Xu Chunliang Sends His Sister to Heaven
"Welcome, sir! Please, have a seat."
At the courtesan's renewed invitation, Xu Chunliang calmly settled into a seat.
He looked like a regular at brothels.
The courtesan poured him some tea and asked with interest:
"Is this your first time at a place like ours, young master?"
Xu Chunliang picked up his teacup and nodded with a smile. "Yes, it's my first time. My family has always been strict and never let me come to places like this."
"Hehe, you do look rather young, young master. How old are you?" For once, the courtesan didn't urge him to drink his tea as she had before.
Xu Chunliang glanced at the courtesan's chest and said with a smile, "Sixteen. I'm an adult."
The courtesan covered her mouth and smiled, speaking suggestively. "Then you certainly aren't little anymore. In the countryside, young men your age are already fathers."
"It's time you saw a little of the world, or what would you do when you got married?"
Xu Chunliang lowered his head with a smile, his face visibly reddening.
For some reason, the courtesan sitting opposite him felt a surge of affection.
He was fair and fresh-faced, handsome and dashing—the sort of man women from fifteen to fifty would like.
The courtesan stood up and sat down beside Xu Chunliang.
She casually rested her slender left hand on his thigh and said softly:
"Boys have to grow up sometime. Let big sister teach you today, and you'll come to love this place."
"Is it your first time?"
Xu Chunliang was a little embarrassed, so he smiled bashfully. "I can't quite say it's my first time. I messed up the previous attempts."
"Hehe..." The courtesan covered her face and burst out laughing, nearly bringing herself to tears.
It seemed the youngster beside her really was a virgin. That gave her the idea of having a taste first, then killing him.
The days spent hunting were too boring.
If she didn't find ways to amuse herself, life would be far too dull.
"Don't be shy. Come on, let big sister teach you."
"With me here, you won't mess it up this time."
"I'll make sure to send you to heaven today, all right?"
Xu Chunliang reached behind and felt the small of his back, then smiled sheepishly.
"No, I should be the one sending you to heaven today, sister."
"Huh?"
His expression suddenly went blank as he looked behind the courtesan and said, "Who are you?"
"Who?" The courtesan instinctively turned her head.
Xu Chunliang sprang into action. A small brass knife had appeared in the right hand he had just reached behind his back.
Pfft!
The brass knife plunged into the courtesan's neck.
Xu Chunliang gave it a twist, cutting a cross.
"Urgh..."
"Urgh..."
The courtesan's eyes were filled with disbelief.
Without hesitation, Xu Chunliang pulled out the brass knife and stabbed it into her neck again.
He twisted it viciously.
He gouged away half of her beautiful, fair, slender, swanlike neck.
Only then did he smile and ask, "How do you feel, sister? Do you feel like you're ascending to heaven yet?"
"Don't stand on ceremony, sister. Go right ahead. Xu Chunliang invites you to ascend to heaven."
"Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself."
"My name is Xu Chunliang. I'm from the Demon-Slaying Bureau."
His hand rose and the knife fell, viciously severing the remaining half of the courtesan's neck!
Crack! A crisp shattering sound rang out. The courtesan fell to the ground and turned into a broken blue-and-white porcelain vase half a person's height.
Watching her head, covered in black hair, fall to the ground, Xu Chunliang dropped onto his backside and began gasping for breath.
After dying four times, he had finally killed this uncanny creature of unknown origin.
Xu Chunliang finally relaxed.
"Hehe..."
"Hehe..."
Clap, clap, clap...
A round of applause sounded. At the familiar laughter, the hairs on Xu Chunliang's body stood on end.
It was the courtesan's laughter.
She wasn't dead!
He looked up to see the broken blue-and-white porcelain vase rise to its feet. Though cracks ran all over it, a mysterious force seemed to wind around her, holding the fragments together.
It allowed her to rise unsteadily.
Her arms and legs bent back at the joints as she crouched on the ground.
Her feet clapped together.
A crude human face drawn on white paper with a red pen was pasted to the belly of her blue-and-white vase. Its roughly drawn eyes, like those in a child's drawing, looked curiously at Xu Chunliang.
"So little brother is from the Demon-Slaying Bureau? No wonder you could cut off my neck."
"Hehe..."
"But you still don't have much of an eye, little brother."
"You couldn't tell that your sister was a paper ghost. Since you're about to die, I'll tell you a secret."
"My vital point is on this sheet of paper. Stab it to pieces with your knife, and I really will ascend to heaven."
"Hehe..."
"Off to heaven with you first, little brother. If you have another life and meet me again, remember that my vital point is on the paper on my belly..."
Before she had finished speaking, her skirts billowed out,
Instantly enveloping Xu Chunliang.
A sharp claw silently pierced Xu Chunliang's chest,
And crushed his beating heart in an instant.
"Fuck!"
Only one word remained in Xu Chunliang's mind.
After five deaths, he had found his opponent's true weakness.
Xu Chunliang thought it was worth it.
Remembering how he had reloaded a save 169 times while playing Elden Ring in his previous life,
He smiled smugly.
Wasn't it just death?
I can reload!
You can only die once.
I can make ten thousand mistakes, but you can only die once.
The advantage is mine.
A confident smile in his eyes, Xu Chunliang sat down on the wooden chair.
Once again, he began seducing the courtesan with his "innocent smile."
And so, once again, the two came around to the subject of ascending to heaven.
"I'll make sure to send you to heaven today, all right?"
"No, I should be the one sending you to heaven today, sister."
Rip!
The tip of the brass knife made a sound as it sliced through paper.
A piercing scream came from the courtesan's abdomen.
Her pretty, rosy face rapidly shriveled, turning into gray clods of earth that scattered in the wind. Her body likewise rotted away and vanished.
In the end, only a tattered sheet of paper remained.
A flash of clear light, invisible to others, slipped into Xu Chunliang's body.
A panel opened in his mind.
Name: Xu Chunliang. Age: 16. Attribute points: 1. Level: Transcending Mortality+ (10 attribute points required to advance to Star Transformation). Skill: Black Tiger Saber Technique+ (beginner) Remaining reloads: unlimited. Current save point: entering the courtesan's room.
The panel was simple and clear, and Xu Chunliang understood it immediately.
Unlimited reloads meant he could keep dying and coming back to life.
The save point was the time and place where he would be revived.
And attribute points were obviously used to improve his attributes.
In this world, human cultivators had distinct levels:
Transcending Mortality, Star Transformation, Moon Glow, Solar Halo, Crimson Dawn, Imperial Apex, Vajra, Celestial Phenomena, Immortal and Buddha, Unknowable.
Each level had its own power; each step was an ascent to heaven.
Seeing that killing a paper ghost had earned him only one attribute point, not enough to raise his level,
Xu Chunliang sighed helplessly.
He chose not to upgrade the Black Tiger Saber Technique, which was already the Demon-Slaying Bureau's most basic saber technique, and decided to wait and save up some attribute points.
He wasn't afraid of dying anyway.
Xu Chunliang comforted himself with that thought,
Then picked up the scrap of paper left by the paper ghost and quietly left the Bronze Sparrow Tower.
It was already dark. He chose not to return to the Demon-Slaying Bureau,
Instead turning toward his home in the west of the city.
His predecessor had owned a secluded little courtyard in the city, which Xu Chunliang liked very much.
Before he had left Fireworks Lane, Xu Chunliang suddenly paused.
Not far ahead, a girl whose clothes clearly marked her as a brothel woman and a man dressed like a scholar were walking toward him, leaning against each other.