Chapter 46: The Radiant Fly

Xu Wang possessed a stubborn streak. To put it bluntly, he was dead set on his ways, stubbornly clinging to his own logic. Since this bell hadn't worked when shaken, he was determined to make it serve some purpose. Thus, he stood right there and kept shaking it continuously! After shaking it for a few minutes, before Xu Wang could stop his movements, the ground in front of him suddenly stirred. Then, the heavily wounded Tree Demon Grandmother burst violently out from beneath the earth! "Shake, shake, shake! What the hell are you shaking for? I'm over there fighting a battle! And you're over here shaking! You just wouldn't stop! Are you addicted to shaking or something?!" The Tree Demon Grandmother's hair was disheveled, her entire body was in a wretched state, and she was covered from head to toe in green blood. The moment she emerged, she pointed straight at Xu Wang and cursed him out fiercely! Xu Wang was left completely bewildered by the Tree Demon Grandmother's scolding. However, he quickly snapped back to his senses. It seemed shaking the bell really did work after all; look, didn't it summon the Tree Demon Grandmother right to him?! Therefore, Xu Wang broke into a happy smile once more. He decided not to leave Xiao Qing a bad review after all. On the flip side, the Tree Demon Grandmother had managed to sever the magical link between the bell and herself with great difficulty, finally escaping narrowly from the clutches of Yan Chixia. Realistically speaking, after escaping, the Tree Demon Grandmother ought to have burrowed deep into the earth and spent several centuries in secluded cultivation before showing her face again, thereby completely evading Yan Chixia—just like Master Ye Fu, waiting until all her enemies died of old age. But the Tree Demon Grandmother simply could not get her mind clear of this grievance! This fellow Xu Wang had shaken his bell frantically at the exact moment she was locked in battle with Yan Chixia, causing her to take several extra sword thrusts from Yan Chixia for no good reason! If her true form hadn't been a millennium-old tree demon with incredibly tenacious vitality, any other spirit would have been stabbed to death by Yan Chixia long ago! One could say that all the extra suffering she endured was entirely because of this guy, Xu Wang! Running away was fine, and recuperating was fine too. But before any of that, Xu Wang had to die! "Lacking manners, aren't you?! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to disturb the peace at night?! You keep ringing that bell here, do the neighbors not need to sleep?! Watch how I teach you a lesson!" As she spoke, the Tree Demon Grandmother thrust her right hand toward Xu Wang! Instantly, her right arm rapidly transformed into a sharp wooden spike, growing at high speed as it lanced directly toward Xu Wang! Seeing this, Xu Wang was overjoyed. He immediately spread his arms wide and charged head-on toward the Tree Demon Grandmother, waiting eagerly to be impaled! Just as the Tree Demon Grandmother's wooden branch of an arm was about to pierce straight through Xu Wang's chest, a tremendous force suddenly caught him by the back of his collar. The collar choked tightly against his neck, almost suffocating him. Then came a dizzying spin of the world! By the time Xu Wang regained his senses, he found that Yan Chixia had tossed him all the way to the base of the courtyard wall, instantly putting a distance of more than ten meters between him and the Tree Demon Grandmother. "Hmph! You still want to harm someone right in front of me!" Yan Chixia, who had arrived just in time, first let out a cold snort at the Tree Demon Grandmother, then turned his head to look at Xu Wang: "Little brother, I misunderstood you earlier. I didn't expect you were actually doing that for the sake of the bell. Leave the rest to me." Yan Chixia had expected to receive a look of gratitude or admiration from Xu Wang. However, the Xu Wang who climbed back to his feet looked at Yan Chixia with eyes full of deep grievance instead. This instead left Yan Chixia completely baffled, completely clueless about what he had done wrong. Xu Wang remained silent for a moment, then suddenly pointed toward the horizon and shouted, "Look! A UFO!" "What?" Neither Yan Chixia nor the Tree Demon Grandmother reacted in time, instinctively glancing in the direction Xu Wang was pointing. Now was the chance! Not wasting a single second, Xu Wang mustered his fastest possible speed and charged wildly back toward the Tree Demon Grandmother! The Tree Demon Grandmother reacted first, casting a spell directly at Xu Wang! Right beside Xu Wang's feet, two tree roots burst violently out of the ground! With two soft thuds, Xu Wang, still rushing forward, was impaled right in midair by the roots. These two roots acted like straws, rapidly sucking away Xu Wang's blood and vital energy. At a visible speed, Xu Wang's body rapidly shriveled up, quickly becoming nothing more than skin and bones! "Hahaha, marvelous!" With sunken cheeks and eye sockets, looking entirely like a skeleton wrapped in skin, Xu Wang smiled happily. "Little brother!" Seeing this, Yan Chixia let out a cry of remorse and alarm! "A thousand swords into one!" This was the last sound Xu Wang heard. After that, he completely lost consciousness. Although he didn't manage to play through the entirety of the plot of A Chinese Ghost Story, his chaotic meddling had left the Tree Demon Grandmother much more severely wounded. With that final strike, perhaps Yan Chixia would be able to completely eliminate the Tree Demon Grandmother a century ahead of schedule. That way, Guo Bei County would have one less major demon, and ordinary folk would be at least a little bit safer. [You have died] [Cause of death: Drained of vital energy and blood by the Tree Demon Grandmother] [Death reward: Substitution and Metamorphosis Enhancement * 1] [Beginning return...] The surrounding scenery of Lanruo Temple gradually faded away. The solid sensation of stepping on firm ground returned once more. Even before opening his eyes, Xu Wang heard a familiar barking sound. Opening his eyes, Xu Wang found himself at the foot of Xishui Mountain. Around him were still those same corpses of the shelter residents. These bodies had decayed even further, barely retaining a human shape. Fist-sized maggots crawled and wriggled all over the corpses, a sight sickening enough to turn one's stomach! Xu Wang noticed that there were actually several oversized maggots right by his own feet as well. It seemed Xishui Mountain wasn't entirely barren of life; at least when nutrient-rich corpses appeared, it still managed to attract some bugs. "Woof! Woof! Woof!" Another series of barks sounded! Following the sound, Xu Wang discovered that Tiezhu had actually run down from the mountain peak to find him. At that moment, the dog had all four paws planted firmly on the ground, its head tilted upward as it snarled in a standoff with a few giant flies buzzing through the air. These mutated radiation flies were exceptionally large, each one roughly the size of a human head. They looked no different from ordinary flies overall, except their entire bodies had turned a sickly green, making them look far more menacing. Combining this with the current situation, Xu Wang roughly guessed the truth. Those maggots must have been the larvae of these radiation flies. These flies probably wanted to lay eggs on his "corpse" or simply use his body as food. But Tiezhu, having run down the mountain, had discovered them and put a stop to it, resulting in the two parties standing in a standoff. To be honest, Xu Wang was quite curious. After he died, corpses in the wasteland seemed not to disappear; otherwise, the scene before his eyes would not exist. But since that was the case, a question arose: in future deaths, during the twenty-four hours after he died, what would happen if his corpse suffered secondary damage? For example, if Tiezhu failed to stop these flies and let them successfully lay eggs on his corpse, then once he resurrected, would those eggs still be inside his body and continue to hatch? Or would they be directly purged by the power of the flashing text? Alternatively, what if his corpse was taken away by some starving person in the wasteland and eaten? Would he suddenly materialize inside that person's stomach, or would he resurrect right back at the exact spot of his death? If someone absorbed the energy of his corpse, would that energy be permanently retained, or would it be extracted and vanish? The more Xu Wang thought about it, the more curious he became. Fortunately, his mental state was "good." If any other normal person were to acquire his golden finger, they probably wouldn't be able to easily accept all the bizarre things that might happen after death. That alone would be enough to drive an ordinary person insane! "Bang! Bang! Bang!" While pondering these questions in his mind, Xu Wang didn't let his hands idle. Drawing the pipe pistol from his waist pouch, Xu Wang raised the barrel, aligned it with the radiation fly closest to him, and pulled the trigger! With an Agility of 6 and Perception of 8, Xu Wang's aim was fairly decent. The human-sized radiation fly was ten meters away from him, and the bullets did not miss. Three rounds of ammunition pierced straight through and killed the radiation fly instantly! With their companion dead, two of the flies turned and flew away. However, two others flew directly toward Xu Wang! These flies were easy enough to hit while hovering, but once they started moving in flight, Xu Wang's accuracy dropped. Emptying the final two rounds from the pipe pistol, those two flies had already lunged right up to his face, spewing green corrosive slime directly at Xu Wang!