They were wiped out.
The demons had been wiped out just like Lord Tong's Black Cat Brigade, chopped into chunks of meat by the surging monsters. Their deaths had been even more gruesome.
But their powerful vitality meant that even after being chopped into chunks, they still squirmed, trying to come back to life.
Gong Qiying stopped the monsters from continuing their attack. The group consisted of more than twenty armed zombie knights, and among them was a heavyweight—the Black Knight.
To make sure anyone caught in the trap could be killed in one brutal wave.
[Black Knight (Greatsword)] [MP Cost per Unit: 650] [Life: C, Strength: C+, Intelligence: D, Stamina: C, Speed: C, Combat Power: C]
After a slow, protracted period of squirming, the demons managed to pull themselves back together, but they fell unconscious.
Gong Qiying picked out two who looked a little smarter and kept them. He had the monsters toss the rest outside the Teleportation Gate.
Outside the Teleportation Gate, adventurers preparing to enter Sain Underground City were lined up in a long queue.
"Can the people up front hurry it up? I've been waiting forever!"
Verde shouted impatiently. He had come to challenge the dungeon today, too, and wouldn't rest until he saw Sakaki.
After all these days of dying and coming back to life, he had managed to survive in the Swamp Area for a full half hour. It was a small step for him, and a small step for humanity!
But after the Gourmet Area was discovered, the number of people pouring into the dungeon had skyrocketed. Before, he'd usually have to wait at most an hour to get in. But now?
He'd been waiting in line all morning—and still hadn't gotten in!
Pikachu was clamoring to get out of the Poké Ball, but Verde had a feeling this wasn't the right time. He couldn't let people see Pikachu.
The person in front of him impatiently glanced back. He'd been about to pick a fight, but when he recognized Verde, he shrank back and kept quiet.
Another half hour passed. The lunch hour came and went, and Verde finally reached the Teleportation Gate.
"Finally." He took a deep breath and rallied his spirits. "Today, I'll find that person again!"
He had barely stepped through the Teleportation Gate, with his face poking inside, when he saw several indistinct objects hurtling toward him!
"Huh?!"
The next second, there was a wet SPLAT! The ball of demons slammed straight into Verde's face, sending him flying backward with it.
"Whoa! That guy just flew!"
"What came flying out of the Teleportation Gate? Anyone going to take a look?"
"Holy shit, what the hell is that?"
Verde lay on the ground, his body twitching. He had clearly been knocked unconscious.
The culprits who'd knocked him out were piled on top of him, still writhing without any awareness. This was the first time anyone had seen something come out through the Teleportation Gate in the wrong direction. Sain Underground City had two Teleportation Gates, one for entering and one for leaving, and they had never been mixed up before.
So everyone gathered around to witness this once-in-a-century sight. But when they got a good look at what had flown out, everyone's expression changed.
"Hey, why do those things look so weird? Could they be demons—"
"Quick, go tell the City Lord!"
Compared to the commotion outside, things were much quieter on Gong Qiying's end.
The two unconscious demons lay beside him. For safety's sake, he had transformed into a Hero Gargoyle beforehand. He still had some time left in his transformation, so he might as well use it.
Fatal injuries were also difficult for demons to recover from. Their wounds had healed, but they still hadn't woken up. At this rate, questioning them would be impossible.
Gong Qiying thought for a moment, then took out a bottle of ordinary healing potion and gave each demon half of it. By the way, he had bought the potion outside.
As soon as they drank it, the demons' complexions improved, and their breathing grew steady and deep.
He found some thick iron chains and fastened them around their necks, then promptly doused them with a bucket of cold water. Slapping one demon's face, he urged, "Get up already. If you sleep any longer, I'll throw you in a cesspit."
The two demons opened their eyes in a daze and saw Gong Qiying.
He'd thought they might react to the Hero Gargoyle's ferocious appearance, but, strangely, they only stared at him blankly.
"Are they stupid?"
Gong Qiying held up a finger and moved it to the left.
The demon's head turned left to follow it.
He moved his finger to the right.
The demon's head turned right as well.
He repeated this until their heads were nearly spinning like rattles—but they still didn't say a word!
"Are these two idiots or what?!"
Furious, Gong Qiying slapped them both, hard enough to make them spit blood.
The slap seemed to work. The demons' eyes cleared for a moment, and they even reached for the iron chains around their necks, apparently trying to free themselves.
"Hey." Gong Qiying carefully poked one demon on the head and asked, "Where did you come from, and what are you doing here?"
The demon didn't answer, continuing to fiddle with the chain until it rattled loudly.
Gong Qiying sighed and tried poking the other one. The result was the same.
No wonder the demons had seemed so dazed earlier. They were idiots.
He tried all sorts of things, but couldn't communicate with the demons at all. It was as if they'd lost the ability to speak—or no, not just the ability to speak. They might have lost their intelligence, too.
"If only there were magic that could read minds." Gong Qiying opened the [Usable Monsters] list and searched for monsters with abilities like mind-reading.
While he was searching, the two demons realized they didn't have enough strength left to break the chains. They sat there in a daze, not knowing what to think.
Before long, a little steam rose from their bodies. Their temperature slowly climbed, and as it did, their appearance began to change in a strange way.
Their deformed bodies were slowly melting?
Their skin melted like heated wax, gradually turning into a pool of ooze that bubbled and boiled across the floor.
Gong Qiying frowned. The sight was a little sanity-draining. Maybe he could add something like this to the dungeon's monsters.
Once the demons' strong, deformed bodies had melted away, what was inside was revealed. It was—
"Humans?"
Gong Qiying bent down and pinched a human out of the ooze with two fingers, turning him this way and that for a careful inspection.
No matter how he looked at him, the man seemed human. He was a young man with a sleazy look, and his hands were black. Just looking at him brought to mind a certain man with a seriously questionable sense of gravity.
If Sithran had been there, she would have recognized him as Morgan, one of the thugs who had once given her a hard time.
The human revealed when the other demon melted away was Ya Yi, one of Morgan's lackeys.
"Humans... can turn into demons?"
Just then, Morgan's eyelids twitched.
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