*Woooosh.*
Violent winds howled within the dim bottom hold. Two wind blades capable of cleaving gold and jade coalesced and slashed toward the magic circle, only to be blocked immediately by a rising wall of wind.
The Wind Mage, Isabella, erected the wind wall, protecting the circle.
Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing immediately cast an illusion, conjuring a hammer as large as a water vat that slammed down toward Isabella. At the same time, he stirred her feelings of fear, compelling her to raise a wind wall for protection.
—A Saint-stage Wind Mage could only erect a single wind wall at a time.
A look of terror crossed Isabella's angelic, pure, and beautiful face.
"Do not let this demon bewitch you! All that you see is an illusion!" the Cardinal's hoarse voice rang out.
At his words, Isabella gritted her teeth and chose to trust the Cardinal, keeping her wind wall in place.
The massive hammer smashed downward, only to pass through her like a mirage, inflicting no damage whatsoever.
Isabella let out a sigh of relief. Immediately afterward, she waved her hands repeatedly, conjuring a dense barrage of wind blades that enveloped Lieutenant Haas.
*This Cardinal can see through my illusions?* Zhang Yuanqing found it hard to understand. The Cardinal shouldn't be a Dominator; in a Level 6 peak solo dungeon, if a Dominator-level boss appeared, a Spirit Realm walker wouldn't even need to struggle—they might as well lie flat and wait for death.
A Dominator boss, plus a swarm of minions and elite mobs—how could anyone fight that?
Yet if he wasn't a Dominator, how could he possibly see through his illusions?!
At that moment, Captain James gathered a blue-and-white ball of lightning in his palm. Tensing his waist and back, he whipped his arm forward and hurled it with all his might.
The brilliant ball of lightning struck Zhang Yuanqing, passing straight through his body and crashing into the steel bulkhead behind him.
It was merely an illusory projection conjured through his craft; his true body had long since slipped away via Night Roaming.
The next instant, Zhang Yuanqing materialized beside James. A blood-red dagger had appeared in his hand, and he stabbed it viciously toward the back of James's head.
*Bzzzt...*
James's body dissolved into an electric current, darting five or six meters away and narrowly evading the fatal strike.
At that moment, the Cardinal seated cross-legged beside the circle pulled a bright blue lightning whip from his crimson robes and snapped it forward.
*Bzzzt...*
Blue brilliance illuminated the dim hold. The lightning whip lashed out like a twisting tentacle, sweeping across the entire space. With a loud crack, it struck Zhang Yuanqing right out of Night Roaming.
Zhang Yuanqing collapsed stiffly to the ground, a charred wound appearing across his chest. The electric shock rolled his eyes back, and his short hair stood on end.
*What is going on? What's the deal with this Lightning Mage? Can a Level 6 peak Lightning Mage's attacks really be this strong?*
*Thud, thud, thud.*
Rushed, heavy footsteps echoed as two knights clad in silver armor and wielding cruciform broadswords rushed in from the entrance to provide backup after hearing the commotion.
Their eyes quickly swept the scene. Spotting Lieutenant Haas paralyzed and stiff on the ground, they understood at once and leaped into a downward slash without hesitation.
Leaping a distance of ten meters, their greatswords blazed with brass-colored radiance.
On the other side, Captain James and the Wind Mage Isabella hurled lightning spears and wind blades, attacking their foe from the flank.
Zhang Yuanqing snapped his fingers with a trembling right hand.
*Snap!*
Amid rising starlight, the knights' broadswords crashed into the steel deck, gouging out two exaggeratedly deep indentations. The wind blades and lightning spears all struck empty air.
Zhang Yuanqing reappeared more than ten meters away. Touching his searing chest, a cold murderous intent flashed in his eyes.
The Cardinal pinched the lightning whip and folded it multiple times like a cat's cradle, shaping it into a crude dome before tossing it into the air.
The dome of lightning expanded rapidly, descending to trap Zhang Yuanqing. Unhurried, he prepared to snap his fingers to cast Star Escape.
The two knights stood leaning on their swords and chanted in deep voices:
"The rule of this engagement is: No escape arts allowed."
Their broadswords flared with holy white light as the rule descended.
*Snap!*
Starlight rose, and Zhang Yuanqing slipped free of the lightning dome's confines.
Being merely Level 5 Knights, the rules they established could not bind an enemy at the peak of Level 6.
Seeing Lieutenant Haas violate their rule, the knights executed their Judgment skill without hesitation. Both leaped into the air, unleashing another jumping strike.
This time, their broadswords blazed with brilliance like the sun, their auras multiplying in power. Meanwhile, Zhang Yuanqing felt invisible streams of energy bind his hands and feet, restraining and pinning him down, forcing him to endure the strike of Judgment.
The Cardinal, Isabella, and Captain James seized the opening, preparing to launch a pincer attack.
A piercing, shrill shriek reverberated through the hold.
The heads of the two airborne knights felt as though struck by a club. Their necks snapped back violently, and they plummeted from midair.
Zhang Yuanqing ducked to evade the Cardinal's lash, drew Little Red Riding Hood, and flicked his wrist. Three figures tumbled from the void: Greed Divine General, Commandery Princess Yinyao, and Hundred-Man Slayer.
He tossed the Mountain God Scepter, the Thunder God Mark, and the Sliding Tackle Shoes to Commandery Princess Yinyao, ordering her to pin down Captain James, and commanded Greed Divine General and Hundred-Man Slayer to attack the two knights.
Night Wanderers never feared team battles.
As for the Ghost Bride, he was reluctant to release her. The Cardinal's lightning arts could severely wound even him; a wraith like the Ghost Bride would likely be crippled by a single lash and obliterated by two.
The sudden turn of events caught the Holy See's Spirit Realm walkers completely off guard.
The two knights took the brunt of the assault first. While Knights excelled in melee combat, they still fell short when compared to the evil class of Bewitching Demons. Furthermore, facing Level 6 foes as Level 5s, they were utterly crushed across the board in strength, speed, and martial skill.
Their only advantage was that the two yin corpses had no skills and could rely only on hand-to-hand combat, whereas the knights possessed powerful supportive skills. In addition, the arduous tempering of their physiques and wills during the Transcendent stage granted them extraordinary endurance and bodies of iron, allowing them to barely hold their ground against the two Level 6 yin corpses.
James was not so fortunate. He faced Commandery Princess Yinyao, who possessed an impervious body immune to fire and water as well as the skills of a Night Wanderer.
Brandishing the lightning-crackling Mountain God Scepter in tandem with the invulnerability granted by the Sliding Tackle Shoes and the invisibility of Night Roaming, she shattered James's sternum and arm bones within two or three moves.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yuanqing donned the Heaven-Worship Set, activating its set effect, slipped on the Charm Ring, and snapped his fingers, appearing directly behind Isabella.
Just as Isabella was about to ride the gales to pull away, she heard the man behind her speak in a soft, magnetic voice:
"Are you truly so afraid of me?"
A tender affection surged in her heart, blossoming into love. She felt that this man was utterly captivating, his voice alone intoxicating, leaving her legs limp as jelly.
That split second of hesitation cost her her best chance of escape.
The squishy mage had been closed in on.
Zhang Yuanqing swiftly reached out and seized Isabella's throat. With a snap of force from his fingers, he twisted and broke her neck. At the same time, flames erupted from his palm, shooting forth a fiery blade that pierced the nun's chest.
The light in Isabella's eyes rapidly dimmed. Beneath her slipping collar, Zhang Yuanqing saw not fair skin, but blackish-green scales.
Beneath her uniform, this beautiful nun with an angelic face possessed a truly demonic body.
"Despicable demon!"
The Cardinal flew into a frenzy. No longer guarding the ritual circle, he sprang to his feet, electric currents crackling over his entire body as he hurtled toward Zhang Yuanqing like a ball of lightning.
From Zhang Yuanqing's perspective, a flash of electricity erupted, and bright blue lightning filled his vision. The speed of the lightning was fast beyond his reaction time.
The next second, the lightning slammed into Zhang Yuanqing's chest. Sizzling and crackling filled the cabin as blinding lightning engulfed him.
Chains of lightning stretched from the Cardinal, tightly binding him and the demon together, followed by a continuous barrage of hundred-thousand-volt shocks.
Though grappling at close quarters put him in danger as well, the attacks of a Lightning Mage were notoriously violent and domineering among Spirit Realm walkers, easily ranking in the top three.
No Spirit Realm walker could survive such an onslaught, not even aberrants with immense defense.
Amidst the lightning, Zhang Yuanqing's lips curled upward. This was precisely the outcome he wanted.
The Cardinal's offensive power was too high, and he could see through illusions without being deceived. Backed by four elite mobs, even Zhang Yuanqing hadn't dared to force his way in to destroy the circle.
Thus, he had summoned the yin corpses to stall three of the elites, then used the Charm Ring to bewitch Isabella. The Charm Ring possessed another property—or rather, a drawback: it provoked hostility from males.
Simultaneously, he used Isabella's death to stoke the Cardinal's rage, rendering him irrational.
With both factors in play, the Cardinal had indeed abandoned the magic circle to focus entirely on killing him.
Neither Night Wanderers nor Illusionists were classes renowned for defense, and an assault this ferocious was enough to inflict severe injury. But Zhang Yuanqing had activated the effect of the Heaven-Worship Set, gaining the basic skills of four major classes.
An ochre-yellow halo shielded him.
"You..." The Cardinal raised his gaze in shock, his pale gray eyes filled with disbelief.
This development had exceeded his expectations.
The Cardinal did not let his astonishment linger. Reacting swiftly, he formed a superheated ball of lightning in his palm and slammed it violently against Zhang Yuanqing's back.
*Boom, boom, boom!*
Lightning orbs detonated repeatedly, rattling the yellow light violently and pushing it to the brink of collapse. The blasts also tore the Cardinal's hand into a mangled pulp. Though Lightning Mages possessed immense resistance to electricity, the shockwaves from the explosions were inescapable.
The Cardinal's hand was soon blasted to pieces, leaving his wrist a bloody ruin.
Meanwhile, Zhang Yuanqing pointed his right fingers like a sword. Sword qi flared and pierced through the Cardinal's heart from behind.
"Demon, return to hell!" The Cardinal's voice was low and calm, carrying the resolve of a martyr.
The next second, a terrifying heat radiated from his body, blazing with a blinding glare.
*Buzz!*
The lightning exploded with a muffled shockwave. Blinding glare swept through every corner of the hold, and chaotic electric charges spread like smoke through the air, hissing and crackling outward.
The thick yellow light tore apart. Zhang Yuanqing's chest burst open with a bang, his spine and internal organs reduced to dark red, charred matter that splattered like mud.
His left hand and right leg were destroyed in the horrific explosion.
The Cardinal was instantly carbonized into a charred corpse. Because the explosion radiated outward with him at the epicenter, his corpse remained mostly intact.
Blown away by the shockwave, the one-legged Zhang Yuanqing crashed heavily into the bulkhead. The searing agony made his vision swim with darkness, stripping away his ability to fight.
*No, I shouldn't have fought like this. What was I doing? Why did I use such crude tactics? Why didn't I use the astrolabe to divine the battle beforehand...?* An inexplicable surge of regret washed over Zhang Yuanqing.
He struggled to lift his head, his eyes sweeping across the battlefield. James's head had already been smashed to pieces by Commandery Princess Yinyao, slimy tentacles protruding from beneath his hem and writhing feebly, like a squid whose severed tentacles still twitched after being chopped into bits.
The two knights were still locked in combat with the yin corpses. A Knight's endurance was second only to an Earth Monster's; though the two yin corpses had the upper hand, killing them in a short time was difficult.
*I need to leave first. The demon seed's corruption could strike at any moment, and I must heal as soon as possible...* With his internal organs completely destroyed, Zhang Yuanqing could make no sound. He directly dissipated into starlight.
This time, he didn't snap his fingers.
Seeing this, Commandery Princess Yinyao cast Star Escape, departing alongside her master.
In the second-floor cabin, Captain James's bedroom, two flashes of starlight lit up one after the other as Zhang Yuanqing and Commandery Princess Yinyao returned.
Commandery Princess Yinyao rushed to Zhang Yuanqing's side holding the Mountain God Scepter. Pressing the gem at its top against his mangled body, she activated its self-healing ability.
A gentle green light glowed, revitalizing the cells drained of blood and replenishing his life force. However, injuries of this scale could no longer be reversed by the Mountain God Scepter; at most, it bought him a brief respite.
His spine blown away and internal organs destroyed, Zhang Yuanqing's spirit body detached from his ruined physical shell, accessed his inventory, and retrieved life fluid to inject into himself.
—His flesh was so badly damaged that he could no longer move.
Had he been a Saint of any other class, he would have died long ago; it was the formidable vitality of a Night Wanderer that allowed him to cling to life.
After three consecutive vials of life fluid were injected, his body began to regenerate. Bones regrew piece by piece, cells divided rapidly, and his ruined body reformed and recovered at a pace visible to the naked eye, much like a 3D printer at work.
"Phew..."
Bathed in the halo of the Mountain God Scepter, aside from extreme weakness, his injuries were entirely healed.
Commandery Princess Yinyao stowed the Mountain God Scepter, unhooked the mini-megaphone hanging from her waist, and blared:
"This is not your level!"
Zhang Yuanqing blinked in surprise. "What?"
"This is not your level!" Commandery Princess Yinyao repeated, staring into his eyes. "With the number of magical tools at your disposal and our assistance, you could have used a much safer tactic. The divine power of the sun in your body is abundant, yet during the fight, you didn't even think to use it. What's wrong with you? Do you have brain fog?"
The two had known each other for a long time and spent day and night together as close comrades-in-arms; she knew Yuanshi Tianzun's combat instincts very well.
"You even know the term 'brain fog' now?" Zhang Yuanqing scoffed softly. While down in the hold, he had already realized something was off with him—he had become unusually impulsive, lacking reason and composure.
"There was a demon seed down in the hold. It might have been due to corruption. Even though I have the divine power of the sun protecting me, I was still somewhat affected," Zhang Yuanqing said in a heavy voice.
"Demon seed?" Commandery Princess Yinyao tilted her head. "What kind of dungeon did you enter? Why are they all foreigners?"
"A First District dungeon. Don't ask how I got in—it's a secret." Zhang Yuanqing sat leaning against the wall, taking the opportunity to recover his stamina. With two yin corpses tying down the knights, there were no more enemies aboard the cruise ship, so he could recuperate in peace.
"This is a solo dungeon for Aberrants, so the whole cruise ship is filled with mutated monsters, just like the ones you saw in the hold." He briefly explained the nature of the dungeon.
Commandery Princess Yinyao cocked her head. "Monsters? Those people weren't monsters!"
"What did you say?" Zhang Yuanqing didn't catch her drift.
"Those people weren't monsters," Commandery Princess Yinyao said. "The foreign girl you killed was exceptionally pretty, too. Yuanshi, you're becoming less and less tender toward women. You could have spared her; maybe an open-minded foreign girl would have been filled with gratitude and offered herself to you. Besides, people in a dungeon don't require any commitment anyway."
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't process her wild, scandalous banter at all. His expression grew increasingly rigid. "What do you mean? You're saying those people weren't monsters?"
Commandery Princess Yinyao stopped joking, her scarlet, eerie pupils fixing on him.
"What on earth happened to you?"
Zhang Yuanqing said blankly, "I... I don't know..."
He muttered "I don't know" to himself. After a long moment, as if striking upon a realization, he bolted upright and rushed out of the bedroom with an unsightly expression.
Uncomprehending, Commandery Princess Yinyao followed closely behind.
The two raced out of the bedroom, dashed down the corridor, and arrived at the captain's office at the far end. Zhang Yuanqing kicked the office door open, strode over to the desk, snapped the brass lock, and pulled open the drawer.
Inside lay a black-covered notebook.
Zhang Yuanqing picked it up and flipped to the first page.
"August 28th, the third day after the demon seed was salvaged. The first infected person appeared on the cruise ship. His name was Anthony. He turned into an inhuman monster and attempted to attack the crew. Left with no choice, we had to execute him in secret, telling the others he had fallen ill.
"The demon seed is far more terrifying than imagined. The Cardinal cannot completely seal it, and the purifying holy water has had negligible effect. The Cardinal told me to prepare myself: the corruption will continue, and no one knows who will be next.
"I tried to send an SOS telegram to headquarters, but the transmission was disrupted by the demon seed's power. We have lost contact with headquarters.
"Today, Lieutenant Stephen came to me, saying he heard strange whispers and found mucus in the corridors. I could not tell him the truth, for it would incite panic. We must deliver the demon seed back to the Holy See; only there can this dreadful thing be sealed.
"After several days of observation, I discovered that the corruption occurs at a rate of one person per day. Before succumbing to corruption, dark brown spots appear on the crew members' bodies, and their minds grow sluggish and dull. Under the pretext of preventing infectious disease, I ordered the crew to undergo daily medical examinations, hoping this would help.
"It was of no use. If we kill an aberrant crewman before they mutate, a new one appears the next day. The rate of corruption remains perpetually one person per day. However, we made a new discovery: if we restrain the aberrant and ensure they stay alive, the other crew members will not be corrupted. My God, this is good news—wonderful news.
"That aberrant committed suicide. He lived for merely two days... Tomorrow, another aberrant will emerge. The method of containing the aberrant is ineffective; the Cardinal said the demon seed induced the aberrant's suicide.
"September 1st. Lieutenant Stephen has mutated. Regrettably, he did not escape this fate. The news that crew members were being corrupted one after another could no longer be kept secret, and the crew fell into immense panic. The Cardinal devised a solution: purify the aberrant and attempt to twist his cognition and thoughts, leading him to believe he is normal. Could such a method really work?
"September 2nd. The experiment succeeded. Lieutenant Stephen has returned to normal—at least, so he believes. But he no longer remembers his name. We gave him a new name—Lieutenant Haas!"
Reading this, Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts exploded. His mind fell into utter chaos, his head splitting with agonizing pain.
He clutched his head in agony, his expression contorted. "So... the corrupted one was me..."
Chapter 710