Chapter 21: Zuiyasi Feels Zuiyasi Is Very Arrogant
Su Xiao dismissed the prompt. Whether to ally with the Great Knight would depend on the situation within Nightmare Town, and besides, it wasn't certain they would even encounter him.
If the Nightmare King was absurdly powerful, allying with the Great Knight was a good choice. The one-third share of the [Scroll Fragment] after the battle seemed substantial, but Su Xiao never forgot that Wood and Zuiyasi, his current partners, would both become enemies after defeating the Nightmare King, competing with him for the [Scroll Fragment].
Reincarnation Paradise's prompts were always accurate, so the Great Knight's character was beyond doubt. From the previous prompt, he could guess what kind of person the Great Knight was—someone who wouldn't easily trust others, but once allied, wouldn't be suspicious or stab anyone in the back.
Thinking of this, Su Xiao glanced at Wood and Zuiyasi out of the corner of his eye. These two good teammates were masters of backstabbing. They were exceptionally reliable in normal times, but when it came time to divide the spoils, their usual reliability made them all the more dangerous.
"Bai Ye, I feel like you're thinking about stabbing me in the back. Is it my imagination?"
Zuiyasi spoke with a smile, suddenly breaking the silence. This bastard had an intuition as strong as a beast's.
"How could that be? We haven't dealt with the Nightmare King yet."
Su Xiao's words made Zuiyasi nod. "Yeah, that's true."
"Zuiyasi, you're undermining the team's unity."
Wood said as he looked around. They were now walking along the streets of Nightmare Town. The towering buildings on both sides were black under the night sky, with an eerie purple full moon overhead. The town was far too quiet.
"I misspoke."
Zuiyasi suppressed the doubt in his heart. He had clearly felt a chill down his spine just now, as if a blade was about to pierce his back.
"Now the three of us need to stick together."
"People? Among the three of us, it seems only Bai Ye is human."
"I'm a Devil Clan member, aren't you human, Zuiyasi?"
"Of course not. Have you ever seen a human whose face suddenly sprouts tentacles?"
"Good point. But your wife doesn't mind you suddenly growing tentacles, does she?"
"Of course not. She's quite happy about it."
"Oh~"
Wood drew out the word, looking as if he understood. Seeing this, Zuiyasi laughed and cursed under his breath.
"So we need to stick together. But... what is that thing? A dog?"
Zuiyasi, taking point, stopped in his tracks. From the shadows ahead, a gaunt dog emerged. Its fur had fallen out, revealing shriveled, rough skin. On its bony black body, numerous arrow spears were stuck haphazardly, each as thick as an egg and covered in cruel barbs.
Purple light gleamed in the black dog's eyes. Its lips were completely rotted away, leaving its teeth and gums exposed, making them look especially sharp and vicious.
"Is this the power the Nightmare King has gathered? It seems..."
Before Zuiyasi could finish, the black dog pushed off the ground and charged at him with terrifying speed.
Zuiyasi extended his right arm. Black tentacles shot out from his sleeve, intertwining into a mass half a meter thick, surging toward the black dog.
"Roar."
The black dog lunged fiercely. Amid the wet, slippery sounds of tentacles writhing, it was enveloped, entangled, and wrapped by the black tentacles.
Zuiyasi's massive arm, formed from black tentacles, writhed. This twisted, half-meter-thick, over ten-meter-long arm engulfed the black dog. After a bone-chilling sound of gnawing and decomposition, the black dog was reduced to nothing.
Pfft.
Zuiyasi chopped off the tentacle arm connected to his right arm with a hand blade, leaping backward. Midair, a wisp of purple light particles scattered from his right arm.
"Don't touch that black dog. You'll get corroded. Getting bitten by it would be very bad. Outside, it's no big deal, but this is the nightmare world. Trust me, here, never let those black dogs bite you. They aren't entirely living creatures; they're more like... a terrifying part of the nightmare itself. Yeah, that's the feeling."
Zuiyasi's combat experience was rich. Though he had instantly killed the black dog, he didn't underestimate it. When he crushed and decomposed it with his tentacles, he sensed the threat it posed.
Su Xiao understood Zuiyasi's meaning. If the other had a mark, a single sentence could explain the situation: touching this black dog would slightly reduce sanity, and getting bitten would cause a massive drop.
The black dog itself wasn't that strong, but this was the nightmare world, the Nightmare King's home turf, and also the home turf of these black dogs. Here, they were equivalent to the terrifying part of the nightmare.
Su Xiao checked his stats. Below his mana value, a new sanity value appeared: 295/330 points.
In the painting world, the greatest threat was the loss of sanity.
The speed of that black dog was noted in Su Xiao's eyes. If there were enough of them, the threat would become significant.
Slap, slap~
Black dogs emerged from the streets and alleys ahead, conservatively estimated at over a thousand.
"I'll handle it."
Zuiyasi pressed one hand to the ground. Without any visible action, black tentacles shot up from the ground ahead. These tentacles, like sharp cones, pierced through the bellies and heads of the black dogs. Every dog hit by this attack began sprouting black tentacles from its body, eventually exploding.
As soon as this batch died, more black dogs ran in from behind, all covered in arrow spears.
Seeing this, Zuiyasi raised his hand. An eyeball appeared on the back of his left hand. He tore off his left hand's pinky and ring fingers, tossing them aside. When they landed, the flesh at the severed ends grew wildly, eventually forming a large lump of meat.
Pfft, pfft.
A thick arm and a thin arm emerged from the rotten flesh, followed by Young Zuiyasi and Youth Zuiyasi crawling out.
This wasn't just a clone. The eye that appeared on Zuiyasi's hand was called the "Time Eye."
From this, it could be inferred that Zuiyasi's pinky, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, and thumb each represented a different age of him. The pinky was Young Zuiyasi, and so on, with the thumb being Elder Zuiyasi.
For someone like Zuiyasi, the older he got, the stronger and more troublesome he became.
Zuiyasi wouldn't easily summon his older self; the cost was too great. The more the "sacrificial body" exceeded his current age, the greater the burden he had to bear when using the Time Eye to bring it out. If he actually summoned Elder Zuiyasi, Zuiyasi himself would be half-dead at best.
"Go clear out the black dogs."
Zuiyasi himself gave the order. The Youth Sacrificial Body nodded in understanding, while the Young Sacrificial Body let out a light snort, glanced at Zuiyasi himself with contempt, and spat.
This made Zuiyasi's teeth ache. Seeing his younger self's pathetic demeanor, he wanted to slap him a few times. No wonder he used to be hunted down—he deserved to be beaten to death.
Thinking this, Zuiyasi felt a pang of awkwardness. The Young Sacrificial Body was essentially his past self, identical in every way, even the spitting motion was 100% synchronized.
"I used to be such an idiot."
Zuiyasi muttered under his breath, glaring at the Young Sacrificial Body. The Young Sacrificial Body sneered, crossed his arms, and walked forward along the street with a swagger so arrogant that Zuiyasi wanted to kick him.
Watching the Young Sacrificial Body walk away, Wood beside him sighed with emotion:
"Zuiyasi, you were so arrogant when you were young. How did you survive to now? It's a miracle you weren't beaten to death."
Hearing this, Zuiyasi laughed. He said, "The process was tough. Otherwise, why do you think I'm so hard to kill now?"