Chapter 137: Fang Ji’s Wonderful Adventure
The sky was a deep gray, devoid of any clouds, yet the moon and starlight were nowhere to be seen, resembling a polluted lake surface, calm and oppressive to the point of suffocation.
In the wind, eerie sounds constantly floated, very faint, reminiscent of someone singing a song, but it only produced a bizarre syllable that vacillated between laughter and screams, looping in a lengthy and monotonous manner.
Under the vast sky, numerous low houses made of yellow earth mixed with weeds lay sprawled out, as time wore on, most of the wooden beams supporting the roofs had rotted, large sections had collapsed, forming black, deep voids, making each house seem like a skull piled together, gazing at the sky.
On the main road paved with stones, it was overgrown with weeds and moss, and some dark gray, clump-like fungus, looking somewhat like the rumored coffin fungus, but oversized and twisted.
Twisted clumps of fungus over five meters in diameter piled together, resembling distorted, mutated organs, incessantly eroding the ground.
The air was as humid as if it had just rained heavily, sticky and sultry, with something stirring in the darkness, emitting eerie chewing sounds, or the brittle sound of joints moving.
Just like that member of the Miracle Cult, in this ancient city gate, attacked by an uncanny existence, seemingly the fate of everyone…
……
“Whoosh──!”
Fang Ji dashed through the streets shrouded in thick fog, creating a buzz of air.
As he moved at high speed, those dilapidated scenes transformed into blurred shadows that flickered at the corner of his eye, momentarily giving him a sense of returning to Qiuchun Town.
Everything he saw bore an inexplicable resemblance to the city that had been completely decayed by Pestilence Taijie.
Was this unsettling feeling a common feature of all decayed cities? Fang Ji wondered.
Just as painful memories of being lost in Qiuchun Town surfaced, distracting him for a brief moment, a shrill, almost hallucination-like shriek echoed in his ears.
“d*mn it, has it caught up so quickly?” Fang Ji muttered under his breath, his feet suddenly accelerating.
Not long ago, he had just passed through the city gate and had not had the chance to join the elders of the Miracle Cult who controlled the Sacred Relic before being attacked by an unknown shadow.
Fang Ji wanted to use some urban legend to refer to it, but felt it was somewhat inappropriate.
Although it was essentially an urban legend, it was unlike any he had ever encountered, the difference signified by its mode of origin and powers, more substantial than the gap between coelenterates and mammals.
Thus, he simply referred to it in his mind as the shadow.
After that, this shadow had relentlessly pursued him for over an hour.
It was crazier than the mad dog from his childhood neighbor, which could only chase him for two or three miles at most.
Worse still, he noticed his spirit energy was affected by a force of unknown origin, sluggish and slow as if it were laden with mercury.
“…”
Is this the misfortune brought by calamity?
Just entered the instance and encountered a boss-level monster…
In a sense, it could be considered a miracle.
Fang Ji believed that the trouble he encountered was 100% due to the influence of calamity’s misfortune.
If he hadn’t wanted to let the calamity taint the scent of the Miracle Flower, waking the Sacred Relic controlled by the calamity, by transferring his Miracle Flower onto the calamity through contact, he wouldn’t have fallen into this predicament.
Following the normal procedure, after entering Yumen Pass, he should have been able to randomly choose a direction and make his way forward, eventually reuniting with the elders of the Miracle Cult while easily finding the burial site of Hong Bian Holy Monk.
He didn’t know when this misfortune would dissipate. If it continued like this, it might delay his main objective… Fang Ji thought gloomily.
As he pondered, a large shadow enveloped the street behind him, and under the cover of the shadow, dilapidated houses silently crumbled, as if ruthlessly disassembled by invisible hands.
Something was approaching…
The pitch-black shadow was seething.
Within the shadow, crimson incantations rippled.
The unsettling sound of bone joints grinding echoed repeatedly, as if preparing for a hunt by stretching muscles and bones.
In the next moment, the entire space fell into a brief silence.
Then, the hum of the air erupted.
A shadow over ten meters tall, half-beast and half-human, flew out from the darkness, dozens of skeletal arms stretching out from its back, resembling twisted wings, waving and stirring up waves of foul, yellow-brown smoke.
The pitch-black shadow draped over its twisted skeletal body, and one could vaguely see faces, some grimacing in agony, struggling within its body, as if they could break free at any moment but were trapped by interwoven and intricate skeletal bars like a cage.
Dozens of pupils, like frightened insects, roamed about on its snake-like head covered in darkness, searching around until they finally zeroed in on Fang Ji’s silhouette.
Thus, a piercing shriek resounded.
The gigantic shadow pounced on Fang Ji in an instant.
Realizing the shadow was closing in fast, he didn’t even have time to react before suddenly everything went dark in front of his eyes, followed by pain stabbing his back as he slammed into something hard.
Thrown by a sweeping attack, Fang Ji crashed heavily into a mud house, instantly feeling the shadows within stir as if awakened by bl**d, countless hands in the darkness twisted like worms and clung to his body.
Just then, before those hands could inflict harm on him, a sensation of weightlessness accompanied by the muffled sound of flesh tearing surged through him once more, sending his world into another dizzy spin.
Tossed by that massive shadow as if it were a toy, he didn’t even know how many mud houses he had crashed through, or how the space had become distorted, before he finally encountered a moment of brief silence.
After slightly adjusting his breath, he opened his dry lips and began to chant softly.
“Miracle Sword, third of its kind, Thousand Clusters of Brocade…”
With a low whisper, dazzling golden light erupted from beneath Fang Ji’s feet, spreading out in a heartbeat, and as the golden light dissipated, the sound of clashing metal struck like a symphony, as many sharp blades materialized around him.
The blades gleamed coldly, just as the poem states, “Suddenly scattered like a thousand brocade flowers, casting reflection upon water as one gazes at a sliver of dawn.”
The suddenly appearing blades intertwined in layers, trembling under the control of spirit energy, cutting back and forth together, creating a grinder-like effect as the limbs of the half-beast half-human shadow were instantly shredded.
Foul-smelling bl**d and fragments of bones exploded forth.
Moreover, countless threads, infused with the fragrance of the Miracle Flower, shot like piercing silk threads, drilling into that massive body through the places where the limbs had shattered.
Thus, a miracle descended.
The pale, twisted skeleton gradually transformed into golden flesh, and the decayed and ruined body sprouted fresh bl**d and flesh, revitalizing…
And for an existence that had long since “died,” this revival was even more fatal than the most potent poison.
Stimulated by excruciating pain, the shadow appeared to fall into a state of madness, its twisted body thrashing wildly as its grotesque limbs and massive form crashed uncontrollably against everything around, accompanied by deafening sounds that ripped the walls and shattered the ground, leaving cracks everywhere.
Watching that frenzied destruction from afar, Fang Ji silently breathed a sigh of relief, but the expression on his face seemed less than satisfied with such results.
To be honest, if his spirit energy hadn’t been suppressed, the Miracle Flower retained, casting that incantation originating from the first Holy Son would have been a mere thought for him; yet now he still needed to recite a simplified version of the chant.
It felt like having to calculate example problems from an elementary school textbook, requiring an entire page of scratch paper.
When had he ever suffered such indignities?
However, it was fine! It wasn’t a time to be picky; survival was what mattered… Fang Ji thought.
Yet just when he believed that the long chase had finally ended, darkness filled the realm behind him completely.
Pairs of crimson eyes opened in the dark, exuding foul-smelling slime, dripping as they squirmed in the darkness.
As if sensing something, Fang Ji stiffly turned his neck to look behind him, and upon seeing that horrifying sight, he couldn’t help but let out a curse.
“d*mn it!”
A thunderous roar erupted.
He was sent flying to the ground, crashing into the ruins of a building.
Before he could get back up, a twisted, thick arm suddenly reached out from the shadows and grabbed his ankle, violently throwing him far away.
Before he even landed, he was struck by the branch of a humanoid banyan tree, flinging him skyward, followed by fleeting shadows across the sky, tendrils emerging from filthy water, and buildings rising upright…
Until fifteen minutes, thirty-two seconds, and seven milliseconds later, he finally hit the ground.
It was just like being a three-dimensional pinball.
The calamity’s misfortune seemed even more ferocious than Fang Ji had imagined.
It was truly the punishment of heaven.
He had no idea how she had managed to grow so large and healthy…
When Fang Ji finally landed, he realized that during the continuous flight, he had unknowingly flown deep into Yumen Pass…
Although he had not reached the core area, he had already penetrated significantly deeper than before.
The surrounding buildings had changed from uniform mud houses to a mixture of mud houses and stone structures, becoming denser, with ancient weathered alleys twisting even more deeply.
A shrill sound faintly came from afar.
Realizing that the shadow was still hot on his heels, Fang Ji adjusted his state slightly, wiped away the bl**d mixed with internal organ debris from the corner of his mouth, and began to flee once again.
And this time, in comparison to before, it was even more thrilling and required utmost caution.
He still hadn’t sensed the return of his Miracle Flower, which meant that a sudden descent into the depths wouldn’t bring good luck…
————
Like a rabbit chased by a dog, Fang Ji dashed fearfully this way and that, jumping and leaping.
Then…
Just when he began to adjust to the rhythm of being pursued and started to find a bit of enjoyment in it, those brutal shadows suddenly stopped chasing him.
A sudden sense of loss washed over him.
It felt like a pursuer who had long sought after him suddenly walked away.
Not even a goodbye.
He had almost agreed.
After a brief moment of regret, he quickly became vigilant, first seeking refuge behind the ruins where a wall had collapsed into a triangular structure, then cautiously observing his surroundings.
From his countless experiences of being chased for who knows how many hours, he recalled that within Yumen Pass, twisted and uncanny urban legends all had their own respective territories once they became powerful enough.
Those shadows, suddenly slowing down in their pursuit, were likely encroaching upon the territory of an existence formidable enough to contend with them.
For example, that humanoid banyan tree…
When he passed by that humanoid banyan tree, he visually confirmed that those shadows didn’t hesitate to create distance from him in order to take a detour.
And now, with those shadows suddenly ceasing their pursuit, it was highly likely that an existence even more terrifying than that humanoid banyan tree had appeared nearby.
Ruined courtyards, tilted stone towers inscribed with incantations, vegetation that had decayed and revived countless times, accumulating into a vast black mire…
Fang Ji’s gaze swept across the surrounding scenery, ultimately locking onto a figure dressed in white.
That person crouched down, hiding in a relatively intact stone tower’s summit, one hand holding a telescope while the other held a notebook, observing and recording something.
It appeared to be a scout in the act of reconnaissance.
And that person, he recognized, was Shen Baiwei, whom he had sent to assist Kuerban in luring the calamity.
But…
Why was she in such a place?
Wasn’t she a confidant of Xu Elder?
At this time, she should have been escorting the Sacred Relic alongside Xu Elder!
Fang Ji thought, pondering momentarily, and then stealthily began to move toward Shen Baiwei’s location.
As far as he knew, the Miracle Cult had never had scouts.
Miracle Cult members had always gone wherever they pleased, arriving safely was a miracle, unexpected mishaps meant they were out of luck…
————
“East side, Night Erosion level 47.6, extremely high value, moderate exploration value… Urban legends temporarily numbered 7, 9, 10… Recommend drafting plan C for activation…”
After writing down this line of text in her notebook and sketching a rough map, Shen Baiwei tore off that page of parchment and casually crumpled it, turning it to ash with a small flicker of flame.
She watched the ashes carried away by the wind, floating toward the distance, as if contemplating something, slightly furrowing her brow, and was just about to pick up the telescope to observe in another direction when a voice arose behind her.
“Shen Baiwei, what are you doing here?”
Startled by the sudden voice, Shen Baiwei shuddered lightly, her face paling momentarily.
Turning around, she saw Fang Ji, who had appeared behind her without her noticing, slowly exhaling a breath, then signaled for silence with her hand, pointing toward the main road leading all the way to the depths of Yumen Pass.
Following Shen Baiwei’s gesture, Fang Ji glanced in that direction, his pupils twitching slightly.
He saw a tall figure wandering back and forth on the cobbled main road.
Dressed in severely rusted black armor, beneath it was a grotesquely twisted body, with fleshy growths resembling bony warts and muscles that were grotesquely swollen, practically tearing apart the armor, making its form appear immensely bloated. Tentacle-like appendages wriggled out from the ruptured seams of the armor, continuously writhing.
Its rough and twisted limbs, resembling plant vines, extended from its arms, tightly wrapping around a spear.
The fragmented tip of that spear flickered with a sinister scarlet glow, as if the scent of bl**d could be detected even from afar.
“That creature might be the former master of Yumen Pass, the soldiers under Nanling County King. I don’t know why it has turned into this, but from my observations, it should be among the top urban legends in this area. Other urban legends steer clear of it,” Shen Baiwei whispered.
“You must be extremely careful not to let that thing see you.”
No wonder those shadows had suddenly stopped pursuing him when they reached this vicinity… Fang Ji nodded thoughtfully, only to freeze in realization.
Wait! Had she diverted the topic?
She still hadn’t told me what she was doing here!
Fang Ji thought, glancing askance at the notebook in Shen Baiwei’s hand, wanting to see what she had been recording, only to unexpectedly find it entirely blank.
As if she sensed Fang Ji’s gaze, Shen Baiwei snapped the notebook shut with a “bang,” her expression becoming serious as she looked at Fang Ji, saying, “Seen you, Fang Envoy!”
She appeared eager to brush things over.
Fang Ji, “…” This woman has major issues!
