Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 73 Qualification Battle - Flying Fire Ghost
I arranged for the dozens of newly surrendered Devouring Ghosts to sneak in and investigate first. As the saying goes, what you hear is not true, what you see is true. These flatterers were full of exaggerations, such as "Her Majesty the Queen comes without a shadow, leaves without a trace, her breath becomes wind, her voice becomes thunder", "The Queen has many soldiers and generals, and there are many strong men. No one dares to offend the royal power". No matter how I asked them, they kept saying the same thing. I really don't know what they were talking about. I couldn't grasp the ability and power of the Ghost Banshee, so I had to send them in again as spies, and use them to conduct a field investigation to decide what strategy to adopt. However, these guys were intimidated by the Ghost Banshee's power, and they seemed extremely guilty after betraying. When they received the order to go back undercover, they were all very timid and timid, and they didn't dare to act. It was all because of my forced driving that forced them to execute the order.
After passing through the dark cave, the view suddenly opened up. There was a different world inside. It was a closed valley. There were towering mountains on all sides. The mountain walls were covered with countless caves of different sizes. The largest and most eye-catching one was a hundred meters above the ground, nearly ten meters high, and six or seven meters wide. It was the residence of the ghost banshee. It was said that it was quite deep inside and divided into two parts, the front and back. The bedroom was naturally in the deepest part. The guards of thousands of devouring ghosts were concentrated near the cave entrance and carefully served, waiting to be summoned at any time. This was also the capital for them to rely on the power of others. The caves distributed around the "palace" were neatly arranged like stars surrounding the moon. The caves were three or four meters high. Some of the residents inside were ghost kings, and some were the descendants of the ghost banshee who carefully cultivated them. As for the other chaotic and disorderly caves that accounted for the vast majority, they were the residences of ordinary devouring ghosts. Naturally, they were not eligible to enjoy the treatment of living in a single room. Dozens or hundreds of them were crowded together, at the bottom of society.
The sky above the valley was covered with dark clouds, large and small clouds rolling endlessly, without a moment of stillness, the valley was filled with howling winds , the winds were extremely fierce and continuous, countless devouring ghosts were dancing in it, all you could see were pale white figures, the strong winds passed through their bodies, but they were not affected at all, they were floating freely in it, feeling indescribably weird. For the devouring ghosts, this place was indeed a perfect place to live with the strong winds.
I originally planned to let these dozens of devouring ghosts sneak back to the ghost banshee and observe them closely to see what this ghost royal family is capable of. Unfortunately, these guys have only been here for a short time and have not completely gotten rid of the influence that the ghost banshee has exerted on them for a long time. No matter how I threaten them, they don't have the courage to move forward, so I had to give up.
After observing for a long time and weighing the pros and cons for a long time, I couldn't help but feel scared when I saw all kinds of body-eating ghosts flying all over the valley. These were the direct subordinates of the ghost banshee. Xiaobai was just a ghost king, so he definitely couldn't suppress them. Once they were exposed, I'm afraid that the ghost banshee herself wouldn't have to show up. Just these little brothers would come over in an overwhelming manner, and each of them would breathe a cold wind, which would be enough to exhaust all my physical strength. Alas, the ghost banshee's pomp was too big. There were so many subordinates around her, and the gap in strength was too great. It was also an away battle deep into the enemy's camp. The weather, the terrain, and the people were not favorable. There was no chance of winning at all. I could only give up the plan to conquer them this time. It seemed that I had to wait until Xiaobai evolved into the ghost royal family, and then come back to try to suppress the army of body-eating ghosts. In that case, I only needed to challenge the ghost banshee and a small number of direct backbones, and I should have a better chance.
After seeing the huge army of the Ghost Banshee, I no longer have any interest in continuing to look for other strong ones. Even if I find the Ghost Royal Family, I am powerless to subdue them, and I already look down on the Ghost King - as long as I can subdue the Ghost Banshee, the dozens of Ghost Kings under her will naturally be mine, and there is no need to bother searching for and subduing them. There is no hope for development for the time being, so I will not stay for long. I leave Xiaobai in the valley to endure the tempering of the cold wind, strive to evolve as soon as possible, and embark on the road to return with Taotao and the others.
After a few more days of hard work, I continued to expand the number of Horror Knights. Every two days, I would go to the territory of the Corpse Witches and subdue one or two hundred Corpse Witches. They should be more effective against the Ghost Banshees than Horror Knights. I tried to subdue as many as possible for emergency use. On September 10, it was Taotao's turn to soak in the "Hell Lava Pool". However, as soon as he arrived at the "Hell Volcano", Taotao sent back a message - the challenger for the qualification to soak in the "Hell Lava Pool" finally appeared.
The challenger is a flying demon named Daxiu, who has formally submitted a challenge to Hades, the Hell Dragon King, and has been approved. The battle will take place after Taotao's immersion is over, which is September 21st. Because if Taotao loses the battle but does not die, according to the principle of "last place elimination", Guben, who ranks 12th among the 12 candidates and is also a flying demon, will be eliminated and lose the qualification to immerse in the "Hell Magma Pool". Therefore, this guy attaches great importance to Daxiu's challenge and is very nervous. He actively provided Taotao with a lot of personal information about the challenger Daxiu.
In terms of the overall strength of the flying evil ghosts, they are not a very strong undead race. In addition to having a pair of bone wings that can fly and being more agile, their thin bodies made of bones make them lack strong power and cannot withstand too heavy blows, so they are not very good in terms of attack and defense capabilities. A few of the flying evil ghosts have undergone mutations in their evolution and are lucky to have the physique of hellfire attributes. They have obtained a little more opportunities than their peers and can strive to achieve a breakthrough in strength by soaking in the "hell magma pool" and evolve into a stronger existence. As two of the more outstanding young flying evil ghosts in the population, oh, to define them more accurately, they should be called flying fire ghosts. This is also their habitual self-proclaimed and favorite name, to distinguish them from other ordinary undead creatures. Gu Ben and Da Xiu have been engaged in fierce competition - because of their inherent disadvantages, the flying fire ghosts are difficult to compete with other stronger undead creatures for the qualification to soak in the "hell magma pool". After several efforts, they barely occupied the twelfth position. There is only one quota, but there are two candidates, and a long-lasting competition has begun. Almost every month, the two would fight to determine who would be eligible for the immersion. The two sides were equally strong, and each had its own wins and losses. Neither could gain the upper hand, let alone put the other to death. They kept repeating the process of challenging, getting injured, recuperating, recovering, and challenging again. Even though they absorbed some energy from the "Hell Magma Pool" through the ten-day immersion each month, they had no time to absorb and transform it, and their strength could not be improved, and they could not completely overwhelm the other. Such a fight could be said to be a lose-lose situation, and it was of no benefit to their development. Unfortunately, both of them were arrogant and would never lose to their opponent, so they could only continue like this endlessly.
In recent months, Gu Ben has been lucky. Although both of them have suffered heavy losses every time, they have taken advantage of their qualifications as challengers and have finally retained their qualifications for immersion. Da Xiu has been unwilling to return home several times. However, Tao Tao's appearance has provided Da Xiu with an opportunity to take advantage. It was able to defeat the skeleton giant Lu Di, on the one hand, because of my cooperation, and mainly because of God's help. With the help of "Lava Storm", it was able to succeed. Fortunately, it occupied the tenth position, but its own strength is not very strong. Even after an evolution, it also has the ability to fly, but its speed and sensitivity are still slightly inferior to the flying evil ghost, and its offensive and defensive capabilities are not outstanding. Compared with challenging Gu Ben, Da Xiu feels that he will have a better chance of winning against Tao Tao, so he immediately launched a challenge after Tao Tao was released from the ban. If Daxiu could kill Taotao, everyone would be happy, and the long-term competition between the two would end. But for Guben, the worst thing would be that Daxiu only defeated Taotao. Then, according to the last-place elimination rule, Guben would automatically lose the qualification to soak. Once Daxiu took his place, it would have the advantage of home court, and it would take a hard challenge to regain the qualification. That's why he spared no effort to show goodwill to Taotao and sold out Daxiu's information, hoping that Taotao could keep his qualification to soak. It would be best if Daxiu could be completely destroyed to eliminate the trouble forever, or at least buy him more time to transform the energy of the "Hell Magma Pool".
According to the relevant information provided by the ancient book sent by Taotao , Taotao is indeed at a clear disadvantage in terms of the strength comparison between the two sides. Since the flying fire ghost is also a fire-attributed undead creature, Taotao's most proud "Fire Roar", "Flowing Fire Armor" and "Fire Feather Flying" cannot cause any damage to Daxiu. The only means of attack that can threaten him is the "Piercing Horn", but the flying fire ghost has an advantage in speed. To use the "Piercing Horn", you must face the opponent with your head, so it may be quite difficult to hit the opponent in actual combat. The flying fire ghost's weapon is a three or four meter long spear. Although the accompanying fire attribute damage is also not a threat to Taotao, under the premise that the effect of the "Flowing Fire Armor" is greatly reduced, Daxiu's physical attack power is enough to cause some damage to Taotao. With his relatively agile skills, the frequency of being hit is definitely higher than hitting the opponent. In a stalemate, it is quite disadvantageous to Taotao.
Alas, am I too anxious? I forced Taotao to compete for the qualification to soak in the "Hell Lava Pool" when Taotao did not have the corresponding strength. I succeeded by luck. However, even after an evolution, because of the short growth period, it is still a little lacking in strength compared to those opponents, so everyone wants to pick on it. In addition to Daxiu, according to Guben, there are several other undead creatures who think they are as strong as Taotao and are ready to attack Taotao. If I don't find a way to properly solve this problem, even if I win Daxiu's challenge, I am afraid I will still have to face other challenges in the future. Even if I can keep the qualification to soak, it will inevitably affect my own growth. Thinking about worrying about Taotao's qualification battle every month, I am so annoyed that I can die. It is too distracting.
This time I didn't plan to go deep into the "Hell Volcano" and fight side by side with Taotao. The flying fire ghost is not as reckless as the skeleton giant. It moves faster and is more agile. It's not easy to dodge the fast stabbing attack launched by the long spear in his hand. If the attack fails to help, he might get himself in trouble first, which won't be of much use. Of course, I can't just leave it alone. If Taotao fights alone, it will definitely be dangerous and not optimistic. I must help him.
While Taotao needed to soak in the "Hell Magma Pool" for ten days, I had some time left, so I provoked several border conflicts one after another. Through small-scale undead wars, I subdued six or seven hundred corpse wizards, so that the total number added up to more than one thousand one hundred. I took them all with me, and mobilized two thousand terror knights to spread out around to protect them, and marched towards the border of the "Hell Volcano" in a mighty manner, aiming to arrive before September 21st.
Because of the characteristics of the "Hell Volcano", Corpse Wizards and Terror Knights will constantly consume their physical strength when entering it, and it is difficult to go deeper. Although I got the "Phoenix Feather Cloak" back from Yue Linglong, even if I activated the "Fire Feather Barrier", it could not protect many of my men. Moreover, they had to face the constantly erupting magma and lava falling from the sky. It was quite dangerous. The deeper they went, the lower the chance of survival. If they wanted to deal with Daxiu, they could only ambush in the edge area of the "Hell Volcano".
In fact, Red Star's "Life-Calling Flying Spear" should be the most threatening weapon. As long as three shots hit, Daxiu will probably end up in regret. However, once he finds that there are outsiders joining the battle, Daxiu will definitely flee far away and will not give Red Star the opportunity to continue to attack. Moreover, with the agility of the Flying Fire Ghost, the "Life-Calling Flying Spear" may not be able to hit the vital points and achieve the maximum killing effect. Only one shot may not cause too much damage to Daxiu, ensuring that Taotao has an advantage in the next battle. According to the rules of the challenge, as a contracting party, although I can directly or indirectly help Taotao fight, as a party with the qualification to accept the challenge, if I cannot completely defeat the opponent when a third party intervenes, Taotao will be judged as a failure when the three-day challenge period expires. Therefore, I only have one chance to attack the flying fire ghost with a faster movement speed. I must try to kill it in one encounter, or at least consume most of its combat power. This is naturally impossible to do with Red Star alone, and I have to mobilize the Corpse Witch Corps to join the battle. As long as Daxiu can be lured into the ambush area, more than 1,100 "death cloud bombs" and one "life-taking flying gun" will be fired at the same time. No matter how agile the flying fire ghost is, it is impossible to avoid it completely, and there will be no hope of winning.
