Chapter 709: Solved?

Not good! I've been tricked!

After being viciously pecked to near death by more than ten hundred-foot giant chickens, the Snake Spirit instantly realized it had likely fallen into a trap within a trap, and hurriedly tried to withdraw and escape.

However, even though its reaction had been fast, it still wasn't fast enough for those old hens eager for an extra meal.

Seeing the delicious "black-and-white earthworm" trying to burrow back, three or four gigantic chicken feet pierced the barrier between the Dream Realm and reality almost simultaneously, plopping down with a plop-plop-plop, and forcibly stomping half of the Snake Spirit's body into the ground.

Immediately after, more than a dozen old hens clucked and clattered as they crowded forward, and upon catching the terrified Snake Spirit, unleashed a storm of vicious pecks!

"Wait!"

"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"

"Damn beast! Get away!"

"Cluck-cluck-cluck!"

"Wait! Let's talk! I can give you... ah!"

"Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck!"

"Spare... spare my life! Spare my life!"

Is it over already?

Watching the Snake Spirit, which had been pecked by more than a dozen old hens until its head was bloody and was now shamelessly begging for mercy, Li Ang couldn't help but smack his lips, feeling a belly full of complaints he simply didn't know where to start voicing.

Just moments ago, he himself in the Dream Realm had seen the Snake Spirit's true form.

That giant snake, which was nearly a hundred meters tall even when slightly curled, comparable to a small mountain range coiled up, had fallen into the ritual set up by Senior Tom, and was actually being pecked all over by a brood of old hens until it was covered in wounds, even looking as if it was about to collapse.

This degree of weakening was truly... utterly unreasonable, even somewhat shameless.

"Don't think you can negotiate with it."

Glancing at Li Ang's complex expression, the lazy youth, somewhat misunderstanding his thoughts, hurriedly spoke up to remind him:

"Right now, the reason I can hold it down is half because we planned against its lack of planning, and the other half is purely because it acted too cleverly, not even looking back once, and directly chose to flee through the gap between the Dream Realm and reality.

And while the brilliant and colorful Dream Realm is a thousand or ten thousand times easier to escape from than reality, compared to the heavy and monotonous reality, its fragility and ease of shattering are also a thousand or ten thousand times greater.

As long as we can catch the instant it tries to burrow into the gap and forcibly drag it into the ritual field that suppresses Holy Spirits, it is equivalent to borrowing the power of what truly exists to crush the false and fleeting dream, and then it is just an earthworm that can be pecked to death by chickens.

But if we really let it out, allowing it to cross this threshold, then it will still be the giant snake you saw, and could even shatter a small hill with its physical strength alone; at that point, it will be us who have to run."

"Ah, I know."

Coming to his senses, Li Ang nodded, indicating he wasn't so foolish as to listen to an enemy's pleas for mercy, and then spoke with a serious face in response:

"Senior Auntie Auntie Ai Ma said that only after an enemy has completely lost the ability to resist is the time to negotiate conditions; I don't actually want to negotiate with it, it's just... um... it's just that it feels a bit too fast..."

"Is it that I prepared too quickly, or that it lost too quickly?"

"Both a bit..."

Looking at the messy chicken coop in front of him, Li Ang couldn't help but reach out and scratch the back of his head, saying with a face full of disbelief:

"Before, I thought that even if you could deal with this Snake Spirit, it should have been an evenly matched fight, at least a few rounds of back-and-forth exchanges.

But you just broke off a piece from its statue, then crushed the snake eggs used to build the secret shrine, and with these materials randomly stuck together a chicken coop, yet you actually subdued it; this is really a bit too fast."

"Hehe, what you want to say isn't just 'fast', but also 'sloppy', right?"

"It is a bit... but although it was sloppy, the effect was absolutely impeccable; a Holy Spirit with a status close to a True God didn't even have room to fight back in front of you, which is truly amazing!"

Good taste, this kid... ahem, this future True God is actually quite easy to get along with~

Seeing the shocked expression on Li Ang's face, the lazy youth, whose itch had been scratched, couldn't help but let the corners of his mouth, which had been tight, rise slightly.

Although this person will be a bit annoying in the future, forcing him to act and help across timelines, right now he is still an honest newcomer, quick-witted and steady in handling affairs, doing whatever he is told with particularly high execution, and he speaks well too; no wonder the Director likes him so much.

"The gap between me and this Snake Spirit isn't actually that large."

Having slightly changed his opinion on the "future very annoying" Li Ang, the lazy youth coughed dryly, then waved his hand and responded:

"The kind of back-and-forth situation you mentioned is the combat style of Auntie Auntie Ai Ma and the Director; for them, it's like arm-wrestling, where the one with greater strength and better technique will definitely win, but the loser, as long as their level isn't too far off, generally won't suffer severe injuries.

But someone like me is equivalent to tripping someone up; although it doesn't guarantee finding the right spot to trip, and requires prior setup, once successful, the person who gets tripped falls directly into the trap and immediately loses the ability to resist, so the gap appears larger; actually, anyone else could do the same."

"Senior, you are being modest."

Looking at the Snake Spirit in the chicken coop, which was clearly breathing more out than in and had already lost more than half its life to the old hens, Li Ang couldn't help but shake his head and sigh from the heart:

"Tripping someone up might not be that hard to do, but how to trip someone up, and where to trip them up, and what kind of trip can take down a Holy Spirit, these are not things anyone can do; they are things only you, Senior, can accomplish."

"Oh my... I'm actually not that powerful."

The slightly dimmed right eyeball blinked slightly, using some method to detect Li Ang, and upon discovering that what he said was actually the truth, the corners of the lazy youth's mouth were simply impossible to suppress, like an AK; feeling completely comfortable from the praise, he chuckled and suggested:

"Well, actually, I think you have quite a bit of potential in this area, so how about... when you have free time, I teach you?

Although without the support of the corresponding Abnormal Object, the effect might be quite a bit worse, it is at least a life-saving skill... um... wait a moment, I need to fish out that snake, don't let the chickens actually peck it to death."

After finishing the pleasant conversation with his considerate junior, the lazy youth rubbed his shoe on the ground, destroying the ritual field he had just built, and then rescued the dying Snake Spirit from the chickens' beaks.

"Dear Snake Spirit my lord, we meet again."

Extending two fingers, he pinched the small black-and-white earthworm and shook it, then the lazy youth said with a smile:

"Come on, hand over the person.

You know the methods of our Cleanup Bureau; rather than holding onto unrealistic fantasies and struggling until you are broken into pieces, it is better to be straightforward and hand over the person, don't you agree?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, the small black-and-white snake struggled to lift its head and glared at him with hatred.

"Don't glare at me, I'm doing this for your own good."

While speaking strange lines like those of a traitorous spy interrogating someone underground, the lazy youth dipped the tip of his fingernail in some sulfur powder, lit it, and pinched the Snake Spirit's neck, while earnestly persuading:

"If you cooperate and hand over the person directly, maybe if your master is willing to pay the price, they might be able to fish you back out; and I actually quite like your Chengjin Sect's gatherings, after all, I don't have to spend money to... ahem. Anyway, we might have a chance to meet again in the future; if you refuse to cooperate and force me to use harsh methods to interrogate, then the next time we meet it will be awkward... you shouldn't be a Holy Spirit that likes awkwardness, right?"

"……"

"Right?"

"Stop! Stop pinching! Ahhhh!!!"

Listening to the faint crackle of burning sulfur, feeling the ever-heavier pressure on its neck, and the increasingly intense agony of its holy spirit body being polluted by hellish sulfur amid the flare-up and searing, the snake spirit writhed twice before finally unable to hold back its scream, then with a *wah* it spat out an emerald-green pearl.

"Hand! My hand! The person is yours! Take your hand away!"

"Alright, alright, taking it off now~"

After once again dipping a fingernail in sulfur powder and pressing a burning nail-mark onto the snake's head, thoroughly sealing off the snake spirit's ability to resist, the languid youth rummaged in his pocket, fished out a somewhat grimy transparent glass bottle, stuffed the listless snake spirit inside, then casually tossed the bottle to Hearing Li Ang.

"You… you lot shouldn't celebrate too early…"

After recovering slightly, just like countless classic villains after a car crash, its whole body already limp, with only its mouth still tough, the snake spirit struggled to prop itself up inside the glass bottle, looked at the emerald-green pearl in the languid youth's hand, and said with eyes full of resentment yet not without a hint of satisfaction:

"That woman from your Bureau has been locked inside the 【Verdant Dream】 bestowed by my god. Having died over three hundred times there, she has long since been irreversibly tainted!"

?!!!

Hearing the snake spirit's words, Hearing Li Ang's heart gave an involuntary small lurch, then he lowered his head to look at the snake spirit in the bottle and couldn't help but ask:

"What do you mean? What happened to Senior Auntie Auntie Ai Ma?"

"What I mean is, even if you take her back, it'll be useless."

The snake spirit curled up at the bottom of the glass bottle, snickering coldly:

"The 【Verdant Dream】 is a holy artifact reforged from the shattered 【Elysium】 of the God of Agriculture and Herding. It was originally an independent world in its own right. Having died several hundred times inside, her soul has become far too entangled with the Verdant Dream to ever be separated again.

The only way to get her out from inside is to sincerely believe in my god from the heart and become a faithful follower of my god, or for the slain God of Agriculture and Herding to revive once more. Otherwise, she can only wander alone forever in that emerald jungle!"

Glancing through the bottle at Hearing Li Ang's tightly furrowed brow, and catching the fury in his eyes, the snake spirit at the bottom of the bottle couldn't help but let out a laugh, then added:

"What's even better is that she still has an immortal body that can replenish its uses infinitely. That means she can't even kill herself, and can only linger in the Verdant Dream like a ghost, wandering forever and ever, until her soul is completely ground away by time!"

"Shut up."

Reaching out to pinch the air toward the snake spirit, igniting the sulfur mark on its head and making it scream repeatedly, the languid youth looked at Hearing Li Ang and reminded him:

"It's saying all this to provoke you into killing it on the spot.

We haven't left the Chengjin Sect's gathering place yet. If it's killed here, it won't even need the true god behind it to act — just its own accumulated reserves alone would be enough to buy its life back from the realm of the dead. Don't fall into its trap."

"……"

So… everything it said is true? Senior Auntie Auntie Ai Ma can never come out?

Indirectly obtaining the answer to his question from the languid youth's reaction, and recalling Senior Auntie Auntie Ai Ma's care for him, Hearing Li Ang couldn't help but sigh, then asked, clinging to his last hope:

"Senior Tom, don't your two dice raise the success rate of everything to sixty percent? So could you possibly…"

"It won't work."

Hearing this, the languid youth shook his head and said:

"My ability is to forcibly raise the success rate of 'things that might be accomplished' to around sixty percent, and it only works below the level of true gods. Beyond that, because my own rank isn't high enough, there'll be tremendous interference.

This time it's something that's almost impossible to succeed, and it also involves more than one true god — exactly the type I'm worst at handling. I'm afraid I can't be of much help."

I see…

Hearing this, Hearing Li Ang was silent for a moment, then made his request:

"Senior Tom, I can see information on anomalous objects by touching them, so could you possibly, just for now…"

"Here you go."

Before Hearing Li Ang could finish speaking, the languid youth shoved the 【Verdant Dream】 over, then offered some comfort:

"Don't be too disheartened. Right now I can't help, but in the future, if I can surpass the limit of mortals and gods and reach the Director's level, I might be able to roll out a result.

Besides, the Director might have a way too. The Headquarters has many anomalous objects with special effects — maybe one of them can rescue Auntie Auntie Ai Ma. If that really doesn't work, we could also try briefly reviving the God of Agriculture and Herding or something — who knows, maybe that would just directly… hmm?"

Watching Hearing Li Ang's tightly drawn expression instantly relax after he rubbed the 【Verdant Dream】 a little, the languid youth blinked in some surprise, then his expression shifted and he quickly asked:

"What is it? Did you discover something?"

"Mm, I did get a little something."

Looking at the trait tag marked "Sacred" after the 【Verdant Dream】's name, and then at the 【Proxy】 badge that allowed unconditional use of "Sacred" anomalous objects, Hearing Li Ang couldn't help but answer with a smile:

"I just discovered that this thing actually… Senior? What's wrong with you?"

Looking at Senior Tom, whose face had suddenly turned bluish-purple, who was clutching his own throat in agony, and making gurgling sounds in his mouth, Hearing Li Ang turned pale with shock, hurriedly took out the 【Plague-Blood Bandage】 to try to treat him, but…

"Pop~"

Accompanied by a strange sound like a bubble bursting, the bloodstained bandage in Hearing Li Ang's hand instantly vanished, transforming into a currency that glittered with a wondrous sheen, while a gentle, soft voice came from behind Hearing Li Ang.

"Don't worry, he's not injured and doesn't need your treatment."

After tossing away the grimy bandage in her hand, a woman with a delicate and pretty face stepped slowly out of the dream realm, then smiled faintly at Hearing Li Ang, who was standing in front of Tom with his whole body tensed up.

"As for why he's become like this, it's because I bought out all the air inside him in one go — even the air in his lungs that hadn't yet bonded with his blood… Also, I did pay for it."

"Wah!!!"

The moment the mysterious woman's words landed, the languid youth, who had been shielded behind Hearing Li Ang, dropped to his knees on the spot with a thud. Hundreds of small round coins eerily surged out of his mouth and nose, mingled with copious fresh red blood, and gushed forth past his fingers' feeble attempts to stop them.

Immediately after, the clothing on Senior Tom's chest shattered in an instant. Silver diamond-shaped coins with abnormally sharp edges crowded out of the skin on his chest in dense clusters, then shot out like nails fired from a gun — *pupupupu* — erupting before Li Ang's eyes into a skyful of silver-glittering blood mist.

(End of Chapter)