Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Mountain-Blocking Ghosts and Hidden Side Quest
Wu Chang grabbed a bun and stuffed it whole into his mouth, chewing twice expressionlessly, swallowing it like a pill.
Repeating this action, he emptied a whole basket of buns in the blink of an eye.
Then he said as if reading aloud: "Indeed, it’s delicious."
"Ah?" This left the waiter at a loss.
A bun the size of a grown man’s fist, swallowed whole—what kind of eating method is this?
Wu Chang: "What?"
The waiter lamented: "Sir, you should eat them slowly and savor the taste."
Wu Chang’s face showed displeasure, his right hand resting on his sword sheath, his eyes picking at the waiter, "Are you teaching me how to do things?"
"I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare. I’m just afraid you didn’t taste it well. How about another basket?" the waiter cautiously suggested.
"I’m tired. I have to travel early in the morning. Hurry and prepare a room for me, don’t delay my rest." Wu Chang slapped a piece of broken silver on the table, interrupting the waiter’s further sales pitch.
The waiter quickly fell silent and went upstairs to prepare the room.
A few minutes later, Wu Chang entered the room with his sword, bolted the door, and then took out a bun from his personal space.
Of course, he hadn’t eaten the buns earlier. He threw them into his personal space when his hand covered his face.
Without the waiter’s interference, once he took out the bun, a pungent rotten smell was immediately detectable.
Breaking open the filling, it was full of rotten, maggot-infested meat scraps.
It was indeed a shady inn.
He lay on the bed and closed his eyes to sleep.
Steady breathing soon came from within the room.
In the latter half of the night, rustling noises emerged in the inn, as if someone was walking stealthily.
In front of the guest room on the second floor, two voices were whispering.
"Asleep yet?"
"Should be."
"Go check, waking him suddenly might scare him to death."
"I kind of like sourness, it cuts the grease."
"Whatever, just keep it clean. If not, no other guests will come."
The voices disappeared, and the inn fell silent again.
After a while, the wind started blowing outside, howling noisily, making Wu Chang toss and turn in his room.
Seeing he hadn’t woken up, the wind outside picked up.
An air current blew in through the crack of the window, from inside-out opening the window.
A creature with a cow skull for a head and humanoid bones for a body, ribs spread out like wings, and covered in a black long-haired animal hide as a back, floated into the room like a giant kite, carried by the wind.
It was supported by the wind, like a layer of black quilt, slowly covering Wu Chang who was on the bed.
The cow skull opened its mouth, urgently shouting in the waiter’s voice: "Young Hero, wake up, there’s a monster!"
According to the demon’s past experiences, the guest should wake up in confusion, look around, and ask dazedly where the monster is.
At that point, it would quickly cover the guest from above, using its body to wrap the guest to death, pressing its large cow head against the guest’s face, saying: "Are you looking for me?"
Then, amidst the guest’s screams of terror, it would stab its ribs into the guest’s body, absorbing all the guest’s blood without damaging any internal organs or flesh.
Then it would process this newly obtained ingredient with a bone-cutting knife and meat-hook.
But this time, there was a mishap.
The opponent snatched its line!
"Young Hero, wake up."
Wu Chang suddenly opened his eyes, staring at it intensely, "Are you looking for me?"
The next moment, a blinding light shot out from beneath the quilt, piercing the demon’s body.
The flames from the wound were like a bone-deep affliction that couldn’t be extinguished no matter how much the demon rolled.
With lots of fur and weak to fire, plus being a monster, being hit by the Silver Dawn’s skill dealt double damage, making the demon perfectly countered.
The demon howled in the flames, incredulously saying: "You didn’t eat the bun?"
Wu Chang casually tossed a bun to the ground, crushing it with his foot to reveal its special filling inside.
"Even a dog wouldn’t eat this."
"You’ll pay for this!"
It’s unclear what action offended the demon, but its eyes glowed red, the flames on its body suddenly extinguished, and human bone arms extended from its hide.
Wu Chang showed no panic at the sight. He sidestepped three steps to the left, just in time as the wooden plank he had been lying on split open. A bone-cutting knife nearly two meters long flew out, cleaving half the furniture in the room in two.
His three steps took him just outside the knife’s range.
Before the minotaur monster could grab the bone-cutting knife, he fired a silver bullet, breaking the monster’s right hand.
The monster let out a wretched howl. From the ceiling, a blood-smeared iron hook descended, slicing down with the fury of a scorpion’s tail.
Wu Chang had prepared in advance; he kicked over a wooden table in the room to use as a shield.
The iron hook pierced through the table and could go no further. The minotaur monster tried to grab the hook with its left hand, but Wu Chang shattered its left hand with another shot.
"You’re late today. I’ve been waiting so long I almost fell asleep," Wu Chang yawned, looking at the five strands of resentment on the monster’s body.
As a C-Level creature, the minotaur monster’s attack methods were limited. The scenes within the five strands of resentment were enough to reveal its tricks.
Were it not for the fear of them using combo techniques when together, he would have turned hostile in the lobby, where they could only form a one-on-one situation in the guest room.
He pointed the gun barrel at the monster’s forehead and asked, "Any last words?"
The minotaur monster stared intently at the crushed bun on the ground, "You shouldn’t waste food."
Wu Chang paused for a moment and then pulled the trigger, shattering the monster’s skull.
"I’m sorry, I apologize."
With the monster’s death, dozens of ghostly images flashed before Wu Chang’s eyes. Most of these ghosts were herb gatherers or passing merchants who accidentally fell off the mountain for various reasons.
Falling off the mountain left them with multiple fractures, making it difficult to move. In the deep mountains, where people were scarce, they couldn’t cry for help. They could only drag their bodies around, eating anything they could find.
They ate bugs, wild grass, tree bark, and even dirt, until finally dying of starvation in despair.
After death, their resentful remains were devoured by beasts. Beasts that ate the resentment of the starved dead felt an insatiable hunger and hunted madly until they encountered another beast similarly afflicted.
The beasts devoured each other, causing the resentments to gather continuously.
When enough gathered, the resentments would transform into monsters like the one before him, which prowled the mountains in a frenzy, trying to quench an insatiable hunger.
Wu Chang shook his head. No wonder this creature had such a strong obsession with food.
The inn was run by a couple; having dealt with one, there was still another.
Just as he pushed the door open to look for the remaining trouble, he saw the door at the other end of the hallway shatter. A Ma Mian creature burst from the room, broke through the window at the end of the hall, and fled.
The creature escaped so swiftly that Wu Chang didn’t have time to fire his gun.
A few seconds later, a middle-aged man in a blue Daoist robe rushed out from the room, holding a wooden magic sword. He glanced around before turning to Wu Chang.
"Young hero, did you see a demon escape?"
Wu Chang pointed to the window, "If you’re referring to that Ma Mian monster, it broke through the window and escaped."
The Daoist sighed, "I was careless and let the demon escape. The mountain roads are perilous at night; I’ll have to wait until daylight to search for it."
Wu Chang cupped his hands and said, "I am Wu Chang. It was you who warned me about the peculiarity in the meal during dinner, correct?"
When the waiter brought the buns, a nameless breeze had stirred, sparking Wu Chang’s inspiration and revealing the illusion technique cast on the buns.
Though there was no direct warning, he wouldn’t have eaten the restaurant’s signature dish based solely on the waiter’s resentment, but he still had a good impression of the Daoist.
The Daoist returned the gesture, "I heard the spiritual power in your room surge just now, roaring like thunder. The demon attacking you must have been subdued. It seems you hail from a prestigious school, bearing the Demon Suppression Technique, while I am simply overstepping."
"Not at all, it was thanks to your hint that I realized someone of the same path was in the inn, so I didn’t act rashly."
Wu Chang said, taking out Silver Dawn, "I come from the Tang Sect, skilled in hidden weapons. Seven steps away, swift as a thunderbolt, fast as a shooting star, no crossbow can match it. The downside is the reload time, five breaths to shoot one round."
Before the impact of modern firearms, for a long period, weapons with longer ranges had lower firing frequencies, requiring longer loading times.
Silver Dawn’s range is more than twice that of a regular bow and arrow, and taking five breaths to reload a round sounds quite reasonable.
The Daoist indeed was not suspicious and even praised the craftsmanship of the Tang Sect’s skills.
He volunteered his background so he could question the Daoist without being brushed off in return.
After chatting a bit about the Tang Sect with the Daoist, he seized the opportunity to ask:
"Before this journey, I’d never encountered demons. Facing two at once, I might not have fared well. I see you’re familiar with demons, may I ask which sect you belong to?"
The Daoist said, "I am Chi Yuan, a loose cultivator of the mountains. In my early years, my wandering master took a liking to me. I entered the sect upon hearing they officiated funerals and thus had meat to eat in the city."
"Not to mention that young hero Wu has never seen demons before. I practiced for twenty years, and only five years ago, when heaven and earth raged, did I learn true demons exist. What I studied was no mere charlatan’s trick."
With that, Chi Yuan took out an ancient book from his robe and opened a page within.
"The two demons we just encountered are called Wandering Mountain Ghosts, matching the ancient scrolls’ descriptions in appearance and ability. I suspect that when the heavens and earth raged, it awakened the world’s spiritual qi, bringing forth ancient demons anew and resurrecting many spells and divine arts."
Wu Chang nodded and conveniently asked, "I’ve heard of a place in the mountains called Huai Valley Village, where an annual festival is said to communicate with gods and ward off demons. Have you heard of it?"
Upon hearing Wu Chang mention Huai Valley Village, Chi Yuan’s face lit up with joy, and he quickly said:
"Young hero Wu, are you planning to go to Huai Valley Village? I just happen to have something to address there. Would you be willing to assist me?"
"Perfectionism title activated, unlocking hidden side quest."