LWGP - Chapter 199
Chapter 199: Undead Charm Spirit
Not many people could see that scene. Cai Wujun, being the fastest, saw it from high in the air. He was stunned for a moment, his brow furrowed, and his gaze swept over Wang Jiu, who was standing nearby, completely motionless.
Since her back was to him, he couldn't see her face.
But because of the shocked reactions of those around her, her silence seemed all the more conspicuous.
Then, she abruptly turned and walked away.
Only then did Cai Wujun see her expression. She had no expression at all—not grief, not deliberate coldness, not even murderous hatred or disgust.
It was her usual tranquility, a placid indifference, like the flowing years.
The people who arrived later only saw Wang Jiu walking away. When they went inside to see what had happened, everything had already dissipated.
They saw nothing. The people from Bashu and Gobi Territory who were present were tight-lipped and refused to speak of it, leaving the others with no way of knowing.
Because it was never meant for them to see. It was meant for Wang Jiu alone.
It was her past, the inner demon she was bound to have.
The Black Witch Organization was truly terrifying, prioritizing psychological attacks.
Lin Guiwan was a mother, and the scene had a huge impact on her. For a moment, she subconsciously thought it was her own child.
It was out of fear—fear of this apocalypse, fear of this world.
And because her daughter was the most important thing to her, she was terrified of her being harmed. So, when Song Yin, Xie Lu, and the others first thought the victim was a child named Jiong Jiong, it was likely because they had a premonition that her fate would be horrific.
So they judged wrong.
It wasn't Jiong Jiong. It was the infinitely powerful Wang Jiu.
When she was young, she had once been an ant.
Far away in the capital, the various officials who had been informed of the situation by Liu Wuren were very concerned.
"That wasn't an illusion, but a replayed image from an intercepted moment in time. I heard that Guang Jing, the first of the Four Demon Kings, possesses the ability of mimicry and illusion. This ability must have been strengthened countless times after the apocalyptic game descended, which is how he was able to find the traces Wang Jiu had erased years ago and show them to her again."
"This is a malicious act, consistent with the Black Witch Organization's style. They don't want to kill Wang Jiu; they want to bewitch her, to make her return to their side."
The people in the discussion all turned to look at the speaker.
His words already implied a worry that Wang Jiu might be swayed, especially since she had already obtained the gene potion.
"Her aptitude is far higher than Lin Yong's. If she evolves her genes from her current foundation, even our most powerful people here can't compare. What if…"
"No normal person can withstand that kind of psychological trauma, especially since she was just a child, no matter how smart. Although Professor Lin Zi has raised her very well over the years, but…"
"That kind of mentality, even if suppressed, is another form of obsession hidden within the body."
Ultimately, they were uneasy.
What they maintained was, after all, only the normal order for the general populace. It seemed that anything beyond a certain limit, especially something beyond their control and understanding, was heresy. But an elderly man with a clear and cold gaze spoke with wisdom, "We are not gods. We cannot pass judgment on whether someone who was brutalized by demons and barely escaped will turn to evil."
At these words, the solemn room fell somewhat quiet. In the end, others agreed with his opinion.
"I, too, am of this opinion."
"Although there are Light Arcana that can predict—those are skills, tools—judgment is not for us, her peers, to carry out."
"Wang Jiu is a person. She has never infringed upon the interests of our nation and people. On the contrary, she has built a large territory, giving a portion of humanity a place to live in peace."
"Lin Zi trusts her, so I trust her too."
"I trust Professor Lin. The person she raised can't be bad."
In the end, their attitudes were unanimous. If there were a few with stricter views, they didn't bring them up again, as they were outnumbered.
If Wang Jiu had heard this, she would have certainly been dismissive of these people, but she might have also thought of the ideology the Old Lady had insisted on back then.
She would remember her grandmother's calm yet stubbornly nagging words.
"Justice may need to be fought for, but there is still righteousness in the world. Not everyone is stingy with their light. As long as you have a lamp in your heart, the road ahead is full of promise."
As night fell, Liu Wuren was waiting for reports. When they had all been received, he began to go through them, noting who had submitted each one. Someone was helping him organize them.
The White-Robed Woman flipped through the reports in her hand, using her prophecy skill to review them while also analyzing their feasibility and assessing the true strength of the other territories, ultimately forming her own report.
She was very fast, clearly a woman with a quick mind, but she was also quiet. She worked for two hours without saying a single word to her lord. Liu Wuren would occasionally look up at her. Under the light, her white clothes seemed ethereal and cool, devoid of warmth. Her silhouette was tinged with a hazy halo, like a faint, charming mist, or the fine threads of flowing water.
She never intentionally treated people coldly; she was just distant, observing all courtesies but minding her own business.
After a glance, Liu Wuren looked away, then suddenly let out a soft "huh."
The woman looked back at him, not asking, but waiting for him to speak.
"Wang Jiu actually submitted a report."
Wang Jiu? The one she saw today?
The woman turned her face away, still holding someone else's report. She didn't ask, but continued her work, no longer distracted.
Meanwhile, Wang Shu hesitantly approached Wang Jiu, who had just finished writing something in a pavilion and was now looking out at the scenery.
Bashu Territory was bustling, even more so than Gobi. Everywhere, one could hear people from all corners of the country preparing for battle, and also hear some people chatting and laughing.
The more pressure people are under, the more they feel the urge to be boisterous, to release that pressure.
So these people talked about everything—the game, their families and friends, love and hate, and also gossip, like which celebrity was rumored to be a kept man, which gigolo was supposedly great in bed, or the dirty laundry of a few territories.
But few people talked about Wang Jiu's matter. Those who knew were probably too afraid to bring it up.
Wang Shu asked again, "Master, can I give you a hug?"
"Next, are you going to ask me to take off my clothes so you can see if the scars are still there?"
"!"
My mistake, Master!
Wang Shu shuffled awkwardly, moving his butt onto the chair like a timid little wife. "Master, can I tell you about my past? I've been holding it in for a long time."
"No."
But I'm going to say it anyway.
"She came to find me once. She worked up the courage to ask if I could forgive her. I cursed at her, humiliated her, called her a fickle slut, a bitch, and told her to get lost… She left in tears. Later, my parents died, and I came to my senses. I can't let her go in this life. That day, I went to find her, to tell her… but they all said she was dead. She jumped from a tall building, one corpse, two lives, covered in blood. Later, I got her diary and found out she had been raped. Gao Qu threatened her with a video. She was always so well-behaved, so timid. She would always walk under the streetlights at night and would jump if she saw a mouse. Her parents favored her younger brother, but she never dared to resist. The only time she was brave was when she was nagging me to do my homework, daring to poke my face with her finger. Master, how did she suddenly become so brave? It must have hurt so much, it must have been agonizing. Master, will I never see her again?"
The despair his beloved girl had once faced was now his own.
Wang Jiu watched him with a cold gaze, but moved her leg aside and said faintly, "If you want to go down and see her, I can send you."
"That won't be necessary." The reason Wang Shu brought this up was, aside from genuinely wanting to tell Wang Jiu his past, also to offer some comfort.
His method of comforting was quite realistic. He didn't take the empty route of "everything will be okay," but instead used his own tragedy to balance the other person's psychological state.
The result was a Spirit Tentacle wrapping around his neck.
"I'm going, I'm going, I'll leave right now."
"Make them get lost too."
Lin Guiwan and the others, who had been hiding nearby, emerged. Seeing that Wang Jiu seemed no different than usual, they decisively got lost.
But one person didn't leave.
Xie Lu.
Wang Jiu understood the look in his eyes. She didn't move away as he approached.
As Xie Lu saw it, everyone in the capital pitied the little girl named Jiong Jiong, but few would ever truly care about Wang Jiu's experience.
Because she was from that place. Anything bad that happened to her seemed driven by fate.
If something isn't perfect, it doesn't hurt as much to see it broken. If it's already flawed, seeing it damaged again and again doesn't cause pain.
That should have been the thought process, but it wasn't true.
It turned out it did hurt. It hurt him deeply.
For the first time, Xie Lu felt a certain disgust for how he used to so casually speculate, scrutinize, and judge her.
What right did he have?
"You're not going to ask if you can hug me like Fatty Wang, are you?"
"Would a hug help?"
Wang Jiu smiled and turned her head, looking into the distance. "It's not about whether it helps. It's meaningless."
It was unclear if she was talking about the pain of the past being meaningless to her now, or if other people were meaningless to her.
"Does Professor Lin Zi know?" Xie Lu asked anyway.
He felt that approaching it from this angle might offer Wang Jiu the greatest comfort.
Sure enough, Wang Jiu, who had seemed detached, was lost in thought for a moment. Then she suddenly smiled, her voice slightly hoarse. "That day, she brought me out of the mountains and gave me a bath. I was filthy, but a year probably wasn't enough to heal many of the scars. She saw them and cried as she washed me. It got to the point where I had to comfort her and tell her not to cry. Then she turned it back on me, insisting it was just water, and lectured me with a straight face that children shouldn't lie."
But later, she was the one who lied constantly, a string of falsehoods, rarely speaking the truth.
Perhaps it was her nature, destined to be so.
After a pause, she turned to Xie Lu. "Are people like you especially soft-hearted?"
No matter how much she imitated, she knew better than anyone that she and the Old Lady would never be the same kind of person.
But Xie Lu was.
She could see his self-reflection and guilt.
A bit silly.
"It depends on the person. Not everyone gets to meet someone like you."
Xie Lu didn't notice the deep affection in his words, remaining blissfully unaware.
Wang Jiu noticed. She was a master at playing with people's hearts, but she didn't care, nor did she point it out. Instead, she frowned, her gaze sweeping across the entirety of Bashu.
Xie Lu was also sharp. From the strangely subtle silence between them, he sensed Wang Jiu's complete and distracted vigilance.
He immediately scanned his surroundings, but he wasn't as fast as Wang Jiu.
"Something's happened!"
Xie Lu and Wang Jiu shot off one after the other like afterimages. When Wang Jiu landed on the roof of an elegant manor with red tiles, her gaze swept past its barrier and locked onto the manor next door. Just as she was about to act, she ran into someone coming out onto the second-floor balcony of the very manor she was on.
The girl in white had probably just finished bathing; her hair was still damp, and she wore a loose, thin sleep dress. She had sensed the disturbance from Gobi but hadn't detected Wang Jiu's arrival.
The latter was too strong, her speed too terrifying, and she was naturally concealed by her Trickery and Chameleon skills. She had appeared in an instant, but because the memory was so deep, the girl recognized her immediately.
Of course, she also immediately realized her attire was inappropriate, but before she could react, Wang Jiu had already ignored her, stepping on her roof's eaves to draw her blade and strike.
With a single slash, the thousand-plus-square-meter homestead was blown apart.
The woman in white didn't hesitate. Her robes, likely some kind of special armament, instantly transformed into clothes suitable for combat. She formed a hand seal, and her body turned into a stream of light, shooting into the destroyed homestead. However, she didn't follow Wang Jiu straight into the neighbor's residence.
She activated her prophecy. With the prediction, she foresaw the specter's location and immediately circled around to the backyard, just in time to intercept a terrifying black shadow that shot out.
Whoa! It was a scene straight out of a horror movie.
The black shadow's form was like a phantom, its body shifting unpredictably. It was cunning and spiritual. As soon as it appeared, it released a strange pink gas.
Hum! The woman in white had already formed a seal. A rotating sigil appeared around her, directly blocking the poisonous gas. Just as she was about to attack, a viciously cruel blade pierced through it from behind.
As it was killed, its body struggled, letting out a sharp shriek that tore through the night.
Thud!
The twitching black shadow lay still on the ground. A quick insight revealed it was from the Undead Race.
Xie Lu had already arrived. Carrying a longsword that shimmered with icy light, he was shocked to see the undead corpse on the ground.
Undead Charm Spirit, Golden BOSS, high-level undead, level 50, possessing the ability to bypass manor defenses and use dream seduction. All stats were 5,800.
His gaze instinctively turned inward, and he soon saw a desiccated corpse, drained of all blood and flesh.
It was completely naked, with a certain part being very obvious.
Seduction in dreams, followed by blood-draining.
This Undead Charm Spirit was Bloodthirsty?
Not good!
Xie Lu immediately contacted Wang Shu and the others. Without needing orders from Wang Jiu, he quickly rushed back to check on the area where Gobi was located.
Although the place he and Wang Jiu had come to was right next to the Gobi Territory, this Undead Charm Spirit was too strange. It could bypass the senses of people like Wang Jiu and Liu Wuren and break through defenses without a sound. One could imagine the fate of its victims!
Right, this dead man probably never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would be murdered while living next to a great prophet from Gobi.
Could it be that Light Prophecy was useless? Impossible. This woman's average stats were over ten thousand; she was an extremely strong individual, more than capable of prophecy.
Wang Jiu also found the matter a bit strange and glanced at the woman in white beside her.
What was her name again?
"Shen Wan." Wang Jiu was a top-tier territory lord, on the same level as Liu Wuren. Shen Wan had introduced herself out of courtesy, but she knew Wang Jiu had little interest in her as a person, only in her abilities.
Shen Wan was quick-witted. Though cool and detached, she was also responsible and took the initiative to explain, "I had some friction with this person and had no contact with him in the past, so I didn't set up a specific predictive warning. I didn't know about the Undead Charm Spirit's existence."
The art of prophecy was not an all-seeing eye; it was impossible to know the future of every person or thing.
She didn't feel guilty about this, but she would report the situation.
Wang Jiu, of course, knew she wasn't lying, but she said thoughtfully, "How are the people you do care about now?"
She wasn't a god either. Even with her powerful insight, she had only barely detected the situation here. She couldn't precisely pinpoint things in other places, so she wanted to take a shortcut through this prophet.
"I haven't detected anything for now, but there's a disturbance elsewhere."
As she mentioned other places, they both heard considerable disturbances erupting throughout Bashu Territory. It seemed their actions here had alerted others, who, upon investigation, also discovered the situation.
Of course, powerful individuals like Liu Wuren and Cai Wujun weren't far behind Wang Jiu. They had already discovered Undead Charm Spirits in the vicinity.
But the results were all the same.
The people were already dead.
The manner of death was consistent, but there was no time for a detailed examination because Shen Wan heard a disturbance from the southeast. It wasn't subtle; it was intense, like a battle.
Lightning crackled ferociously above that homestead.
That wasn't a private manor but a residence arranged by Bashu for the powerful experts from afar. Judging by the direction and location, it should be Snow Sea Forest Stream.
As Shen Wan moved, she noticed that Wang Jiu hadn't followed her, but had instead begun to examine the corpse.
Shen Wan didn't hesitate and quickly rushed over, seeing Liu Wuren and other extremely powerful individuals arriving there as well.
This time, it was a little different.
The person being targeted hadn't been killed. They had likely broken free from the seduction but were heavily injured, coughing up blood.
And the Undead Charm Spirit that had wounded him was still inside the house. The pressure and aura emanating from within clearly told them—this was a Purple Gold grade Undead Charm Spirit.
"Attack!"
The crowd had already begun their assault.
A massive barrage of attacks rained down. After the bombardment, the manor's protective shield was broken, and the phantom in the house suddenly flashed out, braving the dense attacks.
Its appearance startled many people.
Many who were about to launch a second wave of attacks instinctively held back.
This is?
Taking advantage of the crowd's astonishment, although extremely powerful individuals like Cai Wujun saw through the truth, it still gave the creature an opportunity. Its body released a strange ripple…
It was like a rhythm that directly affected everyone's minds. Even Liu Wuren was dazed for a moment. Immediately after, the Purple Gold Undead Charm Spirit turned into a black light and burrowed into the ground.
It escaped?!
Swoosh! Liu Wuren and the others recovered in just two or three seconds, but it was too late. It emerged from the ground and shot towards its original, heavily injured target.
"Juanzhi!!"
In that instant, vine-like tentacles shot through the air, wrapping around its body, pulling and yanking it back.
Internal dissection. The blade's edge passed through, stabbing into its hip bone and severing its energy source.
As it wailed in pain, the other powerful individuals followed up with their attacks.
Its health bar was instantly depleted by more than half.
An altar, a demon, a more powerful and terrifying dark force, and a soft, pale hand clamped around its neck.
Bang!
The Purple Gold Undead Charm Spirit was slammed into a nearby wall by a single hand.
The entire wall, and indeed the entire house, collapsed with a roar.
My god, that's terrifying!
What level of strength is this?
Amidst the rolling dust, someone manipulated the wind to blow it away. They then saw that the Undead Charm Spirit being held down by Wang Jiu was going berserk.
In the eyes of the crowd, there were two Wang Jius.
That's right, this Undead Charm Spirit looked exactly like Wang Jiu.
During its berserk phase, everyone's attacks were focused on it to stop its transformation. Wang Jiu showed no hesitation, unconcerned whether someone might intentionally aim their attacks at her. She just stood there, her Spirit Tentacles like thousands of green threads, endlessly entangling it and invading its body.
The Undead Charm Spirit felt pain and grabbed Wang Jiu's arm in retaliation, attempting to attack?
No, it was trying to invade her soul.
Its greatest strength was soul and illusion attacks.
"Be careful, it's good at…"
The final wave of attacks came, leaving the Undead Charm Spirit with only a sliver of health. To prevent it from escaping into the ground, Liu Wuren reminded Wang Jiu not to be counter-controlled, but then…
"How is this possible? You actually…"
The Undead Charm Spirit was in disbelief, but before it could finish speaking…
Crack. With a clear, crisp sound, Wang Jiu's fingers brutally snapped the Undead Charm Spirit's neck.
The image was somewhat unsettling, like one person killing another version of themselves.
Utterly brutal.
Its health bar emptied. A Purple Gold BOSS, far more powerful than the Little Corpse King, was blown apart in a matter of minutes.
The "Wang Jiu" with the broken neck gradually reverted to the Undead Charm Spirit's original, terrifying appearance.
Its neck, bones shattered, hung limply in Wang Jiu's fingers, and its body went slack, sliding to the ground.
She lifted her hand slightly, her fingers hooked around its neck. Wang Jiu looked down imperiously at its corpse, deep in thought.
Others found the situation a bit complicated.
It wasn't until Wang Jiu released her grip with a soft thud that the corpse fell to the ground, but something else landed with a crisp clatter.
Only then did Wang Jiu notice the item that had dropped from the Undead Charm Spirit.
A harmonica.
She narrowed her eyes, while on the other side, the blood-spitting Wen Juanzhi's expression changed drastically. He ignored Jiang Yun's care and lunged forward.
Squelch… A sharp Spirit Tentacle pierced through the hand he extended to grab the harmonica, also piercing and shattering the instrument.
Then, whoosh, it shot back, passing through Wen Juanzhi's palm again, carrying his blood back to Wang Jiu's hand.
The fresh blood dripped, drip, drip.
She gave Wen Juanzhi a faint glance, flicked away the sticky blood, and watched coldly as he used his injured hand to tremblingly gather the fragments.
He looked at Wang Jiu but said nothing.
Anger, fear, or something else—all remained unvoiced.
But any discerning person could see that something was about to surface, especially when Wen Juanzhi's agent, who lived next door, rushed over. The famously effeminate agent from the entertainment industry was terrified, not because of the Undead Charm Spirit on the ground, but because he saw Wang Jiu.
He was truly like a mouse seeing a cat. Despite his tall stature, he was obsequious and affected, bowing and scraping, just short of calling her 'grandma'.
Fortunately, in this atmosphere, the calm Shen Wan examined the Undead Charm Spirit's body but didn't touch it, only looking at Liu Wuren. Liu Wuren then said, "Everyone, this BOSS was a group effort. The ownership rights belong to the lord of Cai Market, but there's no need to unlock it for now. Let's first examine the situation with this Undead Charm Spirit. I suspect it's a newly evolved BOSS of the Undead Race."
Indeed, they had never seen one before.
No one had any objections, as many people had died, and almost every major territory had suffered losses.
The methods of this Undead Charm Spirit were too secretive, and its strength…
Although Wang Jiu dealt the final blow, in terms of damage, Cai Wujun and Liu Wuren were the strongest, as they had arrived earlier.
"How do we check it? Will Miss Shen do it? With you, there will surely be no mistakes." Zhou Yan had offended many people, but he was very polite to Bashu Territory and very enthusiastic towards Shen Wan.
However, there were many people here who were enthusiastic about Shen Wan, so it wasn't strange. But there were also those who were not enthusiastic and even hostile. For example, Ning Memeng from Guizhou's Sky Eye, known as the "little pepper," picked a fight, "Didn't the person next door to her die? And it wasn't even a Purple Gold grade. Even the god Wen could resist a Purple Gold Undead Charm Spirit, but the one over there was only Golden grade, right? I heard the great prophet is omniscient, but I don't think so."
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