Immortal Paladin - 157 Immortal Qi

Deep below the earth's surface, a mystifying subterranean seascape lurks, an archipelago bathed in inky blackness where suspense and horror hold court. Here lie strange islands and even stranger monsters, far beyond the realms of human imagination. In this domain, mankind is far from dominant; instead, madness and death rule supreme.

Pleading for mercy from the unknown creatures of the deep only leads to a slow, tortured existence. The trapped survivors gradually distort, losing what made them human, both physically and mentally, to the gloom as they remain trapped in this eternal obscurity. Their only hope? A perilous expedition into uncharted sea territories.

Fueled by determination, Charles embark on this daunting voyage aboard his steamship, aiming to reclaim humanity's past glory. Together with his crew, they sought a way out of this hidden sea world, a path back to the sunlit world above, where humans once stood tall.

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I read a few comments from Chinese readers that compared this novel with Lord of Mysteries because of similar elements: Lovecraftian, western fantasy, first industrial revolution, and steampunk. However, I have yet to finish reading Lord of Mysteries to do any actual comparison, but I do think those who have enjoyed that novel would enjoy this as well. Also, the author of LotM, Cuttlefish That Loves Diving, also did a shout-out for this novel, so I guess he approves of it too?

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Dear readers! Without any ads, maybe you will prefer .

This novel is also known as Only I Level Up

10 years ago, after “the Gate” that connected the real world with the monster world opened, some of the ordinary, everyday people received the power to hunt monsters within the Gate. They are known as “Hunters”.

However, not all Hunters are powerful. My name is Sung Jin-Woo, an E-rank Hunter. I’m someone who has to risk his life in the lowliest of catacombs, the “World’s Weakest”.

Having no skills whatsoever to display, I barely earned the required money by fighting in low-leveled catacombs… at least until I found a hidden catacomb with the hardest difficulty within the D-rank catacombs!

In the end, as I was accepting death, I suddenly received a strange power, a quest log that only I could see, a secret to leveling up that only I know about! If I trained in accordance with my quests and hunted monsters, my level would rise.

Changing from the weakest Hunter to the strongest S-rank Hunter!

- Description from Novelupdates

This is a world with only oceans, through which scattered are countless small islands and treasures.With swords, gunpowder, sailing ships, and most important, the Treasure Hunting System, Alka is ready to dominate the oceans!「Map detected」「Scanning for Treasure」「Scan complete」「Happy Treasure hunting!」

The suicide of a high school girl following the rejection of her crush whom she confessed to roused the soul of a Scorpio* Marshal from her 200 million years of slumber — she reincarnated into the body of Xuan Mo. And so, she decided to live on Earth on behalf of the girl! However, it was quite the miserable situation for an alien to own two different sets of memories. She had to use her peculiar mental power to peep into the previous owner’s memories regarding everyday, mundane matters while trying to rein in her cutting aura pretending to be a normal human…

But her shocking performance during military training definitely must have floored everyone. Okay fine, her incredible finesse aside, what’s with the consecutive bullseye for every single round during their shooting competition? Was this something a normal female student is able to achieve? Shouldn’t you explain yourself a little damnit! And what’s with the multiple grade jumps, and being contended for by the various prestigious universities? What kinda havoc you try’na wreck with your low-key flaunting? I mean it’s a good thing she’s caught the eye of a special organisation and was entrusted with important tasks, but what’s with all aloof rule-breaking gameplay? She’s practically the walking definition of “hated by even the gods”.

What’s even stranger was that Xuan Mo’s only ever interested in warring matters and battling; she’ll only ever pay her ferociously blooming blossom luck as much heed as she minds the passing cloud with the mindset of crossing the bridge when she reaches it (wipes sweat) and can you be less insensitive when handling the various Earthlings’ endless crushing and eye-candying you?!

This all screeches to a halt however when she discovers the existence of someone else from her home-planet, so she’ll be needing a raincheck with the getting a “spouse” part of mortal life on the Blue Planet. Of course, we’re discussing this on the premise that she wanted to return home…

* T/N: 天蝎星 = scorpio; may be referring to the star sign “Scorpio” or the planet called “Scorpio Planet” (to be determined later in the story)