Chapter 34: Four Directions Year-Fire Lantern

As the mist gathered, the demon left behind in Chen Family Village revealed its true form.

It was a spread-out human skin, or rather, a clump of mist holding up the human skin.

The human skin within the mist was pale blue, fully stretched and spread out, with a translucent, lustrous texture, like a piece of soft ice, possessing a strange, eerie beauty.

There was a neat slash across the chest of the human skin, and at the edges of the slash on both sides, there was a smear of crimson resentment.

Wu Chang had originally assumed it was the resentment of the slain villagers, but upon beginning to observe, he discovered that the owner of this resentment was the mist demon itself.

In the vision of the resentment, the mist demon was still human at the time.

On the night the attack was launched, the village chief of Chen Family Village had made the decision to hold the four annual trading fairs, and the entire village was immersed in the joy of celebration.

The mist demon, while still human, carried two jars of doctored wine up the tower and filled the cups one by one for the villagers responsible for keeping watch.

Once the villagers on the tower had all been killed by him, he pulled out a brass short knife and viciously stabbed it into his chest, slicing his own skin open vertically.

The flesh and blood within his body transformed into mist, gushing out from the chest wound and becoming the fog that enveloped Chen Family Village.

The peeled-off human skin "stood" on the tower, watching the slaughter of Chen Family Village, until the part of him that belonged to human will slowly dissipated, transforming into the crimson resentment.

"Though the great vengeance is avenged, I only regret that the ringleader escaped, unable to sever his head and devour his flesh; I truly cannot rest in peace."

【Find the ringleader Chen Peng, sever his head to comfort the countless departed souls.】

After viewing the mist demon's resentment, Wu Chang roughly guessed what had happened.

The mist demon, while human, had a blood feud with the bandits of Chen Family Village. To exact revenge, he infiltrated Chen Family Village; even if it meant allying with demons, or sacrificing himself to transform into one, he did not hesitate.

He was a ruthless man.

Unfortunately, resentment had already surfaced on the human skin, representing that the part of the mist demon that was human had completely died.

Otherwise, it should have been possible to avoid battle through negotiation.

The mist demon, now left with only basic instincts, had completely lost control and could not communicate.

The mist supported the human skin, and by changing form, it twisted the facial skin to express its emotions.

The trembling facial skin expressed an emotion called anger.

The howling wind blew out the mist demon's voice.

"Intruder, die!"

Having said this, a cold wind surged from behind the human skin, sweeping up the surrounding snow, making the fog covering the village even thicker.

By reviewing the resentment of the dead from Chen Family Village, Wu Chang had basically understood the mist demon's abilities.

Just as recorded in the visions of the traveling merchant's resentment, the thick fog obscuring vision and the cold wind numbing the senses were merely to weaken human perception and plunge people into a state of unease.

Illusion was the mist demon's killing move.

Among the demons that attacked Chen Family Village, the mist demon's performance was not the strongest, but nearly one-third of the village died from the mist demon's illusions.

Once dragged into an illusion by the ice fog, one would see the most terrifying scene of their life.

The villagers tortured into madness by the illusions would either end their own lives like the traveling merchant, or go completely insane, venting the fear in their hearts through indiscriminate attacks.

As the mist demon's attack target, even though Wu Chang's willpower was extremely high and he had the Soul-Purifying Banner protecting him, standing within the thick fog, illusions also began to faintly appear before his eyes.

In just a few short minutes, the scenes before his eyes had evolved from being ridden in the face by the "hanging ghost" on a tree at age three, to stepping on a stray dog's tail at age four and being chased through the streets.

These were all psychological shadows he had originally forgotten.

Based solely on the few childhood fragments he recalled, it was temporarily insufficient to cause him harm, but it also demonstrated that the mist demon's ability was enough to affect him.

If dragged on too long, an accident was inevitable; he could not just sit and wait for death.

Based on the intelligence he had gathered from the resentment, there were two methods to avoid being affected by the illusion.

One was self-harm, using pain to stimulate the senses and prevent being dragged into the illusion.

The second was fire; fire could disperse the ice fog. Without the ice fog as a medium, the mist demon's ability would be greatly reduced. However, the demons attacking Chen Family Village were not just one; whether self-harming or concentrating manpower to protect the fire, either would make them a target for the other demons.

Either being violently trampled by the mountain goblin, or hooked by the mountain-blocking ghost, bled and hung on an iron hook.

But right now, it was one-on-one between Wu Chang and the mist demon, so these two methods could be considered.

He thought for a moment, then decided against the self-harm method.

The main quest of the instance was still ongoing; the evil entity serving as the instance boss had not yet appeared, and people like Liu Wei from Huaigu Village were also eyeing him covetously.

Rashly falling into a weakened state was not a wise move.

So what he needed to do now was to find a source of fire.

Chen Family Village happened to have a suitable source of fire; the villagers' resentment had mentioned its location—the mountain-top ancestral hall.

Wu Chang raised the Silver Dawn, pulled the trigger, and the silver bullet carrying fire flew toward the mountaintop. Along the path the bullet cut through, the mist instantly dissipated, revealing a passage.

The residual heat in the air caused the mist to close back up very slowly. Taking advantage of this moment, Wu Chang ran toward the mountaintop.

During the run, he felt immensely grateful for his earlier decision to allocate points evenly.

!

Strength, agility, and stamina all developed in a balanced way; running up a mountain in one breath without any strain.

He ran all the way into the mountain-top ancestral hall, and used a key stripped from a corpse to open the Chen Family Village clan treasury.

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold air rushed at his face.

Walking into the treasury, he saw the village chief of Chen Family Village, Chen Peng, prostrating on the ground in a posture of worship.

Chen Peng's arms were extended forward, elbows pressing against the ground, the heels of both palms pressed together, ten fingers spread in a lotus shape, holding up a red palace lantern.

The lantern was square, entirely red, with no complex patterns drawn on its surface, only embroidered with golden thread into fire-swirl motifs.

Wu Chang picked up the palace lantern, and corresponding information appeared before his eyes.

"Item Name: Four Directions Year-Fire Lantern."

"Item Type: Instance Item."

"Item Grade: C."

"Item Skill: Illumination of the Void."

"Skill Description: When the Four Directions Sui-Fire Lantern is lit, it can command mortal-world fire, illuminating evil and driving away plague, causing demons and monsters to flee."

"Item Skill: Sui-Fire."

"Skill Description: When lit during the activation of the New Year-Exorcising Array in Huaigu Village, the lampwick can kindle the Sui-Fire that guards the mortal world; so long as the Sui-Fire does not die out, life shall not be severed. While the Sui-Fire burns, it can slow the user's life slipping away and grant immunity to most conventional deaths."

"Note: The Four Directions Sui-Fire Lantern can convert energy or demon-beast bodies injected into it into lamp oil; the burning speed of the lamp oil varies with the intensity of use. Current lamp oil burn time: 0 seconds."

Wu Chang read it over twice before confirming he wasn't seeing things.

Good lord—immunity to death while the Sui-Fire burns. This is practically a god-tier support skill.

If it weren't for the two limitations—having to be used alongside the New Year-Exorcising Rite, and only granting immunity to most conventional deaths—even an S-rank item couldn't compare.

Too bad those can't be removed.

By now the flame inside the palace lantern had gone out, completely losing its warmth.

What lost its warmth along with it was Chen Peng.

Wu Chang turned Chen Peng's body over and found his face deathly pale, his eyes bulging so wide they nearly popped from their sockets, black blood seeping from his seven orifices—he was already gone.

Although the Fog Demon hadn't personally watched Chen Peng die, Chen Peng had still perished under the Fog Demon's power.

After a moment of reflection, Wu Chang looked at the extinguished palace lantern, his brow furrowing slightly.

The lantern is here, but where on earth is he supposed to find lamp oil?

(End of Chapter)