Chapter 6: Dead Mountain Town, Mutated Monsters
Stepping into the Dimensional Node, space distorted.
The next second, he was already in a weird and underworld-like small town, the entire small town shrouded in a layer of eerie green light screen.
A slightly underworld female voice came to his ears:
“Welcome to the Abyssal Realm beginner outpost Death Mountain Town. The town is a safety zone. You can withdraw to Death Mountain Town for resupply at any time. Leaving Death Mountain Town will start your adventure.”
This female voice was eerie and mechanical, devoid of emotion, not like a real person’s voice.
More like some kind of “system” message broadcast.
“Death Mountain Town?”
Curiously looking around, rows of eerie and dilapidated houses were neatly arranged, with many adventurers coming and going, as if they were already accustomed to all this.
Trying to sense carefully with mental power, he could vaguely feel the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from Death Mountain Town.
“Copper Scroll Three-Star Domain Scroll Painting, extremely high spirituality fluctuations.”
Yes, the entire Death Mountain Town Outpost was essentially a Domain Scroll Painting.
Each Dimensional Node had such an outpost established as a temporary base and resupply point for adventurers.
This Abyssal Realm area, as a “Beginner Instance,” having such a Domain Scroll Painting guarding it was enough to ensure the safety of adventurers.
Most adventurers in the town were Level Two or Three novice Spirit Tamers, mostly students.
After a simple lap around, he encountered no fewer than three university freshman training teams.
The freshmen who entered Death Mountain Town were obviously much more well-behaved, acting like they had entered a haunted house, nervous and jittery, occasionally startled by the underworld decorations and scenes in Death Mountain Town, screaming loudly.
“Ah~ Ghost!”
“But I always feel like something is following us.”
“Can you stop making a fuss? It’s just a strangely shaped gate tower, right?”
“But speaking of which, why is that gate tower continuously bleeding, and there are two rice dumplings hanging as lanterns?”
“Weird Monster-type Scroll Painting Domains have this art style. You’ll get used to it.”
“Wail, mommy~ I want to go home!”
“What are you crying for? Scared now? Weren’t you all so arrogant before coming?”
The team leaders secretly smirked, enjoying it, as this was the effect they wanted.
Wu Xian appreciated the various underworld horror decorations in Death Mountain Town along the way, without the slightest fear, instead critiquing them inwardly.
“There are plenty of horror elements, but too formulaic, too low-level, nothing new.”
“The atmosphere rendering and light-shadow layout aren’t very well done either.”
“This gets a Copper Scroll Three-Star?”
At best, it was on the level of those horror-themed escape rooms from his previous life.
Alone, he strode out of Death Mountain Town’s Domain Light Screen.
The art style suddenly changed before his eyes. Looking out, it was dark and deathly silent, devoid of life.
Silently summoning the God of Wealth, he followed the rugged and menacing terrain, searching for prey.
Unfortunately, after searching for a long time, he didn’t encounter a single Abyssal Monster.
“They say the monsters in the Abyssal Realm are elusive, but not this elusive, right?” Wu Xian wondered inwardly. “Or has the vicinity of Death Mountain Town already been cleared of most Abyssal Monsters, and I need to go deeper to explore?”
But even after venturing deeper for over an hour, there was still no sign of any Abyssal Monsters.
Instead, he inadvertently caught a whiff of a few strands of “Wealth” scent. Following the aura of wealth, he successfully picked up two pieces of materials full of Yin Energy, and a fleshy tumor plant growing on unknown bones.
Judging from the increase in the God of Wealth’s aura of wealth, these materials all seemed quite valuable.
He had definitely recouped his costs.
But spending money to enter an instance and not encountering a single monster—what kind of nonsense was this?
“Hm?”
His gaze fell on the God of Wealth, and Wu Xian suddenly realized something, immediately recalling the God of Wealth into the scroll painting.
After a brief calm, things indeed started to feel off around him.
Yin Wind blew in gusts, waves of chilling sensations hit his back, as if countless eyes were already watching him from the darkness.
“…” Wu Xian was amused and exasperated.
So after all that, it was the God of Wealth’s “prestige” that was too high, scaring the little ghosts away from approaching.
The next second, his legs were tightly entangled by hair bursting from the ground, and his whole body began to feel various discomforts, as if strangled by some invisible force around the neck, making breathing difficult.
Looking down, a disfigured Ghost Face emerged, gutting itself right at him.
Wu Xian was momentarily stunned with fear, instinctively summoning the God of Wealth again.
“Roar—!”
With one roar from the Black Tiger, all discomfort vanished instantly.
The God of Wealth’s majestic eyes swept around, thunder surging on the Steel Whip in his hand.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The surroundings instantly wailed with ghosts and wolves, struck by thunder into wisps of green smoke, strands of invisible power converging into the God of Wealth’s body, transforming into “experience points” for elevating the Painted Spirit’s level.
Wu Xian collapsed to the ground in relief, confirming his body was unharmed before realizing that everything just now had been an illusion.
Even so, he was still scared into a cold sweat.
Calming down, looking at the clumps of Yin Soul Origins and the remains of Abyssal Monsters around him, he instantly became exhilarated.
He hurriedly collected the spoils, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hiss~ Quite a bit of damage,” looking at the heavily damaged Abyssal Monster corpses, Wu Xian felt a twinge of heartache. “Please hold back a little, sir. These are all pure white money~!”
And while collecting the spoils, the God of Wealth’s “aura of wealth” was also increasing.
Killing monsters not only yielded experience and materials, but also extra aura of wealth—a unique additional revenue for him.
One fish, three eats. Wonderful.
After finishing, he recalled the God of Wealth again. The previous fear had long been drowned by the temptation of wealth.
Even if he got scared shitless, it was fine as long as there was money to be made. Plus, it helped train his courage.
Moreover, this method of using himself as bait was pretty efficient.
Unfortunately, the nearby Abyssal Monsters seemed to have learned their lesson. After waiting a while, there was no movement.
Helplessly, he had to change locations to continue “fishing.”
The “new leeks” indeed took the bait easily, getting zapped to death in droves by the God of Wealth.
Just like that, wave after wave, he harvested a large amount of Abyssal Realm materials.
The God of Wealth unknowingly advanced to Two-Star, with his aura greatly strengthened and his body aura of wealth becoming even denser.
Xuantan True Lord – Zhao Gongming
Version: Original Gold Embroidery Border
Rank: Blood-Colored Life Scroll
Painted Spirit: Two-Star
Spirituality: 14
Talent Traits: Wealth Summoning, Aura of Wealth Protection, Thunder Control
“As expected, making money in instances is the fastest~!”
Of course, other Spirit Tamers definitely didn’t have it as easy as him. They were licking blood from the knife’s edge, risking their lives for money.
Though the revenue was good, it couldn’t compare to the cost of purchasing scroll paintings.
…
In Death Mountain Town, inside a dilapidated mansion.
A woman in her early twenties, with slightly underworld clothing and makeup, opened her eyes in surprise and doubt.
“Huh, how did so much Refinement revenue suddenly surge in?”
As the maintainer of Death Mountain Town, Xue Lingling was full of doubt.
Just now, Death Mountain Town had suddenly received a large amount of Refinement revenue, indicating someone was mass-hunting Abyssal Monsters, and in a short time at that.
In the over half a year since she took over Death Mountain Town, this was the first time she encountered such a situation.
“Could something have happened that made those training team leaders take action?”
“Interesting, looks like there are experts among this year’s team leaders!”
You see, the Abyssal Monsters in the Abyssal Realm were very tricky. To mass-hunt them on such a scale in a short time was no small feat.
She immediately tossed out a scroll painting.
The scroll painting unfurled in the air, amid spreading Yin Energy, transforming into a redwood coffin plastered with talismans and carved with strange patterns.
Xue Lingling leaped up, stepping on the coffin board and flying toward the outside of Death Mountain Town.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side, Wu Xian, loaded with harvests, was already on his way back to Death Mountain Town.
There were obviously far fewer Abyssal Monsters nearby. Even without the God of Wealth present, none dared approach him.
“Making it seem like I’m the Abyssal Monster?” This made Wu Xian amused and exasperated.
The journey was uneventful.
Unfortunately, this “peacefulness” only applied to him. The other adventurers were still in dire straits.
From afar, he saw a boy and a girl struggling painfully in a pile of mechanical ruins.
The two were back-to-back, frantically attacking the air.
The male student held a mechanical flamethrower, spraying wildly, “Aah… Burn you all! Burn you all!”
A small water elemental spirit floated in front of the female student, randomly attacking aimlessly under her commands.
“Wail, don’t come over~ Don’t come over, my parents are Level Seven Spirit Tamers!”
“Why hasn’t Teacher Liang come yet?”
Wu Xian passed by, couldn’t help but ask curiously: “Um… what are you afraid of?”
“Ghost—!”
The next second, the flamethrower’s roaring flames surged toward him.
Wu Xian’s face darkened, hurriedly summoning the God of Wealth to block in front of him. Dense aura of wealth flowed, easily blocking the flame’s burn.
“Are you freaking blind?” Wu Xian cursed in exasperation.
Perhaps because of the God of Wealth’s appearance, the frenzied two quickly calmed down, looking around in lingering fear. “Gone… gone?”
“Wail, no more, no more, I want to go home!”
The female classmate was on the verge of emotional collapse.
“Thanks, bro,” the male classmate let out a long breath. “This place is too damn creepy. A bunch of monstrous insects, going crazy climbing onto us.”
“Monstrous Insects?” Wu Xian was puzzled.
“You can’t see them?” As soon as the male classmate spoke, his face turned ashen, trembling as he pointed behind Wu Xian. “You you you…”
Only to see tentacle monsters formed from mechanical and flesh parts emerging menacingly behind Wu Xian.
At the same time, a bolt of thunder struck from nowhere.
Boom!
The terrifying mechanical tentacle monster convulsed and fell, writhing as it tried to burrow into the ground, but was hit by another bolt of thunder.
Wu Xian turned back in surprise, discovering a half-dead weird monster clinging behind him, like an octopus without a body, all tentacles, its entire form stitched from flesh and mechanical fragments.
“Mutated Monster?” Wu Xian’s eyes lit up.
So-called mutated monsters were otherworldly monsters influenced by other otherworldly power, undergoing distorted mutation.
Like this one infected by mechanical power—an Abyssal Monster that could simply be understood as: Stitched Monster.
The stitched tentacle monster struggled in its death throes, trying to attack Wu Xian, but was pinned to the ground by a paw from the God of Wealth’s Black Tiger mount, thoroughly done for.
Collecting the stitched monster corpse, a large sum of aura of wealth visibly condensed on the God of Wealth.
“Good stuff!”
They say mutated monsters are more valuable, and it was indeed well-deserved.
Looking at the boy and girl beside him, they were already dumbfounded, taking a good while to recover.
“So strong!” the female student murmured in shock.
“Awesome, bro, which university’s freshman are you?”
Wu Xian ignored them, calmly walking away with the God of Wealth.
Leaving the two with lingering fear, unable to calm down for a long time.
Not long after, a blue Giant Dragon landed nearby—it was actually the team leader he had met earlier at the Dimensional Plaza.
“Did you two send the distress signal?” The team leader looked around in doubt. “What’s the situation?”
The two rushed toward him like he was their savior. “Teacher Liang, you’re finally here, wail.”
“Where’s the danger?” Teacher Liang asked gravely. “Did you handle it yourselves?”
“We just met a bro, seems like a freshman from another training team…” The two described the astonishing scene from moments ago, one after another.
