Chapter 77: Ambush
“What did you do?” Lu Xing cried out in alarm.
But before he could finish speaking, a mechanical puppet with evil energy smashed down from above. If Xuan Qing hadn’t reacted quickly and pushed him away, he would probably have been smashed into a meat pie.
Jiang Ce dodged a zombie’s approach, and taking a moment, he awkwardly replied: “One-click monster spawn.”
Everyone dodged the various ghosts and monsters attacking from above while dealing with the threats in front of them. In just a moment, those ghosts and monsters that had fallen to the distant ground were now fully composed, surrounding the group who hadn’t yet dealt with the ghosts and monsters before them.
Puppets, zombies, water ghosts, bloated human skins—quite lively.
Seeing that the number of these ghosts and monsters had accumulated to a terrifying extent, with hundreds at a glance, Xuan Qing finally shouted sternly: “Everyone, get behind me.”
Knowing he was at fault, Jiang Ce didn’t dare say much more, nor did he dare take the chance to farm Aatrox, and obediently hid behind Xuan Qing.
“What was that just now?”
Jiang Ce turned his head and saw it was Qin Shen Bo speaking. With an apologetic expression, he explained: “My intention was to test if these ghosts were hiding, but I didn’t expect to call down all the ghosts from above. My bad.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I mean, why is it that I have to go all out to kill one ghost or monster, but you can easily clear out an open space?”
Qin Shen Bo stared intently at Jiang Ce. On the surface, he had the strongest strength, so he had time to watch the others. He had clearly seen just now that with a wave of Jiang Ce’s hand, a vengeful spirit fell, and he effortlessly dealt with several times more ghosts and monsters than he himself had.
He could tell that Jiang Ce, aside from using the Golden Bell Shield to prevent sneak attacks from behind, hadn’t used any sorcery at all. Some ghosts and monsters were simply turned to ashes on the spot with just a glare from him.
As a martial cultivator, he respected the strong and yearned to grow stronger, so he urgently wanted to know how Jiang Ce did it.
But Jiang Ce didn’t answer his question. Instead, he licked his lips and asked in a somewhat hoarse voice: “Did you bring water? My mouth is a bit dry.”
“???”
Yes, verbal attacks were great everywhere, but they were a bit mouth-wasting.
Xuan Qing stared at the ghosts and monsters approaching from the front, pointed two fingers like a sword, threw out his fly whisk, and shouted the incantation. The fly whisk immediately turned into a Dao Sword. As Xuan Qing’s fingers danced, it shuttled through the ghosts and monsters, killing them wantonly. In a short moment, it easily slaughtered all the ghosts and monsters.
“Holy shit, max bravery!” Jiang Ce muttered softly.
He couldn’t tell what sorcery Xuan Qing was using, but it was elegant and dashing—one word: cool!
The ghosts and monsters in front of them were all slain. After they dissipated, they turned into tiny light spots that gathered toward Xuan Qing.
Seeing this, Jiang Ce couldn’t help but feel heartbroken. Earlier, when Liang Zhi Che killed those zombies, he hadn’t been so envious, since the merit converted from them was too little. But now it was different—that was hundreds of ghosts and monsters. If there were no others around, one Soul Soothing Technique would make Aatrox full to bursting, right?
If Aatrox ate his fill, wouldn’t he himself eat his fill too?
But now there was no chance; he could only watch helplessly as Xuan Qing absorbed all the merit.
And the most infuriating part was that the merit from the ghosts and monsters he had just killed couldn’t be absorbed at all. He didn’t dare take out Aatrox in front of so many people, so it all went to waste.
For the merit from these highest Seventh Rank and Sixth Rank vengeful spirits, Xuan Qing didn’t care at all. He stared into the distance, his expression vigilant.
Following his gaze, Jiang Ce discovered that some of the ghosts and monsters, after falling, didn’t attack their group. Instead, they stiffly and twistedly gathered toward a certain spot on the circular disc in various strange postures.
Gongyang Dan anxiously reminded: “Martial Uncle, there are still some over there. Why did you stop?”
“There are people over there!”
Jiang Ce shrank back, retreating to the end of the group, and said nervously: “Someone is hiding there!”
As soon as he finished speaking, two silver lights flashed there. The heads of those ghosts and monsters were sliced off clean like leg hair, turning into black smoke on the spot.
Xuan Qing protected the others behind him and said gravely: “Gluttonous Ghost!”
A human figure emerged from the corpse pile. Only when his figure was exposed did the crowd perceive the overwhelming killing intent.
His eyes couldn’t hide his disappointment. Seeing this, everyone gasped. If not for Jiang Ce causing this mess, perhaps the head sliced off would have been that of someone other than Xuan Qing.
Recognizing the familiar silver light, Jiang Ce couldn’t help but look at the man twice. This glance made him squeeze from the back of the group to second in line, standing behind Xuan Qing and cursing loudly: “Fuck your mother’s despicable villain, you’re the Old Man of the Farm, aren’t you?!”
“You’ve seen him before?” Facing the Gluttonous Ghost, Liang Zhi Zhou set aside his grudge with Jiang Ce for the moment and united against the outside.
“More than just seen.” Jiang Ce sneered: “He almost scalped the back of my head.”
Hearing this, several people looked at Jiang Ce like he was a monster.
He said the back of his head—that meant he had taken that kind of attack with the back of his head just now, and it only almost broke the skin. Was that possible?
They asked themselves: even Qin Shen Bo had no confidence in taking that fierce strike unprepared, let alone the others—it was an unsolvable instant kill.
The man, seeing Jiang Ce, was also slightly startled, clearly recognizing him, but in an instant, he became predatory again.
His stance was strange, holding two daggers reversed in his hands. As the atmosphere grew tense, two streams of completely different black energies emerged on his arms—indescribably evil.
But Jiang Ce had already learned his background from Xiao Lin. A mere Sixth Rank evil cultivator daring to show off in front of me?
Xiao Lin had said that if the opponent hit him with a fist, he might die outright.
And back then, he was only Seventh Rank. Now he was Sixth Rank—how could he not kill you?
I, the armored dragon turtle, crave a fight!
Before Xuan Qing could stop him, Jiang Ce shot forward at extreme speed: “If I don’t dig out your heart, flay your bones, cut off your head and stuff it in the toilet, and make you fall eternally into the eighteenth layer of hell, it won’t soothe the hatred in my heart!”
“Who exactly is the evil cultivator…” Liang Zhi Che was stunned.
But Xuan Qing’s expression changed drastically: “Not just one—come back quick!”
But Jiang Ce was like an arrow loosed from the bow, unable to turn back. In his vision, he saw the Old Man of the Farm’s mouth curve up in mockery, and he immediately realized the key point.
Indeed, the Gluttonous Ghost had unique concealment methods, even able to fool Xuan Qing. But if it was just one Sixth Rank Gluttonous Ghost, how could he not run facing a Heaven-Reaching Dharma Master?
“Screwed up, I’m screwed.”
Realizing this, Jiang Ce was extremely depressed and really wanted to yell at Xuan Qing.
What’s wrong with you, little bro? Can’t you say it all at once? “Gluttonous Ghost and not just one”—are those six characters together going to lower your status or cost you merit?
But saying that now was useless. If there were still Gluttonous Ghosts hidden in the shadows ready to sneak attack, with their current positioning, he would be the first to bear it!
But before he could turn and run, another figure flashed out from the nearby corpse pile, appearing ghostly, and punched Jiang Ce in the side abdomen.
Jiang Ce, leaping in the air, seemed to ignore inertia. After taking the punch, he abruptly changed direction, smashing straight into the rock wall like a cannonball, creating a deep pit and embedding in it, his status unknown.
“Jiang Ce!” Chaotic shouts rose one after another, but none dared to act rashly.
Because Xuan Qing’s face was extremely grim, squeezing out a few words through gritted teeth: “Heaven-Reaching Dharma Master”
