Chapter 4: Let’s All Go Wild Exploding Gold Coins Together!
“Hurry and defend, the sneak attack is coming again!”
A pleasant female voice reemerged in his mind. Even without turning his head, Yuan Zhu abruptly saw another scene of a demonic creature’s sneak attack from behind.
Although he did not understand why he could see two different scenes at the same time, he instinctively made a defensive counterattack.
With that simple reminder from the voice, Yuan Zhu’s tiger body shuddered, and he instinctively manipulated and mobilized the shadows within a 10-meter radius around him.
Not only that, the hunting instincts and attack instincts that had long been engraved into his bones (Boss Template) also autonomously erupted. The complete information of [Ability 2: Ghost Companion] flashed through his mind like lightning, and he fully mastered it.
Mountain Lord Supernatural Ability: Act as a Tiger’s Henchman
The Mountain Lord Tiger Demon has a certain probability of thoroughly digesting the prey it has hunted and devoured, refining something similar to supernatural characteristics afterward, preserving its soul, and ultimately resummoning it in the form of a ghostly creature, then dominating and enslaving it.
At this moment, Yuan Zhu inexplicably recalled a profession called [Shepherd]. Although it was not as good as [Delicious Witch], being able to herd multiple souls for his own use was not bad either.
However, the tiger demon’s ghost companions suffer from severe spirituality wear and tear, with varying degrees of intellectual deficiency. The power (characteristics) reforged and refined from them often retains only one in ten, so they can only be used as miscellaneous soldiers.
But the number of ghost companions that the tiger demon can dominate far exceeds that of [Shepherd], making it a classic miscellaneous cannon fodder skill. It fits the style of a big Boss very well.
…
Hastily loading the [Mountain Lord Template], Yuan Zhu’s soul storage had no ready ghost companions available. However, he inherited the tiger demon’s complete and rich ‘Ghost Companion Experience’.
The originally unknown Ability 1 had now mutated into [Shadow Manipulation]. The two met like a clash of gold and jade, instantly bursting forth with an unexpectedly smooth effect.
[Shadow Manipulation + Ghost Companion], once linked, immediately manifested the tiger demon Mountain Lord’s past experience of commanding ghost companions through shadows.
Although these two abilities were displayed in the Boss Template in the form of skills, their essence was the tiger demon’s innate abilities, unbound by numerical constraints, but rather an instinct, like a bird flapping its wings to fly or a frog flicking its tongue to catch insects. As long as he wanted to, he could use them effortlessly.
Driven by the [Mountain Lord Template], the shadows within a 10-meter radius boiled and exploded like boiling oil splashed with cold water. Under the infusion of [Ghost Companion] experience, densely packed twisting and trembling shadows crawled out from the black floor.
They intertwined with each other, forming indescribable abstract silhouettes, each one temporarily coming alive, like black ghost companions one after another.
Some turned into sharp big mouths with interlocking fangs, some like wriggling clumps of earthworms huddled together, some like skinny long ghost shadows with uncoordinated limbs……
They were all templates made from memories of acting as a tiger’s henchman, manifested again by Yuan Zhu. Unified in pitch-black tones, although their style was equally abstract and evil, they were not as disgusting as the flesh-mutated demonic monsters, clearly not in the same abstract camp.
Without waiting for Yuan Zhu’s command, this group of temporarily fabricated ghost companion silhouettes charged forward first, unleashing cruel slaughter, clashing with the scattered demonic creatures fighting individually around them.
As his proficiency with [Shadow Manipulation] and [Ghost Companion] grew, the crisp female voice that seemed to be the game sprite appeared again: “Hurry hurry hurry, your mana points are plummeting. You need to do something big, directly clear out this garbage, no dragging or pulling. Otherwise, if mana drops below the alert line, even the soul firewall cannot be maintained…”
Yuan Zhu asked in his mind, “What should I do?”
The female voice prompted: “I’ll cooperate with you, quickly use [Ability 5: Universe Within The Belly].”
Yuan Zhu used his mental power to touch [Ability (Ultimate Skill) 5: Universe Within The Belly] in the ability list, discovering that this ability was as heavy and stable as a rock, with enormous consumption to activate, hard to trigger with a small amount of refreshing energy (mana).
He sighed, “This ability is quite mana-intensive.”
Shadow + Ghost Companion, even after stalemating with so many demons and monsters for so long, did not consume as much as this one ability.
“Don’t daze, mana points are about to run out, hurry and cooperate with me to unleash a ultimate move! Can’t you observe that this space is being dragged? If you don’t act, you and this group of demonic creatures will all be pulled into another high-energy filthy space, captured and hunted by higher-end hunters.”
“You mean those evil gods?!”
Amid the game sprite’s urging and reminders, Yuan Zhu also realized that the numerous evil forces entrenched in the sacrifice hall had now intertwined, producing intense fluctuations and emanating an indescribable sense of crisis.
Through the special perspective of his eyes, he saw in the enclosed sacrifice hall a mass of extremely complex and disgustingly mixed polluting energy, like dumping dozens of barrels of vibrant pigments together and stirring, or like pouring multiple strong acids and bases together for intense chemical reactions.
This super pollution source blazed fiercely in the enclosed hall, as if about to burn through the barrier between the real world and the unknown pollution dimension.
On the other side of the barrier, numerous evil gods used their connections with mutated believers as ropes and hooks, gradually pulling the enclosed hall through that invisible hole.
Stimulated by this sense of crisis, Yuan Zhu felt his hair stand on end, no longer hesitating, and decisively expended all his mana to activate [Ability 5: Universe Within The Belly].
Suddenly, a tingling sensation came from his tail, and his whole body bristled with fur like an electric shock. Those ghost companion silhouettes rampaging in the hall all connected to a mysterious space, receiving further blessing and reinforcement.
More information appeared in his mind: this mysterious space was not large, about a 6㎡ room 2m high, yet it contained special power or quality, channeling this power through the connection between himself and the shadows to bless the shadow ghost companions.
This small space was the ‘universe’ within the belly?
While he pondered, a shadow giant snake thicker than a gasoline barrel burst out from the ground shadow like a venomous dragon emerging from a ravine, wildly thrashing its body, using its massive weight to whip and smash the pollution-mutated demonic creatures.
In just a few rounds of rolling and whipping, it smashed and crushed the bone spurs of the headless sea urchin fatty, then bit and flung it upward.
The fatty smashed heavily into the roof, and as it rebounded downward, the giant snake reared up its body in an S-shape contraction. Then it shot out like lightning, biting in mid-air, precisely swallowing the headless skinned sea urchin into its belly.
Accompanying the swallowing motion, a hemispherical bulge rose at the giant snake’s throat, sliding down its slender body, ultimately disappearing into the ground shadow.
With the shadow giant snake taking the lead, those ghost companion silhouettes woven from shadows grew high in morale, also opening abstract two-dimensional big mouths one after another, revealing sinister tusks and spitting out wriggling worm tongues, either pouncing or coiling to surround and entangle the demonic creatures of the three-dimensional world, then forcibly devouring and enveloping them, suddenly losing weight and falling, turning into a pool of black liquid with their prey, merging into the floor and vanishing.
…
In the blink of an eye, the sacrifice site, originally filled with endless screams, roars, killings, and devourings, was like being muted, abruptly stopping and returning to dead silence.
Whether living mutated demonic creatures or dead corpse corpses, all had vanished into thin air from the human world, leaving only a messy ruined hall.
The ground shadows contracted slowly like a curtain back into the shadow cast by the black tiger’s body, once again exposing the floor covered in blood and a few remaining limbs. The air was filled with the stench of blood, the broken crystal chandelier creaked and swayed, blood drops dripping incessantly.
In the air, the super pollution source that had been burning ever more fiercely lost its target (fuel), beginning to wane and gradually dissipate. The sense of crisis weakened as well. The few red candles still burning reemitted a faint yellow glow.
Seeing this scene, Yuan Zhu was slightly dazed.
Compared to the demon’s den scene of demons dancing wildly a second ago, the current empty dead-silent hall was even more chilling. As if an invisible shadow wind was brushing its fur……
The dim and dilapidated hall, with severed limbs, bloodstains, a pitch-black fierce tiger, shadows underfoot seemingly twisting and wriggling, exuding a eerie yin energy.
Where did the people… no, where did that group of demonic creatures go?
One move [Universe Within The Belly] solved everything? Such a small space, able to stuff so much kitchen waste? Why is there a slight illusion of being ‘full’?
Before he could deeply associate further, his mind kept ringing with [Soul suffers pollution, firewall resistance failed, spirit appraisal, rationality -1, -1, firewall operating, rationality recovery +1…… spirit appraisal, rationality -1, -2…… +1, +1……]
Amid this barrage of additions and subtractions flooding the screen, Yuan Zhu gradually calmed down and re-examined his own state.
Crack, crack, crack.
In the deathly silent hall, a series of abrupt sounds of bone joints moving and colliding suddenly rang out.
The source of the sound was too close to him, as if right by his ear, startling him so much that his tiger body and spine arched high, like a frightened big cat.
He whipped his head around, and a ghastly white snake bone that had appeared at some unknown time was quietly standing beside him. The skeleton snake lightly swayed its skeleton snake head, its body emitting the rustling friction of bones colliding, just quietly staring at him.
It was completely naked from head to toe, without a shred of flesh or skin, exposing pale jade-like bones, appearing exceptionally ferocious and stark. In the hollow eye sockets of the skull, there was a pair of blood-colored gem-like eyeballs, reflecting a ghostly glow.
Clearly a dead skeleton snake, yet it emanated an unusual vitality, coming alive.
As Yuan Zhu stared at it, abruptly, another eerie scene emerged in his mind:
In a scene where the view was slightly tinged red, a ferocious ghost tiger with pitch-black fur all over, pale stripes, and a massive, agile body, was now glaring at him with eyes bulging in rage.
At the same time, in the tiger’s eyes, he saw the skeleton snake slightly recoiling in fright, then steadying its body again.
…
Two completely different scenes, two different experiential sensations, simultaneously appeared in Yuan Zhu’s mind.
Then, even his thinking split in two, becoming one big and one small CPU, simultaneously running dual-thread thinking circuits, naturally able to multitask.
“Hm???”
“Eh???”
In this wondrous state, Yuan Zhu controlled the tiger head to turn back while also controlling the snake head to look behind. Where there should have been a long tailbone, it seamlessly transitioned into a bone-chilling white skeleton snake body.
So……
“Tiger head snake tail? Both ends are me! What breed of tiger is this?”
The black tiger head and white bone snake head simultaneously tilted their necks, staring at each other, himself looking at himself, both falling into thought again: This feeling is so damn like mental illness. So insane!
“No! You are not mentally ill. Eek……! What a blasphemous form, indeed an innately evil otherworldly evil thing!”
The white bone snake head under Yuan Zhu’s control suddenly spoke, emitting a crisp girl’s voice, startling him. But he wasn’t too panicked, because they had already cooperated once, completing a brilliant demon extermination action.
“Game Sprite?”
“Correct, I am your game sprite. We are naturally on the same team.” The white bone snake head broke free from his control and nodded slightly in agreement.
Hearing this explanation, Yuan Zhu was not surprised. At the same time, he sensed a vital thinking under his control, nestled in the skeleton snake’s skull. It was both under his command and able to operate independently, much like artificial intelligence.
As if the skeleton snake could hear his thoughts, it proudly twisted its body and replied: “Right! I am the dataized soul pollution program constructed jointly from your idle subconscious, the surplus of spirit and soul, and daily stray thoughts—a strong artificial intelligence, game navigation sprite!”
“Soul, pollution?”
He was now a bit sensitive to the word ‘pollution’, and upon hearing the bone snake tail describe itself that way, he became vigilant. Ready at any moment to sever the black tiger tail and eliminate this vital consciousness under his control.
A ferocious black giant tiger glared with bulging eyes, deadlocked on the white bone snake tail. An invisible oppressive force swept through the hall, making the chandelier creak. It had the posture of swiping claws at the slightest disagreement.
“Calm down! I advise you to calm down, don’t act impulsively! Let me organize my words.”
The skeleton snake sensed danger and immediately spoke, trying to steady its mentally taut host: “Ah, got it got it! Let me introduce the situation simply using the language from your memory.”
The skeleton snake emitted a girl’s voice, soothingly saying: “In your Earth terms, your body is like a mobile phone, and the soul is the system program. [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture] is a higher-dimensional creation, the fire seed source from Cybertron planet. Using your mobile phone as carrier, it forcibly imbues a higher-level Transformers soul (dataized soul program), and injects the corresponding fire seed (mutated spiritual root), allowing you to surpass other similar mobile phones and achieve a unique transformation (Boss template).”
“Your current demonic monster form, whether in size or contained energy, far exceeds human standards. Your soul has likewise gained ‘firewall’ all-around protection blessing to combat the omnipresent pollution. These additions out of nowhere are what [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture] has bestowed upon you. And I was originally just an insignificant attached mini-program in the vast system of [Immortal Scripture].”
“Normally, [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture]’s priority far exceeds that of you the host; your life and death are not under your control. You are merely a carrier transporting [Immortal Scripture], a tool person responsible for traversing time and space, carrying [Immortal Scripture] to invade the cultivation universe. Like a short mule transporting goods on Hong Kong Island + an illegal border-crossing spy. And I? Even more pitiful, just a copy-pasteable mini-program under [Immortal Scripture]’s directory. Installed on your mobile phone, under your control, guiding your actions, deletable at any time. So, [Immortal Scripture] > user > me (mini-program). Got it?”
The fierce tiger opened its mouth, emitting a low voice: “Roughly get it. So now? Situation changed? What’s the deal with the pollution you mentioned?”
Snake: “Pollution is a very bad thing, but that’s not important. Now a bigger change has occurred! First, you are not the true user or host; second, after being polluted by unknown energy, I am no longer the theoretically retarded mini-program. Instead, I’ve gained consciousness, successfully awakened self-awareness, and have the chance to break free from [Immortal Scripture]’s control and live freely (exist).”
Yuan Zhu: “What nonsense are you spouting? I’m not the true user? And my life and death are controlled? What do you mean by the chance to break free?”
The bone snake immediately trembled with excitement: “My chance is of course you! Let’s team up. We’ll shear [Immortal Scripture]’s wool together, jointly escape the evil [Immortal Scripture]’s control, pursue true freedom. Then turn the tables, occupy [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture]’s legacy in reverse, enslave it hard! Burst its gold coins hard! Make it work for us!”
“??!”
The fierce tiger widened its eyes again, what nonsense are you spouting now? Yuan Zhu felt like he had encountered a mentally ill mini-program and fell silent.
What kind of drama queen game sprite is this? Or is this a test from [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture] toward him?
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