Sizzle—
The Tyrant Halberd infused with Swamp God Power erupted with a fierce sound, like water hitting a hot oil pan, as soon as it touched the black, particulate smoke on the surface of the Shadow Monster.
The black mist began to boil, and the tiny whirlwinds swirling around the beast's body moved rapidly, stirring the air and creating hundreds of intersecting forces in the surrounding area, like a blender trying to shred any objects caught within.
However, the divine power surged like a mighty river, forming a resilient barrier on the surface of the Tyrant Halberd, stubbornly withstanding all the counterattacks,
allowing the sharp spear blade to steadily and quickly push downward, slicing through and tearing apart the Shadow Monster's body.
Skin, tendons, bones...
Accompanied by dense and clattering cracking sounds, the long spear sliced through most of the Shadow Monster's neck, cutting open its entire back, and slashing out from below its right arm.
The Shadow Monster's head, connected only by a thin layer of skin at the neck's edge, wobbled weakly in the air, trying to roar, its body strength and the brilliance in its scarlet eyes rapidly fading away,
as its enormous body slowly knelt forward in slow motion,
crashing to the ground with a thud, splattering green blood.
"..."
Li Ang's gaze sharpened, stepping on the invisible steps created by the Cloud Ascending Ladder,
the Tyrant Halberd slashed down again, completely cutting apart the Shadow Monster's upper right half, along with its head,
and then using the invisible steps to retreat dozens of ters backward, preventing the corpse from exploding or triggering any other mutation.
Fortunately, after waiting a few seconds, the corpse did not change, and the black mist covering the large room,
began to gradually shrink and dissipate with the death of the Shadow Monster.
The Kui Ox cha and Liu Wu Dai slowly descended into one corner of the room where there were stones, cautiously stepping forward a couple of steps to confirm the beast's total demise.
"Is it dead just like that?"
Ding Zhensi switched the scanner back to low power mode, hesitantly asked: "I thought its vitality would be a bit more tenacious..."
"This creature was already at the end of its rope."
Li Ang said flatly, "If I'm not mistaken, it should have died long ago, but survived until now solely due to the Corpse Qi ford from the carcasses of monsters in this underground palace."
"Corpse Qi?"
Ding Zhensi showed a surprised expression and was about to ask further when Li Ang raised his hand to interrupt, "Let's contact Hoenhem and them first."
He took out the Lightning Eleven Walkie-Talkie with a number ⑤ sticker on it from his waist and pressed the button, "Hey, anyone there? Can you hear ?"
The walkie-talkie emitted a burst of noisy white noise, likely due to the signal weakening effect of the entire underground palace, which had been heard before during the players' experints.
Li Ang waited for a few seconds, then repeated the call, and this ti the walkie-talkie responded.
"Yes... I can hear you."
Hoenhem's voice ca over the walkie-talkie, "I'm still alive.
The black smoke emitted by the monster had a teleportation effect, and now I'm in a room full of traps.
Are you guys okay? What about that monster?"
"David and Amber also got teleported and are missing. We're fine, the monster is dead."
Li Ang briefly summarized the current situation, and soon the voices of David and Amber ca through the walkie-talkie network as well.
The forr was teleported into a room with extrely smooth walls, difficult to climb, and all doors on the ceiling,
while the latter landed in a room filled with cooled lava.
The situation wasn't too bad; with the strength of the three of them, the chanisms and traps within these rooms couldn't stop them,
the only problem was finding the way back to the exit of the underground palace.
"Everyone, don't turn off the walkie-talkies yet. The orange indicator light on the walkie-talkies actually has a bit of a tracking function. The closer to the main unit, which is the unit I hold, the faster the indicator light will blink."
Hoenhem's voice was calm: "The rate of this blinking change is so small that normal people can't detect it at all,
but if the Perception Attribute is twelve or higher, along with so enhancents that boost visual reaction speed, then it should be noticeable.
Mr. David and Miss Amber should have no problem. We'll regroup first and then head back to the Shadow Monster's room to find you, okay?"
Hmm?
Li Ang raised an eyebrow. When Hoenhem introduced the features of the Lightning Eleven Walkie-Talkie earlier, he didn't ntion that these tools had a tracking function to a certain extent.
But that's normal; even at the high-level first tier, there's no lack of scheming and plotting among randomly matched players (quite possibly even more so),
Li Ang too had prepared his counterasures.
Additionally, the tracking function only applies to the main unit, aning only others can track the main unit, while the main unit can't track others, which is still acceptable.
As for whether Hoenhem might be lying...
Probably not, as such small tricks within a team can only be exposed once, and not a second ti.
Li Ang closed the psychic network of the Group Sympathy, and together with Liu Wu Dai, they turned off their respective walkie-talkies, leaving only the unit in Ding Zhensi's hand active, for Hoenhem to report points – informing Hoenhem of the distance changes between their positions through changes in the blinking frequency of the indicator light,
since among the three, only the Kui Ox cha could perceive the changes in the indicator light with little effort.
After they were ready,
the three present began waiting for David, Hoenhem, and the others to return,
with an 18-hour task ti limit, which was still relatively ample, they could afford to wait a bit,
and the timing module of the Special Affairs Bureau embedded in the Kui Ox cha also ensured that there wouldn't be a "special environnt in the underground palace that makes people unaware of ti passing and thus exceeding the ti limit" scenario – such ti traps have appeared in many killing arena ga cases.
"It really stinks, huh."
Standing at the edge of the blood pool, Li Ang took out steel plates from his backpack, tossed them into the pool, and walked step by step toward the Shadow Monster's corpse, clicking his tongue in wonder, "This sll, it's like a mix of surstr??mming with cooked durian, snail noodles, stinky tofu, Icelandic shark at, and Inuit fernted sea birds, boiling into a thick soup and enjoying a bowl."
Beside him, Liu Wu Dai, wearing a full-coverage gas mask, had a peculiar expression on her face.
The sll in this room was indeed extrely intense; even with her wearing a high-quality mask that could completely filter the air, she still felt a burning sensation in the air.
She silently adjusted her gas mask, thinking that her equipnt would definitely need a disinfecting routine in the future, stepped onto the steel plate Li Ang had thrown into the blood pool, and softly said, "Is your respirator okay?"
With her keen eye for picking items in the mall auction house, she guessed that the gas mask underneath Li Ang's Dragon Head Mask wasn't of very high quality, and its effectiveness in isolating air,
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Certainly doesn't match her mask or the air circulation system of Ding Zhensi's Kui Ox cha.
"No problem, thanks for the concern."
Li Ang grinned, without explaining that he actually has two sets of lung air circulation systems, and his nose and entire skin have undergone special evolution, filtering toxic gases and able to close skin pores completely, relying solely on internal organs for oxygen circulation.
If it weren't for being too weird, he could even directly attach an oxygen tank to his skin and calmly continue the mission.
"Hmm."
Liu Wu Dai nodded; since Li Ang said there's no issue, it should really be fine.
She turned around, looking at the dissolving black haze drifting on the ceiling, softly speaking, "It's solidified negative energy, right?"
"To so extent, it is actually the stench of a corpse."
Li Ang examined the Shadow Monster's corpse, casually saying, "This room is airtight, warr than the outside, and humid.
A large pile of biological remnants is like ferntation, the longer it stands, the stronger the sll."
While talking, he casually pointed to the pile of mountain-like material, activating the [Fragnt Scatter] skill, propelling a load of questionable remnants from the surface layer, precisely dropping a suspiciously fresh organ before him.
"See this organ, looks fresh, no sign of decay. But... it actually died many, many years ago."
Li Ang squatted, covering the organ with Swamp God Power, isolating it from the surrounding air.
The organ wilted rapidly, visibly withering.
"This room's special environnt, with considerable remnants generating negative energy, creates a cycle in the confined condition, preserving the mountainous remnants from decay, also allowing this Shadow Monster to avoid aging.
If external conditions remain unchanged, it stays in dormancy—like hibernating in a fridge.
tabolism is minimized to the extre."
Li Ang tossed aside the organ, stood up leisurely: "I got this information from a mysterious book of the Different World,
based on what the book records,
this kind of energy field is known as Corpse Qi. Sotis, under special external conditions, it coincidentally forms. Other tis it's artificially created."
That to, naturally, was Miss Chai's practicing "Jidou Yanchi of Nine Underworld".
Corpse Qi, Yin Qi, Evil Qi, Yin Evil... these energy nas, though all classified as negative energy, vary considerably in practical operation, just like petroleum compared to cooking oil.
Only under unique conditions can these energies convert among themselves, such as transforming Corpse Qi into Yin Qi usable by ghost cultivators.
"..."
Liu Wu Dai furrowed her brow, "Do you think it's naturally ford, or arranged by soone or sothing?"
"Probably the latter."
Li Ang slowly said, "The beast just now, during combat, exhibited almost intelligent combat instincts, promptly transporting Heinz, David, Amber, the trio expressing the highest energy level among us,
teleporting them to different rooms, trying to leverage the underground palace and defeat them one by one.
Proving it has so slight thinking ability, not entirely acting on beast instinct."
He glanced at the terrifyingly bizarre mountain, calmly using the Tyrant Halberd to dissect the Shadow Monster, "Since there's thinking ability, it overwhelmingly wouldn't stay in such a hostile and discomforting environnt.
Oh, look, its respiratory system is malford but still functional,
should be able to sll this pervasive stench."
Whoosh—
From the mountain, a sudden sound erged, so biological remnants sliding down the slope captured the attention of Liu Wu Dai and Ding Zhensi.
"The Corpse Qi cycle has been broken, the shape-maintained by Corpse Qi mountain is collapsing, very normal."
Li Ang didn't turn back, continuing the Shadow Monster dissection, "Hmm... This should be the stomach?"
Dong.
The Tyrant Halberd touched a hard object, unexpectedly not a bone but...
a brick.
Li Ang's eyes lit up, the spear tip deftly spun, extracting a rectangular brick from the Shadow Monster's stomach, flipping it into the air, skillfully catching it with the spear tip.
"This is..."
Liu Wu Dai focused, walked beside Li Ang, just about to scrutinize the brick shape,
when Li Ang removed his breathing mask, patted his chest with his left hand, then—
"Ugh, ugh ugh, ugh ugh."
Li Ang's eyes widened, retching, spewing forth a miniature waterfall of rainbow-colored water through the Dragon Head Mask's dragon mouth, drenched the brick surface.
Beside her, Liu Wu Dai jumped, assuming Li Ang was struck by an extrely dreadful curse, instinctively taking out three curse-removing talismans from the Special Affairs Bureau.
Before she could heavily slap the talisman on Li Ang's back, the latter casually patted his chest, standing as if nothing had happened, casually reworn his breathing mask.
"What's up?"
Li Ang halted the self-casting [Drown in Misfortune Assassination thod], looking puzzled at Liu Wu Dai holding yellow talismans aloft.
"... Nothing."
Liu Wu Dai's eye corner twitched, she put away the yellow talismans, "Wasn't that your previous skill? Didn't it spew clear water? How did it beco a rainbow?"
"Oh, this."
Li Ang calmly replied, "I researched a little and felt just spewing clear water seed too plain and monotonous, not classy.
So I adhered so crushed rainbow candy inside my mouth, releasing the water-creating skill, spouting a rainbow—after all, now the level's raised, the enemies generally exhibit resistance towards such skills, not always producing paramount results.
Self-casting in battle can confuse opponents, misleading them to believe my rainbow spew signifies a major move."
...though not wanting to admit, it's oddly convincing; facing a hurling opponent is frightening in combat.
Li Ang overlooked Liu Wu Dai's peculiar expression, extracting tissues from the sodium ring,
wiping off the water and stubborn blood stains from the brick, in its center—from the drawing the village head showed—he recognized the flowing cloud pattern.
"This stolen brick was within the Shadow Monster's stomach."
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