31: Chapter 31 First Appearance in the Abyss? Sorry, this is my Undead Buffet Restaurant!

Qin Ji's fingers released casually, and the headless maid's corpse slid to the ground like a tattered rag, kicking up a circle of dark red dust.

"Ding! Killed Palace Maid (Abyssal Elite), triggered 'Greedy Grasp'!"

"Obtained: Intelligence +2!"

"Obtained: Spirit +2!"

Before the golden data stream on his retina could dissipate, the darkness deep within the hall was completely torn apart by multicolored magical brilliance.

"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"

The bone staves in the hands of twenty Skeleton Mages lit up simultaneously, as Fireball and Ice Spike spells wove into a dense, inescapable net of lethal firepower. Those Palace Maids, originally hideous and attempting to scream as they pounced, were blasted into flying bits of flesh and ash the moment they touched this torrent.

This was the Skeleton Mage under the buff of the [Cataclysmic Trait].

Skill range increased by 500%, damage doubled.

In this narrow palace hall, it was a one-sided slaughter, a feast named "Buffet."

Qin Ji didn't even bother to move his feet; he stood in the center of the hall, watching the numbers jump frantically on his attribute panel, a comfortable arc curling at the corner of his mouth.

However, the moment the last maid fell, the web-covered crystal throne at the end of the hall suddenly exploded.

"Bang!"

A figure enveloped in blue and white flames shot out like a cannonball, pulling an afterimage through the air with its incredible speed.

Before it even landed, two energy balls of intertwined ice and fire smashed toward the front row of Skeleton Warriors.

"Crack!"

The Skeleton Warrior, capable of tanking attacks from an ordinary boss, appeared fragile and weak before this violent power; its hard bone shield and half its body were instantly blasted into powder.

[Ice Flame Corpse General (Abyssal Lord)]

[Rank: LV.22]

[Health: 450,000 / 450,000]

[Skills: Dual Heavens of Ice and Fire, Rapid Assault, Death Lock-on.]

"Only this much?"

Qin Ji looked at the monster called the "Ice Flame Corpse General." It wore the tattered armor of the Royal Guard; half its face was a rotting skull, while the other half burned with ghostly blue flames. It was clearly the captain of the palace guard.

Having succeeded in its strike, a hint of human-like mockery seemed to flash in the Ice Flame Corpse General's ghost-fire eyes. Its body swayed, and instead of continuing to attack the remaining skeletons, it used its startling Agility to bypass the mage group's firepower, lunging straight for the "fragile summoner," Qin Ji.

To capture the bandits, first capture their leader.

This monster's AI was high; it knew tactical maneuvers.

If it were an ordinary player facing this dash-type assassin boss, they would likely be scrambling to use Flash by now. But Qin Ji just quietly watched it approach, even finding the leisure to snap his fingers.

"Resurrect."

In the next second, a scene occurred that caused the Ice Flame Corpse General's movements to stiffen visibly.

The Skeleton Warrior that had just been blasted into bone shards by its punch actually reassembled out of thin air in the Void Realm beside Qin Ji. The Soul fire in its eye sockets surged as it charged forward again with its greatsword, as if its death just now had been a mere illusion.

[Cataclysmic Trait Triggered: After your summons die, they can be resurrected at full status within the summoning space!]

This was the true essence of the Undead Scourge—can you ever kill them all?

The Ice Flame Corpse General let out an angry roar, clearly unable to comprehend this cheating mechanic. Since it couldn't kill the minions, it would kill the master!

It slammed its palms together, and a blinding light erupted from its hands.

"Buzz—"

Qin Ji felt his whole body tighten as an inescapable sense of being locked on enveloped him.

"Ding, you have been affected by 'Dual Heavens of Ice and Fire,' entering the dual negative states of Burn and Frostbite."

-1,598!

-1,598!

...

Bright red damage numbers floated up from above Qin Ji's head.

This kind of lock-on, guaranteed-hit skill was a nightmare for all squishy classes. No aiming was required; as long as you were within the ultimate's range, you would continuously lose health.

"Decent damage."

Qin Ji glanced at his six-figure health bar; this rate of health loss couldn't even keep up with a fraction of his automatic health regeneration per second. "Pity, for me, this is just the intensity of a cupping therapy session."

He reached back and took down the [nine harmonies-evil slaying bow], his purple-gold pupils instantly locking onto the high-speed moving Ice Flame Corpse General.

"Since you like playing with fire, I'll play along with you."

The Ice Flame Corpse General was extremely fast, bouncing back and forth between the palace pillars, attempting to evade Qin Ji's lock-on through irregular movement. As an Abyssal-level boss, it had an instinctive sense of crisis; the human holding the bow gave it an extremely dangerous feeling.

But in Qin Ji's eyes, all its trajectories seemed to be in slow motion.

Prediction.

This was a basic skill for an Archer, but under absolute attribute suppression, it became a weapon of Karma.

"Left."

Qin Ji's wrist turned slightly, and the bowstring vibrated.

"Swoosh!"

This arrow was not aimed at the Ice Flame Corpse General's body, but at a broken stone pillar three meters to its left.

In the next instant, the Ice Flame Corpse General happened to land by that stone pillar, looking as if it had actively delivered its head into the arrow's trajectory.

"Puff!"

The black lightning arrow pierced its skull without resistance, its massive kinetic energy carrying the body backward and pinning it firmly against the wall.

-88,400! (Weak Point Critical Hit!)

The Ice Flame Corpse General let out a shrill scream, struggling desperately to pull out the arrow, but Qin Ji gave it no chance to land.

"Aerial Combo."

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!

Three arrows in a row.

Every arrow accurately hit the same wound; the terrifying impact force pinned it dead against the wall, its originally indestructible armor shattering into iron fragments under the continuous high damage.

"This is Abyssal difficulty?"

Qin Ji shook his head, his longbow lowering. "Aside from having a lot of health, it's worthless."

As the last sliver of health was emptied, the Ice Flame Corpse General's burning body collapsed and disintegrated, turning into a floor of brilliant loot.

"Ding! You killed the Ice Flame Corpse General (Abyssal Boss), EXP +250,000!"

"Ding! Killed Boss, triggered 'Greedy Grasp'!"

"Obtained: Special Skill Book [Ice-Fire Control]!"

Qin Ji stepped forward and picked up an ancient book emitting a faint blue light from among a pile of gold coins and Materials.

[Elementary Skill Book: Ice-Fire Control]: After use, you can master Elementary ice and fire magic; attacks carry 10% mixed ice and fire damage.

"Only Elementary?"

Qin Ji's brow rose slightly. A skill book of this level might sell for tens of thousands of gold coins in an auction house, but to him, it wasn't even worth considering.

However, he had a cheat.

"Cataclysm."

With a thought, the familiar dark red selection box popped up on his retina.

[Target: Elementary Skill Book: Ice-Fire Control]

[Option 1: Promote to "Intermediate," no cost.]

[Option 2: Sublimate to "Advanced," cost 5,000 gold coins.]

[Option 3: Cataclysm to "Forbidden," cost 1,000 free attribute points (any).]

Looking at Option 3, Qin Ji smiled.

For ordinary players, 1,000 free attribute points were an astronomical figure—a fortune saved up over dozens of levels. Who would gamble their entire livelihood for a single skill book?

But the one thing he didn't lack was attribute points.

"Pay 1,000 points of Strength."

The overflow attributes farmed from killing those beetles and maids earlier were just being put to good use.

The skill book in his hand trembled violently; the originally blue cover instantly turned pitch black, and eerie patterns of intertwined lava and frost appeared on the surface, a heart-palpitating aura of destruction emanating from it.

[Ding! Cataclysm successful!]

[Obtained: Forbidden Skill Book — "Order of Twilight: Ice Age"!]

Qin Ji satisfiedly put away this Forbidden book, which was enough to trigger a bloody war among all the guilds on the server, and was in no hurry to learn it.

His gaze moved past the mess on the ground and toward the tightly closed black iron gate deep within the hall. Wisps of pink mist were constantly seeping through the cracks in the door, and that sweet, cloying scent of perfume became even stronger.

"Come out and get to work."

Qin Ji kicked the Skeleton Warrior dazing beside him.

The Skeleton Warrior immediately understood, shouldering its greatsword to act as the vanguard, kicking open the heavy gate.

Behind the door was not the boudoir he had imagined.

Instead, it was a massive broken bridge suspended in the Void Realm. At the end of the broken bridge, a crystal cage suspended in mid-air by chains was faintly visible.

Qin Ji stepped onto the broken bridge, and the stone slabs beneath his feet groaned under the weight. Countless broken architectural remains floated in the surrounding Void Realm, and within that crystal cage, a figure in a magnificent white dress sat quietly, her long hair cascading like a waterfall to the ground.

Hearing footsteps, the figure slowly turned around.

It was a face that was beautiful yet bloodless, with hollow eyes and two lines of bloody tears flowing from their corners.

"Are you also... here to betray me?"

Her voice was very light, yet it carried a chill that pierced the Soul. As her words fell, the architectural remains in the surrounding Void Realm began to defy the Law of gravity, slowly rising and reassembling in the air into massive Rock Giants.

Qin Ji stopped his pace, not bothering to answer such boring plot dialogue.

He simply raised his hand, his fingertips lightly brushing the bowstring. Those purple-gold pupils appeared exceptionally eerie in the dim Void Realm, just like a hunter about to hunt a god, coldly watching the final struggle of the trapped beast in the cage.