Reborn As A Villainous Cannon Fodder

Chapter 469: Ch 469 – Such Elegant Dodging Skills

The Nightmare challenge on the eighth floor of the Illusion Realm was indeed where Yino had arranged to meet Yuebai.

Yino hadn’t planned to have Yuebai shadow Xumo the whole time. Xumo was already suspicious of Yuebai, and as they progressed through each floor collecting artifacts, the power gap between Xumo and Yuebai would gradually shrink. Eventually, Yuebai’s illusion techniques might not fool Xumo’s eyes anymore.

So Yino had only tasked Yuebai with following Xumo to the fourth floor. Once she’d confirmed Xumo’s chosen path through the dream trials, Yuebai could slip away and meet Yino at the predetermined eighth-floor Nightmare realm.

This way, as long as Yino could track Xumo’s first four choices, he could roughly predict Xumo’s final Dream Speech outcome in the Illusion Realm.

But according to the original plan’s pace, Yuebai should have just parted ways with Xumo at the fourth floor, then used the map Yino gave her to switch paths and head to their eighth-floor rendezvous.

The Illusion Realm had eighteen dream levels total, so the eighth floor was still early-to-mid tier with manageable difficulty. Yuebai could solo it without pressure.

That’s why Yino hadn’t had Yuebai follow his route before the eighth floor, every floor had limited artifacts, and the first seven floors weren’t too hard. If Yuebai took the same route as Yino, they’d waste opportunities to collect artifacts.

Yino tackled the hardest paths while leaving the easier routes for Yuebai to solo with her Nascent Soul cultivation. No problem there.

So their plan was to meet at the eighth floor’s Nightmare trial, maximize artifact collection in the early floors, then team up for the higher-level dream realms.

This was Yino’s early-game strategy.

If not for Ruoning’s special Innate Holy Physique making her a target, Yino would’ve had her team up with Liuli to run a separate path collecting artifacts too.

But now, weirdly enough, even though Yino had speed-run to the eighth floor, he found Yuebai had arrived even earlier!

“This is ridiculous. How did you get ahead of my clear time?”

Thinking about this, Yino frowned and touched his lips, finding the white fox girl hanging from the ceiling increasingly suspicious.

Maybe this wasn’t the real Yuebai at all, just an illusion created by the eighth floor’s Nightmare trial to lure him in?

“Jinyue, do you think she’s the real Yuebai? Or could this be a fake created by that breeding worm to bait me?”

After a moment’s thought, Yino asked curiously.

The red fox girl beside him tilted her head. She squinted her left eye with its abyssal markings, observed for a bit, then said flatly: “No illusion magic detected. Probably real… because that fox definitely has that disgusting old hag fox stench. Probably just pissed herself from fear.”

“Jinyue, you bitch!”

Hearing her fellow fox demon bad-mouth her behind her back, Yuebai finally lost it.

“Master, I’m not a fake!”

“About half an hour ago, I was following the route Master gave me, but I came early because I was eager to see you and wanted to help solve this eighth floor’s problem ahead of time… Who knew this floor’s monster would be so terrifying! My illusion techniques barely work on it, I can’t win a fight, and I can’t escape either. I had to hang in the creature’s blind spot waiting for Master!”

Seeing Yino’s group hesitating outside the dungeon entrance, Yuebai was getting genuinely anxious.

She spoke with such feeling that if not for the massive breeding worm thrashing and roaring beneath her, Yuebai would’ve rushed over to cling to Yino and plead her case.

“Fine, I’ll trust you.”

Yino raised his eyebrow, hesitating a few times. He still couldn’t figure out how Yuebai had speed-run here, but with his full team present, even if this was a trap, there wasn’t much danger on just the eighth floor.

With that thought, Yino rolled up his sleeves and unleashed his full cultivation.

Ever since returning from the abyss, Yino’s Innate Sword Holy Physique had fully awakened.

His cultivation had reached Nascent Soul stage, his sword skill tree was maxed out, and thanks to refining the Heart of Pain, Yino’s evil arts branch had also reached unprecedented heights.

In the game, the protagonist’s Innate Sword Holy Physique was incredibly overpowered.

Now with evil arts buffs, Yino was even more broken than the original protagonist.

The game’s protagonist needed to be near death to go berserk and power up. Yino had it easy, he could activate his abyss buff at full health.

“Can’t believe it’s been almost a year since the Mountain Temple battle, and I’m fighting a breeding worm again.”

“Even more coincidentally, there’s another fox hanging from the dungeon ceiling…

“In a way, this breeding worm and I have quite the history.”

He spoke with a slight nostalgia as the tamed evil sword Wangziu materialized in his hand.

Back when he was dirt poor, he’d had nothing but agility stats, using a basic sword skill to pry off the breeding worm’s scales one by one.

Now the breeding worm has evolved from Core Formation to Emptiness Refining stage.

But Yino was no longer that zero-level newbie with just an iron sword.

“Let me help you!”

Outside the dungeon, Ruoning rushed forward when she saw Yino facing the worm alone.

But this time, to Ruoning’s surprise, the red fox girl who usually clung to Yino actually stopped her.

“No need! You’ll just get in the way with those amateur skills!”

Jinyue puffed out her cheeks, her enchanting eyes gazing longingly at Yino’s black silhouette.

For a moment, Ruoning was completely confused:

“What do you mean? We’re just going to stand here and watch Yino fight that Emptiness Refining nightmare monster alone?!”

“Yeah, two major cultivation realms higher… normally impossible to beat.”

Jinyue stared dreamily and murmured.

But as her words trailed off, she suddenly turned to look at Ruoning, her enchanting eyes showing indescribable adoration: “But you know what? Some monsters exist just to be stage props for Yino’s visual feast!”

“What… what are you talking about, Jinyue…”

Ruoning was totally lost.

Looking back, she saw the red fox girl beside her had stars in her eyes, excited like a fangirl, waving her fox tails and cheering Yino on from behind.

“Yino! use that move for me!”

….

Liuli Divine Palace.

The black shadow on the throne had been glued to the crystal ball showing Yino’s battle with the worm for half an hour straight.

At first, the Liuli Illusion Palace Master thought it would just be another ordinary solo clear, nothing special.

But half an hour later, as the boy in the crystal ball closed his eyes, landed gracefully without a drop of blood on his clothes, sheathed his sword with a soft shing, and the breeding worm behind him exploded in blood and collapsed with a crash, the Palace Master watching from outside the crystal ball finally relaxed and lay back…

“Just what kind of countless despair would someone have to experience to dodge so elegantly through a breeding worm’s chaotic attack patterns with eyes closed, relying purely on instinct for a perfect, untouched fight?”

“Compared to that, this old master feels ashamed.”