The String Sword in the shadow’s hand stopped an instant before stabbing into its own leg, then it immediately backed up a few steps, pulling distance from Tang Xin.

She remained silent, while Tang Xin flicked up her String Sword and walked toward the shadow, step by step.

"Looks like your weak point is your right leg."

When an elite monster’s Attributes far exceed the current player’s stats, there’ll be a ’warning’ prompt, and this shadow Assassin had none, so clearly he wasn’t the invincible existence he claimed to be.

Just like Achilles in myth—because Achilles’ mother Thetis grabbed him by the ankle after he was born and dipped him into the waters of the Nether River—his body became immune to blades and spears. The right ankle that never touched the Nether River became Achilles’ only weak point.

In this dungeon, the shadow Assassin’s prototype was obviously Achilles, but its version of "immune to blades and spears" manifested as copying the enemy’s movements to achieve "invincibility." It kept only a single flaw on its body as its weak point.

"So what? Even if you know my weak point, then what? Come at me and try!"

The shadow’s rationality was fraying in panic; facing the girl who kept closing in, it waved its hand and shouted.

"As long as I protect my weak point, you’ll never be able to defeat me."

"Is that so?" Tang Xin said. "When a King realizes his regime might be overthrown, he falls into endless suspicion. He serves cup after cup of poisoned wine at the banquet, turns tyrannical and capricious, and in the end gets slain on his own throne by rebels who’ve had enough."

Tang Xin pressed forward step by step, the shadow retreated step by step, and a bead of sweat slid down from the shadow’s forehead.

"The more precious you treat a vase, the more likely you’ll be the one who smashes it someday."

"When a God’s HP bar is exposed, that’s when They can be killed."

Tang Xin halted right in front of it; the shadow’s back hit the wall, with nowhere left to retreat.

It was cowed by the girl’s overwhelming presence, as if the moment she saw through its weak point, its defeat had already been sealed.

’Tang Xin’s’ face faded away, and the shadow revealed its true form again, turning back into a lump of black human-shaped silhouette.

"The irony of drama is that the instant a character’s weakness is exposed, their loss has already become inevitable."

Tang Xin idly teased the tip of her sword; the sharp edge split her fingertip, a few streaks of crimson sliding down along the String Sword like crimson thorns, stabbing deep into the shadow Assassin’s eyeballs.

She lifted her eyes languidly, the corners of her lips quirking up; in the deep blue of her irises flashed a hint of flippant mockery.

"Want to try what it feels like to be pierced by Paris’ poisoned arrow?"

At that moment, the shadow’s psychological defenses completely collapsed. In its eyes, Tang Xin’s figure became a screaming Devil, smiling with crescent eyes as she moved in to devour it. Its vision shook and trembled; like a drowning man, it gulped for air, only to sink deeper and deeper beneath the water...

"Next, I’m going to keep attacking your weak point. You hurt me and I’ll trade wound for wound with you, all the way until the moment you kill me, or I kill you, and then it stops..."

Tang Xin didn’t continue, because the shadow Assassin had already turned into a puddle of squirming slime in front of her, its eyes brimming with tears, looking small and pitiful.

"Language-type skill ’You also don’t want to...’ Charm Attribute check successful, ’Shadow Assassin’ has temporarily lost the desire to fight."

Tang Xin let out a breath, reached out, and with a crisp ’pop’ pinched the slime to death, cutting off future trouble.

Her frontal combat ability wasn’t strong; if it really came down to a fight, she’d likely be drawn into a slogging battle, and then things would get troublesome on Youyou’s side.

Being able to solve a problem without having to fight felt damn good.

Thinking this, after dealing with the shadow Assassin, Tang Xin immediately set off toward Bai Youyou’s direction.

...

Bai Youyou was running full tilt forward with Bai Wei’an in her arms; several strongmen lumbered steadily at her side. One of them suddenly had red light flare in its eyes as its head twisted a full one-eighty, its gaze locking onto Bai Youyou.

She saw its arm lift, steam gushing out as several mechanical grappling claws shot forth. The steel cables snapped taut in an instant, forming a guillotine that slashed straight for the girl’s neck.

Bai Youyou leaped up with agility, stepped on the steel cable and sprang into the air again, then twisted midair; Osiris appeared in her right hand, and she swung it down with full force onto the cable.

The steel cable instantly turned into a screaming serpent, whipping wildly through the air, colliding and tangling with several other cables. Sparks exploded outward, and those cables suddenly cinched tight around another strongman’s neck, brutally wrenching its head clean off; exposed wires crackled with arcs of electricity.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Like a butterfly effect, the thrashing cables entangled several strongmen in succession. A series of explosions rang out; several strongmen were shredded, and the shrapnel they blasted out carried flames, grazing across Bai Youyou’s cheek.

The strongman who’d caused all this scratched its head, then was pounced on by another strongman; more strongmen piled on, and very quickly a small hill of them formed. Just as Bai Youyou was puzzled, a sound of something cleaving the air came from behind her.

Her pupils constricted; she flipped her Heavy Hammer upside down and smashed it into her own chest, writing herself the command: "Arch your body back at an impossible angle."

The next second, Bai Youyou bent backward in an extremely flexible posture; a blood-red beam brushed right past her chest, blasting through, kicking up a shockwave. Everything along its path, every building, was completely obliterated.

This was the third ability of the Severing Holy Armor: it could write commands into the wearer herself, as long as the command was something she was capable of doing. Once issued, she’d execute it at maximum efficiency until the command was completed.

That attack just now was from Gernika!

Bai Youyou looked back and saw that Gernika’s figure had appeared at some point. It leapt out from the Nether River of the dead and the fiery sky, threw back its head and howled. The war drums beat faster and louder, the horn for the fifth charge blared—iron hooves of the Divine Kingdom were about to trample this world!

"Son of a—" Demon Slayer finally managed to stick his head out from the flood of the dead, only for the claw of an Edger to slap down over his skull. "Someone’s groping my ass!" 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"How many phases does this bastard even have?" Evil Slayer was likewise swept along in the torrent of the dead. "This is some next-level bullshit!"

Wherever the Nether River flowed, building after building was toppled and collapsed, becoming nourishment to feed the river; countless dead souls churned and raged within it.

Chu E yelled as he struggled, casually yanking out the arm that had been shoved into his throat. "I don’t play with monkeys, get the hell away from me you bastard!"

Once she confirmed that the three brothers were still lively as ever, Bai Youyou exhaled, though her expression was just as grim.

If it weren’t for the Skyline City strategy guide marking a ’???’ above Gernika, she would’ve thought she’d somehow pissed off the dungeon’s final BOSS out of nowhere.

Just then, the Bai Wei’an in Bai Youyou’s arms, perhaps stimulated by the outside environment, suddenly had her mangled limbs start moving. She hugged her own head, curling her whole body up.

Bai Youyou bent slightly, and could hear the woman’s hoarse sobbing.

"Don’t come closer... don’t come closer... don’t hurt my child..."