Chapter 49: 49. Collecting fierce ghosts, collecting unwanted fierce ghosts...
The swift crimson blur of the swords was so swift that within moments they had slashed down more than a dozen ghost minions, filling Tan Shuchang with glee.
Although he didn’t know why the locust general wanted to assimilate these ghost minions, as long as they could still be used after being "plucked," everything was fine.
At this moment, the locust general was deeply unsettled, as the ghost minions Tan Shuchang had "plucked" were the ones he had struggled to assimilate.
It thought that its strength was comparable to Tan Shuchang, a flesh and blood player, and after assimilating its subordinates, it was sure of its victory. It hadn’t anticipated Tan Shuchang’s might, which now paralleled that of ancient Yin Gods.
Without hesitation, colossal locust tree roots shot out from the ground, appearing like countless centuries-old pythons emerging from their dens, carrying a massive wave of yin energy which morphed into a rolling deathly aura, and rapidly retreated.
It appeared that the locust general was preparing to flee.
As a crafty old ghost in this eerie game, the locust general had managed to live so freely and proudly for so long mainly thanks to its ability to create diversions and slip away undetected.
It even dared to call itself half a yin god because it had escaped from the hands of Yin Gods several times.
However, this time, the locust general did not manage to escape successfully, but it wasn’t Tan Shuchang who stopped him. Suddenly, the quiet ghost city stirred as a rolling fog of yin energy surged upward, followed by thundering roars.
In moments of seismic shaking, the ghost city came to life, and then a vortex appeared between its massive gates.
"Under the pretense of military formation, assimilating your ghost minions constitutes a grave crime! Locust General, you’ve been exposed. The Living Dead Yin God has sent me to capture you," thundered a voice from within the vortex, and then a gigantic ghostly figure that blotted out the sky emerged from the vortex.
As this phantom appeared, an area of tens of miles around turned pale teal.
This was the Green Fang Rending Ghost.
The number one Ghost General under the Living Dead Yin God, although it was a fierce ghost, that didn’t mean it wasn’t formidable – in fact, it was too powerful, which meant its killing rules hardly allowed it to upgrade, thus trapping it at the fierce ghost tier.
Its power was overwhelmingly superior to the locust general.
In the now pale teal backdrop, several spatial rifts suddenly appeared, and the large body of the locust general was instantly torn apart.
A dry and odd human-shaped corpse fell out, which the Green Fang Rending Ghost grasped in its palm.
This was indeed the locust general’s true form.
"Spare me! Spare me, Brother Green Fang Rending Ghost!" the locust general struggled, but the Green Fang Rending Ghost completely ignored him, carrying the general’s true form back through the vortex.
The vortex disappeared, and the swaying Lang Guardian Ghost City also settled down in that instant.
As for Tan Shuchang… he was busy gathering fierce ghosts.
Yes, gathering.
When the locust general’s treelike body was instantly shattered, the ghost minions he had assimilated were flung out.
And as these ghost minions were flung out, some disintegrated upon hitting the ground.
It was as if these fierce ghosts had turned into lumps of lard, while the ground of the ghost city was like a red-hot iron skillet – they sizzled and vanished instantly.
The rest of the ghost minions, which did not disintegrate immediately, also dimmed steadily, or began to slowly disappear.
Fortunately, as long as these ghost servants were covered with blood, the process of their annihilation would be interrupted.
Tan Shuchang reacted quickly, but due to the fast-dissipating nature of these refined ghost servants, he ended up capturing only twenty fierce ghosts.
Adding the thirteen fierce ghosts he had "plucked" earlier, he now had exactly thirty-three fierce ghosts in his possession.
"The third fierce ghost lotus lifting needs twelve ghosts, and the fourth needs sixteen. That’s a total of twenty-eight..."
Finding that he could not only perform two fierce ghost lotus liftings but also had five extra, Tan Shuchang couldn’t help but be elated.
Thus, he handed the mess of defending the Ghost City to the scholarly ghost to clean up and then returned to the instance using the Impermanence Order.
By that time, the instance had already reached halfway.
Tan Shuchang didn’t care what kind of instance it was; once he had located the fierce ghost within, he immediately approached it.
"Sir Ghost, why not do me a favor and lie down by yourself?"
He sincerely suggested to the fierce ghost in the instance.
But the fierce ghost was not one to be persuaded.
Thus, Tan Shuchang reluctantly took action.
Although he had been delayed for a while in the Ghost City, from finding the fierce ghost in the instance to defeating it, it all happened within less than the time it would take for a pot of tea to brew.
Therefore, when Tan Shuchang left the eerie game, he still had not violated the time limit of one hour for the instance.
The game ended, and the blood-red text advising them to "drink more hot water" appeared again in the sky, causing the players who had participated in this instance to be momentarily stunned, but they soon exhibited excitement and exhilaration.
However, not all the players felt the same; aside from Tan Shuchang, there were seven other players. At that moment, among these seven players, one with a somewhat gloomy demeanor and a hint of arrogance suddenly spoke up, "Leave your real information."
"Why should we?" naturally, there were players who were discontent.
"Because I belong to the Yujing Association," the grim player replied coldly.
"Yujing Association? That’s quite pretentious."
"If you disagree, let’s meet when you return. As long as you dare to leave your real information, I guarantee I can find you," the player with the gloomy demeanor said, glancing coldly at the speaking player.
His words were calm, but the threatening tone was evident, as the Yujing Association had an official backing.
"What do you want our real information for? Let me clarify, this isn’t because I have issues with your Yujing Association, but in this instance, the most forbidden thing is to share one’s real information with other players. This has been mentioned not just by one, but several top players in their lectures," another player interjected, speaking quite articulately.
Upon hearing this, the player with the gloomy demeanor fell silent for a moment. Then, after sweeping his gaze over the six firm players, he reluctantly stated, "It’s no harm to tell you.
The sudden defeat or disappearance of the instance’s fierce ghosts has been happening for a while now, and it’s not because there are other players besides us but because a godly player from our Yujing Association has been acting secretly!"
This was a decision recently discussed by the senior members of the Yujing Association.
Since they had obtained precise information from the Street of Forgotten Dwellings that a human player was causing this event, they decided to take this opportunity to get control over all the players of the eerie game. After all, as long as it was a flesh-and-blood player, they wouldn’t be afraid.
You see, the legendary godly player in their Yujing Association is actually not a flesh-and-blood player!
And in their view, the notion that ghosts are stronger than flesh-and-blood players was as fundamental as a law of the world.