Chapter 37: The Furnace Keeper
The townsfolk in Penitence Street had fallen silent, kneeling as if dead, arranged in a dozen neat rows. Su Xiao walked through the gaps between them.
Eerie Town was not as large as he had imagined. The front and middle sections were already fraught with danger. As for the rear area, that was a region heavily eroded by the power of the Ancient God. Entering there would require recharging the Light-Dark Amulet once every hour.
Just after walking a dozen meters, Su Xiao heard a crisp cracking sound. He immediately stopped and looked toward the source.
It was a kneeling townsfolk, slightly tilting his head, his murky brown eyes fixed on him.
The townsfolk let out a hoarse growl, triggering a chain reaction. The others abruptly raised their upper bodies and also growled.
Just as Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were ready for battle, all the townsfolk on the street swung short iron whips, striking their own ragged backs twice before kneeling again.
Clang, clang, clang~
The ancient bell tower at the town's center rang. Seeing this, Baha lowered his already spread wings. He had thought a fight was about to break out, but these townsfolk only growled twice before falling silent again.
Su Xiao continued forward. These townsfolk were somewhat like plants—as long as he didn't actively touch them, nothing unexpected would happen.
He passed through Penitence Street without incident. A high wall appeared a kilometer away. That was the place the Holy Maiden had mentioned.
He quickened his pace. Before going far, Su Xiao hid beside a stone building. On the not-so-wide street, a group of townsfolk carrying various weapons approached. After inspecting them, Su Xiao learned these were Frenzied Townsfolk. If he got within a certain range, they would swarm him relentlessly.
Frenzied Townsfolk were troublesome. Their average combat power was at the Seventh Rank, and they exploded upon death, dealing fire-type erosion damage within a 70-meter radius, with an attack intensity of 2300 to 2700 points.
Enduring this fire-type erosion damage once was manageable, but if it was suffered multiple times within a few minutes, the erosion intensity would accumulate. After five or six accumulations, a Frenzied Townsfolk's death explosion could deal up to 5200 points of fire-type erosion damage.
A few Frenzied Townsfolk were easy to deal with. But if the number exceeded fifty, caution was needed. Over a hundred, and it was time to retreat. A group of that size was harder to handle than an Immortal Being.
Su Xiao's goal was to explore and obtain the Ashes Furnace. He wasn't planning to clear out the Frenzied Townsfolk for now, unless he found a good terrain.
These dozen or so Frenzied Townsfolk moved stiffly, limping as they walked. But don't be fooled by their appearance—once a fight started, they were not slow.
After waiting a few minutes, the group of Frenzied Townsfolk moved away. Su Xiao continued toward the high wall.
After evading six groups of Frenzied Townsfolk, Su Xiao arrived near the high wall. Along the way, besides Frenzied Townsfolk, he had seen other forms of monsters: tree giants seven or eight meters tall covered in spikes, gray-skinned hounds resembling wild dogs but with two heads, and Frenzied Townsfolk carrying large iron baskets filled with black stones.
The high wall ahead was about a dozen meters tall, forming a square that enclosed an area. Shorty·Qiselman was on top of that wall.
The gate of the high wall had long rusted shut. Su Xiao climbed the wall with his bare hands, moving lightly.
After successfully climbing onto the wall, Su Xiao found it was about six or seven meters wide. Within the enclosure of the four walls, the square central area was pitch black, like a square pit.
Moving along the wall, Su Xiao found a wooden chair. Around it were scattered bottle shards and the lower half of a skeleton.
Compared to an ordinary person, this lower skeleton was much shorter. Shorty·Qiselman should have been here. He was the Furnace Keeper, forbidden to leave even in death—that was the final order from the Redemption Church, unless something had happened to him.
Su Xiao looked into the darkness enclosed by the high wall. After a moment of thought, he tossed the pure gold pocket watch into the darkness.
With a clatter, the watch was caught by something hard. The darkness between the walls surged and gradually dissipated.
"In the Holy Maiden's eyes? Qiselman is a 'shorty'?"
After seeing the scene inside the high wall, Baha immediately spread his wings and flew into the sky.
As the darkness faded, a massive skeleton appeared within the wall. It had only an upper body, its ribs clearly visible. The bones of its arms were over a meter thick, and on its house-sized skull was a gaping hole.
Boom~
The giant skeleton used its arms to prop itself up from within the wall. It slowly raised a hand, looking at the pocket watch on its finger bones. Its pitch-black eye flames burned like fire.
The giant skeleton was over twenty meters tall, even without its lower body.
On the high wall, Su Xiao glanced at the lower skeleton beside his foot. That giant skeleton should be Shorty·Qiselman.
A pitch-black sphere was nestled within the giant skeleton's ribs. Around this sphere, fresh red muscles clung to it, making the black sphere beat like a heart.
"Woof!"
Bubu Wang barked once and jumped off the wall. Before coming, he had guaranteed he could negotiate with Shorty·Qiselman, since his Charm Attribute was high. Now it seemed charm-based negotiation was useless—armed negotiation was more reliable.
The giant skeleton's hand bones clenched, crushing the pocket watch into dust. It turned its skull toward Su Xiao. The next moment, the giant skeleton suddenly raised its arm and slammed its fist down.
With a boom, broken stones flew everywhere, and the high wall was smashed open.
Amid the flying rubble, Su Xiao leaped into the air with his blade drawn. These four walls forming the square must not be completely destroyed—they were his foothold. The giant skeleton was too tall; its weak points should be its head and the black sphere within its ribs.
As soon as Su Xiao landed on the wall, he began sprinting. A direct confrontation was suicide. The enemy was originally a Seventh-Rank boss, plus the size and strength disparity. The win rate for a head-on fight was below 5%.
Clang~
The long blade rang sharply. As he ran, Su Xiao slashed out a blade aura. The blade aura struck the giant skeleton's skull, sending bone fragments flying. It didn't cut through, only damaging the surface.
A whooshing sound came from above. Su Xiao's perception was fully open. He leaped sideways. A nearly twenty-meter-long skeletal arm came crashing down.
Thud.
The high wall was smashed open with a large gap. Seizing the moment the skeletal arm paused, Su Xiao leaped onto it. He ran along the arm, charging toward the giant skeleton's head.
'Blade Path: Azure Demon.'
A blue-green blade aura shot from the blade. With a crack, the giant skeleton's head tilted back, and large pieces of broken bone scattered.
"Roar!"
The giant skeleton roared, sending layers of light black shockwaves outward. Su Xiao's ears rang, his body went weak, and he fell from the skeletal arm.
A skeletal giant hand grabbed at him. A white afterimage flashed, catching Su Xiao mid-fall.
'Blade Path: Shadow Sever.'
A faint blue light spread from between the giant skeleton's fingers.
Ding, ding, ding.
After three crisp slashing sounds, the giant skeleton's hand shattered with a crack.
Sizzle~
The Realm Severing Thread shot out, embedding into the giant skeleton's eye socket. Su Xiao pulled his arm, breaking through a shockwave, and charged toward the eye socket.
At that moment, a short figure leaped out from the eye flame within the socket. The figure held a staff-blade and thrust it at Su Xiao.
Dragon-Slashing Flash stabbed toward the short figure's head. The staff-blade thrust toward Su Xiao's throat. Everything seemed to slow down in that instant.