Since all these rules and superstitions are outdated, what's wrong with me indulging in some me

"Is the door over there?" Cheng Caijun's voice trembled as he pointed to the rusted iron door they had come through.

Without hesitation, Lu Changsheng shouted, "Go!"

The two turned and rushed toward the iron gate, their footsteps echoing in the empty hall of the corpse array. The echoes were thick and damp, as if swallowed by countless dry mouths.

The short distance of a dozen meters felt incredibly long. Behind him came a series of soft cracking sounds, like bones twisting and turning. Lu Changsheng dared not turn around; he could feel countless cold gazes imprinted on his back, truly experiencing what it meant to feel like he was being pricked by thorns.

As soon as he rushed to the door, Cheng Caijun reached out to pull the doorknob—

"Click."

A dull metallic clanging sound.

The doorknob remained completely still.

"Locked?"

Cheng Caijun panicked, gripped the handle with both hands, and pulled and tugged with all his might. His face turned red and his veins bulged, but the iron door was as if it had been welded shut, and it didn't even budge.

Lu Changsheng stepped forward and reached out to touch the door. It was icy cold to the touch, not just the temperature of rust, but a chilling cold that penetrated to the bone. He felt along the crack in the door, his fingertips touching a sticky, slightly wriggling texture—not dust, nor rust.

He withdrew his hand and, in the dim light, saw that his fingertips were covered with a layer of dark red, translucent film, like the inner wall of some kind of creature, still contracting very slightly.

"It's not locked," Lu Changsheng said in a low voice, "it's 'alive.' This door is also part of this ritual."

"They're alive?! One of them is alive?!" Cheng Caijun's face was ashen. "What do we do now? We're the sixty-sixth and sixty-seventh?!"

His voice became shrill in the enclosed space, carrying a desperate tremor.

Lu Changsheng scoffed lightly and laughed as he scolded:

"There's only one person short. With your size, the two of us can't squeeze into one stall."

Cheng Caijun clutched his chest, feeling as if he had suffered a devastating blow to his soul.

"Get out of the way!"

The crackling sounds grew louder and louder, indicating a critical situation. Lu Changsheng stopped teasing Cheng Caijun.

He took out a jade pendant from his pocket, hung it around his neck, and then bit his index fingertip hard, smearing the blood on his forehead. From a distance, it looked like a bloody eye had grown on his forehead.

Om-!

Seemingly sensing the scent of blood, the jade pendant trembled violently, as if it had come to life. A pure aura emanated from the jade pendant and was directly absorbed into the blood-red color between Lu Changsheng's brows.

Blood was still dripping from the wound on his fingertip, but Lu Changsheng did not stop. He used the air as paper and blood as ink to draw rapidly in the void in front of him!

Horizontal strokes, folds, hooks, flicks... each stroke is extremely intricate, dazzling the eye. With each stroke, red patterns appear in the air.

In no time, the rune rapidly took shape before him, not flat, but like a three-dimensional totem bent from blood-red wire. As the last stroke fell, the entire rune trembled violently, and a surge of blood-red light erupted.

Explosive Talisman!

This is not an orthodox talisman, but a supreme method that is extremely brutal, compressing violent energy into a single point and then detonating it.

Lu Changsheng swayed, clearly indicating that drawing talismans in the void had taken a toll on him.

[What did I just see?! Where's the paper? Where's the pen? Where's the cinnabar? He just drew symbols in the air without anything? Is that even scientific?!]

"Master, the nine-step talisman-drawing method you taught me isn't some kind of heretical cultivation technique, is it? The orthodox way is to draw talismans in the air..."

[Since these are all strange and uncanny rules, why bother with science? What's wrong with indulging in some metaphysics?]

[Damn, this kid actually pulled it off! Drawing runes in the air! Doesn't that mean he can do whatever he wants in the game?]

[I've recorded the screen, I'll draw it at 0.5x speed when I get home, hahahahaha]

[Upstairs, you don't actually think you can create a talisman just by following each stroke, do you? That's hilarious. Even Taoist masters these days have to use numerous methods to barely draw one, and it can fetch hundreds of millions on the black market.]

"Holy crap..."

Cheng Caijun, who was watching this scene from the sidelines, was stunned. His mouth was wide open, and he was nowhere to be seen in his previous panicked state when he was running for his life.

"Come closer to me."

Lu Changsheng pulled Cheng Caijun in front of him, and the shimmering white light emanating from the jade pendant immediately spread to Cheng Caijun's body.

Then he gave a low shout:

"The essence of heaven and earth's fire, the mighty voice of the Thunder God. My blood serves as the catalyst, to dispel falsehood and eliminate darkness—by decree!"

As the final word "敕" was uttered, the distorted, blood-red runes that had been floating in the air suddenly contracted inward, transforming into a fist-sized, extremely unstable crimson sphere of light!

At the center of the sphere of light, faint crackling and popping electric arcs could be heard!

"go!"

With a wave of his hand, Lu Changsheng sent a crimson ball of light hurtling toward the gate ahead!

Boom! ...

A deafening explosion ripped through the narrow passage!

The crimson light instantly engulfed everything! A violent airflow, carrying with it scorching heat, shattered bone fragments, foul-smelling slime, and sharp hissing, swept in all directions!

Lu Changsheng pressed the jade pendant to his chest, and the soft light protected the two people at the center of the explosion, but the huge impact still made Lu Changsheng take several steps back.

Cheng Caijun reacted quickly, grabbing Lu Changsheng to steady himself.

The light and loud noise lasted for several seconds before gradually subsiding.

Smoke and dust mixed with bone powder and blood mist slowly dissipated.

"Cough cough—"

Lu Changsheng coughed repeatedly from the smoke and dust, and his eyes welled up with tears.

Ahead, the once solid metal door was nowhere to be seen; the entire wall had been blasted open by the power of the runes.

The pile of broken walls revealed a dark stairwell behind the gap, but with a faint glow.

The two exchanged a glance, then quickly walked towards the stairwell without pausing.

After going upstairs, the view opened up a bit, and Cheng Caijun, panting heavily, looked at Lu Changsheng with shining eyes.

"Brother Lu, you were so cool just now! That big iron gate just blew up like that! Hey, if you draw another hundred or two hundred talismans, let's blow up this school. Maybe we can clear the level in one go."

"Do you think those talismans are some kind of cabbage?" Lu Changsheng rolled his eyes in annoyance. "A hundred or two hundred? Even if they were cabbages, you wouldn't find a hundred or two in this dungeon."

"hey-hey......"

Seeing Lu Changsheng's even paler face, Cheng Caijun chuckled sheepishly.

"By the way, Brother Lu, you're so awesome, why haven't I heard of you before? And that jade pendant of yours, it looks extraordinary, how did you manage to bring it into the dungeon?"

Cheng Caijun had a sharp eye and immediately noticed that the jade pendant around Lu Changsheng's neck was no ordinary item.

"On Earth, I'm a law-abiding citizen, living a peaceful life. Why would I throw explosive talismans for no reason? As for this jade pendant..." Lu Changsheng put the jade pendant inside his clothes and continued, "This is my newbie buff—randomly bringing one item into the game. At the time, time was short, and I didn't have anything else handy, so I brought this along."