Chapter 17
Although the huge size difference made it impossible for Xie Xubai to hold Ping An's head, he still tried his best to stretch out his hand, his five fingers sinking into the rough, dry hair, and gently but firmly rubbing it up along the cheek.
Unlike cats that purr, dogs wag their tails wildly when they feel comfortable.
Thud! Thud! ...
The giant tail hurtled forward like lightning, shattering the ground and leaving behind a network of crisscrossing trenches. In an instant, dust billowed and rocks flew everywhere.
On one side, a giant beast was howling and acting cute towards the young man, while on the other side, bricks and tiles were being violently lashed to pieces by the giant tail. The scene was truly awe-inspiring.
Xie Xubai knew that Ping An was still suffering from hunger, so after patting him a couple of times, he patted his big head, signaling the dog to lower its head and eat.
The bloodlust in the giant beast's eyes had lessened, as if it had regained some of its senses.
It looked down at the homemade dog food that smelled so tempting, and suddenly realized the sacrifice the young man had made for it, freezing in place.
Xie Xubai and the dog were of one mind. He rubbed the dog and said in a deep voice, "Ping An, you need to know that if anything happens to you, I will never forgive myself for the rest of my life."
Ping An was startled.
The young man looked at it calmly, a faint smile still playing on his lips, but it made the dog feel an intense pang of heartache, a pain that felt like it was suffocating.
When Xie Xubai gently patted its head again to make it lower its head, it finally stopped resisting. Its huge body quickly returned to its normal size, and it lowered its head to feast.
The young man prepared a very generous amount of dog food, including a variety of meats such as beef, chicken, and duck, and even the tough vegetables were carefully mashed into a puree.
Ping An chewed hard, as if she could sense the feelings the young man had poured into it, and her eyes involuntarily welled up with tears.
Xie Xubai then turned around.
The vengeful spirits that were baring their teeth and acting arrogantly just moments before are now falling to the ground like kites with broken strings, baring their teeth and looking quite pathetic.
But the players' condition wasn't much better than these vengeful spirits.
The flow of time in the Ghost King's domain is different from that in the outside world. They didn't know how long they had been fighting here. Until Xie Xubai entered, they had launched no less than five intermittent attacks on the Ghost King.
Although there are enough healing items to support it, most of them are low-level items, which have a limited number of uses and consume a lot of mental energy.
So far, there are hardly any players standing upright in the ruins; they are either covered in dust and panting, or covered in blood and barely alive.
They were overwhelmed with joy and awe at how easily the world-ending crisis had been averted, and their hearts remained unsettled for a long time.
It wasn't until Xie Xubai glanced at them casually that a chill, belatedly felt, spread from their hearts to their limbs.
Now that things have come to this, players will no longer naively believe that Xie Xubai is just a random NPC who can be manipulated at will, and that it is just an ordinary person who can subdue the Ghost King.
As for why the identified baseline values were all pitifully low, it must be because Xie Xubai intentionally concealed his true values.
Even though they could crush you with a single finger, they're willing to pretend to be an ordinary person and "play around" with you. Isn't that a kind of approachability? QAQ
so……
An uneasy feeling spread like a fog, and the players couldn't take their eyes off the young man.
Like condemned prisoners awaiting their final verdict on the rack, several hearts pounded violently.
What are Xie Xubai's thoughts on them, and how does he plan to deal with them?
Unlike other players, Yan Yue had no illusions whatsoever.
Whether it was player Xiao Yuan's unauthorized ambush or his attempt to kidnap Xie Xubai to threaten the Ghost King, both actions were enough to warrant a death sentence.
As Xie Xubai walked towards them, Yan Yue gritted his teeth and shakily pushed himself up from the ground.
But the next second his legs suddenly lost their strength, and he fell back heavily.
Of all the players present, this man seemed to be the one who was most seriously injured.
His left wrist was fractured, his right calf was broken, and his chest was pierced by three scratches, with the wounds exposed and even the white bone faintly visible. His whole body was covered in blood and mud.
Logically speaking, with a large number of healing items, Yan Yue shouldn't be in such a terrible state. The problem is that he fights recklessly, and the healing speed of the items simply can't keep up with the frequency of his injuries.
Compared to the veteran players on the leaderboard, Yan Yue may not be the smartest or the most powerful, but his steady and composed nature is definitely among the best.
He suddenly became so crazy because hope was slim and he decided to fight to the death, and also because regret and self-blame almost overwhelmed him.
If he had a stronger sense of the bigger picture, he wouldn't have let Xiao Yuan offend Xie Xubai.
If he had been more cautious, he wouldn't have triggered the hidden effect of the Bone Cleaver, leading to the deaths of his entire team.
In the blink of an eye, the footsteps stopped in front of Yan Yue.
The young man crouched down, his slender shadow drooping like a willow leaf, his faint aura spreading like a gentle breeze.
Yan Yue stretched out his elbow as if he had been electrocuted, and shakily propped himself up.
His gaze naturally rose, meeting the young man's calm eyes, as if he were standing on the shore facing a vast and magnificent sea, momentarily forgetting to breathe.
Should he beg for mercy? A thought suddenly popped into Yan Yue's mind.
His consecutive first-clear record is [5]. Although it only meets half of the redemption condition [10], it is the result of nearly twenty brushes with death. Keep in mind that the highest existing clear record is only [6].
Remembering that all the guild members were willing to cut back on their own expenses to help him acquire items, Yan Yue's lips began to tremble uncontrollably, and he began to beg for mercy.
If they can really persuade Xie Xubai to let them go, his first clear record will become [6], bringing him one step closer to redeeming Earth. Their guild's status will also rise accordingly, and they will receive more subsidy points.
All he had to do was, under the watchful eyes of nearly ten million people outside the live broadcast camera, abandon his ridiculous dignity and so-called face, kneel down like a dog, and beg for Xie Xubai's forgiveness.
"please……"
Where is Zhang Bin?
Two voices rang out at the same time. Yan Yue, who was dizzy and disoriented, took a moment to react before he could understand what Xie Xubai was asking.
He hesitated for once: "Zhang Bin, he's in the apartment building right across the alley. We sent two people to watch him, but they've already..."
In team mode, a system notification message will pop up whenever a teammate is killed. They received the devastating news of their teammate's death during the battle just now.
"Please accept my condolences." Xie Xubai didn't know how to comfort these people, so he sighed softly.
Then Yan Yue added, "But Zhang Bin can't escape. We used...we put a curse on him, so he can't leave that apartment building."
Yan Yue spoke very quickly, explaining the cause and effect, and instinctively felt that this was what Xie Xubai wanted to hear.
Sure enough, after patiently listening to his weak and listless explanation, the young man immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "Very good, it sounds like you've taken my advice to heart."
Yan Yue wasn't sure if he had heard a gentle chuckle.
He felt a gust of wind blow by, and the young man picked up the bone-chopping knife that he had left beside him, got up and returned to the Ghost King's side.
The wind carried away the last wisp of faint, elegant fragrance. Yan Yue lay on the ground, looking up, only able to catch a glimpse of the young man's receding figure. In the backlight, his smooth cheek seemed to be coated with a layer of afterglow, dazzling and eye-catching.
Xie Xubai came to Ping An. The dog had already finished eating and was looking at him with bright, single, scarlet eyes, clearly much more energetic.
Xie Xubai rubbed its head, peeled off the bandage on his fingertip, squeezed out a few drops of blood from the wound, and traced an intricate blood-character incantation along the lines of his palm.
Then, using his palm with the inscription on it, he touched the dog's body from a distance.
Tail, belly, back, neck...
When the icy collar and chains fell into his palm, Xie Xubai's calm eyes suddenly sharpened. He then raised the cleaver and, with all his might, slashed down without hesitation!
Snap!
It was as if something invisible yet tangible shattered in response, the crisp sound echoing around, startling all the bewildered players.
They saw the Demon King appear as shocked as if he were safe, followed by a roar of ecstatic joy.
"roar!"
Looking at the whole scene, perhaps only Xie Xubai, who knew the inside story, could stand there calmly.
He saw the dog jumping around excitedly, unable to contain its joy. He smiled slightly and patted its head gently: "Go on, it's time to end all of this."
The dog nuzzled his palm affectionately, then in an instant, it shot into the sky like a dragon, heading straight for Zhang Bin's location.
The moment it successfully stepped out of the alley, it couldn't help but let out another earth-shattering roar, so exhilarating, so joyful.
"roar!!"
As the Ghost King drew near, Zhang Bin on the rooftop finally showed fear once again.
His legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, frantically running backward until a transparent fence blocked his escape route.
"Let me go! Spare me, don't kill me—!" Zhang Bin screamed in anguish.
As soon as the last word was uttered, Ping An rushed forward.
All the vengeful spirits followed their demon king, swarming out with sharp teeth and claws, tearing Zhang Bin into countless pieces amidst extreme pain and terror.
Players cannot see outside the Ghost King's territory, but they can hear system notifications.
[Ding! Congratulations to all players for meeting the completion requirements and finishing this trial ahead of schedule!]
In an instant, all the players were stunned, unable to believe what they had just heard.
"...We beat the game?! We beat the game?!"
"Oh my god, someone pinch me! I really beat the game! It's not my imagination!"
"But we haven't solved the dog problem yet, have we? What exactly happened just now?"
Before the words were even finished, a semi-transparent virtual panel popped up, seemingly an Easter egg after clearing the dungeon.
The virtual panel transforms into yellowed parchment, instantly acquiring a weathered and aged texture. Ancient text appears between the pages, and for easier reading, the more complex parts have been explained in plain language.
[An anonymous author recorded in "Tales of Mountains and Rivers":]
When I was young, I went down the mountain to gain experience. I passed through a city where there were vicious dogs, hundreds of them, roaming the streets, injuring and killing people. The people had been suffering from this for a long time.
The dog should have been executed on the spot, but in order to quell public anger, the officials held a dog-killing banquet, cruelly torturing the dog while entertaining it with songs and dances.
A hundred dogs died, and their vengeful spirits were born.
I wanted to get rid of it, but a Taoist priest happened to be traveling here. He was overjoyed when he saw it and said that dogs are loyal by nature, so why not train it as a servant?
...The dog-like creature possesses divine power, enabling it to defend against enemies, transport goods, build cities, and perform labor tirelessly.
The officials were overjoyed and, ignoring all advice, sent men to capture and kill the harmless dogs, and then held a dog-killing banquet.
Unable to stop him, I had no choice but to leave.
When they left the city in the third month of spring, they returned in the tenth month, only to find the city desolate and deserted, with only thousands of skeletons remaining. They were greatly shocked.
They searched all the way to the neighboring county, only to find corpses strewn across the fields, their hearts sinking into despair. After searching for another twenty miles, they finally found living people and hurriedly inquired about the reason for their deaths.
Originally, it was resentment that accumulated into evil spirits. The Demon King used hatred as an egg, and suddenly appeared, slaughtering in all directions and affecting an area of hundreds of miles.
I regret it!
A once mighty city was reduced to a dead zone in just seven months, and countless others were implicated.
I have often thought that the disaster was caused by the greed of officials, the bewitching of sorcerers, the ignorance of the people, and my inaction!
Are dogs harmful? No, it's people who are harmful!
In the game lobby, when the server-wide announcement that Yan Yue and his team had cleared the A-level Ghost King dungeon was heard, all the spectators instantly erupted in cheers!
Author's Note:
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