CH 13.2

In the darkness of the dense forest, a cold light appeared in Bai Lixin’s eyes, his wide sacrificial robes fluttering behind him as he moved. The red spiders roared in his ears, the leaves flew back before his eyes, and the faintly stinging wind cut his cheeks.

Bai Lixin was unmoved. He had only one goal now: to destroy the evil spirit who had dared to hide behind the shadows and play with people’s hearts!

As anger rose in Bai Lixin’s heart, an unseen red spider rushed forward. Bai Lixin punched it hard, knocking it several meters away. Its body smashed into its companions, and the dense mass of red spiders instantly fell askew.

All the NPCs died a long time ago.

All that remained were their bodies. Their faces were pale and their bodies stiff. Grandma Sang pierced herself with the needle, but she felt no pain at all. The village head flung his whip hard at the stone statues but did not pant even a bit.

This evil spirit toyed with not only the players but even the NPCs.

It hid in the shadows, hiding its scent. Giving the players hope and then making them feel deep despair.

There were four choices, and picking any of them was wrong!

Give them the dagger and wait for them to plunge it into the “evil spirit”, then throw the truth at them. This was like dropping them from the sky and telling them that everything was futile and wishful thinking.

Give them infinite hope of survival, only for them to taste the ultimate despair.

Dijia was right; this copy was full of malice. It easily plays with people’s hearts in the palm of its hands, like a king high above the world who is mocking those who are struggling to survive!

Damn it!

Bai Lixin’s eyes were tinged with anger. His normally languid face had crumbled into a cold, sharp blade and his gaze was blazing.

Another red spider came to challenge Bai Lixin. He only gave it a cold glance, and the red spider took two steps back in fear, stumbling to the ground and not daring to move.

Dijia: “45 seconds left.”

Bai Lixin found the source of all the threads.

It was a giant tree.

There was a dense mass of red spiders surrounding the tree, staring at Bai Lixin warily as they shielded the tree behind them. Countless threads of silk emerged from the branches of the tree, and as the tree swayed, the threads swayed with it.

He looked down through the gaps in the dense branches and leaves and saw the players controlled by the threads stiffly moving towards the foot of the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain were countless red spiders that were watching intently. They were waiting eagerly, rubbing their front legs together, unable to hold back.

Bai Lixin coldly stared at the big tree in front of him and said, “No wonder it’s a *shrinking turtle, it’s a legless one.”

The branches all over the tree rustled and swayed, and the wind swept by, emitting a sharp whistle.

The red spiders twitched their fur and a threatening low growl escaped from their mouths.

But all this only got Bai Lixin’s sneer.

Like a fearless eagle, he plunged headlong into the swarm of red spiders.

The red spiders rushed towards Bai Lixin restlessly, stacking on top of each other and crushing Bai Lixin underneath them like a pyramid. Behind these red spiders was an endless torrent of more red spiders.

The mountain of red spiders covered the tree, and after a few seconds, everything went silent.

The wind blew through, rattling the leaves as if mocking the challenger’s insolence.

Suddenly, a loud bang rang out from within the mountain of red spiders.

In the next instant, countless red spiders flew up like the white feathers of a dandelion, scattering all over the forest.

A strong hand gripped the trunk of the tree, and Bai Lixin slowly supported himself to stand up, murderous intent in his eyes.

Dijia: “15 seconds left.”

The bark of the tree deformed in Bai Lixin’s grip. His other hand was raised high and the dagger in his hand was shining with a cold light.

Just when Bai Lixin was about to plunge the dagger into the trunk of the tree, the whole mountain shook violently. He stumbled, but his fingers gripped the tree’s trunk even tighter.

The ground shook with a loud noise, and the red spiders that had just attacked him scattered wildly and hid.

Ear-splitting screams suddenly came from all sides of the ground as countless tree roots were pulled out of the ground and transformed into sharp steel spikes to poke at Bai Lixin. Bai Lixin’s eyes and hands were quick as he stepped on the tree trunk and climbed the branches, quickly dodging the roots’ attacks.

Dijia: “5 seconds left.”

Bai Lixin narrows his eyes.

The branches twitched, trying to get at the hateful intruder, but Bai Lixin nimbly passed through them in the nick of time, and the dagger slid from the top of the tree trunk to the bottom.

Bai Lixin landed firmly on the ground.

Dijia: “Time’s up!”

Strength drained from his body, and Bai Lixin held onto the trunk in a trance. A soft stream of water immediately held Bai Lixin’s back, and the water slowly took shape, holding him firmly in its arms.

A pair of cold hands covered Bai Lixin’s eyes, and a hoarse laugh reached his ears, “Thanks to you, I saw an exciting battle. Sleep well.”

Bai Lixin grasped the hands. They were cold but with a tangible touch.

He struggled to open his eyes, trying to see the figure of the man in front of him, but his eyelids felt like they were covered with a dark shroud, and he could not open them.

The darkness came over him like a tidal wave.

Seeing Bai Lixin fall asleep, the tall man’s dark eyes looked at the ancient tree in front of him coldly.

He stood tall and straight, standing at a full nine and a half meters. He had a high nose, and his lips were slightly pursed. The killing and sinister madness emanating from his body were dulled down by a dark suit.

His excessively handsome face had a chilling expression, and his dark pupils looked bottomless. Looking into these eyes would make one feel as if they would be pulled into an endless abyss at any moment.

The ancient tree originally still had some breath and it intended to secretly plot against Bai Lixin.

But at this moment, the ancient tree’s entire body had already trembled into a sieve. The man looked at the ancient tree in front of him like he was seeing an ant. With a gentle squeeze, the ancient tree didn’t even have time to mourn. It immediately turned into a cloud of fragments that floated away in the air.

—

“Fuck! I’ll kill Bai Lixin, that white face!” The blacksmith cursed loudly as he was forced to walk towards the bottom of the mountain. “Help! I don’t want to die!”

Li Cancan, who had always been soft-spoken, suddenly spoke up with fury, “Shut up! Who are you to let Bai Lixin die for you? Everyone has the right to live. One person’s life is as heavy as ten people’s lives. You have no right at all to decide whether a man lives or dies, much less to make a comparison question with his life!”

Blacksmith: “Ha, the downside of equal importance is that we all have to die! Bai Lixin could have killed that evil spirit, but look what he did! He ran off into the mountains. Did he go to kill himself?!”

Xia Chi: “Bah! My brother is many times smarter than you. He must have gone to the mountain because something is going on there. My brother said he would take us out, so he would not give up!”

Amid their bickering, they were already getting closer to the red spiders.

The eyes of the red spiders stared intently at the prey that was soon to be in front of them. One stretched out its long tongue and stuck it far enough to lick the blacksmith’s cheek.

The bloodied mouth opened wide and the sticky, foul-smelling saliva sipped from the teeth and dropped to the ground.

The blacksmith’s eyes rolled white, his legs shuddered, and his trousers became warm.

Just when they were only a few centimeters away from the red spiders, a cold system tone suddenly rang out.

[Ding! Congratulations to player Bai Lixin for successfully killing the evil spirit. The River God’s curse is gone.]

[All hidden storylines of the River God copy are unlocked, and the River God copy is completely sealed as of today.]

The control over their bodies disappeared immediately. The red spiders in front of them seemed to have gone under a fixation spell. In the next second, their bodies turned into lime, then they immediately turned into countless pieces of powder which scattered in the air as the wind gently blew by.

The moon in the sky faded from red to a gentle, porcelain white.

On the other side of the river, the heads of the stiff NPCs rolled back, and one by one, they fell to the ground, motionless.

The danger had completely disappeared.

Zhou Guang: “Bai Lixin succeeded! He really has! Let’s just say he definitely had a purpose for going up the mountain!”

Xia Chiang turned his head to glare at the blacksmith and then laughed at what he saw.

“*I’m dizzy. Did you piss your trousers in fear, boss? Do you want me to get you an ambulance, hahaha! Coward!”

The blacksmith looked down, and his head exploded with a “buzz”. His face was so hot he wished to find a hole in the ground to burrow into.

He ran to the other side of the river in shame. He crouched down when passing by the NPCs, and then howled in fear when he saw that all the NPCs were dead. He howled twice more and tumbled to the ground with his head in his hands, becoming a world-famous painting.

The other players were no better. They fell to the ground on their knees, and their heads were bowed. Their faces were pale and there was confusion in their eyes.

[Ding! Congratulations, players, the game is nearing its end.]