"Is this the Faceless Man?" Lu Shi's first thought upon seeing the new monster's appearance was that it was the Faceless Man.
Ye Bugui, who was standing to the side, glanced at it and said in a low voice, "It should be a burnt faceless man."
No matter how much they joked around, the monster, still engulfed in flames, stumbled and charged toward them.
Ye Bugui charged forward as always, picked up his baseball bat, and struck the monster on the head.
But to Ye Bugui's surprise, the child sitting on the faceless man's head threw out a fireball.
Fortunately, Ye Bugui was agile enough to dodge the fireball, which just brushed past his arm.
Even so, the parts that were touched by the fireball were already burning and emitting the aroma of roasted meat.
Ye Bugui's stamina dropped by ten points, and he also gained a deduff (negative status effect):
[Burning: Stamina cannot be restored while burning.]
Good heavens, Ye Bugui frowned. The forbidden treatment had even appeared. What frustrated him most was that he didn't even know when the effect would wear off.
But for now, Ye Bugui would first remind Lu Shi, who didn't seem to have much fighting power:
"This thing deals extremely high damage, and once you're touched by its fire, there's no way to heal it."
Lu Shi's handsome eyebrows furrowed together. He suddenly regretted using up all his spiritual power in the previous few days.
At this moment, Lu Shi began to deeply reflect on himself and gradually realized that the difficulty of A-level dungeons was not just that the bosses had become stronger, but that there were a constant stream of powerful monsters.
The faceless men may not seem strong at first glance, but they consume physical strength, energy, and even the unique spiritual power of Lu Shi.
It seems that the most important thing he needs to think about right now is how to allocate his spiritual energy to be successful in high-difficulty dungeons.
However, Lu Shi has another advantage: flexibility.
In terms of movement alone, Ye Bugui is far inferior to Lu Shi. After all, Lu Shi was once someone who could fly through the air and dodge hundreds of thousands of flying swords with just a cloud beneath his feet.
Lu Shi dodged both the faceless man and the fireball that attacked from behind.
Soon the faceless man discovered that the easy target among the two people in front of him was actually Ye Bugui.
When it charged at Ye Bugui again, Ye Bugui was holding the baseball bat with both hands, as if he were holding a two-handed greatsword.
"Looking down on me? Did you find me weak so you came to beat me up?" Ye Bugui muttered to himself, but all his attention was focused on the sword in his hand.
As a former immature teenager, Ye Bugui was obsessed with anime and martial arts novels when he was hanging out on the streets.
He used to practice swordsmanship all afternoon under the scorching sun with just a tree branch.
Later, Ye Bugui entered the game and even secretly learned swordsmanship in one of the dungeons.
At this moment, Ye Bugui held the baseball bat, yet a different kind of aura emanated from him.
Even Lu Shi couldn't help but take a look.
“This is…” Lu Shi felt that he had seen this scene before; it was the battle for godhood of the number one sword cultivator in the cultivation world.
Man and sword become one.
Although Lu Shi didn't think Ye Bugui had reached that level, he did give people a similar feeling right now.
When the faceless man on fire charged in, Ye Bugui moved.
He seemed to brush past the Faceless Man, but when Ye Bugui stopped and gracefully sheathed his sword, the Faceless Man behind him was split in two and fell to the ground.
Even the ghostly infant atop its head was not spared, turning into ashes and extinguishing along with the flames.
"Impressive!" Lu Shi exclaimed sincerely, "Have you grasped the Dao of the Sword?"
"Huh?" Ye Bugui's cool demeanor lasted only three seconds. He scratched his hair and said, "I just remembered an anime I used to watch, so I imitated his style and focused on the sword. It was only when I drew my sword that I realized it was different from before."
"It seems to be a reminder of the swordsmanship I once learned," Ye Bugui said casually.
“When we get back, I can teach you swordsmanship,” Lu Shi said suddenly in Ye Bugui’s ear as he walked past him.
Ye Bugui's expression changed instantly, his face lighting up with joy, and he completely forgot about maintaining his composure.
"The Demon Lord can also practice swordsmanship?" Ye Bugui blurted out his true thoughts.
Fortunately, Lu Shi didn't mind. Instead, he patiently explained to him, "Any cultivator will practice swordsmanship. Using immortal techniques is too time-consuming many times. If something can be solved with a single sword strike, there's no need to use immortal techniques. However, my swordsmanship is naturally much inferior to that of sword cultivators."
"You're more than capable of guiding me," Ye Bugui said, quite self-aware.
"It's not really about giving pointers, just a friendly exchange," Lu Shi said in a rather indifferent tone.
Their conversation came to a temporary end, and they walked to the top of the stairs.
The fire raged and burned the entire hospital to the ground.
"Should we go up?" Lu Shi asked softly.
"Go up?" Ye Bugui reached out his hand suspiciously. He could feel the temperature even before he touched the flame.
How else could they get up there? Ye Bugui didn't understand.
"Hmm." After saying that, Lu Shi walked straight through the fire, finding himself completely engulfed in flames.
The moment his hand touched the flame, Lu Shi felt a burning pain.
But once he was inside, the feeling of being scorched by the fire disappeared.
Ye Bugui looked at Lu Shi, who was unharmed in the fire, with some surprise, seemingly unable to believe what had happened.
However, since Lu Shi had already proven that the fire was harmless to them, Ye Bugui naturally went inside without hesitation.
"How did you know?" Ye Bugui asked in surprise.
Lu Shi's actions just now were too decisive; it was clearly not something he had guessed.
"Have you forgotten who we are? We are also vengeful spirits who died in this hospital, just like the child on that woman's head. Since it can move through fire, so can we."
"As expected of you!" Ye Bugui was quite impressed with Lu Shi; this person always had such a unique perspective on things.
Most remarkably, facts often prove his wildly imaginative ideas to be correct.
The two went up to the second floor again and saw Dr. Wang lying peacefully on the floor.
There were countless strangers around him.
These people were all middle-aged, and it wasn't hard to guess their identities—the parents of those children.
Each of them had a child clinging to their back, the children hugging their parents' necks and showing innocent smiles.
"Mom and Dad, you're finally back!"
The children cried out in happiness.
Their parents, however, wore expressions of pain and despair.
Lu Shi and Ye Bugui found that after the two of them came up, they couldn't move and could only stand there and watch the scene in front of them.
This must be what the underground hospital looked like before it was destroyed by fire.
Both of them were wondering whether the fire was an accident or something that was done on purpose.
They soon found out the answer, because Dr. Wang, who had been lying in the fire, stood up.
To be precise, he went from lying down to kneeling. He crawled forward, and even though every inch of his skin was scorched by the fire, and even though there wasn't a single piece of flesh left intact, he still wore a devout smile on his face.
He raised his hands and shouted, "Lord Tai Sui! I have offered you sacrifices!"
"To the stillborn baby girl, this is my offering of purity!"
"To the believers who were burned, this is my offering of my suffering!"
"A tiger devours its cubs, flesh and blood turn against each other, and parents are taken away—this is the resentment I offer you!"
"Descend, Tai Sui!"
In an instant, the entire underground hospital vanished. All the pain, resentment, and past events were swallowed up by a distorted black mist.
But it's not enough...
Lu Shi and Ye Bugui both saw a huge, withered-tree-like tentacle emerge from the black mist...
But before its true form could descend, the black mist vanished.
Lu Shi and Ye Bugui also fainted.
The underground hospital had been reduced to ruins. At that moment, a man stood up.
That was Dr. Wang, a waiter, and also the messenger of the Black Tai Sui.
He shook his head: "That's not enough. I want to kill more people."
...
When Lu Shi and Ye Bugui woke up, they found themselves standing in front of the fourth door.
"What did we just see?" Lu Shi rubbed his head, feeling as if his brain was split open. He had seen the complete story, but now, when he tried to recall it, it was fragmented into pieces of memory.
“Black Tai Sui.” Ye Bugui grasped Lu Shi’s hand at this moment: “It is a creature from a higher dimension than us. So when you first saw it, these images appeared in your brain, which was actually protecting you.”
"There was once a saying in my world: Do not look directly at Him. Fortunately, this is just an A-level dungeon. All we need to deal with is a divine messenger after the Black Tai Sui's evil descent."
Ye Bugui seemed to be trying to comfort Lu Shi, but little did he know that Lu Shi saw through his acting at a glance.
Ye Bugui was afraid.
If he were in his prime, Ye Bugui would not be afraid of a divine messenger at all.
But right now, can he and Lu Shi really deal with a divine messenger who has killed so many people and even obtained the power of one of the Black Tai Sui's tentacles?
However, Lu Shi did not expose Ye Bugui's lie. Instead, with his usual thirst for knowledge, he asked, "Evil curse? What is that?"
"The Black God is a fallen evil god, but I feel that he is not very powerful among evil gods. However, as long as they are evil gods, it is difficult for their true forms to descend into a new world."
"Therefore, the evil gods would choose a vessel to descend upon, which was called the descent of evil. That divine messenger was the vessel of the Black Tai Sui."
"Why can't their true forms descend?" Lu Shi asked, his eyes wide.
He learned a lot of new knowledge about evil gods and the Black Tai Sui from Ye Bugui.
"Because..." Ye Bugui paused, "Actually, I don't know either. Maybe there are native gods on our planet? But you should know that the world view in the dungeon is unrelated to reality."
At least Ye Bugui didn't believe that his world had been corrupted by the Black Tai Sui, otherwise he would have seen similar news reports long ago.
With a "whoosh," the door in front of them opened automatically. All that was missing was a voice from inside saying "Welcome!"
The two exchanged a glance; they truly had no other choice, so they went inside.