The Pixie King raised his megaphone and announced loudly:
"After our serious, meticulous, and professional inspection, we have come to the following conclusion:"
"The identities of the two parties who are about to begin the battle are valid and have met the requirements of this battle formation contract."
"Next — —"
"Let us welcome the Pixie contestants:"
"The bronze medalist of the Smelly Sock Cup Hide-And-Seek Tournament: Mumu!"
The Pixie crowd applauded enthusiastically.
The small figure who had been eating fruits in front of the table burped and stood up with his hand on the corner of the table, waving at the crowd.
The Pixie King changed the topic and continued: "As for our Pixie's opponent, it is this guy — —"
"Who knows where that thing came from!"
He pointed at a direction not far behind him.
The Spirit Reader Ghost's hands and feet were bound tightly with ropes. Its body was covered in ghastly wounds, and blood was gushing out, dyeing the ground red.
Under the constraints of the contract, he couldn't resist at all. After being slashed countless times by the Pixie crowd, he was already on the verge of death.
"The battle begins!"
The Pixie King shouted at the top of his lungs while winking at the Pixie called Mumu.
Mumu immediately understood.
Almost instantly — — -
"I admit defeat!" Mumu shouted.
The Pixie King immediately shouted like a machine gun: "Very well, you admit defeat, I announce the end of the battle. The current score is 3: 1, Liu Ping wins, this Uncanny Battle Formation bet has come to an end. Thank you for watching!"
The Spirit Reader Ghost had just taken out a piece of scale and was about to say something when it finished announcing its plan in rapid succession.
But it was already over!
The Spirit Reader was tongue-tied, unable to accept the situation in front of him.
The Pixie King stepped forward and patted his face:
"It's too late, little brother, you're too slow, how dare you come out to mingle?"
After saying that, the Pixie King shook his head regretfully, looked down at the watch on his wrist and muttered to himself: "The closing speech took another 0.1 seconds to complete, as expected of me!"
As soon as he said that.
The black rune in the air pulsed slightly.
"No — —"
The Spirit Reader Ghost let out a mournful wail. The black light and the bones hidden within it began to turn into fine dust.
Liu Ping was standing not far away and immediately sensed it.
A line of burning words popped up:
[Under the Pixie King's announcement, the Occult Battle Rune contract has been completed]
[The final score between you and Spirit Reader is 3: 1.]
[You've won]
[The other party's everything is being stripped away by the Occult Battle Rune contract and given to you]
[This process will be completed in the countdown of five seconds]
[Five]
[Four]
[Three]
[Two]
[One.]
[Absorption complete!]
Liu Ping stood where he was without moving. He felt an endless amount of energy coming from the void and surging into his body like a waterfall.
This power was so great that when Liu Ping received it, he even lost his sense of time and space.
After an unknown period of time.
Liu Ping only felt that everything around him had disappeared.
A line of burning words appeared:
[You've obtained a piece of memory. It has been reactivated]
The words quickly disappeared.
Liu Ping realized that he was standing in the middle of an endless abyss.
Not far below him, there was a huge monster.
That set of armor!
A faint, illusory shadow emerged from the armor and floated in the abyss.
The umbrella bearer.
He looked up at the endless void of space and muttered: "Who is it? Who was it that was spying on me while I was destroying everything? "
The void of space flashed.
A voice followed:
"I came here from the faraway end of Occultism, so I've seen many Threads of Fate."
The umbrella bearer scoffed and asked, "Who are you?"
The voice replied: "I can sense the battle here, I can sense my prey."
"And then? What do you want to do? "the umbrella bearer asked.
"Living beings aren't tasty, for me, hunting is a kind of instinct," the voice replied.
Liu Ping was completely confused by this, unable to understand what it was trying to say.
The umbrella bearer's expression became a lot more serious and asked again: "What do you usually wear?"
"I don't care about color, the Laws of Occultism have no end, I'm already tired of it," the voice replied.
"Where are you going?" the umbrella bearer asked.
"I'm about to wake up from my dream. I need energy." the voice replied.
The umbrella bearer muttered: "So that's why …"
"You were able to read a strand of my thoughts, so you must be my enemy," the voice replied.
"Perhaps that's not the case, perhaps we are of the same kind" the umbrella bearer hesitated.
The voice went silent for a few moments, then replied: "I don't have the same kind."
"And I don't eat living beings," the umbrella bearer suddenly replied.
The voice chuckled: "You think you can? You reek of the stench of living beings."
The umbrella bearer put the umbrella down lightly and muttered, "Seems like we're going to have to fight."
"It's time to eat," the voice replied.
The umbrella-wielder sighed. " I originally only wanted to quietly have some fun, who knew that I would attract an entity of the same level as me — — - forget it, this matter isn't as simple as it seems, watch me kill you."
He put the umbrella away, then lightly placed it on top of the armor before his figure flashed and disappeared from the ocean abyss.
The entire ocean abyss returned to silence.
A few moments later.
The umbrella silently opened and rotated on top of the armor.
Following the rotation of the umbrella, one Psychic Specter after another appeared from the umbrella, hovering in the ocean abyss across from the giant armor.
The largest Psychic Specter with a pair of horns on its head spoke:
"Master has left … we need to collect the souls of living beings and infuse them all into his tattered body inside the armor, preparing to revive him at any moment."
"Master won't be defeated, but we still need to be prepared," another Psychic Specter spoke.
"Let us begin, everyone, devour the remaining souls of this world, but do not cut off their roots, let them continue to reproduce and provide us with an endless supply of souls."
"Yes"
All the Psychic Specters floated above the ocean abyss.
The scene slowly faded.
Everything disappeared.
Liu Ping abruptly opened his eyes.
He found the pixies standing in front of him, the black-haired woman standing guard by his side, everyone was staring at him.
"How long has it been?" Liu Ping asked.
A line of burning text appeared:
[One second]
Liu Ping sighed in relief and wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.
That umbrella bearer isn't here!
Despite the fact that it left behind a gigantic trap, as well as countless Psychic Specters collecting souls for it — — -
But it's not here!
The Pixie King flew up and hovered in front of Liu Ping, asking: "We've only just awakened, our spirit energy has been greatly depleted, we need more power of Law to recover our strength."
The pixie called Mumu replied: "We can also fight, the power of our Quipcraft isn't any weaker than those entities."
"Please continue to strengthen the Law of Fire, that way, we'll be able to continue to come out and play — — and help you" the Pixie King said.
The pixies all nodded.
"At this point in time, how do we strengthen the Law of Fire?" Liu Ping asked.
The Pixie King yawned loudly: "Kill those Psychic Specters — — - it's best not to let them use their abilities, ambush them and kill them one by one. This way, the Law of Fire will absorb the power of their deaths and help us recover our strength."
"Alright, I'll do my best," Liu Ping replied.
The Pixie King nodded: "Then we'll go back to sleep. This battle has expended too much of our strength, we need to sleep again — — - and wait for your good news."
The pixies waved at Liu Ping before disappearing into the void of space.
Liu Ping stood still and thought for a while.
"What are we going to do now?" the black-haired beauty asked.
"Your body is already very tired, return to the underground city to rest, I'll go check on the situation and return soon" Liu Ping replied.
"Alright" the black-haired beauty replied.
She took a few steps back and disappeared into the ground.
Liu Ping stayed silent for a few moments, then muttered: "I wonder if that hand is still sealed inside the armor …"
He took a step forward, turned the space in front of him into 'nothing', and stood at the bottom of the ocean.
Not too far away.
That huge armor was like a beast that had fallen into a deep slumber, not moving at all.
Liu Ping dived down towards the armor.
A few moments later.
He could sense a vast 'Emergence' power coming from inside the armor.
— — -the hand is still sealed inside!
If that's the case, what was the umbrella bearer's figure that left?
Could it be its soul?
Liu Ping's figure moved and continued to approach the giant armor.
All of a sudden.
A black umbrella abruptly appeared from the water in front of him.
The black umbrella quickly circled around him twice before disappearing without a trace.
A line of burning text silently manifested:
[Your body is filled with the power of 'Spirit Reader Wrath' that you've just absorbed, and the power of 'Being and Non-Being' that you already possess is the umbrella bearer's power, so this black umbrella has recognized your identity and did not attack]
Liu Ping silently praised himself for being lucky and lightly landed on the giant armor.
At the very next moment.
Something happened — — -
All the scales on the armor stood up, making a pleasant sound in the sea abyss.
Another line of text manifested:
[You are the Occultism King]
[You are the creator of this armor]
[The armor had noticed your appearance and began to reveal all its secrets to you]
Created from the dark water, the giant armor slowly stood up from the ground, using both hands to open the armor in front of its chest.
A withered black hand silently hovered inside the armor.
— — -this was the umbrella bearer's true body!