Calamity Ash Monster

Shuofang City was a forest of buildings. Dozens of towers were often crammed together, forming clusters of buildings.

Between those building clusters stood factory after factory—some fired glazed glass, some smelted minerals, others cast or refined offerings. Different factories had different divisions of labor.

The Calamity Ash Factory stood on the outskirts of Shuofang City, with tall buildings nearby as well. Li Muge said those buildings were called Enclosure Towers.

"Enclosure Towers are where the city's poor live."

Li Muge walked ahead with a bundle on his back. "An enclosure is a park for keeping animals penned up. Enclosure Towers are where people at the bottom live. The houses here are old, broken-down, tiny, and packed tight. The people living here are poor fellows like me. Some are Scholars from the academies, while others came into the city from the countryside to make a living."

He paused, hesitated, then said, "Quite a few demons who enter the city hide here too. Junior Brother Yun, what kind of demon are you?"

"I really am not a demon," Su Yun said helplessly.

"It doesn't matter if you are a demon. I could tell already—you're probably a wild buffalo demon. Wenchang Academy has some junior brothers who are demons too. But the other academies won't have it. Most of them are old pedants, always shouting about killing demons."

Li Muge walked ahead. The snow was falling ever harder, making Shuofang City seem shrouded in mist.

"I've seen demons in the city many times. The family living next door to me, that young fellow and all his kin, seem to be demons... Strange, why is the snow so heavy?"

Li Muge looked up at the sky in surprise. "Shuofang City never gets such heavy snow this season. This snowfall is strange."

He shook his head.

Flower Fox suddenly said, "Little Yun, when the Human Demon emerged a hundred and fifty years ago, there was heavy snow falling from the sky too. The snow sealed off the mountains."

Su Yun's heart chilled.

According to the records in the Ancient Book of Dragon Burial Mound, when the Tiandao Academy Scholars tamed dragons and entered Dragon Burial Mound to summon Dragon Spirits, heavy snow had suddenly fallen from the sky as well, sealing off the mountains and preventing them from leaving.

"After the Human Demon came out of Dragon Burial Mound, heavy snow also fell over Tianshiyuan. Now it's Shuofang City's turn."

Su Yun looked up at the sky. The snowflakes were growing larger and larger, each as big as a palm, fluttering down in thick swarms. "It seems The Whole Village Eats has reached Shuofang City. And that Team Leader Senior Brother from Tiandao Academy—he should be in Shuofang City too, right? Over the past hundred and fifty years, he may have changed his face and identity, but his abilities were extraordinary, impossible to hide. If he stayed in Shuofang, then today, a hundred and fifty years later, he should be the most powerful noble in the city, shouldn't he?"

Of course, after Team Leader Senior Brother left Tianshiyuan back then, he might not have remained in Shuofang.

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

Su Yun suppressed his wandering thoughts and looked in the direction of his finger.

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

According to Li Muge, Shuofang was a city built upon calamity ash, and the Calamity Ash Factory's contribution to Shuofang was beyond measure.

Ahead, beside the official road, stood an enormous factory occupying roughly a thousand acres. It had been built on level ground with a mountain at its back. Inside were rows of low, neat buildings, with no high-rises.

The mountain was not large, and half of it had already been excavated away. Several openings, each several zhang high, dotted its cliff face.

The factory was brightly lit. At its gates, ox carts carrying calamity ash rolled past them. The carts ran in rutted tracks and bore astonishing loads. A small cart of calamity ash alone weighed several thousand jin, making the wheels creak and groan under the crushing weight.

Each ore cart was pulled by a steer in front, while workers pushed from behind, straining with all their might.

Su Yun looked into the carts and saw that calamity ash was not ash at all, but chunks of stone. Snow drifted thickly down, covering the calamity ash in white, yet he could still see that it was black, glinting with a black-gold luster.

This strange substance was what supported Shuofang City?

Su Yun was curious.

The workers mining calamity ash were bare-chested in the winter cold. Their bodies were coated in calamity ash dust, dyed pitch-black. Snow melted as soon as it landed on them, running down their bodies together with sweat.

Sweat and blood mingled with black dust, and wherever they ran, they revealed the workers' original skin color.

"This calamity ash is dug out and sent directly to the various kilns."

Li Muge lowered his voice. "Some of the people here come from the countryside around Shuofang, while others are demons from the No-Man's Land of Tianshiyuan. They can't find a way to make a living in the city, so they can only do this kind of hard labor. Work in the Calamity Ash Factory is tiring, filthy, bitter, and dangerous enough to cost you your life. City folk are unwilling to do it."

Su Yun, Flower Fox, and the others stopped to look around. Su Yun silently thought, "I used to hear people from neighboring villages say that so-and-so's child was working in the city, earning a great deal of money and living wonderfully. Now that I think about it, they were probably all demons, deceiving their parents so they would not worry."

Just as that thought crossed his mind, waves of commotion suddenly erupted from within the Calamity Ash Factory. Someone shouted, "A monster has burst out of the calamity ash!"

In the mine, countless soot-black workers fled in panic. Cries and wails rose to the heavens. Some fell, then scrambled and rolled as they tried to run, only to be trampled countless times before lying still, dead or alive unknown.

The workers pushing the ore carts were also startled. They hurriedly abandoned the carts and ran for their lives, shouting, "The Calamity Ash Monster is eating people!"

"Calamity Ash Monster?"

Su Yun looked over and saw one of the mine entrances in the half-excavated mountain suddenly explode with a thunderous boom. Fragments of rock flew everywhere as a monster nearly the same color as calamity ash shot out. It flew low against the ground, seized a person in one swift motion, and landed on an ore cart.

The cart rocked, chewing sounds came from atop it, and blood gushed from beneath it.

Soon after, another black monster whooshed up from the cart and landed on the steer pulling it. With another whoosh, the steer and the ore cart were yanked into the sky together!

"What tremendous strength!" Su Yun's expression changed slightly as he looked up. The sky was a sheet of black, and he could not see where the monster was at all.

The ore cart fell from the sky and crashed to the ground, scattering calamity ash everywhere.

A cow's bellow came from above, followed by a rain of blood. The next moment, a dripping, blood-soaked bovine skeleton smashed down not far from the ore cart.

Su Yun's expression changed slightly. Miners were fleeing everywhere, surging toward the gates of the mine like a tide.

From time to time, shrill screams came from the crowd. People were continually flung into the air, arms and legs flailing. Clearly, the monster had seized them, devouring them in midair!

The monster was as black as calamity ash, hidden by the cover of night. It was impossible to see where it was!

Li Muge's face changed too. He hurriedly threw down all his bundles and charged into the factory, shouting, "The Calamity Ash Monster has appeared again? Yun, Junior Brother Hua, stay here! That monster is extremely dangerous!"

Su Yun closed his eyes and suddenly sensed a mass of vital blood flying through the sky, diving toward them!

They stood directly before the main gates, while the workers inside the mine were flooding toward them like a tide!

Clearly, the monster intended to block the gates, preventing anyone from escaping the Calamity Ash Factory and turning them all into its food!

Su Yun's eyelid twitched. He said in a low voice, "Second Brother, take Xiao Fan and the others away first. Go wait for me and Senior Brother Muge at the Enclosure Towers."

Upon hearing this, Flower Fox immediately grabbed Qingqiu Yue, tossed the little girl up onto his shoulders, then seized Hu Buping with one hand and Li Xiaofan with the other, charging toward the Enclosure Towers.

Su Yun kept his eyes shut, facing the crowd that surged toward him like a tidal wave.

Some people in the crowd had already begun transforming as they fled. Some had pig faces and human bodies, some were monkey-headed and monkey-brained, some had wolf heads atop human bodies, some had horns growing from their heads. There were all kinds of them, leaping over the crowd and fleeing at top speed.

The miners around them found this utterly unsurprising. Evidently, they had long known the identities of the companions working beside them.

In Su Yun's vital-blood perception, the Calamity Ash Monster hurtling toward them through the sky had vital blood shaped like a cartwheel, with a small circle in the middle like the wheel's axle, spokes linking the axle and wheel.

Vital blood alone could not reveal the Calamity Ash Monster's exact form. Vital-blood perception could only judge the shape of its vital blood, and it was easy to make mistakes.

But the Calamity Ash Monster was the same color as the dark sky. The naked eye could not observe it at all; only by sensing its vital blood could he determine its position!

The Calamity Ash Monster swooped down upon them from the sky. In Su Yun's vital-blood perception, he could "see" it plummeting as though it were about to smash into the ground, yet it never landed. Instead, it skimmed low across the ground with a howl!

"It has wings, but no vital blood flows through them. That is why its wings did not appear in my vital-blood perception." Su Yun made his judgment in a flash of lightning and flint.

By now, Li Muge had already rushed into the mine. Clearly, he did not know how to sense vital blood, and since the Calamity Ash Monster was black, he had not realized it had already reached the gates of the Calamity Ash Factory!

Chaos reigned everywhere, with voices boiling and clamor rising to the heavens. Su Yun had no way to warn him.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, the Calamity Ash Monster slammed into an ore cart parked outside the mine gates. The cart, loaded with calamity ash, flipped and rolled as it hurtled toward him.

Facing the rolling ore cart, Su Yun retreated again and again. The calamity ash inside had long since scattered everywhere, and dust filled the air, blocking his vision.

He simply closed his eyes and activated Great Furnace Transformation. His vital blood instantly surged to its peak. The muscles of his back bulged, pushing his strength to its utmost limit!

He abruptly stopped, turned, and kicked backward.

Flood Dragon's Tail Sweep!

The ore cart rang out with a thunderous clang and stopped dead on the spot. Dust billowed in every direction.

Startled cries came from the mine gates. Voices boiled over as everything descended into utter chaos.

As the dust slowly dispersed, Su Yun opened his eyes and saw a tall figure standing amid the haze. It was the Calamity Ash Monster.

The Calamity Ash Monster was shaped like a human, with two arms and two legs, but its body was far taller. It also had wings spanning several zhang, like those of a bat, formed from fleshy membranes.

Its feet resembled an eagle's talons, sharp beyond compare. Yet that was not the strangest part. The strangest part was that its breastbone grew on the outside of its body!

Stranger still, the arrangement of bones in its chest resembled a cartwheel!

Just as Su Yun had seen through his vital-blood perception, the bones in the monster's chest were densest at the center, like the axle of a wheel, while its ribs stretched outward like spokes, connecting to that axle.

He had never seen such a bizarre structure before!

"In my vital-blood perception, the vital blood hidden in its bones is the most concentrated. Could its bones be hollow? Does its blood flow through its bones?"

Su Yun was astonished. "There are no monsters like this in the countryside! The Paoxiao of Linyi Village was right—the steel forest of the city is indeed far more dangerous than the forest of trees in the countryside. There are even more man-eating monsters here than in the countryside!"

The monster turned and looked at him. Its eyes were a sheet of grayish white, with no pupils visible.

Zhai Zhu: I'm home, time to write in peace~~