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 h.o.a.rding 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 G.o.ddess 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 s.h.i.+ whose nerf was delayed due to her pregnancy .
Combined with w.a.n.g 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 Pa.s.s: 0
[Time Stop] LV . 2 EXP( 168/200 )
- Stop time and s.p.a.ce 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 [l.u.s.t] 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; [l.u.s.t], [Gluttony], [Greed], [Sloth], [Wraith], [Envy], [Pride], [Despair], [Corruption] .
- The seal will be weakened if the host increases his mental fort.i.tude .
- 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 s.p.a.ce .
- 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 h.o.a.rding 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 b.u.t.ton behind the name of the skill .
"No good, huh?"
>
>
>
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 s.h.i.+
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, w.a.n.g 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 . "
w.a.n.g 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 a.s.sume 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 . "
w.a.n.g Yun bowed as he finished reporting Sun Jian"s status and biography .
"Next, give me the reports of Zhang Jiao!"