Damn it! Let’s smash the darkness together!
Chapter 210 - 25: Backstab! (Second Update, Request for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 210: Chapter 25: Backstab! (Second Update, Request for Monthly Votes)

Bi Chaoyang finished writing his name, then let Hong Yan and Chen Nian each leave their real names on it.

Rudius hesitated for a moment.

Bi Chaoyang urged him, "Hurry up, preacher, it’s not like you have to pay. We know you Shepherds are the poorest."

"Uh, sorry," Rudius finally said, nodding awkwardly and solemnly stamping his name.

Xu Shu did the same, moving past a little.

[Gu Pan, First-tier Warrior]His name also went up.

"?" Everyone looked at him with puzzled expressions.

The name token had a feature that could display their "real name verification information" from the Promotion Drive.

"Brother, didn’t you say your name was Xu Shu and Gu Pan was your nickname?" Bi Chaoyang was straightforward and asked directly.

"Don’t misunderstand, I’m a student." Xu Shu explained with a smile while taking out his ID and induction ceremony from his arms.

"Oh, got it, using your teacher’s name as a nickname and your real name as your nickname, right?"

Xu Shu nodded, "Yes, exactly."

Everyone suddenly understood—it made sense since he had taken out his documents, so there was nothing to doubt.

Finally, it was the nun’s turn; she glanced at Xu Shu’s name on it, timidly looked at Xu Shu, and then walked over to imprint her own: Lan Xin, First Order Nun.

Xu Shu already knew that this object was somewhat like a "battle recording" and was nicknamed name token.

It wasn’t expensive, only 10 Contribution Points each, belonging to items in the trading area, and the price was somewhat akin to Star Tower Nuo Masks and plane tickets.

Its function was that if someone died in the team, it would automatically trigger a crucial moment battle recording using everyone’s Promotion Drives, and save it within each team member’s Drive.

If a team member died, the survivors had the obligation to go voluntarily to the Astronomy Association after returning to the safe area to upload their battle records as proof of innocence.

If anyone hid the info and didn’t follow the procedure, and the Astronomy Association later discovered that teammate died but you survived alone, then even without evidence, you could be directly deemed as having killed a friend for survival and thus be taken straight to the Judgement Department for trial, ending up on the Astronomy Association’s wanted list if you ran away.

Of course, name tokens were only used when pioneering in the Wasteland, barren lands.

As for within the ruins, because of the protection of the "Heart Fire Incense Burner," one could directly fly back to the safe zone’s Star Tower from the ruins, so there was less need to worry about these matters.

Naturally, the name token’s effectiveness wasn’t as reliable as the Heart Fire Incense Burner, but it still provided a minute form of security and psychological comfort when everyone battled together.

It could at least avoid many incidents of "deceiving people into a team to kill them," as the price was too high.

After everyone had signed the token, they again formed the "÷"-shaped wing deployment and officially entered the wasteland.

Xu Shu still led at the front, with Daoist Chen Nian above, corpse driver Bi Chaoyang below, and nun Lan Xin securely protected in the center, with a preacher covering the rear.

"Everyone, be careful!"

Bi Chaoyang muttered a few spells, and two hopping zombies and one ghoul-like creature were summoned by him, burrowing into the jungle.

As a corpse driver, this ability was perfect for exploring paths and terrain.

This also provided Hong Yan with the space to perform. She started to sniff around.

Soon, she pointed in a direction.

"It seems almost the same as our previous journey, hehe." Seeing this, the usually quiet Xu Shu also felt relieved.

For now, things were going as he anticipated, so he didn’t need to waste chances yet—life-saving skills had to be saved for when they were really needed.

They then proceeded from left to right → and entered the pitch-dark Dark Forest.

Along the way, Xu Shu once again fought monsters from before.

The first encounter was with three Black Widows, one green level 12 and two white level 8, all First Rank.

Easily defeated, Xu Shu didn’t even get hurt; although he couldn’t use Alien Species abilities in front of everyone, his own Warrior physique was more than enough, and with teammates’ assistance, he hardly suffered any injuries.

Then, beside a Quicksand Pond, they killed an Evil Spirit·Yin God named Resurrectionist and obtained a green Curse Crystal.

Afterward, according to the journey, there were still five Ghost Soldiers, three Demons, and two unspecified types of Alien Species.

Just as Xu Shu had anticipated, Hong Yan led them on the same path as before.

After all, although they wasted a few minutes fighting fierce beasts along the way, they sped up afterward, so the final timing of entering the wasteland was almost the same as originally planned.

Naturally, they just needed to find each of them and perform a just six-vs-one battle, wiping them all out.

During this period, when facing Ghost Soldiers, Xu Shu received some slight injuries, but it was not a big problem, as there was healing.

Xu Shu felt the healing from Lan Xin, who frequently kissed his face covered in pure marks. Sometimes she looked around nervously, occasionally checking the internet and shivering.

"The amount of milk" was slightly insufficient compared to the journey.

Clearly, because Xu Shu hadn’t conquered her with his muscular prowess this time, she naturally hadn’t come to like him both inside and out as before.

A nun’s healing skills depended on "love"; the more she loved you, the better the healing effect, although if it was made into recovery Holy Water, this feature could be ignored, but the effect was certainly not as fast as direct kissing.

"Don’t be afraid, I will protect you, and we’ll be heading back soon, so don’t worry," Xu Shu kept comforting her.

Calculating the time, there was still one Alien Species·Ground Worm and one Slaanesh·Little Demon they hadn’t killed.

These two were the strongest monsters from the previous journey.

To kill them, Xu Shu got the most injured.

Because these two unexpectedly formed a pair of lovers across species.

The Slaanesh Little Demon and the Ground Worm, when combined, were not to be underestimated.

Plus, the Ground Worm was a Blue Name Monster, even showing signs of turning purple from blue, making it the highest quality and most valuable monster they encountered on this trip.

At this moment, they were not far away, entangled together, engaged in a special mating activity, with eerie sounds echoing—it was the call of the over 3 meters long giant worm.

"Get ready to move in..." Xu Shu lowered his voice, mainly to remind Lan Xin, hoping she would love him a bit more, act as a good milk-mother, and save him from having to endure the pain later, looking for a place to hide and do sit-ups to recover.

Daoist Chen Nian also chuckled, shaking her whisk broom, and said high-spiritedly, "Let’s go, we’ve seen Gu Lishi’s techniques before, and this time we will surely be able to slay those two despicable tempters under our horses!"

She had been quiet on the way, rarely speaking, but now she seemed to harbour great animosity towards opponents associated with "lust" much like Xie Xiaochan.

"Opponent is strong, Mr. Xu Shu, please wait a moment, let me attack first, then you can go in and lure the enemy." Standing at the back, the preacher-like, ever-silent Udirus stepped forward and opened his black leather book.

Page after page filled with tiny letters turned automatically in the breezeless air, swiftly flipping, and he rapidly chanted, "I came, I saw, I redeemed..."

That book held mysterious and holy powers that flowed into his palm, seemingly accumulating a series of pure white energies. (Note 1)

Compared to his earlier minimal skimming, facing a formidable enemy now, he naturally took it up with twelve points of spirit.

Preacher Udirus was chanting!

Given that it was a skill requiring chanting to activate, its potency was imaginable, and Xu Shu also took a slight step aside.

He knew that what the other party was about to cast was a skill called "Holy Light Baptism," similar to a laser cannon, a skill of energy effusion.

This skill would deal great damage to that worm, not only taking away half of its life but also the lingering white holy light which could stick and interrupt its bonding process with the Slaanesh·Little Demon, severing their connection.

For the upcoming close combat between Xu Shu and the worm, this was extremely beneficial.

Xu Shu had heard of a profession called "Decree Mage," which seemed to have an almost identical skill, except the spell was "I came, I saw, I sued!"

He didn’t know what their relationship was with the preachers.

Next, just waiting for Rudy to finish his skill, Xu Shu could move in.

However, just as the preacher was continually chanting the spell, someone suddenly sobbed quietly behind him, "I’m sorry I don’t want to... but there’s no way... he forced me... die..."

"!"

These bizarre words naturally caught the attention and vigilance of the people in front.

However, before they could turn around, they heard a splashing sound as flesh was pierced followed by a resolute "die!"

Udirus immediately stumbled backward, stopped chanting, and his treasured Holy Bible fell to the ground, smeared with his blood.

Embedded in a vital spot at his back was a dagger flashing with black light, with web-like arrays extending from it, seemingly continually devouring his life.

The scent of blood directly stimulated the two creatures on that side, who coiled up alertly, discovered the people here, and charged furiously!

The worm stood upright like a cobra, its Slaanesh·Little Demon atop its head in the form of numerous-eyed tumors, much like its meat crest, continuously spraying pink poisonous fog.

"F*** your mother...

"Jingwei!!!"

At that moment, Xu Shu had no choice unless he let the monster charge in to attack others, but he knew the lethality of this creature was alarming. If it got in, the others had no chance of surviving.

Thus, Xu Shu didn’t hesitate at all, directly charging with Jingwei right into the fray.

He pinned the mating-peak-condition worm to the ground, pummeling it with wild punches.

The worm, not to be outshined, although its skin was mangled, let out shrill, piercing screeches and spat barbed quills from its mouthpiece, clanging against Xu Shu’s body.

Its crimson meat crest lit up, spraying bizarre poison fog at Xu Shu.

One man, two monsters, twisting and scuffling together.

Time seemed to stop.

After a few seconds, other teammates, Chen Nian and Bi Chaoyang, hurried to check on Udirus’s condition.

"Are you f***ing okay?" Bi Chaoyang hesitated briefly, deciding not to rashly pull out the dagger.

However, that dagger was quite special, and Udirus, coughing up big mouthfuls of black blood, could barely speak, breathing more in than out.

"Lan Xin, why on earth did you do this?" Chen Nian, her eyes red, stared deathly at the retreating nun, clearly extremely angry.

Seeing her trying to escape, Hong Yan who rushed over wasn’t as patient as Chen Nian, angrily kicked out and cursed, "F***ing what did you do!?"

While cursing, he pinned down the nun Lan Xin to the ground, the dagger slicing through her throat’s skin, firmly pinning her down, furiously shouting, "Get him treated now, or I’ll kill you, understand?!"

"Ha ha, ha ha..."

As a nun pinned down by a rascal, Lan Xin couldn’t escape, but her face revealed no fear, instead displaying a ghastly smile, then made a strange motion.

In front of everyone, she once again opened her promotion network and tapped twice.

[You have left the group!]

[You have accepted Zhang Yi’s team invitation, you agree to share location!]

Hong Yan: "?"

Chen Nian: "?"

Bi Chaoyang: "?"

Even in their fury, they were stunned for a second by this scene.

Lan Xin’s mouth twitched, her gaze bottoming out in deep purple, expanding infinitely, replacing her originally pretty pupils:

"Everyone... will die..."

"Including me..."

"...and including you."

As she spoke, a strange silver chain appeared at her waist, squeezing against her bones, burrowing into her flesh and creating eerie magical patterns, eventually resembling a giant spider!

Hong Yan’s eyes widened.

"F***, do you have an alien species’ slave mark?"

"You damned traitor!"

Like triggering some mechanism, tinkling sounds began to ring.

Echoing through the empty forest, continuously unbroken.

Rustling...

Rustling...