“Over there!”
Zi Yao pointed in a direction.
Under the pale moonlight, countless bare branches resembled the claws of vicious ghosts. Beneath those branches stood a familiar human silhouette.
The pressure radiating from those crimson, slitted pupils made it hard for them to breathe.
Lin Deyou made a split-second decision. He grabbed Zi Yao with one arm and Princess Jinyang with the other.
“Pardon the offense, Princess.”
Princess Jinyang tightly clutched Lin Deyou.
“Never mind that, let's get out of here quickly!”
Zi Yao didn't dare utter a single word, simply shivering as she clung to him.
Lin Deyou's qinggong was unparalleled. Even carrying two women, he moved at extreme speed.
As for Zhuang He and Bai Liu?
They had never been on the same page as him anyway, so what did their life or death have to do with him? Since they all knew this specter targeted people at random without any restrictions, and those two couldn't—or wouldn't—produce anything useful, there was no reason for them to stick together anymore.
After all, Lin Deyou was confident that even if he had to die, he would be the last one.
In the blink of an eye, he carried the two women far away, while Bai Liu and Zhuang He fled in the opposite direction.
Only a campfire and two ordinary commoners remained on the spot.
One was the man whose kneecap Lin Deyou had shattered with a stone, and the other was a peasant woman who had fainted from fright.
Zuo Lin'an looked up at the single leaf on the tree, feeling quite satisfied.
It was good that they left.
It was best if they all left.
This way, the leaf wouldn't fall into the players' hands, especially Lin Deyou's.
In a relatively good mood, he decided not to pursue the five fleeing players for now, opting instead to kill the two remaining players here first.
Just to be safe, he still approached with caution. Although these two players were definitely novices and didn't possess any specter items, he still didn't know what talents they might have.
He first targeted the man with the shattered kneecap.
Since the man was already in such a miserable state, Zuo Lin'an figured he might as well send him on his way to spare him further agony. Still, Zuo Lin'an didn't really want to torture this ordinary commoner.
“Hmm... Whatever, let's just do it this way.”
He reached out, grabbed the man's head, and slammed it against a nearby tree trunk, knocking him half to death before beginning the execution.
Since the specter aura kept the man clinging to life, he definitely wouldn't die during the execution itself.
At least the man remained unconscious the entire time, which could be considered a painless end.
Once the final step was completed and Zuo Lin'an withdrew his specter aura, the man drew his final breath.
Zuo Lin'an glanced at the scattered body parts on the ground, then silently looked away. This could be considered his own small act of kindness toward ordinary players.
As for the ones he had killed before?
Zuo Lin'an told himself he simply hadn't thought of it back then, but he would keep it in mind in the future.
After finishing off the man, he didn't leave immediately. Instead, he waited another hour to kill the other commoner before finally contemplating who to target next.
Lin Deyou was out of the question for now; since he had consumed the specter item candy, he had to be saved for last.
In that case, he would go after that Poison Dragon Zhuang He and Bai Liu first.
He would eliminate these two players first.
Zuo Lin'an closed his eyes to sense them. With the entire dungeon under his absolute control, he quickly located Zhuang He and Bai Liu.
As expected of martial artists, they had actually managed to flee across two mountains in such a short amount of time.
Meanwhile, Lin Deyou had taken the two women and hidden in the opposite direction. The two parties had fled along entirely different paths.
They probably wanted to spread out, forcing him, the specter, to spend more time traveling.
Or perhaps they each hoped the other party would draw the specter away?
Lost in thought, Zuo Lin'an prepared to depart. Before leaving, however, his gaze instinctively fell upon the still-burning campfire, then swept over the dead trees and dry leaves covering the entire mountain.
“No, this won't do.”
He stepped forward and extinguished the fire.
Only after ensuring there wasn't a single spark left that could reignite the blaze did he feel satisfied.
What a joke!
This place was his private property now!
If it accidentally burned down, who would he complain to?
Even if he wanted to put out a fire, there wasn't a single drop of water to be found nearby!
The entire Withered Forest and Barren Mountains didn't have any water; even the original riverbeds were dried up and cracked.
Oh, wait.
There was water in his cabin, likely drawn from groundwater.
But using that to extinguish a forest fire would be impossible, so it was much better to nip the hazard in the bud.
Just as he turned to leave, another thought struck him.
“The specter item...”
This leaf specter item couldn't just be left here like this. But as the dungeon boss, Zuo Lin'an couldn't simply pluck the leaf himself. He pondered for a moment and suddenly came up with a brilliant idea.
“Well, look at that. I guess I'm not so stupid after all.”
With a few swift movements, he climbed the tree and chopped off the highest branch with his blade.
The branch, along with the single leaf attached to it, fell to the ground.
Once it mixed with the countless dead branches and fallen leaves on the forest floor, it became completely indistinguishable.
To be absolutely safe, Zuo Lin'an even kicked the branch deeper into the withered forest.
“Perfect.”
Having a Human-Specter Symbiont boss form was indeed convenient; he could actually hide specter items.
With his mind at ease, Zuo Lin'an strolled leisurely toward where Zhuang He and Bai Liu were hiding.
Meanwhile, over on Lin Deyou's side.
The three of them were discussing him.
Princess Jinyang surveyed their surroundings. They were in a narrow cave filled with dust and fallen leaves. It was clearly uninhabited, and not even animals nested here.
But specter dungeons came in all shapes and sizes; even if they weren't used to it, they had to adapt.
“It's been so long. I wonder where that specter is now.”
Lin Deyou wanted to head out and investigate, but both Princess Jinyang and Zi Yao refused to let him leave, arguing that going out alone would be too dangerous.
Only then did he abandon the idea.
Yet, the lack of any activity for so long left him feeling deeply uneasy.
Seeing his anxiety, Princess Jinyang spoke up helplessly, “Let me try.”
Lin Deyou turned to look at her. “Does the princess have a way?”
Princess Jinyang let out a soft sigh. “I have the talent 【Perception】. It can be used three times a day to sense the general location of the specter.”
Lin Deyou was overjoyed. “I must trouble you then, Princess.”
Jinyang didn't say anything more. She nodded slowly and activated her talent.
At that moment, Zuo Lin'an, who was hiding near Zhuang He and Bai Liu, was boredly playing on his phone to pass the time. With his specter aura swirling around him, neither his presence nor the phone's light and sound could leak out.
But right then, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
What was that?
A player was spying on him!
Was it a talent, or a specter item?
“It should be a talent.”
He pulled out his work phone and pulled up the forum post listing various player talents. It was highly comprehensive, cataloging a massive number of both ordinary and special talents.
After a careful search, he indeed found an ordinary talent called 【Perception】.
“So it's this one. It's not of much use anyway.”
They probably just wanted to confirm his location, so Zuo Lin'an didn't pay it much mind.
After all, once he finished off Zhuang He and Bai Liu, he would head over to deal with Lin Deyou's group.
Rate on N.U.
