"Don't entertain that thought! It's fake!" a sharp shout erupted behind him.
At the same time, Gong Qing rushed over, activating his ability to soothe Su Nian's mind and emotions.
Interrupted, the Basket-Carrying Granny's face filled with anger. Her skin split, oozing black blood, and her kindly features turned hideous and terrifying.
An icy wind howled.
"Why are you interrupting my conversation with my grandson?" Gray-black ghostly energy surged, blotting out the scattered sunlight around them.
The Basket-Carrying Granny stepped onto the road. One after another, the hearts in her basket jumped out and landed on the ground.
Four Ghost Minions with blackened faces and lips, their faces etched with eerie markings like twisted veins, surrounded the three men.
Hao Ren's expression darkened. He took out a white candle and lit it.
A faint halo formed a protective barrier around the three of them, throwing the Basket-Carrying Granny's four Ghost Minions back.
"Thanks!" Su Nian gripped his dagger. He hadn't expected Hao Ren and Gong Qing to come to his rescue.
[Red Candle] [Type: Curio] [Details: a single-use Curio that prevents supernatural entities from approaching and blocks their killing rules.]
"If you hadn't awakened, I wouldn't have saved you," Hao Ren said bluntly.
He was among the first people transported here, and he had little compassion left. He only saved people worth saving.
Useful people lived. Useless people died. It was that simple.
Su Nian froze. I've awakened? Why didn't I know? I've never even interacted with these two superhumans. How did they decide I'd awakened?
Was it my "composure" when facing the Basket-Carrying Granny?
The two men jumped onto the tricycle, one on each side, and Su Nian pedaled toward the outskirts of the city.
The Basket-Carrying Granny attacked the barrier relentlessly. Each strike made the candle burn rapidly, and after just two or three blows, nearly half of it was gone.
Gong Qing pulled a potted plant out of his bag. It was a sunflower.
[Blazing Sunflower] [Type: supernatural plant] [Details: a sunflower cultivated by a superhuman. Possesses the sun's pure yang properties and can release sunlight to suppress evil entities. Note: "Its output isn't unlimited. Flowers wilt too."]
As the sunflower's head turned toward the Basket-Carrying Granny, a golden beam shot out and struck her chest.
The Basket-Carrying Granny's clothes instantly caught fire, disintegrating into paperlike scraps.
Yet she seemed unable to feel pain. She pressed steadily forward against the blazing beam, the skin of her face flaking and cracking like a damp wall crusted with salt. It was a chilling sight.
"Aim at her basket," Su Nian said.
Since Hao Ren was convinced he had awakened, then awakened he was. He had seen both men's Sequence abilities. Making one up for himself would be no problem.
Wasn't his system far more impressive than Sequence Transcendent powers anyway?
Gong Qing tilted the flower's head... The Basket-Carrying Granny tried to cover her open basket, but she was a moment too late. Light several times hotter than the sun struck inside, and the basket instantly burst into flames, belching black smoke.
The Basket-Carrying Granny let out a piercing scream, then fled into the shadows and vanished.
"So the Basket-Carrying Granny's weakness is her basket, not her body. We've been approaching this wrong all along." Hao Ren's eyes lit up as he looked at Su Nian.
He was about to ask what ability Su Nian had awakened when Gong Qing suddenly spoke.
"The Hanged Ghost has broken out of my ward!"
Only a short stub of candle remained in Hao Ren's hand. A moment later, a bloodstained rope dropped from above, and the candle burned out instantly.
"Fuck, what rotten luck! First the Basket-Carrying Granny, now the Hanged Ghost. We picked the wrong road!"
Hao Ren gritted his teeth and pulled a small box out of his bag.
"If you see a rope, don't look up."
That warning was meant for Su Nian.
Su Nian still hadn't seen the entity's actual body, so he had no idea where to aim the system's cursor.
His appraisal system was useless like this.
Now he truly understood how terrifying these entities were. Before, he had only heard people talk about how dangerous they were.
They were so uncanny that you could die without ever knowing how.
Even knowing the Basket-Carrying Granny's killing rules, he had nearly fallen victim to her. Her most dangerous weapon was her ability to stir the desires buried in people's hearts.
As long as someone was human, they had attachments and greed. There was no avoiding it.
Once a person was marked, the killing rules would proceed step by step, ending in death.
A bloodstained rope dropped from above. Hao Ren opened the box and flung a handful of white granules at it.
[Evil-Breaking Sea Salt] [Type: Curio] [Details: a consumable Curio. Sprinkling it on a supernatural entity forces it out of concealment and inflicts some damage.]
The moment the bloodstained rope touched the Evil-Breaking Sea Salt, it burst into flame, revealing the Hanged Ghost's physical form.
It had no distinct facial features. Its eyes were sunken, its face a mass of rotting white flesh.
[Hanged Ghost] [Supernatural entity] [Killing rules: locks onto victims who develop feelings of despair or suicidal thoughts, even a fleeting thought that "living is nothing but suffering."] [Seeing a hanging rope or strip of cloth and looking up also attracts its attention. Without thoughts of despair, it will not hunt the victim directly, but will harass them with terrifying illusions.]
With the candle's protection gone, the Basket-Carrying Granny's four Ghost Minions lunged at them.
Gong Qing kicked the foremost Ghost Minion away and drew a dagger from his waist. It looked like wood soaked in blood.
[Dog-Blood Peachwood] [Type: Curio] [Details: a consumable Curio. Peachwood soaked in black dog blood that can inflict some damage on supernatural entities.]
Su Nian's expression hardened. He drew his dagger and charged forward.
[Ghost Minion] [Supernatural entity] [Physique: 10 points] [Spirit: 0 points]
His physique had already reached the human limit. A Ghost Minion only had ten points of physique, and no spirit meant it was an idiot. He could take one on.
His dagger slashed across a Ghost Minion's chest, leaving a vicious wound that steamed white as though scorched by fire.
Su Nian froze. Weren't weapons supposed to be useless against these things?
"That dagger of yours has killed plenty of animals, like pigs and cattle, hasn't it?"
As Gong Qing spoke, he drove his wooden dagger deep into a Ghost Minion's neck.
The Ghost Minion dissolved into gray-black particles.
Supernatural entities couldn't die, but Ghost Minions could be killed. They were merely disposable foot soldiers those entities created on a whim, only dangerous to ordinary people.
"My grandfather used to slaughter livestock for the village. This dagger has killed plenty of pigs, cattle, sheep, and horses. My family's been in the butchering trade since my grandfather's father," Su Nian replied.
Now that he knew Ghost Minions could be killed, he attacked much more ruthlessly, stabbing straight for the heart.
[Ding! Killed one Ghost Minion. Gained 500 survival points.]
"That explains it. The dagger has acquired evil-warding properties from years of use. It isn't a Curio, but it's better than my dagger. Objects like that are rare."
Gong Qing killed another Ghost Minion and raised his dagger. Part of it had already blackened, looking as brittle as a chocolate biscuit, ready to crumble at any moment.
Only one Ghost Minion remained. Su Nian lunged at it excitedly!
Five hundred points!
He'd need five days of basic support payments to get that much.
Gong Qing nodded approvingly. Awakening a Sequence Transcendent was certainly valuable, but determination and courage mattered most.
The courage to face supernatural entities head-on.
[Ding! Killed one Ghost Minion. Gained 500 survival points.] [Current survival points: 1,100] [Ding! Spend 1,000 survival points to enhance your talent?]
"Enhance it!"
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