The White-Robed Beauty was frozen in place for a moment, its astonishment quickly turning into rage—an uncontrollable rage.
Snow began falling around it, the ground rapidly icing over, spreading all the way to the protective barrier. The temperature plummeted thirty to forty degrees in an instant.
A crack even appeared on its pale, nearly translucent face. Ignoring the intense lightning and searing heat of the barrier, it thrust its long, blood-red nails straight forward.
As the blood-colored nails tore through the air, they carried a chilling, metallic scent of blood. Though they were still half an inch from the barrier, invisible spikes seemed to stab forward first.
The lightning on the barrier surged violently, blue-purple currents climbing up along the nails. Waves of heat rushed toward the White-Robed Beauty's arm, but it acted as though it felt no pain at all. It pushed its fingertips forward again, the nail tips already touching the edge of the barrier...
With a sizzling crackle, the current scorched black marks onto its pale arm. It didn't even frown. Instead, it let out a suppressed growl, raised its other hand—also tipped with blood-red nails—and swiped viciously at Qi Xu inside the barrier!
Anyone with eyes could see it had only one thought: pure, simple murder of Qi Xu.
The White-Robed Beauty stopped caring about the burns on its arm. Its hands alternated, clawing and tearing. The scraping sound of nails against the barrier was harsh and piercing. Each strike widened the cracks in the barrier further until its hand finally reached right in front of Qi Xu's face.
"Do you really think this flimsy shield can stop me?!"
Qi Xu smiled, savoring the White-Robed Beauty's emotional collapse. Even as those bloody claws came at him, he didn't bother dodging. He taunted it again with a curse: "Baka."
He had no choice—his vocabulary was limited. Aside from that, he didn't know any other insults.
Earlier, Qi Xu had only vaguely suspected that this monster might be a site-managing creature from another country, with a role similar to A Snake's, sent here on a special mission.
But during the fighting, he suddenly recalled a Japanese folk monster: the Snow Woman.
Beautiful in appearance, with powers directly tied to life, death, and natural forces. She could freeze enemies with ice and snow, but was also skilled at exploiting human hearts to achieve her goals. Her true danger lay not in brute force, but in inescapable environmental traps and precise manipulation of human weakness. That fit perfectly with the details and logic of her earlier tactics: she didn't attack during the day but only struck with dirty tricks at night.
Qi Xu decided to test her...
Using the only phrase of her native language he knew, he tossed it back at her in a friendly, peaceful way. Sure enough, it got him the answer he wanted. Her fury said it all.
Seeing that Qi Xu didn't even flinch, the White-Robed Beauty's icy, perfect face twisted into something savage.
The corner of its mouth curled upward viciously. Qi Xu could hear the cracking of its knuckles—but right then, Qi Xu vanished.
With an elegant wave goodbye, he appeared at the entrance to the cross-server treasure map secret realm.
The White-Robed Beauty let out a roar. All its grace was gone. Its luminous white face turned flushed red with rage.
Bian and all the guild members gathered around. The White-Robed Beauty sneered contemptuously at this swarm of ants before it. What good did numbers do?
Just as it was about to launch a skill again, killing as many as it could, the crowd suddenly burst into wild, manic laughter. They pointed at it, clutching their stomachs, as if they were seeing the funniest thing in the world.
The White-Robed Beauty froze mid-motion, its blood-red nails hanging in the air. Fury mixed with bewilderment in its eyes. How dare these people?!
If it hadn't been for that top-tier Chinese pet last night, every single one of them would be dead already! And now they dared to laugh at it?!
"Have you lost your minds?!" Its voice trembled with rage. Its pale cheeks burned red, humiliated further by that laughter. But the laughter didn't stop. Bian was stomping the ground, still laughing while holding his belly.
"Are you insane?!"
Laughter and curses tangled together. What was supposed to be a tense, hostile standoff turned bizarrely chaotic and absurd.
The White-Robed Beauty went berserk, letting out another piercing shriek. But when it looked at the crowd, only four people remained. Before it could blink again, those four had disappeared too!
Qi Xu and Bian had it all planned out.
Qi Xu headed straight for the prearranged cross-server treasure map secret realm. The others had either gone back to grind guild dungeons or entered their own treasure maps—each group privately assigned in advance.
Both Qi Xu and Bian had several ordinary treasure maps on them. Each one only required being number one on the leaderboard once or twice to gain entry.
All that shameless plundering in other zones had finally paid off!
When everyone had completely vanished before the White-Robed Beauty, it couldn't hold back any longer. Rage wasn't enough to describe it anymore—it was utterly broken...
Qi Xu's mood improved a little, though his temples still throbbed faintly.
But when he looked at his other teammates, he suddenly felt a lot more balanced.
Endless Longevity was sprawled on the ground like a puddle of mud, barely able to move. Shadowkill was even worse, coughing up mouthfuls of blood far more than Endless Longevity was vomiting. Threeking and Wang Buyu were slightly better—still heavily wounded, their bodies covered in gashes, but at least they could sit instead of lie down.
"Ugh... cough... boss, how are you... cough... not injured? Don't tell me... you can handle monsters this strong..."
Even in her weakened state, Endless Longevity's curiosity and gossipy nature wouldn't let up.
Qi Xu tapped his own head. "I'm not doing much better than you. My brain is buzzing like crazy."
"Ha... haha cough, Shadowkill here is about to croak. You're way stronger..."
No one adapted to being weak better than Endless Longevity. Shadowkill couldn't even move, let alone retort.
Everyone used healing cards or small recovery items and rested for a few minutes.
Qi Xu approached Menmen first. "Do players from other countries not enter through you?"
"That's right. Each country has its own gate. Joint realms are unified in area, but the entrances and exits are different."
"Got it."
Qi Xu cleared his throat softly and lowered his voice. "The four people behind me—they're all number ones from different major zones in our country, incredibly strong. Not much less than me."
Qi Xu's real meaning was: they're all fat sheep, loaded with cash.
They were all ability users. Even with the lowered voice, close as they were, everyone heard it clearly. But since what Qi Xu said wasn't wrong, nobody cared.
……
