Black Tar: Black Tar
Xue Ming: "Fight monsters? Our city also has monsters to deal with?"
Ye Bei carried his luggage, without wearing any MOLLE or any modern weapons or equipment, not even a flashlight. He walked out while pressing the car key.
"If you're curious, feel free to come and see for yourself."
An unmanned motorcycle drove out of the garage next to the porch.
It was entirely crimson red, with a pristine paint job, as if its owner had never ridden it. The model number [Chitu·MG-0073] was marked on the taillight, and the manufacturer [Tiantong·Wuqu] was indicated in both Chinese and English on the fuel tank cap.
A laser-engraved cat logo was specially reserved for Ye Bei's cleat.
Ye Bei didn't get in the car; he simply tossed the car keys to Xue Ming.
"The reason why calamity beasts roam the underground world is because these creatures lack the courage to stand on the surface and confront humanity directly. Calamity beasts that dare to remain on the surface and directly confront us are either outdated natural disasters from the old era or new scourges brought about by human activities."
Xue Ming didn't understand.
--If what Brother Ye Bei said is true, the seemingly peaceful surface world probably hides countless calamity beasts. These calamity beasts need a lot of elemental essence, and human flesh is the top food for increasing spiritual intelligence.
They have adapted to the pace of modern life and are good at hiding themselves.
Xue Ming remained silent, forcing himself to accept the car keys despite his weariness.
"Brother Ye Bei, you want me to ride a motorcycle? What about you?"
Ye Bei snapped his fingers, and the cat leaped onto his shoulder.
"I don't need any transportation. Just watch my silhouette and follow me."
Having said that, they saw this non-human Chang Ghost, draped in spirit robes, like strips of cloth billowing in a gust of wind, leap several times and jump dozens of meters away.
Xue Ming twisted the throttle on the motorcycle, the roar of the engine generating a powerful thrust that nearly threw him off. This Dior Homme wild horse seemed to have never been designed for humans.
--Its displacement and horsepower are unbelievably large, and the resonance of the cylinder block is extremely exaggerated.
The tires reached a molten working state in an instant, like the claws of a wild beast gripping the asphalt, stirring up sand and stones, and shattering the windows of Ye Bei's mansion.
Xue Ming was almost carried away by this enormous force. He used his spirit arm to forcefully hold onto the fuel tank and steady himself. He then saw figures rising and falling among the low-rise buildings in the school district ahead.
Using the imagery of martial arts techniques, such as leaping and bounding, to describe that swiftly moving figure is probably not quite appropriate.
Brother Ye Bei seemed to rely solely on muscle strength and body balance to achieve each jump of tens of meters. Upon landing, he did not roll to dissipate the force, but instead scraped a dark mark directly onto the waterproof paint of the building, like a ping-pong ball bouncing between buildings.
Just then, Xue Ming finally got a chance to catch his breath and took out his phone to receive a call from Brother Ye Bei.
Can you keep up?
"I can barely keep up, brother. Where are we going?"
"We'll talk when we get there, don't get distracted. If you feel very tired, there's a pot of tea in the compartment to your right; a drink will refresh you."
Xue Ming reached over and grabbed a large iron kettle. Using his spirit form, he held the handlebars of the motorcycle, then opened the lid and drank heartily.
The tea soup is like a fragrant spring, flowing over my limbs and washing away all fatigue, even dispelling the hazy, troubled memories.
"This is."
Ye Bei immediately replied, "It's my soul power."
Xue Ming finally remembered that this special tea soup seemed to have appeared in the soup base of Guangling San xiaolongbao (soup dumplings), and could also be drunk in the VIP tea room. It was a miraculous medicine for restoring the spirit and repairing the soul, and could almost make people say goodbye to sleep.
After leaving the university town, we arrived at the main traffic artery connecting Pingyang County and Hengyin City.
The streets were quiet at four in the morning, with only the roar of motorcycle engines and the occasional scraping sounds between buildings.
Unable to find a suitable foothold in front of the Yuming River tunnel, Ye Bei jumped back to the ground from a steelmaking cooling tower along the connecting road. Immediately afterward, Xue Ming witnessed a truly horrifying scene—
The speedometer shows 70 kilometers per hour.
Brother Ye Bei, carrying the naughty cat, ran forward on his two legs and easily caught up with the motorcycle.
Upon entering the tunnel, Xue Ming's eyes lit up as he carefully observed Brother Ye Bei's running movements.
His strides were enormous, each step like a hurdle jump, the ceramic fiber insoles on his feet sparking against the road, seemingly tailor-made for his Chang Ghost form.
His breathing was deep and long as he ran, each breath like a whale in the ocean sucking in water to feed. The high temperature generated in his chest and lungs during the intense exercise caused him to exhale a white arrow of air.
The naughty cat just looked rather disheveled.
With winds reaching 70 kilometers per hour, it stuck out its tongue, opened its mouth wide, squinted its eyes, and kept cursing.
"Can you fucking install a windshield for me? -- gurgle gurgle gurgle"
"Stop talking nonsense, I'm going to speed up!" Ye Bei said, stuffing the cat into his collar and tucking it against his muscular chest as a breastplate. His hair was whipped around in the wind, and with his arms free, he looked like a mane-puffed tiger.
Seeing the Chang Ghost rushing forward faster and faster, its legs almost leaving afterimages, Xue Ming stared wide-eyed as if she had seen a ghost. In order to keep up with Brother Ye Bei's running speed, the speedometer reading had already reached 120 kilometers per hour.
He could vaguely feel the helmet's exhaust vents whistling under the interference of wind pressure. The motorcycle engine beneath him revved to around 6,500 RPM, as if some strange switch had been flipped. Its engine seemed to be designed like an old-fashioned turbocharged engine—sparks and explosions followed from the exhaust port.
When the person and the car rushed out of the tunnel, they arrived at the North Suburb Industrial Park of Hengyin City.
At the security post of the South China Cigarette Factory, a streak of beige shooting star could be seen streaking across the checkpoint.
Before the security guard could react, the checkpoint barrier had already flown to the roof of the factory. When the alarm went off, the guard rushed back to the security camera and saw a motorcycle speed into the production area, and a person...?
Specifically, it refers to people running—following motorcycles as they rush towards the wastewater treatment plant.
This has left the security guard stumped.
He was still playing PUBG Mobile on his phone, driving towards Pochinki, when a teammate climbed out of the car and started making strange noises.
Hey bro! Wanna buy a cheat?
Only a dark tire track and a string of dark shoe prints in the road tell a silent, sizzling story.
The South China Cigarette Factory has four main production areas, the most important of which is the wastewater treatment area. Here, 430 pieces of equipment of varying sizes turn tobacco leaves, filters, packaging sponges, and various chemically toxic byproducts generated during production into harmless mud cakes that can be buried or burned. The wastewater, after meeting safety standards, enters the city's tap water recycling system.
The monster Ye Bei is about to fight is hiding here.
The workshops and factories are enormous, with six flue gas absorption towers alone, spanning two kilometers of factory roads and covering an area of over 13,000 square meters.
Xue Ming asked anxiously, "Brother Ye Bei! Is this the place? What happened? What are we supposed to deal with?"
Ye Bei pulled a stack of documents from his clothes, wrapped them tightly in a brown paper bag, and casually tossed them into Xue Ming's arms while moving at high speed.
"Why don't you take some extra lessons now?"
Xue Ming: "I'm afraid there won't be that time!"
Ye Bei explained, "Actually, it's quite simple. Our unit has professional intelligence personnel who conduct preliminary investigations based on unusual phenomena occurring in various locations, assess the severity of the Spirit Calamity, and dispatch agents of different levels to handle Spirit Calamity. As for me—"
We have arrived at the destination.
It's in the wastewater treatment room within the B304 plant area.
The rows of filter presses were still in operation. The factory workers, dressed in blue shirts and yellow hats, all turned around and stared at Ye Bei and Xue Ming, the two uninvited guests.
Their faces were more or less covered in dirt and grease. The electric gears and chains of the filter press made squeaking noises as wastewater mixed with black oil fell into the guide port and was sent to the reaction tank through the pipe.
"--I'm a professional monster slayer." Ye Bei finally finished speaking, "So I only need my intelligence agents to prepare some simple and easy-to-understand mission notes for me each time. For example, where to go, how many to kill."
Xue Ming opened the brown paper bag and flipped through the pages, but the more he looked, the more something seemed off.
This is because it is an employee handbook that lists all the staff working in the wastewater treatment room of Plant B304.
This includes workshop directors, work group leaders, electrical technicians, and sanitation workers.
The explanation of the Spirit Calamity is just a simple sentence--
--These people have become slaves of the B304 monster [Black Tar], monsters created by this terrifying workshop.
Judging from the staff's reactions, they seemed to know Ye Bei very well. Almost immediately, they put down their work and started reaching for the hammer and wrench on the workbench.
"Qiongqi beast!" The workshop foreman gripped the handrail at the second-floor iron walkway and began to shriek, "What are you doing here? We're doing legitimate business!"
The new intern in the work group immediately became arrogant.
"Get out of my factory, Ye Bei!"
Without the traction of the motor hinge, the filter cloth became loose and limp, and immediately a sticky human skin fell from the gap in the board into the garbage pit.
Ye Bei grinned, "Didn't I just see a piece of human flesh? Now things are much easier. I was having a headache figuring out how to send you monsters back to the underworld."
Xue Ming's eyes widened as he felt an extremely malevolent spiritual pressure.
There was a "plop" sound.
A dozen or so engineering machines, made of soft wooden planks and hard steel, are slowly creeping and deforming.
Countless steel teeth and chains dragged the forty-odd employees back into the monster's body. When the complex and chaotic composite came into contact with the flesh of these "people," the human tissue under the blue work clothes quickly turned into a pool of sticky black tar, becoming the monster's lubricant.
"Ye Bei!--"
It transformed into a giant steel ape, nearly fourteen meters tall with an arm span of about eighteen meters, bursting through the factory ceiling and roaring at the ants beneath its feet.
"Why? Why are you causing me trouble, Ye Bei!"
Ye Bei pulled a notice from his pocket. "In 2025, our city is striving to become a civilized city, so smoking is banned. We need to reduce production capacity, raise tobacco prices, and require all citizens to quit smoking. The higher-ups sent me to take your dog's life."
"Just for this reason?" Black Tar's face was filled with disbelief. He covered his face with his paws, and black tears streamed from his large, round eyes. "Just because of this? You're here to kill me?"
Ye Bei raised his head and tried to reason with the monster. "It's not just this. Stop pretending to cry. You were just eating human flesh. Where did you get the guts?"
"I need people! I need primordial energy to maintain my sanity!" Black Tar's expression hardened as it lay before Ye Bei. "I am the monster you created! I am the Spirit Calamity you yourself created! There are over three million smokers in Hengyin City. Without me, where would you be enjoying your New Year's banquets, puffing away in blissful ecstasy? I've devoured over forty people, turning them into my servants, making them work tirelessly, and keeping them by my side forever. I'm doing good for society—how dare you question me?!"
Ye Bei: "Bullshit!"
Black Tar said viciously, "Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste! On the streets, frozen corpses lie! What makes you think you can talk to me about justice! You wicked devil who aids and abets evil!"
Ye Bei pulled a large stone from his collar, and then revealed the naughty cat as well.
"We're not getting along! Let's show our health bars!"
Xue Ming saw it clearly--
--The stone in Brother Ye Bei's hand is very similar in shape to the Red Mountain Stone given by the BOSS, only it is more than ten times larger.
They are also opaque black stones, blackish-red in color, produced using a sixteen-faceted, multi-faceted cutting and polishing process.
If the BOSS is right, this stone seems to be the stone used by the goddess Nuwa in Eastern mythology to mend the sky. Like the clay used to create humans, it is a medium of very high purity psionic energy.
The BOSS wants Jiang Xueming to use the Red Mountain Stone when he faces a life-or-death crisis.
At this very moment--
--Ye Bei revealed the Red Mountain Stone and Qiongqi, presumably to borrow Qiongqi's primordial essence for combat.
Before Xue Ming could figure these things out...
A thunderbolt struck from the overcast sky. It first hit the heavy steel beams of the factory's shattered ceiling, then, like an immortal White Snake, it shot out of the room along the electrical wiring and landed in Ye Bei's hand.
The clear disinfectant in the chemical reaction pool instantly turned into pungent steam, forcing Xue Ming to move away. In the smoke, he could hear the huge monster waving its claws.
It pried open the metal door of the factory with one paw, leaving deep claw marks on the side wall. Immediately afterward, Xue Ming felt a heat on his face and instinctively lowered his head.
He then saw a steel bar, gleaming with a cold light, spin and land on the large locust tree behind him, slicing the trunk in two.
At that moment, Xue Ming almost thought he was going to die, that the Black and White Impermanence were about to come and take his soul, and in the end, he could only regret it.
A deafening roar continued, and when the mist cleared, the hideous and ferocious giant monster could be seen having demolished half of the factory and was preparing to flee.
No sooner said than done --
--Then a phantom-like shadow appeared, exploding in mid-air with the speed and force of a sonic boom.
With Xue Ming's dynamic vision, it was impossible for him to capture these messy, mottled figures.
They lingered in the air, leaving behind trails of pink energy. In just a few seconds, the entire sky and earth fell silent.
Enveloped in azure lightning-infused flame, Brother Ye Bei suddenly appeared beside Xue Ming.
"That's all for today."
Xue Ming finally saw clearly what Brother Ye Bei looked like after he used the Red Mountain Stone to steal the Qiongqi's essence.
The man wore a pink tiger-skin cloak, half of his body was fused with the tiger, and he held a stiff, straight tail whip as a club or mace, while the sharp tiger fur could be used as a saw blade.
Ye Bei struggled for a long time before finally getting the bad cat off him. The shriveled tiger-skin cloak deflated and swelled up like a balloon, turning back into a long-haired cat in no time, while the cat kept complaining.
"I feel like I'm nicotine poisoned, and I need to eat lots and lots of hot dogs to feel better."
After saying this...
--The black tar's body began to crack. This enormous monster, over fourteen meters long, was as if shattered by a powerful sonic wave and sliced into a million pieces by fine saw blades.
It resembled a sand sculpture; Ye Bei stomped on it once, and it turned into a cloud of dust in the spring breeze.
Xue Ming's mouth remained open.
Ye Bei reached out and closed the book for him, because smoking is harmful to health.
Xue Ming took out the Red Mountain Stone given to him by the BOSS, pointed at Ye Bei, then at the huge monster he had just seen, which was now just a dirty mud stain, then pointed at Qiongqi, and then at himself, unable to say anything for a moment.
Ye Bei took the cigarette case from Xue Ming's clothes. It originally belonged to Qianqian Qian's older sister, but Xue Ming didn't want her to smoke, so she took it as payment for beating up the bad guys.
Ye Bei lifted his leg, used the residual heat from his shoe to light a cigarette, and spoke to Xue Ming.
"You also have this stone. Why don't you try it out sometime? But be careful, you're not Chang Ghost), using it might turn you into a changgui of the Taowu type of Chang Ghost)."