Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 288 - 36: Ghost Count and Three Questions

Chapter 288: Chapter 36: Ghost Count and Three Questions

Although these human-headed spider monsters weren’t too large, they were much more challenging to deal with than the patterned big spiders. They spewed spider threads that were not only extremely sticky but also highly corrosive. Upon hitting a wall, they could immediately erode an entire section. Moreover, their defensive and flexibility were not bad.

"Let’s get out of here quickly." As Tang Zheng backed away, he used a 360-degree rotation of the gun body to load the bullets, and he swiftly pressed the trigger with his index finger when the handle returned to his hand.

Three spider monsters pounced at Tang Zheng, using their eight powerful auxiliary limbs. Tang Zheng was fearless, calmly shooting as he swung the gun muzzle. The large-caliber buckshot was fed into the spider’s body, and the explosive effect immediately took place, shattering it to pieces.

The Demon Slaying Holy Flame in Tang Zheng’s hands could load bullets quickly, achieving an intimidating average rate of five shots a second. This, of course, had much to do with his arm strength and reaction speed – a normal person simply couldn’t control the recoil, and their gun would have long shot out of sight, let alone explode the monsters one by one.

Bang, bang, bang. Three spiders burst in mid-air and fell to the ground. The body fluids and body parts were splashed on the wall like oil paint, creating an impressionistic painting. However, more spiders came scurrying out of the room. The human faces on their heads were twisted, letting out strange cries.

Qin Yan started to shoot with the Howling Reaper on both hands. The spiritual power bullets hit a dozen human-headed spiders. Although they could penetrate the bodies of the spiders, they only caused minor injuries. The bullets could not kill the spiders but they did manage to cause some minor knockback effects due to the barrage, a far cry from the effect seen when instantly killing the patterned spiders.

Lu Fan also started to wield the Pepper Grinder. Thankfully, this specific prop from Alice was quite powerful. The burning bullets harmed the human-headed spiders, but it took at least a hundred shots to kill a single one.

"Pang Meiqin, stop wasting bullets," Lu Fan shouted. The bullets from her AK74 couldn’t even break the spiders’ defense. "Throw a hand grenade."

"That is wasteful. Qin Yan, suppress them. I’ll take the lead." Tang Zheng stopped Pang Meiqin. The destructive effect of each bullet from the Demon Slaying Holy Flame was even stronger than a Spiritual Power Hand Grenade. It would only take a few seconds to kill these dozen-odd human-headed spiders. The only weakness of this gun was its low rate of fire, making them susceptible to a group attack by these monsters.

"You all seem to have forgotten about that sticky monster." Yin Shangwu was standing to one side, Tang Sword in hand, staring at the door as he started to blatantly slack off.

A slime-like semi-transparent fluid monster flowed out of the room, carrying all kinds of debris in its body. It had no eyes, but it could accurately sense the figures of Tang Zheng and the others. It suddenly recoiled before violently expanding, shooting a fist-sized ball of fluid like a crossbow arrow. It made a thunderous roar towards Tang Zheng and his team.

"Dodge!" Tang Zheng didn’t stand his ground. The fluid ball grazed his cheek and immediately hit the wall, causing an explosion and creating a half-meter deep pit.

With a whooshing sound, the monster started spraying fluid balls and began to solidify. A woman-like figure appeared in the corridor. Soon, it sprouted arms, separated legs and its facial features gradually took shape.

"Die." While dodging the fluid balls, Tang Zheng didn’t forget to seize the chance to attack. The buckshot and the blade energy from Yin Shangwu’s swing hit the monster’s head simultaneously, blowing it to pieces.

The monster screamed again, a sound that seemed to seep into the soul. Tang Zheng and the others instantly felt a tide of fear flooding their minds, making them want to turn and run.

"It’s a mental attack." Seeing Qin Yan and the others fall into a momentary confused attack, Tang Zheng’s face also showed some confusion. Yin Shangwu quickly pulled out a hand grenade and threw it, the deafening explosion blocked the scream and brought Tang Zheng and the others back to their senses.

"Next time, don’t forget to strengthen ’Faith’ by one-fifth. It can increase your mental strength and make your will even stronger." Yin Shangwu, indeed a Conqueror who had survived tens of rounds, was naturally much better than Qin Yan and the others.

Tang Zheng was also terrified. If the timing was seized by the other party, it would have been disastrous. However, monsters that could carry out soul impact were only a minority. This was why Yin Shangwu said enhancing one or two points would be enough. After all, the ’faith’ branch seemed slightly redundant and not worth investing too many points into, unless you aimed to watch horror films without panic for the rest of your life.

A rustling sound echoed once again. Pang Meiqin turned her head, only to see that the patterned spiders were flooding up to the second floor, layer upon layer, causing a ’wave’ three meters high.

"Kill that monster quickly, it’s summoning the spiders." Pang Meiqin screamed, spraying the fluid monster with her AK74.

"Shoot the spiders." Lu Fan was frustrated at having such a teammate, "Your crappy gun could defeat the boss, huh? Shoot the spiders to buy us some time."

Qin Yan, by contrast, was calmer. Ignoring the sticky fluid and severed legs of the human-headed spiders, she straightened herself on the carpet and started to shoot the gathering of spiders with the MG3. Although she couldn’t move and could be attacked, this could save her a lot of energy, and her shooting speed and accuracy would be assured.

"Don’t panic, reload your guns, throw your grenades, and stop the spiders." Tang Zheng roared and rushed towards the fluid monster, throwing a grenade. Yin Shangwu also rushed forward, using her sword to chop the monster in half.

With a boom, the grenade exploded, once again blowing off a portion of the monster’s fluid body. Tang Zheng kept firing, eager to completely shatter it. At this point, all he could pray for was the remaining ammunition.

"Lu Fan, switch the bullet chain." Qin Yan finished her bullet chain and shouted abruptly. Meanwhile, Lolita, who had been throwing grenades, swiftly picked up the Pepper Grinder from the ground, starting to suppress the spiders to buy Qin Yan time. Pang Meiqin was finally not infuriatingly stupid, holding her AK74 on standby, immediately shooting as soon as she saw any spiders overlooked by Lu Fan. Fortunately, as they were large, she didn’t have to worry about her accuracy.

Each roar from Tang Zheng’s Demon Slaying Holy Flame was enough to strip away a part of the liquid monster’s body. Unsure of its weak spots, all he could do was try to mete out as many attacks as possible. True to his luck, the monster’s green core was exposed after twenty shots.

"Hack at it." Yin Shangwu took yet another strike. The liquid monster shot out a liquid tentacle because of her close proximity. If she hadn’t dodged swiftly, her heart would have been pierced.

The pieces of liquid that were shot to the ground and set ablaze kept wriggling and crawling towards the main body. Tang Zheng continued to fire at the monster’s core, which seemed to have caused a panic within the creature. It scrambled to protect itself by layering its body around the area and attempted an escape.

Tang Zheng followed methodically, quickening the pace of rotating and firing the buckshot-loaded gun. The strike of firing filled the entire corridor with dense booming sounds.

The body of the liquid monster was getting blasted apart in increasing amounts, splattering the carpet, the wall, the window lattice, and almost half of the corridor.

"Still not dead?" Finally, the liquid monster’s body was reduced to a small bit. Tang Zheng blasted it with three consecutive shots, causing cracks to form on its surface. Eventually, in one final blow by Yin Shangwu, the monster was split in half. Just as it seemed about to regenerate, the Demon Slaying Holy Flame pulverized it into debris.

The core disappeared entirely, while the burning liquid ceased moving, leaving behind a Golden Seed amidst the debris.

Seeing Tang Zheng leaving the seed behind to go back into the hallway to assist Qin Yan and the others, Yin Shangwu couldn’t articulate her mixed feelings.

"What an idiot." Yin Shangwu bent over to pick up the seed and followed after Tang Zheng. She then stuffed the seed into his pocket, "I’m not going to take advantage of this. Besides, I have no use for seeds anymore."

With Lu Fan’s Pepper Grinder in cooldown, Qin Yan had no choice but to lead their group in a controlled fall back. Thankfully, Tang Zheng and Yin Shangwu arrived just in time.

The Demon Slaying Holy Flame was powerful enough to pierce through the patterned giant spiders, exploding three or four of them in the process. A minute later, the remaining spiders began to retreat with a buzzing sound.

The entire hallway was littered with the remains of spiders, with slimy goo saturating the carpets. Stepping on it caused the goo to squelch and envelop one’s footwear. It was utterly disgusting.

"It stinks so badly." Pang Meiqin covered her nose, the joy of survival evident in her tone, "What do we do now?"

"Let’s go back to the room and check." Tang Zheng figured that there should be some clue since they had just dispatched the liquid monster. Sure enough, as soon as they entered, they found a ghost sitting next to the desk.

"Honorable travelers, I am Count Stain. I am thankful to you for vanquishing the demon that sought to lay claim to my castle. As a token of my gratitude, I shall answer three of your questions." This was a Caucasian man dressed in pajamas. His body was semi-transparent, but his thick sideburn and chest hair curling from underneath his sleepwear were visible.

Tang Zheng was curious as to how the demon came to reside in the Demon Slaying Holy Flame, but he decided it wasn’t the key point.

"Is three questions a bit too little?" Pang Meiqin mumbled. Ghost Count Stain immediately retorted, "Does that count as the first one?"

"No, no." Pang Meiqin, and Lu Fan quickly waved their hands. They didn’t want to waste such a rare opportunity.

"Very well, please ask your questions now. I can’t wait to see my wife." The ghost count shrugged nonchalantly. This comforted Lu Fan and Pang Meiqin, making them sigh in relief.

Qin Yan and the others looked towards Tang Zheng. He was the most qualified here to ask the questions.

"How do we escape Demon City?" Tang Zheng carefully chose a general question to ask. He didn’t want to ask anything as simple as how to leave the castle.

"How can you be certain that this is the Demon City?" The ghost count looked surprised, and then added, "Crafty boy, one question eliciting two answers."

"Aren’t you in a hurry to see your wife? Please answer quickly." Pang Meiqin couldn’t wait any longer and interrupted him.

"Impolite lady." Count Stain let the comment slide and said, "Find the bride. Follow her, and you can leave the Demon City."

"A word of caution, if the bride is killed, you will be trapped in Stain Castle forever as punishment, eternally guarding her soul." Count Stain’s warning sent chills down everyone’s spine. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)