Chapter 208: Taking Care of Kids Is Exhausting, Can

Taking care of kids is exhausting, I can't finish coding, I'll update in the morning

"Ah!" Julian screamed in terror, leaping backward and drawing his sword with a clang.

"Ow!" Ang also jumped back in surprise, summoning the Reaper's Scythe.

The bone horse's eyes instantly lit up: "Reaper's Scythe?! Is this a Golden Skeleton? Don't move, don't move, let me!"

The bone horse slammed its hoof down, flames of energy erupting from its body, rapidly armorizing its skeleton—within an instant, the gaunt, twisted bone horse transformed into a towering, muscular, muscle-bursting soul warhorse.

This bone horse's soul armor was especially clever: it took the exact shape of a living horse, lifelike and vivid; if not for its flaming eye sockets, you'd hardly realize it was a dead horse.

Ang tilted his head, removed his hat and the sapling from his head, and flames of soul energy erupted over his body, quickly armorizing into a soul armor shaped like a straw cloak and hat.

"Pfft." The bone horse snorted with laughter: "You're farming? This look?"

Ang nodded seriously: "I farm. You're ridden."

He was a vegetable grower, the bone horse was meant to be ridden—he stated a fact plainly, but after spending too long among humans, the bone horse's context had shifted; in human terms, being ridden wasn't a compliment, and it instantly became furious.

"Damn it! Die! Wild Charge!" the bone horse roared, launching a soul impact as sharp horns sprouted from its head and spiked protrusions burst from its knee joints, charging forward with full force.

It leaned its head forward, aiming straight for Ang's skull, while its front legs curled and thrust its spiked knees forward—if struck, there would be no doubt three large holes in the bones.

Soul impact combined with Wild Charge was a highly effective combo, especially against a Golden Skeleton.

Human-shaped skeletons were naturally inferior to horse-shaped skeletons; the size difference was several-fold, and driving the heavier horse skeleton required far stronger soul energy.

During a soul impact, the stronger the soul, the greater the advantage.

The bone horse had already condensed its soul heart, and its bones were in the process of transforming into Golden grade—given time, it would become a Golden Skeleton Horse.

Against a Golden Skeleton, the bone horse held a natural advantage; no Golden Skeleton had ever withstood its charge.

Soul impact would first stun the opponent, then crush, trample, and devour them.

It sounded perfect—but what if the opponent didn't get stunned?

With its immense burst of power, the bone horse's form nearly left afterimages as it lunged forward.

Ang sidestepped lightly, raised his scythe horizontally, letting the bone horse slam into the blade—once it passed, it landed, and its entire skeleton scattered into pieces on the ground.

Julian was stunned, unable to react for a long while—had his mount's soul been stolen? Or was this some new technique: disassemble first, then counterattack?

Julian's head was spinning—he'd been so excited telling Ang not to move, and now one round and it was in pieces? Was this a joke?

Ang retracted his scythe, brushed his other hand across the blade, and plucked off a vibrant soul flame.

A Golden-grade bone horse did possess a powerful soul—but no soul, no matter how strong, could withstand the Reaper's Scythe of the Undying God.

"Don't touch my horse!" Julian finally snapped out of it and roared.

Ang instantly felt some force acting upon him—he tilted his head, puzzled, looking down.

This was already his third head tilt—not for cuteness, but confusion: why wasn't Negril speaking? Though Negril hadn't followed, it could soul-project onto him at any time to answer his questions.

But nothing came. Without Negril pointing things out, he couldn't understand these new things—like that giant monster, or Julian's strange power.

Several hands, formed from death aura, emerged from the ground, gripping Ang's calves tightly, while the entire ground melted like wax, dragging him downward.

What is this? The enemy was a Holy Knight—why ride a bone horse and use death energy?

Too bad, no one answered—he'd have to break free first.

He activated Earth Rift repeatedly, shattering the ground's power, and the death-aura hands shattered into fragments.

Julian's eyes widened: "Earth Rift? You shattered my Deathmire? Is that even possible?"

Of course it was possible—but it was too much effort. Like crossing a lake—you could just walk around, why build a bridge?

"No—why can a Golden Skeleton use magic?" Julian reacted quickly, realizing his blind spot, then dropped into a crouch, thrusting his arms forward—his arm guards snapped open into a shield.

On the solid arm shield, another layer of holy light coalesced into a holy shield.

Julian planted his greatsword on the shield, stepped forward—and at the point where his foot landed, two wraiths lunged out, shrieking as they split left and right, circling toward Ang.

Holy energy and death energy coexisting in one body—and no conflict?

Julian's reaction wasn't slow—but he misjudged something. As he stepped forward to charge, a barrage of explosive fireballs swept toward him, instantly shattering the two wraiths, then slammed into his shield.

Julian felt like he was on the ocean facing a Category 18 hurricane—the continuous explosions of fireballs generated immense shockwaves, nearly knocking him off his feet.

He felt like facing an entire mage battalion—he roared, unleashing a torrent of battle aura, swinging his greatsword like a one-handed sword, slashing forward with all his might—a blade of energy cut through the air.

Boom boom boom boom! A string of fireballs exploded under his slash—but more fireballs followed in endless succession.

Boom! The holy shield shattered—the fireballs struck Julian's solid arm shield, clanging loudly.

"Hah!" Julian roared again, his battle aura and holy power blazing together, surging into the shield as he pushed forward against the tide.

If the opponent were a mage, Julian's choice was undoubtedly correct—close the distance quickly. But the problem was, Ang wasn't a mage.

Julian charged through the wall of fireballs to Ang's side, swung his sword—but it was caught precisely by a scythe.

The angle between the scythe blade and haft trapped the greatsword—Julian realized he couldn't pull it free.

He instantly abandoned his sword, stepped forward, and slashed downward: "Divine Judgment!"

A pillar of holy flame erupted from where Ang stood—simultaneously, a black longblade materialized in Julian's palm, descending from above.

Holy flame was sacred fire; the black longblade was soul armor—this mismatched style made Ang deeply uncomfortable—he summoned holy light to wrap himself, letting the holy flame engulf him, crossed his arms to block the black blade, then kicked out.

Julian barely raised his arm shield in front of him—Ang's foot slammed into it, crushing the shield inward.

Julian lost his grip, his arm slammed into his body, and he was flung backward.

But with his arm absorbing the impact, Julian didn't take full damage—he landed, stepped back ten times in quick succession, then slid backward a distance before stopping.

He looked up at Ang, his expression and tone filled with disbelief: "Holy light? Skeleton? Magic?"

Shadow Knights were already a mess—holy and death energy combined—but this one was worse: a holy skeleton that used magic? Good heavens, just saying it sounded awkward—what kind of monster was this?

Clop clop clop—hooves came from behind. Negril and the little angel zombie rode Lightning as they arrived, while Lu Se sprinted behind on foot, nearly out of breath.

From afar, Negril spotted the extradimensional beast first, heart sinking—he smacked Lightning hard with his tiny paw: "Faster, faster, run faster! That's an extradimensional beast! Damn it, why is there one here?! Now I know why I can't project onto Ang—its Quiet Extradimension has cut off all spatial projection and teleportation!"

"It's an extradimensional beast, why are you hitting me?" Lightning growled, lowering its head even further, increasing its speed even more.

As they drew near and saw Ang unharmed, Negril sighed in relief: "Good, good, Ang is safe."

Lightning arrived behind Ang, everyone dismounted, surging to either side and glaring at the enemy with the aura of "Boss, who should we kill?"—their presence surged dramatically.

"Ang, what's going on? Who's this guy?" Negril asked.

For a long time, there'd been no word from Ang—even its mental projection couldn't reach him—it had terrified Negril. Fortunately, the little angel zombie, bound by soul-link to Ang, was fine, so Negril knew Ang was temporarily safe.

Who knew that upon arriving, it would not only see an extradimensional beast, but also an enemy dressed in Church of Light attire.

Ang pointed at Julian: "Shadow Knight." Then pointed at the pile of bones: "Mount. Bone horse."

Then pointed at the extradimensional beast: "Windshield. Spatial passage. Virus zombie. Transport here."

Negril instantly understood: "So this pile of bones is a bone horse, the Shadow Knight's mount—they used the extradimensional beast's spatial passage to transport virus-infected zombies here?"

Ang nodded.

"Fine! The culprits are you! You've been poisoning people so deviously! Cut him down, sever the source of the plague!" Negril roared—but most of its attention remained fixed on the extradimensional beast. After shouting, it whispered urgently to Ang: "Did you use your Ultimate Transformation?"

Ang shook his head, staring at the extradimensional beast: "Big cat."

Negril sighed in relief—the vegetable-growing skeleton hadn't been reckless; he'd held back. It had feared he'd act like the little angel and unleash holy light right away, wasting his ultimate move.

The moment this thought arose, a beam of light flashed, striking Julian ahead.

The little angel kept its hands pushed outward, then let out a loud burp, finished, and turned to Ang with a beaming, expectant face.

Ang reached out and patted its head.

Negril sighed—so long as Ang indulged it, the little angel's habit would never change.

Negril reluctantly turned to Julian—the Shadow Knight hadn't been annihilated, but he was in terrible shape: nearly all his front-body flesh had vanished, leaving only a skeleton standing there; the back flesh remained partially intact, but was riddled with holes.

Negril had heard of Shadow Knights—mysterious knights called "Shadows Beneath Holy Light," who could wield both holy energy and heretical forces like demons and undead.

Heretical forces didn't conflict with their holy energy; instead, they complemented each other—remarkably strange.

But Negril's knowledge of Shadow Knights ended there—it relied on believers for information; if believers didn't know, Negril couldn't add it to its knowledge base.

Surviving a holy light blast with just a skeleton was already impressive—let's help him gather his bones.

The moment this thought flashed, the skeleton-only Shadow Knight moved—he straightened his body, emitting a "Huh… huh… huh…" sound, perhaps reciting a spell or prayer, but his body was too damaged to produce sound, only his throat trembled.

But this didn't hinder his spellcasting—his ruined body rapidly regenerated, the perforated back flesh growing swiftly, passing through the skeleton, filling the empty front space.

In moments, the deformed Shadow Knight had forcibly regrown into human form.

Before the flesh fully sealed, Negril noticed: the Shadow Knight's chest cavity was hollow—no heart had grown back.

"Impossible? A Lich's phylactery resurrection? No—different. Liches resurrect new bodies; this is restoring the original body. But his heart is gone—without finding his phylactery, killing him will be extremely difficult," Negril said.

Ang raised both hands, preparing to blast him into dust—Lich resurrection wasn't infinite, otherwise Phelin and Lan would be invincible.

But before Ang could raise his hands, Julian turned and fled, sprinting toward the extradimensional beast, shouting with his newly regrown lungs: "Extradimensional beast! Kill them! This is your favorite elf beans!"

Julian flipped his hand, pulling out a small bag from nowhere, and hurled it hard at the extradimensional beast.

In a flash, everyone felt their eyes deceive them—the giant furry mass extended a massive claw, snatching the bag midair.

Ang tilted his head. Negril wrinkled its scale-brow. Both felt the same: that claw looked familiar.

The giant claw delicately lifted the bag, emptied its contents—inside were six or seven elf beans, the size of human fingertips.

Compared to the extradimensional beast's massive size, the elf beans were like dust—but the beast's eyes happily narrowed, its claw extended a single toe, touched near the beans—and all the elf beans vanished instantly.

Having accepted the elf beans, the extradimensional beast, which had previously ignored everyone, turned its gaze toward Ang and the others—its round eyes narrowed dangerously, pupils shrinking several times.

"Watch out—it's about to attack," Negril warned everyone.

Ang suddenly reached into his pocket, pulled out another bag, and hurled it hard at the extradimensional beast.

PS: This update is from yesterday.