Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
“He he he…”
Old and wrinkled Daoist Priest Wang Guan smiled brightly and looked at Li Ang and the others in the corner. “They are?”
Li Ang stood up and skillfully told him about the background he had weaved for them. At the same time, he stepped forward, cupped his fists, and presented a wooden box.
The wooden box contained exquisite luxury Marlboro cigarettes.
“This is?” Wang Guan frowned.
A wolf demon who had bought a box of cigarettes stepped forward and lit the cigarette before explaining, “This is an overseas specialty that Daoist Priest Li brought from the Ahitubai Islands. They are called cigarettes and they need to be lit and inhaled.”
The wolf demon smoked a cigarette, took a puff, and said with a cough, “This is different from harmful opium. Smoking opium would torment your state of mind and ruin your body. However, cigarettes are refreshing. They’ll help you enter a Zen meditation state and improve your cultivation. Look, it even indicates here that smoking is beneficial to one’s health.”
What this wolf demon didn’t know was that Li Ang had added a little something to the tobacco leaves. When one inhaled them, they were more refreshing than ordinary cigarettes. He had added a large number of drugs to the box of cigarettes that was given to Wang Guan. While greatly increasing the chance of addiction, these drugs would also ruin the body even more.
Even an elephant would faint if it smoked this, let alone a human.
“Thank you, Daoist Priest Li.”
Wang Guan took the wooden box containing the cigarettes and did not take out any of them. He only casually gave that wooden box to the ghost in white standing behind him with its arms hanging down.
“Since everyone is here, I will bring the wine from the cellar.”
Wang Guan cupped his fists before the group of demons to take his leave and walked toward the pagoda.
The quest team sitting in the Hall of Great Strength was instantly anxious! According to their original plan, once Wang Guan stepped into the wine cellar, they would trigger the landmine traps hidden everywhere and he would explode into pieces.
Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles clenched his fists tightly and his strained knuckle was very pale. Xing Hechou looked very calm, but his fists, which were hidden in his robe, trembled slightly.
One second, two seconds. Ever since Wang Guan had entered the pagoda, time kept ticking.
Li Ang leaned back a bit and managed to squeeze a word out of his teeth.
“Explode.”
Xing Hechou’s pupils suddenly shrank and his hands under his robe pressed the remote control.
Boom!
The ground trembled, and dust and stones flew everywhere. The tall stone pagoda collapsed with a bang before a thick, solid column of smoke gradually rose.
Was he dead?
No, he was not. The system prompt still hadn’t been heard.
The players on the quest team were shocked. They saw a thick, solid arm full of black hair reach out of the crushed stone pile toward the sky.
That arm was so thick and swollen that it was about to explode. The green veins spread all over and the black hair drifted without any wind.
The thick demonic aura covered the entire sky. The gloomy, terrifying tree shadows, which seemed to be affected by the demonic aura, stopped swaying.
Everything in the world went silent again, leaving only the arm stretching from the crushed stone pile.
“Ugh…”
A slow sigh was heard and another thick arm reached out from the ground.
The mandrill then climbed out of the ground.
Its face roughly had the outline of a human face, and its red nose turned outward. There was a bone protrusion on both sides of his nasal bone with vertical blue ridges and green grooves in between that resembled the outline of a demon.
Each time it breathed in, the pattern around the mandrill’s nose would float and flash, pumping black smoke out of the nostrils.
The mandrill’s two naturally-drooping arms were too thick and unbalanced compared to its whole body. Its legs were slightly thick and short, its knees bent forward like dinosaurs and kangaroos, and it had a slender tail that looked like a long whip reaching from its tailbone and drooping naturally.
Inhale… Exhale…
The three-floor-tall mandril took a deep breath and smoke emerged from its nose, covering its huge body. The tiny scars on its body rapidly healed at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
The steel sheets and balls were squeezed out of the wound by a crazy growth of flesh and blood and fell recklessly, colliding with the crushed stones to produce a clunking sound.
“He he he…”
As if feeling itchy, the mandrill reached out with its claw and used the sharp, dagger-like fingernails to scratch its chest.
It scratched its entire chest with its nails, causing wounds to appear. Like a field that had been plowed, its flesh tore open and revealed its eerie bones.
“Daoist Priest Wang Guan…”
All the demons, who were dumbstruck, stuttered. “Are… Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” The mandrill smiled craftily and licked the blood off its fingernails. It then unfolded its other arm that was actually holding a pile of intact wine jars.
Even though the cellar had exploded, not only had he not died on the spot, but he’d also had the energy to protect those ceramic wine jars easily!
The players on the quest team looked at each other and felt a deep chill penetrate their internal organs.
The mandrill’s strength had exceeded everyone’s expectations!
“This… This is impossible,” mumbled Chai Cuiqiao, who was hidden in Li Ang’s body. “Although he was strong around this time last year, he was not this strong…”
It was too late…
Xing Hechou’s tongue felt bitter and he quickly scraped off the goal of ‘eliminating the mandrill’ in his heart. At the same time, he looked at Li Ang. The system quest only required surviving for seven days. Working together to kill the mandrill had been Chai Cuiqiao’s idea.
We have to avoid this female ghost being suddenly exposed and revealing our presence…
The quest team’s thoughts were whirling, but they saw the mandrill say with a sinister smile, “The cellar has been dilapidated for many years and happened to collapse. White Ghost, bring my clothes and elixir pills over here.”
“Yes, Master.” The ghost in white bowed respectfully and returned to the sedan chair before taking out a brand new Daoist robe and an antique-looking copper box.
When the mandrill took the Daoist robe, his body slowly shrank. Although he changed into his clothes behind the crushed stone pile before coming out, he still looked like an amiable immortal.
All the demons knew very well that the cellar’s collapse was not a simple matter. If another demon had entered the cellar, it might have been killed by the explosion.
Who? Who wanted to plot against Wang Guan? What was the explosion that had happened earlier? Had a talisman been activated by a thunder spell? Had it been a Dharma treasure that could release thunder? Why had Wang Guan, who had suffered the attack, not left?
The demons could vaguely sense that the banquet this night wouldn’t be that simple. They wanted to sneak out of the temple but realized that the four mournful ghosts, who had lifted that sedan chair, were already guarding the passageways of the temple.
“This is only something minor.”
Wang Guan said with a smile, “Everyone, please be seated. The banquet is about to start.”
The demons curbed their feelings and returned to their seats without a sound. Their expressions were rigid, just like a clay puppet’s face.
The joyous atmosphere during the transaction had been replaced by silence. Wang Guan sat in the seat of honor in the hall and let the mournful ghosts pour the wine in the wine pot, which contained Spirit Qi, into everyone’s wine cups.