Chapter 128: Let The World Feel The 【holy Cough】!
Friends who often commit robberies all know that this kind of thing gets easier after the first time. The anxiety and tension during the initial crime mostly stem from fear of the unknown.
However, once you bravely take the first step toward success, you’ll find that the difficulties aren’t as great as imagined. As long as you’re bold enough to think, act, fight, and strive, you can grow big and strong and march toward glory.
Ultimately transforming into a ferocious bandit, getting hammered into dog shit by the iron fist of justice, and in the final instant before death, turning on the life horse lantern, letting out an unwilling shout: “It turns out all of this was an illusion! Obeying the law, loving life, and diligently accumulating wealth—that’s the kingly way!”
At this moment, the Tiger Demon King was in the second illusion stage.
As it quickly emptied an entire storage area, it became increasingly familiar with the plundering process, watching as Insect-type Pills piled up into a small mountain inside the Shadow Dream Hole. Under the stimulation of massive wealth constantly increasing (Your pills +20 bottles, +15 bottles…), the Tiger Demon King fell into a frenzied state, utterly unwilling to stop.
At this point, the specific value of each bottle of pills was no longer important. What it enjoyed more was the thrill and sense of accomplishment from robbing the Cicada City Pill Repository. What could be more stimulating than the victim setting up a dragnet outside the room and then frantically smashing the door?
For its first-ever crime, it was already at the high-end 5-star starting level in GTA, and that sense of satisfaction was indescribable, with adrenaline continuously surging.
Especially when it assaulted the second repository, its plundering techniques, efficiency, team cooperation… were all visibly improving, no longer as clumsy as at the start.
After several rounds of pressure, the Eggplant Ghosts had autonomously evolved into skilled workers. Without needing the Tiger Demon King to force them, they spontaneously plundered efficiently. The Shadow Magic Worms charged ahead recklessly, proactively clearing the way, using the perception between Magic Worms and Insect-type Pills to search for high-value pills… making the robbing even more comfortable for the Tiger Demon King.
Finally, although Little Spicy Stick kept urging the boss to flee quickly, she still dutifully converted ‘new income, space occupancy rate, team crime efficiency improvement and reduction…’ into visualized data, giving the Tiger Demon King a sense of being at the trading console, clearly knowing that personal wealth was skyrocketing every minute and second, fully providing emotional value.
Despite being at the end of the road, surrounded, confined, and deeply trapped in the dragnet by the victim, it was clearly a dead end.
But she still dutifully provided emotional value to the boss, regulating and maintaining her own boss’s mental health, thriving upward in adversity and unable to extricate herself.
“Boss, stop now. There are all high-level cultivators outside. And an extremely powerful aura is rapidly approaching and descending, having taken control of the Magic Arrays near the Pill Room. If the previous arrays were automatically operating, then being manually inputted with commands, now it’s infused with soul, personally controlled by the driver.”
The Tiger Demon King remained fully immersed in using Shadow Sky-Rending Claw to crack layer after layer of shelves, absorbed in efficient plundering, unmoved by external things. That all-out focus produced an unprecedented spiritual sublimation, entering a ‘flow’ experience.
At this moment, it comprehended the ultimate wonder gained from extreme focus on a beloved activity. Only that heartfelt love could bring achievements transcending miracles.
“I get it! I love freebies from the bottom of my heart!”
Little Spicy Stick bitterly advised: “I like it too, but the situation isn’t right. You said to keep it steady.”
Tiger Demon King: “Don’t panic, the Shadow Space isn’t full yet. After this haul, there probably won’t be another chance. So we absolutely can’t let ourselves regret it for life afterward!”
“You’ll truly regret it for life when you’re caught singing tears behind bars.”
The Tiger Demon King remained unmoved: “I’ll strike out with Super Space-Cutting Stance! You control the Shadow Magic Worms to devour pills to your heart’s content, I’ll control the Eggplant Head Ghosts for the ultimate harvest.”
The more it used Shadow Space Claw to rampage, the more proficient its skill became, and as the shadows under its feet spread wildly in the Pill Room, the Tiger Demon King produced a faint erosion effect on the enclosed space’s Magic Array.
This bit of erosion couldn’t seize permissions, not even easily interfere with the array’s operation. But it allowed perception of the array’s overall operational flow and veins…
Even at this moment, with a massive will descending to take over the array and connecting to Cicada City’s super Magic Array network, mobilizing vast energy. For the time being, it couldn’t dispel the Shadow Pollution inside the Pill Room.
Using this erosion, the Tiger Demon King unleashed ultimate kills recklessly, combining Space Cutting with Summon Wind, releasing a violent Shadow Space Blade Storm around itself, slicing and destroying all the Root Tendril seals on nearby shelves.
Then, under the Shadow Dream Hole’s infusion, the Eggplant Head Ghosts erupted, spraying out countless Black Vines to plunder pills over the maximum area possible, dragging them into the Tiger Demon King’s shadow; another batch of Shadow Magic Worms, under Little Spicy Stick’s control, scattered to gnaw on pills that couldn’t be harvested in time and were scattered on the ground.
Shadow Tentacles burst from their bodies, either rolling up scattered pill bottles from the ground or picking them from shelves the Tiger Demon King hadn’t harvested in time, then sending the bottles straight into their mouthparts, chewing and crushing them, devouring the pills, stimulating the growth of Mutated Tissue in their Meridians, with True Qi rapidly erupting inside, their bodies slightly expanding.
The Tiger Demon King rampaged ahead, using Bone Claws in place of blades, summoning gusts of Shadow Wind, wreaking massive destruction; Eggplant Head Ghosts acted as Ghost Companions, following behind to drink soup and eat meat, plundering wealth; Magic Worms trailed at the end eating the leftover soup; remaining scraps not finely harvested were all swept into the Shadow Dream Hole and sent to the Nightmare Layer for nourishment…
Little Spicy Stick first praised: “The King’s crime techniques are getting more professional!” Then pessimistically said, “But a Heavenly Rank Cultivator has descended right above us, breaking through the defensive Magic Array. We’ve been caught, time to surrender!”
“Ridiculous!”
The Tiger Demon King sneered: “I’ll strike out a second time with Super Space-Cutting Stance, get ready for the harvest!”
Little Spicy Stick said in shock: “But the Shadow Dream Hole is already full! How to harvest more? Boss, listen to me, retreat. We have no way out, this wave has already made a fortune, abandoning Animal Husbandry Village isn’t a loss.”
“Foolish! The Shadow Dream Hole is full, but I still have Universe Within The Belly. I’ll peel the shells, you eat!”
In the Pill Room, the Tiger Demon King killed through three repository areas, facing the final shelves and unleashing an even more violent Shadow Space Storm, wildly slicing all surrounding shelves, even shattering the Insect Armor shells of the pills along with them. Beginning the final round of frantic sweeping…
In reality, the shelves remained intact in form, but as a translucent Shadow Giant Worm rose from the ground, thrashing spirally into the sky in a frenzy, twisting and colliding everywhere… these seemingly intact shelves instantly disintegrated into countless fragments, the pill bottles refined from Insect Armor shattering along with them, spilling pills everywhere, filling the air with fragrance.
“Suck…”
The Shadow Snake Demon also erupted with Universe Within The Belly, swallowing everything it touched, including those broken Root Tendril seals, all into its belly.
Unlike devouring those hard-to-digest Polluted Monsters in the past, these pills, though from another True Qi System, were specially refined for easy digestion by cultivators, so pollution degree was very low, and even the shadow-attribute Tiger Demon King could digest them easily.
At worst, it was a mismatch in specialty, with massive pure Insect System Spiritual Energy lacking a matching Meridian System for refinement and absorption, but this energy was buff-natured nutrition, absorbed by the Tiger Demon King’s digestive system.
The specific difference was like fresh blood plasma that could originally be injected into veins now being sent into the belly as nutrition for Intestine absorption, indirectly replenishing blood, with somewhat reduced efficiency.
The Tiger Demon King who unleashed the Shadow Storm danced frantically in the Pill Room, destroying everything, releasing all the pills. The Snake Demon opened its giant maw to swallow the heaven-and-earth storm; the four Eggplant Ghosts wantonly extended vines to grab pills into their eyeball-covered black eggplant heads; numerous Shadow Magic Worms competed for pills in the Shadow Storm; the shadows underfoot connected to the Shadow Dream Hole, beginning to communicate with the Nightmare Dimension, activating high-power vacuum mode…
This wave not only filled the Storage Space but also filled the belly and conveniently fed the pets.
Following the Tiger Demon King, Ghost Companions eat nine meals a day!
Boom!
Outside, several attempts by the will to descend and take over the defensive Magic Array were all affected by the Shadow Dream Hole embedded inside the array, unable to intervene smoothly.
Especially as the Tiger Demon King frantically committed the crime without forgetting to generously feed some pills it couldn’t rob in time to the Shadow Dream Hole.
Allowing this Shadow Dream Hole, originally detached from the Shadow Domain and somewhat damaged, continuously weakening, to receive wave after wave of food supplements. Directly relying on Cicada City’s foundation to recover the damage and even exceed it.
The greatest effect was that the Shadow Dream Hole severely interfered with the array’s operation, accelerating the Tiger Demon King’s erosion and infiltration of the Pill Room. Specifically understandable as building a ‘closed local signal jamming network’ of a different frequency in Cicada City’s super signal network, disrupting the original array operation.
Helplessly, the Heavenly Rank Cultivator ordered to suppress the incident simply abandoned the Pill Room’s Magic Array, using Cicada City as backing to draw and gather powerful forces, slashing open this square Building with one knife.
Then, dense pill aura accompanied the Shadow Storm exploding outward… Pills that the Tiger Demon King and Ghost Companions couldn’t eat anymore, and the Shadow Dream Hole couldn’t absorb in time, were shattered into dregs with the Shadow Storm, mixing into Shadow Pollution spreading in the Underground World.
In the air, the dense pill energy made all residents and households mentally exhilarated, uncontrollably taking deep breaths, True Qi rapidly increasing, and tainted with a faint layer of Shadow Pollution.
This pollution wasn’t much, utterly unable to shake their True Qi System, but it could let people hear in their dreams the call from the distant Cockroach Village far from the present world.
It could be considered an unexpected joy.
The Heavenly Rank Cultivator, unaware of this crisis but keenly perceiving the Shadow Pollution residue in the pill energy, immediately thought of the brief Nightmare Invasion Event that erupted in the Lower Urban Area a few days ago.
Those shadow-attribute Nightmare Demonic Creatures had appeared again, precisely attacking the Pill Room.
At this time, a figure wearing Armor gleaming with metallic sheen, looking both like Eastern armor in beauty and possessing Insect Exoskeleton characteristics, resembling an ‘immortal hero version of Masked Knight’ Heavenly Realm Cultivator, stood in the void, looking toward the completely ransacked Pill Room, flying into a rage, blood pressure soaring.
Raising a hand for a hand blade strike, countless Qi Threads condensed behind the Masked Cultivator, forming a giant greatsword, infused with fire-attribute Nightmare Energy, slashing toward the Tiger Demon King at extreme speed, and overlaying a world-destroying intent at the mind level, locking onto the Tiger Demon King’s mental will, impossible to dodge.
“Huh?”
That profound sense of ‘Qi locking’ made the Tiger Demon King extremely surprised. It wasn’t physical aiming, extremely mysterious, and cleverly utilizing the Nightmare Layer’s power—this was dream linkage.
Selecting, capturing, anchoring through nightmares, unfortunately the opponent’s skill was insufficient, lacking some core power, unable to eliminate in the Present World with one knife, directly slashing the soul through the Dream.
“It’s a Dream Hole!”
The Tiger Demon King’s eyes lit up. If the opponent had its own Dream Hole, this knife might slash out from the dream? Killing invisibly. But now…
Facing an unavoidable strike, the Tiger Demon King grabbed the nearby Shadow Dream Hole as a weapon, spinning it at high speed, shooting it toward the descending flame True Qi greatsword.
The Shadow Dream Hole spun rapidly over, colliding with the True Qi giant blade. The massive energy contained in the Dream Hole immediately erupted, detonating the True Qi in this knife mid-air in a violent flame impact explosion, but not blasting away the Shadow Dream Hole.
With the Tiger Demon King’s mental shift, this black Dream Hole directly rooted in mid-air, unmoved by the True Qi explosion, firm as a rock. Then, with another mental shift, it returned to its side.
Unfortunately, this explosion dissipated all the energy fed back from the Nightmare Layer, scattering into the air with the True Qi blast, irretrievable.
“Tch, a bit wasteful.”
The Shadow Dream Hole wasn’t some weapon; its recent operation was like using a tablet as a flying prop. A tablet could certainly be used to smash people, but it had other uses, too wasteful to smash people with it.
Little Spicy Stick looked at the Armor Cultivator mid-air, integrated with heaven and earth, able to stir natural forces in a thousand-meter Domain with every gesture, and sighed: “Oh no, what now? Once connecting the Shadow Dream Hole with the Nightmare Layer, it can certainly intercept pills through Shadow Space, but if using the Dream Hole to receive, guide, and vent the opponent’s attack, the pills inside the Dream Hole will also be destroyed.”
The current Shadow Dream Hole was stuffed full of pill resources; opening it to absorb attacks would destroy the internal pills along with it. Using it closed for defense would accelerate the Dream Hole’s damage, and with limited defense area—just 1.7 meters in diameter—it wasn’t very meaningful.
Facing the Heavenly Rank Armor Cultivator further empowered and amplified by Cicada City’s Magic Array, Yuan Zhu canceled the Tiger Demon Stance, the Shadow Uniform wrapping his entire body, face covered with Gas Mask + Night Vision Goggles, concealing his features, and leaving dozens of rapidly multiplying and developing Shadow Magic Worms by his side.
Seeing the unfamiliar-shaped Tiger Demon suddenly transform into humanoid form, the Heavenly Rank Cultivator was shocked in his heart—was this an intelligent shadow Demonic Creature?! And that black circle suspected to be a Dream Hole, though displaying communication with the Nightmare Layer (closed state), the dense Nightmare Aura on it was straight-up a Dream Hole!
A portable ‘Dream Hole’? An intelligent humanoid Nightmare Demonic Creature? What a terrifying combination! This meant this Demonic Creature could communicate with the Nightmare World anytime, anywhere in the Underground World, summoning more Demonic Creatures to invade the world.
He seemed to see a brand new ‘heavenly disaster’ being born in this apocalyptic world.
Had this world really entered the end of the law era? Was this world really heading toward death and destruction? So the original disasters not only couldn’t be eliminated but intensified, and new disasters kept forming… To escape all this, only Shatter the Void and ascend in dreams?
The cultivator with chaotic thoughts hardened his resolve to destroy this Demonic Creature, communicating heaven and earth with Martial Dao Domain, using Armor as carrier, replacing heaven’s heart with his own, activating the power called Heavenly Position.
At the same time, Yuan Zhu directed a firefly-like Magic Worm to shoot at high speed toward the Armor Cultivator in mid-air.
“A mere Magic Worm!”
Though the internal aura was utterly different from Demonic Giant Insects, he judged this strange Magic Worm’s threat level to be only around Earth Rank 5 Realm, no threat to him at all, easily extinguishable with a flip of the palm.
Just as he used his Domain to seize and internally detonate the Magic Worm, Yuan Zhu remotely detonated this Ghost Companion.
Infinite Holy Light Cough Explosion!
In the final instant before death, the Shadow Magic Worm burst with extreme light from within, its originally dim eyes and dark Armor crevices spraying blinding light, its originally luminous tail transforming into a scorching white mini-sun.
Amid extreme painful shrieking, it exploded violently, like a super flash bomb, releasing infinite light and heat in the dim Underground World.
As rejection of pollution, Holy Light Pollution erupted in Cicada City’s airspace. Its vicious nature was similar to when Yuan Zhu first arrived, casually releasing Illumination Technique in the underground passage, incinerating and purifying numerous Root Tendrils and Moss, triggering the subsequent Pollution Outbreak…
What he sought now wasn’t the destructive power of the Magic Worm’s Holy Light self-explosion, but the series of ‘Holy Light Pollution negative effects’ that followed.
