Huh? Isn't this an adventure kingdom building game?!-Chapter 160 Clearing the Level (5th Update)

Jiang Yuan couldn’t help but feel puzzled, "So what happened to the rooftop beast I encountered earlier? Why can it move on its own? Aren’t you supposed to have all transformed into chaotic masses gathering together?"

"That guy isn’t one of the city folks," the statue replied truthfully, "After turning into this ghostly state, everyone still felt hungry, but there was nothing to eat, so we just lingered on half-dead. Until one day, a stone beast with wings fell from the sky, oh no, it was injured and couldn’t fly away.

He was hungry too, searched all over the city but found nothing to eat. We could always blend with the buildings, he couldn’t eat us, and we couldn’t eat him.

But that guy knew a lot and told us that our world has completely collapsed, and it’s only by luck that we’ve survived. Then he said if we follow his instructions, we can trick others into giving us food!"

"How do you trick them?" Bai Yunqi was greatly shocked, "You’re just floating in the void, how can you encounter living things to devour?"

He knew that after the world collapses, for various reasons, some surviving world fragments would wander in the void. His two previous avatars were too unfortunate, powerless to resist, and could only watch as they perished.

So he had not experienced it firsthand, only heard about it.

The process of soul fusion described by the statue matched his understanding. Each fragment wandering in the void possesses its own peculiarities. But a stone beast with wings descending from the sky, that was very strange indeed.

In the endless void, two massive fragments meeting is extraordinarily lucky. For a stone beast to just coincidentally appear, it sounds quite bizarre.

Could it be that the rooftop beast was also a product of some mutation?

If they could devour each other, doesn’t it mean that the void is full of abnormalities relying on primitive instincts to devour one another? No wonder the occasional ghost realm merging into the world barrier feels so odd.

"Of course, we can encounter living things." The statue nodded clumsily, "At first, we didn’t understand, it was all based on the stone beast’s guidance—open our house doors, conjure human or ghost forms in the rooms, create an illusion of a prosperous, self-sufficient city. Sure enough, it could lure some people, ghosts, or even demons from other fragments."

As it spoke, it naturally shifted its body backward and continued explaining, "We rely on devouring those drawn to us wanting a feast to fill our bellies and continue surviving. Until..."

The statue pointed at itself, lowering its voice, "Until we heard the prayers in the void, we were summoned, invited here!

A ghost cultivator promising infinite power, with the added power of faith from the humans who believed in him, the stone beast guided us to gather all our strength, break through the world barriers, and come here.

That ghost cultivator had already devoured many souls, yet to refine them, and eagerly wanted to devour our energy in Wufeng City.

But he overestimated himself and ended up bursting from sheer force. The unrefined yin souls he devoured got polluted, and with the energy support inside Wufeng City, they returned to their bodies, becoming corpses.

A few days ago, the illusion tricked you because no other living person had entered, and you were strong. The stronger the cultivator, the tastier it is; we planned to deceive you, letting you sink in the illusion, rage until you lose your guard, and swallow you whole!"

As it spoke, it had already finished gathering power, immediately bursting forth with rolling black smoke, laughing, "Since you love hearing our story, why not join us and become one of us!"

The wild laughter lasted less than five seconds before the statue finally realized something was wrong—the killing move released with full force was growing... weaker?

"Didn’t you both catch the fact that your companion disappeared while you were busy running away?" Jiang Yuan and Bai Yunqi stood uniformly, arms crossed over their chests with faint smiles on their faces, while a simple, plain designed Soul Refining Banner stood in the center.

The pocket was wide open, absorbing voraciously, the originally dark dense fog quickly vanished.

The Soul Refining Banner, evidently still hungry, after absorbing the energy it released, began to point at the statue to seize the Yin Fiend aura hiding inside.

"Do you believe I can break it with one stick?" Jiang Yuan listened to the story while watching the opponent’s health bar drop by 20, the two blended chaotic ghosts seemingly unaware of any abnormalities, truly thinking that by recounting past events they might gain an advantage.

In reality, slowly delaying the time by telling stories, as the final big BOSS, its health bar had already brought itself down to a critical state.

Witnessing firsthand the sustained damage effect of the Corpse Poison Pill, he had begun considering mutual exchanges the next time, swapping some paper talismans for pills which could be of great use at times.

"Ha, even with the Soul Refining Banner’s assistance, you couldn’t possibly solve it with just one stick." Bai Yunqi tilted his head and smiled, "Just watch, the Soul Refining Banner, in a stalemate, gains no advantage truly, whereas sending a swarm of paper talismans might just work."

While speaking, the health bar dropped again by a small portion.

Jiang Yuan said no more, swinging the jujube wood stick down on the statue, surrounded tightly by paper talismans, missing a hit wanting to escape but unable to flee, wanting to strike but didn’t know where to start.

"Crack!"

With a crisp snap, the statue immediately broke in half, those two black blended chaotic ghosts no longer having anywhere to hide, screamed and cried unwillingly as they were absorbed into the Soul Refining Banner.

With the last bit of black smoke absorbed completely, the violent wind scattered the thick dust into the grass, everything settled with only the empty houses of Riverfront Village silently standing as Wufeng City had completely vanished.

[Absorbed two blended chaotic ghosts, estimated time to refine malice is 106 hours]

[Soul Refining Banner usage rate 95%]

[Violently cleared, Riverfront Village instance successfully calculating...]

"It was really solved with one stick?!" Bai Yunqi couldn’t figure it out, though the attack could be considered somewhat clumsy, the opponent didn’t seem weakened to the point where it could be taken down with one stick!

Judging by its previous combat power, wouldn’t it need a few more kicks from the paper mache elephant?

He paused, eyes looking at the inconspicuous jujube wood stick in Jiang Yuan’s hands, "Venerable Family, your weapon is indeed hard to gauge!"

Just a small successful boast, he waved it off with a smile without saying anything, "Let’s go, the ghost realm has been dealt with, I need to go to the Old Dragon Cave to mine, and maybe search for the legendary big tree in the mine."

"After all that fighting, it’s frustrating that there’s no loot at all." Bai Yunqi looked at the dirt and ash strewn across the grass, with no traces left of the ghost realm, apart from gaining some experience and a few tales, there was no harvest, feeling somewhat disappointed.

The system was still on the settlement screen, Jiang Yuan thought, indeed can’t make the contract pet exert itself for nothing, immediately withdrawing a hundred Spirit Stones from the account and handing them over, "Here, thanks for your trouble. You’ve gathered quite a bit of spices these past days, later I’ll make some incense for you to try forming a Little Xiang Mountain."

"Venerable Family, you’re wise!" Originally, his eyes lit up seeing the Spirit Stones, Bai Yunqi intended to haughtily say "Now that’s better", but hearing mention of building Xiang Mountain, even if a small one, he got really excited, immediately changing his words, "How about I go with you to the Old Dragon Cave? Searching for that big tree or whatever, I can also lend a hand."

Indeed, money can make the ghost grind, benefits can bend the big white snake.

Jiang Yuan was in a particularly good mood, refusing, "You better go back to cultivation, today must have been tiresome for you. Besides, mining is just watched over by paper figures, if you’re free, you can even teach the two of them some writing."

The two split and took action, just as they hadn’t yet flown to the Old Dragon Cave, the system dinged with a string of alerts—the first instance clearance settlement was out!

The most uptodat𝓮 n𝒐vels are published on (f)reew𝒆(b)novel.𝗰𝗼𝐦