Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Demon Transformation
Wu Chang held the Four-sided Age Fire Lamp, his gaze sweeping through the clan’s treasury several times, but he couldn’t find anything suitable to use as lamp oil.
The icy fog had already drifted into the clan’s treasury; there was no more time to waste.
His gaze finally fell on a corner of the treasury, where a sheathed treasure sword was placed.
Drawing the sword, its blade gleamed with a chilling light. He plucked a hair and lightly laid it on the blade, the hair silky splitting into two.
Slicing hair by blowing on it.
This sword must be Chen Family Village’s finest treasure sword.
Holding the "Village Sword," he slowly approached Chen Peng, cupping his hands in a salute.
"Brother Chen, the situation is urgent, and I need to borrow your head. If you don’t object, I’ll take it as a yes."
Three breaths later, Chen Peng showed no signs of corpse transformation, seemingly having no objections.
"Thank you."
Wu Chang raised his hand, and the blade fell, severing Chen Peng’s head.
He found a piece of cloth, wrapped the head, and strode out of the treasury.
Just before leaving, he casually took the incense burner from the shrine altar and brought it to the temple entrance.
Then he opened the cloth bundle and placed it beside the incense burner.
After finishing everything, he retreated back into the temple, quietly waiting.
Before long, wind rose atop the mountain, dense fog swirling into a vortex, once again condensing into the Fog Demon’s true form.
Sustained by the fog, the human skin appeared at the mountaintop clearing, screeching as it lunged toward the head, enveloping it entirely.
The next moment, a chilling sound of chewing echoed atop the mountain, interspersed with the crisp crack of bones shattering.
Wu Chang watched it all with an expressionless face, devoid of any fear in his heart.
What a joke, he had even seen the true form of an Evil God and sparred with it evenly. How could a mere demon gnawing on an icy head intimidate him?
When he gnawed on rabbit heads, his eating was even more fragrant than this.
He only hoped that in this side of the Abyssal Game, "you are what you eat" was true, so the Fog Demon, after eating the offering, would become a bit smarter.
A few minutes later, the human skin "stood" up, imitating a human posture, bowing towards Wu Chang with a salute.
Subsequently, the entire piece of human skin, along with the deep red resentment within it, dissipated and vanished.
With the human skin gone, the Fog Demon’s cloudy body, like a puppet cut from its strings, stood motionless.
Exorcism completed, Wu Chang’s endurance and energy each increased by a point, and his inspiration increased by two points.
The increase in energy attribute differed from other enhancements; for the first time gaining energy, he felt his internal organs trembling violently, as if someone was constructing inside him, building a partition for a "new tenant".
Fortunately, the increase in energy wasn’t much, and the internal pain didn’t last long.
When his body returned to normal, he sensed an extra force within him.
This force quietly resided in his Dantian, able to move throughout his body at will, like a limb he could command.
He tried to release the force outside his body, but it was too weak, lesser than the spark of a disposable lighter.
Before he could see it clearly, a gust of mountain wind blew it away without a trace.
With energy depleted, his organs began to contract rhythmically, automatically converting stamina into energy.
Feeling the changes within him, Wu Chang took a deep breath and threw a punch with sudden force.
From now on, he could be considered extraordinary too.
In addition to the attribute enhancement, the deep red resentment also brought him a piece of translucent glass.
The glass was soft to the touch, resembling human skin.
"Item Name: Fog Guide"
"Item Description: The remains of a demon with special powers. Items made using Fog Guide as a material have a 60% probability of possessing Fog Control Ability, and a 10% probability of possessing Hallucinatory Ability."
Wait a minute.
Wu Chang furrowed his brows; could it be that the Fog Demon had cut off a part of its own skin as payment?
Though in the Abyssal Game, one shouldn’t be overly particular, he was still highly resistant to using human material to craft items.
After pondering for a moment, he decided to place the Fog Guide into the Four-sided Age Fire Lamp.
Once inside, the Fog Guide quickly turned into lamp oil.
"Current lamp oil burn time: 1800 seconds."
The essence from the Fog Demon was barely enough for the Four-sided Age Fire Lamp to burn for half an hour. What a greedy appetite.
Having finally filled the lamp with oil, how could he not test the effect?
He lit the Four-sided Age Fire Lamp, and red flames sprang up inside the lantern. The light it cast gave a feeling of vibrant Life Force.
He shone the light on the Fog Demon; under the harmonious lamp light, the foggy body of the Fog Demon rapidly melted, vanishing just like the exorcised human skin and resentment.
"In the next life, be reborn into a good family."
As if responding to Wu Chang’s parting words, there was a clanging sound where the Fog Demon disappeared, as something fell to the ground.
It was a tarnished bronze short knife, coated with multiple layers of resentment, which quickly dissipated as the knife hit the ground.
"Item Name: Demon Transformation."
"Item Status: Damaged."
"Item Description: Crafted with a special Magic Technique, it houses a demon core. Using it allows one to transform into a demon. However, due to immature craftsmanship, the effects are extremely unstable."
Demon Transformation.
Wu Chang toyed with the dagger, deep in thought.
Earlier, he found it odd that nearly half of the Chen Family Village residents had died at the hands of the Fog Demon, yet the Fog Demon only carried its resentment.
It turned out those resentments had all been absorbed by this Demon Transformation.
With the Fog Demon’s demise, the thick fog enveloping Chen Family Village slowly dissipated, revealing the rising moon.
During his exploration of Chen Family Village, night had already fully settled.
Traveling at night was dangerous, but staying in Chen Family Village wasn’t safe either.
Never mind that the mountain town below had a cold storage for frozen goods; this was an instance plane with demons residing in it. Spending a night here might attract some malevolent entity.
Even if he could rely on the Four-sided Age Fire Lamp and Soul Cleansing Banner to guard against those frozen goods, he’d still have to worry about the Fog Demon’s allies.
From the way the cold storage was organized, the demon that conquered Chen Family Village planned to use it as a long-term lair.
Once they realized the Fog Demon was dead, other demons might come to investigate.
Staying in the village posed high risks, so it was better to leave overnight.
Before leaving, Wu Chang took a trip to both the clan’s treasury and the cold storage.
When people go on business trips, they often bring back souvenirs. After dealing with such a formidable demon for Chen Family Village, taking some local specialties wasn’t too much, right?
Once he left Chen Family Village, he mounted his horse and sped back, with no delays along the way.
The resentments didn’t provide much information on nighttime road conditions, so to be safe, he took detours around overly dangerous areas, doubling his travel time and returning to Huai Valley Village by the next afternoon.
Throughout the journey, he kept wondering if Chen Family Village was notorious as bandits in recent years, then what was the true identity of Liu Wei, who advocated lending the palace lantern to them and frequently targeted players?
Recalling their previous meetings, though Liu Wei referred to Liu Shan as ’Uncle,’ there was a lack of respect in his words.
He even frequently mentioned that Liu Shan was old and shouldn’t take risks, suggesting that the position of village chief be passed onto him.
As the leader of the hunters in Huai Valley Village, Liu Wei had many supporters, mostly young and strong villagers, who echoed his proposals each time.
When he previously asked what initially caused the malevolent spirits, Liu Shan told him to ask Liu Wei, stating that Liu Wei was most knowledgeable about mountain matters.
That such huge events occurred in the mountain, and Liu Wei didn’t consult Liu Shan at all, indicated long-term discord between them.
Given the situation, it wouldn’t be surprising if one day he decided to stage a ’rebellion.’
Could Liu Wei want to become village chief and turn the whole village into bandits like Chen Family Village?
Or has Liu Wei always been a bandit, wanting to drag Huai Valley Village into it, expanding the bandit organization and increasing his influence?
Seeing the silhouette of Huai Valley Village in the distance, Wu Chang had a sudden flash of inspiration.
Given the common understanding of Huai Valley villagers that a round trip to Chen Family Village would take at least six days, no one would suspect he had already returned.
Doesn’t this time period provide him with the best opportunity to investigate Liu Wei?
He had to find someone familiar with village matters who wouldn’t betray him.
But who could he choose?