Survival in an apartment, starting with a stroke of luck on a plane

The Buddha statue seemed to have an instinctive aversion and fear of this power full of extreme vitality, and its attack paused.

"A great opportunity!" Lin Yu, connected with the plant life, seized this fleeting chance.

He pushed his magical power to its limit, and lightning flashed on the [Demon Sword]. Man and sword became one, transforming into a meteor surrounded by lightning, which pierced straight into the Buddha statue's huge mouth that kept opening and closing and emitted demonic sounds.

At the same time, manipulating the plant life to concentrate all power, several of the thickest vines, like drills, with the momentum to tear everything apart, fiercely pierced the place where the constantly writhing, painful faces on the Buddha statue's body gathered.

Boom! Crack! Splatter—

Under the combined force of the plant life and Lin Yu's deadly attack, the Buddha statue's massive body finally succumbed to the strain.

As the lightning sword energy pierced its mouth, a violent explosion occurred inside. At the same time, several huge holes were drilled through its torso by vines, and black, foul-smelling pus and blood gushed out like a waterfall.

"Awooo—!!!"

The Buddha statue let out a deafening roar of pain, its entire body began to expand and twist uncontrollably, and its energy became extremely unstable.

"Tear it down!" Lin Yu gave the final order without hesitation!

The plant life suddenly gathered all its energy together at once, and Lin Yu also gathered a large amount of magic power to activate lightning magic.

On the other side, Liu Xiangxiang and another silver-level ghost also launched an attack.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!

Amidst a deafening roar, the terrifying golden Buddha statue was finally blasted to pieces from the inside by the extreme lightning and energy! Countless charred chunks of flesh, broken bones, and shattered limbs flew everywhere like raindrops.

"Damn it, surely there are some loot in this world, right?"

Looking at the scattered pieces of flesh after the Buddha statue exploded, Lin Yu spat a few times, expelling the black blood that had accidentally splashed into his mouth.

He was about to check if anything dropped after killing the Buddha statue, but suddenly realized that he hadn't received any system message about experience points being credited to his account.

Holy crap!

Before Lin Yu could even catch his breath, an unexpected change occurred.

At the core of the shattered Buddha statue, a dark current, condensed to its extreme and seemingly alive, soared into the sky like a dragon breaking free from its restraints.

It easily broke through the already dilapidated dome of the secret temple and hovered above Black Buddha, like a black, evil sun that devoured light.

Immediately afterwards, a scene resembling hell unfolded in Tieshu County.

All believers who have offered incense, contributed their blood and life essence to the Black Buddha, whether they are asleep in a dream, working hard, or wandering the streets, all experience violent convulsions and spasms at the same moment.

Uncontrollably, wisps of pitch-black energy, carrying the essence of their lives, overflowed from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses. Thousands upon thousands of such black wisps rose from every corner of the county town, like rivers flowing into the sea. The piercing screams and wails instantly resounded throughout the town, merging into the main dark current in the sky.

"Outrageous! Is this some kind of video game? There's even a second form?" Lin Yu wasn't going to just stand by and watch; he immediately wanted to rush over and stop them.

But the scattered remains of Buddha statues seemed to be summoned by something, writhing and coalescing wildly, forming twisted black walls made of severed limbs and pained faces, blocking his way.

"Get out of here!" Lin Yu roared, his [Demon Sword] dancing wildly, lightning sword energy slashing and cutting through walls, but more and more debris kept surging up, seemingly endless, seriously slowing down his progress.

In just a few breaths, almost one-tenth of the population of Tieshu County—those devout pilgrims—had turned into withered, dried corpses in despair.

After absorbing a massive amount of life energy and resentment, the underground current in the air swelled to a heart-palpitating degree. It emitted a satisfied hum and suddenly changed direction, like a giant whale sucking in water, sweeping in and swallowing the Buddha statue remains on the ground that were blocking Lin Yu's way.

Awooo—!!!

A roar that transcended the limits of human hearing, struck the depths of the soul, and was filled with endless pain, resentment, and madness erupted from that massive mass of dark energy.

The dark energy began to twist, deform, and compress violently, and finally, a colossal object appeared in the night sky.

It was a giant snake hundreds of meters long, its entire body made up of countless densely packed, twisted, deformed heads with different expressions.

These heads included men and women, young and old. Some were weeping silently, tears streaming down their faces; some were cursing wildly, their faces contorted in rage; and some were laughing desperately, sending chills down one's spine.

As the giant snake's body writhed, the human heads rubbed and squeezed against each other, producing a teeth-grinding crunching sound. Their hollow eye sockets all looked downwards, filled with endless pain and resentment.

The head of the giant serpent was a magnified version of the blurry yet incredibly ferocious face of the "Mother Buddha of All Bodies Returning to One".

From a distance, it looks like a giant black snake.

The aura emanating from the serpent was even stronger than when the Buddha statue was intact.

Its compound eyes, composed of countless tiny pupils, instantly locked onto Lin Yu below, who had just broken through the final barrier, filled with greed and a desire for destruction.

"Annihilation... Return to One..." The serpent opened its enormous maw, formed by the fusion of countless mouths, and uttered a strange murmur that mixed with thousands of sounds. Its massive body stirred up the wind and clouds, and with a terrifying momentum that could crush mountains and rivers, it swooped down towards Lin Yu.

Wherever it goes, the air is polluted, leaving behind streaks of black.

Lin Yu's expression was more solemn than ever before.

Without hesitation, he activated the Symbiotic Willow Vine again, and countless resilient vines shot out, like agile tentacles, wrapping around and lashing at the serpent, trying to slow its attack.

At the same time, his figure flashed rapidly, leaving behind afterimages. The lightning bullets of [Azure Rose] and the sharp sword energy of [Demon Sword] poured down on the body of the serpent like a storm.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Lightning exploded on the snake-like body made of piled-up human heads, shattering many of them into pieces. Sword energy slashed through, leaving deep trenches.

However, the serpent's regenerative ability is nothing short of abnormal. The surrounding black resentment surges up as if it were alive, instantly filling the wound, and the new head reappears with even deeper resentment.

The battle devolved into a stalemate.

Lin Yu pushed his strength to the limit, perfectly combining lightning magic, swordsmanship, firearms, and movement techniques. He even occasionally unleashed the "Golden Light of Immobilization," which, although it could only immobilize the serpent for a moment, created several opportunities to attack.

But the power of the serpent seemed inexhaustible, and its attack methods were unpredictable. In addition to the massive physical impact, the wailing of its thousands of heads continuously assaulted Lin Yu's mind, forcing him to focus on defending himself.

"At this rate, my magic power will eventually run out! This serpent seems to be able to absorb the remaining resentment in the city to replenish itself, making it almost immortal! Should I really avoid its sharp edge for now?" Lin Yu's mind raced, and he began to consider the possibility of a strategic retreat.

As the old saying goes, "Where there's life, there's hope."

There's nothing or no one in Tieshu County that I can't abandon, so I can run away whenever I want.

Just as he was having second thoughts and preparing to find an opportunity to leave the battlefield—

call out--!!!

A sharp, piercing sound seemed to tear the entire night sky apart.

A streak of piercing white light, exuding a chilling aura, shot down from the horizon like lightning slicing through the eternal night.

Amidst the flowing light, one could vaguely discern a uniquely shaped longsword, its blade seemingly perfectly pieced together from segments of a human spine, exuding an intense aura of death and slaughter.

The target of this white bone longsword was not Lin Yu, but the arrogant, ten-headed serpent in the sky.

It seemed to possess its own will, and with unparalleled precision, it shot towards the middle section of the serpent's body, at a massive head that was the most resentful and appeared to be the energy core.

Pfft—!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a soft but chilling tearing sound.

The white bone sword, as easily and without resistance as a red-hot blade cutting into solidified grease, pierced through the core head in an instant, and without diminishing its momentum, directly cleaved the enormous serpentine body composed of countless human heads in two.

"Whoa—!!!"

The serpent let out an unprecedented, shrill scream, a mixture of billions of sounds. Its body, severed in two, twisted and struggled wildly in the air, and countless heads fell from the broken point like dumplings being dropped into a pot, only to try to fly back together under the influence of its resentment. The scene was extremely chaotic and terrifying.

This sudden, earth-shattering sword strike not only severely injured the serpent, but also caused Lin Yu to frown deeply, his mind racing with alarm bells.

He suddenly looked up, following the direction from which the white bone sword had flown, and activated his [Heavenly Eye] to gaze at the distant night sky.

On the far horizon, a blurry little black dot was rapidly growing larger in the field of vision.

It was a human figure, standing tall and straight, his every step seemingly shrinking the distance between them, his speed astonishing.

Although the specific appearance was still unclear, a terrifying sword intent, sharp and unparalleled, seemingly capable of severing all obstacles in the world and extinguishing all life, had already surged in like a tide, enveloping the entire sky above Tieshu County. Even the ferocious flames of the monstrous serpent were suppressed by this sword intent.

Enemy? Friend?

Lin Yu gripped the [Demon Sword] tightly in his hand, his muscles tense, his magic power ready to be unleashed.

The figure rushing in from the horizon moved at a speed far exceeding that of ordinary light, like a gray lightning bolt tearing through the night sky.

As they drew closer, Lin Yu was able to see what the newcomer looked like.

This person was also dressed in clothing representing the official system of the Great Qian Dynasty, but the style was different from ordinary official clothes, more capable, with strange dark red patterns like bloodstains embroidered on the cuffs and lapels, which seemed to be some kind of runes to suppress evil spirits.

He looked to be around forty years old. His features should have been quite regular, but his left cheek was covered with an irregular, slightly wriggling dark blue scale. At the edge of the scale where it met the normal skin, the blood vessels bulged out, turning an ominous blackish-purple.

His eyes were as sharp as a hawk's, but deep within them flowed a barely perceptible turbidity and weariness similar to that of the Ebony Taoist priest—the unavoidable price of long-term contact with and use of "polluted spiritual energy."

The aura surrounding him was not a pure and righteous sword intent, but a fierce aura that mixed extreme sharpness, deathly stillness, and a certain repressed madness.

Before the person even arrived, the white bone sword that pierced the serpent began to hum on its own, and at the end of the hilt was embedded a slightly pulsating, dark red eyeball of an unknown creature.

The longsword was pulled from the still-struggling snake's body, bringing with it a spray of foul-smelling black blood, and flew back into his hand. The snake's eyes even rolled strangely, scanning the entire scene.

The man's gaze first fell on the two grotesque snake remains writhing wildly in the air. His brows furrowed, and the scales on his face writhed more noticeably, as if he both loathed and... faintly longed for the intense evil aura.

Immediately, his gaze turned to Lin Yu, who was on high alert. When he saw the pure afterglow of lightning magic around Lin Yu and the seemingly unpolluted aura, a very obvious surprise flashed in his eyes, even with a hint of scrutiny and inquiry.

"Are you Lin Yu, the one mentioned in the urgent message from Ebony?" he asked, his voice hoarse with a metallic quality, not pleasant to hear, but with a sense of oppression that penetrated straight to the soul.

"I am Li Qianfeng, the Inspector of Huangzhou, the Chief of the Great Qian Evil Suppression Division."

He remained expressionless and continued, "I received an alert that a 'remnant of an ancient god' has awakened in this area, so I came here to deal with it."

Lin Yu felt a chill run down his spine. The other party referred to the strange serpent as a "remnant of an ancient god," which clearly indicated a more official definition of such a being.

Although this guy's aura was deliberately concealed, the hidden "pollution" power that was of the same origin as ebony but more refined and massive, as well as his strange magic weapon and state, all indicated that he was no pushover and that his strength had definitely reached the gold level.

He withdrew some of his magical power, but remained vigilant. He cupped his hands and said, "So it is Inspector Li. I am Lin Yu, a rogue cultivator. Thank you for your help, Inspector."

Li Qianfeng waved his hand, the scales on his face undulating slightly with his movement: "It is our duty. The responsibility of the Evil Suppression Division is to cleanse such evil creatures and prevent them from causing great disaster."

His gaze swept over Lin Yu again, filled with undisguised inquiry: "Young friend, you... possess lightning magic, yet your aura is so... 'clean'? Could it be that you've received the true teachings of some ancient pure land?"

His words carried a hint of barely perceptible greed and scrutiny. Cultivators who had long been surrounded by pollution had an almost instinctive desire for and skepticism toward the existence of "purity."

Lin Yu felt a slight alarm bell ring in his heart, but his face remained calm: "Inspector, you are joking. It's just that the cultivation method passed down by my sect is slightly different. If it were really an ancient method of cultivation, I'm afraid I would never have the strength I have now in my entire life."

At this point, Lin Yu's desire to quickly integrate into this world system intensified; now, anyone could tell he was different.

Upon hearing this, Li Qianfeng's eyes flashed with a hint of doubt, but in his heart he agreed with Lin Yu's statement. After all, Lin Yu was right. In this world, cultivators who practice ancient methods would probably not be able to reach Lin Yu's current level even if they practiced for a lifetime. Therefore, he did not delve into it, but simply nodded and said, "Young friend, your inheritance is indeed extraordinary."

Even if he didn't believe it or had ideas, he wouldn't dare to make a move against Lin Yu here, since the strength Lin Yu had just displayed was not something he could easily defeat.

He turned to look at the two pieces of the monstrous snake's remains, his tone turning cold: "These 'aggregates of all grievances' are born from the combination of the resentment of all living beings and evil magic. They are extremely filthy and difficult to deal with, and must be thoroughly purified to prevent future disasters."

"Slay the evil!"

The white bone sword in his hand flew out again. This time, the sword burst out with a pale and dazzling light, splitting in two in the air, then into four... In the blink of an eye, it transformed into hundreds of eerie sword shadows, forming a profound sword formation that completely enveloped the two pieces of the monstrous snake's remains.

Within the sword formation, sword energy crisscrossed, like countless high-speed rotating cutting wheels, frantically shredding the resentful thoughts that formed the snake's body.

Hiss hiss hiss hiss—!

A series of teeth-grinding cutting sounds rang out, and countless heads turned to dust in the sword light. Black resentment tried to condense, but was completely annihilated by the sword energy containing the intent of extinction.

The serpent let out a final, resentful, and venomous howl as its massive body rapidly collapsed and dissipated under the strangulation of the sword formation.

At the same time, Lin Yu observed that this sword formation not only contained indestructible sword energy, but also a powerful suction force that was of the same origin as the serpent but even more domineering.

The sword formation seemed to be refining and devouring that resentful energy.

Lin Yu could clearly sense that Li Qianfeng was using this sword formation to absorb the pure, evil energy left by the disintegrating serpent to replenish himself, and perhaps... he was even cultivating. Indeed, the techniques of the Evil Suppression Division were also tinged with evil.

If even the official authorities are like this, then it seems that there are probably no normal cultivation methods in the open in this world.

Lin Yu naturally wouldn't expose him. He also manipulated the willow vines to assist from the side, while carefully observing Li Qianfeng's methods.

Under the combined attack of the two, the serpent's remains were finally completely annihilated.

After killing Black Buddha, Lin Yu went forward to check on him, and then slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

In the area where Black Buddha died, two items slowly coalesced and emerged.

One of them is a miniature Buddha sculpture, about one foot tall, entirely black, and made of neither gold nor wood.

The Buddha statue looked exactly like the previous enormous "Mother Buddha of All Bodies Returning to One," composed of countless tiny, twisted limbs and faces, emitting a faint black light. A concentrated, golden-level evil pressure emanated from it, but it seemed to be bound by some kind of rule, appearing restrained and stable.

The other item was a bead the size of a pigeon egg, irregularly shaped and polyhedral, perfectly round and dark, with what appeared to be a slowly rotating black nebula inside.

The beads have a smooth, cool surface that feels cold to the touch, and contain extremely pure and enormous energy.

[The Statue of the One Buddha Mother]

Category: Apartment Decoration

Grade: Gold

effect:

Resentment Collection: Automatically absorbs unclaimed resentment and negative emotions within a certain range around the apartment and slowly transforms them into pure "Oneness Spiritual Energy" (Note: This spiritual energy still contains certain negative characteristics and should be used with caution).

Whispers of the Buddha Mother: Placed in an apartment, the holder will occasionally hear whispers of chaotic knowledge emanating from the Buddha Mother, with a chance of gaining special skill insights or falling into brief confusion. (Note: Prolonged use may lead to complete conversion to the Buddha Mother; please use with caution.)

Evil Protection: Once activated, it forms a "Barrier of Resentment" around the apartment, possessing strong physical and energy defense capabilities, and excellent resistance to mental probing and curse attacks below the Gold level. The barrier will continuously consume resentment reserves during its duration.

Unity of All Bodies: The Buddha statue can absorb the flesh and blood of living beings to increase its internal energy. When it absorbs enough, it can activate combat and possess a gold-level stat panel. (Note: After activation, there is a high probability that the Buddha statue will not obey player commands.)

Description: A strange statue sculpted from the core of a fallen evil Buddha, it is both a calamity and a power. Using it requires bearing the corresponding risks and costs.

Black Buddha Relic

Category: Materials

Grade: Gold

Effect: Contains pure Netherworld energy and fragments of evil Buddhist laws. Can be used to enhance Shadow, Death, and Curse-type equipment or skills, greatly increasing their power and having a chance to add special effects.

It can also be used as a core material for certain special formations and potions.

Description: The Buddha is no longer the Buddha, and the relics are tainted with dust. Power is neither good nor evil; it depends entirely on the user's thought.

Lin Yu breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering that the items were actually two gold-grade items. It seemed that the rules of this game world were different from the previous "Life and Death Delivery" world, where killing monsters would yield equipment.

Lin Yu took the two items into his hands and put them back into his backpack.

As for Li Qianfeng, he wasn't a player and couldn't see what dropped after Black Buddha died. He assumed Lin Yu was checking on Black Buddha's condition, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

Just then, two auras of varying strengths were rapidly approaching from different directions.

One of them came from the direction of the county government office, his aura obscure and distorted; it was none other than Daoist Wumu.

The other one came from Tiger Fang Mountain in the east of the city, carrying a wild and violent demonic aura. It was obviously the third force in Iron Tree County that Lin Yu had never seen before, the "Tiger Venerable" of Tiger Fang Mountain.

A moment later, Master Wumu was the first to land at the edge of the ruins, riding a streak of gray-black light.

He still had that terrifying appearance of bark and fleshy growths, but now his face was full of surprise and uncertainty. His gaze first looked at Li Qianfeng, whose aura was unfathomable, with awe, and then looked at Lin Yu, who seemed to be unharmed, with disbelief.

"Deacon Li... Deacon Li! You've arrived just in time!" Daoist Wumu hurriedly bowed to Li Qianfeng, his voice still tinged with lingering fear: "That evil aura just now truly terrified me! Thank you so much for your help, Deacon, in eliminating this great scourge for Iron Tree County!"

He paused, then looked at Lin Yu, his eyes filled with complex emotions, his tone tinged with a hint of probing and disbelief: "Fellow Daoist Lin...you...you're actually unharmed? You were just fighting that evil creature..."

Lin Yu smiled faintly: "Thanks to Deacon Li, I was lucky to survive. It was Daoist Wumu who delivered the news in a very timely manner."

Master Wumu forced a smile that looked more like a grimace, and said awkwardly, "Not at all, it was just my duty... I never expected that Fellow Daoist Lin would possess such supernatural abilities. I was truly... truly disrespectful."

His mind was in turmoil. He had thought the man was just a slightly special rogue cultivator, but he never expected him to be so powerful that he could stand up to the terrifying monster that terrified him.

This completely dispelled his previous ulterior motives, leaving him only with lingering fear and relief.