Chapter 54: The Four-Turn Demon

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“Both of you, how about we hold out for half an hour tomorrow, then retreat?”

The first thing Qun Yushu said after emerging from the Mansu Woodland was a bitter laugh. “I’m only a second-turner. There’s no way I can persist as long as you two.”

“You’re clearly the one with the most energy. You even had enough left to go outside and kill a few demons.” Jie Zilong smiled. “The strength of your soul… is practically at the third turn already, isn’t it?”

“Not even close, not even close.”

After stepping out, Qun Yushu swept his gaze around, then turned to look at the individual rankings. “They really haven’t come out yet.”

“Yuanshao and the others were already able to last an hour yesterday. Today, they’ll last even longer.” Jie Zilong’s tone was calm. “What they accumulated yesterday will become the foundation for today.”

Qun Yushu and Chen Linchuan exchanged a glance. Even now, they still had no idea how the interior of the Mansu Woodland worked. The Jie and Shang families were extremely tight-lipped, so they could only piece together a rough guess from the few stray remarks Jie Zilong let slip.

“They should be facing the third demonic tide by now.” Jie Zilong did not seem concerned about keeping the secret. He casually revealed an important detail about the Mansu Woodland. “You can faintly hear the demons roaring.”

“Indeed.” Qun Yushu approached the entrance to the woodland and pricked up his ears. “And it’s very clear. Probably because they’re the only ones left inside, with no other demons to interfere.”

“We held out for half an hour. Even though there were brief pauses, we were under attack from the same group of demons the entire time.” Chen Linchuan suddenly spoke. “How exactly are they dealing with these undead demons?”

Jie Zilong merely smiled without answering. After a while, he suddenly said, “Listen. The sound has died down. They’ve survived the third demonic tide.”

“They should be coming out soon, right?” Qun Yushu guessed. “Let’s wait for them.”

They waited another half hour.

Half an hour later, they once again heard the roars of monsters—and this time, every one of them changed expression.

“I think I hear five Demon Kings.” Qun Yushu was no longer lounging around carelessly. He closed his eyes and listened intently.

“Savage Bull Demon, Stonebreaker Beast, Peach Blossom Demon Ape, Swamp Crab, and the Dragonfly, which is incredibly fast!” Chen Linchuan’s hearing was sharper. He drew in a cold breath. “They’re actually facing five third-turn Demon Kings at once?”

Jie Zilong silently watched the Mansu Woodland without saying a word.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, the demons’ roars gradually weakened until they vanished altogether. Only then did Jie Zilong slowly release a breath. “It seems they’re still confident.”

“Go prepare the midday feast.” Qun Yushu summoned a servant. “The warriors are coming back. We must welcome them with a grand banquet!”

Everyone watched the entrance to the Mansu Woodland, waiting for the four women to return. But fifteen minutes passed, then thirty. The banquet was ready, yet the entrance remained deathly silent.

“They… still haven’t come back?” Chen Linchuan could hardly believe it. “The fourth demonic tide brought out five Demon Kings, and they still dare to face the next one?”

“Exactly. Even five Demon Kings have appeared.” Qun Yushu exchanged a glance with the others. “What kind of demon could appear in the next wave and be stronger than five Demon Kings? Seven Demon Kings? If so, that would actually be better. But if fewer Demon Kings appear, they could be in danger.”

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That statement sounded strange. Why would fewer Demon Kings be more dangerous? Yet everyone present understood its meaning. Jie Zilong, in particular, could no longer maintain his composure. His expression grew grim as he stared fixedly at the Mansu Woodland.

No one knew how much time had passed when, all at once, everyone’s body trembled faintly and the hairs on their skin stood on end. Although the sky had been clear, dark clouds suddenly gathered over the Mansu Woodland, followed by flashing lightning and a violent storm.

“Roar—”

A roar that seemed to draw thunder from heaven and fire from the earth erupted from deep within the Mansu Woodland. It was as though a storm were crushing down upon the camp. Nearly everyone was so terrified that they fell where they stood, trembling with fear, their legs gone weak. Only Jie Zilong and two others managed to remain standing, and even their faces had gone deathly pale. They had to expend nearly all their strength to keep themselves from turning and fleeing.

“A fourth-turn demon—the Thunderfury Lion!” Chen Linchuan’s voice trembled, whether from excitement or fear. “Thunderclouds follow in its wake, and its roar is like a storm. It’s definitely the Thunderfury Lion!”

“A fourth-turn demon has appeared in the Mansu Woodland!”

“They actually dare to fight a fourth-turn demon!”

…

…

“Fourth-turn demon, Thunderfury Lion.”

Jie Yuanshao gazed at the sharp-fanged beast roaring within the thick fog. Even from a hundred meters away, she still gripped her sword hilt tightly, gooseflesh rising along her arms.

“Its records come from the secret records of the Ancient Tree Forest. It isn’t a Demon King, but an ordinary demon commonly found throughout the secret realm. They usually hunt in groups consisting of one male lion and several lionesses. The Ancient Tree Forest should be among the easier fourth-turn secret realms, and the Thunderfury Lion is also one of the weaker fourth-turn demons, so there are relatively abundant records concerning it.”

“It has no accompanying relic or artifact. It relies entirely on its claws and fangs to attack. Its only special trait is the lightning that naturally coils around its body. Every one of its attacks can paralyze its enemy.”

“But it is still a fourth-turn demon—a foundation-building creature far beyond the third turn!”

Whoosh—

The Thunderfury Lion emerged from the thick fog, lightning flickering through its mane. Unlike the other Demon Kings, it was not enormous, but had the normal build of a lion. Standing upright, it was perhaps two meters tall. Something seemed to be drooling from its mouth—or perhaps it was swallowing lightning.

Boom!

With a thunderous crack of electricity, it suddenly shot forward like a bolt of lightning. In the blink of an eye, it crossed more than ten meters. In fewer than three breaths, it had reached the outer wall. Then it pushed off with its hind legs and leaped gracefully. Its four paws touched the wall as lightly as a dragonfly skimming the water before it sprang away again.

The movement reminded Yan Qing of cats he had seen in the past. They, too, loved to kick off walls as they darted about.

Yet the outer wall of the castle, sturdy enough to withstand a demonic tide for a long time, was shattered by that single push. It broke apart like tofu struck by a powerful fist and collapsed with a deafening boom!

Such speed.

Such power.

And with such effortless ease!

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“Moving like thunder.”

Shang Xinlei’s voice trembled faintly, sounding both frightened and exhilarated. “So this is the power of the fourth turn… and this is merely the weakest kind of fourth-turn creature!”

At that moment, six statues were unsealed: the Blade Warrior, Chaos Warrior, Dragonbreaker Warrior, Naiad Mermaid, Funeral Mermaid, and Eagle Shooter. Beneath the Thunderfury Lion’s overwhelming might, these Demon Kings, whose names had inspired terror throughout their respective secret realms, appeared astonishingly weak.

The castle’s two arrow towers had already begun firing, but the Thunderfury Lion paid no attention to the two unupgraded basic towers. Like a cat brushing away flies, it casually swept its tail and knocked aside the steel arrows fired from the Hunting Beast Bows. As it looked at the six Demon Kings approaching from the front, two streams of electric current burst from its nostrils, its disdain plain for all to see.

Yan Qing had actually built eight statues. However, two of them had been reduced to critical health during the fourth wave. If they entered the battle now, they would shatter at the slightest touch, so Yan Qing had kept them in reserve. If the six statues proved unable to defeat the lion, those two would be sent out to cover everyone’s retreat from the Mansu Woodland.

At the same time, twelve Silver Brutes arrived atop the walls, drew their bows, and began firing. Long swords hung at their waists as well; if any monster breached the walls, they could immediately draw their blades and fight. During the first and second waves, those twelve alone would have been enough to clear out the hordes before the Demon Kings appeared. For now, however, Yan Qing expected no more than a minor disruption to the Thunderfury Lion’s movements.

Yan Qing actually knew how to guarantee survival through the fifth wave: upgrade the statues.

Every statue had an upgrade option. These statues were already at third-turn strength, and after being upgraded, they would be at least fourth-turn. Fighting the Thunderfury Lion would be little harder than beating a child.

Unfortunately, upgrading the statues required far too many resources.

The Naiad Mermaid required sixty gems and fifty crystals. The Blade Warrior required sixty crystals and sixty sulfur. The other statues were much the same. The only relatively affordable one was the Eagle Shooter, which required three hundred units of wood and fifty units of mercury. Even if Yan Qing spent an entire hour chopping wood, he could probably gather only three hundred units.

With such enormous resource requirements, Yan Qing could not afford to upgrade even a single statue. But he had not been unprepared.

After discovering the Naiad Mermaid and Funeral Mermaid’s “Tear-Pearl Alliance” bond, Yan Qing finally realized that this dungeon combined the core gameplay of survival building and auto-chess. The most important mechanism in auto-chess was none other than the bond system: assembling characters from the same faction or alignment could dramatically increase their combat power.

Completing bonds was undoubtedly the fastest way to strengthen the statues. But Yan Qing knew nothing about the factions or alignments of these statues, and the building list provided no relevant information. Clearly, the developers wanted players to learn more about the backstories of these bosses and determine which of them could form bonds.

But that was all right. If knowledge was lacking, numbers would make up for it.

“Hall of Reincarnated Heroes: The number of randomly generated statues available for construction each round increases to three. Resources may be spent to reincarnate and generate three new random statues. The more often reincarnation is used, the greater the resource cost. Once a statue is constructed, reincarnation can no longer be used.”

The Hall of Reincarnated Heroes also consumed a considerable amount of resources. Its only additional function was allowing the player to redraw the statues available for construction that round. Even the redraw required resources. Although cheap materials such as wood and stone could be used, repeated redraws consumed resources at an astonishing rate.

There was no difference between this and gambling. If Yan Qing failed to find the statues he needed, his resources would simply go to waste. What was worse, he still did not know which statues could form bonds, and could only filter them by name. If their basic factions could not be inferred from their names, Yan Qing was certain that countless players would, every year around this time, curse the developers’ mothers and ask whether they had been bought wholesale.

Fortunately, he had won the gamble.

“Comrades’ Guild: When the number of Comrades’ Guild members is at least two, each Comrades’ Guild member nearby grants the others one hundred health and one hundred agility, and Comrades’ Guild members support one another. (Blade Warrior, Chaos Warrior, Dragonbreaker Warrior)”

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