Chapter 17: Qingzhou-ge Is Amazing
The boss gave them absolutely no time to react. The game screen flashed several warning signals, and then the vine attack began. The four people snatched away by the vines were completely immobilized. No matter what skill button they pressed, nothing happened.
At the same time, the game displayed a prompt: Each player could rescue only one person. Once a rescue target was selected, it could not be changed. Otherwise, Mad Monk Ming Kong would deem the player indecisive and immediately hit them with a devastating attack that removed half their health bar. The rescue method itself was simple. Determine the direction in which the vine would swing, attack it, and keep attacking until its health bar was depleted.
The vines carried the four victims into the air, and the assault began almost immediately, leaving no room for deliberation. The health bars of the captured players dropped rapidly.
Wujin Shi immediately started issuing commands. "Qingtian Wai, save Baobao Hong. Fusheng, save Gou Yao Zou. Qian Yu, save Wei Yu!"
Two minutes later, Fusheng and Gao Yao Zou were the first to die.
The vines swung with no obvious pattern and at incredible speed. By the time players reacted and cast a skill, it was already too late. This meant players had to predict the vine's movement in advance, calculate its trajectory beforehand, and cast skills preemptively if they wanted any chance of hitting it.
After missing twice and landing only one hit, Qingtian Wai howled: "This is insane! Absolutely insane!"
Soon afterward, Qingtian Wai and Baobao Hong's pair were wiped out as well.
Qian Yu landed two hits and lasted until the third group fell.
Wujin Shi and Qingzhou Yiguo were still holding on. Wujin Shi had managed three successful hits and two misses purely through his astonishing reflexes and hand speed.
High above the ground, Qingzhou Yiguo was being whipped back and forth through the air by the vine like a tuft of cotton. His camera angle spun wildly, leaving him dizzy and disoriented. To enhance the eerie atmosphere of the secret realm, the game's environment designers had made the side hall especially dilapidated. Above him were only half-collapsed roof beams and ruined eaves. Moonlight shone through the gaps. Dust drifted everywhere. Spiderwebs hung from every corner.
Wait. Dust?
Chi Zhen's eyes widened. He stared at the dust particles dancing, swirling, and spiraling through the air currents generated by the rapidly swinging vines.
The dust formed a faint but visible trajectory.
This game's engine is incredible!
There was no time to marvel at it. Chi Zhen immediately shouted, "Wujin Shi! Attack at your three o'clock!"
Without questioning him, Wujin Shi instinctively fired a skill in the indicated direction.
Hit!
The vine recoiled.
But it was already too late. The last sliver of health remaining on Qingzhou Yiguo vanished.
The moment his health bar emptied, Wujin Shi's character also collapsed. Eight corpses lay sprawled across the filthy floor while the boss mercilessly mocked them.
[System] Mad Monk Ming Kong: Ridiculous! Ridiculous! If you cannot even defeat a vine, how can you stand before me? Cultivators are hypocritical, weak, and incompetent! You cannot even protect your own partners—what immortality do you cultivate, what Dao do you seek? Begone!
[Nearby] Baobao Hong: F*** you.
[Nearby] Gou Yao Zou Wo Bu Liu: What partner?! Did you ever ask us?! Where the hell are there any partners here?!
[Nearby] Qingtian Wai: No, seriously, I have a question. What happens if there's no female character in the party? Forced bromance?
[Nearby] Qian Yu: That's not the point. It's just a game mechanic that puts people into pairs.
[Nearby] Baobao Hong: I can already imagine the bloodbath this mandatory-pairing mechanic is going to cause across the entire Love's Inquiry game world.
"Release and revive," Wujin Shi said.
All eight players immediately clicked the revive option and respawned at the entrance to the Mount Xumi Secret Realm.
They stood there complaining in unison about how absurdly difficult Mad Monk Ming Kong's pre-boss minigame was.
Fusheng Zui Qing hadn't landed a single hit. He was beginning to seriously question whether he was even qualified to play video games.
Qian Yu analyzed calmly. "Unless someone has god-tier reflexes and hand speed, this phase is nearly impossible. Since dungeon design is supposed to allow most players to clear it, the vines' movement pattern must follow some kind of rule."
Wei Yu Ning Qiu looked at Qingzhou Yiguo. "Did you figure something out?"
Wujin Shi also turned toward him.
Excitedly making his character hop up and down, Chi Zhen explained: "The dust!"
The others still looked confused. But Wujin Shi and Wei Yu Ning Qiu understood instantly.
"You're pretty good," Wei Yu Ning Qiu said.
His tone was completely neutral, revealing neither approval nor dislike.
Wujin Shi asked, "How confident are you about a second attempt?"
Forgetting that nobody could see him nodding, Chi Zhen nodded repeatedly. "Very!"
"Um... could the experts explain what they're talking about to us mortals?" Baobao Hong interjected timidly.
"You explain it," Wujin Shi said. "Everyone listen carefully. The people grabbed next time may not be the same four. Everyone needs to learn how to read the dust."
Chi Zhen gave a detailed explanation. "When the vines swing, they create air currents. Those air currents move the dust. The dust's movement path is the vine's movement path. The people caught in the air need to immediately judge the vine's direction from the dust and call it out. The people below should stay as still as possible and use their partner as a reference point when calling directions. Melee classes can use hidden weapons to attack. I paid attention just now. Skill strength doesn't matter. Every successful hit removes two thousand HP from the vine. It looks like you need ten successful hits to clear the phase. Every time the vine is hit, the health-drain rate on the captured player slows down."
Silence.
Qingtian Wai was the first to speak. "You're amazing, Qingzhou-ge."
Baobao Hong sighed. "Were we even grabbed by the same vine? How come the world you saw was completely different from the one I saw? I might as well throw these eyes away."
Qian Yu agreed. "Wujin Shi was right. Your game sense is really good."
The compliments left Chi Zhen embarrassed. He suddenly didn't know what to say.
[You're amazing, streamer!]
[Please, streamer, make a detailed guide video after clearing the dungeon!]
[Maybe I'm actually blind. When Xiao Chi got dragged into the air, all I saw was darkness.]
[Honestly, if I were Wujin Shi, I'd like playing with this streamer too. He's incredible.]
[Wujin Shi is amazing too. The moment Xiao Chi called it out, he reacted instantly and landed the hit.]
[Maybe this is what they mean by heroes recognizing heroes.]
Chi Zhen glanced at the barrage comments before asking the party for permission.
"I recorded the dungeon run. If we clear it, I'd like to make a strategy guide video. I'll edit out everyone's voice chat and conversations. Is that okay?"
Everyone agreed. Everyone except Wei Yu Ning Qiu, who said nothing.
As Qingzhou Yiguo ran forward, Chi Zhen kept glancing at Wei Yu Ning Qiu's character ahead of him. He wanted to ask. But he didn't dare. He was afraid Wei Yu Ning Qiu would stab him with another sarcastic remark—something about how streamers had to broadcast everything and turn everything into content. Chi Zhen hated public arguments. Just imagining such a scene made him nervous.
Apparently seeing through his hesitation, Wujin Shi spoke up for him. "Wei Yu, you haven't given your opinion yet."
"No objection," Wei Yu Ning Qiu replied. "Not like it matters. The whole thing was streamed live anyway."
Well… She agreed. But somehow it still sounded sarcastic.
Chi Zhen felt like crying.
He was just trying to play games. Just trying to stream. Who had he offended? How had he ended up trapped in a battlefield like this?
The second attempt began.
To everyone's surprise, the people grabbed this time were Baobao Hong, Qingtian Wai, Gou Yao Zou, and Wei Yu Ning Qiu.
Only then did they discover that understanding the theory and actually doing it were two very different things.
Air currents moving dust? In the dim environment, all they could see was dust flying everywhere. Even if they plucked out their eyeballs and held them in their hands, they still wouldn't be able to see any trajectory.
Only during the final minute did Wei Yu Ning Qiu begin to grasp the method.
The third attempt started.
This time, a different group was captured.
Qingzhou Yiguo was dragged into the air again. Every one of his judgments was accurate. Wujin Shi successfully depleted one vine's entire health bar. Besides correctly determining the vine's direction, the two players also needed flawless teamwork. One called the target. One attacked. Perfect coordination. Only then could they succeed. The other three pairs still failed. In the end, only the two of them remained to face Mad Monk Ming Kong's enraged state. Without a healer, they quickly died as well.
As all eight corpses lay scattered across the filthy floor of the side hall once again, the group fell into even deeper silence.
Qingtian Wai sighed once more. "Qingzhou-ge... you're seriously incredible. I think I might actually be blind."
The boss gave them absolutely no time to react. The game screen flashed several warning signals, and then the vine attack began. The four people snatched away by the vines were completely immobilized. No matter what skill button they pressed, nothing happened.
At the same time, the game displayed a prompt: Each player could rescue only one person. Once a rescue target was selected, it could not be changed. Otherwise, Mad Monk Ming Kong would deem the player indecisive and immediately hit them with a devastating attack that removed half their health bar. The rescue method itself was simple. Determine the direction in which the vine would swing, attack it, and keep attacking until its health bar was depleted.
The vines carried the four victims into the air, and the assault began almost immediately, leaving no room for deliberation. The health bars of the captured players dropped rapidly.
Wujin Shi immediately started issuing commands. "Qingtian Wai, save Baobao Hong. Fusheng, save Gou Yao Zou. Qian Yu, save Wei Yu!"
Two minutes later, Fusheng and Gao Yao Zou were the first to die.
The vines swung with no obvious pattern and at incredible speed. By the time players reacted and cast a skill, it was already too late. This meant players had to predict the vine's movement in advance, calculate its trajectory beforehand, and cast skills preemptively if they wanted any chance of hitting it.
After missing twice and landing only one hit, Qingtian Wai howled: "This is insane! Absolutely insane!"
Soon afterward, Qingtian Wai and Baobao Hong's pair were wiped out as well.
Qian Yu landed two hits and lasted until the third group fell.
Wujin Shi and Qingzhou Yiguo were still holding on. Wujin Shi had managed three successful hits and two misses purely through his astonishing reflexes and hand speed.
High above the ground, Qingzhou Yiguo was being whipped back and forth through the air by the vine like a tuft of cotton. His camera angle spun wildly, leaving him dizzy and disoriented. To enhance the eerie atmosphere of the secret realm, the game's environment designers had made the side hall especially dilapidated. Above him were only half-collapsed roof beams and ruined eaves. Moonlight shone through the gaps. Dust drifted everywhere. Spiderwebs hung from every corner.
Wait. Dust?
Chi Zhen's eyes widened. He stared at the dust particles dancing, swirling, and spiraling through the air currents generated by the rapidly swinging vines.
The dust formed a faint but visible trajectory.
This game's engine is incredible!
There was no time to marvel at it. Chi Zhen immediately shouted, "Wujin Shi! Attack at your three o'clock!"
Without questioning him, Wujin Shi instinctively fired a skill in the indicated direction.
Hit!
The vine recoiled.
But it was already too late. The last sliver of health remaining on Qingzhou Yiguo vanished.
The moment his health bar emptied, Wujin Shi's character also collapsed. Eight corpses lay sprawled across the filthy floor while the boss mercilessly mocked them.
[System] Mad Monk Ming Kong: Ridiculous! Ridiculous! If you cannot even defeat a vine, how can you stand before me? Cultivators are hypocritical, weak, and incompetent! You cannot even protect your own partners—what immortality do you cultivate, what Dao do you seek? Begone!
[Nearby] Baobao Hong: F*** you.
[Nearby] Gou Yao Zou Wo Bu Liu: What partner?! Did you ever ask us?! Where the hell are there any partners here?!
[Nearby] Qingtian Wai: No, seriously, I have a question. What happens if there's no female character in the party? Forced bromance?
[Nearby] Qian Yu: That's not the point. It's just a game mechanic that puts people into pairs.
[Nearby] Baobao Hong: I can already imagine the bloodbath this mandatory-pairing mechanic is going to cause across the entire Love's Inquiry game world.
"Release and revive," Wujin Shi said.
All eight players immediately clicked the revive option and respawned at the entrance to the Mount Xumi Secret Realm.
They stood there complaining in unison about how absurdly difficult Mad Monk Ming Kong's pre-boss minigame was.
Fusheng Zui Qing hadn't landed a single hit. He was beginning to seriously question whether he was even qualified to play video games.
Qian Yu analyzed calmly. "Unless someone has god-tier reflexes and hand speed, this phase is nearly impossible. Since dungeon design is supposed to allow most players to clear it, the vines' movement pattern must follow some kind of rule."
Wei Yu Ning Qiu looked at Qingzhou Yiguo. "Did you figure something out?"
Wujin Shi also turned toward him.
Excitedly making his character hop up and down, Chi Zhen explained: "The dust!"
The others still looked confused. But Wujin Shi and Wei Yu Ning Qiu understood instantly.
"You're pretty good," Wei Yu Ning Qiu said.
His tone was completely neutral, revealing neither approval nor dislike.
Wujin Shi asked, "How confident are you about a second attempt?"
Forgetting that nobody could see him nodding, Chi Zhen nodded repeatedly. "Very!"
"Um... could the experts explain what they're talking about to us mortals?" Baobao Hong interjected timidly.
"You explain it," Wujin Shi said. "Everyone listen carefully. The people grabbed next time may not be the same four. Everyone needs to learn how to read the dust."
Chi Zhen gave a detailed explanation. "When the vines swing, they create air currents. Those air currents move the dust. The dust's movement path is the vine's movement path. The people caught in the air need to immediately judge the vine's direction from the dust and call it out. The people below should stay as still as possible and use their partner as a reference point when calling directions. Melee classes can use hidden weapons to attack. I paid attention just now. Skill strength doesn't matter. Every successful hit removes two thousand HP from the vine. It looks like you need ten successful hits to clear the phase. Every time the vine is hit, the health-drain rate on the captured player slows down."
Silence.
Qingtian Wai was the first to speak. "You're amazing, Qingzhou-ge."
Baobao Hong sighed. "Were we even grabbed by the same vine? How come the world you saw was completely different from the one I saw? I might as well throw these eyes away."
Qian Yu agreed. "Wujin Shi was right. Your game sense is really good."
The compliments left Chi Zhen embarrassed. He suddenly didn't know what to say.
[You're amazing, streamer!]
[Please, streamer, make a detailed guide video after clearing the dungeon!]
[Maybe I'm actually blind. When Xiao Chi got dragged into the air, all I saw was darkness.]
[Honestly, if I were Wujin Shi, I'd like playing with this streamer too. He's incredible.]
[Wujin Shi is amazing too. The moment Xiao Chi called it out, he reacted instantly and landed the hit.]
[Maybe this is what they mean by heroes recognizing heroes.]
Chi Zhen glanced at the barrage comments before asking the party for permission.
"I recorded the dungeon run. If we clear it, I'd like to make a strategy guide video. I'll edit out everyone's voice chat and conversations. Is that okay?"
Everyone agreed. Everyone except Wei Yu Ning Qiu, who said nothing.
As Qingzhou Yiguo ran forward, Chi Zhen kept glancing at Wei Yu Ning Qiu's character ahead of him. He wanted to ask. But he didn't dare. He was afraid Wei Yu Ning Qiu would stab him with another sarcastic remark—something about how streamers had to broadcast everything and turn everything into content. Chi Zhen hated public arguments. Just imagining such a scene made him nervous.
Apparently seeing through his hesitation, Wujin Shi spoke up for him. "Wei Yu, you haven't given your opinion yet."
"No objection," Wei Yu Ning Qiu replied. "Not like it matters. The whole thing was streamed live anyway."
Well… She agreed. But somehow it still sounded sarcastic.
Chi Zhen felt like crying.
He was just trying to play games. Just trying to stream. Who had he offended? How had he ended up trapped in a battlefield like this?
The second attempt began.
To everyone's surprise, the people grabbed this time were Baobao Hong, Qingtian Wai, Gou Yao Zou, and Wei Yu Ning Qiu.
Only then did they discover that understanding the theory and actually doing it were two very different things.
Air currents moving dust? In the dim environment, all they could see was dust flying everywhere. Even if they plucked out their eyeballs and held them in their hands, they still wouldn't be able to see any trajectory.
Only during the final minute did Wei Yu Ning Qiu begin to grasp the method.
The third attempt started.
This time, a different group was captured.
Qingzhou Yiguo was dragged into the air again. Every one of his judgments was accurate. Wujin Shi successfully depleted one vine's entire health bar. Besides correctly determining the vine's direction, the two players also needed flawless teamwork. One called the target. One attacked. Perfect coordination. Only then could they succeed. The other three pairs still failed. In the end, only the two of them remained to face Mad Monk Ming Kong's enraged state. Without a healer, they quickly died as well.
As all eight corpses lay scattered across the filthy floor of the side hall once again, the group fell into even deeper silence.
Qingtian Wai sighed once more. "Qingzhou-ge... you're seriously incredible. I think I might actually be blind."
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