Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 418 How do we fight this?
Although he couldn't understand the thought process of these Taiyin Sect disciples, Feng Liqi still kindly pointed them in the right direction.

The "Demon Lord" of the Guixu Realm is completely different from the Demon Lords in the countless Xianxia games, novels, and even TV dramas on Earth. The latter mostly appear in human or humanoid form, possess intelligence, can understand human behavior and logic, and most can even speak human language. However, they often have inhuman thoughts such as wanting to kill all living beings in the world to accompany a certain fairy in death.

The Demon Lord of the Ruins Realm is different; he is a completely different species. He has intelligence, but not much. He cannot speak human language, let alone understand human behavior logic—would you try to understand the behavior logic of a white-feathered chicken in a cage at a farm?
Even though the players already knew this, they all looked on in disbelief when they saw the "Demon Lord," who always appeared as a flamboyant second male lead in various Chinese games and TV dramas.

It hurts the eyes.

It's really an eyesore.

Not only is it visually offensive, but it also smells offensive. Even some players who stubbornly refused to turn off their sense of smell were still stimulated to the point of tearing up when they smelled an indescribable fishy stench.

"If we go any further, he'll notice me. I can only take you this far."

Separated by several broken dragon bones and a pool of dark lake water, Feng Liqi said:
"This lake is where it bathes, so it's filled with demonic energy. You'd better not touch it..."

Renxin Huadao adjusted the focus of his vision, constantly magnifying the black dot in the distance, and exclaimed in amazement, "How can this thing be so ugly!"

It is indeed ugly. This demon lord seems to be a kind of Gu Feather Demon. This kind of Nine Nether Demon is relatively rare. Players have only entered information about it once or twice and do not know much about it.

It resembled a vulture, its back bald and featherless, with only a few feathers perched on its wings. Two large, oddly shaped fleshy growths—or perhaps horns—stood on its head. It had four wings, and its feet, instead of claws, were webbed. Its beak was sharp and blood-red.

What's most puzzling is that it has no eyes on its face, but a huge, vertical eye is hidden in the feathers inside its belly. This eye is narrowed to a slit, and only the red pupil can be vaguely seen inside.

One player whispered among themselves, "Isn't it equivalent to a Golden Immortal? Why can't it detect us from this distance?"

"And they can't hear us either! If this were near the Taiyin Palace, speaking ill of the sect leader at this distance would definitely lower their favorability rating!"

"Wow! You're really experienced!"

"Hehehe, I know a little bit!"

Nietzsche also broadened his perspective, observing the demon lord who seemed to be sleeping, and joined the discussion: "Perhaps it's because it doesn't have eyes? Or are its eyes always closed? Is that one on its belly its eye?"

Unexpectedly, Feng Liqi replied, "When one reaches the level of an immortal or god, the eyes are no longer of much use. One can perceive the world with one's own spiritual senses. Why would one need a mortal body with seven orifices and four limbs? The reason it cannot detect us is probably because it has been too comfortable for too long. Its spiritual senses can be opened, and naturally they can be closed... This world has not posed a threat to it for thousands of years."

Renxin Huadao gave an "OK" sign and whispered, "Alright, then you hide first, let's go all out and try it out. If it doesn't work, we'll come back later and discuss tactics then!"

"You guys... sigh..."

Feng Liqi hesitated, realizing he couldn't persuade her otherwise, and could only remain silent.

Nietzsche also did her final warm-up in the clump of wheat, and only after Fengliqi disappeared into the ground did she passionately shout out in the clump of wheat—

"T goes first! Disrupt the BOSS's aggro!"

"Remote Dharma practice is ready!"

"Wait until you're ready for close combat before engaging!"

"Ready, ready! Three—two—one—charge!!!"

As Nietzsche finished speaking, the players who were originally far away from the Demon Lord rushed towards him like wild horses, some flying, some running, and some even leaping, which startled the Demon Lord.

The strange, black bird with a few scattered feathers jerked slightly, flapped its wings a few times, but after it saw the players rushing towards it, it opened its mouth wide and cried out—

"Whoa-whoa-"

It sounded like a baby crying, and also a bit like a wildcat in heat, but more hoarse. Then, the whole sky went dark.

No wonder the lower-level demons that this demon lord "created" for himself to eat were all called night owls; it turns out he had that ability!
In the pitch black, the thought flashed through Nietzsche's mind for a moment. Then, before she could even react, many players cleverly took out their stones and tried to illuminate their surroundings.

Unexpectedly, the usually invincible stone suddenly became useless at this moment. The halo emitted by each stone could only illuminate a distance of less than one foot around it. Beyond that, it was still pitch black. If it weren't for the fact that players could switch to night vision mode in their system settings, they probably wouldn't be able to see anything at all!
However, night vision mode was not very useful at this time. For some reason, even in night vision mode, Nietzsche could not see clearly and could only barely make out the outlines of the things around her, as if a layer of fine black threads was wrapped around her eyes.

"Whoa-whoa-"

The Demon Lord's strange cries continued, and by this time, all the players had approached it.

Just as the fastest-running mage, who was tanking in the raid, landed a fatal blow on the boss, a gigantic, blood-red eye suddenly opened in the darkness. Then, that eye transformed into a gaping maw, swallowing the mage whole. In the raid list, the player's avatar instantly turned gray, a sign of death.

"Holy crap! It killed me instantly! I'm dead!"

The player excitedly typed in the team list, and this sudden surprise stunned all the players for a moment.

"Change to a suicide-style strategy!"

At the critical moment, Nietzsche decisively changed his strategy and shouted into the group microphone.

The group consisted of highly skilled players who had been working together for a long time. Upon hearing the command, everyone immediately adjusted the hand seals or talismans they were holding. One individual cultivator even pulled out a box of explosives, shouted "Sprout!", and charged forward. And then...

And then that was it. The box of explosives didn't even have a chance to be lit before it fell to the ground with a thud, and he himself perfectly followed in the footsteps of the previous Fa Xiu.

Immediately afterwards, a female player, with her keen mind, gritted her teeth and set herself on fire, then shouted into the squad, "Cover me!"

The other players in her squad immediately understood what she meant and quickly adjusted their speed to block her way as much as possible.

Then, the female player rolled towards the box of gunpowder on the ground with all her might. The moment her avatar turned gray, a burst of flame shot into the sky.

"boom--"

With a loud bang, the BOSS finally revealed its health bar, and its terrifying, gaping maw disappeared.

Or rather, the BOSS reacted the instant it was hit by the blast. It flapped its wings and flew backward a distance before starting to rhythmically flap its wings at the players. A black whirlwind suddenly appeared and quickly swept up the players who were running at the front.

At this point, more than half of the entire group had died, while the BOSS's health bar remained almost intact, leaving no hope of defeating it.

In the team chat, several players who were forced into the "black room" due to their deaths were quite discouraged: "How the hell are we supposed to play this?!"

"No chance! They can wipe us out in an instant; we can't even get close to them!"

"If only we had a Gatling gun, we could have ripped it apart!"

"Even the Gatling gun is useless! With its attack range, I think only rocket launchers can put up a fight!"

"Why don't we go back and ask the farmers next door how they did it? This is just too outrageous!"

"I'm the only one who's heartbroken over all those medicines, sob sob sob!"

"It's alright. I heard from Huadao and the others that they prepared more than a dozen sets for this land reclamation! That should be enough for us to handle!"

"Do you think the neighbors might have actually used rocket launchers?"

"Really? That stuff isn't regulated, is it? Can't you get your hands on it?"

"It's hard to say. I always feel that the farming community next door is a bit strange. Maybe they're involved in some kind of 'uncle's faction'..."

While the dead men were chatting, Nietzsche, who had kept his distance and hadn't moved forward, was desperately trying to analyze the situation.

She didn't even turn off the group microphone, and was muttering to herself—

"High attack, high defense, fast speed, and it can fly. There's no chance of fighting it head-on. Traps, traps, traps won't work either. No one can pull it. Its attack is too high; it'll kill you instantly... Is there some hidden mechanism? Or do we need to repair the Nuwa Stone first to reduce the boss's difficulty?"

The players in the guild all heard Nietzsche's rambling, and someone chimed in, "I think the guild leader is right! Is there some hidden storyline we haven't done yet?"

The other players suddenly realized, "No wonder that NPC kept advising us not to rush in; there's still a storyline we haven't finished!"

"No way! Can't this game planner even be competent? With this design, who knows if the story has even finished? There wasn't even a hint!"

"Ugh, isn't this how 'Ten Continents Chronicles' has always been? Don't ask, the answer is take it or leave it! Damn it! You dog planner!"

Nietzsche quickly analyzed the situation and, frustrated, realized there was absolutely no chance of fighting. He could only shout into the group microphone, "Retreat! Retreat first! See if we can escape! Split up and run! If we can't escape, commit suicide and flee! We'll regroup later!"

Fortunately, there were still a dozen or so people left in the group. As soon as they heard Nietzsche's words, they scattered like birds and beasts, running in all directions. However, everyone knew not to lure the monsters to the soup dumplings and the king bamboo grass, so they all frantically fled as far away from the two as possible.