Chapter 37: Shit, Am I the Sacrifice Now?

“Little brat… you’re not from Old Man Zhang’s family… you’re the thing that just cursed me, aren’t you?” The skeletal ghost spoke in a chilling, rasping tone.

The finger bone in his hand grew sharper.

His gaze toward Wu Wang grew hungrier.

He hadn’t noticed at first.

Only when the boy kicked him did the skeletal ghost realize the boy carried a faint, sweet scent.

That scent was lethally alluring to him—like a desert traveler on the verge of dying of thirst, suddenly spotting a bottle of icy-cold mountain spring water.

He had never seen anything so exquisite!

Brother, you smell amazing!

“No, I’m a butterfly.”

Wu Wang’s form gradually returned to his true appearance; the child’s body was too unnatural—he’d have been able to flip farther and create more distance if he’d stayed in it.

He couldn’t fight head-on now.

He wasn’t worried about being killed by this ghost.

He was worried about being captured.

As before, if he couldn’t escape with enough power, being taken alive would be far worse than death.

He twisted his neck and grinned slyly: “My species is called—Reverse Butterfly. Remember that—I’m the Reverse Butterfly.”

With that, he leapt high into the air.

From his hand, he let slip an object shaped like a grenade.

It exploded upon hitting the ground.

In an instant, the entire hall was shrouded in eerie white mist.

The skeletal ghost suddenly realized he could no longer sense the boy’s aura at all.

【Smoke Without Injury Grenade: After use, creates a fog that blocks all perception and damage within its radius for 10 seconds】

【Note: Smoke Without Injury is a cosmic law!】

This was a loot Wu Wang had tearfully licked out of his bag.

Honestly, Sun Wukong had almost no gear for direct confrontation.

Almost everything was for escape.

Too bad such a master of escape.

Ended up dying on his one and only greedy gamble.

Indeed, true security still comes from Akka.

“Want to fly to the sky~ and shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun~ the world waits for me to change~”

Wu Wang hummed the lyrics of “I Believe” as he drifted farther away.

Let's be honest, the skill "Zongyun Step" is already insane just for allowing stacked double jumps.

Theoretically, as long as your stamina is sufficient.

You could literally step on your own foot all the way up to the stratosphere.

The biggest limitation of this skill, logically, should be—how to land safely after reaching such extreme heights.

It’s the same principle as being stuck on a tiger you can’t dismount.

Wu Wang tested many different landing methods during these three days of beta testing.

He discovered that the pressure the skill imposes at the moment of activation equals the pressure your current state is already under.

That means continuously performing double jumps is easy, since you’re only ever bearing your own body weight.

But once you reach a certain height.

If you attempt to cancel the skill.

And then wait until you’ve fallen to a safe altitude before using another double jump to land.

The final double jump would then have to absorb the cumulative force of gravitational acceleration.

Your knees would shatter instantly.

So Wu Wang opted for the simplest landing method.

That is, choosing a spot where no one would be hit.

Headfirst, smashing into the ground with full force.

As long as the height is sufficient, you die on impact.

Reviving right where you died is effectively a safe landing.

Safety doesn’t mean you won’t die.

The inequality is nullified!

Pfft—

“Where do you think you’re going?” The skeletal ghost’s voice came from inside the hall.

Wu Wang looked down.

His chest had been pierced through by a sharp, bony object.

The ten-second mist effect had ended.

He hadn’t expected the ghost to inflict damage from this distance, where he was nearly invisible.

Huhuhu—

Death had interrupted his double jump.

Wu Wang heard the roaring wind of his fall.

He squinted, aiming to land as far away as possible.

Boom—

Wu Wang crashed hard into the interior of a house in the village.

He revived the instant he died.

His eyes opened to find a familiar face—

Li Shen and Li Shu.

Both stared at him in terror.

They held carving knives, etching something.

Closer inspection revealed it was an inscription on a spirit tablet.

The name was already carved—

【Spirit Tablet of Zhang San the Mad】

“?”

Hey, guys, why are you making a spirit tablet for me?

Before Li couple could react, Wu Wang grabbed the bone spike piercing his chest, yanked it out, and pressed it against Li Shen’s throat.

He asked coldly: “Why make this spirit tablet?”

Seeing his wife threatened, Li Shu started to rage—until he saw the bone spike press forward an inch.

Li Shen’s skin broke.

One more push and it would pierce her throat.

He immediately waved his hands, frantic: “Don’t hurt her! Let’s talk! This tablet is for the little madman by the village gate, halfway up the hill. This year we couldn’t find a suitable Yin-Yuan Holy Maiden, so we had to use the backup plan.”

“Backup plan?” Wu Wang raised an eyebrow.

“We’ve kept that little madman alive all along, just in case something like this happened. If we can’t find a Holy Maiden, sacrificing him to the Yin-Yuan Great God won’t guarantee everything goes well—but at least it’ll prevent disaster.” Li Shu revealed everything he knew.

Wu Wang suddenly understood.

So that’s why the dungeon’s intro forced me to make a choice.

Either I become the sacrifice to the Yin-Yuan Great God, or I hand over the girl I found to be the Yin-Yuan Holy Maiden.

One means I suffer.

The other means someone else suffers.

At first glance, this choice seems simple.

But whether you consider whether the girl is connected to Wu Xiaoyou, or analyze it from the perspective of clearing the dungeon—

Wu Wang could never sacrifice her.

In the three days before entering the dungeon, he often chatted with Baili Dao.

He had already learned the basic knowledge about the 【Spirit Plague Game】.

He was facing a nightmare-level dungeon with a global clearance rate under 1%.

If simply sacrificing a stranger could clear it…

Then this game would be ridiculously stupid.

“Redemption or Sin…”

“All is bound by fate…”

Wu Wang recalled the two lines from the dungeon’s intro.

But he had no time to think further.

Behind him still chased that eerie skeletal ghost!

Since he normally wore the old village chief’s skin to face the villagers,

That meant he’d have to put on human skin again before he could come after him.

Although he couldn’t possibly sprint away at full speed like a healthy man, in front of the other villagers, while pretending to be the frail old village chief.

But he’d most likely call on some agile villager to carry him back to where he’d fallen.

If he hadn’t happened to see that spirit tablet.

Wu Wang would have been long gone by now.

Now that he’d finished asking questions.

He suddenly shoved Li Shen toward Li Shu.

While the other man was catching her, he turned and prepared to climb out the window.

Before leaving, he glanced at the large, white steamed buns on the table and casually grabbed one, shoving it into his pocket.

He still resented not having eaten that bun before leaving.

At the very moment he stepped out, he coldly said to the two:

“Only white buns are easy to swallow.”

Since Li Shu could say those things just now, it proved his earlier suspicion was correct.

The villagers were not unaware.

They knew what they were doing—and showed no remorse.

This village, every last one of them, is evil!

“Eating blood-soaked buns invites retribution.”

“Especially the retribution of those wrongfully slain.”