Chapter 441: The Joining of Wuzhiqi

The Thunderstorm Cloud's face was full of anger, and beneath that anger was a hint of terror.

Because it could feel the Hunyuan Iron Staff smashing toward its energy core.

The energy core was the Thunderstorm Cloud's lifeline; once destroyed, it would completely lose its life.

The Hunyuan Iron Staff appeared unstoppable, but at the critical moment, a crane's cry rang out from the containment facility.

A Space Rift was torn open, and the energy of the Hunyuan Iron Staff poured into the Space Rift one after another.

The Hunyuan Iron Staff emitted a bright dragon's roar, and the dragon-scale patterns on the staff's body shimmered with golden light.

With a loud boom, the Space Rift shattered, and spiderweb-like cracks began to appear in the surrounding space.

Violent Space Blades surged out from the rift, and Wuzhiqi raised the Hunyuan Iron Staff in his hands, spinning it to block in front of himself.

With several muffled clangs, the Space Blades collided with the Hunyuan Iron Staff, producing a piercing sound.

"Heaven-Swallowing Pelican, Space Transfer."

The Thunderstorm Cloud, standing stunned to the side, hadn't yet grasped the situation when the surrounding scene began to shift.

It caught sight of Xiaolan hiding behind Ye Bai and the others, so it forcibly squeezed a smile onto its face.

The ink-black color of its body instantly transformed into blue, and streaks of Thunder Light spread throughout its body.

"Thunderstorm Cloud, you don't need to keep fighting; call back the thunderclouds and leave this place."

Ye Bai stepped forward and said to the Thunderstorm Cloud.

The Thunderstorm Cloud wore an expression that said, "Who are you?"

"Do not be rude, Thunderstorm Cloud. This is the acting director of the Bureau; due to some special circumstances, the Bureau has been taken over by the director."

Only then did the Thunderstorm Cloud reveal a simple and honest, cute expression.

There was no helping it; the person before it was its bread and butter. If it didn't coax this human well, it might very well be ordered to have its resources reduced just for stepping into the office with its left foot first.

"Alright, Thunderstorm Cloud, do as Xiaolan said and take the thunderclouds away. Leave this opponent to us."

Ye Bai had a secret weapon, so naturally, he wasn't worried about Wuzhiqi's attack.

Amidst the smoke, a ferocious black shadow lunged out.

The walls of the containment facility exploded into countless fragments under the heavy strike of the iron staff, and the air blast, carrying rubble like bullets, roared toward Ye Bai.

"Holy Light Protection!"

The True Light Goddess butterfly flew down from the air, blocking in front of Ye Bai and the others.

A milky-white transparent light shield surrounded the three of them.

The rubble was blocked by the light shield, and amidst the smoke, a black shadow gradually emerged.

This was a ferocious face like a thunder god, covered in black hair; through the incandescent lights in the corridor, one could even see the scales on its body.

However, there were streaks of scratches on these scales, and the hair on the thunder god face was uneven in many places.

It dragged the Hunyuan Iron Staff in one hand, while the other hand was tightly clenched into a fist.

The sneak attack by the Heaven-Swallowing Pelican just now had made Wuzhiqi very unhappy.

The Space Blades could act upon the Soul, exerting influence on Wuzhiqi.

If not for Wuzhiqi's extremely rich combat experience, he likely would have been killed instantly by the Heaven-Swallowing Pelican on the spot.

Wuzhiqi's three-inch fangs gnashed with a clattering sound, the cyan mane on his neck stood straight up, and the Hunyuan Iron Staff in his hands emitted a buzzing sound along with his heavy breathing; the staff body scraped across the marble floor, throwing off blinding Mars.

"Wuzhiqi, we mean no harm."

Ye Bai looked at Wuzhiqi, whose eyes were wide as copper bells and who wore an unhappy expression.

His left eye said, "I am very unhappy," and his right eye said, "I am very unconvinced."

"We can sit down and talk about it; whatever you need, I will do my best to satisfy you."

Resisting the space storm had caused Wuzhiqi to consume a large amount of physical strength.

Although he was an artifact spirit, he was different from ordinary artifact spirits; he needed to eat food to feel full.

At this moment, Wuzhiqi's stomach rumbled like a drum; he was very angry, and his temper was becoming increasingly irritable.

Just as he wanted to raise the Hunyuan Iron Staff to give Ye Bai a hard hit, Ye Bai pulled a fragrant cup of instant noodles out of his Storage Ring.

The key was that these instant noodles emitted a rich aroma; as everyone knows, instant noodles smell fragrant, but they don't taste quite as wonderful.

But Wuzhiqi had never seen them before, and what Ye Bai pulled out was spicy beef flavor; that alluring, rich fragrance was like a hook, constantly tugging at Wuzhiqi's cravings.

He couldn't help but swallow his saliva; no, the more he swallowed, the hungrier he felt.

The key was that Ye Bai had also added a braised egg and a sausage to the noodles; this was simply the luxury configuration for the instant noodle clan.

Ye Bai observed Wuzhiqi's swallowing motion and decided on the spot to place the noodles on the ground.

Wuzhiqi revealed an expression that said "this kid is sensible"; he used the Hunyuan Iron Staff to hook the ground, and with a sweep of the staff's wind, he steadily retrieved the noodles to his front in the next second.

Throughout the entire process, not even a drop of the noodle soup was spilled.

Wuzhiqi flicked the fork in the noodles, feeling the aroma grow even stronger.

The noodles, coated in soup, were like a voluptuous young woman beckoning to him.

Come on! My dear! Let's have some fun!

He rolled the noodles with the fork and sniffed them under his nose; the rich fragrance was enough to make Wuzhiqi dizzy with delight.

Wuzhiqi stuffed the noodles into his mouth without hesitation.

The chewy noodles carried the rich soup, radiating a spicy, hot flavor.

As a mouthful of noodles entered his belly, he felt a warm current suddenly surge in his stomach.

This warm current was cozy, making Wuzhiqi feel very comfortable.

He slightly suppressed the corners of his mouth that were turning upward and said with a nonchalant air, "Kid, this food of yours, the taste is very average."

Ye Bai secretly muttered to himself, "Average taste? You're saying that against your conscience, aren't you? Look at you wolfing it down like a starving dog."

A bowl of noodles was quickly swallowed by Wuzhiqi.

"Kid, this stuff isn't even enough to get between my teeth."

Having finally put something in his stomach to serve as a base, Wuzhiqi's attitude improved a little.

"Yes, yes, yes, Lord Wuzhiqi, this is just an appetizer; there is plenty of food in our canteen."

"It's just that the canteen is only accessible to our employees, so why don't you join us?"

Ye Bai rubbed his hands together, revealing his intentions.

"Join you?"

Wuzhiqi's voice rose a little, and just as he was about to ask about the benefits, Ye Bai took out another bucket of fragrant instant noodles.

This made the tone of Wuzhiqi's voice soften, and a battle between heaven and man raged in his mind.

Should he join or not?

What benefits would there be for us if we joined?

He thought about many questions along the way, but when he saw the food in the canteen piled up like a mountain and that every item was delicious, Wuzhiqi immediately changed his attitude.

"Fine, I am willing to join!"

"But let's get this straight: I am not your hired muscle, unless you encounter a problem you cannot solve yourself, I will not step in to help."

Wuzhiqi's eyes lit up; he could not wait to tuck in.

Watching Wuzhiqi wolf down his food, Zhang Lingxue was curious: "How did you know Wuzhiqi was hungry?"

"I didn't notice it at all!"

Ye Bai explained: "His stomach was rumbling like a drum; I was just guessing, and it turned out I guessed right."

"Now we need to strengthen the security of the Bureau, other matters can be put aside for the time being."

Zhang Lingxue strongly agreed with Ye Bai's view.

"If the Bureau is gone, what's the point of doing all those superficial things!"

"I think we should send out the notification."

"At the same time, I also need to know the characteristics of the Ten-Layer Rashomon."

The Ten-Layer Rashomon was built in imitation of the Eighteen Levels of Hell.

Originally, the plan was to build an Eighteen-Layer Rashomon, with each layer corresponding to one of the hells, but due to tight funds, construction stopped after the tenth layer.

Therefore, Ye Bai needed to understand the characteristics of the Ten-Layer Rashomon.

"I know this; the Ten-Layer Rashomon was originally created according to the Eighteen Levels of Hell."

"It corresponds to Scissors Hell, Tieshu Hell, Steaming Cage Hell, Tongzhudiyu, Knife Mountain Hell, Iceberg Hell, Volcano Hell, Stone Mill Hell, Blood Pool Hell, and Lingchi Hell."

Xiaolan recited them like she knew them by heart.

"The guardian of each layer of the Rashomon can borrow the power of the Rashomon, comparable to a Seven-Tier Peak Pet Beast Master."

"Even a powerhouse as strong as a Seven-Star can't break through the restraints of the Rashomon in a short time."

"If we can release different ghosts, we might even be able to leave behind one or two Seven-Stars."

Ye Bai thought for a moment: "The Ten-Layer Rashomon is the most important defense of the Bureau, and also the important gate to resist the Seven-Stars."

"In order to ensure nothing goes wrong, and to eliminate the influence of the former director as soon as possible, I think we need to personally inspect the Ten-Layer Rashomon to check for gaps and make improvements."

"At the same time, we also need to investigate which ghosts can be used, and which ghosts can use the power of the Ten-Layer Rashomon to increase their combat strength."

"Because time is tight, let's do this: I will be responsible for the Scissors, Tongzhudiyu, and Volcano Rashomons, you two also pick three, and the remaining one, the tenth layer Lingchi Rashomon, we will inspect together."

"That way, everyone won't be too exhausted."

"And we can better guard against the attack of the Seven-Stars."

"Xiaolan, organize the ghosts currently contained in the Bureau; what are their special abilities?"

"I hope you can help me investigate clearly."

"And help me send it to the designated email address."

Even though Baiming gave him a USB drive, Ye Bai also wanted to know if there were any ghosts that Baiming had miscounted.

After all, before he arrived, Baiming was just a marginalized deputy director.

"Okay, I happen to have a backup of this data here."

"I have already sent it to the designated email address just now."

"If you need any other data, you can just tell me directly, and I will pull the data over."

"I was originally responsible for managing the data."

Xiaolan said playfully.

At this time, the Seven-Stars also began to gather their undead army.

Just then, Turiye arrived at a place filled with various clay statues.

He patted the gourd hanging from his waist, and countless souls immediately emerged from the mouth of the gourd, pouring into the clay statues one after another.

Soon, cracks appeared on the clay statues.

"My most loyal servants, wake up from your slumber."

"It is time for you to work for me."

After hearing Turiye's impassioned words, the clay statues began to move.

Pairs of giant wings emerged from the clay statues.

"Very good, it seems you are also impatient."

A sickly madness flashed in Turiye's eyes.

"Very good, the whole army, move out! This time, we are bound to break through the Bureau and take the entire Yan Country into our pockets."

"Master, you died so early; if you hadn't died, how could I have taken your place?"

"Master, you can go in peace."

"I will avenge you; I will burn the heads of your enemies to ashes to offer as a sacrifice to your spirit in heaven."

Another location of the Seven Stars.

This was a pitch-black pool, and also the place controlled by Shui Yaori.

Shui Yaori shook a copper bell, producing a crisp and pleasant sound.

"My little darlings, I searched for so long before finding this natural corpse-raising ground."

"It is a pity that you were forced to participate in battle before I could cultivate you into your final forms."

"In this battle, I don't even know how many of my little darlings will be left."

Shui Yaori revealed an expression of slight regret.

Beneath the Black Water, thousands of corpses were soaking.

Yellow talismans were pasted on their foreheads, and the cinnabar incantations on the yellow talismans emitted a faint glow.

Steel-needle-like black hair sprouted from their bodies, which were bloated and swollen from the soaking.

There were men, women, old, and young here, but their clothes were all different.

Their faces had a livid, iron-blue complexion, and two fangs protruded from the corners of their mouths, looking exceptionally ferocious.

They soaked quietly in the Black Water, their bodies drifting with the current.

Looking closely, their ankles were all tightly bound by black profound iron chains.

The sound of the copper bell made all the zombies turn their heads in unison to look upward.

Thousands of gray-white pupils, looking exactly like the eyes of dead fish, combined with their blue-gray skin and pitch-black fingernails, looked quite chilling.

Shui Yaori shook the bell unhurriedly, and gradually, a large number of bubbles emerged from the Black Water, just like boiling water in a pot.

Not long after, one ferocious head after another emerged from beneath the water; dripping wet, they hopped and lined up into square formations.

"The zombie army has not been completely refined yet; at this time, they are still afraid of light, fire, and sticky rice."

Shui Yaori scattered a handful of sticky rice toward the corpse horde, the white sticky rice falling like flowers scattered by a celestial maiden.

Upon touching the zombies' bodies, the sticky rice instantly turned black and vanished into a wisp of black smoke.

And the zombies' bodies also developed wounds similar to those caused by sulfuric acid.

"Although I feel a bit of regret for these semi-finished products, this is all it can be."

"Tu Yaori, you old ghost, how many times have I advised you not to rely on your clay statues to recklessly provoke the Twenty-Eight Mansions."

"Look at you, you've fallen now."

"We have known each other for nearly a hundred years."

"We have long since forged a deep friendship; I cannot leave your death unavenged."

"This time, I am sparing no effort to mobilize the not-yet-refined zombie army, all to avenge you."

"But it doesn't matter if they are semi-finished products; as long as they see blood and absorb it, they will certainly be able to make up for their deficiencies."

"People of the Bureau, you just wait for me; I will definitely breach the Bureau and turn all of you into my zombies."

(End of this chapter)