"Wang Zhen! You're still going to act alone? This is a twenty-person difficulty Ju-On!"
"Stop acting tough! Ju-On isn't like Xenomorph—it's... impossible to beat! And this is a twenty-person difficulty, so it'll definitely be even more terrifying!" Seeing Wang Zhen actually intend to go alone, Zheng Zha immediately lost his temper!
"Zheng Zha, since Ju-On is so terrifying, do you think having more people will help? In a horror movie about ghosts, does it really make much difference whether there are more people or fewer?"
"I have my own plan. You can take them with you, and we'll see whether Kayako comes after you or me!" With that, Wang Zhen left.
After Wang Zhen left, Zheng Zha and the others had no choice but to leave too. Ever since the mission began, the air had grown colder and colder. It was no place to linger.
"Trying to curse me, Kayako? You've got some nerve!" After walking a short distance, he stopped at a secluded corner nearby and let out a low, mocking laugh.
Dead River... activate!
A blood-red Transmutation Circle appeared beneath Wang Zhen's feet. It was his unique Dead River ability: the Philosopher's Stone Transmutation Circle!
Before the tiny, long-haired, white-clad female ghost inside him could react, she was sucked straight into the Transmutation Circle. Then blood-red light flowed through it, refining her into a single drop of blood-red, mercury-like liquid. This was an imperfect Philosopher's Stone.
Wang Zhen put away the drop of Philosopher's Stone. Then, after everyone had left the initial room for newcomers, he murmured, "One good turn deserves another!"
He raised a finger and casually snapped it. The haunted house nearby, which Kayako's evil spirit had been haunting for years, suddenly burst into blazing flames. Strangely, though the fire started out orange-red and burned fiercely, the entire house remained completely unharmed!
It was as if the roaring flames were nothing but a colorful illusion!
"Even flames around 1,200 degrees can't do a thing to it? Decades of an evil spirit's corruption really turned this place into her domain? Then let's try something hotter!"
Wang Zhen snapped his fingers again, and the orange-red flames instantly turned pale gold!
Boom...
The 1,500-degree flames, hot enough to melt steel, roared through everything in the haunted house!
Only then did Wang Zhen understand why the flames from the Flame Transmutation Circles he had laid inside the house earlier hadn't burned a single hair!
The house really was haunted in the truest sense!
A faint layer of black mist tightly shielded the entire house, which was why the orange-red flames hadn't even reached a single brick or tile.
But Wang Zhen couldn't help narrowing his eyes. Even now, the pale-gold flames that could melt gold and iron still couldn't reach the house. The black mist continued to hold them back!
"If I fail on my first try, won't that make me look pathetic? My whole aura will be ruined!" Wang Zhen had now seen just how terrifying Kayako was with a B-rank side-mission reward!
Wang Zhen sneered and gently clapped his hands together!
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...
Wang Zhen detonated all five Flame Transmutation Circles he had set up earlier!
At the same time, he increased the flames' temperature to 3,000 degrees!
With five successive surges in power, the pale-gold flames struggling against the black mist turned orange in an instant!
Kayako was indeed powerful, but she still couldn't withstand the violent scorching of 3,000-degree flames.
In the end, the black mist couldn't hold back the orange flames' fierce, explosive force. It lasted barely ten seconds before vanishing under their scorching heat.
The haunted house, now without the black mist's protection, caught fire in an instant. Then, at a speed visible to the naked eye, it burned down into a heap of rubble!
But just as the house was completely destroyed and all that remained were smoking bricks and tiles, a twenty-meter-tall ghost appeared above it—an invisible figure to ordinary people, with long black hair covering her face and dressed in white!
She let out a silent, ghostly shriek!
At the same time, Wang Zhen clearly felt a chilling ripple sweep across his body...
"Is she angry? Looking for revenge?" After a brief moment's thought, Wang Zhen understood what Kayako was trying to do.
The icy ripple was made of the same energy as the curse Wang Zhen had removed. Anyone it touched would let Kayako locate those carrying her curse!
Who could be carrying her curse?
Obviously, the people who had been in the haunted house earlier!
"Little White, time to get to work," Wang Zhen said softly to the crow on his shoulder.
He gently stroked its feathers a few times. Then the crow spread its wings and soared into the sky.
With Little White circling overhead, Wang Zhen easily found Zheng Zha, Zhang Jie, and the newcomers.
"Is he really going to take all these newcomers along and draw the fire for them?" Wang Zhen found it pretty incredible.
Zheng Zha was a mutated vampire. He hadn't made much progress in developing his bloodline, but he was the Main God's own son. After unlocking the Gene Lock just twice, his bloodline integration had improved, and he had also developed his abilities much further.
In that state, Zheng Zha would definitely be able to sense the curse on himself and the chilling energy that had locked onto him!
Wang Zhen had no idea what Zheng Zha was planning, but he knew that now Kayako had found their location, she would definitely retaliate!
He had Little White follow the newcomers, Zheng Zha, and Zhang Jie from above. Then he took a khaki trench coat from his storage space and put it on, covering the two modified Remington 1875 revolvers hanging at his hips, before following them from a distance!
Wang Zhen noticed that aside from revealing her enormous ghostly form and using her shriek to locate the cursed people, Kayako hadn't left.
"Is she bound by the rules and unable to leave? Can she only kill people through curses and other means?"
"In other words, does she need a ritual to kill?"
"If this ghost relies so heavily on rituals, no wonder she's called impossible to beat! The rituals constrain her, but every constraint has its advantages. Kayako must also become infinitely stronger within the ritual!" As he followed the newcomers from far away, Wang Zhen pondered Kayako's nature.
He had just burned the haunted house Kayako had occupied for years into a pile of bricks and rubble. There was practically nothing left.
He had made a powerful enemy of Kayako!
And since the mission itself had already put them at odds, and Kayako was worth so much, Wang Zhen had naturally wanted to let her die comfortably and peacefully!
Of course, that was what he'd thought before!
Now, he wanted even more to throw Kayako into the Philosopher's Stone Transmutation Circle!
If even a curse could be refined into an imperfect Philosopher's Stone, then what quality of Philosopher's Stone could he make from Kayako herself, the evil spirit's true body?
But Wang Zhen had a tricky problem: he had only just merged with Alucard's Blood and awakened the Dead River ability. As a result, his Philosopher's Stone Transmutation Circle had a limited range of just ten meters...
Refining a Kayako over twenty meters tall... He still had a long way to go!
But a man had to be tough on himself. There was a way—he just needed to plan it carefully!
Before you continue