How Do We Play If This Boss Isn't Nerfed?

Chapter 315: Chapter 164: Passive Trait, Furious Gaze Demon Suppression

Lin Ye’s figure charged forward again, spear in one hand. He was faster than before, his strikes growing ever more frenzied.

The Eight-armed Race Warriors of the Blood Slaughter Tribe were renowned in this region for their fearlessness in the face of death.

Retreat was not in their vocabulary; their glory was forged upon the bones of their enemies.

But at this moment, that glory was being brutally crushed by an incomprehensible humanoid monster.

When Lin Ye’s spear smashed another six-armed elite’s head, splattering blood and brains across the face of its comrade, the comrade’s axe-wielding arm faltered for the first time.

As it watched the figure stroll casually among the corpses of its kin, not a single scratch on his body, the frenzied will to fight in its crimson eyes gave way to a more primal emotion.

Fear.

Once the thought took root, it spread like a plague among the remaining Eight-armed Race Warriors.

Their king had been killed in a single blow, their altar reduced to ruins, and their god publicly humiliated.

Now, their tribe’s finest were being slaughtered.

So-called glory was laughable in the face of such an absolute disparity in strength.

Finally, after witnessing a kinsman torn in two by a flash of golden light from the spear, the mental defenses of a four-armed slave soldier completely crumbled.

It let out a terrified shriek, dropped its weapon, and turned to flee wildly toward the canyon’s exit.

It was like the first domino had fallen.

More and more of them began to desert.

A few minutes later, the battle had devolved into a one-sided hunt.

Lin Ye’s figure flickered through the canyon. Each appearance was accompanied by a brilliant flash of golden light from his spear and a bloodcurdling scream that was cut short.

Just as he was about to slaughter the last dozen or so of the Eight-armed Race, the notification he had long been waiting for finally sounded in his mind.

[Ding! You have slain an Eight-armed Race elite. Taotie mechanism activated!]

[You have obtained the passive racial trait: Furious Gaze Demon Suppression!]

Lin Ye paused his pursuit for a fraction of a second. The tension that had been wound tight within him finally eased.

’A passive trait!’

’This means the new ability isn’t mutually exclusive like Crystalization and Shadow Scale, which can’t be used at the same time and require me to switch between them in battle.’

’Passive traits and abilities are active at all times.’

’One active, one passive—this is the ideal combination for the Taotie mechanism.’

The moment the system notification appeared, Lin Ye keenly sensed a subtle shift in the battle.

All this time, while fighting the Eight-armed Race, he had always felt a faint, almost imperceptible suppressive force.

The circulation of his Gang Sha felt a bit more sluggish than usual, and even the speed at which he could use Crystalization to form amethysts seemed to be slightly affected.

Although, given his overwhelming power, this sluggishness was almost negligible.

But it was definitely there.

But in that instant, the persistent feeling of suppression vanished into thin air.

The flow of his Gang Sha was smoother than ever before.

The mobilization of his Spiritual Power was no longer impeded in the slightest.

While hunting down the last few desperately fleeing members of the Eight-armed Race, Lin Ye diverted some of his focus to examine his new passive ability.

[Furious Gaze Demon Suppression]

[Type: Passive Racial Trait]

[Effect: All of your attacks now weaken the effects of the target’s special abilities or special skills that require an energy source.]

[Note: This effect is weakened when attacking targets stronger than you; conversely, it is enhanced when attacking targets weaker than you.]

A single term flashed through Lin Ye’s mind.

’Anti-Mage!’

He also immediately understood why that strange suppressive feeling had suddenly disappeared.

It turned out that the true racial advantage of these Eight-armed Race members, who seemed to rely solely on brute force, wasn’t their multiple arms. It was a passive trait that subtly weakened an opponent’s energy circulation during combat.

And the reason he was now immune to this effect was simply because he had used his own "negation" to negate the Eight-armed Race’s "negation."

It had the absurd feeling of using a "Counter" to cancel an opponent’s "Counter."

In such a pure clash of mechanics, the stronger party naturally comes out on top.

SCHLICK!

As the Star-Piercing Spear ran through the last member of the Eight-armed Race from behind, the entire canyon finally fell into a dead silence.

All that remained was the gurgling of the rolling Molten River and the howling wind pouring in from the canyon entrance.

Lin Ye flicked the blood from the tip of his weapon and slid the Star-Piercing Spear back into its place behind him.

He glanced around at the mangled corpses littering the ground.

Warm blood pooled into streams, snaking across the scorched earth before flowing into the dark red Molten River, where it evaporated into clouds of foul-smelling white smoke.

Without pausing, Lin Ye’s gaze swept past the mountain of corpses and settled on the Basalt Fortress behind the altar’s ruins, a structure starkly different from the crude surrounding caves.

He hadn’t forgotten that before the ritual began, crates of high-purity Source Crystals had been carried out of this very fortress.

He now had three temporary active skills crying out to be fed, as well as a passive trait with enormous potential.

He wouldn’t let any opportunity to devour Source Crystals slip by.

The roiling Molten River boiled beneath him. With a flicker of his will,

HUM!

a hexagonal purple crystal materialized out of thin air beneath his feet. It hovered steadily above the lava, shielding him from the heat that was intense enough to melt gold and iron.

Lin Ye tapped his toes lightly on the crystal, and his figure drifted forward dozens of meters like a phantom.