Chapter 176

Faced with the taunts of the Earth Nian bully, players already struggling in battle snapped mentally.

These gestures had originally been used by them to mock the Earth Nian bully, yet they never expected the Earth Nian bully would now use them against themselves.

Gazing at the distant horizon where the black tide shifted back and forth, flipping between thumbs-up and middle fingers, players mentally pictured the Earth Nian bully hiding in the shadows, sneering wickedly.

"Brothers, ignore the bully, focus your output."

At this moment, the God-King spoke, attempting to reorganize forces against the Lord.

As the Diao Ling Yin marks continuously stacked, visible dark-purple spiritual patterns emerged on the Lord's body.

The rate of HP loss also accelerated steadily.

Seeing the players no longer paid attention to him, the Earth Nian bully shaped the black tide into a giant megaphone and activated its mockery mode:

"Oh? Isn't this the Player Clan? Giving the monster a pedicure?"

"When did the Player Clan start offering tickle services to outsiders? Looks kinda interesting—when can I get a session too?"

"My low-grade evil spirit's tickling skill is stronger than your DPS—did you dump all your skill points into the spacebar? Are you even capable? Need me to shout 'Dad!' and come help?"

"Stop fighting, stop fighting—I'm afraid the monster's gonna fall asleep."

Faced with the Earth Nian bully's added provocation and kicking them while down, players erupted in furious curses over voice chat.

At this moment, the players' predicament mirrored exactly the Earth Nian bully's own breakdown moments when helpless.

The players, already in Xian Ru Kun Jing, completely broke down—but the Earth Nian bully showed no intention of leaving, continuing its antics at the horizon's edge.

The intent was obvious: prevent the players from successfully defeating the Lord.

In the Earth Nian bully's eyes, whether the Lord died at the players' hands meant nothing—it cared only about how to make the players suffer.

Such a rare opportunity must be seized.

When the players were unhappy, it was happy.

…

Realizing their side would inevitably lose, the God-King of the player squad issued a decisive new order:

"Brothers controlling Shu Yan Warriors, retreat—do your best to preserve the Shu Yan Warriors. All other players, create space for their retreat."

Under inevitable defeat, preserving the Shu Yan Warriors' lives became the top priority.

Players who controlled Shu Yan Warriors acted decisively, commanding the Shu Yan Warriors that had charged the Lord to retreat swiftly, while other players surged forward in a death charge against the Lord to buy time.

The boss-pushing operation had already been declared a failure at this point.

In truth, even without the Earth Nian bully's mental interference, victory was impossible.

Diao Ling Yin was a god-tier boss-killing technique, but it required time to stack layers—yet every attack from the Lord wiped out waves of players, leaving no one a match.

The speed of mark stacking plummeted as player deaths mounted.

Sensing the annoying pests trying to flee, the enraged Lord activated its ability.

It drew a deep breath, then threw its head back and roared—a sound like rolling thunder—its skin glazing over with a layer of earthy yellow substance.

The earth trembled; the Lord's feet rooted firmly into the ground, cracks spreading outward in all directions, tearing apart the soil and hurling rocks into the air.

Hot magma spewed intermittently from the subterranean fissures, engulfing the area in flames—some players were swallowed by the cracks, others buried under molten rock.

Players activated their analysis scans—the Lord's name now bore the prefix "Crack Earth."

At this moment, the Lord's form changed again.

Its skin turned back to deep blue, and a phantom ice-crystal Wang Guan appeared above its head.

A chilling aura instantly spread; the air around it crystallized into ice flakes, drifting down in a gentle snowfall.

A vast ice plain rapidly formed centered on the Lord, covering the grass and soil beneath a thick layer of ice.

Howling winds swept through, temperatures plummeted, and ice spikes erupted from the ground, piercing unsuspecting players—within moments, a frozen wasteland of ice spikes stood in place.

The Lord's name changed again, now "Ice Plain Lord."

At this moment, the Lord's gaze swept toward a Shu Yan Warrior that had fled far away—its skin changed once more, encircled by visible white air currents.

Instantly, dark clouds filled the sky, gales howled, and a vortex swept outward from the Lord, uprooting trees and sending boulders rolling in all directions.

A tornado rapidly formed at the targeted location.

It sucked in the fleeing Shu Yan Warrior—and within mere breaths, the spinning blade-storm reduced both the Shu Yan Warrior and the player riding it to dust.

The Lord's skin turned green, shifting into the "Forest Lord" form, its icy gaze sweeping over the remaining players who had launched the death charge.

A soft green light radiated from its body; instantly, dense vegetation surged from the earth—thick trees erupted upward, branches intertwining into a green ocean, vines like tentacles wrapping around the remaining players and dragging them into the green abyss to be crushed.

The Lord, whose physical strength was nearly invincible, now displayed its power—and the players had no means to resist.

At this point, eight custom Shu Yan Warriors had been lost, nearly all squad players were dead, leaving only the God-King at the rear and a few nearby administrators still alive.

The God-King, also entangled in vegetation and with his HP nearly depleted, issued his final command to a player from the guild who had already retreated far away.

Watching the Player Clan's army being obliterated by the Lord, the Earth Nian bully atop Gao Ta grinned broadly, manipulating the black tide to flip its inverted thumb into an upright one, giving the Lord a thumbs-up.

Just as the Earth Nian bully prepared to command the black tide to depart, the Lord suddenly turned and stared at the churning black tide.

More precisely—it stared at a Shu Yan Warrior carrying a player toward the black tide.

This was the God-King's final order: a player from the guild who controlled a Shu Yan Warrior was to turn back and carry a player toward the black tide.

While running, the Shu Yan Warrior drew its bow and fired—an arrow struck the Lord's forehead with perfect precision.

Boom.

The Lord's head tilted slightly upward, its fury intensifying.

Enraged, the Lord charged forward like Kuafu chasing the moon, shaking the earth with every step, barreling straight toward the black tide with ferocious intent.

"What the fuck?!"

Realizing the dying player intended to divert the calamity eastward, the Earth Nian spirit instantly manipulated the black tide to intercept.

But it was meaningless—the player had already prepared to sacrifice himself, charging straight into the black tide without hesitation.

The Lord, following closely, unleashed a ferocious assault upon the black tide.

Facing a fight with no escape, the Di Nian bully appeared infinitely calm, manipulating the Hei Chao Xie Sui energy to retreat continuously while Death Calamity and Wild Tide faction troops spawned like dumplings.

Though the Lord was strong, it did not place it in its eyes.

The terrifying aspect of players lies in the fact that killing Xie Sui causes no backlash; every death of a Xie Sui is a loss.

But this formidable monster obviously lacked this ability.

Since it attacked voluntarily, then kill it!

The Hei Chao Xie Sui transformed into surging giant waves, pressing down fiercely upon the Lord.

Wherever it went, all life was swallowed; Xie Sui of various forms emerged from the Hei Chao Xie Sui like evil ghosts, brandishing claws and teeth, and pounced on the Lord.

In Forest Lord mode, the Lord's thought caused the forest to spread in an instant.

But all greenery along the way was crazily gnawed upon upon contact with the Hei Chao Xie Sui, instead providing nourishment to the Hei Chao Xie Sui.

The Lord obviously realized this point, and the color on its body changed again.

A layer of hard scales appeared on its body, shimmering with a cold metallic luster, like an indestructible suit of armor.

On its massive head, a pair of blood-red eyes burned like flames, revealing endless majesty and dominance.

It waved its thick, powerful arms, and a massive battle axe appeared in its hands, with mysterious runes flowing across the axe.

As the Hei Chao Xie Sui approached, the Lord, switched to War Mode, let out a roar that shook heaven and earth, as if it intended to shatter all the attacking darkness.

The battle axe was raised high at this moment, then suddenly chopped down.

A huge crimson light blade flew from the battle axe, like a meteor streaking across the night sky, charging straight at the Hei Chao Xie Sui; where the light blade passed, the Hei Chao Xie Sui were all cut in half, turning into black smoke and reintegrating into the Hei Chao Xie Sui.

Facing the Lord's frenzied offensive, the Di Nian Xie Ling appeared infinitely calm.

He lowered the Xie Sui level to the Third Palace, spawning a vast area of Plague faction and Curse faction troops to pounce on the Lord.

After a brief contact, he realized that ordinary Xie Sui could not break the Lord's formidable physical defense; pure damage-type Xie Sui offered no help to the battle.

To combat such powerful creatures, the Curse faction and Plague faction were the main force, wearing them down by stacking negative status effects.

The Di Nian Xie Ling's tactics were identical to those of the God King.

Both sought to drag the Lord to death by stacking special effect damage.

The difference was that in the Di Nian Xie Ling's eyes, as long as it was safe, the Hei Chao Xie Sui under its control had no opponent it could not defeat.

Facing the Lord, it did not even need to use the backlash tactic; the dead Xie Sui would automatically integrate into the Hei Chao Xie Sui, and it had ample time and ability to drag the Lord to death alive.

Under its control, the low-level Xie Sui spawned within the Hei Chao Xie Sui pounced on the Lord even more crazily.

Yet the Lord obviously did not realize this problem; its mountain-sized massive body turned within the Hei Chao Xie Sui, the crimson battle axe waving continuously, and every swing harvested rows of Xie Sui.

However, the number of Hei Chao Xie Sui was truly too great; they came one after another, completely surrounding the Lord.

The "Ants Eating an Elephant" tactic was enacted.

The Di Nian Xie Ling, possessing a perfect troop library, could utilize far more special effect flow abilities than players mastered.

The troop library contained special troops specifically designed to deal with single powerful targets.

The Lord, now Xian Ru Kun Jing, suddenly plunged the battle axe into the ground; a powerful energy erupted from its body, forming a massive energy field centered on itself; the Xie Sui within the energy field were torn apart by the powerful force, turning into black smoke one by one.

Seizing this opportunity, the Lord charged out of the Xie Sui encirclement and advanced toward the direction from which the Hei Chao Xie Sui surged.

Seeing this scene, the Di Nian Xie Ling's expression changed slightly.

The only weakness of the "Ants Eating an Elephant" tactic was the Di Nian Xie Ling itself, which controlled the Hei Chao Xie Sui from behind the scenes.

If this formidable creature abandoned the entanglement with the Hei Chao Xie Sui and targeted it, it would be troublesome.

Under the Lord's frenzied assault, the Hei Chao Xie Sui was powerless to stop the Lord's advance.

"Di Nian, something is wrong; this super creature has sensed that the Hei Chao Xie Sui energy originates from the Gao Ta, and now it wants to strike at the source."

"I know," the Di Nian Xie Ling nodded.

In an instant, the thought locked onto the 10th Palace, and the Hei Chao Xie Sui energy contracted sharply.

When the Hei Chao Xie Sui energy intensity was insufficient, it could only be generated by compressing the energy.

Before long, a massive Calamity faction Xie Sui named "Calamity Titan" revealed its figure from the churning Hei Chao Xie Sui.

When this Xie Sui appeared, it was like a pillar of demons rising from the abyss of hell; its height even surpassed the Lord, and every breath was accompanied by howling gales; its skin was as black as burnt coal, rough and cracked, as if it had undergone countless years of warfire baptism, with dark red evil energy constantly surging from the cracks like flowing lava.

Black mist swirled around its body, radiating a more surging Hei Chao Xie Sui evil aura than other Xie Sui.

Facing the attacking Lord, it opened its blood-filled maw and spat a stream of black fire, charging at the Lord like a torrent.

The Lord met it without fear, raised the battle axe, and swung it forcefully, splitting the black fire in two.

After the two massive bodies closed in, they collided.

Boom!

In the contest of physical strength, the Calamity faction Titan was clearly one step weaker; it was knocked backward by the Lord, and cracks appeared on the thick black armor on its body.

The Di Nian Xie Ling decisively mobilized the Curse faction and Plague faction troops of the Third Palace; while the Calamity Titan and the Lord fought fiercely, it launched a new round of negative energy stacking offensive.

The main purpose of spawning this Calamity faction troop was also to delay the Lord's advance, buying output space for the Curse faction and Plague faction Xie Sui.

During this period, the Evil Eye continuously collected the Lord's combat data and fed it back to the Di Nian Xie Ling.

Under the perception coverage, every subtle movement of the Lord was recorded by the Evil Eye; including every movement and every attack, all were converted into strings of complex data and transmitted in real-time to the Node Information Library for integration.

Under the Evil Eye's high-speed calculation and analysis, these data quickly outlined the opponent's vague combat trajectory.

As time passed, the collected data increased, and the vague combat trajectory became increasingly clear.

Like puzzle pieces gradually piecing together into a complete picture.

The Evil Eye's combat assistance then came into play; it deeply deduced the patterns of the combat data and, based on the Lord's previous behavioral performance, attempted to predict the next actions.

Presented in the Di Nian Xie Ling's mind were multiple virtual images of the Lord, but these were analytical predictions of the next action several seconds into the future.

Every action had a marked probability value.

During this time, the Lord attempted several times to bypass the Calamity Titan.

But the Di Nian Xie Ling could always, one step ahead based on the Lord's movement trajectory, control the Titan to block it, keeping it entangled with the Calamity Titan.

As more combat information was collected, the accuracy of the prediction improved accordingly.

At this moment, the Titan suddenly switched to the Ice Plains Lord form.

The Di Nian Evil Spirit also generated a Disaster-type unit with ice resistance a few seconds in advance, creating a giant shield that stood not far in front of the Lord.

A cold wave swept through, yet all of it was blocked by this giant shield.

Finding it difficult to advance, the Lord let out a low roar and switched forms again.

This time, the Lord switched back to War form and launched a berserk charge, attempting to tear through the Black Tide defense with pure force.

Facing the enraged Lord, the Di Nian Evil Spirit voluntarily gave up space and retreated a distance, dodging a round of attacks from the furious Lord.

Afterwards, it skillfully pulled the Disaster Titan into the Black Tide's backlash for decomposition; the compressed Black Tide energy began to reshape the massive body of the Disaster Titan.

The Lord, nearly invincible in the players' eyes, was completely controlled before the Di Nian Evil Spirit.

Although the powerful Lord continued to press the Black Tide forward, everything remained under control.

One hour later.

God King logged in at the respawn point in Di Zhai Village.

He immediately began organizing guild players to prepare a retaliatory strike against the Di Nian Bullies.

As players, they always repaid grudges.

Since the Di Nian Bullies had provoked them, they should pay a heavy price.

Of course, even if the Di Nian Bullies did not provoke them, they would still create trouble out of nothing to carry out retaliatory strikes.

Summoning the contact list, God King opened the "Peak" player chat group, then sent the coordinates of the Di Zhai Village exit, indicating that everyone should quickly lead their guild brothers to gather at the coordinate location and prepare to go out and cause trouble.

Turned-Over Salted Fish: Coming right over. What a pity; this battle cost eight Shu Yan Warriors. This debt... I'll ask Shu Yan to reimburse it later.

May the Imperial Prince Bless You: No big problem. Let's first exchange feelings with the Di Nian Bullies, then I'll organize the brothers to go to Shu Yan to stock up; sooner or later, we'll catch the protagonist in their book too.

Chaos Fourteen Methods: Bringing people over right now. First, I'll stock up on some Shangcheng potions. Later, we'll teach the Di Nian Bullies a good lesson and let them know what consequences come from mocking us. Just not sure if the Lord and the Bullies have started fighting yet; can't see it.

Cat Xiao D Le: The Di Nian Bullies say that whether I mock them or not, you'll still attack them, so what's different about this offensive? Is it just an added anger? So what's the meaning of this emotion? (Funny. jpg)

Quickly, God King assembled a warband and sent join invitations to the heads of the major guilds.

Before long, a warband composed of fifty thousand players advanced toward the Black Tide.

Just then, an assassin player in the front shared a video in the warband channel.

In the footage, the Lord who had fought them was engaged in a fierce battle with the Black Tide; the Lord in War mode was constantly advancing toward the Xie Yan Gao Ta under the siege of the Hei Chao Xie Sui.

It was visible that after they all perished and went to the small dark room, the Lord really did turn his guns around on the Black Tide, which was drifting back and forth in the distance and causing trouble from afar.

Upon learning this news, the warband voice channel was instantly filled with joyful laughter.

At this time, the Lord had already advanced to the Di Zhai Mountain Range area; one could imagine how immense the pressure on the Di Nian Bullies must be.

Seeing this scene, God King couldn't help but laugh.

He, who had originally intended to strike the Di Nian Bullies, suddenly had an idea, then issued orders in the warband voice channel.

The player warband continued to advance toward the Gao Ta.

On the Gao Ta platform, the Di Nian Evil Spirit also noticed the approaching players.

But at this moment, his focus was entirely on the Lord; he simply had no mind to attend to the players. In an instant, the Black Tide energy beneath the Gao Ta surged toward the player warband, rapidly generating Disaster-type and Plague-type units to form a player-exclusive firewall, preparing for a protracted war.

It was just that what he did not expect was that the player army had no intention of joining the battle at all.

Under the perception perspective, the players advanced to the area near the Lord, then took out barbecue grills, meat roasting trays, and various other tools; even excessively, they set up sun umbrellas, began leisurely brewing tea and roasting meat, adopting the posture of a tourist group on a sightseeing trip.

Facing the players' spectator-style retaliation, the Di Nian Evil Spirit chose to ignore them and continued to control the Black Tide to attack the Lord who was constantly pressing closer.

But the players clearly had no intention of letting it off.

Before long, a large group of melee players rushed close and, within a safe distance, released the Gang Qi characteristic, generating crimson energy shooting up to the sky.

To the Di Nian Evil Spirit's stunned disbelief, the crimson airflow condensed into a tightly clenched crimson fist, and a middle finger, several times thicker than the other fingers, slowly rose up.

"Damn!"

Afterwards, this middle finger, formed by the gathered crimson airflow, continued to enlarge like it was being inflated, becoming twice as big as the entire fist, pressing down and rising up repeatedly in the air.

At this moment, God King in the voice channel was directing the condensation of the Gang Qi:

"Brothers, let's put on a big show. I'll mark a few points in space; you follow the composition I assign and work together with division of labor."

As soon as the words fell, God King began marking positions in the air.

The players below, once grouped, released their Gang Qi and then converged toward the corresponding marked nodes.

Before long, a figure formed of Gang Qi appeared in the air; although there were some minor flaws in the facial features, it was still immediately recognizable as the Di Nian Evil Spirit.

Next, the Evil Eye was generated.

The scene began to move following God King's direction; the Di Nian Evil Spirit was held in the arms of the Evil Eye's extended tentacles, crying, while a few droplets of Gang Qi-formed air masses fell from the sky.

The Di Nian Evil Spirit, who had originally been able to remain calm, upon seeing this energy animated image, felt like vomiting blood.

"Di Nian, don't look; your emotions are losing control."

"I know." The Di Nian Evil Spirit nodded viciously and continued to focus on the Lord.

Although angry in his heart, he clearly knew he must kill the Lord as soon as possible, otherwise the Gao Ta faced the risk of being destroyed.

Whether to vent anger or fight a powerful enemy, he knew clearly what he should do.

Overwhelming fury was vented upon the Lord; various Evil Spirit units constantly threw themselves at the Lord, and upon death, they merged into the Black Tide to be reshaped and fight again.

The ant-swarm-elephant tactic seemed to involve constant deaths of Evil Spirits, but the losses caused were, in the Di Nian Evil Spirit's eyes, far less than engaging in a fierce round of battle with the players.

To resist the Lord, a Disaster Titan was generated once more from the Black Tide to collide head-on with the Lord.

Discovering that the Di Nian Bullies no longer paid attention to them, the show-off players returned to the warband, each taking out tables, chairs, benches, and various delicacies from their spatial bags, commenting on the great battle between the two sides, adopting the posture of onlookers who had nothing to do with the matter.

The Lord continued to advance toward the Gao Ta, but his condition was getting worse and worse.

Already having lost much health from players stacking Diao Ling Yin marks, it was subsequently subjected to continuous stacking of various negative status effects under the endless assault of Di Nian E Ba.

Compared to players, the Hei Chao Xie Sui spawn without any cooldown.

Achieving true endlessness.

The negative energy inflicted by Curse-type Xie Sui acted like invisible ropes, tightly binding the Lord's body.

Once skin as tough as iron, it now became dry and rough, with black spiritual pattern marks of various shapes spreading across its surface; these were the negative traits inflicted by Curse-type troops, constantly draining the Lord's life force.

Secondly, plague infection raged like a surging tide within the Lord's body.

The Lord's eyes no longer burned like flames but turned dull and lifeless; players could even see exhaustion within them, and the breath exhaled from its mouth carried a stench of decay as plague energy gnawed away at its life force.

Roar!

The Lord let out a roar, switching to Ice Plains Lord form to unleash a blizzard sweeping over the Hei Chao.

But Di Nian Xie Ling switched troop types as well, rapidly spawning Disaster-type tank troops possessing resistance to freezing.

With the support of the entire series of troop libraries, Di Nian Xie Ling saw no formidable enemies that were difficult to handle.

Of course, except for the Beast-type players capable of dismantling Xie Sui.

Under the fierce assault of Xie Sui controlled by Di Nian E Ba, the Lord's legs began to tremble, as if unable to support its massive body any longer.

Every step taken thereafter was accompanied by heavy panting, and the ground trembled slightly beneath its footsteps.

Once majestic white whiskers now became sparse, drifting away with the wind.

Under the dual blows of curses and plague, its life force had already approached its limit.

Legs that could once shatter the earth with a single lift now became sluggish and powerless, unable even to leave marks on the hard ground.

At this moment, the Lord let out a low roar filled with pain.

Weakening further, it tried to struggle, wanting to break free from the erosion of curses and plague, but all efforts were futile.

Its life status was like a candle in the wind, capable of extinguishing at any moment.

The advance speed grew slower and slower, while Di Nian E Ba's assault grew fiercer and fiercer; three Disaster Titans surrounded the Lord, delivering blow after blow of heavy strikes.

Plague-type troops were like barnacles parasitic on a whale, attaching to the surface, with released plague energy constantly seeping into the Lord's body.

Even though it held an absolute advantage in strength, the Lord still could not contend with the Hei Chao.

Victory was less than 200 meters away.

Yet this distance of two hundred meters had already burned out the Lord's vitality.

Realizing that continuing thus would surely lead to death, the Lord let out a roar of grief and rage, switched to War Form, then suddenly turned and shoved a Disaster-type Titan flying, before striding off with long, swift steps.

Di Nian Xie Ling was about to control the Hei Chao to launch a pursuit when it suddenly heard the voice of the Evil Eye resounding in its mind:

"Di Nian, this is a Meng Yuan Chu monster; killing it will not allow you to absorb any energy. There is no need to pursue; doing so would only waste Hei Chao energy."

"It is necessary." A vicious smile appeared on Di Nian E Ba's lips:

"Evil Eye, do not always measure gains and losses solely by profit; sometimes one must also consider emotions. I have decided to kill this monster."

"What do you mean?"

"I do not like relying excessively on a rational scale, measuring every decision by maximum profit gain. My future is not merely a string of pure profit-acquisition data. I wish to leap out of the profit framework constructed by numbers, weighing pros and cons while also granting due respect to my own emotions."

The Evil Eye did not answer, seemingly pondering the meaning of this statement, then nodded:

"Di Nian, I always support your decisions."

"Good eye." With that, Di Nian Xie Ling controlled the Hei Chao to raise a giant wave, charging directly after the Lord.

At this moment, only one thought existed in its mind: since the monster had initiated the attack, it must leave its life behind.

Just then, Di Nian Xie Ling suddenly noticed that the player army was also moving; various vehicles emerged like bamboo shoots after rain, following the Hei Chao under its control toward the Lord.

Seeing this, Di Nian Xie Ling controlled the surging advancing Hei Chao to condense a giant black hand displaying a middle finger, facing the player army to show it.

The players did not yield; under the command of the God King, a giant hand condensed from Gang Qi energy displaying a middle finger also appeared floating above the battle group, and the raised middle finger was even larger in volume.

At this moment, the Hei Chao energy shifted, condensing a downward-pointing thumb; the players followed by changing the Gang Qi energy convergence pattern, generating a downward-pointing thumb.

The two waves pursuing the Lord exchanged friendly greetings across the distance, frequently switching various insulting hand gestures throughout the entire process.

It was like playing rock-paper-scissors, going back and forth.

(End of this chapter)