Free Web NovelChapter 420: Chapter 350: Always Together
"Double Entrance Ceremony: At the start of the battle, replicate your leftmost puppet."
Watching as the phoenix was completely reduced to ashes, Yan Qing swiftly browsed through the accessory options and chose "Double Entrance Ceremony" without hesitation.
This accessory is akin to "Ascension of the Six Ears" with the "True and False Monkey King," both replicating Yan Qing’s strongest follower. If Yan Qing has trained an average of seven followers, this accessory only enhances one-seventh of his power. But if he has trained one strong follower, it doubles his strength. The potential gain is very high yet very suitable for Yan Qing.
Although "Cloned Qiongqi" and "Bai Ze" currently have averaged stats, don’t forget there’s the "Accumulated Avalanche" transformation card here. On the final day of the decisive battle, Yan Qing can transfer all the stats from "Bai Ze" to "Cloned Qiongqi." Once the battle begins, "Double Entrance Ceremony" and "True and False Monkey King" will replicate the stats of "Cloned Qiongqi," showcasing the 300% accumulation over the past few days.
There’s no need to mention the offense aspect; defensively, it’s far superior to the "Disaster Avoidance Guardian" Yan Qing has seen. After all, the "Disaster Avoidance Guardian" can only block damage once, while "Double Entrance Ceremony" directly replicates another to block disaster— its minimum potential is the maximum of the "Disaster Avoidance Guardian."
Receiving an accessory that nearly doubles the team’s power, Yan Qing’s expression remained unchanged as they all turned their eyes to the corner at the end of the street. In the view through the "Golden Fish Goggles," a squad of over forty Baibao Guards were seen rushing over.
Yet, the enemy seemed to have reconnaissance tokens and immediately stopped upon discovering the halted battle, turning away without hesitation.
Yan Qing couldn’t help but furrow his brows.
He actually no longer feared the Baibao Guards, even harboring a faint desire to hunt them down. Just now, "Cloned Qiongqi" could instantly kill a squad of twenty Baibao Guards with two attacks. After selecting the "Heavenly and Earthly Unrivaled Blade" and "Double Entrance Ceremony," even a squad of sixty wouldn’t pose a problem, not to mention that "Ascension of the Six Ears" and "Bai Ze" were supplementary in damage, possibly even triumphing over a hundred people.
Yet, puppets have an insurmountable flaw: slow movement speed.
If the enemy is determined to escape, puppets have almost no capability to pursue. Thus, although Yan Qing wishes to completely resolve the Baibao Guards, he lacks the initiative to strike, as the Baibao Guards are reckless but not foolish. In the battle against Ying Le in ’Yan Shiyi’, Yan Qing had already witnessed the tactical maneuvers the Baibao Guards could perform, comparable to professional RTS player’s top-level micro-management.
When Ying Rushi applied medicine to him, she whispered that the Baibao Guards had nine ways to wear down such irreparable targets as puppets without loss—nine ways!
Baibao Guards mostly don’t need to use tactics, but that doesn’t mean they are incapable.
If the Baibao Guards rushed headlong to their deaths, Yan Qing naturally would not shy away from their prowess. He just didn’t expect that killing only a small squad of twenty would prompt the Baibao Guards to immediately shift strategies, no longer pursuing them, but instead hunting other Eight Demons to slow their development.
Guessing that Yan Qing hunting Eight Demons could strengthen himself wasn’t hard; making the decision to target the Eight Demons was. In the Demon Gathering Land, a level-restricted Secret Realm, equivalent to the strength of a Fifth Transition demon, the Eight Demons stood at the top of the food chain, second only to True Demons. Their gap with Third-Turn Messengers was like that between elephants and ants.
If Yan Qing had no puppets, even if he was a fully equipped Disaster and Earth Fiend multiple Legendary Token-bearing Third-Turn Messenger, he couldn’t handle any of the Eight Demons. The numerical chasm wasn’t something skills could bridge.
Yet the Baibao Guards are precisely monsters with only numerical strength.
On closer thought, the Demon Gathering Land truly is the optimal training ground for Baibao Guards, as it won’t limit numbers, allowing Baibao Guards to fully exercise their advantage in numbers. Thirty Baibao Guards can’t break through a Fourth-Turn Secret Realm, but three hundred would absolutely crush a Fourth-Turn Demon King.
Clearly an RPG game, yet they’re able to play it as an RTS game.
"The other Eight Demons are probably already dead." Murong Hui stood on the rooftop, tone bitter as if deprived of a toy: "Damn it, how could there be such self-damaging bastards!"
Ying Rushi was also rather disappointed: "If you could kill all the Eight Demons, your Foundation Establishment Pill would certainly upgrade to precious, even legendary level."
Yan Qing didn’t feel too regretful, as the official design in the Demon Gathering Land allowed at most eight players to obtain accessories. This implies that most players can still snowball without accessories. And he already has three accessories; if he couldn’t snowball enough to form a formidable team, he might as well bury his head in Ying Rushi’s chest and suffocate.
He was just slightly confused.
Ying Le’s Baibao Guards can navigate through a ’level-capped dungeon,’ isn’t that a bit too absurd? In a game, if two hundred Baibao Guards entered, they’d eradicate all high-level demons in the city center on the first day, crushing ordinary players encountered along the way, leading to an early complete dominion over the Secret Realm.
Though Ying Le’s strategy might require too many people, perhaps not enough players would heed the call. However, Helan Family’s Fake Foundation Establishment and Jie Huang Chao’s Golden Armor allow the Third-Turn Messenger to gain Foundation Establishment Level strength, with Fake Foundation Establishment holding an overwhelming advantage in a ’level-capped dungeon.’ How can ordinary players resist?
It’s like being just a mortal cultivator, whereas everyone else is a reincarnated cultivator with solid backstories. In novels, in reality everyone tolerates it, but this is a game; who plays a game to get frustrated? It’s not like playing a soul game.
Yan Qing didn’t believe this was originally part of the game design; if everyone’s allowed to use Divine Techniques, what’s the point of restricting levels?
Unless... this operation isn’t permitted by the game.
Although Yan Qing doesn’t understand [Mind of the Masses], he didn’t believe the official would design a Divine Technique allowing manipulation of eight hundred people—this isn’t a first-person shooter or a strategy game, why control so many people? At least normally, players wouldn’t use it like that, and the system would deny such operations.
Hence, the current [Mind of the Masses] is a special version developed solo by Ying Le. Her mastery of [Mind of the Masses] has exceeded the system’s established framework, rendering the system unable to restrict her.
[Golden Armor] is similar, more akin to some unique method of Jie Huang Chao. As for Helan Family’s Fake Foundation Establishment, it probably has various limitations.
...
...
Before midnight arrived, Yan Qing had nurtured "Cloned Qiongqi" to twelve thousand stats and "Bai Ze" to four thousand stats. "Double Entrance Ceremony" and "Heavenly and Earthly Unrivaled Blade" were exceedingly efficient in leveling up; they didn’t need to act; puppets could be sent directly to crush demon teams.
Taking advantage of the day not yet refreshing, Yan Qing and the others stealthily approached the center of the Demon Gathering Land, Skeleton Square. As expected, all Baibao Guards were stationed there, maintaining a safe distance from the True Demon, clearly abandoning pursuit intent, deciding instead to wait strategically at Skeleton Square, waiting for Yan Qing and company to approach voluntarily.
Even Ying Rushi and Murong Hui believed once the True Demon was slain, Yan Qing would obtain a Legendary Foundation Establishment Pill, and the Baibao Guards held similar speculations, unsurprising. But surrendering pursuit equated to defying Ying Le’s orders; remarkable decisiveness and loyalty from the Baibao Guards’ commanders... though Yan Qing glanced at Ying Rushi beside him, finding it not strange. With Ying Le’s chaotic benevolent malevolence as a tyrant, her subjects are adjusted accordingly; loyal subjects are normal.
With Yan Qing’s command, "Cloned Qiongqi," "Cloned Qiongqi," "Bai Ze," "Ascension of the Six Ears" charged towards the Baibao Guard army.
At seventy steps distance, Baibao began arranging formations; within fifty steps, generated marshes delayed the puppets’ pace; at thirty steps, an overwhelming arrow rain descended; followed by twenty steps, flattening houses to create defenses obstructed the puppets’ advance.
Before formal engagement, all four puppets, each with tens of thousands of health, were declared vanquished.
Puppets unable to evade and with sizable bodies, regardless of their health, rapidly melted under Baibao Guards’ dense arrow rain.
Yan Qing turned to leave, with Murong Hui and Ying Rushi following closely.
"Don’t be discouraged; in a few days, they won’t be able to withstand." Murong Hui encouraged: "Think about it; in such a short time, you can threaten two hundred Baibao Guards—they even have to group together to avoid your strength!"
"Baibao Guards dare not split teams; now we don’t need to worry about their threat." Ying Rushi also said: "The upcoming period allows us to hunt demons freely, no need to be cautious; the Demon Gathering Land is practically our backyard now."
"Today’s exhausting; how about continuing to soak in the hot springs?"
"Two days," Yan Qing turned his head to look at them, speaking earnestly: "Before Ying Rushi leaves, we’ll thoroughly resolve all the troubles."
The clock struck, signaling a new day in the Demon Gathering Land.
Although the Northern Messenger couldn’t hear Yan Qing’s assertive declaration, merely witnessing Yan Qing’s rewards on the Skeleton Document upgraded from ’Rare Foundation Establishment Pill - Monster Enhancement’ to ’Precious Foundation Establishment Pill - Monster Enhancement,’ coupled with the sight of Baibao Guards readying themselves against puppets’ challenge, they too strongly sensed one thing:
Roles have reversed!
