Chapter 406: Brick Kiln

What Xu my lord most wanted to find was the eerie technique that the giant python used to freeze Wei Zhenbang.

Although Xu Yuan did not cultivate the Thunderfire Tuning Scripture, with his Fifth-Flow Golden Core cultivation, he effortlessly employed the method to strip away the eerie technique.

But to Xu Yuan’s surprise, the seemingly powerful giant python possessed only two eerie techniques.

One was the technique that froze Wei Zhenbang; the other was “Remote Void Coil.”

In simple terms, it allowed control of force from twenty zhang away, as if wrapping and constricting the target directly.

Yet after stripping them away, Xu Yuan did not refine these two techniques into pills.

The techniques were merely Seventh-Flow.

That meant the terrifying giant python was, at most, a Seventh-Flow malevolent entity.

Xu Yuan waved his hand to disperse the two techniques, turned away with his hands behind his back: “Let the men handle it.”

Several Golden Core cultivators stepped forward and jointly spewed fire to incinerate the giant python’s corpse.

The Golden Core cultivators looked on with eager eyes.

The materials extracted from processing malevolent entities naturally belonged to them.

Of course, nominally, a portion had to be submitted to the yamen’s private treasury.

But as the officers in charge, they naturally took the lion’s share.

Such a large malevolent entity should yield plenty of good materials.

When Xu Yuan discovered the giant python was only Seventh-Flow, he lost all desire to feed it to his Pi Dragon.

The County Magistrate and Wei Zhenbang hurried after him, walking one on each side to accompany Xu my lord.

Wei Zhenbang said apologetically: “This malevolent entity wasn’t worth your personal trip, my lord—I’m truly ashamed—but even Seventh-Flow, in our county, is indeed an unbeatable monster…”

Xu my lord pondered for a moment; perhaps he had been overly suspicious.

Back in Shanhe County, Seventh-Flow malevolent entities had also roamed unchecked.

The county had been powerless against them.

Now that he was Fifth-Flow, dealing with entities of this level was indeed effortless.

Too bad, though—such a massive giant python couldn’t be fed to the Pi Dragon.

They pressed ahead and returned to the county seat; as soon as they entered the city gate, a burly middle-aged man ran up, panting: “My lord, we’ve finally caught up! The Xinyi Fang has produced a major malevolent entity!”

The man was the village head of Xinyi Fang.

He owned three brick kilns, and nearly everyone in Xinyi Fang depended on his family for livelihood.

The three kilns burned continuously, producing bricks and tiles that supplied Zhan City and Luocheng.

Zhan City was fine, but Luocheng had grown increasingly prosperous in recent years; more people were building houses, and bricks and tiles were in short supply.

Xu Yuan followed the village head swiftly to Xinyi Fang in the western part of the city.

Before even entering the Fang , a thunderous boom echoed—a large house on the left side of the Fang gate exploded entirely, and the bricks and tiles within came alive, automatically assembling into a five-zhang-tall humanoid monster!

“Hum—”

Flames ignited within the monster’s hexagonal eye sockets, granting it sentience.

It turned its head, spotted the village head and Xu Yuan’s party, and charged forward with savage force, smashing through everything in its path.

The village head turned pale with terror, hiding behind Wei Zhenbang: “It’s that thing!”

Xu Yuan waved his hand, and the Filth Net spread out.

The brick-and-tile monster stood five zhang tall and equally wide, its arms formed of stacked bricks hanging all the way to the ground.

To ordinary people, it was a colossal beast.

Yet the Filth Net instantly expanded to dozens of zhang in size, rushing forward to engulf it, trapping the monster inside on the spot.

The monster roared in fury, its voice like wind howling over wild flames.

It strained to tear at the Filth Net, but the net was incredibly resilient, refusing to tear no matter how hard it was pulled.

Then it slowly tightened.

Soon, the monster was bound tightly into a single knot.

Xu Yuan silently sensed—it was roughly Seventh-Flow in power.

But among Seventh-Flow entities, it was on the stronger end.

Xu Yuan activated “Sight of Fate” and made a new discovery.

A filament drew from the Filth Net, slithered into the monster’s body, and wrapped around a single blue brick.

The other bricks and tiles immediately swarmed to block it, desperately trying to prevent the Filth Filament from dragging the brick away.

Xu Yuan let out a cold snort; his Sword Pearl shot out and instantly shattered all the surrounding bricks and tiles.

The Filth Filament zipped back, dragging the blue brick with it.

On the blue brick, two fiery eyes suddenly opened.

A fierce flame tail erupted from its rear.

It used the pull of the Filth Filament to launch itself violently toward Xu Yuan.

Then it slammed straight into something soft and yielding.

The Pi Pill opened and swallowed it whole, and the fierce blue brick vanished into darkness.

Without the blue brick, the monster within the Filth Net collapsed into a pile of ordinary broken bricks and tiles.

The village head stared in astonishment: “This monster… that brick… its origin was just a single brick?”

Xu my lord walked into Xinyi Fang with his hands behind his back.

The Fang was in ruins.

Every house built of bricks and tiles had collapsed; those made of grass and wood had been smashed down…

The village head, still trembling, said: “Around the hour of Si, the houses in the Fang suddenly began to transform!

One by one, they turned into monsters, and anyone inside was crushed into pulp inside the monsters’ bellies!

Those monsters could swipe their arms and kill several people at once.

I was lucky—I left early this morning on errands, saw these monsters wreaking havoc outside the Fang , and fled immediately.

Otherwise, I’d likely share their fate…”

After entering Xinyi Fang, the village head walked faster.

He reached a brick kiln, let out a cry of anguish, and collapsed onto the ground.

The kiln was utterly destroyed.

His livelihood was gone.

Xu Yuan stood behind the wailing village head and slowly opened his palm—there lay a glass bead.

On the way, Xu Yuan had secretly refined the blue brick and obtained a Seventh-Flow material.

This bead.

It bore no apparent connection to the bricks or tiles…

The materials left by malevolent entities were usually tied to their original forms.

Xu Yuan scanned the entire Xinyi Fang again with “Sight of Fate.”

The source of the disturbance was solely that blue brick; no other malevolent entities remained in the Fang .

Xu Yuan could only cast a sympathetic glance at the village head and turned to leave.

Back at the yamen, Xu Yuan remained silent.

The County Magistrate and Wei Zhenbang could not fathom Xu my lord’s thoughts and dared not speak.

After sipping tea with Xu my lord for a while, the Captains who had stayed behind at Xiao Hei River to process the giant python’s corpse returned.

Xu Yuan immediately asked: “What materials did you extract?”

The Golden Core cultivators looked disappointed: “Only a few beads—poor quality too…”

They handed several glass beads to Xu my lord for inspection.

Then they saw Xu my lord pull out a glass bead nearly identical to theirs!

The cultivators were stunned: What’s going on?

Xu Yuan: “These two malevolent entities were completely unrelated—why did they leave behind identical materials?”

The County Magistrate and Wei Zhenbang were baffled.

Lang Xiao Ba answered: “Because these two entities share the same origin!”

Xu Yuan gave Lang Xiao Ba an approving glance: “Good. You’ve improved.”

The County Magistrate and Wei Zhenbang still didn’t understand: “Same origin? But the brick and the giant python look nothing alike…”

Xu Yuan glanced at the sky: “Wait. More malevolent entities will appear in the county today!”

(End of Chapter)