Chapter 115 - Deep Dive

DaYin's body started to give off whiffs of red smoke, and the green fumes that came out of her rotten skin increased even more.

Cheng Xiu choked as the rotten smell in the area increased. She felt her windpipe become stuffy from the tangy smell that attacked her senses.

Cheng Xiu stepped back, regretting the words that she said to the NPC. She had wanted to agitate the woman to find her weak spots but it would seem that her words just made the woman madder and even more bloodthirsty.

The blue lines on the woman's skin became a deeper blue, and her eyes turned completely red, no more whites visible to anyone to see.

Cheng Xiu cursed.

The woman curled into a ball and screamed.

Cheng Xiu stepped back.

The woman's back started to bulge, and a pair of long pale arms covered in blood grew out of them.

Cheng Xiu's face screwed up in disgust and horror.

The woman's scream got louder.

The floor and the stone walls of the castle ruins started to shake.

One of the hands extended towards Cheng Xiu and another extended towards one of the tunic-wearing Trolls.

Cheng Xiu gritted her teeth in frustration and threw the needle in her hand towards the palm of the bloody hand.

The Zhenjiu pin embedded itself into the arm.

An eerie, bodiless scream emitted from all around her, and the hand started to turn into dust.

The woman screamed in pain.

She shook her entire body the way a dog would shake itself to get rid of water.

The bloody hand on the woman's back fell off onto the floor.

Cheng Xiu bent her legs to balance herself as the shaking of the building got faster. This was going in a direction that she had not anticipated.

The woman screamed some more.

Cheng Xiu looked at the woman and then followed the other extending a bloody hand with her eyes.

The hand touched the yellow tunic wearing Troll.

The Troll turned into a stone statue.

The sickliness of the woman's skin receded.

Cheng Xiu's eyes widened. She realised that the woman was able to maintain her normal human form by consuming the life of the creatures around her.

Cheng Xiu's thoughts fell into confusion. If that was the case, then why did the woman declare that she was going to eat Cheng Xiu? Why did she not just say that she was going to turn her into stone as well? Was it just an error?

No. It couldn't be.

Was the person turning into a statue the way that the woman ate?

Cheng Xiu dodged the second arm that came her way and grabbed another pin from the poison bottle.

Cheng Xiu dismissed her previous thought.

The woman wanted her to die normally. She wanted to eat Cheng Xiu's flesh.

Why did Cheng Xiu have to be "eaten" while the Troll was turned into a statue? And how was this important to Cheng Xiu? Could she find a way to win this battle if she was able to find the cause of the way that the woman ate people?

Cheng Xiu's thoughts churned. She realised that there was one reason she could theorise that would have different ways of consuming people. Perhaps, by turning them into stones, she gets a temporary powerup, while eating the flesh itself must give her a permanent buff.

The woman looked up.

Her incisors had elongated and penetrated her lower lips. Two streams of blood flowed down her chin.

Her crimson eyes were cruel as a vicious smile grew on her face.

Cheng Xiu slashed towards the extending hand with the poisoned needle tips.

The woman screamed, and along with her screamed a second female voice in sync.

The cogs in Cheng Xiu's head worked overtime.

"That second voice," Cheng Xiu whispered. The cruel smile on the woman's face turned into a victorious grin. Cheng Xiu shivered. "Those are the women you ate to survive. Those are the people you killed to become the 'Best'."

The woman guffawed.

"You can't beat me," the woman said in a croaking voice. "You will never beat me."

Cheng Xiu gave the woman a mocking smile and raised the needle in her hand. "We will see about that."

The woman raised her hand in answer to Cheng Xiu's challenge and created a fireball in her palm.

The woman's face had an arrogant shade of purple to it.

DaYin threw the fireball at Cheng Xiu.

Cheng Xiu gritted her teeth and threw the Zhenjiu in her hand towards the centre of the fireball.

The fire flared, the needle turned into ashes, and the fire fizzled away.

The green fumes in the area increased.

The woman took a step towards the human Cultivator.

Cheng Xiu started to cough as the green fumes and the red smoke from the woman intertwined and attacked the white-robed girl's senses.

Cheng Xiu felt her head throbbing, and pain seemed to begin inside her brain.

Cheng Xiu grabbed her head and groaned.

DaYin looked at the woman in confusion. Did she do something to the girl without her knowing it?

Cheng Xiu fell to her knees and screamed as the pain in her mind increased even more. Blood started to drip from her nostrils as she tried to alleviate the pain she was feeling.

Cheng Xiu panted.

[Ding!]

[Player Selafia has been playing The Other World in DeepDive mode for 34 minutes. The player is reaching their rank limit. It is advised by the system that player Selafia quit the Primordial Space in one minute so that she does not receive any damage in real life.]

Cheng Xiu's eyes widened.

Deep Dive?

Fear grabbed hold of her mind as she heard those words.

Deep Dive?

She was playing in Deep Dive?

Why?

Why was she playing in Deep Dive?

[Ding!]

[Players can access the Primordial Space before the Fifth Expansion only through Deep Dives.]

Cheng Xiu shivered in fright at the AI's words as the Witch created another fireball.

The witch thought the human cultivator was scared of its attacks, and that Cheng Xiu was finally out of ammunition in the form of the acupuncture needles.

Cheng Xiu took out another needle and threw it away at the fireball.

The needle turned to dust, and the fireball fizzled out.

[Would Player Selafia like to get out of the Deep Dive mode now?]

Cheng Xiu shook her head. If she did that, then she would have done all these that she did for nothing.

[You will die if you don't go out.]

Cheng Xiu frowned. "People are usually only able to stay in Deep Dive for 10 minutes at most. I stayed for half-an-hour."

[Only because of Player Selafia's actual Spiritual Rank being at S-Rank.]

Cheng Xiu frowned. "Why are you giving me a choice to log out on my own if it is a risk to my life? Aren't things like that automatic?"

[ Player will be forced out of the Deep Dive automatically in two minutes. The system asks you to log out before that to reduce the damage you might receive further.]

Cheng Xiu's ears filled with an eerie ringing, and her thoughts seemed to be only focused on winning. "So I have to defeat her in two minutes. Got it."

It was a stupid decision, and Cheng Xiu would never be able to explain why she did what she did.