Chapter 223
The vines surged towards them like a raging tide, forcing the crowd hiding behind the barrier to retreat step by step.
Captain Xu and the other top members raised their hands and stood at the forefront. The vast difference in power between them and the demigods made them feel as if they were fighting against the heavens, cold sweat pouring down their foreheads, and their strength rapidly depleting.
One of them inadvertently noticed a small bump on the ground, his pupils contracted sharply, and before he could react, green vines sprouted from it and, like a venomous snake, viciously bit at the team member's forehead!
"Oh no—!"
At the critical moment, Yan Chuyi suddenly appeared in front of the member, and golden light cut the green buds like a knife, then turned into flames and burned the vines to ashes.
At the same time, he squatted down, pressed his palms down on the ground, and golden waves of light burst out from his palms, spreading outwards in circles like ripples, pressing several mounds of earth that had not yet been broken down hard into the ground!
Xu Qingran, who was battling the vines, and the [Gravity] player exchanged a glance and shouted, "We'll help too!"
The emblem on the back of his hand appeared instantly, and golden divine power surged into the crumbling barrier, instantly making it radiant and forcing the originally rampant vines to retreat step by step.
Amid the crowd, there was another unexpected person in action—Stephen.
He strode up to the player parasitized by the vines. Having received divine blessing, he possessed more seasoned combat experience than the newly born chosen ones, and he summoned the golden light without needing to learn or adapt.
Raising his hand forward, he grabbed at the air with his five fingers, and golden light, like a hook, seeped into the pores of the skin, actually pulling the vine out of the body of the parasitized person!
The others stared in astonishment as they watched the gloomy young man casually smash the vines and toss away the debris like trash.
"Is this guy really that strong?"
"Wait a minute, did we forget? This guy is supposed to be the gatekeeper boss!"
"Yeah! It's definitely strong!"
Stephen used the same method to eliminate all the parasitic vines inside the players. Hearing the conversation, he gave a nonchalant smirk, inwardly grumbling.
—My ability to deal with Dionysus vines has nothing to do with strength. Envious? Admiring? Try anti-parasitic training twice a week on average and see what happens.
—Crying adds double the training time; begging for mercy adds triple. With White's inhumane training methods, even a dog wouldn't take these vines seriously.
But Stephen knew that Dionysus hadn't really gotten serious yet; otherwise, given the other's fearsome reputation and abilities, they wouldn't have been able to handle it so easily.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, a young man who looked like a Greek goddess descended the steps.
He walked with restraint, slowness, and elegance, his expectant gaze lowered subtly. His every move was not so much deliberate as to be deliberately affected and artificial.
It felt as if they weren't walking towards the players, but rather stepping onto a red carpet to meet a king they had long admired.
However.
Corresponding to the young man's devout and shy expression was a deafening roar behind him.
The earth trembled and a crack spanning hundreds of meters wide opened up, from which a colossal shadow, obscuring the sky, crawled out with a crackling sound. High-rise buildings collapsed and fell into the bottomless crack beneath it.
It was a gigantic humanoid skeleton guard; even just the exposed half of its body was comparable in size to Stephen, who had mutated into a giant boss. With a gentle lift of its arm, it swept away the surrounding buildings as easily as smashing tofu.
It bent slightly, its dark, pupil-less eye sockets like the sun high in the sky, and a large shadow like a tide swallowed the black tower gate, covering the player's head.
All players' vision went black, except for the dodder, which glowed with a dark green light, frolicking and dancing on the giant skeleton's body, like the threads that controlled the puppet.
My hands and feet are ice cold, and I feel a chill.
The young man's gaze swept past the many frightened eyes and stared straight at Yan Chuyi in the center of the crowd. He said with affection and heartache, "White, I know that everyone is pinning their hopes on you. You have to stand up and bear all the pressure and criticism. You have never had a moment of ease, nor a moment of happiness. You have truly been yourself. Don't worry, I'm here to free you."
Ink wash space.
Xie Xubai took a deep breath and placed a piece on the ground with a snap.
The world of chessboards.
Golden lines swept past the player like the wind, and a slender figure descended from the sky to the ground.
In the instant he looked up, everyone saw his face.
With regular features and a handsome face, if you don't look into his eyes, it's definitely a face that exudes friendliness.
However, the vicissitudes of life have left their mark on his eyes, and the trials and tribulations he has endured have imbued his words and actions with a maturity and dignity that belies his age.
The members of the Apostle Guild would never be unfamiliar with this face; it was Xie Xubai's appearance when he served as the First Apostle.
Compared to Yan Chuyi, this long-lost yet familiar face was clearly more impactful to the Seventh Apostle.
The Seventh Apostle paused for a moment, then murmured involuntarily, "white..."
White didn't look at him, and used golden light to conjure a dagger, which was unremarkable and about the size of a palm.
The Seventh Apostle snapped out of his daze, blinked, and chuckled, completely disregarding the dagger: "You think you can deal with me with such a small dagger? White, you're underestimating me too much."
He had already discovered that White's strength was far inferior to his peak, and he was no match for him in terms of level alone.
With White also having to take care of the group of burdens behind him, he was at least 99% confident that he could take them down.
But the next second, he saw White reverse the dagger, the sharp tip pointing directly at his heart, and without hesitation, he stabbed it down cleanly and decisively!
The Seventh Apostle's expression shifted from relaxed confidence to shock and panic. A sharp crack echoed in his mind, and in a moment of utter shock, he seemed to break free from some kind of restraint, charging forward recklessly: "White! No!!!"
Theseus couldn't stop him in time; with a violent shake, a few drops of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
Watching the Seventh Apostle run away in a panic, his pupils widened slightly, and he felt as if he had been cursed.
—The Seventh Apostle broke free of his mental control, and he suffered the backlash!
—You can't stand it after just one look? You dare to say you're rescuing Xie Xubai with this kind of willpower? Even elementary school students rushing to finish their homework before a holiday are more determined than this!
Theseus knew that Xie Xubai was using a ruse, but the Seventh Apostle did not.
In that timeframe, down to the microsecond, the action of White stabbing down was dragged into a slow-motion, still frame.
The Seventh Apostle clearly saw the dagger tear through the fabric of the clothes, blood seeping out, as if a nightmare scene was being replayed. His scalp tingled, and he frantically grabbed White's hand: "Stop! What are you doing? Are you crazy?!"
The Seventh Apostle was genuinely panicked.
Anyone who experienced the final battle knows that White could really kill himself. He has always been ruthless to others, but even more ruthless to himself!
White lifted his eyelids, met the Seventh Apostle's gaze, and said calmly, "It seems you still acknowledge me as your former captain."
The Seventh Apostle exclaimed in panic, "How could I not admit it? What are you talking about?"
He is the captain, the commander, and more importantly, the older brother who raised the younger apostles single-handedly, like a father and a mother.
The young commander nodded: "That's good."
The Seventh Apostle's heart skipped a beat when he saw the sudden chill in the Apostle's eyes.
However, it was too late to back down. In the blink of an eye, White slapped him hard across the face!
With a sharp thud, the person was thrown three meters away, falling to the ground with a mouthful of blood and a metallic taste.
The chaotic battlefield was now eerily silent.
Stephen, seemingly lost in thought, turned his face away with a look of phantom pain.
White strode up to the Seventh Apostle, his aura sharp and icy, and grabbed him by the collar: "Did I ever say that we can't harm innocent people?"
The Seventh Apostle instinctively clutched his head and protested, "No, it was just control! The others wanted to kill me, so I... Ouch!"
Did I say that consuming flesh and blood would increase your mental burden?
"I...I was wrong, ah!"
"Everyone is pinning their hopes on me? Don't you see the painstaking efforts of the higher-ups, the fearless combat troops, and the desperate struggles of billions of players in order to win the game? Should I thank you for giving me a promotion?"
Xie Xubai was so angry his hands trembled: "Did I say I was tired? Did I say I was unhappy? Do I need you to relieve me? Huh?!"
"Ah! I know I was wrong, please don't hit White in the face! Ah!"
Everyone: "..."
No, no, is that right?
One second they were facing an invincible and arrogant enemy, and the next they were crying and wailing like a child being disciplined for making a mistake, without daring to fight back at all.
The players—especially Brian.
As a defeated soul who had been tormented by the Seventh Apostle and had experienced Hill's arrogance in treating all living beings with disdain, seeing this scene made me rub my eyes, and I vaguely wondered if I was still dreaming.
One player noticed something amiss and shouted, "Look at that stranger's hand! He's also a member of Xie Xubai's family!"
When everyone saw that Xie Xubai's divine favored one's hand was indeed reflected on the back of White's hand as it moved rapidly, they gasped and wanted to say something, but after a while, they calmed down.
What can they say?
I'm so shocked I'm numb.
—I'm not bragging, but whether it's players or bosses, any powerful player in the dungeon has an inseparable connection with my god.
Theseus, his expression gloomy, suddenly glanced upwards and jumped up.
Bang!
A golden blade of light, imbued with fierce divine power, landed on the spot where he had just been, cleaving a huge crack in the ground.
Xie Xubai's first attack failed, and he closed in again, his golden light blades raining down like a storm of pear blossoms, creating countless shockwaves as they crashed towards Theseus.
In a flash, his eyes turned into dazzling golden eyes.
The moment Theseus met those golden eyes, his mind seemed to be struck by a heavy blow, and he was momentarily dazed. A fierce golden light swept over him and cut him into pieces!
The fragments, without drawing blood, suddenly exploded into black specks, their surfaces oozing ominous scarlet blood energy, which condensed in mid-air to form a huge and ferocious human face.
The face opened and closed its mouth, the sound was noisy and echoing, as if countless men, women and children were speaking in unison, emitting a chilling laugh.
"Why did you go so hard? Didn't you say you didn't care?"
Yes, Theseus realized it the instant Xie Xubai made his move.
The other party didn't disbelieve that he had a winning strategy against the system, but rather that they didn't trust his character and planned to subdue him before forcing him to talk.
With 4 white pieces against 3 black pieces, no wonder Xie Xubai was so confident and dared to go all out. What a brilliant plan!
Before Xie Xubai could launch another attack, the human face smiled and fell backward, instantly transforming into black and red lines that seeped into the earth.
The earth trembled once more! This tremor was far more powerful than when the giant skeleton appeared. Countless cracks appeared in the ground, and all sorts of bizarre, ferocious, and terrifying monsters crawled out like hellish imps, their roars rising and falling.
If the Seventh Apostle had the energy to take a look, he would have recognized them as the countless citizens of the kingdoms he had devoured, now all reappearing in the world as ghosts!
Seeing the sheer scale of this place, the players almost fainted.
But their target wasn't the player, or even Xie Xubai. Countless monsters turned around simultaneously, a vast, dark mass, their trampling causing the ground to tremble, and they sped away like lightning.
What's next... wait! Damn it!
Captain Xu roared in astonishment, "Stop them! They're going to destroy the way to the tower!"
The Seventh Apostle, panting heavily from the beating, collapsed to the ground, dizzy and disoriented. Hearing the commotion, he tried to get up to check what was happening, but White grabbed him and lifted him up. He instinctively covered his head, crying, "You really, really admitted your mistake! Stop hitting me..."
But then he heard White say, "Help me."
The Seventh Apostle was stunned for a moment, then heard White's calm voice: "Only you can help me now. Use your vines to stop them."
!!
In an instant, firecrackers exploded, fireworks burst forth, and shooting stars lit up the sky!
Without a second thought, the Seventh Apostle raised his hand, and the giant skeleton kicked up a cloud of dust, crushing dozens of undead citizens into pieces with a loud thud!
This matter is not over.
The Seventh Apostle's dodder is deadly to living things because it absorbs life force. However, these dead souls are no different from puppets; they have no flesh or life force whatsoever! After they die, they immediately expand rapidly like inflating balloons and continue moving forward.
The green vines surged forward like a tide, grabbing at them and barely managing to restrain their steps. In less than a second, the bodies of the dead became as ethereal as phantoms, causing the vines to miss their grip and fall to the ground unexpectedly!
Seeing this, Xie Xubai prepared to control all the pieces to launch a direct attack on the black pieces. Even if it meant mutual destruction, he could not allow the passage to be destroyed, and he could not hesitate for a moment.
But at that moment, a tentacle wrapped around Xie Xubai's wrist in the ink-wash space, his tone a little sour.
Why didn't you ask me for help?
Xie Xubai was startled and turned around to look, meeting the golden-red eyes of the evil god's body.
The latter tilted his head: "Okay, remember to praise me later."
A cool, black mist brushed across his lips, leaving a damp ripple.
Xie Xubai, whose mind was preoccupied with how to break the deadlock, suddenly felt a subtle unease: Was He really speaking so fluently just now?
Xie Xubai's eyes darted around quickly, and he spotted a small section of the thorny black crown within the black mist.
Where did the other half go?
Soon Xie Xubai no longer needed to think, because the black mist made two movements right in front of him, gradually merging the remaining half of the black crown into its body.
It's like eating and digesting a black crown.
The black mist let out a loud burp, and before Xie Xubai could react, it darted into the crack in the chessboard.
—The system warned Theseus about the crack created when he was slammed onto the chessboard.
By devouring the black crown, one gains access to the chessboard world, then infiltrates the gaps to enter in an absolutely safe manner, without affecting Xie Xubai's strategy.
The chessboard trembled violently, as if it were alive, resisting the evil god's entry and urging the rules to try to stop it, only to be coldly crushed by the evil god's body.
His actions were not as gentle, restrained, and patient as Xie Xubai's; they were filled with tyranny and rage.
As it turns out, the evil god's wrath is not so easily provoked. People who suppress their emotions for too long will eventually explode, but the evil god is like a volcanic eruption.
When He decided to enter, even the King of Heaven couldn't stop Him.
"What are you trying to do, Yan Shuo—"
At the same time, thunder roared across the chessboard world, and dark clouds covered the sky.
The souls of countless citizens who perished were frozen in place, as if a pause button had been pressed, prostrating themselves in awe and horror, trembling with fear.
They simply sensed a familiar presence.
The most supreme aura in the game kingdom, the aura of a king.
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