Calamity Ash Monster

Chapter 50: Calamity Ash Monster

Shuofang is a city of forests, where dozens of buildings are often crowded together, forming building clusters.

Between these building clusters are factories, some for firing glaze, some for smelting minerals, and others for casting and refining. Different factories have different specializations.

The Calamity Ash Factory is located on the outskirts of Shuofang City, near many tall buildings. According to Li Muge, these buildings are called Enclosure Towers.

"Enclosure Towers are where the poor in the city live."

Li Muge walked ahead with his pack and said, "The word 'enclosure' means a garden for raising animals, so Enclosure Towers are places where lower-class people live. The houses here are old, dilapidated, small, and very crowded. Everyone living here is a poor fellow like me, some are scholars from the academies, and some have come from the countryside to make a living."

He paused, hesitated, and then continued, "Many of the monsters who enter the city also hide here. Junior Brother Yun, what kind of monster are you?"

"I'm really not a monster," Su Yun said helplessly.

"It's not a big deal if you are a monster. I can tell, you're probably a wild ox demon. Actually, our Wenchang Academy has some junior brothers who are monsters. But other academies are different; they are mostly old fuddy-duddies who want to kill monsters on sight."

Li Muge walked in front, and the snow began to fall harder, making Shuofang City appear misty.

"I've seen monsters many times in the city. The young man next door and his family seem to be monsters... Strange, why is there so much snow?"

Li Muge looked up at the sky, surprised. "There shouldn't be this much snow in Shuofang City at this season. This snow is strange."

He shook his head.

Flower Fox suddenly said, "Little Yun, when the Human Demon appeared 150 years ago, it also snowed heavily, burying the mountains."

Su Yun's heart grew solemn.

According to the records in the ancient book from the Dragon Burial Mound, when Tiandao Academy Scholar Ge Long was summoning the Dragon Spirit in the Dragon Burial Mound, it also suddenly snowed heavily, burying the mountains and preventing them from leaving.

"After the Human Demon emerged from the Dragon Burial Mound, it also snowed heavily in Tianshiyuan, and now it's Shuofang City's turn."

Su Yun looked up at the sky. The snowflakes were getting bigger and bigger, each as large as a palm, fluttering down. "It seems that The Whole Village Eats should have arrived in Shuofang City. And the Team Leader Senior Brother from Tiandao Academy, he should be in Shuofang City too, right? In the past 150 years, he has changed his appearance, but his extraordinary skills cannot be hidden. If he stayed in Shuofang, today, 150 years later, he should be the most powerful figure in the city?"

Of course, it's also possible that the Team Leader Senior Brother didn't stay in Shuofang after leaving Tianshiyuan.

"Junior Brother Yun, Junior Brother Hua, look, the Calamity Ash Factory is up ahead," Li Muge pointed forward and said with a smile.

Su Yun suppressed his wandering thoughts and looked in the direction he was pointing.

He was also curious about the so-called Calamity Ash Factory.

In Li Muge's words, Shuofang is a city built on calamity ash, and the Calamity Ash Factory's contribution to Shuofang is immeasurable!

Ahead, beside the official road, was a large factory covering about a thousand mu. The factory was built on flat ground, backed by a mountain. Inside were rows of flat buildings, no high-rises.

The mountain was not large and had already been half-excavated. There were several cave entrances several dozen feet high on the mountain face.

The factory was brightly lit. At the entrance, ox carts transporting calamity ash passed by them. These carts, running in ruts, carried an astonishing load. A small cart of calamity ash weighed several thousand catties, and the carts creaked under the strain!

Each mining cart was pulled by a bull, and workers pushed from behind, struggling with the effort.

Su Yun looked at the carts. The calamity ash was not ash but large stones. In the heavy snow, the calamity ash was covered with a layer of white, but it was still evident that the calamity ash was black, with a black-gold luster.

Was it this strange substance that supported Shuofang City?

Su Yun was curious.

The workers digging calamity ash worked shirtless in the winter, their bodies covered in calamity ash dust, stained black. The snow that fell on them melted and flowed down with their sweat.

Sweat, blood, and black dust mixed, revealing their original skin color where they flowed.

"This calamity ash is mined and sent directly to the various kilns," Li Muge whispered. "Some of the people here are from the countryside of Shuofang, and some are monsters from the no-man's-land of Tianshiyuan. They have no means of livelihood in the city, so they can only do hard labor. The work at the Calamity Ash Factory is tiring, dirty, bitter, and life-threatening. People in the city are unwilling to do it."

Su Yun and Flower Fox stopped to look. Su Yun thought to himself, "I used to hear people from neighboring villages say that their children were working in the city and earning a lot of money, living very good lives. I suppose it's these monsters who lied to their parents, not wanting them to worry."

Just as he thought this, a commotion suddenly erupted from the Calamity Ash Factory. Someone shouted, "A monster has rushed out of the calamity ash!"

In the mine, countless dark-skinned workers ran out in panic, crying and screaming. Some fell and scrambled to their feet, only to be trampled by others and lie still, their fates unknown.

The workers pushing the mining carts were also startled. They quickly dropped the carts and ran for their lives, shouting, "Calamity Ash Monsters are eating people!"

"Calamity Ash Monsters?"

Su Yun looked around. He saw a mine entrance halfway up the mountain in the mine suddenly explode with a roar, sending debris flying. A monster, almost the same color as the calamity ash, suddenly flew out, skimming the ground, and fiercely grabbed a person, landing on a mining cart.

The cart shook, and chewing sounds came from it. Blood gurgled out from beneath it.

Soon, another dark monster flew up from the cart with a whoosh and landed on the bull pulling the cart. Then, with a whoosh, the bull, along with the cart, was pulled into the sky!

"Such great strength!" Su Yun's expression changed slightly. He looked up at the sky, which was completely dark, making it impossible to see where the monster was.

The mining cart fell from the sky, landing with a crash, scattering calamity ash everywhere.

Cow moans came from the sky, followed by a rain of blood. The next moment, a bloody bull skeleton smashed down not far from the mining cart.

Su Yun's expression changed again. He saw miners fleeing everywhere, surging towards the factory gate.

Screams of agony could be heard intermittently from the crowd. People were constantly being thrown into the air, clearly grabbed by monsters and eaten while in mid-air!

The monster was as black as the calamity ash, and with the cover of night, it was impossible to see where it was!

Li Muge's face also changed. He quickly dropped his bags and rushed into the factory, shouting, "Calamity Ash Monsters have appeared again? Yun, Junior Brother Hua, you two stay here. That monster is very dangerous!"

Su Yun closed his eyes and suddenly sensed a mass of Blood Essence flying in the sky, heading towards them!

They were facing the main gate, and the workers in the mine were surging towards them like a tide!

Clearly, the monster's objective was to block the main gate, preventing everyone from escaping the Calamity Ash Factory and turning them all into its food!

Su Yun's eyes twitched, and he said in a deep voice, "Second Brother, take Xiao Fan and the others and go first. Wait for me and Senior Brother Muge at the Enclosure Tower."

Upon hearing this, Flower Fox immediately grabbed Qingqiu Yue, tossed the little girl onto his shoulders, and holding Hu Buping with one hand and Li Xiaofan with the other, rushed towards the Enclosure Tower.

Su Yun closed his eyes, facing the crowd that was surging towards them like a tide.

Some people in the crowd had already begun to change their forms while fleeing. Some had pig faces and human bodies, some had monkey heads and human bodies, some had wolf heads and human bodies, and some had horns growing from their heads. They were diverse and ran past the crowd with all their might.

The miners around them seemed unfazed by this, clearly already aware of the identities of their fellow workers.

In Su Yun's Blood Essence perception, the Calamity Ash Monster rushing towards them from the sky had a Blood Essence that resembled a cartwheel, with a small dot in the center like the axle of the wheel, connected to the wheel by spokes.

Based on Blood Essence alone, it was impossible to discern the Calamity Ash Monster's specific form. Blood Essence perception could only judge the shape of the monster's Blood Essence, making it prone to errors.

However, the Calamity Ash Monster blended in with the dark sky, making it invisible to the naked eye. Only by sensing its Blood Essence could its location be determined!

As the Calamity Ash Monster attacked them from the air, Su Yun's Blood Essence perception could "see" it falling, as if it were about to crash to the ground. But it didn't land; instead, it swooshed past, skimming the ground!

"It has wings, but there's no Blood Essence flowing through them, so the wings didn't appear in my Blood Essence perception," Su Yun judged in a flash.

At this moment, Li Muge had already charged into the mine. He clearly didn't know how to sense Blood Essence, and the Calamity Ash Monster was black, so he hadn't noticed that the monster had already arrived at the entrance of the Calamity Ash Factory!

It was chaotic everywhere, with a cacophony of voices, and Su Yun couldn't notify him.

BOOM!

A loud noise came, and the Calamity Ash Monster crashed into a mining cart parked outside the mine gate. The mining cart, filled with Calamity Ash, was knocked over and rolled towards them.

Su Yun retreated continuously, facing the rolling mining cart. The Calamity Ash inside had long since spilled everywhere, filling the air with dust and obstructing his vision.

He simply closed his eyes, activated Great Furnace Transformation, and his Blood Essence surged to its limit. The muscles on his back bulged, pushing his strength to its peak!

He suddenly stopped, turned, and kicked backward.

Flood Dragon's Tail Sweep!

The mining cart let out a loud bang and stopped dead in its tracks, kicking up dust.

Screams came from the mine gate, a hubbub of noise, and utter chaos.

As the dust gradually dispersed, Su Yun opened his eyes and saw a tall figure standing in the swirling smoke. It was the Calamity Ash Monster.

The Calamity Ash Monster's form resembled a human, with two arms and two legs, but its body was much taller. It also had wings spanning several zhang, which were leathery like a bat's.

Its feet were like eagle's talons, incredibly sharp. But this wasn't the strangest part. The strangest thing was that its sternum was on the outside!

Even stranger was the arrangement of the bones in its chest, which resembled a cartwheel!

Just as Su Yun's Blood Essence perception had shown, the bones in the Calamity Ash Monster's chest were the most densely packed, like the axle of a wheel, while its ribs were like the spokes of the wheel, connected to the axle and extending in all directions.

He had never seen such a peculiar structure!

"In my Blood Essence perception, the Blood Essence contained within its bones is the most potent. Could it be that its bones are hollow? Does its blood flow through its bones?"

Su Yun was astonished. "There are no such monsters in the countryside! Paoxiao from Linyi Village was right. The steel forests of the cities are indeed much more dangerous than the forests of the countryside. There are more man-eating monsters here than in the countryside!"

The monster turned and looked at him, its eyes a dull gray, with no visible pupils.

Zhai Zhu: I'm home now, ready to write with peace of mind~~