[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit":3,"chapter-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-69":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","There Is a Malevolent Spirit",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2263175,4416,"Chapter 69: 68, Ascension","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-69",69,"\u003Cp>68, Ascension\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wen San, Wen Si!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why are you still in the cellar?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang stared at the two figures curled in the corner; seeing their faces covered in knife scars and fire burns, he immediately recognized them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, the Cao Tou Long Chang was still slowly rising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One by one, human heads erupted from the collapsed rice mound, attaching themselves behind the Cao Tou Long Chang’s form, making the head-plate dragon-snake grow longer and longer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tail of the Cao Tou Long Chang was bound to the imperial decree chain, slowly corroded by copper coins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other end of the imperial decree chain was deeply embedded in the headless body of Wen Yongsheng, which had aggregated a vast quantity of xiangnian.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Wen Yongsheng’s headless body was dragged upward by the Cao Tou Long Chang, more wine surged from the spring at the cellar’s bottom, flooding layer upon layer of storage pools like a river or sea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpses in the pools floated upon the wine sea, rising with it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chaotic xiangnian gathered within Wen Yongsheng’s headless body, transforming it into a multicolored light cluster; the radiant hues cast upon the wine sea made the surface, littered with corpses, shimmer with dazzling, exquisite light.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen San and Wen Si, who had buried their heads, suddenly heard Zhou Chang’s shout—they both lifted their heads and saw before them a gaunt, skeletal figure draped in a python robe—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two scarred men recognized Zhou Chang’s voice, yet could not link this skin-and-bone man with sunken eye sockets to Zhou Chang!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Si’s expression hesitated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen San hesitated and said: “The… the door was sealed from outside by Manager Qian…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We can’t push it open—we’re trapped.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the heavy wooden door beside them, Wen San and Wen Si’s eyes filled with deep despair—they knew something horrific was happening in the cellar, yet they could not escape!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thud!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had Wen San finished speaking than the python-robed figure stepped beside him and kicked the door with a sudden, forceful blow—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a deafening crash, the door, a finger’s thickness, was blown clean through, leaving a transparent hole!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang reached his hand through the hole and unlatched the door from the outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pulled his hand back and pushed the door open—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dim daylight from outside poured in, falling upon his gaunt, bony frame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I didn’t deliver your letter to your mother—you go tell her yourselves,” Zhou Chang suddenly lowered his gaze, looked at the stunned Wen San and Wen Si, and grinned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Y-you—you—” Wen Si, hearing these words from the skin-and-bone man, jolted awake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This man was the Zhou Chang buried in the deepest cellar pool!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had even thrown a small knife to this man before!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang swiftly turned, glanced behind him, then spread his ten fingers and, like plucking up chicks, seized the collars of Wen San and Wen Si and hurled them out of the cellar!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Si stumbled to his feet, turned his head to look back—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entrance to the cellar was now empty; Zhou Chang’s gaunt figure had vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only his grave voice echoed from within the cellar: “Cover your ears, don’t listen! Don’t hear anything! It might save your life!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cover your ears, and you’ll survive?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Si instinctively followed Zhou Chang’s warning and clamped his hands over his ears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned to look at Wen San, who tore out clumps of cotton from his tattered clothes, stuffed them into his ears, and handed him two more clumps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Run!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once Wen Si had also stuffed cotton into his ears, Wen San formed the word with his lips and sprinted out first!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Si hurried after him!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the cellar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cao Tou Long Chang, its body composed of one head attached to one tablet after another, passed slowly by Zhou Chang’s side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Violent xiangqi clung to the “dragon’s body,” causing the fungal filaments on the Cao Tou Long Chang’s surface to grow denser.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The pale faces, each connected to a different tablet, kept their eyes tightly shut, lips trembling, spreading sounds in all directions—and spreading the Cao Tou Long Chang’s omen of death:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Do… do you hold an official title?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang tried to dismantle the Cao Tou Long Chang’s body, but when he reached out, his fingers grasped the heads and tablets linked along the dragon’s form, they only caught wisps of empty xiangqi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those xiangqi vanished from his fingers in the blink of an eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cao Tou Long Chang remained unharmed, still slowly writhing, strolling past Zhou Chang with complete indifference!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How do you kill a folk god?!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s pupils trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Li Xiamei, he had learned how to silence a xiangmo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—As long as you broke the xiangmo’s killing pattern, it could be bound like a pig or dog!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now he faced a folk god—Zhou Chang vaguely remembered that Zhou Sanji or Yang Rui had once said: as long as the divine banner lived forever, the folk god it had empowered could never be killed!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Impossible to kill!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unpredictable!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was a folk god!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang took a deep breath, then held it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He raised his gaze to the tail of the Cao Tou Long Chang—the golden chain forged from the emperor’s decree, dragging the headless body brimming with xiangnian, swaying behind it, about to glide past Zhou Chang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the Cao Tou Long Chang unconsciously chanted the secret mantra related to the Wealthy King, the golden chain was now entirely covered in square-holed copper coins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each coin corroded the imperial decree, rusting the links until the chain was on the verge of snapping.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When this chain broke, the Cao Tou Long Chang could surely “fly as high as the sky,” but the xiangnian aggregate bound to it would plunge fully into the mortal world, its chaotic xiangnian flooding Qingyi Town—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How many guil-class creatures would grow in Qingyi Town, on this farmland claimed by the Wealthy King?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All those guil-class creatures would become food for Zhou Chang’s corpse!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, Zhou Chang attempted to make the xiangnian aggregate detach prematurely—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let this headless body of Wen Yongsheng sink forever into the spring at the cellar’s bottom; people outside would never discover its existence, and the cellar could be sealed away forever, perhaps allowing it to coexist peacefully with the outside world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If this xiangnian aggregate was not carried out of the cellar by the Cao Tou Long Chang, if it never reached the crowd, perhaps the outcome would be entirely different.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Zhou Chang had no suitable tools, no effective method—he had not the slightest chance of succeeding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shhh!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clusters of iron-nian threads wrapped around Zhou Chang’s hands; following his will, they twisted and coiled, forming serrated blades.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang kept his gaze lowered, trying his best not to look at the xiangnian aggregate dangling from the Cao Tou Long Chang’s tail—his eyes meeting that headless corpse instantly triggered uncontrollable hallucinations of terrifying xiangnian!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He listened to the clinking of the golden chain; when the sound reached his ears, he slammed his serrated sickle-blade onto it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ssshh! Ssshh! Ssshh!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang furiously sliced at the golden chain!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt the chain cracking under the iron-nian sickle’s cut, the fissures widening until one link was completely sawn through—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire golden chain snapped into two pieces because of that single severed link!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The headless body of aggregated xiangnian seemed to plunge into the ever-rising wine sea!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s heart eased—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He lowered his hand, gazed at the wine sea rising steadily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wine sea floated many headless corpses, yet none among them was the xiangnian aggregate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang turned to look outside the cellar—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Cao Tou Long Chang, dragging the headless corpse behind the golden chain, drifted slowly, floating out of the dim inner chamber…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhou Chang’s attempt had achieved not the slightest effect.\u003C\u002Fp>",1313,"2026-06-19T18:47:42.084Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","f8fe0c86f2625002ebedcbfbeeb9639e2d1d106a5c500d2c49e7c12216a81e91","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-70","there-is-a-malevolent-spirit-chapter-68",209,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthere-is-a-malevolent-spirit-cover.jpg"]