Chapter 163: [Passing the Imperial Examination] Atop the Roof
“If I’d known, I should have said it sooner.”
Mother Han’s motion to rise and begin a bloody massacre came to a sudden halt.
Han Yingying pressed a soft kiss against her cheek.
“Mom, I really do love you. Please… love yourself too, alright?”
Mother Han froze, completely unable to move.
She slowly lowered her head, wanting to catch one last proper look at her daughter, but Han Yingying had already dispersed into nothingness.
Nothing remained except a single, tiny daisy.
Mother Han stared in utter disbelief at that weightless flower.
She reached out a gruesome claw, wanting to touch it, yet feared snapping it in two.
Because she was no longer human.
Her razor-sharp claws could easily tear it to shreds.
Mother Han clapped her hands over her face, letting out an inhuman shriek.
That voice overflowed with total despair and unbearable agony.
Bai Cha beckoned with her hand, and the tiny daisy floated gently into her palm.
As for Mother Han… Bai Cha paid her no mind for the moment.
She knew what Han Yingying had meant—the girl wanted her mother restored to normal.
That was an impossibility.
So she hadn’t agreed.
[Congratulations! You have obtained an A-rank item: A Tiny Daisy. Planting and using it inside any instance will summon the ferocious ghost Han Yingying to fight alongside you once.]
[Instance progress change detected. The instance is temporarily entering Battle Royale Mode.]
[Players must survive the relentless pursuit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, all surviving players will clear the instance.]
Inside the building, the parents who had turned entirely into demons surged out.
So did the deceased ghosts.
Every single one of them had entered hunting mode.
Meanwhile, the title hovering above Bai Cha’s head made her their primary, locked-on target.
Every time something like this happened, Bai Cha felt a sudden urge to curse out loud.
Coiling all her dodder vines, she effortlessly hoisted herself onto the treetops, scaling the walls of the building until she reached the rooftop.
The crimson demons trailed behind her, scrambling up the walls in hot pursuit.
Fortunately, this instance was large enough, and Bai Cha wasn’t the sole target; other players held titles as well.
It was just that their aggro levels weren’t nearly as high as Bai Cha’s.
Even so, Bai Cha single-handedly drew away nearly three-fifths of the crimson demons.
She was thoroughly speechless.
Li Shanshan and her group crowded together.
“My bullet chat said the big boss isn’t as high-ranked as us, but why do I feel like the chat room was lying to me?”
“Not necessarily. Maybe she’s just unlucky.”
Wang Jiapeng looked at that towering mass of red climbing upward with a mix of awe and deep emotion.
From time to time, a vine would shoot down from above, wrapping around a sharp blade and sliding past in a swift arc to send the leading crimson demons crashing to the ground.
It looked remarkably like a scene straight out of a zombie siege.
“Should we head over and lend a hand?”
Wang Jiapeng hesitated upon hearing the suggestion.
Thirty minutes was no short duration. Though five minutes had already passed, facing a horde of this scale made it hard to say if she could hold out until the end—some crimson demons had already reached the roof over there.
“Let’s go, time for a sneak attack!”
Wang Jiapeng waved his hand.
She had helped them out, after all.
Otherwise, they would still have been forced to eat brain matter and drink strange medicine last night.
Besides, the instance had reached a point where it could be cleared directly, a feat largely credited to her efforts.
Otherwise, if they really had to take the college entrance exam here…
Yikes! Battle Royale was way better!
The four of them quietly made their way over.
A few crimson demons down below spotted them immediately, several breaking off to sprint straight toward them.
They managed to draw off those few crimson demons, but the vast majority continued their relentless ascent up the building.
Bai Cha was completely surrounded now.
She used her dodder vines as much as possible to bind these crimson demons, hurling them violently down off the building.
The likelihood of killing them outright was slim.
These crimson demons had reached their fully evolved forms.
This proved that from the very beginning, those parents were in a state similar to the receptionist’s back then.
It was hard to say for the students, but the ghosts naturally carried obsessions or grudges; once the butterflies entered their bodies, immediate mutation was entirely within expectations.
There were simply too many of them, though.
In their crimson demon state, these students and parents were utterly incapable of communication.
The only sound echoing from their throats was the relentless repetition of their deepest desires.
“Get into university… get into university… get into university…”
“Study… study hard…”
“Stand out… I want to make a name for myself…”
Bai Cha drew Frost-Covered Mountain once again; this sword was undeniably effective, even if she preferred not to rely on it constantly.
She swung the blade in a clean arc, slicing straight through the head of the demon who wanted to make a name for himself.
Half his head was sheared off, sliding down to crash onto the roof floor.
Helping you stand out—you’re welcome!
The crimson demon froze for a split second before letting out a furious roar, lunging forward with terrifying speed.
Just as Bai Cha hesitated over whether to use her dodder vines to swing herself over to an adjacent building, a crimson silhouette suddenly flashed past her eyes.
It was the crimson demon whose head she had just sliced in half, thrown straight off the roof by his heels.
Bai Cha turned to look.
A crimson figure fought against the tide of incoming demons, tearing into them with an act of sheer, unbridled madness.
Bai Cha paused slightly.
“Mom?” she called softly.
The figure stiffened briefly, turning to unleash a fierce, enraged roar in her direction.
She harbored murderous intent toward her as well, yet she was actively suppressing the violent instincts driven by the title.
Bai Cha understood. She let out a soft sigh.
“I am Han Yingying.”
[Lies have taken effect. Duration of effect: 01:00.]
Mother Han’s breathing grew heavy and ragged. She shot her a deep look, single-handedly holding off more than half of the crimson demons surging toward Bai Cha.
The pressure on Bai Cha eased considerably.
However, her lie wasn’t told to deceive Mother Han—it was because Mother Han deserved a chance to see Han Yingying one last time.
Mother Han’s actions exceeded her expectations.
Discarding all regard for her own life, she tore through three or four crimson demons in a single breath, reducing them to a swirling storm of blood-red butterflies.
Bai Cha shredded the butterflies with her blade, preventing them from flying out any further.
The remaining crimson demons grew increasingly frantic, however.
Thirty minutes wasn’t particularly long, yet amidst a battle like this, every second stretched out endlessly.
Bai Cha stood ready at a moment’s notice to leap down toward the next building.
After a brief hesitation, she looked at Mother Han and used the final charge of Flower of Lies.
“Mom, come with me.”
Mother Han looked back, her pitch-black eyes staring deeply at her.
She didn’t move.
She couldn’t draw close to Bai Cha; doing so would make her lose control of her instincts.
That was the primal, irreconcilable murderous intent all crimson demons held toward a Demon Hunter.
Their relationship was strictly kill-or-be-killed.
She still couldn’t do it. She only wanted her daughter to be well.
That was her sole, unwavering obsession.
An obsession she would never alter, nor relinquish even in death!
Roaring once again, she hurled herself back into the demonic horde.
Seeing this, Bai Cha turned and departed without a single hint of lingering attachment.
She leaped straight over to an adjacent residential building.
Several crimson demons attempted to jump across after her.
Mother Han launched herself into the air, cutting them off in mid-flight.
She was only a single entity, however. Realizing that unless this member of their kind died, they would never be able to kill the Demon Hunter, the crimson demons swarmed Mother Han instead.
Ding—!
[Congratulations! You have survived until the end of Battle Royale Mode.]
[All surviving players will be teleported to the settlement interface in 30 seconds.]
One of Mother Han’s arms was severed in the frenzy, and both horns atop her head were snapped off.
Bai Cha stood quietly on the rooftop, the wind rustling her hair, her fingers twitching subtly.
Tightly intertwining, the dodder vines transformed into a resilient, heavy bow.
Raising her hand, she drew the string back.
SWISH—!
A thick, powerful strand of dodder vine shot forth like an arrow, piercing toward a crimson demon lunging at Mother Han.
The instant it made contact, the vine exploded into a glowing yellow net, trapping the demon inside.
Seizing the opening, Mother Han launched her counterattack.
