Chapter 1 What Is All This…

Wanli Fengdao, crouching on a branch, gasped. Dozens of floating corpses emerged from all directions in the forest, surrounding the tree. Their cloudy, sinister eyes stared at him with a bloodthirsty desire.

Wanli Fengdao instinctively felt a sense of foreboding. The moment he leaped into the air, the towering tree beneath his feet was directly rammed by several floating corpses.

Branches snapped and leaves fluttered down, the crystalline rain clinging to the leaves falling like a waterfall.

Wanli Fengdao had no time to assess the situation below. He shot a grappling hook from his sleeve, anchoring it to a distant tree trunk, and swung forward.

Explosive arrows quietly followed an arc, heading for Wanli Fengdao’s back, accurately striking a gaunt floating corpse that had leaped up.

The fiery explosion engulfed the floating corpse, and the resulting thrust propelled Wanli Fengdao forward at an even greater speed.

But there was more than one floating corpse below.

The giant floating corpse roared, its broad feet stomping in the puddles on the ground, its entire body slamming into the tree and snapping the sturdy trunk.

In such a short time, there was no time to retract and relaunch the grappling hook. Wanli Fengdao was pulled down by gravity, falling towards the ground.

On the ground, more than a dozen floating corpses looked up, their mouths wide open, waiting for him to fall and be devoured.

Seeing that he was about to be surrounded by corpses, Wanli Fengdao twisted his body urgently, head down, feet up. The Zhanlong Sword in his hand unleashed sword qi, piercing the head of a floating corpse from top to bottom.

Using this as a fulcrum, he bounced back up, narrowly avoiding the grasping fingers of several floating corpses.

*Bang.*

Wanli Fengdao knelt on the ground, landing steadily, his feet dragging two long trails in the fallen leaves.

He looked up, his eyes cold, at the fourteen floating corpses charging towards him.

These bodies, swollen with water, had pale skin and bloated figures. Although their limbs and torsos were so distended that they seemed ready to burst at any moment, they were unbelievably tough.

They had no vital points. Whether it was a sword strike or a fiery explosion, it seemed impossible to destroy them directly.

Wait, fourteen? One was missing?

Far away, Liu Wunao, wearing strangely shaped binoculars, was sitting on a bicycle, drawing back her longbow.

Suddenly, a hemispherical, translucent blue barrier rose up around her within a ten-meter radius, and a rapid, dense alarm sounded in her ears.

This was a fine-grade item that the Liu family had acquired at a high price. It could provide early warning of malice from enemies and raise a defensive matrix in advance, physically blocking external projectiles.

Although there were no enemies in sight, the six o’clock position on the blue barrier quickly turned from blue to red, indicating the enemy’s location.

Without hesitation, Liu Wunao hastily fired an arrow, quickly mounted her bicycle, and began pedaling forward without looking back—the hemispherical barrier centered on her also began to move.

From a distance, it looked as if she was carrying a tortoise shell.

As she had said before, the Old Phoenix bicycle was very fast.

In half-power mode, it accelerated to nearly eighty kilometers per hour in an instant.

If Liu Wunao hadn’t been wearing night-vision goggles and a series of items that increased perception and agility, it would have been difficult to control the bicycle in the dark, rainy night.

A floating corpse had been planning to sneak up on her (Shui Yan knew that in a fight, he had to take out the ranged shooter who posed the greater threat first),

but before it could get close, it saw its target wearing a tortoise shell and running away, accelerating like crazy and impossible to catch up with.

The floating corpse stood there dumbfounded, enveloped in the fallen leaves kicked up by the Old Phoenix bicycle’s acceleration.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—*

Three arrows streaked in from strange angles, swiftly and accurately striking the floating corpse’s eye sockets and heart, exploding on impact.

The floating corpse was hit head-on by the soaring flames, its body seeming to have lost all its strength, shuddering violently and involuntarily kneeling on the ground.

Even worse, arrow after arrow rained down like a storm, accompanied by piercing, whistling sounds, streaking down from the sky in a curve.

Like the legendary Katyusha rocket launcher, a dense rain of fire descended from the sky, bringing destruction and death.

These arrows were all forged from special materials by players specializing in forging and enchanting, hired by the Liu family.

Each one cost anywhere from 50 to 150 game currency, several times more expensive than ordinary shells in the real world.

Every arrow fired was like throwing money at the opponent.

The floating corpse, kneeling on the ground, didn’t even have time to struggle or escape before it was hit by the devastating barrage of arrows, crushed into pieces, and scattered throughout the forest.

This kind of rocket launcher attack method required a long charge-up, was loud and slow, had a wide kill radius, was difficult to control accurately, and could easily injure teammates.

It was usually used to finish off enemies fixed in place, not for sneak attacks.

Liu Wunao, riding on the bicycle, silently retracted her longbow, her face pale—she had to rely on another buff skill to charge her arm in order to complete the rocket launcher attack.

The buff skill had a time limit, and after it was used, she would enter a long period of weakness.

Now that she had activated it, she had to take advantage of the skill’s duration and continue attacking.

Liu Wunao’s face was tense. She was about to slow the bicycle to a stop and launch an attack on the distant group of floating corpses when she noticed that the red alert on the hemispherical barrier hadn’t completely disappeared.

There was still an enemy target approaching her.

The direction was, to the left!

Liu Wunao’s hair swished as her slender fingers drew four explosive arrows from the quiver at her waist and steadily nocked them on the string.

Aiming with the binoculars at the enemy rushing towards her a hundred meters away, she drew the longbow to its full extent and suddenly released the string.

“Heh.”

A hundred meters away, Shui Yan, whose wounds were rapidly healing under the pouring rain, revealed a cunning smile.

The eighteen iron chains around its waist automatically floated up, hooking onto distant trees and dragging Shui Yan into a series of leaps and dodges in mid-air.

It drew the explosive arrows to chase after it, and finally, together with the diving Shui Yan, they slammed into the translucent blue barrier surrounding Liu Wunao.

*Boom—*

The barrier exploded, instantly shattering into countless fragments.

In the smoke and dust, Shui Yan slowly straightened up, its hideous wounds soaked in rain, rapidly healing.

“Found you.”

Shui Yan looked at Liu Wunao, who had fallen beside a tree trunk, and grinned hideously. The iron chains around its waist seemed to have smelled the scent of a living person, slithering along the ground, eager to attack.

It stepped forward, the rain falling down its wrinkled skin.

“Found you.”

A cold voice rang out above Shui Yan’s head.