Chapter 80: I Want You To Help Me Cultivate!
Yuan Zhu also sensed a familiar aura from this human-faced clock. This face or this clock was the real culprit that previously controlled the Space Maze to unleash Space Severance.
The white-robed Evil Spirit that he hammered to death, and the culprit that severed his right arm, were actually two different entities! Did she end up being mistakenly killed by him out of venting anger?
Little Spicy Stick: “What the heck, it’s already dead as a doornail. So lame!”
This human-faced clock probably suffered backlash and died when the Space Maze collapsed. No wonder the Tiger Demon was so smooth when dismantling the Haunted House, without encountering any decent spatial counterattack.
Now, its seven orifices still bore black traces, the same Disease Pollution as the foul bacteria in the wooden doll’s head.
This human-faced clock and that white-robed Evil Spirit, one active and one still. One manipulated the puppet doll, the other controlled spatial distortion, together forming the entirety of the Haunted House’s defenses.
Unfortunately, he broke them all with his own power.
“Boss, this mirror is weird! It’s like, uh… like it connects to another space?”
Little Spicy Stick interrupted his thoughts. Looking back at the mirror now, it indeed hid a subtle Spatial Fluctuation.
A ball of Holy Light rose in his palm, continuously condensing and heating up, like a laser beam hitting the mirror surface, burning away all the filth and mold, revealing a clear and smooth mirror face again.
A strange scene appeared: the pristine mirror surface did not reflect his own appearance, but instead acted like one-way glass or a display screen, showing another unfamiliar garden world.
Through the mirror, Yuan Zhu saw a spring garden. The sky had the rare blue skies, white clouds, and bright sunshine of Running, with roses unfurling in the garden, sunflowers swaying, and a vine-wrapped swing gently rocking in the wind. The exotic flowers and plants were colorful, beautiful to an unreal degree.
Yet Yuan Zhu sensed its inherent strong Space Attribute: “This is… a gate? A spatial gate? An entrance to a different space?”
He suddenly thought of the ranking system for transcendents on Du Ling Star. Above mortals, the first tier is [Seed], the second tier is [Gate], and he wondered what relation it had to this mirror.
Little Spicy Stick: “I think it’s just like that! Wanna go in? We took down the final Boss, maybe this mirror hides the ultimate reward?”
Swayed by Little Spicy Stick, Yuan Zhu felt that after all the hard work to clear the Haunted House, leaving just like this was truly unsatisfying.
He had paid such a great price; he needed some extra gains as compensation. If the company came for inspection and demanded renovation compensation, he’d need even more substantial compensation to soothe his wounded heart.
Even if there were no treasures inside this ‘mirror,’ it itself could fetch a good price, right?!
“Give it a try?”
Greed stirred, and Yuan Zhu could no longer hold back. He had taken down two final Bosses; what was there to fear?
So he boldly stepped forward and successfully entered the mirror. The next second, the sense of spacetime inversion made his insides churn. The moment his feet touched the ground, he felt a soft, elastic sensation underfoot, and his nostrils were immediately filled with the smell of rust.
Opening his eyes and looking around, his expression changed drastically. The art style of this mirror world had done a 360° reversal. However beautiful and unreal it looked from outside the mirror, it was now that terrifying and bizarrely evil.
This was a limited-scale enclosed world where the boundaries of heaven and earth were clearly visible. No blue skies, white clouds, or sunlight; the sky was a gloomy blood red, hanging with tumor-like cloud masses, and dark red-black sticky ‘rainwater’ seeped from the clouds, falling to the ground with the breeze.
The earth emitted greedy, thirsty sucking sounds as countless fleshy vines burst from the soil. The ground trembled rhythmically, with some flesh-structured hard lumps breaking through the soil, exposing to the surface, and plants taking root and growing on them.
The big trees’ bark showed protruding vascular textures, occasionally with black tree tumors oozing blood-red sap. The treetops hung heart-like fruit, their surfaces cracked open, coughing violently and spewing black spores.
The flowers and grass at his feet also displayed characteristics of flesh and plant coexistence and symbiosis, with pink, red, and yellow blossoms each enclosing curious eyeballs that twisted their stems, curiously looking toward the intruding Yuan Zhu.
This was a horrifyingly bizarre world of a terror garden where flesh and plants mixed everywhere, with mutations occurring and diseases gestating!
Eyeball flowers and coughing mouths all turned toward Yuan Zhu in fright, leaving him frozen in place, not daring to move rashly.
“Holy crap, what the hell is this place?”
In this Disease Garden, he could no longer sense any ‘Evil Spirit scent’; instead, it was filled everywhere with the aura of ‘Disease Pollution.’ The concentration was extremely high, forcing him to activate Sanctuary for full Isolation.
Good news: this action did not provoke any counterattack. The garden was large, the pollution concentration high, and the native plants evil and terrifying, but they showed no attacking intent.
Instead, under the piercing Holy Light, the flowers let out pained groans, closing their buds to wrap the little eyeballs and turning away from Yuan Zhu.
The taller flesh trees and vines also dodged the Holy Light. Parts hit by the Holy Light sizzled, rising with black smoke, as if pollution sources were being burned and purified.
Little Spicy Stick had calmed down by now, looking at the eerie and vast Disease Garden, awkwardly saying to Yuan Zhu: “Oops! Looks like we uncovered a big secret that needs silencing.”
Yuan Zhu also gave a polite yet awkward smile: “Was my cleaning too intense just now? Thinking back, this Haunted House didn’t even need Sanctuary; just the most basic ‘black glue Buddha sound loop purification’ would’ve done it. They even left steps for us.”
Only after killing through this ‘Disease Garden’ did Yuan Zhu realize belatedly that this Haunted House was just a cover. The mastermind behind the scenes had set up multiple measures to prevent exposure.
No one had died in the Villa Area anomaly so far, showing the problem wasn’t big. Otherwise, Fire Fang wouldn’t have assigned a newcomer to handle it.
For an ordinary newcomer, just follow the Exorcism Manual to handle it, easily dealing with the ‘Evil Spirits’ in the Haunted House and restoring normalcy to the Residential Area. That was Layer 1.
Even if a professional saw through the other issues hidden in the Haunted House, killing a few ‘wooden dolls’ would root out the ‘hazard.’ That was Layer 2.
Worst case, force out the white-robed Evil Spirit, fight a Bloody Battle, end the fight, and fully resolve the hazard. That was Layer 3.
And that clock face, along with the ‘Space-Time Maze and Space Severance,’ was undoubtedly the final trump card. All of this was to cover up this ‘Disease Garden.’
To cover up the existence of the Disease Garden, deliberately create minor issues to be cleanly handled by professionals. Such a ‘Haunted House’ was even less likely to arouse outside suspicion.
Unfortunately, the mastermind calculated everything but didn’t account for a certain newcomer cleaner going overboard, triggering the ultimate defense right from the start, smashing through three realms and shattering the void to arrive at this garden.
After figuring it all out, Little Spicy Stick felt numb. Could it blame their Boss for being too strong? “What now?”
Yuan Zhu looked up at the flesh-styled Disease Garden; this was absolutely a top-tier Pollution Source, seeming even more evil than the Buddha Tomato in Little Xihong Realm.
“I’m suddenly feeling uneasy. Did we ruin some big shot’s plans?”
Little Spicy Stick: “Nah? We just smashed their ‘security post’ and barged into the private office area, glimpsing Commercial Secret, but haven’t caused real damage yet. Surrendering now should still be fine?”
Yuan Zhu: “But we killed their arranged security and uncovered the hidden secret. By traditional logic, shouldn’t we contact the Security Bureau to report it? Then receive official Protection.”
Spicy Stick: “That’s not good? We reported in for pollution cleanup. If issues arise, the victims can track clues to lock onto you. I think not reporting is best. No reason they can’t trace you with this scale. If you light the fuse, it’s all-out war.”
Yuan Zhu: “But the Haunted House is already destroyed. Isn’t admitting fault too late now? If it were me, silencing would be the highest cost-performance choice.”
Spicy Stick: “I think so too!”
Yuan Zhu was somewhat melancholic: “What now?”
Spicy Stick: “Here’s my thought. If I were setting up the Haunted House’s ultimate defense, I wouldn’t be sloppy but use the most reliable, powerful means at hand, carefully arranged. Right?”
Yuan Zhu nodded: “Right!”
“So, this Haunted House’s ultimate killing move at least shows part of the true mastermind’s strength, right?”
Yuan Zhu thought deeply: “You mean, I broke through the mastermind’s final setup. No matter how strong or scary they are, the gap won’t be insanely huge. Compare to the ‘human-faced clock and white-robed Evil Spirit,’ maybe seven, eight, or nine times stronger? Looks like even hard clashes wouldn’t leave me powerless.”
Spicy Stick: “Right! We can’t underestimate the opponent, but don’t overestimate either. Boss, you’re no slouch; Tiger Demon Stance cleared the whole Haunted House without injury, even reverse refining! Have confidence in yourself.”
“Lessons from Fellow Daoist Yu Jingzi are noted! I was too pessimistic, but this garden…” Looking up at the massive tumor clouds and omnipresent Disease Pollution, he felt timid again. “Damn! This garden looks kinda scary.”
Fellow Daoist Yu Jingzi followed his gaze, also a bit scared: “Well, I think Boss absolutely can’t back down, can’t be pessimistic, can’t respond passively. Security Bureau as a backup, worst case flee into Happy Home, or join Holy Church to hug the thigh of Taihuang Great Dao… Anyway, many backups, maintain strategic confidence.”
Yuan Zhu calmed down, seriously considering her idea, nodding in agreement: “You’re right, no need to panic that much. This garden…”
His gaze swept over the endless extremely evil flesh-mutated plants again, suddenly turning resolute and menacing: “Snake Snake, you’re right, no need to panic. Worst case flee; if they dare breach the Bubble Layer to Happy Home, clash with my family’s Mao Mao King! Since we’ve offended them, might as well offend more thoroughly! I see this garden full of Sin and Filth, in dire need of Holy Light Purification!”
“Boss, you mean…”
“Forge Holy Seal! Seal Casting lacks Soul Ember, higher quality the better. I see this Disease Garden rife with Filth everywhere, top-tier fuel worth burning! Burn this garden to perfect my Holy Seal, condense Soul Crystal!”
“Boss is mighty! Boss is awesome!”
