Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Chapter 567 - 551: Ruins of the Old Days

Feng Yuhuai leapt gracefully, her red dress spreading like butterfly wings, lightly landing on the monster’s spine.

"Come on, everyone become family..." she whispered softly.

In an instant, the terrifying giant spider began to run, the ground rumbling, bricks cracking, and dust flying.

Countless arms stabbed toward the windows on both sides of the street, and the people hiding inside hadn’t had a chance to escape before the deformed arms smashed through windows and rudely grabbed them.

Those seized were thrown out, spinning as they were disassembled and dropped, like flies caught in a spider’s web, devoured by the giant spider.

In less than half a minute, the spider giant’s body swelled like an inflated balloon, growing rapidly larger, and the evil aura made the air within a hundred meters thick.

Several Scavengers’ faces changed drastically, and they desperately dodged and retreated, but how could two legs outrun a hundred? One after another, they were caught and integrated into the family.

New heads continuously emerged on the giant spider’s face, all laughing joyfully.

Only a hunched old man advanced instead of retreating; just as a spider hand grabbed him, his withered body suddenly underwent a shocking transformation.

His spine straightened, his hunched back straightened instantly, like a trapped dragon ascending to the heavens.

Then his arms extended, and he jumped, his spine flicking, his withered muscles expanding like inflating balloons, tearing through his ragged robe, his terrifying body like twisted steel, each tendon shining with a bronze sheen.

"Ha—"

With a thunderous exhalation, the old man leapt ten meters, crashing onto the giant spider’s back like a meteor.

An immense power erupted violently, pressing the continuously growing giant spider into the ground.

The bloated body shattered like a glass vessel, rotting flesh and broken bones splattering within a ten-meter radius.

"Pa!"

The old man’s cloth shoes couldn’t withstand the immense force and exploded into pieces, his black toes digging into the flesh, his voice hoarse like sandpaper:

"Little girl, the thing you created looks intimidating, it’s good enough to scare city folks, barely enough to fool the outskirts Scavengers, but I’m not like them, I crawled back from the depths of the old ruins... a Ghoul!"

Scavengers also have levels.

Those with shovels on the outermost, only daring to scavenge around the edges of ruins, are the lowest Scavengers.

There are the most of these Scavengers, mostly living in Transfer Towns on the city edge, always in groups, but never tasting the rotten meat and bone marrow of the ancient corpses.

At most, they are merely lice living on the surface of ancient corpses.

Only those truly digging underground, venturing into the civilization graveyards buried by cataclysms, qualify to be called Ghouls.

Implying:

A group of wandering lost souls in the cracks of time.

They despise the New Era’s hypocritical order, rejected by the new civilization’s light, forced to curl up in the depths of ancient ruins, surviving by gnawing on the bones of the last civilization.

Ghouls mostly inhabit the depths of ancient ruins, rarely appearing in cities, mostly only lingering in Transfer Towns.

And the lice from Transfer Towns are responsible for secretly smuggling the "trash" Ghouls dig out into the Steel Forest, in exchange for the "nutrients" of the New Era.

The city lords disdainfully call the refugees hiding in the old ruins Ghouls, while the refugees of the old ruins scorn the city lords as turtles hiding in shells.

They mutually scorn, oppose, and fear each other, yet they must exchange nutrients they each need.

This twisted symbiotic relation weaves a complex ecological web.

This is why the Executive Government knows this well, yet always turns a blind eye to Transfer Towns.

But Feng Yuhuai doesn’t understand this principle, thinking coming to Transfer Town meant she could do whatever she pleased and create family without restraint.

Little did she know, lack of law and absence of the Executive Government doesn’t mean one can do whatever they want.

The old man crouched, collapsing his waist, grasping his fist, swinging it down, the power exploding on his fist making the air crack with unbearable sound.

Feng Yuhuai’s pupils contracted abruptly; she felt the whole world crushing down on her.

The chill of death rushed from her feet to her skull, something pure fear, experienced again and again after she became a host.

The surrounding space collapsed, the terrifying intent to kill surged like a tide.

Feng Yuhuai was abruptly jolted from her delusional dream of creating family, hastily raising her arms to block, only to hear the brittle sound of her bones breaking.

Pong!

Feng Yuhuai’s arms exploded into a bloody mist, crimson threads dissolving rapidly like silk in fire.

Her body crashed onto the ground, forcing the giant spider beneath her to shatter completely before stopping.

This collision was like the last straw crushing the camel’s back, the already fragile monster body finally completely disintegrated.

Crash—

The giant spider’s remnants, like overcooked stew, emitted a strange meaty aroma, chunks as hot as a mudslide pouring downward.

The sticky meat chunks buried Feng Yuhuai layer by layer, scalding corpse oil searing her skin, and rotten fluids flooding her mouth and nose.

"This Demon Subduing Evil-Vanquishing Fist..."

The old man slowly withdrew his fist, lifting his foot to shake off the sticky rotten meat, a hint of scorn flashing in his turbid eyes,

"I dug it out from a Bronze Coffin in the old ruins, little girl, it seems you’re far from qualified to be grandpa’s granddaughter."

Feng Yuhuai was buried layer by layer by her own family, her mouth and nose filled with her family’s taste, her ears hearing the old man’s mocking sarcasm, the red circles in her brows and eyes spinning madly.

At that moment, countless thoughts invaded her mind.

She thought of the nanospine Zuo Bai controlled—technology can bring me death;

She thought of her [Mask] boyfriend Zheng Hang—Evil Sacrifice can also bring me death;

And now, this shabby, shitty Ghoul actually proved with the most primitive fist—pure Martial Arts can also bring me death?!!

Feng Yuhuai suddenly laughed insanely, the sound squeezed out of a broken gramophone:

"Then what have I been transformed and parasitized by the Puppet Mother for, is it because my talents are too useless or the Puppet Mother is too weak?"

The old man bent down, reaching his hand into the "meat soup," accurately gripping Feng Yuhuai’s skull, pulling her inch by inch out of the mound of rotten flesh like pulling a carrot.

In the shadows, the Wild Beast’s breathing suddenly quickened:

"Damn it! Should we intervene?"

The Master of Ceremonies was equally anxious, his White Eyes trembling violently.

"Wait!"

The Master of Ceremonies abruptly grabbed the Wild Beast’s shoulder,

"The Investigation Corps is here, no wait... why is another direction... huh, that is..."

On the distant diverging path, two distinctly different convoys approached swiftly.

One was an armored convoy painted with the [Investigation Corps] insignia, steel tracks crushing rubble along the way; while the other had only one vehicle...

The Master of Ceremonies’ White Eyes glanced at that one vehicle, and upon seeing the scene inside, his expression changed slightly, lowering his voice urgently:

"Retreat, quickly retreat!"