Chapter 559

Crrrack!!

His chest was slashed open by the mantis ghost's scythe; as blood gushed forth, he gritted his teeth and threw three punches in rapid succession, then retreated violently under others' cover, gasping for air.

Just now, he nearly died at the hands of the 【mantis ghost】!

And all of this was because of Jiang Shixiong behind him!

That bastard had cowardly shoved him from behind, forcing him out of formation to face the ghost alone.

Tianlong considered himself reasonably strong, but only reasonably—far from ready to solo-kill a ghost.

With a flickering expression, he glared at Jiang Shixiong's unflinching face, already plotting how to silently kill him.

Undeniably, battlefield activity was the fastest way to boost strength.

He'd just fought alongside the ghost horde, and before even landing several strikes, he'd already earned an assist—his stats rose by a fraction.

Sure, a fraction seemed tiny, but when multiplied by volume, it added up.

But he himself bore the risk; the more ghosts he chased, the more likely he'd be killed by overzealous aggression.

This was risk and opportunity coexisting.

Yet compared to chasing multiple ghosts, maximizing single-target damage on one ghost—so long as it was finally killed—yielded a direct gain of single-digit stat points!

Rapid power growth had made Tianlong addicted.

Moreover, he discovered that among this Zongmen Qingsi United Army, there were quite a few players!

It was just that everyone had arrived at the gathering and immediately rushed into battle.

Otherwise, with more communication, they might have spotted those players' identities sooner.

As for how Tianlong figured it out—it was naturally due to their hyper-casual, vividly colloquial language, and their frantic, all-out efforts to chase every ghost, seeking only damage, never kills, with a "fair-share" combat style.

Plus their baffling movement paths—some would inexplicably cross half the battlefield from one sect's position, just to land a single hit on a dying ghost, shouting all the while.

"Let go of that ghost!!"

"Daring ghost, where are you running?!"

"Aaaahhhhh! Brother, brother, make way… just let me A it! Fuck! It dropped a stone—I'm looting the corpse!"

Indeed, sometimes people would recklessly rush out to loot corpses.

The result was inevitably gruesome—they were torn apart by the ghosts.

While everyone unitedly defended against the ghosts, those acting out of line stood out glaringly—Tianlong couldn't possibly miss them.

And when Tianlong seized an opportunity, amid the two senior sisters' screams, he shoved Jiang Shixiong out of the formation, kicking him beneath a ghost's feet, watching Jiang Shixiong's face twist in terrified Zhenjiu as the ghost bit off his head.

Tianlong discovered an extremely peculiar combination.

It was a girl, fair-skinned and beautiful, wielding a long spear with grotesque clumsiness, hiding behind the ranks, poking, poking, poking, occasionally shouting loudly, "Hey, that green-robed brother over there, slow down—I'm about to snag an assist!" and similar nonsense.

Yet strangely, the Qingwei tolerated her behavior as if she held high status among them.

But the problem was… she wasn't even wearing Qingwei armor—just ordinary villager clothes, albeit more colorful and better-looking.

Yet what intrigued Tianlong most wasn't her frantic quest for assists and ghost kills, but the dog beside her—the Human-Headed Dog.

Not a dog that stole kills, but literally a dog with a human head mounted on its body, lifelike, as if giving orders!

And that dog's head was panting, "Hah-chi, hah-chi," with a black short sword stuck through its skull, seemingly completely out of it.

What kind of combination was this??

Tianlong was baffled; as he watched more closely, he noticed farther away, others huddled deep within the protective circle, firing arrows randomly—clumsy, safe, and cowardly.

Damn it! Why didn't I learn any ranged skills? Why was I stuck in frontline duty?!

In this massive battlefield, Tianlong envied ranged positions intensely—so many ghosts, you could close your eyes and spam attacks to rack up assists.

But if your strength was weak, your ranged attacks barely pierced the ghosts' hides, yielding minimal assists, sometimes only a vague "slight increase" prompt.

Yet if you managed to land a hit when a powerful ghost was slain, the rewards were huge.

Most importantly… safety!

Ranged units were protected in the rear; only when the front line collapsed or was wiped out did the backline face danger—so…

Tianlong had just thought this when a ghost with bat-like wings dove down, plunging into the rear ranks, unleashing a storm of blood and gore, leaving over thirty corpses airborne.

Tianlong: …

Fine, the rear wasn't safe either. If it were him facing a sudden flying ghost, he might have some countermeasures—after all, he was melee. But someone armed with ranged weapons? No way to retaliate against a charging ghost.

High-command orders arrived swiftly: rear ranged units must prioritize eliminating flying ghosts, with supervisors assigned.

Several players who'd been mooching assists were singled out as examples—beheaded on the spot.

Sneaking around in the chaos was one thing; but when ordered to fight, you still try to show off and play games? You die, you die in vain.

Aside from these people, there was one figure who fought with extraordinary bravery, almost rivaling a Xiantian Realm warrior from a minor sect.

He was a bald man, his eyes glowing with golden threads, as if wearing colored contact lenses.

His mobility and strength were absurdly powerful—he dispatched minor ghosts in mere strikes, and occasionally engaged Blood-level ghosts in prolonged battles.

Because this man moved so freely, going wherever he pleased, Tianlong couldn't tell if he was a player.

Tianlong turned his gaze away, continued killing ghosts, quietly cultivating, while staying alert to the venomous glares from the two senior sisters.

Harem -2!

He needed a way to kill these two women too.

As Tianlong was silently plotting, a thunderous boom erupted ahead.

He looked up and saw a burst of blood mist in the air—Hei Zhanglao's upper half, frozen in his final expression of terror, crashed heavily to the ground.

Heilu Sect's Hei Zhanglao is dead?!

Not only Tianlong was stunned—all others present froze in shock.

In that instant, the ghosts seized the chance and claimed many lives, forcing them into frantic counterattacks.

Yet everyone's thoughts were no longer on the immediate battle—they were fixed on the high-tier combat zone!

There, Tian Erjun knelt on one knee, his left hand gone, as if torn off by iron chains, exposing half a bone, his body covered in blood.

Meanwhile, Bei Hufa had nearly transformed into a three-meter fire giant, fighting furiously with 【Pulling Coffin Apparition】.

The extreme heat turned 【Pulling Coffin Apparition】's iron chains red-hot, but nothing more.

(End of Chapter)