Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 287 - 35 Exorcism Holy Flame

Chapter 287: Chapter 35 Exorcism Holy Flame

Lu Fan, held by Tang Zheng, successfully rolled out of the way, avoiding the spider web. He pulled out the Pepper Grinder, turning the handle and spraying a barrage of flaming bullets.

The three closest Pattern Spiders were knocked over by the barrage, with palm-sized fires burning at the bullet wounds. The fires continued to grow, making the spiders squeal in pain.

The Howling Reaper in Qin Yan’s hand also started to spit out flames. The chitin shells of the spiders couldn’t withstand the bullets from the large caliber guns and were torn to shreds in an instant. The spiders’ red and green body fluids and their flesh were scattered everywhere, and a disgusting smell began to waft through the lobby.

Pang Meiqin was the closest to the spiders, and half of her body was splattered with the sprayed liquid. Feeling the burning sensation on her skin, she let out a high-pitched scream.

Yin Shangwu’s clip ran out, and she didn’t use her knife power. She didn’t want to use her Seed Ability because of the burden. Seeing that the situation was under control, Tang Zheng also gave up on using his general. He just flung the Bronze Sword and sent it flying into a spider.

Within a minute, sixteen spiders had been killed, leaving only the remains in the lobby. Those fluids had soaked into the dust-filled carpet, making it even dirtier.

Lu Fan put away the Grinder and took out the Spiritual Power Hand Grenade. He was about to throw it into the back door of the lobby when Tang Zheng stopped him.

"Don’t startle more spiders." Tang Zheng pulled out the Bronze Sword, then went over to the panicked Pang Meiqin. He helped her cut off the spider wrapped around her calf.

Having just been saved, Pang Meiqin got up and immediately threw herself into Tang Zheng’s arms, crying her heart out. Lu Fan rolled his eyes at this, finding it rather disgraceful.

"Let’s go upstairs." Tang Zheng patted Pang Meiqin’s back as a form of comfort and then grabbed her clothes to make her move away. He asked Lu Fan, who had walked over to him, to replace the Drum Magazine in the AK74. Then they ascended the stairs.

"Aren’t we going to check out the back door where the spiders came from?" Qin Yan asked uneasily, staring intensely at it. Women were instinctively terrified of these disgusting insect monsters.

"First, let’s go to the Castle Owner’s room. There should be some clues there." Tang Zheng had already outlined a search order in his mind, otherwise, they would just be wasting time.

"I’ll take the lead." The cooldown of the Pepper Grinder was just over, and Lu Fan held it in his hand and ran in front of Tang Zheng.

Relatively, the second floor was much cleaner, but it was still in ruins. There were also several timid semi-transparent Ghost Maids wandering aimlessly in the corridor. When they saw Lu Fan, they didn’t attack, but instead screamed and ran away.

"Won’t they draw the monsters here?" Lu Fan regretted not being able to kill them in time.

"Not sure." Tang Zheng kicked open a door and dodged to the side. After waiting for a few seconds and confirming that it was safe, he re-entered the room, but still found nothing.

The rooms were all furnished with medieval European furniture, full of Baroque charm, but at the moment they were all covered with spider webs the size of quilts. Some spider eggs, half the height of an adult, were suspended in mid-air by the spider silk. They writhed from time to time, shedding some shriveled spider silk, which was hair-raising to behold.

"What’s in there, spiders?" Pang Meiqin became uneasy after seeing eight of these rooms halfway down the second-floor corridor. "Will they hatch?"

"If you open it, you’ll know." Lu Fan pointed the barrel at the spider eggs, ready to shoot.

"No, don’t." Pang Meiqin was terrified and hurriedly stopped him.

Seeing that Pang Meiqin was pale, Lu Fan was delighted. She was just trying to scare her; if she really went to break the spider eggs, that would be stupid.

"Do you know where the Castle Owner’s room is?" Qin Yan felt that something would definitely go wrong if they continued searching like this.

"It should be the largest one at the end of the corridor, with the biggest door." Tang Zheng only wanted to confirm an escape route. Otherwise, he would have gone straight to the target room.

"Look at those timid Ghost Maids, they’re peeking from behind the door. Shall we capture one to interrogate?" Lu Fan excitedly suggested before giving up. Apparently, he couldn’t figure out a way to capture them alive.

"Be careful." Ignoring the worries of the women, Tang Zheng kicked open the door to the Master Bedroom. After waiting for a few seconds, he entered.

In the center of the room was a luxurious bed, covered with a canopy and a velvet bedspread that were in tatters. Several spider eggs occupied the bed. Heavy rain was beating against the bright glass window on the right, making a continuous popping sound. Through the window, they could see the castle courtyard and front gate, but due to the rain curtain, they couldn’t spot any of the Stone Statues.

On the left was a row of brown bookshelves, stocked full of dusty books. In front of the bookshelves was a table with a stack of yellowish sheepskin paper and a goose quill pen lying in an ink bottle...

After confirming there were no valuable items on the desk, Tang Zheng headed toward the bookshelf, intending to find information about the castle’s history amongst the books, perhaps deducing a way to leave the castle.

The wall facing the bed was cluttered with firearms of various length, and a pile of spoils from past hunts: a pair of massive deer antlers, a full lion’s skin, and even eyeballs soaked in a potion.

"Uncle, quick, look. An antique firearm, this is my first time seeing such an art piece. Hmm, it likely holds a hundreds of years of history." Lu Fan called out, then used his wristwatch to scan the firearms.

A red light slowly swept across the wall, and finally when it landed on the silver shotgun, a response was triggered.

"Exorcism Holy Flame, the legend says the owner of this gun killed ancient demons and sealed their souls within the gun. Hence, every shot fires bullets shrieking with the tortured wails of the demons, stirring their fear of this gun from their memories."

"S-grade artifact, uses 12-gauge buckshot, large capacity magazine holding 100 rounds, each bullet fired carries a powerful spiritual attack. Explodes and scorches upon impact, produces a strong knock-back effect, and does double damage to soul-like monsters."

Lu Fan read aloud the scan results, instantly attracting the attention of the others, especially Pang Meiqin, who couldn’t suppress an astonished gasp when she heard it was an S-grade artifact.

"Is it even possible? An S-grade just hanging casually on the wall?" Pang Meiqin walked over, unable to resist the urge to touch the gun.

"Don’t be impulsive." Lu Fan jumped up and grabbed her hand, warning her, "Be careful with the trap."

"This gun is really beautiful," Qin Yan remarked in admiration.

The brown wooden body was painted with pretty golden symbols. The barrel was silver, shimmering with a captivating charm. The trigger and the firing mechanism were made of silver, engraved with images of roses and demons being shot.

"The shape of the Demon Slaying Holy Flame resembles the Winchester M1783 Lever-Action Hunting Rifle. Because of the trigger guard lever, you can load the bullets with one hand by tilting the gun to one side," Lu Fan had already begun to claim this gun for Tang Zheng, "So, saying it’s the most suitable weapon for Tang Zheng at the moment."

"I don’t want it." Yin Shangwu plainly stated her stance, unconcerned about Little Lolita’s thoughts.

"Uncle, there’s a drum magazine and buckshot here. I’m not sure if it would still fire though." Lu Fan found a plethora of buckshot on the nearby gun rack and burst into excitement, "Try it out already."

"Wait, isn’t this what the T800 used when he was riding a motorcycle in the Terminator?" Pang Meiqin was merely curious about the Demon Slaying Holy Flame and showed no intention of taking it for herself.

Tang Zheng, unable to refuse the excitement, walked to the wall, picked up the gun and put his index finger on the trigger. He put three other fingers into the trigger guard, slightly tilted his wrist and radically shook the gun. The whole gun suddenly rotated 360 degrees, making a blasting sound with a round loaded.

"Does it have bullets inside?" Qin Yan worried, "It’s been so long, could it backfire?"

"Auntie Qin Yan, you underestimate the S-grade artifacts," Lu Fan teased, pointing at a spider’s egg, "Blow it up, we need to see what’s inside anyway."

Tang Zheng nodded and pulled the trigger. Boom! A buckshot, enveloped in golden flames instantly shot through and exploded a spider’s egg.

BOOM! The explosive effect took place instantly, like stuffing a hand grenade inside. The spider egg exploded into pieces of debris and rotten flesh, scattering viscous fluids everywhere. The fragments that have fallen onto the ground continued to burn.

"Such tremendous power." Lu Fan began clapping, then he frowned, upon seeing some spider legs left in the egg, and even half a human head, "What on earth is this creature?"

No one answered him because after Tang Zheng fired the gun, a semi-transparent soul-like monster seemed to flow out like liquid, dropping onto the ground. Then it gathered into a shape, absorbing everything around, quickly growing larger and more physical.

"Get out of here." Tang Zheng was shocked and yelled at others. He almost dropped the Demon Slaying Holy Flame. However, he guessed that the firing might have released the demons sealed in the gun. He thought that if he could kill it, he might find a clue to leave the Demon City.

"We need to try again." After all, it was an S-grade artifact, Tang Zheng was reluctant to discard it. So he single-handedly spun the rifle and loaded it. He was lucky that there were rounds left in the magazine. With a click, the buckshot was loaded.

Bang! Tang Zheng opened fire at the thing on the ground, blasting half of the freshly consolidated body of the monster apart. This time, no monsters flowed out of the muzzle, which relieved him completely.

The monster roared in anger. The shattered body pieces seemed to come alive and began to wriggle again, attempting to climb back to its main body. Some bits that landed on the spider’s egg penetrated it. Then the egg began to tremble violently. Within seconds, cracks appeared, and a human-headed, spider-bodied monster crawled out covered in slimy fluids. It swiftly moved in front of the monster, serving as a shield while spewing out silk at Tang Zheng and the others.

"Get out of the room." Tang Zheng fired again. The Demon Slaying Holy Flame roared and a bukshot, wrapped in golden flames, drilled into the head of a spider monster. The path of the bullet moving inside its body was even visible to the naked eye, and then with a bang, half its body exploded.

(To be continued. If you like this work, I welcome you to cast a recommendation vote, a monthly ticket at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)