“All of you, get the hell out!”
A furious roar erupted.
The little demons flinched, turning their heads in unison.
They saw Plague Rat, his face dark, crawling out of the underground cave. He strode over, kicking the little demons left and right, one by one.
“Sniff, sniff, what the hell are you sniffing?!”
“You bumpkins, this is Adult’s water purifier, not for you to sniff!”
“All of you, get lost!”
The little demons yelped as they were kicked, scrambling away with their heads in their paws, vanishing in a flash.
Plague Rat turned to Nie Chaoxi, his expression softening: “Are you alright?”
Nie Chaoxi shook her head, whispering: “No… no, I’m fine. Thank you, Lord Rat.”
Plague Rat waved a hand: “What’s there to thank? These little brats are uncultured and need a good thrashing. Don’t take it to heart. How is it? Are you adapting?”
Nie Chaoxi thought for a moment, then honestly said: “It’s a little… uncomfortable.”
Plague Rat nodded: “That’s normal. Spiritual beasts like you prefer places rich in spiritual rhythm. Tianchi Province is a cursed place, full of plague death qi everywhere, so it’s natural you can’t stand it.”
“If you feel unwell, go find Su Xue right away. Don’t be afraid of troubling her; we’re all on the same side, she won’t mind.”
Hearing Plague Rat’s words, the tension in Nie Chaoxi’s heart dissipated considerably.
She quickly composed herself and seriously asked: “Lord Rat, where is the thing Adult wants me to purify?”
Plague Rat pointed to the ground: “Right here, look.”
Nie Chaoxi looked down.
Scattered on the ground were several human-shaped markings, darker than the surrounding sandy soil, a deep reddish-brown. Their outlines were blurry, but clearly discernible as human figures.
“What are these?” Nie Chaoxi frowned.
“The hundred corpse patchwork’s lair,” Plague Rat said. “There are fewer here in the stone forest, but once you leave it, the Hundred Corpse Wilderness outside is full of these things.”
He stomped on one of the human-shaped markings: “As soon as someone steps on it, it activates and crawls out of the ground.”
Nie Chaoxi squatted down, sensing carefully.
A moment later, her expression turned serious.
The markings were filled with Filth.
Plague, death qi, resentment, rotten flesh, pus, remnant souls… everything was mixed together chaotically, like a pot of spoiled slop.
She could even hear faint roars emanating from the markings, like countless vengeful spirits screaming.
“How is it?” Plague Rat asked. “Can you purify it?”
Nie Chaoxi thought: “I’ll try.”
She stood up, took a deep breath, and activated the spiritual power within her body.
A faint blue light emerged from her, pure as mountain snow, flowing down her fingertips and slowly seeping into the human-shaped marking.
The marking trembled violently.
The next second, countless pieces of rotten flesh crawled out of the marking, quickly piling up and merging. In an instant, they coalesced into a distorted human figure.
The hundred corpse patchwork let out a roar, but before it could make any big moves, Lian swiftly darted out from the side.
The next second, countless black spots surged from her body, like viscous ink, instantly enveloping the hundred corpse patchwork.
The black spots tightly bound it, rendering it immobile.
“Quick!” Lian shouted.
Nie Chaoxi snapped back to attention and quickly channeled her spiritual power.
The blue light flared, surging like a tide towards the marking. The Filth within the marking struggled fiercely, attempting to resist, but under the cleansing of the pure spiritual power, they rapidly dissolved.
The plague dissipated.
The death qi dissipated.
The resentment dissipated.
The rotten flesh turned to ash.
After a few breaths, the marking completely vanished, leaving only a human-shaped deep pit in the ground, bottomless.
The dense putrid smell in the surroundings also cleared. Nie Chaoxi sighed in relief, retracting her spiritual power.
The hundred corpse patchwork, bound by black spots, also turned to ash and dissipated into the air as the marking vanished.
Lian retracted her black spots, looking at Nie Chaoxi: “How was it? Are you okay?”
Nie Chaoxi shook her head, a smile appearing on her snow-white face: “I’m fine.”
Plague Rat came over, looked at the deep pit, then at Nie Chaoxi, grinning: “Alright, little white snake, you’ve got some skills.”
Nie Chaoxi’s face flushed, and she lowered her head in embarrassment.
But soon, she looked up again, her face beaming with undisguised joy.
“This is the first time Adult has given me a task. I… I kept wondering on the way here, what if I couldn’t do it well?”
“I was afraid I was too weak, afraid I couldn’t help, afraid Adult would be disappointed…”
“But now it’s fine, I guess I do have some ability after all. It felt very easy to purify, didn’t take much effort.”
Plague Rat looked at her, and for once, didn’t retort. He just reached out and patted her on the head: “Of course, Adult’s judgment can’t be wrong. Get ready, there’s plenty more work to do.”
Nie Chaoxi nodded vigorously: “Okay!”
Beside them, Lian stood at the edge of the deep pit, curiously peering down.
“Why did such a deep pit form?” she asked.
Wu Gou had approached at some point, standing at the pit’s edge, looking down into the bottomless black hole.
“Because the hundred corpse patchwork’s markings are all connected to the ley lines,” he said. “When the markings disappear, the ley lines are exposed.”
“You two continue purifying. This monk will go down and take a look.”
Lian was startled: “Master Wu Gou, are you going down?”
Wu Gou nodded: “The great fiend instructed this monk to investigate the ley line situation in Tianchi Province. There might be clues down there.”
After speaking, he plunged into the ground. Lian leaned over to look, but couldn’t see anything.
Plague Rat said from beside her: “Don’t bother looking. That bald ass has mastered his earth-tunneling technique; he’s long gone.”
Lian looked up at Plague Rat: “He won’t be in danger, will he?”
Plague Rat thought for a moment: “He should be fine. Although that bald ass is usually cunning, lazy, gluttonous, and slippery, he does have his abilities.”
He paused, then added: “Besides, if he dies, Adult will definitely sense it. We can save him then.”
Lian: “...”
That sounded logical, yet somehow wrong.
....
Wu Gou tunneled underground, following the human-shaped deep pit downwards.
The surroundings were pitch black, but for a Buddhist master who had cultivated for many years and frequently traveled underground, darkness made no difference.
He used his divine sense to perceive everything around him. The deep pit went straight down, its walls smooth, as if repeatedly rubbed by something, giving off a strange warmth to the touch.
The further down he went, the higher the temperature.
Wu Gou descended several hundred zhang when the passage suddenly opened up.
He emerged from the passage into a spacious area.
The surrounding walls were artificially carved stone, flat and smooth, with regular chisel marks on them.
On the ceiling, countless pieces of human-shaped rotten flesh squirmed, seemingly projections from the hundred corpse patchwork above ground.
This was the first underground level.
Wu Gou looked up. The enormous space was divided into countless small compartments, arranged in neat rows and columns, like prison cells.
Each compartment was small, about a zhang square, with three stone walls and one side made of thick iron bars.
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