Free Web NovelChapter 271: Chapter271-The Disciple Has Been Led Astray
The entire process took two seconds.
During those two seconds, Hark stood three feet in front of her, his fist suspended in midair, watching helplessly as she drank the potion.
"You!"
A trace of absurdity entered Hark’s voice.
"All done. You can continue."
Holly put the empty bottle back at her waist, placed her hand on the sword case, and nodded at him. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
Hark did not hesitate again. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
His fist wind tore through the air. The ground along its path was carved open into deep trenches by the violent force, and shattered stones exploded to both sides.
This punch could pierce through a mountain.
Holly did not dodge.
Her hand rested on the sword case.
When the fist was only three inches away from the tip of her nose, the lid of the case snapped open.
Fast.
So fast that Hark did not even see how the sword was drawn.
He only saw a ray of light leak out from the gap of the sword case when the lid opened.
Then the entire world turned pure white.
There was no pain.
No collision.
None of the battle process he had expected.
By the time he opened his eyes again, above him was the ceiling of a revival point.
Hark lay flat on the ground, his mind completely blank.
Then the prompt sounded.
[Player Hark’s death detected!
This death is subject to a special punishment amplification effect. Punishment multiplier increased to 300% of the normal value!]
[Skill deduction!
Randomly selected skills have been extracted: Lionheart Tyrant Body, Bloodrage Burning, Abyssal Kin Summoning...
The above skills have been deducted!]
Hark abruptly sat up.
[Talent deduction!
Extracted talents: Soul-Devouring Consumption, Unyielding Will.
Total: 2 talents!]
Hark’s breathing stopped.
His gold coins, demon cores, and equipment mortgage vouchers had all been reset to zero.
He even owed the system 800,000.
[Equipment dropped!
Three pieces have been randomly dropped: Breath of the Abyss Pauldron, Demonblood Boiling Ring, Shadow Devourer Cloak!
The above equipment has been transferred to the killer’s backpack!]
Hark sat on the cold floor of the revival point. It felt as if a blacksmith were desperately pulling bellows inside his chest.
That image replayed again and again in his mind.
The woman tilting her head back to drink the potion.
The green liquid.
Her throat moving slightly.
The casual smack of her lips.
A potion that amplified death punishment.
Right in front of him.
Then she sent him back to the revival point with one slash.
Hark raised his hand and covered his face. A low roar leaked out from between his fingers.
Level 1.
Only Level 1.
But the sword in her hand was so fast that even his Level 500 perception could not capture its trajectory.
That had to be a skill.
A skill whose level far exceeded his imagination.
He remembered that face.
Round face.
Big eyes.
Cheeks puffed up when she ate.
No matter how he looked at her, she did not seem like someone who could cut down a Level 500 Abyssal Commander with one strike.
"She looks so cute..."
Hark’s voice was hoarse.
"But she strikes so viciously."
He supported himself on his knees and stood up. Then he took a deep breath and opened the communication panel.
"Connect me to the upper levels of the Demon King Council.
"Lion Squad’s Hark has military intelligence to report."
He knew he had fallen.
But as long as the higher-ups were willing to make a move, whether it was John or Holly, neither of them would survive.
At the same time, on the other side of the Apocalypse Continent.
Holly crouched on the ground, picking up the scattered equipment piece by piece.
Breath of the Abyss Pauldron.
Dark-gold material. Cold to the touch. The numbers in its attribute panel made her whistle.
Demonblood Boiling Ring.
A dark-red gemstone. After putting it on, her mana flow speed increased by at least thirty percent.
Shadow Devourer Cloak.
Black, with a lion crest embroidered along the edges. It came with invisibility and movement speed bonuses.
"I’m rich."
Holly shook open the cloak and held it up to the light.
She put the equipment into her backpack, then casually looked through the other drops.
Gold coins, potions, scrolls, and a token engraved with the pattern of a lion.
After finishing all this, she patted the grass off her knees, glanced in the direction where Hark had revived, then withdrew her gaze.
"He wasn’t much different from the monsters in Novice Village."
Her tone was very calm.
With the Level 1000 skill John had bestowed upon her, there was indeed no difference between Level 500 Hark and a Level 5 goblin.
She thought of the potion John had handed her before she left.
At the time, she had only thought its color was disgusting.
Now, thinking back on it—
Disgusting was disgusting.
But useful was truly useful.
"John really does have foresight."
Holly carefully stored the empty bottle away.
There were still a few drops of green liquid remaining on the bottle wall. Perhaps she could use them to study the formula later.
In a parallel universe.
Skittershade stared at the projection in front of him, his entire body frozen.
In the image, Holly was crouching on the ground picking up equipment, muttering "I’m rich" under her breath.
Her movements were extremely practiced.
The posture she used to pick up equipment, the speed at which she checked attributes, and the instinctive caution with which she stuffed valuable things deep into her backpack—
No matter how he looked at it, she did not seem like a beginner who had just stepped into the world.
Skittershade’s expression shifted from relief to confusion, then from confusion to shock.
His original arrangement had been to teleport Holly into a special secret realm, where she could temper her skills and grow steadily.
The monsters inside that secret realm were at a level perfectly suited for her, and every step of her growth had been within his calculations.
But now, his disciple had not appeared inside the secret realm.
She had appeared on the battlefield of the Invasion of the Myriad Races, fought a Level 500 Abyssal Commander, and even drank a potion before the fight began.
Skittershade leaned forward, his nose almost pressing against the projection.
He clearly saw the entire process of Holly taking out the bottle, removing the stopper, and tilting her head back to drink it.
That unhurried rhythm.
The way she carefully put away the empty bottle after drinking the potion.
Skittershade’s pupils suddenly contracted.
He had seen this style before.
That fellow named John had acted exactly like this when he scammed him back then.
Calmly and silently preparing everything.
By the time you thought everything was still under control, he had already calculated you from head to toe.
Drink potion before the fight.
Pick up equipment after the fight.
Then sigh that she had gotten rich.
This entire process was exactly the same as that black-hearted John’s.
"Holly..."
Skittershade’s voice squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying an emotion that was hard to tell whether it was relief or despair.
He was relieved that his disciple had finally awakened and learned how to maximize her gains.
She was no longer that foolish girl who only knew how to brute force everything.
She had learned to use her brain.
But what made him despair was—
Why was the direction of her awakening completely different from what he had expected?
Skittershade took a deep breath and pulled up Holly’s recent activity records.
Battle data, skill usage frequency, conversation logs, item acquisition records.
Streams of data flowed past him one after another.
Every line silently confirmed the guess he increasingly did not want to face.
"Don’t tell me..."
Skittershade closed his eyes.
John’s face, forever impossible to read, surfaced in his mind.
That person never took only one step at a time.
He took one step while seeing ten steps ahead.
Leaving Divine_River’s sword case to Holly.
Granting her a Valhalla number.
Making her drink a potion that increased death punishment before battle.
Each matter, taken alone, seemed like an ordinary arrangement.
But when placed together, they formed an extremely clear cultivation path.
John was cultivating his disciple in the direction of becoming "black-hearted."
Skittershade opened his eyes and looked at Holly, who was currently counting her spoils in the projection.
Suddenly, he felt a headache.
"It’s over."
Skittershade gnashed his teeth.
His disciple had finally grown up.
She had just grown crooked.
