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Liu was dead, possibly too thoroughly so.
When Chen Huaian saw the game prompt about demon cultivation fragment drops.
The life span that had been drained returned.
The two female players were the happiest, after all, women can’t stand becoming old hags.
So they were very cheerful when it came to rewarding task settlements.
But there was no denying that his good looks played a part in this.
Chen Huaian didn’t rely on his looks for survival, but not relying on his face didn’t mean he wasn’t handsome!
Just like how you might not activate your ultimate skill, but you should always be prepared to do so!
“Kid, you sure showed no mercy when you destroyed the Bronze Pillar. You almost killed me as well.” On the armored vehicle, Wuzzy Beard glanced at Chen Huaian meditating cross-legged in the passenger seat and said with a smile: “Kid, the mission I took is worth five million, and when the bonus comes down, it’s all yours. All I need is the experience.”
Upon hearing this, Chen Huaian abruptly opened his eyes and stared at Wuzzy Beard: “Are you serious?”
“Serious!”
“Father-in-law!”
Wuzzy Beard: “…”
“There’s no need to go that far. If it weren’t for your help, I would have found it pretty hard to destroy his true form alone.”
Wuzzy Beard spoke lightly and laughed generously.
But Chen Huaian still noticed the fatigue and weakness in Wuzzy Beard’s eyes.
Every ability comes with its own price, just like how his sword technique costs spiritual energy.
In this battle, Wuzzy Beard definitely didn’t come out unscathed.
Among these people, the other four Demon-Slaying Masters were completely terrified, currently snoring soundly on the backseat of the car. As his body gradually recovered with spiritual energy, Wuzzy Beard appeared to be the most energetic, but in reality, he was likely the most exhausted.
“What are you looking at me for?” Wuzzy Beard gripped the steering wheel and smiled: “By the way, kid, I saved your life, so you owe me one. Remember to pay it back later.”
All the sympathy and concern Chen Huaian felt for Wuzzy Beard instantly disappeared by half, and he smirked: “What? Do you want me to follow you around?”
“Do you want to?”
“No, I’m used to being free.”
“But aren’t you a contained object now?”
“You’d look quite handsome if you kept quiet.”
“Hahaha!” Wuzzy Beard burst into exaggerated laughter: “It’s fine, I know you wouldn’t want to, I was just joking with you.”
Chen Huaian remained silent.
He indeed owed Wuzzy Beard a life, and he had noted this fact.
If there’s ever an opportunity, he’ll definitely repay it.
His greatest strength was never owing anyone anything.
Including that time when the flying boat took Li Qingran and Yue Qianchi away. Although the tavern owner had taken over their place, upon returning, Li Qingran also gave the owner a bag of low-grade spirit stones, enough for him to buy a hundred taverns.
Everything has cause and effect.
Looking at Wuzzy Beard, Chen Huaian hesitated for a long time before asking: “Uncle, you seem really enthusiastic about killing demons. Every time you successfully kill a demon, you appear very excited. Why? Is it because you can obtain better cultivation manuals?”
Wuzzy Beard fell silent for a moment, then smiled, though his smile carried some bitterness: “Actually, telling you this doesn’t matter much, these things aren’t exactly secrets within the Demon-Slaying Division.”
“Seven years ago, on Winter Solstice, at the old cotton textile factory in the southern city.” Luo Haisheng tightened his cancerous left hand on the steering wheel: “My wife and daughter were hiding from the snow in the boiler room, but a skin-stealing demon turned them into human-skin lanterns.”
“Hmph.” He chuckled lightly, as if laughing at himself, but his right eye burst with blood vessels, yet his voice remained eerily calm: “That beast wore my wife’s skin and imitated her calling me Brother Haisheng… From that day on, this rotten body of mine is dedicated to gnawing on demon bones!”
Chen Huaian touched his nose.
He deeply regretted asking that question just now.
“Kid, there’s no need to feel guilty. Many people in the Demon-Slaying Division carry their own stories, and none of them are pleasant. Perhaps we initially joined the Demon-Slaying Division for our own reasons, but now, it’s more because of the demons and evil spirits.”
“… Demons and evil spirits kill without reason, just like avalanches crushing flocks of sheep, but we humans must find our own reasons to rise from our knees. To put it bluntly, it’s all for ourselves.”
Chen Huaian gazed at the urban area shrouded in twilight outside the window.
Neon lights blurred into patches of light spots in the drizzle, cars drove past Chunxi Road where giant naked-eye 3D screens broadcasted virtual idol concerts across dimensions. Fluorescent electronic snowflakes landed on the shoulders of jubilant teenagers and disintegrated into data debris upon touching the ground.
“You have a new takeout order~” The AI voice spilled out from the nearby shop.
A girl dressed in a dinosaur pajama bit her milk tea straw and glided past the armored vehicle on glowing roller skates, her Usagi hair tie bumping against the car window, mixing with the alarm sounds of the in-car detector into a strange chord.
This was the city he lived in.
Somewhere along the line, it was no longer just black and white; it had gained a few lively colors.
Suddenly, the car shook violently.
The pink-haired girl sleeping with her head tilted on the backseat let out a cry as she hit the front seat.
“What is that?!”
The mature lady pointed at the sky outside the window, her voice trembling.
Chen Huaian turned his head.
There floated a black coffin in the night sky, emitting eerie blood-red light.
At the center of the black coffin was a prominent white face.
It seemed to be crying or laughing, resembling Liu’s masked face.
Full of mockery.
…
When the first black coffin pierced through the electronic floor screen of the square, the live-streaming dancing internet celebrity froze in place – the pitch-black coffin was as large as a shipping container, and instead of patterns on the lid, it was embedded with countless eyeballs in flesh and blood.
“Holy crap, what is this? An AI special effect?” Before the man holding the selfie stick could finish his sentence, the second black coffin penetrated the glass dome of Starbucks, and the instant the latte foam splashed onto the surface of the coffin, the brown coffee stains transformed into grotesque human faces.
The entire city began to convulse…
The naked-eye 3D screen on Chunxi Road exploded into sparks, the virtual idol’s skirt suddenly fractured into countless faulty snowflakes. The asphalt road bulged like fermenting dough, pregnant women screamed as they fled from the maternity hospital, seeing the office building opposite them whose exterior glass was being replaced by dark coffin wood – each grid reflected upright coffins, and the handprints of the people inside formed bloody talismans on the coffin lids.
Plop.
The milk tea straw fell to the ground.
The girl dressed in a dinosaur costume blankly stared at the sky.
Thirty-six black coffins were assembling into a twisted circle at an altitude of a thousand meters, directly facing the Thirty-Six Celestial Spirits.
Beneath the floating black coffin, the riverbed cracked open with a kilometer-long fissure, revealing a massive bronze-cast mausoleum underneath. Surrounding the mausoleum, twelve construction sites and residential areas each stood a black coffin, corresponding to the Twelve Earthly Branches.
With all the black coffins in position, the entire Heavenly Abode District trembled violently!
Deep within the somber mausoleum.
The coffin located at the Zi position slowly opened.
The corpse gas spewed out condensed into a ghastly frost on the river surface.
Thump—! Thump—! Thump—!
Underground,
a heartbeat sounded.
