The Trembling World
Chapter 467: Eternal Life

TL: LifeisaJourney

If the King Crocodile had calmed down and pressed its body along the edge of the cliff, then the majority of its body wouldn’t have been damaged at all. The moment it fell, it was taking damage from the wall of malice. Surprised by the misstep and stunned by the damage from the fall, the King Crocodile kept squirming in pain. It was roaring as loud as it could, while trying to escape. It was a simple-minded creature that couldn’t have comprehended sticking close to the wall to minimize damage.

By this time, Liu Gan had escaped through the five-meter wide gap on the beach. From a safe distance, he was watching the King Crocodile wither in pain. It wasn’t intelligent enough to stick close to the cliff edge. Liu Gan could relax for a bit knowing that his work was being done.

The next step was to just wait, patiently wait for the King Crocodile to struggle more!

***

Liu Gan’s worries were unnecessary. The wall of malice was a high viscosity substance that adhered to whatever fell in. With the majority of the King Crocodile’s body deep in the wall of malice, unless it abandoned that half of its body, it couldn’t escape... but if it abandoned half of its body, then it couldn’t live!

It seemed that it wasn’t that the King Crocodile couldn’t remain calm, but it was that it couldn’t pull itself off of the wall. Its Black Fog Shield was shining brightly as it was withered down by the wall. The result was a bright blue spark that could be seen from far away.

***

Once the Black Fog Shield was gone, the King Crocodile started roaring in pain. Now that the shield was gone, there were tentacles stretching out from the wall of malice, with twisted faces appearing there. Mouths started eating away at parts of the King Crocodile. After half an hour of eating, the King Crocodile was close to becoming lifeless. Its head was down and it had stopped roaring. Liu Gan moved closer to the King Crocodile and aimed at its brain.

Even with the shield gone, it took some time to penetrate the thick layer of scales. Liu Gan’s continuous ability broke through the reptile’s skull, and the dark red contents of its brain mush leaked out. Liu Gan didn’t stop there, he kept on going until the King Crocodile was motionless.

Here is where the mystery started. Normally, when the creature is dead, then Black Orbs would float into Liu Gan’s body as experience points. However, nothing of that sort had happened yet. It didn’t drop tokens, nor weapons. The King Crocodile was still there, but just motionless. Its brain matter had leaked out, so surely it was dead. Right?

Could it be that this wasn’t the right way to kill it? Or was the last hit stolen away by someone else? Or something else like the wall of malice? Suddenly, Liu Gan felt a chill down his spine at the endless possibilities.

There was also another theory.

His theory was that the King Crocodile had a similar trait to the smaller version of Crocodiles. It was their undying aspect! After a minute of dying, it would revive! All the body parts and even the shield would regenerate!

If it had nine lives, Liu Gan believed that this broken BOSS would be the ace amongst General ranked creatures. If he didn’t use cheap tactics like this, then a fair fight would’ve required over a hundred level 18 or 19 players.

***

And of course, that was the theory that proved to be true.

Even after the King Crocodile revived, its body was still ensnared by the wall of malice. It was like an endless replay of what had happened prior. From nonstop struggling, to shattering its shield, deafening roars, then lifelessness, and finally death.

After dying eight times, Liu Gan was surprised. The King Crocodile’s skin didn’t change color. A skin color change meant that it was on its last legs. He thought that it was going to be nine lives since the regular Crocodiles had to die nine times. After dying nine times, Liu Gan still didn’t get his reward.

***

It died for the tenth time. Then it died for the fifteenth time, and then the twentieth time.

Liu Gan repeated his actions as many times as it revived. Even he was getting numb from this repetitive action.

Every time the King Crocodile would die, and then revive briefly after. Liu Gan was starting to suspect that it had eternal life.

Perhaps, this wasn’t the right way to kill it? What other way was there to kill it?

This BOSS was such a bullshit creature. If this method couldn’t kill the King Crocodile, then Liu Gan would have to give up.

***

Like a broken record of endless cycle of death and rebirth, two days had passed by. During these two days, Liu Gan didn’t rest or sleep. The King Crocodile had revived close to fifty times. Liu Gan was exhausted. His blood-shot eyes showed that capillaries were ruptured from staying awake. The King Crocodile continued to die and revive. There were no signs of the rebirth cycle breaking.

“How could this be?” one of the two members who were sleeping on the beach started to ask.

“It’s useless, this BOSS is impossible to kill!” Another player started to lose confidence.

“Elder Liu, let’s just give up. We were fooled by this dungeon,” someone spoke up. If Liu Gan continued, he would die of exhaustion!

Under Ana’s suggestion, every time the King Crocodile died, Liu Gan could sleep and rest for a while. Once the shield shattered, someone would wake Liu Gan up. Through this method, Liu Gan’s health started to slowly recover.

***

Another two days had passed. By now, the King Crocodile had died close to eighty times. There were some signs that the skin was changing colors. It was similar to when the regular Crocodiles had died eight times. Its skin turned blood red, with the Fog Shield taking on a new color, red. It was struggling even more ferociously than before. It was in its enraged mode!

Liu Gan roused himself. This time, he didn’t take a break. He focused his attention on the King Crocodile’s every move.

Now that the enraged King Crocodile had extra protection from its shield, it was wriggling itself out from the wall of malice with its newfound strength. Even though it was moving slowly, there were signs of it freeing itself!

If it was able to escape, then it could cling close to the cliffs to survive. If it succeeded, everything that they had done would be wasted!

Liu Gan couldn’t let that happen. He moved close to the King Crocodile and use his best abilities. From Enhanced Crescent Blade to Psychic Shock, he used whatever he could. He would do anything just to stop it from wiggling out of the wall of malice!

Liu Gan’s strategy had some effect. With his proactive interference, the King Crocodile lost focus on wiggling out of the trap and directed its anger at him!