NOVEL NEXT Chapter 221 Simulation: Skeleton Lord
Nine unicorns stood still, the door of the carriage wide open, revealing an unfathomable darkness within.
Jos had shot an arrow at it earlier, but there wasn't the slightest reaction.
What was inside?
Su Jie and the others did not know.
However, according to what the succubus previously said, there was a certain being inside, and it was its master.
One could imagine that to control the "Slime"-like Sovereign, one must possess true prowess.
Hum——
The carriage started to vibrate, and the nine unicorns seemed to undergo a change, their bodies igniting with ghostly blue flames, their fur and flesh vanishing in an instant, leaving behind nine bizarre skeletons burning with blue flames.
What's more important was that these skeletons could move.
"Undead creatures." Jos's eyelids drooped, and as he saw Su Jie and the others looking at him, he put down his bow and arrow and took out a spear, "These things used to be common in computer games."
Crack!
Just then, a razor-sharp claw extended from the darkness of the carriage door, grabbing onto the frame, its color silver-white, large and lethal.
Following closely was a skull. Unlike that of a normal person, this one was adorned with a regal bone crown, trident-shaped, and fused tightly with the skull itself.
Click!
As it tried to squeeze out of the carriage, it got stuck due to its broad shoulders and massive frame.
Su Jie: "..."
Zhang Manman and the others: "..."
They were somewhat speechless.
They had thought they were facing a major boss, only to encounter a situation that comically felt all too familiar.
Nevertheless, Su Jie and the rest did not let their guard down.
The skeleton in front of them carried an unfathomable aura, having caused a notable drop in the temperature as soon as it had appeared.
It could affect the weather within a certain radius!
Since the adversary was just a pile of bones, Su Jie and the others couldn't gauge how vital the creature truly was, but according to the setting that the Illusory Realm wouldn't provide a monster that players couldn't deal with, its vitality shouldn't exceed 4.
However, they couldn't tell if this being had any special item that could boost its overall strength to an extremely formidable level in an instant.
Thus, they needed to be cautious and vigilant.
"Could you help me out? I'm stuck." the skull actually spoke, creating sound by seemingly vibrating the air around it, its tone slightly humorous.
"As a reward, I can make you my slaves while allowing you to retain your consciousness."
Clearly, coming from hell, its mindset was still in the feudal era of slavery.
In its view, letting others become its slaves while retaining their self-consciousness was the greatest grace that could be bestowed.
"Our paths do not align; we can't plan together." Su Jie sighed softly and, using his mind's perception, sensed that on the skeleton, there seemed to be countless tormented souls wailing.
Despite their bizarre and grotesque shapes, there was no doubt that this skeleton was also a being that, in fits of caprice, would engage in brutal slaughter.
"Never mind, I'll come out on my own."
The skeleton's eye sockets blazed with ghost flames, and seeing that Su Jie and the others had no intention of helping, it pushed itself out of the carriage door with a forceful movement of its emaciated arms, tumbling into the desert.
Correspondingly, its skeleton scattered all over the place.
Jos: "... Is this guy here to make us laugh?"
The skeleton's skull floated upwards, and the scattered bones also, under the strange blue flames, reassembled into one.
Only then did the skeleton's full figure come into view for everyone.
Standing three meters tall, its bones gleamed like silver, sending cold light flickering off its surfaces; its skull emitted endless blue flames, seemingly capable of burning eternally.
Upon close inspection, it seemed as though countless souls were wailing within the flames, struggling to escape, but remained trapped, subjected to endless pain.
Hum——
The skeleton spread its arms, and with that, a wild wind swept out in all directions, followed by a rolling heat wave.
Su Jie and the others retreated a hundred meters before they escaped the heat wave.
Looking up again, they saw that within a hundred-meter radius, with the skeleton and the carriage at the center, the sand began to melt into a molten state, and the nine unicorns broke free from their chains, their skeletal frames interlocking and fusing together.
Under the scorching blue flames, they unified into one, forming a gigantic bone spear three zhang long!
The spear resembled the lances of Western knights, with a slender, conical tip, composed of the unicorns' horns. At the juncture where the spearhead met the shaft, there was a skeletal horse's head, out of its profound eye sockets sprouted thin strands of flame.
Yet, with a weapon in hand, how could one go without armor?
The skeleton placed its blazing hand upon the top of the carriage.
Immediately, blue flames enveloped the entire carriage; the wheels and the undercarriage were incinerated, but the coffin-like structure, still connected by chains, began to deform, like a liquid, attaching to the skeleton's body, forming a set of entirely black and peculiar armor.
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This suit of armor was just like a bodysuit, streamlined with not a single gap, tightly encasing the entire skeleton.
"This guy is a bit tough to deal with."
Su Jie's brows furrowed slightly, "His weakness should be similar to the succubus we encountered before, except that the core shifted from liquid to flame. If the succubus was a special creature made of matter and energy, then this one in front of us is a more pure form of an energy being."
"The core is within the ghost fire."
Others saw this too.
Moreover, the skeletal frame of this skeleton was extremely fragile. It was evident from the way its skeleton shattered when it squeezed through the car door.
Logically, such an energy being should possess a strong life essence. It shouldn't disintegrate into so many pieces as if it were a scene from a comedy sketch, yet that was exactly the case.
According to Su Jie's guess, the other-dimensional creatures that entered the Taixu Illusory Realm, apart from being vicious and evil, might have also been weakened.
Maybe they weren't weakened by the Taixu Illusory Realm, but they were already heavily injured, or affected by something, in their original dimension, which caused their strength to diminish.
And the Taixu Illusory Realm's mind-evolved physical bodies, apart from relying on the mind, perfectly replicated one's physical body from reality.
Thus, their strength was naturally weakened.
Take, for example.
The previous winner of the Angel's Wings.
According to Su Jie's detection, the owner of those wings must have had an incredibly high life essence, perhaps nearing a hundred. Such power would be insurmountable for people like Feng Yuxuan and the others.
The only explanation would be that the Angel was already heavily injured and breathing its last when it entered the Taixu Illusory Realm.
However, "breathing its last" was relative.
Perhaps, for Feng Yuxuan to obtain those Angel's Wings, he had to pay a terribly painful price.
Regrettably, in the end, they benefited from his misfortune.
But back to the main point.
The current state of this skeleton must also be akin to the Angel that Su Jie speculated about—high vitality in its heyday, but now on its "last breath."
"God damn 'last breath'!"
Zhang Manman cursed out loud upon hearing Su Jie's theory over the team's channel.
Would you mind explaining what you mean by 'last breath'?!
Shrouded in that armor, the skeleton had a defense with no blind spots and could whip its single-horned spear around at will. The dark blue flames turned into a tornado, forming a hundred-meter-tall fire twister.
Is this what you call 'last breath'?
Perhaps we need to redefine that term.
"For his species, this state might be considered 'last breath'," Su Jie replied seriously, "But to us humans, he is still a very difficult creature to deal with."
This was the disparity between species.
On Earth, setting intelligence aside and measuring solely by life force, the average life force of humans in the region of Zhongzhou is 0.7. Some animals, like elephants and water buffalos, are born with a life force between 0.5~0.7, and it is quite easy for them to exceed 1 once they reach adulthood.
Unfortunately, these animals lack intelligence and are mostly driven by instinct, making them easy prey for smaller predators.
Like the elephants and lions on the African Continent: just by life force, an adult elephant could be worth two or three lions. Despite being slower, it surpasses lions in every other aspect.
However, elephants are merely one of the lion's prey.
What does that tell us?
Taking food chain dynamics into account, in nature, a disparity in life force is not definitive. If weaknesses are exploited, the weaker can overcome the stronger.
That said, intelligent beings are a different matter.
Imaginative and intelligent species cannot be judged solely on life force.
In an arena where everyone's life force is similar, competing with fists and wits might seem fair. However, a fight to the death is a completely different scenario.
Unless one's life force crushes the opponent's—being tens, hundreds, or even thousands of times greater—each has its own trump card.
For instance, if you have a life force of 10 and wield a cold weapon, and your opponent has a life force of 5, which is half of yours, but they hold an extremely advanced laser gun.
In such a case, forget about dodging. With just a life force of 10, even if you have "The Way of Sincerity," your reaction speed can't surpass the speed of a laser shot.
The speed of light, as outlined in Ming Lun's spiritual cultivation system, is only matched by one's ability to reach the state of Manifestation.
Of course, this is in the context of a one-on-one match. If it's not a fight to the death, but avoiding danger by moving away before one is confronted, then it's a different story.
Regarding the skeleton in front of us, we won't mention its prime life force. But judging by the previous display of its bones shattering, its life force shouldn't exceed 5.
However!
The flames inside it are exceptional, capable of erupting with intense heat. It also has a full-body covering suit of armor and a spear, the quality of which is no less than that of a separate flying sword.
Adding its own intelligence to the mix, the outcome of the battle becomes unpredictable.
"Su Jie, what should we do?" Zhang Manman swallowed hard, looking at the fire twister sweeping towards them from sky to ground.
Besides Su Jie, no one among them had a way to handle such an attack.
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