CHAPTER 159: CHAPTER 159 WUFENG CITY (FOURTH UPDATE)

"Hiss!"

Bai Yunqi emitted a sound wave attack, causing the "Black Snake" to slightly disperse in form. Seizing the opportunity, he coiled back his head and fiercely lunged forward, biting the opponent at its critical point, while his tail wrapped around its head, beginning to strangle it.

The "Black Snake" was evidently fierce but lacking in combat experience. Being tightly strangled by the white snake, it continuously changed form but could not escape Bai Yunqi’s "deadly embrace." Paper crane birds circled around, occasionally taking nips, revealing a distorted human face in the black smoke, emitting screams and cries.

On the other side, two of the three bizarre houses were breached by the paper figures’ continuous attacks. A fused chaotic ghost escaped the body and drilled into the Ghost Cultivator statue; by the time Jiang Yuan rushed over, the last one had not yet collapsed, so he lent a hand.

The sauce workshop had also been weakened once, and Jiang Yuan unleashed a Heaven-Burning Flame to burn away a fraction of its health bar and swung a few blows to reduce it to less than half. It was then engulfed by the indiscriminately absorbing Soul Refining Banner up above, which puffed a few times before quieting down.

[Absorbed a fused chaotic ghost, estimated time to refine malevolence: thirty hours]

[Soul Refining Banner usage rate: 35%]

Even a weakened fused chaotic ghost needed so long to refine; wouldn’t the unweakened ones take even longer?

Jiang Yuan thought that for a long time, the Soul Refining Banner would be unusable, but once all the gains from this time were refined, the resulting energy should allow the Soul Refining Banner to level up one or two levels.

The paper army sustained heavy casualties. As he flew over the rolling dust towards the Ghost Cultivator statue, he activated the Soul Refining Banner again, which sucked wildly like a bagpipe fan once more; afterward, he grabbed a handful of paper figures and blew breath upon them.

Snow-like flakes drifted down, and various paper figures expanded their bodies in the wind, the birds diving in; the paper bulls and paper men then rushed swiftly towards the target from below after landing.

"Gulp! Gulp!"

Amidst the dim and dark dust, even a large elephant ran out, swinging its long trunk forward to topple the Ghost Cultivator statue exuding black smoke with a kick, adding another kick afterward.

When the elephant wanted to kick again, the statue, occupied by two tufts of black mist, awkwardly moved its limbs each in its own way, rolling around to dodge the attack.

"Boom!"

Bai Yunqi finally squeezed the fused chaotic ghost into two sections; the slightly smaller part, unable to withstand the powerful attraction of the Soul Refining Banner, was directly sucked away; the remaining part was again tightly strangled.

Steady again, the statue raised its rigid arm and swung out a black mist, easily flipping over the paper men and paper bulls, then stepped on them, crushing them to scraps of paper. Subsequently, it grabbed the elephant’s trunk, engaging in a stalemate for a moment.

"Take this!" Jiang Yuan, an expert in sneak attacks, slipped behind and gave its back of the head two whacks, while placing two more paper bulls to fully attack the statue’s two legs.

[-20]

[-20]

...

Getting closer, he could clearly see through the swirling dust, the statue’s large and long health bar was rapidly draining downward.

"Ha, indeed it worked out!" Jiang Yuan silently gave himself a thumbs up for his wits, as the Corpse Poison Pill inserted into the statue’s crevice worked normally. Even without attacking, it would slowly deplete its health.

This way, following the original rhythm to complete tasks by lowering the fused chaotic ghosts’ strength in each workshop and defeating the small boss house monsters one by one, ultimately, the weaker ghost would escape and control the statue to become the final big BOSS, and the whole instance would end once cleared.

Today, bringing Xiao Bai for a brutal sweep, though it was a bit tougher to fight, saved time.

"Boom!"

Another dull sound, Bai Yunqi once again twisted the remaining part of the ghost into two pieces, directly absorbed by the Soul Refining Banner.

"Venerable Family, how about your side?" The massive white snake head leaned over, causing Jiang Yuan to take half a step back nervously, "It should be almost over, this thing surprisingly withstands beating after fusion."

The statue was hard to withstand and suffered a steady retreat. After receiving another kick from the paper elephant, it suddenly roared angrily, "Clearly they invited us; what business is it of you two outsiders?!"

"Oh? You can speak now?" Jiang Yuan didn’t order to stop the attack, watching it took another hit, and he pursued, "What’s going on with you guys? How did you come to Riverfront Village?"

The statue panted heavily, begging him to stop first. Exchanging a glance with Xiao Bai, who was equally curious and evidently didn’t understand the intricacies, Jiang Yuan ordered the paper figures to stop, surrounding it and waiting to hear the story.

"Our Wufeng City was originally a small city closest to the Netherworld, almost on the connecting line in the human world." The statue finally took a breather, sitting heavily on the ground, the blood line on its head still slowly descending, making Jiang Yuan secretly admire the lasting effect of the Corpse Poison Pill.

The once rough-carved facial lines shifted continuously, the statue’s face sometimes resembled that of a round-faced child, other times an old, weary person. The voice sounded as though merging all ages and genders, indistinguishable.

"Wufeng City was renowned for the condiments made by its five workshops, living prosperously and in bustling richness until one day, the earth shook and fiery stars rained down from the heavens..."

Perhaps recalling those terrifying scenes, the statue’s face, no matter how it changed, was filled with deep fear, and its voice began to tremble, "The sky fell apart! We witnessed it with our own eyes, turning from blue to fiery red, then to ash-white, breaking apart and falling away!

Everyone was stunned.

The five workshops had always worshiped the Kitchen God, and facing this terror beyond human savior, we could only pray for the Kitchen God’s protection. We don’t know how much time passed, but the earth finally ceased trembling, the sky turned pitch black, revealing countless stars.

Wufeng City survived intact, spared from disaster!

Everyone was grateful for the Kitchen God’s shelter, but later, we discovered... the protection had become shackles."

When Wufeng City residents breathed a sigh of relief for dodging calamity under divine protection, they did not notice anything amiss. However, the next morning, the sky remained dark.

The boundless stars were unsettling, how could one live without the sun?

Indeed, coldness quickly descended, families barricaded themselves indoors, trying to withstand the sudden, harsh cold. Soon, food and firewood ran short, and starving and chilled, people ventured out to find void beyond the five city gates.

"The Kitchen God last protected us once, allowing Wufeng City to evade disaster but never responded to prayers again, so under the shroud of hunger, cold, and despair, someone unknowingly started it, and the terrifying human disaster engulfed the whole city."

The statue cast a sorrowful look towards the direction of the already ashed city gates, "Some tried to escape, believing falling into the void was better than staying here, but no one could escape. Those who had fallen into demonhood dragged them back... Eventually, Wufeng City was all bones, everyone became ghosts yet still couldn’t escape the city."

"How did you become like this?" Bai Yunqi was still more interested in this part.

"We are not sure either." The statue shook its head, explaining, "Even after becoming ghosts, everyone still felt cold and hungry, and after being killed, revenge was sought, and while killing each other, it seemed the whole city was sucked into somewhere, flipping rapidly back and forth. We have lost track of time, really, finally when regaining consciousness, we found everyone fused together, attached to the buildings.

We couldn’t die nor live like a person or a ghost. Initially, confused and quarrelsome, but since everyone ended up like this, arguing held no meaning, gradually starting to try changing forms or controlling houses..."