Shushan: Extinction

Chapter 242: The Mulberry Demon Who Knows the Current Situation
As soon as Gong Tianwu gave the order, people naturally went forward to take action. Surprisingly, the magic power of this old mulberry tree was quite strong. It could actually wave its branches to resist and even shoot out leaves with great power.

But Gong Tianwu had a hundred ways to deal with it, so he ordered the production of torches, and when the time came, he would light dozens of torches and throw them directly over, burning it into torches.

Seeing that a group of people started to make torches from a distance, the demon mulberry tree was out of reach, and the original body could not escape because of the inherent disadvantages of the tree demon.

As a result, the tree's trunk and leaves shook violently, and a large amount of white mist quickly seeped out from it. Then, an old and frail figure appeared, approached within thirty steps, and begged for mercy:

"Sir, I have no grudge against you, why are you trying to embarrass me?"

Gong Tianwu said:

"My subordinates were attacked by monsters nearby, and a monster locust tree was the accomplice. You are most likely in collusion with General Shi here, so I will kill you as well. This will prevent any trouble in the future."

Yao Sang begged for mercy:
"I have never attacked any of your people! Sir, you have found the wrong person!"

Gong Tianwu smiled and said:
"I'm in a hurry to save people now, and I don't have time to tell whether what you said is true or false."

"If I kill you by mistake, then you are unlucky. If there is any karma, retribution, or resentment, then it will be directed at me."

The demon Sang was speechless for a moment, but it was not destined to die today. Suddenly, it saw the grinning demon wolf next to it, and suddenly it shouted:
"I can help you save people, and I can be of use to you too - since you can tolerate that old monster, you can tolerate me!"

Gong Tianwu said:

"Oh? Tell me about it?"

Yaosang said:
"I have lived here for nearly three hundred years, so I know everything about the situation within a few dozen miles!"

"There are only two groups of people passing through here today. Which group are you looking for?"

"Oh?"

Gong Tianwu's heart suddenly moved:
"Two groups of people? Tell me about the first group first."

Yaosang said:
"The first group consisted of two people, probably a driver and a guest."

"But this guest's behavior was a little strange. After arriving here, he actually killed the driver and then used the driver's blood and internal organs to set a trap."

"As a result, one of General Shi's White Bone Demons was attracted by the driver's trap, rushed in to eat a lot of blood, and was then directly suppressed and killed by the trap."

"Then, this man seemed to have been prepared. He left the carriage and most of the luggage here, disguised himself, and used an inflated sheepskin raft to go down the nearby Xuetu River and escaped directly downstream."

After hearing this, Hasar said:
"What does this person look like?"

Yaosang said:
"A middle-aged man, who looked quite honest, not very tall, and wearing a brown fur coat."

After hearing this, Gong Tianwu understood what he meant and couldn't help but praise:
"What a great way to escape!"

It was obvious that the person who arranged all this was undoubtedly the loyal Ding Zhi.

This person now seems to be extremely scheming. He knows that his betrayal will definitely be exposed, and that people from Cheming Country will definitely come to investigate the matter.

However, when the trackers followed various clues to find this place, they could only find two skeletons (the coachman's and the White Bone Demon's), the wreckage of a carriage, and some miscellaneous luggage.

Undoubtedly, there is a high probability that the trackers will think that Ding Zhi encountered trouble here and resisted, with his life and death in danger, and then began to get deeper and deeper in the wrong direction.

Even if a low-probability event occurs, knowing that Ding Zhi has set up a suspicious situation here, it is still difficult to track him accurately because he is drifting down the river.

The water flow of Xuetuo River is fast and it only takes half a day to drift a hundred miles away, so it is difficult to determine where the landing point is. Therefore, it can be said that Ding Zhi has taken prevention and tracking to the extreme.

At the same time, what Ding Zhi did was certainly very bad, but rational people must consider the future benefits of hunting him down.

It is very likely that after a huge investment, even if the person is caught in the end, all the money will be lost, and in the end, you can only vent your anger.

Therefore, in Gong Tianwu's opinion, Ding Zhi is really a very cunning and smart guy. He has consumed so many cause and effect points on him, and he doesn't know what kind of surprises he will bring.

Hasar also came back to his senses at this time and said:

"No wonder Hualu and the others were attacked. After Ding Zhi killed the White Bone Demon, General Shi's side must have been like a hornet's nest that had been poked. Hualu and the others ran right into the muzzle of the gun."

After hearing this, Gong Tianwu said to Yao Sang:

"So what about the second group of people you mentioned?"

Yao Sang smiled bitterly and said:
"There were six people in this group. One managed to escape. Two of the remaining five were eaten."

"The remaining three people were probably too full of blood and energy, so they were escorted back to the hillside by several corpse demons and ghosts to be offered as sacrifices to General Shi."

"If you want to look for them, you can still make it to Guanyun Pavilion halfway up the mountain."

After hearing this, Gong Tianwu nodded slightly and said:

"Very good, since you know so much details, please also tell me the information about General Shi and his men."

Yao Sang knew that his life was hanging by a thread. He was like a piece of meat on a chopping board. How could he dare to say no? He could only say honestly:
"General Shi's prototype is a beheaded ancient corpse, so most of his subordinates are like that, mainly corpse demons and corpse ghosts."

"A corpse demon is a demon that has been resurrected after death, and a corpse ghost is a ghost that has attached itself to a zombie that was transformed by a corpse-raising ground."

When Yao Sang said this, his underground roots suddenly sensed movement from afar. He was delighted and continued:
"These guys have no vital points, are not afraid of pain, are extremely strong, and after injuring someone they leave a deadly poison, making them very difficult to deal with."

However, just as it was talking about not fearing pain and having immense strength, Gong Tianwu suddenly turned around and shouted at the person next to him:

"Watch out west!"

Then I saw the trees in the woods to the west swaying and there was a rustling sound, and then I saw a giant wild boar rushing out at an astonishing speed.

A closer look revealed that this guy was badly rotten all over, especially the flesh on his abdomen, where the white bones were exposed. His two fangs were more than one meter long, pointed and sharp.

Of course, the strangest thing is its empty eye sockets, in which two balls of ghost fire are burning!

Yao Sang was delighted when he saw this, because this giant wild boar corpse demon was General Shi's vanguard, Sui Lie, who was extremely ferocious and charged with more than ten times the force of an ordinary wild boar. The two or three hundred ordinary mortal troops in front of them would collapse in an instant if they encountered this monster.

As a result, in the next second, someone gave the order, and the two teams of guards raised their crossbows, aimed, and pulled the trigger!
Suddenly, twelve evil-destroying crossbow arrows shot out and hit Suilie's body!
At first, this guy didn't take it seriously at all. After all, the penetrating damage of twelve crossbow arrows was nothing to the corpse demon. However, when the "Destroying Evil" inscriptions on the crossbow arrows burst out at the same time, it was very terrifying.

I saw a column of blazing light shooting up into the sky, with a diameter of more than three meters, and it lasted for more than five seconds.

In this column of light, the huge wild boar corpse quickly collapsed and turned into ashes, leaving no room for resistance at all.

When Yao Sang saw this scene, he was stunned.

You have to know that Sui Lie's true form is a ghost with deep Taoism skills, and this giant wild boar is just its shell.

When he finds himself defeated, Shuailie can even abandon his body and run away, then re-possess the body of a bear or an eagle according to the enemy's characteristics and fight for another 300 rounds! !
However, this guy disappeared right in front of Yao Sang, not even living for three seconds, which made Yao Sang dumbfounded.

At this time, Hasar suddenly said to Yao Sang:
"What did you say?"

Yao Sang suddenly woke up as if from a dream, and stammered:
"No, nothing?"

Hasar said:

"No, I clearly heard you say something about being extremely powerful and difficult to deal with."

Yao Sang immediately said righteously:

"I am not, I am not, don't talk nonsense."

Since Yaosang gave the corresponding information, Gong Tianwu must go to rescue people first, so he directly gave the order to set off.

Watching Gong Tianwu and his men leave, Yao Sang couldn't help but wipe his sweat, having the illusion that he had survived a disaster.

He suddenly saw the old demon lagging behind slowly, (illusion) couldn't help but approach it and said:
"Hey, hey, hey, who is this gentleman?"

Bei Li laughed evilly and said:
"Want to know? Bring me a fruit."

The demon mulberry took out a ruby-like fruit and threw it to him in dissatisfaction. This was the fruit of the mulberry tree, called red mulberry, which was a very tonic.

After the demon wolf got the advantage, he said proudly:

"You are scared now, right? This is the young marquis. He has two demon dogs with the blood of our wolf clan, and he is very generous."

"And the young marquis was spotted by a powerful immortal early on and was accepted as a disciple. The method of killing the corpse demon was taught by the immortal himself."

After hearing these words, Yao Sang's mind started to spin rapidly:

"He has such a powerful backer, and he doesn't discriminate against monsters. Even this cunning old monster is obedient to him."

So the old man's illusion immediately flew towards Gong Tianwu:
"Young Marquis, if you want to go to the hillside, you have to pass through the Ten Directions Maze. It was originally a mass grave, and later it was turned into a maze."

"Although the young marquis has great magical powers, he must race against time to save people. Old Sang is willing to serve as a dog and horse and lead the way!"

After hearing this, Gong Tianwu glanced at him and then smiled and said:

"Since you have this intention, then come along."

***
The following section of the journey made the demon Sang terrified, because several times when he was about to give the alarm, the young marquis had already pointed out the possible location of the demon several seconds in advance.

Needless to say, those unlucky guys who attacked were shot down one by one by one arrows and turned into light and ascended to heaven.

This demon Sang was quite knowledgeable. He knew that such a phenomenon meant that the young marquis's spiritual awareness was extremely terrifying, far surpassing his own.

When almost six demons were killed by Wulouwei's arrows, no one dared to come and die. After all, these guys still had intelligence.

Soon, Gong Tianwu arrived at the Guanyun Pavilion halfway up the mountain.

This place sounds like a very poetic place, but in fact it has been poisoned beyond recognition by a mummy demon. The stench of corpses is overwhelming, and flesh and blood are everywhere. It is a real Shura field.

Here they rescued two spies, but learned from the weak Hualu that because of his special birth date, Mayang was sent directly to the General's Palace to be enjoyed by General Shi.

Faced with this situation, Gong Tianwu led his men directly to the General's Palace without saying a word.

Thanks to the presence of Yaosang, who was well-informed about geography, the group advanced at a very fast speed.

And General Shi was obviously a man who knew the current situation. He probably knew that the visitor had ill intentions, so he ran away directly. The people along the way advanced quickly and arrived in front of the general's palace.

This was originally the sacrificial hall of the general's mausoleum, and officials from the Ministry of Rites would come here every year to worship. But when General Shi was possessed by a demon and transformed into a corpse, this place became his lair, a Shura field that devoured flesh and blood.

It can be seen that each of the stone steps in front of the temple is embedded with a large number of skulls, with the empty eye sockets of the skulls staring straight upwards, as if they are still experiencing the fear before death.

The skeletons at the first level had distorted faces, the skeletons at the second level had their mouths wide open as if screaming silently, and at the ninth level, those bones actually opened their mouths strangely, revealing a sinister smile - as if welcoming new prey to enter this temple of death.

As soon as I reached the stone steps, the stench of decay and blood hit me in the face, so strong that it almost suffocated me.

The ground was no longer made of cold stone bricks, but a layer of wriggling flesh membrane. When you stepped on it, it made a sticky "crunching" sound, as if you were stepping into the intestines of some living creature.

Seven or eight rib-like bone pillars support the crumbling dome. The reliefs that originally depicted the general's military achievements are now covered with dark red flesh and blood veins, like a skinned giant snake, slowly wriggling and occasionally dripping a few drops of black blood.

After arriving here, even elite soldiers like Wulouwei felt a bit of chill running down their spines.

After entering the hall, they found that the situation was even more tragic. The bronze sacrificial vessel on the altar no longer held incense, but had grown fangs and was chewing on half a human arm with a "clicking sound".

The necklaces hanging from the caisson on the ceiling of the hall were strung with not pearls and jades, but dried internal organs. They swayed in the cold wind, and collided with each other, making strange sounds, like the whispers of dead souls.

At this time, even the two monsters, Yaosang and Beili, were stunned after seeing such a cruel scene. They felt that such a scene could only be seen in the legendary underworld.

Gong Tianwu waved his hand to let his men leave the temple, then waved his hand and said:
"Go get some firewood and set this place on fire for me."

(End of this chapter)