Inside the Realm of the Bell, the sky was dark as night. On the island at the middle of the lake, a shroud of darkness as thick as a curtain fell over the land. At that moment, there was a bell attached to every branch of the trees on the island. The bells were giving off weak silvery lights. They were like lamps, creating a strange picture of the island.
"Ha… Expected result." The Bell Demon walked toward Feng Bujue with a smile. "Now you should understand why the Taoist priest failed to defeat me."
Feng Bujue held the wound around his waist as he knelt on the ground. His breath came unevenly.
"Cough… ha… You are not wrong… this is indeed… an expected result."
Suddenly, he smiled.
"From the beginning, I knew you were very powerful. A treasure like the Bell of Jin Gang has been corrupted by a demon like you. Therefore, it goes to show… Cough…" He coughed out a mouthful of blood. "How powerful you are."
Ling Er had lost her appearance of a little girl. Her body was no different from an adult, but her frame was shrouded in a pool of black smoke. From her frame and speech, one could tell she was a woman of around thirty. The rest of her was unknown.
"Humph… Since you already knew that, why did you signal for your teammate to split up with you?" Ling Er laughed. "Split up and run to try to drag this out—that's what you said, right? And you said it right before me."
"What's wrong with my tactic?" Feng Bujue answered as he forced himself to stand up from the ground. Feng Bujue was at the end of the rope. Earlier, he had used the combination of Death Poker and Body Enhancement Spell to force Ling Er to deal with him first. He had battled while retreating. He had activated and deactivated his skills, changed his equipment, and depleted his items. Finally, he had cut a way out from the Thousand Bells Zone and managed to drain much of Ling Er's health.
However, when facing such a boss that could not be beaten single-handedly, his series of actions had to be paid with sacrifice. Feng Bujue had depleted all five potions that he had, and he did not have one Death Poker card left. Even though he still had a third of his Stamina Points, he only had twenty-six percent of his Life Points left, and he had the bleeding status. In other words, even if Ling Er did not deliver the final blow, he would be gone in minutes. Of course, Feng Bujue still had SCP-500, but he did not plan to use it because he believed that even if he used it, he would still lose, so it would be a waste.
"If you knew about my power from the beginning, then you should have cooperated with your friends. Perhaps there might have been a chance of victory for you," Ling Er said. "Humph… But you told her to split up and drag the time out? Ha… Do you really think dragging the fight out on my territory will be advantageous toward you?"
"Advantageous is the wrong word," Feng Bujue replied calmly. "I merely chose… a fighting tactic that will beat you one hundred percent."
Ling Er's body startled. "Oh? Let me guess. Are you going to say… you have some kind of explosive on you that will detonate once you die and will blow me into pieces?"
"No," Feng Bujue said. "I merely want to tell you—you have been poisoned."
"Hah… Is that one last joke from you?" Ling Er smirked.
"The effect of this venom is very weak. From your perspective, you won't have noticed it when you were poisoned," Feng Bujue said. "If you were a traveler from another dimension like me, you would have noticed it from a glance at the status tab, but you are not."
"That is a convincing story, but compared to that, I'd rather believe you will self-destruct." The Bell Demon chuckled. Obviously, she did not believe Feng Bujue.
"There are two bases to your confidence. First, you think your body should be immune to something like 'poison'; second, you still do not know how I managed to poison you." Feng Bujue voiced his opponent's thoughts and continued. "Since I am sure I will win, I don't mind telling you. First, I used this to poison you…"
Feng Bujue revealed the Goblin's Mask. "When I was tied to the wooden beam and talking to you, you have been poisoned. This is called a poison attack, a trick mastered by us travelers from another dimension. You should know that we have more than one kind of weapon. And as long as it is not a physical attack weapon, they will work on arcane creatures like you."
He hid the equipment again. "For example, when I was shooting you with my rifle, the bullets did not damage you, but the fire that exploded could hurt you, right?"
At that moment, the bells around them started to swing. Some even fell from the trees. That was a clear sign that their owner was wavering.
"You have spent a lot of time chasing after me. Even if moving around will not speed up the poison in your body, I believe that even after the one hour and seven minutes that have passed… assuming only one percent of your health is depleted for each minute. You will have thirty-three percent health left. Combined with my attacks…" Feng Bujue gave a long sigh. "Even if I die, you won't have enough time to kill my teammate. So, as I said, this is foolproof plan…"
"Enough." Ling Er cut him off. "The 'status', 'health', and 'status bar' have nothing to do with me. You just want to tell me that I'm about to die, right?"
"Correct," Feng Bujue answered.
Suddenly, the bells became quiet again, and silence fell. The black smoke rolled away to reveal the Bell Demon's true from. She was about half a head taller than Feng Bujue, and she had a European face. She was beautiful and arresting. Her skin was faded purple in color, and she had no hair. Two curled goat's horns grew out from her forehead. She was not wearing a shred of clothing. From her breasts to her lower stomach, there was a layer of fur that mirrored clothes. They strategically blocked the body parts that would be too sensitive to show in-game. Her two long legs were joined at the knees to large hooves.
Feng Bujue shook his head and sighed. "This is so low. What is this? A fur bra? If you dare, why don't you either pick to have fur all over your body or no fur at all?"
He had comments about the system's decision to use a half-naked female demon in-game. However, at the same time, his eyes did not wander away from the woman's large peaks. His eyes were unblinking as he stared at the half spherical objects.
"Humph… Your friend is right. You are an extremely narcissistic person." The Bell Demon had been observing the players for a long time and knew about their conversation. When she spoke, she walked to Feng Bujue and looked down on him. "Why did you waste your breath to tell me about your plan before my death? If you didn't say all that, I would have died without knowing anything, and you could have kept your life."
She reached out one hand to grasp Feng Bujue's neck. She lifted him up easily. "And now, since I know that I'm going to die… why not drag one of you down with me?"
"Damn…" Blood poured out from Feng Bujue's lips. His face was purple from lack of oxygen, but he kept his eyes wide open. He glanced at the demon's breasts from a forty-five angle. Before his last Life Points depleted, he squeezed his dying words through his teeth. "Damn… even from this angle… I still can't see anything…"
At that moment, there was a glint of steel, and blood spurted. The hand that held Feng Bujue's neck suddenly lost power. Feng Bujue felt a release around his throat, and he fell to the ground. His Life Points stopped at three percent, and the Bell Demon before him lost her head. The woman's head with horns flew up into the air, arcing beautifully before falling eight meters away. At the same time, the bells in the forest disappeared. The shadow was dissipating at an incredible speed. The Bell Demon's headless body teetered before crashing toward Brother Jue.
For a player with only three percent Life Points left, having an object about fifty kilograms landing on them would lead to a great chance of Game Over. Feng Bujue had survived so much, so naturally, he would not die there. He rolled over instantly to evade the falling body. As his Life Points dropped down to two percent, he shoved an SCP-500 into his mouth, and that cured him of the bleeding status.
"Phew… that was so close…" Feng Bujue sat up and sighed. The next second, his gaze met Passing Rain's condescending look.
"Damn… even from this angle… I still can't see anything…" Passing Rain used her uniquely cold tone to repeat Feng Bujue's 'dying words'.
"Hey, didn't I tell you to split up?" Feng Bujue asked. "If you followed us closely around… what if the boss killed me when she still had thirty percent health left and instantly found your location? Wouldn't both of us have died?"
As if she could not hear him, Passing Rain continued to mock him. "She was about 190 centimeters tall, and she's half human half goat…"
"Are you mocking my heavy taste, or is that the manifestation of your envy and jealousy?" Feng Bujue grumbled with annoyance.
"I'm just curious about just how mad a person has to be to have… a reaction like yours when they're dying." Passing Rain smirked.
"This is just a game. I won't really die." Feng Bujue shrugged easily.
Passing Rain stared at him for several seconds. It seemed like there was something on her mind, but in the end, she only said, "Maybe you're right."
Then, she slowly walked to his side and sat down, hugging her knees. She silently passed him two Life Points Recovery Potions.