“Cough, cough!”
“This thing is really tough-skinned…”
A petite figure shakily stood up from the ground, wiping a trace of blood from the corner of her mouth. Her crimson eyes gleamed with a hint of excitement.
“But perfect, I needed a punching bag like this.”
Whoosh!
In the next moment, the small red-clad figure erupted with wisps of violent blood aura, charging back into the temple with a sonic boom!
Waves of blood aura clashed with yin energy, sending powerful ripples outward, prompting Shen Mu, hiding behind a withered giant tree, to let out a soft tsk.
“Tsk…”
The heavens really don’t favor me. Why does every plan of mine get disrupted by something unexpected?
But… judging by the blood aura bursting from that little girl and her appearance, she seemed very much like a character who doesn’t appear until the mid-game.
Could it be…
A deeply unsettling guess surfaced in Shen Mu’s mind.
“Damn it… this is really turning into snatching food from a tiger’s mouth…”
The thought of potentially facing a difficult-to-deal-with demonic cultivator gave Shen Mu a headache.
***
“Argh!!”
Soon after, a furious roar echoed through the valley, shattering the temple and kicking up clouds of gray dust that engulfed the surroundings.
At the center of the rubble, two figures—one large, one small—stood in opposition, evenly matched in physical strength.
“This is what makes it fun!”
Accompanied by an excited, youthful female voice, the petite red-clad figure’s blood aura began to blaze like a raging fire!
In an instant, crimson flames spread rapidly, engulfing the three-zhang-tall, green-faced, fanged white-furred corpse ghost!
Its candle-like eyes shrank instantly, bloodshot, as its thick, fur-covered arms crackled with the sound of scorching.
Even with its iron-like resilience, it couldn’t withstand the burning of the blood flames.
“Urgh!!”
The corpse ghost let out a pained howl, its arms weakening, no longer able to resist the small figure before it.
Seizing the opportunity, the petite red-clad loli swung a delicate fist brimming with immense force, sending the corpse ghost flying hundreds of meters away.
It rolled across the ground, crashing into a giant tree before finally coming to a stop.
“Now I’ve got another pet.”
The red-clad loli clapped her hands, her delicate, jade-like face breaking into a slight smile. She leaped to the side of the now-still corpse ghost to check its condition.
At that moment.
Shen Mu seized his chance, activating his Cloud-Treading Steps. Like silent, drifting mist, he slipped noiselessly into the collapsed temple.
That thing still has a second phase, so I need to hurry to the treasure vault and grab it before they keep fighting endlessly and cause more surprises.
While keeping an eye on the red-clad loli’s movements with his peripheral vision, he quietly searched for the entrance to the treasure vault beneath the lair.
***
Boom, boom, boom…
Soon, the ground began to rumble, as if a large number of unknown creatures were surging up from below, rapidly converging toward the spot where the corpse ghost had fallen.
Lin Yuhe, who was fiercely battling on the outskirts, frowned as she saw the tide of zombies retreating underground.
“He’s that fast?”
[Looks like he was holding back when you first met him.]
Lin Yuhe glanced toward the center of the village, narrowing her eyes and focusing intently to sense the movements of the yin energy around her.
“!”
“No, that’s the corpse ghost entering its second phase.”
As a fellow player who had cleared this cultivation game, Lin Yuhe was familiar with the mechanics of some bosses and elite monsters in its dungeons.
The convergence of yin energy and the unusual behavior of the zombies clearly indicated that the creature was entering its desperate, berserk phase.
“I need to hurry and help him!”
In its berserk phase, that thing’s strength could reach the Foundation Establishment Realm. With his current power, he’d either die or be gravely injured.
Whoosh!
With her words, a sharp crimson spiritual wind gathered around Lin Yuhe, and she transformed into a golden afterimage, speeding toward the village’s center.
***
At that moment.
The red-clad loli stared at the white-furred corpse ghost, now enveloped in dense black yin energy and growing larger as it absorbed zombies, a hint of surprise in her crimson eyes.
“So you’ve got a trump card like this?”
There was no fear in her eyes—only eager anticipation as she waited for it to enter its next phase.
She seemed utterly confident in her ability to subdue it.
But in the next instant, the shockwave from the corpse ghost’s completed phase transition sent her flying over a hundred zhang!
She crashed into a boulder, coughing up a large mouthful of blood, her organs shifted out of place.
“Hm?”
Shen Mu, witnessing this, remained unfazed and leaped into the dark pit he had uncovered…
Moments later, he landed in a vast, dark underground space.
Snap!
Shen Mu snapped his fingers, igniting a bright crimson spiritual flame in his palm, illuminating most of the space.
Around him were piles of glittering gold, silver, and treasures, countless in number, as if he had stepped into mountains of wealth.
“Heh… what a pity.”
Shen Mu ignored the vast riches, nimbly leaping over the piles of gold and silver, heading straight for the deepest part of the underground space.
In an unremarkable corner, he found a pitch-black, sharply angular square block.
It looked utterly ordinary, emitting no trace of spiritual energy, like a common piece of black iron found in any minetoxic.
Even its weight felt like any ordinary stone or mineral, unremarkable in every way.
But this palm-sized “black iron block” was something Shen Mu had been longing for.
“Finally got you…”
Looking at the black block in his hand, Shen Mu’s eyes shone with genuine joy. Without hesitation, he bit his fingertip and dripped a drop of bright red blood onto its center.
The blood visibly seeped into the block, and its surface began to glow with straight, crisscrossing sky-blue patterns, dividing it into identical square segments.
In an instant, the black block split along those patterns into countless fragments, orbiting Shen Mu like a constellation of stars.
“Now… I finally have a decent trump card.”
Boom, boom, boom!!
Soon, the entire underground space began to quake, with bits of rubble and dust falling as if it were about to collapse.
He knew the creature had discovered a “rat” sneaking into its treasure vault.
“Time to wrap up this mission.”
Shen Mu’s expression remained calm. With a thought, the orbiting black fragments fused into a jet-black longsword, gleaming with a sharp, cold light under the glow of the flame…
***
Amid the rubble on the surface.
The berserk corpse ghost’s body was now pale as cold iron, its white fur gone, its height reaching ten zhang, like a humanoid mountain.
It was frantically smashing and stomping the ground, creating a massive crater, determined to flush out the “rat”!
Not far away, in a shallow pit, the red-haired loli lay disheveled, blood dripping from her mouth, covered in dust.
Her life force had been beaten to a faint flicker.
“How am I supposed to help him now…”
Lin Yuhe, standing on a withered tree, looked at the towering second-phase corpse ghost, unsure of how to act.
It was simple—its second-phase defense was too high, and her current treasures couldn’t deal significant damage.
Maybe she should find her newly accepted master. At the very least, she could ensure his safety.
Feeling powerless, Lin Yuhe decided to call for help to deal with the creature.
“Your understanding of this world is still a bit shallow.”
A calm, clear voice rang out. In an instant, a black figure darted nimbly across the corpse ghost’s body, leaping into the air from its shoulder in just two breaths!
Then, a flash of sharp black sword light, like a guillotine from the heavens, sliced down at the corpse ghost’s nape!
Slash!
In an instant, dark green-tinged black blood sprayed like scattered flowers, raining down as the green-faced, fanged head fell.
“You didn’t even know its critical weak point for maximum damage. Were you playing with cheats?”
Shen Mu, landing steadily, teased Lin Yuhe on the tree branch.
Behind him, the headless corpse ghost’s massive body crashed to the ground with a boom!!, black blood pouring from the clean cut.