บท 54: Demons in Human's Clothing
Chapter 54 – Demons in Human's Clothing
"This year exam is quite cruel, Senior Jia."
While Luo Cheng was watching the exam-takers struggling, he complained to the sect master. The dwarf didn't like how they killed off potential disciples and wasted human resources.
The sect master scoffed. Jia Shan didn't care if many young cultivators died in the test, "Cultivators are bound to be ruthless and flexible. Everyone should possess wits and survival skills. Luo Cheng, there is no law in this world. If we don't let them experience the cruel reality now, they will be taken advantage of and killed in the future. It's best that we teach them the hard way and ingrain their instinct right now."
Jia Shan was the one who had rigged the third round of the exam. Last year, it was much easier than this.
In the previous year, there was only one safe zone, and it was large enough for all examinees to camp inside. Also, a water source was nearby. All test takers could easily cooperate and survive, which encouraged the young cultivators to work as one to achieve their goals.
Unfortunately, Jia Shan didn't like how weak cultivators banded together to defeat the strong. He valued strong individuals over a unified group.
"But we don't need to kill them to teach the others!" Luo Cheng wasn't satisfied with Jia Shan's distorted logic.
"If they die, it's their own fault! Who asked them to join this exam? We even warned them that they might die, but they were the ones that chose to participate in our tests!"
"…"
Luo Cheng sighed. He didn't like how Jia Shan's sect took advantage of the weak and favored the strong. In his opinion, they should have nurtured the weak, so they could survive the cruel world, not to kill them and feed them to the stronger cultivators.
'This sect master is a power-hungry retard. He's too obsessed with power, and he forgets the time when he was weak. Does he think that everyone was born strong?'
The dwarf disliked Jia Shan. Yet, he still had to pretend to be loyal to the old man as Xu Xiuying had sent him here to work as her spy.
The goal of Xu Xiuying and Luo Cheng was simple. They wanted to weaken the Mountain Goose Sect and look for a chance to kill this old lunatic. Once Jia Shan was dead, the Silver Phoenix Sect would take over the city, becoming the only official sect in the province.
'Xu Xiuying might not be an ideal lord, but she's way better than this lunatic. One of these days, I'll kill you and reform the sect!'
Luo Cheng was determined to betray Jia Shan, but he couldn't do it alone. He kept the thoughts to himself, waiting for the right opportunity.
…
Wei Huang, the first elder of the Mountain Goose Sect, was also watching how his grandson and granddaughter fared in the realm.
When he noticed that Xu Miao had done something to Wei Yuan, he was infuriated. Fortunately, Xu Miao didn't harm her.
'What are they talking about? Why is Yuan'er so afraid of him?'
The live broadcast only showed their actions, but there was no audio. Nobody could hear the examinees' voice.
Wei Huang tried to read their lips, but he couldn't guess why Wei Yuan was so terrified of Xu Miao. Since he couldn't figure out the reason, the elder went to Xu Xiuying, who was monitoring the exam nearby.
"Xu Xiuying! What is your son doing? Why is he harassing my granddaughter?"
Xu Xiuying frowned and peered at the old man Wei Huang, "From what I see, your granddaughter interrupted my son's business, and she was let off with a slight warning. You should be thankful that he didn't do more than that."
"Didn't you see her face? She's petrified. Your son must have threatened her. No matter the reason, I must ask you to compensate for my granddaughter."
Xu Xiuying rolled her eyes. She turned to Wei Huang and whispered, "He must have discovered your family's real identities. Now, listen, you stupid oni. If you don't want me to expose your little secret, shut your shit taking mouth and mind your business."
While the Wei Clan had a secret, the Xu Clan also hid something from the public. It was their race.
Wei Huang, Wei Yuan, Wei Feng, and all Wei families were not humans. They were demons, the onis.
Onis were red ogres, who could disguise themselves as humans. These ogres were one of the remnant demon races that managed to build up their clan's strength to contest for human territories. They secured one-third of the Mountain Goose City, and they were planning to destroy a human sect, the Mountain Goose Sect, from the inside.
Wei Huang didn't back down. He also muttered in a low voice, "Look, you slut succubi are no different than us. We're doing fine blending in the human society up until now, but your moronic human pet is about to jeopardize our long-term goal. I'm fine with you kidnapping and killing humans left and right, but don't get us involved in your game."
Xu Xiuying wasn't clean either. In fact, she was a succubus, another demonic being in town. Long Meifang, who was working for her, was also one of the succubi.
Unlike the oni clan, succubi scattered throughout the continent, surviving on their own. Half of them worked as prostitutes as they could blend in society and obtain Yang Qi from their sex partners at the same time. As for the rest, they banded together and formed their association under the name of a peculiar sect, the Silver Phoenix Sect.
Many succubi disguised as one of their elders and lived in various cities, protecting the sect's branches and increasing their influence. Mountain Goose City also housed one of the branches, Poseidon Spa House, and Xu Xiuying was its director.
Both races were considered mankind's enemies. If someone were to find out about their true identities, a civil war would break out.
However, at the moment, the two demons were bluffing each other because of a trivial conflict.
"Do you think it's my fault? Do you think it's something that I can control? He was minding his own businesses, but your granddaughter provoked him!"
"Of course! You've allowed him to join this event, so he is currently under your jurisdiction. You will have to take responsibility if he did something to my granddaughter. Why did you allow him to join as your top disciple in the first place? And hell, didn't your son use a technique from an evil sect? Did you teach him that!?"
Xu Xiuying almost burst into laughter, "I didn't allow him or order him to join this event. He defeated my top disciple and earned the right. Whatever he did in there or whatever he has learned is none of my business."
"Oh? Really? Then, if he dies, you won't care at all?"
"If your stupid clansmen happen to be responsible for his death, you can expect my wrath. Go ahead and try me. I'll destroy your clan if you do!"
"Ha! So scary. Well, it's good that my granddaughter is unharmed. If your human pet does something like that again, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
While Xu Miao, Xie Tian, and everyone else was struggling in the alternate realm, masters like Xu Xiuying, Luo Cheng, Wei Huang, and Jia Shan had their own agendas.
Wei Huang and Xu Xiuying's rivalry was ongoing despite the need for cooperation to survive human society.
Luo Cheng wanted to overthrow Jia Shan's authority, but he didn't have the strength to do so.
On the other hand, Jia Shan kept strengthening his position and his sect while he killed off weak cultivators, weeding out incompetent people from the world.
Chaos was brewing behind the scenes.
.
.
.
= In the monster realm =
"Hoo!"
The forest fire in Xu Miao's area was doused after he had taken out a refined Yin stone and released its energy. The cold Yin Qi extinguished the fire like magic. However, several parts of the forest were still burning, and the fire was spreading at a rapid rate.
The score above Xu Miao's head rose to 2,500 after he burnt several acres of forest. He didn't know how many monster beasts, monster trees, or fellow test-takers that he had killed. Nonetheless, he had no F to give to those dead monsters and humans.
Xu Miao managed to catch his breath, but he didn't stay idly. He took out the giant dadao and dug through the burnt rubbles, searching for usable loot.
When Xu Miao butchered the monster wolf, he found a small red crystal inside its heart. Using his novel knowledge as a reference, he believed that this might be the infamous [Monster Core] from many stories. He still kept it in his pocket.
When he asked the system when he got the monster core, it gave him the usual obnoxious message.
<<Insufficient privilege. Please complete more quests to unlock more privileges to unlock more information.>>
Without a choice, Xu Miao couldn't use it. He kept collecting the cores for now, hoping to bring it back and appraise it when he had free time.
Xu Miao hummed as he chopped the charcoaled monsters. Sure enough, he found red crystals inside their bodies.
After digging through the corpses, he got 72 more cores richer. So many monsters were burnt to death, and precious monster cores were everywhere.
'Alright. Next.'
Xu Miao didn't rush to the lighted beacon. He took his time, scanning the surroundings and searching for a water source or dead monsters nearby. He kept heading further in the dead tree forest.
Xu Miao encountered more ents, but they were not a threat to him. Any fire conjurer could easily kill these moving trees.
Three hours later after defeating the first monster tree, Xu Miao finally encountered a roadblock.
*RUMBLE*
While Xu Miao was burning the forest to kill ents, one of the trees was immune to fire attack. A unique man-eating ent pulled its roots from the ground and started extinguishing the fire with its chilly breath.
This thing was a colossal monster with at least a kilometer in circumference. As for its height, it was twice taller than ordinary ents.
The new monster tree had glossy blue bark, barbed branches, and billions of blue leaves. Its giant eyes glared at Xu Miao as if he was its sworn enemy.
Xu Miao gazed at the boss monster in astonishment. He thought that he had encountered a living Yggdrasil.
"What in the world?"
*HUMM*
The Frost Ent finished conjuring its skill. A hail of ice lances rained upon Xu Miao.
"… Fuck."
Xu Miao's face turned into a smiling derp meme.
The spell and the power that this monster had displayed was stronger than Xu Xiuying's clone. Without thinking, Xu Miao ran for his life.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
It was a wise decision. The rain of ice lances leveled the ground as if they were hit by missiles.
Unfortunately, Xu Miao couldn't dodge all of them. One of the lances grazed his leg and destroyed the ground in front of him.
*BOOM*
The ground collapsed. As if the earth sunk into a hallowed underground level, Xu Miao fell into the abyss.
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DamnPlotArmor
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For the sake of annoying my readers, I'll give you a spoiler after chapter 60+
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Killer Queen appears.
บท 55: Abandoned Mine
Chapter 55 – Abandoned Mine
"Ouch!"
Xu Miao didn't remember how high he fell from the collapsed ground. He only recalled that he activated the Qi Barrier and the usual body strengthening to protect himself from the fall impact.
Looking around, Xu Miao couldn't see anything as there was no light. He looked up to see the hole that he had fallen from, but it wasn't there anymore. No light or anything could be seen in the darkness.
Xu Miao circulated a few strands of Yang Qi to create a small fireball to see the surrounding. As soon as the light was lit, he found himself in a tunnel. Traces of human-made structures, such as wooden ceiling, walls, and pillars, were everywhere. However, they looked archaic and worn as if they had been there for several hundred years.
By reflex, Xu Miao muttered a meme line with Gandalf's voice, "I have no memory of this place."
*RUMBLE*
As if the abandoned mine didn't like the meme, the tunnel shook. Dirt fell from nearby soil and a landslide followed.
Xu Miao's legs automatically moved, running inside the mine toward a location where the ceiling and the walls looked sturdier.
*BOOM*
Dark soil and stones fell onto the place where Xu Miao had stayed a few seconds ago.
The entrance hole had collapsed and sealed a way out of the mysterious underground mine.
'Seriously!?'
Xu Miao was shocked that he was trapped underground. Now, he could only enter the mine to search for an exit.
Despite being in a crisis, Xu Miao wasn't panicked. He kept his cool and followed the path while using his mini fireball to light the way.
The abandoned mine tunnel was linear at first. After a few minutes of walking, Xu Miao found himself in a wide room. Cart railways, rusty carts, broken mining tools, and craters of unknown rocks were everywhere, but none of them had been arranged in order.
Because of the dark and the wide-area, Xu Miao summoned more mini-fireballs to illuminate the room.
As soon as the room was lighted up, a horrifying scene could be seen.
Dried corpses and skeletons of goblins, trolls, and unknown monsters scattered on the ground. Traces of combat was still present as arrows and knives got stuck on the corpses and bones.
Yet, Xu Miao was unperturbed. He took out his magic dadao and began chopping the dried corpses and bones, searching for leftover loot.
Within five minutes, Xu Miao found what he had been looking for, a monster core.
'Free loot!'
The young master didn't care about potential danger. He cut more dead bodies and skeletons to find monster cores, treasures, or usable items.
Unfortunately, Xu Miao could only secure 107 monster cores in this room. The arrows and knives were no longer usable as they had decayed through time. Judging from the corpse condition and the rust on metal weapons, they were at least several decades old.
Now, Xu Miao packed 180 cores in his leather bag. Since each monster core's size was the same as an adult's thumb and weighed a kilogram. He could no longer carry them normally anymore. Without a spatial ring, carrying these items became an issue.
'Can my system inventory hold these balls? Can I stack all of them in one slot?'
Xu Miao didn't return his magic dadao to the inventory. Since he was aware that his actions were being watched, Xu Miao crouched and panned his system screen on the ground. Then, he opened the inventory menu while the semi-transparent monitor lined with the ground level.
One of the monster cores was shoved into the inventory. It occupied one of the slots.
Xu Miao pushed another one into the same slot, hoping that the item would stack.
<<Ding>>
The second monster core went in. The inventory slot showed a monster core icon with a number [2] on the box's bottom right corner.
The experiment was a success. Xu Miao managed to solve his item problem.
'I should have done this a long time ago.'
Without hesitation, he shoved the rest of the monster cores into the inventory. Now, he didn't have to worry about carrying a heavy bag of small crystals.
After storing all monster cores, Xu Miao looked at the mysterious ores in the broken craters. He picked one of them and examined it.
'I can sense Qi from these ores. What are they, system?'
<<Ding>>
<<These are raw demonic stones.>>
'Oho? Raw demonic stones? So, the Qi I sensed were Demonic Qi?'
Xu Miao's eyes glittered. He freed up space in his system inventory by taking out a magic knife. Then, he shoved a raw ore into the available inventory slot.
Trying his luck, he grabbed another ore and tried to add to the same inventory slot.
*WHOOSH*
The ore went in.
"MUAHAHAHAHA!!"
All of a sudden, Xu Miao burst into laughter. He grabbed the raw ores and stacked it into the ore slot. Sometimes, the ores were incompatible and Xu Miao couldn't stack it with the others as they were ordinary stones. However, more than half of them were demon ores.
After three hours, Xu Miao ransacked all craters. The demonic ore icon had [392] number on it, showing the total of ore pieces that he had looted.
"More! Where are the ores!?"
The young master forgot about the crisis. He looked around and found five more passages. Without caring if these paths were dangerous or not, Xu Miao wielded his magic dadao and magic knife, walking to the left-most tunnel. He picked the path randomly.
Small fireballs still rotated around Xu Miao, lighting the pathway. He looked at everything for monster cores and raw ores. The corner of pillars, the dirt, the ceiling, and the dead bodies were searched as if Xu Miao was a new Skyrim player who collected every lootable item.
Xu Miao lost track of time while he was exploring the underground mine and collecting ores. 12 Hours later, his stomach roared and snapped him back to his senses.
'Huh? When was the last time I ate something?'
Xu Miao secured a place to sit down and have his meal. It had been more than half a day since he was teleported into this world. He started to get tired.
'I guess I have to sleep here. Oh well…'
Xu Miao took out his prepared food packages and water bottles from his inventory. He rested in the mine for now. Before he went to sleep, he didn't forget to drag a few broken craters to cover his body, camouflaging himself with the environment in case there were harmful monsters nearby.
…
4 Hours later, Xu Miao woke up. He didn't spend a long time in the Isolation Training Space since he only absorbed energy from refined stones, which he had stored in his inventory. His Qi in his dantian was replenished and increased a bit.
.
*********************************************
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[Stored Qi]
Yang Qi: 90,164
Yin Qi: 39,120
.
*********************************************
.
No spare refined spirit stones were left in Xu Miao's inventory. These backup Qi strands were his source of power.
Xu Miao still had demonic ores in his inventory. If he were to spend all of the stored Qi, he could still absorb those demonic stones and convert them like how he converted Wei Yuan's energy. However, he wanted to keep them to himself for now, just in case he could find a way to use them other than absorbing its Qi directly.
After packing his weapons and supplies in the inventory slots, which had been freed after all refined stones had been used, Xu Miao continued exploring the mine.
Xu Miao found several rooms with more corpses and traces of battles. Again, he looted everything useful.
After Xu Miao found the fifteenth room, he stumbled upon a blockaded door. Over a hundred skeletons and dried corpses of humanoid monsters packed in front of the entrance as if they had gathered to siege the sealed room.
Sitting skeletons with horns in rusty armor faced the opposite direction of these dead monsters. They seemed to be warriors who had stood and protected the sealed room until death.
Attracted by the sealed door, Xu Miao inspected the area after he looted all the monster cores and ores.
'What were you guys trying to enter, and what were you lot trying to protect?'
Xu Miao peeled off the dead bodies and broken barricades to create a path to the sealed door. After an hour of hard work, he reached the suspicious area.
The narrow passage entrance was blockaded by stones and old wood, which seemed to be deliberately made in urgent.
Xu Miao patiently dug through the stones and barricades, making his way to the other side of the tunnel. When he got through, he found another long passage, but it led to a dead-end.
'Huh? I'm sure these guys are protecting something.'
Xu Miao scanned through the section behind the barricade to see what they were protecting or what the monsters tried to reach.
In the dead-end tunnel, several dried skeletons laid around. Xu Miao couldn't say that they were humans as two horns extended from each of their skulls.
'These dead bodies, were they demons?'
Most bones in the abandoned mine were either grey or white. However, these skeletons glittered in rainbow colors. Illuminated by Xu Miao's wisp-like fireballs, the glowing and glittering bones were like jewels under the sunlight.
Xu Miao's eyes shone. He had never seen shining bones before, so he thought that these people's dead bodies should be something valuable. He stored one of the dead bodies into his inventory.
Then, a skull with two curvy horns image appeared as the item's icon. The description in the menu said, "Skeleton of Oni Priestess."
'Oni priestess? An oni? A Japanese ogre?'
Xu Miao recalled a monster oni from Japanese folklores. An oni was a giant ogre with two horns, red skin, and long fangs that extended out of its mouth. Because of the cultural influence of the country, it usually wielded either a long katana or a long spiked mace and wore samurai plate armor.
The remnant clothes of these dead bodies also resembled kimono, which didn't belong in a deep mine. As Xu Miao examined closer, many of these skeletons hid sheathed short swords for self-defense.
Xu Miao picked up some of the tantos and unsheathed them. All of them already decayed, showing rusty broken blade and core.
Not giving up searching for usable items, Xu Miao stripped these dead bodies, looking for monster cores or any hidden treasure.
'Oh?'
He found several white crystals, which was at the same size as a monster core. However, they were from these dead onis. There were 23 of them in total in this sealed section.
<<Ding>>
After storing one of the crystals, the inventory identified the items for Xu Miao.
Refined Demonic Stone
Xu Miao's eyes glittered. He found more valuable items.
"HAHAHA! I'm rich!"
After collecting all the white orbs, Xu Miao planned to free some spaces in his inventory to store these glittering skeletons, hoping to bring them back to the outside world.
*Click*
While Xu Miao was busy sorting his inventory, one of the abandoned katana in this room moved. It unsheathed itself, revealing its sinister dark light.
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