The King's Avatar

Huang Shaotian wouldn't be Huang Shaotian if he didn't shoot back. However, Ye Xiu wasn't in the mood to admire his trash talking. He might have gotten rid of his tails, but his placing on the rankings hadn't changed.

32.

That was his current placing. The street he began on had helped him stay in the top twenty, but after leaving the street, Ye Xiu's luck wasn't very good. He didn't meet enough monsters to let him keep his position. His current 32nd place was temporary and considering how peaceful the street that he was on was, his placing would probably fall even more when he reached the end of the road.

No matter what, he couldn't just stay there and not move. The ghosts spawned at the same time. If they weren't there, they weren't there; it wasn't like you could wait at their respawn point for them to respawn.

Ye Xiu had Lord Grim walk over the stone bridge and ended up at a crossroads with a left, middle, and right path. However, all three choices seemed equally peaceful. Ye Xiu wanted to cry. Why was he so unfortunate today?

Let's just keep walking! Ye Xiu thought to himself as Lord Grim stepped onto the bridge. He was about to continue walking when, suddenly, he realized that he couldn't step forward. Next, his character's view spun and Lord Grim was thrown to the ground.

Where did this attack come from? Ye Xiu was stunned.

The moment Lord Grim was about to hit the ground, he hastily Quick Recovered, but it didn't work. The strike had been a grab, but it somehow managed to close in on Ye Xiu without him noticing, striking a direct hit.

It was only after his character had been pulled to the ground that Ye Xiu saw what had hit him as he turned Lord Grim's view. Something had tangled itself around Lord Grim's ankle.

What was it?

Ye Xiu didn't even have the time to look at it clearly when it suddenly yanked backwards. Ye Xiu slashed at it as it moved and Lord Grim's sword struck an accurate hit, but nothing happened. The thing shrank and then, with a flick, pulled Lord Grim upwards into the air. With this, Ye Xiu had a clear view. This weird thing that came out of nowhere had crept out of the lake under the stone bridge. Seaweed covered the lake surface, almost entirely, and it was impossible to see what was actually at the bottom of the lake.

Lord Grim switched the Myriad Manifestations Umbrella to its gun form and sent a Gatling Gun towards this unknown monster. Water splashed everywhere and seaweed flew into the air, but this thing was still unaffected just like when he slashed at it. Ye Xiu still couldn't tell what was under the lake. Then, with a splash, Lord Grim was pulled under the water.

Where is it?

As soon as he went under, Ye Xiu looked around, but didn't find anything. The thing around Lord Grim's ankle was still there. Ye Xiu followed it upwards with his eyes and suddenly realized, how come it was coming from above the water now?

What monster was this?! Ye Xiu could feel a headache coming on. If there was any difficulty in the Ghost Parade, then for Ye Xiu, it would be what he was currently experiencing: the ghosts were all completely new NPCs. He had never previously encountered any of them in game, so he didn't know any of their characteristics or skills. Even Gods were newbies when up against these completely new monsters.

And now, Ye Xiu had encountered a very tricky one. Although he had confidence he could defeat his target, every minute spent on it was a minute lost. Just look, he had already fallen to 35 in this short span of time. Ye Xiu was still in the claws of this monster, but he still had time to check the rankings, finding he had fallen by another three places already.

In that instant, the monster finally launched another attack, and this time, Ye Xiu finally figured out what it was.

It was seaweed!

The seaweed that covered the entire surface of the lake, green like something that had been vomited out, was the true form of this monster. No wonder it had seemed to come from under the water at first, but later seemed to come from above. This thing was on the water's surface!

It had taken Ye Xiu quite a while to figure out what he was fighting and the seaweed monster had already began to attack him by then. The seaweed that had been floating on the surface suddenly sunk in clusters, like will-o-wisps.

Ye Xiu didn't know what kind of attack this was, but he wouldn't let it hit him so easily. He hastily had Lord Grim swim further down. However, something tightened around his foot. The seaweed was still tangled around Lord Grim's ankle.

What a long CC!

Ye Xiu was shocked. Even if it was an NPC, their skills still couldn't diverge from Glory's design. Offensive attacks dealt damage and crowd control effects lasted a duration of time. No matter if it was damage or duration, there had to be a limit. How long had this seaweed been restricting Lord Grim's movement? How was it still doing this? How long did this ghost's skills last for?

Ye Xiu didn't have the energy to spare on complaining because the will-o-wisp seaweed that had sunk down had attacked. Their attack was very basic, just throwing themselves at Lord Grim in an attempt to hit him. However, there were too many sunken clusters of seaweed to count. He could dodge one, but if they all began to attack together, then they'd form a net and then there wouldn't be any room to dodge.

He had to dodge them preemptively!

The seaweed was preventing him from going down, and upwards… Above him was the water surface which was covered in seaweed. Going upwards would be putting himself in the monster's embrace, an even worse choice.

Hurry up and break!

Ye Xiu could only keep going down. Snapping the restraint around Lord Grim's ankle became key. He slashed down again. The seaweed bent with the slash, but it refused to snap. It was clearly extremely flexible and durable...

Ye Xiu didn't have time to try out new methods and could only follow his current line of thought. The Myriad Manifestations Umbrella switched to its gun form. With a bang, a bullet shot out. As the bullet left the chamber, the umbrella was transformed into a sword once more, striking down.

The bullet hit the seaweed and the flash of the blade slashed down as well. This time, the seaweed was cut through completely. Ye Xiu hastily had Lord Grim dive as the clusters of seaweed swarmed forth, crashing together in a ball.

That was close!

It was rare for Ye Xiu to ever experience such a heart-stopping moment in the online game. After noticing the flexibility of the seaweed, Ye Xiu gave it a Spitfire's Stun Bullet, and after causing it to tense, he was able to easily slash through it. Then his eyes landed on the cluster of seaweed behind him and had Lord Grim throw a Grenade over. It'd feel very good to blow it up.

As expected, it felt delightful!

The large cluster of seaweed was blown to pieces and several pieces hit Lord Grim. His health immediately plummeted, falling directly to red blood.

What the fuck!

Ye Xiu flailed in a panic. He immediately opened up the umbrella as a shield, while casting all his healing skills on himself and ingesting all the potions that would help him save his life. Only then was his health stabilized.

What a powerful attack! Ye Xiu was shocked. If just another two pieces had hit him, Lord Grim would have been KO'ed. This immense damage output was beyond anything Ye Xiu knew of. Their combative power rivaled that of dungeon monsters, but this sort of attack power was far beyond normal dungeon monsters, it was boss level, wild boss level even!

Ye Xiu didn't dare underestimate this monster. The seaweed that had been blown apart by the grenade hadn't died, floating in the water and preparing a new round of attacks.

How would he kill this seaweed? Would a Stun Bullet work again them? Ye Xiu had little to go on, but knew he had to try. He shot a small cluster of seaweed and struck down with his sword right after. The small cluster immediately broke apart, dispersing in the water as if it had dissolved.

It worked!

Ye Xiu was certain now, but he wasn't happy. With the seaweed covering the entire surface of the lake, how many attacks would he have to make to kill it completely?

As for how the seaweed got so strong, Ye Xiu immediately got the gist. This seaweed floated ever so peacefully on the water's surface like that, a very cunning disguise. Then, it would ambush passing players. Even Ye Xiu didn't realize what was happening after being caught, so there was little need to explain how much worse it would be for normal players. Continuously managing to kill players this way, the seaweed monster had grown this strong.

Should he count himself lucky or unlucky? Ye Xiu didn't know. Such a large monster would definitely provide many points, so he should be happy about finding it. The problem was, this monster wasn't just big, but powerful. Could he beat it?

This thing's attack power rivalled a wild boss. If its health was also that shocking, then Ye Xiu would just give up on it entirely. But for now, he decided to take a shot.

The small clusters of seaweed were just a method of attack for the seaweed monster. Destroying them was just defending himself. If he wanted to kill this monster, he had to attack its main body, the seaweed that was floating on the water's surface. However, he had to deal with these small clusters first.

Not long later, Ye Xiu baited the small clusters of seaweed into trying to catch him again like before. Then, at the last minute, he dodged.

The small clusters of seaweed once again clustered up into a larger group. Lord Grim turned and delivered a Stun Bullet before his Myriad Manifestations Umbrella swung up as a spear, Dragon Tooth stabbing up before a Double Stab followed. As for skills like Falling Flower Palm that required him to get even closer, Ye Xiu didn't dare use them before he tested them out. After the Double Stab, he finished it off with a Sword Draw.

The three skills were completed in an instant, and with the whooshing sound of flowing water, the scattered seaweed vanished.

It worked!

With this experiment a success, Ye Xiu's spirits lifted. The seaweed monster was above him. After this experiment, Ye Xiu had a good idea of how to deal with it. Now he had to see if he could destroy the main body of the seaweed monster with the same method. If it had the durability of a wild boss, then he'd leave immediately.

In the next moment, Lord Grim entered attack range of the water's surface, flicking his sleeves and gathering a chunk of the seaweed on the water's surface into a ball with a Shadow Cloak. Then, a Stun Bullet and an attack!