Chapter 39: What a Bunch of Scrubs

Q: What should you do when the BOSS enters phase two?

A: If you can win, keep fighting. If you can’t, just die and wait for the next round.

But reality isn’t a game.

There’s no second chance.

If Ling Xiaoyou doesn’t defeat this phase-two Devil, she’ll really die!

Not even a chance to become a Ghost! She’d be utterly annihilated!

After all, what kind of Ghost can die twice?

Ling Xiaoyou’s face was tense as she stared at the Devil.

Seeing his already terrifying face twist into an even more grotesque expression, she thought that if this was in a horror movie, it’d be the kind that kept people awake all night.

But to Ling Xiaoyou, who was already used to Ghosts and monsters, this was nothing.

What truly troubled her was that the Devil’s wounds had almost completely healed, and he felt even more dangerous than ever before.

But Ling Xiaoyou wasn’t about to just stand there and watch the Devil laugh arrogantly.

The Ghostfire-wrapped Shadow Ball in her hand was already charged.

She disappeared from her spot in an instant, reappeared in front of the Devil, and slammed the Shadow Ball into his face.

“Hehehe… GAAH!!”

The Devil, who had been grinning wildly and preparing to taunt Ling Xiaoyou, suddenly sounded like a duck with its neck wrung, letting out a pained, incomprehensible cry.

Ghostfire blossomed on his face like a bluish flower.

But the flower, like an epiphyllum, only flickered for a moment before vanishing without a trace.

Huh?

The Ghostfire went out?!

Ling Xiaoyou froze.

She hadn’t expected that a tactic that had worked before would suddenly be useless.

Before she could think further, the Devil, like an enraged beast, swung all four arms at her.

But now Ling Xiaoyou’s speed was nearly double what it had been before.

Even though the Devil was stronger than before, he still couldn’t keep up.

She lightly stepped on the ground and leapt up before the fists could reach her.

Her figure soared over the Devil’s head.

In her hand, another Ghostfire Shadow Ball formed and smashed directly toward the Devil’s eyes.

Without even checking the result, she flipped through the air and quickly distanced herself, assessing the Devil’s condition.

“Grrr! Damn little Ghost!!”

The Devil clutched his eyes, howling, while the two hands beneath his ribs pounded the surrounding trees in fury and pain.

If you’re hungry, go eat!

Ling Xiaoyou complained inwardly, her scarlet eyes watching the Devil.

She could clearly sense that Yin Qi was still present throughout the Devil’s body.

So why couldn’t Ghostfire keep burning on him?

The Devil’s screams didn’t stop.

Under his hands, bluish flames burned at his eyes.

Then, to Ling Xiaoyou’s shock, the Ghostfire burned only for a moment before a crimson light appeared.

The Ghostfire then snuffed out like a flame deprived of oxygen, and the charred eyes began to heal visibly.

It recovered so fast?

Ling Xiaoyou’s delicate eyebrows furrowed.

And what was that red light?

Suddenly, she recalled the scarlet Crystal the Devil had swallowed earlier, and the words he’d spoken about the ‘power granted by the Master’.

At first, she’d thought it was just typical BOSS-phase-two trash talk, nothing to worry about.

But now, it seemed the Devil’s transformation was definitely connected to his ‘Master’.

As for that ‘Master’s’ identity, Ling Xiaoyou could guess—it was likely the evil god [Zoa Sagg] she’d seen on the System Panel earlier.

Still, even knowing all this was useless.

She wasn’t fighting Zoa Sagg—just one of their underling Devils.

All that mattered now was understanding one thing:

While she could still deal damage to the Devil by detonating Ghostfire and Yin Qi inside him, she couldn’t make him keep bleeding through lingering burns.

That was a huge problem.

Now that the Devil could heal by breathing, the damage her tiny arms and legs could inflict might not even outpace his regeneration.

He was impossible to wear down!

She had to find a way to block regeneration—or get around the red light!

Wait.

I do have a spell that can avoid this!

In that case…

“ROAR!!”

Suddenly, the Devil’s roar snapped Ling Xiaoyou out of her thoughts.

All those ideas had flashed by in just a few seconds, but in that short time, the Devil had fully recovered—even the terrifying burns from the Ghostfire were slowly healing.

The Devil had no more patience for words.

His feet slammed into the ground, leaving deep footprints, and he lunged at Ling Xiaoyou.

All four arms swung in unison—two fists struck down, while the lower pair blocked her escape.

A powerful wind whipped from his fists.

Ling Xiaoyou’s expression hardened.

With a thought, she activated a unique Ghost ability.

Her figure vanished before the Devil’s eyes, like a drop of water absorbed by sand.

“Damn it, is running away all you can do, little Ghost?!”

Seeing his enemy dodge again, the Devil roared in fury.

“Run all I want, only an idiot would fight you head-on!”

Ling Xiaoyou popped her head out of the ground a short distance away, stuck out her tongue, pulled down her eyelid, and made a face.

True Ghost face.jpg

The fist crashed down, but Ling Xiaoyou had already sunk back into the ground, reappearing elsewhere to taunt the Devil again.

“Can’t hit me! You’re just a small fry!”

A massive foot stomped hard, but Ling Xiaoyou was long gone, leaving only footprints and web-like cracks behind.

“Ehehe, you think I’m on the ground? But I’m actually inside the tree!”

A white head popped out from a tree trunk.

The Devil’s fist smashed it, spraying wood chips everywhere.

Like a game of Whack-a-Mole, Ling Xiaoyou toyed with the Devil.

She achieved her goal, so this time, she didn’t reveal herself immediately, staying hidden underground.

“Come out! Little Ghost! I’ll throw your soul into my Master’s Abyssal Stomach—so you can suffer forever in the torment of digestive acid!”

The Devil’s angry roar echoed above, but Ling Xiaoyou remained unmoved.

She leisurely moved to a spot underground that, from above, was the very center of the ‘Whack-a-Mole’ arena, surrounded by destroyed ground and trees.

She buried a Ghostfire-wrapped Shadow Ball there, using spiritual power to keep it from detonating.

Then her figure instantly reappeared on the surface.

“Devil…”

Ling Xiaoyou was about to say something to lure the Devil over.

But before she could finish, the Devil, mind lost to rage, charged at her, massive fists raised.

Well, that saves me the trouble of taunting him.

Thinking this, Ling Xiaoyou vanished again, reappearing outside the ‘circle’.

She looked at the Devil in the center, raised her right hand, and snapped her fingers.

With a muffled sound, the already battered ground collapsed, and countless Ghostfire Shadow Balls Ling Xiaoyou had planted underground detonated all at once, engulfing the Devil.