Chapter 388: The Perilous Long Ze: The Only Safe Point and Its Counterplay

The fact was indeed so, Di Xing.

【You have died under the claws of an Iron Owl Eagle...】

Staring at the crimson prompt in agony, Wei Ziqi could not accept the reality and wanted nothing more than to roar at the heavens, but feeling the death penalty already descending upon him, he realized he might not even have the strength to let out an angry shout.

Joy turned to sorrow — there was no greater misfortune in life than this.

Just a moment ago he had only just received a quest with rich special rewards, and now the very next moment he would be unable to enter because of the death penalty.

Two whole days — for the next two days he would not be able to enter the game.

He hoped that when he revived, this quest would still be there, with no time limit.

Otherwise he might soon become one of the classic examples of unlucky players in the game "Beyond" — and this was the mechanism that left players most speechless in the realism-focused game "Beyond."

When a game character died, not only would one feel a headache and total weakness throughout the body, one would also be restricted from entering the game to explore for two days.

"Damned yaobeast, ahhhh!"

At this moment, Wei Ziqi hated eagle-type yaobeasts like never before; he swore that once he grew stronger, he would absolutely kill every single bird he saw!

At this time, Wei Ziqi was still raging about the eagle yaobeast that had attacked him, completely unaware that the true culprit behind this scene had already begun quietly studying the corpse of the character he had been exploring in another world.

The corpse, which had already been torn in two under the Iron Owl Eagle's claws, under Baichuan's dissection was reduced in less than a moment to a pile of vividly distinct organs, even sheet-like flesh and blood — moreover, those organs and flesh were so detailed down to every cellular level that they were all tinged with the power of Baichuan's Light Point.

And this, at last, allowed him to discover a few differences.

But it was still not enough — he needed more player corpses and a comparison with the corpses of humans from this world.

Moreover, during this process, collecting player corpses absolutely could not be done by his own hands.

Otherwise, with so many players dying, if the enemy-death prompt messages were all more or less the same, it would easily expose him.

That would be rather ugly.

This point was not really a problem — he had just happened to find a perfect scapegoat that no one would suspect.

"Time to act..."

From within the corpse, Baichuan slowly rose to his feet, gazing at the sky and murmuring to himself.

Of course, before that, he still needed to leave a mark to keep watch over this place.

He wanted to confirm whether, after those players died and descended again, they revived at the place of death, or whether there truly existed something like a newbie village.

One month later.

Long Gu Keng — that is, the former Long Ze Zhi Di, the place where the Dragon King's bones lay bleached after its death.

In the past, this should have been a desolate land rarely visited by anyone, home only to Yao Zhai, but now it began to show signs of abundant life activity.

Large numbers of simple marketplaces and Yao Zhai sprang up one after another like bamboo shoots after rain.

All sorts of folk — orthodox sects, demonic cults, evil cultivators — were everywhere.

They had all heard the news that an unprecedented great battle had just erupted at the former Long Ze Zhi Di, and came hoping to scavenge some leftovers.

Moreover, even if they couldn't scavenge anything, on a battlefield where so many lives had once perished, there would surely be the spirit remnants and yaobeast bone resources they desired.

Among them, especially the bleached "dragon bone" of the Long Ze Dragon King, stretching nearly ten thousand meters — if anyone could refine it, that would absolutely be a matter of ascending to the heavens in a single step.

After all, that Zhupolong was a Demon King above Huashen, second only to the pinnacle of this world — the Immortal!

Originally, this was an internal matter of the yao's Yao Huang Da Di, and the human race had no business intruding — but they could not withstand the temptation, for the remains of such a powerful being, along with the vast treasures from its lifetime, had drawn the attention of many powerful figures.

Faced with this, confronted by countless colossal forces, even the other three Kings of the Yao Huang Da Di had no choice but to yield. Moreover, facing one who had so easily slain one of their four Kings, not even allowing it to escape, the other three Kings, already uneasy, also recalled a certain matter.

"However, it is precisely in such a place that a strange event has occurred!"

"Brothers, do you know?"

On a small path, a young man dressed in a somewhat strange style cupped his hand to his mouth and whispered mysteriously to himself — if anyone were present, they would surely suspect he had some sort of mental problem.

But in truth it was not so; the young man before them was a player, and moreover a game streamer — one of the streamers who had entered the game "Beyond" right from its very earliest stage!

He was also one of the famously renowned "big shots" of this game.

Because of the game's special nature, not everyone could obtain a slot to truly enter the game and pioneer it, so this kind of game streamer was extremely popular — and the young man before them was a leading figure among them.

【Strange event? Hiss, Lao Zhao, you didn't go to that place, did you?!】

【If it's that one, it's a bit terrifying.】

【Floor above, what are you talking about? Why can't I understand?】

【Hey, floor above, haven't you been following the forum news lately? If Lao Zhao really went to that place, then there's going to be a good show next!】

【Giving newcomers one keyword: "Long Ze Da Keng."】

In an instant, as the young man spoke, on the interface visible only to himself, a flood of bullet comments scrolled past one after another.

Hearing this, the young man — playfully nicknamed Lao Zhao by many players — nodded inwardly with satisfaction, then coughed a few times and explained, "Just as that netizen said, Long Ze Da Keng — you should have been following that big incident, right? The Demon King Dragon King of Long Ze was actually killed by a mysterious NPC that players had been searching for a long time, and died a miserable death in its own lair."

"Because of this, countless forces within 'Duan Yu' swarmed in like sharks scenting blood, each wanting to obtain the Demon King's secret treasures and vast wealth..."

"Think about it — that's a super Demon King above Huashen. If such a being let even a little benefit slip from its fingertips, it would be enough to make us countless times stronger; easily surpassing those veteran players who had gone through two worlds would not be a dream — after all, this world is far more powerful than the previous one."

"However, precisely because of this, whether because such a being was simply too powerful, or because even in death it could not simply perish like an ordinary person with no aftermath — after countless forces stepped into the vicinity of this Long Gu Keng, strange things began to happen!"

At the end, the young man deliberately darkened his face, and a flickering, sinister phantom visage appeared — that was a power he had once obtained in the second world, meant to scare the netizens behind the livestream.

【Damn! Streamer, what are you doing?! Talk if you're going to talk, why scare me?! My phone screen just cracked.】

【Exactly, I was just listening, totally absorbed, leaning in closer to look, and then you pull this? Unsubscribed!】

【What strange thing? Hurry up and tell us, you're driving me crazy!】

"Ahem, let's continue. Legend has it that as soon as one enters that area, when night falls, a faint calling voice always appears — and anyone who answers it will instantly lose their soul and their life."

"And that's only one part of it; the strange events are far from limited to that. Since that day, in the wilderness of this area, all kinds of animals and plants have undergone mutations and become very bizarre — there are ordinary fruits with no Spirit Qi fluctuation whatsoever that will make you stronger if eaten, and there are fruits that will drive you mad and attack those around you if eaten."

"There are also situations where plants and vines quietly creep up behind you when you're not paying attention, as if everything in this place had been struck by the dying curse of that Demon King. What's more, some say they have seen the Demon King's ghostly shadow appear — the resentful spirit of the Demon King that has not truly died, attacking everything here in an attempt to revive."

"In short, all sorts of strange things happen here..."

Recalling the intelligence he had obtained through a transaction with a certain Golden Core cultivator, the young man rattled on fluently with this information, completely unaware that at the moment he mentioned "vines creeping up behind you," the bullet comments had suddenly paused and then flooded the screen in unified shock.

"Mm, what's up with everyone?" The young man, who would subconsciously glance at the chat after every few sentences out of habit or perhaps instinct, suddenly noticed something unusual — the normally varied-length comments across the entire interface had all begun scrolling in unison.

He leaned over with some confusion to take a look, and in that instant his entire body went rigid, his pupils dilating uncontrollably, because the unified chat read: 【Streamer, be careful! Behind you!】

"Knock knock!"

At the same moment, a sensation of a gentle little hand lightly patting his shoulder arose, like a shy greeting from some infatuated maiden.

But the image conveyed by the young man's peripheral vision was a vine as smooth as jade…

The next instant, his gaze sharpened abruptly. As he lunged forward, pitch-black wings burst forth from his body along with his spinning turn — a power from the previous yokai world — and then he kicked hard to halt his retreating body. Leveraging that burst of force, he gripped a long blade formed from invisible power and slashed out in a single breath.

A blade-light like a full moon traced a half-circle, slashing toward that vine.

Skill 【Full Moon Slash】!

One of the top-tier ultimate techniques from the first bladed-weapon world.

As a veteran player who had been through two worlds, the power contained within this slash was by no means weak.

Even a true Nascent Soul cultivator would gain no advantage against it.

"Clang!"

The sound of metal striking metal rang out.

The young man was shocked — he had never expected that fragile vine could block his blade. He had just thought to continue acting, but there was no time left.

A great number of vines had already silently spread during his conversation with the netizens.

At this moment, facing the young man's sudden eruption, the vines that had sensed it no longer hid, transforming into an incomparably dense vine net that swept over to envelop him…

Evening — the glowing red fireball was about to fall below the horizon, and the exaggerated shadow behind him, like a massive man-devouring monster, kept drawing closer.

"Everyone, mission accomplished — we've finally arri- arrived at the only safe point — the Jiaoyisuo."

The young man, his entire body in a sorry state and his clothes severely damaged, finally caught sight of the small village fortress standing immovable like a great mountain in the distance, and said with a smile toward the void.

This was none other than the famous streamer of the game "Transcendent" who had previously encountered the strange vine attack — the young man known as Lao Zhao.

One could only say a veteran player is indeed a veteran player; the precious life-saving items in his hands were countless, and even after encountering what could be called a death-trap ambush, he still managed to escape alive.

【Huh? Safe point? Lao Zhao, you haven't been scammed, have you? Where did a safe point come from in "Transcendent"? Isn't everything randomly descended and randomly dead?】

【Exactly, Lao Zhao you better be careful. Just how many crises you've run into along the way, we've all seen with our own eyes. Truly worthy of being Long Ze Da Keng — it really is a "pit"!】

【The streamer is just too badass. With this many dangers, if it were me I'd have kicked the bucket long ago.】

The young man caught his breath a few times, saw the netizens' comments, and only then explained as he walked: "Folks, this 'safe point' is not the 'safe point' you're thinking of. It's a trading point established by a mysterious NPC inside "Duan Yu" who felt that us ordinary cultivators were having it too rough."

"That mysterious black-robed existence used his own power to forcibly establish this shelter within this Long Gu Keng. Any cultivator who enters here can receive his protection — no fighting is allowed within the Jiaoyisuo. In other words, as long as we players make it here, we don't have to live in fear like before, terrified that we'll wake up and find our game characters gone."

【Whoa, for real? This mysterious black-robed NPC is that badass? Streamer, why don't you hurry up and get familiar, try to trigger a quest!】

【I'm crying. I've played this game so long and this is the first time I've met an NPC so good to us players. This mysterious black-robed existence is definitely a super kind cultivator!】

【Hahaha, indeed indeed, this overly hardcore game really isn't easy at all.】

"Alright, I might not be able to talk with everyone for a while. If I act too strangely I'm afraid the guards at the gate will kick me out. In a place like this, if I can't get in, there's no surviving the night."

Saying so, Lao Zhao glanced back at the terrifying pitch-black swamp rainforest behind him.

Then he stopped talking to himself. Along with the growing number of cultivators drawn by reputation, he entered the village fortress under the guards' tally, and following the netizens' suggestions, went to meet that mysterious and "benevolent" black-robed existence.

Of course, if they knew that all of this was the doing of the very "kind" black-robed NPC right before their eyes, one wondered what they would think.

Late at night, in a quiet little cabin.

Lao Zhao was peacefully lying in this "safe zone" fast asleep, and his consciousness had also gone offline to rest for a bit.

Because he had been playing for a full three days and three nights, and his real-world body needed the nutrition chamber supplies replaced.

However, he did not know that from the moment he entered this cabin to rest, until his consciousness went offline, throughout the entire process a figure shrouded in a black robe had been watching from a certain direction.

And it wasn't just him — all the players, even the cultivators, were being observed by a pair of invisible eyes. An invisible dream silently enveloped the entire village fortress in this quiet night.

"Soon, soon… it won't be long before exactly how the players go offline, where they go, will be completely revealed before my eyes…"

In the darkness, Baichuan, who was watching everything, murmured softly thus.

Shortly after, he turned and flashed away, arriving at a wilderness spot.

A great number of varied corpses had gathered here — all the bodies of living beings killed in attacks from a certain small region within the entire Long Gu Keng, including cultivators from the native world and the dead player characters…

As if sensing Baichuan's arrival.

In the darkness, pairs of eyes like ghostly fires lit up…

……

(End of chapter)