Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 217 Life and Death, an Endless Cycle
If the sun god Ujat could wake up from his slumber, he would probably be scared to death on the spot.

The Blue-Faced Lion God, the Six-Tusked Elephant God, and his father, the Golden-Winged Roc God—these three ancient giant gods should have been killed by him, yet now, amidst the swirling gusts of yin wind, they have reappeared.

However, its semi-transparent, illusory appearance was clearly somewhat abnormal.

"This is... a consciousness!"

The chosen champion Elias immediately recognized the current state of the three giant beasts.

As we all know, the body, as a vessel, determines the shape of the soul, but it also brings many limitations to the soul. For example, the most common one is that once the body itself is completely destroyed, the soul will also dissipate, which will lead to what is known as death in the usual sense.

But there are always ways to allow the soul to continue existing even without a body.

Just like right now.

Even without a body, the soul retains its original shape and can still function as a collection of consciousness. However, it lacks the step of using consciousness to drive the body and instead attacks directly with the consciousness itself. This kind of attack at the pure level of consciousness, although not as grand, is more insidious and more covert.

Just like now, the giant serpent in front is still exploring, while Elias, who is only a few steps behind, has already been surrounded and trapped in place by the phantom of the three giant beasts.

"you……"

Elias frowned.

The reason is simply that the current situation is rather abnormal.

In the material world, such situations, where something is blocked by a conscious entity or a spirit, are not common, but they are far from rare—this is probably what people mean when they say they've encountered a ghost.

But that's where the problem lies.

This is not the material world right now.

This is subspace. He entered by splitting his soul. In other words, although he looks no different from when he was in the material world, he is actually a spirit now.

When spirits are blocked by each other, it's like the saying "ghosts fighting ghosts" among mortals, which is somewhat illogical.

"Could it be that there are other secrets hidden in this subspace?"

Just as doubt began to creep into Elias's mind, the three giant beasts pounced on him.

This is also the most common attack method of spirits: to crush the opponent head-on with strong will. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably lose consciousness on the spot, and even their soul would be devoured. After that, these spirits that have devoured the soul will even directly gain the memories of the devoured person, and even control over the body itself.

As for why mortals are powerless against such things... it's somewhat similar to how a person with weak legs will have even greater strength in their hands. To be able to maintain the shape of the soul even after losing a body, the intensity of their consciousness must far exceed that of ordinary people.

Unfortunately, Elias was no ordinary man.

The chosen champions who are favored by the God of Courage have always been quite developed in all aspects. In order to win all kinds of difficult battles, they will not leave themselves any weaknesses—body, mind, and soul. Their strength in these three aspects is equal.

In other words, Elias's strength is currently no different from when he was in the material world.

Moreover, he was holding a rune sword.

"I thought you guys would use some kind of secret technique, but it turns out it's just this..."

Elias was even somewhat disappointed. He had prepared for a life-or-death struggle, but these three giant beasts chose to compete with him in the most basic way—there was nothing more to say about that. He didn't even use the rune sword; he relied solely on his strong will to devour the three giant beasts.

Yes, devour. Just like these three giant beasts, which clearly wanted to devour his consciousness and seize his body, he, knowing how to operate, could naturally also turn the tables and devour these three giant beasts.

"In mortal terms, it's like a ghost swallowing a ghost within a ghost... So what exactly is going on with these three giant beasts?"

Elias was somewhat puzzled, but fortunately, the answer was right at his fingertips. He had already swallowed the three giant beast phantoms, so he could simply browse through their memories.

However, to Elias's surprise, the memories of these three giant beasts seemed rather chaotic.

There was practically no useful information. Elias could only see some ancient fragments, showing the three giant beasts fighting with the ancient serpent not far away. However, it was less of a fight and more of a one-sided beating.

And then it seems like that's it. There was no useful information at all, and not even much useless information was extracted.

"how come?"

Elias instinctively raised his head.

But at that very moment, the phantom of the three giant beasts reappeared in his sight.

The three giant beasts pounced again, using the same crude fighting style. This was still no problem for Elias. Just like before, he simply turned the tables and devoured the phantoms of the three giant beasts once more.

This time, however, he couldn't even extract the images. The phantoms of the three giant beasts didn't even resemble spirits anymore; they were just like three empty shells.

“…It’s a bit strange.”

Elias instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

At that moment, the phantom of the three-headed beast pounced on him once again.

Having encountered the same attack three times in a row, Elias realized that something was wrong. This time, he no longer let such a trivial matter hold him back, but decisively followed the giant serpent ahead—undoubtedly the most correct decision at the moment. After all, this anomaly originated from the Tomb of the Grim Reaper itself, so as long as he continued to explore the Tomb of the Grim Reaper, he would surely find a solution.

"That's how it should be. I should have thought that from the first attack, but I actually took three hits before I realized it. It's really..."

Elias was about to sigh when he suddenly felt that something was not quite right.

As the chosen champion of the God of Courage, he has always been decisive in his actions. After all, in the midst of endless battles, to achieve victory, or even become number one, one must make the most accurate judgments at the fastest speed.

But now...

"What did you say?"

It was at this moment that the voice of the ancient serpent rang out in front of Elias.

This puzzled Elias greatly. He hadn't said anything just now, although he had indeed been thinking about many things, but those thoughts remained only at the level of consciousness...

"No, you actually said something just now."

It was at this moment that the ancient serpent spoke again.

"You repeated the same sentence at least three times, and I called you five times but you didn't listen."

(End of this chapter)