With the Blood Blade in hand, confidence returned to him as he prepared for his thesis defense. Right, why should he be afraid of strange creatures? It should be the strange creatures that are afraid of him!
"Let me see what you look like, you monstrous thing."
Taking a few more steps forward based on the defense, the surrounding black mist automatically dissipated, leaving a semi-spherical space with a radius of about 50 meters.
In the center was a huge red tree with countless bloodstained iron chains hanging from its branches. They dangled to the ground, making a metallic clanging sound as the branches swayed and the chains rubbed against the ground.
It turns out there was no strange creature at all, just a tree... But based on the thesis defense, I'm certain that this thing wasn't on this road when we came here. This strange tree appeared out of thin air!
It's best to suppress your curiosity about this kind of thing for now.
He accelerated on his feet, trying to get through quickly, but just as he was about to pass through, a chain suddenly slipped off a tree branch and wrapped around his ankle like a nimble snake!
"It's not that simple after all!" Relying on his defense, he raised the blood-red blade, ready to slash at the chains, but then stopped himself.
A Blood Blade can only be used once, meaning it can only kill one strange creature. Using this precious opportunity to cut the chains on your feet is obviously extremely wasteful, especially considering that there are countless identical chains hanging on that tree!
That's right! There's only one way to escape from here: kill that mangrove tree!
"I was just passing through, but you had to come and provoke me!"
With a sudden yank of the chain, the defense was dragged toward the mangroves!
The bumps and knocks against the ground made his defense extremely uncomfortable. He gripped the blood-stained blade tightly, moved closer to the mangrove, and then plunged the blade into the trunk of the mangrove!
"Go to hell!"
The blood blade was firmly embedded in the tree trunk, and even Yi Jianlian himself couldn't pull it out. The blood consumed in condensing the blood blade had already left him somewhat weak, but thankfully he managed to insert it successfully.
With a flick of the chain, he felt his left shinbone dislocate, and the pain, which spread throughout his body, made his heart, which had just relaxed, tighten again!
"How is this possible?!"
The mangrove tree remained the same mangrove tree, unchanged despite the insertion of the blood blade. The iron chains automatically flew up and hung on the treetop. Yi Shu shuddered and was thus hung upside down on the mangrove tree!
This time he was really panicked. Relying on his thesis defense, he didn't care whether his talent was worth it. He immediately generated another blood blade to try to cut the chains, but no matter how he cut, it was useless. Instead, it made him feel terrible.
"What on earth is going on?!" The observer, who was giving his answer, slammed his fist on the table. Their internal discussion had led them to guess the way to deal with the illusion: believe in yourself!
When the Blood Blade was inserted into the mangrove, relying on the defense, one would inevitably believe that one's talent would work, but the result was exactly the opposite. Could it be that their prediction was wrong? How can we explain that Jiang Ran survived while Jin Jing died, and how did the Illusionary Realm also get shot on the mountain?
Chains climbed up his body, one after another, tightening and constricting, making his joints creak and groan. He desperately wished he could faint on the spot, but that was just wishful thinking.
Having lost blood twice during his defense, coupled with the failure of his Blood Blade, he was already in despair. After struggling in vain, he simply let the chains wrap around his neck until they broke.
[The Japanese ghost story teller dies during his thesis defense...]
"Either the way to deal with illusions is not just about believing in yourself, or... the problem you encountered during your defense wasn't an illusion at all!"
Is what is true always true, and what is false always false? Does what people consider true or false have any meaning for this world?
clang--
A melodious bell rang out, its resounding sound echoing throughout the entire island, followed by a second, a third...
After a long while, the continuous chiming of the bells finally stopped.
Jiang Ran counted the number of chimes; there were 23 in total. He just didn't know what this number meant, and there were too many possible interpretations.
"Is the sound of the bells coming from the Holy Church?"
Surrounded by the black mist, Jiang Ran couldn't even accurately discern the direction from which the sound was coming. The previous chain sounds were clearer, but now the bell tolls seemed to come from all directions, enveloping everyone.
Jiang Ran stopped in his tracks, his attention drawn to the paper wanted poster pasted on a nearby tree.
After walking for so long, and using up half of the lamp oil, he finally encountered his first bounty poster!
Jiang Ran leaned closer, using the light emitted by the soul lamp to read the densely packed small characters on the bounty poster.
[The wanted person: Codename Butcher]
[Reward: 100 (approximately 2.63 bottles of lamp oil; under standard lighting conditions with a radius of 5 meters, each bottle of lamp oil can keep the soul lamp burning for 20 minutes)]
[Description: The Butcher is about 3.3 meters tall, with a muscular build, and wields a large machete. He is naturally violent and will cut down anything that tries to approach him. Note that if you tear down this bounty poster, the Butcher's hatred towards you will reach its peak, and he will actively hunt you down.]
A bizarre creature, 3.3 meters tall, wielding a large machete.
How should normal people fight against such creatures? And how should they hunt them?
Jiang Ran is currently without Gwen's assistance, and the physical enhancement brought by the Kindred Mark is clearly insufficient to deal with such a monster.
Should we use Bloodblade? Indeed, no matter how powerful the Butcher is, he's just a bizarre creature and definitely not a significant character in the plot. Using Bloodblade would be a simple matter of one strike.
But putting aside the fact that using the Blood Blade will weaken the body due to blood loss, and that one would have to find the Soul Merchant to replenish the lamp oil, the only way to do so is to hunt down those with bounties. So wouldn't those ghost storytellers who didn't kill the strange talents be doomed to die if they came to this world? That's obviously impossible.
"There must be another way to deal with these guys."
Jiang Ran tore down the butcher's bounty poster. If he wanted to replenish the lamp oil, there was absolutely no way to avoid these guys. Even if he failed in the end, the worst that could happen was that he would just have to draw his sword.
The moment Jiang Ran tore off the paper, he sensed a dangerous aura watching him from afar!
The bounty did not give the specific location of the wanted person, and Jiang Ran could not find the butcher with just a soul lamp. According to the two-way hunting rule of the bounty, they were more like the hunted party!
"Come on, let me see what you're capable of, butcher."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
