Chapter 441: Chapter 439: Assault and Decoy

The temporary squad formed to campaign against the Abyss Death Image was indeed lavish and fully equipped,

led by Black Wolf Bernard, one of the top ten in overall strength within the Death Plague Knights, who excelled in close combat,

Bernard was a pure strength and agility warrior, unlike other dead who would use flashy Death Secret Techniques. His fighting style was simple, crushing enemies with a Tombstone Giant Sword or biting through the opponent’s flesh with his wolf jaws, maximizing mobility and destructiveness.

Vivian, a “Witch Demon,” provided strong support with her Death Magic. The Death Word Skill she mastered was a unique and dangerous secret technique within the entire Knight Order.

The knight known as Mr. Listening Bone, full name Stephen Light House, was the head of intelligence in the Original Tomb, from trivial neighborhood matters to the confidential internals of the Knight Order. If you could pay the right price, he could dig up anything for you.

Of course, many who sought intelligence from him, if they failed to keep it secret, would at a minimum lose their ears, or worse, disappear forever.

He also belonged to the Sensing Type of the Death Plague Knights. The ‘Dead Plague Fog State Bacteria’ released from his body automatically arranged themselves into the shape of ears on the cell membrane,

The fog expelled from the cilia also formed two black ears around his body, capturing every sound source and obtaining all information carried by the sounds in his brain.

Finally, there was a foreign young man whose strength was only at the Open Source level, who looked as if he was being leveled up by three great lords alongside their boss.

Outside the bar called Patella and Alcohol,

Bernard had Black Wolf Willaim mount his horse,

Listening Bone Stephen leisurely climbed onto his ailing mule,

As for Vivian, Yi Chen had never seen what her dead horse actually looked like. He just saw her step out of the bar, her clothing made of braided black hair coming completely undone,

At the same time, the black hair also moved in front of her, once again covering her front flesh.

The transformation was not over yet; the black hair continued to spread toward the ground, even penetrating the ground as puffs of black mist rose, lifting something onto Vivian’s back.

“So cool!”

A pitch-black stallion with flowing mane appeared; both its mane and tail were made of human hair,

The scene of three powerful Death Plague Knights summoning their dead horses on the street naturally drew the gaze of many of the dead, who spread their arms to display their bodies in the form of a cross to show respect to the Knight Order.

They knew such a small squad’s formation meant the Knight Order was going to campaign against some dangerous entity, doing something advantageous for the Original Tomb.

A large elevator capable of accommodating four people and their mounts took everyone directly to another area on the deepest floor of the Original Tomb.

During the elevator’s descent, Stephen, lying on his mule, occasionally looked at Yi Chen’s ears, reveling in such perfect living human ears.

Stephen’s tongue even slid out from between his ears, licking the auricle without hiding his perversion.

Black Wolf Bernard was also still in a state of shock and excitement, whispering to Yi Chen while sharing a seat on the wolf, “William, how did you manage this… Vivian is notorious for her terrible temper.”

“In any matter, once you find a common interest, things become easier~ Of course, it also took me quite an effort to start talking to Miss Vivian, and the process was somewhat difficult.”

“Teach me once it’s done!”

“Sure~ By the way, Mr. Bernard, what exactly is the Abyss Death Image like?”

“As the boss explores the journey of death, his body will be enveloped by a deeper, unordered death. This process is very dangerous but has become habitual for the boss.

Due to the arrival of the boss, a being with self-awareness, the previously tranquil death was disrupted. This tranquil death encased the boss’s body and constructed entity after entity of ‘Death Appearances,’ or death images.

Some death images during this process gain incomplete consciousness and view themselves as independent entities, curious about the outside world,

They conceal themselves deep within the Original Tomb, continuously completing their consciousness by preying on passing dead or with the passage of time, gradually maturing.

As death images solidify, the originally ethereal deep death transforms into ‘Stone State,’ and the ‘Dead Person Wedge Stone’ you seek forms its structure, internal purity, and uniformity from the remnants of qualified death images.”

“I see, so we just need to smash the death images when the time comes, right?”

“Correct, just destroying its inherent form will return it to the ethereal state of death, leaving our world…but don’t underestimate the hardness.

Even I need to exert my full strength to smash it open.”

“Okay.”

Yi Chen immediately activated the firearms ‘Bartosz,’ in the armed state, and went to the factory with the consciousness of Little Grape, requesting that the factory start making the best-performing armor-piercing bullets at present.

He was also quietly communicating something with Little Grape.

At that moment, Vivian, seated on her black stallion amid her black hair, spoke,

“William, although I don’t know exactly what you’re preparing for, I hope you can find your place and not act recklessly.

The Death Image corresponds to deep death, and even a minor wound inflicted by it will afflict you with a condition known as ‘Final Withering.’

Your flesh, soul, and consciousness will die completely in a short time, and even memories related to you will be erased.

Even if we contract this condition, the epidemic value between frames will be deducted by percentage, only much slower for us, at least allowing us to last about ten minutes.”

“What if I get hurt?”

“Just ensure you kill the Death Image and carry its fragments to the boss before the epidemic value is completely deducted. He will help clear this condition for you. Later on, just stay in the middle of the team and provide whatever assistance you can.”

“Okay.”

Clack–the elevator reached its destination.

In such a dangerous operation, Yi Chen naturally did not bring the Candle Puppet; Thirteen was arranged to rest at the inn.

As everyone exited and the elevator doors closed, darkness swept over them instantly, stripping them of their vision… However, Yi Chen activated the Ember Eye at the same time.

Utilizing the inherent light of the embers to acquire the grayscale images of the surroundings,

Of course, among the group, only Yi Chen was able to secure a visual under such conditions; the other three knights all resorted to modes of perception other than sight.

“Stephen, I’ll leave the next part to you.”

“Haha, sure~ Once you find the Death Image, you guys better strike immediately, oh–my old bones might not dodge its attacks.”

Stephen gently patted the slightly bloated belly of his mule, leading the way at the front of the group,

A careful observation would reveal that besides the structures shaped like ears from Death Plague mist around Stephen, the hooves of his mule also transformed into ears, perfectly adapting to the skull-strewn floor with every step.

Stephen also lay completely atop his mule, his face and clothing full of ears pressed against the body of the mule, searching for the slightest movement in the depths of the lower abyss.

“Over here, I think I heard something…”

Leading in a direction utterly opposite to the First Dead Man’s chamber, towards a corner of the deep layer of the abyss,

After a while, Stephen’s expression slightly changed, “Hmm? Why do I hear two movements… How long has it been since the Knight Order last cleared the Death Images?”

Bernard frowned, “Two movements? Since the fall of the Evil Sun, including myself, most attention has been outside, and fewer people have come to clean up the Death Images.

Are these two Death Images close to each other?”

“They are at a medium to distant range. As long as we don’t make too much noise, we won’t attract the other one… Follow me. Let’s pick the weaker one to tackle first and then report the situation of the other to the Knight Order, letting them deal with it.

Aim for a successful stealth attack, and take it down in one breath.”

As they moved, Stephen gently raised his hand, signaling everyone to slow down and suppress their own aura as much as possible.

At that moment,

Yi Chen’s vision also captured a distinctly different massive entity, indeed modeled after the form of the First Dead Man,

with a humanoid shape,

constructed entirely of pitch-black stones,

its head above the nose smoothly cut off, a death aura hanging over its head… currently dangling its arms, wandering like a zombie,

however, the ‘deep death’ emanating from the Death Image didn’t feel particularly dangerous to Yi Chen, only relatively dangerous.

Bernard and Vivian achieved an unspoken agreement at the same time.

Separated by a hundred meters,

Bernard, clad in Black Wolf armor, transformed into a wolf form, planting his limbs on his mount,

His knees bent and then kicked!

Whizz–the sound produced during the leap was engulfed by Bernard’s Death Plague, utterly silent.

“Wolf Attack”

Bernard drew a perfect arc in the air, simultaneously thrusting the gigantic Tombstone Giant Sword in his hand, its tip heavily striking the back of the Death Image.

The unimaginable power coupled with the killing intent bestowed by the Wolf Attack, created an exaggerated circular shock wave at the point of impact,

directly causing numerous cracks to form on the back of the Death Image which then started spreading across its body, although not enough to destroy the entire statue.

“Tear it apart!”

At that moment, Vivian uttered bone-chilling words.

Simultaneously, at the area of the Death Image’s back where Bernard created a large indent, suddenly two sharp, pale, giant hands appeared, piercing into the nearly cracked back, ripping it wide open.

The stealth attack was successful,

The broken Death Image heavily collapsed and shattered to pieces.

Stephen on the mule also felt a bit disappointed seeing this; he originally wanted to seize the opportunity to get William’s ears… However, a safe and quick resolution is also good, and he can claim a decent bounty back home.

Just at that moment, he heard a disturbing noise.

“Not right! The sound from this Death Image’s collapse is off, Bernard, quickly check if there are any remains of the Wedge-shaped Stone…”

Just as Stephen shouted this out, Bernard almost simultaneously replied, “This is… a fake Death Image, created as bait! The real Death Image has already awakened its self-awareness, deliberately using this to lure us into a trap, be careful!”