Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Villains All Around
Climbing out of the pool, Wu Chang didn’t act rashly but checked his own condition first.
Liu Shan’s claw went for the kill, tearing off a large chunk of his cold-resistant fur coat, and even left four noticeable white dents on the Earth Lizard Hide Armor he bought for 6000 Rotten Silver Coins.
If that claw had grabbed him, he had no doubt Liu Shan could have torn off some piece of him.
He kissed the leather armor on his body, praising the greatness of spending money.
The Exorcism Ritual was reaching its end, and he originally planned to take advantage of the out-of-control crowd to justifiably find the evil spirit and directly deal with its main form, achieving a double win with both the main and side quests.
Who knew that hunting geese all day would lead to getting pecked in the eye by one.
As someone who loves sneak attacks, he was betrayed by an even savvier backstabber.
He recalled Liu Shan’s attack posture earlier and Liu Shan’s usual reserved demeanor.
He couldn’t determine whether Liu Shan was influenced by Evil Qi when he launched the attack, or if, as he claimed, it was just the usual action to calm the evil spirit.
But the problem followed, if Liu Shan intended to attack him from the start, there were many opportunities over the past days.
Especially when Liu Wu was still around, if they teamed up, being caught by surprise, he would indeed risk losing badly.
What made Liu Shan suddenly decide to strike at him?
He closed his eyes, sorted the conversation with Liu Shan in his mind, and then suddenly opened his eyes.
Could it be because he wanted to check this Bottomless Pit?
After a simple check, he took out a spare torch from his backpack and headed toward the source of the Evil Qi.
No matter how much you speculate, it’s better to see it for oneself.
Due to the mistake in the Exorcism Ritual, the evil spirit became exceedingly active, its overflowing Evil Qi undisguised.
Following the Evil Qi, he went down the underground river and quickly reached the source of the Evil Qi.
It was a huge circular clearing, above which a gigantic Everlasting Lamp illuminated the underground space like daytime.
Forty-nine Huai trees were arranged, enclosing the outer edge of the clearing, separating inside from outside.
At the center of the clearing was a mountain-like pile of bones, human bones.
Countless resentments hovered over the bone mountain, releasing Evil Qi outward.
Though each resentment was independent, only faintly red individually, together they formed a deep crimson cloud.
This was the essence of the evil spirit.
The evil spirit’s existence was similar to the vengeful spirits in the Ghost Cry Forest, they were all resentments, but Wu Chang couldn’t directly see the scenes within the resentments.
The only difference was that Liu Wei and Liu Wu had obtained the Demon Transformation Technique, using masks to control the vengeful spirits.
While within the pit, the evil spirits had no constraints and would indiscriminately attack everyone.
Sensing a stranger’s arrival, the evil spirit’s red cloud churned, closing in on Wu Chang.
The evil Qi in the red cloud turned into rain, dripping onto the ground with a sizzling corrosive sound.
Wu Chang’s inspiration told him it was absolutely not to be touched by that thing.
He took out the Soul Cleansing Banner, stepped with the Gang Step, and recited the Magic Formulas, releasing a stream of white air from the banner.
Where the white air passed, the blood cloud shattered and the blood rain evaporated and vanished.
The Soul Cleansing Banner was the natural enemy of these vengeful spirits and evil spirits, rendering them powerless under its might.
Moreover, after exorcising the vengeful spirits, Wu Chang gained two energy points, enhancing the power of the Soul Cleansing Banner through step technique and mantra combined with his own energy.
In just three minutes, the united red cloud was on the verge of collapse, revealing the resentments within to Wu Chang.
Wu Chang put away the banner, marveling at the profound skill of Daoist Chi Yuan, who understood the evil spirit’s nature and lent him such a professional magical treasure.
Without this precious banner, dealing with vengeful spirits and evil spirits would undoubtedly require much more effort.
He looked toward the opening in the red cloud, wanting to see where this evil spirit truly came from.
He chose one resentment with a heavier color, and as its scene unfolded, an unprecedented image appeared before his eyes.
Initially in the scene, it was Huai Valley Village.
The weather was fine, a group of unfamiliar villagers was working in the valley, enjoying an idyllic atmosphere.
But in a moment, the skies changed, dark clouds loomed, and thousands of fierce mountain bandits arrived in the shadow of the dark clouds.
The two leading figures were quite familiar.
One was the village chief of Chen Family Village, Chen Peng, and the other was the current village chief of Huai Valley Village, Liu Shan.
Usually, there was nothing unusual about them, but seeing them now in the resentment, Wu Chang felt he had seen their faces somewhere before.
After thinking for a moment, he recalled that when he entered the mountain, he saw some wanted posters with an Official Seal at a black shop run by the mountain ghosts, the wanted men were Black Mountain Bandits roaming within a hundred miles of Huai Mountain.
The wanted portraits of the chief and the second-in-command matched the two remarkably well!
And Liu Shan was actually the chief of the Black Mountain Bandits!
The two entered the valley with their henchmen, Liu Shan pointing to the flourishing crops in the valley, said:
"This truly is a treasure land, easy to defend and hard to attack, not only can it house the brothers’ families but also serve as a stable grain depot."
Chen Peng nodded, "It’s good, but there are too many people."
The henchmen behind them understood and swung their Long Sabers towards the villagers in the valley.
With a swoosh, accompanied by the sound of sabers cutting through the air, Wu Chang’s vision went black.
Damn!
Recalling the scenes he had just witnessed, Wu Chang displayed the expression akin to a subway old man looking at his phone.
He always thought the Chen Family Village and Liu Wei were bandits, with Huai Valley Village’s residents under coercion, having no choice but to cooperate with Liu Wei.
Unexpectedly, Huai Valley Village was full of villains, no, more precisely, Huai Valley Village was not even Huai Valley Village, but Black Mountain Bandits usurping someone else’s nest.
He subsequently reviewed several more resentments, where the scenes recorded were roughly similar.
On the day Black Mountain Bandits set their sights on Huai Valley Village, the village faced catastrophe.
The entire village, old and young, were massacred, the dead and the breathless were hauled into the mountains to be buried.
A particularly resilient resentment, on the brink of death, heard Liu Shan arranging an Array, claiming to use their corpses as nourishment to supply the valley, ensuring good weather.
This also explained why upon obtaining the Demon Transformation Technique, the Fog Demon could only hurt itself, a crude transformation.
Whereas the Liu brothers could create Ghost Cry Forest to convert vengeful spirits.
He was previously curious about how they could possibly comprehend such a complex technique for vengeful spirits with only a text-less Ghost Talisman.
Now it seemed this belonged to the Black Mountain Bandits’ Secret Technique.
No wonder Liu Wu said when he learned that Wu Chang could communicate with spirits that he would understand the true essence of the evil spirit once he saw the core of the Exorcism Ritual.
No wonder Liu Wei laughed after Wu Chang exposed his bandit identity, saying his death was not unjust.
Apart from the scenes during the villagers’ lifetimes in the resentments or should I say the True Huai Valley Village residents, there was also an attached scene in the Blood-Colored Will.
Not long after their burial, a great earthquake rocked Huai Mountain, several mountains collapsed.
This tremor unearthed not only dormant demons but also revealed the Bottomless Pit beneath Hollow Mountain.
The villagers’ bones fell into the pit, and due to some unknown force, the resentments fused into one, becoming the earliest evil spirit.
After witnessing the practice of the True Huai Valley Village residents, the short blood-colored will in the red cloud made perfect sense.
There were only two words in the Blood-Colored Will.
[Revenge!]
Wu Chang held the Soul Cleansing Banner, hesitating in his heart.
Could the side quest and the Blood-Colored Will be completed simultaneously?