GAMMT - Chapter 37
Chapter 37: Crippled
Lin Qing hadn't suffered such a major loss in years. He was so furious he felt like he was having a heart attack. Based on his thinking and observation, he could accurately determine that the most formidable person on the farm was that Xie Clan scion. A young genius, yet seasoned and cunning, capable of setting a trap to slaughter so many locust swarms. Even he, two years younger, might not have been so experienced.
A genius like that, born into nobility, should be dead. How could he have successfully ambushed him?
Lin Qing was a self-made man who had clawed his way up from the grassroots. He was proud and arrogant, utterly intolerant, and prone to jealousy. In his rage, even his rational mind was convinced that Xie Guangyu was behind it all.
First, they use us to lure away the bosses, using the locust swarm to kill us, while they kill the queen back at the farm?
What a familiar tactic.
Was this some kind of symmetrical retaliation?
Knowing what kind of person he was, he naturally judged others by his own standards. Lin Qing and his team were certain that Xie Guangyu and his people were the culprits. After breaking out, they were heavily injured and unwilling to face such a massive swarm and five mini-bosses head-on. So, as Lin Qing commanded, they all charged toward the farm, leading every last monster over there!
Back at the farm, the Arcanists had been preparing for a desperate, last-ditch battle against the queen—a clash of kings. But before the real fight could even begin, they heard a huge commotion from the fields.
First came the flash of an explosion, then a vast swarm of locusts and five noticeably large mini-bosses, followed by a fleeing team.
That team was heading straight for the farm.
"Is that Lin Qing?"
"Holy crap, it is. I've seen his file before at the Tianniu Arena."
"It really is them! They're deliberately luring the monsters to our farm!"
"How vicious!"
The people at the farm were livid. Xie Guangyu was stunned for a moment. While he didn't quite understand why someone as cunning and insidious as Lin Qing would use such an obvious method to force a three-way confrontation, the facts before him were undeniable. The other party was indeed leading the monsters over.
In that case…
Xie Guangyu's lips tightened. He feigned a shout toward Lin Qing's group, "Friends, what is the meaning of this? If you want to come over, you must fight alongside us! Otherwise, don't blame us for attacking you as well!"
Lin Qing sneered and replied just as amicably, "We were forced into this and simply can't beat them. Why don't our two sides join forces and use the farm as a fortress to defend against this swarm together!"
"Agreed."
Each side harbored their own ulterior motives. The farm opened its main gate, allowing Lin Qing's team to flee inside. Both sides exercised incredible restraint, neither revealing their true intentions.
"Truly impressive."
Inside the house, Fu Chuan was in awe. She felt these people's capacity for forbearance was no less than her own. However, according to her plan, these two groups were indeed supposed to bury the hatchet and fight for humanity, to stop the infighting and hopefully wipe out the majority of the locust swarm's forces.
For now, both Xie Guangyu and Lin Qing were moving according to her script. But she didn't understand why the queen refused to retreat, even after seeing that Lin Qing's team hadn't suffered major casualties. It also seemed like the poison needles hadn't taken effect.
There were so many poison needles.
Did she not eat them? Did something unexpected happen?
Moreover, although she controlled a massive swarm, for people like Lin Qing, as long as the queen was within attack range, they could focus their damage on her. Killing her would neutralize the entire swarm.
So, her proper strategy should have been to retreat and hide, controlling the swarm from a distance to attack the farm, not engage in close-quarters combat like this, placing herself within the humans' range of attack.
"Her intelligence isn't low. She even knew to cultivate mini-bosses on the fly to lead separate swarms and ambush that team's location. She wouldn't make such a tactical error unless she believed that getting closer to the fight would be advantageous."
What kind of beating is advantageous?
Is she some kind of masochist?
Fu Chuan muttered to herself, wondering if even locust bosses had such perverted tastes.
Suddenly!
A thought flashed through Fu Chuan's mind.
She knew… she knew why this dungeon was so strange. At first, it felt like a Green-Brown Locust disaster, but later they all turned into Scorpion-Tail Locusts.
"That's because it was indeed a Green-Brown Locust disaster at the beginning. But by chance, a high-level female Scorpion-Tail Locust Queen had infiltrated the Green-Brown Locusts. She probably mated with the Green-Brown Locust leader… and gave birth to a large number of Scorpion-Tail Locust offspring. Because the latter's swarm level is higher, they quickly replaced the Green-Brown Locusts. So the initial judgment wasn't wrong; it changed the population later on. But according to the law of genetic conservation, Green-Brown Locusts and Scorpion-Tail Locusts are both part of the locust family. Their genes wouldn't completely devour each other; they can be compatible. This dungeon is so hard to beat, and the difficulty escalated so quickly, because the Scorpion-Tail Queen not only mated with the Green-Brown Locust leader but also ended up eating him."
"The genes merged, but she didn't advance in level directly. The success of the genetic fusion must have been accumulated in her larva."
"No wonder the poison I laid never took effect. It was all absorbed by this powerful larva. And this larva must be an extremely rare mutated egg."
As Fu Chuan figured all this out, a glint flickered in her eyes.
At that moment, both Lin Qing and Xie Guangyu were leading their people in a frenzied assault, and they were indeed surrounding and attacking the queen.
Soon, the queen was surrounded and beaten. A massive amount of energy slammed into her body, her health bar steadily decreasing as she let out agonizing wails…
"It's almost dead!"
"Hurry!"
Both sides were ecstatic. In an instant, they simultaneously unleashed their trump cards and treasures to increase their damage output, attempting to claim ownership of the kill.
And at that moment… Xie Guangyu suddenly took out a device and pressed a button.
One second.
In the area where the queen and Lin Qing's team stood… several geckos burrowed out of the ground, the explosive energy sources they carried activating.
Boom!!!
Feel the power of a modified gecko bomb system worth ten million copper coins.
There were five in total.
The explosive force of each wasn't particularly massive, but their strength lay in their stealth. They were modified, controllable devices. Combined, the five of them produced an astonishingly powerful explosion, more than enough to catch certain "teammates" by surprise.
Fu Chuan: "…"
Only those within the noble system had the connections to purchase such things. No matter how capable Lin Qing and his people were, they had not yet reached the point where they could bridge the class divide and acquire such powerful resources through those channels.
Fifty million. Did they not have it?
They absolutely did!
But they couldn't buy it.
After this wave of explosions… Lin Qing's group had most of their remaining health bars instantly wiped out, leaving the entire team with just a sliver of health… but Lin Qing had dodged it again.
To be precise, he had vanished.
He had evaded the geckos' blast radius from the very beginning.
Fu Chuan's brow twitched. She sensed that this Lin Qing had detected the hidden geckos from the start, but he hadn't warned his teammates.
Why?
"With the start of the school season imminent, given his ability and age, he can still get into a top academy. But his teammates are all a bit too old; it would be difficult for them to keep up with him. Since that's the case, naturally…"
Fu Chuan took a deep breath, marveling at the diversity of human nature, and at this dungeon.
It was almost over.
Swoosh!
Lin Qing emerged from hiding, instantly appearing in front of Xie Guangyu, who had noticed his absence and was nervously preparing to dodge and defend.
Xie Guangyu hastily summoned a protective shield, but Lin Qing raised his hand and cast a spell… Bang!!
A two-meter-long blade of light slashed horizontally.
A critical hit from a 20th-level Arcanist!!
Bang!! The effect of Xie Guangyu's full set of green-tier defensive gear was shattered by that single slash. He was sent flying, slamming heavily against a wall and spitting out a large mouthful of blood.
It was terrifying.
This man was level twenty!
What the hell? A 20th-level Arcanist came to a 5th-level dungeon?
Could it be that he knew the truth about this dungeon from the start?
Before the shocked crowd could fully process this, Lin Qing threw a device that slapped onto the queen's body with a click.
Beep, beep, beep.
The device's small suction cup glowed red on the queen's carapace. The next moment, in the woods outside the farm where Fu Chuan had once hidden her airship…
The airship, activated by the device's targeting function, began to preheat its cannon. In less than three seconds, after a tremendous roar, a red cannonball containing an explosive energy core shot out in a straight line. It left the woods, flew directly over the farm, and crossed a distance of over three hundred meters…
BOOM!!!
The locust swarm and the queen were hit by the cannonball.
The massive explosion directly leveled more than half of the open area in front of the farm gate, along with the gate itself, the pigsty, and everything else.
It was a scene of utter devastation.
Most of the monsters were wiped out.
A glow enveloped Lin Qing as he leveled up. Just as he thought the situation was settled, he suddenly turned his head and saw Xie Guangyu getting back up. A vast, corrosive black mist was released as the six points of light on the six branches of his Gene Tree shone brightly.
"You… deserve to die!"
Xie Guangyu was like the unkillable noble protagonist from a power fantasy who finally unleashes his cheat-like talent, while Lin Qing was the grassroots protagonist fighting against fate, declaring, "My destiny is my own, not heaven's to decide…"
The two faced off, while the BOSS clung to its last breath.
"Is this the real king versus king now?"
Groundhog, who had been fighting for his life, trembled at this series of twists. He thought to himself that humans were truly terrifying, just like that super-extra, Zhang Huan, from some old detective show—it was plots within plots, an endless cycle.
Ah Qi was about to say "maybe," but then she suddenly…
She saw Forest Thorns erupting from the ground, saw the strands of spider silk wrapped around them, and saw those thorns entangling the weakened bosses, all of Lin Qing's team members, and the strongest members of the Xie Clan and Teng Family who were closest to the BOSS.
However eager they had been to claim the BOSS kill, however much power they had unleashed, that was how much danger they were in now.
Because someone, far from the fray, had drawn a large net beneath their feet.
An area, its layout predetermined, was marked as the killing zone by this schemer.
They were stunned, then petrified by Steel Transformation.
Lin Qing's pupils constricted. With an angry roar, he tried to shatter the thorns, but they were wrapped in steel-hardened spider silk, their toughness increased a hundredfold. He couldn't break them. And with the first wave of stun…
Lin Qing's stats were high, so he was only stunned for a second. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw his teammates—the ones with low health, the ones he thought would die by his hand and leave him an inheritance for his academy tuition.
They were being crushed to death by the steel-hardened, silk-wrapped thorns!
Including the bosses.
A triple composite arcane art plus spider silk—a one-shot kill for all those with low health!
Ah Qi was a bit dazed. Who would have thought to use a common earth-type arcane art like Forest Thorns by weaving spider silk through it underground? Using the growth speed of the thorns as they rooted into the earth to rapidly entangle living targets with the silk… simultaneously hardening and solidifying it.
This technique was too powerful and devious.
The final oriole… where was she?
After seeing his teammates killed, the stun wore off, and Lin Qing's body finally… shimmered. With a concussive wave, the spider silk was turned to ice.
Clang!!
The silk-wrapped thorns shattered! Just as Lin Qing was about to break free…
He suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, pain, and nausea wash over his mind, so intense his body threatened to convulse.
What was happening?
His vision swam, but he saw an arrow… it seemed to be wavering, yet it was perfectly aimed.
He wanted to dodge, but his body was overwhelmed by pain, impossible to control.
Thwump!!!
It pierced straight through his neck.
Blood splattered as it tore through his throat.
In the same breath that Lin Qing was killed… Xie Guangyu's scalp went numb, but he was sharp. He was the first to break through the thorns and decisively led his men to attack a specific spot.
"Attack there!"
Xie Guangyu reacted quickly. The moment Lin Qing was killed, he had already locked onto the oriole's position.
On the rooftop.
They tried to launch their attacks, but most of them started foaming at the mouth… and collapsed one by one.
A few, like Xie Guangyu, had high levels and strong stats, so they resisted. But they felt it too.
"Poison! We've been poisoned!"
Xie Guangyu was stunned, but he quickly understood: poison… Forest Thorns isn't poisonous. Its thorns aren't poisonous. But the problem was, the thorns on it weren't its original thorns. They were poison needles disguised as thorns.
They had all recognized it as Forest Thorns and assumed it was harmless, thinking they just needed to break free. They never guarded against its spikes.
And so!
They were all poisoned!
This person was terrifying. Who was it?
Xie Guangyu's heart pounded with fear. Weakened by the poison, he fell to one knee…
The opponent fell for it, just as he'd expected, and was about to jump down.
This was his chance!
Xie Guangyu seized the opportunity, leaping up in a flash. He predicted Fu Chuan's landing spot as she jumped down and unleashed a cloud of corrosive mist toward it.
But!
She never landed.
She tapped the air mid-flight, her shadow flitting away to another spot four or five meters up, then flickered again in a series of flashes…
Huh?
Ah Qi was stunned. "Void Chain Jump? No, that's a 50th-level arcane art… How could…"
It definitely wasn't the moderately rare movement art, Void Chain Jump. It was…
Spider silk, pulled taut and strung between buildings, formed elastic, string-like paths. Each strand was a deceptive route for her leaps and flashes. You couldn't even momentarily predict her position in the air, because her weight upon landing, the force, and the tension of the silk at that moment were known only to her. No one else could predict it, and thus, no one could lock on to attack her.
Unless you could sever those paths.
Seeing his attack miss, Xie Guangyu immediately moved to cut the spider silk. Unfortunately, while his poison resistance was high and he had withstood most of the toxins, he was still a bit sluggish. And his opportunity had already passed.
Stun, then Azure Radiance Feather!
After being stunned, Xie Guangyu was hit by Azure Radiance Feather, sent flying once more. He coughed up blood and tried to get up, but—thump! thump! thump!
Several more Azure Radiance Feather strikes slammed into him, shattering all the defensive armor on his body.
A brutal beatdown!
However impressive, powerful, gloomy, and wickedly cool Xie Guangyu had been before, that was how pathetic he was now, beaten so badly he couldn't even fight back.
"Please don't kill us, we're from the Xie Clan of Jingyang…" The father and son, Xie Yong and Xie Jun, trembled in fear and immediately announced their family name. And then…
Fu Chuan's left hand was still flinging Azure Radiance Feather as she brought the fingers of her right hand together.
In front of everyone.
The necks of Xie Yong and Xie Jun suddenly constricted, and their bodies were lifted into the air… The next second, they were strangled to death, hanging in mid-air.
Why?
Because Fu Chuan knew it wasn't Xie Guangyu who had placed the lure to attract the locusts. Xie Keli was useful to him; he had no reason to. But for the father and son, Xie Yong and Xie Jun, it was a different story.
Based on her current speculation, perhaps the two had had a conversation like this before making their move.
Son: Father, if we don't act now, that Xie Guangyu will climb right over us! How dare a mere illegitimate son act like this… How will I ever have a chance to rise?
Father: Indeed. This boy is insolent, even more detestable than that Xie Keli! He must be killed!
Son: So this is our only chance. As long as Xie Keli dies, there will be no other candidate. That side already preferred Xie Guangyu anyway. This time, Xie An will have no reason to refuse. He'll be sent off for the marriage alliance, becoming a useless pawn.
Father: Proceed according to the plan. When the trap is sprung tomorrow, there will be chaos. Xie Keli will die at the hands of the locust swarm, and no one will be able to blame us. And Xie Guangyu's future will be ruined.
Their plan was thwarted midway.
Whether Xie Keli was dead or not was unknown, but a Fu Chuan had emerged.
After slaughtering the father and son, she walked directly up to Xie Guangyu, about to make a move… when Ah Qi and the others suddenly grew agitated.
"Wait, it's not dead! Attack!" Ah Qi, ever perceptive, was the first to strike.
When the BOSS had fallen earlier, no one received a kill notification. Many had assumed Lin Qing got the kill, but… Lin Qing was dead.
So what now?
She was never dead at all!!
After the BOSS got up, her abdomen writhed. A green light turned to azure, and in an instant, her abdomen went into labor. Fluids gushed out as a series of attack-immune shields formed around her body… She shrieked, her body shrouded in a brilliant halo. Then, the moment the basketball-sized, crimson-jade-like egg was expelled, she swallowed it in one gulp before everyone's shocked eyes.
Everyone: "???"
Ah Qi, being well-informed, was so scared she almost lost her voice. "She was using the energy from our attacks to cultivate a mutated larva—a BOSS-level monster! Mutated larvae basically have the ability to directly absorb energy. But she cultivated this larva to eat it herself, to evolve into a 10th-level Blue-tier BOSS! It was intentional from the very beginning!"
"She's evolving, at her weakest moment, but she has an immunity shield… There's nothing we can do."
Did she not know that the humans and Lin Qing's team combined were incredibly powerful, fully capable of withstanding the locust swarm?
She knew!
But she came anyway. This was her scheme!
The mutated egg was her greatest trump card—it could even completely absorb and refine the toxins from the poison needles!
At that moment, everyone received a notification.
"Dungeon has changed, dungeon has changed. Red alert! Difficulty has changed from 5th-level to 20th-level. Entry limit now 1000 people…"
Before they could hear the rest of the notification, they heard a crisp cracking sound.
Skill: Interrupt!
A perfectly timed interrupt, down to one-hundredth of a second.
In the very second the immunity shield was forming, in the very second everyone was panicking.
Someone had long prepared an arcane art, timing it perfectly to shatter it.
Like a sickle slicing a thin string.
It snapped.
The immunity shield snapped.
Then… the queen, in the middle of devouring her own child in a greedy quest for evolution, saw the breach that had been opened. That human female Arcanist, with fingers as delicate as jade, impossibly beautiful.
She condensed a needle.
That needle looked so familiar.
It was from one of her own kind, but even more terrifying… a poison needle!
As she reeled in shock, the pitch-black poison needle shot forth with terrifying speed, and almost instantly…
Her stomach, in the process of digesting the mutated egg, took the hit. Like a slice of watermelon hitting a wok of hot oil, it began to sizzle and pop, about to explode!
The stomach convulsed violently and burst with a bang. The weakened BOSS never imagined that her nearly perfect plan would be seen through, and that her opponent would know to choose the best moment to finish her off.
The poison needle was of the same origin, allowing it to bypass her physical defenses and enter her stomach… piercing the energy structure within.
It exploded.
The queen's massive body fell weakly. Her last thought was: all this scheming was for nothing; I might have had a better chance just fighting randomly.
Everyone wanted to be the oriole, but in the end, there could only be one.
The moment the BOSS fell, Fu Chuan also received a notification: "Killed a 10th-level Scorpion-Tail Queen BOSS on the verge of advancing to Blue-tier. EXP +200,000. Level +1, Level +2. For killing a monster far above your level and clearing this mutated dungeon, you are awarded one ray of Arcane Will. It has been stored in your mind. Please comprehend it as soon as possible."
"The dungeon sky barrier will be lifted in half an hour. Please prepare. Please prepare."
"The final settlement rewards for this dungeon will be delivered to the Arcane Palaces in each region. You may go there to claim them."
In the suddenly quiet atmosphere, everyone received their own notifications, but they were soon startled by a piercing scream and turned their heads.
The expressions on Ah Qi, Groundhog, and the others changed.
The one screaming was Xie Guangyu.
The woman moved quickly, looting the bodies and collecting a large amount of spoils. As she walked past the barely breathing Xie Guangyu lying on the ground, she stomped on his back.
The force of that stomp must have been considerable, as it directly shattered his arcane core.
Arcane energy leaked out. He coughed up blood in agony and turned his head to see the woman's cold mask looking down on him, her eyes calm.
It was a calm gaze… as if looking at a dog.
She didn't kill him, but she crippled him.
Perhaps he would never know that just last night, he had looked at her with that very same expression.
When he said he would cripple his Second Brother.
This Second Brother, it seemed, lacked substance and his moral principles weren't very firm. So he got angry, and the consequences were dire.
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