Mythic version of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 7234 Something's Weird!
The Chu region has a rich history of myths and legends, and different areas have their own unique myths and customs due to the division caused by waterways.

Huarong County is located next to Yunmengze. In this era, there were many myths and all kinds of legends about spirits and monsters.

Although Hengming, as a local, had never seen these things before, he had lived in such an environment since childhood and knew many myths and legends about things similar to those he had seen yesterday.

"I don't know, but it's definitely not an ordinary beast. That thing is more intelligent, and it even learned to use weapons later on. It's probably closer to the legendary mountain spirits or demons." Du Huo said with a solemn expression, "How exactly did you discover this thing?"

"Old Luo went hunting in the forest and hadn't returned by the end of the year. We thought some wild beasts had appeared nearby, so we organized a hunting team of able-bodied men, armed with all their weapons, and went into the forest. That's when we encountered that strange thing. Old Luo must have died at the hands of that beast. The short gun that beast was carrying was the one Old Luo always used," Hengming said helplessly. "In the end, another able-bodied man was lost in that head-on encounter. Back then, that thing wasn't what it is now."

Hengming is the village chief and militia captain of Dazhai Village, which has been merged into a single village. In this day and age, because the demon master enlightens all spirits, the local militia will take the initiative to enter the forest to eliminate any beasts that threaten their own villages. Two years ago, this matter was carried out in a great manner. After another sweep last year, the terrifying upright ape proved its ability to kill all kinds of ferocious beasts. Generally, no foolish beasts would come to the village where the terrifying upright apes are clustered together to cause trouble.

Of course, "generally not" does not mean "not a single one".

The hunter from his own village went into the forest to hunt and was killed. As the militia captain, he naturally had to find out what happened. As a result, they encountered a powerful beast that was clearly enlightened by a demon master. The group of people surrounded it with their rich experience, but they failed to kill it and one of them was killed in the process.

Hengming's first reaction was, of course, that he hadn't made proper arrangements or preparations last time. He would make good preparations and arrangements next time, mobilize the elite of the militia, and make sure to kill this beast who was threatening the local villagers.

These days, because there are too many ferocious beasts and demon masters have enlightened them, the local militia captains actually have a lot of power. In addition, two people in the village died one after the other. Hengming used everything he could to make use of the beast for the second time. He even made a formal application. Then he defeated the beast and it developed its second form. Its combat power increased dramatically. Three militiamen who went to surround and kill it died and seven were injured!

Because during the second operation, all available equipment was used, and a special application was submitted, but after the operation, the beasts in the forest were not dealt with, three militiamen were killed, and seven were wounded. Upon receiving an accurate report, Du Huo directly led the county's elite troops to attack.

At the time, Du Huo thought that a ferocious beast at the Inner Qi Separation level had come to Dazhai Village. He specially led a team to fight against the beast and successfully captured its elite members. For this team, it was difficult to kill a strong man at the Inner Qi Separation level, but killing a beast at the Inner Qi Separation level was no problem at all.

After all, human warriors possess not only combat prowess but also the intelligence to seek advantage and avoid harm, while wild beasts, even if they have some brains, cannot outwit humans.

When Du Huo arrived, he found that the situation was completely different from what he had imagined, even drastically different. The other party was not like a beast at all, but more like a human being, and the more he fought, the more human-like he became. In the end, when Du Huo was defeated, the beast had already become six-tenths human.

This is terrifying. If Du Huo weren't truly powerful, any normal person would definitely be thinking to themselves in this situation.

Just as Du Huo was muttering to himself, a young man came up next to Heng Ming and whispered something to his village chief. Du Huo clearly saw the dramatic change in Heng Ming's expression.

"What's wrong?" Du Huo asked, somewhat puzzled.

"The elders in our clan say that the thing we encountered might be the remains of a deity from the pre-Qin era," Hengming said, his face pale.

"What kind of supernatural news is this?" Du Huo waved his hand, but seeing Heng Ming's serious expression, he immediately asked, "Is there something wrong with this news? Or is there some real reason I don't know about?"

“I’m not entirely sure either, but I heard stories about it when I was little, and as you said, Magistrate Du, that thing is becoming more and more like a human.” Hengming’s expression turned extremely grim. “Although our village was merged into another village, it has been near Yunmeng for the past few hundred years, so we know a little about the legends of Yunmeng.”

Although the ritual of offering sacrifices to the dead has been blocked for generations, Sun Quan and Wu Qi have done their best to suppress most of the demons and gods. Lord Wu'an also built a mountain-crushing temple for the evil gods and licentious worship in Chu, and even the winged people wandering on the land were all killed.

After that, the number of Binshi Demons on the earth became extremely small, and there was basically no systematic structure. However, the predecessors who witnessed these things, even if the written records were lost, some of the terrifying stories would still be passed down orally.

Especially if the events that actually happened in this village and this place hundreds of years ago were truly terrifying and dark enough, as long as the village still exists, this story will surely be passed down from generation to generation.

Even if there are some blurry parts, even if there are some revisions, if your mind is clear enough, you can still realize what kind of story happened.

"What is the core of this story?" Du Huo didn't want to understand the story itself, he just wanted to know what the core of the story was about.

"It's a story about a person who was devoured of everything, and then a ghost that devoured everything put on the remaining shell, played the role of that person, and lived among the people for decades," Heng Ming said succinctly, while Du Huo shuddered at the thought.

"Isn't this a ghost story?" Du Huo said, suppressing his inner fear.

“After the last acquaintance passed away, the ghost shed its skin and began to mutate. But if someone encounters that ghost afterward, attacks it, and gains the upper hand, they will beat the ghost back to its original form.” Hengming said with a hint of fear, “At that time, the ghost will regain consciousness, but it will be a human-like yet inhuman being.”

"Is this story really that complete?" Du Huo asked with a hint of curiosity.

“I’ve heard about it since I was very young, but I’m not sure if it’s complete or not,” Hengming said, shaking his head. “But the thing we encountered was initially a very strange beast-like form, but now it’s very similar to a human, and it’s even wearing armor.”

"This is not good news," Du Huo said with a heavy expression. As a former bodyguard of Guan Yu, he still had some intelligence channels when he was strong enough. Although he might not have the latest news, he knew all sorts of strange news. In Du Huo's opinion, what Heng Ming was talking about was like recounting Perennis's achievements.

This is why Du Huo wrote to Guan Yu immediately after realizing he couldn't defeat Liao Li and couldn't find him. Although he didn't know why the beast seemed to have used an elite talent, and a very profound and complex one at that, the fact that the beast had used it was a big problem. This meant that the influence of the sorcerer Perennis on the world was deepening.

As for the fact that it was becoming more and more like a human, Du Huo just found it strange, but didn't have any special feelings about it. After all, some of his brothers had told him that the Kushan Empire's strategic weaponry seemed to rely on the Brahma Dream to directly transform certain animals into humanoid forms.

Therefore, when facing the Wood Demon, who becomes more and more like a human as the fight goes on, Du Huo's focus will only be on the opponent getting stronger, not on the opponent becoming more and more like a human.

"You organize the militia and evacuate the elderly and weak from the village to Huarong City," Du Huo said after thinking for a while. "Then have the young people who are familiar with the surrounding terrain take my seal to other villages to check the situation. If it is similar to this place, then we will not say anything more. If there is no damage, then we will have them mobilize manpower to come and help."

Du Huo wasn't really afraid of anything. Even if that wooden demon wasn't actually detached from its body, but rather more like a multi-stage melting process, the cloud energy suppression effect was inherently poor. In addition, Huarong County was sparsely populated. Although its total population was comparable to that of large counties in the north, due to its distribution, it was impossible to connect the cloud energy with each other. They could only use the relatively thin cloud energy from Dazhai Village.

Despite these disadvantages, Du Huo was still confident that he could take down the strange beast as long as the key personnel from various regions arrived.

Simply taking it down won't solve the problem. Based on Du Huo's experience, once the first one appears, a whole group will follow. So, we must prepare early. Moreover, the fact that non-humans can master elite talents is enough for Du Huo to go find Guan Yu.

In the mud of Yunmeng, Huang Tao and his group stood in the mud, their expressions extremely solemn.

"This is getting a bit bad, Brother Huang. We agreed that the demons here were still under control, but this doesn't seem like they're under control at all." Zhao Ying said, as if he were joking, but there was no smile on his face.

The first batch of investigators arranged by Chen Xi consisted of only ten people, all of whom were highly skilled elites. Except for Huang Tao, all of them possessed the combat power to kill a demon god under the premise of super-strong functionality. However, that was under normal circumstances. In the case of more than ten demon gods struggling out of the mud, even Jiang Guang and the others looked rather grim.

“I never expected it to be like this. Chen Hou asked me to come here before. At that time, the demon gods here were still under control, and I also met Chen Hou’s ancestor. Under his control, this place was still in a state of order, completely different from what it is now.” Huang Tao’s face was bitter. He didn’t expect it to be like this either. When he came, Chen Xi told him to be careful, and he was indeed careful. But when he got to the core area and was surrounded, he really didn’t have any good ideas.

"What else is there to say? Charge out from here?" Wang Mao drew his sword and flicked his finger. He had come as a guard, and Chen Xi had promised him that this trip would count as a first-level title, so Wang Mao had come eagerly. The problem was that when he actually got here and saw this situation, he realized that this first-level title would be a huge loss.

“I’m afraid it won’t work. I’ve used my elite talent to survey the surrounding area, which is several hundred feet wide. There are a lot of ghostly things emerging from the mud, but they’re probably bound by something. They’ve only just started to show their heads, but they can’t break free. We’re trying to come back the way we came, but that’s probably not going to work.” Yu Mang closed one eye and used his special elite talent to scan the situation within a thousand or two meters of the surrounding area from a third-person perspective. His expression then turned extremely grim.

After all, Yu Mang felt he could handle one or two of those monsters emerging from the mud, but dealing with a number that was roughly the same as bamboo shoots...

“This way won’t work either.” Zheng Ke wiped his mouth; there was no blood, but he had already tried pointing to the northwest direction. “We can’t break out that way; Uncle Guang can’t kill us quickly.”

"What about me?" Zhang Huang asked, pointing to himself in confusion.

“I don’t know. Before, when you were leading the team, Uncle Huang, we were moving very steadily. But after you attacked that thing, we thought it was dead, so we rushed out. As a result, you were swallowed up by it. Although you managed to break out, you were seriously injured and became extremely old.” Zheng Ke quickly explained when he heard Zhang Huang’s question.

"?" Upon hearing this, Wang Mao's expression darkened, and he looked at Zhang Huang. Zhang Huang then turned to look at Guang Yuan, the oldest among them, while Guang Yuan lowered his head in thought.

Because Chen Xi had given instructions to these three old men before they arrived, and Wei Wei and Huangfu Song had also given instructions, these three guys knew what they were facing. However, the three of them were destined to be fearless due to their backgrounds. Zhang Huang's normal willpower surpassed the God-Slaying technique, which was almost a natural counter to the Demon God.

Throughout the entire Yunmeng Marsh, apart from a few scattered demon gods who could withstand this thing, the other demon gods would die instantly from a single hit. The willpower surpassing the power of this thing is no joke.

However, something that could feign death after being hit by Zhang Huang's Will Transcendence and then swallow Zhang Huang whole should not have been able to emerge from the depths of Yunmengze at this point. Even if Sun Wu was truly tricked by the curse of the world's consciousness, he shouldn't have left such a huge loophole.

These are the Four Saints; they could never be so shameful as to lose face to this extent. If a demon god of that level could escape suppression now, Sun Wu would be utterly humiliated.

"It's probably the Enlightenment Golden Silk of the Demon Master that gave those things other possibilities," Ma Ye said with a hint of caution. After all, he had lived in Northern Europe and witnessed Perennis's extraordinary abilities firsthand. In addition, Perennis had created a lot of special talents with negative effects. Those talents would be a big problem for humans, but for demon gods, the negative effects might be ignored.

“There might be a reason for the enlightenment of the golden thread, but it is most likely a special elite talent.” After a while, Guangyuan dug out some elite talents that could directly withstand the will to surpass, from the depths of his mind. Logically speaking, the will to surpass is purely numerical, and it is basically impossible to withstand it by numerical values ​​alone. Only some heaven-defying mechanisms can be used.

"Zheng Ke, walk that path again." Jing Yuan, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke to Zheng Ke.

Unlike other demon gods of Chu, Jingyuan's demon god had been completely subdued by Jiang Guang, becoming an extension of Jiang Guang's power. He had also touched the most basic contract of demon gods and merged into Jiang Guang's power. Therefore, Jingyuan was able to be released, although only for a short period of time, but it was still a rare freedom.

In addition, compared to others, Jing Yuan has a deeper understanding of the Demon God, so he was also assigned to this team as an important support member.

Zheng Ke nodded, and as he opened and closed his eyes, ripples appeared on his body, and his breathing became much heavier. "Brother Jing, that demon god is unkillable. You said that its special talent is the same type as the Butterfly Transformation, the Equality of Self."

When Chen Xi and Sun Wu were chatting before, Sun Wu said that besides Chen Xi's magnificent chapter, an individual could also transform a demon god into a human through metamorphosis. However, the metamorphosis talent is rather ridiculous and requires a certain level of spiritual attainment. If a common soldier had such a level of spiritual attainment, he would have become a philosopher long ago. Why would he bother with elite talents?

And now, in Yunmengze, a demon god with such a spiritual realm has truly appeared.

Why couldn't the willpower surpass that demon god? Because it was an unsolvable type of talent. This talent meant that without external reference, one could not form self-awareness, and without self-awareness, one could not truly acquire external things. Simply put, without a reference point, one could not measure.

This thing requires an extremely high spiritual realm. Generally speaking, it is very difficult for anyone to reach this realm. And even if someone does reach this realm, they are easily lost. Therefore, this kind of strange mechanism cannot theoretically be born, because without the subject of "I", there is naturally no life or death of "I", and naturally there is no logic of being annihilated.

So even if you have a transcendent will, even if you are a Golden Core cultivator, you still can't kill this kind of monster because it's not even alive!
“Let’s try a different approach. If it’s something like this, it’s impossible to kill. Let’s take a more direct route. That thing has become a natural phenomenon that can keep recurring. Until we find a specific flaw in that mechanism, we can’t suppress it.” Jing Yuan said with a solemn expression. “To be honest, I’ve only heard of such strange existences, but this is the first time I’ve encountered one.”

"An unkillable natural phenomenon?" Zhao Ying, covered in blood, walked over carrying a demon god and asked with some doubt. This was a shadow soldier he had just captured, and it had completed a high-level flesh and blood coating, which was an important support for his strength!

　The grueling workday has begun again.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)