Dekan Could Always Count on Master

The good news is that the Jailer is gone.

The Seventh Floor has been completed quickly.

The Beautiful Soul Squad can use Demon Point to directly reach the Eighth Floor.

But the problem is--

Intelligence.

What about the Warden's intelligence?!

Based on the intelligence gathered from the previous levels, it can only be concluded that this ninth-rank Warden is invincible.

The key intelligence needed to defeat her must lie in the last two layers.

As a result, Dekan hadn't even reached the Seventh Floor yet.

This clever man killed the Jailer.

At this moment, Dekan actually began to understand Fahim's pain.

Being teammates with this Bishop of Frenzy, Clay, is like having him ruin the game before you even get into it.

Dekan was somewhat affected mentally.

Right now, I'm mostly confused.

He couldn't understand why, from Clay's perspective, a bishop of the Resurrection Church would go to such lengths to clear obstacles for a challenger.

The Seventh Floor Jailer, Azukasa of Silence, is definitely stronger than a quasi-bishop; he is probably at the bishop level.

Even if Judith Ice Princess her allies came, they couldn't win.

Even Clay would lose half his life if he were to kill this great demon.

The fact that Clay doesn't seem to be badly injured is purely due to his epic spell passive, [Super-Speed Regeneration].

In reality, Clay's mana and energy were far below their full strength.

Even if they were to actually take action to subdue Clay, it would be much simpler than Dekan had originally anticipated.

Dekan had considered the possibility that Clay might be on this floor.

But he certainly hadn't anticipated that Clay would risk his life to kill the Jailer.

It makes no sense from either a standpoint or an interest perspective.

Unless Clay realized early on that this eighth-rank Jailer possessed extremely important information and then deliberately tried to sabotage it, it would barely fit his stance.

The cost was still too high.

Clay, who has always been free-spirited, doesn't seem like the type of employee who would be too dedicated to the company's goals, and Dekan feels that Clay shouldn't have this kind of insight and intelligence analysis ability.

Why did you kill him?

Dekan asked, bewildered and angry.

Clay was initially taken aback by the Little Succubus's aggressive demeanor, then answered confidently:

"I made a bet with him, but this bastard cheated. Can I just let him do it?"

As they talked, Clay got a little angry.

He recalled some things that made him very angry.

They even wanted to kick the already-dead demon again.

Originally, the Jailer of this level Azukasa of Silence, wanted to recruit Clay into his ranks.

As a result, while they were playing the game, Clay's precise dynamic vision detected that the Jailer was cheating.

Clay erupted in rage and deliberately punched the Jailer, initiating an eighth-tier battle that shattered the entire Seventh Floor.

Thus, the current situation has arisen.

"..."

Dekan immediately said he wouldn't set off.

He now doesn't know whether to critique Clay or Jailer Azkasar.

Who is this Fengchu Jailer on this floor?

Do you need to cheat when playing with Clay?

Why don't you just play honestly? Clay will lose anyway.

Then there's Clay.

You might say he's like a fool, but he does possess a certain amount of intelligence, and his logic is clear, with well-founded motives.

You might say he has a clear mind, but it's truly unpredictable what he might do.

In short, Dekan would rather see Clay on the other side than by his side...

"Being teammates with you is the worst luck imaginable..."

Dekan clutched his head, sounding somewhat distraught.

My blood pressure is about to explode.

He now feels he'd rather have a level 7 teammate who's somewhat more conventional than someone like Clay, whose mind is completely different from normal people.

Clay is strong, but when he messes up, he can only disrupt the overall game.

Every move was deadly.

Putting aside the question of whether Clay is reliable or not if he actually fights the Warden.

Lacking crucial information about a ninth-tier boss, Dekan felt extremely troubled.

Besides being unable to buy information about the Warden, Dekan couldn't even buy information about the Eighth Floor anymore.

Dekan is currently unable to determine whether the Eighth Floor is a normal level or Exile Zone.

It would be even worse if the Eighth Floor were Exile Zone.

That means the Seventh Floor Jailer possesses the last piece of information about the Warden!

Once this intelligence is permanently lost, we'll really only be able to guess.

All the previous intelligence advantage was turned into a huge disadvantage by Clay in one fell swoop.

"Teammate?"

Hearing Dekan's complaint about his breached defenses, Clay frowned and asked.

He had felt that this demon was somewhat inexplicable from the beginning.

Then, after sensing the prisoners behind the demon and recalling the information and mission hints given at the beginning of this Shadow World, he seemed to suddenly understand something.

"So you're the challenger? What's the current situation? And could you share some information with me?"

Clay's tone softened considerably.

He roughly understood that the jailer in front of him was the only "special challenger," while the other prisoners were regular challengers like himself.

Clay had previously attempted to reach the Eighth Floor but discovered he did not have permission to do so.

It seemed only the jailer could take him away.

So he's been waiting for a challenger from a higher level to arrive.

"Will you help us?"

Clay's reaction surprised Dekan slightly.

Dekan had originally planned to subdue Clay.

Or they could Clay into a bet, making him their top henchman if he was willing to accept the loss.

I didn't expect Clay to be so cooperative.

Clay shook his head and smiled helplessly, seemingly unsurprised that his identity had been recognized.

"Although I, Clay, am the Bishop of Frenzy the Resurrection Church, any high-ranking Shadow World Challenger, whether you are from the Kingdom Association or the Empire, should have heard of me. I have never been passive towards the Shadow World. I only have a personal grudge against the Kingdom Association and have no intention of harming the innocent."

Clay said proudly.

It seemed to be a declaration of his disdain for the other bishops and an undisguised expression of his deep resentment towards the Kingdom Association.

Dekan had indeed heard about Clay's challenging attitude towards the Shadow World.

He was the only bishop in the eighth-tier Shadow World who never did anything wrong and diligently pursued his goal of conquering the Shadow World.

The Resurrection Church tacitly approved of this, since Resurrection Church valued was Clay's combat strength; as long as he was a mortal enemy of the Kingdom Association, that was enough.

The problem isn't with Clay's approach to the strategy.

What Dekan always wondered was, couldn't Clay really see that he was his enemy?

"Then are you willing to swear that you will do everything in your power to cooperate with us in clearing the Shadow World, and will not cause any trouble because of any personal grudges?"

Dekan decided to make Clay swear an oath before testing Clay.

"Yes, I, Clay, swear that I will wholeheartedly cooperate with you in your challenge of this Shadow World, and I will never disrupt or harm you because of any issues of stance or personal grudges."

Clay swore without hesitation.

Dekan nodded.

Hearing Clay say that, Dekan was probably relieved.

He believed this man was a man of his word.

However, Dekan felt an even stronger sense of unease about Clay not recognizing him.

Even if he takes a step back...

Even if Clay were an idiot, he wouldn't be so oblivious as to not realize that his appearance was unrelated to Dekan.

These are clearly twins, either siblings or brothers.

Unless Clay is blind or pretending to be stupid.

So Dekan tentatively reached out and waved his hand in front of Clay's eyes.

After a while.

Clay did not respond.

Dekan then raised his middle finger in front of Clay and asked, "How many is this?"

Clay: "... I can't see it."

Clay couldn't answer.

Dekan was finally convinced.

Clay is truly blind.

Clay was able to detect their movements just now purely by relying on Clay perception as an eighth-level martial artist and by distinguishing them by sound and aura.

What's wrong with your eyes?

Dekan asked, puzzled.

One of Clay's greatest strengths is his superhuman dynamic vision; no con artist can escape Clay eyes.

The Jailer's cheating was precisely due to Clay's keen eye.

This means that Clay's eyes had only recently gone blind.

"Hmph, the Jailer on this floor is quite similar to that bastard, the Bishop of Silence, both using annoying sealing spells. Fortunately, this Jailer can't use Magic Card, and his overall combat strength and versatility are much weaker than the Bishop of Silence's, which is why I was able to defeat him so quickly."

Clay explained.

Even Clay was unaware that after killing the Jailer, he triggered the Jailer's death passive, which forcibly sealed one of the killer's five senses, making it impossible to Purification or dispel.

The Jailer, filled with resentment, naturally sealed away Clay's vision, which had the greatest impact on his combat abilities.

He must have been furious with Clay for his ability to spot the cheater's movements.

This state, which cannot be Purification by any level of Purification magic or dispelled, is equivalent to a god-level blindness curse.

Even if Clay has Super-Speed Regeneration, or even if Croix could heal Clay now, it wouldn't matter.

Fortunately, the exit mechanism of the Shadow World is similar to that of the Artificial Shadow World; all buffs will be automatically cleared when leaving the Shadow World.

So Clay wasn't too upset about going blind.

"Well..."

Dekan rested his chin on his hand and pondered for a moment.

It seems that Clay inadvertently revealed the Bishop of Silence's secrets again.

After all, the Jailer in this Shadow World always seems to have a strange connection to the powerful figures in the real world.

Dekan had never heard of the Bishop of Silence having a deathrattle effect.

Of course, this information could not be investigated.

But now, through some inexplicable coincidence, Dekan couldn't help but boldly speculate that killing the Bishop of Silence might also result in a severe deathrattle curse.

It seems that in the future, when dealing with the Bishop of Silence, I'll need to find a sucker to finish him off.

And they need to find ways to extract the remaining value after the death of the Bishop of Silence.

So Dekan began to explain some information that he could share with Clay.

Being able to make Clay a temporary teammate directly is much better than Dekan had expected.

Because it saved us a big hassle--

Issues of personal grudges.

Clay truly hasn't realized, nor can he realize, that they are the Beautiful Soul Quartet.

Dekan was still somewhat annoyed by Clay's terrible teammate behavior.

But let's look on the bright side.

At least it saved time.

And now we'll begin reviewing what happened on the Seventh Floor.

Dekan fell into deep thought.

If Clay hadn't killed the Jailer, Clay wouldn't have gone blind Clay; and if he hadn't gone blind, he wouldn't have avoided so much trouble.

It also felt like a lucky accident.

So far, Clay's motives have all been quite reasonable, even to the point of being unreasonable.

But every move Clay made inadvertently helped Dekan.

Dekan was truly unsure whether this was luck, causality, or some real Wolong orchestrating everything...

Surely everything couldn't have been planned by Zhuge Clay...

Dekan couldn't help but start speculating again.

After thinking about it, I decided against it.

Dekan felt a bit stupid for trying to Clay.

Having accepted the fact that the Seventh Floor had been speed-cleared, the group wasted no time and, after a short preparation, set off for the Eighth Floor.

After encountering Clay in a different way, the Beautiful Soul Squad found Clay surprisingly easy to talk to.

However, perhaps due to differences in team philosophy and corporate culture between Clay and the Beautiful Soul Squad, there was a strange sense of incompatibility between them.

After entering the portal, their vision went dark, and then they began to accelerate uncontrollably, like an elevator in freefall.

Not only was the speed terrifying, but the chilling and dark aura surrounding them made it difficult to even breathe normally.

"Are the portals on the first few floors like this too?!"

"Clay shouted and asked."

Even Clay felt that this portal was very strange!

"No! The portal ahead is peaceful! Something's wrong on the Eighth Floor! Be careful!"

Accompanied by Dekan's shouts, they finally reached the finish line amidst the suffocatingly fast-moving undercurrents.

[Deception Prison]

[This level of the prison is Exile Zone, where guards and Jailer can fight each other.]

The Jailer will strictly enforce the rules and will not attack the guards without authorization.

[Only demons can move freely on this level; non-demon races will be sealed by the Magic Power gathered from past demon kings.]

[This is the Devil King Tomb; no lies or deception are permitted here.]

[Go to the Ninth Floor; no Demon Point required.]

[Warn]

[The portal is in an area without any protective barriers; we have entered the Eighth Floor.]

The moment Dekan saw the words "non-demon races will be sealed" and the "warning content," he felt an overwhelming and irresistible Terror Magic Power, like countless black snakes, instantly crawling up his body from the soles of his feet.

Although Dekan was disguised and transformed into Little Succubus.

But this is merely a mimicry; his true race is still human!

He was about to be sealed away before he could even call upon his Master.

"Old..."

In an instant, the body lost all sensation; time seemed to freeze, and consciousness ceased as well.

However, just as the seal was about to spread to his eyes...

His pupils changed as he stared wide-eyed.

The blue demonic eyes transformed into a more sacred golden demonic eye.

Even though Dekan's racial appearance still resembles that of Succubus, no demon would Succubus him for one upon seeing Dekan at this moment.

Without a doubt, this is the highest, most primal, and purest form of evil.

"Call--"

The seal on Dekan's body receded like water, and Dekan's consciousness was restored.

He felt as if he had just returned from the brink of death, panting heavily.

I was just fortunate to have received Master.

That was a huge help.

Talomati, who was of one mind with Dekan, seemed to have foreseen the rules of this level at the most critical moment. He urgently seized Dekan's body and forcibly demonized it.

At that moment, Dekan turned around and looked at his companions.

They have all been sealed away by the Demon King's Magic Power and turned into statues.

Even someone as strong as Clay could only hold out for a little longer before being completely sealed away.

Presumably, the Saintess of Darkness is also sealed in this way on this level.

If even Dekan is sealed away, then it's all over.

Fortunately, he already possessed the ability to transform into a demon.

Just as Dekan had adjusted his mindset and was preparing to face the challenges of this level.

Suddenly, I felt my heart pounding anxiously.

"Master?"

This was not due to Dekan's emotions.

Rather, Master.

After helping Dekan become demonized, she returned control of his body to Dekan.

However, only a portion was returned, because complete demonization required their joint efforts to maintain it.

At this moment, it's as if the two of them are sharing consciousness and perception, controlling their bodies.

"Master, what's wrong?"

Dekan could sense that his usually calm and collected Master had become noticeably uneasy.

The Master's thoughts were tinged with worry and confusion.

"Dekan, I... I seem to have some recollection of this place..."