Chapter 84: Demon Subjugation 084 – 66K Please Subscribe

At the edge of Si Hun Shan, two figures sprinted outward toward Wang Gu Lin at a speed approaching three Mach.

They were the two companions of the already-dead middle-aged man, and now their faces bore deep dread as they continuously urged their inner true Qi, trying to push their speed to the limit.

The only thought in their minds now was to escape this damned place, the extremely bizarre Si Hun Shan.

Si Hun Shan became a forbidden zone because of its incomparably strange nature.

The Great Shang Dynasty fell due to demonic calamities and rebellions, and its former strongholds—such as Chao Ge and Tong Tian City—often turned into demonic realms because of the rampant demonic disasters.

Nevertheless, many cultivators still venture inside, hoping to obtain the secret treasures left behind by the former Great Shang Dynasty.

Magical implements, spiritual relics, and even war weapons.

As the most terrifying forbidden zone in the southern Great Zhou Dynasty, Si Hun Shan houses countless secret treasures of the Great Shang Dynasty.

Southern Province possesses nine spacecraft, making it the strongest southern military region of Great Zhou, and among those nine, as many as five originate from the former Great Shang Dynasty's sacred site—Si Hun Shan.

Of course, since the 'Tian Yuan' spacecraft emerged from the third princess's Yian Tomb of King Yi of the Shang Dynasty, six spacecraft have already been produced in Si Hun Shan.

However, the sixth spacecraft, 'Tian Yuan', has not yet appeared, but everyone knows that the Luo Family opened that Shang royal princess's Yian Tomb and took the 'Tian Yuan' spacecraft from within.

Spacecraft are the Shang Dynasty's top-tier war weapons; in terms of status, they're roughly equivalent to the aircraft carrier of Wang Wu's hometown in a previous life, and a single blast from one can devastate dozens of li.

This is not the exaggerated phrasing found in the old hometown's historical records, but a straightforward statement.

Indeed, a single blast can ravage dozens of li; Zhao Xingyue says so.

"Why were we discovered!? We clearly didn't leak any aura!" During the flight, the elder looked at the young man beside him and asked.

He saw the young man's face, and a massive terror surged from his heart.

It was still that face, but atop its features was another set of features.

Eyes, ears, mouth, nose—all looked at him with a bizarre, radiant smile.

"Ha, heh heh, hehehe…"

At this moment, on the face with two sets of features, the set originally belonging to the young man rotated, turning from front to side.

The two sets of features overlapped, presenting a grotesque smile toward the elder.

"We…"

Two mouths opened, emitting overlapping voices:

"We can't escape…"

"Heh heh, hehehe…"

"Aaaah———!!!"

The mournful scream echoed through the night sky over Wang Gu Lin, while the forest below lay dead silent, offering no response to the wailing.

"Heh heh, hehehe…"

Moments later, a series of light chuckles rose from the sky.

Si Hun Shan.

Wang Wu watched the monster appear, then swallow the middle-aged man who was clearly far stronger than himself and far stronger than Si Tu Jin. After observing for a while he prepared to leave, but then he realized the thing was actually looking at him.

Or, staring at the camera.

Wang Wu panned the camera from left to right, then right to left. No matter where he pointed it, within moments the twisted humanoid would appear before him.

"Did your mother die or what, always blocking my camera? Fuck your mother!"

Wang Wu's voice rang out in the air as he opened his microphone and loudly cursed the twisted figure ahead.

When the thing first stared at him, Wang Wu's heart jumped, fearing disaster. In the end, it seemed to be merely looking at him—or rather, at his camera.

Wherever the camera flew, the creature followed.

As for the spherical fortress below? What spherical fortress, where did it come from?

Obviously, the thing hadn't truly discovered him, though it could see the camera and sense the person behind it.

Since that was the case, Wang Wu instantly stopped being afraid and felt a surge of joy. A demon capable of easily slaying such a powerful human cultivator, yet still unable to take his spherical fortress.

Damn it, the treasure my master gave me is truly damn useful!

He had intended to leave, but Wang Wu activated the spherical fortress, lowered the camera, and continued toward the location of the Ziyuan Great Tomb.

After traveling a distance, Wang Wu also realized that this thing, though unaware of his exact position, kept following the camera.

So Wang Wu, no longer tolerating it, opened his microphone and started cursing.

Demons actually don't react to your voice; Wang Wu had verified this many times. They mainly sense your Qi and your presence.

If they sense you, they'll come looking for you.

Although they can hear and see you, if you emit no Qi, even standing before them they will not react.

Of course, the instinct to seek profit and avoid harm means that if you attack them, they will retaliate or flee.

But since they don't know where you are, any retaliation is just random smashing and charging, or simply fleeing.

So far, from Wang Wu's encounters with demons—excluding the anomalous Ziyuan—he sometimes meets demons that seem to possess 'intelligence'.

But they're odd: once they step into the Vajra Demon-Subduing Array, even if they should know 100% you're there, as soon as your lingering external Qi vanishes, they immediately leave.

Even if Wang Wu is only a few meters away—he can even see his own reflection in its eyes—it will instantly lose track of him.

That's absurd, extremely absurd.

Nevertheless, Wang Wu isn't interested in studying demonic hauntings; he only cursed it now because it kept blocking his camera, which was infuriating.

"I'm really f***ed by you damn thing, you motherf***er, you keep blocking me, I'm going to smash your old wooden zither, you dog-like beast!"

He blasted a loud tirade, yet the other side didn't move at all; Wang Wu was certain it could hear, after all it had ears.

Although it had little effect, as long as he vented, that was enough.

Now the camera is completely blocked by that bastard, yet the spherical fortress continues toward its preset destination, thanks to its autopilot.

After all, it's a toy meant for kids; you can't make it too hard or hardcore, right? Uh, actually it is quite difficult.

Anyway, the various 'children's toys' from Assassin Brother's hometown, Wang Wu finds each one more difficult and more complex than the last.

After berating them for a while, Wang Wu's mouth was a bit tired.

He picked up a water cup from beside him, took a sip to moisten his throat, was about to continue scolding, but Wu Er Niang, who had been listening to Wang Wu's tirade all the way, suggested at this moment:

"Wu Lang, why don't you try scolding him in the Yin language you learned? He should be an ancient person, probably can't understand modern speech."

"English…" Wang Wu was stunned by the remark, then quickly recovered, laughing, "Oh, I see, Er Niang, you're really clever."

So, clearing his throat, Wang Wu began to continue scolding in the foreign language he had learned.

Although he hadn't learned any insulting words and it was clearly not very offensive, after saying a few, Wang Wu suddenly sensed something was off.

Because he suddenly saw, through the camera, the twisted humanoid's eyes move.

Eyes moving is normal, but suddenly showing a normal gaze is not so normal for a monster.

"Hey, are you male or female? Let me ask you, are you male or female?"

So Wang Wu tried saying two more sentences in the Yin language.

At this moment, Wang Wu also noticed that the opponent's originally blood‑red pupils had lightened a bit under his speech.

"Are you male or female, after all? Speak!"

Continuing to communicate unilaterally in the Yin language, he could clearly see the scarlet hue in the opponent's eyes growing paler, while the gaze became increasingly normal.

Even the twisted face eased a bit, though it remained very distorted.

"Help…"

Finally, after two or three minutes of questioning, the opponent's perpetually open mouth emitted a syllable in the standard Yin‑Shang era language:

"Help, help…"

"Help what?" Wang Wu asked: "Help you? You're like this, I'm afraid I have, uh, no, pfft, way to help?"

"Help, help…" the twisted humanoid opened its mouth, "Help, help… Wang… Help, hoho… Help…"

It stretched out a hand, pointing toward Zi Yuan's great tomb, "Help…"

The next second, all sound vanished, the blood‑red color refilled the opponent's pupils, and its figure instantly disappeared without a trace.

And at the moment its eyes were refilled with red, Wang Wu suddenly realized something:

It had probably died completely.

Or rather, the last lingering attachment it had as a human had vanished, turning it into a pure monster.

When he realized this, Wang Wu also suddenly understood why he had previously encountered some "very different" monsters.

Whether they transformed from humans or from something else, deep within their already decayed, tattered souls perhaps still lingered something.

Something that allows them, under the boundless erosion of demonic will, to retain the tiniest fragment of lucidity.

Perhaps a memory, perhaps a person, perhaps just a phrase. Whatever it is, it can be roughly summed up as one thing:

—Obsession.

For this monster, its obsession has vanished. Perhaps that was its former duty, but regardless, it now remembers nothing, and everything is meaningless to it.

The camera no longer obstructed, and the Ball-shaped Fortress's speed remained unaffected from start to finish, moving steadily forward.

In a short while, Wang Wu would reach the destination, the Great Shang Dynasty's third princess Zi Yuan's tomb.

"That monster actually can speak?"

In the cockpit, the three female demons could naturally hear the exchange between Wang Wu and the monster; after the monster vanished, Zhu San Niang asked curiously.

"Yes." Wang Wu nodded, sighed, "Probably used to be a guard or something, responsible for guarding Zi Yuan's tomb."

"So those three people earlier also came to rob the tomb, and were killed by it?" Wu Er Niang asked.

"Hmm." Wang Wu nodded, "That might have been its last bit of obsession, but after speaking with me, that final obsession also vanished."

"It has completely forgotten its former identity, becoming a pure monster."

The cockpit fell into silence until the Ball-shaped Fortress arrived at the destination.

Zi Yuan's tomb is actually quite conspicuous; if you come during the day, just follow the main road and you can see the massive tomb on the opposite mountain at a glance.

It truly is enormous—a gigantic gate towering a hundred meters high.

The gate is bordered with cloud‑and‑thunder patterns, featuring beasts and demon gods, the painted lacquer still looks fresh, and just looking at it you can feel an ancient aura wafting.

Even though it's only just over a thousand years old.

At the gate, Wang Wu saw a grotesquely shaped corpse crawling at the entrance; there are many such reanimated corpses here, but that one was rather special.

Because it was a fellow disciple of Zhao Xingyue, the two wore clothes of the same style.

The living corpses in front of the gate wore various garments, likely from different human sects outside, perhaps even court forces.

Wang Wu also saw a demonic monster's severed head, its body tattered, with a sword lodged in its forehead.

That sword matched the style of the sword seen on the forehead of the goat demon in the Wang Gu Lin near Si Hun Shan area, clearly belonging to Zhao Xingyue's fellow disciple.

"Alas, how tragic."

Wang Wu shook his head, then piloted the Ball-shaped Fortress to drill into the gate.

As for how it got in, the Ball-shaped Fortress, being so small in sub‑navigation mode, could crawl through anything.

Alright, actually it wasn't that easy to get in; the gate's cracks are extremely narrow, so narrow that even a grain of sand can't pass through.

But if that were all, it wouldn't be much of a problem for Wang Wu's Ball-shaped Fortress.

The issue, however, lies here: besides the exceptionally tiny gap—practically a door with no opening—it also has an invisible shield for protection.

That layer of protection truly makes it impenetrable.

Fortunately, that didn't stump us; after tinkering with the Ball-shaped Fortress's functions and seeking help from the steward Xiao Shui, it finally managed to drill smoothly into Zi Yuan's home gate.

However, as soon as he entered, Wang Wu felt something was off.

This place…

Wang Wu looked around, "This place... no matter how I look at it, it doesn't seem like... uh, a tomb?"

But whether Zhao Xingyue or the three cultivators seen outside earlier, they all said it was a tomb. Although Wang Wu has never robbed a tomb before, this indeed is… not quite like the tomb he imagined.

The space beyond the entrance of the Great Tomb was a vast plain; although he had already seen it in the memory fragments Zi Yuan shared with him, from his current viewpoint there were still some differences.

Raising the camera, he could see a huge pattern on the ground that seemed to depict a ritual, a "birth" ceremony.

Looking up to the ceiling showed something else, a… if Wang Wu wasn't mistaken, it looked like a… star map?

A main‑sequence star, several planets, and a number of warships sailing through space; that thing was probably a space vessel.

"Gui gui…" Wang Wu murmured, staring at the strange patterns on the Great Tomb and in the sky, "Don't tell me the Shang‑dynasty people's worship of the Heavenly Demon is actually alien, and that this space vessel is alien technology given to them?"

"Isn't this just turning fantasy into sci‑fi, damn it?"

Hum—

At that moment, the main‑sequence star on the ceiling suddenly flared, then the star descended from the ceiling and began to spin continuously.

"External device detected, establish connection?"

At that instant, the camp steward Xiao Shui's voice rang out, and she immediately appeared as a humanoid hologram beside Wang Wu, smiling sweetly as she asked.

"External device? Establish connection?" Wang Wu stared at her, stunned.

"The hairpin on your head can link to external devices, and it has already connected to the camp system, allowing you to control external apparatus through the cockpit," Xiao Shui replied with a sweet smile.

"Um…" Wang Wu's mouth hung open for a while, then he nodded.

"Establish." he said.

Bluetooth, an external Bluetooth device—nothing special. Wang Wu quickly understood everything.

"Can the external environment be accessed directly, or will it attract those monsters?" while waiting for the connection, Wang Wu asked the camp steward beside him.

"It is suitable for Parent No. 1 to go out; it won't summon unknown creatures," Xiao Shui replied, "but it is not suitable for Numbers 2, 3, and 4. It won't affect health, yet it will cause excessive psychological pressure leading to fear."

"Okay." Wang Wu nodded, then looked at the third girl, "Shall I go out first?"

"Mm." The third girl, seated in the cockpit, nodded repeatedly, and none of them offered to go out with Wang Wu.

Because everyone knew Wang Wu would be fine outside, there was no need to torment themselves.

"I'm leaving then." As soon as the words left his mouth, Wang Wu's figure vanished within the spherical fortress.

"Sss…"

Appearing in Zi Yuan's tomb, Wang Wu shivered the moment he set foot on the ground.

It wasn't cold; the place gave him a very strange sensation he couldn't name, yet it felt quite pleasant, as if it benefited his Heavenly Demon body.

That must be demonic aura, Wang Wu guessed.

He activated his Heavenly Demon Eye to look at the massive gate behind him, but his sight was completely blocked; even the Heavenly Demon Eye could not see anything outside the gate.

Wang Wu turned his head and looked back into the tomb chamber, especially at the main‑sequence star—or "Sun"—still spinning overhead.

Although the connection was established, Xiao Shui hadn't explained what the hairpin overhead was for, so Wang Wu surveyed his surroundings, noting a passage to the left, right, and front.

There were also balconies above those passages.

"Strange, what is this place for?" Wang Wu scratched his head, baffled. Recalling Zi Yuan's memories, he soon found the passage leading to the opposite main tomb chamber.

Just walk straight ahead.

So, ignoring the still‑spinning star overhead, Wang Wu set off forward.

The passage was long—about a kilometer, or perhaps nine hundred ninety‑nine meters? Wang Wu wondered, recalling Zhao Xingyue's habit of using 999 as a rule of thumb; this corridor was probably that length.

The corridor, originally pitch‑black, instantly brightened as Wang Wu entered; a pale blue light rose from above, and graceful silhouettes appeared on the walls, beginning to dance.

A wondrous melody rang in his ears, a style Wang Wu had never heard before yet found catchy.

Emerging from the passage, they entered an area even wider than when they entered; ahead lay a huge sunken plain about three kilometers long and one point five kilometers wide.

Each side of the plain had a high platform reachable via side stairs; in front of each platform were retractable extensions, now broken and fallen to the ground.

Directly ahead of the plain—and of Wang Wu—was a staircase floating in the sky, emitting a soft glow; each step bore a different pattern, yet all shared a common motif: cloud‑and‑thunder design.

"Heaven‑Ascending Ladder"

Wang Wu suddenly recalled a term both Zhao Xingyue and Zi Yuan had mentioned to him.

Upon reaching the Heaven‑Ascending Ladder, before he could act, the ladder lowered itself.

Wang Wu stepped onto it and instantly felt weightless, as if a gust of wind could lift him straight to the far‑reaching heavens.

In reality there was no such lift; he still had to climb step by step, but this time it wasn't 999 steps—Wang Wu counted each rung.

It was one thousand steps.

That truly meant "beyond the clouds of the heavens."

Reaching the ladder's end, the space before him warped, and an ancient, simple gate materialized.

Wang Wu didn't hesitate, placing his hand on the gate. Instead of opening, the gate slid sideways, revealing the space behind it.

It was unlike the image Zi Yuan had transmitted to him, or rather, completely different.

A head, two arms, two hands, a torso with its abdomen split open, and two legs.

They were arranged in a bizarre posture, yet still followed the normal human anatomical order.

They floated before Wang Wu, the torso and limbs linked by silver tubes; the opened abdomen sprouted numerous tubes that curled toward the back.

It was Zi Yuan.

This form of her was entirely different from the Zi Yuan he had previously seen; it felt more complete—perhaps this was the real her.

The outside Zi Yuan was only half of her; this Zi Yuan was her whole.

"Yuan'er."

Wang Wu looked at her and called softly.

The head that had been hanging lowered slowly rose; Zi Yuan's face appeared before Wang Wu, more beautiful than the outside version, yet also more hideous.

"You…"

She looked at Wang Wu, opened her mouth, and after a few seconds emitted the first syllable.

"What are you here… for?"

She looked at Wang Wu with surprise in her eyes, and a strong sense of incomprehension.

"The disaster outside is having a big impact." Wang Wu came before her, gently stroking her cheek, "I was afraid something would happen to you, so I came looking for you."

"You…" Zi Yuan opened her mouth, and after a moment said, "You shouldn't… shouldn't have come."

"You and I, and I… are only like dew, the bond of dew… a fleeting encounter…" She looked at Wang Wu, stammering, "You have no need… to come here…"

"I am not… really, I have… for you…"

Wang Wu said nothing, just quietly stared at her. After a while, he took the hairpin from his own head and inserted it back onto her head.

"Then, here's this back to you," Wang Wu said, stepping back a few paces.

Zi Yuan, upon seeing Wang Wu's action, was first stunned, stunned for a long time—almost half a minute. Then her face in an instant became extremely feral, her eyes filling with a near‑red glow, and she let out an incredibly mournful roar:

"You… what are you doing!!!!"

Wang Wu still said nothing, simply took the hairpin off her head, placed it on his own head, and then looked at her with a bright smile:

"You keep saying we should break up, yet you give the thing back, and you're still not happy."

Then, watching the ever‑changing expression on her face, Wang Wu moved to the back of her body and surveyed the surrounding space.

Here everywhere are unknown devices of an extremely rustic style, yet also highly futuristic. The tubes that connect to Zi Yuan's body also lead to a huge cocoon‑shaped sarcophagus behind her.

In different civilizations, a cocoon carries various meanings, but one thing is universally certain: the notion of "metamorphosis and rebirth."

Because a cocoon's purpose is exactly that.

"Your body is… what exactly…?"

Returning to Zi Yuan's front, looking at her again, Wang Wu asked:

"Was it those grave‑robbers who dug you out of here?"

Zi Yuan remained silent, giving no answer.

(End of Chapter)