Chapter 225: How dare you not die?

With a roar from the Golden King, this group of earth elemental creatures that had no idea what they were charged straight at the underground city.

Ji Ming:???

They just charged?

I thought Zhou Dong leading a squad of gunners to storm the city was already over the top, but I didn't expect there to be someone attacking with clods of dirt—whose subordinate is this?

"Little bro, your Tribe has fought south and north for years—haven't you ever fought a siege battle?"

He was completely bewildered, and the Purple Regiment Leader beside him, equally slack-jawed, was drenched in sweat.

"Sir, where are there any bricks on this underground plain? They're just bricks rubbed from wood—you dislike vegetables, I dislike vegetables too."

"And if I'm not mistaken, these are all earth elemental priests of the Dragon God—they're strong, really strong……"

No wonder they're so fierce, daring to sneak attack my underground city……

Although watching a bunch of mud-like wild animals frolicking and running wildly on the slope is a hilarious sight,

but facing head-on the powerful charge of a group of bionic quadrupeds on the plain is absolutely not wise.

Especially after Ji Ming tried the 【Cramp Technique】 and the 【Fart Technique】, only to discover that the simulation of the earth elemental's physiological structure was a complete failure.

"Can't you guys study biology a bit? Retreat, let's retreat first!"

He called the Lizard Guard Team and Cloi to take cover back at the gate passage, and he commanded Gesensen to activate the treant colossi standing left and right.

"What? These two are actually alive?! "

When they first arrived here to stand guard, the Lizard People noticed these two big things, thinking they were some special decoration, and they kept marvelling at them for a long time.

But now, in their astonished gaze, the two great trees pulled out all the roots they had planted in the ground, drew spears from their hollow chests, and turned into two plant beings resembling centaurs.

On the other side, the earth elementals had already run down the slope, and the rumbling sound of all things stampeding filled the air without cease.

But the treant colossi showed no fear, instead raising their forehooves and launching a swift countercharge.

Both sides were fearless, both were inanimate imitations, and in almost an instant, their blades intertwined.

Although the earth elementals outnumbered them, they were still far inferior in volume and weight.

A mighty swing of the spear in the treant colossus's hand could blast away a large swath.

But correspondingly, no matter how hard they tried, some would always slip through from the sides or even break through the blind spot beneath them.

These fortunate ones still faithfully carried out the Golden King's orders, doing their utmost to approach the city wall.

Watching a stone tiger with half its skull smashed, leading a swarm of earth elementals in a silent roar, come charging this way.

Ji Ming gripped his shovel, feeling that this scene was strangely familiar.

"This whole messy pile of stuff is rumbling and tumbling over—doesn't it feel like a zombie apocalypse?"

Although simply closing the gate would work, letting this horde scrape against the walls of such a vast underground city would be too embarrassing.

So he roughly gauged the size of the gate passage, then patted the Purple Regiment Leader on the shoulder.

"Friends, as today's gate guards, this is your moment to shine and show your sincerity."

The Purple Regiment Leader's face showed difficulty, and he hesitated a bit.

"What did you say?"

Ji Ming stepped back, raised his hands to mimic a wall, and gestured to everyone.

"Go, form the strongest defensive line on this position!"

The Lizard People: "I……"

Although after surrendering, the players not only didn't confiscate their weapons, but actually issued each a set of standard leather armor and a decent polearm, but……

With us a few rotten tomatoes and spoiled potatoes, even equal numbers of players can't beat them—fighting these earth elementals is practically suicide.

Yet man is the knife and we are the fish; our lives are in their hands—how could we have any room to refuse?

They looked at each other, and could only tremble as they stepped forward.

Ah, think of the bright side—at least if I die here, my family shouldn't be implicated……

Perhaps in their eyes, my current readiness to face death makes me a true man of iron.

But from Ji Ming's perspective, these limp, lackluster lot look worse than late Qing Banner recruits marching into battle!

No matter what, they've become members of the underground city, and I have a duty to train and reinforce them—this state just won't do.

There's no choice; he can only voice a reprimand.

"Hey, why do you all look so timid? Are you all just afraid of dying?"

Hearing this, the Lizard People nearly choked on their breath.

"Listen to yourself—what kind of talk is this? If I'm not afraid of death, how could I have surrendered?"

Seeing them all hesitant to speak, Ji Ming glanced doubtfully at Cloi.

"They still don't know? About the resurrection technique."

"Unbelievable—how could a great angel be something you can just meet whenever?" The demonic wolf shook its head.

Pacing.

Ji Ming could only tell them that there were angels in the underground city, and that angels could resurrect low-level beings.

But how could such a life-or-death matter be trusted based on just one side's word, especially when it came from an evil entity that had captured them? So the Lizard People didn't believe it.

"Alright."

No choice—Ji Ming grabbed a Lizard Person and slashed his arm.

"Ow!"

Before his anguished cry even ended, a pool of bright red liquid was splashed into his mouth.

No one can resist the allure of SpiritGathering Liquid—not even a stiff-scaled face; the Lizard People still put on a dazzling display of face‑changing art.

And the wound on his arm quickly stopped bleeding visibly, forming a scab.

"How about that—do you believe it now?"

Nodding spread like a plague among the lizard people; after all, being able to produce such miraculous medicine is indeed convincing.

"They can be revived after death, they can be revived after death..."

They stood in neat rows inside the city gate tunnel, murmuring softly and gripping their weapons.

Brutal battle, incompetent defeat, humiliating surrender, miserable captivity...

In less than a day, they had endured so much hardship in their lives; they were all holding back a breath of resentment.

Before they could still restrain themselves with reason and fear, but now, facing so many enemies and the guarantee of revival, they naturally all...

In an instant, from beastman tongue to common speech, then to the lizard people's own language, all kinds of vulgarities and curses burst forth.

As everyone knows, being an arched passage, the city gate tunnel reflects sound.

Thus, as the sound repeatedly overlapped like a deadly mantra, they roared, brandished their weapons, and fought in a melee with the earth elemental creatures.

Logically, the lizard people's average level is inferior to the enemy's, and their numbers are far fewer.

But even in a fantasy world that has been a death game since tens of thousands of years ago, stats and panels cannot explain everything.

No matter when or where, what directly determines an individual's or a group's combat strength is always resolve and perseverance.

And now, the lizard guard have it!

Poor earth elemental cannot withstand the sword forged from birdsong and floral fragrance, nor can it break the shield made of Cybertronian language.

For a moment, they were actually blocked at the city gate by just a few lizard people, and despite exerting all their strength, they could not break through.

"Good, good, good, purification strength ten, already has the vibe of orderly goodness!"

Although willpower alone cannot ultimately conquer everything in the material world, these few of them are destined unable to achieve final victory in battle.

But being able to uncover one's potential and rebuild confidence as a warrior is enough!

"Very good, you have proven your worth."

Coincidentally, Ji Ming did not participate in last night's battle; after training with Lao Nv Shi for so many days, it's now time to test his mettle.

He then picked up a shovel, filled the vacancy left by a dead lizard person, and thrust a strike under the astonished gaze of the Purple Squad Leader.

"What are you looking at? As your leader, could I let you suffer a loss?"

"Such loyalty?"

In a daze, a thought arose in the lizard people's hearts.

——Could it be that the humans of the dungeon are actually good people?

But while they were dazed, Ji Ming, in the midst of crackling headshot combos, suddenly noticed a problem.

He was swinging the shovel so hard he was about to pound the stone puppy before him into dust.

Yet neither the experience reward prompted by the system nor the red dot on the map showed any response.

Hiss...

In fact, a similar situation had occurred before, when he himself, disguised as the Mysterious Merchant, was beating up players.

Could it be that they are essentially not dead either?

With doubts, Ji Ming peered through the gaps in the writhing beast heads and glanced at the nearby main battlefield overseen by the treant colossus.

As it happened, he saw a brown light point emerge from the soil outside the battle circle, mobilizing surrounding earth and stone into a leopard.

Ah???

The Golden King is also a sly old fox; he says 'follow me forward' but after descending the slope he climbs back up.

Seeing the earth elements smashed to pieces yet all revived, while the traitors in the city gate tunnel fell one by one powerless, he burst into hysterical laughter.

"You didn't expect this, did you? The priests of the great Dragon God are endless; your struggle is meaningless."

At this moment, the Upside-down Castle, Dragon Nest Hall.

"Ah! What the hell is that damn yellowish lizard doing?"

Helplessly sprawled on a pile of gold, the Dragon God groaned in pain.

Although when He boasted to His followers, He said His priests were immortal and endless...

But only He knows that this is all because He used his bloodline talent to link these earth elements with his sea of consciousness.

And the magic needed for the earth elements to rebuild their shells is minuscule compared to what He possesses—could this not be 'infinite revival'?

But now He can feel the earth elements constantly shattering and reconstructing their shells, and the speed is only increasing.

Not to mention He is merely a juvenile elemental dragon; even if adult metal and five-colored dragons came, they couldn't withstand this havoc!

The earth elements left guarding the castle also sensed their master's pain, and one of them transformed into a priest and approached.

"Lord Dragon God, what has befallen you?"

"Quick, quick go tell..."

Panting heavily, the Dragon God struggled to speak, but suddenly his expression changed.

"Ah!"

???

"Please, I'm just a pure earth elemental who knows nothing—what's with your soul-stirring cry?"

The priest fanned the heat on his 'face' and asked doubtfully.

"My lord, what should I tell?"

"Hurry... go... aow!"

"What?"

"Yikes!"

"Damn it, undead, undead, right? Watch me not let you die of embarrassment today!"

Ji Ming activated the Saint's Judgment at full power, his gaze scorching like that of a lasso-wielding man, sweeping back and forth.

Wherever it passed, nothing grew; no earth elemental could withstand such intense holy light bombardment, vanishing like snowflakes.

However, every dead earth elemental can be revived, turning into beasts and birds, launching a counterattack as if endless.

But our lizardmen have already suffered heavy casualties, even the Purple Team Leader had his head bitten off by a rock lion.

So the gap in the line is now so large that Cloi must hold the front and start flailing with dog paws to block it.

Anyway, it doesn't matter—you have cheats, and I have cheats.

I originally thought these few people on hand could solve the problem directly, but seeing the situation, I should still summon a batch of players.

Then, while throwing a thunderclap bomb that blasted a patch of earth elementals into fragments, Ji Ming began editing a new world quest on the game system.

To accommodate the players' schedules and gather more strength, the major quests of 《Code: Yangyue》 usually open only at night.

Holding a new event at high noon, still demanding all players participate in a big activity—this is still the first time.

So no matter what the players are doing, they've all been teleported to the city gate, wanting to see what nasty thing the officials are up to.

Continuous pillars of light flashed like star spirits shifting, and hundreds of players entered the battlefield one after another.

Looking up, I saw two great tree spirits wielding weapons, fighting a horde of magical creatures made of earth and stone.

"These two tree spirits look so familiar—aren't they the trees planted at our city gate? They actually move!"

"And what's that over there? The officials are so lazy they didn't even make a sprite, just pulling out the model to use as a monster?"

"If the officials lack productivity, they wouldn't need to make so many monster types—just slap a color on one or two and call it a day."

"I get it—this is definitely the officials testing new animal models and behavior logic, wanting us to join the trial."

"I see, but isn't this just running a test on the test server? That's pretty hilarious."

Game Official: "Ah, so that's what I thought—everyone's research and interpretations are really interesting."

But the complaining and discussion were only momentary; the enemy had already come to our door, so the players hurriedly took up positions and started fighting.

Although few people are around at noon, those who can stay online then must be pros; even if they slack off all day, their basic level is still guaranteed.

Moreover, since they can rely on the city wall for defense, their contact surface with the earth elementals is small, so the battle pressure isn't great.

But as they fought, the players also discovered something very strange.

"Damn it, why have I worked hard to kill so many monsters yet gained not even a scrap of experience?"

Game Official, take a look!