Here Lies The Wicked

Chapter 53: Tearing Down a House

Fang Zheng stared directly at the papier-mache man that was right in front of him. His eyebrows twitched slightly.

Although this may be a papier-mache man, the limbs of this man were still able to move freely.

This was no different than a real human.

If it was not for its papier-mache and the thick and heavy red paint on both of its cheeks, the inhumanly ghastly facial features, from how flexibly they moved, would cause many to assume they were looking at a human if they saw it under a faint and dim light.

This cursed entity was creepier than any before it.

Saving lives was more important at this moment!

Fang Zheng clenched his fists and unleashed the Exorcist Golden Warrior Seal!

The moment his blood began to boil and rage, the pure yang energy that was emanating through his Qi was extremely overwhelming. Three of his flames were burning bright and filled to the brim with resolve and spirit. With a clenched fist forming the seal in his hands and using an immeasurable amount of strength, he instantly attacked the papier-mache man that was cowering behind a shadow.

His strength was immeasurable and he feared nothing, not even the deities fazed him, as a huge rumble erupted!

Due to the sheer strength of the attack, the entire house was shaking.

“Aaah!”

The papier-mache man had an agonizing painful expression of pure suffering, as there was now a dent in his forehead.

It was a simple papier-mache man, however, surprisingly enough, it was able to withstand the full blow of that single punch.

Due to the agony the papier-mache man felt, it had lost its grip on Wei Youran when it attempted to drag her into the dark realm. This had caused her to fall onto the ground.

Wei Youran looked pale as she grunted in pain.

However, she had paid little to no attention to her injuries, instead, she had stared directly at the man that was currently standing in her house. She wondered who that man was. She was doing everything in her power to physically remember the physical appearance of this man.

However, it was at this very moment, a sudden yet swift pop could be heard!

Pop, pop!

All of the lightbulbs in her house began to explode. It was as if these bulbs were unable to withstand the interference of the electromagnetic field in the house; as in that single instant, the entire house had been engulfed in darkness.

Fang Zheng was not even concerned about Wei Youran who was lying on the floor, since he had already unleashed his blade to the direction behind him.

‘Nine Yang Essential Qi!

‘Burning Wood Blade Skill!’

In that instant, the perfected Nine Yang Essential Qi was coursing through his body, emanating a burst of Yang essence from his body. Which resulted in a burst of searing heat, evaporating any moisture in the air. As the air around him morphed into a twisted vapor, causing the room temperature to skyrocket, the entire room felt like the interior of a burning furnace. It was exceedingly hot and dry. This had caused all of the easily combustible papers in the room to spontaneously combust.

Clang!

Clang! Clang!

Each successive slash was faster than the ones before it. The Burning Wood Blade Skill was already a swift and lightning-fast sword skill on its own; this had caused it to spontaneously combust and form a flaming sword. It resulted in clouds of fire that danced in a small narrow room. The heat from it was like the waves of a tsunami. The flaming cloud brought along a bright red light, however, a single papier-mache man that had two strikingly bright crimson red spots on both its cheeks, which resembled fresh blood, appeared behind Fang Zheng without warning. It had intended to ambush Fang Zheng.

The momentum of the first slash had heavily struck the papier-mache man. It was followed by the second, and third slash. Each slash was faster than the last, and each slash was heavier than the last. The main specialty of the Burning Wood Blade Skill was the more attacks it connected, the more ferocious its raw power would be. Hence, it’s ferocity was seemingly capable of splitting mountains and the very Earth itself. Fang Zheng had successfully unleashed eighty-one consecutive slashes.

The papier-mache man let out a harrowing shriek and in a flash of white silhouette, it once again retreated into the shadows. The speed was immeasurable.

This resulted in Fang Zheng slashing at the empty space in the house, causing a huge rumble.

Thus, the Death Head’s Blade made contact with the floor. However, it seemed that the tiles on the very ground beneath his feet were completely unscathed and unaffected. The only thing that appeared was a layer of greenish-gray ash manifesting in the air. This layer had prevented any damage to the house, causing anything that happened in this house to remain in the house. Every single battle was limited within the boundaries of the two realms.

It seemed that the Death Head’s Blade had not destroyed the ground below, however, due to the insurmountable Yang energy from the blade itself when it made contact with the ground below had sparked some embers, as the stroke had been swift. Most of the furniture in the house spontaneously combusted.

It seemed that the sheer essence from the blade itself was enough to burn the easily combustible fabric of the furniture.

The essence that had leaked from the blade held so much ferocity, it seemed the heat energy was the result of the friction between the blade and the air itself, in addition to the stacked skills by both the Nine Yang Essential Qi and the Burning Wood Blade Skill’s insane speed. This instant was the perfect display of Fang Zheng’s terrifying lethal combat prowess for the very first time.

The glare from Fang Zheng’s eyes was like streaks of cold lightning, as it pierced through the veil of reality, and within the very next second, he slashed at one of the dark corners.

Swoosh.

The white silhouette dodged out of the way of the attack again and proceeded to hide in another corner.

Rumble! Rumble!

Fang Zheng felt as if he was a violent human hydraulic compressor. He was chasing the entity like a mad man in the bedroom. The bed, the wardrobe, the bedroom door were all reduced to dust by his blade.

Even though Fang Zheng was holding back, Wei Youran showed symptoms of severe dehydration. Her lips were cracked and her skin was pale. The effects of dehydration had been amplified due to the small space. She was gasping for air.

If this battle carried on, it seemed Wei Youran would die due to severe dehydration.

Thus, Fang Zheng decided to land a false strike by hitting nothing. Using this opening, he carried Wei Youran from the ground and proceeded to bolt out of the tiny, narrow bedroom.

However, the moment Fang Zheng had carried Wei Youran, a gust of cold breeze attacked his back. A single pale and completely lifeless ghastly palm strike had struck Fang Zheng’s back.

“Grunt[1]!”

The layers of barriers around his body had swiftly cracked open. It began with one single layer, then the second, the third… And in a short span of time, fifteen layers of barriers were completely destroyed.

This fiend was actually more powerful than the two segmented corpses he fought back then.

Only six layers were destroyed back then.

“Gwaah! Gwaah! Gwaah!”

The unstable spectral fiend let out a series of sinister cackles. These sounded similar to rubbing two dried old cloths together, causing the entire house to feel eerie.

Not a single sound could be heard at this moment,

Through the shroud of darkness, another pale white palm struck Fang Zheng’s back, right on his immunity shield!

Fang Zheng, who was done placing Wei Youran down, glared with pure fury as he yelled, and, with a single cycle of Qi, the layers of defensive shields on his skin instantly hardened and expanded into an ancient golden clock of a temple.

It was almost as if the sun itself was shining down on an endless stretch of land; the light was blinding and limitless.

Clank!

The only sound that could be heard were collisions against his golden skin. Although the golden clock’s light had dimmed significantly, no cracks were formed. It had successfully shielded him from the ghastly claws. Huff. Fang Zheng took a deep breath as the thin, radiant, and golden layer coated his skin. He once again unleashed his Burning Wood Blade Skill!

Rumble!

The only thing that was visible was the burning streak from the blade itself. It was about seven to eight meters long as it rumbled!

The thick and sturdy wall that had supported the television was shattered by a single slash. Pebbles and shattered glass ricochetted from the explosive force.

Swoosh! The white silhouette dodged the attack and escaped once more.

As he came to a wide and empty area, Fang Zheng was finally able to unleash his full power. As the vicious and ferocious Nine Yang Essential Qi energy was raging throughout his entire body, it chaotically coursed from his arms as a series of slashes that were all seven to eight meters long. It was as if he had no regard for how much damages would be caused, as each attack was of extremely high temperature.

The Nine Yang Divine Power provided a limitless amount of energy, as the inner Qi would be thick and vicious.

For that single instant, the blade’s attack was slow but unbound and limitless.

Rumble!

Rumble!

Everything in the house was completely destroyed by the unbound powers of the blade, however, as the blade reached the outer wall, it was held back by the boundaries of the realm. The battle could only be contained within the walls of the house.

This battle would be unknown to the outside.

Swoosh!

The white silhouette flashed across the dark room, avoiding the blade’s attack that stretched more than a foot.

“Gotcha!”

Fang Zheng’s speed had somehow increased exponentially, and a loud bang was heard!

The sound barrier had seemingly been completely shattered from where he stood, as humming noises could be heard while the entire house shook. It seemed as if this realm was unable to withstand such explosive force from both of his legs. His legs could only be described as the legs of a god, as a blinding, radiant light was flashing in waves around him, obscuring half of his body and increasing his speed inhumanly.

He had completely perfected and pushed his weightless skill to its limits.

Rumble!

The searing seven to eight-meter long blade instantly slashed at the fast-moving white silhouette in the darkness.

The white silhouette had been expelled out from the shadows by the impact of the slash. It violently rammed into the external wall of the realm.

A menacing cold glint was reflected in Fang Zheng’s eyes as he bolted directly at the entity whilst wielding his Death Head’s Blade.

…

An ear-piercing shriek was emanating from a warning alarm.

The sounds of people talking in a crowded street could be heard.

The sounds of shattering ceramic and glass could also be heard.

All of these sounds instantly flooded Wei Youran’s mind, causing her to have a head-splitting, agonizing pain as she awoke from her unconscious state. She wanted to open her eyes in order to observe everything that was transpiring around her, however it seemed that her eyelids were incredibly heavy. It was as if both of her eyelids were weighted down by lead, and no matter how hard she tried, she could not open her eyes.

Thus, Wei Youran once again passed out.

“You’re finally awake.”

A ray of blinding sunlight shone directly in her eyes and she felt a dull pain in them.The moment Wei Youran woke up, she instinctively lifted her slender white hands to rub her eyes.

It was at this very moment that a compassionate and caring voice echoed next to her.

The moment Wei Youran woke up, hints of confusion were reflected in her eyes as she sat up from the couch she had been lying on. A blanket was wrapped around her.

The blanket smelled strongly burnt. A few burnt holes were visible in the blanket. This made the blanket seem exceedingly tattered and torn.

She was still confused and disoriented for a couple of seconds. It was only after did she recover and snap out of her confusion.

She looked around this seemingly familiar place. Wei Youran remained silent as she thought to herself, ‘Isn’t this where I live?’

The only problem was that her house was now reduced to a pile of bricks and debris. Even pieces of her ceiling were lying around her. Not a single piece of unscathed or whole brick could be seen. Even the wall that had once held up her television was nowhere to be seen. The entire house was now buried in the rubble. It was as if her house had just survived a category eight hurricane.

Everything that could be torn apart had been torn apart.

The only thing that remained were the few exterior walls.

Even the exterior was not in good shape. It was as if those walls were burned by flames; burn marks were all over the walls.

Wei Youran’s entire expression changed drastically!

She had finally recalled the events that happened last night!

The instant Wei Youran stood up, the couch crumbled into pieces. Her eyebrows were twitching, since there was about a third of her couch that had remained unscathed. However, due to her sudden movements, she had caused her couch to completely fall apart since the couch had lost whatever it was that was keeping it standing.

Scenes began flashing through her head. These scenes were the gentle movements of someone that had placed her on the couch and covered her with a charred blanket last night. That person had even placed a couple of bricks underneath the couch to give it support, allowing her a good night’s sleep.

“What on Earth happened here?”

“When we rushed to your house, we noticed that your house was already a wreck. You were untouched as you slept on the couch, till right now at this moment.”

“There is another thing, our men noticed remnants of two distinctively different waves of energy in your house. Were you able to successfully bait the fiend out last night? Why didn’t you do as we agreed upon by letting us know immediately?”

Wei Youran was stunned as she replied, “Wait, the person that saved me last night wasn’t you guys?”

[1] Grunt is technically not a sound effect, so I had Fang Zheng say it.