Chapter 151 - 123: Night Parade of Hundred Ghosts

Chapter 151: Chapter 123: Night Parade of Hundred Ghosts

It was rather interesting. When Hammond was alive, Chen Qi’s LV3 skill had no effect on him.

But after he died and turned into a monster, Chen Qi’s Card skill was his perfect counter.

The key to this was that purple barb.

Its greatest function was to prevent Spirituality Rebound in Chen Qi, so it could naturally insulate him from the monster’s spiritual pollution.

This monster, which was incredibly dangerous to other Transcendents, posed no real threat to Chen Qi.

The monster’s only ability was to pollute Spirituality, causing cognitive chaos in living beings.

And since the new methods for Transcendents relied entirely on Spirituality, one could imagine how unlucky this was for them.

No wonder Hammond had boasted he could be the bane of this new path.

But when this monster met Chen Qi, it was its turn to be unlucky.

...

’What in the world is this thing?’

’Forget direct spiritual contact; just seeing it is enough to make me feel agitated and distressed.’

’This thing is even more bizarre and twisted than resentment, and it’s full of corruption.’

The monster struggled ceaselessly, but it was completely unable to escape the suppression of the purple hook.

Chen Qi didn’t sense any spiritual fluctuations from its body, which confirmed his earlier suspicion: this thing wasn’t a living being at all.

The monster had no real physical form; it was essentially a mixture of resentment and corrupting Energy.

As for the Mountain Spirit it had devoured, it had died instantly upon being completely corrupted, transforming into even stronger resentment.

It was only because this resentment served as a skeletal frame that it had taken the form of a monster.

Otherwise, it would have just been a twisting, shifting mass of corrupting Energy.

Incredibly, even without using his Spiritual Eye, Chen Qi could still perceive its existence with his naked eye.

More accurately, it was radiating its own existence into Chen Qi’s perception.

This was, in fact, a form of pollution, but Chen Qi’s Spirituality was so powerful that it directly annihilated it.

But if an ordinary person were to see it, they would undoubtedly experience all sorts of sensory discomfort.

And this was just the monster produced from the death of an apprentice-level scholar.

If a more powerful scholar were to die, wouldn’t the monster they created be equivalent to a terrifying source of nuclear radiation?

Given its nature, it would probably chase after any living thing with frenzied abandon.

It would be an absolute tragedy for humanity. No wonder the World Government keeps a registry.

...

’What should I do now?’

If it were pure resentment, Chen Qi could have easily erased it.

But mixed with that corrupting Energy, it had suddenly become troublesome.

None of the methods Chen Qi currently possessed were particularly suitable for eliminating it.

The most direct method would be to call upon a powerful Matter Field and grind it out of existence.

But Chen Qi obviously couldn’t do that here.

The second method was to use Spiritual Energy to brute-force it into oblivion, but Chen Qi was a bit reluctant. Even his four points of Spiritual Energy might not be enough.

That left Chen Qi with only one option: to pit his Spirituality directly against it.

The essence of this thing was merely a power that polluted Spirituality, but all things in creation both generate and overcome one another.

It could pollute Spirituality, but as long as one’s Spirituality was powerful enough, it could, in turn, forcibly grind it away.

Chen Qi’s Spirituality wasn’t necessarily that powerful, but he didn’t have to worry about being polluted himself. With a little more time, he could still wear it down and destroy it.

’Fine, so it’s a bit of a hassle.’

’This thing is clearly a menace. If I don’t deal with it, Heaven knows what kind of trouble it’ll cause.’

SHHHH, Chen Qi poured his own Spirituality into the Invisible Chain, channeling it to the purple barb.

Driven by Chen Qi, the purple barb vibrated at a high frequency, continuously shattering and disintegrating the monster’s body.

’Its body is filled with all sorts of Memory Fragments?’

’They must be from the Mountain God cells and Hammond.’

Although separated by the purple barb, Chen Qi’s Spirituality was now in contact with the monster, allowing him to naturally learn more about it.

In Chen Qi’s eyes, the creature’s form was no longer a humanoid monster, but a twisting, grayish-white ball of light.

The ball of light was filled with black threads, which were, of course, the resentment.

But there were even more bizarre and motley images.

They were fragmented, strange, and twisted—even harder to comprehend than the most abstract works of absurdist art.

Chen Qi couldn’t understand them either, of course, but he could guess their origin.

And the subsequent process of annihilation confirmed his guess was correct.

As those bizarre images collided with Chen Qi’s spiritual power, a measure of their true nature was forcibly restored.

Although Chen Qi only ended up with fragmented images, he could still piece them together to recover some information.

This brought Chen Qi some relief; at least his efforts weren’t for nothing.

It took a full half-hour for Chen Qi to completely grind the monster into nothingness.

One could just imagine how tenacious this thing was.

No wonder the Kalu family and Spade A avoided the fallout like the plague after they accidentally killed that scholar back then.

...

From the Memory Fragments he had gathered, Chen Qi saw glimpses of what had happened back then.

They were still fragmented, but combined with Hammond’s account, he could roughly reconstruct some of the truth.

It was just several factions fighting over the remains of the Mountain God, who then accidentally killed a scholar.

As a result, everyone suffered. Hammond, however, managed to survive by a stroke of luck and secretly made off with a piece of the Mountain God’s remains—the very same small stone Chen Qi had held earlier.

Unfortunately, in a last-ditch effort to fight the spiritual pollution, the Mountain God, having regained its senses at the final moment, chose to recall all of its cells. The result was like drinking poison to quench thirst—utterly useless.

And with that, the piece of the Mountain God’s remains in Chen Qi’s hand also turned to dust.

But the ones who had it even worse were those who had taken the Blood Salt.

The moment the Mountain God chose to recall its cells, they began to die in droves.

Even those who didn’t die were left as idiots.

Such a large-scale Anomaly naturally alerted Leiteri and the others who were on standby.

Chen Qi also got detailed information from them, and then notified them that they could close the net.

The Comir Biological Company would definitely be shut down. It remained to be seen how their parent corporation would respond, but that had nothing to do with Chen Qi.

What troubled Chen Qi was how to write the case report.

After some thought, Chen Qi decided not to write anything at all.

Because the matters involved were simply too troublesome.

The Mountain Spirit’s summons only destroyed the Mountain God cells from its own cluster. According to Hammond’s memories, a large piece of the Mountain God’s remains was still out there.

As for whose hands it was in?

According to Hammond’s speculation, it was most likely Spade A, but it could also be other players.

But it was definitely still in the Lanyu Kingdom.

Because of the Divine Talisman’s existence, the Mountain God’s remains couldn’t be taken off the island. Forcibly removing them would only cause them to die.

...

’July 15th, the Mountain Monarch’s procession, the Night Parade of Hundred Ghosts!’

’I’ve heard this folk legend since I was a child. I never thought someone was actually pulling the strings behind it.’

’Compared to Hammond’s petty scheming, those guys are really playing for high stakes.’

Hammond had spent ten years researching how to resurrect the Mountain God. He was crystal clear on practically every rumor and movement related to it.

Then, he inadvertently discovered the secret of that group.

Someone was guiding public opinion, attempting to "resurrect the Mountain God" through it.

Unfortunately, a full ten years had passed, and those guys still hadn’t succeeded.

Hammond had originally planned to hitch a ride on their success, but in the end, he could only watch helplessly alongside them.

According to the last bits of information Hammond learned, the original idea to resurrect the Mountain God came from the Kalu family. The legend of "July 15th, the Mountain Monarch’s procession, the Night Parade of Hundred Ghosts" began hundreds of years ago.

Unfortunately, the Kalu family hadn’t succeeded even by the time Gutaf ascended the throne.

According to Hammond’s analysis, the Kalu family failed because they never found the Mountain God’s remains.

In fact, because the Mountain God’s remains were suppressed by the power of the Black Death Prison, their rituals yielded no response no matter what they did.

It wasn’t until after the Black Death Prison disappeared that the Mountain God cells gradually revived and were finally found by them.

But by this time, the King’s Game had enveloped the entire island, making it basically impossible to resurrect the Mountain Spirit with the power of rituals.

The Spirituality of the Lanyu Kingdom’s citizens had long been siphoned away by the game. The entire island didn’t even have a single Spiritual Transformation Pivot, so how could they recreate a Mountain God?

But after ten years of consistent promotion, the legend of the Mountain Ghost had still accumulated some power.

Hammond had recently discovered that the factions from back then were planning to join forces.

The Kalu family possessed the Mountain God’s true name, outside forces had a method for finding the Divine Talisman, and the Mountain God’s remains had most likely fallen into the hands of a player.

If these three parties were to team up and use the sacrificial day of July 15th, they might actually be able to find the Divine Talisman.

This was also the direct reason Hammond had made up his mind to immediately launch the Blood Salt project.

Because if those guys found the Divine Talisman, the Mountain God remains in his possession would be summoned away, and his Extraordinary dream would be completely extinguished.

He couldn’t accept it without taking a gamble.

Transforming the Mountain Spirit was his best chance and the one with the highest probability of success.

There was no other way. The nearby Inner World was scarce in resources; he had no other paths available.

And if he left this place, with his status as a freelance scholar and a member of the Skull Society, he’d probably be thrown straight into prison.

...

’This tiny Lanyu Kingdom... so many storms in such a small place. It’s a real pressure cooker.’

’By my calculations, those one thousand-plus death row inmates are about to be thrown in here.’

’After that, it’ll be the exiled apprentices and the folks attracted by the various legends.’

’And all of it will be mixed with the struggles and reshuffling among the players. What a mess!’

’July 15th is definitely an incredibly important turning point.’

’Perhaps after that day, the game will enter its bloodiest phase.’

A sense of urgency welled up in Chen Qi’s heart. He had to rake in enough benefits in the next few months.

Otherwise, what foundation would he have to compete with those veteran players?

After searching Hammond’s residence one more time, Chen Qi left Black Iron City with Hammond’s corpse.

He didn’t plan on writing the mission report, so naturally, he didn’t plan on turning in the body either.

This kind of action from Chen Qi could only be described as "quite in line with the traditional habits of players."

Because if he recorded the truth, many details of the mission would touch upon his own abilities.

For a player, this was absolutely unacceptable.

So whether to write it, and how to write it, was truly up to the player’s whim.

Chen Qi felt he had been quite conscientious. At the very least, he had settled the matter.

Many Order Keepers who cut corners and shirked their duties were probably not as dedicated as he was.

According to Chen Qi’s plan, before making his final decision, it was still necessary for him to be a good Order Keeper.

Since he wasn’t planning to write a report, he certainly couldn’t hand over the body.

Otherwise, the appearance of a scholar’s corpse would inevitably cause a considerable stir.

For a moment, Chen Qi even considered trying to fuse the B3-grade Biological Gene Module with the corpse.

But he ultimately dismissed this overly suicidal idea. As for how to handle the body, after much consideration, Chen Qi decided to burn it to ashes.

He currently had neither the ability to research things at the genetic level, nor the time and energy for it.

If the so-called High-level genes of scholars were so easy to crack, they would have been driven to extinction long ago.

Since that was the case, the corpse was worthless to Chen Qi. It was best to destroy it completely.

After destroying the body and erasing all traces, a completely empty-handed Chen Qi returned to his lair.

Aside from learning a big secret, all he got out of this was a large pile of Memory Fragments.

Hammond’s were fine; Chen Qi sorted through them easily.

The memories from the Mountain God cells, however, were far too bizarre and motley. Chen Qi planned to spend the next few days sorting through them properly.

Before those one thousand death row inmates were thrown in, trouble probably wouldn’t come looking for him.