Chapter 130: Chapter 130: The Nightmare Demon Servant and Han Shiyu (Please Subscribe for the Full Story)
Lu Luo was not very surprised by this outcome; it was, one could say, expected.
The guards whispered among themselves, somewhat at a loss in the current situation. Facing this unknown fog, they instinctively became fearful.
"Brother Gu, are there any anomalies now?"
"Yes, the fog’s concentration is gradually increasing, and it’s slowly moving towards us. The quarantine area where Dormitory No. 5 is located seems to be enclosed by the fog, with a strong sensation of space tearing."
"Space tearing?"
"That’s right. Even my Hawk Eye can’t accurately judge distances anymore."
Seeing the unfavorable situation, Ding Peng and You Xiaoqi, as Hunters, naturally had to step up and take action.
"We’ll go out and take a look. If anything happens, we can watch out for each other."
Lu Luo pondered for a while. Two Second Tier Hunters teaming up should ensure a certain level of combat capability.
"Mm, be careful."
"Okay."
After the two left, the Observer suddenly provided some information.
[The direction of air flow within this area has completely changed. Unpredictable situations may occur. Please remain vigilant, Host.]
Lu Luo was startled and quickly tried to call them back.
"Wait, Sister Qi, don’t go!"
But You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng seemed not to hear Lu Luo, walking straight into the mist.
At that distance, Lu Luo was sure that under normal circumstances, they would definitely have heard him speak. This meant that if they weren’t acting abnormally, then the environment was. He made a snap decision.
"Activate Overclocking Mode."
[Overclocking Mode activated.]
Lu Luo immediately activated Overclocking Mode. With its aid, he could even feel that the air was no longer flowing normally.
In other words, the fog had completely isolated normal air flow; they were trapped here.
Lu Luo picked up some pebbles from the ground and began to throw them continuously into the dense fog.
THUD, THUD, THUD!
After throwing several pebbles, it seemed they encountered no obstacles, only making some noise when they eventually landed some distance away.
Lu Luo’s pupils contracted. According to his memory, this direction should have been the location of the women’s bathroom in Dormitory No. 5. The distance wasn’t great. Under normal circumstances, the stones he threw would definitely have hit the bathroom walls.
This meant the location of Dormitory No. 5’s quarantine zone had either been shifted, or the distance to the outer areas had been stretched.
"What’s going on?"
[This situation is very similar to the barrier of the Sleeping Witch encountered before and is likely a Domain-type ability.]
This turn of events made Lu Luo increasingly uneasy. He turned his head and shouted to the guards, "The remaining guards and administrative staff, immediately go and stay with the unaffected girls in the dormitories! Try to group together as much as possible!"
However, Lu Luo’s orders at this time had no effect.
Of the more than ten guards, only four or five looked at Lu Luo blankly, completely at a loss.
The other guards, however, began walking towards the mist with blank expressions.
The alert guards didn’t know whether to pull their companions back or to follow Lu Luo’s instructions and return to the dormitory students.
The situation with the administrative staff was even worse.
Apart from Dean Fang Gan, only one member of the administration was awake. The others, with confused expressions, walked dazedly towards the fog.
They were being controlled by some unknown force—could this be the same power Wu En used to control those girls? A dream?
And those more than two hundred female students, compared to the guards and administrative staff, seemed to be faring better.
Perhaps because they had endured so much shock and fear already, they were relatively calm now.
A few girls who succumbed to confusion were pinned to the ground by other female students, who worked together to restrain them.
Those who succumbed to confusion hadn’t gained any strength, so a few people together could easily restrain them, which brought Lu Luo some relief.
Lu Luo couldn’t determine what was in the fog, but he knew that entering it now would likely mean no return, just like You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng before.
Even he himself dared not venture into the fog lightly.
"Qi Xinzhu, try to protect everyone else as best as you can. Brother Gu, take your position."
"Understood."
"Got it."
Again, it was the trio that had first ventured beyond the wall. Compared to You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng, Lu Luo still felt that the three of them worked together more seamlessly.
Just then, Han Shiyu approached. She glanced at the surrounding fog, her brow slightly furrowed, and looked at Lu Luo.
"I just tried it; not even Holy Radiance could penetrate this mist. By now, it’s almost certain that we’ve been dragged into the opponent’s Domain at some point."
"Domain?"
[Domains are exclusive energy areas for Lord-level creatures and usually have certain special characteristics.]
"Is it that surprising? All Lord-level Exotic Species have their own territories. Domains *are* their territories. This fog should be the opponent’s Domain. I don’t know what specific effects this area currently has."
Lord-level? Lu Luo immediately remembered the Maternal Water Lemon from the previous encounter; that creature must have also been a Lord-level Exotic Species.
"It’s actually reached Lord level? Is Priest Wu En strong enough to be Fifth Tier?"
"Absolutely not. Although Priest Wu En is over ninety years old, he only barely advanced to Third Tier when he was over seventy, still a considerable distance from Fifth Tier."
Lu Luo nodded. If Wu En had been Third Tier before, then there were only two possibilities.
The first was that someone else was involved, which seemed unlikely, but still possible.
The second was that Wu En, during the process of worshipping the aberration, had received some kind of benefit—possibly a strong infusion of Dark Energy, or a mutation caused by Divine Judgment, allowing him to instantly reach Fifth Tier.
Lu Luo was more inclined to believe the second possibility.
"Professor Han, we can’t make phone calls anymore. Are you confident you can deal with him?"
"Whether I’m confident or not, we’ll only know after we fight. He’s coming."
Han Shiyu’s expression suddenly changed. Golden lightning materialized in her hand, resembling a long spear.
Sunlight Spear!
WOOSH!
The spear shot through the air, hurled towards the sky.
BOOM!
Golden lightning began to arc and surge through the mist.
Han Shiyu took off her jacket and high-heeled shoes, then leaped up, punching toward the fog.
"Justice!"
What she emitted was indeed the Holy Seal of Justice from the Knight of Justice.
This sudden turn of events left Lu Luo somewhat dumbfounded. How had Han Shiyu, who had been as steady as Mount Tai just moments ago, suddenly entered battle?
Within the mist, golden flashes and deafening thunderclaps could be heard intermittently.
Lu Luo knew this was Han Shiyu engaging in a fierce battle with Wu En within the fog. It seemed all they could do now was wait for the outcome.
Suppressing his unease, Lu Luo walked over to the dozen girls ensnared by nightmares. They were now without the supervision of the guards and administrative staff, and Lu Luo could only watch over them himself.
If they were to run amok, he simply couldn’t stop them unless he resorted to a massacre.
All these dozen girls had been parasitically impregnated and could mutate into terrifying Exotic Species at any time. In the current foggy environment, they were a huge potential threat.
At this moment, Lu Luo felt he understood Ding Peng’s earlier words a bit better: when you have no other choice, killing is the only option.
Sometimes killing isn’t cold-blooded. It’s just that there is no better choice.
The current situation was eerily similar to what Ding Peng had described.
Then, a girl suddenly stood up and confronted Lu Luo, her eyes filled with doubt and hostility.
"Lu Luo, you’re thinking about whether or not to kill us, right?"
Lu Luo knew that the series of previous events had brought their trust in each other to rock bottom. It would be very hard for these people to trust him again.
He couldn’t possibly trust these dozen female students either. Their relationship had suddenly shifted from mutual aid to a strangely semi-hostile state.
Lu Luo took out his Rose 390, disengaged the safety on the handgun, and spoke leisurely, "What do you want to say? Go on."
The girl was clearly frightened by Lu Luo’s action, but the other girls immediately gave her encouraging looks, seemingly urging her to continue confronting him.
Many people believe there’s safety in numbers, and at times like these, they also forget that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
"He already told us that Nightmare seeds have been planted in us, and he won’t hurt us anymore. If you dare to lay a hand on us, even if you can kill a few of us, the remaining sisters will immediately throw themselves into the embrace of the Nightmare Demon’s servants."
Nightmare seeds? Throwing themselves to the Nightmare Demon’s servants? Is that supposed to be a threat?
[Nightmare Demon’s servants are Fifth Tier Lord-level Exotic Species whose power originates from the Seventh Tier Exotic Species, the Nightmare Demon. As the name suggests, they are servants of the Nightmare Demon, possessing the ability to control dreams and weave nightmares.]
Servants of the Nightmare Demon. Did Priest Wu En advance to Fifth Tier because he became a servant of the Nightmare Demon?
While this commission was partly about making money, the help he had provided these carriers of Nightmare seeds was genuinely substantial. These people had actually turned around to threaten him. Truly ironic, and incredibly foolish.
BANG!
Lu Luo fired his gun. He had to deal with any factor that threatened him and destabilized the current fragile security.
Although this girl had not yet mutated, if she continued to live, she would undoubtedly become a leader, guiding other girls who carried Nightmare seeds. Such a person had to die.
After killing the girl who spoke, the other girls clearly calmed down, their eyes reflecting fear and horror.
The only small mercy was that they finally quieted down.
Fang Gan took the initiative to approach these girls and began to soothe their emotions, but he turned a blind eye to Lu Luo’s recent actions.
Even Qi Xinzhu, who had always appeared so virtuous, remained silent in the face of Lu Luo’s killing.
While she was reluctant to kill innocents, she was even more unwilling to see Lu Luo endangered because of it.
Misfortunes never come singly.
Just as they had suppressed the threat from those with Nightmare seeds, Gu Fangyi delivered more bad news.
"Brother Lu! There’s something around the mist!"
Alerted by Gu Fangyi’s warning, Lu Luo immediately turned his head. The people who had ventured deep into the mist earlier now appeared at its edge.
Their skin was as black as ink. Though their original features were still discernible, their eyes were utterly lost and vacant.
[These are the Fallen of the Dream Realm—the people who entered the mist earlier. They are merely consumed by their own nightmares and haven’t died.]
This means You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng are among these ink-black figures! What a mess.
"Lu Luo, what do we do now?" Qi Xinzhu was already prepared for battle.
"Only injure, don’t kill. These individuals don’t possess great mobility; they’re on par with ordinary people. Let’s deal with a portion of them first. Brother Gu, get to a high position and set up your rifle. Only fire if there’s actual danger, and if possible, aim for their legs to spare their lives."
"Okay."
With Lu Luo’s instructions, the three of them swiftly sprang into action.
Ordinary people ensnared by nightmares posed little threat. Lu Luo was even hesitant to use much force, fearing he might accidentally kill them.
For Gu Fangyi, it was even simpler; he could knock ordinary people unconscious simply by throwing roof tiles from his vantage point.
The only ones proving difficult were the guards afflicted by nightmares, along with You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng.
Qi Xinzhu voluntarily confronted the guards, leaving You Xiaoqi and Ding Peng to Lu Luo.
Although the two seemed bewildered, despite being ensnared by nightmares, they could still maintain their full combat capabilities.
This was a 1v2 battle. Having recently achieved a breakthrough, Lu Luo had long wanted to test his strength against them.
You Xiaoqi, wielding a sword and a saber, advanced rapidly. The path of weaponry focused on such close-quarters combat.
And what Lu Luo feared least was close combat.
Lu Luo’s swordsmanship had now achieved a decent level of proficiency. He drew the Wraith Blade and, with speed surpassing You Xiaoqi’s, easily blocked her attack.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
As You Xiaoqi and Lu Luo clashed, Ding Peng’s body began to emit steam, just like Lu Luo’s previous Steam Form.
Lu Luo did not retreat but advanced, striking You Xiaoqi’s saber with a Qi He-infused fist.
Although the saber cut through the Qi He, the remaining force striking Lu Luo’s fist produced only a sharp TANG!, as if hitting an iron wall.
Lu Luo’s other hand, also channeling Qi He, threw a punch to meet Ding Peng, who was now wreathed in steam.
BOOM!
Against Ding Peng’s steam-enhanced Qi He, Lu Luo once again used the sheer volume of his ordinary Qi He to overcome its quality.
With the enhancement from his integrated three-channel Qi He, Lu Luo could unleash formidable power even in his normal state.
"I’ve got a rough idea of your strength. Now, it’s time for this dream to end."
Lu Luo suddenly accelerated. Seizing the momentary opening as You Xiaoqi staggered back, he launched an all-out assault on Ding Peng.
He threw thirteen consecutive punches, each more domineering and irresistible than the last.
Ding Peng managed to block the first ten, but the final three punches were unstoppable, even in his steam form.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Three solid fist imprints appeared on Ding Peng’s chest, and he spat out a large mouthful of blood as he was sent flying backward.
However, after he crashed to the ground, the vacant look in his eyes gradually cleared, and he began cursing, "Damn it all! My sternum’s shattered! You won so much money off me, and now you beat me up too! Lu Luo, you bastard!"
"Weren’t you trapped in a nightmare just now? How can you remember?" Lu Luo looked genuinely surprised.
"I was fighting you in the dream; the scene was so vivid, how could I forget?"
"’I see! Then I’ll go easier on Sister Qi; she’s a woman, after all.’"
"Damn you!"
Lu Luo turned and swung his blade, Qi He empowering it. The strike was powerful and heavy, but he used the back of the blade.
TANG!
His overwhelming Level 24 strength, combined with Qi He and further amplified to the extreme, delivered an absurdly powerful impact that not only snapped You Xiaoqi’s saber but also shattered her arm.
Lu Luo suddenly accelerated, chasing after the airborne You Xiaoqi, grabbed her by the calf, flipped, and slammed her hard onto the ground.
BOOM!
The ground around You Xiaoqi shattered from the massive impact, and her body sank into the depression.
Though he claimed to be holding back, Lu Luo’s attacks always "stopped just in time."
Hmm, Lu Luo’s understanding of "stopping just in time" meant subduing the opponent until they were completely incapable of retaliation. This interpretation was perfectly sound—what if they still had the strength to fight back and did so?
"Lu Luo, you asshole, are you sure you’re not settling a personal score?" Lying on the ground, You Xiaoqi was completely immobilized, coughing up blood.
"’No, I’m doing this for your own good,’"
Nonsense. If he hadn’t hit them hard, what if they were controlled by the nightmares again?
Once Lu Luo had dealt with those two, Qi Xinzhu and Gu Fangyi had mostly finished off the remaining stragglers.
Now they were back to the original problem: how to deal with Wu En, hidden within the fog?
Just then—BOOM!
A loud explosion thundered from the sky as Han Shiyu crashed heavily to the ground, gouging out a large crater.
After only a few exchanges, blood was already trickling from the corner of her mouth.
Wu En was a Believer of Light, over ninety years old, and a veteran of the Dark Tide War.
Lu Luo would never assume that someone who had experienced war would be completely devoid of combat experience.
Now that he had broken through to Fifth Tier, the mutations from the Divine Judgment had allowed him to retain his Holy Radiance and a measure of his sanity.
To call him invincible within the Fifth Tier might be an exaggeration, but Wu En was undoubtedly among its most powerful combatants.
Han Shiyu was also a Fifth Tier Believer of Light, whereas Wu En possessed the dual strengths of a Fifth Tier Believer of Light *and* a Fifth Tier servant of the Nightmare Demon.
In terms of raw power, Wu En already surpassed Han Shiyu.
Two gigantic black tentacles suddenly shot out from the fog. Even more bizarrely, these black tentacles also radiated white Holy Radiance.
The formidable physique of a Lord-level Exotic Species, combined with a high-level energy like Holy Radiance, created a virtually unstoppable force.
Old Wu En was also a pure Believer of Light, and his Holy Radiance was nearly on par with Han Shiyu’s.
The tentacles wrapped around Han Shiyu’s ankles, but she severed them with a single hand-chop.
She charged into the fog once more, battling fiercely against Wu En, who had become a servant of the Nightmare Demon.
But no matter how many tentacles she cut off, new ones would grow from the fog. If the fight continued like this, Han Shiyu’s defeat was only a matter of time.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Wave after wave of violent tremors emanated from the fog, leaving Lu Luo unable to discern the specifics of the battle unfolding within.
Lu Luo dared not blindly enter the Domain fog of a Lord-level Exotic Species. Everyone could only hope for Han Shiyu’s victory.
But when Han Shiyu crashed to the ground for the second time, Lu Luo, with his considerable combat experience, already knew she was about to lose.
Her clothes were now torn and her body covered in wounds, yet her eyes remained as bright and resolute as ever.
Wielding the Sunlight Spear, Han Shiyu turned to look at Lu Luo. Her expression, calm yet resolute, struck Lu Luo with an unprecedented sense of awe.
"’Lu Luo, remember what I’m about to say. He remains hidden within the Nightmare fog, and I can’t locate his true body at all. But if I don’t enter the fog to fight, he’ll immediately compress it, threatening all of you. So, I’m going to lose.’"
Han Shiyu coughed a few times; it was clear she was severely injured.
Before she could finish, tentacles wreathed in Holy Radiance reappeared, forcing Han Shiyu to cut short her words and face the enemy once more.
Watching Han Shiyu’s retreating figure, an unexpected ache gripped Lu Luo’s heart.
"’Hey, Han Shiyu!’"