Transcendent Aberrant Ghost

“Crunch.” “Crunch.” As the three traveled deeper into the Blood Demon Cave, the cramped passageway that had originally been a little over a zhang across gradually widened. The activity of several massive aberrant ghosts had made the tunnel's diameter even broader than the highway mountain tunnels of Xu Yuan's previous life. The location where the Barbarian King had clashed with that Transcendent aberrant ghost that day was likely still some distance away, but even so, the shockwaves of their battle had shattered countless rocks from the tunnel's inner walls. The rubble ranged in size from pieces no bigger than a palm to boulders over a zhang across, strewn haphazardly over the black death creep. In the flickering firelight, the sound of boots crunching over the loose stone sounded rather hollow. The three traveled forward several more li before finally arriving before the chaotic mass of boulders that completely blocked the passageway. This was a tunnel nearly ten zhang in diameter, vast enough to almost be called a cavern. The collapsed boulders had blocked off the massive passageway completely, and shattered rocks that had burst outward covered almost the entire ground. The firelight cast their three shadows against it, making them look extraordinarily small. Seeing this scene, Li Qingyan crossed her arms over her chest and said quietly, without a ripple of emotion: "This Palace already told you this place was completely blocked off. Why did you insist on coming over to look?" "......" Hearing this, Xu Yuan did not immediately reply. He paced back and forth in the massive tunnel, checking for something, occasionally circulating his Source Qi to haul away some boulders and inspect the creep beneath them. Under the puzzled gazes of the two women, Xu Yuan lingered in this spacious passageway. Finally, he came to an abrupt halt in a corner. Looking down at a small puddle of blue slime, his pupils constricted violently. After a long silence, Xu Yuan slowly walked back before the two women, looking toward Li Qingyan, hesitating to speak. Li Qingyan nodded, gesturing for him to speak his mind. Xu Yuan took a deep breath, carefully weighing his words: "Uh, we might have run into a bit of a problem." Bai Muxi pondered slightly and softly replied: "Young Master, though this path is blocked, Muxi remembers other routes into the depths of the Blood Demon Cave. We only need to take a slight detour." "That's not what I mean." Xu Yuan shook his head, pointing at the ground with a twitch of his lips. "Take a look at the stones on the ground first." "That was what you went to check just now?" Li Qingyan's voice carried confusion, but her gaze nonetheless swept across the boulders on the ground of the massive passageway. After inspecting them for a few breaths, Li Qingyan's eyes suddenly narrowed. She turned her gaze back toward the passageway blocked by the collapsed boulders, hesitating as she spoke: "Looking at the trajectory of these shattered rocks, it seems many of them burst outward from the cave-in?" "Right." Xu Yuan nodded. Because the ground was covered with a layer of black death creep, whether these boulders weighing several tons fell or rolled, they left clear marks upon it. Bai Muxi took slow steps toward Xu Yuan and asked softly: "So what you mean, Young Master, is that a high-tier aberrant ghost burrowed out from this buried tunnel?" Just as Xu Yuan was about to speak, Li Qingyan beat him to it, her tone laced with a hint of strangeness: "Judging by your expression, the aberrant ghost that came out of the cave-in is a Transcendent?" Xu Yuan was silent for a moment, then gave an earnest nod: "In all probability, yes. And it's injured." Li Qingyan uncrossed her arms, her willow brows slightly furrowing: "The only aberrant ghost capable of forcing the Barbarian King to use his full strength should be one of the four Transcendents you mentioned. But do you think that aberrant ghost could have survived that punch from the Barbarian King?" To this question, Xu Yuan answered without a second thought: "Most likely it couldn't." Earlier, that punch from the Barbarian King had clearly been his ultimate move; the shockwaves had directly collapsed several li of terrain, and tremors could be felt even in the low caverns at the outermost periphery of the Silent Crypt. While a world-line boss like the Barbarian King was not yet in his complete form, he wasn't someone an elite dungeon mini-boss could rival. Pausing for a moment, however, Xu Yuan added: "However, high-tier aberrant ghosts can regenerate with the help of the creep. Moreover, as you've seen along the way, when the gap in strength is too massive, quite a few of these high-tier aberrant ghosts are driven by survival instinct to run away." "......" Silence suddenly fell over the tunnel. Several breaths later, Li Qingyan mused slightly and asked softly: "Changtian, while this Palace is willing to trust your intelligence and judgment, why would that Transcendent aberrant ghost choose to dig through several li of collapsed terrain to come over to our side?" The Barbarian King, who had already been heavily wounded, wouldn't have expended a massive amount of stamina unleashing an ultimate move just to "hit thin air." Nor did Li Qingyan believe that, with the Barbarian King's combat genius, he would have missed when facing a mindless aberrant ghost. In other words, the place where that Transcendent aberrant ghost had been "killed" ought to be on the other side of this collapsed tunnel. While crossing several li of collapsed zone wasn't impossible, it wasn't easy either. "......" Xu Yuan smacked his lips, saying hesitantly: "Maybe... that aberrant ghost was scared out of its wits by the Barbarian King?" "......" Li Qingyan looked at him as if looking at an idiot. Xu Yuan thought it over and decided not to hide it any longer. Leading the two women to a corner, he pointed down at the puddle of blue slime and said in a low voice: "All right, none of us knows the exact situation on the Barbarian King's side. But that remnant soul once told me the specific traits of the four Transcendent aberrant ghosts in this underground palace." Li Qingyan frowned and probed slightly with her intent-soul, only to discover that her intent-soul couldn't detect the substance at all. She asked: "Changtian, what is this?" "Blood." Xu Yuan replied directly without hesitation: "The blood of a Transcendent aberrant ghost." "Blood?" Li Qingyan's willow brows knitted tighter, her phoenix eyes staring at Xu Yuan. "Aberrant ghosts have blood too?" They had traveled deep into the Blood Demon Cave for so long, slaying dozens if not a hundred aberrant ghosts along the way, but whether high-tier or low-tier, none of those aberrant ghosts contained any blood. As long as an aberrant ghost's body was cleaved open, fleshy tendrils would immediately reach out to stitch the wound together. Bai Muxi stood to the side without speaking; such information was far beyond her knowledge as well. Under the scrutinizing gaze of the two women, Xu Yuan threw his hands out quite openly: "I don't know why this aberrant ghost has blood either, but that was what the old man told me back then—an aberrant ghost converted from a serpent demon." "A serpent demon?" Li Qingyan accepted this information straightforwardly and turned to ask: "Since it has blood, can this Palace interpret that as this Transcendent aberrant ghost being injured?" Xu Yuan briefly recalled that serpent-shaped monster in Cangyuan: "You could say it's injured." "Could say?" Li Qingyan was somewhat dissatisfied with this uncertain reply. "......" Xu Yuan hesitated over how to explain it to Li Qingyan. After a long moment, he said in a low voice: "To put it simply, the more injured this aberrant ghost is, the stronger all of its abilities become." "Huh?" Li Qingyan's red lips parted slightly, her gaze turning even stranger. "The heavier its injuries, the stronger it gets?" "......" Xu Yuan averted his gaze directly. "That's what Old Man Luo said. I don't know the principle behind it either." He couldn't very well tell Li Qingyan outright that this was the Black Serpent boss entering Phase Three, could he? In Cangyuan, the Black Serpent aberrant ghost had three lives in total, each life exhibiting different attack patterns. Of course, that information wasn't important for now. What mattered was that after the Black Serpent entered Phase Three, every time a player landed a slash on it, the Black Serpent's blue blood would splatter all over the ground, maxing out the hit feedback. This had been something Xu Yuan quite liked in his previous life; he just hadn't expected to use this piece of knowledge here. Reflecting on this, Xu Yuan glanced back at the massive collapsed tunnel. He could roughly guess the situation that day. After encountering the uninvited guest that was the Barbarian King, this Transcendent aberrant ghost boss had been driven by instinct to attack the living being. Unfortunately, the gap in power had been far too vast. With a single punch, that barbarian musclehead had nearly sent the Black Serpent straight to meet its maker. A single ultimate move had wiped out two of its lives at once, and having transitioned into Phase Three, it had immediately fled. The only question was how much vitality that Black Serpent had left in Phase Three after that punch from the Barbarian King... At this thought, Xu Yuan narrowed his eyes, casting a glance at the solemn-faced Li Qingyan. If it didn't have much vitality left, perhaps relying on his intelligence and Li Qingyan's strength, they could try using the corpse of a high-tier aberrant ghost to lure it out and scavenge the kill...