He had slept deeply and had fully recovered his energy.

Li Changzhou had intended to simply push the coffin lid off, but upon hearing Bi's deep, sleeping breaths, he chose to lift it instead—his five fingers spread wide, he lifted the coffin lid with his left hand and rose from the coffin.

The coffin had been hastily made by himself with the Emerald Bee Sword, smooth and even, still carrying the scent of trees.

The cellar in front of him had no windows, only a lamp with a bamboo filament burning lonely.

Vampires possess night vision, so Li Changzhou didn't care about that solitary light.

"Mmm~" Bi moaned and rolled off what seemed akin to a coffin.

In the last moment before her nose would have hit the ground, she was startled awake and used telekinesis to hover herself in mid-air.

Li Changzhou discarded the coffin lid, stepped over her body, and walked toward the cellar door.

"You dare to push me down?" Bi stood upright in the air, "You idiot! Moron! Rascal! Low-life! No-account internet cafe bum (tortoise-bastard, as the Chinese insult goes)!"

Li Changzhou had nothing to say about her misunderstanding him but was curious that she didn't mind him stepping over her, yet was very particular about being woken up from sleep.

Well—perhaps it was precisely because she was woken up that she had no reaction to being stepped over, her mind still not fully awake.

He felt his body, strength flowing continuously, no longer the clumsy and sticky movements of the daytime that felt like unoiled joints.

It must be night by now, or at least dusk.

The burns on his body had healed, the only oddity being his intense desire to drink blood, his stomach occasionally contracting with hunger.

Exiting the cellar, he looked at the scattered bricks and the setting sun beyond the collapsed walls.

"What happened here?" Bi flew up from behind.

"A thief, probably." Li Changzhou replied casually.

He called for the institute's servant to prepare dinner and to tidy up the ground—he had hypnotized them not to approach this building before he entered the cellar.

Fortunately, the dining table was unaffected, only the window was cracked and the glass had vanished, which made it easier to enjoy the sunset.

The King Cobra slithered out from the shadows, noticeably thinner and listless.

The enemy must have been quite troublesome.

The King Cobra didn't possess any bizarre skills, but with Li Changzhou's physical constitution and ever-increasing variety of strange poisons, even Li Changzhou had to be cautious. Otherwise, they could perish together—he, beaten by the snake, and the snake, by poison.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

"A decoy?" Li Changzhou thought of the Edison made of ice in the carriage.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

"Disguising themselves as my sister and Yang Qinglan? Even mimicking skills?"

Li Changzhou fell into deep contemplation. Could someone impersonating others use their skills?

If it was ice, equivalent to a mirror, then mimicking skills indeed made sense.

Moreover, if it were really Yang Qinglan and Li Qianxia, their temporary team members were poisoned, and it made no sense for them not to come back for the antidote.

So it must have been fake.

Since it was fake and they managed to impersonate Yang Qinglan and Li Qianxia, it meant the perpetrator had seen them before... he didn't know if the two had encountered any danger or why they hadn't summoned him yet.

At the same time, Li Changzhou reminded himself to be cautious of a player who could take others' forms and mimic their skills.

Dinner was served.

It was lavish, much more so than lunch.

Bread dough with nuts, thin pancakes, fried pancakes, fried ham, fried eggs, sautéed liver tips, steak, fried fish, fried oysters, fried potatoes, and potato chips, and so on.

Not much different from what Americans often eat for three meals a day.

He first let the King Cobra taste a bit of everything, learning from the morning's lesson.

"Hiss."

"Alright, go back."

The King Cobra spat out a large amount of poison and had been tensely standing guard all afternoon. It was now so weakened that it needed to rest immediately.

"What do you plan to do next?" Bi asked Li Changzhou while eating fried liver tips with a fork.

"Go outside and walk around." Li Changzhou tasted a slice of ham, "Follow the traces of the battle and see, if I can encounter any vampires or werewolves, that would be great."

"Hope to run into Goebbels." Bi said in between bites.

Li Changzhou ate while checking his backpack.

The "Mosquito Style Blood-sucking Gun" was gone, the "Desert Eagle" and "Mecha·Supreme Speeder" were missing, too. It seemed the fight was quite intense, but there shouldn't be any life-threatening danger.

If there were, she would have summoned—

Hmm?

A crack opened on the left side of the space, like an eye splitting open.

◇

One second.

Yang Qinglan stealthily glanced at Edison.

If they killed him, they could return, directly break away from the current battle.

The centaur thundered on all four hooves, using the right elbow as a spear, piercing the air, aiming at Yang Qinglan.

The Hidden Blade Spider kicked out two ghostly leg blades, aiming at the same target.

Li Qianxia straightened her weary body, raised the Blood-colored Steel Spear, as Heavenly Fire descended in her mind, flames crawling out from her wrists, snake-like winding along the spear.

Golden lines sketched out armor, and Yang Qinglan softly and quickly chanted.

"The Lord said, ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession."

Two seconds.

The flaming spear thrust onto the centaur's elbow, piercing through the arm, leaving a hole with residual flames.

Swiftly withdrawing the spear, its shaft twisted, sweeping toward the two leg blades of the Hidden Blade Spider, straining against each other.

Li Qianxia staggered, the Hidden Blade Spider's leg blades caught fire.

Golden droplets fell underwater, expanding into a barrier three meters in diameter, the centaur and the Hidden Blade Spider rapidly retreated.

Yang Qinglan's and Li Qianxia's strength, agility, constitution received enhancements; their spirits slightly lifted. The chilling wind brought by the ghosts dissolved into nothingness, blocked outside.

"My telekinesis can't get through!" Bi shouted anxiously.

Yang Qinglan swung her hand, launching the Emerald Bee Sword, which in the night appeared as a straight azure line, piercing through Edison's head.

Three seconds.

No response, no prompts, why?

The centaur tore off its own burning right hand, stomping in place, unmoving;

The Hidden Blade Spider cut off its two burning leg blades, also standing still.

The ghosts of the penguin, the Pegasus, the walrus were slowly materializing with presence.

Li Qianxia and Yang Qinglan each swallowed an Elixir Pill.

Four seconds, five seconds, six seconds...

The Pegasus shook its head and walked to the edge of the barrier, its all-black eyes staring at Yang Qinglan.

Seven seconds.

The walrus writhed, its gaze turning toward Yang Qinglan.

Yang Qinglan glanced at the "eyes" while Li Changzhou surveyed the ghosts around them with cold eyes.

The Black Death God couldn't get through.

The King Cobra's summon had no response.

Eight seconds.

The penguin waddled to the edge of the barrier.

The centaur, Hidden Blade Spider, penguin, Pegasus, walrus, surrounded the barrier.

"But you—my Lord," Yang Qinglan chanted laboriously, each word seeming like a knife, "are my glory, my shield around me, lifting my head."

A thin and faint layer of golden-yellow barely emerged on the Golden Armor.

Li Qianxia took a deep breath, recalling the abandonment by her parents, the fear she felt on her first foray into the Value game, and revisiting the deaths of Ismei and the others.

"Hmm..."

A numbness set in, no hatred, no fear, no terror—her brain covered by a thin film.

Li Qianxia inevitably drifted off, remembering the night after her college entrance exams, staying up late playing video games.

Her head was just as numb then, eyes open but seeing nothing, hands controlling the game character, yet unaware of what "she" (herself) was doing or what she wanted to do.

Not an ounce of concentration.

Nine seconds.

"Qian Xia!" came the voices of her elder brother and Qing Lan from beside her.

She lifted her left hand and bit down hard, blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.

Her whole body jolted like someone had dragged her out from underwater, suddenly waking her up.

Huff! Heavenly Fire descended, flames spilling out again from her right arm, clinging to the Blood-colored Steel Spear.

Ten seconds.

The Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider's foot blades, the Penguin, the Pegasus, the Walrus, all charged into the 'Holy Domain' Barrier at the same time.

As if storming into a sea of fire, each of the five ghosts ignited in strands and wisps of gold flame as fine as knives.

Even so, they continued toward Yang Qinglan and Li Qianxia with fierce, pain-stricken expressions.

Li Qianxia, facing the hand in her own mouth, bit down again and took a step forward.

Boom!

Like the power furnace of a Mecha, her body shook with vibration, a vast Strength coming from nowhere, all pouring into the Blood-colored Steel Spear.

She flicked the long spear, the spear flowing like water, dragging a sea of flames sweeping in all directions.

The Centaur was knocked flying!

The foot blades burned away!

The Penguin slapped away!

The Pegasus... the flamed steel spear collided with the Pegasus, bouncing off each other.

Li Qianxia retreated repeatedly, almost stepping out of the three-meter diameter Barrier.

The Walrus, ignited by the 'Holy Domain,' came crashing down like a meteor, aiming for her.

Eleven seconds.

She struggled to lift her right arm, the Blood-colored Steel Spear now as heavy as a thousand pounds.

She bit into her left arm again!

Heavenly Fire descended...

Everything went dark before her eyes; her head buzzed, and she staggered to the ground, unable to see anything.

Yang Qinglan's eyes turned blue, tears dried as if she were going blind, and Li Qianxia flew out.

But not two meters away, 'Attract And Repel' disappeared.

Yang Qinglan felt completely drained.

Her 'Ability' was less than Li Qianxia's, who had reached the Fourth Level; even with fewer actions taken and Elixir Pills providing a slow recovery, she was now in overdraft.

Twelve seconds.

Depending on the Constitution provided by the 'Holy Domain', Yang Qinglan moved to the side of the Walrus ghost, her Golden Armor-covered arm slashing down like a sharp sword.

The 'Holy Light Shield', used for protection, that thin and faint layer of Holy Light, dissipated in an instant.

The burning body of the Walrus ghost flared up completely, its sparks dispersing like stars into the night sky.

Thirteen seconds.

The Golden Armor vanished.

Li Qianxia collapsed to the ground.

Fourteen seconds.

The Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus, all with golden flames, charged again.

Li Changzhou's eyes blazed red, shooting towards the face-stealing ghost in the black dress.

The face-stealing ghost blocked with her arms, the Hot Sight piercing her body, causing no harm, only burning two tiny holes at the end of the line of sight.

The Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus, stood there like out-of-control dolls, staying in place.

Fifteen seconds.

The face-stealing ghost slowly lowered her arms, and it seemed as if a trace of fright could be seen on that featureless face.

Yang Qinglan turned to look at Li Qianxia, tears streaming from her eyes, as Li Qianxia's body fell toward her.

The moment she flew into the Barrier, 'Attract And Repel' failed again, the bit of 'Ability' she had just regained completely exhausted.

Sixteen seconds.

The Barrier suddenly disappeared.

Yang Qinglan gave Li Changzhou a smile, self-deprecating, resigned, and composed, like a snow lotus whose petals are about to be blown away by the wind.

From the first day she joined the Value game, she had been prepared for death.

But why was there an indescribable longing in her heart?

Li Changzhou... Changzhou...

Seventeen seconds.

The face-stealing ghost confirmed she was unharmed, and the Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus moved again.

This time they headed straight for Yang Qinglan, unprotected by any Barrier!

Bi clenched her hands tightly.

"Get out of the way!" Li Changzhou shouted.

Yang Qinglan's head spun, her body uncontrollably tumbling, narrowly avoiding all the attacks with tricky angles at the last moment.

Eighteen seconds.

"Look into my eyes, don't look away," he said.

Li Changzhou and Yang Qinglan gazed directly at each other, like the fingers of a person grasping onto the edge of a cliff.

The Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus, readjusted their positions, encircling without leaving any gaps.

Yang Qinglan closed her eyes as if falling asleep, her body going limp—the fingers slipping from Li Changzhou's grasp.

"Qing Lan!" Li Changzhou's roar, passed through the Teleportation gate, shaking the gravel on the railway tracks.

The ghosts launched their charge.

"Hmm—" A bloodthirsty wolf howl.

A figure fast as lightning leaped out from across the train tracks, biting towards Edison lying on the ground, life or death unknown.

"Whirr—whirr—" With the grinding sound of a gramophone, Edison suddenly vanished.

The Werewolf lunged at empty air, then leaped towards another direction, where Edison was now, running for his life with his somewhat clumsy body.

Nineteen seconds.

The face-stealing ghost glanced at the one chasing and one fleeing, and uninterested, retracted her gaze.

The Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus, burning with golden flame, charged once more.

Twenty seconds.

A flash of white light, and the Black Death God slowly sheathed the Scythe, the Centaur, the Stealth Blade Spider, the Penguin, the Pegasus, all split in half.

Li Changzhou walked over from the other side of the Teleportation gate.

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