Not all Qi Masters of the ancient times were Taoist priests, but a considerable amount of Taoist priests could be classified as Qi Masters. These Taoist Qi Masters and ordinary Qi Masters were grouped together into the same cultivation group. They could be compared to ascetics of Buddhism. They endured the hardships of an arduous journey, increasing their cultivation by their own efforts and not with external help, training in ‘five elements of the body'[1] and not the ‘golden pellet'[2]. From ancient times until now, numerous Qi Masters attached themselves to monarchs for the emperor’s imperial qi. Every dynasty had a prime example and famous character. This was because the emperor’s imperial qi was very important to them.

“Dreadful Radio is becoming harder and harder to understand. I suddenly reminisce the story worlds of the past. The story worlds these days generally feel baffling; even Qi Masters can appear.”

Su Bai touched his chin. He hadn’t shaven since entering the story world, and his beard had now grown long and prickly.

“Some changes are estimated to be made since it has no way of controlling the development of this story world. The story world I experienced in the past always used supernatural and horror as a theme, the tempo was fast, we needed to find out the clues and distinguish between the enemy and ourselves. Unlike the constant encounters and searches in this vast space.”

“Monk, you leave things hanging.” Of course, Su Bai understood that the monk was only mentioning half and chose not to mention the other half of it.

In actuality, all the audiences of the real world had received a notification from the public account “kongbu66”, [Dreadful Radio Game will be on a hiatus for three months for upgrading. Within this three months, no missions will be issued]. Of course, the audiences in the story world still had to finish their existing mission. That’s why they were unaware of this news.

“You yourself should be able to feel these things.” The monk looked at Su Bai. “Dreadful Radio Game is actually testing, testing out a new approach in the story’s theme. At times, we can really treat it like the so-called true meaning of a radio show. It has always put in great effort for the story line. You should be very clear about this.

“In fact, most of the experienced audiences are well aware that it has been testing out a whole new story line since the last two story worlds, but the results are not favorable. The more complicated the story world it creates, the harder it is to control. At many times, its implemented will cannot be fully executed and ends up shooting itself in the foot.

The most obvious point is, it may have created some temperamental characters for the rich environment of the story world, but these people or items can’t be controlled by it, resulting in them going against its will.

I already had this feeling on Mt. Fulong. Going a long distance to fetch a child feels like an adventure, taking step by step into the abyss and in the end, facing hurdle after hurdle of danger. Gyatso, Fatty and even I respectively have been injured after such short distance. This tempo and pattern is a little dull and monotonous. I don’t think this is the plot Dreadful Radio Game wants. It’s just that things did not turn out as it planned.”

“You mean that devil?” Su Bai squinted his eyes. Even though both of them were just casually chatting, the content was pointing out to some of Dreadful Radio’s core existences.

That wasn’t something silly like a firefly challenging the bright moon. Humans, compared to the universe, couldn’t even be compared to a speck of dust, but are still is able to analyse and calculate the trajectory of numerous planets. Even though Su Bai and the monk’s position weren’t high at this moment, this didn’t stop them from having conjectures and assumptions towards Dreadful Radio Game.

“That devil was created by it. It should have felt very satisfied, but how could a true devil be a puppet to do other people’s bidding? Dreadful Radio wants to create a complicated yet perfect story world, but it doesn’t have to ability to create a real world, unless it is willing to forego its influence of that world after creating it, which is impossible. If it couldn’t have control of the story world, then the audience would really be on tour when entering the story world.”

As the monk spoke until here, a desolate snarl of a barbarian sounded from outside, followed by continuous ear-piercing sounds of broken strings. The surrounding Qing soldiers speedily headed towards the direction of sound for reinforcements. The surroundings of the guest house became very empty.

Su Bai clapped his hands and shouted, “Everybody, get up. Get ready to escape.”

Before this, they were actually waiting for a better opportunity.

Gyatso was not sleeping, Fatty was half asleep. They were also constantly paying attention to the situation outside.

“There’s a dog fight[3]?” Fatty asked while feeling surprised.

“Something should have happened halfway. Perhaps this is those westerners’ main task.” Su Bai analyzed. Since entering this story world, first was the Demon Cave, then Lam Chin-ying, then the Zombie Cave followed by Mt. Fulong. He felt that the main task process was already a lot for this group. This group of Manchurian Qing Qi Masters should not be a dish prepared for them but for the western audiences.

“Don’t take anything. Let’s escape first,” The monk said while looking outside. “Get out from this window. The soldiers from this side have gone to reinforce that side. Su Bai, you and I will cover the rear.”

Su Bai remained silent. The monk should have almost recovered and he himself was in the best condition among the rest. The monk was willing to cover the rear with him, something Su Bai found hard to reject.

“Move aside, I’ll go down first.”

The monk and Fatty moved aside from the window, Su Bai leaped out the window and landed on the ground. The building was not high.

Su Bai checked downstairs. After confirming there wasn’t any problem, he waved his hands, indicating they could come down.

Fatty grabbed onto the window ledge and climbed along the pillar. Gyatso climbed down while attaching his body to the wall. Su Bai noticed Gyatso was not leaning on crutches, which proved he had recovered the ability to move about, but was still unable to battle.

The monk was the last to go down. Just as he was about to leap out of the window, he suddenly turned back and moved sideways. A sharp sword directly flew out from the window, followed by battling sounds coming from the room.

The little fella was riding on Fatty’s shoulders, obediently keeping quiet.

“Looks like they know we are escaping and came to stall us.” Gyatso looked towards the window.

“There is a river after the forest, you all follow the river path.” Su Bai said to Fatty, “Take good care of the child.”

Fatty patted the little fella’s head as the little fella was sitting on his shoulder and straightforwardly smiled. “Relax, I want to be this child’s godfather.”

Su Bai immediately rushed back up in large strides. Both his hands held on the eaves as he pulled himself up and then stepped on the tiles to enter the window of the room next door.

Fatty and Gyatso seized the moment, taking advantage of this gap to enter the forest. Su Bai was rather confident that those two would be able to successfully escape. A starving camel was still larger than a horse, only on the precursor that he and the monk were able to stall the Manchurian Qing Qi Masters for a brief period of time.

Coming out from the room next door was the corridor entrance. The monk was swept by a sword strike of a diner and was leaning on the railing. It could be seen that the monk was in a tight spot with only the energy to parry. It was enough to let Su Bai feel surprised. This monk secretly recovered this much. Which temple trained such a shrewd and subtle monk?

The monk couldn’t hold on much longer. This Qi Master looks fair and delicate, wearing something like a councillor’s uniform, which didn’t match with his temperament. Each and every movement of his brought an ethereal atmosphere.

He was not ready to kill. It was obvious that he intended to capture them alive, but it didn’t matter since neither Su Bai nor the monk would give him this opportunity.

The monk noted Su Bai’s arrivals, put his palms together and chanted ‘Amitabha’. As the Buddhist chant entered his ears, the Qi Master suddenly trembled, closed his eyes and felt dizzy.

Su Bai immediately rushed over, clutching tightly to Exorciser. His body also rapidly transformed into the zombie state, momentarily increasing his battle prowess to the strongest state.

Even though that Qi Master’s eyes were closed, he was still sensitive towards danger. The sword in his hand flew up and pierced towards Su Bai at its own initiative. This was the flying sword protecting its owner.

Su Bai slanted his body. The flying sword brushed his chest, making sparks fly. At that moment, Su Bai felt scorching pain on his chest. Subsequently, Su Bai closed in on that Qi Master and pointed the dagger towards his chest.

The Qi Master pushed out both palms; his Qi surged like a torrential tide. Su Bai felt as if his chest was hit by a car and was thrown off balance, but at that moment, the Excorciser was hurled out by Su Bai.

The Qi Master opened his eyes; radiance flash from his eyes, looking at Excorciser which was heading towards him indifferently. He raised his left hand, held up his index finger and ring finger and clamped onto Excorciser.

Due to the habit of the Qi Master to spontaneously imbue Qi into his imperial sword, he did the same to Excorciser, and just like when the Zombie King imbued evil energy into Excorciser, the demonic energy inside Excorciser started fluctuating.

The demonic energy inside Excorciser was almost worn out when confronting the Zombie King last time. The demonic energy fluctuations this time were more like the final persistence, but the problem was that the Qi Master used only two fingers to clamp the dagger. The demonic energy brushed his two fingers, numbing them and the two fingers were flicked away. With some energy left, Excorciser continued flying towards the fixed direction.

“Puff!”

It pierced right into the Qi Master’s neck.

“This…”

The Qi Master continuously stumbled backwards until he finally leaned on the wall. Disbelief crossed his features; he was looking at a loss. He finally fell to the ground and lost his life.

Su Bai, who was thrown to the ground, held his chest and climbed up with much difficulty. Looking at the ending, he walked towards the Qi Master’s corpse and pulled out his own dagger.

“That’s for being pretentious.”