Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

The light was dim, and all around were solid black stone walls. There were no windows or iron bars in this space, and the only exit was blocked by a huge rock. Shen Yu could only see a tiny bit of white light shining through the crack.

Shen Yu tried to move his body. He was wearing iron shackles around his neck, with thick, long chains fixed to the top crevice in the stone. His limbs were similarly shackled, their limited length restricting his range of motion.

"It's all your fault!"

A sharp child's voice came from the side. Shen Yu frowned slightly and looked up to see the purple ball of light floating in the sky.

Another lump of coal, so black it was almost invisible, also showed no weakness, and charged towards the hapless creature.

[You clearly did something wrong! I wanted him to travel to a completely different world! Why did you bring him here?]

"I want him to go to the apocalypse! The apocalypse! Tell me what kind of place this is? You're the one who's up to this, don't try to shift the blame to me."

Get lost.

The two balls in the air started colliding with each other again. Shen Yu leaned against the stone wall, looked up at them for a few minutes, and then coughed: "Come down, I have something to say."

The two creatures, Kuqitiaosheng and Coal Ball, were still relatively rational. They were preoccupied with their respective tasks and finally noticed the half-dead host.

Seeing them stop in front of him, Shen Yu grabbed one of the balls with each hand and separated them: "Who gave me this body?"

To eke out a living, he raised his hand to curry favor: "It's me!"

Shen Yu continued, "How's your physical strength?"

"This is a one-to-one replica of your body from the apocalypse, Little Gou Gou, with a 99% similarity!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Coal Ball also spoke up to warn them at the right time.

[Shen Yu, I preserved your soul. The fact that your soul is intact and hasn't become cerebral palsy is entirely because of me.]

"Oh..." Shen Yu nodded to himself. He looked at the two of them for a while and then said, "That's fine then."

After he finished speaking, he suddenly slammed the two balls in his hands together. With a loud cracking sound, Shen Yu's hands went numb from the electric shock.

He let go and threw the two idiots to the ground.

"I've put up with you long enough." Shen Yu withdrew his hand, seemingly ignoring the system alarms, and his fingers touched the shackles around his neck.

These shackles were rough, their surfaces covered in years of accumulated rust. They pressed heavily on Shen Yu's collarbone, forcing him to breathe with difficulty despite his hunched posture.

Shen Yu touched the lock of the shackles, roughly felt its outline with his hand, and then withdrew his hand after hearing the sound outside.

A few seconds later, the boulder pressing down on the cave entrance was pushed aside by a mechanism, and the person outside threw a medicine bottle at Shen Yu: "Take this, and the boss wants to see you."

All the people standing outside were dressed in black, wearing straw raincoats and hats, and their faces were covered with demon masks. The masks resembled those of a qilin, with deep red stripes in the shadows at the edges.

Since entering the apocalypse, Shen Yu has rarely seen normal people like himself. However, these people are dressed strangely, which reminds him of scenes from some TV dramas from long ago.

"Hurry up, if you don't eat now, no one will be able to save you once the poison takes effect." The people outside were getting impatient. They gripped the scabbards at their waists and urged Shen Yu again.

Shen Yu gripped the medicine bottle thrown in front of him: "You poisoned me?"

The guard standing at the cave entrance sneered: "What? A traitor like you, the Lord is already showing great mercy by letting you live. This Heart-Eating Poison relapses periodically, you'd better behave yourself."

Shen Yu gripped the small porcelain bottle tightly in his hand. He had no idea that he would suddenly find himself in this place, and he never imagined that he would be forcibly given poison while unconscious.

The creature, barely surviving, woke up at some point. It creaked and groaned as it approached Shen Yu, its various stats slowly fluctuating.

Upon seeing it, Shen Yu asked again, just in case, "Did they poison me?"

"Yes, I watched them feed him." Still somewhat dazed, he said, "Not a single drop was spilled."

Shen Yu: "..."

Without further hesitation, he poured out the pills from the bottle and swallowed them in front of these people.

The shadow outside the cave then unlocked the iron locks that were fixed above and led Shen Yu out.

Having barely survived by Shen Yu's side, it only realized something later and quickly said, "Actually, I can cure all these poisons for you, but you have to exchange them with me using your Yang energy."

Shen Yu: "Yang energy value?"

“That’s right.” Gouqie said, checking Shen Yu’s yang energy level. “You have... 10,000 yang energy points right now. Give me 100,000, and I’ll help you get rid of the poison.”

Shen Yu frowned: "I'm not worth it right now."

“You can earn it slowly if it’s not enough,” Gouqiechousheng advised him. “If all else fails, you can borrow from me, but I’ll charge interest. Considering our good relationship, I’ll charge less. How about this, I’ll lend you 10,000, and you pay me back 200,000 next time.”

Shen Yu: "..."

"How about it?"

Shen Yu paused for a moment, then said, "...I'll think about it."

"Alright." It was regrettable that it was merely clinging to life, but it slowly repaired the cracks on its body and continued, "This is a limited-time offer, so you'd better hurry."

Shen Yu: "..."

The shadow escorting Shen Yu put a hood over his head halfway through the journey, so Shen Yu couldn't see his surroundings. He only relied on his own senses to realize that they had turned several corners and passed through several passageways.

The hood on Shen Yu's head was not removed until they reached the top floor of the photo studio.

The shadow behind him forced Shen Yu to kneel on the ground: "Master, the person has been brought."

Shen Yu glanced upwards out of the corner of his eye and saw the so-called owner of the shadow studio sitting inside, separated by a tiered beaded curtain. Dressed the same as the other shadows, he was dressed entirely in black, his face completely concealed behind a mask.

"You can leave the photo studio after the mission is completed." The studio owner threw a piece of white paper in front of Shen Yu. "Bring his body back."

Shen Yu looked at the characters above; they seemed to be ancient script, but the handwriting was messy and resembled insects crawling, and the outlines could only be barely made out when mixed together.

"...Queen Wen of Yue, the femme fatale, is to be killed."

Shen Yu folded the paper, but before he could speak, he heard the person above continue, "Your identity has already been arranged. Someone will meet you after you go in. Kill the Wen family, no matter what method you use."

As he spoke, his pupils were fixed on Shen Yu. Shen Yu's face was not as rugged as that of an ordinary man; in fact, it even appeared somewhat sinister. His eyes were upturned, his lips were thin red, and even when he was expressionless, he possessed a captivating charm—a feminine appearance mixed with a touch of effeminacy.

She looks exactly like that wicked empress.

"Go get a new face." The poster looked away. "Don't let anyone else see your face."