Chapter 123 The succubus will be free, crushing the cult of evil gods (ask for a monthly ticket)
As the thousand-faced soul tree associated with Shushu, it is comparable to the direct descendant of the emperor tree. It has the source of thousands of faces and the power of ghosts. As a result, it has been in the state of a small sapling because there are not enough souls and ghosts to support it.
If it cannot grow into a big tree, it will naturally not be able to bear the fruit of the soul.
The only thing that restricts Lu Yu now is the growth of his mental power. If this problem can be solved, the time for him to be promoted to the golden rank can be shortened by more than half.
The fundamental reason why he wants to expose his strength and upgrade the authority to accept tasks to the golden level is to find tasks about the Netherland Cult.
Unexpectedly, Chi Yuemeng delivered it to her door by herself!
I knew that Lilith could even divination at the branch of the Cult of the Evil God, so what about the wooden cabinet, I was still delighted to be coaxed by it.
If a cabinet is not filled, how can it fill the world?
Lu Yu asked about the specific mission, and wanted to see if the distance was far away, because tomorrow night he was going to fight for strange objects, if it was too far away, he would have to give up and ask the president directly to buy some Netherland.
Regarding this question, Chi Yuemeng handed over the phone directly.
[★★☆The troubles of the residents of Bian Tomb Village: In Bian Tomb Village, which was built next to many mass graves, many residents have recently encountered a large number of violent undead pet beasts, causing many injuries. Someone saw an adventure group enter and disappeared.
Some kind of mutation seems to have occurred in the mass grave. I hope that a powerful beast master can help investigate the situation and clean up the source of the mutation.
The reward for the investigation task is 700,000, and the reward for solving the source of the mutation is 1.8 million. (Friendly reminder from the alliance: the situation is unknown, please be careful with the beast master who accepts the task.)]
Two-and-a-half-star mission, if it is used to target the branch of the Netherland Church with at least one gold-rank statue, it is obviously low.
However, the alliance also marked a reminder that a problem was found, but the specific situation was not confirmed, so it is understandable.
After all, not everyone has the magical divination ability like Lilith, and directly cuts off the task first.
As for Biantou Village, Lu Yu has also heard of it. It is a small village not far from Dayuan City, near the mass burial of human and pet animal bones on the border.
For a long time, a large number of corpses have been piled up and buried inside, and the spiritual collision of a large number of dead people has caused a mutation, and it has become a special cemetery ecology of the undead.
It is extremely easy to attract or breed some undead pets, such as bone-shattering dogs, skeleton soldiers, ghost lanterns, zombies, zombies, corpse brides, etc., to gather in it.
I don’t know if it’s because the cemetery symbolizes the peace and burial place of the dead. These undead beasts are not ferocious, but rather gentle in character. As long as they are not deliberately provocative or touch the bottom line, they will not attack.
Over time, some people discovered this and built a village on the edge.
For a long time, the residents of Biantou Village have lived in harmony with them, and even buried the bones of relatives and cherished pets in them, hoping that one day they will come back to life.
But this has been popularized by the alliance, and it is just an unrealistic fantasy. The resurrection of the dead is a field that mortals can touch.
Even if one or two lucky ones are resurrected, they have already become undead beings and have nothing to do with the living. They even desire to slaughter their blood relatives in order to gain powerful power.
Although Biantou Village is one of the border villages, the residents there are like undead beasts, relatively lonely, and have little contact with other towns and cities. They are more like a group of grave guards.
Unexpectedly, this time they all sent missions to ask for help. Obviously, the problem is already serious.
So Lu Yu said decisively: "President, do you need an assistant?"
"Assist...hand..."
Chi Yuemeng froze for a moment, looking at Lu Yu's hand with red eyes, it was white and well-defined, with long and strong fingers.
is kind of wanting...
But she quickly came back to her senses, suppressed the desire in her heart, and nodded calmly:
"good!"
Because it was a peak silver mission, although it could be collected on the mobile phone, in order to prevent being disturbed, the two went to the counter to go through the formalities.
In the next forty-eight hours, this task will not be accepted again.
It's just that he ran into a problem when he set off. Lu Yu was going to go home to get his "Chitu", but Chi Yuemeng refused, saying that everything would be left to her.
Outside the Stars and Beasts Tower, just when Lu Yu thought he was going to take some top-notch vehicle,
Chi Yuemeng came behind Lu Yu, crossed his waist, hugged him, sniffed gently, turned his back to him, and a trace of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.
Today is also fragrant!
Without giving Lu Yu a chance to speak, the Demon Eye of the Abyss quickly turned into a pair of wings and merged into his body.
Click!
The vampire's wings stretched out, the vibrations set off a strong wind, and it flew straight up.
It's just that because of Lu Yu's size, Chi Yuemeng could only lower him slightly, with his head resting on his chest, so that he could see the front view during the flight.
Lu Yu felt the softness coming from the back of his head, he was a little dazed, and couldn't help asking:
"President, would this be bad?"
"I'm wearing safety pants!" Chi Yuemeng replied seriously, remembering what Lu Yu said to her before.
The point is this! ?
Is it too close, and the posture is too strange, why does it feel like a pendant, obviously a plug-in.
Besides, other people’s animations are not all facial cleansers, so how come it’s the other way around when it’s my turn!
Physically the opposite!
But Lu Yu is not hypocritical. Talking too much will only make people feel that he is getting cheap and acting good. Since everything has already happened, let's enjoy it.
is the back of the head...
Besides one, it seems that there is something arching himself.
But afraid of being considered harassment, Lu Yu was also embarrassed to say, but he couldn't help the sleeping Eggy dreamed of something funny in his dream, and couldn't help twisting, causing Lu Yu to shake slightly.
"Oh..."
Chi Yuemeng let out a low moan, which made Lu Yu dare not move, and quickly said sorry, and suggested that he should be let down and on his way.
But at this moment, she turned a deaf ear to it, her face was flushed, and love quietly appeared in her eyes.
The flying method taught in my sister’s manga,
Really works!
I wore safety pants this time, but other...
A group of people on the ground looked at the two people in the sky and were stunned. This show of affection went to the sky.
unacceptable!
On the other side, Zhou Cheng used the remaining steel **** in his pocket to buy two cups of milk tea with buy one get one free. He was in a happy mood and hummed a ditty while walking:
"Today is a good day..."
However, when he looked up, he was dumbfounded for a moment, loosened his hand, and the milk tea fell, and murmured:
"Are young people nowadays playing so fancy? There are not enough woods and snowball fights, and now they have all developed into the air???"
But the next moment, he looked at the milk tea spilled on the floor, and said with grief and indignation:
"Lu Yu, you kid, pay me for my milk tea!"
On the other side, Lu Yu didn't know that someone was full of resentment. Although the posture was a bit strange, but the president's flying speed was undeniable, and he had the world's top brain pad wave, and he arrived at Bianmu Village very quickly.
However, what catches the eye is not an old-fashioned village, but a series of single-family buildings painted with white paint, like pale corpses standing on the ground, silently watching all the coming living people , the streets are covered with white cloth strips, as if they are commemorating something.
Death and tranquility are the main colors of this small town.
And obviously without prior notice, a lot of villagers have gathered at the entrance of the village, all in white clothes, holding all kinds of weapons, like a group of guys who want to go to a violent funeral.
But most of them are young and strong men, a few are plainly dressed women, and as for the children, I have not seen a single one.
Beside them, there are many dogs covered with long white hair and covering their eyes. If you only look at the surface, they are quite cute.
But at this moment, they stretched out their skeleton-like dog paws and are constantly digging the ground, as if digging something.
And this is the elite creature of the undead system—the bone-planing dog. The reason for its birth is unknown. It likes to move around the cemetery. After digging out the corpse, it will swallow it. The white hair on its body is actually a kind of hair on the corpse.
Once the hair grows to drag the ground, they have a chance to evolve into tombstone dogs, which are larger in size and can gather tombstones to smash people.
In addition, there are some beast defenses such as skeleton warriors and skeleton archers.
Lu Yu couldn't help frowning when he saw this scene. He had heard that Biantou Village was lonely, but he didn't expect the living environment to be so depressing.
And even if it is to prevent the attack of undead creatures, it is too much to scare the snake.
The two of them landed afterward, Chi Yuemeng retracted her wings, reluctantly withdrew her hand.
On the other side of the village, an old man in common clothes with a shovel came out, with a stooped figure. When he saw Lu Yu and Chi Yuemeng coming, he was taken aback for a moment, then smiled, greeted him and said:
"Hello, two beast masters, I am the head of Biantou Village, Zhang Mu!"
Lu Yu took a look, and when he saw his hands, he paused for a moment, and then said: "Hello, Village Chief Zhang, I am Lu Yu, the beast master who was in charge of the attack on the village this time, and this is my companion Chi Yuemeng. Tell me about the recent mutation and damage?"
"I know you, and it has become very popular on the Internet recently. Many people praised you as the future star of the frontier. I didn't expect you to come this time. It's really great. Our village can be saved."
The village head complimented Lu Yu and Chi Yuemeng with eager eyes. The villagers behind him also breathed a sigh of relief, but they did not let go of their weapons. They looked at Lu Yu and Chi Yuemeng with complicated eyes.
After talking about what happened recently, the village chief couldn't help but sigh:
"Recently, I don't know what happened in the cemetery. These guys from the undead department are very noisy and have started to attack the villagers. Fortunately, everyone has experience, but since the past two days, there have been people from the Church of the Underworld. People, this group of evil **** believers are really capable of causing trouble, if this continues, the village will not be peaceful..."
"The Netherland Cult..." Lu Yu's eyes were fixed. Although he knew they were here, he had a question and asked it out:
"Since there are people from the Netherland Religion, why is it not clearly written in the task? Wouldn't the Alliance pay more attention to it?"
"This..." Village head Zhang Mu froze, looked at Lu Yu's calm gaze, scratched his head, and sighed:
"Because there are not many members of the Netherland Sect. If it is written, the reward for the task will not be much higher. That alone is already the income of the whole village for half a year. After all, everyone has to live..."
"I see." Lu Yu nodded calmly.
The village head was also exposed for his careful thought of saving money, and his face was a little embarrassed, but after all, he is an old fried dough stick that has lived for decades, and said enthusiastically:
"Let's go to the village, I just told you what happened recently..."
However, before the words were finished, there was a sudden slight vibration on the ground, and the howling of wolves came one after another in the distance.
"Aww!"
Hearing this sound, all the villagers showed a look of horror on their faces, and nervously clenched the weapons in their hands.
Lu Yu also looked along the trend, and suddenly saw the direction of the mass graves in the distance, and flames were burning.
No, not right!
It's not flames, but figures burning with flames, rushing towards the earth, turning everything they pass into a piece of gray-black scorched earth, shining with sparks.
It wasn't until they got closer that they could see their real appearance clearly. They were a group of wolf dogs that looked like wolf dogs but were bigger in size. They spit out a lot of black sparks between breaths.
On their backs, ride a group of mysterious people wearing white cloaks with black and gold ouroboros connected end to end.
The black and gold ouroboros symbolizes the cycle of life and death, and the white robe represents the endless underworld.
It is the Netherland Cult and their iconic beast, the Netherfire wolf dog.
They rushed quickly, surrounded the village, blocked several intersections, and let out a deep roar.
There are forty or fifty people, most of whom are elite and high-level fighters.
"Okay! The Netherland Sect is here!"
"What should I do, this time there are only two child beast masters coming, how can I stop them."
"The village chief is too impulsive, he should ask the alliance for help, we will all die if this goes on, and even..."
"The Netherland Cult will definitely kill us!"
"..."
The villagers panicked, with terrified expressions on their faces. Some women retreated subconsciously, but they seemed to have thought of something and stopped in their tracks.
In comparison, Lu Yu was calm, turned his head to look at the ugly village, and asked curiously:
"Is this the few members of the Netherland Sect you mentioned?"
The tone of "several" is particularly emphasized.
It's no wonder that Lu Yu is dissatisfied. It has happened many times before. In order to save money or other purposes, the publisher concealed part of the information, resulting in a large number of animal masters sacrificed in vain.
The alliance is also severely cracking down on this, and it will even be punished, and it has been written into the alliance rules. If the beast master encounters the situation of concealing mission information, he can directly refuse to perform the mission, and report to the alliance for arbitration, and get a high amount of money. compensation.
Lu Yu didn't expect to encounter such a thing.
The village chief looked miserable and apologized:
"This time, I was greedy for petty gains and harmed the whole village, but all this should be borne by me, a sinner, instead of being buried with everyone, so I will stay behind. I know Your Excellency Lu Yu can refuse this mission, but the old man I still hope that you can run with the villagers..."
"The village chief..."
The resentment in the hearts of the rest of the villagers dissipated when they heard this, and they were so moved that they shouted to stay and fight with the **** of the Netherland Cult.
After all, it is just a group of elites at their peak, and it is not certain who will win.
Lu Yu did not directly agree or reject this, but just glanced at the villagers, and asked a strange question meaningfully:
"Are all the villagers here?"
"Yeah, yes, it's all there!"
Hearing this, the village chief thought it was Lu Yu who agreed, a smile appeared on his wrinkled face, and then he called out three tombstone dogs at the peak of the elite from the village.
"Tombstone dog, use the tombstone to block!"
"Aww!"
The **** fire wolf dog roared, the flames in its mouth condensed, and instantly spit out one after another ghost fire. However, the low-temperature flame, which is extremely lethal to creatures, has little effect on the same undead skills, and it is completely unable to stop a large number of tombstones from falling.
They could only retreat quickly, and with a loud "bang bang bang", a large number of tombstones appeared in their original positions, blocking the way.
"I'll stop you, run!"
The village chief roared tragically, and continued to let the tombstone dogs throw the tombstone, but the next moment, a cold voice full of anger sounded:
"Only by you, can you block the way of my Netherland Sect?"
The moment the voice fell, several sharp bone spurs swept in, instantly crushing the tombstone in mid-air, and the remaining power remained undiminished, directly repelling the three tombstone dogs.
One of them was accidentally pierced through the hind leg, blood flowed, and the white corpse hair was stained red.
"How can it be!?"
The village chief yelled in disbelief, but when he saw the person coming, his pupils shrank suddenly.
A huge white dog three meters high and five meters long came running from a distance, with terrifying fangs on its **** mouth, but no ghost fire was burning on its body, and the fur on its body was also covered with white bones and bone spurs. Covered, like a general wearing a thick layer of armor.
When it came, its sharp claws covered with bone spurs easily pierced the ground, walking out a broken path, exuding the mighty coercion of a high-level gold.
And this is one of the evolutions that Zhou Cheng initially recommended to Lu Yu, the evolution of the Psyche wolf dog, the pure undead dog king.
Following around it are ten small white bone wolfhounds. Dark green ghostly will-o'-the-wisps are burning in the skulls' heads, exuding a hunger and thirst for predation.
On the back of the dog king who devoured bones, stood a middle-aged man wearing the robes of the Netherland Cult and holding a bone scepter in his hand, looking at the direction of the village with hatred.
"It's over... It's too late to ask for help now."
"How did it come so fast?"
"Please someone help me, I don't want to die..."
"..."
At this moment, both the villagers and the village chief seemed to have seen the **** of death come.
A golden high-ranking priest of the Netherland Cult!
It is not something they can compete with at all, and although Lu Yu is a genius, according to his previous combat performance, he is no more than a teacher who competes with Meteor High School and the gold class.
But this is not a ring competition, but a fight in the wild. As for the battle just now, it has just been uploaded on the Internet, and it has not yet exploded and spread.
So in their view, Lu Yu was still capable of leading them to evacuate just now, but at this moment it is estimated that he will not be able to protect himself.
The village chief smiled wryly: "Sorry, I dragged you down, you run now..."
"Don't run away, you will all die here!"
The voice of Youyou, the priest of the Netherland Sect, looked at the whole village and said with a grinning smile:
"You really gave me a big gift, the fresh corpses of hundreds of people in a village, and a future genius from Dayuan City.
I was very greedy before, but it was too difficult to want that tower. I thought I had no chance, but I didn't expect you to deliver it to your door. It happened to be the dragon beast you got and the mysterious power ant. Beasts are made into corpse puppets together, dragon corpse puppets, it is exciting to think about it..."
Lu Yu raised his head and said speechlessly: "Are all of you villains so talkative?"
The Priest of Nether Earth was taken aback when he heard this, but he was not angry about it, and said with a light smile:
"Perhaps, this should be the kindness of the winner, allowing you to live a little longer."
However, the village head's face changed, and he thought of something, and quickly reminded: "No, he is delaying time, let the dog king record your taste, although you have a space-type beast , but can't move very far, once the smell is recorded it's over."
There are so many stupid villains in this world, they are all more insidious old fritters.
Language offensive itself is also part of tactics.
"That's right, but it's too late. My puppy has already remembered the smell of this little genius, and he can't run away. Take your head off, it should be able to **** the alliance to death, and you can get a lot from the sect. reward, as for this woman..."
The Priest of Nether Earth clicked his tongue, surprised at her beauty, and said with emotion:
"As expected of the same genius as in the stories in the storybook, challenges like eating and drinking, accompanied by a beautiful woman, it should be interesting to insult her in front of you, but unfortunately, I only like beautiful corpses, love the endless The Netherland, but it can be sold to those guys who pursue bliss, and it should be able to sell for a good price..."
As he spoke, he expected to see expressions of fear and panic on Lu Yu's face, but unexpectedly.
Both Chi Yuemeng and Lu Yu looked calm, as if they were listening to a dog barking.
Lu Yu said lightly: "When you finish talking, go to hell!"
"I should have said this sentence!"
The Priest of Nether Earth saw that Lu Yu didn't react much, and he also lost interest in chatting. He couldn't wait to receive all the harvest, so he ordered:
"Attack!"
However, all the members of the Netherland Cult stopped in place and ignored him.
Before the Underworld Priest got angry, he saw a horrifying scene.
All the members of the Netherland Cult suddenly raised their hands, grabbed their heads forcibly, and began to twist to the left forcefully. Because of the excessive range of motion, the hoods fell off, showing their terrified expressions.
The priest of Nether Earth asked angrily: "What are you doing!?"
"We don't know, it's out of control, no no... don't ah ah ah ah!"
They wailed and shed tears continuously, but watched their hands continue to move their necks little by little, making the sound of bones breaking.
Click!
Accompanied by a neat sound, everyone twisted their necks at the same time, and died instantly. The Psyche wolfhounds under them were instantly injured by the death of the contractor.
Whoosh whoosh!
Before they wailed, spider silk spears pierced them, pierced them through their heads, and nailed them to the ground.
This scene stunned everyone, as if they were watching a weird sacrifice ceremony of the cult of evil gods.
And the source of everything seems to be because Lu Yuyun calmly said a word.
As the words follow the Dhamma, give these people their doom.
Is this guy the incarnation of Death?
Emotion called fear was born in the hearts of the villagers, and they couldn't help taking a few steps back, looking at Lu Yu with nothing but awe.
The village head trembled uncontrollably.
The Priest of Netherland looked at this scene, recovered from his sluggishness, and suddenly lost dozens of elite subordinates who had worked so hard to cultivate, causing his power in the sect to shrink instantly.
He looked coldly and asked:
"What the **** did you do?"
Lu Yu played with taste: "Guess?"
"I'm going to kill you little..."
The Priest of Nether Earth was furious, and just wanted the Skeleton-Eating Dog King to kill this kid, when he suddenly found that he couldn't move his body, and began to raise his hands unconsciously, placing them on his head.
Just like before these congregants died just now...
An unspeakable fear welled up in my heart, and began to gnaw at my heart like a poisonous snake.
However, he has rich combat experience after all, and he realized that it might be some kind of invisible ability that directly gathered spiritual power in his eyes, and he saw invisible silk threads entwined around his body.
turned him into a marionette.
At this moment, what the puppeteer is going to do is to make him...
suicide!
"Get out!"
The Priest of Netherland let out a roar, and the undead psionic energy swept across his body, instantly eroding these invisible threads, and with the sound of "papapa", he instantly tore them apart and regained control of his body.
However, before he could heave a sigh of relief, he heard Lu Yu's voice:
"Noisy."
The moment the voice fell, a void crack was torn open above the head of the priest of Netherland, and the huge dragon spear condensed by endless spider silk penetrated down.
Profound Truth—Void Dragon Spear!
This blow was as fast as lightning, and it came with the momentum to shatter everything.
"Get out of the way!"
The soul of the priest of the underworld roared, turning over to dodge, and at the same time let the dog king who devoured bones under him dodge.
"Woo..."
However, the Skeleton-eating Dog King is also suffering and cannot tell. Although it got rid of the control of the [Spiritual Puppet Thread] in time, the ground under its feet turned into a large amount of sticky spider silk, climbing like a python. , entangled, penetrated into the gaps of the white bone armor, and began to flicker with electric arcs, making a crackling sound.
Combined Skill—Wrapping the Power Grid!
The terrifying electric burst instantly enveloped the entire net of the corpse-eating creatures, and it has a lethality second only to the terror of the light attribute to the creatures of the undead.
"Aoooooooooooo..."
The Skeleton-eating Dog King wailed in pain, and at the same time, the dragon spear arrived in an instant, directly piercing through the thick bone armor, hanging it in mid-air like a sky pillar.
After a set of combos are combined, you will be killed instantly!
The Priest of Nether Earth lost his pet beast, and his soul was also severely injured. He couldn't help coughing up a mouthful of bright red blood, soaking the ground, and blooming **** flowers.
"This guy, how could he be so strong..."
The priest of Nether Earth looked at Lu Yu in the distance, horrified in his heart, and could no longer think about this question. Two summoning circles were activated at the same time, and he summoned his other two pet beasts.
Before they were deformed into monsters, most of the people in the Netherland Cult were human beings, so they also had the beast-monitoring space.
Ghostly atmosphere lingers all over his body, a vulture of the underworld with three sarcoid heads, a scavenger in the underworld.
A three-meter-high skeleton giant made of white bones, holding a huge bone stick, with crimson soul fire burning in its eye sockets, extremely tyrannical.
They are all pet beasts that command the first level. Although they are not enough to compete with Lu Yu, they should be enough to escape.
However, when he looked up, he saw **** streamers flying like flames.
A black-red ant beast with dragon horns appeared in front of him at some point, stretched out its ant feet, and grabbed it in mid-air at lightning speed. A pair of wings of the vulture of the underworld.
It is the Brilliant Black Red Dragon Ant in the form of Shushu!
"Wow quack!"
The vulture of the underworld uttered a terrified cry, and gathered the racial skill [Bone Corrosion Wind] all over its body, blowing it quickly, it can easily corrode the flesh and bones of life, and turn it into a pool of rotten liquid to be swallowed by it.
Ding Ding Ding!
However, what shocked it was that these powerful bone-eroding winds blew on the body of the Huanghei Red Dragon Ant, and it didn't even break through the defense, and didn't even leave any traces.
In return, Shushu began to use his hands hard, and the vulture in the underworld felt severe pain and let out a painful cry. A large number of feathers on its wings began to fall off, and blood spurted out.
at last,
Accompanied by a click.
was directly torn into two **** halves, and fell to the ground with corrosive organs.
Underworld vulture, die!
"Roar!"
The skeleton giant was also angry when he saw this scene. He waved the bone stick in his hand and slammed it down towards the Huanghei Red Dragon Ant.
"Intensity...too low!"
Shushu's incarnation, the brilliant black red dragon ant, can't hide. The forty power rings in his body are opened, and a piece of blood-colored stars is opened in an instant, as if bringing the starry sky of the ancient times to the present world.
It raised its ant foot and clenched it into a fist, then swung it casually.
Boom!
The moment the bone stick collided with the fist, the bones of the skeleton giant began to tremble, making the sound of bones colliding.
Ka Ka Ka!
At the same time, a large number of cracks appeared on the bone stick at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the terrifying power spread, even the arms of the skeleton giant were also covered with cracks.
boom!
Finally, the bones were overwhelmed and shattered into countless bone residues that floated into the air.
Boom!
The bone giant's soul fire was distorted, his knees were bent, and he knelt down on the ground. Without a chance to breathe, the [Hand of Holding Soul] condensed by the Touch of Thousand Faces instantly pulled out a ball of red soul, which was imprisoned in the soul. among the clouds.
The skeleton giant, which lost its soul, quickly dimmed its eyes, and fell down with a plop, raising sand all over the sky.
Skeleton giant, die!
All the villagers were shocked and looked at the scene in front of them in disbelief.
In just an instant, Lu Yu's beasts were absolutely crushing,
Destroyed the entire Netherland Sect branch!
The priest of Netherland was already desperate, and there was only one thought left in his mind:
"What kind of monster is this..."
Two-in-one 8,100 words, it's too late to dismantle the chapters, cough, cough, ask for a monthly ticket, I don't know if anyone has seen my foreshadowing, the group has been established, interested friends can chat together, and sacrifice by the way A book for a friend.
(end of this chapter)