Chapter 25: This Woman Is Toxic!
This woman was undoubtedly the strongest Wu Xian had ever seen!
Fortunately, the God of Wealth was now in Painted Spirit form, so the other party could only judge the general rank and Painted Spirit Level through aura and spiritual fluctuations, and could not detect the existence of the Blood-Colored Life Scroll.
“What a pity it’s not my type,” Xue Lingling seemed somewhat disappointed, “Otherwise, I could consider letting you become my follower.”
Wu Xian feigned a regretful and desolate stance, muttering to himself inwardly.
Not your type?
What type?
Underworld type? The kind that gets more appealing the more underworld it is?
Xue Lingling ignored Wu Xian and turned to look at the panicked crowd, a sly smile curling at the corner of her mouth, “Very afraid, very fearful, right?”
The crowd thought they had encountered a savior and hurriedly knelt down one by one to beg for protection.
“Eh~ This is nothing,” Xue Lingling had the look of someone enjoying the spectacle and stirring up trouble, “The scarier stuff is still to come. Once a Dimensional Mirage appears, it lasts at least ten days or half a month, and it gets more dangerous toward the end.”
Upon hearing this, the crowd grew even more afraid, their voices begging and kowtowing growing louder.
At first, Wu Xian thought Xue Lingling wanted to win over the people to make them obey her commands better.
But Xue Lingling’s next words left him speechless.
“Begging me won’t help. I’m trapped here and can barely protect myself, while your good days are still ahead—pray for yourselves.” Xue Lingling continued to stoke the panic, “Next, all sorts of Abyssal Monsters and insects will keep coming oh~!”
With that, she stepped onto the redwood coffin and prepared to leave.
They had thought they met a savior, but who would have thought she didn’t care about their life or death at all.
At this point, the people’s mentality completely collapsed.
Emotions of despair and fear began to spread wildly, and more and more eerie auras started gathering toward this side.
“Senior, you…?” Wu Xian stiffly spoke up.
She clearly knew emotions would attract disaster, yet deliberately created panic—this was pure madness, wasn’t it?
“What, do you have a problem?”
Xue Lingling raised an eyebrow and calmly departed.
Wu Xian stiffly shut his mouth, glanced back at the despairing, out-of-control crowd, shook his head with a light sigh, and turned to leave.
Though he had a heart for saving lives and helping the injured, trying to manage everything would only drag him into the quagmire.
He hadn’t gone far when terrifying, sinister auras indeed emerged from behind.
Good thing he ran in time.
But the next second, Wu Xian was dumbfounded again.
The underworld woman had somehow circled back, staring at the crowd with gleaming eyes, drooling greedily.
“…”
Only now did Wu Xian see through the underworld woman’s intentions.
This was purely using the fleeing crowd as a monster-farming tool!
Time to slip away—this woman was toxic!
And he definitely wasn’t a match for her; if she targeted him, he’d be in trouble.
On the way back.
He happened to encounter the mother and son from before. Thanks to Wu Xian’s painting, more than ten fleeing civilians had gathered around them.
“Everyone, don’t be afraid. As long as we escape to the city district, we’ll be safe.” The gaunt mother clutched the folded paper Wu Xian had given her tightly, comforting the equally pitiful people around her.
Wu Xian’s sudden appearance surprised and delighted the gaunt mother, “Lord, you’re back?”
“Mm,” Wu Xian nodded coldly, “The shantytown has been sealed off and quarantined; we can’t get out. Everyone go back.”
These words shocked and puzzled the fleeing crowd.
Those who didn’t believe it abandoned the mother and son and pressed on, eagerly going to serve as monster-farming tools for that underworld woman.
Only the mother and son chose to trust Wu Xian.
“Just go home with peace of mind. As long as you’re not afraid, those monsters can’t do anything to us.” Wu Xian calmly reassured them, “With that painting of mine, ordinary monsters won’t dare approach you either.”
The gaunt mother heeded Wu Xian’s advice and obediently turned back.
Wu Xian fought his way back to the shantytown, only to find it completely chaotic everywhere.
Abyssal Monsters and Insectoid Monsters were rampaging in various places from time to time; the scenes were horrific, no wonder people were fleeing outward like mad.
Of course, there were also quite a few Spiritual Energy cultivators defending their homes and actively resisting to save themselves.
“Huh, there’s aura and fluctuations from a Scroll Painting over there!”
Wu Xian curiously headed toward the source of the fluctuations and soon saw three young Spirit Tamers suppressing monsters in the shantytown, all wearing Defense Team uniforms—clearly sent by the authorities to stabilize the situation.
One of them looked familiar; it was the young officer named Du Yifan from before.
He was controlling a peculiar humanoid Painted Spirit, its entire body pieced together from shattered sword blades. Sword fragments whirled like a meat grinder, easily shredding monsters in all directions while he desperately organized rescues for the civilians, “Everyone go back inside, don’t run around. With us here, rest assured!”
“Broken Sword True Spirit, huh?”
Wu Xian eyed the Painted Spirit with keen interest—it was top-tier stuff, something ordinary people couldn’t afford.
By comparison, the other two officers’ Scroll Paintings were more average.
One Elf System 【Wind Element Elf】, one Mechanical System 【Laser Guard】—not exactly commonplace, but not particularly high-end either.
Fortunately, their quality and level were decent enough to handle ordinary small monsters with ease.
But the current situation in the shantytown was clearly giving the three a massive headache.
Panicked civilians could hardly listen or be calmed down.
With three officers here, safety on this side was basically guaranteed, so Wu Xian didn’t bother meddling further. He turned toward home, cleaning up some monsters along the way.
Along the route, he basically encountered no Elite Grade monsters.
The God of Wealth’s Lightning Magic blasted them silent one by one.
Insectoid Race monsters were outright delicacies delivered to the Chicken King.
Unknowingly, the God of Wealth smoothly advanced to Three-Star Painted Spirit.
“Strange, the Experience Energy from these monsters invading via Dimensional Mirage seems higher?”
Wu Xian gradually noticed the anomaly with the Dimensional Mirage monsters.
Not only did these monsters provide more experience, the materials they dropped upon death had stronger spiritual fluctuations than same-level Instance Monsters, and even the spiritual substances inside the materials were purer.
Thinking of the underworld woman’s act of using refugees as monster-farming tools, Wu Xian pondered inwardly.
“Go go go, all of you get back home, don’t run around!”
A barrage of cursing came from nearby.
Looking closely, he saw a familiar figure with a pockmarked face.
“Zhang Mazi?!”
Zhang Mazi was now surrounded by faint spiritual glows, like a war god possessed. He smashed Insectoid Monsters with ease one after another, shouting at neighbors to obediently return indoors and stop running around.
Several trash-picking henchmen followed him, along with a handsome youth of sixteen or seventeen, who had awakened Spiritual Energy Cultivation talent and possessed Level 1 Spiritual Power Cultivation.
The youth clumsily controlled a Dark System Painted Spirit 【Shadow Wolf】 in battle against a Level 1 Ghost Abyssal Monster, pinning it down effortlessly.
Under Zhang Mazi and the others’ encouragement and cheers, he grew bolder with each fight.
“Tsk tsk, as expected of a Copper Scroll Two-Star 【Shadow Wolf】—the power is something else ha~!”
“No joke, it’s one of the top-rated flagship Scroll Paintings in the Dark System, from an Instance—how could it be average?”
“Our boss sure is generous. Save one up for my kid later too.”
“Too bad my kids are all useless; not one inherited my Spiritual Energy Cultivation genes.”
The next second, the majestic Shadow Wolf seemed to sense something and adopted a vigilant, fearful stance.
As the group puzzled over it, a figure riding a Big Rooster came rushing toward them.
Boom! Boom!
The majestic, martial humanoid Painted Spirit beside him hurled two bolts of thunder, effortlessly annihilating two Tier 2 Abyssal Monsters.
Zhang Mazi and the others stared in stunned shock, their expressions odd, while the handsome youth looked on in awe and admiration.
