Huang Yi rotated the 8 beads in his hand, staring at their captivating green glow, and slowly said, "Because you consumed the treasure of the Death God—Tears of Time, which could make your eyes immensely powerful and indestructible, your four avatars turned into black dust, leaving only the eyeballs behind."
"Tears of Time... I didn’t expect you to know the effects of such a divine object. But, just with these, can you be sure I am Death Scales?" Laus asked with difficulty; by then, both his hands had turned to ashes, leaving only half of his body struggling, yet he still insisted on looking up, unwillingly glaring at Huang Yi.
Huang Yi looked up at the keys dancing in the sky, saying, "After you left the cell, you must have wanted to get your own key or the key of someone very important to you, to gain your body’s freedom, to recover your original strength. But after losing four avatars without being able to get the key, you had no choice but to use my hand to obtain it. And these past few days, you kept urging me to get key number 11, and when you finally saw that I could not, you settled for key number 250! Obviously, one of these numbers is you! According to all my previous conjectures, you are obviously number 250—Hydra Death Scales! Only that could explain all this!"
Laus clenched his teeth, enduring the agony of destruction, and wrestled to say, "If I’m number 250, why would I want key number 11? Isn’t that superfluous?"
"Because you have to do that!" Huang Yi looked down at Laus, "Even you, a level 250 powerhouse, can only be locked in cell number 250, so the strength of number 11 must far exceed yours. Why are you so desperate to get key number 11? Who could make you care so much? Obviously, number 11 is your master—the Magic God!"
Upon hearing this, Laus’s face completely changed, pale as ashes. The words "Magic God" hit him like a bullet, striking his heart fiercely, catching him off guard.
However, Laus still wouldn’t give up, and with a contorted expression, he asked, "The criminals with a number below 100 are locked in the Sealed Prison Cell and cannot be checked for dead or alive status! How could I possibly know that the Magic God is number 11? How could I possibly know if he’s still alive?"
"Because you have consumed Tears of Time, your eyes mutated, allowing you to see through past and future! You can see what has happened in Heroes’ Prison and naturally can see that Magic God was assigned number 11 upon his imprisonment. After Magic God was locked in the Sealed Prison Cell, though he could not be checked, you’re his mount, bound by a Master-Servant Contract, your life and death are tied to his! If he lives, you live; if he dies, you must die. You’re still alive, which means Magic God is still alive too! Unless you can get the Pact of Water and wash away your Master-Servant Contract!"
At this point, Huang Yi recalled the forum post about the "Top Ten Divine Objects". If he hadn’t read that post, he wouldn’t have known the functions of Tears of Time and Pact of Water; in a sense, the author of that post had done him a huge favor.
By this time, Laus finally stopped struggling. His torso had turned into a pile of black ashes, leaving only a head that was about to vanish completely. He stared at Huang Yi for a long time, then sighed and said in a ghostly voice, "Yes, I am Hydra Death Scales. I never thought that I, having roamed the world for countless years, would be brought down by a nobody like you, disappearing completely from this world!"
"You’re finally admitting it?" Huang Yi breathed a long sigh of relief, "Actually, I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure you were Death Scales—no matter how reasonable a conjecture is, it is only a conjecture and cannot replace fact. But your suspicion was so great that I had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure against you." Huang Yi said, looking at Laus’s head, "You can’t be said to have completely disappeared, at least your two eyeballs should be able to remain."
"No, not two, but ten!" Laus spoke with a hint of tragedy, "Do you know why, after I got out of the cell, I only dared to send four avatars into this Stone Chamber? Because if the number of my avatars fell below five, then I would truly die! So all these years, I’ve been waiting patiently, until you arrived. Although I possess the Eye of Time, I couldn’t foresee your future, nor could I see you killing me! Once my main avatar disappears, those four outside the door won’t be spared either; they will perish with me, leaving behind just 10 eyeballs, all for your undeserved benefit!"
"Undeserved benefit for me?" Huang Yi furrowed his brows slightly, "Do your eyeballs have another use?"
"Of course! The effects of Tears of Time are not so easily dissipated. After I die, if you consume all 18 of my eyeballs, you can also have the effects of Tears of Time, gaining some magical abilities. Even if I don’t tell you, you’ll come to know soon enough. It’s a pity! Such a pity! I can only die here in this prison, unable to return home to take a look..." At this point, Realgar Stone began to erode Laus’s head, his voice became more and more ethereal, his gaze more and more diffused, "I remember the days when I lived freely, basking in the Sun, patrolling my territory, carefree. One day, that damned Magic God caught me and forcibly signed a Master-Servant Contract with me, from then on I became nothing but his slave, living to serve him! Do you know that feeling? You so hate your enemy, yet you’re forced to serve him, your everything is tied to him, you wish for his death, but once he dies, you must die too... you can only save him... risking your life to save your enemy... Haha... What an absurd world... what a tragic Memory... now... I can finally... be released... freed..." As he spoke, Laus’s voice became intermittent, and ultimately faded completely; his head turned to flying ashes, leaving behind only two green beads, twinkling with a captivating glow.
At that moment, the world seemed to stand still.
An instant later, a voice echoed throughout the world:
"[System Announcement]: Chinese player [Instakill] killed Hydra Death Scales (Level 250), becoming the first player to slay an NPC over two hundred levels higher than themselves, awarded public prestige points 1000, and received [Unique Achievement]—[Surpassing Two Hundred Levels], China National Honor Value +1."