Chapter 79: Hammering Evil Spirits, Cutting The Grass At The Roots
The Tiger Demon led the way, advancing with demolition-style ferocity all along, wreaking havoc in the Space Maze.
After the heavy claw tore through another brick wall, the space fluctuated and distorted. The invisible Evil Spirit’s resistance grew weaker and weaker, until it could no longer sustain the Space Maze.
The entire villa emitted a dying groan, the misaligned space like a melting wax figure began to twist and dissipate. That spiral staircase also collapsed back to its original form. On the endless corridor, one room door after another began to fold and merge, the corridor becoming shorter and shorter.
When all the illusions dissipated, the real villa, gnawed by Shadow Pollution into a fragmented ruin, was revealed.
The Tiger Demon carefully observed the surroundings, confirming he was in the master bedroom on the second floor. With the faint light shining through the window, he could see the bedroom interior was already unrecognizable.
The load-bearing pillar was corroded by Shadow Pollution into a thousand holes, the wallpaper hanging and swaying like peeling rotten tree bark. Five Ghost Companions were crouched on the floor gnawing at the floor interlayer, where their pitch-black saliva dripped, causing wood to sprout mold spots and Shadow Eggplant Seedlings, growing vigorously.
Yuan Zhu stopped the Ghost Companions from causing more destruction, looking at the black vein-like networks spreading everywhere inside the room, with Shadow aura everywhere.
It looked even more like a Haunted House than when they first entered! And it was a Haunted House that, after the Illusionary Technique was broken, revealed its terrifying true form.
“Uh…”
At this moment, he suddenly froze, speechless and choked up.
Calming down from the joy of major demolition, he realized a new problem. Would they be held accountable for house repair fees? If the cleaning fee earned wasn’t more than the repairs, that would be a huge loss.
“Clearly just purifying an ordinary Evil Spirit, how did it come to this? To this extent!”
While the boss was fretting and sighing, Little Spicy Stick swam to the Tiger Demon’s ear again, whispering a reminder: “Boss, I’ve found that Evil Spirit! It’s extremely weak now, forced into a shady little room by the omnipresent Shadow Pollution. Let’s go eliminate it quickly! It’s all its fault, destroying it will vent our pent-up frustration.”
A fierce glint flashed in the Tiger Demon’s eyes, malice surging: “Finally forced it out? It’s very weak now, huh.”
“Weak as hell! Its abilities are deeply bound to this Haunted House, and now with this broken house about to be demolished by us, everywhere bears pollution traces left by the Ghost Companions, all signaling it has no strength left to resist.”
Hearing this, Yuan Zhu released the Tiger Demon Stance. The black uniform rewrapped his body, the Holy Marks on his wrists ignited with Holy Light, sweeping away the eerie Malevolent Qi entwined on him, restoring his sacred and compassionate holy man temperament.
“Eggplant eggplant eggplant—!”
The five Ghost Companions that had climbed onto the ceiling, fighting and biting over the chandelier, froze at this sight, showing a ghostly expression, their dozens of eyeballs shocked toward their suddenly transformed nemesis owner. They looked like they wanted to glare hostilely but didn’t quite dare, like dumbasses.
While they were dumbfounded and hesitating, their bodies were pulled by invisible summoning forces, falling from the ceiling one after another, emitting unwilling shrieks, sinking bit by bit into the pitch-black shadows like a quagmire.
Seeing the five Eggplant Head Ghosts disappear on their own, Yuan Zhu felt a bit regretful: “Looks like these Ghost Companions can’t exist independently detached from [Tiger Demon].”
Little Spicy Stick’s voice rang in his mind: “Not now, but maybe in the future. In the original [Tiger Demon Template], Ghost Companions can act independently. The Tiger Demon just lounges in its lair sleeping, while Ghost Companions trek long distances to lure Mortals into the cave.”
After the [Boss Template]’s health recovery, Yuan Zhu’s stamina and health returned to their peak, the hidden issues inside his severed arm fully repaired like new, feeling better than ever.
At this moment, he was enveloped in inviolable Holy Qi. Passing through the wreckage-strewn ground, he arrived at the room door hiding the Evil Spirit. A Light Barrier crystallized on his fist surface, once again employing (plagiarizing) the Tiger Demon’s ‘Sky-Rending Claw’, condensing and blessing Holy Light onto his right fist.
One punch blasted out, pseudo Spatial Power erupted, smashing the wooden room door into countless fragments that poured inward.
At this time inside the house, countless thread-thin crimson woolen threads clung to the walls, their ends connected to the pale phantom in the center of the house. It was a female Evil Spirit wearing a tattered white dress, with countless crimson woolen threads extending from the hem, radially piercing every inch of the house.
“Ha! So it’s you.”
Seeing this indistinct-featured phantom, Yuan Zhu recalled those flesh-covered woolen threads controlling silver dinner knives and the wooden doll, all manipulated by her behind the scenes, so she must be the ‘Puppeteer’?
Just as he politely greeted, several woolen threads crawling with bloody flesh membranes suddenly lashed out in response, coiling up single-blade scissors, blades, pencils, shooting straight at him from all directions, too numerous to defend against.
However, before these attacks could land, Holy Light continuously flashed around Yuan Zhu, the weapons bouncing off upon hitting the Light Barrier, while those bloody woolen threads were scorched and carbonized by the Holy Light.
He raised his right hand, pointing remotely at the white phantom, making a fist-clenching motion. At the same time, blocks of Holy Light Force Field materialized out of thin air, rising from the ground, surrounding the Evil Spirit from six directions (up, down, left, right, front, back).
[Sanctuary. Cage]
The interwoven Light Barriers locked the Evil Spirit firmly in the ‘Cage’, severing the dense blood-colored woolen threads.
The blood-colored woolen threads extending from the dress frantically battered the Light Cage, only to be carbonized into ash by the Holy Light. The scorched smell of Holy Light burning mixed with the Evil Spirit’s shrill wails echoed in the house.
Yuan Zhu listened to the pleasurable screams, picked up the Ram Horn Hammer, and advanced step by step.
He raised his left hand, Shielding Force Field blessing his arm, piercing straight through the Holy Light Cage, gripping the illusory neck of the white-clad Evil Spirit, dragging her out from it.
His right hand gripped the hammer handle tightly, the Holy Mark shining brightly, continuously infusing Holy Light into it. The sheep head’s eye sockets glowed with lava-like crimson light, then one heavy hammer swung down viciously.
Bang!
“This hammer, for my right hand—”
The heavy strike landed, Force Field Critical Hit, the flesh woolen thread mass exploded into sparks everywhere. The Evil Spirit’s chest cavity caved in, spewing not blood but viscous black substance, swiftly incinerated by Holy Light into swirling ‘Soul Ash’ captured by the [Holy Mark].
Spirit greatly invigorated, Yuan Zhu swung the second hammer with full force again.
Bang!
“This hammer, for my overtime pay—”
The sheep head wedged into her crown of the head, that indistinct face and illusory head crackling like porcelain inch by inch. Pitch-black viscous liquid steamed from the cracks, then incinerated by Holy Light into large plumes of ash, sucked into the [Holy Seal] by a storm.
His Holy Light, his Holy Seal, even his will and spirit, underwent subtle changes while absorbing and fusing the ash.
Bang! Bang!! Bang!!!
Yuan Zhu now incarnated as a Holy Light Murderer, a joyful surprised smile on his face, unleashing chain strikes each heavier and faster than the last.
Inside the room, a blurry phantom pinned firmly to the floor by him convulsed and writhed violently. No matter how it struggled, it only splashed viscous ‘Holy Light Mosaic’, fueling the murderer’s arrogant flair.
After over a dozen consecutive hammers, he finally felt a wave of weakness, his stamina burned away by more than half. Beneath him, only a thread mass remnant glowing faintly with embers remained, slowly dissipating into the [Holy Mark].
As for the originally arrogant and invincible Evil Spirit, it was now soul-flown and scattered, hammered by him to utter annihilation.
“Refreshing!”
With great vengeance achieved, as the smoke and dust settled, Yuan Zhu looked at the ground, only faint illusory crystal sand remaining.
This was the ‘residual powder’ refined after Holy Light burned and purified the Evil Spirit, similar in nature to the ‘Holy Dehydrated Protein Powder’ left after Shift Rat Great Heavenly Venerable’s death, but undoubtedly more precious and valuable.
An ordinary Holy Light Cultivator daring to squander Holy Light so recklessly like him would inevitably be greatly depleted after one exorcism, falling into prolonged weakness.
At such times, they would sell these precious ‘Evil Spirit materials’ to buy supplements for recovery. Achieving a positive cycle of one burn (life) one replenish, or else Holy Light Cultivators would age prematurely, die young, shorten lifespan, and drop dead suddenly.
But he was different! He had [Boss Template] health recovery, no need for medicine or rest, everything burned was pure profit.
He bent down to collect the scattered crystal sand on the ground into a small glass bottle, then used Holy Light for secondary sterilization and disinfection. After finishing all this, Yuan Zhu stuffed the bottle into his satchel, planning to clean the scene and leave.
At this time, Little Spicy Stick suddenly spoke: “Boss, I keep feeling something’s off?”
“Oh?”
“Can you feel it? This Haunted House interior still harbors faint Spatial Fluctuations.”
With her reminder, Yuan Zhu also realized something was wrong. Inside the villa, there were indeed barely perceptible Spatial Fluctuations, extremely faint. Even he had overlooked them, only a Game Sprite like Little Spicy Stick constantly monitoring Firewall data could detect the traces.
“You mean I didn’t kill it clean, there’s still a fish that slipped the net?”
Spicy Stick: “Better to kill wrongly than to let escape. Cut the grass without uprooting the roots, it grows again with the spring breeze. Better check to feel at ease.”
“Makes sense!”
Under her guidance, Yuan Zhu made his way to the small attic at the top of the villa. Using the uniform to smoothly unlock, he gently pushed open the long-sealed room door.
‘Creak…’
The decrepit wooden door opened, a moldy rotten smell hitting his face, forcing him to raise a layer of Holy Light to cover his head, purifying the inhaled air.
In the attic corner, piled with black flocculent matter, like withered and desiccated fungal threads.
In the center of the room stood a 1.8-meter dressing mirror. The mirror surface now crawled with bluish-black mold clumps, and due to too much time and lack of nutrients, long devoid of activity, leaving the surface mottled and ruined.
Directly facing the mirror sat a recliner. On the chair’s dark red cushion lay a square clock, leaning against the chair back, facing the mottled mirror.
Yuan Zhu’s gaze at this moment was drawn to the square dial. In the center of the dial was prominently embedded a swollen and rotting human face!
Its features twisted in agony, the face covered in large and small cracks exposing internal metal parts. Its eyes filled with unwillingness, pupils unfocused, dead for some time. The second hand, minute hand, and hour hand all broken at the root, oozing dark red blood.
For a moment, it was unclear whether it was a living human face or some mechanical creation?
“It’s it!” Little Spicy Stick exclaimed, “The fluctuations controlling the Space Maze before match exactly the aura lingering on this dial! It’s the real mastermind behind the scenes.”
