Don't call me by my name anymore

Chi Yu: "..."

Xie Xiyi, you actually managed to do this much in one short week?

Owner leaves for a week, dog demolishes the entire world.jpg (jk

But hearing about it from these cultivators alone, Chi Yu didn't really feel that it was real. It all had the absurd quality of a dream.

Yet however absurd it was, Chi Yu knew full well that it was true. Xie Xiyi really was that kind of madman.

That night, Chi Yu had some trouble sleeping.

Ling Hezhou no longer had any of his earlier energy for throwing his weight around as the young sect master and demanding that the sect deal with Xie Xiyi. After hearing those cultivators' accounts, he was nearly scared out of his wits. "I know Yu Liuxin. She took first place in the Mystic Division at last year's Immortal Alliance Grand Tournament, ranking just below Senior Brother Qingming. She was incredibly strong. She's dead too. Fuck, she's dead too!"

Ling Hezhou had even started using the swear words Chi Yu often said.

Chi Yu said, "I've heard of her."

This fairy had died not long after the opening of Divine Path, but with Xie Xiyi as a wild card, her death had come far too early.

Ling Hezhou said, "He's terrifying. He's only in the Golden Core Realm. How did he do it?"

Chi Yu suddenly sat up, because he had realized there was a massive bug-

In the original Divine Path, Xie Xiyi had first appeared as an eighteen-year-old Golden Core Realm cultivator, a top genius of the Immortal Sect and the reliable eldest senior brother everyone trusted.

But the current Xie Xiyi's age didn't match the original Xie Xiyi's at all!

Going by Xie Xiyi's age in the original, he should only have been thirteen right now!!!

But Xie Xiyi's nearly two-meter height and profound cultivation clearly weren't those of a thirteen-year-old.

Chi Yu: "..."

His CPU was about to fry.

Where the hell have I ended up? Some fucking wildly altered fanfic?

Ling Hezhou's nerves were frayed by his sudden movements, and he asked anxiously, "What's wrong?"

Chi Yu said as though nothing had happened, "Nothing. I'm going to the bathroom."

After returning from the bathroom, Chi Yu pushed aside all his doubts and worries, closed his eyes, and prepared to sleep.

His cultivation was low, and he had a biological clock to contend with. Though he couldn't sleep at first, after lying with his eyes closed for a while, he eventually drifted off.

But as he slept, a bone-deep chill seeped into his marrow. Groggily, he reached out to pull up the covers, but the inn's thin bedding offered no protection against that piercing cold.

It was too cold, as though he had been buried in ice and snow. All the blood in his body seemed to have frozen, and breathing grew difficult.

Ling Hezhou's shouts reached his ears. Chi Yu barely managed to wake. His lashes were sticky with moisture, which quickly froze, coating them with a thin layer of frost.

Chi Yu finally opened his eyes. The room was dark, with only the lingering moonlight spilling through the window, casting a faint glow over the tall figure before him.

Chi Yu jolted, becoming more alert.

He sprang upright and took a lamp from his Sumeru Ring. Its flame burned brightly, illuminating the room.

The hideous, eerie demon mask came into view. Those red eyes reflected the flickering lamplight, giving them a peculiar, sinister horror.

Xie Xiyi's pleasing, melodious voice rang out. "I was just wondering how long you could keep sleeping."

Inwardly, Chi Yu cursed Xie Xiyi for disturbing his sleep, but he wore a perfectly obedient expression. "Oh, boss, I've been looking for you for so long. I finally found you. I thought you didn't want me anymore."

Words like these rolled right off his tongue. Since he was younger now, his tone inevitably carried a little softness, making him sound as though he were wheedling.

But Xie Xiyi couldn't tell whether he was wheedling at all, nor did he care about anything Chi Yu had said. He merely chuckled to himself and said, "Phantom Lightning. Settle it down."

With that, the black mist around him writhed and spat out a jade-white spine sword.

He was still smiling. "It's certainly special, but a disobedient sword has no reason to exist. I'm giving it one chance, and you one chance."

As he spoke, Chi Yu again caught the heavy scent of blood. Beneath it lay killing intent as sharp as a sword.

Chi Yu's entire body went rigid. It was an instinctive physical response.

He quickly adjusted, reached out to hold Phantom Lightning, and boldly asked Xie Xiyi, "Are you hurt?"

"Hurt?" As though he had heard something amusing, Xie Xiyi's lips curved beneath his mask, his laughter warm. "I don't get hurt."

As casually as if he were commenting on the fine weather, he said something horrifying. "I'm just like you. I don't get hurt, and I don't die."

"In that respect, we're quite alike."

Chi Yu: "???"

Wait, I think I just heard something terrifying.

Xie Xiyi reached toward Chi Yu, mist instantly enveloping his hands. He took Chi Yu by the chin and seemed to examine him very carefully beneath the lamplight.

The power of the Forbidden Curse, which revealed itself only at the moment of resurrection, warranted attention, because it was a Forbidden Curse he had yet to master.

Though his voice held a smile, beneath the mask his expression was one of icy indifference. "If you want to stay alive, you'll have to work hard to make yourself useful."

"Your resurrections aren't unlimited, either."

Chi Yu: "..."

Holy fuck!!!!

How the fuck am I supposed to play this!!!

I want to quit the game! Aaaaaah!

Author's note:

Eating Fish: Aren't I supposed to be the one with cheats??

Chapter 9: Don't call me by my name anymore

Chi Yu panicked for only an instant before swiftly calming down.

He had already revealed the system, so this hardly counted as a hidden trump card anymore. If Xie Xiyi knew, then so be it.

Perhaps some would think he had lost his mind by revealing the system and wouldn't survive three episodes in a novel, but Chi Yu had thought it through carefully.

First, Xie Xiyi's fundamental personality was different from other people's. Chi Yu had to offer something sufficiently enticing to draw his attention.

His weakness, together with his mission, already made for a considerable challenge.

Precisely because it was so challenging, it created an enormous contrast, something that would naturally arouse curiosity and interest. Curiosity was humanity's most primal desire, and even cultivators couldn't escape it.

Though it was reckless, Chi Yu was also gambling-gambling that Xie Xiyi would respond to this approach.

There was no hiding much from Xie Xiyi, nor should he try any tricks. Having no moves was better than having moves.

Having thought it through, Chi Yu smiled again and replied enthusiastically, "Got it, boss. I'll work hard to make myself useful. I'll definitely get Phantom Lightning sorted out for you!"

He was so cooperative, seemingly without any temper at all. Xie Xiyi watched him silently for a while. The fingers holding Chi Yu's chin rubbed it lightly before he finally said with a smile, "That is your value."

Xie Xiyi left.

The heavy scent of blood from his body still lingered in the room.

Chi Yu relaxed and looked down at Phantom Lightning. A faint golden glow flowed over its blade, white and lustrous as mutton-fat jade. It gently shook off the bloody aura clinging to it, dispersing it into the air, then nuzzled Chi Yu's cheek. It was clearly a cold, hard spine sword, yet Chi Yu kept feeling as though he were facing a clingy kitten.

Chi Yu asked Phantom Lightning quietly, "Did you upset him?"

Phantom Lightning responded by lifting the covers with its tip, burrowing underneath, and playing dead.

Chi Yu laughed, pulled back the covers, and lay down with it.

Phantom Lightning had been forged from a Golden Core cultivator's spine. Remembering this, Chi Yu looked at it again and felt there was something bloody and tragic about it.

Phantom Lightning's hilt was knobbly, joined to a section of golden metal. Its overall coloring was beautiful. Rather than the pale, sinister bones Chi Yu was familiar with, it was translucent and lustrous like jade. Golden light often flowed through its jade-colored grain, making it breathtakingly beautiful.

No wonder Xie Xiyi had called it special. Chi Yu had already seen quite a few corpses on the Eastern Mirror Continent, some too gruesome to look at. Unable to bear leaving them exposed in the wilderness, he would spend time collecting and burying them. He had therefore handled many incomplete bodies, but none had possessed bones as beautiful as Phantom Lightning.

The bone sword's edges weren't actually sharp. They were even somewhat rounded and blunt. Curious about its destructive power, Chi Yu asked Phantom Lightning, "Can I use you?"

Phantom Lightning tilted its hilt slightly, indicating agreement.

Chi Yu climbed out from under the covers and got out of bed with Phantom Lightning. He took a spirit stone from his Sumeru Ring and told it, "Let me see if you can split this."

With that, he lightly tapped Phantom Lightning against the spirit stone. It didn't leave so much as a scratch.

Chi Yu laughed. "What the heck? You don't have any destructive power at all!"

It had been pretty efficient when stabbing him, though.

As though provoked by his words, Phantom Lightning hummed, then moved Chi Yu's arm on its own-with just a light swing, an invisible streak of sword energy swept past, instantly shearing away half of Chi Yu's room.

With a thunderous crash, the entire inn erupted into an uproar.

Chi Yu: "..."

Phantom Lightning's tip quivered, looking rather proud.

Chi Yu: "..."

He was stunned, unable to think of anything to say for a moment.

Meanwhile, the commotion outside had reached his door. The inn's attendant pounded on it, shouting rudely, "Guest, open the door, please."

Chi Yu hurried to open it. Outside stood not only the attendant but also several cultivators, all glaring at him furiously. "Don't you know fighting is forbidden inside the city? Don't you know it's forbidden in the inn too? Whose household are you from?"

In the end, Chi Yu had to pay a hefty sum of spirit stones to settle the matter, and the innkeeper mercilessly threw him out as well.

Chi Yu: "..."

He really shouldn't have tested it.

Perhaps all the inns in the city had some kind of group chat? When Chi Yu went looking for another inn, none would take him.

Ling Hezhou, who hadn't dared make a sound all this time, finally spoke. "You can spend the night in a cultivation room. It's cheaper than an inn."

Only then did Chi Yu remember that such places existed.

Cultivation rooms were as commonplace as study rooms in modern society. Even the smallest cities offered cultivation cave residences for rent.