Invincibility starts when I see the BOSS health bar.

Chapter 1044 Lock
Fang Yu steadied himself, and his gaze beneath the bone mask, like that of a state-of-the-art night vision device, instantly adapted to the dimness of the place, sharply scanning his surroundings.

This is a huge intersection of major sewer lines, with an exceptionally spacious area and a high dome, resembling a forgotten underground plaza.

Above them was a huge breach where rubble, mud, and sewage kept falling, like a passage connecting hell and the human world.

Beneath our feet flowed a stream of black water, its color suspicious and its stench foul.

The surrounding walls are covered with countless circular or arched pipe openings of varying sizes, their depths unknown, like the intricately interwoven mouths of countless giant beasts greedily swallowing. Each pipe is like a lurking venomous snake, winding its way to some corner of the city, silently transporting death and despair in all directions through the flow of water.

“Using the city’s underground network, especially the pervasive, neglected water and sewage systems, as a natural network for the spread of its power and curses… it’s a vicious and efficient method.”

As Fang Yu watched the liquid gurgling in the pipe, an uncontrollable rage ignited within him.

This is remarkably similar to the insidious scheme that flashed through his mind in the game world of "Seeking the Demon," where he devised a plan to weaken or even exterminate NPC forces on a large scale by polluting water sources!

But he didn't actually take any action.

The thought of that damned [spirit] turning a bustling metropolis of millions of people into a pasture for reaping lives and creating countless human tragedies in such a despicable and cruel way in the real world made Fang Yu feel a surge of murderous intent surging wildly in his chest!

"Still down there! Hiding really well, like a rat in a sewer!"

Fang Yu closed his eyes, his mental perception scanning downwards like a precise radar. That core, chilling aura, pulsating like a dark heart, wasn't lingering on this level, but originated deeper, further down, closer to the earth's veins!
The next moment, his eyes snapped open, and a flash of blood-red lightning seemed to disappear in his eyes!
"boom!!!!!!"

He gathered his strength, clenched his right fist, and the bone armor emitted a slight grinding sound. Then, without any fancy moves, he slammed his fist down onto the exceptionally solid cement ground soaked in sewage!
The ground shattered with a crash, blasting open a deeper, darker hole that exuded an even stronger, colder aura.

Sewage mixed with gravel poured in. Without the slightest hesitation, Fang Yu's body, like a stone thrown into an abyss, plummeted straight down with the falling filth!

This time, the descent felt as if it were passing through a viscous, elastic, invisible membrane that blocked some kind of sensation, and a slight feeling of resistance was felt all over the body.

When Fang Yu's feet touched the relatively solid ground again, he found himself in an extremely strange space that was completely different from the sewers above.

This is no longer an artificial structure made of cement and bricks, but a much larger, seemingly naturally formed, yet filled with traces of human alteration, enormous underground cavern.

The walls and ceiling of the cave are not rough rock, but covered with a huge "spider web" woven from countless invisible threads, emitting a faint blue light!
These threads are not physical entities, and their form is difficult to perceive with the naked eye. Their existence throughout the entire space can only be sensed through the faint fluctuations they emit, the subtle distortion of light, and the eerie glow that pulsates slowly like a neural network.

They are interconnected and crisscrossed, their complexity far exceeding human imagination, like some kind of living, enormous biological matrix or sealing array covering the entire area.

Fang Yu was standing at one of the nodes of this giant "spider web".

Stepping on it gives you a strange, sticky, and elastic sensation that's somewhere between substance and energy, as if you're stepping on the living tissue of some enormous creature.

What made his gaze even more fixed was that the moment he landed in this core space, the countdown above his head seemed to instantly connect to a "main unit" running at full power, and the rate of decrease suddenly surged again!

[10:55:11]…[10:55:08]…[10:55:05]…

It moved so fast that it almost created a blurry red afterimage!

"Heh, connected to the core 'server'? Starting full acceleration, can't wait to see me fall?"

Fang Yu sneered inwardly, disdainful of this desperate attempt to accelerate.

Because the source of that intense, deathly aura, the culprit behind it all, is already very close!
The remaining time was more than enough for him to crush his opponent dozens of times over!

His gaze pierced through the layers of invisible energy threads that obscured his vision, like the most precise locking system, firmly anchoring him at the very center of this space, the ultimate point where all the "spider web" energy threads converged.

A giant "cocoon," about the height of a person, wrapped and entwined by countless invisible threads, radiating a dense, eerie light!
This "cocoon" is also almost transparent, making it difficult to see its internal details with the naked eye. It seems to be perfectly integrated with the surrounding space and the huge energy spider web, becoming an inseparable core of the entire matrix.

Only through direct perception at the spiritual level can one clearly "see" its outline and the extremely dense, deathly spiritual aura emanating from it, which is like a black hole that devours all light, sound, and even life force!
"Right, Dead Spirit?"

Fang Yu's voice rang out in this deathly silent and eerie space. It wasn't loud, but it carried a killing intent that seemed to freeze the soul, and it echoed clearly.

Seemingly sensing Fang Yu's undisguised and tangible killing intent, and realizing that all her concealment and disguise were meaningless in the face of the other party's ruthless "demolition-style" search.

The "cocoon" that concealed its final form, wrapped in an invisible spiderweb, began to undergo drastic changes.

The invisible spiderweb, dense and silken like silkworm silk, which was wrapped on the outside, seemed to have life and will. It began to peel away, shrink, and dissipate into the air layer by layer, like the receding tide.

As if sensing a deadly threat, the mimosa is rapidly retracting its leaves, or like a dying flower about to bloom, it is peeling back its last petals to completely expose its most deadly core to its predator.

For the first time, the image of the Dead Spirit was presented to Fang Yu in its entirety without reservation.

It was a... bizarrely shaped being, even bordering on the absurd. At its core was a head, roughly half a person's height, shaped like a standard geometric rhombus, seemingly made of some kind of pure black crystal or obsidian polished over millions of years.

Its head was smooth as a mirror, reflecting the faint blue light emanating from the energy spiderwebs in the cave, and shimmering with an ominous glow.

On the two opposite corners of the upper part of the diamond-shaped head, there are two small, round eyes, as if they were polished from the finest obsidian.

These two eyes lacked any of the vitality or liveliness that a living being should possess; they were only a pure, unfathomable void and deathly stillness, like a hole leading to another world of annihilation.

Below the diamond-shaped head, there grows, or rather hangs down, hundreds of lines, as if they possess independent life.

These lines are colorful, displaying all seven colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. They flow, twist, and drift slowly as if in liquid, like a living rainbow, or like countless colorful venomous snakes with consciousness.

The vibrant colors, combined with its lifeless, dark, diamond-shaped head and the icy aura emanating from it, create an extremely strong and unsettling visual and sensory contrast.

At first glance, its peculiar shape, short stature, and rainbow-like lines give it an indescribable, eerie "cuteness."

But the moment Fang Yu saw it clearly, his heart seemed to freeze instantly as if by the eternal ice of the polar regions. All distracting thoughts were completely eliminated, leaving only the purest vigilance and killing intent.

This seemingly "weird and cute" thing was the one that directly or indirectly orchestrated the tragic deaths throughout the city!
The cruelty of their methods, the cunning of their minds, and their utter indifference to life are far beyond what their absurd appearance can conceal!

However, under extreme vigilance and killing intent, Fang Yu's combat intuition, honed through countless life-and-death battles and forged in blood and fire, clearly relayed a crucial message to him.

The level of energy fluctuations and the direct sense of threat emanating from the other party at this moment... did not seem to be as overwhelming as he had previously anticipated!
At least in pure combat, he doesn't seem to be as good as he is now!
This assessment completely tipped the strategic scales in Fang Yu's mind.

The advantage is mine!

"die!"

There was no nonsense, and no disdain for probing.

Fang Yu's figure suddenly activated while maintaining full-body bone armor coverage!
He transformed into a white afterimage that was difficult to detect with the naked eye, tearing apart the brief space between the two of them. With a violent aura that could crush everything, he punched straight at the "chest" of the Silent Spirit, which was below the diamond-shaped head and where the lines seemed to converge, the core area!
Wherever the fist passed, the air was compressed rapidly, producing a piercing explosion!

Even the surrounding colorful lines were forced backward by this fierce fist wind!

Fang Yu's punches were as fast as lightning and as fierce as thunder!
However, the dead spirit's reaction also showed a strangeness and speed befitting its identity as a "spirit"!

Just as the bone fist containing terrifying power was about to touch its body, the hundreds of slowly floating seven-colored lines on its body seemed to receive a unified command and instantly underwent a strange change!

Within a fraction of a second, most of the lines faded completely, turning into a deep, viscous dark green!
These dark green lines are incredibly dynamic, like the tentacles of a well-trained deep-sea octopus, rapidly retracting, intertwining, and layering, instantly weaving a thick, elastic green line shield with a surface covered in mucus in front of its "chest"!
"BOOM!!!!!!"

Fang Yu's heavy fist slammed solidly into the very center of the green-lined shield! It produced a dull, resounding thud, like a heavy hammer hitting wet mud!
A slippery, viscous sensation, along with a strong biological acidic corrosiveness, immediately came from the point of contact between the fist and the body!

The green-lined shield was not directly pierced or shattered by the powerful force, but instead sank and twisted with remarkable resilience.

Like a biological tissue with extremely strong buffering capacity, it skillfully guided, dispersed, and unloaded the terrifying kinetic energy contained in Fang Yu's fist in all directions!
The Deathly Spirit's true form, aided by this redirected power, seemed to lose most of its weight, and floated backward lightly. With a "thud," its back seemingly heavy but actually lightly struck the cave wall covered in energy spiderwebs behind it, before it came to a steady stop.

Fang Yu looked down at his fist, which was covered in white bones.

Where the fist met the green lines, the hard bone armor surface was emitting a sizzling sound that made one's teeth ache, and wisps of smoke with a pungent odor were rising. It showed signs of being rapidly corroded by the strong acid, and its color had turned charred black!
"interesting."

Fang Yu shook his hand, and the corroded bone armor surface peeled off rapidly like weathered rock. Deeper beneath the skin, the white bone fluid, like a living thing, was writhing and multiplying rapidly. Almost instantly, the bone armor, shimmering with a pale white luster, was covered again, restoring it to its original state.

These lines not only possess excellent physical defense and energy deflection capabilities, but also have such strong biological corrosive properties!
His eyes flashed with a fierce light, his killing intent intensified, and he was about to charge forward again to launch an even more ferocious series of attacks when suddenly, his body abruptly stopped!
On the opposite wall, the Deathly Spirit, which had just regained its footing, had its hundreds of lines instantly and without warning transform into pitch blackness that seemed to absorb all light!

These black lines did not defend or attack as before, but instead spread wildly in all directions of the cave like a black tide with its own life, shooting out!

Their speed exceeded the limits of visual perception. In almost a thousandth of a second, they spread like splashed ink or a wildly multiplying dark fungal carpet, densely packed and covering the entire vast underground cave space, from the dome to the ground, completely enveloping and swallowing it!

All the light, whether it was the faint blue glow of the energy spider web or the weak reflection of Fang Yu's bone armor itself, was completely swallowed up by this absolute darkness at this moment!

The surroundings were plunged into a pure, pitch-black darkness, where not a single shape could be discerned!
It felt as if I had suddenly fallen from an underground cave into a cosmic abyss devoid of any stars!
"In which areas will it be carried out?"

Fang Yu calmly made a judgment in his mind, but having long been accustomed to fighting by relying on his senses, his movements did not falter.

His sight was completely taken away, but his mental perception remained!
With his firm grasp on the unique deathly aura of the Dead Spirit, he once again transformed into a white afterimage in his perception and charged towards the direction he remembered and sensed, unleashing another fierce straight punch!

However, this punch missed again!
(End of this chapter)