Chapter 234: I Say It

"Fuck, hurry up!"

The research maniac burst out of the respawn point and sprinted toward the city gate; NPC screams rose and fell in succession. Even though, by design, this frontline fortress had few ordinary civilians, the sheer number of functional NPCs running rampant through the streets was genuinely irritating.

Fortunately, the research maniac had long understood that Talismans and Spells—inevitable drops—were unreliable, and he kept an extra set in his inventory; he immediately pulled one out, and with a thought, his body transformed into a whirlwind.

This game had no death timer; the research maniac had mastered multiple "Talisman Magic" acceleration techniques, switching between lightning and wind, and in barely ten seconds, he was back before the city wall—yet the boss he'd imagined demolishing the city had not appeared. Quite the opposite: countless demons, monsters, and devil-men stood silently outside the gate, as if lined up in formation, not a single unnecessary movement among them.

Meanwhile, the boss who had just tanked the Angel's Descent was now picking up the players' dropped Talismans and Spells with a strangely awkward motion.

He inserted each Talisman and Spell into grooves along his belt; with every insertion, his form subtly shifted.

The grotesque armor slowly retracted into his body; the twisted, bio-horror-like muscles smoothed out.

The coral-like spines began crumbling piece by piece, as if eroded by time; the forked dual tail gradually retracted into his body.

The two horns on his head, previously arranged front-to-back like a rhinoceros', vanished entirely, replaced by antlers branching like tree limbs, extending from either side of his skull.

No—those were dragon horns!

As he inserted the final Talisman and Spell, depicting the yang portion of the yin-yang fish, the boss—whose head still resembled a dragon, but whose entire body was now indistinguishable from a human's, even clad in a black Daoist robe—let out a double-layered, echoing laugh—

"My power… has all returned!"

Vast magical energy erupted outward. Though players saw no visual representation of pure energy, they could distinctly feel the terrifying pressure radiating from the Demon Dragon's body; air currents reversed, clouds dispersed. No thunder, no fire—the Demon Dragon simply stood there, doing nothing, yet evoking an overwhelming sense of trembling in all who watched.

"Damn it, I'm actually scared? I'm scared playing a stupid game!" The research maniac couldn't understand his own emotions. Sure, this boss radiated overwhelming pressure, but countless bosses in gaming history had done the same—players feared the agony of failing to defeat them, not the bosses themselves.

Yet right now, he clearly understood: he was afraid. He didn't even dare close the distance by another step, only watching as the boss laughed maniacally.

Then, the power coalesced.

Perhaps due to accumulated experience from using Talismans and Spells recently, the research maniac now seemed able to sense the sensation of "energy flow." Though invisible, he vaguely perceived that the boss's "magic," previously chaotic and erupting, was now becoming orderly—like…

"Like how we use Talismans and Spells to cast spells!"

The research maniac widened his eyes and instantly activated screen recording. He had no power to stop it, nor did he intend to—he wanted to record this moment, then attempt to replicate the boss's spell!

Yes, the siege had failed—so what? From here to the royal capital, excluding parallel cities, there were still seven or eight more. Losing one top-tier canned quest mattered little to him, already max level. Far more important was developing new gameplay.

He even suspected the boss could've had the demons tear down the city—but deliberately took time to charge a big attack—perhaps the game company had designed it just for players to watch.

But the research maniac's thoughts didn't reflect everyone's. While he recorded, an assassin player used Shadow Step to dart straight to Feng Xue's side, raised his dagger, and launched his assassin's strongest interrupt skill—

Club!

"Thud!"

As the research maniac cursed inwardly, wondering whether the assassin would restart his cast or, in more realistic rage, order the city torn down, the assassin's swinging arm suddenly exploded—then the entire man was flung skyward as if he'd stepped on a mine. Watching his charred body dissolve into light, many players swallowed hard.

"That's enough!"

Feng Xue saw nearly a hundred respawned players returning; he no longer delayed. Forcing his qi to its limit, he converted all remaining reserves from over twenty sets of fully charged Five Element Jade into magical power.

Players had zero control over magical power—precisely because of this, they became Feng Xue's perfect "spell proxies," demonstrating how to construct combat-effective spells despite abysmal control.

Now, having gathered these experiences, Feng Xue forged them into a ritual, recompiled them, combined them with countless possibilities exhaustively enumerated by Xiao Lingdang, and fused them with his own knowledge of orthodox and unorthodox doctrines—finally completing the spell he now cast.

Honestly, he didn't know what effect this strike would produce—but that didn't stop him from wanting to try.

The Ghoul Mask of King Ghidorah covered his face; golden-red Lei Guang danced across his body. The Lei Guang known as Gravitational Ray focused in his palm—a thunderball infused with King Ghidorah's "Destroyer" divine mandate, pulsing and swelling. Xiao Lingdang silently linked a dozen devices from the previous civilization, supplying him with computational power.

Seeing Mo Ying, at this moment, exerted only a faint aura of spectral oppression to instill fear in the players; all his strength was focused on Feng Xue. Threads of magical power were reweaved through Talisman and Spell units, Yin Thunder and Yang Thunder cycling in the form of Yin-Yang. Feng Xue didn't know the orthodox Five Thunder Method's true form—but the thunder technique in his palm, grounded in Earth, containing the Gold-Fire of the Crimson Palace and the Water-Wood of the Water Organ, was his own Five Thunder Method! (Note ①)

But even Xiao Lingdang's computational power had no way to launch this thing—or rather, this thunder technique was never meant to be thrown… it was…

"Spirit Ghost Transport!"

The Four Great Actions of Spellcraft—【Transfer】—activated. Mo Ying, now saturated with magical power, vanished with a squeal audible only to Feng Xue. Less than a breath later, Mo Ying returned to Feng Xue's body—and the pulsing golden-red thunderball was gone.

"Where did you throw it?" Feng Xue immediately asked via mental link, seeing Mo Ying return so fast. Mo Ying, still shaken, retorted firmly—

"I don't know. Threw it randomly. What if it exploded?"

This exchange occurred in the span of a thought. As the real-world moment—less than a second—passed, the sound vanished!

(End of Chapter)