Monsters (Part 2)

Chapter 13: Monsters (Part 2)

Another enormous foot descended from the pitch-black clouds and stomped viciously beside the Pit of the Dead, unleashing a thunderous tremor that shook the mountains and earth.

The two men hiding in the mud were jolted so hard they nearly left the ground.

A terrifying giant hand reached down from the clouds. With a single grasp, it seized the entire Pit of the Dead along with the Demon Beast as large as a small mountain.

The giant hand slowly withdrew, returning above the clouds.

Dull chewing sounds rang out like muffled thunder.

The sky darkened, and icy Black Blood poured down in torrents, wave after wave, drenching the open ground before the Military Camp in a dead black and releasing a nauseatingly fishy stench.

After quite some time, the chewing from within the clouds stopped, and the rainlike Black Blood gradually ceased as well.

The two huge feet started walking away with booming steps. In only a few strides, they vanished from Gu Qingshan and Zhao Liu's sight.

Zhao Liu said blankly, "What kind of monster was that...?"

Gu Qingshan's heart sank to the bottom. He muttered, "Even it has appeared..."

Zhao Liu repeated as if delirious, "What kind of monster was that... What kind of monster was that..."

Gu Qingshan had no time to mind him and could only ponder in silence.

The Faceless Giant—a fiendish creature of extreme rarity, a powerful existence among the Chaos Seeds.

Faceless Giants did not appear lightly. Only when fiends and demons had surrounded a human position and failed to conquer it after prolonged assault would they accept orders and come attack the human lines.

According to the memories of his previous life, this was the end of Chengping, and the first chaos of fiends and demons had only just begun. How could a monster like the Faceless Giant have appeared?

The Faceless Giant had first appeared in the first year after players entered the game.

At that time, a great war had erupted between humanity and the fiends and demons. The war lasted an entire year before ending, and Gu Qingshan remembered it clearly.

In the final battle of that year, millions upon millions of players had been helpless against the Faceless Giant. It had forcibly breached the Border City.

The players had only been in the game for a short year then. Their levels and cultivation had been mediocre, and the Faceless Giant's appearance had filled every player with profound powerlessness.

In the end, it had taken Xuan Yuan Heavenly Venerable, one of the Three Saints, to personally Make a Move and slay the demon.

But by then, the Border City had already fallen. The human army collapsed like mountains sliding down, forced to retreat deeper into the map and surrender vast stretches of fertile land as a buffer.

Humanity had been defeated and driven back in the very first campaign.

But! But!

This was the end of Chengping. The war had only just begun, and humanity and the fiends and demons were still testing one another.

For the Faceless Giant to appear at such a time simply did not match the storyline.

Unless something had happened that even Gu Qingshan did not know about.

Gu Qingshan only felt as though a fog hung in his heart, impossible to disperse, hiding the truth within.

Zhao Liu's gaze was vacant as he continued repeating the same sentence without pause.

"What kind of monster was that..."

With a smack, Gu Qingshan struck the back of Zhao Liu's neck, knocking him unconscious.

Zhao Liu had suffered too great a shock. His mind was nearly breaking, so it would be better for him to rest.

Even many players had been deeply shaken upon first seeing a monster like the Faceless Giant. This was a real world, and Zhao Liu was an ordinary man. It was entirely possible that the sudden sight of that demon had frightened him mad.

Gu Qingshan carried Zhao Liu into the barracks and tossed him onto a campaign cot, then turned and returned to the Military Camp entrance.

Since the Faceless Giant had appeared, there might be troops working in tandem with it.

Before even a quarter of an hour had passed, the demon army appeared.

Horned Netherfire Evil Serpents slithered through the forest, their winding bodies gliding soundlessly across the ground and leaving behind trails scorched by blazing flames.

On each serpent's back sat a humanoid monster clad in heavy gray armor. Its hands and feet were all claws, and its face had no other features besides a bloody maw split all the way to the back of its head.

The frenzied, bloodthirsty Blood-Drinking Demon.

If one of them broke into a human unit, it could cause a small-scale massacre.

As the first Netherfire Evil Serpent appeared, more followed one after another. A Blood-Drinking Demon sat upon the back of every Evil Serpent.

One, two, three... twenty in total.

Holding his breath, Gu Qingshan stood within the Military Camp and silently counted.

The demon army swiftly swept past the Military Camp, following the Faceless Giant's path before disappearing into the forest.

That the Military Camp had gone undiscovered throughout the entire process was truly fortunate.

Yet Gu Qingshan could not feel happy at all.

The Netherfire Evil Serpent was the king of assassins among Demon Beasts. It moved without a sound and had been born awakened to Five Elements Fire, making it exceptionally difficult to deal with.

Not to mention how terrifying the Blood-Drinking Demons riding them were.

The Camp Guarding General of this Military Camp had died at the hands of several Blood-Drinking Demons.

There was an unwritten rule in the army: if soldiers encountered a Blood-Drinking Demon while carrying out a mission, they could immediately abandon the mission without being punished by their superiors.

Only generals had any chance of fighting such fiends.

Twenty Netherfire Evil Serpents and twenty Blood-Drinking Demons were enough to launch a surprise assault.

They silently departed in the Faceless Giant's footsteps.

Something huge was about to happen.

As Gu Qingshan pondered, he suddenly spotted a small bird perched on a branch outside the Military Camp.

The bird had a human face. After taking a brief rest on the branch, it was about to pursue the Faceless Giant.

"I'm so tired, so tired. I'm almost caught up!"

The strange bird's human face complained.

It spread its wings, shaking the blood from its body, then used its short beak to groom a long wound beneath its wing.

The wound was very deep, with blood dripping from it from time to time.

Gu Qingshan stared at the strange bird's wound. After only an instant of thought, he raised the Military Bow and fired.

Rapid Shot!

Three arrows flew in succession, followed by six more, and finally twelve arrows so dense not even wind could pass through them.

After firing all twenty-one arrows in one breath, even with the "Steadfastness" skill, Gu Qingshan's hands began trembling without stop.

At that moment, Gu Qingshan unleashed all his strength.

Since he had Made a Move, he absolutely could not let the other party leave alive. Otherwise, this intelligent strange bird would certainly bring the fiend and demon army here.

The sharp arrows became Life Snatcher streaks, flying out of the Military Camp and pouncing upon the strange bird.

Of the first three arrows, one struck the bird. It struggled into the air, beating its wings and swiftly climbing higher to evade the following six arrows, only to be engulfed by the twelve arrows close behind and shot into a sieve.

Soul Power +2. Current Soul Power: 3/5.

You have mastered the "Steadfastness" skill. You successfully broke through in battle. Skill advanced to: Steadfastness.

A warm current lingered in his arms for a long while without fading.

A growth-type skill?

Gu Qingshan was startled. He drew out an arrow, nocked it on the bowstring, and pulled it back.

His arms did not move in the slightest. There was not even a trace of trembling.

Gu Qingshan tried moving forward and backward, left and right, running, and charging. No matter how he moved, it did not affect the steadiness of his hands.

Those hands were as steady as though they had held their aiming posture since time immemorial.

This skill was not bad!

Lowering his bow, Gu Qingshan came to a conclusion.

It was not the legendary growth-type skill, but the leaping evolution of an ordinary skill.

Still, that was quite good.

"Steadfastness" was a beginner skill, while "Steadfastness" was also a beginner skill, merely a little stronger. For the God of War Skill to transform one beginner skill into another, more powerful skill—such an ability was truly astonishing.

The "Steadfastness" skill appeared only to increase the stability of one's movements, but its actual usefulness was immense.

From now on, even while moving at high speed, Gu Qingshan's hands would not tremble in the slightest. He could maintain continuous attacks in all kinds of combat situations.

When facing powerful monsters that moved slowly, he could fight while running without worrying that violent movement would distort his shooting form.

Gu Qingshan put away his bow, went outside, carried the Demon Bird into the Military Camp, lit a fire, and tossed it in to burn it into ashes.

No matter how strange a fiend or demon was, once it had been burned clean by fire, it could no longer cause trouble.

"Hm? What is this?"

Gu Qingshan looked at the pile of ashes left by the flames and exclaimed in surprise.

There, amid the ashes, lay a blood-red jade token in silence.