Chapter 777: Cunning

When the goat-faced devil walked close and stared at him, Lu Mian's palm had already gripped the hilt of the "Sword of Courage".

Facing the white, bone-like leg bone smashing down, he swished and drew the iron-black straight sword burning with scorching white and cyan flames, meeting it.

Clang!

Amidst the intense collision sound, Lu Mian's palm cracked, overflowing with blackened, coagulated blood.

The massive force from the goat-faced devil made him unable to grip the "Sword of Courage" anymore, and his entire person was smashed away, falling with a thud into a pile of broken stones.

The goat-faced devil stepped over the iron-black straight sword that had fallen to the ground, walked two steps to Lu Mian's front, and raised the white, bone-like leg bone once again.

Suddenly, its dim eyeballs, flowing with blood and pus, reflected the figure of the Temperance Faction demigod Sharon, and its raised hands froze in mid-air instantly.

Seeing the goat-faced devil's movements become exceptionally slow, as if resisting something, Lu Mian ignited scorching white flames instantly, transformed into a brilliant spear, and swished past this undead creature with a quite high rank, arriving at the position where the "Sword of Courage" had fallen.

Perhaps because the goat-faced devil wasn't an undead turned from a Beyonder of the "Death" pathway, its deterrent effect on Lu Mian, this undead creature, was very poor, and it didn't have that feeling of being able to enslave Lu Mian's body and mind, letting Lu Mian be able to muster courage and make a counterattack.

Lu Mian, while picking up the iron-black straight sword, released the spirituality he had accumulated using the "Ascetic" ability.

At the same time, his eyes were dyed iron-black, reflecting the multiple colors on the goat-faced devil.

He found that pale white rapidly, ran two steps toward the goat-faced devil, and jumped high.

In mid-air, Lu Mian adjusted his posture, gripped the "Sword of Courage" in reverse with both hands, and fell toward the goat-faced devil, which was still resisting the Temperance Faction demigod Sharon and whose movements were slow and stiff, from a high place.

This time, he used the "Sword of Courage's" "Reap"!

His spirituality surged crazily toward that iron-black straight sword, letting the scorching white and cyan flames covered on the surface rise instantly and then condense inward.

With a "poof" sound, Lu Mian smashed heavily onto the goat-faced devil's back, stabbing downward with both hands, inserting the "Sword of Courage" into the place where the goat-faced devil's neck and body connected, sinking into the rotten pitch-black flesh like cutting butter.

Amidst the splashing of disgusting pus, all the scorching white and cyan flames covered on the iron-black straight sword were poured into the goat-faced devil's body.

Boom, a dull explosion sounded, and Temperance Faction demigod Sharon detached from the goat-faced devil's body in time.

The goat-faced devil disintegrated into a pool of viscous black liquid that looked like the condensation of human evil thoughts.

These black liquids were scattered toward different places in the broken church by the expanding firelight and the violent shockwave, and then, they wandered rapidly, drilling into the pitch-black hole leading to the pale kingdom, seemingly wanting to complete reorganization inside.

Lu Mian, holding the "Sword of Courage", had his spirituality consumed by two-thirds instantly. He was about to chase after it and fight the goat-faced devil to the death, but felt his body stiffen, his soul locked into an invisible cage.

"Take your target item first." "Knight of Swords'" voice, weak to the point of being increasingly ethereal, rang in his ears.

Right... Lu Mian accepted this reason from "Knight of Swords" Malic.

Anyway, I'm not afraid of that goat-faced devil; I can completely put the "Abscessed Hand's" body into the "Traveler's Bag" first!

He transformed into a scorching white flame spear, swished to the place under the bone torch, and in order to move the half-body of the "Abscessed Hand" better, he temporarily stuffed the "Sword of Courage" back into the "Traveler's Bag".

After a moment, Lu Mian felt lingering fear:

I only have one-third of my spirituality left; why was I still thinking about fighting the goat-faced devil to the death?

Moreover, Ms. Sharon's state was clearly already quite bad!

At a time like this, shouldn't I be picking up the target item and escaping this broken church before the goat-faced devil reorganizes its body and chases after me?

It's a good thing "Knight of Swords" acted as a valve for courage and found a reason that could effectively convince me!

Lu Mian didn't hesitate anymore, gripped the blue-black, abscessed half-body with both hands, and attempted to lift it.

This body was very heavy, as if it were crafted from metal; fortunately, Lu Mian was currently a Sequence 5, and in one of the pathways known for strength.

During this process, Lu Mian was also worried that the body would suddenly turn into a monster and give him a fatal blow, but fortunately, the half-body of the "Abscessed Hand", after being cut by the goat-faced devil for I don't know how many years, seemed to have lost its activity long ago, without any abnormal reactions.

Lu Mian placed the blue-black, abscessed half-corpse at the opening of the "Traveler's Bag", watching happily as it "sank" in.

—Flesh with vitality cannot be put into the "Traveler's Bag", and the "Abscessed Hand's" residual body had shown the trait of self-healing earlier. Lu Mian's thought just now was that if he couldn't put this half-corpse into the "Traveler's Bag", he would honestly carry it on his back, or ask "Knight of Swords" or Ms. Sharon to possess it and manipulate it to run by itself.

After putting away the incomplete body of the "Abscessed Hand", Lu Mian heard a creaking sound from inside that pitch-black hole.

He immediately transformed into a scorching white flame spear, throwing himself fiercely toward the outside of the half-collapsed pitch-black church.

Amidst a "swish" sound, the scorching white firelight left a burning trail in the dark sky, and spread rapidly toward the distance.

There was no pale erosion here; Lu Mian could fly out very far in one breath.

Under the illumination of those human-shaped golden streetlights, Lu Mian, who had transformed into a scorching white flame spear many times, finally returned to the side of the illusory, pitch-black River of the Netherworld.

He saw that tattered, gloomy small boat appear again, rowing slowly toward this side in the "ferryman's" rowing action.

Lu Mian waited anxiously, not daring to fly to the small boat in the form of a flame spear.

According to "Knight of Swords" Malic's statement, that would cause him to sink directly into the depths of the River of the Netherworld, and no one would be able to save him.

Behind him, clusters of pale, green-tinged flames burned quietly, swaying from time to time with the violent shaking of the earth, and shaking up and down in some kind of tremor.

Lu Mian's spirit was tense, feeling that some kind of danger was getting closer and closer, but he didn't know if that originated from the mutation brought about by the ancient Death's corpse waking up, or the goat-faced devil's chase.

He looked at the gloomy small boat whose speed wouldn't change, and used the "Hunter's" way to soothe his inner emotions.

He laughed lowly and said to "Knight of Swords" Malic within his body:

"I thought the goat-faced devil was very strong earlier, a kind of existence only slightly worse than the ancient gods; otherwise, how could it have hatred with the Demon King, wanting to kill the other party, and how could it crave that bird egg beneath the ancient Death's corpse? But now it looks like it's just at the level of a saint, and the kind that only has a corpse left without Beyonder characteristics."

"Knight of Swords" didn't respond.

Lu Mian continued to speak to himself:

"The goat-faced devil's proposal to kill the Demon King as the content of the deal at the beginning should just be a bluff, the purpose being to make us more easily accept the second condition, subconsciously feeling that it was still not bad. In reality, if it weren't for Oseto's premature child interfering, we would have had a chance to steal the bird egg, it's just that we would have had to face the wrath of the ancient Death's corpse afterward, but that had nothing to do with the goat-faced devil itself.

"At the same time, it also used the commission of killing the Demon King to establish its own image, making us feel that it was very powerful, its rank was very high in the past, not daring to take action against it directly, nor daring to easily give up the bird egg mission.

"What a cunning devil..."

Self-talking to here, Lu Mian suddenly remembered the goat-faced devil's accusation against him:

Privately occupying that egg!

When did I privately occupy that egg? That egg was clearly still beneath the Phoenix ancestor's corpse; I only resonated a little with the creature inside the egg, hearing what it heard, seeing what it saw... Because of this resonance, I was implicitly dyed with the aura of the creature inside the egg, and was mistaken by the goat-faced devil as having obtained that egg and shattered it? The goat-faced devil, as an undead creature, even if it was a saint-level devil in its previous life, shouldn't have much brain left now, just acting on the cunning instinct of a devil... Lu Mian speculated seriously, and the tattered, gloomy small boat finally arrived at the shore.

Lu Mian jumped onto the boat immediately, standing behind the "ferryman".

Although this "ferryman" might launch an attack later, compared to the goat-faced devil's chase, compared to the mutation brought about by the ancient Death's corpse waking up, it could completely be called "friendly".

This belongs to the category that can be dealt with.

The gloomy, tattered small boat rocked, detaching from the pitch-black shore, sailing slowly toward the middle of the illusory, pitch-black River of the Netherworld.

Lu Mian looked back toward the depths of the Netherworld, discovering that the rich darkness had already calmed down, no longer having violent shaking, nor emitting heavy movements.

Everything returned to tranquility.

Lu Mian's tense spirit relaxed a little, and he let out a breath instinctively.

This "Netherworld trip

Only then did he begin to ponder the problem of that pitch-black giant egg:

The thing gestating inside seemed to have some kind of connection to Omebella!

From this matter, Lu Mian felt that the "Great Mother" using Omebella from the ancient era as the name for her divine child shouldn't just be about relying on strong occult symbolic significance to erode the authority of the "Earth Mother Goddess"; Omebella, this long-fallen "Harvest Goddess," still held significant secrets.

"But, Omebella was not one of the eight ancient gods who ruled the sky and earth at that time; she was merely the queen and subordinate god of that Giant King among the ancient gods, which is equivalent to a present-day angel. Why can the secrets she holds affect the current era?

"Sigh, many key pieces of information in the current era are covered by the mists of history; only a few high-ranking figures who have truly survived from the Second Epoch to the present know a little..."

Amidst his reflections, Lu Mian watched as he and that deep black land in the depths of the Netherworld grew further and further apart, until his vision was filled with nothing but the illusory, dark water of the River of Death.

He suddenly had the feeling that this matter had finally come to an end.

(End of chapter)