West of the city, Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery.
Midnight was approaching. A chilling wind spiraled past rows of cold tombstones, sweeping up dead leaves and paper ash.
Pale moonlight barely pierced the heavy leaden clouds, casting twisted tree shadows across the ground like clawing ghosts.
The air was filled with the fishy scent of earth and a faint... sweet, cloying stench of decay.
Fang Gang stood outside the cemetery's rust-covered iron gates.
His dark golden bald head looked like a light bulb with its own power source beneath the bleak moonlight, clearly illuminating the weeds several meters around his feet.
The heavy Bronze Battle Halberd rested on his shoulder, its blade reflecting a cold gleam.
"This is the place."
He muttered to himself, his sharp gaze sweeping over the deathly silent cemetery.
Old Smoker's information had pointed here. The "big haul," the "same source"—they were inseparable from that twisted music box in Lost Alley.
The Resentful Eye Brand on his left arm had faintly sent out an icy throb the moment he entered this area. The dark golden vertical eye at its tip seemed to open and close slightly, greedily drawing in the cold yin aura permeating the air.
"Clack... clack..."
A sudden, dull sound of digging came from deep within the cemetery, shattering the silence. It was mechanical and rhythmic, carrying a persistence that made one's teeth ache.
Fang Gang fixed his eyes on the source—the old graves near the foot of the mountain, at the deepest end of the cemetery.
He strode forward, directly crushing the rusty chain beside the iron gate. His heavy footsteps rang clearly across the gravel path.
The farther in he went, the colder the air became, and the stronger that sweet, rotten smell grew.
Under the pale moonlight, a hunched figure stood with its back to him, digging furiously before a grave mound that had clearly been freshly turned over.
The figure wore a tattered groundskeeper's uniform caked in wet mud, and its movements were stiff enough to seem inhuman.
"Old Liu Tou?" Fang Gang remembered Chen Tao mentioning that Fu Shou Yuan's old groundskeeper was named Liu Degui. Nicknamed Old Liu Tou, he was a taciturn old man with no family.
He had been missing for nearly two days.
The digging figure seemed not to hear Fang Gang's footsteps and continued repeating its digging motion.
Its shovel plunged into the soil with a muffled "squelch," but what it brought up was no longer ordinary dirt. It was thick, foul-smelling black-red sludge!
Like diluted flesh and blood!
"Old Liu Tou!" Fang Gang shouted in a low voice, his words exploding through the silent cemetery like thunder.
The digging figure suddenly froze.
The next second, it turned around with extreme slowness and stiffness.
Moonlight illuminated its face—or rather, what could no longer be called a face.
Its skin was corpse-blue and gray, covered in cracked lines, with thick black blood seeping from the fissures.
Its eyeballs were murky and yellow, completely devoid of human life. All that remained was an empty greed for the flesh and blood of the living.
Its lips had curled outward, exposing scorched yellow teeth, while a wheezing "heh heh" sound leaked from its throat.
Old Liu Tou had already become some thing's puppet!
"Heh... flesh... fresh... flesh..." A hoarse, inhuman voice squeezed from its throat, thick with malice.
It threw down the shovel dripping with black-red sludge. Its joints cracked with tooth-aching pops, and in a posture that defied human anatomy, it dropped onto all fours and lunged at Fang Gang! It moved so fast that it carried a gust of fishy wind!
Fang Gang's eyes turned cold. Rather than retreat, he advanced!
He stomped down hard!
"BOOM!!!"
The solid ground beneath his feet exploded as though struck by a cannonball, instantly blasting open a half-meter-wide crater!
Gravel and dirt mixed with foul black-red sludge sprayed in every direction! A violent shockwave, like a tangible wall, smashed viciously into the charging ghost creature!
"Bang!"
The thing let out a strange shriek. Its charge was forcibly halted, as if it had slammed into an invisible steel wall. Its entire hunched body was hurled backward and smashed hard into the fresh grave mound it had been digging, splashing black mud everywhere!
"Peak Grade C... Grave Soil Ghost General?" Fang Gang instantly discerned the creature's nature.
A corpse infected by grave soil tainted with a special evil art. It possessed immense strength, astonishing defense, and was covered in deadly poison! No wonder Old Smoker had called it a "big haul"!
The Grave Soil Ghost General staggered out of the sludge, ferocity blazing in its murky eyes! It seemed thoroughly enraged. With a piercing shriek, it plunged its withered hands into the grave mound beneath it!
"Squelch!"
The thick black-red sludge churned as if alive, instantly wrapping around its arms and rapidly spreading upward before hardening!
In the blink of an eye, its two shriveled arms were covered by a thick layer of black carapace gleaming with metallic coldness!
The edges of the shell were sharp as blades, while three half-foot-long, hook-curved pale bone claws extended from each hand! Foul mucus dripped from their tips!
This was no longer a simple corpse transformation. It was a killing weapon bestowed with some strange evil power!
"Roar!" The ghost general roared and lunged again with its newly formed bone-claw blades! It was even faster than before!
Its claws tore through the air with piercing shrieks, aiming straight for Fang Gang's head and heart! Even the air in their wake carried a corrosive, foul stench!
"Interesting." A trace of battle intent flashed through Fang Gang's eyes. He neither dodged nor evaded as the pure yang qi and blood of his perfected Nine Yang cultivation surged through him! Golden-red radiance flared beneath his skin like an ignited furnace!
"Clang!!!"
A piercing clash of metal rang through the night sky!
The ghost general's pale bone claws, capable of piercing steel plate, slammed viciously into Fang Gang's crossed arms!
The expected sight of torn flesh never came! The bone claws scraped violently against skin covered in golden-red light, throwing out a chain of dazzling sparks!
It was like clawing at tempered alloy armor!
Fang Gang did not move an inch! The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch!
For the first time, a human-like shock and disbelief flashed through the ghost general's murky eyes! Its strongest attack had not even broken the other man's skin?!
"Done scratching?" Fang Gang's cold voice rang out with a hint of mockery. "My turn."
Before his words had faded, he flung his blocking arms outward!
"Crack!"
An unstoppable, terrifying force erupted!
The ghost general's black-armored arms, together with its newly formed pale bone claws, shattered and flew apart under that pure force like brittle dead branches! Black viscous fluid and bone fragments scattered everywhere!
"Roar—!!!" The ghost general let out an earth-shaking howl of pain as its ruined body staggered backward!
Fang Gang gave it no chance to catch its breath! He took a step forward, making the ground quake!
He spread his five fingers. His sinewy arm, like a red-hot branding iron, carried the all-consuming Nine Yang True Fire as it shot forward like lightning and seized the ghost general's partially black-armored head!
"Sizzle—!!!"
It was like pressing a red-hot iron block onto snow! Pure yang true fire violently clashed with the yin-evil ghost body! Acrid green smoke, accompanied by a foul stench, surged into the sky!
The ghost general's head twisted and struggled madly in Fang Gang's grip, letting out a dying shriek!
"Perish!"
Fang Gang clenched his five fingers, and golden-red flames surged!
"Boom!"
The Grave Soil Ghost General's head and half a shoulder exploded beneath the violent Nine Yang True Fire and pure brute strength like an ignited gasoline barrel!
The filthy yin aura, viscous black mud, and shattered bone armor were instantly purified and incinerated by the pure yang true fire!
Only half a charred body remained, twitching on the ground before rapidly turning to ash.
Ding! Killed Grade C+ Grave Soil Ghost General (Core)! Evolution Points +35! Available Evolution Points: 35!
The battle had ended as swiftly as a flash of lightning. From the ghost general's lunge to its transformation into flying ash, only a dozen seconds had passed.
Fang Gang shook off grime that did not exist on his hand and turned his gaze toward the freshly opened grave.
In the grave pit, black-red sludge was still bubbling, giving off a nauseating stench.
At the center of the sludge, a crude thin wooden coffin was partially exposed.
Several deep claw marks had been scratched into the coffin lid from the inside, stained with dried dark brown-black blood!
Fang Gang's gaze sharpened as he jumped into the grave pit.
His Nine Yang Qi and Blood radiated slightly, evaporating the cold sludge trying to coil around him. Ignoring the lingering evil aura on the coffin, he reached out with a hand covered in golden-red light and grabbed the edge of the lid.
"Up!"
He flipped the thousand-pound coffin lid away with one hand, and it crashed heavily into the mud beside him.
There was no rotten corpse inside the coffin as expected.
There was only a curled-up, dried skeleton wearing an old groundskeeper's uniform. Its hand bones were clenched tightly, seemingly holding something between its fingers.
Fang Gang reached out and gently flicked it.
The skeleton's tightly clenched fingers loosened.
A badge stained with dried black blood fell into his palm.
The badge was forged from some unknown black metal and felt ice-cold to the touch.
Engraved upon it was an extremely bizarre image: a gigantic eye with no pupil, made only of countless twisted vortices! In the depths of those vortices, the deepest malice and madness seemed to churn!
"The Eye of Nightmare..." Fang Gang's eyes instantly turned icy cold! The Resentful Eye Brand on his left arm abruptly sent out a violent burning pain and throb!
The dark golden vertical eye at its tip opened and closed madly, conveying an overwhelming greed, longing, and... an almost worshipful fear!
This thing held extraordinary significance for the Nightmare Holy Cult! Old Liu Tou had clutched it desperately before he died—it could not have been a coincidence!
He suddenly raised his head, his sharp gaze sweeping through the dark woods at the cemetery's edge like a tangible searchlight!
At the instant the battle had erupted, his keen spiritual perception had caught an extremely faint, fleeting energy fluctuation carrying the intent to spy!
Someone was watching from the shadows!
"Come out!" Fang Gang barked, his voice exploding like muffled thunder! A terrifying soundwave, carrying the blazing masculine force of Nine Yang Qi and Blood, slammed into the darkness!
"Rustle!"
The tree shadows shook violently, and branches and leaves scattered everywhere.
An extremely faint muffled groan seemed to come from the darkness. Then a blurred black shadow, like a startled civet cat, vanished completely into the vast night after a few leaps, moving at astonishing speed.
"Hmph. Rat." Fang Gang did not pursue.
He looked down at the ice-cold Nightmare Emblem in his palm, then at the Resentful Eye Brand on his left arm. Though it had temporarily gone dormant, it still transmitted waves of greed.
The music box in Lost Alley, the Grave Soil Ghost General at Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery, the Nightmare Emblem, and the rat watching in secret...
Those things lurking in the gutters were becoming increasingly active.
He put away the emblem and hoisted his battle halberd. Under the bleak moonlight, his dark golden bald head resembled an undying beacon as he turned and strode out of the deathly silent cemetery.
Behind him, only the opened grave and scattered coffin silently recounted the violence and strangeness that had just occurred.
The night was still long.
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