Chapter 197 - Valiant Battle (XV)

Editor: Kitty

Because the attack was rebounded by Ah Lan’s grimoire, Nie Cong’s attack reflected back on himself. As Abyss said, his attack was similar to a kind of elimination, causing Nie Cong’s right hand, including the blood and flesh of his shoulder and part of his chest to be wiped away instantly. Part of his body seemed to be swallowed up by some terrifying and invisible creature in the blink of an eye, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

Blood spattered on Nie Cong’s face, but he still didn’t have much of an expression. He did not feel pain or anger. He just lowered his head to look at his missing arm and turned to look at Feng YuLan in front of him.

Ah Lan was very close to the enemy this time, and the enemy’s blood even splashed on his face and body. The blood was warm, which fully showed that even if Nie Cong was the enemy, he was indeed a living human being.

Duan Li grabbed Feng YuLan’s waist when he did not react in time and quickly retreated as he embraced him. His speed was as fast as ever, and in the blink of an eye, he had retreated tens of meters away.

Ah Lan, who was in a trance, was still in Duan Li’s embrace. From a close-up distance, he had had another stand-off with Nie Cong. However, his sharp senses seemed to feel something. In the blood-red eyes of Nie Cong, he felt something.

“That guy is too weak,” Ah Lan said in a low voice.

Duan Li, who was holding him, heard this sentence and could not help lowering his head to look at the mage in his arms. “What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about the soul,” Feng YuLan stared at Nie Cong and spat out word by word.

A weak soul.

Although Feng Yulan’s voice was very low, Abyss, not far away, still heard this sentence. He unconsciously glanced at Xing Yan nearby and thought of some characteristics that only stalkers had.

The secret chamber would imprison the soul of the player in their own body and drive the body to do something they didn’t want to do, allowing the player’s imprisoned soul to go berserk and insane within their bodies; they could not vent, could not talk, and the darkness would corrode their soul.

This was probably what Xing Yan had said previously. Their souls were torn up again and again, and they were constantly and tenaciously reorganized.

The difference was that he was strong enough to repair his soul.

But Nie Cong was not.

He was probably the legendary k2018;first group’ of stalkers. He may have even been the first one to be turned into a puppet by the secret chamber’s will. He had gone through these terrifying ordeals longer than most people. It was a terrifying miracle that he could live to this day.

However, although Nie Cong’s body was still alive, one was afraid that the soul in that body had long been torn into countless pieces. He had no power to put it together again. Even if he had the strength, he was not willing to put it together. Such feelings of insanity had already tormented this person beyond recognition. One was afraid that Nie Cong now only sought death.

Now, Ah Lan could also see that. He could not help but think of what had happened in Asura Realm and Burial Grounds. He remembered that when he was in Burial Grounds, he was once attacked by a stalker. Then the stalker threw his soul into the hidden quest of Burial Grounds.

But Ah Lan easily came out of the hidden quest and drove the soul of the stalker out of his body. He remembered how the stalker looked when he was attached to his body. His soul was unclear, and it was hard to tell how he looked. He was just a white fog, and his soul was even worse than the souls of ordinary people.

But now what Ah Lan saw from Nie Cong…… It was sad because Nie Cong’s soul was even worse than that white fog. It was very light and thin. It was a sign that the soul would soon dissipate. Ah Lan knew that this guy was about to die. He would really die, and he would never have a chance to enter into the cycle of reincarnation and rebirth.

His soul would dissipate into nothing, just like the abilities that he was currently using, completely obliterated from this world.

Ah Lan’s heart felt unbearable.

Why should he meet such an end, with his sh.e.l.l being continuously utilized, the value he possessed having been squeezed to the point where the chance of reincarnation had disappeared? Even if Nie Cong had committed horrible deeds when he was still Nie Cong, there was no reason for him to meet such an end!

Unfortunately, even if he wanted to salvage this, there seemed to be no chance to do so. Nie Cong stretched out his left hand, which could still be used, and stroked the place on his right shoulder where his arm was missing. Something magical happened. His right arm and the missing flesh and blood began to reconstruct and reorganize. First, bones, muscles, and blood vessels…… Finally, the skin recovered in less than a second, and now, his whole body was perfectly fine.

“Other than elimination, he can also reorganize,” Abyss confirmed, chagrined, “This guy is quite troublesome to deal with.”

“We don’t have much time.”

All of a sudden, Ying, who had not moved, suddenly spoke. Ying had been standing far away from them since they started battling. Abyss understood that he did not want to fight with his old friend, so he did not let him head to the battlefield. However, Ying did not seem to want to escape his karmic relationship with the other.

“I hurt him,” said Ying with sadness and remorse in his voice. “I can’t leave him here alone. Luo Jian, take a few people with you, and I’ll stay here to deal with him.”

Abyss was slightly worried: “Can you really handle it?”

Ying said, “You don’t believe in my strength?”

“Of course not.” Abyss sighed and shook his head. “I’m just worried you’ll waver in making decisions.”

The man waved his spear. “I will never waver. Many years ago, I had already become so calm to the extent where I am unable to remain calm anymore.”

After thinking about Ying’s proposal, Abyss agreed. After all, there was not much time. They really could not stay here with Nie Cong, so they decided to leave Ying and some of his followers from Asura Realm here to deal with Nie Cong. Abyss took the rest of the people to move on. It was worth mentioning that Qi Ling continued to follow Abyss’s gang.

Because Ying came forward to attract Nie Cong’s attention, Nie Cong did not seem to care that Abyss had left with a group of people. He naturally put his gaze on Ying. He noticed that the other was a tall man with disheveled hair, and from his impression, he felt the sense that he was familiar with this person.

Before following Abyss and his group to leave, Ah Lan whispered a bunch of words to Ying, mainly telling him what he had seen about Nie Cong’s soul. Ying was silent momentarily and said his thanks to Ah Lan. Then he took up his long spear and stood in front of Nie Cong, opposite him.

When Abyss and his gang left, Ying raised his right foot, took half a step backwards, and put his spear on the ground in a defensive posture. He said to the stalker opposite him, “Nie Cong, I’m glad to see you again.”

Nie Cong never answered but seemed to respond to Ying’s words because he slightly tilted his head, allowing his long hair to slide on his shoulder. And as the wind blew on the top floor, the hem of Nie Cong’s clothes began to flutter. That should have been a beautiful scene, causing Ying to recall something that had happened a long, long time ago.

He recognized the current Nie Cong’s appearance. The retro robe Nie Cong was wearing was the test suit they wore when they were testing the game. It could be regarded as a ‘newbie uniform’ attached to the game. This robe was designed and painted by the only girl in their studio, who knew how to draw and design. Now Nie Cong…… was still wearing this robe.

As long as he saw the current Nie Cong, Ying almost felt it was unbearable and could not hold his tears back while guilt and pain surrounded his heart. He knew that it was he who had been too stupid, he who had too arrogant. He had thought that he could do it, and that was why his beloved friends turned out this way.

“I’m sorry…… Sorry, Nie Cong.” Ying lowered his voice but waved his weapon with great momentum. He said very gently, “Please die here today.”

On the other side, Abyss and his group moved on because Ying had already pointed out the direction for him, and when they stood on the top of the high-rise building, they could almost see the magnificent church in front of them. The church was an European-style building with a spire that was incompatible with the surrounding buildings, and there was a huge cross on the top.

The cross was a very old symbol. In Europe, it symbolized the sun, and the sun, in the eyes of early humans, was representative of their G.o.ds.

“It can also be said that the secret chamber’s will wants to deify itself,” Abyss looked at the tall and magnificent building and murmured to himself. They had already come quite close to the church. Around the church, there were terrifying monsters.

Beside the sacred representation of G.o.d, there was a group of monsters who seemed to have emerged from the demonic world. Abyss even saw a giant bird monster fall on the huge cross at the top of the church. The sky became dark, and the bright sun was covered by dark clouds. It was day, but now, it appeared like they had descended to night.

It was hard for Abyss and his gang to move on because there were so many monsters on the ground. Even in the sky, there were groups of bird-variation monsters bombarding everywhere.

However, within such a dark group of monsters, Abyss saw a different landscape. At a crossroad in the distance, a group of players from Asura Realm was stationed there. Their group of about 20 people seemed to be targeting the huge church in front of them.

These 20-or-so Asura Realm players were attracting the attention of many monsters, and they seemed to be doing so deliberately, constantly making huge noise, killing the surrounding monsters, and attracting more monsters to their direction.

“Isn’t that suicidal?” Duan Li saw this scene and criticized disapprovingly, “Sooner or later they will be flooded by monsters.”

Abyss did not think so because he saw several familiar faces among the group of twenty-odd people. He had fought with these people many times in the Asura Realm. “It’s no problem for them; these people’s weapons are a bit interesting. The more enemies and the more powerful the enemies are, the faster they kill.”

Ah Lan said, “Does this mean that the group of monster’s attention has been drawn by them, and we can pa.s.s by naturally?”

Abyss shook his head, “I’m afraid not.”

Indeed, this group of people would help them lead away a large number of monsters, but there were still more who rushed towards Abyss and the others. Abyss knew inwardly that the secret chamber had purposely gone against him. It seemed that if he wanted to head to the church in the middle, he still had to continue fighting for a while longer.

Although several people had exhausted their strengths when killing monsters, their ultimate goal was in front of them. There was no need to continue to work hard, so they all started their frenzied mode of killing because the church was right in front of them. However, they still had to go through its gates in order to get in, so they still came down from the top of the high-rise building and squeezed through the dark patches of monsters that occupied the ground.

Ah Lan was not used to being involved in such a crazy battle, so Duan Li had to spare some energy to protect him. Of course, soon, he was pushed to the middle position. He chanted spells to form a circle of protection for several people and opened a way out from within this dense monster pile.

The church’s front gate was pure white, but these strange monsters blocked its front. Some monsters looked like depictions from legends and mythology. With their bat-like wings and horns and their claws and tails, they stood in front of the church gate symbolizing G.o.d, as if they were the gatekeepers of that door.

G.o.d’s door was guarded by demons.

T/N: Nie Cong…is quite pitiable. The two bonus chapters will be published tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.