Forge a path to success

But the pedestrian vanished instantly. From the shadows behind the lemur, he casually threw a punch, his protruding middle finger striking the lemur squarely on the back of the head. The lemur collapsed to the ground, dead on the spot.

Vande jumped out of his pocket, saw the lemur's eyes sparkling with electricity, and complained loudly, "Another inedible one!"

Two days had passed since they left the town, and after taking a long detour, they had finally embarked on their mountain journey. There was very little food along the way; anything that could run and jump was a cyborg. Aside from mushrooms, Chu Hengkong had to eat dirt while wearing an eel-shaped headgear. Neither of them wanted to try eating these cyborgs; who knew if they would end up as cyborgs themselves, or have their eyeballs modified?

Chu Hengkong kicked the lemur's corpse aside, gathered some fallen leaves, and barely managed to spread them out as a mat to sit on. The forest fell silent for a moment. Vande glanced at him sideways: "You're not breathing."

Chu Heng nodded silently, which was taken as an admission.

"What's the point of this?" Van der asked, deeply curious. "He doesn't even pant. What kind of strange skill is he practicing?"

It considered itself a traveler and always enjoyed observing the details of life. Living together day and night, it naturally noticed Chu Hengkong's strange habit. This assassin had many quirks, the strangest of which was his love of holding his breath. He would often fall silent and hold his breath for at least half an hour, only resuming breathing when he felt like he was about to suffocate.

After several days of bone-strengthening exercises, the assassin's breath-holding time had become increasingly longer, exceeding an hour today alone. Vande grew increasingly uneasy; an ordinary person would have died long ago if they didn't breathe for an hour. He wondered what kind of sinister internal energy this assassin was practicing…

Is this some kind of zombie kung fu? Did it run out of energy while practicing and start eating people?

The demon shivered and quickly moved to the side. Chu Hengkong, unaware of its bizarre thoughts, ignored it. He finished his cultivation, took several deep breaths, and then took out the Silver Eye Book to pass the time during his rest. The latest page in the book contained updated information about the gauntlets.

Iron Spider Gauntlets

……

[Effect: Once per day, allows movement within a 50-meter radius of shadows.]

[Longing: Everyone is evacuating, but I want to give up]

Running away won't help; we can't escape.

It's watching me.

I want to cry.

It was still a strange longing, the words overflowing with despair and fear, but there was no information to offer any clues. Vande shook his head, and Chu Hengkong patted him: "You can't even understand what you wrote yourself?"

"What do you mean I wrote this? This is the content of my longing! I'm just using this manual to express the information."

“My longing wasn’t this vague before.” Chu Hengkong showed it the previous authentication document.

“That’s because the things you used to identify were either instantly recognizable or had ample information in their environment,” Vande muttered. “This special case… is probably related to the state of the beasts. They might only know this much, so their power only contains a small, vague segment of emotions and memories.”

Chu Hengkong stared at the second-to-last line of text. It was watching him. He recalled the red light in the Shadow Giant's eyes, and the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.

If, as Vande says, these events are indeed the memories of the beasts, then what did they experience before? They initially lived on the coast, were driven back by demons emerging from the sea, and then what? What great demon targeted them, causing the beast horde to go mad?

No. Ji Huaisu often said that sometimes he couldn't understand anything, but he just felt that something was wrong. Now he had the same feeling. He simply flicked his tentacle and pulled over the lemur's corpse, trying to cover the large book with it to see if he could figure out what was going on.

No words appeared. Chu Hengkong, refusing to believe it, pressed the button several more times before a line of small characters finally appeared with great difficulty on the page.

[We'll all die, we ......]

With lightning speed, Vande tore the page off, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it far away. He grabbed Chu Hengkong's hand, pleading earnestly, "Dad, please stop! I also think something's wrong, but the deeper you investigate these strange things, the easier it is to die. We've already fallen to this state, can't we just stop causing trouble?"

Chu Hengkong remained silent for a long time before closing the book.

“You’re right, this isn’t the time to worry unnecessarily.” He stood up. “Do you still have the energy?”

"I can manage." Seeing that he had given up, Vande felt relieved and replied listlessly, "I don't want to go back into those mountains..."

The forest rose higher and higher, with mist swirling in the distance. After all this trouble, they had returned to Yingluo Mountain. This time, they were going to kill the fox and bring back the centipede's remains.

Chu Hengkong had a vague premonition that, regardless of the outcome of the hunt, he was about to uncover the truth of this place.

Chapter 82: Exploring Key Points Always Leads to Powerful Monsters Blocking the Way

The mountains were silent, shrouded in a thick fog. Chu Hengkong walked cautiously, and Fan De remained silent. They remembered the beasts in Yingluo Mountain; if they were attacked from both sides by the beasts and the jade fox, even Chu Hengkong in his current state would not fare well.

But this time, apart from the lemur in the forest earlier, the two of them rarely encountered any wild animals. It seemed that in the past ten days or so, all the animal herds had migrated for some unknown reason. If Vande hadn't vaguely recognized a familiar "path," they would have thought they had wandered into the wrong place due to some kind of spatial distortion.

The road was pitch black, stretching like a bridge up the mountainside, its surface smooth as a carapace. There lay the charred corpse of a giant centipede, burned to a crisp by the flames of ambition, tumbling down from near the summit, smashing through countless trees and mounds along its path. A vast area around the body was reduced to scorched earth, offering a glimpse into the grandeur of its death.

"It slid down from the mountaintop, and the fire spread along its path. The nearby beasts were burned alive to ashes, and all the survivors who were still breathing ran away," Vande whispered. "Your all-out attack turned Yingluo Mountain upside down."

That wasn't my full strength.

“Go ahead and brag,” Vande scoffed. “The more you brag, the funnier it seems that you almost starved to death.”

Chu Hengkong pinched it twice and climbed up the centipede's corpse. The giant insect was so long that it looked like an iron suspension bridge hanging down from the mountain, and the mist around it was like a gray veil.

“The fog is thinning,” he said suddenly.

When they first arrived in the mountains, the fog was extremely thick, so thick that they couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces. At that time, the strange beasts were almost invisible, hidden in the fog. The mountains were shrouded in gloom, and even the rocks right next to them were not clearly visible, let alone their location. Now, although the fog is still there, it is much thinner, and they can see their surroundings with little effort, a world of difference from before.

After pondering for a moment, Vande slowly said, "Two possibilities. The first is that the fog is related to the strange beasts. You killed two big guys, and the fog in the mountains dissipated..."

"That's a stretch. None of them have the ability to create fog."

“Then that’s the second possibility. Perhaps this fog has nothing to do with the strange beasts.” Vande twisted his tentacles, looking uneasy. “I’ve always been a little puzzled. There are tens of thousands of strange beasts in the mountains, but they have never attacked Yingshi Town, which is so close by. This is just not very reasonable.”

"They are mechanical, just like the Jade Fox."

“But that day, the Shadow Giant came directly to smash the town, and the Jade Fox often used stones to smash the town as well,” Vande retorted. “You saw the strength of Qi Su’s broken barrier. To be honest, it would have been more reliable for her to go into battle herself. No matter what kind of thing is controlling the beasts behind the scenes, at least it has the ability to attack the town and it also has malice towards the town. It has no reason to leave the town unattended.”

Indeed, what followed the strange beast… that red eye that seemed to have caused so much bloodshed… wouldn't be friendly to the town. So something else must be hindering its progress. It couldn't control the strange beast to descend the mountain, and that sudden attack also came from the grasslands… and the grasslands have no fog…

“Assuming this fog was set up by someone else to protect the town,” Chu Hengkong gradually sorted out his thoughts, “then this fog should remain in a state of no entry and no exit year-round to achieve complete isolation from the outside world. But this state has been broken… because we have entered the fog…”

"Stop, buddy, stop!" Vande crossed his tentacles in an X shape. "You're making it sound like we've disrupted the peace of this place, but we both know we're victims, right? We're the innocent tourists who wandered in like in a horror story. Our goal isn't to uncover the eerie truths hidden deep in the mountains, but to get out of here! What's the point of thinking about this now? Do you think these fogs and strange beasts will help us get out of this hellhole?"

Chu Hengkong shook his head.

“Then don’t even think about it, buddy,” Vande continued earnestly. “The town has been good to you, but as an outsider, you haven’t wronged the people of the Kingdom. Think about your hometown you’re planning to go back to; there must be someone waiting for you there, right? Protecting yourself is the most important thing.”

Chu Hengkong was about to say something, but upon hearing these words, he couldn't help but think of the people in Huilong City. He knew their temperaments; Ji Huaisu was definitely frantic, and the others were surely busy searching for him. The people in the city were simple; if you treated them sincerely, they would treat you sincerely in return.

When you have someone to care about, going back becomes your responsibility. You're no longer alone, so you can't just think about nothing.

You're right.

Finally, he gave a bitter laugh, suppressing his thoughts and ceasing to dwell on them. They walked the entire length of the centipede-like bridge, arriving at its head. The giant worm's head was charred, but its former dark color was still faintly discernible.

As he climbed onto its head, the centipede's corpse trembled violently, suddenly smashing through the rocks and falling to the ground. The rocks shattered into dust, raising gray dust in the mist. This section of the mountain wall seemed to have been weakened by the crazed centipede's attack; the previous impact had been the last straw. Chu Hengkong waved away the surrounding dust and looked up to find that the centipede's head had smashed a large hole. A much deeper cave than he had expected.

"..."

Each of them peered into the cave, and Vande timidly asked, "...Shall we take a look?"

This guy with the eyeballs is quite despicable. He gives you all sorts of pre-emptive warnings and lectures, but when something new happens, he can't help but be the first to jump out. Chu Hengkong nimbly climbed the rocks and jumped into the cave. Seeing in the dim light was not difficult for them. The inner walls of the cave were still as white as jade and were exceptionally smooth, making walking on them feel like walking on a roller skating rink.

Chu Hengkong took a few steps forward and stepped on a protrusion. It was a broken cylindrical piece of jade with many blurry engravings on its surface, like a smoothed carving. He felt the design was somewhat familiar, and upon closer inspection, he realized it resembled the gateposts of an ancient mansion.

"I'm a little scared, maybe we should turn back..." Vande's voice softened.

Chu Hengkong stepped over the gatepost and strode forward. The cave wasn't too large, and he quickly reached the innermost part. It was a half-collapsed building, as if nearly half of it had been trampled by a giant beast. He deftly moved the rocks and entered the house. The house was completely destroyed, the only thing that survived was a bookshelf. On the shelf were several ancient books, all made of jade.

Van der jumped over and took a closer look, recognizing the original text: "The Long Song of the Mortal World, The Candlelight Poems... Oh, and Sreyer's Thirty-Six Lines of Wonders! This book is still quite new."

The jade-like books could actually be turned with difficulty, which made Vande very happy. He loved reading by nature and did not forget to look through the books even at this time.

This is a collection of limericks recounting strange tales and anecdotes from various places in the Mysterious Realm of Senluo. It is constantly updated according to the original author's travel progress. The copy in Vande's hands contains more content than the one he had previously seen in the library.

He flipped through a few pages and happened to come across a poem about the Netherworld Kingdom. It described the inhabitants as arrogant and haughty, who, because they were particularly concerned with appearances, were extremely hospitable, preferring to tighten their belts to lavishly entertain guests. The poet found this quite strange and initially intended to write a poem satirizing it, but the locals simply laughed it off, so he changed his mind and wrote a poem praising their etiquette.

"..."

As Vande recited the poem, reflecting on his experiences over the past few days, he felt a growing chill run down his spine. He suddenly lost all interest in turning the pages and quickly flipped to the bottom, where he saw a comment from the original owner of the book.

Its writing is absurd, yet its sentiments are sincere. The strange events and startling stories are not unfounded; the oddities are due to heavenly chaos, not human folly.

—Qi Su.

Vande, trembling, gathered the poetry collection and put it back, inwardly cursing himself for his meddling. There were many possible explanations for this, and it didn't intend to delve into any of them, simply pretending it knew nothing. "Vande!" Hearing the assassin's call, it jolted awake: "What's wrong? What's wrong?"

"Come and see this."

Chu Hengkong ignored Fan De, as he was focused on a more important discovery. He found several broken "jade artifacts" in the ruins and was piecing them together. When Fan De arrived, he had already seen the finished product: two jade sticks and a small vessel.

Chopsticks and a bowl.

"The people of the Netherworld God Kingdom don't need to eat, so why do they have tableware in their homes?"

"I guess I'm buying this to collect." Vande's eyelids twitched. "I already have a bad feeling about this, I want to leave here immediately..."

A soft thud came from behind them, like a pebble falling to the ground. Van der turned around, trembling violently, and saw a bright red eye open in the cave ceiling!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Vande darted into Chu Hengkong's pocket, rolling and screaming wildly, its cries so loud they shattered its own voice. Chu Hengkong turned and flicked his finger, a fallen leaf flashing in his hand as it pierced towards Red Eye. Now that the fifteen-day restriction had expired, he could use the leaf throwing knife again.

The crimson pupils shifted upwards, flashing, and light streamed down from the breach, revealing the truth. A small hole had been carved into the cave ceiling, and the beast outside had been silently observing the two. That beast was none other than the Jade Fox from the mountaintop; its once yellow eyes were now blood-red.

"This isn't your territory." Chu Hengkong narrowed his eyes. "Who modified your program?"

The jade fox did not respond, not even a threatening roar. At this moment, it showed none of the ferocity it displayed when pushing the stone; its red eyes were devoid of any emotion. It swung its claws, piercing through the cave, its slender body falling like water, its tail lashing out without warning. Its tail, made of jade, possessed the power to split mountains and shatter rocks with a single blow.

The tail whip struck, but the fox bounced back as if electrocuted. The blow cracked the rocks beneath Chu Hengkong's feet, but caused no damage to his body. Having undergone his previous bone-forging training, he could easily withstand such attacks. He stomped forward and threw a punch, his hard fist striking the jade fox squarely in the face, unleashing a burst of power that sent it flying!

The jade fox flew out of the cave, nimbly flipping and landing on its feet. Chu Hengkong had already attacked, his rock-hard blade aimed at the fox's neck. The fox raised its paws to protect its vitals, its long fur standing on end, transforming into hundreds of steel needles that rained down upon it. Chu Hengkong wielded his blade with impenetrable skill, deflecting all the needles.

Taking advantage of the moment, the Jade Fox opened its mouth and exhaled four wisps of white energy. Within each wisp of energy, tiny characters flashed, solidifying the gas into energy spheres that protected the Jade Fox's limbs. At this moment, the steel needle attack paused, and Chu Hengkong flashed forward, plunging his blade into the Jade Fox's left claw. The Jade Fox not only roared silently, but also showed no sign of pain.

The sphere attached to the left paw glowed, its light shifting and revealing a twisted "long" character. The jade fox's claws instantly grew longer, binding Chu Hengkong like ropes!

Chapter 83 Completing the Mission After Many Hardships

It charged forward with all its might, even aggravating its knife wound, pushing Chu Hengkong forward to pin him against the mountain wall. The claws were incredibly tough and hard, and Chu Hengkong couldn't break free for a while. He simply used a binding force to lower his center of gravity, and thrust his right hand forward with the rock knife, trying to sever the jade fox's claws.

At this moment, another sphere flew in, with the word "Void" written on it. Chu Hengkong was illuminated by the light of this sphere, and his strength immediately weakened, making him unable to stop the Jade Fox's advance for a moment.

The nail bindings grew increasingly firm, and the influence of the illusory word seemed to deepen accordingly. A hundred meters passed in the blink of an eye; the jade fox silently extended its claws, pressing him to the ground. The remaining two orbs of light merged together, growing larger with the jade fox's breath, the character "gun" flashing within them. White light gathered and expanded, forming a giant energy spear resembling a tree trunk. The spearhead plunged straight downwards, determined to pierce through Chu Hengkong with a single blow.

This energy gun was incredibly powerful, almost comparable to the breath of the Fire Serpent. Other runes flickered within the gun, indicating that a series of attacks would follow immediately upon impact. This was Jade Fox's trump card, a technique that could be considered overwhelming even among other ascendants of the same level. But the shot inexplicably missed; the human suppressed under its claws suddenly vanished. He appeared behind Jade Fox, in the shadows created by the light.

The spoils of victory in the Shadow Giant battle: Shadow Movement.

Chu Hengkong leaped onto the jade fox's back, his left tentacle tightening around the fox's neck like a noose around its lifeline! The jade fox's fur hardened and shot out, violently tumbling to throw its enemy off. But Chu Hengkong gave it not even a second's chance, roaring as he attacked: "Vander!"

Van der popped his head out and shouted, "Stop!"

The tentacles had touched the enemy's body, fulfilling the conditions for the hypnosis. The jade fox's movements ceased instantly, its blood-red eye turning backward, reflecting a steel blade. Chu Hengkong held his rock-blade against the fox's eye, his right hand still steady. "Let it break free of your control."

"I'm trying! I'm trying!"

A second passed in the blink of an eye, and the hypnosis was about to wear off. Vande stared into the fox's eyes, their almost inorganic blood-red color completely different from the previous raging beast. He extended invisible, intangible spiritual tentacles, attempting to soothe the restless spirit beneath its cold shell.

Soul, heart, spirit, and primordial spirit—different factions on Dust Island have different names for them, but the library, like most authoritative institutions, calls this formless and intangible essence "the Ghost Body." It is one of the only two essential aspects of life, the source of spirit, memory, and emotion. Generally, the Ghost Body's form is roughly the same as the physical body, but this fox is a rare anomaly. Its Ghost Body is broken, ugly, and almost amorphous, like torn pieces of flesh. Its outline doesn't resemble a fox at all.

Vande was terribly nervous. It stared at the ugly thing, trying its best to make its voice sound gentle.

“We’re all acquaintances now, we’ll just pluck a few feathers and leave,” it said cautiously. “Calm down. Don’t fight.”

It simultaneously "looked" at the fox's ghostly body and flesh. The ugly little thing became a bit more docile under the soothing touch of the tentacles, and the fox blinked, seemingly becoming a little more lively.

But suddenly, the crimson in the fox's eyes sharpened. A blurry, pure white appeared from the ghostly perspective, its power repelling all of Vande's tentacles, then transforming them into countless sharp needles that pierced the fox's ghostly body, further dismembering, cutting, and ultimately dominating its remains. The ghostly body had no flesh, yet this scene filled Vande with a nauseating stench of blood. It hurriedly used its power, trying to pull the fox's consciousness out of its body, but the pure white light was too intense; it was directly repelled!

"It won't work! The enemy is too strong!"

With a scream, Vande tumbled out of his pocket. The defeat of his spiritual tendrils had a backlash, causing him to convulse in agony on the ground. The fox's hardened fur pierced the tendrils, and it suddenly strained to break free. But Chu Hengkong held fast to the tentacle noose, and with a vicious thrust of his rock knife, it pierced the jade fox's eye like a steel nail!

Chu Hengkong silently released his inner energy, using the blade to completely destroy the Jade Fox's brain. The blade pierced diagonally through the Jade Fox's jaw, pinning it to the ground. The dying beast struggled desperately, but the assassin steadily suppressed its movements. With his bone forging nearly complete, this beast posed little threat to him.

Twenty seconds later, the fox's head slumped to the ground, its blood-red eyes closing completely.

It's dead.

Vande struggled to its feet, its fear growing stronger, not because of the fox, but because of the assassin beside it. In that instant, Chu Hengkong unleashed a chilling killing intent. Normally a man of great emotion, he had been more like a machine than the fox when he drew his sword earlier. Like the pure white needles that controlled the ghost's body.

It thought that perhaps this was the other party's true appearance, coldly wielding a knife to kill, without any human passion.

“…I don’t actually hate it that much,” Vande said softly. “It’s been diligently throwing stones for so long.”

“I didn’t originally intend to kill it; I only planned to cut off a piece of its flesh for the ritual. But it was controlled, and the other side’s methods are so powerful that even you can’t interfere,” Chu Hengkong said. “This isn’t the first time it’s been controlled; what was it used for before?”

"I don't want to guess," Vande said dejectedly.

“I didn’t want to either,” Chu Hengkong said calmly, “so I killed it.”

They spent quite some time dealing with the fox's carcass. Transporting it back to town was absurd, so Chu Hengkong dragged the jade fox's body for a while, until he reached the spot where the fox usually pushed stones. He tossed the fox down the path like a fox tossing stones, and it took quite a while to hear the echo.

He then repeated the process, dragging the centipede's corpse down the mountain. The enormous worm, as big as an iron bridge, caused him a lot of trouble. Chu Hengkong personally dragged it from the front, and released the Demonic Spider Puppet to assist in the transport. After half a day, he finally managed to move the centipede to the top of the mountain and let it roll down the mountainside.

“Now we’re all set,” said Van der. “How do we get down?”

Chu Hengkong stuffed it back into his pocket.