My Computer Leads to an Instance Dungeon

Seeing the giant heart and womb-like tissue inside the wall, Fang Zhen's earlier questions were answered in an instant. Everything clicked into place.

No wonder Ellick had to hibernate periodically and constantly change bodies. No wonder, even at such a disadvantage, he refused to flee the castle and was making a desperate stand here.

It turned out this castle had long since been biologically engineered. The great hall, in particular, was likely the most critical core of the Ancient Castle. Hidden within the walls was Ellick's new body, currently being nurtured.

Furthermore, he strongly suspected that Ellick's bloody rituals were a form of cloning technology from the Curse Seal World. This technique likely had some kind of defect, forcing Ellick to switch bodies roughly every twenty years.

This lined up perfectly with the rumors of Ellick entering a deep slumber once every twenty years. If such a defect existed, abandoning the castle would mean Ellick couldn't obtain a new body. In other words, something would go wrong, and he would likely die.

That was why this Vampire Count fought without retreat. For Ellick, escaping was tantamount to forfeiting his life.

In that moment, he felt he had found the truth.

A moment ago, the spear had stabbed the giant heart inside the wall twice, yet it hadn't burst.

The spear was coated with Blood Burst Secret Medicine.

It seemed illogical, but Fang Zhen had already figured out the problem.

For one, a soft, sac-like membrane enveloped the heart tissue, protecting it. The spear hadn't pierced all the way through, so the wound wasn't deep.

The other reason was that the heart was immense, and the surrounding blood vessels contained a massive volume of blood.

It's pointless to talk about poison without considering the dose. The Blood Burst Secret Medicine was effective, but the amount was far too small for such a huge mass of tissue. It might have even developed some resistance. After all, the thing in the wall wasn't some foreign creature, but more like a mutated, bio-engineered organism. The small dose on the tip of the spear was insufficient.

The amount of Blood Burst Secret Medicine on the spear tip was insufficient, but a whole bottle would surely be enough.

Fang Zhen's hand went to his waist.

In his pouch, he still had the nearly full bottle of Blood Burst Secret Medicine ointment he'd been given before the operation.

He planned to use his spear to tear an opening in the heart and pour the entire bottle of Blood Burst Secret Medicine inside.

Suddenly!

"Lowly creature, you dare touch my core specimen!"

Ellick let out a sudden shriek, leaping up and charging toward Fang Zhen.

The noble arrogance and composure had vanished from Ellick's face, replaced by a twisted mask of ferocious anger.

'He's panicking. He's totally panicking!'

Seeing Ellick's state, Fang Zhen was all the more certain he was on the right track.

He postured as if to continue his attack on the giant heart tissue in the wall.

Ellick leaped out of Jilenna's attack range, landing three to four meters away from Fang Zhen.

Ellick didn't dare get too close to Fang Zhen. His previous close-quarters attempts hadn't ended well, and he'd grown wary.

At this distance, Ellick's eyes suddenly turned completely blood-red. There were no pupils, no irises—only a deep, pure crimson glow that shot out as a visible ray of light.

The blood-red light struck Fang Zhen's eyes.

Fang Zhen's body stiffened.

He felt an alien will forcefully trying to overwrite his thoughts.

Though the will was formless, he could sense its characteristics—it felt viscous and nauseating. He knew that if his thoughts were overwritten, the consequences would be horrific.

Fang Zhen could even sense what the foreign will was trying to make him believe.

The alien will was trying to convince him that to defeat and kill Ellick, he first had to kill all the members of the Whig Society, including Jilenna. Only then could he achieve his goal of killing the Vampire Count.

In an instant, Fang Zhen recognized what this was.

Powerful hypnosis!

Ellick possessed the power to manipulate minds, and this powerful hypnosis was his signature ability.

Hypnosis was a peculiar thing. On one hand, ordinary hypnosis couldn't force someone to commit suicide or act directly against their own self-interest. However, certain hypnotic abilities could bypass a person's conscious defenses.

For example, a direct hypnotic suggestion for Fang Zhen to kill the Whig Society members and Jilenna, and then himself, would likely fail.

However, the hypnosis *could* make him believe that the deaths of the Whig Society members were inextricably linked to killing Ellick—that to kill the Count, he *had* to kill Gwendolyn and the others. That was achievable.

Hypnosis couldn't directly make Fang Zhen commit suicide, either. But a powerful hypnotic suggestion could convince him that an evil parasite was in his stomach, and that to live, he had to cut himself open and pull it out. In this way, it could bypass his mental defense mechanisms and achieve the goal of making him kill himself.

This was the kind of powerful hypnosis Ellick was using now.

If he fell for it, Fang Zhen really might kill Gwendolyn and the others due to the irrational hypnotic command planted in his mind.

However, just then, a bracelet etched with a pattern of thorns on Fang Zhen's left wrist erupted with a dark green glow.

The glow enveloped his hand and instantly surged toward his head.

He felt a slight stinging pain and instantly broke free from Ellick's powerful hypnosis.

At the same time, Ellick let out a pained scream. The Vampire Count clutched his head, nearly collapsing to the ground to writhe in agony. He had clearly suffered severe mental trauma.

'The Anti-Thorn Bracelet!'

It was the Extraordinary Item he had received from Dalia. When worn, if he was subjected to psychic or mental attacks, the thorns on the bracelet would manifest, stinging him and snapping him out of states like charm, control, or hypnosis.

Simultaneously, the caster would also suffer a psychic sting, a pain akin to having their own brain pierced by thorns.

Fang Zhen was mostly unharmed; the Anti-Thorn Bracelet had blocked Ellick's powerful hypnosis.

Ellick, however, had suffered a severe psychic backlash.

Fang Zhen shot his left hand up.

On his left wrist, besides the Anti-Thorn Bracelet, he also wore a ring.

The Thorn Ring.

The Thorn Ring could release Magic Thorns twice a day to trap a target, making it impossible for them to break free for a short time.

Ellick was incredibly agile, leaping all over the place. If he decided to flee, Fang Zhen might not be able to catch him.

Fang Zhen needed to pin Ellick to the ground and turn him into a stationary target!

Green light flared from Fang Zhen's left hand as he activated the Thorn Ring.

After a one-second casting time, dozens of barbed Magic Thorns erupted from the bluestone floor, completely entangling Ellick and pinning him to the ground.

Still reeling from the psychic backlash, Ellick was completely ensnared. He might have been able to dodge the Magic Thorns otherwise, but now he was trapped and couldn't struggle free.

The Magic Thorns were like barbed wire, incredibly difficult to escape. Ellick couldn't even run.

Fang Zhen leveled his spear and thrust at Ellick's vital points.

The Magic Thorns would last for at least ten seconds. For that duration, Ellick was nothing more than a stationary target.

In a matter of seconds, he landed seven or eight consecutive thrusts on Ellick.

Ellick screamed in agony. The spots where the spear struck began to swell grotesquely.

But Ellick was a Vampire Count, after all. Some power within his body seemed to resist the Blood Burst Secret Medicine. The swelling would be forcibly suppressed, only for the medicine's power to reassert itself, causing new bulges to appear elsewhere. It was as if the secret medicine and some mysterious force were at war inside Ellick's body.

Fang Zhen landed more than a dozen thrusts, including two to Ellick's head. Yet the Vampire Count's life force was incredibly tenacious. Though on the brink of death, he stubbornly clung to life.

Not only that, but a crazed light flared in Ellick's eyes. He looked like he was about to use some self-destructive ability, determined to take Fang Zhen down with him in a final, desperate struggle.

Seeing this, Fang Zhen retreated abruptly. At some point, he had pulled a vial from his pouch, which he now hurled, smashing it against Ellick's head.

A cloud of blood-red mist instantly dispersed.

It was an aerosolized version of the Blood Burst Secret Medicine!

Fang Zhen had stashed a bottle on himself earlier while finishing off the lesser minions.

Trapped in the mist and immobilized by the Magic Thorns, Ellick couldn't escape. After inhaling several breaths of the aerosolized medicine, he was clearly on his last legs.

Fang Zhen retreated quickly. Behind him was another gas canister.

He grabbed the canister and bowled it straight into the red mist.

The gas canister rolled into the blood-red mist.

Fang Zhen dropped into a crouch, set down his spear, and drew his Desert Viper. Aiming by instinct, he fired twice into the red mist.

BOOM! 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

A fireball erupted.

His blind shots had detonated the gas canister.

The flames shot skyward. Ellick, immobilized by the Magic Thorns, stabbed over a dozen times by the spear, and forced to inhale the aerosolized Blood Burst Secret Medicine, had now taken a gas canister explosion head-on.

Fang Zhen narrowed his eyes, peering into the inferno.

'Ellick... There's no way he survived that, right?'