Chapter 457: Evil God Festival – Houseboat |
“Hehe.”
A low, mature man’s laugh came from behind Bai Liu.
In the instant he heard this voice, Bai Liu’s pupils constricted. Almost as a conditioned reflex, he kicked the Xie Ta in front of him far away. Then, Bai Liu stepped out diagonally with one foot, shifted his weight to the side while raising his shoulder, his muscles tensing. With a flick of his wrist, his bone whip extended its spikes, and he lashed out with all his strength toward the direction of the voice.
The whip struck the ground, its bone spikes piercing into the floorboards, yet the immense force of the whip was not yet diminished. It continued to smash through the wooden planks, finally striking directly into the pond, sending up a spray of water.
“Swish—Bang bang—!”
Water splashed into the air, forming a curtain as it fell. Through the water curtain, one could see the brilliant fireworks currently blooming in the night sky.
Distorted and beautiful.
Through the water curtain emerged a pale, well-defined hand wearing a black glove. This hand steadily caught the whip that Bai Liu had thrown with all his might. At this moment, the hand’s owner was walking outward along the whip.
As the water spray fell away, the person behind the water curtain appeared like an actor pulling back a stage curtain, finally revealing his true form on stage. This man’s face was covered in bloodstains, and his body was riddled with the gunshot wounds Bai Liu had just inflicted, yet he no longer showed the slightest sign of the pathetic dodging from before; instead, he walked toward Bai Liu with an air of composed leisure.
“Wow, such a fast reaction speed.”
“I was almost killed by you.”
>[System Notification: Before exiting the game, player Bai Six sacrificed the offerings in the shrine (Tawil) and the pain of (player Bai Liu) to make a wish—]
> [—Please, Great Evil God, descend upon the mortal realm and kill them.]
*(T/N: Fuck.)*
Bai Six used his left hand to tug at the glove on his right wrist. Behind him, massive fireworks continued to bloom, casting eerie and variegated shadows across his profile against the light, making the smile on his face appear increasingly dangerous:
“I forgot to tell you, although you obtained the identity of an Evil God Believer in your third game, the Bai Sixes of other worldlines chose to believe in me, this Evil God, without the slightest hesitation the first moment they entered the shrine in their first game dungeon, ‘Evil God Festival – Houseboat,’ the second they learned of my existence.”
Smiling, Bai Six used his index finger to hook out the brown string hanging in front of this body’s chest.
Hanging from the brown string was not a coin like Bai Liu’s, but a glowing Inverted-Cross pendant.
“And I can use the bodies of these believers to log into the game and come to the mortal realm.”
“Just like what you did to Yuan Guang, isn’t it?” Bai Liu calmly picked up Bai Six’s words, moving backward inconspicuously. “Another one of your special cheating techniques?”
Bai Six shrugged and smiled noncommittally: “I can take that sentence as a compliment from you.”
“What game do you want to play now?” Bai Liu looked at him and asked.
The corners of Bai Six’s mouth curled up: “The game has already started.”
The door behind Bai Liu was violently kicked open, and a group of Mifune family samurai, blindfolded and wearing armor with short swords at their waists, rushed in.
They shouted loudly, raising their swords and roaring: “—Kill!”
Looking out through the open door, the ground was strewn with the corpses of the Kitahara family members killed by the Mifune samurai. They were torn apart, lying on the ground with eyes wide open in death. The blood flowing from these people had dyed the entire shrine courtyard red, and puddles of blood that had not yet dried remained on the ground.
Bai Six looked at Bai Liu with a smile. He extended his left hand, spreading his five fingers, and transparent silk threads flew out from the inner layer of his glove, hugging his wrist: “Let me see how much you have grown recently, my heir.”
>[System Notification: Evil God Bai Six uses skill (Puppet Strings)]
The sharp tips of these rapidly flying threads pierced like needles into the necks and joints of the Mifune samurai who had rushed in. They groaned, clutching their necks in pain.
Before they could realize what had happened, in the next second, Bai Six rotated his wrist downward and leisurely closed his left fingers. He twitched the Puppet Strings wrapped around his fingertips and flicked them outward; the samurai were instantly manipulated into action by Bai Six.
These samurai raised their gleaming short swords high and hacked toward Xie Ta, who had been kicked into a safe corner by Bai Liu and was bound in place by heavy silk threads.
Bai Liu suddenly turned his head, drawing his hand back for a whip strike. Then, with a rightward swing, he swept away and knocked back the short swords being hacked down at Xie Ta by the group.
*(T/N: Where the hell is the rest of Bai Liu’s team???)*
The short swords were struck away, falling through the air like scattering flower petals. The silver surfaces of the blades reflected the light of the fireworks from all directions, casting fish-scale-like light onto the walls of the entire room, blinding anyone who looked.
Bai Liu looked away to avoid the light.
A long black bone whip lashed up into the air, wrapping around the hilt of a certain short sword. Hidden within the flashes of light from the blades, it swept toward the right side of Bai Liu’s neck.
Bai Liu’s gaze turned cold. He raised his hand, transforming his whip into a blade, and held it in a reverse grip to block diagonally in front of his neck.
The two short swords clashed, producing a piercing “clack” sound of metal hitting metal.
Bai Liu held the blade and pushed outward, parrying the incoming sword with a backhand strike. The sword acted like a boomerang, flying back along its original path after being deflected by Bai Liu, only to be casually swatted away by Bai Six’s whip.
Bai Six looked at Bai Liu with a smile: “Just a reminder, I am the one you should be wary of.”
“Those small fry aren’t worth you putting so much attention on them.”
In the next second, the hem of Bai Six’s clothes fluttered, and he disappeared from the spot like the wind.
Almost the instant Bai Six disappeared, Bai Liu turned sideways, raised his hand, and rotated his blade, making a parrying gesture against the empty air in front of him.
“Boom—!!”
Bai Six appeared out of thin air before Bai Liu’s eyes. In his hand was a short sword identical to Bai Liu’s, also held in a reverse grip, likewise attempting to press down and suppress his opponent from above, forcing Bai Liu to take a step back.
>[System Notification: Player Bai Six uses player Mu Ke’s personal skill (Flash Strike)]
Bai Six began to laugh. He slowly applied force with his elbow, pressing the short sword in Bai Liu’s hand—which had originally held the advantage—inward. He transformed his originally suppressed position from below into one that suppressed Bai Liu from above, while the edge of the short sword in his hand slowly pressed against the rapidly pulsing large blood vessel on the side of Bai Liu’s neck.
He smiled: “Not bad. You can already predict my skill transitions now; you’re just not as practiced as I am.”
“Growing so fast… I’m really looking forward to the day you kill me.”
The moment the short sword touched the side of Bai Liu’s neck, Bai Six unhesitatingly pulled back his hand, gripped the blade tightly, and slashed diagonally upward against Bai Liu’s rapidly pulsing neck vessel!
—There was no sound of blood spraying from a severed vessel; Bai Six’s strike missed.
Bai Six’s expression remained unchanged. With almost no pause, he gripped the hilt of the short sword in his hand and rotated it, holding it horizontally to block directly behind the center of his neck.
“Boom—!!”
The two short swords clashed once more.
>[System Notification: Player Bai Liu uses player Mu Ke’s personal skill (Flash Strike)]
Bai Liu appeared in mid-air behind Bai Six.
As he slowly descended in the air, he used his body weight and the positional advantage of the sneak attack from behind to suppress the strength in Bai Six’s wrist, pressing his blade edge against the back of Bai Six’s neck!
Bai Six rapidly flipped the horizontally placed hilt outward, the blade edge pushing away Bai Liu’s downward-pressing short sword.
Bai Liu did not retreat at all. His sharp gaze was fixed on the Inverted-Cross pendant hanging on the back of Bai Six’s neck. His blade tip swept across in a diagonal flick. In the instant the blade light flashed, the short sword transformed into a monkey claw, fiercely swiping toward the brown silk thread on the back of Bai Six’s neck. It looked as though he was about to steal the Inverted-Cross pendant hanging from Bai Six’s neck!
>[System Notification: Player Bai Liu uses player Mu Shicheng’s personal skill (The Thief’s Trained Capuchin Monkey)]
Bai Six instantly sensed Bai Liu’s intention. Currently, he was standing with his back to Bai Liu; indeed, it was impossible for his reaction and strength to be faster than Bai Liu’s. Because the gap in strength was too large, it was unlikely for Bai Liu to kill him from this position.
—But for stealing things, it was simply the most convenient position possible.
The corners of Bai Six’s mouth curled up.
Truly clever. He had realized so quickly what the key item was for the game they were playing.
The short sword Bai Six held against the back of his neck flashed. Instead of protecting himself, he extended it outward, then retracted it to skim along his skin and swipe upward, cleanly cutting the hair tie he used to bind his long hair.
The moment the hair tie was cut, black long hair poured down from Bai Six’s shoulders like water, blocking the view of the thief, Bai Liu, behind him.
Simultaneously, the index and middle fingers of Bai Six’s gloved right hand flicked, and a poker card with sharp edges appeared between the gaps of his two fingers. In the instant the long hair fell and Bai Liu’s vision became increasingly concentrated on the back of his neck, Bai Six hid the poker card behind his neck and flicked it backward, using the long hair as cover.
The poker card passed through the long hair behind Bai Six’s neck, spinning as it sliced toward the face of the approaching Bai Liu.
Bai Liu snapped back to his senses. He leaned his upper body back to dodge the poker card, while the monkey claw continued unabated toward the back of Bai Six’s neck.
In the moment before he could grab the cross, Bai Six suddenly grew a dozen centimeters taller. Bai Liu’s monkey claw, which had been aimed at the back of his neck, ended up only grabbing his shoulder.
The poker card flew past Bai Liu’s eye, embedding itself into the wooden boards behind him.
The card face embedded in the board was still shaking. In its center was a rotating red heart, and within the heart, various photos of different people were constantly appearing.
The muscle texture of the shoulder was firm and familiar. Bai Liu, who was prepared to claw straight through the scapula, felt his breath hitch. His pitch-black eyes reflected Bai Six as he turned around.
>[System Notification: Evil God Bai Six uses player (Queen of Hearts)’s personal skill (Heart for a Heart)]
The heart in the center of the card face kept spinning, finally settling on a photo of Xie Ta looking down while reading a book. The background of the photo was the library of the welfare home.
Bai Six turned around. His long black hair turned into long, silvery-blue curly hair as it slid off his shoulders. He turned to face Bai Liu, looking down at his opponent, his silvery-blue eyes shimmering with a gentle smile: “I really didn’t expect that my heir would actually have such deep feelings for a creation I discarded.”
Bai Six had completely transformed into the appearance of Xie Ta.
*(T/N: Fuck all the way off Bai Six.)*
