Chapter 120: Please Call Me Dongfang Bufan

"I am... I am..." Chen Fan muttered twice, but the rest of his sentence vanished into thin air. He truly had no idea which legendary hero he had transmigrated into. He only felt that his voice sounded rather strange, as if a surge of masculine vigor deep within his bones was being suppressed and unable to be released.

"And what kind of hero might you be?" Chen Fan retorted instead.

"Kid, don't you recognize your Grandpa Tanhua?" Li Peijun brushed back his bangs, revealing a wicked, charming smile. "I never expected to run into you in a public match. What a coincidence."

Chen Fan recognized the flamboyant young swordsman in the period costume as his unreliable friend, Li Peijun. He grinned and said, "You say you're Tanhua? Don't tell me you're the one from *The Magic Blade*? What was it, Xunhuan?"

Li Peijun nodded excitedly. "Exactly! Same surname as me, wields flying daggers, and is super handsome—it fits my character profile perfectly."

"Cough, cough! Stop blowing your own horn before you get yourself killed in the first round," Chen Fan teased, coughing intentionally. He felt his voice becoming increasingly bizarre. He looked down to see he was dressed in formal, ornate silk robes, though they didn't seem to belong to a typical wandering martial artist.

Li Peijun noticed the difference in Chen Fan's attire as well. "Hey, you've got a palace eunuch's hat on. Don't tell me you're from the Directorate of Ceremonial?"

Chen Fan touched his headpiece; the texture was indeed that of a high-ranking palace official. Yet, in his memory, the "Nine-Thousand-Year-Old" (Wei Zhongxian) had never appeared in any martial arts dramas. Suddenly, a dreadful thought crossed his mind.

"Have I turned into Dongfang Bubai?"

Chen Fan whispered, his voice artificial and shrill, accompanied by an involuntary flick of his fingers into a graceful orchid gesture. Could it be...

"Actually, I suppose I should be called Dongfang Bufan now," Chen Fan loosened his waistband, verified his status, and felt a sense of relief.

"Under heaven and earth, I alone am supreme! Hahaha!" Chen Fan fully immersed himself in the role, though the vibe remained slightly off.

"Isn't Dongfang Bubai a woman? Why are you laughing so hard? Hahaha!" Li Peijun burst into laughter as well.

Chen Fan gestured with his orchid fingers and argued, "You've been brainwashed by the new adaptation! Dongfang Bubai is a eunuch, a eunuch, you hear?"

"What? A eunuch? That's even worse! Better off being a woman, hahaha!" Li Peijun laughed so hard he collapsed to his knees.

Chen Fan looked at his palms; the deep red lines seemed to hold some primordial power. He threatened, "Careful, or I'll kill you with the Nine Yin Skeleton Claw."

Li Peijun clutched his stomach, laughing as he said, "You're a practitioner of the *Sunflower Manual*, not the *Nine Yin Manual*. Could you get the names right before calling out your moves? It's so awkward. And that voice of yours—hahaha! It sounds like you're squeezing a rubber ducky."

"Damn it, are you going to play the game or just sit here laughing until nightfall?" Chen Fan urged.

"Help... help me up," Li Peijun was trembling so hard from laughter he couldn't even stay on his knees.

Chen Fan said with disdain, "Don't you have a sword? Use it as a crutch and crawl up yourself."

"You... you guy, watch out... I'll use my ancestral flying daggers to make you bleed from your seven orifices. My aim is legendary!"

Chen Fan scoffed, "Give it a rest. 'Ancestral flying daggers,' 'never misses'—draw a dagger and show me then."

Li Peijun leaned on his sword hilt and shakily pulled himself up. "Honestly, I can't find where my dagger is. Do I need to fold a paper one on the spot? There don't seem to be any hidden compartments on the sword either. I... oh!"

Whether by accident or some strange movement, Li Peijun triggered a hidden latch on his shoulder guard, and a sharp blade snapped out, plunging directly into his own elbow.

Now it was Chen Fan's turn to applaud. "Truly, your aim never misses. The legends of the martial arts world are well-deserved, Hero Tanhua. I am impressed, truly impressed."

"Ow, ow, it hurts! It hurts so much! Don't tell me I'm going to be eliminated early from blood loss?" Li Peijun stared at the gushing wound, wanting to pull the blade out but too afraid to do so.

"Who knows? If you're a werewolf, this counts as a self-kill," Chen Fan chuckled.

"I am a bona fide good guy! If I die, it's because I was killed by the wolves!" Li Peijun gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and yanked the dagger out. Frightened birds scattered, and the deep bamboo forest echoed with the shrieks of what sounded like vengeful spirits.

The bamboo forest was still a flight of stairs away from the game zone. Following the signs, the two climbed for quite a while until they reached the summit. There sat a massive, natural boulder with the word "Huashan" clearly carved into it in red lacquer.

The game zone was set atop this peak. The towering Huashan had been leveled off, and the area was laid out like a martial arts arena, with flags of various sects planted in the corners. Chen Fan felt as if he had arrived at a filming location in Hengdian World Studios.

"This isn't Huashan. With this much flat land on the summit, this is more like Bright Peak."

Li Peijun roughly measured the length and width of the plateau. It was less like the top of a mountain being leveled and more like an aerial arena hovering above the peak of Huashan.

Chen Fan added, "It seems like a hodgepodge of the martial arts world. I'm a villain from Jin Yong's works, and you're a protagonist from Gu Long's. Looking at this scene, if you say it's the Huashan Sword Debate from *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*, it only seems to have the surface aesthetics. If you say it's the Bright Peak of the Ming Sect from *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber*, it doesn't look like it either."

The two walked toward the core of the game area, filled with confusion. As expected, it wasn't just characters from *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer* or *The Magic Blade*; essentially every major character from the martial arts genre was making a cameo.

"This expansion is incredibly grand. I'm just curious if they secured the copyrights, or if they're going to get sued for infringement." Chen Fan tugged at a nearby Emei Sect nun's flag; the fabric felt significantly better than a standard banner.

Li Peijun shrugged. "Who cares? It's a rare, high-quality production. We should just seize the chance to experience it."

"Fair enough." As Chen Fan walked a few steps, a thought occurred to him. "You aren't in the activity room, so where did you get the VR headset?"

"Just bought it. I signed up for a yearly fiber-optic plan, so I have dedicated bandwidth now. I was originally planning to test some triple-A titles, but when I saw the new *Werewolf* update, I got curious and clicked in. I never expected to run into you here."

Chen Fan backed away slightly and glanced at him. "I hope you don't disconnect halfway through."

"Don't worry, that won't happen," Li Peijun promised confidently.

The NPC in charge was Zuo Lengchan, a famous villain from *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, though not the ultimate one. His difficulty level was still below Chen Fan's, which gave him some peace of mind. Even sitting at a distance, Chen Fan could sense the NPC's ambition to dominate the martial arts world; it seemed the engineers had done a great job with the settings. However, this time, Chen Fan also sensed something else—a strange anomaly.

"This pulsing... is this magic tracking?" Chen Fan clutched his chest and fixed his gaze straight ahead.