Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1373 Square Cauldron

After Lu Ning crushed the two creatures that she couldn't tell whether they were human or ghosts with "Dishonorable Murder", she felt that the noise coming from her ears became more frequent.

It’s normal that the key ones were not killed.

She glanced at the woman who was snatched away by Jia Chong. She was a little confused when Jia Chong knocked on the door and came in just now, but she had to ask him what the situation was now.

"What's going on? It wasn't just a visit, but it turned into a kidnapping?" Lu Ning asked.

"Who are you robbing? Oh, that's right, this one is the most human after all." Jia Chong put the woman on the ground. The few protruding beards instantly retracted into his sleeves. Only then did he dare to look back at the situation behind him.

He saw two piles of blood and mud that had begun to rot rapidly on the ground. This scene made Jia Chong, the demon, shrink his neck, curse inwardly, and then turned to look at the woman.

"what's your name?"

"My name is Yuwen Qing." The woman lowered her head slightly. "You just..."

"What are those two things? I don't think they are human, but there is still some human scent in them. I thought something drastic happened in your mansion... No, it really did change. Forget it, explain it to me!" Jia Chong's devilish brain could not support him to sort out the matter clearly, so he asked directly.

Yu Wenqing shuddered and said, "That's my second uncle, but he died three months ago. He just continues to wander around the house in this appearance..."

“Why can’t I understand…”

Lu Ning reached out and pulled Jia Chong to the back. She thought she was bad at communication, but she didn't expect that Jia Chong acted like a decent person when talking to the noble families, but started to panic when he encountered an unexpected situation.

"I ask and you answer, how about this?" Lu Ning said to Yu Wenqing.

Yuwen Qing nodded.

"When did something wrong happen to the Yuwen family?"

“I noticed it about five years ago.”

So early?

However, the condition of the Ten Palaces was not a recent problem. It seemed that these immortal weapons had problems a long time ago, and the Iron-faced Tower was the one that was slow to react.

"You know, who was the first person to have a problem?"

"Grandfather..." Yuwen Qing lowered his head, his eyes filled with panic and fear, "He showed up in the main hall with blood all over his face that day and ordered the house to be sealed off. We didn't know what happened, but I saw someone carrying out a body at night..."

"Whose body?"

"I don't know! People disappeared one after another during those days. I don't know who died. Maybe it was a servant, I don't know!" Yu Wenqing said in panic, "Then we had to live at home. I didn't dare to think about what happened during those days. A few months later, my parents came to find me and asked me to leave the house..."

"Stop." Lu Ning suddenly stopped her. "How have you been able to take care of your daily life in these few months?"

"It was Meihua who always took care of me. By the way, Meihua...where is Meihua?" Yuwen Qing looked back in panic. Of course, there was no response from inside the mansion.

"Calm down. Meihua brought you daily necessities, so you haven't stepped out of the house in these few months?" Lu Ning asked.

"Yes." Yuwen Qing said blankly.

"Tell me what your diet was during those months."

"It's just normal food. The Yuwen family doesn't lack it."

"Nothing special?"

"Special... Every night there is a bowl of broth for dinner, but it's a bit greasy. I don't have an appetite at night, so I usually let Meihua pour it out."

"Never drank once?"

"I drank it at the beginning, but then I didn't drink it anymore..." Yu Wenqing's face turned pale when he said this, "Is there something wrong with the soup too?"

"I don't know." Lu Ning shook her head. "Go on. Your parents came and asked you to leave the house. Was that the case in the mansion at that time?"

"They said that Grandpa died, but he was still in the mansion. Anyone who left the mansion would be eaten by Grandpa. I didn't know whether it was true or not, and I didn't dare to try. The mansion was getting more and more strange, but I usually just read and write in the house, so it didn't make much difference to me, and I didn't need to leave. Later, the servants became fewer and fewer, and no new servants came in. I knew something was wrong, but I didn't dare to ask. Later, Meihua also disappeared... Yes, Meihua disappeared, where did she go? No one took care of me."

"Then no one takes care of you. How do you survive?"

"Every day... we go to the front hall and eat together. The number of people eating is decreasing..." Yu Wenqing's voice is getting closer and closer to a dreamy tone, "Yes, my parents didn't come to eat later, and I didn't ask. Then it was my eldest brother. Three months ago, my third uncle also didn't come. In fact, they are all dead. After they died, it was my turn..."

"Stop." Lu Ning stretched out her fingers and pressed them on Yu Wenqing's temple. The cold air went straight into her brain, bringing her back to her somewhat crazy state.

"How many people are eating in the front hall today?"

"Five... and five more..."

"Who are they?"

"Sixth uncle, sixth aunt, fourth brother, little sister..." Yu Wenqing answered slowly.

"Okay, go to sleep."

Lu Ning exerted a little force with her hands and knocked Yuwen Qing unconscious.

Mr. Jia came over again and asked, "How is it? What kind of a hell has this Yuwen Mansion become?"

Lu Ning clenched her fists lightly and looked at Mr. Jia: "I have a guess."

"guess?"

"I'm afraid the square cauldron has turned into this mansion." Lu Ning raised his head. "The two I killed just now didn't feel right. I asked about the changes in the past period of time, just to confirm that the changes were confined to this mansion."

Ghosts can actually be observed by the demon eyes, but Lu Ning has not seen any abnormal aura so far. The two killed by her don't even have life on their bodies, so the problem is obvious. The only thing she can't observe is the immortal weapon that should be here. From the information known so far, it can be known that its level is higher than any known power in this world. In this case, it can be roughly inferred that everything she can't see is part of the immortal weapon.

Yuwen Qing's aura was relatively normal, although it was turbid, but at least it was human. Mr. Jia entered the mansion once, and he still had that pile of earthy yellow evil aura on his body, which at least showed that this square cauldron was not some evil thing that would be refined in an instant once you walked in. If so, it was possible to crack it.

After all, it's just an artifact.

What gave Lu Ning a headache was the aftermath. If the Yuwen family, the first family in Shengyuan, fell, what would happen to the order in this city? Even though this rule of saving face for each other had been in place for who knows how long, its fragility was obvious. Without the Yuwen family to suppress it, the other four families had the ability to break the rules.

"The square cauldron has turned into a house?" Mr. Jia rubbed his arms, "Then didn't I almost get stewed just now?"

Lu Ning glanced at the antennae sticking out of its body and said, "I think if I really stew you, this house will feel a bit disgusting..."

"Hey, I'm a bug demon, I have many characteristics of bugs..."

"Yes Yes Yes."

Lu Ning was just joking. She waved her hand and walked towards the door.

It stayed at the door for such a long time without coming out to retaliate against her, the one who attacked it, which meant that the immortal weapon itself probably had no consciousness to attack on its own, or it had no consciousness at all. Even if we don't rule out the possibility of some traps, but after such a long time, there were still living people, and they were brought out of the mansion by Mr. Jia. Lu Ning didn't even see what Yu Wenqing was talking about. It can be inferred that the "pursuit" was not the characteristic of the square cauldron itself, but caused by the bunch of hungry ghosts inside.

If you want to find out the truth, you have to go in and try it yourself.

When Lu Ning walked into the mansion, she heard another "gurgling" sound. She looked around and saw that there was indeed no sign of life in the courtyard. In that case, she didn't have to worry about making any noise.

She opened her arms, the cold wind gathered and dispersed in her palms, invisible bacteria drifted in all directions and contaminated the houses.

Food and bacteria are always in opposition in most cases. What Lu Ning spread was not some bacterial colony that helped fermentation, but actual mold. If she was right, soon all the living dead in the room began to gurgle. They felt threatened.

The square cauldron remained motionless, or rather, it was just silently executing the distorted rules. The function of providing food continued, but all the people in the mansion were included in the food chain and forced to return from the state of primitive beasts to the state of humans who had broken away from hunting each other. They were hunters and food, returning to the primitive state, back to their original appearance.

Those loud gurgling sounds came again, and the predator's eyes were fixed on Lu Ning, intending to turn her into a part of this mutual cannibalism. Their frenzied hunger was just as it should be. For thousands of years, the privileges enjoyed by the Yuwen family were being liquidated and repaid at this moment.

——But this doesn't make sense. Lu Ning couldn't help but sigh.

While humans and monsters are constantly developing themselves, the immortal weapon's judgment has remained in the wild era when the human king and the monster star executed the bet, and they are determined to make everything go back. This is really a ridiculous thing. Even if Lu Ning is dissatisfied with Shengyuan City's practice of plundering the four directions to enrich itself, this is not a reason for the immortal weapon to insist on "restoring".

"Forget it, let's deal with it later..."

Lu Ning grabbed Mr. Jia, who had followed her in on tiptoe, and drew her sword with her backhand. Mr. Jia was startled on the spot, but Lu Ning was faster than him. She cut Mr. Jia's arm with one sword, picked out a wisp of demon blood, and with her other hand she pulled out a paper talisman, caught Mr. Jia's demon blood, and then the paper talisman spontaneously combusted, and a blood-red flame ignited in Lu Ning's pupils, and a red blood curse appeared on her cheek.

Mr. Jia was so scared that he quickly took a few steps back. He had also seen people from the Demon Suppression Bureau use these things like demon blood, and it had a huge psychological trauma for an intelligent demon like him.

But Lu Ning did not hesitate and took a step forward. Under the effect of the demon blood curse, her momentum continued to rise, which even made her feel a little surprised. Mr. Jia looked like a master of escape, but the improvement brought to her by the demon blood was very significant, only a little bit less than when she killed Xi Yao outside Xingyin City.

Such a person is actually a demon general?

This doubt only flashed through Lu Ning's mind. She stabbed the sword into the ground, and then she lifted her breath and fully activated the effect of "wild plague". The bacterial colony began to grow wildly around her, and the living dead hiding in the house could no longer watch, and were forced out of the house one by one by the bacterial colony. They were all ragged and dirty, with twitching and crazy expressions on their faces. Each of them was covered with large pieces of dead spots, but those dead spots exuded an attractive fragrance, as if these people were pieces of stewed meat.

Lu Ning felt that she didn't want to eat any meat for a while.

Even if a group of rotten corpses rushed over, she would not have such a reaction, but a group of fragrant zombies rushing over was really a bit nauseating. She immediately pulled out her sword, and a large amount of mist composed of bacteria sprayed out from the ground. The moment the bacteria came into contact with the zombies, Lu Ning felt that the properties of some bacteria were also changed, and they began to emit the smell of food.

But at the same time, the speed at which the bacteria devoured the zombies did not slow down at all. They fully exerted the natural instincts of decomposers, and more than half of the bodies of the first few zombies were eaten in an instant, and then they fell to the ground.

But the next moment, Lu Ning discovered that this approach was wrong.

The rules represented by the "square cauldron" are the food chain redefined by the immortal weapon. Nowadays, the decomposition of zombies by bacteria is also a link in the food chain. As long as it is within this link, attacking is probably meaningless.

The decomposed flesh and blood merged into the soil, and thorns began to grow in the soil. The thorns began to bear fruit. After the fruit cracked, new "people" began to be born from the fruit.

But it's still dirty, after all, the land is already polluted.

Lu Ning chopped off the head of the zombie that was close to her with a sword. Inanimate objects such as weapons were not affected, but many of the bacteria she spread were assimilated.

She glanced back and saw that Mr. Jia was smart and ran out directly when a group of zombies ran out, which made things convenient for her.

The next second, the full power of the demon blood curse burst out, and a large amount of fungus mist poured out from Lu Ning's body, devouring all the zombies around her. At the same time, someone finally walked out of the main gate of the mansion. It was the man she saw last night who had turned from an old man to a middle-aged man.

"Stop..." the man shouted in a weak voice.

Lu Ning jumped out of the fungus mist, retreated to the door, and sneered: "Who are you?"

"Master Yuwen... Yuwen Hong." The man looked at the fungus mist in front of him with fear and said, "Even if you use this method, you can't stop Fang Fu..."

"Who said we should stop it? How can I stop the food chain of immortal artifacts? Besides, the harm it causes is limited to this mansion. As long as we don't come into contact with you and don't eat the food that comes out of here, the influence of the square cauldron can't spread, right?"

"You..." The man looked at Lu Ning in astonishment.

"Because Yuwen Qing was not hunted down, and the source of the hunt was actually you." Lu Ning looked at the man, "So I just need to block the disaster."

As for the thorny issue of aftermath, let the local authorities handle it.

"Now, Fang Fu has seen more primitive prey and a larger tribe. They will replace you. The difference is that they have never been human, and they will not think about setting any rules in such a deep courtyard."

Lu Ning took a step back and walked out the door. The man walked forward a few steps but gave a bitter smile.

Then, the door slowly closed.