Who Sees Through Whom

Liu Xuan raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise appearing in his eyes as he looked at Stefan.

When his opponent had been arranging the skeleton soldiers just now, Liu Xuan had already realized what he was planning.

Now that Stefan had explained his fighting style, Liu Xuan’s guess was confirmed.

This boss’s intelligence was probably even greater than the Golden Blade Lord’s.

What was more troublesome was that he was clearly a commander-type boss—extremely cautious.

Just look at how he had hurled threats at Liu Xuan while actually retreating through the air. That alone showed how crafty he was.

So far, the boss himself had never made a move. He had left all the fighting to his minions.

Now that he knew Liu Xuan possessed the ability to reflect damage, he would be even more cautious about attacking personally.

Still, intelligence itself could also become a weakness!

It was like being surrounded by wild beasts. Even if you shot one dead, the others might still charge forward.

But if you were being mobbed by people, killing one with a gun might make the rest scatter in panic.

The more intelligent they were, the more they understood how to seek profit and avoid harm.

As it happened, Liu Xuan knew very well that, as a Lich, Stefan had a major weakness.

Liu Xuan looked completely relaxed. He glanced at Stefan and casually waved the [Golden Gale] in his hand.

“Old man, stop calling me ‘boy’ every other sentence. Even if you’ve seen through some of my abilities, what can these little minions of yours do to me?”

“Old man? You’d better show some respect to the great Stefan Walsh. I was only in my twenties before I became undead.”

“Great?” Liu Xuan laughed. “I’ve heard of some great figures who suffered terribly in their younger days, but you’re the first I’ve seen who hid in a cellar like a turtle and let yourself be buried under stinking mud for years.”

His words struck a nerve. Stefan exploded on the spot.

“Shut up! I was forced to hide here temporarily. If those monsters hadn’t suddenly attacked and given me no chance to develop in secret for a few more years, I would have already led my army to sweep across the entire empire!”

Liu Xuan’s heart stirred. The monsters Stefan mentioned were probably those Destroyers, right?

That was useful information.

“So in the end, you were just too weak to beat those monsters.”

“Too weak?!” Stefan’s voice suddenly turned shrill. “It was only because there were too many of them! Give me a few more years to turn every person in the empire into undead, and my army of the dead won’t lose to anyone!”

Liu Xuan continued taunting him. “You couldn’t beat the monsters because there were too many of them, and now you can’t beat me even though I’m only one person. So who exactly can you beat?”

Stefan roared furiously, “You really think I have no way to deal with you?! I’ll show you the consequences of angering a Lich!”

As he spoke, he raised his staff and began waving it while muttering an incantation.

The skeleton soldiers surrounding Liu Xuan suddenly began to disassemble on their own. Then, as if swept up by a whirlwind, their bones began fusing together, growing thicker and twisting into new shapes.

At last, a gigantic skeleton monster more than five meters tall appeared in front of Liu Xuan.

The skeleton monster had only an upper body. It supported itself on the ground with its arms and ribs, crouching half-prone.

It was Stefan’s [Twisted Bones] skill!

[Elite Bone Behemoth]

Level: 25

Attack: 700

Health: 80,000

Armor: 150

Stefan sneered. “If I’m not mistaken, the more minions there are, the more easily you can make them detonate one another to deal damage. Now I’ve fused them into a single entity. Let’s see what you can do!”

He had spent two or three thousand mana to fuse this monster. According to the skill description, the more mana he used, the more skeleton soldiers he could combine.

But Liu Xuan glanced around. Even in this situation, that fellow had still held back some of his skeleton soldiers.

He really was cautious.

“Kill him!”

The moment the [Bone Behemoth] appeared, it extended one enormous arm under Stefan’s command and slammed it toward Liu Xuan.

Liu Xuan casually raised his shield to block.

The monster immediately staggered backward in fear because of [Fear].

[Golden Gale] increased the physical damage of magic attacks by an additional 30%, so that single strike dealt more than 8,000 damage.

And [Fear] wasn’t the only effect inflicted on the behemoth. It was also afflicted with [Burning] and [Poisoned] at the same time.

[Burning] was fairly mild at first, dealing only a little over a hundred damage per tick with the bonuses applied. But once the [Destruction Aura] took effect, the damage grew with every tick.

The most terrifying effect was [Poisoned]. With the bonuses from [Golden Gale], each tick dealt more than 20,000 damage!

The [Bone Behemoth] was already slow-moving by nature. After [Fear] wore off, it only had time to launch a second attack. It dealt Liu Xuan a mere two hundred or so damage before its health bar was completely emptied.

Boom!

The behemoth’s massive body crashed to the ground, scattering bones across the floor.

“How was that? Do you have any other tricks?” Liu Xuan asked with a smile as he looked at Stefan. Deliberately, he waved the [Golden Gale] in his hand once more.

The flames in the Lich’s eyes leaped violently when the [Bone Behemoth] was killed.

He had never expected the monster formed by fusing so many of his subordinates to be taken down so easily.

Stefan’s voice lowered. “You do seem to have some ability. It would be troublesome to eliminate you, and I truly don’t want to waste too many of my subordinates.”

Hearing this, Liu Xuan sneered inwardly.

Heh. He can eliminate me, but he just doesn’t want to waste his subordinates?

I’ve seen through all of his skills. Does he really think he can bluff me now?

Although that was what he thought, Liu Xuan showed none of it on his face. Instead, he put on an interested expression.

“So you’re planning to negotiate?”

“Since you can’t hurt me anyway, continuing this battle is pointless. Why not stop here? I’ll let you leave. How does that sound?”

Liu Xuan did not answer immediately. He stared at Stefan for a long time.

Just as Stefan began to lose patience and was about to demand an answer, Liu Xuan suddenly laughed.

Stefan said unhappily, “What are you laughing at?”

“I was just wondering why the great Stefan Walsh would let a ‘lowly human’ like me leave.”

“I already told you. Continuing the fight would cost me more than it’s worth. My subordinates are valuable too.”

“Oh? Earlier, you called them ‘useless cannon fodder.’”

“Are you leaving or not?” Stefan raised his staff, looking as though he was preparing to attack. “Or do you want to stay here and become one of them?”

Liu Xuan’s expression remained relaxed.

“No, no. I was just confirming something, and now I have my answer.”

“What?”

“You’re nothing but a useless piece of trash.”

“You!”

Damn it! Who opens with a straight-up insult without even giving the other guy a frame to react?!

“Am I wrong? You were hiding in this village’s cellar to avoid those Destroyers, weren’t you?”

“Lying low! That’s called lying low! They had the advantage back then. I was merely avoiding their strength for the time being.”

“Is that so? But you’re a Lich, aren’t you?” Liu Xuan mocked. “As a Lich, shouldn’t a chaotic battlefield be the scene you crave most? Corpses scattered everywhere for you to convert, allowing you to raise an army of the dead with ease. Yet you, you coward, chose to hide. Call it caution if you want, but you’re obviously nothing more than a timid little mouse!”

Stefan’s face stiffened. Liu Xuan had hit him right where it hurt.

“Hmph. You don’t get to lecture me about my affairs. In any case, there’s nothing you can do to me today!”

“Is that so?” Liu Xuan regarded him with amusement. “You Liches should all have a phylactery, right?”

At the words “phylactery,” Stefan’s heart tightened. Fortunately, he had nothing left but skin and bone, so no expression could be seen on his face.

He didn’t deny the existence of the phylactery—that would make him look too nervous. Instead, he merely snorted. “There’s no way you could know where it is.”

Liu Xuan shook his head. “For a coward like you, the location of your phylactery is easy enough to guess. Eight years ago, the Destroyers swept down from outside, laying waste to every city and village along the way. There’s no way you would have left something so important—something tied to your very life—out there.

“Besides, when you were testing the range of my skill just now, those skeleton soldiers were positioned in a way that subtly blocked the area in front of me. The higher a person stands, the more they can see—and the more they love to micromanage. So the place where your phylactery is most likely to be is…”

As he spoke, Liu Xuan suddenly charged toward the cellar entrance a short distance away, the Golden Wind held aloft in his hand.

“This cellar!”

He saw through me? No—the one who’s truly been seen through is you!