Floor 5, clearance achieved!

Freed from the magical interference of the Slime King, the successfully teleported boundary of illusion and reality did not scatter across the fourth floor.

Jiang Heyi led his team up a small hill on the edge of the monastery.

The Monastery of the Clear Still maintained the dilapidated appearance left by the great battle against the Slime King, with no trace of life visible among the broken walls and ruins.

The Slime King's whereabouts were unknown; she had forcibly teleported everyone away when the dungeon run ended that day, but where had she gone now?

Beewo widened her eyes: "Is this the ruin formed after the battle between the boundary of illusion and reality and the monsters?"

Uh... If you really want to put it that way, you wouldn't be wrong.

While traversing the ruins of the monastery, Jiang Heyi suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?" Zhong Zemo vigilantly scanned his surroundings, yet saw nothing unusual.

Was it just his imagination?

Yet Jiang Heyi genuinely felt a chilling sensation of being watched. This feeling had flickered faintly ever since they entered the monastery ruins, making it unclear whether it was a psychological effect caused by the environment or something genuinely real.

Orange Tea was already quite practiced at this. With her fingers interlocked, she closed her eyes and activated [Unknown Revelation].

Soon, joy appeared on her face: "That voice says we are just overthinking it."

Were they overthinking it?

Smiling as he took a few steps forward, Jiang Heyi flipped his hand, drew his blade, and fiercely slashed backward in a spinning counterattack.

A wisp of white light emerging from the rubble of the ruins instantly turned into particles of light and dissipated.

Before its demise, a spine-chilling scream echoed through the desolate fourth floor.

Having long trained in the underground shrine of the Clear, the reflexes of the boundary of illusion and reality were exceptionally swift, instantly transitioning into a combat stance.

Raising his shield to protect Orange Tea and Beewo—the two members with slightly weaker combat capabilities—behind him, Zhong Zemo continuously scanned the surroundings, searching for anything suspicious.

"What's the situation?"

Jiang Heyi's gaze was like a blade, holding the lightly trembling Heart of Elements dagger as he strolled through the ruins like a predator searching for prey.

"This time's Unknown Revelation was fake."

A pale, ghastly mist slowly rose from the ruins, outlining hollow, pale humanoid silhouettes. Vaguely, one could tell they were dressed in the vestments of the Clear.

Warden Brother was inexplicably excited: "With all this white smoke, we look like steamed buns in a steamer."

His metaphors remained as wonderful as ever.

Within the span of a few breaths, as far as the eye could see, there were only ferocious, malevolent spirits. They maintained the terrifying appearances of their violent deaths, continuously emitting deep, chilling, and shrill cries.

Original Flavor Fries activated Bloodthirsty Frenzy and slashed forward. Her blade passed right through the ghostly form and heavily struck the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.

She hurriedly warned: "Spiritual entities are immune to standard physical attacks!"

She thrust backward with a reverse grip, striking precisely at a malevolent spirit that had already extended its hands to choke her throat.

The blessing effect of [Elemental Burst] triggered, and a cluster of flames bloomed on the blade, scorching the spiritual entity to ashes from the inside out with hot airflow.

"What's going on? Didn't we already clear the fourth floor?" Zhong Zemo held his large shield high, pushing back against the massive number of spiritual entities under the guidance of the spiritual Orange Tea behind him.

He was immensely grateful that he had previously had the nun doll enchant the shield with the light attribute. At this moment, the large shield acted like an oversized strobe light, its dazzling brightness causing the malevolent spirits to smoke all over and not dare to approach within half a step.

However, the large shield could only protect one side, while malevolent spirits continuously patrolled around and above them, searching for any opportunity.

The illuminating light sphere fired by Warden Brother transformed into a light jellyfish, "popping" out little bubbles. The shattering foam flickered like fireworks, blinking on and off to deter the restless army of spirits hovering above their heads.

"There are too many of them... These spirits don't all look like members of the Clear!"

A curtain of light bloomed among the crowd, and the affected spirits instantly fled in screams.

Orange Tea's [Faint Light Sanctuary] was a localized shield-type faith spell that radiated outward from herself, consuming a great deal of stamina and mana to cast.

The spiritual entities surging from all directions like a flood forced her to pick up this infrequently used initial skill.

Fourth Element, also a mage, made more use of shield-type magic, except that no one noticed his shields always landed a second before the spiritual attack arrived, with supreme precision.

The suddenly appearing army of spirits split the battlefield, leaving Original Flavor Fries to fight alone.

Zhong Zemo, Orange Tea, Warden Brother, and the newcomer Beewo gathered together to wage a positional battle.

Beewo looked left and right: "Where is Guild Leader Potato?"

The pale blue halos emitted by the swarming spirits and the drifting particles made it difficult for everyone's sight to reach the distance.

A flash of blade light, and the spirits blocking Jiang Heyi shattered in response.

A sense of being pushed from behind made him turn around; a nun spirit was howling with both hands igniting in white light.

The spirit burned like a candle, instantly turning to ashes.

Apart from its special effectiveness against spirits, [Spotless Light] also had a chance to generate a light-attribute shield upon attack. The surprise attacks of the spirits only accelerated their demise.

As expected of the Heart of Elements nurtured by the Slime King, and as expected of a master-craftsman level of workmanship, the gaming experience brought by a good weapon was immensely significant.

Wherever the Heart of Elements dagger—specialized in undead damage—slashed, elemental storms were whipped up, and any touched spirit turned into a candle, beginning to burn.

(1/3)

The boundary of illusion and reality, having lost the Slime King's magical interference, did not scatter across the fourth floor after completing the teleportation.

Jiang Heyi swept through the spirits surrounding him like cutting vegetables, while the most threatening counter-integration the spirits could manage was to fuse into one and spit out a dark stream of light.

If a massive number of spirits all used this method for long-range attrition, Jiang Heyi figured he wouldn't last long.

However...

[Winds of Awakening], after drinking the escape potion meticulously crafted by Mint, Jiang Heyi instantly felt as light as a feather.

The spirits that fused into artillery turrets could not move at will, and in the face of Jiang Heyi's lightning-fast charges, they became EXP piñatas, easily slain one by one.

"Mowing down grass, awesome!"

After upgrading the guild, the guild blessing effect could be chosen as permanent, and the boundary of illusion and reality naturally chose [Endless Trials].

EXP poured rapidly into Jiang Heyi's body. Right after he casually slashed down a fused monster whose head had grown numerous ugly tentacles like an octopus...

"Whew, level 10. I can also choose my specialized class."

Entering the 14th day of the game, players who had reached level 10 were still few and far between, yet the boundary of illusion and reality alone boasted two.

Just in a brief moment of distraction, another large group of spirits swarmed forward, vowing to tear Jiang Heyi apart.

Jiang Heyi tightened his grip on the dagger, unable to help licking his lips.

There seemed to be a bit too many spirits, and the scene was far too chaotic. What should he do if he couldn't see where the other guild members were?

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!

Wielding a single Heart of Elements dagger, Jiang Heyi went on a wild slashing spree.

Whenever he encountered heavily battered spirits trying to escape, he immediately took out a potion, drank it, sped up, and caught up to grant them liberation.

"No running, not a single one of you is allowed to run! You are all my best EXP piñatas!"

Original Flavor Fries, having already regrouped, broke through the encirclement and tracked the sounds to find Jiang Heyi located beneath the ruins.

Unlike what they had worried about, Jiang Heyi was currently enduring the nibbling of a dozen spirits while sweeping away the malevolent spirits daring to fuse.

Beewo's eyes went straight.

Was this the world of top players?

In the Silent Forest, she had exhausted all her efforts just to solo a single Silent Treant Patriarch.

Every single spirit here possessed the strength of a treant patriarch, yet Guild Leader Potato could take on ten... no, this was clearly taking on a hundred!

Who on earth was even the BOSS here?

A fierce wind suddenly rose. Before Jiang Heyi's dagger could land on the few panicked spirits fleeing before him, they were blown into mid-air by a whirlwind that rose from the flat ground.

The malevolent spirits scattered everywhere took to the air, converging like fireflies into a rotating vortex flashing with black light in mid-air.

Claps of muffled thunder sounded, a heart-palpitating aura surged, and an invisible giant hand instantly gripped everyone's heart.

The humanoid silhouette that suddenly appeared in mid-air wore the exact same vestments and attire as Sister Alna, featuring slender white arms, a graceful and lithe figure, and slender long legs that perfectly matched Warden Brother's preferences.

"Below the neck, 90 points."

Original Flavor Fries was immersed in a mist of blood; she had killed just as many as Jiang Heyi.

At this moment, looking at the rather sanity-damaging head of the malevolent spirit, she calmly made a deadpan remark to Warden Brother.

"Then you'd better chop off her head first."

Spirit fusion might not be the most accurate description; they seemed to be woven together by a powerful force.

The weaver clearly cared little for aesthetics; convenience, high efficiency, and practicality were what he pursued.

Thus, the spiritual aggregate possessed four heads.

The facial features on each head were either twisted into a mass, or crisscrossed densely and nested within one another, completely devoid of any regular pattern.

The conflict between cognition and common sense generated an extremely strong sense of dissonance upon first glance, and the fear welling up from the depths of one's heart made one instinctively want to avoid the gaze cast by its multiple eyes.

Orange Tea covered her eyes; she had the lowest threshold of everyone and felt dizzy after just one glance.

Fourth Element was poised and calm. Upon seeing the spiritual aggregate, he used a single sentence to dispel all fear.

"At least it's not as terrifying as overtime work."

Zhong Zemo was pondering whether, if one carried a [Dispel Fusion] card, this place would allow the spirits to revert to their easier-to-handle initial states?

The newly joined Beewo had a terrifyingly high sanity stat. Realizing she was about to enter a starving state, she quickly pulled out an apple and began munching on it while staring at the spirit's face, experiencing zero discomfort.

Original Flavor Fries leaned close to Jiang Heyi: "With this presentation, it feels like a monster comparable to the Slime King. Cover me in a moment and let me test the waters first."

Jiang Heyi shook his head.

"Good strategy, but I'd like to make a slight modification."

Taking advantage of the moment when the spiritual aggregate was slowly descending to the ground, he beckoned to Beewo.

"Your movement technique looks great, and you mentioned earlier that you'd help us draw fire."

Jiang Heyi pointed at the restless spiritual aggregate not far away and handed her a bottle of [Winds of Awakening].

(2/3)

"Go."

Though slightly bewildered, Beewo didn't hesitate at all. Gulping down the potion, she dashed out instantly.

This dark elf darted forward like a giant black rat, running at lightning speed and immediately drawing the attention of the spiritual aggregate, causing its torso to turn slightly.

Jiang Heyi and Original Flavor Fries lunged forward with lightning-fast speed.

They must not be careless; the Slime King who had originally stayed on the fourth floor possessed unprecedentedly powerful strength.

Able to appear here after her departure, this spirit was definitely not to be underestimated.

This strike had to be unleashed with all their might!

The multiple mouths of the spiritual aggregate each took a deep breath.

"Yeeaahh!!!!!!!"

A sharp, piercing shriek blasted into everyone's eardrums, making the heads of the two who were at close quarters buzz, while chaotic and distorted imagery flashed in their minds like a slide show.

Was it a mental attack? So...

So weak!

It didn't affect the two of them in the slightest; it just sounded very noisy.

Without another word, the two erupted with their full strength. A white and a red blade-light flashed and vanished, and the deafening screams abruptly stopped.

Jiang Heyi's blade light cleaved the head of the spiritual aggregate, and those ugly, distorted four heads slid off at an angle, dissolving like foam before even hitting the ground.

Original Flavor Fries' double slash drew a cross across the chest of the spiritual aggregate, and the moment the heads fell, it shattered completely.

The two looked at each other in a somewhat dazed manner, seeing a trace of doubt and confusion in each other's eyes.

Just this?

The same fusion entrance method as the Slime King, occupying the fourth floor, the mastermind manipulating a massive amount of spirits—and it was gone in two strikes?

"Boss is awesome, Boss is awesome!" The big black rat Beewo sprinted back at lightning speed, the worship and longing in her eyes almost overflowing.

If this wasn't a boss, who could be called a boss!

On the way here, Fourth Element had constantly been doing psychological preparation for her, saying everyone was actually just ordinary people and not as outrageous as she imagined.

Now it seemed Fourth Element was just doing advance psychological prep to prevent a newcomer from feeling inferior and struggling to integrate into the group.

He was truly too warm; I could cry to death.

A rainbow light piercing the sky illuminated the entire ruins. Among the pile of bubbles dropped by the spiritual aggregate, those two rainbow rays were particularly dazzling.

The boundary of illusion and reality remained vigilant. Having learned from the frog-headed stitched monster, they did not lose their minds and rush in upon seeing material drops; instead, they immediately maintained perimeter security in place, guarding against any sudden raid that might arrive at any moment.

After a long while, seeing no movement whatsoever, Jiang Heyi let out a long breath.

At this time, prompt fluorescence for dropped items began to flicker around the ruins where everyone had fought; those were the basic rewards dropped from slaying ordinary spirits.

Now they could be certain it was truly safe.

Taking advantage of the others collecting the drops, Jiang Heyi climbed to the highest point of the monastery ruins and overlooked the entire scene.

A subtle sense of dissonance welled up in him.

He opened his interface, pulled up the map, and scrutinized it carefully for a long while. When his gaze landed on a specific line of text, he suddenly understood, followed by overwhelming joy.

"What, we've already cleared the fifth floor?"

Hearing this, everyone else in the boundary of illusion and reality was dumbfounded.

Original Flavor Fries said, "But we were teleported down from the third floor."

"This is level design for you." Jiang Heyi pointed at the map provided by Alna, comparing the fourth and fifth floors. "Both the fourth and fifth floors of the Clear are monasteries. Although their layouts differ slightly, once they become ruins, they are completely indistinguishable."

"When we defeated the Slime King on the fourth floor and triggered the plot, the teleportation from the third floor defaulted to sending us to the fifth floor, giving us the illusion that we were still on the fourth floor."

"Combined with the deceptive information provided by the map, we naturally arrived at the wrong conclusion."

Everyone came to a sudden realization.

So what they had just defeated wasn't a freshly respawned monster on the fourth floor at all, but rather...

"That's right, the spiritual aggregate is the floor guardian of the fifth floor."

Orange Tea was puzzled: "That shouldn't be... Why was it so weak... The Slime King was so strong."

Zhong Zemo stroked his chin, deep in thought: "If the Slime King's fusion was taking back a part of her body that originally belonged to her, then the spiritual aggregate should be the same."

Original Flavor Fries immediately understood: "I get it! The more spirits we killed and the faster we did it, the weaker the final formed aggregate's strength became?"

(3/3)