Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Grudge Manifestation
Liu Ning’s living soul escaped, and the crimson light dot was left dumbfounded, as if in a daze over its lost prey.
Taking advantage of the crimson light dot’s trance, Wu Chang activated his power against it, using the Soul Cleansing Banner’s enhanced vision.
The light dot, originally the size of a fist, began to expand in his vision.
From the size of a fist, to a head, and then to the size of a person...
Finally, a ten-meter-tall red flesh ball appeared in the black-and-white world.
The flesh ball throbbed like a heart, and with each beat, gray cracks appeared around it, as if the black-and-white space created by the Soul Cleansing Banner might shatter at any moment.
The blood-red flesh ball sensed his gaze, its body slightly rotating, seemingly locking eyes with him.
Thump!
Amidst the heavy heartbeat, the massive flesh ball filled the heavens and the earth, the world now reduced to the immense flesh ball and the ant-like Wu Chang.
Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and murmured, "It resists too."
With a wave of the Soul Cleansing Banner, and through the banner and his willpower, he forcefully broke the flesh ball’s illusion technique.
The illusion that filled the heavens shattered, and the flesh ball returned to its ten-meter size.
After shattering the illusion, he expected the flesh ball to behave like other grudges and honestly show its pre-death image, but there was no further reaction from the ball.
"What is this thing."
Wu Chang frowned at the strange blood-red flesh ball, wondering if he had misjudged it as a grudge.
Just as he was puzzled, countless faces emerged on the surface of the blood-colored flesh ball, their hollow eyes looking at Wu Chang and whispering in unison:
"Help me... "
"Release me... "
"Exorcise me..."
This time he saw clearly that each face on the flesh ball was a faint red grudge, but countless faint red grudges had fused together to become this bizarre form.
The mixed grudges made it impossible for him to distinguish any single grudge among them.
In the Plane of Peace, grudges after death could spawn demons, possibly due to the special world rules of that plane, which resulted in such strange transformations in the grudges.
Beyond astonishment, a question arose in his mind.
How does one calculate exorcising such an aggregate of grudges, and are there any blood-colored wills or rewards for doing so?
Seeing that Wu Chang gave no response, the blood-colored flesh ball went berserk.
Countless faces screamed at him, "Give it back!"
With the screams of the grudges, all the lamps in Huai Valley Village extinguished at once, plunging the world into complete darkness.
The black-and-white world created by the Soul Cleansing Banner shattered, and Wu Chang exited the special vision.
As his consciousness returned to the room on the mountaintop, he immediately moved to the window and looked toward the village entrance.
He found it empty, with no sign of the blood-colored flesh ball grudge.
Was that blood-colored flesh ball what the villagers referred to as the evil spirit?
Was the evil spirit’s final "give it back" a reference to someone in the village stealing something from it?
While Wu Chang pondered, Liu Shan and others had relit the oil lamps.
Just as people wanted to ask Wu Chang what had happened, they heard a slight coughing sound coming from the ground.
The villagers looked down and saw the fear on Liu Ning’s face gradually relaxing, her purple lips slightly parted, exhaling a puff of black air, and her deathly pale face once again showing signs of life.
"She’s alive! Xiao Ning is really alive!"
"Did you see, when the hero saved her just now, all the lights in the village went out, could it be that he snatched the soul back from the Underworld?"
"What’s the big deal in grabbing a soul from the Underworld, I heard that on his way into the mountains, the hero casually killed a cow-headed spirit trying to claim a soul."
"I said it before, whenever the hero takes action, it’ll work."
"Hero, are you accepting disciples?!"
As Chi Yuan said, the villagers are the most honest, yet also the most pragmatic.
Seeing Wu Chang truly able to bring back the soul and resurrect the dead, their attitude made a complete 180-degree turn, now resembling die-hard supporters.
For ordinary people, life and wealth are always the most enticing things.
Those villagers with lively minds, seeing Wu Chang’s youthful age, were already contemplating the competitiveness of their female relatives at home, pondering how to establish connections with this great hero.
Even the prettiest girl in the village, Liu Ning, had pulled her own hair out into bald patches, eliminating the greatest competition, believing they now had a chance.
Feeling dozens of sets of eyes staring intently at his back, Wu Chang couldn’t help but shiver.
The villagers’ eager gazes seemed intent on devouring him whole, and the pressure from their stares was no less than the blood-colored flesh ball’s world-filling illusion.
If it weren’t for Liu Shan holding them back, they might have arranged a matchmaking event tonight.
Liu Shan, citing Wu Chang’s exhaustion from his journey and immediate exorcism upon arrival, ushered the villagers away, saying he needed rest.
It was late, and Liu Shan arranged for Wu Chang to have a place to stay on the mountain, bringing him to a room. Once they were alone, he couldn’t resist asking:
"Hero Wu, what exactly happened just now?"
Wu Chang did not intend to tell Liu Shan about the red flesh ball’s evil intent; with the situation unclear, he aimed to observe more, listen more, and speak less.
Although blaming the victim is wrong, the incident occurred in Huai Valley Village, and they were targeted by such a strange demon.
To say the village is completely innocent is something he couldn’t believe.
He calmly explained:
"As I said before, Miss Ning was attacked by an evil spirit, causing her living soul to leave the body. With the soul departed, the body naturally appears dead temporarily. If the soul is returned to the body before it wanders too far, she would naturally awaken."
Liu Shan hesitated for a moment and asked, "In past incidents of possession, the worst outcome was a serious illness, seldom escalating to this level. Is it because the evil spirit specifically targeted Xiao Ning, or is it about to break free from suppression?"
"I know too little about evil spirits to make a judgment. Now that we have time, could you tell me more about the origins of this evil spirit?"
Liu Shan sighed, took a jar of wine, and poured a bowl for himself and Wu Chang, saying somberly:
"The evil spirit first appeared five years ago..."
As Liu Shan recounted, the history of Huai Valley Village slowly unfolded.
Everything began peacefully and beautifully.
Huai Valley Village thrived due to its geographical advantage, becoming the wealthiest village in the Huai Mountain region.
The village was self-sufficient, and occasionally sold mountain goods to merchants, enjoying a life free from worry.
But starting five years ago, Huai Mountain changed.
Hunters and herbalists entering the mountains frequently went missing, either disappearing without a trace or having their bodies found mysteriously far from where they vanished.
Not just the locals, but travelers and merchants also began spreading rumors of mountain demons.
At first, people thought they encountered wild beasts or mountain bandits, but as time passed, they realized there were indeed demons causing trouble.
Many creatures previously thought to scare children began appearing in the forests.
Huai Valley Village, surrounded by mountains, used the terrain as a defense to block most demons. However, the vibrant human presence attracted a more difficult demon.
This demon was invisible, unlike the others which could be seen.
It would come at night, in the form of a shadow, to the bedside of children and the elderly, absorbing their life force and injecting evil energy.
The afflicted became weak and prone to illness, and severe cases became foolish or dull-witted.
Older children might endure it and recover, but newborns generally could not escape early death.
The more people afflicted, the stronger the evil spirit’s power grew, gradually becoming uncontrollable.
It was during this time that a warlock happened to pass by. Though limited in ability and unable to subdue the evil spirit, he used his sect’s secret techniques to devise a suppression method for the villagers.
This method relied on favorable timing, geography, and human harmony, performed once each year, known as the Exorcism Technique.
To sound auspicious, they turned ’spirit’ to ’year,’ calling it the Year-ending Ritual.
Upon hearing this, Wu Chang gained an understanding of the worldview of the scenario; his reality also had uses of spirit as year, making it easy to grasp.
"So, is the issue the weakening effect of the alchemist’s Year-ending Array, making it unable to continue suppressing the evil spirit?"
Liu Shan gave a bitter smile and shook his head, saying, "It’s not the Year-ending Ritual’s issue; it’s our insatiable ambition, hoping for a once-and-for-all solution, that invited disaster."