The paper figurine's face was dull and stiff, devoid of any vitality. Inside its pale, ghastly eye sockets, two dots of bright crimson stared unblinkingly beneath the bed.
In that split second, Zhang Yuanqing's heart violently seized. Goosebumps erupted across his arms, and a long-forgotten dread surged into his chest.
This terror was not a mere fear of danger; rather, it was humanity's primal dread of the grotesque and uncanny—like being afraid to step out to use the bathroom after watching a horror film, or pulling the blankets completely over one's head before daring to sleep.
Indeed, the paper figurine had frightened Zhang Yuanqing with a terror straight out of childhood.
Ever since becoming a Night Wanderer, he had never run into a situation like this.
The Night Walk skill was elusive and had never failed him. He had encountered foes who could counter it through technique, but a vengeful spirit that could see right through Night Walk was a first.
Yes, Zhang Yuanqing was utterly certain: the paper figurine could see him.
Though paralyzed by inner dread, he did not hesitate for a second in action. With a roll, he broke out from under the bed, reached into empty air to draw his Explosive Pistol, and calmly pulled the trigger.
The paper figurine had a physical body. Anything with a physical body could be destroyed, and a handgun firing from a distance was the ideal choice.
According to the rouge box's item description, the vengeful spirit could only possess objects coated in the rouge. If he destroyed the possessed vessel, he should be able to resolve the paper figurine.
*Time to test it!*
*Bang! Bang! Bang!—*
Flames spat from the muzzle. Crisscrossing, dark-red trajectories slammed into the paper figurine, but the bullets did not detonate. Instead, they produced faint sizzling, bubbling sounds—like red-hot irons plunging into mud.
A heavy, dense wave of yin energy billowed around the paper figurine. As the bullets struck it, their kinetic force was neutralized, their flames extinguished, vanishing into nothingness.
*Yin energy so thick it's almost corporeal...* Zhang Yuanqing's pupils dilated slightly.
This was definitely not power a Transcendent-stage vengeful spirit could possess.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!—*
Zhang Yuanqing held his shooting stance, sending a dense volley tearing into the yin energy, kicking up faint dark-red glimmers and emitting soft sputtering sizzles.
At the same time, two glimmers of dark red manifested in the dark room.
*Tap-tap, tap-tap...*
The Red Dancing Shoes rose and fell, marching in place.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately issued an order to pursue and destroy the paper figurine.
*Tap-tap-tap—*
The Red Dancing Shoes shot forward at extreme speed, stomping hard and true right onto the paper figurine's face.
The dense yin energy rippled violently, like the surface of a disturbed lake.
The paper figurine's face was completely undamaged; the Red Dancing Shoes had failed to pierce the shroud of yin energy around it.
Yet the Red Dancing Shoes refused to yield, launching tireless attacks.
*Against a vengeful spirit of this caliber, the Red Dancing Shoes' damage output isn't enough...* Zhang Yuanqing was not surprised. He knew their limits full well; summoning them was purely to harass the spirit and increase the pressure on his enemy.
Zhang Yuanqing rapidly reviewed his items and methods. The first thing that came to mind was the Red Bridal Veil, but he quickly dismissed it. The Ghost Bride's yin energy fell far short of the paper figurine before him.
Besides, he lacked the courage to engage this paper figurine in close-quarters combat.
*The Houtu Boots' Fatal Kick can deliver the power of the Saint stage. Destroying the paper figurine with it shouldn't be hard...* Without hesitation, Zhang Yuanqing whipped out the Houtu Boots and tossed them to Corpse No. 1 beside him.
Corpse No. 1 slipped his feet into the boots, completing the equip, while Zhang Yuanqing donned the Yinyang Robe.
*Thud, thud, thud...* Corpse No. 1 charged with heavy strides. As he drew near the paper figurine, the boot on his right foot glowed with a thick, almost solid yellow light.
The muscles of his right leg suddenly swelled, tearing through his trouser leg.
*Smack!*
A whip kick lashed through the air leaving afterimages, shattering the paper figurine like a broken reflection, the sheer force of the kick kicking up a gust of wind within the room.
The paper figurine was gone. What Corpse No. 1 had kicked apart was an illusionary shadow. Such spectral arts came naturally to vengeful spirits.
*Tap-tap-tap...* The Red Dancing Shoes suddenly raced back toward their master.
*Behind me?!* Zhang Yuanqing's heart seized.
Almost simultaneously, the pale-faced paper figurine smeared with vibrant rouge appeared behind him, raising its stiff arm to claw at the human's nape.
Before the crude paper palm could touch him, a frigid aura swept in first, condensing a thin layer of frost across Zhang Yuanqing's back and neck.
*Bang!*
He raised the muzzle and fired a shot into Corpse No. 1's chest.
The bullet exploded in a flash of fire.
With a whoosh, a crimson stream of fire erupted, engulfing Zhang Yuanqing's body. The flame produced by the exploding bullet, just on the verge of dying out, suddenly swelled and coalesced into a figure draped in the Yinyang Robe.
He had donned the Yinyang Robe not to set up the Water-Fire Array, but to use the Fire Master's fire travel and the Water Ghost's liquefaction to tangle with the paper figurine.
The water and fire avatars were immune to physical attacks, but they could not ignore spiritual damage.
Against a formidable vengeful spirit, deploying the robe's array was sheer folly, because splitting one's spirit body in two was effectively self-mutilation; a powerful spirit could instantly obliterate them.
When dealing with the ghost doll, it had mainly been a matter of lacking numbers and making up for it with clones, because as long as the player count was satisfied, the doll couldn't attack.
This paper figurine was different.
Flames rose in Zhang Yuanqing's palm as he pressed it against the back of his neck. His face instantly twisted, his lips twitching as his nape sizzled and hissed, wisps of dark smoke rising.
*Hiss... this yin energy can freeze my flesh and blood dead. If it catches me, even a Night Wanderer won't survive...* Using fire to disperse the yin energy, Zhang Yuanqing kept his other hand busy, pulling the trigger repeatedly.
At the same time, he contacted the brand in his sea of consciousness, dividing his spirit body into two to inhabit the yin corpse and launch a heavy, powerful charge.
Zhang Yuanqing ceased firing and slipped his fingers into his pocket, pressing one of the buttons on the Cat King Speaker.
*Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!—*
Deafening drumbeats echoed through the room, carrying immense pressure that rattled the spirit and inspired heartfelt terror.
The paper figurine's body trembled, then froze.
*Thump, thump, thump...* Corpse No. 1 closed in with heavy strides, the boot on his right foot glowing with a dense, almost tangible yellow light.
From their earlier exchange, Zhang Yuanqing had realized the paper figurine was wary of the Houtu Boots' Fatal Kick; after all, that kick packed the power of the Saint stage.
Therefore, he had swiftly formed a plan: use the Cat King Speaker's drums to intimidate the vengeful spirit, while splitting his spirit body because the drumbeats didn't distinguish friend from foe. Corpse No. 1 was not immune; only he, the owner, was.
Corpse No. 1's right leg muscles bulged, preparing to unleash the whip kick.
Suddenly, the two flecks of blood in the paper figurine's eye sockets flared to life, forming two twisted, bizarre incantations.
*Eye of Bewitchment!!*
*Oh no!* Seeing the incantations directly through the yin corpse's perspective, Zhang Yuanqing's heart plummeted. The next instant, his will turned completely chaotic. His thoughts tangled like a mess of hemp, robbing him of the ability to think calmly.
The yin energy blanketing the paper figurine surged. With a flurry of cracking sounds, a thin shell of ice formed over Corpse No. 1's body and spread rapidly, instantly turning him into an ice sculpture.
Then, the paper figurine tilted its head at a ninety-degree angle, looking past the yin corpse toward Zhang Yuanqing. Its form vanished, reappearing behind the room's sole human.
Crude paper arms rose, clamping around Zhang Yuanqing's nape.
The room's yin energy surged abruptly, and at his nape, an invisible vortex flared to life in response.
Vast surges of essence blood were siphoned away by the vortex, pouring into the paper figurine's body. A touch of human rosiness began to surface on its pale, ghastly face.
Under the intense agony, Zhang Yuanqing broke free from the Eye of Bewitchment's influence, only to find his limbs stiff and numb. His body was frozen by the terrifying yin energy, making it a struggle to even twitch a finger.
Within a few breaths, Zhang Yuanqing's skin lost its luster, turning dry and dull. Fine wrinkles crept across the corners of his eyes and forehead, and his nasolabial folds deepened and weighed down...
He had aged twenty years in an instant.
Zhang Yuanqing desperately sent attack commands to the yin corpse, but Corpse No. 1 remained frozen solid, joints and flesh deadened and numb, unable to support his master.
*The attempt failed. The paper figurine can't be beaten; the gap in strength is just too vast...* With grim despair, Zhang Yuanqing realized that trying to brute-force a mini-boss with raw power was completely unrealistic.
Even with so many items and tactical combinations, he was still no match for this paper figurine.
*Then the Demon-Subduing Pestle is my only option left...* Until pushed to absolute extremes, Zhang Yuanqing had not wanted to use that item. Quenching a thirst with poison wouldn't solve the core problem, but now he had no choice. At least drinking poison would buy him a few more moments of life.
Feeling an exhaustion and weakness seeping from the depths of his bones, Zhang Yuanqing made his desperate gamble. Summoning his last ounce of strength, his trembling fingers slowly reached into his pocket, intending to trigger the Cat King Speaker's suona.
He would use it to trigger a final burst of vitality in this body, restoring enough strength to draw the Demon-Subduing Pestle and strike back at the paper figurine.
His finger slipped in and rested against the suona button. Just then, a question flashed through Zhang Yuanqing's mind: *How did the Demon Lord defeat it?*
The paper figurine's level clearly didn't belong to the Transcendent stage. No matter how strong the Demon Lord was, as a loose cultivator during his Transcendent days, his overall power wouldn't necessarily have exceeded mine. If even I don't stand a ghost of a chance, how did he clear this trial...?
In a flash of lightning, fragments of information from the dungeon raced through Zhang Yuanqing's mind.
Finally, two critical pieces of intel were sifted out:
First: On the night Teacher Xu bought the rouge box, the paper figurine only killed Teacher Xu; the neighbors weren't harmed in the slightest.
Second: The vengeful spirit possessed an insatiable thirst for blood, and only sacrificing enough essence blood could appease it.
*I get it now. The rouge box only kills one person a night, or rather, one person's blood is enough to satisfy it! Once it drains its target's blood dry, it stops killing. That's why only Teacher Xu died that night... Dammit, this is a solo dungeon. For a Spirit Realm walker, killing one person is practically equivalent to guaranteed death...*
Zhang Yuanqing let go of the suona button and grabbed at thin air instead.
He produced a glass test tube filled with a clear, sparkling golden liquid.
The mouth of the tube was sealed with a wooden cork, firmly locking a vibrant surge of life within.
*Life Essence!*
A semi-translucent figure drifted out from Zhang Yuanqing's physical shell, wrapping around the glass tube and sweeping toward Corpse No. 1.
This ethereal figure was Zhang Yuanqing's spirit body; he had used Astral Travel to break free from his mortal shell.
Zhang Yuanqing intended to gamble: let his flesh be drained of its essence blood, and see whether the paper figurine would leave satisfied after "killing" someone, or continue attacking Corpse No. 1.
If it were the former, he would win the bet. If the latter, his spirit body would immediately administer the Life Essence to revive the corpse, then summon the Demon-Subduing Pestle to go down fighting with the vengeful spirit.
He dared to take this gamble partly because he had Life Essence in hand, and partly because using Astral Travel placed the physical body into a state of suspended animation. As long as the spirit body returned within twenty minutes, there was still hope of resuscitation.
So he wasn't afraid of his blood being drained dry.
Even less was he worried about the paper figurine prioritizing his spirit body. The Blood Rouge's item description stated that the paper figurine only thirsted for blood. Although Corpse No. 1 was an undead object, he still carried an aura of "life."
Under no circumstances would a mere spirit body be the first to face the crisis.
Taking a step back, even if the paper figurine actually went after his spirit body, Zhang Yuanqing had one more trick: immediately return to his flesh and have the Red Dancing Shoes activate their second form to carry him away.
When it came to fleeing and dodging, the Great Emperor of Red Dance had never yielded to anyone in her life.
By now, his flesh had withered rapidly. The cheeks caved in, and the skin wrinkled from severe dehydration, gradually turning into a dried corpse.
Zhang Yuanqing couldn't help holding his breath—psychologically, at least. He didn't know if the Demon Lord had used a similar trick, but based on the dungeon's clues, this was the only viable path to breaking the deadlock he could fathom.
One man and one spirit body watched tensely from the side. Only the Red Dancing Shoes remained defiant, continuing their assault on the paper figurine. In fact, infuriated by the physical death of their master, they stomped with even greater frequency, their strikes seemingly growing fiercer.
At last, the physical body turned entirely into a mummified corpse. The grand and formidable Yuanshi Tianzun had perished at the hands of a vengeful spirit.
Having drunk its fill of essence blood, the paper figurine's rouge-painted face turned even more vivid.
*Flump—* It released its crude paper hand, letting the withered body slump to the floor.
The paper figurine turned its neck stiffly, looking toward Corpse No. 1.
After a silence of about a dozen seconds, the paper figurine took stiff, measured steps. Amid soft rustling sounds, it walked toward the doorway.
It had ceased its killing.
The Red Dancing Shoes followed closely behind, relentlessly attacking the paper figurine.
*I won the bet... Stand down, stand down...* Zhang Yuanqing called off their endless pursuit.
Watching the embroidered-shoe-clad feet cross the threshold and step into the darkness, Zhang Yuanqing kept his nerves taut in spirit form, refusing to let down his guard.
After roughly five minutes, complete silence settled inside and outside the house. Not a single sound came from the heavy darkness.
No, there was a sound.
The Red Dancing Shoes wandered about the room, pausing beside the corpse for a while, then hovering beside the spirit body. A message floated above them:
*Would you like to dance with me...*
Yet they seemed baffled over whether to demand payment from the dead flesh, or seek compensation from a spirit body that couldn't dance.
It was the first time they had encountered such a bug.
*It must have left...* Zhang Yuanqing finally couldn't wait any longer. Drifting toward his flesh, he popped the wooden cork with a soft *plop*, pried open the corpse's stiff lower jaw, and inserted the test tube directly deep into the throat.
This was because the corpse could no longer swallow.
Once all the Life Essence had poured into the stomach, Zhang Yuanqing pulled the tube out with another soft pop.
Moments later, the shriveled skin gradually filled out. Flesh and muscle pushed against the slack skin, swelling fuller with every passing second.
The process lasted roughly a dozen seconds. Not only did the skin fully restore itself, but it also became more supple and smooth, as though undergoing a complete rebirth.
Yet there was no breath, no heartbeat.
When a Night Wanderer's spirit left the body, the shell remained like this—a state of suspended animation.
Only then did Zhang Yuanqing truly breathe a sigh of relief and dive back into his physical body.
The next second, the body snapped its eyes open. His unfocused pupils stared at the ceiling, then quickly contracted. He gasped violently for air, like a drowning man whose heartbeat had just been restarted.
At the same time, Corpse No. 1 thoroughly expelled the yin energy from his system, his joints regaining their agility.
"Hah! Hah! Hah..."
"This is way too hard! There's no way in hell this is an A-grade dungeon! I don't want to do anything right now—I need to rest. Nobody bother me!" Zhang Yuanqing greedily drew in mouthfuls of fresh air.
Then, he heard a brisk, light tapping echoing by his ears.
*Except you...* Zhang Yuanqing's expression froze, and he silently scrambled to his feet.
***
After finishing a dance with the Red Dancing Shoes, Zhang Yuanqing sat by the edge of the bed. It wasn't just to rest; sitting made it easier to think.
Though he had narrowly escaped the paper figurine's peril, Zhang Yuanqing felt no joy whatsoever, for he had already realized something was amiss.
"This is an A-grade dungeon? This is more brutal than an S-grade! The paper figurine at the second watch forced out almost all my trump cards. What about the third-watch boss? What about the princess?"
Mute Village's difficulty level had entirely exceeded the scope of an A-grade trial.
Even among S-grades, it would rank in the deadliest tier.
This was completely illogical.
Zhang Yuanqing frowned deeply.
"There's something weird about this dungeon. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Before the third watch arrives, I have to figure out what it is, or I'm a dead man."
Taking a deep breath to steady his emotions, he replayed every single detail since entering the dungeon.
His conversation with Wang Xiao'er, his chat with the old man, his exchange with the Cat King Speaker, and all the minute details of what he had seen and heard.
Time ticked away. Through repeated reviews, he vaguely grasped at something, yet it remained frustratingly elusive.
Zhang Yuanqing didn't panic. Clinging to that vague intuition, he retrieved several small blue pills from his pocket and held them in his palm. Then, he conjured the memory of his father's deceased face in his mind.
His brainpower began to boil, his heart beating in overdrive. Soon, he entered the Super Brain state. Jumbled fragments of memory flashed rapidly, his ears filled with meaningless white noise.
A surge of heat hit his nasal cavity, and bright red blood trickled out.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately swallowed the pills to soothe these negative side effects.
Afterward, every scene since entering the dungeon replayed frame by frame: the textures of the stone houses, the direction the withered roadside grass bent... Down to the most trivial detail, everything reenacted in his mind once more.
*"Some time ago, I ran into an itinerant Taoist priest. He said the back mountain was a treasure trove of feng shui, and there was bound to be a grand tomb in the mountains..."*
*"The villager Wang Xiao'er dug up grave goods and intended to head into the provincial capital to sell them to wealthy households. Who could have known that that night, she followed him out..."*
*"At the fourth watch, everyone in the village was dead..."*
*"The ancient tomb's location: twenty-three li southwest of the back mountain."*
*"Run! Quick, run!—"*
Zhang Yuanqing snapped awake, pulling out of the playback state. His eyes went wide as enlightenment struck him like an epiphany.
"I finally understand how this dungeon is actually supposed to be played..."
Chapter 229