Chapter 357: Respective Gains

The battle within the scroll world had reached a fever pitch.

And Little Fatty, using his phone as a camera, was faithfully recording everything before him.

After all, he had nothing else to do.

Zero’s summon time had run out. Without Zero to hold it back, the mountain-sized Divine Spirit had started moving back down the mountain, preparing to merge with the Evil Corpse and transform into an abomination.

Realizing there was no other option, the Little Daoist steeled himself and pulled out all the stops. He summoned a horde of ghosts and ghouls and began his assault on the Divine Spirit.

Meanwhile, Cuihua was still cooking.

After completing the Man-Han Banquet, the remaining dishes grew increasingly bizarre, which only made Cuihua more and more excited.

It seemed Cuihua preferred cooking to fighting.

Moreover, with every dish completed, the Little Daoist’s power seemed to increase slightly, while the Evil Corpse’s power would weaken.

This situation gave Cuihua even more motivation to cook.

On the path before the Divine Spirit, all sorts of phantoms, under the Little Daoist’s control, threw themselves forward recklessly. Following his commands, they used every method at their disposal to bravely block the Divine Spirit’s advance.

Watching this scene unfold, Little Fatty felt something wasn’t quite right.

Although he was terrified of horror instances, he frequently found himself in them.

In most horror instances, a group of people would be forced to run and hide, cautiously searching for clues. After finding them, they’d have to fulfill various conditions with their hearts in their throats, finally scraping through the ordeal with tear-streaked faces and wet pants.

But for some reason, whenever he ran an instance with Duan Someone, they always encountered all sorts of bizarre, unexpected situations, and the entire instance’s style would completely change.

‘Maybe this is just life. Everyone has their own specialty. For example, Duan Someone makes instances different, and I… I make *him* different. That sounds pretty cool. I’ll edit that in later.’

Continuing to record, Little Fatty knew he had his footage for the next video.

Down below, however, the Little Daoist resisting the Divine Spirit was complaining bitterly in his heart.

The birth of the abomination would be a cataclysm for the entire world.

‘And this whole damn mess was my master’s fault!’

As he fought, he cursed inwardly:

‘You just had to go and liberate yourself with a weapon!’

‘You just had to lie there doing nothing and let a cleaver do the work!’

‘You just had to leave without explaining anything!’

‘You just had to…!’

While cursing his master out nine ways to Sunday, he commanded the paper effigies around him to desperately hold the line.

He didn’t know why he was doing this. All he knew was that Duan Fei had told him to hold on for a little longer, so he held on.

He let out a breath and saw the Divine Spirit suddenly freeze.

Then, the Evil Corpse at the foot of the mountain let out a bloodcurdling scream. Its enormous head went spinning into the air, and its internal organs, like ripe fruit hanging from a tree, flew out still attached to its spine as it frantically tried to escape into the distance.

“Hey, can you guys do something that won’t get censored?” Little Fatty shouted from the rooftop. “Also, does anyone have a spare pair of pants? And can someone get me down from here?!”

The Evil Corpse had no time to deal with Little Fatty.

Its bloody intestines were tangled around the cleaver from the “liberation,” waving about like tentacles, constantly resisting something else.

The body, now missing its head and organs, slowly got to its feet. Upon realizing it had no head, it gave a helpless shrug and began walking toward the Evil Corpse.

“Don’t come over here! Stay away!”

The Evil Corpse viciously swung the cleaver as its body flew ever upward, past the blockades of paper effigies, toward the Divine Spirit halfway up the path.

This maneuver was quite difficult for it. After flying a short distance, its altitude would drop, until it was practically crawling along the ground.

Some paper effigies nearby tried to approach, but the cleaver carried by the Evil Corpse was the weapon the Old Dao had used for his “liberation.” It now possessed a certain mystical quality that prevented these ghouls from getting close.

The Little Daoist brandished his Money Sword, preparing to advance, but a voice rang out from the air: “My apprentice, wait. Let me handle this.”

Hearing this voice, the Little Daoist, who had just been cursing his master, felt his shoulders tremble.

Looking at the slowly approaching headless corpse, the Little Daoist’s eyes welled up with tears. He performed a fist-and-palm salute, respectfully welcoming his master’s return.

The surrounding phantoms also kowtowed, making the headless corpse seem like a king returning as it strode step by step toward the Evil Corpse.

By now, the Evil Corpse had lunged toward the Divine Spirit, the cleaver on its intestines swinging wildly as its mouth issued a hysterical roar: “Come on, merge with me! Become an abomination! Get over here!”

The colossal Divine Spirit did not reply.

It looked at the returning, headless Old Dao, then suddenly dropped to one knee. With hands clasped, it said, “Greetings, True Master.”

“Good. You may go back,” the headless Old Dao said calmly.

“Yes.”

Seeing the Divine Spirit actually turn to leave, the Evil Corpse immediately brandished the cleaver, shouting, “Come back! Don’t go! I have the cleaver!”

“No, *I* have the cleaver.”

The headless master walked forward, picked up the rusty cleaver, and brought it down with a single stroke.

The first “liberation by the blade” had allowed the Old Dao to ascend after death.

The second “liberation by the blade” allowed the Old Dao to return to life. The greed, anger, and ignorance within his being were severed by that one strike, and the filth on his physical body was swept clean, leaving the Old Dao feeling utterly refreshed.

He put his head, spinal cord, and internal organs back inside. The skin on both sides of the wound pulled together, and his body quickly returned to its original state, leaving only a bloody line on his neck.

Touching the line on his neck, the Old Dao nodded at the assembled ghosts and ghouls, then said to the Little Daoist, “It’s been a while. You’ve shown some growth.”

“Master…”

“Alright, enough chitchat. I have successfully returned, so you don’t need to worry anymore. I’ll hold up this world. After this, I will help you ascend, and we, master and apprentice, will go do great things.”

“What great things?”

“We’ll slaughter that bastard, and then go sample the female ghosts of other worlds.”

「After the Old Dao’s return, Duan Fei, Little Fatty, and Cuihua also left that world.」

Standing outside, they all felt like it had ended too soon.

Because it was a trial instance, there was no settlement screen, but everyone felt they had gained a lot.

Cuihua had a blast cooking, and because of this high-intensity session, the basic Chef Skill [Cooking] finally reached Master Level.

Although it was only a support Skill, Master Level [Cooking] allowed Cuihua to produce two portions of food from one set of ingredients. Furthermore, the created food would come with a random temporary buff, further cementing their status as a support character.

Of course, they were also a formidable fighter.

In addition, the Divine Artifact, the Flat-bottomed Pan, had officially acknowledged them as its master. Its other effects would require gradual research, giving them limitless future potential.

Little Fatty, meanwhile, began editing the video he recorded, preparing to throw it up on the platform later to gain a wave of new fans.

Duan Fei’s gains were also significant.

Fighting high-level creatures granted extra Skill proficiency. Both his [Crowbar Skill] and [Crowbar Swordsmanship] reached Great Success. Next was to find an opportunity to upgrade them to the Master level.

Moreover, he had obtained the Old Dao’s Character Card. With this new addition, he now had a total of three Character Cards.

Not only that, but Duan Fei had also acquired the “Yingjie Chapter” and the “Cultivation Chapter.” He’d show them to Bald Qiang later; there might be additional rewards.

Next up was logging off and having a meal with Jinghong.

For some reason, the thought that Jinghong had already prepared lunch filled him with a sense of anticipation.

He didn’t know if he was looking forward to the delicious food, or to the time he could spend alone with Jinghong.