Zuo Lin'an raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected Xu Youyou to actually restrain himself from running wild in his very first dungeon.
But... taking photos?
Well, that made sense. Xu Youyou was never one to sit still.
【Zuo Lin'an: Looking at it this way, it does indeed seem invincible. But don't forget, there are many talents and specter items that don't just target specters or living humans individually.】
【Zuo Lin'an: There are plenty of things that target both, and they can have some pretty bizarre effects.】
【Zuo Lin'an: For example, there's a player here who has a specter item candy. Once eaten, it makes specters completely ignore him. This effect only disappears when he's the last player left in the dungeon.】
【Zuo Lin'an: I can see him when I'm in my living body, but if I switch to my specter body, I'll ignore him. In a situation like that, even a state of perfect fusion won't help.】
【Zuo Lin'an: After all, dungeon bosses can only kill players using rules.】
【Zuo Lin'an: If I can't kill all the other players before he clears the dungeon, I'll just have to stand by and watch him clear it.】
【Zuo Lin'an: Or say a specter item has the effect of killing any target. If the target is a living human, they die; if it's a specter, it gets repelled. Even as Human-Specter Symbionts, we wouldn't escape being repelled.】
【Zuo Lin'an: Besides, we've only just learned about the perfect fusion of Human-Specter Symbionts and the ability to switch states at will. We're still far from being able to use it proficiently.】
【Zuo Lin'an: Also, we're in a wuxia world this time where many people practice martial arts and condense true qi. But what about the future? We might encounter magic worlds, superpower worlds, and so on. Our specter bodies might be immune to those strange abilities, but our living bodies won't be.】
Reading Zuo Lin'an's long wall of text, Xu Youyou felt his head throb.
Still, he read through it very seriously.
【Xu Youyou: (⊙o⊙) Right, right. I can't get too cocky, or I might end up slipping up and sinking myself without even knowing it.】
【Xu Youyou: Alright, alright, Mother An, don't be so serious. Let me show you something fun.】
Zuo Lin'an ignored Xu Youyou's nickname for him.
This guy always had a smart mouth, and Zuo Lin'an was long used to it.
A moment later, Xu Youyou sent him a barrage of photos. They were all of players dressed in ancient clothing, fleeing in absolute terror.
He scanned through them briefly and found them quite amusing.
As expected, human joys and sorrows were not shared.
Or rather, was his own happiness built on the suffering of others?
The two chatted briefly for a few more lines before wrapping up their conversation.
Zuo Lin'an casually put his phone away and resumed watching the players on his end.
Lin Deyou and his group were still keeping a close eye on the two commoners, barely letting them out of their sight.
Zuo Lin'an didn't care. It wasn't like these players could do anything to him anyway.
However, the next time he made a move, his living body would have to act together with his specter body. He would perform a perfect fusion first, then switch to his specter body form to kill.
After all, being seen by the players meant they could use their talents and specter items against him.
He had to be fully prepared.
Though he doubted these players would waste their precious trump cards just to save unrelated strangers.
Zuo Lin'an leisurely opened a game on his phone, occasionally munching on snacks and sipping his drink.
There was no helping it; waiting was too boring, so he had to find something to pass the time.
Until, once again, that mysterious sensation arose in his mind.
Zuo Lin'an casually set everything down, stood up, and stepped into the white mist. Just as he entered, he saw his specter body waiting for him inside.
The two bodies gradually merged. Zuo Lin'an looked down at his hands; they still looked like those of a normal human.
Switch to specter body!
In the next instant, his normal human skin tone began to shift bit by bit, turning a pale, sickly ash-gray.
Right now, he wasn't just simply merging his living body and specter body; he had entered a state of perfect fusion and then switched to his specter body form.
Under the pale moonlight lay a dead, withered forest. A figure shrouded in pitch-black, eerie ghostly energy appeared amidst the trees.
As Zuo Lin'an slowly opened his eyes, a pair of crimson slit pupils glowed in the darkness like two eerie, blood-red lanterns.
Two minutes left. It was time to begin.
Zuo Lin'an lifted his foot and took a step forward.
It seemed slow, but a single stride covered one to two hundred meters.
In less than a minute, he reached the peak of the mountain. While still several hundred meters away from the players, he began to release his specter aura.
As the freezing energy spread, the surrounding temperature plummeted. Even the flames of the campfire were blanketed by a gray haze, severely reducing visibility!
Lin Deyou and the others snapped awake instantly. Several of them had participated in a few One-Star dungeons, so they were naturally very familiar with this kind of freezing aura.
Everyone leapt to their feet, huddling close to one another as they stared around warily with wide eyes.
The two women, Jinyang and Zi Yao, were instinctively shielded in the center.
“Over there!”
Lin Deyou was the first to spot Zuo Lin'an.
Everyone immediately whipped their heads in that direction, and the first thing they saw was a pair of crimson eyes.
“They're... red eyes! And slit pupils!”
“What's going on? Is this specter some kind of beast?”
“No, look closely. That's a human silhouette. It's humanoid, not a beast.”
Because the campfire was suppressed by the specter aura, the area it illuminated had shrunk significantly, only allowing them to vaguely make out the humanoid outline of the specter in the distance.
Just then, Zuo Lin'an took another step forward, and his figure instantly vanished from their sight.
“It's gone! Everyone, watch out!”
In the next moment...
Behind Lin Deyou, Zi Yao suddenly shrieked.
“Ahhh!!!”
“Young Master Lin, behind you! Behind you!!”
Zi Yao had seen those eyes—they were right behind Lin Deyou.
Terrified out of her wits, she turned her head away after just a single glance, not daring to look again, and could only scream a warning.
Everyone was startled by her words, especially Lin Deyou. However, when they whipped around to check, they found nothing there.
Lin Deyou broke out in goosebumps, a cold sweat drenching his back.
Even though he hadn't seen it, he had actually felt something just now. For a split second, it felt as if a block of ice had been pressed against his back.
Zhuang He cried out, “Oh no, Brother Zhou is gone!”
Only then did they realize that Zhou Yunshan, who had been standing quietly by their side this whole time, had vanished!
The freezing aura around them gradually dissipated, and the temperature returned to normal. The campfire's flames also regained their original brightness and heat, slowly warming them up.
The group breathed a sigh of relief, but their hearts were incredibly heavy.
Everyone had assumed the specter would target the two commoners who were isolated and further from the campfire, but they never expected it to go after Zhou Yunshan instead.
Rate on N.U.
