Chapter 3168: Bizarre Book
However, his fingers and eyes seemed to be manipulated by a mysterious force as he flipped through the pages.
As the characters flickered, a vivid, illusory, and real modern world of cultivation appeared in front of his eyes. He seemed to be able to see the lackl.u.s.ter sky, the red and purple gutter, the rusted magical equipment graveyard, and the countless “garbage bugs” living inside. He could even clearly smell the nauseating yet incomparably familiar smell that was a mix of rot, mold, and blood.
“What—what is going on?”
“Why does this d*mn ‘Magical Equipment Graveyard’ look so familiar? It’s clearly a very pale and weak template for descriptions and routines. It’s no different from the novels I’ve read before. I can’t tell how skilled the author is, but it feels… it feels different!”
“Is it my imagination?
“Fatty Leung… What an ancient name. Why is it that a clear image popped up in my head the moment I heard the name? I’ve never seen the author spend so much time on Fatty Leung!”
Li Yao swallowed hard and opened the second chapter.
The t.i.tle of the chapter was ‘Hologram Projector’.
Obviously, this was a word coined by the author. There was no such thing in reality.
However, before he started reading, a piece of magical equipment named ‘Hologram Projector’ popped up in Li Yao’s brain. The structural designs and spiritual energy circulation diagrams of hundreds of different light beams appeared, too. Countless complicated structures and circuits interweaved into a mess and almost spurted out through his ears and nose.
His fingers. All ten of his fingers were twitching unconsciously, as if they had been possessed by a talented pianist, as if they would turn into lightning and grey mist at any moment.
“One must always dream.”
Before he turned to the last page of the second chapter, Li Yao mumbled, “What if it does?”
Then, he saw the sentence at the end of the second chapter.
Every word pierced through his soul like a burning bullet.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Earsplitting engine noises came from outside the window.
Ever since the viaduct that ran through the entire city had been built, many racing fans had taken advantage of the dead of night to treat this place as a racing arena. No matter how much they tried to ban it, it was to no avail.
Li Yao’s dormitory building happened to be the closest building to the viaduct in the entire Jiangnan College Town. It was not unusual to hear a loud noise in the middle of the night.
In the past, they could only curse or complain to the school.
But today, the engine noise was particularly loud and ear-piercing, as if it did not come from outside but directly from the depths of Li Yao’s mind.
In a trance, he saw another picture.
He was wearing a maintenance suit that was full of oil stains and driving a high-speed racing car that had been modified by brute force. He was racing on the overpa.s.s and on the bank of the river, overtaking one opponent after another and even surpa.s.sing himself and time.
In the end, there were brilliant fireworks, boiling blood, and miserable death.
Li Yao’s hands and feet started shaking.
The feeling of holding the steering wheel, stepping on the brake, and stepping on the accelerator was too real. It was so real that he forgot that he was a college student lying in his dormitory. Instead, he was like an underground racing driver sitting in the wreckage of a racing car, furiously burning. The back of his hand and the back of his foot were bulging with thick blue veins. The blue veins were like snakes that had been electrocuted and were swimming crazily below his skin. His skin was stretched to the limit. At any moment, a strange and powerful force was about to break out of this ordinary body and completely change the future of him and the entire world!
Li Yao tapped the screen of his phone with his trembling fingertips.
Chapter 3: “Strange Dream”.
Li Yao was dazed.
The content of the chapter happened to be the story of Li Yao, who lived in the 40,000th century of Cultivation in the Star Glory Federation, or ‘Cultivator Li Yao’, who recalled the past and discovered that he was a time traveler from Earth and an underground racing driver in his previous life.
It was almost identical to what Li Yao had seen a moment ago.
What the h.e.l.l?
Li Yao curled up. He felt like screaming.
Touching the gooseb.u.mps that had expanded to the size of corn kernels, he said in a trembling voice, “What kind of d.a.m.n book did Zhao Kai recommend? It’s too strange. I can’t read it anymore. I absolutely, absolutely can’t read it anymore… How about I read another chapter? I must have been hallucinating just now. I must have been frightened during the day and had a nervous breakdown. I must be hallucinating and hallucinating. Yes, that’s right. I’ll read another chapter to confirm… Otherwise, how can I sleep at night?”
Li Yao continued clicking.
‘Fiend Blade Peng Hai’, ‘Imitation College Entrance Examination’, ‘Great Dark Age’, ‘Second High School G.o.ddess’.
The familiar yet strange feeling still lingered in his heart, causing him to unknowingly place himself in the role of “Cultivator Li Yao”.
It was quite strange. Although the novel was written in a mediocre style and the characters were few, the plot was still the same as the old practice of cultivation and face-slapping. The combination of cultivation and technology was not very wonderful. On the contrary, it was a bit of a claptrap. In order to attract people’s attention, it pretended to be shocking. But once one read it and really accepted this kind of setting, many parts of the novel felt quite good.
“‘Mad Dog’ Helian Lie?”
Li Yao couldn’t help but laugh as he watched, “This must be the so-called rich second-generation monitor that Zhao Kai and Yu Xin were arguing about. He doesn’t even know that he is the president of the student union, does he? What an old-fas.h.i.+oned way of writing. What a stiff conflict. He simply wants to create contradictions even if there are no contradictions!”
After saying that, he was dazed again.
“What did I just say?”
He was somewhat in disbelief. “I said ‘Mad Dog’ Helian Lie? That’s right, that’s what I said. It’s true that Helian Lie’s nickname is ‘Mad Dog’. I won’t be mistaken!”
He didn’t know why, but the character of Helian Lie in the book left a deep impression on Li Yao. He was the first antagonist to appear in the entire book. Even if he was at the level of a minion, Li Yao wouldn’t have mistaken his nickname.
However, whether it was the first few chapters or the later chapters, from the moment Helian Lie first appeared, the author had never once mentioned the word “Mad Dog”.
No. Not at all.
When he first appeared, the t.i.tle used by the author was “Crimson Nimbus Second’s First Expert”, Helian Lie.
And after the protagonist “Cultivator Li Yao” and Helian Lie had a conflict, the word to curse the other party was “b.a.s.t.a.r.d”.
Thinking about it, it did make sense. At the very least, in the first few dozen chapters, Helian Lie had the image of a high and mighty n.o.ble young master. He had his own demeanor and upbringing and simply didn’t place the protagonist in his eyes. As long as he used one hand, he would be able to blow the protagonist away. How could he reveal such a vicious and vicious image of a rabid dog in front of the protagonist?
Not just the protagonist, even the pa.s.sers-by and the author wouldn’t give such a character such a weird nickname as ‘Mad Dog’.
The author had always wanted to describe Helian Lie’s arrogance, indifference, and tyranny. He wanted to use this method to increase the pleasure of “Cultivator Li Yao’s” counterattack. Although the author’s description was not very successful due to the restriction of his writing, in any case, Helian Lie had never been reduced to the level of “Mad Dog”.
However, when Li Yao looked at the author’s depiction of ‘Your n.o.ble Son Helian Lie’, a face that had clearly lost everything, was like a trapped beast struggling to survive, looked like a fiendish beast, had scars all over its face, and had a malevolent look on its face. It truly looked like a mad dog whose spine had been broken and reattached.
That’s right, this was the Helian Lie in Li Yao’s imagination. The “Mad Dog” Helian Lie.
“Li Yao, go eat sh*t!”
‘Mad Dog’ Helian Lie’s wild laughter echoed in Li Yao’s mind, as well as the blossoming flower of flames among the dark stars.
It was truly strange. Not only did this kind of ‘Mad Dog’ Helian Lie not incite the slightest bit of anger in him, it even caused the corners of his eyes and nose to feel somewhat sour. A faint feeling of guilt and admiration was born.
“What’s wrong with me?”
Li Yao shuddered. He put down his phone and slapped himself. “I feel ‘guilt and admiration’ when other people ask me to eat sh*t? I’m not that cheap, am I? Am I a psycho?”
Of course, whether it was “Mad Dog Helian Lie” or “Cultivator Li Yao”, they were both characters in the book. They were made up randomly by novelists and had nothing to do with him. Therefore, they did not really ask him to go… to that place.
In short, he didn’t know how to put it, but it still felt weird.
“I understand.”
Li Yao held his phone and pondered for a long time. Finally, he came to a reasonable conclusion. “In fact, I’ve read this ‘Forty Thousand Years of Cultivation’ before. It’s very likely that I skimmed through it a few times and left a vague impression on some of the characters and plots in the book. However, I’ve forgotten the t.i.tle and the author a long time ago. Now that I’ve read it again today, the memory pieces that have been buried for a long time will naturally surface.”
It was not unusual.
ReadNovelFulls were not scientific papers. There was no need to read them too carefully. For a veteran fan like Zhao Kai, he could finish reading a large volume of several million words in two to three days. Over the past few years in university, he had read 300-500, 700-800 ReadNovelFulls, but it was not a lot. Although Li Yao was not as exaggerated as him, he had read over a hundred of these ReadNovelFulls, and even more so, he had casually flipped through countless of them. For the vast majority of them, even if he had read them, he could forget the t.i.tle, the author, the characters, and the plot completely. Sometimes, after reading with great interest for a long time, he would remember that he had read this book before. This was a common occurrence.
“So I have read this book before. No wonder most of the plots look so familiar.”
Li Yao nodded heavily. “Yes. That’s right. Everything makes sense now!”
Now that he had seen it, there seemed to be no need to waste his time watching it again.
Tonight, he would strive to go to bed early. Tomorrow, he would wake up early in the morning. He absolutely could not laze around in bed and degenerate. He had to be reborn and become a new person. He had to go to the library to prepare his thesis, and he had to gather information about the job fair. In short, he had to pull himself together, he had to strive forward, he had to be in his prime, he had to be vigorous!
He absolutely could not continue reading these d.a.m.n ReadNovelFulls. He had already seen through the hallucinations and auditory hallucinations, as well as the neurasthenia. Even the book reading software might as well be uninstalled. Wasting time and wasting life’s meaningless things. That’s right, let’s do it. Uninstall it. Yes, tomorrow the moment he got up, he would uninstall it. He swore!
Well, since it was about to be uninstalled, why not… read the last chapter again? After all, he was going to be reborn early tomorrow morning. It wouldn’t be too much to watch the last chapter as a memorial, would it?
He swore that he would never read this chapter again. Really. Even if he was bored to the point of cras.h.i.+ng into a wall and jumping off a building, he would never read this d.a.m.n again!
Thinking like this, Li Yao lit up the screen and entered the 47th chapter.
The name of the chapter was ‘Ding Lingdang’.