Hua Yong, startled by the sudden counterassault, instinctively kicked him, throwing himself backward and Lu Zhiheng toward the cliff's edge.

  Not taking any chances, Hua Yong snatched up his spear and hurled it downward with devastating force. The spear traveled at a startling speed and pierced directly through his heart, the blade punching through flesh and bone. The impact accelerated his plummet, and in seconds, he vanished into the swirling grey sea of clouds below.

  "No!" Xia Sahui shouted immediately.

  She then clicked her tongue in frustration and immediately hauled herself up over the cliff edge. She immediately consulted the survivor counter, her eyes fixed on the glowing numbers with almost manic intensity.

  [176/500]

  …

  [175/500]

  It decreased by one, then remained like that for a while.

  "Sigh, he must be dead," Hua Yong regarded her with careful scrutiny.

  She didn't reply. A few moments passed just like that; none of them cared for the treasure chest that was running away, its golden light fading into the distance like a dying star.

  "You really had to go to such lengths to do this?" He asked, his voice carrying a note of curiosity rather than condemnation.

  "You may love your dog—"

  "But the dog is your slave." Hua Yong laughed. "I know that too. But taking the awakening opportunity?" He whistled low, the sound carrying his disbelief. "Oof—I wonder what he would think about that."

  "You will get your elixirs." Her voice was assured.

  "Besides, he is too arrogant. Now, he will need to depend on me forever." She giggled, the sound carrying a note of madness. Her eyes widened as an ear-to-ear grin spread wide on her face. The insanity appeared clear on her face as she had no reason to hide it now.

  "Tch, your whole family is insane." Hua Yong spat with disgust. "You need to spend more time with Wakumi. Perhaps some of her sanity might be contagious."

  Without awaiting a response, Hua Yong sprinted toward the golden ray that the chest continued emanating, leaving her standing alone at the cliff's edge.

  She remained there for a considerable duration, staring down into the clouds that had consumed Lu Zhiheng, her grin slowly fading into something more contemplative.

  …

  Meanwhile, far below, Lu Zhiheng plummeted past the cloud layer. The spear remained embedded in his chest.

  He reached up with trembling fingers and grasped the weapon. Within seconds, it vanished. It was stored within his Massless ability.

  Yes, the Massless ability. Lu Er had already swapped with Lu Yi while he was lying on the grass earlier, during those moments of recovery, when Xia Sahui had turned her attention to the chase. The change had been seamless.

  His heart was already pierced, he was almost dead. Almost, because moments before he would die for real, his fingertips began to crack. The cracks spread to the whole body. His pupils disappeared; his hairs turned white. The skin flaked away as only a body of void with faint shimmers of white was left.

  Then, once again from the fingertips and legs, the skin grew back and stopped halfway.

  The fall was high; the entire transformation took barely a second, so he was still falling down, the wind screaming past his ears, the clouds rushing up to embrace him.

  “That might have been the worst performance of my entire life.”

  'What?! That was the best—you did a great job following. Specifically, that "noooo!!!"'

  “I was getting tired of this.” Lu Yi commented—the voice in his mind carrying a note of exhaustion.

  'Then you should be thankful, everything is in place. All that's left to do now is to win the game, and go home.'

  Lu Yi knew that the original body was as good as dead. Before he exits the game, he wouldn't be able to change back. It wasn't a big issue anyway, since he had no plans of changing again. The body he currently inhabited was sufficient for his purposes, and the risks of switching were no longer worth the reward.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  He used Massless to materialize a bag and wore it on his back, tying it tightly with the rope attached. This was a makeshift parachute he had created using the sheets and various other tools for this exact moment.

  He pulled the string to the side of the shoulder strap and instantly, a large parachute unfurled, the canvas catching the air and slowing his descent considerably, the jerk nearly tearing the straps from his shoulders.

  For a quiet moment, he was doing fine—but then one of the ropes snapped—the cord parting with a sharp crack that was lost to the wind. The equilibrium was lost, he spun in the air a few times. Somehow, he managed to grab the snapped end and slowing acceleration once again, the spin gradually subsiding.

  That too didn't last long as big piece of cloth tore from the middle, right at the place it was sloppily stitched, the seams giving way under the strain.

  "Oh well—" He let out a soft hum. "I didn't expect it to last this long anyway." The resignation in his voice was palpable.

  He was already very close to the ground; the mountains rose below him like jagged teeth.

  Hastily, he repositioned himself exactly ninety degrees perpendicular to the ground below and put one hand on his face, materializing a high-tier healing pill and a few middle-tier healing pills. Even after spending such a long time in the game, the highest tier pills were still nowhere to be seen.

  The pills entered his face as soon as they completely materialized. This was another thing he had discovered. To eat the pills, since he didn't have a mouth, he could just throw it into the void, it would be absorbed. He couldn't absorb them directly through his hand because a 'human skin' part covered his hands.

  His body struck the ground, the impact decreasing as he bent his legs, distributing the force through his knees. But the bones inside shattered anyway. It kept going and shattered everything a bit above the knee.

  He fell backward at an awkward angle with half his lower body crushed and turned into a meat paste. The impact also shook his mind, causing him to go unconscious.

  …

  Lu Yi woke up on bloodied stone after who knows how long. He looked at his legs—which looked already healed, yet he couldn't feel them. Because they hadn't healed properly, the bones mending at wrong angles, the nerves severed and reconnected by the crude healing process.

  He materialized a knife and split open his leg. The pain was exquisite but he endured.

  After that, he spent the next few hours doing a careful surgery, removing the bone splinters and realigning the nerves, his hands steady despite the agony radiating from his injuries. With the hard part over, he took another high-tier pill along with a few middle, low, and lowest-tier healing pills. The surgery he had done was very dirty, so the lowest-tier pill helped much with the infection.

  The day had already ended by the time he was done, so he ate the biscuits and drank lots of water and slept peacefully on a bed under the dim moonlight. He was currently in an empty chasm between mountains, there were a few rocks here and there, the scattered debris of ages, but one thing was sure: no one would ever come here.

  Thankfully, he had stored a lot of things in Massless which saved him a lot of unnecessary carrying trouble. Otherwise, he might've not even survived the earlier injuries.

  The night passed quickly.

  …

  The next day, Lu Yi woke up refreshed, feeling as good as new. Doing a few stretches, he cracked his neck a bit.

  He looked at the survivor count:

  [149/500]

  And then looked at his fragment point:

  [Fragment points: 37]

  He had already killed a lot more than any of the Unawakened at the temple thought he had.

  …

  A day earlier,

  On the other side of the map,

  A figure stood in front of a large floating stone disc, on which stood a large castle-like temple. Its figure was almost identical to the temple Xia Sahui owned.

  The figure was a male. He stood still, watching as the enormous temple slowly floated closer to him. He was wearing vermillion robes and had deep red hair. Even his pupils were of deep red color with multiple rings of orange outwards from the center.

  On his waist was a single sword and a waterskin.

  "Is that the temple, Ren Ai?"

  "Yes, young master Zhang." The girl Ren Ai replied, her head bowed down, her voice carrying the weight of deference. The girl would've been a lot familiar to Lu Zhiheng since she was the same girl he had fought and then convinced into working together using his other identity of a monster.

  But this girl was currently bowing in front of another Unawakened. All because of one reason—that was his family name, Zhang. The Zhang family, the clan head's family. In the entirety of Shanyue Village and even farther, his authority was near absolute.

  The young man, Zhang Ling, pulled out a small weapon which looked like a dagger. Slightly bigger than a knife, shaped like a mini spear tip fused on a crescent blade. Its blade made of a certain type of metal that Zhang Ling didn't have any knowledge of, but what he did know was the hilt. Its hilt was made of Tri-Earthen Acosmic Fusang wood, an extremely rare material that was only heard of in legends. Even if Zhang Ling spent his entire life searching for this material, there was still a chance that he might never even get a single look at it. Yet, he had found it. Or rather—this girl Ren Ai had found it on a 'monster'.

  The girl whom he had met by complete accident claimed that there was a monster on the other side of the map that was going around killing Unawakened. And according to her, the monster had been taking special care of this weapon. She was somehow able to get her hands on the weapon while the monster was busy killing the Unawakened. After getting the weapon, she claimed to have run away to this side of the map, where she met him.

  It was extremely lucky for her that she didn't die the second Zhang Ling laid his eyes on her. She was smart enough to pull the weapon out for him to look at it and the description of the weapon convinced him, letting a small room for her run in the game to continue.

  Zhang Ling looked at the description of the weapon:

  [Heaven's Efface: A Heavenly weapon created with myriads of legendary ingredients to eradicate a soul that shouldn't exist. Eradicates any soul that comes in contact with the weapon. Will get destroyed after a single erasure of a soul.]