Chapter 409: Chapter 396: This is the Game (Three-in-One Chapter)

May 30, 2037, at 9:13:21 AM.

All players across the Holy Spirit server received a game event quest.

“Event Quest – Holy Spirit Reserve Comrade Recruitment Order.

Description: Kind Spirits, facing the war, Queen Mei is preparing to recruit reserve comrades. Currently, the quota for the Holy Spirit vessel is limited, but players recruited by you will enter the Holy Spirit World as a form of sprites. (Promotion activity for the ‘Holy Spirit * Cloud Player’ version)

Quest Requirement: Share the link below with players who do not have Holy Spirit eligibility. Those who download the ‘Holy Spirit * Cloud Player’ APP from this link will receive one Friendship Point.

Quest Reward: The Friendship Point Shop is now open, you can exchange points with Miss Alu or Queen Mei, which includes some of the heartfelt shop merchandise and unique product rewards.”

Friendship Points? ‘Holy Spirit Cloud Player’ version? What the heck is that?

Shen Meng is currently on the ruins of the Vibrant Nucleus, leading the brothers of Black Wind Village to raid the ruins occupied by the Magic Thieves – it’s more accurate to say they were looking for a suitable difficulty level for grinding.

After the arrival of the Black Tide Island to Biland Island, all the monsters on the entire map of Biland Island were refreshed, and the locations where players have established bases were swarmed with Magic Thieves.

The ruin base of the Vibrant Nucleus was supposed to be the hardest instance area, but when Shen Meng led the Black Wind Village’s charge in, they discovered that the Magic Thieves in the base had disappeared, leaving only the bound and lonely Silver Total sitting atop the ruins.

“Event quest? Miss Shen Meng… are you going to do this event quest?”

Turning his head to look at Shen Meng, who was untying him, Silver Total knew that Denghis Xisi and his Magic Thieves had run off somewhere ten minutes ago. During this time, Silver Total had been keeping an eye on Lu Wei’s live stream.

From Lu Wei’s streaming perspective of the clash between Black Pot Cooked Meat and Juan Canyun with Denghis Xisi, he was able to discern quite a few clues.

“Why wouldn’t I do a quest with rewards? And you–how come when you were tied up by monsters, you didn’t call the beefcakes from Vibrant Nucleus to rescue you?”

After untying Silver Total, Shen Meng thought about how Silver Total, the big boss behind Vibrant Nucleus, got tied up and rubbed on the ground by a bunch of Magic Thieves. It was really a loss of face for Vibrant Nucleus.

“It wouldn’t have been useful. For giving commands, using voice is enough, and Coach Song and the others are busy killing monsters,” Silver Total said candidly.

“It seems… that’s true?”

Shen Meng considered it carefully. In reality, maybe they would have gone for the rescue, but in the game, everyone was busy killing monsters. Who would take care of a single, useless teammate?

“Speaking of which, Miss Shen Meng, are you really planning on doing that event quest?” Silver Total’s gaze still fixated on Lu Wei.

Now, Lu Wei had escaped from the direct confrontation with Denghis Xisi and instead started scurrying around the grand castle, holding a large pile of clay bombs in her arms.

What she was doing now was precisely targeting these clay bombs at the structural… load-bearing walls of the building.

So Silver Total had no choice but to switch to another live stream, focusing on the showdown between the Beheading Squad and Denghis Xisi. Honestly, things weren’t looking good, with Denghis Xisi consecutively kicking two players of the Beheading Squad offline before slaying them.

The members of the Beheading Squad even started to suspect if the boss, Denghis Xisi, had some kind of BUG.

But Silver Total had roughly figured out from Denghis Xisi’s words that the disconnection wasn’t a BUG at all, but a special attack of Denghis Xisi.

“Of course, I’m doing it. Why wouldn’t I do a quest that allows me to exchange for rewards?” Shen Meng was somewhat puzzled.

“I don’t mean completing it once or twice, or even a hundred times, but tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of times. It’s pretty much using your popularity to promote ‘Holy Spirit * Cloud Player’.”

Silver Total knew that Shen Meng’s popularity might be the highest among Chinese streamers, even higher than some professional players when it comes to popularity among gamers.

As a host, it’s quite normal to take on mobile game ads to make a living, and Shenmeng’s advertising fees might even be more expensive than some celebrities.

As a shareholder of Holy Spirit, President Yin is currently discussing with Shenmeng the matter of advertising for “Holy Spirit: Cloud Gamers”.

“Name your price,” President Yin said directly to Shenmeng.

“Name the price of a shrimp? What I want, you can’t give me.”

When Shenmeng heard President Yin’s words, she suddenly remembered that her top spot on the spending list had been snatched by President Yin.

Right now, she doesn’t want anything from playing this game–she just wants Mei’s photo album! But it’s gone! All because of the man in front of her!

“So, what does Miss Shenmeng want?” President Yin knew that big hosts like Shenmeng truly aren’t short on money.

“I don’t need anything… As long as it’s a quest released by my kiddo, that’s more than enough.”

“Your kiddo?” President Yin, finding the term strange, was still pondering who Shenmeng was referring to when she started her frenzied food-eating performance in the livestream.

“Brothers, haven’t you always been shouting that you want to play Holy Spirit? Now’s your chance to get the Holy Spirit beta access!” Shenmeng, holding the Tiangong gadget’s camera, directly placed the download link and QR code on her livestream interface.

“You’re actually false advertising,” President Yin muttered under his breath, criticizing Shenmeng’s promotion. This warrior recruitment quest didn’t actually provide any beta access to Holy Spirit, at most it was just a test access for the cloud gamer version of Holy Spirit.

“Pfft! If I don’t advertise like this, no one will download it, okay? And what I said isn’t wrong, this is my area of expertise, so don’t meddle.”

Shenmeng covered the livestream’s camera with her hand and muted her voice, responding to President Yin.

As a host, Shenmeng actually has quite a few flaws, but these were from her younger days, and she’s lost a bit of her edge in her old age.

But that doesn’t mean Shenmeng doesn’t know how to cause a stir, she still knows a thing or two about riding trends and playing at the fringes from her hosting tactics.

At this stage, if she wanted as many people as possible to download the Holy Spirit: Cloud Gamers version, she had to play those sly tricks to the extreme!

‘Wow? Brother Meng actually started eating onscreen? The last time I saw Brother Meng take an ad was a year ago.’

‘We need to make a living, huh? Holy Spirit is giving out beta access now?’

‘Brother Meng, are you sure that this link really is for Holy Spirit?’

‘I’ve already spent a thousand bucks on this game, what about you guys?’

Based on the feedback from the chat, the viewers still approached the situation with a degree of skepticism and playful banter. Shenmeng was pondering her next promotional step when a comment caught her attention.

‘I’ll download the game if Brother Meng plays with me.’

“Let me tell you! It’s not just about me playing along. You all know about Laughing Master, right? If you download using this link, forget asking me to play with you, even Laughing Master will play this game with you!” Shenmeng continued, while constantly pointing to the QR code in the top right corner of the screen.

‘Snaky host, are you blowing smoke? You do know about Laughing Master’s contract breach? Can’t stream for three years, remember?’

‘All in good fun, but can we not joke about Mingwei?’

Shenmeng’s words were taken by a bunch of passerby fans as her riding on Zhao Mingwei’s popularity. Shenmeng indeed was riding on Zhao Mingwei’s popularity, but not everyone can ride on Zhao Mingwei’s coattails. His fans, known as the easiest to provoke online, are called “that kind” of fans in esports.

Among them, Zhao Mingwei’s fans are the extreme… those kinds of elements in the esports professional players.

Zhao Mingwei’s haters, girlfriend fans, and die-hard fans are countless online. Only after Zhao Mingwei retired did these fans quiet down for a bit. But Shenmeng’s layer of hype instantly blew up Zhao Mingwei’s haters and die-hard fans.

“What are you guys spraying at your moms? What I’m saying is true! There’s a description in the official event!” Chen Meng didn’t back down and started clashing with the barrage of comments head-on.

Because only then does the heat rise, only then does the attention come; although this would add another black mark to Chen Meng’s record, she can’t worry about that now!

For the sake of attention, she’s chosen to go all out!

“Acting this way will get you into no small amount of trouble,” Silver, watching from behind, said to Chen Meng in her streaming room.

The incident of the sexy Brother Meng spraying at the viewers online had already been stabbed onto Weibo at lightning speed, along with the trending search of old streamer Chen Meng leeching off Xiao Ye’s popularity.

The price was that the popularity of Chen Meng’s streaming room instantly soared by one and a half times, and the friendship points she got from the event task were also rising rapidly, from an initial thousand points, shooting straight up to one hundred and thirty thousand, and the friendship points were still climbing.

Finally, at six hundred and seventy thousand friendship points, the growth began to slow down.

Each friendship point represents… those viewers who downloaded “Holy Spirit*Cloud Players” after watching Chen Meng’s stream.

“Hatred from black fans is still fandom, isn’t it just traffic? I can go even more explosive … it’s just … it might impact Xiao Ye’s reputation a bit,” Chen Meng said.

Chen Meng herself had a fiery temper, and even though she was older and didn’t like to quarrel over things, it didn’t mean she would ignore black fans who came to her doorstep delivering themselves to her.

“I … can’t vouch for Zhao the player, but I am contacting other fan management companies to advertise ‘Holy Spirit*Cloud Players.’ You decide for yourself,” Silver said.

“Let’s see…” While Chen Meng was sparring with the influx of black fans in her stream, a comment suddenly caught her attention.

‘Are you blacking Zhao Silin’s Brother Meng, you motherf***ers? Xiao Ye is really streaming! Stream room number 01!’

This comment quickly disappeared in the deluge of comments, but Chen Meng still caught its content.

Zhao’s team is really streaming?

Chen Meng immediately opened the Holy Spirit player interface on the raccoon streaming platform in her stream room, and indeed, amongst the stream rooms beyond the top ten in popularity, she saw one titled “Holy Spirit Official Stream: Xiao Ye’s Ultimate BOSS Conquest Battle.”

This stream room’s number was 01, a special stream number given to Zhao Mingwei by the raccoon streaming platform after they bought the exclusive streaming rights, and the most ironic thing to Chen Meng was … Zhao Mingwei’s ID on the raccoon streaming platform was still Supreme World*XiaoYe.

Fans of Supreme World recognized this streaming room, and in an instant, the popularity of Zhao Mingwei’s stream room began to rise rapidly.

“I’ve got eight hundred and seventy thousand friendship points on my end now, these points should be able to be exchanged for anything…” Chen Meng turned around and asked Silver, always feeling that Silver knew what these friendship points were actually for.

“Whether it’s enough depends on Zhao the player’s streaming situation. Can he defeat that boss named Denghis Xisi?” Silver also opened Zhao Mingwei’s stream and asked while speaking.

“He’s completely dominating! But I’m curious about that ‘temperature warning’ in Xiao Ye’s streaming interface…”

“Temperature warning?” Silver stared intently at Zhao Mingwei’s streaming interface. Besides the routine status and skill bars of Holy Spirit, there were additional sections for the number of people watching the stream and a temperature warning.

Silver didn’t know what this temperature warning meant…

Meanwhile, at the core consciousness of Black Tide Island.

The disconnection attack from Denghis Xisi didn’t need to touch a player to be triggered; every ten or so minutes, he just needed to directly target a Beheading Squad member at a critical moment, which would cause them to be disconnected for five to twenty seconds.

In the midst of intense battle, this was a lethal blow. A half hour had passed, and Zhao Mingwei had already been hit once, which caused his VR cafe equipment to be directly scrapped.

Zhao Mingwei didn’t have time to find a manager to change the computer, he chose to seamlessly log into Holy Spirit using his phone within the VR equipment.

At this moment, Zhao Mingwei began to feel fortunate that Lin Xi once thought his old phone was too crappy, so she bought him a new one–the latest model, and top-quality globally.

But even the best in the world, Zhao Mingwei’s phone couldn’t withstand long periods of overloading.

Zhao Mingwei could feel it… Denghis Xisi had been pressuring him throughout the battle, and his next target was still him!

As a result, the phone in Zhao Mingwei’s right hand grew hotter and hotter. Even though it was just in the game, Zhao Mingwei could feel the temperature in his palm rising. Finally, when the temperature warning popped up, he felt as if his right hand had been scalded by boiling water.

“Return to reality, spirit!”

During this time, Denghis Xisi had been beheaded once by Caramel. After his second death, his body had transformed into a dragon, except for his head, which greatly increased his speed and strength but significantly reduced his intelligence.

The burning pain in Zhao Mingwei’s right hand grew more intense, akin to holding a red-hot iron ingot forcibly with bare hands.

In that instant, Denghis Xisi also seized the opportunity to use his tail to bind Zhao Mingwei’s right hand and attacked it!

“Abandon everything in this void world, and at the very least, you can preserve your fragile limbs in reality,” Denghis Xisi said as he prepared to deliver a critical strike to Zhao Mingwei; but behind him suddenly surged a wave of deep blue energy orbs, resembling spectral bodies.

As these orbs emerged, the burning agony in Zhao Mingwei’s right hand started to gradually subside.

‘Where is this place? Is it really Laughing Master’s live broadcast room?’

‘It seems real?!’

The orbs were emitting some strange, faint sounds which Denghis Xisi ignored. He was pouring a massive amount of Black Wind Village’s spiritual consciousness into Zhao Mingwei as a medium, while simultaneously not forgetting to dissuade Zhao Mingwei from his futile struggle.

Rather than dissuasion, it was more like a mocking attack aimed to break his spirit.

“All the strength you possess is nothing but an illusion created by the Devouring God, and all the honors you’ve achieved are equally false! In reality, you’re just a powerless nobody, a deserter, a coward who can only flee when faced with an enemy like me!”

Denghis Xisi had completely lost all pretense of civility, rage filling his heart as he loudly slandered Zhao Mingwei, who was slightly disoriented from the pain.

But the next second, one of the drifting orbs in the sky suddenly struck Denghis Xisi in the face. The orb was solid, yet it only resulted in a “MISS” damage indicator when hitting his face.

However, this did not stop Zhao Mingwei’s fans from venting the fury Denghis Xisi’s words had provoked.

“Our Mingwei retired with honors! Say that bit about a battlefield deserter one more time, you dead thing, see what happens!”

“Damn! What right do you have to insult our Laughing Master?”

“Standing before you now is the dual-champion of the S4S5 Conflict World Championship, the three-time MVP of China’s Summer Season, the savior star of the Intercontinental Games, the best damage dealer of the World Games, the most valuable player for four consecutive years, the most popular player in the China Region for five consecutive years, the one and only God Laughing Master Zhao Mingwei! And what about you, little brother? What are you?”

“To all the anti-fans and casual fans, as well as the true fans of the Holy Spirit Cloud gamers, listen up, today we are all Qi Junzi! Let’s curse this dog to death!”

“I’m done talking, just give me a knife, I’ll cut down this thing’s mother myself.”

Denghis Xisi’s words might not have been effective as mockery against Zhao Mingwei, but they were like poking at his fans’ raw nerves, igniting them as if a powder keg had exploded.

In this moment, Denghis Xisi, a Magic Thief from another medieval age, was subjected to cyberbullying from the internet age.

The players incarnated as energy orbs didn’t muse on the reality of the Holy Spirit’s graphics… just the million-agitated-netizens-on-forums-and-weibo ready to unleash their verbal tirade.

Their verbal abuse… turned out to be effective.

Because Denghis Xisi was suppressing the negative emotions Black Wind Village induced within himself, as to reduce their control over him.

But the problem was… when millions of orbs were madly spraying Denghis Xisi, although some of the curses were too advanced for Xisi to fully understand, he could still tell that these orbs were cursing at him!

Normally, Xisi would never tolerate being provoked, but now his body had been partially taken over by the consciousness of Black Wind Island which was even starting to affect his intelligence; this was just like the situation on Biland Island before, only in completely reverse.

Angrily, Xisi waved his hand and used Telekinesis Energy waves to utterly destroy the orbs that were crashing against him and continuously cursing.

Seizing the moment Xisi was enraged to the point of losing his reason, Zhao Mingwei managed to dodge his tail and retreated several steps to get out of his attack range.

At this moment, Zhao Mingwei felt the burning pain in his right hand disappear completely as more and more deep blue orbs surged out.

Mingwei looked at the orbs that surrounded him like a sky full of stars and realized these were likely players who had logged into the Holy Spirit World using the “Holy Spirit: Cloud Players” version.

“They are my honor, Denghis Xisi,” Mingwei finally responded to Xisi in that moment.

But this grand and imposing line received no enhancement because…

“Come out and face me! Bastard!”

“If I had an official Holy Spirit account, I’d rip your mother’s head off and use it as a piss pot!”

“Go to hell!”

Hold it in… hold it in.

Xisi tried to control the negative emotions of anger and hatred within him, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down or lose his reason.

He always felt like he had forgotten something… or was missing something. Xisi directly pierced his eardrums with his fingers in an attempt to calm himself down.

Finally, he realized… the Beheading Squad was missing one person!

After Xisi entered the second phase, there were nine players left alive from the Beheading Squad, but the ones who had been entangling with him from just now numbered only eight!

Where had the missing person gone? What were they doing!!

Xisi tried to summon his thoughts, and the first thing that came to mind was…

‘Hey, tonight I’m going to dance on your students’ graves, yo!’

“Enough!” In that moment, Xisi could no longer hold back the fury inside of him. He let out a roar, and a piercing screech erupted from his body, dissipating most of the orbs around him instantly. “None of you will survive! Holy Spirit!”

“We have the same thought, Lu Wei, make your move!” Zhao Mingwei caught a rope and shouted loudly on the voice chat.

As the command was given, Lu Wei’s cheerful laughter came through the voice chat.

“I absolutely love this game for not limiting the amount of timed bombs in an instance! Even if it’s only restricted to this one! Brace yourselves, everyone!”

“What are you going to do! Holy Spirit!” Xisi covered his forehead, trying to make his thoughts normal, but it was useless; Black Wind Island was brainless!

“Clear this instance,” said Mingwei, “whatever the cost.”

In the clash with Xisi, Mingwei realized that Xisi’s true form was not the one in front of him, but the entire castle! The core consciousness of Black Wind Island lay deep within the castle, and Xisi’s existence was merely to delay the progress of the Holy Spirits and to divert their attention away from the castle.

Once this was understood, clearing the level became quite simple. Despite the castle’s interior being absurdly spacious, as a professional demolition expert, Lu Wei still excellently completed her task.

The occupation of a demolition expert originally had a limit to the number of bombs that could be placed, partly for game balance as intended by Jiang Qiao, and another reason was… the act of detonating bombs was also a skill of the demolition expert player, which would put a strain on the player’s spirit, so the limit on bomb placement was restricted by spiritual power.

In her normal state, Lu Wei’s spiritual power was two thousand one hundred, allowing her to place a maximum of one hundred and twenty timed bombs. With Denghis Xisi’s friendly assistance, Lu Wei’s spiritual power had reached eleven thousand!

The number of bombs in the castle was seven thousand seven hundred and seventy. Jiang Qiao was not clear on what this amount would translate to in reality, but once Lu Wei pressed the detonation button, there was a very high probability that she would completely lose consciousness.

“No! No!” It was already too late when Denghis Xisi tried to prevent Lu Wei with instant teleportation-type magic; the remaining members of the Beheading Squad were all the best. Caramel and Juan Canyun… and Qi Junzi formed an iron wall that blocked the path Denghis Xisi might have taken to leave.

It also sealed Denghis Xisi’s last hope.

“Lu Wei? Lu Wei?” Zhao Mingwei awaited the explosion, but when he looked at the live stream, he found… Lu Wei’s state seemed somewhat absent-minded.

“Wake up! Competitor Lu Wei!” Zhao Mingwei was truly panicking at that moment.

The Beheading Squad’s shouts echoed in Lu Wei’s ears. Lu Wei also tried to get her body moving, but she found her consciousness was like being stuck in a quagmire.

She could see the detonator button with her eyes and could detonate it directly with her mind, but she just couldn’t move!

But suddenly, she saw a pair of translucent hands gently resting on her arm that was holding the detonator button.

Who? God?

In her daze, Lu Wei thought of this absurd possibility. Her family were believers, and so was Lu Wei as a child. However, as she grew up, she found it too absurd, so she was only superficially cooperating with her parents in being a believer.

“Holy Spirit, I shall ensure your victory, please do as you wish…” A gentle voice echoed in Lu Wei’s ears.

Was that the voice of the Fureya doll? No! That felt wrong! Lu Wei was indifferent towards Fureya, but she knew Fureya’s voice had no emotion. Yet this voice was filled with a kind of tenderness, and… a hiccup?

Lu Wei suddenly thought of this possibility, but how could a god from the game’s backstory appear at this moment? Was it a hidden mechanic?

While she was wildly guessing, the translucent hands on her arm infused her with strength, allowing Lu Wei to press the detonation button directly with that force!

There was no deafening explosion sound; the bombs Lu Wei had set off one after another in an orderly manner, like playing a piece of piano music. Only the keys were bomb after bomb with an astonishing yield.

The entire castle began to violently tremble, as if someone was wailing.

Denghis Xisi knelt down on the ground, glowing, and his body shattered downward like a statue.

Zhao Mingwei had no time to worry about Denghis Xisi now, as the castle was collapsing rapidly. It was already too late to summon a flying mount.

The plan was risky, and the risk wasn’t with the Beheading Squad–Holy Spirits had numerous ways to avoid the building’s collapse. The problem was with the two NPCs, Lady Calamity and Wenna!

Lady Calamity was to be protected by Juan Canyun, or rather, she needed no protection.

Wenna was different. She had accumulated too much of Biland Island’s negative energy within her, weakened so much along the way that she couldn’t even fight, and had even lost consciousness after that.

Denghis Xisi’s assault was too fierce, and Zhao Mingwei had no way to take care of Wenna…

So, when the floor of the room began to slide down like a slide, Zhao Mingwei’s eyes immediately found the unconscious Wenna.

Zhao Mingwei quickly slid down the sloping floor towards her, but he was still a step too slow, and Wenna tumbled over the edge of the castle into the contorted black space below.

But Zhao Mingwei had already saved her twice! The third time would be no different.

Zhao Mingwei, who had been prepared, threw a rope that looped precisely around Wenna’s wrist. His other hand gripped a sturdy support point on the castle, and afterward, he held onto Wenna’s rope tightly.

“The reason you saved me, is it because if I died… it would make your mission flawed?” Wenna, who was clearly awake, looked up at Zhao Mingwei with a complex expression on her face.

Hearing this question, Zhao Mingwei was also taken aback. Wenna was right, the previous two times he had saved Wenna were for the sake of ‘perfectly completing the mission.’ It was the equivalent of an undamaged challenge in a game, and Wenna’s survival was merely incidental. But this time…

As Zhao Mingwei was wondering how to answer her, a shadow spear flew from nowhere and directly cut off the rope that he was using to pull Wenna.

In that moment, Zhao Mingwei could only watch, wide-eyed, as this character… this unrelated plot NPC, fell into the endless abyss and disappeared from sight.

The castle also completely collapsed at that moment. Zhao Mingwei instinctively used his extraordinary trampoline skills to avoid the falling debris and finally landed on a floating island suspended mid-air.

Denghis Xisi, whose body was starting to gradually collapse, was also on this island; he no longer had the strength to stand, and the shadow spear in his hand was fading away.

Zhao Mingwei looked at Denghis Xisi, and Denghis Xisi looked back at Zhao Mingwei.

“Now… Holy Spirit, how do you feel?” Denghis Xisi asked Zhao Mingwei with a weak voice, “Tell me, what is… your feeling?”

Denghis Xisi’s current health was down to only a hundred points and was still dropping. He wouldn’t last long before dying.

Zhao Mingwei clenched his fists and glanced sideways to see the Titan team’s healer climbing up on the other side.

“Shaw… heal him,” Zhao Mingwei said to the healer with a voice devoid of emotion.

“Captain Zhao! Have you gone mad? Why would you heal this enemy?”

The healer was very puzzled, as Denghis Xisi had left a deep negative impact on him.

“Aren’t you afraid this BOSS has a fourth phase?” The healer said to Zhao Mingwei in a jesting tone, “And I saw you didn’t save that female NPC, it’s just a female NPC; maybe she’ll revive once we leave the instance, there’s no need to overdo it, right?”

“I told you! Heal him!” But Zhao Mingwei’s response was a roar, a suppressed shout that echoed in his voice.

The healer from the Titan team was intimidated by this roar, reminiscent of a tiger’s growl. He was an old rival of Zhao Mingwei’s, but Zhao had always been utterly calm on the field; this was the first time he had seen Zhao Mingwei furious.

“If something goes wrong, don’t blame me.” The healer began to cast Healing Magic on Denghis Xisi, which helped to heal some of his wounds and restore a bit of his health.

“Stand up!” Zhao Mingwei kicked a sword over to Denghis Xisi and said directly to him.

“Hahaha… what are you trying to prove? Holy Spirit?” Clutching the sword, Denghis Xisi struggled to his feet, then launched a Breaking Army Slash at Zhao Mingwei.

Zhao Mingwei simply stepped on the longsword in Denghis Xisi’s hand, pinning it to the ground, and then threw a punch… without the Telekinesis Energy Dragon Tiger Roar, just the most unadorned punch that heavily struck Denghis Xisi’s cheek.

The punch knocked him straight to the ground, crimson blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

Zhao Mingwei picked up the longsword that had fallen at his feet again, throwing it beside Denghis Xisi, who was lying on the ground.

“Stand up…” Zhao Mingwei continued to repeat the three words, staring at Denghis Xisi, who was laughing wildly on the ground.

“Killing me… won’t serve any purpose.”

Denghis Xisi stood up again, this time staggering a bit, but still released a more powerful Charge Skill, Fierce Dragon Breaking Air Slash, rushing towards Zhao Mingwei.

The sword Qi from the Fierce Dragon Breaking Air Slash snapped at Zhao Mingwei, but he dodged the dragon’s bite with a sidestep, then kicked Denghis Xisi hard in the chest.

His body flew out directly, hitting a wall and then sliding down, with a large amount of blood spilling from his mouth.

“Without the power of Chaos bolstering you, what do you have left?” Zhao Mingwei walked up to Denghis Xisi, grabbed his collar, and stared into his pupils as he said, “Without the hit points, attack power, defensive power of a Lord-level monster…what do you have left?! Speak!”

“But I do have…” Denghis Xisi murmured, “that’s one of your weaknesses, Holy Spirit… Your original bodies are too frail, susceptible to burns from fire, to damage from impact, cough… More and more people will learn of your weaknesses through the star charts, so… become stronger, Holy Spirit.”

As Denghis Xisi spoke these words, his life points had completely reached zero, and he shattered into countless pieces, disappearing in front of Zhao Mingwei.

Zhao Mingwei stood in place, gazing at the countless fragments of cities drifting in the sky, slowly disintegrating.

“Senior! I saved Lady Catastrophe, huh… what happened?” Juan Canyun arrived at this moment with the fainting Lady Catastrophe on his back, but he felt the atmosphere was a bit heavy, nothing like the mood after clearing an instance.

‘Congratulations on clearing the core consciousness of the Black Tide Island

Reward: Thirty thousand points of merit, Black Tide Island Conqueror title, equipment…

You will be teleported out of the instance in ten seconds.’

As the teleportation light flashed by, Zhao Mingwei found himself standing amidst the ruins of vibrating nuclei, the once dark-clouded Biland Island had completely cleared up.

Players around gathered to celebrate, while those in the know applauded the members of the Beheading Squad.

But Zhao Mingwei remained silently still.

“Master!”

Yelena emerged from somewhere and, with some excitement, threw herself into Zhao Mingwei’s arms.

Zhao Mingwei, initially stunned, held Yelena, his grip tightening more and more, like a frightened child clutching their teddy bear.

“Master…what’s wrong?” Yelena could feel something was off with Zhao Mingwei’s emotions.

As Zhao Mingwei tried to choke out something to say, he saw in the celebrating crowd the figure of Wenna, the Magic Thief Miss.

In that instant, Zhao Mingwei was frozen once again; he watched from a distance as Wenna waved at him, gesturing in lip language a ‘thank you’ from afar.

“Why?”

Zhao Mingwei let go of Yelena’s embrace and wanted to go up to confirm if that Wenna was real…

“Are you asking why that NPC is still alive? This is a game, Laughing Sir… Isn’t it very normal for NPCs in a game to be able to resurrect? If she’s dead, who would lead players through the next instance?” Jiang Qiao said to Zhao Mingwei on the side.

Jiang Qiao didn’t just switch out the model to fool Zhao Mingwei; Wenna’s spirit had been stored in the Book of the System. Her death was merely Jiang Qiao spending some Creation Energy to recreate a body for her, essentially the same as all other players.

But the cost was the loss of a significant part of her memories, she might have forgotten many unpleasant memories of her past as a Magic Thief.

Zhao Mingwei could also tell from the evasive look in Wenna’s eyes, that she was not a replicate but the genuine article.

“Yes, Holy Spirit is a game,” Zhao Mingwei reached out and rubbed Yelena’s forehead, saying, “But even in a game, there are many things…that we must protect.”

“Uh…Zhou player, you should be past the age of adolescence,” Jiang Qiao said offhand, “Ah well, I’m going offline to sleep, almost got liver cirrhosis from overexerting all day.”

Though Jiang Qiao said he was going to sleep, what he had to do was clean up the aftermath… Cleanup might be even more troublesome than taking down Denghis Xisi!