Chapter 193: The Humans within the Shells of Monsters
Once the mommy fox’s wounds were completely healed, Jiang Feng asked Su Qing to bring it to its three babies.
To stop the mommy fox and her three cubs from encountering any more danger, Jiang Feng let them stay in his home.
After he was done managing all these, Jiang Feng lay in his bed and switched on the television.
In his mind, however, the scene of him fighting with the bald man kept on replaying itself.
At that time, he did not have the ability to fight back at all. What made him wonder was when he was angered, his body was suddenly filled with power and he needed to unleash it somehow.
And that led to him beating up the three men.
‘Is that the effect of the Enhancing Pill that I ate last time?’ Jiang Feng thought to himself.
“No… That’s not right. I feel that strength-wise I should be similar to Xiaohei. An Enhancing Pill made from a chicken should not have an effect that strong. It should be the Monster Transmutation system.”
***
However, after giving it a lot of thought, he still could not figure anything out.
Because he had formed two Enhancing Pills and he himself was still injured, he fell asleep due to fatigue in a short while to the point where he forgot to switch off the television.
After falling asleep, a red light began to glow from his body once again.
When he saw that, Xiaohei excitedly lay himself on him and absorbed the red light that he was emitting.
As for Jiang Feng’s wounds, they began to heal under the red light’s glow, and even his bruises quickly disappeared.
He slept until nighttime and was woken up by Su Qing.
When Jiang Feng woke up, he was surprised to see that all his bruises were gone and his injuries had disappeared. Su Qing was also shocked.
Seeing that he had fully recovered, he reminded Su Qing to not tell his father about it and only then went out for dinner.
After he had dinner, he set an alarm and went to bed.
When it was 3 a.m. in the morning, he was woken up by the alarm.
He then went for a toilet break afterward and entered the game.
***
Within the game, the Purgatory.
Jiang Feng appeared on a tree within the village.
The resting Yan Chixia opened his eyes, then said to him, “When the Sol Island rises, run as fast as possible!”
Jiang Feng looked at Yan Chixia inquisitively and asked, “Why?”
Yan Chixia said, “You will know when you see it later. There isn’t much danger outside, but it’s not safe within the village!”
Jiang Feng was still confused.
“Roar!”
When the Lunar Island had completely set and the Sol Island had risen, the Dead Cicada Arhat’s phantom above the village also disappeared. At this time, roars could be heard from inside the village.
Jiang Feng was curious so he looked toward the village only to witness that the villagers within the village had begun to change.
A woman became a giant spider and was running toward them using her furry body.
The girl that was crying yesterday night became a giant serpent, and her giant body was slithering across the ground, sending shivers down his spine.
At that moment, the villagers in the entire village had changed into different forms.
While some of them had become powerful monsters, some became normal animals, but there were no humans left.
“Run!”
When Yan Chixia saw that, he threw out the Red Sun Sword and jumped on it, hastily leaving the village.
Jiang Feng was in shock having just witnessed what had happened, and only when he saw the giant serpent formed by the girl that was about to consume him with her gaping mouth did he summon the Monster Cloud and leave the village.
He then looked at the girl’s stats.
She was a level 100 boss, there was no way for him to beat her.
Now he understood what Yan Chixia was saying yesterday.
The villagers took two different forms in the mornings and at nights.
In the night, they were humans. In the morning, they became monsters.
After they escaped from the village, the monsters chased after them for a while before giving up. They then scattered outward from the village, as if they had things to do.
“The Purgatory is very strange!” Jiang Feng wiped off his cold sweat as he looked at the monsters scattering.
“Let us make a move. There are only 10 hours in the morning. We have to reach Youmin City before nightfall. Once morning has passed, we will find Nie Xiaoqian at night and take her away!” Yan Chixia said to Jiang Feng then headed toward Youmin City, with Jiang Feng following behind him.
***
Youmin City was a city built of bones.
Currently, it was covered by the shadows of the night.
The entire city was currently lit up by lanterns, and its streets were filled with people. However, the so-called people looked a bit strange. All of them had the bodies of humans with heads of beasts. Some of them looked so strange that it could only be described as such.
There were also shops here, and all of them had big red lanterns hanging outside as if they were celebrating some joyous event with great fervor and joy.
In a residence in the mountains behind the city.
A woman wearing a long light blue dress stared at the only spring within the entire purgatory dazedly.
Her long hair danced in the air as her pale, thin fingers brushed them from her face, revealing a beautiful face without equal.
Appearance-wise, she could be compared to Ling Feiyu. Unlike her, however, she had a clear and spiritual aura around her, just like the clear spring in front of her.
At this time, an ugly toad jumped over.
“Sis Xiao Qian, you will get married in two years’ time. The Ancient Fiend asked me to get you ready,” the ugly toad said to her.
The clear and spiritual woman was the most important character in the Chinese Ghost Story, Nie Xiaoqian. She was also the key to Jiang Feng finishing this quest.
“Is it not nighttime now? Why are you in the form of a monster?” Nie Xiaoqian asked in confusion as he looked at the toad that had appeared next to her.
“Today is the Ancient Fiend’s wedding day, perhaps he was afraid that we would cause accidents in our human form,” the toad answered.
Nie Xiaoqian sighed as her clear eyes looked at the toad. “Xiao Hong, when can we escape from the control of the Ancient Fiend of the Black Mountain and the Purgatory King?”
When the toad heard her words, it jumped next to Xiao Qian and looked to the clear spring and said, “I do not know. I have almost forgotten what I look like. All those that come here would transform into these strange shapes, and even lose their minds and become puppets. What can we do even if we escape the control of the Ancient Fiend and the Purgatory King?”
Nie Xiaoqian was not disgusted by the toad’s ugliness, however. She patted the toad’s head and gave it a smile.
Whoosh!
She could hear a sound coming from the sky.
She looked up and saw a dragon riding a black cloud coming toward her.
When the black cloud was closing in on them, the dragon transformed into a silver-haired, red-eyed man and jumped in front of her.
“Huh? Why is there a human being here?” The toad said in surprise when it saw the silver-haired man.
The silver-haired man was none other than Jiang Feng, who had been looking for her in Youmin City for the past few days.
Once he had reached the city, Jiang Feng noticed that Youmin City was constantly covered in darkness and there were monsters everywhere.
Not only that, but these monsters could also see him too.
In order to find Xiao Qian, he had been remaining in his dragon form. Luckily, there were dragons in Youmin City too, but they looked far uglier than he did, and that was why he did not raise any suspicion despite him walking amongst the monsters of Youmin City.
As for Yan Chixia, he had him hidden in the Qiankun Gourd as he did not have a monster form. If he were to appear, he would cause an uproar. It would be troublesome if they caught the attention of the Purgatory King.
At this time, he was investigating Xiao Qian’s whereabouts, and so he had some understanding of the monsters within Youmin City.
He had a complicated feeling when he heard the stories of the monsters with their own consciousness being kept within Youmin City, and the fact that they were being used.
When he recalled those stories, he felt that the mythic histories within the Divine Dominion were a bit cruel.
“Who are you?” Nie Xiaoqian asked with a smile as he looked at Jiang Feng with her clear eyes.
“The one to take you away,” said Jiang Feng with a smile.
He did not expect Nie Xiaoqian to be so beautiful and have a pair of such clear eyes that could grant him peace. No wonder Ning Caichen could not forget her.
“You must have experienced what I did, can you bring them along?” Nie Xiaoqian did not ask why Jiang Feng wanted to take her away and instead asked him a question.
“Yes.”
The moment Jiang Feng recalled the stories of the monsters from within Youmin City, he agreed to it without hesitation.
In truth, the monsters within all of the villages in the Purgatory were not monsters, but were humans!
Humans did not have much power and only had the ability to create. In order to avoid being embroiled in the conflict between the Divines and the Infernals, they escaped and came here.
They did not expect to fall under the control of the Purgatory King and the Ancient Fiend of the Black Mountain, and become labor for the development of the Purgatory.
That was why there were not many settings for the human beings, because most of them were already locked up in here and many amongst them had already become part of the skeleton army, becoming puppets of the Necropolitans.
Indeed, the race within the darkness was called the Necropolitans, and the Purgatory King was their boss. The Ancient Fiend of the Black Mountain was their most powerful general.
Humans were the labor used by the Purgatory King to develop the Purgatory and food that was used to feed its tribesmen that remained within the darkness.
In the morning, he would transform the humans into monsters and animals to wash away their identities as humans so that they could devote themselves to the development of the Purgatory, and to stop thinking about escaping.
At night, he would transform the humans back into their human forms so that when the darkness and light interchanged, those who were weakened because of their work would become food for the Necropolitans while the strong would return to the village. They would not think of escaping the village at night as they would be in mourning.
That meant that three days ago, the humans that appeared in the village at night were their true forms. Their monstrous forms in the morning were fake. And as soon as it was daytime, they were conditioned to go to work, and that was why the monsters did not hunt down Yan Chixia and him.
As for why they would become stronger after they become monsters, that was because the human bloodlines had endless potential. If they were to break their limits, they could even slay Gods and Demons!
That was why the Necropolitans chose to consume humans. Only then would the Infernals become even stronger.
When he heard of the news from the monsters that still had some of their consciousness remaining, he was so enraged that he almost entered the Slaughter state to attack the Steward’s Residence.
However, he was pulled back by a human who had become a pig.
He could not calm his own emotions down. At that moment, even his emotions back in reality were affected greatly.
Humans had become demons. Humans had become animals. Humans were nothing more than food!
Within the mythic history, humans were nothing but insects.
However, he believed that when the insects rise, they could destroy even the heavens!
That was why he was ready to save the humans, and it was the most important reason that he agreed to help her.
