Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 242 - 41: Evaluation Reward, Yang God Seal, Return and Depart Again! (First Update for Monthly Ticket)

Chapter 242: Chapter 41: Evaluation Reward, Yang God Seal, Return and Depart Again! (First Update for Monthly Ticket)

In the void, the Tai Chu Scroll fluttered open:

"Now calculating your legendary achievements..."

"You were trapped in the Forbidden City at birth, and trapped there again at death; life and death, the cycle never ends—You have achieved the accomplishment: Dear to the Forbidden City;"

"You have had a total of seven legendary romances in this life, some with young mistresses, some with master’s wives, and even others with someone else’s child’s mother—You have achieved the accomplishment: Filial Son;"

"You are the reincarnation of a God of Cooking; in this life, you have cooked countless yin ghosts who never imagined they’d be cooked so thoroughly one day—You have achieved the accomplishment: Western Capital Gourmet."

"On your own, you broke through the Heavenly Human Boundary; you entered the Grandmaster Realm, becoming a Martial Arts Master, making an indelible contribution to the continuation of the martial arts cultivation method for future generations, while also carrying on your mother’s will by planting the seeds of hope!—You have achieved the accomplishment: Pioneer."

"You have unravelled the mysteries of Yin and Yang, your body reaching the mysterious extreme Yang state; even the lightning tribulation could only shatter your flesh and not extinguish your will!—You have achieved the accomplishment: Yang God!"

...

"Evaluation: You were a startling guest in the world of men, once promising the lowest of lows; you are an ordinary mortal who had the fortune to witness the separation between the ultimate Yin and Yang, touching upon special secrets that were buried."

"You have received the Altar·Yang God (Flawless)!"

"You have not unveiled the true face of the secret in your legendary life; you did not elicit the intervention of a divine-level existence, but you are slightly twisted, triggering several Heavenly Defiance keywords, hence your reward level has been barely elevated a notch:

Altar·Yang God (Flawless)"Altar·Yang God (Epic)

Altar·Yang God (Epic): A small altar, please set it up within any boundary line to take effect, and by offering enough lives to Lie Zhenzi through the altar, you can obtain a mark, which can be used to make a Curse Seal and with a 100% chance to form an Epic-level Yang God Curse Seal."

"Note: The life sacrificed must be human, and of course, Lie Zhenzi does not care whether you sacrifice bad people or good people, feel free to do as you please. It’s worth mentioning that your Yang God mark is a true Yang God."

[Today’s Start Count: 0/3]

...

As the Tai Chu Scroll snapped closed, Xu Shu’s deeply furrowed brow gradually eased, like the mental exhaustion from having played a VR game for a long time and suddenly taking off the visor, was slowly fading away.

In the vast white fog, everything around him was gradually revealing itself—the nearby border line, the boundless wasteland beside him, the deep and frightening dark forest in the distance...

Everything was like wiping a mirror covered in mist, slowly becoming clear from the blur.

The images from the world of the Tang Dynasty, however, shattered in an instant, as if turning off a computer screen, ending abruptly without any process.

This complete experience of a simulated life, from a completely different world and suddenly returning to the reality of one’s own world, brought a strong palpitation of awaking from a grand dream, as if transmigrating.

The longer the legendary life lasted, the stronger this sense of both merging and separation became.

It was as if one had indeed lived another life, gained an extra set of memories.

Fortunately, Xu Shu was not undergoing his first legend, and these memories would quickly be packed up like film reels, kept separate, allowing him to clearly distinguish the difference between reality and "legend," not getting confused, and only recalling them when he deliberately chose to.

His brief palpitations quickly subsided.

In the inventory of the Tai Chu Scroll, there was now a special altar-shaped item marked.

"Only elevated one level of reward, all because I was too twisted? An ordinary life... perhaps because the level was too low."

"Besides, Yang God is one of the pathways of the Evil Spirit, huh~" Xu Shu was surprised.

The Evil Spirit is divided into Primordial Spirit, Yin God, and Yang God, which is one of the few secrets he knew.

It was unknown whether the altar would be successful or not. After all, it seemed that Lie Zhenzi had a strong repulsion for the Transcendents that followed the pathways of Evil Spirit, Demon, and Alien Species.

However, at this moment, there wasn’t much time left for him to ponder these things.

Next, he would face a truly dire situation!

Beneath his feet was a big hole he had stomped out; the sun had already set, and the moon was just beginning to rise.

Telling time was unnecessary, as Xu Shu could determine that it was exactly six o’clock—not a minute more, not a minute less.

As the surrounding fog disappeared, the feeling of weightlessness was gradually fading, Xu Shu knew that his ’true stealth’ state was about to end, and his heart tensed up.

Before, he was driven into a desperate situation by an Alien Species Earl, "Lance" from the Black Widow family, and had to escape by deceitful means.

First, he crafted a persona of being fast and never yielding even in death. Then, pretending to sprint at godspeed towards the distance, he actually utilized the special features of the Tai Chu Scroll’s Legendary Mode to pull off a big "live person vanishing" magic trick.

But all of this was merely for emergencies.

If one had enough time to scrutinize, the loopholes would have been easily discovered.

For instance, if one were truly that fast, how could they be blocked?

Once the other party realized they’d been tricked, especially given Count Lance’s prideful attitude, they would surely be furious, leaving no room for negotiation.

Therefore, Xu Shu’s only hope was that the other side had not yet realized it.

In his heart, he silently chanted:

"Count’s not here..."

"Count’s not here..."

...

Whoosh!

The moment his feet hit solid ground, Xu Shu did not hesitate, immediately sprinting toward the border line.

The border line, quite ordinary, was nothing more than a red line a few fingers wide.

But to Xu Shu, it was a lifeline!

A distance of thirty meters, which could be crossed in a blink.

Yet in that moment, Xu Shu felt immense fear, the hair on his back standing on end.

He didn’t have time to think about anything else and immediately rolled instinctively, changing his position.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Several rebar guns behind him were hit by something, jerking his body to one side, causing his step to falter, and he was sent flying at an angle.

But he still entered the borderline and rolled around several times inside it.

The next instant, a figure "whooshed" from a hundred meters away, appearing near the borderline with slightly disheveled blonde hair.

It was none other than Count Lance.

The resolute face, as if carved out by knives and axes, wasn’t so composed anymore, with the two peculiar eyes fixed on Xu Shu, filled with anger.

"Ts, I really got discovered... but at least it was a bit too late."

Xu Shu couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Only then did he realize that the spot where he was just standing had a clump of white sticky spider web on the ground.

The steel bars were stuck to the ground, as if they were being corroded by the spider web, quickly dissolving and breaking off.

Xu Shu’s eyelids twitched at the sight.

Spit Silk?

He was familiar with this ability; he had it too.

However, his Spit Silk had a range of only a few meters, whereas the range of the other party’s Spit Silk was at least a hundred meters.

"This is also Spit Silk? I remember male Black Widows are only capable of spraying poison... It seems it became different after leveling up..."

With this thought, Xu Shu instinctively retreated a long distance into the interior, then lifted his head.

Count Lance’s forehead and its eight compound eyes stared over.

"...," Xu Shu just quietly watched the other party, without uttering a word.

"...," Lance also quietly looked at him, his eyes seemingly ablaze with fire.

One man and one monster eyed each other for at least five minutes.

Neither spoke.

Only the rustling noise was approaching.

Those were the remnants of a spider army, scattered and sparse; they were originally following at the back, but now coming back, ended up leading the way.

Some of the spiders that had run the fastest, however, couldn’t make it back right away. After all, the snowy mountains were too far away, and they didn’t have the terrifying speed of Lance.

As more and more spider minions gathered.

Xu Shu, while retreating to a safe distance, politely asked, "Hey, did you go admire the Little Xue on top of the mountain? Was it pretty?"

That single sentence ignited Lance’s rage.

"Human, you’re courting death!"

He gestured with his hand and suddenly, webs erupted, ensnaring several Black Widow Spiders the size of water jars and hurled them at Xu Shu like shot-puts.

"Ha, try to catch me if you can!" Xu Shu wasn’t polite with his words while hastening his steps further inside.

But just as those little spiders barely crossed the borderline, an extremely intense Thunder Light appeared out of nowhere without warning.

Crack!

The Black Widows didn’t even have time to shriek before they were obliterated by the lightning strike into fine dust.

Four white Erosion Crystals dropped to the ground, trembling in place.

The vast majority, however, were directly shattered by the powerful lightning, leaving nothing behind.

"?"

Xu Shu braked to a halt.

The support from the Star Tower had arrived too quickly today; he was almost unaccustomed to it.

But then he realized.

Indeed, there had been a couple of occasions when the Star Tower was slow. The first was against a changed "Primordial Spirit" that initially didn’t pose a danger, and the second was against a Chosen One, who was essentially a human Transcendent.

But those outside right now, whether it was Count Lance or those First Rank little spiders, they were pure Alien Species monsters.

In the face of these monsters, Star Tower had never been late.

Even if they were only First Rank creatures, occasionally one would slip into the Wasteland. However, ’slipping in’ was not the same as freely entering.

One could say in over 99% of cases, even a First Rank creature couldn’t step over the red line!

Even the two clumps of ’Spit Silk’ shot by Lance were promptly shattered.

Thinking about it, if the borderline lacked countermeasures against monsters’ ’ranges of attack,’ how could people live in the Wasteland? They’d be overwhelmed by stones thrown their way.

Count Lance, being a Third Rank creature, was very likely already on Star Tower’s alert the moment it approached the borderline to a certain extent.

Within firing range, crossing the border is forbidden.

This is Star Tower!

Having understood this, Xu Shu stopped running altogether.

At that moment, Lance stopped as well. It was very clear that it couldn’t do anything to a human within the borderline.

Of course, there had been the very lucky occasion when it managed to get a few of its kin past the borderline to search for the Empress.

But every creature in the Wasteland knew that ’hopping the fence’ was a strange, mystical affair; sometimes, on a whim, one might inexplicably hop over.

But if one actively sought to enter, then a hundred thousand tries would result in a hundred thousand deaths, without a single lucky survivor.

So, after venting its anger, Lance prepared to leave.

However, at this moment Xu Shu ran straight back to the vicinity of the borderline.

He quickly picked up the four Erosion Crystals on the ground, wiped them off and pocketed them, then stepped back a few paces, pointed at Count Lance’s nose, and with a hooked finger, taunted:

"Come at me then!"