Returning to the moldy Room Bing-7, Wang Quan slid the bolt into place behind him and slowly exhaled with his back against the cold wooden door. The fatigue from the successive battles still clung to his muscles and bones, but even stronger was his yearning for power. He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into the void that only he could perceive.
Several lines of faintly glowing text silently surfaced, cold and precise.
[Slayed low-level walking corpses, obtained Skill Points: 4] [Slayed three Spirit Awakening Realm Snake Demons, obtained Skill Points: 12] [Total currently available Skill Points: 16]
Sixteen points. It was an almost lavish haul. Wang Quan's thoughts raced, and without the slightest hesitation, he locked his attention onto the Myriad Monster Blood Devouring Art, which had already been raised to the Minor Achievement realm.
"Raise the Myriad Monster Blood Devouring Art to Great Achievement." He silently recited the command in his mind.
[Consume 14 Skill Points to raise the Myriad Monster Blood Devouring Art to the Great Achievement realm?]
"Yes."
The instant the command was issued, a qi-and-blood torrent far more violent and searing than any previous breakthrough exploded from the depths of his dantian, surging fiercely toward every corner of his limbs and organs! This time, it was not merely his flesh, muscles, sinews, and bones that groaned and trembled under the strain—even his deepest organs seemed to be clutched by an invisible giant hand, enduring brutal compression and tempering.
His bones erupted with dense popping sounds like beans frying in a pan, their substance growing ever denser and harder. His muscle fibers knotted and bulged wildly, harboring explosive strength. Even the surface of his skin took on an exceedingly faint, dusky sheen resembling the tough bark of an ancient tree. A powerful, savage force brimming with predatory intent filled his entire body. He felt as though he could tear tigers and leopards apart with his bare hands and shatter rocks with his fists! The strength, power, and recovery of this body had already climbed to an entirely new height.
[Myriad Monster Blood Devouring Art raised to Great Achievement. Current physical strength assessment: comparable to an early Soul Sculpting Realm demon.]
Feeling the power roaring through him, nearly overflowing, Wang Quan slowly clenched his fist, the joints producing a teeth-grating creak. He tried lightly stamping his foot, and the hard-packed earth beneath it actually sank slightly, leaving behind a clear footprint.
"The surge in strength is too great. I need time to adapt and bring it under control." He suppressed the turmoil in his heart and looked toward the other two arts.
Shadow Step was still marked as not yet initiated. The system rated it as a mortal-body Foundation Establishment-grade movement art, focused on concealment, unpredictability, and short-range bursts. [Raising it to Initiation requires 3 Skill Points.] Wang Quan glanced at the 2 Skill Points he had left and shook his head. "The points are bottoming out again. I have to keep hunting."
He forcibly reined in his newly acquired surging strength, and that oppressive, ferocious aura gradually sank deep into his body. On the surface, he still looked like a taciturn young man in a worn-out guard uniform. Only deep in his eyes, compared to the past, there was a little more gravity and the chill of frozen depths.
He was just about to go out and think of a way forward when Commander Chen called him aside. "Wang Quan, you don't need to patrol the city lately." Commander Chen's voice was hoarse. His gaze lingered on Wang Quan for a moment, and a trace of barely perceptible suspicion seemed to flash through his murky eyes before quickly vanishing. "Something strange has happened in the city. Go investigate it."
"Something strange?" Wang Quan's heart stirred slightly.
"Mm." Commander Chen took a crumpled sheet of straw paper from his robes and handed it over. "Several households in the southern part of the city have reported hearing a child crying at night. The crying is chilling—not an ordinary baby's wail. One family's child even came down with a strange illness because of it, and no medicine could help. Go see whether something unclean is at work. Remember, investigate in secret. Don't cause chaos throughout the city."
"Yes, Commander Chen." Wang Quan accepted the note. Crooked handwriting recorded the addresses and brief circumstances of several households that had filed reports.
That night, Wang Quan did not go out. Instead, he lay fully clothed in a corner of the guards' communal bunkroom. He did not truly fall asleep, but circulated the Turtle Snake Coiling Dragon Strength to regulate his breathing. At the same time, he sharpened his hearing to its utmost limit, like an invisible net cast over the entire silent city, catching every discordant sound.
Around a little after midnight, all was utterly silent. An extremely mournful, shrill cry suddenly tore through the heavy night without warning!
That cry was absolutely not something an ordinary infant could produce. Its voice drifted unpredictably—at times seeming to skip lightly across the roof tiles right overhead, at times seeming to float faintly from the depths of a narrow alley far away. The resentment and venom contained within it pierced the night and bored straight into the marrow of the human skull.
Wang Quan abruptly opened his eyes, their depths clear and cold. He silently rolled out of bed, like a leopard melting into shadow, and crept toward the direction where the crying was clearest.
He raced across uneven rooftops and deep alleyways, following that soul-hooking, spirit-seizing cry. Finally, when Wang Quan tracked it to the low, dilapidated slums in the southern part of the city, the crying stopped abruptly and vanished without a trace.
Early the next morning, Wang Quan went alone to the southern city to investigate. He quickly learned that several households had indeed suffered misfortune recently. Infants or young children in those homes had inexplicably contracted strange illnesses, leaving both physicians and temple priests helpless.
Following the list, Wang Quan found the latest afflicted household. The low earthen house was dimly lit and filled with an air of despair. A young couple guarded their dying child on the bed, their faces haggard and withered.
Wang Quan displayed his guardhouse insignia and began asking questions. At first, the couple spoke evasively. It was only when Wang Quan mentioned the eerie baby cry he had heard the previous night that the husband's face went deathly pale. He fell to his knees and, tears and mucus streaming down his face, recounted a bizarre incident: their elderly father had died half a month earlier. On the night his body was laid out for mourning, the husband had heard strange noises on the roof. When he shouted at them, he had distinctly heard a thin, childlike voice wailing mournfully, "It hurts... It hurts so much... Father... I'm in pain..."
Wang Quan fell silent and circulated the Blood Shadow Tracking Art, detecting a trace of bone-chilling, Yin-cold Grievance Qi around the sickbed.
After leaving the household, Wang Quan went straight to find Madman Xu and told him what he had discovered.
When Madman Xu finished listening, his eyes instantly lit up, and he rubbed his hands excitedly. "A coffin child! It's a coffin child, no mistake! Heh heh heh... You don't see one of these often!"
He lowered his voice excitedly. "This thing isn't an ordinary lone ghost or wild spirit! It's a fetus born carrying immense resentment, miscarried before it could enter the world, or an evil entity formed when its thoughts attached themselves to a newly deceased corpse! It specifically targets infants with weak qi and blood who are related by blood, devouring their vitality!"
"The most sinister and poisonous part is..." A harsh gleam flashed through Madman Xu's eyes. "When it harms people, it usually starts with their closest kin! It uses its relatives' suffering and lives to strengthen its own resentment! The conditions for taking shape are exceedingly harsh. A coffin child with resentment this heavy is truly a rare sight..."
"How do we break it? How do we trace it back to its source?" Wang Quan pressed.
Madman Xu gave a sly chuckle and pulled out a filthy little compass and several talismans. "Ordinary blades and swords can't hurt its formless body. You need something of pure Yang to suppress evil. This thing has a special sensitivity to close blood relations, so it will definitely return to that household! Take this 'Grievance Plate.' Its needle will move when you get close. It will show itself when Yin qi is at its strongest, at midnight! Find the right opportunity. Either use lightning-struck wood or black-dog blood to scatter it, or..." He sidelong glanced at Wang Quan. "Try that strange cultivation art of yours and see whether you can 'eat' the source of its little resentment?"
Wang Quan took the compass, and a chill seeped through his hand. He said nothing more and turned to leave.
That night, midnight was fast approaching. All was utterly silent around the household in the southern city that had a pregnant woman. Wang Quan concealed himself in the shadows of the opposite roof, his aura restrained to the utmost as he waited patiently.
The moonlight was deathly pale. The Grievance Plate in his arms remained completely still.
At the exact stroke of midnight, when Yin qi was at its strongest—
"Waaahhh—!"
A sharp baby cry, filled with the most extreme grief and venom, suddenly exploded from within the household's courtyard! At the same time, the needle of the Grievance Plate spun wildly, pointing straight into the courtyard!
It was here!
A cold light burst from Wang Quan's eyes. His body shot forward like lightning, pouncing toward it!
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