Calamity Messenger

Chapter 232 - 185: It’s Over

"伏——相——!!"

The Corpse King Dragon Roaming let out an incredulous roar, much like someone who had clearly squashed a mosquito against the wall, only to find not a splatter of mosquito blood, but a swarm of unharmed mosquitoes. Encountering such a situation, anyone would undoubtedly question their understanding of reality.

The dust and black smoke stirred up by the Dragon-Slaying Seal slowly dispersed, and the five people remained perfectly in place, albeit forcibly embedded into the ground like five nails holding up against the Celestial Punishment Iron Hammer.

"The monk’s defense barrier still has some strength."

"Same here, I didn’t expect we could really share the damage."

"Hahaha, we can really withstand it. Turns out it’s just that simple!"

"Uncle, why does your tone make it sound like you figured out the sharing mechanic...?"

"Watch out, it’s starting to attack!"

The five immediately sprang out of the ground, evading the Corpse King’s heavy blow. Perhaps due to the Dragon-Slaying Seal being blocked, or because their attacks had reduced a significant amount of the Corpse King’s "weight", its attack speed, movement speed, and turning speed had all noticeably increased, no longer as clumsily easy to deal with.

Yet, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They weren’t afraid of a stronger Corpse King, only of the Corpse King relentlessly hammering the ground, an attack covering the entire area and impossible to dodge, during which it could also absorb corpses to restore itself. Even if they rejoined the battle immediately, they would only reenter the Corpse King’s "Dragon-Slaying Seal → Ground Slam → Heal" inescapable loop.

The three Great Guardians were willing to join Pharmacist’s Wish and the Rabbit Heroine to unlock the Foundation Establishment legacy not because they kept their promises, but because they were tormented to near despair by the Corpse King’s almost cheating cycle. If the girls couldn’t solve it, they would likely lack the spirit to break this mechanism.

Seeing the Corpse King not pounding the ground and not regenerating, even the most indifferent Prajna couldn’t help but show joy, while the emotionally expressive Blood Phase yelled wildly and seemed to be grooming the Corpse King’s feet, like a sexually repressed mad dog.

The Corpse King methodically had its skin peeled, flesh stripped, and sinews extracted, but as its figure grew thinner, its speed gradually increased to a level that the group could no longer easily handle. When its health reached 10%, Beiyou took a hit, shattering his defense barrier directly, and the second hit from the Corpse King immediately followed. If not for Blood Phase promptly pulling him out, this long-haired strange uncle would likely have become a smear of blood on the spot.

At 8%, Pharmacist’s Wish got grazed slightly, losing more than half of her defense barrier, but fortunately she leverage the momentum to retreat and evade further attacks.

When health reached 6%, Rabbit Heroine suddenly said, "From here on, only Prajna and I will attack the Corpse King, the others should retreat to the perimeter and prepare."

Yan Qing had already anticipated this possibility before the battle began: the Corpse King’s health might drop faster than the Karmic Force gauge. After all, only Buddhist Sect tokens could diminish the Karmic Force gauge, and with the five of them attacking fiercely, health would definitely hit bottom first.

What would happen if the health ran out but there was still Karmic Force left?

There were two possibilities. The first was that the Corpse King would die immediately, and the second was that the Corpse King wouldn’t die but trigger a mechanism similar to berserk to heal. Based on Yan Qing’s gaming experience, he believed the latter was more likely. As a game level designer, he always speculated maliciously about the motives of other game designers to kill off players.

There was something that consistently puzzled Yan Qing, and that was the purpose behind Si Wuxie’s arrangements.

If the first stage was just to select messengers with Buddhist Sect tokens, the second stage became very peculiar. The Red-clothed Demon Fiend and White-clothed Demon Fiend were already sufficiently threatening, so why leave a field Array that reduced hit rate by 50%?

If it were a local challenger, even if he could adapt to the negative state of reduced hit rate, he would face a very awkward situation in the Central Courtyard: insufficient output. If he defeated the White-clothed first and then the Red-clothed, he might cultivate a Red-clothed Demon Fiend that no Third-Turn Messenger could defeat with a 50% hit rate.

Even without the Rabbit Heroine’s request, the only solution to the second stage would still be to use the Buddhist Sect token to reduce the Karmic Force of the Red-clothed Demon Fiend before striking it down.

So in the first and second stages, Si Wuxie was guiding challengers to permanently release Eternal Sinners within the Secret Realm and acquire Celestial Calamity Karmic Force!

Though the Corpse King here wouldn’t force challengers to deplete its Karmic Force gauge, once they had savored the benefits of Celestial Calamity Karmic Force in the previous stages, who would let go of the delicacy the Corpse King presented on a silver platter? Especially for Yan Qing, liberating Eternal Sinners could result in an unimaginable loot explosion!

Therefore, Yan Qing had mentioned to them beforehand that if he noticed health dropping too rapidly, he would have them stop and let Rabbit Heroine and Prajna continue. No one objected, and no one even asked why, as they had already developed a blind trust in Rabbit Heroine after so many attempts. Only Pharmacist’s Wish showed some concern, understandably so, as the Corpse King was now nearly berserk, and any slight misstep could spell doom.

The Karmic Force gauge was steadily dropping. To avoid prolonging the night, they all unleashed torrential assaults, causing the Corpse King’s health and Karmic Force to plummet simultaneously. Before long, the Karmic Force gauge was down to a mere 2%, and the Corpse King’s health was reduced to 4%.

If Yan Qing’s calculations were correct, by the time the Karmic Force gauge hit zero, the Corpse King ought to have about 1% to 2% of its health left, just enough for another concentrated attack round.

However, whether because the Corpse King’s speed suddenly increased again, or due to the effects of the rain of blows, Prajna suddenly failed to evade, getting struck by the Corpse King and instantly shattering his defense barrier, sending him flying like a cannonball. The ever-prepared Blood Phase immediately caught Prajna, but even so, his own barrier took a hit and was half-destroyed, underscoring how horrifying the impact Prajna endured was.