Chapter 72: Daily Life in the Misty Illusion Realm

Damn it, I tried my best to avoid trouble, so how did I still end up running into these guys? As Feng Xue sprinted at full speed, he felt the tremors pulsing from behind and couldn’t help but mutter a string of complaints.

He had been in the Phantasmal Mist Zone for two months now. Although life here was even harsher than in the Founders’ Village, at least he still had his limbs intact and could practice martial arts, Quincy skills, and Ripple Immortal techniques, rather than just lazing around all day, eating and sleeping while waiting for death. In that sense, his days were full and busy.

But today, he had carelessly wandered into the domain of the Hell Goblin Beasts.

Although the Hell Goblin Beasts—those circus performers the Clown summoned with a wave in the first part—were the weakest among all mature Digimon, and held even less status in the Nightmare Corps than the Impmon, even though they were said to be the origin of all Digimon in the Nightmare Troop, any mature Digimon with some power could easily overpower them. The real problem with these creatures was that they were communal—they lived in hordes!

Yes, that’s right: they lived in swarms.

As a result, Feng Xue had no choice but to flee for his life, chased by at least thirty Hell Goblin Beasts right on his heels.

It couldn’t be helped. The Hell Goblin Beast’s signature move, Nightmare Screech, was a control-type attack using ultrasonic waves to plunge the opponent into endless nightmares, but this was the Phantasmal Mist Zone. Here, more than eighty percent of the Digimon belonged to the Nightmare Corps. Why do you think they’re named that?

It’s because nearly every Digimon adapted to this realm possessed some form of hypnotic power.

Which made civil wars among those of the same attribute a real headache—especially for Hell Goblin Beasts, whose stubby arms and legs made them poor at close combat. When they tried to use their special move, it was almost always neutralized by the resistance of their own kind.

Thus, to survive in this place teeming with the strong, the already numerous Hell Goblin Beasts banded together for group operations. In fact, most villages in the Phantasmal Mist Zone had been established by these creatures.

If more than fifty Hell Goblin Beasts launched a coordinated attack, even slightly weaker Ultimate-level Digimon would be stunned for a moment.

Feeling the tremors through the ground, Feng Xue knew that the reckless pack behind him was still in pursuit.

In the Phantasmal Mist Zone, Hell Goblin Beast swarms were truly a nightmare—sometimes even more troublesome than some of the top mature or even Ultimate-level Digimon. Those fierce Digimon understood reverence and restraint; after all, the Phantasmal Mist Zone wasn’t lacking in Mega-levels, so they wouldn’t dare make too much noise. But the Hell Goblin Beasts were different. Those fools never seemed to grasp the meaning of restraint, always stirring up chaos. Digimon fleeing through the mist would often find themselves, together with the Hell Goblin Beasts on their tail, swallowed up as snacks by some powerful Ultimate or Mega disturbed by all the commotion.

Feng Xue could feel his Digicore growing weary—not just from running. While the Impmon was indeed faster than the Hell Goblin Beasts (despite the latter’s wings, they were slower than Patamon or Biyomon, and their legs—short and O-shaped—made running a joke), he still couldn’t put much distance between them. The real reason was that Feng Xue had been using the Flying Scythe Kick to escape the entire time!

Yes, the Flying Scythe Kick. After evolving to his current mature stage, Feng Xue’s data capacity had greatly increased, and Impmon was already one of the most adept at channeling energy among all mature Digimon (which other mature Digimon could wield two opposing elements at once, and do so freely?). The data density in the Phantasmal Mist Zone was higher than in the Founders’ Village as well.

Having been on the run ever since arriving here, Feng Xue had, over these months, actually mastered the Flying Scythe Kick!

And yet, he still hadn’t learned to craft a Spirit Bow.

Sometimes, Feng Xue even considered just throwing himself into a teleportation pillar and calling it quits, but to his despair, the heavy fog of this zone made it impossible to see any such beams of light.

“Here goes nothing!” Feng Xue knew he couldn’t keep this up for long, so he gritted his teeth and dashed toward an area he had scouted out half a month ago.

“Please let them be dormant, please!” Feng Xue prayed desperately in his heart, pushing his Flying Scythe Kick to the limit, allowing himself to run twenty centimeters above the ground. It didn’t make him any faster, but it did muffle the sound of his movement.

After a mad ten-minute dash, Feng Xue reached a barren field strewn with boulders. Three enormous purple rocks stood out starkly against the dull yellow terrain. At the sight, Feng Xue let out a quiet sigh of relief and quickly ducked behind a boulder facing away from the purple stones.

Truthfully, this spot wouldn’t hide him from the Hell Goblin Beasts pursuing from behind—but it wasn’t them he was trying to avoid.

Soon, a cacophony erupted as a horde of twenty or thirty Hell Goblin Beasts stormed into this deathly still zone, ignoring all rules and making such a ruckus that they immediately woke the true master of this place!

The surface of the three purple rocks instantly sloughed off, revealing brownish-yellow stone beneath—the “purple” had been nothing but a dense mass of finger-sized Digimon!

Feng Xue watched in silence as the Hell Goblin Beasts swaggered up to provoke these Digimon, each one barely a tenth their own size, while he quietly began to slip away from the area.

What a joke—the Hell Goblin Beasts might be ignorant, but he knew exactly what these creatures were. In a one-on-one, these Digimon were just slightly stronger than an ordinary mature, but when gathered into a swarm, they could even hunt some Mega-levels!

Kuwagamon—that was their name. It might not sound like a name fit for some overpowered protagonist, but these were true overlords of the Phantasmal Mist Zone.

As past movie antagonists, they had the potential to evolve into Diaboromon, but their true terror lay not in their potential, but in their raw attack and defense.

Their two signature moves: Data Shredder—a terrifying ability for beings composed of data, for if struck, data in the affected area would go numb. Even Mega-level Digimon hit by this attack would suffer a momentary paralysis, and when swarming, these monsters could hold a Mega-level in place until it was destroyed. And here, there were not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands of Kuwagamon.

Their defense was even more monstrous—the skill called "Connection Sever." Yes, that’s the name. It sounds like net jargon, but in the Digimon world, tech-sounding skills are often the deadliest! In a world made of data, virtually no attack of the same level could breach Connection Sever. Short of a top-tier Mega, breaking through a Kuwagamon swarm’s defense was nearly impossible. Even the unstable Beelzemon (who, though able to snack on them right after evolving into Demon Lord Hell Beast, later fell prey to them) had been taken down by their might.