The Crow's Mouth Spirit Root Is Too Valuable

"Have to plot a new route again..."

Zhong Yi sighed helplessly, picking up the map for another look.

Although the map was completely different, he could still make use of the experience from his last run.

For example, the minor monsters in ordinary combat rooms were very weak, barely costing any health—basically reward rooms.

The events in random rooms were disastrous, even deleting cards? Better to avoid them if possible.

The elite monsters in elite rooms were far stronger than imagined—skip them whenever you could.

Soon, he had planned out his route for the second climb.

"This is the path to ascension!"

Zhong Yi drew a crooked line on the paper, brimming with confidence.

First, three normal combat rooms plus one random room, then fight the elite monster, and then more minor monsters...

"There's no way this fails!"

Zhong Yi strode confidently out of the Mother of Resurrection’s room.

His confidence wasn't unfounded.

In his last run, the first three combat rooms only cost him 2 health points.

And that was his very first attempt, with zero experience.

Now, he was sure he could enter the elite fight without losing a single point of health!

"Come on, you weakling! This time, I'll beat you without taking any damage!"

With that, Zhong Yi puffed out his chest and pushed open the door to the first combat room.

"Ocean Thug? Only 11 attack... Ugh, had to lose 6 health to him. But with the [Golden Crow Bloodline], it's like I didn't lose anything!"

"Haha! See? He weakened by the second round!"

"Third round, not attacking? Free hit!"

"??? Why is his attack getting higher?!"

...

"Cough, lost 5 health this time. I'll definitely take no damage next!"

"Toad Tadpole? Their health bars are tiny—easy win!"

"I've dealt with group mobs like this before. Focus fire on the weakest one first!"

"??? You have damage reflect? So my last round was completely wasted?!"

...

"These two Corpse-Eating Slugs should be fine..."

"Damn!! First round, and I don't draw a single defense card?! What kind of nonsense is this?!"

...

What Zhong Yi failed to notice was that his previous run’s first floor was set in the "Dense Forest," while this time the first floor was set in "Dark Harbor."

Compared to the weak monsters of the "Dense Forest," the "Dark Harbor" monsters were significantly more sinister and unfair.

Even with the [Golden Crow Bloodline] passive that restored 6 health per round, Zhong Yi still ended up losing 14 health.

"Damn it, did Junior Brother Lu set this up on purpose? I feel like I was so close to not losing any health..."

Zhong Yi unwillingly replayed the battles in his mind before quickly letting it go.

"Forget it! 66 health is still better than last run!"

Drawing on experience from his previous run, he focused on picking attack cards this time.

Sure, his health was a bit lower, but overall, he was in a stronger position than before.

With that thought, he turned his attention to the next room.

A random question-mark room.

"Please don't be some awful random encounter..."

Zhong Yi nervously pushed open the door. Inside was a small pond.

A dilapidated ancient statue stood in the middle of the pond, its face long eroded, but the stone sword in its hand remained intact, faintly glowing with runic patterns.

At the bottom of the pond, a faint blue shimmer revealed several spirit stones.

【Random Event: Sunken Statue】

【Option One: Take the Stone Sword (Obtain the Stone Sword. Kill 5 elite monsters to unseal it, transforming it into a high-grade artifact.)】

【Option Two: Dive (Obtain 107 spirit stones, but lose 7 health points.)】

"Huh... surprisingly decent?"

Zhong Yi blinked, a grin spreading across his face.

Both options were very tempting!

One gave a powerful artifact, while the other cost health but rewarded a whopping 107 spirit stones.

For context, slaving away to beat a normal monster only netted him a dozen or so spirit stones.

"Forget it! I'll go with the artifact!"

After weighing his options, Zhong Yi decided to take the stone sword from the statue’s hand.

Spirit stones could be earned slowly, but an artifact—especially a high-grade one—was a rare opportunity not to be missed.

"Alright, I'll need to adjust my route then!"

Zhong Yi opened the map and began planning a new path.

Originally, he had chosen to avoid elites. But now, with the requirement of killing five elites to unlock the artifact, he decided to challenge himself.

His original route, featuring only one elite, was immediately adjusted to include three!

Behind this random room lay the first elite room.

"Bring it on! I'm going for the elites! My game is on fire right now!"

Zhong Yi’s confidence blazed once more.

The previous three monster rooms had dealt him cards related to "Vulnerability" effects.

This made him truly appreciate one of the core charms of The Immortal-Slaying Tower—

Deck building.

It was a bit like in Plants vs. Zombies, choosing your own cards for battle.

Different card combinations brought different effects.

The difference was that The Immortal-Slaying Tower had no upper limit on deck size, and synergies between cards were plentiful.

Zhong Yi, having just drawn three cards with Vulnerability effects, was highly confident in his combat prowess.

"This time, I'll take it down within 20 health!"

With that, he pushed open the door to the elite room.

Four eels, twisting and writhing, were staring at him with sesame-sized eyes full of menace.

"Huh? Little eels dare to call themselves elites?"

Zhong Yi immediately cracked up.

The eels' health points were either 26 or 27, and their attack power was nothing special.

From the look of it, this was just a tougher version of the two minor monsters he'd run into earlier.

Glancing at his hand of cards again, Zhong Yi grinned and announced confidently:

"Totally a breeze, right? Hahahaha!"

Seeing some new viewers looking confused, Zhong Yi picked up his hand of cards and slipped back into his usual habit of commentary.

"When you're fighting a crowd, it's like a street brawl... pick one and go all in! Can't lose the momentum!"

"Check it out—this Ghost Eel in the middle has 27 health and the highest attack... so we take it down first!"

"The [Vulnerable] card I just grabbed? Time to put it to use..."

"First, I play a [Strike] costing 2 energy, dealing 8 damage, and applying the Vulnerable status!"

"Then I play a [Dismantle] costing 1 energy—thanks to the Vulnerable bonus, it strikes an extra time, dealing 24 damage!"

"Add it up, that's 32 damage—just enough to finish it!"

As he spoke, Zhong Yi tossed out [Strike] and [Dismantle] one after another.

The moment it took damage, the Ghost Eel instantly burrowed into the ground, gaining 6 additional armor out of nowhere.

27 health plus 6 armor equaled 33 effective health.

Zhong Yi's entire burst dealt just one point less than that.

"Son of a bitch!!!"

...

...

At the same time.

Lu Ze was streaming a run of Braving the Demon Tower.

Since he'd already cleared it once before, this time he breezed through it, finishing in twenty minutes.

During a break, Lu Ze secretly slipped into Zhong Yi's livestream, just in time to catch his entire run.

Every single choice Zhong Yi made was...

Wrong.

Thinking about how, in the future, when Zhong Yi realized he hadn't taken the Sword Handle Strike, he'd want to slap himself silly, Lu Ze couldn't help but laugh.

But the beauty of Kill the Immortal Tower was that even mistakes could still lead to victory.

Every strategy had its own workaround, as long as luck was on your side, you could have a blast.

However, when Zhong Yi entered the Ghost Eel elite room, Lu Ze almost lost it, wondering if some noob had taken over his account.

Because this enemy, much like the [Ancient Statue], was a bona fide newbie killer.

One slip-up and your run would be marked by heavy losses.

Lu Ze couldn't help but sigh, "That jinx talent of his is way too real..."