Chapter 20: Persuasion
Upon seeing the trio’s expression, Zhou Wen knew that his persuasion was completely useless.
He did have the intention to stay behind, ignoring whatever the trio might encounter. However, his results would be severely impacted if they were to die inside. He might even be removed from the list of candidates from the top schools.
Also, Yu Qiubai had introduced him, so he had the responsibility to help Li Xuan attain good results. Although Li Xuan didn’t think so, Zhou Wen didn’t wish to see Li Xuan sending himself to his death. That would affect Yu Qiubai’s reputation and it was highly likely that the Li family would blame it on Yu Qiubai.
Let’s hope they don’t venture too deep. As long as they don’t approach the area where the Skeleton General is, there shouldn’t be much of a problem. Zhou Wen thought without saying another word as he followed Li Xuan and company.
Seeing Zhou Wen silent, Xu Miantu imagined that it was because Zhou Wen didn’t dare be alone. He scoffed in contempt. “When one’s a burden, one should realize that. Just follow us obediently and cut the nonsense.”
Zhou Wen didn’t have the interest or time to bother with him. Taking out his phone, he secretly dripped a drop of blood before entering the Ancient Imperial City game dungeon.
He wanted to venture ahead to test the Skeleton General’s strength. It was best if he could find a way to kill him, and even if he failed, he could at least find a way to ensure his survival in front of him.
After all, Jiang Hao and Xu Miantu were taking point, killing all the Skeleton Soldiers that rushed at them. There was nothing Zhou Wen needed to do.
The danger was nonexistent. Even if a Skeleton Soldier were to rush at him, he could easily finish it off with his present strength.
Zhou Wen kept walking behind, unafraid that they would see his screen since they were unlikely to recognize it.
The game interface followed a cartoon style, making it very disparate from real life. The typical person wouldn’t make the connection.
Li Xuan was like Zhou Wen; he had nothing to do. When he saw Zhou Wen taking out his phone to game in such an area, he quipped, “You are really a gaming addict. You still feel like gaming in here?”
“It’s not like I have anything else to do, so I’m just playing games to kill time,” Zhou Wen replied without looking up. His eyes were peeled to the screen as he controlled the blood-colored avatar, blazing a trail while riding the Mutated Vigor Ant.
The ordinary Skeleton Soldiers were unable to block the Mutated Vigor Ant at all. Their bodies scattered from the impact and they weren’t as fast as it was.
Zhou Wen also couldn’t be bothered to kill them. All he wanted was to rush to the spot where the Skeleton General was.
“That’s right. I shall game as well,” Li Xuan said as he took out his phone. He tapped on the screen; the game he played a mystery.
Li Xuan’s gaming could be ignored, but Zhou Wen was also playing. This pissed off Xu Miantu.
“What the hell? Is this the number one genius of Guide High School? He’s like a gaming nerd,” Xu Miantu cursed under his breath in great displeasure.
Although Xu Miantu and Jiang Hao were powerful, they were still made up of flesh and blood. They were still susceptible to fatigue and injury; therefore, when they encountered relatively large hordes of Skeleton Soldiers, they had to be very careful. This slowed down the speed of their advancement.
As for Zhou Wen, he was charging the entire way in-game. His rate of progress was far faster than their progress in real life. In just half an hour, he arrived at the spot where he had met the skeleton horse-riding Skeleton General.
Like the last time, that fellow immediately charged when it saw the blood-colored avatar and Mutated Vigor Ant. Its speed was terrifying, in no way something Zhou Wen and the Mutated Vigor Ant could compare with.
This time, Zhou Wen was fully focused. He was thinking of ways to deal with the spear attacks, but when he saw the bone spear thrusting at him, he failed to dodge it. He didn’t have the opportunity to extend his hand to block the attack before being penetrated in the chest.
That was fast. This spear attack must be some type of Primordial Energy Skill. Zhou Wen could already confirm that the spear attack was a Primordial Energy Skill; otherwise, it was impossible that he had failed to even react.
A speed-type Primordial Energy Skill? This fellow is more difficult than the Silver-Winged Flying Ant. However, that Silver-Winged Flying Ant apparently never used Primordial Energy Skills. As Zhou Wen pondered over the matter, he revived the blood-colored avatar, rode the Mutated Vigor Ant, and charged into the depths of Ancient Imperial City.
As Zhou Wen rushed over, he carefully recalled the details of his previous two deaths. He hoped to find a strategy to deal with the Skeleton General by studying the details.
By doing so, he came up with a few possibilities. However, their viability needed him to test them out to know if they worked.
When he saw the Skeleton General charge at him again, Zhou Wen deliberately dodged the skeleton horse’s direct charge. He wanted to know if the Primordial Energy Skill was only capable of a frontal thrust.
The facts proved that he was wrong. When the blood-colored avatar dodged to the side of the skeleton horse under Zhou Wen’s control, the bone spear tip swept a crescent arc like a stream of light, instantly decapitating the blood-colored avatar’s head. It was no doubt an instant kill.
Making mistakes wasn’t a terrifying problem. What was terrifying was the lack of opportunity to amend strategies. However, the mysterious phone was what gave Zhou Wen this opportunity for amendments.
His Primordial Energy Skill is not only a thrust, but it’s also capable of side cleaving. This makes it difficult. Zhou Wen wasn’t discouraged; instead, he secretly dripped another drop of blood on the phone’s screen.
Perhaps it was because of his severe loss of blood in the past month or so, Zhou Wen felt a little giddy.
I need to think of means to replenish my blood in the future. If this continues, I might really end up dying from anemia. Zhou Wen felt a slight headache, but he couldn’t think of a good solution.
With the first experiment failing, all Zhou Wen could do was switch methods. Thankfully, he was only making attempts in-game. If it happened in real life, there was no way he would do something beyond his means. After all, he only had one life. He couldn’t just bet on it.
While Zhou Wen made his attempts, Xu Miantu and company were continuing their push forward.
The dimensional creatures in the dimensional zone were nearly endless. As the zone was connected to dimensional rifts, even if the creatures were wiped out, the area would be occupied again by new creatures. There was no way of killing them all.
However, the dimensional rifts weren’t stable. Pan-dimensional creatures didn’t appear at random, so after clearing an area, there wouldn’t be any Skeleton Soldiers appearing for a short period of time. Xu Miantu and company’s advancement was still pretty good.
The chances of Skeleton Soldiers producing dimensional crystals were quite small, with one Strength Crystal being dug out from the Skeleton Soldiers’ bodies every two to three hundred Skeleton Soldiers.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a game. They could only roughly identify the Strength Crystals, but had no idea what their values were.
The Strength Crystal was naturally Li Xuan’s. In fact, as long as he had one, he would be first in the team.
“We’ve already hunted enough Skeleton Soldiers. We are very far from the determined region of the test. We need to rush back before the end. Can we not continue proceeding forward?” Upon noticing that they were approaching the Skeleton General’s region, Zhou Wen said once again to Li Xuan.