Absolute Death Game

Xiao Buli continued to use his Tai Chi Sword Skills to withstand the attacks, but he quickly realized that something was wrong. Although the description of the Tai Chi Sword Skills claimed there was no cooldown, there appeared to be an internal trigger chance setting, which could only be triggered about once per second.

Previously, when facing a single Shadow Hunter, he could effortlessly deflect most of the attacks, but now, suddenly faced with four enemies attacking from different directions, the deflection effect of his Tai Chi Sword Skills was no longer sufficient.

Out of ten swords, six or seven could not be deflected, causing his health points to plummet rapidly, and in the blink of an eye, only half of his health points remained. Luckily, the fake Shadow Hunters seemed to have low attack power, or else he would have been killed instantly by now.

This was bad! Xiao Buli internally cried out in despair while desperately holding on, and shouted to Du Yibo, "Are you ready yet? Why haven't you made a move? I can't hold on much longer!" After Xiao Buli shouted, Du Yibo quickly responded, "I'm ready, but the problem is it's impossible to distinguish the real from the fake Shadow Hunters among these four; I can't just kill them one by one."

This indeed was a problem. Even though illusions generally had a lower health pool without a BOSS template in the wild, eliminating them one by one would take an unknown amount of time, and undoubtedly, they would be the ones to die of attrition. The most important thing right now was to find the true body, which might be a significant issue for ordinary people, but not a big deal for Xiao Buli.

"First, cast an earth wall around me; I'll find the real one," Xiao Buli said. An Earth Cell skill was instantly cast upon him, surrounding him with a ring of earth walls, giving him temporary safety.

The durability of this earth wall was much higher than that of the Ethereal Armor, but it was estimated to last only three to five seconds. Therefore, Xiao Buli did not dare to waste time and quickly used his Mind Revelation spell on one of the Shadow Assassins. The spell was unavoidable, and a health bar immediately appeared above the target's head.

Health points 983/1200.

(This one is fake,) Xiao Buli thought to himself. Although the health points of elite monsters in the wild were generally low without a BOSS template, a little over a thousand was clearly unlikely.

He immediately directed the Mind Revelation at a second Shadow Assassin, health points 875/1200, still incorrect!

At the same time, the durability of the Earth Cell skill was used up, and the crumbling earth walls collapsed with a loud noise as several dark curved daggers came slashing towards him.

With a clang, they were blocked by Xiao Buli's Ethereal Armor.

He didn't even blink, and although death could come at any moment, he became even calmer. He released Mind Revelation on the third Shadow Assassin, and just as the Ethereal Armor disappeared, a health bar also appeared above the target's head.

Health points 1359/2400.

This is the one! Xiao Buli managed an agile evasion breaking out of the circle, but the four adversaries followed like shadows, continuing to hack at him. Since there was no Tai Chi Sword Skills active, his health points plummeted rapidly, and he was nearly at his last breath in the blink of an eye.

(Is this the end? Am I going to die?) Xiao Buli felt a sense of despair, and the next moment, the ground suddenly turned viscous, transforming from solid earth to swamp-like mud. The area wasn't large but was enough to trap the true body within. It was Du Yibo, seeing that the situation was wrong, who had cast the Mire Skills ahead of time. Xiao Buli was overjoyed in his heart.

With a Leaping from Dry Land, this time he finally gained some distance, quickly wrapping himself in the Ethereal Armor while frantically popping potions and regenerating health, still shaking from the close call.

The effect of the Mire Skills was to reduce the movement speed of enemies within its range by seventy percent, which was quite effective. However, the area covered by the mire was really too small. Seeing that the real Shadow Hunter was about to break free, Xiao Buli urgently sent a Mysterious Ice Talisman flying over.

The Shadow Hunter, slowed to a crawl by the Mire Skills, had no chance to dodge and was hit squarely, its speed reduced once again, now moving as slow as a tortoise.

Although the other three illusionary duplicates managed to break free, Xiao Buli ignored them, casting a shield on himself and bracing against the attacks while he hurled another Mysterious Ice Talisman at the BOSS's true body, resolutely keeping the enemy's speed down.

"Well done, keep it up, watch me finish it with one big move!" Du Yibo said while preparing his Giant Fireball spell. The special feature of this skill was that the longer the power was charged up, the greater the fireball's power would be. He had previously not dared to use it due to the target's fast speed, but now the opportunity had arrived.

Xiao Buli threw two more Mysterious Ice Talismans, and the Shadow Hunter continued to take the hits without any defense. Seeing the third layer of ice effects stack, when the fifth Mysterious Ice Talisman hit the Shadow Hunter, a freezing effect was suddenly triggered, and his entire body was enveloped in a layer of solid ice, completely frozen inside.

Xiao Buli's eyes lit up, "Now's the time!" he shouted, and as if by telepathy, Du Yibo also launched a basin-sized fireball radiating intense white heat at that very moment.

With a booming explosion, the collision of ice and fire seemed to have triggered some special effect, directly shattering the Shadow Hunter, along with the thick ice that was entrapping him, into countless pieces. This was truly a bombardment to dust.

"Holy shit, that was fierce. That must have been eight or nine hundred damage at least! I saw he still had almost half his health points just now!" Du Yibo exclaimed, his eyes wide in shock. Although the Giant Fireball spell was very powerful, a damage output of three to four hundred was already considered quite remarkable. How come it was so much more potent this time?

He couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.

"It's probably over a thousand, mostly due to thermal expansion. Glass under extremely low temperatures will shatter when it comes into contact with hot water. This guy's situation is probably the same," Xiao Buli guessed as he looked at the results of their collaboration.

Du Yibo asked incredulously, "Can such effects even happen in a game?"

"It wouldn't in a regular game, but this one is hard to say," Xiao Buli replied, though he was already quite certain in his heart that it was most likely the reason.

"Hehe, then we two are just too cool. Pleasure to cooperate; this is so damn satisfying!" said an excited Du Yibo.

However, Xiao Buli couldn't help but wryly smile, "I'd rather encounter such things a few times less."

The two of them had nearly saved each other's life once during this battle and had been saved by the other as well. Moreover, together, they managed to kill a powerful BOSS that previously required a whole team to defeat. They had indeed reached a level of life-or-death camaraderie.

If there were a real-life favorability rating, their favorability towards each other would have surely risen by at least 1000 points, if not more.

"Quick, let's see what dropped," Du Yibo urged, and with a nod from Xiao Buli, they began to tally up their spoils of war.
Stay connected with empire

As an elite monster, the Shadow Leopard didn't drop any loot per se, but its body was the loot itself. Xiao Buli asked Du Yibo who didn't know dissection, and, getting no objections, nonchalantly dissected all six Shadow Leopards.

He obtained a bunch of Shadow Fur, singed fur, chunks of Shadow Leopard meat, and a Shadow Crystal Core.

Shadow Crystal Core: A Biological Crystal Core that stores Shadow Force, typically produced only within the bodies of beasts that possess Shadow Force. It is an extremely rare Energy Crystal Core, useful for equipment inlay, jewelry creation, Magical Treasure Refinement, etc., and is a very precious specialized material.

Nice stuff! The price of this thing is incredibly steep. The Flame Crystal Core dropped by the Fire Spirit in the prison dungeon earlier sold for 5 Gold Coins, and each person got one Gold Coin out of it. But this time, he'd be keeping it all to himself. As for the meat and fur, they were useful too. The fur could be used for crafting, and the Shadow Leopard's meat could be food for Meatball.

Though a feline, who knew if Meatball might gain some Strength from it.

Although the gains were not insignificant, they were still only the appetizer. The real feast lay with the Shadow Hunter, Fei Jie. Even though blown to pieces, the miracle of the game lay in that the vestiges of a body reduced to shreds were still clickable and lootable.

After exchanging pleasantries, they decided to let Du Yibo, who had higher luck, do the looting.

Immediately, Du Yibo let out a yelp, "Oh my, Old Xiao, we've hit the jackpot this time!" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes, monthly votes, and your support will be my greatest motivation.)