Chapter 105: Grade 1 Sealed Artifact

As the Fourth Knight under the Lord of Chaos, Xayn possessed power too immense for his true form to pass through the Demon Gate and descend into this realm; what the Grey Prophet summoned was merely a projection. Even so, for Xayn’s projection to manifest in this world, a price had to be paid.

To his fury, the summoning ritual was abruptly shattered by a human while still underway. Consequently, not only was Xayn unable to descend, but he would also suffer from a backlash of energy, leading to the collapse of his spiritual form.

The sensation was akin to a man who, having booked a room at a high-end hotel and prepared a candlelight dinner to spend a wonderful evening with his beloved, found that when he was ready to seal the deal, the girl lifted her skirt to reveal something larger than his own. It was a dual strike of psychological and physical devastation.

The bitterness and agony of the situation go without saying. At this moment, Xayn poured all his rage onto Su Cheng. Even if it meant the dissipation of a portion of his spiritual essence, he was determined to crush this human like an ant.

A massive shadow fell over Su Cheng as the blood-colored palm above him descended, the aura of death locking onto him instantly.

"Foolish human, be obliterated by Chaos!"

A low, terrifying voice boomed, and the blood-red palm fell from the sky.

Under the immense pressure, veins bulged on Su Cheng’s body. A killing intent, almost tangible in nature, surged out as his pitch-black eyes turned dark and unfathomable.

At this moment, Su Cheng decisively activated the Ghost God Mode.

Pure killing intent fused with black spiritual energy, erupting with an astonishing power. The ink-like black spiritual energy formed a massive vortex. At the center of this vortex, Su Cheng stood like a ghost god descended from hell to the mortal realm, his aura a hundred times more terrifying than what the Blood Knight had displayed.

Seeing the transformation in the human, Xayn was struck with dread.

"A ghost god from the netherworld? Do you think that is enough to defeat me, one born of Chaos?" As these cliché lines echoed, Xayn let out a cold snort and pressed down with his palm.

The Blood Knight only had a partial projection in this world, unable to employ refined martial techniques, and could only rely on sheer power to crush Su Cheng. If Su Cheng could withstand this single attack, the Demon Gate would close, and Xayn's projection would vanish from this world.

"Infinite Shadow Blade, Scattering Flower!"

As the technique was called, the blade light appeared.

A flurry of black blade beams erupted like scissors cutting through fabric, tearing the descending blood-colored light into fragments.

"Damn human, the Chaos Knights will not let you go!"

A terrifying roar echoed. A hideous, blood-red face manifested before Su Cheng, glaring at him with such venomous hatred that it seemed as if it wanted to carve his likeness into its very soul.

"Standard villain dialogue, truly."

The gloom weighing on his heart dissipated. Having activated the Ghost God Mode, Su Cheng felt completely hollowed out, his spiritual energy exhausted to the point where his limbs felt limp.

Watching Su Cheng not only ruin the summoning ritual but also dispose of the monster the Grey Prophet had summoned, the few players hanging from the skeleton tree, who had witnessed the entire ordeal, were stunned.

"It seems there's nothing left for us to do in this mission." Thunder God looked at Su Cheng with a complex expression. He had originally thought his strength wasn't much inferior to Su Cheng’s, but only now did he clearly perceive the vast chasm between them.

"I didn't expect to win by lying down. Brother Cheng is the best!"

"Another young man has lost his dreams and turned into a salted fish that only knows how to cheer." Zhang Wei wore an expression of deep sorrow.

"Stop clowning around and find a way down; Su Cheng’s condition doesn't look good." Green Arrow had black lines on his forehead; he strained to break the ropes and let his teammates down from the skeleton tree.

***

On the outskirts of the altar, Su Cheng flashed his blade repeatedly, slaughtering the mutant rat-men lunging at him, and dashed toward his teammates before they could be surrounded by the swarm.

At this moment, Su Cheng’s gaze fell upon the ancient bronze book beside the Grey Prophet’s corpse. With a flick of his mind, he rushed over and snatched it up.

The bronze book was extremely heavy, and an eerie face was engraved on its cover. The face was neither human nor ghost, its expression hideously terrifying, belonging to a creature from some unknown parallel universe. On its forehead grew a pair of curled black horns.

[Grimoire of Demons] (Tier 1 Sealed Item)

Strangely, Su Cheng was unable to identify the attributes of the Grimoire of Demons, and the item could not be stored in his character inventory.

"Is this a quest item that cannot be taken out of the dungeon?"

As Su Cheng pondered, Thunder God and Zhang Wei approached him.

"You rats, taste my Thunder Blast!"

At this moment, a heaven-shaking roar tore through the air. A burly figure lunged forward. A mass of violent lightning energy condensed at the tip of Thunder God’s warhammer, and with a roar that sounded like a thunderclap, he hurled the mass of energy into the rat swarm like a bomb.

In the blink of an eye, the lightning energy detonated, and the rat-men at the center of the explosion were pulverized by the terrifying force, leaving not even bone fragments behind. After the blast, a massive swath of the dense rat swarm vanished.

Taking this opportunity, the players accelerated toward the exit of the rat nest.

"Damn it, it's a dead end ahead."

The nest of the mutant rat-men was like a complex, gigantic maze; one wrong turn and you would lose your way. Worse yet, the commotion had attracted several elite-level monsters. Once surrounded by them, Su Cheng and his team would likely face a bloody battle to fight their way out.

If they turned back now, they would inevitably clash with the pursuing rat-men. The situation had become a dilemma for Su Cheng and the others.

After a brief thought, Su Cheng pulled out the [Mole Claws], equipped them, and dug a tunnel directly through the wall in front of them, excavating a path toward the exit.

"Holy cow, Brother Cheng, did you graduate from a heavy machinery operator course?" Xu Xiaolong was stunned, looking at Su Cheng as if he were an all-powerful Doraemon.

Although the [Mole Claws] had average attack power, they were exceptionally convenient for tunneling. In less than ten minutes, Su Cheng had dug a path leading to the surface.

"Whew, finally out. I thought we'd be stuck in there forever." Xu Xiaolong relaxed, collapsing onto the ground with aching legs. Their protective suits were already torn to shreds, and they looked utterly exhausted and disheveled.

"Hey, have you guys noticed that something seems off?" Kojima Jiro, who had been quiet, spoke up with a panicked look.

"What is it?"

"The system seems to have a bug. The mission to stop the summoning ritual was clearly completed, but why hasn't the next mission refreshed?"

Reminded by Kojima Jiro, everyone realized the truth. If the system didn't provide the next mission prompt, did that mean they would never clear the game and leave this dungeon?

***

Thinking of this, the players broke out in a cold sweat. They had never encountered such a situation in a dungeon. If the system truly had a bug, only two outcomes awaited them: being trapped in the dungeon world forever, or dying to escape. However, if a player died in a dungeon, they would also die in the real world in a "reasonable" way.

"We aren't going to be trapped in the game world like in those anime, are we?" Xu Xiaolong looked panicked; no one wanted to spend their entire life in this perilous dungeon world. The trouble was that there was no "quit" option in horror games; only by clearing the dungeon could one exit.

"I say, let's head back to the Rat Extermination Squad base first and think of a solution. If it really is a system bug, there must be a way out."

But just as they were about to move, the game interface suddenly flashed a string of anomalous data.

"Warning: Unknown organism has invaded the dungeon world. Plot temporarily interrupted."

"System is detecting data related to the unknown organism..."

"Detection failed. Danger level... Extremely High!"

As the words faded, the catastrophe began.

A massive sphere of light plummeted from the sky, and destructive power swept outward in all directions with the sphere at its center. Caught in the wake of the explosion, the six players were blasted hundreds of meters away by the terrifying wind, slamming hard into the ground.

Fortunately, they were not within the direct blast radius of the sphere, or else no one would have survived. Even so, the players caught in the shockwave suffered extremely severe injuries, and their health points dropped to the bottom.

After the explosion, Su Cheng saw that the vast underground rat-man kingdom had been completely destroyed by the sphere of light, with all mutant rat-men and Chaos creatures obliterated in an instant. Had they not escaped the nest minutes prior, they would likely have died there with the rats.

"Planetary Devastation? Are you kidding me!"

Terror spread like a virus through the hearts of all the players. Su Cheng’s heart sank; he suddenly had a ominous premonition.

At this moment, the gigantic sphere of light that had destroyed the rat kingdom gradually shrank, transforming into a glowing humanoid entity.

"This guy must be the intruder the system mentioned. From the looks of it, it's a pure energy construct. If categorized by game levels, this unknown entity's level must be '???' for us." Su Cheng’s mind raced. Judging by its behavior, it was not the type of creature that would sit down and reason with humans.

"Hey, what do we do now? Do we have to defeat this intruder to leave the dungeon?" Xu Xiaolong asked weakly.

"That would be less dignified than just ending it ourselves."

It was obvious that the intruder appearing before them was not something these players could handle.

The glowing humanoid entity seemed to perceive something and turned its head toward Su Cheng. 0.01 seconds later, a flash of light crossed the distance, and the light-being appeared before Su Cheng.

"You carry the scent of a demon."

The light-being’s voice carried a specific rhythm, indifferent and cold like a mechanical synthesized sound, echoing directly in Su Cheng’s mind.