343: Undead Dragon

"Dragon Demon! Dragon Demon, he's up, he's resisting."

"Dragon Demon!!!"

"Strong, too strong."

"Amazing."

After a beating, Lin Ye instead gained some fans who liked this style of combat.

As is well known, all battles are nothing more than a struggle between strength, speed, and defense.

Most prefer high damage output, but some also enjoy dancing on the edge of a blade with extreme speed.

Getting beaten? Presumably, no one wants that.

Those who practice this style are also a minority, and it's extremely rare among demons.

Demons fight a lot.

From the very beginning as demon worms, it's countless battles.

Grinding down opponents with defense is too inefficient.

While high-speed, high-attack players have already fought hundreds of matches and are swimming in spoils, you've only managed to grind down one opponent.

The growth of defensive players is destined to be difficult.

However, defensive players do not lack fans.

The obsession with health and resistance is deeply ingrained in the heart of every combat enthusiast.

Now, with the emergence of a durable Dragon Demon, it instantly ignited the passion of these people.

"Dragon Demon is awesome."

"Dragon Demon is pummeling Snake Demon."

"Incredible, truly incredible! After being beaten for so many days, he still hasn't fallen."

Snake Demon was already at the end of his rope and fainted after taking a few hundred punches.

"Dragon Demon wins."

A demonic voice echoed.

Lin Ye was pulled away by an invisible force; it was the power of the Duel Arena.

The Duel Arena itself was an ancient artifact, harvesting the blood and passion of combatants, nurturing unknown secret weapons.

Lin Ye was displeased; he had taken a beating for so long and only managed to retaliate a few times.

It was truly painful, he knew.

But for the sake of long-term planning, he endured it.

A little impatience can ruin a great plan.

For money, what's a little grievance?

"What a formidable Dragon Demon!"

"Truly strong, though his strength lies in defense."

"If his combat is so impressive, then in *that* aspect... Oh no, I'm smitten. I, the succubus Mary, must conquer him."

"The romance of a male demon is to withstand all of the opponent's attacks."

Lin Ye left the stage.

There were still many battles to come.

He collected his reward, covered in blood, and the demon on duty looked at him with uncontrollable admiration.

"Only 1 soul essence for the first battle."

Lin Ye was a bit annoyed.

Who are they trying to fool?

"soul essence is very valuable; this is already quite a lot. One hundred thousand soul essence can be exchanged for one void stone. You should know that a void stone is an ultra-rare item that a Ruler-level being can only condense once every ten thousand years. If you were to use Souls to create soul essence, it would require a Demon King level being, or countless lower-level beings, to condense just one soul essence," Lake explained.

"Alright, alright, earning one-tenth of a Ruler's leisure time in three days, or a Demon King's worth, isn't a loss."

Lin Ye could grudgingly accept it.

If it continued like this, he definitely wouldn't do it, as his efficiency in hunting in the Underworld was higher than this.

"It's mainly because you chose that ridiculous 'getting beaten' style. If you went for high damage output, the battle would be over in a few minutes," Lake grumbled.

If he had chosen high damage output, the battle would have been over in a few seconds, let alone a few minutes.

But that would expose too much.

The Duel Arena would also rapidly increase his rating.

"Isn't this to earn a bit more?" Lin Ye shrugged.

Only the first time is easiest for a winning streak; it gets harder later.

So, he'd try to earn as much as possible this time.

"Indeed, try to milk as much as you can this time. However, it's easy at first and hard later. This Duel Arena should be like most Duel Arenas, with stages for three-win, five-win, ten-win streaks, etc. Regardless of the previous match, your rating will be significantly increased."

This was also a method the Duel Arena used to prevent being exploited.

...

"Immortal Dragon Demon!"

"Immortal Dragon Demon!"

"Immortal Dragon Demon!"

Lin Ye entered the arena again.

Several months had passed since his last battle.

During these days, he had gone through nine battles, big and small, thoroughly establishing his title—Immortal Dragon Demon.

Now, the tenth match was about to begin.

"Dragon Demon is truly formidable; that physical body is terrifying."

"Truly abnormal. In every battle, Dragon Demon wears down his opponent through attrition."

"We really misjudged him; Dragon Demon is far from simple."

Lin Ye initially won by exhausting his opponents.

He continued to do so in subsequent matches.

The audience then realized he wasn't so simple.

The strength of each opponent increased, yet Dragon Demon remained unyielding. Is this reasonable? No, it's not.

So, two theories circulated among the public.

Firstly, Dragon Demon was accumulating wins to break a record.

Secondly, Dragon Demon was a pervert who enjoyed being beaten.

The first theory had the most supporters, but the second theory was the most widely spread.

Immortal Dragon Demon × — Perverted Dragon Demon ✓.

A Demon King-level Abyssal Dragon Demon who is a pervert? Just thinking about it was exciting, filling demons with gossip.

"Too much free time," was Lin Ye's assessment of this.

Truly bored out of their minds.

One could only say that gossip was the nature of all living beings, which was why Lin Ye's previous life's celebrity 'selling out' remarks were so prevalent.

"However, controlling the win rate really works."

Being strong oneself was one aspect, and lowering one's rating in each match was another.

The combination of the two meant that even with a nine-win streak, he hadn't exposed much of his strength.

Could taking a beating increase win streaks?

This matchmaking mechanism was something else.

The opponents matched for three-win and five-win streaks gave him a slight boost, but not much.

He wondered who his opponent for this ten-win streak would be.

Before a battle, one didn't know the information of the matched opponent unless they revealed it themselves.

This was also a mechanism adjusted to prevent studying opponents and reducing the entertainment value of matches.

"Dragon Demon VS Fear Demoness."

Fear Demoness!

The Demoness clan was well-known.

It wasn't entirely accurate to call them demons.

After all, they were originally ordinary beings.

But after awakening demonic energy, they transformed into demons.

Initially, their awakened abilities were only magic-based, not enough to be considered demons.

However, ignorant people feared their innate power, and once they encountered them, they would hunt them down.

As a result, among them, aside from those still hiding, the rest simply fell into the Demon Realm.

The Demoness clan then propagated in the Demon Realm.

They intermarried with various races, and their descendants had a certain chance of awakening as Demonesses.

The types of Demonesses were diverse, categorized by their different abilities.

But one thing was universally recognized: the power of Demonesses was stolen from Demon Gods.

Unlike Faith Gods, after they awakened abilities similar to Demon Gods, they would continuously study the power of related Demon Gods to strengthen themselves.

It was said that the pinnacle of Demonesses, in order to study the power of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods, even charmed a Demon God, fell in love, and became his wife.

This particular Demoness, by the end of her research, possessed power that even surpassed her husband's.

It was her legend that made the Demoness clan famous.

"Fear Demoness, it seems she specializes in the power of the Fear Demon God, leaning towards the Soul aspect."

Lin Ye wasn't worried about fear-based abilities.

Or rather, he wasn't particularly afraid of mind-based abilities.

With the Original Universe as an anchor, any abilities that caused chaos, self-loss, or confusion would be cleared.