Chapter 296: Cotton

The estate guard—or rather, the whip-wielding, revolver-toting white cowboy—fixed a sharp, unblinking stare on the dark-skinned godspawn, his right hand swaying almost imperceptibly, making the long whip shiver like a rattlesnake.

The Formless Embryo noticed him too, suddenly lashing out a shadow tentacle that coiled around the estate guard's neck.

A simple motion, as if flipping some switch.

The cowboy phantom, who theoretically should not possess high-level intelligence, had an expression of uncontrollable fury surface on his face; his right hand jerked sharply at the wrist, and a cold whip cracked across the Formless Embryo's body.

This whip was braided from nine strands of hemp rope, slightly thicker than a thumb; under the estate guard's lash, its tip exceeded the speed of sound, producing a crisp, loud sonic boom.

Crack!

Just as the skill description stated, the estate guard's attack would not inflict actual damage—the Formless Embryo's body showed no wounds.

All the force of the flogging was converted into pure agony, applied one hundred percent to the Formless Embryo's soul.

!!!

The godspawn's hundreds upon thousands of eyes widened at once, and every player still conscious in the room seemed to hear a piercing, soundless shriek.

The air temperature plummeted once more, dropping instantly to sixty or seventy below zero. Some of the temperature-measuring instruments froze and broke.

The tentacle the Formless Embryo had extended tightened desperately around the estate guard's neck, causing streaks of light to flare across the latter's body.

In Li Cheng's information-integration goggles' view, this was the godspawn activating a Law power, attempting to turn the tables and kill the estate guard.

Who would have thought that this neck-choking resistance not only failed to cleanly finish off the white cowboy phantom, but instead made the latter's eyes bulge with fury; he decisively abandoned the hemp-rope whip, reached behind his back, and pulled out a longer, thicker, sturdier braided bullhide whip.

The bullhide long whip was as thick as two thumbs and slathered in oil.

The estate guard cursed soundlessly while his right hand wildly swung the whip, leaving afterimages, lashing the Formless Embryo's body with solid, meaty strikes.

The speed and frequency were so high that the frozen conference room seemed to ring with the dense crackle of firecrackers.

Damn, six lashes a second!

The estate guard, even as his own form became mottled and crumbling, wildly whipped the long lash, flogging the Formless Embryo with all his might.

In a daze, Li Cheng seemed to hear a low, husky voice singing "you gotta move" in his ears.

Facing an incorporeal foe that could not be killed or broken, yet could still lock onto itself, the imposing godspawn moved for the first time—

the eyes across its body closed one after another, it stirred its arm-foot tentacles, phased through the ceiling, and fled upward.

But the estate guard himself was also an intangible, formless phantom; without a moment's hesitation, he likewise phased through the ceiling, continuing his six-lashes-a-second pursuit.

One fleeing, one chasing, they vanished in the blink of an eye.

After roughly half a minute, the shadow tentacles still lingering around everyone's necks in the office all snapped at once and vanished into nothing.

Gone along with them was that suffocating, life-or-death tension.

"That was close, that was close."

Bai Jixiong, modeled after a troll chieftain, was the first to scramble up from the floor, hurriedly patting his own body to check whether any parts were missing.

Fu Ding Hualong, shivering, used his hands to thaw out his brush that had frozen rock-hard, sketched out several high-powered heaters, and blasted hot air to drive away the cold. "Phew—Mr. Pi Fu, what was that just now…"

Li Cheng said casually, "Oh, I just summoned a plantation-owner spirit with racial-discrimination tendencies. Toward any dark-skinned creature—

as well as male high schoolers, female ghosts, Nurgle, and rice cakes—it has attack bonuses,

so I drove the godspawn off and sent it to grow cotton."

"…"

The crowd exchanged glances, none of them believing it.

What kind of joke was that? That was a godspawn, a bona fide mythological creature. Forget this bunch here—even a transcendent above Lv30, without targeted countermeasures, would die on the spot.

"The priority right now is to get out of here."

Li Cheng couldn't be bothered to explain. He stepped forward, unzipped the electric blanket, and there was Hui Yu curled up inside it, watching short videos with both ears deaf to the outside world.

"At the end of 1928, Zhang Xueliang announced the Northeast Flag Change, and the Republic of Government formally unified the whole country…"

A female voice-over came from the phone, and Li Cheng gave a small nod. Not bad—at a time like this she's still studying history.

"History books always say the Republic of China was chaotic, but I say you don't understand the Republic of China. The glitzy foreign concessions, romance and glamour—the Republic of China meant heart-stirring love, every girl could meet her own military young master. What a pity, we can't go back."

???

This lifetime really has everything.

Li Cheng's face darkened, and he flicked Hui Yu lightly on the forehead. "Let's go."

The skill description clearly stated that the estate guard's flogging would not inflict any actual damage beyond pain, and could not kill the Formless Embryo at all.

The current situation looked more like the godspawn had been hurt and fled far away, and could come back for revenge at any moment.

If not now, when?

Seeing Li Cheng go to the next room to notify Xue Luomeng and the others to quickly slip away, the players still hesitated briefly, then followed suit one after another.

The group streamed out of the building in a grand procession, summoned armored transport vehicles, and headed north.

Because they had cooperated before and had a foundation of trust, Zhao Zijing pulled Fu Ding Hualong along and got into the armored vehicle Li Cheng was driving, and along the way learned the detailed intel on the Formless Embryo from him.

"…So the Formless Embryo ran from the Killing Ground to another world?"

Fu Ding Hualong rubbed his head, troubled. "That doesn't make sense. Teleporting to another world is a privilege only players have; the data never said the Formless Embryo has that ability."

Bai Jixiong thought for a moment. "Could it be that the Formless Embryo once killed a player, gained player qualifications, and was selected to take part in the mission?"

Zhao Zijing shook her head. "That wouldn't be the case. Godspawn are different from ordinary living things—even if they kill a player, they don't inherit the qualifications."

Hmm?

Li Cheng, sitting in the driver's seat, heard this and his heart stirred; this was the first time he had learned of such a setting.

"Generally speaking, after a player is killed, whoever kills them—a person, animal, ghost, or even a native of another world—can inherit their qualifications. There are only two exceptions: one is the Killing Ground's security guards, and the other is godspawn."

Zhao Zijing said, "Precisely because of this trait, the GOC lists godspawn alongside security guards, identifying them as native species of the Killing Ground."

"Is that so…"

Hui Yu scratched her cheek. "Then isn't that a raw deal for godspawn? After all, player qualifications seem pretty valuable."

At these words, Fu Ding Hualong, Zhao Zijing, and Bai Jixiong all looked at her.

"This matter's a bit complicated."

Zhao Zijing chose her words carefully. "For most people, being a Player really is the key that pushes open the door to the Transcendent World, the foundation on which one takes a stand in these chaotic times, the chance to change one's fate.

"But at the same time, being a Player also means not knowing if you'll live to see tomorrow, means enormous risk, means you could die at any moment, anywhere — and in ways worse than death itself.

"The battlefield is like a besieged city — those inside want to get out, those outside want to get in."

"Oh oh! I know that line," Grey Rain's eyes lit up. "Matt Damon's *The Great Wall*, right!"

Li Cheng nearly lost his grip on the steering wheel. "It's Qian Zhongshu's *Fortress Besieged*."

"Isn't Qian Zhongshu the one who directed the TV series *Detective Di Ninja Realm*?"

"That's Qian Yanqiu."

"Isn't Qian Yanqiu the American actor who was in *G. I. Joe*?"

"That's Channing Tatum."

"Isn't Tatum a hero in League of Legends?"

"That's Tahm."

Listening to the two of them chatting on and off, Master Pi Fu, Hua Long, and the others wore strange expressions.

Unlike Master Pi Fu's feigned cluelessness, this Grey Rain — suspected to be a demon pet — appeared to be genuinely clueless.