Death Game: Starting as a Trickster, Pretending to Be a God

Lin Yu had already figured it out—the Inquisitor of the Tribunal seemed to have misjudged his strength because of the ”Golden Cross Medal.”

From the Inquisitor’s attitude, it wasn’t hard to infer that the old man clearly thought he was stronger than Fish.

If that was the case...

Lin Yu naturally took advantage of this, intervening in the negotiation with the Inquisitor in a more dominant stance.

Sure enough, seeing Lin Yu say this, the Inquisitor hesitated instead, his expression shifting—not at all like the uncooperative attitude he had shown when dealing with Fish.

He looked at Lin Yu, and though his expression remained stern, his words softened.

”Your Excellency Schreiber, you’re mistaken there... Even though I look injured, trying to drag me to death is impossible.”

”On the contrary, dragging this out here will only hurt you.”

As the Inquisitor spoke, Lin Yu narrowed his eyes.

Willing to talk meant that, in the Inquisitor’s view, Fish had no way to ”break the deadlock.”

So she had no bargaining power.

But Lin Yu himself might be able to break this situation or interfere with some of his subsequent plans.

Thinking this over, Lin Yu maintained his high-and-mighty attitude.

”I’m curious what gives you such confidence.”

At the same time, Lin Yu urged Old Zheng again.

”Check this place one more time for anything weird... I need to see where this old man’s confidence comes from.”

”No problem, boss, though I doubt I’ll find anything.”

The Inquisitor, lying on the ground, stared back at Lin Yu, the old man studying his expression and eyes for any weakness.

After a long while, he slowly pushed himself up.

”Cough, cough,” the sound of coughing mixed with bloody foam was excruciating, but the Inquisitor seemed completely oblivious. ”Your Excellency Schreiber, it’s not so much confidence as... I have no other choice.”

”You’ve already seen the masterpiece I recreated, the ’Original Sin Wraith’ from the Book of Hell... So if I let you go, once you report this to headquarters and make it public, I’ll face endless pursuit too.”

Though the Inquisitor’s words sounded like he was declaring no possibility of negotiation.

To Lin Yu, however, this was...

”Finally opening up.”

Thinking to himself, Lin Yu narrowed his eyes. ”But that’s still better than dying here, isn’t it?”

”What I’m curious about is... what makes you think you won’t die here?”

”And what makes you think I’m any worse than the entire Tribunal headquarters?”

The Inquisitor said in a low voice, ”Your Excellency Schreiber, surely you’ve recognized the origin of this ’water’ in the pool, haven’t you?”

”Hmm, taken from the Dark Current River of the Abyss, what’s so special about that?”

The Inquisitor chuckled. ”This isn’t taken from the Dark Current River... This IS a branch of the Dark Current River.”

”Beneath Lilee, there’s a spatial distortion structure that leads directly into the Abyss. This place isn’t some sealed underground chamber—it’s an unstable planar structure.”

”So, if we drag this out, the Abyss’s aura will slowly seep into you and completely corrupt your souls!”

As the Inquisitor spoke, Lin Yu frowned slightly.

”Doesn’t that apply to you too?”

”Of course I’m different... Like I said, I’m very hard to kill here.”

The Inquisitor said calmly, then looked at Fish.

”Young one from the Holy Relic faction, even if you completely shatter this body of mine, it would only be ’a bit troublesome’ for me.”

”You’ve all overlooked one thing—the monsters here aren’t just the ’Original Sin Wraith’ using snake descendants as vessels.”

As he finished speaking, the Inquisitor began to ”dissolve.”

His body faded and twisted, turning into a pool of soft, rotting black mud.

Fish exclaimed in shock, ”What the hell is that?!”

Raymond spoke up, ”Careful, Aunt Fish! This should be some kind of ’dark creature’... This madman has turned himself into a dark creature!”

Old Zheng’s voice rang out too, offering Lin Yu further explanation.

”Tsk, an extinct dark creature called a ’filth demon’... He really was afraid of death, picking such a hard-to-kill form.”

”But don’t worry, it has no combat power.”

As the Inquisitor transformed, the magical runes on the pillars above the water lit up.

But it wasn’t that some magic formation had ”activated”...

Rather, the ”magic formation” that had been sustaining its operation had FAILED!

From the depths of the water and the other side of the cave, an unsettling chaotic mana surged in.

Fish immediately caught on.

”Damn, this place really IS connected to the Abyss’s twisted space!”

Those magic formations were meant to modify the mana environment here and prevent the Abyss from flooding in!

And now...

With the formations failing, the mana streams rushed in.

The mana streams from the Abyss were hard for humans to control, but extremely friendly to dark creatures.

This was the so-called ”Abyss aura” that human transcendent beings in Night Valley hated most!

Fish immediately shot at the mud on the ground, but the Inquisitor quickly raised a magical barrier.

”Boom!”

The light scattered as Fish’s close-range shots were completely blocked.

The Inquisitor emerged from the black mud again, his injuries seemingly healed by seventy or eighty percent.

”I told you, I won’t die here... It’s a shame, though.”

The Inquisitor exhaled.

”Deactivating these formations might be noticed by headquarters. I didn’t want to take that risk.”

”But since you’re forcing me, I’ll have to end this quickly!”

Although Old Zheng had commented that the Inquisitor’s ”dark race” form had little combat power and even after returning to human form, he was no match for Fish.

But...

There was another monster here.

The creature called the ”Original Sin Wraith,” the stitched monster crammed into a snake descendant’s shell, opened its mouth and let out a piercing shriek.

Under that terrifying shriek...

Almost instantly, Fish and Raymond both clutched their heads.

Then, the snake descendant’s mouth spewed out a massive cloud of green smoke.

Fish and Raymond both swayed, as if drunk.

Lin Yu spoke calmly, ”Not a bad trick, but... it has no effect on me.”

As his words fell, Fish and Raymond collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.

And within that green smoke, Lin Yu still stood.

The Inquisitor wasn’t surprised by this result.

”As expected, this ’Death Sleep Technique’ is useless against you... Truly a veteran demon hunter who has walked the Abyss for so long and even hunted Lord-Class demons.”

Lin Yu’s expression remained composed, but inside he was thinking, ”That was close.”

Thank goodness he had gotten those words out first and used the Tongue of Deceit.

One step later, and he would have passed out too!