Chapter 9: I

“Cough cough cough… No… No!”

On the balcony of the seaside villa.

The hanging hammock was empty, while the once-pristine expensive floor tiles were stained with a thick pool of blood, and the tall, strange woman lay writhing on the ground.

Her expression was twisted with unbearable agony, her lips muttering only the words “No… no…”

About half an hour passed, her body hardened into a crust of dried blood before she finally recovered, using trembling hands to push herself up from the ground, gritting her teeth against the agony as if her entire body were exploding.

She picked up her phone beside her and typed:

“Reward for Li Guoqiang, Captain of the Mingyang City Police Criminal Unit! Alive or dead, produce the body!”

“Find out exactly what happened to him!”

“Reward: ten million U.S. dollars!”

The strange woman’s fingers stabbed at the phone, clicking loudly, until the screen, once smooth, was now covered in cracks when the message finally sent.

She was furious! She was confused!

That supreme being thrived on death and blood.

This sacrifice only needed fifty human lives to imbue the garment with a trace of vitality.

But when she transferred her consciousness via the special spirit tablet, she saw His projection!

Why did He descend a personal projection?

The Fuben was assembled and stitched together by her own hands.

She knew better than anyone what was inside.

It was as absurd as Jack Ma personally flying his private jet to a remote mountain village to steal the cow dung a shepherd boy had picked up that morning.

If the object wasn’t the problem, then the problem must lie with the person!

“Why wasn’t that bastard sacrificed?” The strange woman gasped heavily, her magnificent figure trembling in disarray.

Scenes from when her consciousness entered the spirit tablet echoed in her mind—

She clearly saw a grotesque, monstrous shell, its body twisted beyond recognition, defiantly lifting its head to stare into the red sun above.

Even as it was about to shatter into bloody mist, the monster’s wild laughter sent a chill through the strange woman.

“Could this lunatic be someone sent by an organization to destroy the [Object of Descent]?”

“The Cult of Disaster? The Tarot Society? Or the Supernatural Affairs Bureau?”

The strange woman’s mind was now a mess.

The bastard who cleared the Fuben held the spirit tablet meant for Li Guoqiang, used some method to bypass the sacrifice and draw down His projection, causing the [Object of Descent] to vanish and completely ruining her long-planned scheme.

Not only that, she’d lost her only substitute death item.

Among all players of the Spirit Catastrophe Game, there couldn’t be more than a handful who possessed such an item!

The terror of that being far exceeded imagination—even across the chasm between Fuben and reality, even if He had only sent a projection, even if His gaze wasn’t even directed at her, she still died once.

“No matter who you are…”

“I’ll carve you into a thousand pieces!”

For the first time, the strange woman hated someone this intensely.

And for the first time, she despised the Zhibo restriction of the Spirit Catastrophe Game.

It was a protection mechanism for newcomers—

Viewers of the Zhibo could not remember any personal traits of the newcomers—their appearance, voice, or any distinguishing features.

So she couldn’t directly identify who the final Tongguanzhe was.

Fortunately, she could narrow down the investigation range.

The man held Li Guoqiang’s spirit tablet—his location must be within Mingyang City!

“Ethan, book me a ticket back home.”

“I’m going back to dig him up three feet deep with my own hands!”

————

“Achoo!!”

Wu Wang, unaware that his own head was now worth ten million, sneezed.

He rubbed his nose, puzzled: “Who’s cursing me?”

“Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!” Three more sneezes in a row.

“Damn, someone’s really cursing me hard. Wait till I finish eating—I’ll hex you, you bet,” Wu Wang grumbled, using a plastic fork to scoop up the now-mushy instant noodles and slurping them down without hesitation.

He had just returned to reality.

Based on the wall clock’s discrepancy and the mushiness of the noodles, he easily calculated how long he’d been gone—thirty minutes.

That was the time he spent studying his personal panel in the dark space.

In other words, no matter how long he spent in the Fuben world, only an instant passed in the real world upon return.

“Is it Old Wang cursing me? Did he find out I swapped his square dance audio USB for that embarrassing moaning?”

“Could it be Old Li still holding a grudge because I shaved all the fur off her cat and knitted it into a sweater?”

“Meow~”

As Wu Wang was still pondering whether to hex Old Wang or Old Li, a pleading meow came from the bedroom door.

He knew instantly—it was a little fake, manipulative green tea.

He glanced sideways, and the black-and-white cow cat belonging to his second sister stepped in gracefully.

Because the white fur around its nose formed an unusually abstract shape,

Wu Wang had always called it “Dick Cat.”

Watching it approach slowly, he pulled out a tube of cat treat from the drawer.

“Mew~~”

The cow cat’s voice grew even more saccharine, eyes locked on the treat, drool nearly dripping to the floor.

But Wu Wang wasn’t fooled.

He stared sternly at the cat and barked: “Dick Cat! Have you forgotten what I taught you?!”

Hearing his low voice, the cow cat froze mid-step.

It cautiously meowed a few more times.

Finding it useless,

it surrendered.

Huh—plop—

The cow cat powerfully pushed off with its front paws, leaping into the air like a black-and-white windmill, executing a perfect backflip before landing flawlessly.

After completing this acrobatic performance, it saw a smile on Wu Wang’s face.

“That’s right! Exactly like that!”

“I don’t raise useless pets here. No pain, no gain—only valuable cats get fed!”

“Every time I come home, you must do a flip to earn your food. Understood?”

With that, he put the cat treat back into the drawer.

He hadn’t said he’d reward this performance with a treat.

“If I can train a cat, I’m damn genius.”

He ignored the cat’s Buman growl entirely.

After praising himself, Wu Wang tossed the cat into the living room and locked himself in his room.

He turned on the computer.

The dim glow cast on his face made him look unnaturally pale.

There were about twenty-three hours left until the mission timer.

He needed to review knowledge about the supernatural.

He opened his browser’s bookmarks folder labeled “Occultism”—

“Comprehensive Occultism,” “Practical Witchcraft,” “Collection of Daoist Incantations,” “…”

Moreover, the other bookmarked folders revealed his terrifying depth of knowledge.

From chemical material refining to architectural design analysis; from literature and poetry to advanced mathematics theory; from fitness and diet planning to martial arts technique breakdowns; from astronomy and constellations to geology; from wilderness survival skills to financial investment; from human anatomy to criminal case studies…

All kinds of scattered yet comprehensive knowledge had been meticulously categorized and organized by him.

Most crucially—he had mastered them all.

A normal person would lack the energy to cover so many fields.

But Wu Wang was… slightly unusual…

“Guess it’s true—full belly, lustful thoughts. Eat and get sleepy,” Wu Wang muttered. After completing his knowledge review, he felt his eyelids growing heavy, waves of drowsiness washing over him.

Unconsciously, he pulled a fruit knife from the drawer and skillfully aimed it at his heart.

Then he drove it in hard.

Plop—

He died.

In an instant, the lost blood vanished from the air and returned to his body.

He opened his eyes—fatigue gone entirely.

After resurrection, his body returned to its healthiest possible state!

With this method, he could maintain high-intensity study indefinitely without rest—when tired, he just stabbed himself.

It’s the same not just with learning, but also with physical training and martial practice.

Every time the body’s muscles reach their limit from intense exercise, just reviving once lets you continue, and the training effects are preserved — effectively skipping the muscle recovery process and gaining the results directly.

Wu Wang hasn’t slept for five consecutive years.

As he just said —

“I’m fucking brilliant!”