Rustle... Rustle... Rustle...
Lin Mo paid no attention to the black bugs the Black Magic Elder had summoned from the Black Demon Guards' corpses.
Because with his SSS-grade Eye of Insight, he had already seen that these Blood Bugs were only level 50.
Not fake level 50. But a real level 50.
Every one of their stats matched those of an ordinary level 50 monster.
Even if it weren't Lin Mo and Ning Xi standing here, even other players in Inferno City who were only in their fifties wouldn't find these level 50 Blood Bugs much of a threat.
In Lin Mo's eyes, this was simply the Black Magic Elder's final struggle before death.
It wasn't until the next moment that he realized how terrifying these ordinary-looking little bugs really were...
Lin Mo locked onto the swarm rushing toward him and raised Illusion World: Wrath of Thunder.
He activated the set skill, Myriad Thunderbolts.
He opened with an SSS-grade skill.
Dark Night: Dance of Death!
Thud!
-432,504 (Critical)!
Even without the boost from Divine Descent Seraph Siya's SSS-grade skill, one arrow was more than enough to kill a level 50 bug with only 80,000 HP.
At the same time, Dance of Death's splash effect was triggered.
Using the Blood Bug he had just killed as the center, every Blood Bug within a 20-yard radius was instantly wiped out by over 200,000 points of splash damage.
Although Dance of Death didn't have a large splash range, these Blood Bugs were tiny and packed closely together.
Even with a radius of only 20 yards, Lin Mo wiped out over a hundred Blood Bugs in one shot.
However, just as Lin Mo effortlessly killed the swarm, his vision suddenly went dark.
[Ding~ You killed Level 50 monster Blood Bug ×136. You were hit by Blood Bug's Blood Devour skill ×136, losing 110,432 HP. (The damage-sharing effect of Dark Gold Strong-Maned Pig has been triggered. This is 10% of the total damage.) You have died!]
Whoosh!
The moment Lin Mo's health bar emptied and he turned into a beam of white light, Ning Xi beside him was stunned.
The next second, the white light returned to its original spot, and Lin Mo revived where he stood.
[Ding~ Resurrection Mark has been triggered. You have been revived at full health!]
Fortunately, before attacking the Tenth Hall of Yama Hall, he had asked Divine Descent Seraph Siya to place Resurrection and Immortality Marks on him.
The aura in the Tenth Hall had only destroyed Lin Mo's Immortality Mark.
His Resurrection Mark was still there.
After reviving on the spot, Lin Mo wasn't relieved at all.
Instead, he immediately grabbed Ning Xi and ran toward the foot of the mountain.
"Run!"
The two of them sprinted all the way down.
Only after looking back and seeing that the Blood Bugs hadn't chased after them did they finally relax.
"Brother Lin Mo, how did you die just now?", Ning Xi still hadn't recovered from what had happened.
Lin Mo checked the battle log while comparing it with the Blood Bug information from his SSS-grade Eye of Insight, then reached a conclusion.
"These Blood Bugs may only be level 50, but they have a skill called Blood Devour. It can be triggered both actively and passively."
"When activated on their own, they sacrifice their own life to deal damage equal to 10% of their maximum HP."
"When a Blood Bug dies, Blood Devour is triggered automatically, dealing damage equal to 10% of its maximum HP to whoever attacked it."
Hearing this, Ning Xi frowned, "So that means these Blood Bugs have no weakness at all?"
You couldn't kill them.
You couldn't leave them alive either.
The key point was that Blood Devour dealt a huge amount of damage.
With each Blood Bug having 81,200 HP, one Blood Devour attack dealt 8,120 damage.
Just now, Lin Mo's Dance of Death had killed 136 Blood Bugs, triggering Blood Devour 136 times.
Even with Strong-Maned Pig taking 90% of the damage, Lin Mo still couldn't survive the remaining 10% and was killed instantly.
In fact, if Strong-Maned Pig hadn't had such high HP, even it would have almost died after taking the 90% damage transferred from Lin Mo, a total of nearly one million damage.
It had nearly gone down together with Lin Mo.
Kill the Blood Bugs, and Blood Devour would trigger immediately.
Don't kill them, and if they touched you, they could still activate Blood Devour.
Looking at it that way, these Blood Bugs really had no obvious way to deal with them.
Unless they used human wave tactics.
In other words, they would have to use a large number of expendable players to trade for the Blood Bugs.
Just like back in the level-three main city, Blazing Fire City, when Wang Junjie had used members of the Chaotic World Guild to clear bugs in the Insect Nest Underground Palace.
On average, one person with one health bar could take down two or three Blood Bugs.
Ten people could trade for twenty or thirty.
A hundred people could trade for two or three hundred.
No matter how many Blood Bugs there were, as long as there were enough expendable players, they could all be wiped out.
But the cost of that method was simply too great.
Other than that, there was only one option.
"We have to get past these Blood Bugs and kill the Black Magic Elder directly."
After hearing that, Ning Xi thought for a moment, "Maybe we can use a Wizard's or Illusion Mage's control skills to hold them in place. That way we won't have to kill them and trigger Blood Devour, and they won't be able to activate it themselves either."
But then another problem came up.
"The control skills of Light Wizards, Dark Wizards, and Illusion Mages in Divine Oracle are almost all single-target. One skill can only control one Blood Bug."
"There are so many Blood Bugs. How many Wizards and Illusion Mages would it take to keep all of them under control at once?"
Just when Ning Xi felt there was no solution, an idea suddenly came to Lin Mo.
"No. We don't need that many."
"One person is enough."
Ning Xi seemed to understand.
"Brother Lin Mo, you mean..."
"Zhao Ling'er!"
———
[Eastern Inferno City]
[Outside the City]
A fat, middle-aged level 55 Berserker with a sleazy face, Smile at Life, wrapped an arm around Zhao Ling'er's slim waist.
Seeing that although Zhao Ling'er was struggling inside, she was no longer resisting or pushing him away,
Director Zhang smiled smugly, "That's more like it! You should've done this a long time ago."
"Your parents only agreed to give you another chance to enter Divine Oracle because I pleaded for you! You should be thanking me!"
"Otherwise, you'd never get the chance to show your value in Divine Oracle. You'd spend your whole life as a bird in a cage."
"Following me is the only way out you'll ever have."
Zhao Ling'er bit her lip lightly and said nothing.
She silently accepted everything.
Seeing this, Qin Feng, Ling Xiao, Xia Wanwan, and the others, who were secretly following from a short distance away, all looked at him with contempt.
"Isn't Smile at Life obviously gaslighting Zhao Ling'er?"
"But Zhao Ling'er doesn't seem to have any choice," Xia Wanwan said sympathetically, "From what Smile at Life said, I'm guessing he was the one who got Zhao Ling'er's parents to take away her Divine Oracle equipment in real life so she couldn't log in."
"He's using that to manipulate her."
Ling Xiao nodded, "No wonder Boss couldn't get in touch with Zhao Ling'er and asked us to keep an eye on her."
Fat Dahai rubbed his double chin and thought for a moment.
"So now that Zhao Ling'er is online, doesn't that mean she gave in to Smile at Life?"
"Of course! That pig's hand is practically on Zhao Ling'er's butt already. Isn't it obvious?"
Looking at the gentle Zhao Ling'er beside the fat, big-eared Smile at Life, Skinny Monkey couldn't help saying, "What a waste. A flower stuck in a pile of cow dung."
"Damn it! I can't watch this anymore!", Qin Feng lost his temper and drew his sword with a swish, "I'm going to chop that fat pig into pieces!"
"We'd better not act yet. Let's wait until Boss gets here."
Just as they were talking, a group of Chaotic World players suddenly appeared in front of Director Zhang and Zhao Ling'er, blocking their way.
Leading them was a level 57 Sword and Shield Warrior wearing a full set of gold equipment, carrying the orange title Wealth Beyond Measure above his head, and holding a Tier 4 gold weapon over his shoulder.
Wang Junjie looked at Director Zhang and said without any courtesy,
"Damn it! You actually dared touch Brother Mo's woman?"
Before Director Zhang could react, Wang Junjie continued, "I'm counting to three. If your ugly face is still in front of me by then, I'll send you off for a nice hot spring."
"Three!"
"Fine. You're dead!"
Director Zhang: "?"
"Where are one and two?"
Wang Junjie shouted, "Brothers, get them! Leave Zhao Ling'er alone. Kill everyone else!"
"Yes, Brother Jie!"