Chapter 107: Entering the Demon Castle

Wu Pifu silently knocked open the blacksmith's door.

It was still the dead of night, and outside, the gale was still raging; the Chaos Storm was at its peak.

The sub-giant blacksmith was not a dark creature, so he naturally wouldn't be swept away by the Chaos Storm, but he seemed to loathe it, so he only opened half the door.

The sub-giant saw Wu Pifu and his expression, and immediately realized, "That wolf-girl was swept away?"

Wu Pifu shook his head slightly, then nodded and said, "Jiu Jiu, who came with me, was swept away. The black energy on her body infected Daphne, and both were swept away."

The sub-giant was stunned for a moment, his expression turning grave. "That bird of yours is actually a dark creature too? And the black energy on its body? That is a dark creature containing the bloodline of a True Ancestor!"

Wu Pifu did not ask about True Ancestors or anything of the sort. Before, when he was at leisure, he could treat it like listening to a story, asking more and listening more, but at this moment, he was already on the verge of an outburst.

Wu Pifu only asked, "Is my blade finished?"

The sub-giant saw that Wu Pifu had already made a decision. He grunted and turned to go inside. A moment later, he came out carrying a large blade, white as jade from end to end.

This blade no longer showed any signs of fangs; it was entirely white like jade, and the style somewhat resembled a Tang sword.

The sub-giant handed the large blade to Wu Pifu and said, "The scabbard hasn't been crafted yet, and the inscriptions haven't been carved either. It can only be considered a semi-finished product, not worth the minerals you gave... "

Wu Pifu waved his hand and said, "It is enough."

He carried the large blade and turned to leave, but the sub-giant tossed a bronze stone to him and said, "This is a tool for finding minerals. The more precious the mineral, the brighter the light it emits. I don't know what else to give you; this is the most precious thing I have here. Take it to make up for the weapon not being finished."

Wu Pifu didn't say much; he took the bronze stone and strode toward the outside of the village.

By this time, scattered villagers were already looking at him from their windows, and the priest even ran out carrying an oil lamp.

"Are you going to the Demon Castle?"

The priest looked around and didn't see Jiu Jiu or Daphne. He seemed to realize something and asked straightforwardly.

Wu Pifu nodded. He didn't say much, just strapped the large blade to his back, then raised his hands in a fist salute to the priest, the sub-giant, and the villagers present, before striding toward the Demon Castle without another word.

There are things one must do, and things one must not do.

Wu Pifu drew a very clear line in his heart.

He would not commit evil at will, because that violated his bottom line of humanity.

But he also lacked the ability to care for all living things, saving everyone at every turn, because he himself was merely a struggling ant.

And it was the same now.

If only the little wolf-girl Daphne had been swept into the Demon Castle, he would only offer his blessings. Once the five days were up, he would leave as he had to.

But Jiu Jiu was different...

There was only determination and resolution in Wu Pifu's eyes.

Even if it were just for Jiu Jiu, if he had to establish a shelter in this world, then so be it!

Wu Pifu's pace was extremely fast. Although he wasn't running at full burst, he was moving at a speed of at least 120 kilometers per hour. A moment later, he arrived outside the Demon Castle. He ran along the wall for a while and saw a massive city gate at least a hundred meters high.

The city was wide open, without a single guard or defense.

Wu Pifu did not hesitate and strode into the city gate. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he keenly sensed a change.

Inside and outside the gate felt like two different worlds. Although there was no obvious change, Wu Pifu, who had reached the Dantian Energy realm, keenly perceived the difference. It was a peculiar change—not in temperature, smell, humidity, gravity, or light... but something more mysterious, a change he couldn't describe.

Combining what he knew about the relationship between pollution sources and sapience in this dream world, Wu Pifu felt it must be the difference in spirituality inside and outside the Demon Castle gate that he was perceiving after entering.

"...Is this spirituality?" Wu Pifu muttered to himself.

Come to think of it, when he was in the Song Dynasty dream world and entered the Wuyou Cave beneath Bianliang, he had indeed felt a certain cold change. That might have also belonged to a change in spiritual concentration, though the spirituality of the Great Song dream world had more Yin-attribute characteristics.

Wu Pifu's understanding of spirituality was still very shallow, and he didn't know if it was universal across dream worlds. At this moment, he naturally wouldn't delve into it, so he strode toward the main building's entrance inside the city.

There was a European-style garden between the city gate and the main building. As Wu Pifu walked into it, ghost fires emerged on both sides of the road—one, two, ten, twenty. In a short time, hundreds of ghost fires were wandering around.

Wu Pifu didn't even look at these ghost fires; he continued to walk forward. The next moment, all the ghost fires swarmed toward him, crashing into him in a dense mass.

"Roar!" Wu Pifu didn't even look, just let out an angry roar, then continued walking forward.

The roar was like thunder, like a howl, as if a tiger were roaring at the heavens. After the roar, all the ghost fires stopped in mid-air and then dissipated entirely. By this time, Wu Pifu had reached the main building's entrance. He pushed against the gate, and the ten-plus-meter-high doors swung open.

It was pitch black inside, but as Wu Pifu pushed the doors open and walked in, candlelight on both sides and overhead began to ignite one by one. Wu Pifu saw a massive hall, and at the end of the hall were a dozen or so doors, clearly leading to different locations.

Wu Pifu had talked with the priest, the sub-giant, and Daphne about the situation inside the Demon Castle over the past few days. Although he had decided not to enter, he still wanted to know something about it—after all, he was curious, even if it was just like listening to a story.

According to them, heroes from various eras who had returned from the Demon Castle had all left records of it.

The internal space of the Demon Castle was chaotic. A single room was an individual area, and dozens or hundreds of rooms constituted a general zone. These were generally divided into the Entrance, Corridor, Sewers, Graveyard, Reception Hall, Library, Arena, Lord's Hall, Clock Tower, and the Highest Zone.

The deeper one went, the stronger the monsters. Each area generally had three to five Elite-level monsters, and one Commander-level monster to rule over everything. The strongest of all was the Demon King, the master of that generation's Demon Castle.

As for the strength of these monsters, according to everyone, the Elite-level monsters in the outermost areas were slightly weaker than the Saint level, while Commander-level monsters were slightly stronger than the Saint level. The further in one went, the stronger the monsters became; in the deepest parts, even Elite-level monsters might surpass the Saint level, while Commander-level monsters were often God-blooded heroes or demigods, and the strongest right-hand men of the Demon King could even reach the level of deities.

Wu Pifu's displayed combat power was evaluated by everyone as Saint-level, specialized in physical body, and inferior to a hero.

Regarding the strength tiers of this world, Wu Pifu didn't know the other transcendent levels; he had only heard others mention them. From the Saint level onwards, they were: Saint, Hero, God-blooded Hero, Demigod, Deity, and Main Deity.

The priest had specifically used the ancient Greek transcendent system to explain it, using the Trojan War as an example. Hector, the strongest hero of the Trojan side, belonged to the Hero level, just below a God-blooded Hero. On the Athenian side, Achilles, the strongest hero who killed Hector, belonged to the God-blooded Hero level. Wu Pifu's strength was roughly that of a named hero in that war, but a third-rate character who would be killed by Hector in a few moves, though not a mere foot soldier.

!

One could imagine how deep the water in this Demon Castle was and how terrifying the monsters were.

Even so, Wu Pifu was going to break his way in!

As Wu Pifu stepped into the hall, the candlelight brightened, and dozens of skeleton monsters appeared around him, some holding swords and shields, some spears, some flails. Except for ranged weapons, they had almost every melee weapon imaginable.

This was the true interior of the Demon Castle, and these were the weakest monsters greeting newcomers.

According to the priest and the others, these monsters would only guard this room and would not go to other rooms. They had no sapience; only Elite-level monsters had a certain level of intelligence, and only Commander-level monsters possessed full sapience, though they were also heavily influenced by Chaos.

Therefore, "safe zones" actually existed inside the Demon Castle—some rooms would not spawn monsters, or the monsters that spawned were very weak and few in number.

These were life-saving places for people exploring the Demon Castle. One could rest, obtain supplies, or find ways to bypass the patrols of powerful monsters to avoid certain death. This was the only chance for non-transcendent mortals to survive in the Demon Castle.

But this was only temporary. There was Chaos pollution inside the Demon Castle. The longer one stayed, the deeper the Chaos pollution became. If one didn't leave after a long time, one would lose their self and turn into a Chaos monster.

Now, Wu Pifu could only hope that Jiu Jiu had landed in a safe zone, or at least not too deep. If she had only turned into a bird, hiding in the shadows would be enough to save her life for the time being.

"Jiu Jiu!!"

Wu Pifu ignored the dozens of skeleton monsters surrounding him; he gathered his Qi and blood, and roared with his Dantian energy from his throat.

"Hide well! Wait for me! I'll be there in a moment!"

The next moment, Wu Pifu's back twitched, and the large blade sprang up over three meters high. As it fell, he gripped the blade with one hand, stepped forward, and lunged at a skeleton monster. With a whistle, the skeleton monster didn't even see the shadow of the blade in his hand before its entire body was shattered by the immense force, then directly granulated, pulverized, and dissipated without a trace.

At the same time, when he killed the first skeleton monster, the Main Brain's voice echoed in his mind.

"Event achieved."

"Sixth Era, Wu Pifu fell into the Demon Castle area. Four days later, a Chaos Storm swept through, triggering the deep bloodline resonance of the bird he carried, and the bird was swept into the Demon Castle."

"Wu Pifu entered the Demon Castle..."

"You have established a Level 1 Shelter."

"You have received one full random lottery reward."

"You have gained the qualification to awaken three maintenance personnel."

"You must return to the world where this shelter is located for ten days every thirty days."

Wu Pifu said nothing; the large blade in his hand danced even more fiercely, as if it had turned into a screen of jade-like white light, sweeping away all before him!

At the other end, Daphne woke up. Just as she wanted to move, a hand covered her mouth.

Beside her, a young girl was nervously watching outside the crack.

The two of them were hiding behind a stone coffin, and in front of them, a headless knight was riding past on horseback.

The entire corridor was eerie and terrifying, filled with stone coffins, broken bones, and corpses everywhere. This was...

The Graveyard!