My lord, spare his life!

"This game is so boring, it's lousy."

A familiar voice drifted into Fan You's ears, who was lost in thought.

Fan You's eyes moved slowly, without any other reaction.

Immediately afterwards, that familiar female voice uttered another startling statement.

"Who takes a shower dressed?"

As mentioned before, this is a free-spirited game, but not rated R (for adults only). Adult content is not permitted. Some players, defying this rule, ventured into NPCs' homes to wait for them to bathe. The result? Either the NPCs were censored with mosaics, or they were fully clothed.

Zhang Yang had never done such a thing, but she had heard of it.

Now, I've seen it all.

Therefore, she sincerely felt that the game designers had malicious intentions and agreed with the complaints of some observed samples—if they weren't going to let the players see it, why bother to make the NPCs take a bath? Or did they think that players' brains have a lot of memory and wanted to take up more space?

Fan You blinked slowly, then turned his head blankly towards the source of the sound. A very familiar figure sat half-sitting on the windowsill, staring at him with curiosity: "Uncle Yan wanted to wash his clothes while taking a bath?"

He closed his eyes.

The illusion of the stars descending upon him grew ever more real.

These past few days, whenever the attack occurs, I experience hallucinations. Countless beautiful women with exquisite skin move before my eyes. These figures are sometimes near and sometimes far. I can smell the sweet fragrance of cosmetics on my nose, and my ears are filled with decadent music, making my already hot and sensitive body tremble.

The lustful ghost would naturally not let Fan You off easily.

When his attempts to seduce women failed, he transformed into various kinds of men.

These men constantly told him about the pleasures of sexual intercourse, enticing him to give up resistance and submit to his primal instincts. The harmony of yin and yang is the natural order of things; to follow it is to follow the way of nature. Life is short; why dwell in suffering?

Why not indulge in the pleasures of yin and yang and enjoy the ultimate bliss in the human world?

Fan You: [You're dreaming!]

The lustful demon sighed, "What a virtuous and chaste woman!"

The scene shifts, revealing countless hazy curtains within which intertwine figures. These figures resemble two snakes mating, emitting suggestive sounds. Looking down, he sees pairs of cool, delicate hands emerging from the smooth water, clinging to his bare legs.

but--

The moment the lustful ghost saw the woman's face clearly, he let out a scream.

Fan You felt his mind, which had been almost boiled, clear up for a moment.

He stared blankly at the woman's lustful face, his eyes suddenly widening. He frantically pushed her away, only breaking free of the illusion when his back hit the lampstand in the room. Fan You gasped for breath, gritted his teeth, poured the prepared ice into the bathtub, and climbed in.

The bone-chilling cold made him shiver.

He stared at the water, his mind in turmoil.

The lustful demon feared that face. Even though the true form was gone, and even the lingering aura had dissipated, the lustful demon remained fearful. In other words, if the other party intentionally controlled the illusory appearance, the lustful demon wouldn't dare to act recklessly, but if that were the case—

To use the emperor's authority to protect oneself, and to treat ghosts with such arrogance, is frivolous, disrespectful, and insulting! Have all those years of studying the classics gone to waste? What kind of person has Fan You become? A lustful demon!

Why must he be a lustful fiend?

Enraged, Fan You slammed his fist on the water, splashing water everywhere.

The more unstable his mind became, the happier the ghost inside him became.

Do you want to know why it was me?

"Ha, shouldn't you be the one asking this? You and I are one; you are me, and I am you. You're just a facade of a virtuous gentleman, secretly insatiable with lust. Why resist? You suppress me, prevent me from fulfilling my desires, cause me pain, but the one who suffers most is you. Admit it, deep down you're also a despicable person who wants to indulge your desires. Aren't you curious why those who descended from the stars to become lustful demons were once upright and abstinent?"

Desire doesn't disappear; it's merely suppressed by the body's owner. Given the slightest opening, desire will unleash a torrent, washing away the world forged by reason. Fan You, naturally, is no exception.

"[This is only the second level, and you can't handle it.]" The lustful ghost looked exactly like Fan You, except its skin was deathly pale, making it seem almost inhuman. It clung to Fan You, one hand reaching into the water. "[What are we going to do now?]"

Fan You was so angry that his eyes turned bloodshot.

The lecherous man laughed, "Actually, I'm doing this for your own good."

Fan You did not respond.

The lustful demon said: "Alas, don't you understand the principle of reversal at the extremes? The way you treat things now will only bring you a more severe backlash in the future. The reason those lustful demons sank deeper and deeper was because they suppressed their desires too much. Once they lost control and tasted the sweetness, their desires became uncontrollable, and they completely succumbed to it. Do you want to be like that too?"

Fan You uttered two words: [Sophistry.]

In the past, there have been those who succumbed to their desires after being subdued by a celestial being, but without exception, they all ended up utterly ruined. The lustful demon's words were merely a ploy to deceive him, to expose a crack in his supposedly flawless state of mind, so that the other party could take advantage of the situation.

The lustful man's face lit up with a sly glint: "Really?"

His tone was flippant and arrogant, and suddenly his grip tightened.

Fan You's ears turned bright red, and in a fit of rage and embarrassment, he swung his hand at the lustful ghost. The illusory image of the lustful ghost vanished like a wisp of light, but reappeared on the other side a moment later: "Ah, he really is a complete novice, but that's what makes it interesting."

They try to persuade prostitutes to reform themselves, but they drag innocent women down with them.

The true nature of a lustful demon can be summarized in these ten words.

[I really don't understand what you're resisting? If there were no desire for love and pleasure, no living being could reproduce. Weren't you born from the union of your parents?] The lustful ghost sighed, having never seen such a difficult host. [If you want to continue the Fan family line, you'll eventually have to engage in sexual intercourse with a woman and have children. Children aren't just born from a man and woman embracing and sleeping together...]

Seeing that Fan You was impervious to persuasion, the lustful ghost changed his strategy.

They were one entity, and the lustful spirit naturally understood how much Fan You cared about the massacred members of the Fan family. Hearing it mention his family fueled Fan You's anger, while the lustful spirit's own desire burned even brighter: "How can these two be considered the same thing!"

The lustful ghost raised an eyebrow and leaned closer, saying, "Are you, like that scoundrel Yuan Youzheng, a very upright and traditional eccentric man?"

Why must a formal marriage ceremony be held before they will undress?

Sigh, what a fine son Fan Shanzhang raised.

It's truly amazing how a widower raises a child...

It looks so appealing that it would attract ghosts.

Fan You uttered a single word: 【Get lost!】

The lustful demon used the bathtub for leverage, drifting away before transforming into a thick mist and disappearing into Fan You's brow: "We'll see!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Fan You was overwhelmed by countless desires.

The intense heat burned away his remaining rationality, and the unquenchable desire seemed to tear his internal organs apart. The lewd laughter of the lustful demons lingered in his ears. In truth, this was the first time Fan You had directly faced the terror of the Double Star Descending Calamity, and it certainly exceeded his expectations.

In the illusion, the world constructed of desire is pure white, and the curtains are light and hazy. Each pair of intertwined figures seems far apart, but in reality, each one is very close, allowing him to smell the strange, blush-inducing aura emanating from them.

Fan You didn't know how long this torment would last.

His only consolation was that he had dismissed all the servants in his mansion early on, and nailed down every door. Otherwise, he dared not imagine that he might have unceremoniously run out and recklessly pursued any living person he encountered. In that case, he would have faced certain death.

Occasionally, when I'm lucid, I feel relieved to see that I'm still in the bathtub.

Exhausted and weak, he nearly fell into the bathtub and drowned several times before the lustful devil reluctantly let him go for the time being.

Uncle Yan, we have a long future ahead of us. This second level isn't the end; there's a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth… There will come a day when your spine will bend for desire!

Fan You's mind went blank, his thoughts were sluggish and confused. Even with a forced effort, he knew from experience that the next attack was not far off.

He didn't come out; he just sat in the bucket and waited for time to pass.

Completely empty your mind and stop thinking.

He feared that if he thought too much, he might contemplate suicide.

However, he cannot die now.

After an unknown amount of time, the auditory hallucinations recurred.

"This game is so boring, it's lousy."

His back muscles tensed almost imperceptibly, his whole body on high alert. This phantom was exceptionally powerful, knowing the essence of its master, and its next line perfectly captured her essence, igniting Fan You's fury. The provocation was far more powerful than the figure in the illusion.

"Or are you hiding in the water to urinate?"

Such provocation finally pushed Fan You to his limit. He slapped the water and roared, "This isn't washing clothes! This isn't bathing! And it's definitely not urinating!"

Zhang Yang casually tossed the dismantled window aside.

"But your skin got chapped from taking a bath."

Fan You: "..."

Wait a minute, this doesn't seem like the work of a lustful devil.

He didn't rush to talk to Zhang Yang, but instead closed his eyes and focused on finding the lustful ghost. When he saw the lustful ghost trembling, completely losing the arrogant demeanor it had shown him earlier, he twitched his lips and knew that the Zhang Yang he saw was not an illusion but the real Zhang Yang.

Upon opening his eyes, Fan You instinctively tried to stand up and bow.

However, his weak legs wouldn't allow it, and he also realized that he was sitting in the bathtub, and if he stood up, his undergarments would cling to his skin, which would be extremely indecent. A wave of embarrassment washed over him, making Fan You furious; he wished he could disappear into the ground.

Fan You managed to steady himself and said in a hoarse voice, "I am in a difficult situation and cannot rise to pay my respects. Please forgive me, my lord."

Zhang Yang: "Oh, it's nothing."

Fan You closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"May I ask your presence, my lord? Please allow me to tidy myself up."

Zhang Yang countered, "Why?"

Are NPCs now bossing players around?

This is utterly upside down!

What can't players go to? What can't players see? You know, those bored players, once they become interested in something, will rack their brains to exploit game system bugs to achieve it, which includes peeping at NPCs taking a bath.

Of course, Zhang Yang didn't peek.

Fan You was so stumped by the question that his mind went blank.

No, what? Why? Has the lord's level of education dropped so low that he can't even understand such a request?

Fan You gritted his teeth: "I want to change my clothes!"

Zhang Yang asked in confusion, "Huh? But what kind of reason is that?"

The changes to the appearance of the observed samples were always done in person.

Occasionally, due to network fluctuations, the human body model might appear before the clothing model, which is quite common.

"...The sample I observed differs from the one described by my lord!"

He was truly impressed.

What kind of lunatics are they that they don't even hide things like changing clothes and taking a bath from outsiders, treating it as normal?

Zhang Yang: "Oh."

She bent down and picked up the window.

Jump out of the window and put the window back in its original position.

It took Fan You a while to regain some strength in his limbs. He struggled to clean himself up, but Zhang Yang was still there.

but--

Fan You's house was thoroughly explored.

He thought expressionlessly, thankfully there was nothing in the house that shouldn't be there. Having such a ruler, and encountering such a tyrannical and malevolent ruler, he wondered which would torment his lifespan more.

"You have mice in your house."

Fan You has already seen it.

There were about a dozen rats with their tails tied hanging from the tree in front of the door.

Each mouse died peacefully.

"Did your journey, my lord, go smoothly?"

"Successfully, I caught another Star Beast, named Big Meow."

Fan You was not interested in Zhang Damiao: "During the time the lord was away, Tianyue and Chesi County made several trips and benefited greatly from them. The account book is here. You, go and fetch it for the lord."

Unexpectedly, Zhang Yang pulled out something: "You mean this book?"

Fan You replied expressionlessly, "Yes, that's right."

"The ledger is quite nicely done, but the profit is a bit low." Both human skin and blankets are rare items, and they can be exchanged for a lot of goods. Although one shouldn't be too concerned about buying and selling empty-handed, Zhang Yang felt sorry for the middlemen who were taking a cut of the profits from each trade between the two places, as the manpower and resources spent in the process increased.

However, Fan You misunderstood.

His response was somewhat forceful.

"Every penny is in the accounts."

Zhang Yang closed the ledger and said, "We still need to take over the carriage shop as soon as possible, so that the middlemen don't have the opportunity to make a profit."

Fan You: "..."

Where do the middlemen come from?

Furthermore—

"Is my lord already plotting to seize the carriage shop?"

Zhang Yang said, "It's better to be sooner rather than later, and faster rather than slower. I'm not the only one eyeing this piece of meat; not long ago, there was Wang Ba from Dongxian County. But he's been dealt with for now."

As she explained in detail, Fan You cleared his mind and his thoughts became clear: "It is not advisable to launch a forceful attack on Chesi County."

After all, it's not their territory.

The Tianyue County base is still too small.

Even if Zhang Yang wins the hearts of the people and attracts refugees to join him, the pool of resources is only so big, how many soldiers can he recruit from it? In addition, there are time constraints, and the recruited soldiers cannot be trained into battle-hardened troops in a short time, let alone be sent to fight in other places.

Zhang Yang perked up: "I'd like to hear the details."

He and several others had discussed and simulated how to take over the mountain counties several times, and finally reached a consensus that Lu Yuan of Chesi County should be the breakthrough point: "If we can recruit Lu Bafeng, that would be best. If we can't recruit her, we can't let her live. When Tianyue County advances into the mountains, we can't openly take the official road. Tianjiang County will notice, and Dongxian County will also be on guard."

Chesi County, as the prey, will also be on guard.

This move is undoubtedly like stirring up trouble.

"We can only send troops through the mountain pass in the Eastern Fan Mountains."

This would be too inefficient, as the troops might be wiped out by the combined forces of the Chesi County garrison before they could even assemble.

Fan You explained solemnly, "Even if we send troops, we cannot fight for a long time, and we must not alarm the other counties in the mountains. The disaster in Dongxian back then made the counties put aside their past grievances. With the situation of mutual dependence, they cannot sit idly by and will definitely send troops to fight together."

Zhang Yang: "The conditions are quite harsh."

"Therefore, Lü Bafeng is the crucial breakthrough point." Fan You's voice was cold yet firm. "Support her, and seize power through a coup!"

??(?w?)