Chapter 18: Is This Bug Exploitation? (Part 2)

Huh!?

A refreshed side mission?

Chen Yi’s eyes filled with surprise.

Could this sort of thing happen again? Could it become a bug that had been exploited?

As long as he brought an aberration into the sect, would a mission pop up?

This was practically resources delivered from heaven!

Only then did his gaze turn solemn as he thought about how to fulfill the promise he had made to Captain Ye: preserve the scroll and destroy the aberration.

After Chen Yi took out the dagger, Da Huang stopped barking, but it remained on alert, baring its teeth, all its fur bristling.

Chen Yi raised a hand, telling it to retreat.

Da Huang, however, did not leave. Its tense body held firm, its claws extending and digging into the earth.

Chen Yi thought of something and silently observed Da Huang.

He discovered that it was not only alert. It also seemed eager to try.

It was… snarling viciously at the scroll, glancing at Chen Yi, then growling low at the scroll again before glancing at Chen Yi once more.

Chen Yi: “…”

He seemed to understand what it meant.

With the hand holding the peachwood dagger, Chen Yi pinched the red cord tied around the scroll and slowly pulled it open.

The fingers of his other hand had already tightened together, ready to use the Light Art at any moment.

The Light Art was practically a divine skill for dispelling uncanny contamination and harming aberrations. It was also fairly simple to pick up and could be popularized.

Apart from the preparations of his left and right hands, the Spirit Nurturing Art inside Chen Yi’s body was circulating at full strength, just in case.

He was like a fully prepared grown man with a complete set of weapons facing a small child. He would absolutely not become careless just because there was a huge gap in strength between the two sides.

Behind him were his son and daughter, his father and mother. They were the foundation of his life in this world.

He could not afford to lose in the slightest.

The red knot being pulled open was like the seal on this aberration. As Chen Yi opened it, the foul stench unique to aberrations grew stronger and stronger.

People who had been contaminated could smell this scent. People who had just started cultivating could smell it too.

Xiang Lan seemed to have had some bad memory awakened. Nervously, she scooped up the children, one in each arm, and ran even farther away.

Qianqian and Linlin had each only received Technique Transmission from Chen Yi once and had not officially entered the path yet, so they were not sensitive to aberrations.

But the adults’ actions frightened them. They also knew Daddy was doing something scary, so their little faces were tense. Even after running far away, they still worriedly looked back in this direction.

Pang Xiaolei, Xun Shiming, and the others who were cultivating were startled awake from their cultivation and looked over hesitantly and in surprise.

Since they had started cultivating, they had not yet faced an aberration head-on, so for the moment, they were still unable to confirm the source of the stench. But they were all part of the protection system, and their reactions were still very quick. They immediately realized where the problem lay and rushed over.

Captain Ye followed behind them.

Only Tang Qirui was still cultivating. First, it was because Tang Qirui’s main responsibility was not cultivation, but to understand The Lurker Sect and reach cooperation with Chen Yi.

Second, it was also because his cultivation aptitude truly was not much to speak of. It was only average, about the same as Comrade Chen Jiankang’s.

As for Captain Ye…

“Don’t.”

When Chen Yi pulled open the final cord, Captain Ye had already awakened from cultivation. Looking at him again, he had actually already entered Qi Refining!

As expected of someone judged by the system to be as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

This aptitude was only slightly worse than his son’s and the same as his daughter’s.

In a little over an hour, he had entered Qi Refining.

But Captain Ye was still one step too late. Chen Yi had already fully opened the scroll.

The scroll had originally lain quietly on the ground. The moment the cord was opened, it was as if an invisible palm flicked it, and the scroll instantly unfurled.

Within the scroll was painted a Zhong Kui with a face as fierce as a malicious ghost, pitch-black skin, and a red official’s robe. His lips were thick and large, and when he smiled, his mouth looked bloody and cavernous.

Inside the scroll, he stood on starving corpses that covered the ground, severed limbs and broken arms, and countless malicious ghosts. Above his head were immortal mountains, pavilions, and towers, with rosy clouds stretching ten thousand zhang.

In one hand, he held a precious sword that could behead malicious ghosts. In the other, he held a bat, symbolizing the bestowal of fortune.

Clearly, it came from folk belief and had also been passed down through several generations of the Ye family, receiving incense offerings day after day. This aberration was still very powerful.

In Chen Yi’s perception, the other party’s spiritual energy value had roughly reached the level of the first stage of Qi Refining.

Speaking of which, it was stronger than every sect member in the sect apart from himself.

But he was only at the fourth stage of Qi Refining, with one large sword carved from thousand-year-old peachwood and another two, four, six, seven, or eight peachwood daggers made from the leftover scraps, plus at most a Light Art. His odds of victory were only ninety-five percent. How was that different from seeking death?!

“Woof! Woof! Woof!”

Da Huang barked, its paws scraping at the ground. Occasionally, it stepped onto the scroll, but under the aberration’s protection, the scroll neither tore nor curled, remaining the same as ever.

The Zhong Kui in the scroll had originally stood motionless in place, like an ordinary painting. Then, it finally could not hold back, revealing drool of greedy desire.

Drip, drip, drip…

The foul stench instantly assaulted their noses.

Immediately afterward, a black smoke spread out from the scroll, rapidly expanding and diffusing.

Da Huang, who bore the brunt of it, was instantly pulled into the aberrant domain.

Next was Chen Yi.

Pull him in.

Couldn’t pull him.

Pull him in again.

Still couldn’t pull him.

Aberration: “…”

Chen Yi stood unmoving as a mountain. With this aberration’s strength, even if he stood still, it could not break through his defenses.

Chen Yi had already entered the fourth stage of Qi Refining, reaching the middle stage as a Qi Refiner. He had also mastered almost every cultivation technique in the Scripture Pavilion. It could be said that he crushed it in every direction.

This Zhong Kui aberration simply had no way to deal with him.

At the same time.

On the other side.

Captain Ye had already rushed over one step ahead.

He had rich experience fighting aberrations, and even from afar, he was already shouting, “Careful, aberration!”

When Chen Yi saw him coming, he thought of something and tossed the peachwood dagger at hand to him.

Captain Ye caught the dagger and froze for an instant. Then he realized Chen Yi’s plan. Without the slightest hesitation, he charged into the aberrant domain of his own accord.

Then, looking at the few people behind him whose steps were gradually slowing, Chen Yi said, “This is a good opportunity to apply what you’ve learned. I’ll hold the line for you. All of you, go in.”

Compared with Captain Ye, although they lacked experience, they had already cultivated the techniques. Sabers, spears, swords, and halberds—each had their own strengths. On top of that, the peachwood daggers equipped for them had not yet been taken back, so their strength was not weak either.

The few of them hesitated for an instant, nodded to Chen Yi, then also took the initiative to jump into the aberrant domain.

Now, outside the scroll, only Chen Yi remained seated cross-legged, along with this old peach tree whose age was difficult to discern, lofty, ancient, and vigorous.

His parents had taken his son and daughter and hidden far away, not forgetting to grab Big White Goose by the neck and run with it.

Chen Yi was very satisfied with his parents’ reaction.

A gentleman did not stand beneath a dangerous wall. Letting his parents cultivate had never been for the sake of having them participate in battle, but to strengthen their bodies and give them basic self-protection ability. If they ran into danger and could not win, surely they could still run, right?

That was exactly how it should be.

They had to carry forward the core principle of The Lurker Sect!

Seeing that his parents had protected themselves and the children very well, Chen Yi drew back his divided attention and looked again at the scroll before him.

This scroll was the aberration’s carrier, and its strength was not weak. Even Chen Yi needed to stare at it for a while before he could strip away the useless contamination and see through to the truth inside.

The truth was that, at this very moment, this Zhong Kui aberration had been surrounded.

Da Huang was alone, appearing in the east with Zhong Kui as the center.

Captain Ye, holding a sharp sword, approached from the south.

Pang Xiaolei and Xun Shiming walked together, approaching from the west.

The remaining two were in the north.

…

As soon as Captain Ye entered, he discovered that he had entered a world of ink wash.

There were no terrifying scenes as imagined, no broken walls, ruins, demons, or monsters, but it was still filled everywhere with strangeness.

The stones were ink wash. The sky was ink wash. The trees by the road and the grass beside the road were also all black and white.

Black clouds drifted across the sky. Even the wind had traces to follow, thread after thread of black. The everywhere-present grotesque strangeness made people become wary.

Compared with the others, Captain Ye understood the weapon he had used many times extremely well.

In the past, when he had taken aberrations into this painting, had they entered this very space?

He had to quickly find the master of this place, or that dog would be eaten.

Others did not know, but Captain Ye was very clear that he had always been restrained by the aberration inside this aberrant tool.

This aberration madly wanted to devour other aberrations, but because it was limited by its carrier and could not move, it appeared to be driven by him.

In reality, devouring other aberrations to strengthen itself was its instinct. It also greedily devoured his lifespan. The incense offered in daily worship was actually its so-called snack time.

After every worship, he could vaguely feel as though a few more days of his lifespan had disappeared.

The reason there had suddenly been movement today was also because it was the usual time to eat incense.

He had driven the scroll to eliminate aberrations only nine times, yet it had swallowed his lifespan. He was only thirty-two, but he had already aged into someone who looked sixty.

It was simply an aberration that used the essence of its believers as food.

In the Sect Master’s words, the reason aberrant tools were aberrant tools was that their pursuit of food was not limited only to human lives. Sometimes they ate incense, and sometimes they ate lifespan. That was because, when they were born, they were shaped by human thought and structure, possessing unique elements.

For example, the “painting immortal” should have element tags such as devouring aberrations, catching demons, official authority, Ye family incense, and so on.

Among the tags bestowed by humans, some were positive.

Some were negative too.

For example, ferocity, uncanny king, distance, sacrifice, and so on…

This was precisely the difference between incense gods and aberrations.

Aberrations held nothing but malice toward humans.

Because of their tags, incense gods could form a certain peculiar cooperative relationship with humans.

Once an incense god possessed intelligence and the ability to think, it could also autonomously choose its direction of evolution.

In the later stages, entities such as Strange Tale: Seven Nights and Strange Tale: Slit-Mouthed Woman were clearly full of malice toward humans, treating Blue Star as a granary.

Conversely.

Zhong Kui, born from an empty legend, achieved divine status and gained the title of Incense God: Zhong Kui.

However, an incense god with divine status was different from a domesticated aberration like the Ye family’s. Right now, this was no more than an aberrant tool. It could be driven, but it had little reason, and it even devoured its master. It was unacceptable.

Captain Ye had feelings for this scroll because it was a relic left behind by his grandfather, and he had also grown up looking at it.

But he had no good feelings toward the aberration inside that devoured his lifespan.

Watching himself age in such a short period of time, if not for the sense of responsibility supporting him, he would have rather joined those teammates of his who had already died.

Kill the aberration inside this painting.

Perhaps he could even take back a little of his lifespan.

This time, with an orthodox cultivation technique, there was no need to keep this harmful thing anymore.

Thinking this, Captain Ye tightened his grip on the peachwood sword in his hand and circulated the Spirit Nurturing Art at full strength, walking in one direction.

…

The aberration inside the painting clearly had some intelligence.

It had deliberately separated everyone, intending to devour them one by one.

The first one it wanted to eat was Da Huang.

Da Huang had awakened intelligence, often slept on the prayer mat, and had also received Technique Transmission from Chen Yi once.

In the disciple information, Da Huang’s aptitude had been set as “?”, but judging from the speed at which it had grown into a large dog in such a short time, its aptitude was definitely not poor.

At this moment, under Chen Yi’s gaze.

That counterfeit Zhong Kui aberration rapidly approached Da Huang while staying far away from the others.

Da Huang lowered its head the entire way, sniffing the scent in the air, and was also heading toward Zhong Kui.

Chen Yi was a little nervous. He had deep feelings for Da Huang and was afraid the aberration would hurt it, but Da Huang’s eager-to-try appearance was still before his eyes.

Seeing that they were about to encounter each other, the Light Art in Chen Yi’s hand was already prepared. Once anything happened to Da Huang, he would act.

Outside the scroll, Chen Yi was like someone standing from God’s perspective, beyond the plane itself, watching the lives of a lower plane fight a bloody battle.

Finally, as if after ten thousand years of running toward each other from both sides.

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