Chapter 576: Untitled

That behavior is no different from taking off one's pants and farting; the Yunshui Spear already flies through the air to slay demons and evils, and it doesn't need a person to wield it in battle. It might even cause pointless casualties by adding a person. In short, these two national treasures each have a necessary role now: one to suppress the demons and monsters of the Imperial Capital, the other to roam the world and purge the fierce ghosts and demon souls everywhere. The vast lands of the Eastern Ancient Kingdom are also the third, and throughout its long history such haunted places have produced many.

Naturally, the Yunshui Spear can travel the world; at thirty‑seven kilograms, the weapon can easily ride the high‑speed rail to go everywhere, used to eliminate the oddities that pop up across the lands. The first stop is Magic City—there aren't as many oddities in the Tianjin Guard, whereas Magic City has more. This young yet ancient Magic City, after many great changes over the years, now sees most of its strange phenomena concentrated in certain old buildings, with few new residential districts.

Legends say water ghosts haunt the banks of the Huangpu River and Suzhou River, but after the long spear reached Magic City, it easily slays a demon each night, and after a month it has cleared all the strange places of Magic City. The big fellow has also figured out one thing—that this long spear is truly invincible, with no equal before it, just like its master. Historical records of successive dynasties rank Bai Lang's bravery extremely high; sayings like "the courage of a fierce tiger" and "brave as Yuzhu" are common, and later many great generals were praised as nearly as brave as Bai Lang.

Bai Lang was a famous shock‑troop commander at the end of the Han dynasty; this long spear, like its master, when it unleashes its power in those strange places, simply flies up, thrusts forward, then slashes out an arc of light, finally erupts a ring of killing aura. No fierce ghost can withstand it. At first people worried that constant use would "drain its power," but now it seems that's not the case, and after exterminating the fierce ghosts of the Imperial Capital and Magic City, the spear's potency appears even more formidable.

So the next stop is the area surrounding the Demon Capital, where the situation is most severe; for some reason, the delta regions centered on the Demon Capital, including that port, have many sites where fierce ghosts erupt, with a density far exceeding the continental average—one could say they have raised the continent's percentage by one point with the effort of a single province… Moreover, none of these haunted places are in sparsely populated areas; you may say the Northwest, Central Plains, and Northeast also have such oddities, but many of them are in remote regions, and without recent breakthroughs in detection technology, people wouldn't even know they existed.

Research on coffins has progressed during this time; not everyone who lies in one can acquire the breathing method, and each person's breathing method varies slightly, requiring extra adjustments when teaching it to others who haven't learned it, otherwise most learners will cough. In fact, the Southern Dipper breathing method isn't suitable for everyone; without talent it's simply a waste of time, though it does have some usefulness.

The baboon‑colored wave dash can strengthen the body, cultivating a single breath to enhance oneself; given time, if one wishes, it can even emit waves.

The long spear once again crushed the fierce ghost spirits of the Demon Capital in Five‑Sheep City, cutting them all down, and the cities around Guangfu were also cleared in a short time— the Yunshui Spear has become stronger, and everyone can feel it intuitively, because at night it no longer limits its ghost‑killing to its stationed spot; it even flies automatically to strange locations within a two‑kilometre radius to slay.

Now there is a dilemma: should these national treasures be taken to Hong Kong to deal with the fierce ghosts there? Another dilemma is that Wan Chai also has many fierce ghosts—should we handle them? So far, only two things are confirmed to be able to eliminate these monsters, and both are in the mainland's hands—other countries already know this, and although everyone is currently suppressing domestic media channels to avoid social panic after the fierce ghost spirits appear, the pressure will eventually break, so everyone is looking for ways to eradicate those fierce ghosts.

But it's useless; even using floodlights to suppress them doesn't kill those fierce ghosts. The so‑called traditions of various countries are of no help against these things—whether it's the Lord of Heaven or whatever, Buddha, Amaterasu, none work; the Russians, however, have tried modern weapons on the Wendigo monsters appearing in their Arctic Circle, and found most ineffective, with only thermal‑pressure bombs or nuclear weapons being useful.

Thermal‑pressure bombs can severely damage these monsters, and small nuclear weapons can annihilate them—but how can they be used in cities? Thus for most strange sites, people truly have no solution. The only hope lies in Asia; the mainland's discovery of a demon‑clearing weapon is known to the upper echelons of various countries—this isn't a highly secret matter, because these fierce ghosts target all living people.

Some countries are already begging the mainland to temporarily lend a demon‑clearing weapon to help them beat the fierce ghosts on their soil— for example, the nearest case is the unlucky Benzi, whose home is overrun with ghosts. It's like their own horror comics, especially those damned Junji Ito works, many of which have almost become reality.

How can anyone live like this? Fortunately, the Benzi community is already gloomy, so it's only resulted in urban legends rather than public exposure, but the Benzi's special‑task headquarters has been at its wits' end—monks, priests, and shrine maidens are all useless, and even the onmyoji of the Yin‑Yang Bureau are now a zombie department with no real spellcasters left. So those tools achieve nothing; the only option is to relocate the residents of the affected area—but bureaucratic inertia makes the process crawl.

Thus the mainland's weapons are literally lifesaving divine artifacts; they also want to test whether their own three sacred weapons have similar functions, and whether the legendary armaments of the Warring States' famous generals work likewise, but they can only be disappointed—fortunately, a few original national treasures such as the Tang‑style Greatsword can at least suppress some of those monsters, otherwise the situation would worsen even more.

As for the Americans, Benzi is secretly pleased—because they have even less means to deal with the oddities on their own soil; although they are also treasure thieves who have skillfully looted many ancient artifacts, there's truly nothing usable…

Now Benzi periodically sends an envoy to beg for help, willing to make any concession for it—there's no other way; if this continues, even the lives of the big bosses are at risk, and they can't just run to the mainland to become a host.