Chapter 48: Who Doesn

Wu Chang shook his head and said: "On the contrary, you've given me a reason to kill you."

As the mastermind behind all the arrangements, Seeing Chiyuan is clearly the hidden boss; whether to defeat him affects the completion rating.

Seeing Chiyuan's actions were ultimately driven by vengeance for loved ones; if he achieves his revenge, lays down his blade, and willingly accepts all consequences, it would undoubtedly be a perfect ending.

The exploration progress of Seeing Chiyuan's portion of the dungeon will not be affected; he won't recklessly attack just for possible loot, but will choose to complete the dungeon.

But if Seeing Chiyuan refuses to see reason and tries to kill him to hide his secrets, then he's more than happy to fight Seeing Chiyuan and see what good drops this hidden boss has.

Seeing Chiyuan formed a hand seal, causing the three beasts to lock onto Wu Chang, then declared loudly: "If that's the case, then let each of us rely on our own abilities."

Facing four opponents alone, Wu Chang, lacking offensive means, had no chance of victory.

To deal with Seeing Chiyuan, you must create enough space and pick them off one by one.

He pulled out the Four-Sided Flame Lamp; the wick flickered, the bonfire roasting the lamb leg burst open, transforming into fire snakes that surged toward Seeing Chiyuan and his three beast followers.

Seeing Chiyuan commanded the mountain goblin to block the Flame of Years; the flame, which suppressed beasts, struck the yellow glow on the goblin's skin and made no progress.

But Wu Chang never intended to gain an advantage through this ambush.

By the time the flames dissipated, he had already pulled thirty to forty meters away from Seeing Chiyuan.

"Four against one isn't much of a feat—I'll take my leave first!"

"Pursue!"

Seeing Chiyuan, seeing Wu Chang trying to flee, immediately ordered the beast to chase after him.

Wu Chang arrived at the prearranged horse hiding spot, mounted the horse, and galloped toward Huai Valley Village, watching his rear; seeing the three beasts separate from Seeing Chiyuan, he turned and fired a shot.

Seeing Chiyuan had witnessed the power of Silver Dawn; seeing Wu Chang raise his hand, he instantly leaned backward, tumbling off the black donkey, while using the motion to yank the reins, causing the donkey to rear up and become a shield before him.

"Bang!"

The bullet pierced the black donkey's body, spraying blood across Seeing Chiyuan's face.

Wu Chang muttered a regretful "too bad," then called out loudly: "Master Daoist, if you keep chasing me, next time you won't be so lucky."

Seeing the egg-sized puncture wound on the black donkey, Seeing Chiyuan felt a chill of fear; though he was a cultivator, cultivators were still flesh and blood—take one shot and you'd be dead.

"Young Master Wu's hidden weapons are indeed remarkable, but can hidden weapons harm beasts?"

Saying this, Seeing Chiyuan kept the snake beast clad in full iron armor beside him, and sent the mountain goblin and tree demon to continue pursuing Wu Chang.

This was exactly what Wu Chang wanted: first force Seeing Chiyuan to separate from the three beasts, then break them down one by one.

He circled through the mountains several times, widening the distance between the mountain goblin and tree demon and Seeing Chiyuan, confirmed that Seeing Chiyuan couldn't reach them in time, then followed the mountain path back to Huai Valley Village.

As the core of the dungeon, everything began in Huai Valley Village, and everything should end there.

Huai Valley Village, ravaged by beasts, was a mess; as far as the eye could see, the ground was covered in mosaics.

A gentleman pities the living, and cannot bear to see them die.

The villagers, alive yesterday, now lay twisted on the ground today; even knowing they were bandits of Heishan, Wu Chang still felt a pang of pity.

But only to this extent.

Everyone must answer for their own actions and bear the corresponding cost.

When they slaughtered the original villagers of Huai Valley, even desecrating their corpses by stuffing them into Hollow Mountain as material for dark rituals, using resentment to generate Qi and pray for favorable weather, every single one of them participated.

When they captured the village guardian boy in the woods, raised him like livestock, bullied and tortured him at will, and used him to absorb calamities for the village, everyone participated.

So when Seeing Chiyuan came seeking revenge, if any one of them was missing, wouldn't that be unfair? Wu Chang stood firm beside the massive bonfire of the Sui Sacrifice, watching the mountain goblin and tree demon charging toward him, and placed the two half-masks over his face.

These days, who doesn't have a summon?

Item Skill—Reflection, activated.

The space before Wu Chang twisted, and two figures appeared before him.

One was Liu Shan; the other was the Mist Demon.

Liu Shan, relying on a lifetime of practiced body techniques and claw skills, was extremely powerful; but his strength came from years of rigorous training, and his aging had reduced his physical attributes, so his actual level didn't exceed the Reflection Mask's upper limit by much.

The Mist Demon wreaked havoc in Chen Village thanks to its mysterious abilities; in terms of stats, its true strength was only Level 11.

The figures summoned by the Reflection Mask were enhanced by the skill, even slightly stronger than their originals.

Liu Shan and the Mist Demon were no slouches, but still fell short compared to the mountain goblin and tree demon.

If strength is lacking, make up for it with gear.

Wu Chang tossed the iron claws he took from Liu Shan to Liu Shan's reflection; Liu Shan's reflection caught them and skillfully slipped them onto both hands.

With his familiar weapon, Liu Shan's power increased further.

He tossed the damaged Transformation Short Sword to the Mist Demon; after the Mist Demon's body fused with the sword, it became denser, its aura strengthened by more than a little—though still inferior to the two beasts summoned by Seeing Chiyuan, it was no longer defenseless.

Without Seeing Chiyuan's control, the two pursuing beasts acted purely on instinct.

The mountain goblin, seeing Liu Shan reappear, roared and charged at him.

But before it could close in, its vision blurred, and the world around it turned hazy with mist.

The mountain goblin, thick-skinned and armored, was a tank-type, and completely countered the assassin-type Liu Shan.

Wu Chang's current Reflection summons had none capable of directly clashing with the mountain goblin; defeating it was hard, but holding it off wasn't difficult.

Just as tanks dominate assassins, control-type mages dominate clumsy tanks.

The Mist Demon summoned icy mist, engulfing the mountain goblin; the cold slowed its movements, and its fear-inducing ability, though unable to break the artifact-empowered goblin, overloaded its mental processing, slowing its reactions.

In contrast, the Mist Demon's body, capable of turning into mist at will, feared none of the mountain goblin's punches.

With the Mist Demon holding the mountain goblin back, Liu Shan launched a direct assault on the tree demon.

Compared to the mountain goblin and snake beast, the tree demon excelled in group combat.

Its hundreds of hanging branches, each like a sword, turned its body into a blade storm when surrounded by enemies—just shaking itself could mow them down.

Anyone brushed or scraped by its branches suffered minor wounds or, worse, limb separation.

The tree demon feared no crowd tactics; even when facing overwhelming numbers, it was hard for anyone to get close to its true body.

But when facing a single agile target, its attacks became ineffective.

The sword formation it unleashed by shaking its body was full of openings in front of Liu Shan, who was skilled in movement techniques and nicknamed Flying Cloud Eagle.

Standing amidst hundreds of branches, Liu Shan strolled as if taking a leisurely walk through a courtyard, easily dodging attack after attack.

At the same time, his offensive moves never stopped. Whenever a branch's swing was spent and new force had yet to gather, he would seize the moment with a steady, precise grab, easily twisting off and tearing down branches that could withstand blade and axe.

Liu Shan instantly transformed into "Teacher Tony," giving the tree demon a haircut. In just two or three minutes, he had twisted off every single branch on the tree demon's crown, not one left behind.

Wu Chang, who had been waiting on the side, now raised the silver Dawn and joined the battle.

The trunk, stripped of its attack ability, became a moving sandbag, and was quickly taken down under the two's pincer attack.

After Wu Chang struck the tree demon's core with one spear, the tree demon's body disintegrated, reverting to a wooden ritual sword broken in two.

With the tree demon dealt with, Wu Chang and Liu Shan turned to gang up on the Mountain Macaque.

Wu Chang pulled out the Soul-Purifying Command Banner and activated its suppression ability against demons, making the Mountain Macaque — already slowed by the Fog Demon — even more sluggish.

The Mountain Macaque was indeed thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, but it still couldn't withstand a gang-beating from one person and two projections.

Especially since Wu Chang and Liu Shan had thoroughly studied the combat tactics of the savanna's second brother, the hyena, and fought in the most underhanded way possible.

Poking eyes and stabbing ears would have been nothing, but their attacks specifically targeted the lower three routes.

It was always monkeys going for the peaches, yet this oversized ape, the Mountain Macaque, had two weapon-wielding men aiming for its peaches — who could stand that?

Under the siege, the Mountain Macaque's protective spiritual Qi was quickly exhausted, and its lower three routes fell.

Along with Liu Shan sinking a claw into a certain big peach and landing a fatal critical hit, the Mountain Macaque wailed as it transformed into a copper ritual bell, dropping to the ground.

The bell's clapper, shattered into several pieces, fell out broken, meaning this hand bell would be hard to ring again.

After dealing with the two demons, another three or four minutes passed before the slow-moving Snake Demon, carrying Seeing Chiyuan on its back, finally arrived at the scene.

Before Seeing Chiyuan could even open his mouth, he saw Wu Chang raising the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp.

During the time Seeing Chiyuan was on his way, Wu Chang had buried the broken branches and shattered sword from the tree demon — twisted off by Liu Shan — into the bonfire.

Wood feeds fire. With the tree demon's wood-attribute power aiding it, the Year-Watching Bonfire blazed sky-high, looking like a pillar of fire reaching the heavens.

Using the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp as a guide to connect with the Year-Banishing Grand Array, the heaven-reaching pillar of fire transformed into a fire dragon, charging straight at Seeing Chiyuan.

Seeing Chiyuan leaped away, but the Iron-Armored Snake Demon beneath his feet couldn't escape in time.

Fire overcomes metal.

Under the scorching of the massive Year-Fire, the iron armor on the Snake Demon's surface instantly melted into molten iron. Stripped of its armor, the Snake Demon thrashed about in the Year-Fire like a leech sprinkled with salt.

The Snake Demon didn't last more than a few breaths before reverting to an iron mirror, melting into molten iron within the sea of fire, leaving not even a remnant behind — a clean, thorough death.

Liu Shan stood to Wu Chang's left, the Fog Demon floated to his right, and he pointed the silver Dawn at Seeing Chiyuan.

Having endured the villains' evil many-against-one, it was now the protagonist's turn to deliver a righteous gang-beating.

(End of this chapter)