Chapter 33: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes (Please Add It to Your Collection)

After charging through the third level with his subordinates, Liu Zhi was finally stopped by the enemy.

This time, what appeared before him was no longer anything like the hounds. Blocking his path was a high-tech, steam-powered mechanism.

Before Liu Zhi stretched a passageway composed entirely of steam engines. It was exceptionally wide, with countless gun ports lining its sides. Mechanical beasts that looked like little toys scurried back and forth within it.

Yet Liu Zhi did not dare underestimate this place, which resembled a toy factory. The Golden Skeleton that had rushed ahead to scout had been instantly focused on by those gun ports and blasted into pieces.

Liu Zhi could not even make out where the shells had come from. At the same time, he noticed that those mechanical beasts—only shin-high and toy-like in appearance—were even fiercer than the hounds before them.

“We can’t get through.”

With a single glance, Liu Zhi had assessed the situation. Even if he brought every one of his troops to bear, he still had no way to force his way inside. There was only one solution: poison.

Liu Zhi retreated several steps and had his subordinates protect him while he rummaged through his backpack, taking out a large quantity of materials used to make poison.

As a third-level poisoner, Liu Zhi now found it far easier to prepare toxins. He could produce certain ordinary poisons almost instantly, and he also possessed many ways to modify poisons he had already prepared.

At present, he had only one thought: transform every poison he carried into poisonous vapor and blow it inside with a powerful gust of wind.

The only thing Liu Zhi had to ensure was that the poisonous mist would not lose its potency by being carried too far.

As Liu Zhi mixed the poison, the ground suddenly began to tremble faintly. Then a voice rang out nearby, laughing wildly.

“I’ve succeeded!”

Liu Zhi did not even raise his head. He poured the last bottle of poison into a large basin before him, then continued adding various toxins and herbs. Only when he had finished did he lift his head and make a pushing motion toward the basin.

A powerful gust of wind!

This was the first time Liu Zhi had devoted all his concentration to the spell. As the wind rose, the liquid in the basin rapidly transformed into a dense, ink-green mist that billowed upward.

The vapor followed the gale toward the far end of the passage, flowing against the current through the steam pipes set into the passage walls and surging into the steam-powered machines.

At that moment, a man in a black robe emerged from below with his hands clasped behind his back. Behind him followed a grotesquely enormous hound, its body covered in luminous aquatic plants. The weeds twisted unnaturally, as though they had grown directly from the hound’s flesh.

Wherever they passed, the ground grew damp. Beneath their feet spread a black liquid, within which points of light writhed and flickered.

When they reached the opposite side of the passage, the man saw Liu Zhi standing before the large basin, waving his hands as if performing some strange ritual.

He immediately realized that Liu Zhi was the one who had forced him into this situation. Without Liu Zhi’s sudden interference, he could have continued gathering corpses and souls at his leisure, slowly establishing contact with the Gloomlight Netherworld, and eventually reaching the position he desired by safer means. He would not have been forced to make such a drastic change as he was now.

For that very reason, the man found Liu Zhi deeply distasteful. He pointed toward him and uttered a hoarse command.

“Kill him.”

The instant his voice fell, a black tidal wave surged up behind him. Countless ghosts gleaming with eerie light burst from it.

Only then did Liu Zhi realize that they were not ghosts at all, but corpses glowing from head to toe.

These must have been the people Black-armored Sean had taken away to fill the mud pits. They had not actually been buried in those pits. Instead, this man had sent them to the Gloomlight Netherworld, transforming them into these bizarre undead creatures.

Liu Zhi glanced at the basin before him. Only a tiny amount of poison remained. Without a moment’s hesitation, he shoved it forward. The gale even lifted the basin into the air and sent it crashing into the passage.

The cannons within the passage had long since been prepared. Anything that entered would be fired upon immediately. The basin was shattered on the spot, but the poison within mingled with the steam and was blown by Liu Zhi’s wind onto the black-robed man.

The luminous undead inhaled a large quantity of the poisonous vapor as well. Liu Zhi’s poison was not effective only against living creatures; it also had a certain effect on the undead. The moment the mist enveloped them, they fell into confusion. Rather than charging forward, they began tearing into one another.

Some even started smashing the pipes lining the passage.

The sight startled the black-robed man, but he quickly recovered.

“A necromancer who follows the path of poison.”

His hoarse voice grew cold and ominous.

“Why?”

“Huh?”

Liu Zhi did not understand his attitude. The way he said why made it sound as though Liu Zhi owed him money.

The man brought his hands together. The undead, still tearing at one another, were abruptly dragged into a single mass. He then pointed toward Liu Zhi and shouted, “Why? Why can an inferior poisoner like you become a player, while a mechanist whose lineage has been passed down for dozens of generations cannot enter the game?”

Liu Zhi blinked. What was this supposed to mean? He could not understand a single word.

The black-robed man raised his hand.

“This is all your fault! You provoked the Gloomlight Netherworld, then used our future as the price. Mechanical technology was originally the dominant force on this plane. But what happened? You claimed it was to resist the corruption of the Gloomlight Netherworld. In the end, wasn’t it all for the sake of your necromancers and death knights, and your standing?”

“I refuse to accept this! I had talent. I became a mechanist at fifteen. I became a supernatural being at fifteen. Yet I was never given the chance to join the game. All the resources I received were things you had discarded and no longer wanted. Why? Why is this?”

“This is all your fault!”

Watching the black-robed man grow increasingly enraged, Liu Zhi suddenly realized something.

Could his poison already be taking effect?

He glanced at the green poisonous vapor that still lingered inside the passage. After thinking for a moment, he secretly summoned another gust of wind and blew the vapor toward the black-robed man.

At that moment, the black-robed man also realized what was happening. He tore off his black robe, revealing a face twisted with fury.