Against Instant Death Was a Long-Term Endeavor

For the next two months, just as Old Li had warned her, Feng Xue did not go out at all, and even entrusted Hom to handle the purchase of various materials.

He wasn't just sitting at home in a daze; he was planning his next course of action.

It has to be said that the death of Sea Monk really shocked him. Although he was the one Sea Monk, the terrifying power of instant death left a deep impression on him.

Therefore, for the past two months, he has been pondering instant death resistance, trying to come up with a Weird Tale that could grant him instant death resistance.

When it comes to fighting to the death, there are essentially three strategies:

Confrontation, resurrection, and immortality.

The most direct and traditional solution is to confront it directly; things like anti-death barriers, curse transfer, and spell reflection are all things that can be learned from.

But confrontation means fear, and the world of Weird Tale is designed to be confrontational. Once the defenses are bypassed, it is easy to be defeated.

Resurrection goes a step further: one dies upon consuming it and then comes back to life. Although it requires paying the price of death once, it is superior in its thoroughness. When death becomes as casual as eating and drinking, then instant death is nothing to fear.

However, the problem is also obvious - using resurrection to counter instant death is itself an act of giving up the initiative. Once the opponent's instant death cooldown is less than your own resurrection cooldown, you will be in an awkward situation of being resurrected forever, not to mention that there are abilities like sealing in this world.

As for immortality, this is undoubtedly the best strategy, but also the most difficult to achieve. Immortality can be interpreted from two perspectives—

Those who have died and those who cannot.

Those who have died are the undead in traditional stories—zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc.—and are already "dead," so being instantly killed by a spell isn't a problem. Don't you see that even the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception has the fundamental premise of "as long as one is alive"?

The inability to die doesn't refer to low-level things like super-fast regeneration or soul transfer, but rather to the "non-existence of the concept of death."

This is undoubtedly a very difficult goal to achieve. In the myths of various countries, only a very few gods possess such characteristics, so much so that Feng Xue didn't know how to create such a Weird Tale for a while and could only treat it as a final proposition.

"At least there's been some progress." Feng Xue glanced at the calendar, carefully put the newly made [Decoy Doll], which could negate a fatal attack or curse for the wearer, close to her body, and took out a large number of lychee-sized Wrapping Cloth from her Storage Waist Bag, preparing to routinely organize her main battle Phantom Object in preparation for the upcoming tower climbing challenge.

But just then, his employee ID card rang again.

"Hello?" Feng Xue looked at Old Li on the caller ID and immediately answered the phone, then heard that cynical, even slightly smug voice:

"I've found a buyer for that staff, but it definitely doesn't have instant-death resistance. The buyer is willing to offer a set of inner armor with indestructible properties. See if you're interested."

"Oh? Only indestructible?" Feng Xue raised an eyebrow, finding it a bit strange, while Old Li nodded and said:

"At least according to conventional appraisal, it only has the characteristic of being indestructible, and it's quite limited. Only the lower body is 'truly' indestructible; the upper body will be damaged. However, as long as the Bottoms is still there, the upper body can regenerate. Of course, there will always be some characteristics of Phantom Object that cannot be appraised. This requires trial and error."

At this point, Old Li seemed to lower his voice slightly, and whispered:

"In terms of actual value, your staff is definitely more valuable. If you know water magic, it's fine for you to keep it. But if you sell it, it's a bit of a pain to deal with, so it's normal to see a discount..."

"Okay, I want to check the goods. Give me an address."

"Apartment A23, 24th floor, Beishan District. Remember to put on some makeup, and adjust the Weird Tale flames as well."

Old Li kindly gave her a reminder, and Feng Xue thanked him before hanging up.

After a moment's thought, he removed the special effects that the Orca Authority had applied to the Supernatural Tale Fire, then changed the displayed Weird Tale to "Ambulance Demon," put on a mask, changed into some looser clothes, and then called a flying vehicle to fly towards the address given by Old Li.

About half an hour later, Feng Xue arrived at the 24th floor of Beishan District. The address Old Li gave her was a bar.

Although he looked like a complete newbie, he was still a Weird Tale at heart. The moment he stepped into the bar, the entire environment fell silent for a moment, and respectful, worried, and even fearful gazes were cast at him. But before he could say anything, a voice that sounded like Old Li's came from the doorway of a private room:

"Over here!"

"Why did you choose such a place?" Feng Xue frowned slightly, but Old Li smiled and said:

"A combination of reality and illusion is the right way. This is the buyer this time, but the name and code are all fake, so let's not waste any more words. Let's sign an inspection agreement first, and then inspect the goods."

As he spoke, Old Li pulled out two notarized agreements from Infinite City, the gist of which was that on-site appraisal and observation were permitted, and no robbery or damage was allowed.

After a quick glance, Feng Xue signed the contract. Then, he saw the inner armor that Old Li had helped him procure, or rather...

Thermal underwear?

Although it might be a bit rude to say it like that, in Feng Xue's opinion, this thing was just a set of thermal underwear—not even thermal underwear!

Of course, considering that there are no obvious seams or openings on those long johns, calling them training clothes would also be acceptable.

Feng Xue took out a glass bottle containing a coral staff from her waist bag and handed it to the other person. Taking the set of thermal underwear, his expression suddenly improved as the appraisal panel unfolded.

Name: Phantom Object - Saint's Training Clothes

Elements: [Clothing], [Inner Armor], [Flexibility], [Comfort], [Melee], [Indestructible]

Description: The training clothes often worn by Saint Seiya are close-fitting, breathable, and have a certain degree of impact resistance, making them very suitable for daily training and combat.

When worn with other protective gear, this training suit can improve the fit between the armor and the wearer, and reduce the burden on the wearer.

When other armor is damaged or removed, this training suit can temporarily copy all the positive properties of that armor by consuming the user's life force. During the duration of this effect, the upper part of the training suit will continue to wear down according to the proportion of life force consumed, and the equipment effect will increase as the degree of wear increases.

When the upper garment is completely worn out, the equipment effect will reach its peak, and this state will last for 30 seconds. After the effect ends, the wearer will enter a near-death state, which will last for 24 hours.

Once the effect of this training outfit is triggered, it cannot be removed from the equipment state in any way until the effect ends.

Note: Aren't you still alive?

"Jian" is a relatively ancient monster. Similar records exist not only in the Eastern Kingdom but also in the Yan Kingdom. Its appearance is generally that of a human-faced ox, but there are also variations such as a human-faced dog or a human-faced bird. Its ability is to foresee the future, but it will die soon after making a prophecy. In short, it is a prophecy made at the cost of death.

This book adopts a fictional mystery setting (although it has been slightly modified, since in fictional mystery, where the future can only be determined after death, it is impossible to make a prophecy while alive), and regards this prophecy as a "fixed world line," that is, the ability to see the branches of fate by the price of death and choose one of them as the future.

However, to activate this ability, there must be a corresponding tributary of fate. In other words, if there is no possibility of a certain person appearing in a certain place within the tributary of fate, then the ability cannot be activated.

Moreover, since activating this ability comes at the cost of one's life, it's highly likely that you won't be able to see it clearly, or by the time you do see it, you'll be dead.

Therefore, this ability is probably:

Activate ability -- glance at the tributaries of fate -- find the tributary that roughly matches the goal -- fix -- open eyes and speak the prophecy -- breathe one's last.

This is the process.

If too much time is spent searching for tributaries, it might lead to dying before one even has a chance to speak.