Stronger with Crimson Modifier

Chapter 315 - 311: Shen Kan [2]

When one’s power reaches a certain level, many seemingly difficult problems often become simple.

The very instant Hu Qi finished speaking, the villagers all fixed him with an incredibly eerie, deathly stare.

At the same time.

The soft light that had been emanating from the surrounding windows flickered like a candle in a cold wind before instantly extinguishing, plunging the area into darkness.

Immediately after, a flurry of urgent footsteps and roars surged from all directions.

The sound was like that of countless ferocious beasts let out of their cages, crazedly lunging for Hu Qi. The noise alone was enough to make one’s skin crawl.

However, just as those unknown things were about to pounce on Hu Qi, flames erupted from his body without warning.

In an instant, the flames scattered the darkness, clearly illuminating the appearance of the attackers.

It was the villagers. But compared to their previous kind expressions and simple appearances, they had undergone a world-altering transformation.

These once-normal-looking villagers now wore ferocious and terrifying expressions.

Their faces were covered in fur. Their skin seemed to be stretched by an invisible force, becoming sharp and thin. Their once-rounded chins had elongated, jutting forward.

Like the face of a fox.

Baring fangs and claws, they lunged at Hu Qi.

Seeing this, Hu Qi’s expression remained cold and impassive.

His arm shot out like a bolt of lightning.

He seized the fastest of the fox-faced monsters by the neck.

It was a sturdy Young Man, well over six feet tall.

But with a mere flick of his wrist, Hu Qi swung him like a club, sweeping him to the side.

He smashed into several of the villagers charging at the front.

A savage force was instantly unleashed.

Upon impact.

The bones of the foremost fox-faced villager, and the six or seven behind him, erupted in a series of sharp CRACKS.

Their bodies went flying like broken rag dolls, plowing through everything in their path.

They crashed through several fences before being viciously embedded in an earthen wall, leaving deep, human-shaped craters. Surrounding bricks and stones crumbled and fell away.

Then, Hu Qi began to swing the man in his hand so fast he became a blur.

Fueled by his monstrous strength,

any who came within a meter of him—

a glancing blow meant severe injury; a direct touch meant death.

For a moment.

The dim village filled with the unceasing, skin-crawling sounds of tearing flesh and shattering bone.

Compared to ordinary people, these monsters were as strong as oxen, their bodies as hard as iron.

But before Hu Qi, they were as slow as snails, their bodies as fragile as bubbles, popping at the slightest touch.

As for the attacks of the fox-faced monsters, they were blocked by an invisible barrier before they could even reach him.

In a mere eight or nine seconds.

The area fell into a deathly silence once more.

Severed limbs and chunks of viscera were scattered everywhere.

Crimson blood slowly pooled at Hu Qi’s feet, forming small puddles.

The eerie silence returned.

Leaving only the empty houses standing silently.

However, the instant Hu Qi tossed aside the mangled corpse he had been using as a club,

the scene around him suddenly blurred.

The corpses and blood at his feet vanished.

Lights reignited within the houses, and figures began to move about inside once more.

To his astonishment, the villagers who had just died were all reviving, and their numbers seemed to have grown.

Moreover, the entire village had also grown in size.

If there had only been a few dozen people before, there were now nearly a hundred.

"Interesting!"

Hu Qi watched the scene unfold, a single eyebrow slightly raised.

Then.

He repeated his previous actions. With a flick of his finger, a compressed blast of air shot out, piercing through the old woman closest to him just as she was about to speak again.

Like an emotionless killing machine, he moved, charging straight into the crowd.

Every gesture carried an overwhelming, destructive force.

In less than half a minute, the nearly one hundred simple-looking, fox-faced villagers were once again reduced to mangled corpses, lying strewn across the ground.

The ground was soaked in blood. Chunks of flesh and gore splattered the walls and paths, creating a gruesome, bloody scene.

However, the light suddenly dimmed, and the eerie scene replayed itself.

This time, even more people appeared—a full three or four hundred of them—and the village had grown larger still.

’I see!’

Watching the scene, Hu Qi finally understood. ’It’s no wonder no Dream Master has dealt with this Nightmare.’

’If the other Nightmares in fixed zones are all this troublesome, it would make sense.’

’This Ability alone—the monsters endlessly reviving after death in ever-increasing numbers—is enough to wear a Dream Master down to their last breath.’

’After all, every time a Dream Master uses the power of their Dream Eye, they suffer a not-insignificant amount of Erosion themselves.’

’Unless they can force their Dream Eye into a dormant state, even if it’s relatively stable...’

’...continuously using its power will cause it to begin ’reviving’.’

Over time.

’There’s simply no way to completely eliminate these monsters. In the end, the only outcome would be getting worn down to death.’

Having figured this out, Hu Qi looked at the fox-faced monsters, once again lunging at him with bared fangs and claws, and lost all interest in tangling with them further.

A ring of golden fire suddenly blazed to life around him.

The moment the golden ring appeared,

it exploded outward, covering and igniting everything in its path.

The instant the fox-faced monsters touched the pale golden flames, they reacted as if they had encountered something terrifying.

With terrified expressions, their bodies exploded on the spot, dissolving into black smoke that scattered in all directions.

But the golden ring of fire showed no sign of stopping. It continued to expand and sweep forward, relentlessly enveloping everything in its path.

Before long, it had enveloped the entire village.

Under the searing heat of the Crimson Sun Flame Fire, the village began to warp and distort, like melting ice cream.

Strangely, however, the seemingly torrential flames didn’t ignite the surrounding trees, or even harm a single blade of grass on the ground.

A few moments later, the village had vanished without a trace.

The villagers who had kept reappearing after death were also gone.

The surroundings were now empty, leaving only a green meadow at the foot of the hill.

It was as if everything that had just happened had been a mere illusion.

No, there was one thing left.

Hu Qi’s gaze fell upon a single building standing not far ahead. It was completely unscathed, without the slightest damage.

By its appearance, it seemed to be an ancestral hall.

Without hesitation, Hu Qi strode directly toward the ancestral hall and gently pushed open the door.

The space within was not large, nor was it cluttered.

A few candles burned on either side, their flickering flames casting the room in shifting light and shadow.

At the far end of the room stood a blood-red Shen Kan, which emanated an ancient, decaying aura.

A faint, eerie, blood-red halo shimmered on the surface of the Shen Kan, giving it an indescribably sinister feel.

And sitting enthroned upon the Shen Kan was a pitch-black Divine Statue of a fox.

Its eyes were tightly shut, yet a faint, ghostly light seemed to flicker from between the lids.

It was as if a pair of cold eyes were hidden beneath the closed lids,

secretly observing everything.

It grinned, revealing a row of sharp fangs that glinted with a bone-chilling light, enough to make one’s heart grow cold at a single glance.

The moment he saw the fox Divine Statue, a cacophony of chaotic, jumbled sounds filled Hu Qi’s ears.

It sounded like hundreds, or even thousands, of people praying at once—a noisy, yet unsettling din.

The moment he heard the sounds, Hu Qi felt an inexplicable urge to fall to his knees.

Moreover, as he drew closer to the Divine Statue,

the feeling grew even more intense.

At the same time, an invisible resistance materialized before him,

barring his path forward.

"Pathetic tricks."

Hu Qi sneered, his eyes filled with contempt.

The next instant.

He raised his foot and stomped down hard.

Instantly, the ground caved in.

The solid earth then rippled like water, a shockwave surging outward in all directions.

A terrifying RUMBLE erupted.

The entire Fox Tail Mountain seemed to tremble for a moment.

A violent shockwave radiated out from his foot, spreading in all directions.

The wave was like a physical blade, pulverizing everything in its path.

The entire building exploded like it was made of fragile paper. Wood splinters flew like flying Arrows and bricks shot out like shrapnel, scattering wildly in all directions. A cloud of dust instantly filled the air, obscuring everything from view.

When the dust settled, a massive crater, dozens of meters in diameter, had appeared where the building once stood.

The black Shen Kan still stood in the center, but its surface was now covered in a web of cracks.