Chapter 397: From Old Demon Fang to Teacher Fang

Though blueprints for melee weapons currently gather dust for want of raw materials, firearms suffer no such constraint.

Dante boasts a repertoire of five distinct guns.

The Handguns.

The Shotgun.

Artemis: A laser weapon infused with demonic energy, capable of discharging violet beams and executing diverse assault patterns, including homing spheres of light.

Spiral: A high-caliber sniper rifle of immense power.

Kalina Ann: A multi-purpose missile launcher on loan from the heroine, complete with heat-seeking ordinance.

Inside the Jiuhua City branch.

Jun Yangzi, Li Haoran, and their cohorts sat in a tight cluster, studying the firearms within the game. As Jun Yangzi took the reins of Dante, a crimson aura coalesced upon the twin pistols. Channeling his magical energy, he pulled the trigger.

Boom! A massive flare of crimson light erupted from the muzzles, the heavy impact of the handgun rounds sending a lunging beast flying backward through the air.

"A fine weapon indeed!" Jun Yangzi remarked, turning the firearm over in his hands with undisguised affection, nodding repeatedly.

...

Meanwhile, over at the Half-City branch.

Nearly every single day, even when Boss Fang chose not to stream, those who had finished their sessions or were still waiting for a turn would gather thickly behind his chair.

And whenever the livestream went live, the crowd swelled further still.

There were even players acting as a relentless barrage of questions.

"Boss, how exactly did you pull off that Trigger Burst Clash yesterday? And when I watched you clearing minor mobs, why did you keep activating Devil Trigger for just a split second before shutting it down?" asked Mo Xian.

"It is simply executing the Devil Trigger and the Clash simultaneously; that brief transformation is used to chain combos against ordinary monsters."

"Boss, why do I keep losing to the Headless Knight? Is there an easier way to handle him?" enquired Daoist Master Xi Chi.

"The simple solution is to switch your combat style. Stay away from Royal Guard." Boss Fang noted that for a cultivator to attempt Royal Guard was nothing short of asking for a beating.

"Boss, can anyone learn the Trigger Burst Clash?" Ning Bi inquired with high seriousness.

"If you possess a latent power within your body that mirrors magical energy and is normally suppressed, then theoretically, yes." Such potent magic was typically stored deep within Dante, kept under strict restraint to ensure he could maintain his ordinary human guise.

By that same token, the tighter the suppression, the more explosive the force upon its sudden release. Consequently, the exact moment Dante shifted from human to demon, that unleashed power surged outward like a tempest, dealing severe damage to the immediate surroundings.

Furthermore, that shockwave possessed the force to instantly shatter the balance of most lesser foes.

Teacher Fang then proceeded to demonstrate the practical application of the Trigger Burst combo, choosing a Blood Bird as his target.

Adopting his instructional persona, Boss Fang spoke up, "Cultivators must maintain their spells to sustain flight. In a similar vein, avian creatures must keep flapping their wings to stay aloft. Let us use this Blood Bird for our demonstration."

With a deft upward slash, just a heartbeat before the creature could strike the ground, the monster began to adjust its posture to regain its balance. Had another moment passed, the demonic bird would have broken free from the staggered state caused by Fang Qi's downing blow, flapping its wings to escape.

Yet Fang Qi commanded Dante to trigger his demonic form. The instant torrent of magical energy struck the monster ahead like a tidal wave crashing upon a lonely skiff, sweeping it helplessly into the raging currents, stripping it of all self-control and shattering any hope of flying out of Fang Qi's reach.

The entire sequence unfolded in the mere blink of an eye.

Simultaneously, Fang Qi's blade had finished gathering its strength, followed immediately by a tempestuous flurry of thrusts.

In the original game, this served to prolong the enemy's airborne suspension, but here, it clearly added the benefit of preventing the monster from executing any effective blocks or evasions. As Fang Qi's Dante struck once more, the Blood Bird ahead was left entirely at his mercy.

Flawless and seamless, such a technique would offer no openings even if attempted in the real world.

Fang Qi continued his lecture, "Has it not been a common grievance that certain high-power martial techniques take too long to manifest, missing the target entirely? That spiritual pressure only subdues those of inferior cultivation, and tracking spells fail against exceptional speed?"

"Now, I shall demonstrate a highly practical sequence for you all."

With that, Fang Qi delivered a straight thrust, which was perfectly parried by an elite monster ahead.

Teacher Fang, however, showed no signs of surprise. Instead, a surge of immense magical energy erupted from within him, the sheer force driving even the guarding monster backward in a series of staggered steps. At that exact moment, Fang Qi began to store up power, and just as the creature was about to recover its footing, his blade swept out in a heavy arc.

A sword wave infused with devastating magical energy sliced the monster cleanly in two, traveling several yards further to carve a deep gouge into the stone wall.

"Thus, when it comes to combat, one must rely on intellect. If you cannot guarantee a hit, you simply create an environment where a hit is guaranteed."

"Uh..."

"There seems to be some logic in that...?"

"Wait... the issue is that we do not possess magical energy in our bodies!" several people suddenly realized.

Without a secondary source of energy distinct from their usual power, they could not divide the labor between the two, nor could they ensure the two forces operated without interference.

How then were they supposed to chain such a combo in reality?

"Hahahahaha!" Shui Xianyun, who had been wearing a long face, suddenly burst into a wild fit of laughter.

"Senior Sister, what brings on this laughter?"

"The demonic energy within my body that I could never purge—has it finally found its true purpose?!" Shui Xianyun, who had previously been driven to wit's end by her condition, suddenly felt that failing to immerse herself in Devil May Cry would be a criminal waste of her exceptional talents.

The others could only stare in silence.

A wave of frustration washed over them, leaving them wishing they too possessed some strange alternate energy within their veins.

Yet frustration aside, such circumstances were matters of fortune rather than choice. To inherit demonic power while keeping the demon itself suppressed, entirely free of lingering consequences, was a rare blessing under heaven.

Many were forced to turn their attention toward other prospects, such as...

"Boss," several voices inquired with burning curiosity, "how exactly does one unlock this Quicksand combat style?"

By this time, Boss Fang had fought his way to the twelfth mission, standing before the demonic stallion, Geryon.

Geryon: A legendary steed that once bore countless heroes across fields of battle, now corrupted into a demonic entity. Over long ages, it has mastered the arts of temporal manipulation, charging into battle while drawing a carriage laden with infinite armaments.

Fang Qi's Dante wielded his greatsword, narrowing his eyes at the demonic horse cloaked in blue flames, "You simply have to act as a horse tamer for a spell."

Naturally, the Dante guided by Boss Fang's increasingly exquisite combat mastery was not a foe this demonic horse could hope to withstand. Following a dizzying display of maneuvers from Boss Fang, the stallion dissolved into a solitary blue flame, hovering suspended in midair.

The Chrono Flame!

Immediately afterward, the surrounding crowd watched as the crumbling underground arena began to rain massive boulders down upon them, while an intangible force rippled rapidly outward with Dante at its epicenter.

Abruptly, every falling stone and every element of the surrounding environment seemed to grind to a halt, moving at an incredibly sluggish crawl.

"Incredible!"

"Is this the power to control time?!"

This wondrous spectacle left nearly every onlooker utterly speechless.

Right at that moment, an alert from the system chimed in Boss Fang's ears, delivering a fresh assignment.

New Task: Network Construction 2

Objective: Establish a new branch in an uncharted territory to construct a cross-regional network.

Reward: Divine Weapon Fragment

Time Limit: 40 Days

Task Bonus: Cross-regional Random Teleportation (11 uses available)

Task Bonus: Game Cultivation Room Access for 3 Days

The second network construction task had officially commenced.