Chapter 261: Invincible Person |
Faint lamplight flickered in the darkness. The shadow of the Ghost Child ahead ran quite slowly. This was not a straight, clear path, but rather a three-dimensional cave with a vertical structure. There were almost no traces of artificial modification, save for some ropes left in places that went up and down, though those ropes had long since rotted and snapped.
However, the shadow did not need ropes to climb. It seemed to be recreating a scene from the past.
Not long after Bai Mu entered the cave, wet hands chased after him from behind.
He had just used a third of the sulfur, cinnabar, and realgar from his Small Bottle to create Earth Yang. Although the effect was excellent, the quantity was too small to last long, so these ghostly hands had caught up once again.
They were all severed hands without bodies. It was very difficult to dodge in such a narrow space. One ghostly hand grabbed Bai Mu's left ankle, followed by others seizing his right foot. More ghostly hands seemed to teleport from above, reaching down to strangle his neck.
Bai Mu reached out and squeezed the ghostly hand hard, snapping it like a plastic toy. These things did not have high defense, and with his current strength, he could handle them effortlessly. The problem was their overwhelming numbers. They appeared and vanished unpredictably; the moment he tore one off or smashed another, a new one would immediately emerge.
The clammy, freezing touch was extremely uncomfortable, and the spots they grabbed rapidly lost body heat. Their attacks stacked a freezing effect, draining warmth upon contact. After the massive swarm of ghostly hands appeared, Bai Mu's Health dropped by a full twenty percent.
He realized that relying on brute force alone was useless against these ghostly hands. As for the Human Yang Force-Breaking Method, it required him to locate the ghost's brow center, but these severed hands possessed no such feature.
He drew his pistol and shot several of the ghostly hands. The bullets had little effect on these monsters; they could pierce through, but they could not kill them. Entangled by several ghostly hands, he felt as if he had been plunged into an ice cellar. Meanwhile, the shadow of the Ghost Child ahead had already crested a small slope, not waiting for him at all.
He made a prompt decision, taking out three Small Bottles once more and mixing a third of the materials to create Earth Yang fuel. This time, he unsheathed his Flaming Sword, sprinkled the powder over the blade, and ignited it using the bronze lamp.
A ghostly blue flame roared to life on the Flaming Sword, illuminating the side of his face. Facing the ghostly hands swarming from all directions to drown him, he unleashed a chained combo of Quick Draw and Secret Sword Art.
The blue and yellow flames, infused with blade aura, slashed and scorched the ghostly hands. Upon catching even a speck of the Earth Yang flame, the severed limbs dropped from the cave walls, struggled briefly, and then fell utterly still.
[Secret Sword Art Experience +5.]
[Secret Sword Art Experience +5.]
To Bai Mu's surprise, each of these ghostly hands provided a five-point experience bonus, equivalent to two and a half Conehead Zombies.
'Do they give more experience because they are ghosts?' Bai Mu wondered to himself.
He minced the ghostly hand gripping his ankle. With just a few slashes, his sword art experience surged by over two hundred points, making him sigh in appreciation at how quickly experience grew from killing monsters within a Script.
Unfortunately, this was not the time to grind levels. After shaking off the ghostly hands, he hurried after the child's shadow ahead. He could faintly hear the rushing sound of water. He had not forgotten I Love a Sword's words: the exit was located near flowing water. He was right near the exit now.
It seemed his process for completing this Side Quest was near perfect. Triggering this guiding shadow of a Ghost Child was no easy feat. First, one needed to obtain a Blood Jade. That first step alone was incredibly difficult. There were only six elite monsters on the map, and it was obvious that not every elite monster could nurture a Blood Jade; it had to be one that had sucked the blood of the living, and the jade had to be extracted from its living body during combat.
Secondly, even with the Blood Jade, the quest still had to be triggered. He guessed that the Ghost Children had tossed some of Xuan Mingzi's relics into a corner somewhere. Finding them by sheer luck would trigger the quest, but completing it would be an absolute nightmare. Clues were scarce unless one possessed relevant skills, like Graffiti Divination. And lastly, one had to find a Ghost Child guide and generously surrender the Blood Jade to it, allowing the spirit to share the jade with its friends, which in turn triggered this phantom guide.
Completing this entire sequence essentially rewarded the player with a hidden passage to clear the stage, leading them directly to the vicinity of the exit.
"Looking at it this way, my teammates are a bit out of luck."
The fact that he had found the exit meant the other two teams were heading in the wrong direction, merely wasting their effort.
Through the Guard Mushroom, he could observe Scattered Fireflies' situation. Their progress had not caught up to his; they were still searching for the Evil-Warding Beast. The two were currently standing in a large Tomb Chamber, looting a battered Zombie corpse. They had encountered another elite monster, but it was not a major issue as the duo had worked together to take it down.
I Love a Sword had sustained some injuries and lost Health. Scattered Fireflies was busy healing him and curing his poison. Judging by their position, they were quite close to the Evil-Warding Beast, meaning they would soon discover they had taken the wrong path.
As for Work Three Rest Four and Brewing Cat, their progress was unknown. Through the mushroom's vision, Bai Mu could see Scattered Fireflies holding a Mobile Phone to call the other team, but since the Guard Mushroom could not transmit sound, he had no idea what his teammates were saying.
If Bai Mu had taken a phone, he could have warned the others in advance, but playing captain hindsight now was pointless. He could only hope they would quickly realize their mistake and gather here.
Bai Mu felt a twinge of pity for them. They had no idea what they were about to face. The final boss was far more terrifying than they imagined, and whichever team bumped into it would most likely meet a dead end.
He figured this Script might be his first team mission where he witnessed a teammate die. He debated whether he should wait at the exit for a while.
Up ahead, the ghostly child stopped before a section of blue brick wall and ceased moving. The end of the line seemed to be just outside.
Bai Mu stepped forward and pushed open the blue bricks, emerging into a spacious, high-ceilinged corridor. He felt a refreshing river breeze blow past him; a path leading out of the mountain had to be nearby.
The child tumbled down and continued running toward the outside of the corridor, looking as though it wouldn't stop until it reached the tomb's entrance.
Bai Mu relaxed slightly. He no longer needed to follow it; guided by the wind, he knew exactly which way to go. However, the child did not run all the way out. Instead, it stopped at a corner to peek outside before scurrying back, diving straight back into the blue bricks and vanishing into the darkness. Perhaps many years ago, when Xuan Mingzi had tried to lead them out of the tomb, they had run into guards or Xuan Mingzi's master. Ultimately, they had lost their chance to escape and died in this very passage.
"But to think there are so many ghosts at the exit..."
Nearing the exit had not brought any peace.
Walking corpses, wandering spirits, and Ghost Children clinging to their backs all came into Bai Mu's view. They paced back and forth at both ends of the corridor, with the Ghost Children serving as their guides.
"As expected, the thing in the Main Tomb Chamber is awake, isn't it?"
"For some reason, it either doesn't want to or cannot leave its seclusion just yet. But since it needs to feed on the blood and yang energy of the living, it dispatched its ghost slaves to slaughter the townsfolk at the foot of the mountain."
"I suppose it's not entirely bad news. At least it means the tomb gates are already open, saving me the effort of forcing them."
"I should consider myself clearing this within the safe time window. As long as I break through these ghosts and get out, I'll complete both the Script and the Side Quest." Bai Mu quickly analyzed the current situation. He was just one step away from finishing the mission.
Although it was a team Script, the system did not mandate that he safely evacuate the others. At most, a higher survival count would yield better team rewards.
If he wanted to avoid unnecessary complications, he could simply blast his way out. He was in prime condition to do so. Xiao Wei was at full health, and so was he. He could even grind some experience before clearing the stage. After all, a safe exit lay right behind him; if he got tired of fighting, he could simply retreat. The hidden passage from the Side Quest had helped him bypass numerous obstacles and monsters.
The problem was, what would happen to his remaining teammates still trapped in the Script once he left?
He instantly realized the true nature of this Script's difficulty curve.
In truth, the danger level of his route did not match the intensity of a C-rank Script. Although triggering and completing it was difficult and relied somewhat on luck, the overall danger in the latter half of the route was quite low—it didn't even compare to when he, Great Northern Wilderness, and the others navigated the Witch's cornfield during the Journey of Death. Conversely, if the Players had moved entirely as a unified group, the more ghosts they defeated and the more time they wasted, the faster the entity in the Main Tomb Chamber would have noticed them. The late stages of the game would inevitably become terrifyingly perilous. That difficulty curve was the intended, normal progression of this Script.
By splitting up, whoever was luckiest and found the exit first would undoubtedly have the easiest time.
The first person to discover the exit wouldn't have to bear the time penalty or face the escalating danger of the escape sequence.
If Bai Mu were to slaughter his way out of the tomb and clear the stage right now, it was obvious that the Script's danger level would spike dramatically upon his departure. The entity in the Main Tomb Chamber would quickly realize something was wrong with its ghost slaves, and its fury might even trigger some method to hunt down the remaining Players in the tomb. "So, in a sense, this boils down to a question of backstabbing my teammates or sacrificing myself," Bai Mu muttered as he rubbed his chin.
He glanced at the Emperor's Jade Dragon in his inventory, then checked on Scattered Fireflies' situation. They had just left a tomb chamber and spotted the Evil-Warding Beast from afar. I Love a Sword wore a grave expression after realizing he had led them down the wrong path, while the timid Scattered Fireflies looked on the verge of tears. "However, looking at it from another angle, doesn't my current position effectively make me an Invincible Person?" A slight smirk crept onto Bai Mu's lips. "If attention is drawn heavily to one side, the attention given to the other side will naturally decrease."
"Blocking the tomb entrance to purify these walking corpses and ghosts should count as fulfilling part of the magistrate's commission. Besides, if I'm being completely honest, I'm quite curious to see just how powerful that sinister old Daoist and a centuries-old Zombie King truly are."