Chapter 141
Chapter 141 – No Road of Flowers
The big nerf from the system did not just cripple all otherworlders . A few of them who were hoarding more than five skills but did not have a healing skill or a lifesaving skill died from the backlash injury .
Despite the fact that the system goddess made the interference, she did not remunerate or hold any responsibility for her action . She turned a blind eye to it and mocked the dying reincarnators .
[This is what happens when you are greedy . If you satisfied with what you already had, you would have lived . ]
The aftermath of the nerf reaped the lives of seven otherworlders . Only the strong ones with a lifesaving skill or the humble ones who had less than 5 skills survived the sudden ordeal, with the exclusion of Hua Shi whose nerf was delayed due to her pregnancy .
Combined with Wang Li’s death, eleven reincarnators remained .
...
August 5th, Evening .
Tong Army retreated from Ganling City in silence as they fulfilled their promise by reconstructed of the townspeople houses .
He changed his initial plan after the grand nerf happened . Because of the after-effect injury, Li Feihong was out of the commission for the time being . In addition, he had to spend at least 2 to 3 days in preparation for the gate assassination as he could only open one gate a day now .
Tong also got hit hard . His upkeeps were now expensive as he had many skills .
...
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**Status**
Name: Zhang Tong
Age: 17
Lifespan: 44,674 Years
Shopping Pass: 0
[Time Stop] LV . 2 EXP( 168/200 )
- Stop time and space flow in your current universe for 10 seconds .
Skill Cost: 10 years of the host lifespan .
Skill Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
Skill Restriction: Can only be used once per day . Skill resets at midnight .
[Firearms Creation] LV . 1 EXP( 8,778/10,000 )
- Create any firearm or bullet of your choice .
- Handguns and handgun bullets can be created
Skill Cost:
- 1 year of the host lifespan per a handgun bullet
- 50 years of the host lifespan per a new handgun of your choice
Skill Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
Skill Restriction: Can only create one gun a day or one bullet a day . Skill resets at midnight .
[Create Food] LV . 6 (2,718/320,000)
- Create a food product or a raw food ingredient .
- 100 tons of food can be created from one usage .
Skill Cost: 1 Lifespan
Skill Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
Skill Restriction:
- The host cannot create food that host has never eaten before .
- Can only be used once per day . Skill resets at midnight .
[Demonic Curse] Cannot be leveled up .
- Host emits an aura that will give status effects or curses to the designated targets .
- The skill can be turned on and off .
- The host can apply [Lust] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Gluttony] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Greed] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Sloth] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Wraith] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Envy] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Pride] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Despair] to the targets .
- The host can apply [Corruption] to the targets .
Skill Cost: 1 Lifespan per one target . Duration depends on the will of the host .
Skill Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
Skill Restriction:
- Aura radius is one kilometer around the host .
- Targets have to be locked on by the host .
- Can only be used once per day . Skill resets at midnight .
[Demonic Seal] LV . 10
- A seal made by the great father . This skill slows down the soul mutation process .
- Curses of the following cannot be used; [Lust], [Gluttony], [Greed], [Sloth], [Wraith], [Envy], [Pride], [Despair], [Corruption] .
- The seal will be weakened if the host increases his mental fortitude .
- Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
[Fledging Demonic Body] Upgradable, Incomplete Conditions
- Immune to all disease and poisoning .
- Reduce all damages to the host’s body by 10% .
- Increase all attribute of the host by 5 times .
- Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
[Radar Map] Upgradable
- Range 10 kilometers .
- Upkeep: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
[Inventory] – Cannot be leveled up .
- The host can store items in a private space .
- The host cannot store any living person or any creature .
- Storage limit: 10 Slots . Each slot can only contain the same items . Stackable .
- Unlimited Volume .
- Time will be frozen in the inventory .
- The host can adjust the temperature of the Inventory .
- Upkeeps: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
[Immortal Yang Vein] – Cannot be leveled up .
- The host has infinite yang seeds .
- The host can dual-cultivate with opposite gender partners to increase an active skill EXP .
- The host’s stamina multiplies by 20 .
- The host can regenerate wounds and lost body parts instantly .
- Regeneration costs lifespans depending on the degrees of the injury .
Skill Restriction:
- This skill can only be used by male otherworlders .
- Upkeeps: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
- Regeneration can be used once a day . The skill resets at midnight .
[Sword Mastery] Cannot be leveled up
- Master all kinds of swords . Increase all attributes by 10 times if the host is using a sword .
- If the host kills an enemy, increase the host lifespan by the remaining lifespan of the dead enemy .
- Upkeeps: 2,000 Lifespans per year .
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With ten skills, Tong had to pay 20,000 lifespans as the upkeep each year . If Tong did not have any income from the clan quest or the soulmate quest, he would die in three years .
It was an ugly nerf by the system, which guaranteed that all greedy otherworlders, who had been hoarding skills, would die in a few years . Tong did not know if the system had gone mad or it was the ingenious trap that had been planted from the very beginning .
With this move, everyone should be hesitating if they should delete their skills to lower the upkeep right now . Even Tong thought about deleting his dangerous [Demonic Curse] skill and the seal skill .
"Should I delete my skills?"
Tong read the details of his skills five times, but he could not decide if he should delete anything . Furthermore, for some reason, all of his skill with "Demonic" prefix could not be deleted as there was not any delete button behind the name of the skill .
"No good, huh?"
<your [despair]="" has="" been="" strengthened="" by="" your="" emotion="">>
<chance for="" [despair]="" to="" take="" over="" your="" body="" has="" increased="" by="" 1%="">>
<warning, you="" have="" 1%="" chance="" of="" being="" controlled="" by="" [despair]="">>
Tong swallowed his saliva in shocked . His [Demonic Curse] was definitely a time-bomb! He had to figure out how to deal with all these seven sins, [Despair], and [Corruption] as soon as possible .
Trying to change his mood, he read the info in the menu randomly to stabilize his emotion .
When he checked the number of the survivors, Tong was relieved and delighted . Only eleven people survived!
Tong made a roll-call list in his mind . The reincarnators that Tong knew their location and affiliation right now were...
Himself
Hua Shi
Li Feihong
Dong Bai
Te Langpu
Liu Ping
Out of the eleven, Tong knew six of them . The other five should have hidden themselves under a major character in this era, like Sun Jian, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, or the future volunteer force, Liu Bei .
From now on, there were only two choices for everyone . First, they could become an ordinary citizen by deleting all skills in their possession . Or two, they had to either form or join a clan and conquer the country to earn the lifespans to pay for the system skill upkeep .
Because of this event, Tong reminded himself that the Immortal Trial was designed for killing all otherworlders and the system was untrustworthy .
...
August 6th, 7 A . M .
Tong and his troops marched all night to slip away from the city and Sun Jian’s scouts unnoticed . They returned to the last village which they had visited .
Upon entering the village, everyone rushed out to welcome them .
"Thank you, heroes!"
"Thank you!"
"Thank you for the food!"
"Thank you for the water!"
Tong smiled as he thought that everybody got the messages . He was about to start a conversation with a villager, but one of the villagers asked the soldiers .
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes?" The soldier blinked in wonder what the villager would ask him .
"What is the wooden boards?"
"Wooden boards?"
"Yes, a few of them were nearby with granary and the water reservoir . "
"What’s wrong with them?"
"We don’t know how to read them . Can one of you teach us how to read?"
Tong fumbled and almost fell from his horse . He spent most of his times in the city with many scholars and merchants, so he had totally forgotten that most natives here were illiterate .
Li Feihong, who was riding a carriage from the back, saw the reaction of Tong and the villagers . A smug face appeared on his face as he managed to guess what kind of cheeky stunt that Tong left behind in this village .
"So much for the deception, so much for the trickery, yet he overlooked a couple simple facts . " Li Feihong muttered and laughed .
...
...
Luo Yang, Throne Room .
Liu Ping sat on the throne, watching the gathering of all officials . He darted his eyes around to search for a few individuals .
Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and He Jin were not here . Liu Ping figured that they should have left the Capital by now .
’Those three are ambitious . It’s a pity that I haven’t killed them yet . ’
’But... it doesn’t matter . Yuan Shao should have returned to Nanpi . He’ll be a thorn to Tong in the future . ’
’Yuan Shu and He Jin... Those two are unimportant . No need to concern about them . ’
’Too bad that He Xing should have escaped with He Jin as well . ’
’I really want to taste her . She has a body worthy of an empress . ’
While lost in thought, Liu Ping glanced around . Surprisingly, a new face was here, Lu Zhi . He returned to the Capital just in time that Liu Ping summoned all officials into the throne room .
’So, that’s the mentor of Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan . He’s been away for all these times, huh . ’
With everyone presented, Wang Yun stepped forward to give Liu Ping the reports .
"Reporting to Your Majesty, we have gathered all the information about Zhang Jiao and Sun Jian as you ordered . I shall read it for you . "
Wang Yun started with the biography of Sun Jian first . He narrated Sun Jian’s achievements when he was just a merchant’s son where he demonstrated his valor and wisdom by eradicating the pirates . Then all of his deeds were reported .
Tao Qian, who was his superior, puffed his chest with pride . He was elated by his subordinate even though he had not contributed to any of Sun Jian’s deeds .
"The last report from our men, Sun Jian has organized 30,000 men and marched northwest . We assume that he is going to fight against the bandits in Ganling City . "
All officials nodded in admiration as they recognized Sun Jian’s bravery and his character . Even now, he was still working hard and contributed greatly to the Han Empire .
While everyone was in a merry mood by listening to Sun Jian’s heroic tales, Liu Ping’s frown deepened . He was looking for a reason to declare that Sun Jian was a rebel, so he could give out an edict to exterminate the Sun Clan .
’That man is flawless . I can’t frame him or do anything to him at the moment or I’ll be viewed as a tyrant again . ’
’Forget it, I’ll aim for the obvious target . Zhang Jiao will rebel soon enough, and Zhang Tong is there with the Yellow Turban as well . I should focus my attention on him . ’
Wang Yun bowed as he finished reporting Sun Jian’s status and biography .
"Next, give me the reports of Zhang Jiao!"</warning,></chance></your>