silence. The players obeyed instantly, clamping hands over their mouths. They mimicked him, channeling inner energy to their ears and straining to listen. Faint voices drifted toward them…
Ruan Xuezong listened closely. More than a few people were talking.
“Qin Xiang, His Majesty whipped you so many times, and yet you’re up and about after just a few days? You’re one tough bastard.”
“You traitor, helping Shen Jiangling escape. How did she not beat you to death? The last turncoat got tossed straight into the cold palace.”
“He helped Shen Jiangling escape because he still clings to that pipe dream of breaking out. Hilarious—who doesn’t know this underground palace is a one-way trip? Even immortals couldn’t find it. You think Shen Jiangling’s going to come back with reinforcements?”
“Whatever. Some people are just naive and stubborn. Locked up a whole year, and his iron pride’s still intact.”
“Heh, he’s got nine lives. His Majesty just has a thing for the stubborn ones.”
What the hell? Ruan Xuezong frowned slightly. Pinpointing the direction of the voices, he shot the players a look: This is it. Dig!
Meanwhile, Linghu Xiao faced a dire crisis of his own!
“You’re one handsome devil.” A woman’s finger trailed along his neck, her breath warm and perfumed, her laugh tinkling like silver bells. Linghu Xiao shuddered, his back going rigid.
Inside, he was falling apart. He’d seen the screen recordings from the recorder group—he knew this was the Demonic Cult’s seductress, Tao Caiyan! And he’d been unlucky enough to land right in her clutches.
“I’m not handsome! This face is fake—I spent ten hours pinching it! It only looks three or four parts like the real me. I’m really not good-looking at all, honest!” Linghu Xiao blurted in a panicked torrent. He’d been dosed with Soft Tendon Powder; his body was paralyzed, only his mouth still worked.
“Real, fake—what are you on about?” Tao Caiyan didn’t get it. She pinched his cheek, confirmed it wasn’t a disguise technique, and dismissed it.
She chuckled and slinked closer, boneless as a snake, her voice dripping honey. “You’re so handsome, I want to use you for cultivation practice. Behave, and I’ll treat you nice.”
“Then just kill me!” Linghu Xiao jutted his chin defiantly. He’d regained a bit of movement.
“I won’t kill you. At worst, I’ll drug you, starve you a few meals. Keep resisting, and I’ll whip you till you beg for death.” Tao Caiyan laughed uproariously. Men like him—unbowed by force—were a dime a dozen in her presence.
Linghu Xiao faltered, then raged on, invoking his savior. “Touch me, and I’ll get Zongzong to raze your hideout!”
Thanks to the players’ constant yammering of “Zongzong” this and “Zongzong” that, Tao Caiyan guessed immediately.
“You’re one of Ruan Xuezong’s?” Her face darkened on the spot. She’d been stirring trouble in Jiangnan this whole time, always steering clear of Ruan Xuezong—sticking to sneaky sabotage, never anything overt.
She knew Heart Washing Manor was uncanny from top to bottom. And Ruan Xuezong was her natural counter.
Tao Caiyan didn’t recognize Linghu Xiao, of course. During the Clear Wind Fishing Ground plot, he’d been off running merchant quests in the Capital City, absent from the player horde baying for Demonic Sect blood. And during Peacock Manor, he’d rushed back from the Capital City just in time to shine on Yanghe Mountain’s battlefield—perfectly missing her. Otherwise, she’d have remembered his face among that pack of annoying Heart Washing Manor players. She wouldn’t touch them lightly.
What she feared wasn’t the players, though—it was the man behind them. Ruan Xuezong was terrifying, always gunning to end her.
After he’d palmed her at Peacock Manor and she’d barely escaped, her wounds still hadn’t fully healed. She’d holed up in this lightless underground palace to recover. But it was so dull. Her foster father had dumped her here alone, and the isolation, loneliness, and endless pain had frayed her restraint. She itched to make mischief every day.
Ruan Xuezong’s icy gaze and the near-death agony in her chest flashed through her mind. A flicker of terror crossed Tao Caiyan’s eyes.
But she shoved it down, seizing Linghu Xiao’s throat with a sniff. “Clever boy, using Ruan Xuezong to threaten me. Don’t get cocky, though. This underground palace was built on my foster father’s orders. The entrance is hidden in a spot no one could guess. I killed every craftsman who knew the secret. Even if Ruan Xuezong were a god, it’d take him a decade to find this place!”
“Chen Lu, drag this kid away. He’s serving me in bed tonight. I’ll use him for practice.” Tao Caiyan sneered. From the shadowy corner emerged a tall man—Linghu Xiao recognized him as the silent brute who’d kidnapped him.
“Serving in bed—what kind of serving!?” Linghu Xiao yelped in horror. Not what he thought it was, right? He’d watched enough ancient palace dramas back on Old Earth: the emperor flipping plaques for his harem, summoning showgirls for the night.
“No way! JJWXC doesn’t allow anything below the neck, to protect minors. The game can’t have restricted content either…” Despite the Soft Tendon Powder, Linghu Xiao flailed his limp limbs in futile punches and kicks. Still, he got dragged off.
What shocked the Demonic Sect seductress Tao Caiyan even more came next.
She’d always known Heart Washing Manor’s crew was weird. But she hadn’t realized they were this weird.
She had Linghu Xiao stripped of one layer of clothing, and a blob appeared on his body—crude, unrecognizable color blocks, a chaotic smear assaulting the eyes. She gaped, speechless, then bellowed, “What the hell is this!?”
Linghu Xiao wailed in despair. “It’s a mosaic.”
“I told you—for protecting minors, the game blocks all restricted scenes now…”
Meanwhile,
After confirming the massive banyan in Fragrant Blossom Valley hid the underground palace lair, the players silently dug a tunnel. Once it was done, Ruan Xuezong slipped inside and advanced a ways.
The sight that greeted him left him stunned: a vast, shadowy underground palace. Countless candles hung on the damp walls, wax dripping in serpentine trails like water stains. This seemed to be one chamber, featuring two altars emblazoned with Demonic Sect sigils. Flames roared within, and at the head sat a male statue with an indistinct face. The flickering firelight almost seemed to animate it.
From his past-life dealings, Ruan Xuezong knew that if this statue came alive, it would be a white-haired man in black robes—arrogant and untamed—Huo Chonglou. This underground palace was one of his lairs. He’d stationed his foster daughter Tao Caiyan here to guard it, hence the statue.
“!!!” The players, unaware of the backstory, arrived right behind him. The horror-movie scene nearly made them scream.
Ruan Xuezong’s hand itched to smash the statue. But the noise would alert everyone—he was here to rescue someone, not start a ruckus. He shelved the idea.
Rounding a corner, he spotted an ornate stone door. Voices came from beyond—still those people, chattering and mocking with sharp barbs, punctuated by cruel laughs. “Qin Xiang, you standing by the stone door—really hoping for divine intervention?”
“Fool. Better to seize the day here than cling to empty fantasies.”
Qin Xiang pressed his lips tight, silent. At that moment, Ruan Xuezong strode in from outside, a horde of players at his heels. The group inside recoiled in terror.
