Chapter 505: Galloping to the Village, the Giant Grudge Demon

"Don't go to extremes. I only said it cannot be ridden directly; we need to take precautions, that's all."

Du En calmly refuted Wu Rui, while simultaneously raising a hand in a beckoning gesture; flames incinerated the mountain rock, refining various metal essences, and very quickly, a full-gold carriage with a wide, rigid canopy was fashioned and then harnessed to Da Huang.

Looking from afar, it just looked like a large carriage.

"Woof woof!"

Da Huang appeared quite excited. Although the carriage as a whole was actually very heavy—weighing over a thousand jun—if it could be set in motion, it could serve as a great weapon of mass destruction on a mortal battlefield, but for it, it was just right.

Then it turned its head again to signal. Wu Rui gave a slightly embarrassed, pretty smile and quickly climbed on, while Du En also transformed into a ball of light and flew to a pedestal position specially prepared for him.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

The Grudge Demon Da Huang began to run, dragging the heavy carriage. Its forward speed was much faster than when Wu Rui had been running on foot earlier. Before long, it charged out of the mountain tunnel and sped straight along the flat imperial road.

Because there was a rain-shielding board extending from the front, and it could even lower an invisible curtain to divert the rain—counting as having a Dharma artifact restriction—the Grudge Demon-tainted rain could not directly drench Da Huang. However, there were still many puddles flowing together on the ground, and there was no way to avoid them...

"The situation is actually as expected. It had the experience of advancing through rain before. Since there were no problems then, it clearly won't have any problems just charging through puddles now."

Amidst the worry revealed by Wu Rui, Du En, whose gaze was not in the same field of vision as hers, spoke these words at the right moment, as if he had foreknowledge.

The facts were indeed so; as long as the obsession did not manifest, even if emotional intent existed, it would not lead to attachment. However, to speak the truth, regarding Da Huang's situation, Du En pondered and mulled it over, always feeling there was something slightly strange about it.

Vaguely, there seemed to be other influencing factors.

It wasn't anything decisive, but it helped make Da Huang appear particularly out of place, and it seemed to be a factor he had once come into contact with, yet even now he was overlooking it, finding it hard to grasp...

Thinking and pondering in silence, the post-station village ahead was already drawing near.

In fact, as they neared the village, the figures of Grudge Demons began to appear.

Canines raised by villagers turned into Grudge Demons; the chickens, ducks, and livestock in the village also turned into Grudge Demons; and there were those with general humanoid shapes who, after falling into corruption, became armed and mutated into shallow magic tools—such as armed villager Grudge Demons who could fire arrows of magic fire and wield magic-iron blades that could lash out with magic energy.

They were all positioned similarly to militia soldiers. Originally living in the logistics hub of the Teaching Hall at this post-station village, they had the incidental duty of defending this place. Although not completely militarized, they clearly held such obsessions, so after falling into corruption, they were basically all of this same broad category, differing only in details.

Therefore, in the rain on the outskirts of the village, there were actually patrolling sentry Grudge Demons. And because the commotion made by Du En and the others was actually very loud and they hadn't hidden it at all, they had long since drawn them to gather, launching attacks one after another.

Du En was naturally watching, but he did not intervene, continuing his own thinking.

The reason was simple: Wu Rui could now manifest the weapon of a young Grudge Demon, that rather ferocious slingshot! The pellets needed to be created by mixing spiritual Qi with Pure Fire—they were Spirit-Pure Pellets—so they were not infinite. But because they had Da Huang pulling the carriage, she could calmly ride and shoot, often destroying a Grudge Demon's activity center with a single shot, or even piercing through several at once to achieve greater results.

Thus, they actually first circled the outside of the village, engaging in the act of luring the demons out and then shooting them down. Very quickly, they beat nearly a hundred villagers, along with a large pile of chickens, ducks, dogs, and pigs, until they couldn't move.

Of course, Wu Rui also became panting and breathless as a result, which could be described as being exhausted to the limit.

The carriage stopped not far from the village entrance. Only then did Du En manifest his human form, his calm gaze looking toward the post-station village several dozen zhang away.

Houses were broken and collapsed, and the watchtowers existed in name only. Figures of Grudge Demons wandered among them. Those nearby turned to look over; although they appeared somewhat hesitant, they still began to be attracted by Wu Rui's presence, gradually deviating from the behavioral trajectories of their pre-corruption obsessions.

"Next, you rest for a while."

"What about the purification?"

"Wait until we deal with the Grudge Demons inside. Otherwise, you might not hold up and be unable to purify when we encounter the key Grudge Demons. Anyway, since it's raining now, they won't die."

"..."

Wu Rui looked at the scattered crowd of village-outskirt Grudge Demons she had beaten down and couldn't help but silently apologize, having to let them continue to struggle and suffer like this for a while longer.

She then heard Du En's new arrangement: "Leave Da Huang outside to keep an eye on those Grudge Demons for the time being, so they don't recover in the rain and cause extra trouble. Secondly, it's to avoid it coming into close contact with the battle against the Grudge Demons, so as not to break the current stable situation and cause it to turn into a pure Grudge Demon."

Wu Rui nodded silently upon hearing this. To be honest, her feelings regarding Da Huang were actually a bit complicated.

Casting aside the various sentiments of a young girl, she actually wanted to help it find release as soon as possible.

Because she felt it would eventually fall into complete corruption. The cruel fact was that this was not a wrong thought; indeed, if left alone, it would easily slide into the abyss, and that situation would appear sooner or later.

It is difficult to maintain special states; not everything remains unchanged, even stars will extinguish and die.

Therefore, letting it find release before that happens means, at the very least, it will not feel pain.

Hearing such an arrangement now, she naturally had no objections.

"Let's go then!"

Wu Rui jumped off the carriage first and finished giving instructions to Da Huang. Even though her face was still very tired, she did not hesitate or pause.

Du En calmly withdrew his gaze and also got off the carriage, arriving in the rain. He raised his hand, and the Azure Sky Burning Sword appeared. With one sweep, divine fire flew out, shattering the collapsed debris blocking the village entrance and knocking down the few Grudge Demons already wandering there.

The two began to enter the village.

Here, they first purified a villager Grudge Demon that looked like a minor leader.

The azure light shone and then dimmed.

Wu Rui frowned slightly, partly from pain and partly from worry, and asked: "As expected, there's nothing related to the village chief or the old warrior. How are we going to find the village chief and that old warrior?"

In fact, when they first encountered villager Grudge Demons outside the village, they had purified one once, attempting to obtain information from its obsession-memory. Unfortunately, the information they wanted was completely absent from their obsession-memories, as if it had been deliberately forgotten.

"It shouldn't be deliberate forgetting or interference by others, but rather that in their obsessions, the first priority is ensuring the safety of the village and being able to contribute to the Teaching Hall in a timely manner, so other aspects have instead been faded and wiped away."

Du En now generally understood the situation of these Grudge Demons, so he was not surprised and had his own ideas. His gaze had already locked onto a building in the village.

"Let's go there first."

"Eh? It doesn't seem to be the largest building, either?"

"Although it's not the largest, it is the best decorated. In other words, the people who live there are either rich or noble. And people all have selfish motives; although the whole is universally revered and appears quite consistent, such rich and noble people are often inconsistent with the lower classes. So even if that isn't the village chief's house, we should be able to obtain different obsession-memories from the Grudge Demons inside."

"So that's how it is..."

Wu Rui appeared inexperienced in the ways of the world, as if she hadn't thought of this point.

Du En had already begun to drift, starting to advance toward that side.

The overcast rain drizzled, never ceasing.

"Woooo..."

"Awoo! Protect!"

Facing the strangers who had broken into the village, the crowd of Grudge Demons suddenly began to stir. Those who had originally only been slowly drifting off their obsession trajectories immediately followed their obsessions and converged. Thus, humans and dogs appeared and lunged from all directions, surrounding them aggressively.

Consequently, Du En led Wu Rui to begin street fighting.

The broken, bunker-like buildings became excellent places to block lines of sight and split up the Grudge Demons. They jumped here and leaped there, then launched sneak attacks—the main strategy being efficiency.

"It just feels a bit shameless..."

"Don't mutter, as long as we can win, that's all that matters."

"Oh."

Although Wurei agreed, she was still muttering in her heart.

She always felt that Du En was extremely practiced at this.

Could it be that he liked shooting cold arrows in the past?

He, however, had no sighs or sentiments, only calmly and efficiently measuring his actions, like the most precise instrument, utilizing watchtowers, fortresses, cellars, ditches, as well as trees, stables, dog kennels, and so on, to minimize consumption as much as possible and avoid getting rained on.

Reducing here, increasing there, opening sources and throttling expenses—that is how it is.

When it comes down to it, unless it is that kind of powerful individual, the Grudge Demons that ordinary living beings degenerate into do not actually possess extraordinary power; it may be because their own obsessions and strength are too lackluster, and they are just "following the crowd." In any case, relying solely on Grudge Demon overcast rain cannot forcibly elevate them to a level comparable to cultivators; most are just at the level of martial arts experts.

However, there are also times when one cannot throttle expenses.

At the same time, not all Grudge Demons are so casual and ordinary.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The familiar vibrating sound made the two think of that Featherless Bifang, and they hurriedly climbed to the top of the watchtower they were in, then saw a huge, fat Grudge Demon rushing out of that target building on the main road of the village in the distance.

Its body looked like a pig, with a wing growing on its back, so looking closely it also resembled a super fat chicken; the whole thing was exceptionally incongruous, as if a mixture of many things, thus becoming fat and deformed. At this moment, after running for a while, it could no longer run, directly collapsing to the ground and arching its way toward Wurei, plowing the street directly into a trench.

"Ah, ah, ah, Divine Tree, forgive, forgive me..."

It kept wailing and lamenting in its mouth, the sound very loud, carrying over and making one take notice.

"Du En, who is he?"

"After defeating and purifying him, you will naturally know."

Du En was calm and unruffled, but this situation was actually not easy to handle.

Because although that Grudge Demon was so fat and bulky that it was hard to walk, its aura of resentment and demonic energy was quite vast, much greater than the teenage Grudge Demon. If it possessed a move similar to that gathered cannonball attack, it would be quite tricky.

At the very least, his efficient energy-saving method limited to martial arts experts certainly could not continue to be implemented; he could only raise the scale of the battle to involve Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment level spellcasting, or even higher-consumption and high-expenditure actions.

"Let's clear out the surrounding Grudge Demons as much as possible first."

"Okay."

They immediately began to move in a circle around that huge Grudge Demon, beating the Grudge Demons one by one until they were unable to move, preferably into pieces, along the way.

This process was not easy, because they encountered a place that should have been a market along the way, where the terrain was narrow and many villager Grudge Demons were gathered.

The result was that Du En pulled Wurei to tunnel underground, and in the brief moment the crowd of roaring Grudge Demons paused and hesitated, they quickly left the area, then continued to circle around to sneakily hunt demons.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

The sound of the huge Grudge Demon's advance rang out in the surroundings; houses were pushed over, cellars were flattened, and after he accurately captured Wurei's presence amidst the wailing, he immediately began to move forward regardless of the path, causing their activities here to be gradually restricted.

But fortunately, the activities of the ordinary Grudge Demons would also be obstructed.

"That's about it, go to the other end of the market and wait for him to come over himself."

"Uh, borrowing demons to crush demons?"

Wurei refreshed her understanding of Du En's pursuit of efficiency once again.

However, she didn't feel there was anything wrong with it.

It was not as purely kind as it appeared on the surface, but that was also right, after all, she was...

Du En's eyes flickered, he didn't think too much, and quickly arrived at the spot to wait.

One hand with a sword, one hand with a chain.

Wurei stood in another place, holding a slingshot, ready to go.

Very quickly, that huge Grudge Demon, accompanied by pushing and crushing, pressed a crowd of Grudge Demons into the ground, incidentally absorbing a lot of resentment and demonic energy, making itself become even more huge, bloated, and fat, with green skin appearing on its body surface and various colors and shapes of feathers growing out.

The whole thing appeared even more incongruous; the raised head looked like a pig and also like a bird, the eye sockets opened one by one, with strange eyes shaking inside, showing a trend of not being able to stop, looking truly creepy, and there was constant wailing, with two out of every three sentences in its mouth not leaving the Divine Tree.

Naturally, its strength also improved all the way, reaching a point where ordinary Foundation Establishment was starting to be inferior, though it had not yet reached the Golden Core stage.

"The guardian of the tree is a bird, so those who are closely related and obsessed produce a strange bird-like degeneration; this is actually quite normal and easy to understand, but this Grudge Demon, he previously..."

Du En pondered silently, and seeing the huge Grudge Demon arrive, he immediately gave the signal.

Twang! The deformed and ferocious slingshot fired, and the Spirit Purification cannonball formed by stored power shot out, landing on the head of the huge Grudge Demon with a 'whoosh', instantly interrupting his incessant wailing.

At the same time, a clinking sound rang out; the chain blade had already been thrown by Du En, instantly roaming and extending, wanting to lock up the huge Grudge Demon, which was inconvenient to move.

"Divine Tree!!!"

Suddenly, the huge Grudge Demon let out a wild roar.

Du En reacted immediately, raised his hand to form a seal, and Wurei's figure instantly appeared beside him; it was a simple spatial drag, relying on the contract itself, a low-consumption version he had specially developed and pondered out on the way to the Post Station Village.

Just as they left this side, a shadow had already fallen on that side.

It was the huge Grudge Demon!

He suddenly erupted with terrifying impact power, shattering the ground where he stood—it was kicked to pieces—and then jumped up, directly crossing the distance between them, pressing himself toward that watchtower, instantly turning it into waste, and leaving a deep pit nearly a hundred feet wide in place.

(End of this chapter)