Amid the sounds of conversation, waves of deep purple mist welled up to the second floor, spreading across the floorboards like dry-ice fog on a stage. Simultaneously, a green cloud of poisonous insects buzzed through the air, darting around the staircase landing to scour every corner.
Even before arriving, the evil-class walkers had released hex insects and poison fog to sweep the ground, showing extreme caution.
Standing in the most conspicuous position, Alicia glanced toward a spot not far from the stairs where Daode Tianzun was concealed. Seeing that the poison smoke and insects were about to reach him, she immediately raised her staff, conjuring a miniature hurricane that swept the heavy, viscous smoke and the swarm of insects up into the air.
The footsteps on the stairs halted, and the evil-class walkers ceased their chatter.
After several seconds, a soft chuckle drifted up from the stairwell:
"Just two people. Let's go up."
With those words, a group ascended the stairs, coming into full view of Alicia and Qingzhu. Exactly as Daode Tianzun had predicted, there were five enemies.
Leading them was a Caucasian youth with dark green hair, clad in faded denim jeans and bare-chested to show off his robust, bulging musculature. Four black, mutated arms sprouted from his ribs.
Those black arms were remarkably thick, radiating power, with sharp keratinous nails that looked capable of tearing through steel.
His eyes had already mutated into amber, slit-like pupils. Cold and unfeeling, they held no trace of human emotion.
"Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect..." Alicia's fair face grew solemn. Although she had anticipated this ever since hearing the name "Hundred-Armed Deacon," seeing him in the flesh crushed the final sliver of hope in her heart.
Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect was a member of the Biological Alchemy Society, active year-round in Mizhou, the state with the worst public security in the Free Confederation.
Though peak Saints had recently been returning to the Spirit Realm by the handful in the faction war of New York County as if they were worthless, in the past, when Dominators remained hidden behind the scenes, a peak Saint like Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect was effectively an outlaw desperado.
Murder, robbery, extortion, rape... It all depended solely on his mood and whether he had enough Morality Points.
Even if the orthodox faction deployed two peak Saints of the same level, killing him would be impossible; at most, they could only scare him away.
Now, beyond Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect, there were four other Saints in the evil team. Every one of them was a seasoned combatant, accompanied by artifacts and props.
Their side had a terribly low chance of victory.
*Two Aberrants, an Alcoholic, an Illusionist, a Witch Doctor...* Qingzhu swiftly identified the classes of the five enemies. One hand gripped the Egyptian Pharaoh's Sun Disk, while the other opened his inventory, ready to summon a stone stele for defense at a moment's notice.
Faced with this lineup, he abandoned any thought of going on the offensive.
Alicia was a Wind Mage, and he was a Beast King—both relied purely on physical attacks.
Meanwhile, the enemy Alcoholic's skills were unpredictable and hard to guard against, the Illusionist's mental manipulation, mental strikes, and illusions were nearly impossible to counter, and the Spirit Medium's abilities were equally troublesome.
Factor in their artifacts and props, and he and Alicia would last a few exchanges at most before being sent back to the Spirit Realm.
This was the core reason evil classes held an advantage over orthodox classes: their skills were more potent and harder to counter.
At this point, they could only hope that Daode Tianzun could assassinate one of the enemies, turning a three-against-five into a three-against-four. That might offer a sliver of hope.
"Well, look who it is—Alicia!" Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect's eyes lit up, a cruel and delighted grin instantly spreading across his face. He clearly recognized her.
Upon confirming that there were indeed only two enemies, the evil-class walkers relaxed, their expressions turning mocking or malicious. The Spirit Medium, shaped like a humanoid beetle, let his gaze linger over Alicia's curvaceous figure. Lust flared within him, and he thrust his hips forward with a lewd cackle.
"We didn't get a chance to taste that woman on the first floor. This time, kill the man first, and leave the woman so we can have some fun. I don't get many chances to ride a Western broad, especially one as gorgeous as her."
Apart from Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect, the other three snickered with strange grins, raising no objections to his proposal. As evil-class walkers prone to indulgence, they had no reason to refuse.
"Hmph!" Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect sneered coldly. "If you want to play with women, wait until we leave the trial. I won't allow a peak Saint to stay alive."
With that, he detached a gourd from his waist and barked:
"Alicia!"
The next instant, a massive vortex erupted from the gourd's mouth, engulfing Alicia more than ten meters away.
This was an artifact he had subdued in the first-floor exhibition hall, named the Yin-Yang Gourd. It was an extraordinary treasure: by uncorking it and calling out the target's name, one could draw them inside.
Within an hour, the captive would dissolve into bloody water.
Even if the target possessed special defenses or self-healing capabilities, an hour of refinement would leave them utterly debilitated, completely at their captor's mercy.
A powerful airstream dragged Alicia toward the gourd. Unflustered, she raised her staff, generating an opposing wind to anchor herself in place.
Her body creaked under the strain of the two battling currents, her bones groaning as if ready to snap.
A pale gray light surfaced in Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect's eyes, and two petrifying beams shot forth, only to be blocked by a hemispherical yellow energy shield.
Qingzhu had cast out the stone stele.
Alicia swung her staff: "Hurricane!"
Suddenly, she grunted in pain and clutched her forehead. Before the gale beneath the feet of Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect and the others could fully take shape, it dissipated into a gentle breeze.
The Illusionist had unleashed a Mental Strike. Mental Strikes could be cast in single-target focus; though not as devastating as indiscriminate area-of-effect attacks, even a Wind Mage with a relatively fragile spirit could endure it.
However, his intention had merely been to interrupt her casting, not to finish her off.
Experienced Spirit Realm walkers were thoroughly versed in how to conduct team battles.
On the other side, the humanoid beetle seized a bronze spear, beating his wings and thrusting the weapon into the shield generated by the stele.
A layer of translucent shimmer coated the spearhead.
The power of Fortune Blessing!
Any conscious action received a subtle, profound enhancement, as though blessed by divine aid.
Among the Spirit Medium's three core abilities, only Fortune Blessing required preparation in advance. Before coming up the stairs, he had already set up an altar and performed the ritual, bestowing blessings upon both himself and the team.
*Crack!*
The stone stele and the yellow energy shield shattered simultaneously. Just like that, a Saint-grade prop was destroyed.
The petrifying beams met no further obstacle.
Qingzhu had prepared for this. His arm transformed into a vine that whipped toward Alicia to pull her away, while she raised a wind wall to add protection.
Yet the vine that should have coiled around Alicia abruptly veered in the wrong direction, and the wind wall sprang up behind her rather than in front.
The Alcoholic had cast Perceptual Confusion on them, deranging their sense of orientation.
The petrifying beam struck Alicia squarely in the chest. A pale, ashen tint spread across her chest and abdomen—not fast, but relentless.
No longer able to resist, Alicia was dragged rapidly toward the vortex swirling at the gourd's mouth.
Seeing this, Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect broke into a cruel grin. But right then, the beetle Spirit Medium spun around and thrust his spear directly at him, his face contorted in fury: "I told you I want to fuck her, can't you hear me?! If you don't listen, I'll fuck you up first!"
The transformed Spirit Medium was swift and accurate, catching Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect off guard. He barely managed to raise a single black arm to parry.
*Clang!*
The Grade 1 artifact struck the back of his hand, sending blinding sparks flying.
Although it didn't pierce the gourd, the parrying hand blocked the gourd's opening, causing the vortex to vanish instantly.
Alicia's whole body slumped in relief.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect roared in fury, pale light brewing in his eye sockets.
The beetle Spirit Medium froze as well. "Wh-what am I doing?"
Just a moment ago, an overwhelming wave of rage and resentment had flooded his chest. He felt that Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect was relying purely on higher experience to disregard his desires, showing him zero respect.
Consumed by a surge of malice, he had lost his temper and attacked without hesitation.
Now that the fury had been vented, he realized something was terribly wrong.
"His mind is being manipulated!" the Illusionist shouted.
The five evil-class walkers recoiled in alarm. In the next breath, a heavy *clatter* echoed as something was hurled to their feet.
Looking down, they saw a disc the size of a washbasin. Half of its surface was white, half was black, and a red needle stood at the center.
At that moment, the red needle pointed to black.
Above the turntable, a dialogue box materialized:
[Pointer: Black]
[Note 1: Answer the turntable's question. A correct answer allows you to spin the pointer again. Accumulating three whites will lift the confinement.]
[Note 2: Answer incorrectly, and you die!]
[Question: A customer arrives at a brothel and calls two women into his room!]
[Note: Guess an idiom based on the question! Please answer within thirty seconds. Countdown: 00:29:45]
An invisible barrier expanded, enclosing an area forty meters across.
Because they had prearranged their tactics, Qingzhu had already grabbed the half-petrified Alicia and fled the moment he heard the sound, avoiding entrapment within the Yin-Yang Turntable's barrier.
Baffled, the evil-class walkers exchanged blank, bewildered glances.
"I can read the translation from the trial, but I don't understand what it means," the Alcoholic said, immediately looking toward the Spirit Medium and the Illusionist.
Meanwhile, the Spirit Medium rocketed into the air, darting to the boundary of the barrier and thrusting hard with his spear.
The barrier didn't budge in the slightest.
"It won't break!" the Spirit Medium yelled back.
"Th-this..." The Illusionist's face drained of color. "The Yin-Yang Turntable?! The legendary Yin-Yang Turntable?!"
*What Yin-Yang Turntable?* The three evil-class walkers from the First District failed to grasp the significance.
Before the Illusionist could explain, a piercing shriek ripped through the air. All five men jerked their heads up, feeling as though their skulls had been struck with a club. Splitting headaches seized them, and warm blood trickled from their nostrils.
A figure materialized nearby, pulled out a soft red pointed hat, and shook out three figures cloaked in swirling yin energy.
"Get him!"
Zhang Yuanqing pointed toward Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect.
Commandery Princess Yinyao held the Eight-Sided Han Bronze Sword, Bai Ren Zhan wielded a horse-chopping saber, and Greed Divine General gripped a blood-red broadsword. In a triangular formation, they charged at Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect, slashing downward with their weapons at the same time.
Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect caught the three blades with his six arms, but the two armor-piercing weapons bit straight into his metacarpal bones.
*Bang!*
Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect crashed to his knees, his impact cracking the floor tiles.
Zhang Yuanqing ignored him, dissolving into starlight and reappearing right before the Illusionist. Solar power surged from his palm, condensing into a longsword that sliced toward the man's neck.
He chose to kill the Illusionist first because they shared the same class, allowing him to suppress the enemy on every front.
At that instant, the Illusionist, the Alcoholic, and the other Aberrant—having barely recovered from the mental strike—attacked simultaneously. Distorted spatial perception, limb incoordination, illusions, mental strikes, petrifying beams... a barrage of heavy control and offensive skills rained down at once.
A faint golden halo enveloped Zhang Yuanqing's body.
Between the protection of solar power, the immunity granted by the Unyielding Will Pill, and his own identity as a peak Dream Master, these skills could not shake him in the slightest.
A streak of sharp golden light flashed. The Illusionist's head flew into the air, a fountain of blood erupting behind it.
A spiritual body detached from the physical shell, fleeing into the distance.
Dark energy swirled in Zhang Yuanqing's eye sockets. He opened his mouth and inhaled, drawing the Dream Master's soul directly into his belly and suppressing it with lunar power.
On the other side, Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect opened his inventory and summoned suits of bone armor. His frame ballooned instantly, mutating into a two-meter-tall humanoid monstrosity whose aura approached the limit of the Saint realm. As a peak Saint, he naturally kept several trump-card props.
The three yin corpses were hurled backward in an instant.
Zhang Yuanqing reached into the void, grasped a black crescent, and pressed it to his forehead. The crescent immediately sank into his flesh, unfurling into vine-like markings that covered half his face.
The auras of the three yin corpses surged violently, their dense yin energy suppressing the petrification. Exerting their strength in unison, they forced Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect back to his knees once more.
At that moment, the Yin-Yang Turntable's countdown reached zero.
Four beams of dark light shot from the black section of the disc, bathing the remaining evil-class walkers and frantically sapping their vitality.
Apart from the Alcoholic, who managed to throw the dark light into disarray, the other three could not resist its drain, their lifeforce bleeding away rapidly.
Seizing the opening, Zhang Yuanqing shifted the longsword into a greatbow. Golden radiance beamed from his fingertips, forming an arrow that whistled toward the Alcoholic.
The latter instinctively tried to distort the arrow's trajectory with his skill, only to find the attempt useless.
The arrow pierced the Alcoholic's chest, but neither blood nor wound appeared. Inside his pocket, a loud *crack* resounded as a clay figurine shattered into powder.
The Death Substitute Doll artifact had taken the blow for him.
*Buzz...*
A swarm of bees tipped with poisonous stingers droned through the air. Realizing that Fortune Diminishment was ineffective, the Spirit Medium had decisively spewed the swarm, using these specially bred, armor-piercing, venomous insects to attack.
Zhang Yuanqing snapped his fingers, vanishing into starlight.
The Yin-Yang Turntable unleashed a thick beam of dark light that swept across the swarm, causing the hex insects to drop like rain.
Within the domain of the Yin-Yang Turntable, all living creatures were drained of life, with the exception of the yin corpses and the item's master.
Starlight coalesced beside the Alcoholic. Zhang Yuanqing threw back his head and unleashed a screech that rattled the man's mind and will, leaving him unable to activate any skills. Simultaneously, the greatbow in Zhang Yuanqing's hands twisted into a long blade that plunged deep into the Alcoholic's chest.
Having dispatched the Alcoholic, Zhang Yuanqing vanished into stealth.
The Spirit Medium shot into the sky, remaining on high alert, while the remaining Aberrant abandoned any idea of aiding Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect, spewing poisonous smoke to keep enemies at bay.
*Huff, huff...*
Bathed in the dark light and suffering constant health loss, the Aberrant panted heavily, feeling his stamina rapidly waning.
He dared not relax for a second, scanning his surroundings with razor-sharp eyes. Soon, he noticed a ripple in the purple poison smoke to his left: something was barreling toward him at extreme speed.
Without hesitation, he fired petrifying beams.
The pale beams struck their mark, knocking the approaching enemy out of stealth.
Before the Aberrant could celebrate, his pupils shrank as a brilliant golden radiance flared. In the next heartbeat, a pale gold longsword impaled his skull. No blood spilled—the solar power cauterized the wound on impact.
*Why is he immune to the petrifying beam...* That was the Aberrant's final thought before returning to the Spirit Realm.
Seizing the opening, the Spirit Medium dove from above like a shooting star, thrusting his spear straight at Zhang Yuanqing's back.
He had caught the perfect chance for an ambush, confident that with the blessing's aid, success was assured.
Zhang Yuanqing spun around without dodging or retreating. Placing his hands in a thrusting posture, golden radiance gathered between them, solidifying into a lance.
*Thunk!*
*Thunk!*
The spear and the lance pierced each other's chests at the same moment.
Under the old crone's harsh training, he had already mastered the essence of Day Wanderer combat: its dominant, ferocious nature lay in pairing the destructive power of solar power with the supreme regenerative capabilities of a Night Wanderer.
He had no qualms about trading injury for injury or life for life.
*Damn it, the spearhead is coated in lethal poison...* A tearing agony racked Zhang Yuanqing, nearly making him faint. He hurriedly exhaled lunar power, sending a ghostly apparition clad in bridal attire, cradling an infant, straight into the Spirit Medium's body.
Then, he released the lance, refraining from condensing weapons out of solar power this time to avoid harming Bai Lan and Little Doubi.
Ignoring the spear lodged in his chest, he stepped forward and threw a heavy punch, completely obliterating the Spirit Medium's head.
A Night Wanderer was practically half a brawler, after all.
*Thud!*
The Spirit Medium's corpse tumbled down, thick blood spreading across the floor.
On the other side, even under the continuous life drain of the Yin-Yang Turntable, Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect had still managed to cripple the Level 6 yin corpse Bai Ren Zhan, struggling stubbornly against the combined assault of Commandery Princess Yinyao and Greed Divine General.
Zhang Yuanqing avoided melee combat, conjuring a longbow to rain ranged attacks upon him, piling on pressure while waiting for the wound in his chest to heal and the poison in his veins to clear.
Behind the scenes, he manipulated Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect's emotions, amplifying his despair and making his strikes increasingly frenzied and erratic.
Five minutes later, having reached the end of his strength, Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect was struck in the throat by an arrow from Zhang Yuanqing and had his heart pierced by Greed Divine General's armor-breaking blade.
The peak Saint froze for a few seconds before crashing heavily to the ground.
The moment he died, the gray-white stone crust coating the nearly petrified Alicia receded swiftly.
Alicia's eyes went wide with disbelief.
She could not imagine that at the Saint stage, someone could pull off a one-against-five against high-tier Saints and settle the entire battle in under ten minutes. If one discounted the time spent deliberately wearing down Hundred-Armed Demonic Insect, Daode Tianzun had killed four evil-class walkers in less than five minutes.
This completely overturned her understanding.
Dominator-grade props and consumables were strictly forbidden in the killing trial.
Beside her, she heard Qingzhu mumble in a dazed, dreamlike voice:
"Yuan... Yuanshi Tianzun..."
Chapter 787