Slaying Another Monster, Wangxiang, Gaining That Which Is Called Forgetting Form, and Becoming One with Heaven

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Lu Ding successfully arrived downstairs at his resettlement apartment complex.

Carrying the suitcase containing the stubborn stone fragments, Lu Ding looked at the resettlement complex where he had lived for five years, feeling rather wistful.

"I really will miss this place. Sure, the surroundings aren't great, but three hundred yuan a month for a one-bedroom apartment with a living room? Where else could I find a deal like that?"

Lu Ding was preparing to move.

Because of his special circumstances and excellent academic performance, the social assistance department had arranged a resettlement apartment for him after he left the orphanage: one bedroom and a living room, for three hundred yuan a month.

He had lived there ever since.

Previously, he had stayed because he had no money. Now that he had money and would never lack it again, Lu Ding naturally wouldn't keep occupying government resources.

He would leave the apartment for someone who could use it.

After all, resettlement apartments were in extremely short supply.

Plenty of people needed housing like this.

Lu Ding also needed a better place to live.

Tonight would be his last night here. With a different sort of feeling in his heart, Lu Ding returned to apartment 1503.

He changed his shoes, showered, washed away his exhaustion, then finally opened the suitcase and took out the stubborn stone fragments to examine them closely.

Apart from the lingering bloodstains, they really didn't look much different from ordinary stones.

"What could these be used for?"

"Medicine? Forging?"

Those two possibilities surfaced in Lu Ding's mind. Beyond those, he really couldn't think of any other uses. Even if he stared flowers into them, they wouldn't undergo any miraculous transformation.

And so.

Lu Ding gave up.

He got up and went to the balcony to start gathering his clothes, preparing for tomorrow's move.

His gaze happened to stray outside, and he saw what looked like a figure standing in the bamboo grove behind the complex. As Lu Ding looked over, it looked back.

Their gazes collided in midair.

Before Lu Ding could notice anything amiss.

The figure in the bamboo grove raised a hand toward him, pointing higher and higher, a little at a time.

That gesture.

Instantly made Lu Ding realize something.

This fellow seemed to be counting which floor he lived on!!!

Hold on!

He had only just unlocked his golden finger!!!

Was this thing really that brazen?!!!

Counting his floor in plain sight-what was that supposed to mean?

Coming to his door to cause trouble? Rob him?

At that thought, Lu Ding instantly decided he couldn't stand for it. He had just unlocked his golden finger-was he supposed to let himself be scared?

He tossed aside the clothes in his hands.

"Stop fucking counting! I live in 1503! Come up here if you've got the guts!!!"

He had been worrying about how to test the slashing power of his Way of Jinche, and now someone was delivering themselves to his door. Had they gotten tired of living?

But the very next moment.

Lu Ding suddenly felt he might have judged wrong. This thing wasn't human!!!

That made Lu Ding even more excited!!!

As soon as he shouted those words, the figure in the bamboo grove began running toward his building. It was incredibly fast, covering several meters with each stride. In the dim light, Lu Ding could even see the long hair streaming from its body.

Since when could a human grow hair that long all over their body?!

As the long-haired monster slipped through the building's rear entrance and vanished.

Lu Ding grew excited.

"Fuck! When you don't show up, none of you show up. Nineteen years without seeing so much as a hair, and when you finally do, two pop up in one night! Are you all sick in the head? There are clearly so many of you, and you still made me wait nineteen fucking years!!!"

He couldn't stay inside. The space was too cramped to fight freely.

Lu Ding quickly put on his shoes and stepped into the corridor. He wanted to move the battlefield to the stairwell or the corridor.

He went to wait at the stairwell entrance.

Looking down, Lu Ding saw a dark shape racing up the stairs at a terrifying speed.

The sound-activated lights came on floor after floor.

The tenth floor, the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth.

Lu Ding's adrenaline surged. The instant the fourteenth-floor light came on.

He raised his hand and unleashed a slash.

A razor-sharp presence erupted. An invisible slash cut through the iron railing, slicing iron like mud, and left blade and axe marks across the old building's mottled walls.

The sound-activated light illuminated the entire scene.

Lu Ding tilted his head to look.

On the intermediate landing, the monster had slammed backward into the wall, knocking loose a shower of plaster.

A deep slash scored its chest, starting at its shoulder and ending at its ribs. No blood dripped from within, nor was there flesh joined to bone. Vines intertwined inside, and countless tiny tentacles squirmed constantly along the wound.

Only now did Lu Ding get a full view of the monster.

It was black all over and stood more than two meters tall, its entire body wrapped in long black hair. Yet it didn't look bulky; if anything, it was rather slender.

Its face resembled a withered mask, and its eyes glowed a dim yellow like light bulbs.

It looked hideous and ugly.

But it was still tolerable!

The monster raised its head slightly and met Lu Ding's gaze.

Both their eyes shone with excitement.

"I thought you were some hot shit. Turns out you were just rushing here to die. I wonder whether your neck's as tough as your chest."

A slash erupted without any windup.

Sensing it, the monster ducked, but not quickly enough. Half the top of its skull was sliced off and sent flying.

A howl shook all fifteen floors.

It also startled the pair from 749 who had just arrived at the complex to find someone.

Hearing that cry.

The two exchanged a glance.

"A Wangxiang's howl!!!!"

"Shit!!"

They drove their feet down hard enough to shatter the paving tiles and covered the distance from the complex gate to the building entrance in two strides.

It was at that very moment.

A dark shape fell from above and slammed heavily into the ground.

The pair looked over and saw that, besides its coat of black hair, the monster was covered in blade wounds.

The once-ferocious monster now lay on the ground, drawing in more air than it breathed out. Its body struggled to get up and flee this place.

As though some terrifying existence lived here that it couldn't possibly compare to.

"Run! Now you know to run! What the fuck were you doing before? Go on, try running!!"

Another slash came cutting down. Already staggering as it tried to rise, the monster instantly collapsed, severed in half. Its body tumbled away while its two legs remained where they were.

The pair downstairs instinctively looked up.

They saw a small black dot kick off the building's ledges, twisting and darting down before landing on the ground.

Just then, a light breeze arose.

Pain stung their faces, as though someone were slicing their skin with a little knife.

When they looked at the monster's upper body again, it had been cut crosswise into four large pieces lying on the ground.

Lu Ding felt a new power come into being within him.

[Monster contained: Wangxiang]

[Containment reward: That Which Is Called Forgetting Form]

[That Which Is Called Forgetting Form: qi flows through the heavenly window; forgetting others and oneself; becoming one with heaven]

This name likewise stirred Lu Ding's memories.

Wangxiang.

Daoist texts, the Huainanzi, and the Analects all recorded it, though their accounts differed. In the Huainanzi and the Analects, Wangxiang were waterborne evil entities or spirits of mountain stone that ate people.

Daoist texts, however, described a state in which the spirit roamed through the heavenly window-the fontanelle at the crown of the head. An image of emptiness, that which was called forgetting form: becoming one with heaven.

And this reward, That Which Is Called Forgetting Form, meant becoming one with heaven. With this skill, Lu Ding could control that state at will!

A state others couldn't control was something Lu Ding could activate manually.

He had really hit the jackpot this time.

The two who had come looking for him were also stunned behind him.

If South Mountain Stubborn Stone had been a matter of dumb luck, then this brutal slaying of Wangxiang was absolute, genuine strength.

And it was something even they couldn't accomplish.

Never mind that Lu Ding had beaten Wangxiang like a little chick.

Killing it whenever he pleased.

Had they been in his place, a fierce battle would have been unavoidable.