Chapter 48

System Prompt: Congratulations, player 【Yese Liming】, you have slain the anomaly 【Li Qu Gui】. Reward: Control Power +8, Dissipate Power +8, Lifespan +1 day.

Finally dead!

Earlier, when he slashed the anomaly down, everyone else thought it was dead.

But Fang Yue had killed anomalies before—he could never make such a basic mistake.

As long as the system prompt didn't appear, he'd keep hitting until it was dead; he never skipped the habit of finishing off.

Only now, seeing the system prompt trigger, did Fang Yue's taut nerves finally relax.

The next moment, Fang Yue collapsed like a deflated balloon, limbs limp, plopping onto the ground.

He felt utterly drained, too exhausted to move even a single muscle.

【Night Breathing】 was indeed powerful, but its strength was limited solely to 【wound recovery】 and 【rapid Qi and Blood restoration】, offering no boost to physical stamina.

So now Fang Yue was completely drained—he wouldn't be able to get up without proper rest for a while.

Yet his face wore a huge, dumb grin.

Because the reward for killing 【Li Qu Gui】 was just that satisfying.

It could be said to be the most generous reward among all anomalies, second only to 【Shi Zhi Gui】.

Let's tally up the gains.

+8 Control Power, +8 Dissipate Power, and 1 day of Lifespan.

Leaving Lifespan aside for now, adding these 8 points to both attributes made Fang Yue feel invincible again.

He didn't even need to doubt it—if he posted his stats on the forum, the entire forum would explode instantly.

Phrases like "Brothers, smash the screen with 'INVINCIBLE'!" "I crown you the strongest player in 【Blue Sea】!" "Confirmed cheating—request a ban!" would flood the thread nonstop.

Stay low, stay low! Suppress the urge, quietly get rich.

At first glance, Fang Yue's strength seemed explosive.

But in reality, without 【Night Breathing】's extreme blood-recovery effect,

his strength was below Captain level but above Deputy Captain level.

This middling strength—neither top nor bottom—he had coined a name for himself: Pseudo-Captain Level!

Titles aside, the point was: beneath Fang Yue's powerful exterior hid a massive hidden danger.

That was… 【Night Breathing】.

Success came from Xiao He; failure came from Xiao He.

【Night Breathing】 enhanced attributes only at night, but weakened them during the day.

Gain comes with loss; Fang Yue understood and fully accepted the value of this Human-grade talent.

The problem was, before killing 【Li Qu Gui】, his own attributes hadn't been dragged down by 【Curse】, peaking at just 37 points.

Of which, base attributes were 17 points, and 【Night Breathing】 added 20 points.

Once daytime arrived, this would reverse: a -20 penalty, 17 minus 20, instantly dropping to 1 point.

Even that was only due to the system's mercy preserving his dignity.

Otherwise, negative attributes—Fang Yue didn't know how he'd even manage basic self-care.

In short: daytime Fang Yue was a blank slate—anyone could kill him. Only at night could he pretend to be strong.

Under these conditions, how could Fang Yue ever be bold?

Even if he was strong at night, if someone came to kill him in the day, he'd have zero chance to resist—purely handing himself over.

So until his base attributes exceeded 20 points, Fang Yue had always lived with a cautious, tail-tucked mentality.

But now, everything was different.

Adding 8 points raised his base attributes straight to 25 each!

Thus, even in daylight, he'd retain 5 points in both attributes.

For example, Niu Niu—a lucky player born with divine strength—still couldn't outmatch him.

But Niu Niu was just an ordinary player, not a reliable benchmark; he needed to see how much top-tier players' base attributes increased in a single day.

Fang Yue had no data to estimate their progress, but he guessed that 5 points in daylight during the day would still place him among the top-tier players.

Thinking of this, Fang Yue casually opened his stats panel—and froze, eyes wide, stunned.

"Name: Yese Liming."

"Realm: Post-Heaven Third-Rate."

"Status: Curse 【Right Hand】, Dan Poison, Exhaustion."

"Health: 200/200."

"Inner Power: 25/25."

"Control Power: 42 【+20 -3】 【25】."

"Dissipate Power: 42 【+20 -3】 【25】."

"Talent: Night Breathing (Human-grade Upper)."

"Skills: Analysis Pupil (Human-grade Lower), Starfire Blade Technique Level 1 (Post-Heaven Third-Rate), Starfire Heart Method Level 1 (Post-Heaven Third-Rate)."

"Lifespan: 8 days, 8 hours."

Status bar? What happened to your status bar? If you've been kidnapped, blink twice! So many statuses—are you stacking kill logs on me?!

And your Lifespan—did you pick up bad habits from the status bar? Why did you suddenly eat so much? I haven't even finished one night yet! Holy crap—13 days plus 1 day reward equals 14 days total, and you just ate it down to 8?!

Fang Yue's scalp prickled.

His good mood from just killing 【Li Qu Gui】 vanished by half.

Is this body of mine going to be worn out and killed by overuse?!

Consumed so much Lifespan to kill an anomaly—and after getting the reward, the net gain was still negative? How the hell am I supposed to play this?!

Throwing a tantrum is one thing, but the problem still has to be solved.

Fang Yue's face darkened as he stared at the status bar.

"Name: Pill Poison."

"Effect 1: 【Drug Poison】 Qi and Blood continuously decrease."

"Effect 2: 【Life Shortening】 Increases the efficiency of any form of Yang lifespan loss."

"Description: The poison of pills enters the body, accumulating and hard to dispel. Depending on the pill consumed, the resulting Pill Poison effects are ever-changing. It usually carries effects such as toxin corroding the body, depleting Qi and Blood, and shortening Yang lifespan."

"Note: Pill-popping dog, keep popping! Pop a few more and you'll ascend on the spot! Spiral explosion! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

I freaking... thank Captain Lin's whole family!

Fang Yue only glanced at the Pill Poison description and immediately understood where this damned status came from.

The horror was caused by popping Zha Yuan Pills.

As the saying goes, pop pills properly, or your whole family will... you know.

Fang Yue never expected that one day he too would be labeled a pill-popping dog, and the consequences were severe at that.

However, the 【Drug Poison】 blood-loss from the first effect of 【Pill Poison】, Fang Yue couldn't feel it at all.

For that, he even carefully stared at his HP for a while, and didn't see any blood loss.

Until he was about to lose patience, his HP suddenly dropped by -1, and a blood-loss prompt popped up Synchronize above his head.

But before he could even blink, his HP was refilled to full by 【Breath of the Night】.

Huh?

This?

This is Pill Poison? In one word, I want to howl!

Same old saying, Fang Yue isn't even afraid of Rainy Day, would he fear this old-man blood-dropping trick?

Of course, if blood drops during the day, then it still deserves some respect.

For now, this so-called 【Drug Poison】 was directly ignored by Fang Yue.

On the other hand, the 【Life Shortening】 from the second effect of 【Pill Poison】 was what truly made Fang Yue's scalp tingle.

Obviously, with Yang lifespan reduced by so much, it must be its handiwork.

"Good grief, I'll go find Lord Han for help later, I must kill you, 【Pill Poison】."

Fang Yue had just thought of this when he suddenly felt a jolt of spirit, and his whole person became much more relaxed.

Immediately after, the system prompt sounded.

"System Prompt: 【Pill Poison】 status has been removed."

Fang Yue:......

You freaking couldn't even hold on a bit, so you're just a short-burst type, huh? Ruthless in purging poison?

The person is back, wanted to finish coding before 12 to upload, didn't make it in time for the sake of quality.

There will be 1 more update later.

Starting tomorrow, resuming the usual three daily updates.

(End of this chapter)