I really felt for Lu Yao when she described borrowing the money. She had no choice: no money for medicine, everyone else in the village already borrowed dry. She had to go to Zhou. Her fear and shame are palpable in the dialogue.
The supporting characters like Liu Gonggong (eunuch) and General Huo’s role as the executioner also serve the plot. General Huo knows the truth and acts on it. His whispered taunt to Huainan Hou about “General Yuan’s suffering” ties the whole conflict together. So even if this is Ziyou’s story, the chess moves by other characters matter. It’s not just a solo revenge fantasy; there’s a network of alliances and enmities.
The moment his golden finger—Max Level Comprehension—finally kicks in is such a relief. I was honestly getting a bit depressed reading about his situation, especially how the entire family basically collapsed because of his failed breakthroughs. When the system finally activates, it feels like the story breathes again. And the fact that he gets it at age 100, not some teenager, makes it feel earned after all that suffering.
1 I have questions about the energy vision thing. Lin Wang can see "energy flow directions" and "nodes" on monsters? That's a specific ability that must come from somewhere. Is it the wooden plaque? Is it his Northerner heritage? Did merging two memories unlock something in his brain? The way he could just intuitively tell where to stab the flower monster suggests this isn't a new power he's learning—it's something innate that he's just discovering. I'm excited to see how this develops.