"Sis!"
Lin Xiyue cried out in alarm, quickly channeling all her Holy Light into her shield for a perfect [Golden Parry].
The BOSS fell into a momentary stun once more, clearing the safest path for her sister's charge.
Lin Qingyue's figure moved like lightning, instantly closing the distance to the churning black mist of the [Spirit of Pride].
The [Beloved] in her hand traced an extremely condensed arc. The staff's tip, carrying that indestructible [Geo Spear Intent], struck out like a dragon!
This attack had no flashy magical effects.
There was only the purest form of piercing a surface with a single point.
The staff's tip tore through the air, emitting a tooth-achingly sharp crackle, and struck the [Spirit of Pride]'s core chest with absolute precision!
Thump—!
An extremely muffled piercing sound rang out.
The staff had indeed stabbed solidly into the black mist!
"A hit!" Lin Xiyue's eyes lit up.
However, Lin Qingyue's face suddenly turned deathly pale.
The sensation was wrong.
There was no resistance from piercing flesh, nor the crisp sound of shattering a hard object.
The feeling was like using a chopstick to stab a piece of granite buried ten thousand years underground.
An insurmountable counterforce surged violently back through the staff, nearly splitting her web of the hand.
The enemy, however, remained motionless.
The spot where the [Spirit of Pride] had been stabbed only dipped slightly, forming a negligible shallow crater, before immediately returning to its original state as if nothing had happened.
"Physical piercing attacks... are also almost completely ineffective..."
Lin Qingyue's breath suddenly caught. A chill surged up her spine, instantly spreading through her entire body.
The [Spirit of Pride] slowly lowered its head. The featureless mask looked down at Lin Qingyue, who was still locked in a struggle, and let out a short, contemptuous sneer.
A cold, aloof, and utterly emotionless will echoed directly in the minds of the four.
"Is this your full strength?"
"You aren't even worthy of scratching me."
Before the words had even faded, the black mist exploded!
A colossal black palm, blotting out the sky, materialized from thin air. Upon the palm, countless distorted faces flickered, emitting silent wails as if it had condensed all the despair and finality in the world.
It descended ruthlessly upon Lin Qingyue's head, like swatting an annoying fly!
"Sis!"
Lin Xiyue's eyes widened in horror, but she was already too late to help.
In the nick of time, Lin Qingyue reacted with lightning speed, using the terrifying counterforce to propel herself into a sudden backflip.
Her body evaded the fatal strike by a hair's breadth.
Even so, the mere shockwave from the palm strike acted like an invisible wall, blasting her more than ten meters away.
When she landed, she stumbled back seven or eight more steps, each one cracking the hard jade floor into a spiderweb of fractures before she finally stabilized her stance. A sweetness filled her throat as a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of her mouth.
The entire battlefield instantly descended into a hopeless stalemate.
They couldn't damage it.
They couldn't damage it at all.
This wasn't a fight; it was a game.
It was like a group of Level 1 novices with wooden swords trying to challenge a max-level World Boss with conceptual defense.
The enemy didn't even need to get serious. Just standing there, its despairingly thick defense was enough to crush all hope.
"Something is wrong with this thing's mechanics!"
Countless streams of icy blue data flowed across Su Wan's eyes as her mind raced with calculations.
"This isn't simple physical or magical defense. This is... a 'rejection' at the rule level!"
Lin Qingyue understood instantly.
Yes!
Rejection!
This creature's defense mechanism wasn't a traditional resistance.
It was a conceptual ability based on the rule of the Original Sin of Pride itself!
In its eyes, it was "perfect," while Lin Qingyue and the others were simply "imperfect" by their very existence.
Therefore, any attack from the "imperfect" was, in its rule-based logic, simply not qualified to harm the "perfect."
This was a nearly unsolvable rule-based barrier!
"So how do we fight? Should we take a math olympiad on the spot and get a perfect score to show it?"
Lin Xiyue spat out a mouthful of blood-streaked saliva and raised her giant shield in front of her again. Her eyes were still as fierce as a wolf's, but a sense of helplessness couldn't help but arise in her heart.
A shadow fell over everyone's hearts.
This was almost... an invincible enemy!
Just as Lin Qingyue's mind was racing, wondering if she should use her trump card to break the stalemate.
The secondary equipment hanging from her waist, the ancient-looking book titled As I've Written, suddenly vibrated slightly without any warning.
It wasn't just a vibration.
A wave of emotion, urgent and angry, yet also slightly soft and aggrieved, flowed directly into Lin Qingyue's mind through the equipment link.
This emotion was not directed at Lin Qingyue, but straight at the Spirit of Pride in the air, which was radiating the aura of "perfection" and "rejection."
It was like an innocent child seeing the most hateful and wrongest thing in the world.
Mem (That bad thing! So hateful)!
Mem mem mem (Sister! I want to come out! I want to hit it)!!
Lin Qingyue froze slightly.
This was... Mem?
That little one who did nothing but eat and sleep, and would constantly go to Ilanier to scrounge for food?
Lin Qingyue's heart stirred.
She almost raised Mem as her own daughter, and the little one had always been very obedient, never taking the initiative to ask for anything.
Let alone showing such a strong fighting desire, mixed with disgust and anger, like today.
She glanced at the invincible aura-radiating Spirit of Pride, and then felt the increasingly urgent mental fluctuations within As I've Written, which even carried the meaning of "I'm going to cry if you don't let me out."
She silently withdrew her hand, which had already been preparing to draw a Character Card.
A playful smile curved her lips.
"Alright."
"Since you want to come out, let's cause a scene!"
"I choose you! Mem!"
As Lin Qingyue gave a soft shout, the pages of As I've Written at her waist flipped open without wind, and a gentle pink aura poured out from it like flowing honey.
Pop~
With a cute sound effect like a cork being pulled, a small figure about half a meter tall appeared out of thin air and landed lightly on the ground.
A faint, sweet aroma, like strawberry milk candy, suddenly spread through the air filled with decay and despair.
Then, it slowly floated into mid-air.
"Mem~!"
The little one let out a soft, sweet cry, spun elegantly in the air, and then came to a steady hover.
The battlefield, which had been on the brink of a life-and-death struggle, fell into an eerie silence because of the intrusion of this creature whose art style was completely out of place.
Even the Spirit of Pride's raging storm of energy fluctuations subconsciously paused for a moment.
Clearly, its perfect logic system had failed to successfully process this cute creature with its mismatched art style.
It was a small, fluffy creature, completely pink, and looked like it would feel great to the touch.
It had a pair of long pink ears and wore an exquisitely crafted pink princess dress with lace trim.
Behind it, a fluffy, soft, large pink tail swayed comfortably from side to side like a squirrel's.
The most striking feature was its pair of big, crystal-clear eyes.
Those heterochromatic pupils, half-blue and half-purple, seemed to hold an entire untainted starry sky, filled with curiosity and innocence about this world.
It was like a lost child actor from a Disney movie set who had taken a wrong turn and stumbled into a Dark Souls movie set.
This was Mem in her spirit form.
"Sis?"
Lin Xiyue, who was focused and on guard, almost dropped her shield when she suddenly saw such a little thing pop out.
"You finally decided to let Mem out in the dungeon? I thought you were going to keep her hidden as a family heirloom."
Lin Qingyue retorted bluntly, "Stop talking nonsense, just watch."
She herself didn't know exactly what Mem wanted to do, but its strong battle-ready will made her decide to trust it unconditionally this time.
Mem curiously scanned its surroundings.
When its gaze fell upon that twisted and ugly mass of black smoke that was the Spirit of Pride, a hint of undisguised disgust immediately surfaced in its pure eyes.
And... a hint of battle intent that even surprised Lin Qingyue?