Chapter 157: Chapter 155: Back to Square One

It was like a final counterattack at the end of the world. The black Evil Qi seemed to erupt all at once, a suffocating, oppressive presence that filled one’s heart with dread.

RUMBLE. The sound seemed to change the very color of Xiangcheng’s sky.

What had been a beautiful sunny day was now overshadowed by ominous, gathering clouds.

It was like the precursor to a thunderstorm, but without any distinct signs of lightning.

"Grandpa, the weather forecast didn’t say it would rain today! Why does it look like it’s going to? WAAAH, Duoduo wants to play, I don’t wanna go home!"

"Hurry up and bring in the quilts! This weather changes on a whim, just like a man’s mood!"

"Strange. It was clearly a sunny day, how did it suddenly..."

Scenes like this played out all over Xiangcheng. Writing any more would just be filler, wouldn’t it?

But in the blink of an eye, all these phenomena were suppressed by the formation.

BOOM. With that, everything seemed to return to tranquility.

The clear sky returned, as if the preceding moments had all been a dream.

But Wen Ying knew it wasn’t over yet.

The black mist in the garbage dump had completely vanished, but Wen Ying could feel something stirring restlessly underground...

"Where’s the budget-version Soul Shattering Talisman?"

The words had barely left her lips when a Soul Shattering Talisman made of bamboo appeared before her, materializing in the exact same manner as the Array Stone.

Wen Ying pinched the Soul Shattering Talisman. This thing was fundamentally different from the talisman paper she drew on.

’It feels a bit strange.’

[Sorry, Host! This Soul Shattering Talisman doesn’t come with an automatic instruction manual~ So let the super-cute me, your System, explain it~]

[Budget-version Soul Shattering Talisman: A low-grade version of the Soul Shattering Talisman. It can shatter any soul body in the world, but since it’s a budget version, it can only shatter some lower-level soul bodies~]

[Host doesn’t need to worry at all! Even the budget version is more than enough to deal with the remnants here~]

[How to use: Stand in the designated position and crush it with your hand. Crush it! You will discover a whole new world, hehehe.]

[Friendly reminder: The Host needs to be a little twisted now and then to truly appreciate the experience~]

Wen Ying was speechless. "..."

She had the sudden urge to strangle the System, but realistically, she could only imagine it.

’I can’t beat it,’ she thought, ’so I might as well... join it!’

’Being twisted is just one of the seven emotions and six desires. It’s a necessary human feeling. Indulging in it once in a while is just a way to better experience the true meaning of life.’

’Admitting you’re a little twisted isn’t hard at all. What’s hard is putting up with someone nagging in your ear.’

’Good thing there’s no one else here!’

Following the System’s instructions, Wen Ying had to walk into the garbage dump to use the Soul Shattering Talisman.

Thinking of those fiends she wanted to tear limb from limb, Wen Ying felt the hand holding the Soul Shattering Talisman begin to tremble with faint excitement.

She truly liked this mission. She wasn’t lying to the System.

The garbage dump, now reinforced by the sealed formation, wouldn’t have its balance disrupted by Wen Ying’s entry. If it did, the System would be a trash system that deserved to be recycled by the dump itself.

Wen Ying stood in a certain... unspeakable location within the garbage dump, pinching the Soul Shattering Talisman in her hand.

CRACK!

It was a little difficult to crush the material, but snapping it was incredibly easy.

She broke it once, then twice, until the Soul Shattering Talisman had become more than forty separate pieces.

’Thoroughly shattered indeed.’

With one final squeeze, Wen Ying saw countless severed appendages appear around her with the ease of chopping vegetables. At first, the appendages were still struggling, but slowly, very slowly, they turned to dust and fell into a broken earthenware pot.

It was like a brilliant fireworks display. The explosion of colors made Wen Ying realize that soul bodies had colors, too!

But before these soul bodies dissipated, a series of images were transmitted into Wen Ying’s mind.

The scenes of inhuman torture made Wen Ying’s clenched fists CRACKLE.

"System, are they scattered to dust, never to be reborn?"

[No.]

"How much reputation value?"

[O-one million.]

"Fine. I want them to never be reborn for all eternity, to suffer the cruelest punishments for all eternity."

[One million is kind of a loss, Host. I understand your anger, I know about you humans’ emotions, but there are some more powerful soul bodies that haven’t awakened yet. They’re currently suppressed. One million really isn’t enough for them. It’s not that your System is taking advantage of you, but this fee only covers the remnants that have awakened and are trying to cause trouble.]

For once, the System was actually explaining itself for the sake of reputation value.

"How much reputation value is needed?" Wen Ying’s voice was a little cold.

[Eighty million.]

The number made Wen Ying fall silent. Her current reputation value was just over twenty million.

"Then can I take care of twenty million’s worth of trash first?"

[Of course, Host. Reputation value has been deducted.]

[Mission complete. Rest assured, Host, the remaining trash remnants will not emerge for a year.]

"And after a year?"

[Sorry, no comment.]

Although there was no obvious change, Wen Ying still felt that the garbage dump seemed a little cleaner.

And throughout Xiangcheng, most of the people who had been bedridden with chronic illnesses for reasons connected to this place mysteriously recovered by fifty percent.

This event was later hailed as a miracle in the medical community.

Wen Ying stood silently outside the garbage dump for half an hour. By the time she left, she had reverted to the cheerful Doctor Wen~

"Back to square one overnight. Guess it’s time to earn some reputation value."

Wen Ying looked at her remaining few hundred reputation value, turned, and murmured to herself as she left the inner street.

[That’s the right way to think, Host! A career-focused Host is the most charming!]

Unfortunately, its Host didn’t seem to feel like paying it any attention.

As Wen Ying walked out of the old street, she found the lady boss waiting for her at the entrance to the inner street, holding the Fox Immortal.

The lady boss breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Wen Ying appear.

When the sky had changed color and the commotion was at its peak, the lady boss had a strange feeling that it had something to do with Wen Ying, and with this old street.

The disturbance didn’t seem like a natural weather phenomenon, but rather something caused by some kind of indescribable, terrifying, devil-like entity. She had seen plenty of scenes like this in anime.

Although the lady boss was older, she had nothing to do at home by herself, so she liked to watch anime.

She had watched all kinds of anime—romance, horror, suspense, and even hot-blooded isekai shows. She’d seen quite a lot.

The moment the strange phenomenon occurred, the lady boss felt her perception of the world begin to change.

She prayed for Wen Ying, but she was just an ordinary person. If she had gone in, it would have been a one-way trip to her death.

As for the Fox Immortal in her arms...

Well, it just looked like an ordinary little fox, and it was fast asleep. Useless.

Now, seeing Wen Ying appear without any injuries and with her clothes perfectly intact, the lady boss sighed in relief.

She thrust the Fox Immortal into Wen Ying’s arms. "Little Ying, I’m giving the Fox Immortal to you."

The sleeping Fox Immortal was completely unaware that his lofty self had just been given away like an object.