Chapter 274: The Essence of Drifters (5th Update)

"What are they doing?"

"I just made 'them' calm down a bit. With no leader and no one stepping forward, the Sheep Void Gui army collapsed on its own. The Mo Cun crisis is resolved, and you deserve credit for it."

This matched what Ni Dongmei had analyzed at the time, except she never mentioned that this so-called collapse on its own still required a process where she stepped in to help.

It was precisely this process that nearly got Fang Yue killed!

Immediately, Fang Yue stood with hands on hips and started cursing up a storm, making Ni Dongmei's face on the other side look very unpleasant.

After a long while, she finally said: "Stop complaining! Find the tail and bring it back, and both I and Mo Cun will have a great gift for you."

There's a benefit?!

Fang Yue's face changed in an instant, now wearing a fawning expression.

"As expected of Lady Ni Dongmei! You really understand human nature! I get it, I completely understand your good intentions—you want to train me, temper me. As the saying goes, without weathering the storm, how can one see the rainbow? I don't blame you! I don't blame you at all! And I will absolutely carry out the mission you've assigned!"

Hehe! As long as there's a benefit, everything's negotiable!

The main reason was still that Fang Yue couldn't beat that woman.

An Elder of the Extreme Ice Sect—even if it was just a clone—wasn't something he could handle.

After chatting with Ni Dongmei for a bit more, Fang Yue suddenly said: "Oh right, I wonder if Lady Ni Dongmei knows about 【Fierce Yuan Pill】?"

"If you have something to ask, just ask directly. Don't beat around the bush. At such a long distance, maintaining contact with you consumes a great deal of my clone's strength."

"... Uh, it's like this. Earlier when I was fighting 【Gui Zhi】, I took a 【Fierce Yuan Pill】, and then..."

Just as Fang Yue was saying this, he suddenly felt it wasn't quite appropriate.

Although after the 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 wore off, his eyes had returned to clarity, no longer bleeding black blood from the corners.

During the 【Fierce Yuan Pill】's active period, he had indeed briefly transformed into the special appearance unique to Black Grade Initial Stage Gui Yi.

If Ni Dongmei found out and treated him as a Gui Yi... where would he even go to cry about it.

As said before, Fang Yue couldn't beat Ni Dongmei.

But Fang Yue could keep An Shenyi in line!

So the safest method was still to wait until returning to Mo Cun and ask An Shenyi in person. Even if there were any problems, he could suppress An Shenyi to resolve them. Unlike Ni Dongmei—if she suddenly attacked and killed him, Fang Yue would have absolutely no power to fight back.

Ni Dongmei on the other end, after waiting a long time without Fang Yue continuing, couldn't help but say with some impatience.

"Why are you dragging this out? Isn't it just a 【Fierce Yuan Pill】? After taking it, did your internal force surge and you feel your potential being overdrawn?"

"Small-folk really are small-folk—daring to recklessly take pills that overdraft your potential."

"If the after-effects are serious now, head back to the village immediately. I'll find someone else to retrieve the tail."

"I still remember once, someone took a 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 and their Martial Dao foundation was destroyed, becoming a cripple from then on. You'd better be careful yourself."

That's what she said, but looking at Fang Yue's appearance, Ni Dongmei could see he was only somewhat physically weak. Compared to the normal side effects a 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 should produce, this state was already very mild.

Severe cases directly collapsing on the spot were not unheard of.

So she felt Fang Yue had absolutely no need to ask about after-effects. Given his current state, once back in the village, taking some medicine to recuperate would definitely restore him. Among 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 cases, his after-effects were the mildest.

"O-oh, so taking a 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 is this dangerous... Good thing I'm still alright now, just feeling a bit weak." Hearing Ni Dongmei's words, Fang Yue took the convenient out and nodded along repeatedly.

"Mm, as long as you're fine, come back early with the tail. Once you're in the village, I'll give you some medicine to nourish your body."

Fang Yue was 'overjoyed beyond expectation'.

"Thank you, Lady Ni Dongmei!"

"Mm, if there's nothing else, I'll rest first. Contact me again once you've found the tail."

"Yes!"

As Fang Yue's voice fell, he felt the faint coolness on the meatball gradually fade—Ni Dongmei must have severed the connection on her end.

Not to mention, this thing was pretty handy—like an ancient mobile phone.

Just from what Ni Dongmei said, there was still a distance limit; the communication range was just relatively far.

Putting away the meatball, Fang Yue mulled over Ni Dongmei's words carefully and couldn't help but feel uneasy.

"Potential overdraft... the potential that was overdrawn from me, was it Gui Yi power?"

Fang Yue scratched his head, unable to figure it out.

Was it him being special, this 【Fierce Yuan Pill】 being special, or all players being special?

The essence of Drifters... what exactly is it?

All along, Fang Yue had regarded Drifters as bodies just like ordinary NPCs, merely created through some unknown Gui Yi method.

Now it seemed... if the Drifters themselves had a problem, then that meant Drifter bodies had a huge difference from Native NPCs!

Could it be... that actually, all Drifters are essentially Gui Yi??

This thought startled Fang Yue.

If that were really true, then why the hell would he still be killing Gui Yi—might as well just kill humans and seize their lifespan!

Fortunately, such a crazy thought only flashed through Fang Yue's mind for a moment and didn't linger. After all, without any information or clues, he didn't know what the truth was.

But once he returned to Mo Cun and asked An Shenyi, he should be able to glimpse a bit of the truth.

"Baa baa!"

In the distance, some scattered Sheep Void Gui could be seen heading in this direction.

But killing 【Gui Zhi】 hadn't stained him with any Gui Curse, and combined with the Sheep Void Gui's earlier Gui Curse already being broken by the Feibai Pill, Fang Yue was now debt-free and light. Those Sheep Void Gui, before discovering him as a human, shouldn't bother him.

Suppressing his thoughts, Fang Yue retreated some distance, lit the Human Soul Torch, found a slightly safer spot, sat down on the ground, and entered meditation to recover his internal force.

While meditating to recover internal force, Fang Yue would occasionally hear one or two system prompts in his ear, notifying him that negative effects had been removed.

Night Breathing was continuously working!

When the morning sun rose on the horizon and its light shone on Fang Yue's face, he finally let out a heavy breath.

Fortunately, before dawn, 【Night Breathing】 had cleared all the negative statuses.

Otherwise, still carrying a pile of negative statuses like stacked kill-books during the day—that would truly be a disaster.

The only frustration was that during the daytime in the wild, the danger level for Fang Yue rose exponentially!

Without Night's Breath, and with his medicine supplies exhausted, Fang Yue had to be careful wherever he went—if his HP dropped, he really could only rely on natural recovery to slowly regenerate!

Additionally, in combat, there was no longer a 'Mobile Blood Spring' providing HP regeneration.

In short, his strength was greatly weakened, plus all stats reduced by 20 points!

Fortunately, from killing 【Gui Zhi】 earlier, he'd obtained quite a few stat points. Compared to himself when he left the village last night, it barely counted as a small improvement—at least he was a bit tankier, right? A 50-point Strength Reduction bonus!

Without thinking further, Fang Yue opened his stat list and shifted his gaze…

(End of this chapter)