Chapter 200: Black Card
Lin Ye 'watched' as flowers of flesh and blood continuously bloomed throughout the city, feeling quite pleased.
He didn't actually enjoy killing people—it was much better when others handled such matters for him.
Besides, he didn't have time to deal with everyone connected to the Purification Potion one by one.
But he wasn't willing to let them go either, so this was the perfect opportunity to test the Berserk rune he had just learned.
'You won just like that? Why didn't it fight back earlier?'
Mia asked, puzzled.
'Probably because its willpower was weak. After all, it reached its rank through Purification Potion enhancement. Over-reliance on external things leads to this kind of weakness.'
Lin Ye hadn't expected to win so easily either. Since he could only use one rune concept at a time, if the High Priest had continued attacking him, he wouldn't have been able to hold out for long and wouldn't have had any opportunity to counterattack.
Moreover, the Spirit Supreme state wouldn't last indefinitely.
'Alright, the blessing is about to end. I should return now. See you at the asylum.' Mia's voice faded away, and along with it disappeared the increasingly unstable mental world around them.
'See you at the asylum.'
Lin Ye stretched slightly, finding the return to the physical world not particularly pleasant. The mental world offered a sense of exhilarating freedom, but it was also more prone to losing control. The physical world felt more stable because the spirit remained trapped within the shell called the body.
The shaking city gradually calmed down, with numerous flowers of flesh and blood blooming throughout the urban area. The streets filled with the pungent smell of blood.
"Where to now?"
The driver looked toward Lin Ye and asked.
"It should be about time. Let's go to that massage parlor from earlier."
Victoria: Be careful. Without that state, you're very vulnerable now.
Lin Ye: I know, but with all that noise earlier, those participants won't dare approach the flesh and blood tree directly.
Lin Ye felt some regret that the Spirit Supreme state had ended too quickly. Otherwise, he could have used the Sacrificial Offering skill on the High Priest and those flowers of flesh and blood while in the mental state, which might have produced a peculiar mental mutation organ.
'...Then again, it's hard to say. Sacrificial Offering might not work in the mental world, and even if it could, I probably wouldn't use it well.'
The sports car parked by the roadside. Lin Ye didn't dwell on it too much—he had no particular attachment to those corpses and was merely considering how to avoid waste.
Returning to the depths of the massage parlor through the hole torn open by the flesh and blood tree, Lin Ye stood before that flower of flesh and blood. The High Priest was dead, and three cards floated above its corpse.
One pink card, one white card, and one black card.
Lin Ye directly collected the cards as he heard faint footsteps approaching.
"Hey man, you're pretty brave! Aren't you afraid that the badass who caused all this chaos might still be here?"
A man wearing a brown formal suit jumped into the hole, cautiously observing his surroundings.
Not only that, but outside the hole, numerous participants were gathering toward the massage parlor.
"Why should I be afraid of myself?"
Lin Ye said calmly.
"Trying to scare me? With your second-tier spiritual energy? I know you—your supporter is quite famous, which makes your head quite valuable."
The man licked his lips and drew out a white card.
"If all participants are idiots like you, then no matter how many come, it's meaningless. Have you ever wondered why I'm the only second-tier spiritual energy user in this game? There's only one possibility—I'm too strong. So strong that the system ignores my rank. I can only say that these relatively fair rules are somewhat unfair to you all."
Lin Ye raised his head and used that blue detection card. Spiritual waves spread outward, marking every participant within a kilometer in his mind, while those participants simultaneously received system notifications about being detected.
"...What do you mean?"
The man took a step back. He had to admit—a second-tier spiritual energy user had actually frightened him.
"Kill them all."
Lin Ye spoke to the pitch-black skeletal figure standing in the darkness.
Unlike the hesitant and uncertain man, as soon as Lin Ye approached the High Priest's corpse, he crushed that green card that generated Dead Husks. The High Priest's corpse was connected to all the flowers of flesh and blood through root systems—using the skill on it wouldn't waste these corpses.
Lin Ye didn't know what a Dead Husk was, but something generated from an entire city's worth of flowers of flesh and blood couldn't be too weak. It would perfectly serve to deal with these participants who could only use cards.
The black skeleton emerged from the darkness, step by step approaching the man. It looked like an ordinary black skeleton, but as it moved, some black powder scattered into the air.
"All that big talk for this? A skeleton?"
The man crushed a card to unlock spiritual energy. Before the card completely disappeared, he vanished from his spot, instantly appearing beside the Dead Husk, then punched the pitch-black skeletal figure into powder.
"Haha! I knew you were bluffing!"
The man turned to look at Lin Ye, intending to smash him just like he had destroyed the Dead Husk.
However, before the man could celebrate for long, black powder began appearing on his body. His clothes and flesh started turning to powder, until only a pitch-black skeleton remained.
"So this is what a Dead Husk is."
Lin Ye didn't believe that using the card on just any random corpse would produce this kind of Dead Husk. Its strength definitely had to do with the corpse that generated it.
The Dead Husk looked up toward the participants above, faint light flickering within its pitch-black eye sockets.
Various ranged attacks landed where the Dead Husk and Lin Ye had been. Lin Ye had already retreated deep into the underground space, while the Dead Husk was shattered to pieces by these attacks.
The participants above began turning to powder one by one. No matter what cards they used, they couldn't escape the fate of their flesh and blood shattering into skeletons.
Lin Ye hid deep within the underground space. With limited cards in hand now, it was better to leave those outside to the Dead Husk.
Of course, he wasn't completely without combat capability either.
The pink card was still a loot card. The white card could unlock mental energy for one minute. Finally, there was the never-before-seen black card.
【Black Card--Designation】
【Can obtain one designated card from a random card library (1/1)】
【Note: Black cards possess unique properties—each black card is one of a kind】
'This card is quite powerful, but... what constitutes the card library?'
Lin Ye spoke to the pitch-black skeletal figure standing in the darkness.
From a direction Lin Ye couldn't see, a dark shadow was gradually approaching him while pressed against the wall. When it reached a certain distance, the shadow stopped, pulling out a handgun with an exaggerated caliber aimed at Lin Ye's head.
Boom!
The gunshot rang out, and the shadow's head exploded.