Warning! The evil god's minions are invading the eerie dungeon.

At this moment, in the deathly silent city shrouded in darkness.

Like sparks suddenly igniting in a silent wasteland, tiny golden lights stubbornly pierced through the darkness.

The travelers who camped and survived near the shopping mall gradually discovered something amiss.

"Huh? Where did the light come from?"

"It's dawn? Isn't it only midnight?"

"It seems to be light coming from over there. I remember that location was... a shopping mall?"

"How is this possible? We just tried it; ordinary light can't penetrate this darkness at all. What kind of light is this?"

In an instant, near the shopping mall, in a tall office building, on a Ferris wheel in an amusement park, in a hospital ward... everyone who could see this light stood up at the same time, stood in front of the transparent window, and looked at that bright light from afar.

In this instance shrouded in death and exhaustion, all of humanity trapped in darkness gazed longingly at that glimmer of light.

I don't know how much time passed.

Someone suddenly let out a soft sigh:

"So warm..."

This is not a factual description, because that tiny, fragile glimmer of light did not truly penetrate the darkness to bring them warmth.

But no one refuted his words.

Everyone watched the light in silence.

Until it sank back into darkness.

……

……

Inside the shopping mall.

Chen Mu lay on the ground in a "big" shape, his body emitting blue smoke, like a piece of grilled steak.

"grass……"

Chen Mu's lips moved, and he felt as if his consciousness was being shattered by the pain. It took him a long time to recover.

In a daze, he suddenly recalled some little-known facts that his lover had once shared with him.

It is said that someone once converted most of the pain known to humankind into something called the Pain Index (DOL).

What Xiao An said to him at the time was:

"Did you know that the pain index for childbirth is 58! After that, drinking sulfuric acid only gets you 62, and being hit by a train only gets you 67! So you have to treat me well, otherwise I'll feel wronged if I have your child!"

Sometimes he would find a bittersweet humor in thinking that Xiao An, a girl who was so afraid of pain, at least left the dungeon cleanly without much suffering, and he no longer had to worry about having children.

"hiss……"

Chen Mu gasped, feeling as if he had just escaped from a fire; he had at least third-degree burns.

He remembered that the pain index for a third-degree burn was only 20.

Such pain only costs twenty?!

After catching his breath, Chen Mu realized that he would have difficulty making any moves for the time being, so he tried his best to control the strange creature he was riding.

A phantom, pot-bellied figure appeared beside him, took out a bottle of dark green potion and a bottle of light blue potion from its mouth, and poured them into Chen Mu's mouth.

The former is a fast-acting recovery agent, while the latter is a potent analgesic.

He waited quietly for a minute, until the pain and injuries had subsided to a certain extent, before checking the changes inside his body.

Upon seeing this, I felt a chill run down my spine.

The "Druid of the Evil Spirit" was directly purified.

"grass……"

Chen Mu felt both heartache and a touch of resentment.

Even if it was a joke, or an attempt to punish or teach him a lesson, this level of punishment was a bit too much, after all, the "Druid of the Evil Soul" was one of his main fighting methods.

Thinking of this, he immediately sat up and looked at Qi Xie.

But then he was taken aback.

The young man was breathing heavily, wearing a crown of thorns, kneeling on one knee with his body slightly bent, and stubbornly and laboriously supporting himself with the other leg.

His face and body were entangled by long thorns extending from the crown, leaving bloody scratches all over his body and face, from which wisps of black smoke rose.

Seeing the other person like this, all the resentment and emotions in Chen Mu's heart vanished.

He suddenly remembered asking Xiao An what the most painful thing was.

Xiao An said that he was burned alive while his whole body was immersed in a sea of ​​fire, and the pain index was 70, which was a full 8 points higher than drinking sulfuric acid directly.

"Are you...are you alright?"

Chen Mu got up and walked towards Qi Xie, reaching out to help him.

"Don't touch me!"

Along with the "malicious warning" in his mind, the young man's somewhat tired voice also rang out.

Chen Mu's hand paused in mid-air, realizing that the young man in front of him seemed unwilling to be touched. So he summoned the large-bellied phantom and took out a dark green potion and a light blue potion from the phantom's mouth.

"Can you still move?"

He handed the two potions to Qi Xie.

Qi Xie looked up at him, shook his head, and said:

"Need not."

Then, he took a deep breath and pushed himself up to stand up straight.

Chen Mu gasped at the sight of that movement, feeling a dull, throbbing pain all over his body.

Qi Xie ignored Chen Mu's thoughts and let the [Ghost Sword] that he had just imagined and put aside transform into a stream of black light that enveloped his entire body, working together with [Flesh and Blood Reforging] to repair his injuries.

At the same time, he reached out and grasped the thorny branches extending from the crown, breaking off the excess parts and removing them.

The dense, sharp thorns on the brambles undoubtedly pierced his palms or drew blood.

Throughout this process, Qi Xie's expression remained calm, showing no change except for a slight hint of fatigue.

"Does this person not feel pain...?"

Chen Mu swallowed hard, secretly alarmed.

Qi Xie was unaware of Chen Mu's deep thoughts. Instead, he removed the imagined "Light Chaser" and let his mind wander.

"The command needs to be changed, otherwise shouting 'light' every time a targeted attack is too melodramatic, and it might alert the enemy to the source of the attack and allow them to react quickly..."

This [Light Chaser] contains no strange energy, and its pure light has a clear effect of dispelling malicious things, so it should be an ancient relic from another world... Hmm... The 'gifts' of evil gods should all be ancient relics, since anything containing strange energy that could be extracted has long been consumed by Him...

I just didn't expect this thing to be so powerful. Under overload, it even burned off a small part of my soul. This is something that [Flesh Reforging] can't repair... Is it because my soul is contaminated by an evil god?

Having clarified the whole story, Qi Xie changed the control password, then stuffed the [Light Chaser] phantom into his pocket and made it disappear. He then said to Chen Mu:

"Let's go, now's the time. Let's go to the second basement level and find the intelligent entity behind that swarm of insects."

……

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