Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 106

The Demon King Child’s method of attacking people was easy to figure out. He would first use illusions to confuse his opponent, making them see countless children and unable to discern which one was real. Once successful, he would approach his enemy at high speed and then use his ultimate move, “Love Slap”.

With the combination of illusions and high speed, the Demon King Child’s strike was extremely difficult to avoid. However, Zhou Qian’s weapon had two abilities that were naturally the nemesis of these tactics.

The Rib of God, in itself a divine artifact for creating illusions, hadn’t yet fully unleashed its power due to the limitations of Zhou Qian’s own stats. But against such monsters, it was more than enough, allowing Zhou Qian to momentarily come to his senses and identify the real Demon King Child amidst the illusions. Zhou Qian’s ability to control time, effectively slowing down speed, was the trump card against the Demon King Child.

Thus, Zhou Qian had easily killed the Demon King Child with a short knife. But, as expected, the situation wasn’t that simple—the child could resurrect.

Zhou Qian’s time-slowing skill was very powerful, but it also drained MP quickly.

He had tried to conserve his MP but still used up 15% of it. It had taken him about a minute to kill the Demon King Child once.

But in the next 29 minutes, he could use such a tactic at most six more times before running out of MP. If the Demon King Child could resurrect without limit, Zhou Qian would be completely unable to resist him. To make matters worse, when the time was up, the Demon King Father would awaken.

Currently, it seemed that the child’s resurrection was related to his father. Perhaps the father’s “womb” was a medium capable of transferring life points, allowing his son to continuously resurrect.

The system mentioned that the life points of the Demon King Father were unknown. Perhaps this number was infinitely large, allowing him to provide endless life points to the Demon King Child.

Should Zhou Qian try to kill the father first? But given his seemingly infinite life points, that seemed too difficult.

Waking him up prematurely would only lead to a dire two-on-one situation without any other benefit.

Moreover, the system had specifically emphasized at the beginning not to easily awaken the Demon King Father, whose attack power was unfathomable. It was very likely that upon waking, the Demon King Father would directly unleash a powerful move.

This meant that the moment Zhou Qian woke him up would be the moment of death, as his basic stats were too weak to withstand a major attack from a big boss.

Lacking attributes, Zhou Qian resorted to using items. Before the Demon King Child launched his next attack, Zhou Qian hastily equipped his small dragon with armor and himself with a full-body protective device.

Additionally, to save MP, he put on shoes that increased his speed to 200% for up to 10 minutes.

Just a minute later, the Demon King Child recovered and quickly launched a second round of attacks on Zhou Qian.

Accompanied by the piercing cries of the child, the illusion surged, and layers of child-like afterimages interwove into a giant web around him, slowly tightening as if to strangle Zhou Qian to death.

With the Rib of God firmly in his left hand and leveraging the power of the weapon, Zhou Qian identified the real Demon King Child within a thousandth of a second and then quickly found the right direction to retreat with the help of the speed-boosting shoes.

Even though his speed was fast enough, it was still too late—

Just as Zhou Qian retreated ten steps, the Demon King Child, with palms combined, rapidly struck at his face! But at that moment, Zhou Qian’s right hand holding the short knife didn’t even have time to swing!

In this critical moment, Zhou Qian had to repeat his tactic and slow down time again.

With the speed-boosting shoes, he didn’t slow time down too much this time and only consumed 7% of his mana to successfully counter-kill the Demon King Child.

However, the golden light on the Demon King Father’s belly soon brightened again.

The lifeless body of the child lying on the ground quickly came back to life!

……

When Zhou Qian chose to enter this instance, high-level gamblers once again gathered to watch.

Initially, they weren’t interested in Zhou Qian playing such instances, always feeling he would clear them easily.

But as the situation developed, they too became somewhat nervous.

It seemed that fighting alone wasn’t Zhou Qian’s strong suit.

[Wait, I think this pair of bosses isn’t too hard to beat! Am I alone?]

[You’re not alone. I thought of it too. The key problem might lie in the father’s “womb”. Players indeed can’t kill the father in one blow, but piercing and destroying his womb should be doable.]

[Exactly. Without the womb, the father shouldn’t be able to resurrect the Demon King Child. Then, players can kill the child and focus on fighting the father.]

[But according to the system’s hint, the father might unleash a big move upon waking. How will Qian Ge dodge it?]

[Doesn’t Qian Ge have a pet? Use it to bait the big move!]

[Right, pets are for sacrifices, after all!]

[Right! So, Qian Ge’s correct approach should be: attack the father’s womb, severing the life connection between him and his son; meanwhile, let the pet dragon take the brunt of the father’s powerful move! Once the father has used his ultimate move, there will surely be a cooldown period, which Qian Ge can use to deal with the Demon King Child!]

[Reliable plan. After killing the Demon King Child, the next consideration is how to kill the Demon King Father.]

[But still… Even if the son dies, the father is tough to deal with, with all his stats unknown and thus unfathomable. From a numerical perspective, he completely overwhelms the player in every aspect! How can this be fought?]

[The father can keep resurrecting the child indefinitely. He’s immortal—impossible to defeat!]

[Yeah, I was wondering why Qian Ge didn’t think of destroying the womb earlier. Qian Ge is truly Qian Ge. He wouldn’t act rashly for a reason.]

[No, I think Qian Ge is wrong this time. If it were me, I would have let the dragon bait the ultimate move first. Dealing with one monster is always better than two!]

After a long discussion without a conclusion, the gamblers watched as Zhou Qian had already killed the Demon King Child three times, with less than 70% MP remaining.

At this point, everyone turned their attention to Priest.

[Priest, we need an answer. How do we solve this?]

[We initially thought attacking the father’s womb was the way to go. But the more we discuss, the more we feel it won’t work. Even if we sacrifice the pet to kill the child, it’s useless. The father’s life points are infinite… This puzzle is unsolvable!!!]

Hearing everyone’s words, Priest slowly said, “100 people enter, 10 die from the Demon King Child’s first attack; of the remaining 90, 10 will choose to attack the Demon King Father, fail, and get killed by the father and son combined—”

[And the rest?]

[Damn, what’s the answer?]

“Only 15 people clear the dungeon successfully, so 65 people will make the same mistake—”

“Like you, they think of destroying the Demon King Father’s womb to cut off the connection between father and son. But according to the system’s hint, this means waking up the father and very likely triggering his ultimate move; even if they survive the move, they still have to deal with these two…”

Priest continued, “They hesitate, not daring to make an immediate decision, only to kill the Demon King Child over and over again in their indecision and contemplation.

“Perhaps after killing the Demon King Child ten times, they finally make a decision—continuing like this isn’t the way might as well go with the initial plan—destroy his womb first and then adapt as things unfold.”

Pausing for a moment, Priest added, “Of these 65 people, about 30 will die in the combined attack of the father and son after waking the father by removing his womb, leaving 35 alive.”

“But at this point… these 35 people don’t have enough MP to face the real monster.”

“So ultimately, all these 65 people die.”

Smiling at the image on the tablet, Priest said, “These numbers are actually quite objective. The foolish or those with low combat power are eliminated at the beginning, about 20%; those who clear it are 15%; and those who die slowly in between make up 65%. You can calculate, does it approximate a normal distribution?”

[I get what Priest means.]

[Me too. He’s mocking us for being part of that 65% majority.]

[If we were in that game, we could avoid the early attacks and think of removing the womb, but we belong to the majority who hesitate, delay, and ultimately die due to lack of MP.]

[Wow, shh, quiet, look! Qian Ge is making his move!]

[!!! He’s really going for the Demon King Father’s womb!]

[Why?! He didn’t let the dragon bait the ultimate move?!]

[Ah, then he himself will have to face the ultimate move… This can’t be good! He’s finished…]

[Ah, the Demon King Father is waking up!]

……

In the game.

Zhou Qian tightly gripped the Rib of God in his left hand to slow down time, and while the effect of his speed shoes hadn’t worn off, he used his extreme speed to reach the Demon King Father before the Demon King Child could catch up.

The Demon King Child seemed to sense something and suddenly shouted, “Daddy!”

Some fear of losing his father probably triggered him, and suddenly, he charged at Zhou Qian with unprecedented speed, his palms creating numerous palm prints, all striking towards Zhou Qian’s back!

Zhou Qian leaped up, his back, abdomen, and legs all stretched out straight, almost parallel to the ground. This way, he narrowly avoided a few palm strikes and then adjusted his posture as he landed, eventually flipping halfway and returning to the ground in a kneeling position on one knee.

The wind created by his landing fluttered the hair on Zhou Qian’s forehead, revealing a pair of cold and slightly mocking eyes.

Meanwhile, he reversed his grip on the short knife and thrust it downward with force. As the cold light vanished, the tip of the knife pierced straight into the meatball on the Demon King Father’s belly.

Purple blood splattered on Zhou Qian’s pale, thin chin. He raised his knife-wielding hand, thumb up, casually wiping his face, and then stood firm without retreat or avoidance.

“Ah—! How hateful!! Pay with your life!!”

The Demon King Father woke up, immediately letting out a tremendous roar.

That roar was filled with endless hatred and murderous intent, as if determined to chop into a thousand pieces the one who woke him up and even destroyed his womb!

However, facing this hatred, Zhou Qian remained calm and composed.

While slowing down time, he slightly sidestepped to avoid a slap, merely dodging the Demon King Child attacking from the side as usual.

[What is Qian Ge doing?]

[Why is he so calm?]

[The Demon King Father is about to unleash his ultimate move, right? Wuwuwu, I’m scared]

[Hasn’t Qian Ge dodged yet?]

[Hey, look, the Demon King Father didn’t unleash his ultimate move!]

At this moment, Priest spoke up. “He can’t unleash it.”

The gamblers said in unison, “Why?”

Priest, with a faint smile, said, “At this moment… he doesn’t have an ultimate move at all.”

On the screen, Zhou Qian looked at the Demon King Father with a pleased smile on his face.

“The system says he has unknown vitality, unknown defense, unfathomable attack power… Initially, everyone would think his health points are incredibly high. But who would have thought that he would actually be easy to kill.”

After finishing his words, Zhou Qian reversed his grip on the knife and mercilessly slashed at the Demon King Father’s neck.

“Maybe you also have fast speed and astonishing attack power. But under my slowed-down time, all of that is of no use.”

Zhou Qian watched with a smile as the purple blood slowly spilled out and climbed up the knife, but this smile didn’t reach his eyes.

Staring into the eyes of the Demon King Father, Zhou Qian’s gaze was extremely cold and ruthless.

Only when he saw the Demon King Father’s data on the system panel did his eyes show a bit of satisfaction.

“Your unknown vitality is because it’s merely a thousand points. I’m already at Rank S, with a life value of 50,000. It turns out ‘unknown’ can also mean very small, so small it can almost be ignored. Indeed, it’s a trick of the system.”

The Demon King Father’s life points quickly bottomed out, and he lay motionless on the ground.

Zhou Qian turned to look at the Demon King Child.

The Demon King Child, caught in the drastically slowed-down time, seemed to be moving very slowly. But he seemed to sense something, his eyes becoming watery.

Tears were accumulating in his eyes but couldn’t flow out, merely because they were constrained by time.

“The key to clearing the dungeon is in the word ‘cooking’.”

Zhou Qian said to the Demon King Child, “Your father is skilled in childbirth, childcare, and cooking. But what was he cooking? Of course, it was cooking a delicacy for himself.”

“So, it’s not that he has endless vitality and can transfer it to you upon your death. The real situation is the opposite—”

“The one who is truly immortal and has endless life is you. He nurtured you, raised you, and in the end, he was going to cook you and eat you to absorb your power.”

“As for that golden light… It’s also a trick to deceive the players.”

As he spoke, Zhou Qian reached into the broken belly of the Demon King Father and felt a golden pill-like object.

Shortly after it was in Zhou Qian’s palm, it emitted a golden light, flickered a few times, and then went out.

Its intermittent glow wasn’t the Demon King Father transferring life to his son; rather, it was absorbing life from his son.

Why?

Only because his own life force was extremely weak.

In fact, he needed to rely on his son to live.

Shortly after securing the golden pill, Zhou Qian received this prompt—

[Player Zhou Qian obtains item: Taotie* Golden Pill]

*An ancient Chinese mythological creature that is one of the “four evil creatures of the world.” It is one of the four that’s opposed to the holy four creatures (Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise). Notably, it’s known for its gluttony (thus the word (饕餮) can mean glutenous).

[Effect: The Taotie never knows satisfaction, and it loves to absorb people’s life force the most, so under certain circumstances, it can help you absorb someone else’s life force.]

[Player Zhou Qian unlocks the complete story: —

A man on the brink of death from a severe illness obtained a Taotie Golden Pill from an old Taoist and swallowed it. The pill could absorb the life force of people around the man, allowing him to hang on to life.

But the life force of ordinary people was limited and couldn’t satisfy the man’s needs, so he began searching for ways to extend his life.

Hearing that there was a spiritual woman on Purple Mist Mountain with a robust life force, the man spent his days searching for her on the mountain. His goal was to kill her and absorb her spiritual power.

After successfully meeting the spiritual woman, the man realized her power was too strong for him to kill directly, and even the golden pill couldn’t actively absorb her power.

So, the man began to deceive the woman, making her fall in love with him and eventually marry him.

He bought an apartment in Blue Harbor City, claiming he wanted to bring the spiritual woman into the world to live an ordinary life. He cared for her in every way, and the spiritual woman, unsuspecting, willingly bore his child, and the two became a loving couple in the eyes of others.

Unbeknownst to the spiritual woman, while she was pregnant, the man used an old Taoist to cast a spell on the child in her womb.

Thus, each day as the child grew, it consumed more of the mother’s spiritual power.

By the time the child was four months old, the spiritual woman’s spiritual power and life force had been completely consumed by the child, leading to her eventual death from depletion of her spiritual energy. She transferred all her spiritual power and life force to the child.

While the child’s physical body wasn’t fully developed, it could provide limited life force to the man, enough for him to live another hundred years. However, if the child was carefully nurtured, absorbing the essence of Purple Mist Mountain and turning into a spirit monster, upon reaching the age of four, the man could eat its flesh and blood to become immortal and god-like.]

“Your father deceived your mother’s feelings, using her womb as a tool or vessel to create an elixir of immortality, and the medicine cultivated in this vessel was you.”

“He was skilled in cooking—not to cook food for you, but to cook your flesh and blood, making you his delicacy. He raised you to four years old to eat you.

“Such a scoundrel; he deserved to die. I have avenged you and your mother.”

Quickly scanning the story sent by the system, Zhou Qian spoke to the child before the slowed time ended. “So, when the system initially said that the Demon King Father would wake up from his sleep in 30 minutes, it really meant that in 30 minutes, you would turn four years old.”

“Why did the system say the Demon King Father was unfathomable?”

“Because 30 minutes later, when he woke up, he would eat you and then become immortal.”

“Probably that’s why so many players couldn’t clear the dungeon. Many of them faced the Demon King Father, who had become immortal.”

“The system’s so-called unbelievably strong Demon King Father actually referred to him after becoming immortal, that is, after waking up and eating you.”

“Indeed, who could beat him in that situation? So, the system wasn’t really lying, right? I’m tired of these little tricks from the game designers. But I never expected—”

“To encounter the power of the Taotie here. Speaking of which…”

Zhou Qian smiled, holding the golden pill, and patted the small dragon on his shoulder. “Dragons have nine sons, and the Taotie is one of them. What kind of dragon is your father? Are you related to him?”

Yawning, Zhou Qian began to think of ways to delay time.

Actually, only about 10 minutes had passed in normal time.

Zhou Qian estimated that if he could delay another 20 minutes, he should be able to directly absorb the Demon King Child’s life force with the golden pill in his hand and then clear the dungeon.

However, in the next 20 minutes, Zhou Qian couldn’t really kill him. According to the setting, after absorbing all the spiritual woman’s power and turning into a spirit monster on Purple Mist Mountain, he would resurrect time and again.

His life force was endless and invincible, only absorbable by the golden pill.

Zhou Qian brought out all sorts of items: the Universe Teleportation Mirror, Flying Ropes, even Flash Smoke Bombs, and more. Now that the Demon King Father was dead, Zhou Qian’s MP was almost depleted.

Surviving the next 20 minutes against the Demon King Child wouldn’t be easy.

Zhou Qian decided not to kill the Demon King Child futilely. He would hit and run, simply biding time.

With so many items, plus using the small dragon for cover, even though he might be heavily injured upon leaving, clearing the dungeon wasn’t a big problem.

Unexpectedly, just as Zhou Qian prepared all his items and planned everything for the next 20 minutes, the small dragon, staring at the golden pill in his hand, suddenly made a move.

The golden pill suddenly rose into the air and hovered. The next moment, the small dragon opened its mouth, and the golden pill flew into it and was swallowed.

“Little Dragon, you—”

Zhou Qian blinked and saw it surrounded by a golden glow, rapidly growing in size, quickly becoming the length of an adult, rising into the air, and hovering.

From the data panel, its strength had increased significantly, and the system even offered options to increase its skill values.

Considering the current situation, Zhou Qian immediately increased all its skills to speed, granting the small dragon extremely high agility.

Essentially, Zhou Qian still considered the small dragon a part or incarnation of Bai Zhou, and after dividing his spiritual power with the small dragon, he could control it as a Shepherd.

“Not bad at all.” Zhou Qian patted its head. “Even the incarnation has upgraded so quickly. Then—”

After cleaning the bloodstained knife and putting it away, Zhou Qian switched the Rib of God to his right hand. Narrowing his eyes at the Demon King Child not far ahead, he waved his left hand forward. “Little Dragon, cover me!”

Time resumed its normal pace.

Zhou Qian’s MP was down to 5%, but he didn’t care.

The small dragon swooped in, and he leaped up, mounting it.

The infant’s crying sound rose again, and countless illusions immediately surrounded Zhou Qian. After identifying the real Demon King Child coming from the left with the Rib of God, Zhou Qian thought of dodging to the right. The small dragon swiftly received the signal from his brain and immediately moved to the right.

Two palms fiercely struck the ground, the force so great that it tore open the earth.

But the dragon had already carried Zhou Qian away in advance, soaring lightly like a drifting cloud, rising several feet into the air, facing the Demon King Child from a distance.

“Ugh—!”

The Demon King Child furiously slapped the ground again, causing it to crack open instantly.

Stepping on the battered ground, he leaped up, lunging towards Zhou Qian in mid-air.

In mid-air, however, a deep blue dragon tail swept across, hitting the Demon King Child’s head and flipping him harshly to the ground.

Zhou Qian’s voice echoed in the air. “Didn’t you understand what I said? Your father is the one who harmed you. I’m the one avenging you.”

The Demon King Child didn’t listen, his health dropping to the lowest and then instantly restored to full, as he roared and charged at Zhou Qian again.

Zhou Qian shook his head.

It seems the child’s mind was completely altered by his father.

He must think his life is for his father.

Maybe when his father wanted to eat him, he would willingly sacrifice himself.

“Without me, there would be no you. Your life was created by me, and you should serve me, offering all your flesh and blood to me.”

Sitting on the small dragon’s back, Zhou Qian looked down at the Demon King Child with a piercing gaze. “Did your father brainwash you with this line?”

“But have you ever thought about your mother?”

“Maybe she willingly gave birth to you. Maybe she was willing to share her life force with you. But did she want to give it to your father? She was harmed by him for her entire life.”

The Demon King Child couldn’t understand Zhou Qian’s words at all.

Under the curse, from birth, he lived for his father.

Even his daily cultivation, eating fruits and animals rich in spiritual power, was to make himself tastier.

He was pitiable, but beyond saving.

Zhou Qian patted the small dragon’s head. “Your dad and I wouldn’t do that to you. Don’t fight him head-on. He can’t die. If we wait until 30 minutes, we should be able to use the golden pill to absorb his life force.”

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