Chapter 212:

The Plague Ghoul Overlord is a high-ranking Netherworld creature. In the Moon Book of the Sanghai Empire, this thing is listed in the same category as legendary beings like Ancient Mummy Lords, Cerberus of the Underworld, and the death god Anubis. It is one of the most dangerous creatures that can be born from the concentration of death spirit energy in the material world.

However, the one in the underground tunnel had not yet passed its second stage, so it could only be considered an incomplete being and did not possess the incomparable legendary resistance and defense-ignoring plague damage. Without absorbing enough impure blood, it was difficult for it to develop true death intelligence, and the lack of its life-sustaining Netherworld poison also made it hard for this monster to achieve the truly terrifying plague that could “scorch the earth for thousands of miles”.

After being bombarded by Avalon’s purification divine magic, it was only a matter of time before this ugly, twisted creature was dealt with by the Spirit Sovereign who arrived.

Its skin, as hard as fine steel, was not much stronger than solid armor when faced with the tearing of spirit energy disintegration controlled by Tris. But the Blood Vulture Grand Duchess, who was violently attacking the Plague Ghoul Overlord, soon felt a pain in her heart.

A weakness came over her very abruptly, but it didn’t make Tris feel panicked.

In her past life, she had experienced this many times before, it was the feedback of the death connection that the death of descendants brought to the elders.

This made Tris startled.

She instinctively thought that something had happened to Murphy, but then she realized that her blood pact with Murphy had already been severed by the family source blood. But why would any of her other descendants be killed at this time?

And so close?

Tris’s thoughts turned quickly, and she immediately realized that some things that shouldn’t have happened seemed to be mixed into tonight’s events. She glanced at the Plague Ghoul Overlord below, which she had almost skinned and dismembered, shook her head, and said to the three people assisting her:

“I’ll leave this to you. I’m going to see if I can catch the main culprit elsewhere.”

Without giving the three any time to react, she flapped her dragon-like bat wings, tore open a crimson rift in front of her, and darted in.

Such an unreasonable exit left Maxim, Natalie, and Lainnia below somewhat at a loss.

However, the Plague Ghoul Overlord in front of them had indeed been beaten below the “kill line”, and Tris had even thoughtfully helped them “remove the shell”. The three of them could completely handle the rest.

On Tris’s side, she quickly entered the upper cave with the help of the remaining mental shock marker from the death of her descendant.

She saw corpses everywhere and smelled a strong gathering of death spirit energy ahead, as well as the aura of little Murphy in battle, which made her quickly move forward and cross the remaining spirit energy barrier. The next second, she saw Murphy fighting against that strange Netherworld spirit entity.

“Scythe-wielding Death! How could such a high-ranking Netherworld evil entity appear in Transia?”

The knowledgeable Tris immediately recognized the identity of the thing in front of her.

In fact, without her saying it, Murphy’s detection skill had already given him sufficiently specific biological information:

Name: 【Netherworld Emissary】 Scythe-wielding Death

Rank: Level 27 – White Silver Body – Rare

Race: Netherworld Plane Creature – Spirit Entity

Status: Netherworld Aura – Ethereal Armor – Phase Shift – Life Drain – Blade Resistance

Evaluation: Extremely Dangerous

“Whoosh”

Tris’s Nocturne Scepter swung up, and crimson spirit energy bindings like ghostly claws were immediately applied to the flickering spirit body of the Scythe-wielding Death, not only fixing it in place but also forcibly controlling its semi-ethereal body into a solid form in the material world.

The sword in Murphy’s hand changed its stance, coordinating with his jump from the shadows to appear behind the Scythe-wielding Death. He executed a Proficient midnight assassination ambush, the magic blade cutting down precisely to sever the connection of this guy’s white bones.

With the assistance of the Spirit Sovereign, Murphy didn’t take much time to deal with this tricky opponent.

When the magic blade pierced through this guy’s spirit core, an intense 【Banshee’s Wail】 was applied in the entire small space, causing the battered Astral Direwolf George to suddenly collapse, its huge body twitching on the ground for a few moments before quickly dissipating into starlight on the spot.

The unfortunate creature was killed instantly by a vicious AOE attack on the mental level.

But Murphy was unharmed.

Because the experienced Tris had already applied a mental protection barrier to him in advance, allowing him to take this mental attack head-on without a scratch.

“Thud”

The cold, eerie bone scythe hit the ground, the only memento left by the Scythe-wielding Death.

Murphy sheathed his sword, glanced at his improved swordsmanship skills, and then used Death’s Grasp to take the white bone scythe into his hand.

Upon inspection, this thing turned out to be a proper piece of equipment:

Name: Soul-reaping Scythe – Netherworld Ritual War Scythe

Quality: Masterwork – 【Intangible】 Veteran

Traits: Extreme Spirit Enhancement – Spirit Cutting – Life Drain – Fragile Bone Structure – Exotic Weapon

Special Effect: This weapon is an evil artifact made from the spine of sacrifices extracted by the Scythe-wielding Death when it appears in the material world. Because it is saturated with death spirit energy, it can serve as an excellent spirit casting medium and effectively enhance the damage of death/dark spirit spells.

When using it for physical combat, each successful cut or chop will drain the enemy’s life to replenish one’s own.

Note!

This weapon has the special attribute 【Intangible】. The weapon body will continuously become brittle over time and eventually dissipate into decayed bones. Infusing spirit energy into it daily can maintain its solid state.

Note!

This weapon is a special weapon and cannot be repaired once damaged.

Equipment Requirement: This item is forged with a special spirit technique. Reckless use of this weapon may lead to corruption of the mind by death spirit energy, therefore the usage requirement is Intelligence ≥ 8.

Crafter: 【Plague Rat King】 Vladimir Zweig

Item Description:

【You know, they just love these weird and impractical things】

“For a period of time, I was constantly embracing those who longed for immortality, not just to support myself and amass wealth, but also as a deterrent to Salrokdar. I was using this method to tell him that if I died, all the things he did would be passed on to the Blood Pact Knights and Lord Payne through my descendants.

It was a strategy for negotiation.

But Salrokdar quickly responded with ruthless killings.

No matter who I embraced, he or she couldn’t survive for more than a week.

The constant backlash from the deaths of my descendants made me increasingly weak, but fortunately, I had no blood essence left at that time and was in constant pain every day, so this little drizzle didn’t matter much.

To better embrace others without being implicated, I even improved the embracing process and ritual, allowing me to develop the most descendants with the least power, so their deaths wouldn’t bring me deeper pain and weakness.

At that time, I was living in a drunken stupor every day, living one day at a time. Who had the mood to remember the names of those fools blindly pursuing immortality?

There must have been at least 50 if not 100.

But I can be sure that the vast majority of them were killed by Salrokdar! This is certain, and Zweig’s experience proves it.

Even if Dusk wanted to save them, they wouldn’t have saved too many.

At that time, Transia was still Salrokdar’s territory, especially before the Ten-Year War broke out. Although the Blood Vulture Clan had been on a downward path for over 100 years, his control over this place was still unprecedentedly tight.”

“I knew it,”

Murphy put his arm around Tris’s slender waist. He said with a bit of a headache:

“Now there’s no way to trace back, and with this chaos and the approaching Black Disaster, we can’t go to Shaldor port to investigate. However, that ‘source’ could be a breakthrough point.”

He took out a pearl bracelet wrapped in three layers of handkerchief from his spirit bag and handed it to Tris, saying:

“Perhaps we can investigate in reverse, using spirit magic to determine Zweig’s superior. Have you seen this bracelet before?”

“No,”

Tris glanced at it and immediately denied:

“This isn’t a vampire-style thing at all. It looks like jewelry from the Antani Region. Look at its shape, it has both elf and human artistic styles, which is a unique characteristic of treasures from the Antani Region.

Give it to me, I’ll check the magical residue on it.”

“Mm, take it back with you,”

Murphy seemed unconcerned. He waved his hand and said:

“I still need to meet those survivors and ask more questions.”

“Whoosh”

A crimson rift opened behind Murphy. Tris very initiatively stood on her tiptoes and pecked Murphy’s cheek before turning to leave. It wasn’t until she passed through the crimson rift back to her office that Tris exhaled the breath she had been holding in her lungs.

She looked at the pearl bracelet in her palm, her face full of shock and her eyes complex.

“Christine, my first descendant, you were clearly dead long ago. You died protecting me at Salrokdar’s hands, I saw it with my own eyes! My goodness, Night Mother above.”

Meanwhile, in the underground lair, Murphy gently wiped the kiss mark Tris had left on his cheek. He sat on a rock, raised his left hand to catch Revnor who landed on his arm and stared at him intently with a tilted head.

A few seconds later, he complained to his spirit vulture:

“Everyone has secrets, right?

She clearly recognized that bracelet but insisted she said she didn’t, she thought she could hide that moment of shock in her heart from me, and even tried to seduce me with her beauty. It seems there’s still a lot to dig into behind this.

The only reassuring thing is that it’s a lady’s bracelet.

So I don’t have to worry about some damn childhood sweetheart suddenly showing up.”

——

“Get back, you stinky things! Ah, what an exciting night,”

Life Is Pretty Good, who was hiding in a passage above the rock wall, shouted. He rubbed his sore wrists and put down the hunting crossbow in his hand, then turned to Feel You Poor behind him, who was smoothing the fur of the manticore Stinky Treasure and treating its wounds, and said:

“The team battles in this game... Hey, let me tell you, they’re amazing!”

“A coward who only dares to hide and shoot arrows has no right to say that!”

Feel You Poor snorted, mocking without mercy:

“You little guy almost wet yourself when you saw the wraith rushing over just now. What? Still haven’t overcome your childhood fear of ghosts?”

“Tch, it was just a bit startling the first time. Who wouldn’t be scared when seeing more than a dozen ghosts rushing over for the first time?”

Life Is Pretty Good’s face couldn’t quite hide his embarrassment.

To be honest, it was indeed a bit embarrassing, but the vague pressure in his lower abdomen now forced him to change the subject immediately. Why does this damn game have to be so realistic in these unnecessary details?

“Alright, don’t be afraid, I’ll take you back now,”

Feel You Poor patted the neck of his beloved manticore, letting it get up and prepare to carry the two of them away. The ghoul disaster in front of them was gradually subsiding due to the death of the Ghoul Overlord, but dealing with so many ghouls afterwards would definitely be a big trouble.

Life Is Pretty Good also breathed a sigh of relief and was about to mount the visibly disgusted manticore when he unexpectedly saw something that startled him.

He immediately grabbed Feel You Poor and pointed to a small cave on the honeycomb-like rock wall not far away.

He said:

“There’s someone over there! I saw it! A sneaky ghoul ran out carrying lots of bags! Quick, chase after it!”