I'm modifying myself into the ultimate demon.

Chapter 102 Advanced Deconstruction: Breaking the Qinghe Maze!
"Ow~"

"Mother, save me!!"

"Mother, why didn't you come to save me?!"

"You were the one who summoned me here... I am your child! Why..."

On that pool of blood, the terrifying phantom left by the evil infant still lingered, its claws outstretched and its roar filled with resentment. Even in its final moments, the evil infant longed for its mother, Shen Yujun, to come and save it.

The sound was loud and piercing, echoing throughout every corner of the Li residence. It was certain that Shen Yujun had heard it, but it never saw its mother, nor heard her reply…

"I'm nothing more than a tool to be used, Mother, how heartless you are!"

"Hehehe, hehehe... Ahhh!"

With a desperate roar, the terrifying phantom vanished, transforming into gusts of cold wind that swept across the Li residence, causing the countless white lanterns to rustle and clatter.

"Big Brother!!!"

After failing to stop Chen Mo, the old man fell to the ground, and as he watched the evil infant completely dissipate amidst its mournful cries, he roared in grief.

"Don't be sad, I will take you to reunite with your elder brother."

A sinister, hoarse voice rang out.

But Chen Mo brandished his broadsword and charged at the old man like a ferocious tiger.

"You wicked man! You killed so many of my brothers and sisters, I'm going to eat you alive!" the old man roared, ignoring his poisoned body, and swung the large scissors in his hand to cut at Chen Mo viciously.

Deng Deng Deng!
The old man was completely enraged, unleashing his full ghostly aura, and each stomp he made created a large crater in the ground.

when!
The guandao (a type of halberd) and scissors clashed violently, producing a piercing sound and generating shockwaves of ghostly energy that swept in all directions, breaking walls and beams, and sending sand and stones flying.

Chen Mo felt a slight numbness in his arms and thought to himself: Although this old man's cultivation is far inferior to that of the evil infant, the evil infant is more of a spirit, while this old man is a physical body, yet his strength is surprisingly great. It seems that Shen Yujun has given birth to so many ghost infants, each with different characteristics.

"Come again!!"

Chen Mo's demonic blood surged, his fighting spirit burned, and he showed no mercy, slashing down with his blade once more.

Dang Dang Dang!
The Guan Dao (a type of halberd) pressed down like a mountain, or a colossal hammer, its power increasing with each strike. It slashed fiercely at the giant scissors in the old man's hand.

The old man bit his wrist and blew a breath of ghostly energy into his arm, which immediately grew several times larger, with muscles bulging out. When he attacked again, he was more than twice as powerful as before.

Giant scissors collide with Guan Dao, ghostly blood clashes with power.

boom! boom! boom!
In a physical fight, the old man was never afraid of anyone. Even his mother praised his strength. However, facing Chen Mo's fierce slashing guandao, he was beaten until his hand was split open, his arm was broken, and his muscles were torn...

The old man roared and retreated rapidly until he was cornered against the wall with nowhere left to go, at which point he cried out in despair.

"That Huang Ying is a real bastard! He refused to give us the Ghost Bone and even used the bloodline of the First Generation to suppress us. Now he's given the Ghost Bone to you, you bastard... I'm not reconciled! If I had the Ghost Bone... Ah!"

Before the old man could finish speaking, his arms completely shattered, broken bones and flesh falling rapidly. The remaining force of the guan dao (a type of halberd) slammed down hard on the old man's head.

Click!

His head was split in two, and with a "splat," bright red blood splattered all over Chen Mo's face, along with foul-smelling brain matter...

"Die, all of you, die!"

Even though he had already killed the old man, Chen Mo couldn't quite control his surging fighting spirit. He still swung his Guan Dao and slashed at the wall several times, smashing the wall to pieces before his fighting spirit began to subside.

Whoohoo!
Chen Mo stood alone amidst the pile of corpses of the ghost infants, carrying a blood-stained Guan Dao. He panted heavily as he looked around at the mangled remains of the dead babies.

Tick ​​tick tick~
The blood of the ghost infant on the Guan Dao, the blood on Chen Mo's body... mixed together and dripped onto the bluestone brick floor, making a "drip-drip" sound.

The demon blood continued to surge and churn within his body; though his body was icy cold, it possessed a burning fighting spirit.

"I haven't had enough fun yet... and you're all dead."

"Jie Jie Jie..."

After a long time, the ghost blood in his body slowly subsided, and he suddenly felt an indescribable fatigue. His body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

It felt like all the strength in my body had been drained.

"Is this a side effect of overusing the Demon Bone? I'm so tired, I feel like my eyelids are about to close. It seems I must be more careful with the Demon Bone in the future. Just now, my killing intent was too intense, and I vaguely felt like I was about to lose control. I really don't want to think... what I would become if I lost control."

Chen Mo shuddered, feeling a lingering fear.

After such a long period of adaptation, Chen Mo is no longer so afraid of becoming a ghost. What he fears is losing his consciousness, losing himself... that would really be worse than death.

call!
Chen Mo lay on the ground, letting out a long sigh. He activated the Mingyu Gong, and as his true energy circulated through several of the six meridians within his body, his physical fatigue finally eased considerably. His mind also largely returned to calm.

"Jie Jie Jie..."

Then he let out that laugh again.

This was definitely not something Chen Mo did intentionally; rather, for some reason... he suddenly let out this eerie and terrifying hoarse laugh.

"The enhancement effect of the Ghost Bone is truly terrifying. The fusion progress is only two percent, yet it already has such an effect. If it continues to be developed, I really don't know how terrifying it will be."

"Tonight's harvest is quite substantial. Let me see how much original essence I've gathered in total."

Chen Mo opened the control panel.

[Currently available original solution essence: 6500]

[Consuming 1000 Original Solution Essences allows you to advance Reading to Deconstruction.]

[Advancement required?]

Chen Mo felt a rare sense of relief upon seeing these subtitles.

He had been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Recognition can only identify surface information. Reading can only read internal information. But deconstruction can analyze the factors that contribute to the formation and origin of food. That's truly remarkable.

Soon, Chen Mo had an idea:

Advanced!

The moment the thought crossed his mind, the amount of Original Essence on the panel immediately decreased by 1000, leaving only 5500. At the same time, the panel emitted a burst of light, causing Chen Mo to experience a moment of dizziness.

When Chen Mo regained consciousness, the panel in front of him also changed.

[Successfully read, proceeding to deconstruction]

[Introduction: It can deconstruct the factors, logic, and origins of things.]

[Hint: Consuming 50000 Original Essence will allow you to advance to the next level: Deduction. Deduction involves deconstructing the logical factors that form external objects, penetrating logical loopholes, and performing a new deduction. It allows you to deduce higher-level martial arts based on lower-level martial arts, breaking conventions.]

Behind the deconstruction... was actually a deduction!

"This deduction is quite good. If we have a deduction, wouldn't we be able to deduce the ghost bones? And then transform these ghost bones into other things, and become human again?"

This feature still excited Chen Mo, and he had high expectations.

But then I thought about it again, and it didn't seem like that would work.

As the cheat code previously stated: the process of fusing ghost bones and ghost blood is irreversible... even for someone as powerful as the deduction system, it should still be irreversible.

"No matter what, let's get 50,000 Original Solution Essence first. 50,000 Original Solution Essence... isn't that a bit too much? I only got 6,000 Original Solution Essence after taking down the Li family's stronghold. Do I need to take down ten of these big dens?"

Chen Mo felt a slight pain in his scalp.

Such a large house as the Li residence is rare; it's something you can only dream of.

It seems like this is the only one in the entire Honghe County?
not necessarily!

There's also Shen Yujun, and the young brother Xiaoti comes from the Dayin Mountain... who knows, there might be an even bigger hideout there. Even if there isn't, isn't there... the Red Lantern Lady?
Red Lantern Lady...

The scene he had witnessed at the ancient pagoda altar of the Red Lantern Temple instinctively flashed through Chen Mo's mind, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

"Red Lantern Lady, don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities. What you lack is strength. As long as I have enough strength, why should I have trouble getting 50,000 units of Original Essence?"

“I’ll use deconstruction to see the origin of this ghost bone.”

Chen Mo knew that so-called deconstruction meant seeing through the composition and origin of things.

With this in mind, Chen Mo immediately sat down cross-legged, intending to deconstruct the ghost bone.

But here comes the problem...

The cheat code requires the user to see something in order to read it. After reading, it leaves permanent information on the panel, which can be retrieved at any time. The problem is that the first time, the code must be successfully deconstructed to leave this information.

Previously, I could see the square frame through the image of the goddess because I had practiced the Red Lantern Spirit Preservation Method.

But the ghost bone had already fused into his spine and was no longer visible...

"..."

Chen Mo was speechless.

"Go back and check yourself in the mirror, see if that helps."

Chen Mo wasn't one to mince words, and quickly adjusted his mindset. After moving his limbs a bit and feeling that his body had recovered about 70-80%, he stood up and collected the original essence from the old man and the evil infant. It wasn't as much as he had imagined; he collected a total of one thousand.

The original essence has been restored to 6500 points.

"It seems that while the essence of the original solution is directly proportional to the strength of the ghost, the relationship is not entirely linear. Let's leave it at that for now. The crisis at the Li residence is not over yet; we need to kill Shen Yujun first."

Carrying a large halberd, Chen Mo disregarded his tattered clothes, the scars all over his body, and the ghostly curse patterns covering his skin. He swiftly scaled walls and roof tiles like a wild leopard and began searching for Shen Yujun.

As I passed by the door of a storage room, I noticed a straw hat and a gray opera robe hanging on the wall.

Chen Mo then put on the opera robe to cover the curse marks on his hands and feet. He also took the bamboo hat and put it on his head.

"The patterns of this curse cover my face; you can even feel the spiderweb-like threads. It wouldn't be good if Guo Ziyu and the others saw it, so I'll try to cover it up as much as I can."

After changing his clothes, Chen Mo quickly began to wander around the Li residence.

To expand the search area, Chen Mo also released ghostly figures to form a pincer movement with himself, and began a thorough search of the Li residence.

A cold wind howled, dark clouds shrouded the moon, and the entire sky above the Li residence was shrouded in a gray haze. The outside world was invisible, and it was impossible to tell whether it was day or night.

They searched the entire Li residence but couldn't find Shen Yujun.

Let alone Shen Yujun, we didn't even see a single living person.

The entire Li residence was eerily quiet, like a haunted house.

slipped?

What about Juan'er?

What about Li Qiuhan, Guo Ziyu, Guo Songyang, and the others?

Why are they all gone?

Chen Mo even went back to the theater to check, but he didn't see Li Qiuhan and the others, and he couldn't even find their bodies.

"Never mind that for now. Let's go to the study and ask Minister Li about the situation."

After a brief discussion, Chen Mo went to Li Qing's study.

Upon arriving at the courtyard where the study was located, Chen Mo jumped off the roof tiles and knocked on the study door.

Boom boom boom!
After knocking for a while, a terrified old man's voice finally came from inside.

"Who? Who is it?"

Without wasting words, Chen Mo forcefully pushed open the door and stepped inside.

hiss!
A burning sensation came from my feet, as if something was burning my soles, and the pain was unbearable.

Looking down, I saw that the doorway was covered with white glutinous rice, while the glutinous rice where I had stepped had turned black, leaving a dark footprint.

In his previous life, Chen Mo often heard the village elders say that peach wood and glutinous rice could ward off evil spirits. If a ghost stepped on the glutinous rice, it would be burned, and the glutinous rice would turn black.

Unexpectedly... this glutinous rice is not only useful, but it also benefits me!
Am I... already a ghost?
What caused the activation of the demon bone?

"..."

The ground was burning intensely, forcing Chen Mo to pull his foot away. He glanced around the study and found the floor covered in glutinous rice, various talismans, peach wood branches, and a Bagua mirror...

An old man in a gray robe cowered timidly behind the desk in the study, looking at Chen Mo in terror and shouting, "You're a ghost, you're a ghost... Ahh, don't come in, don't come any closer!"

Perhaps because he had spent so many years with ghosts, the old man lived in constant fear, and his mental state was becoming increasingly unstable.

Chen Mo glanced at the chair next to the desk, roughly calculated the distance to be about 1.5 zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), and figured he could jump across directly.

brush!
Chen Mo leaped up and landed directly on the chair next to the desk. Without a word, he placed his Guan Dao (a type of halberd) against the old man's neck. "Don't be alarmed, old man. I'm a human being. I just want to ask you a few questions."

Hearing Chen Mo's words, the old man became even more panicked, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. He thought to himself, "You still say you're human? Those glutinous rice grains clearly burned you; you're a ghost. And you tell me not to panic... that's asking too much." But he said respectfully, "Young hero, please have mercy! I'll tell you everything."

Chen Mo didn't mince words and went straight to the point: "I've killed all the ghost babies in the Li residence. The evil infant and the old man are dead too. Now, do you know where Shen Yujun is hiding?"

Upon hearing this, the old man immediately recalled the tremendous noise that had just come from the direction of the theater, and the dying pleas of the evil infant… and thus believed Chen Mo's words. However, seeing the Guan Dao in Chen Mo's hand, he was even more shocked: this Guan Dao was a magical weapon of a demon-suppressing family, untouchable even by ghosts. This guy was clearly a ghost, so how could he wield a Guan Dao?

Half-human, half-ghost?

The old man quickly made a deduction. Clearly, having lived in the eerie Li residence for many years, he had a considerable understanding of ghosts.

Thinking of this, the old man breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head repeatedly, "I don't know."

Chen Mo's gaze sharpened. "You must be Li Qing?"

The old man replied, "Yes."

"Shen Yujun is your wife, and she hasn't come looking for you?"

Li Qing shook his head repeatedly, "She is a devil, she is not my wife, I have no such wife. If you have the ability, young hero, it would be best to kill her. I will give you all the property of my Li family as a token of my gratitude."

"I don't covet the Li family's wealth, but I absolutely must kill Shen Yujun. Do you know where she's hiding?" Chen Mo stated magnanimously. In reality... Chen Mo really didn't care about the Li family's wealth.

My mother just casually gave me a few silver notes, enough to buy several Li residences.

Li Qing's mind gradually returned to normal. "Shen Yujun is a very dangerous fellow. If I betray him and you don't kill him, I'll be doomed."

Click!

Guan Dao immediately slashed a conspicuous gash in Li Qing's chest, and hot blood trickled down. "If you don't talk, you're dead now."

It wasn't that Chen Mo was cruel, but rather that time was extremely tight.

If Shen Yujun were to leave, it would cause immeasurable harm.

What if Shen Yujun goes and takes revenge on her family? That would be terrible!
Li Qing was terrified and hurriedly said, "She often goes to the Chunfeng Inn across from the Li residence. If she's not at the Li residence, she must be at the Chunfeng Inn."

Chen Mo slapped him on the shoulder with his broadsword: "Lead the way quickly."

Li Qing was on the verge of tears: "I can't leave the Li residence. Shen Yujun has set up a magic array in the Li residence. I can't get out without breaking the array."

Array?

No wonder...

Chen Mo knew that magic arrays were enormous and complex things, and ordinary internal martial arts masters couldn't set them up. At least, no one in Black Mountain Stronghold had that ability.

Therefore, it seems that although the Li residence in Qinghe Town is eerily haunted, besides the large number of ghost babies, it is also inextricably linked to Shen Yujun's supernatural antics.

Since there is a magic array, there must be a key point in the array.

Do you know where the key point of the formation is?

Li Qing shook her head repeatedly, "I don't know. I've been huddled in this study the whole time, too afraid to go out. How would I know where the array's core is..."

Chen Mo's gaze turned cold. "Since you don't know this or that, there's no need to keep you alive."

After saying that, Chen Mo raised his broadsword with one hand, ready to cut off Li Qing's head.

Pfft!
Li Qing was terrified and immediately knelt on the ground. "Young hero, spare my life! Although I don't know where the array's core is, I've noticed that Shen Yujun treats Juan'er very differently. If you ask Juan'er, perhaps she'll know something."

Chen Mo stopped swinging his knife and demanded, "Where is Juan'er?"

Li Qing said, "Juan'er is in her own room."

Chen Mo was curious, "Shen Yujun ran away, didn't she take Juan'er with her?"

Li Qing said, "Juan'er won't run away. Anyone can run away, but Juan'er won't. Juan'er has stayed in this house her whole life and has never left. She spends all day making shadow puppets, doing housework, and when she gets tired, she goes back to her room to sleep."

Ok?
Upon closer reflection, Chen Mo felt that Juan'er was indeed a bit abnormal. Other ghost babies watched the broken stage opera to cooperate with Shen Yujun, because they were afraid. But Juan'er genuinely enjoyed watching the broken stage opera and also liked tinkering with shadow puppets.

She always considered herself a person, and even when she saw Chen Mo attacking Shen Yujun, Juan'er stood there in a daze.

But why didn't Shen Yujun take Juan'er with her?

Isn't Juan'er her daughter?

Can Juan'er escape the maze of the Li residence?

"You come with me."

Thinking of this, Chen Mo grabbed Li Qing and jumped out of the study. He carried her like a chick, heading straight for the side courtyard where Chen Mo had first settled down.

……

Meanwhile, Juan'er watched as Chen Mo snatched her mother's Guan Dao (a type of halberd), and then saw countless ghost infants rush onto the stage to attack Chen Mo.

Juan'er was so frightened that she cried and shouted loudly.

"Stop hitting him! Stop!"

"Please, please stop hitting me."

But no one paid attention to Juan'er's words. In the end, everyone left the theater, leaving Juan'er standing there all alone, shouting.

Why do you have to do this?

"Why do we have to fight and kill each other?"

Juan'er lay on the ground, screaming.

After a long, long time, Juan'er finally wiped away her tears, then went to the collapsed stage, looked at the shattered puppets and screens, and cried bitterly.

No one paid attention to Juan'er's sadness.

In the end, Juan'er could only pick up the shadow puppets scattered all over the ground by herself and put them into a half-broken wooden box.

She picked them up while crying, as if each puppet was her life.

Finally, after tidying up all the puppets, Juan'er carried the wooden box to her room, closed the door, and lit the oil lamp.

She sat down at the table, took out the damaged puppets one by one, and began to repair them.

Tears streamed down her face, soaking the shadow puppet.

She began to tell herself, "It's okay, if it's broken, I can just fix it. I'm sure I can put on a shadow puppet show. My parents will be very happy when they see it."

"Go Juan'er, you can do it!"

The repair process was extremely complicated and tedious; Juan'er's fingernails and cuticles bled from the friction, but she refused to stop. She just wanted to repair the puppets as quickly as possible so she could perform her own shadow puppet show.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

dong dong dong.

"coming."

Juan'er put down her work and hurriedly opened the door. But she found that it wasn't her mother, nor her brother or younger brother, but her father, whom she hadn't seen in a long time, and the boy who had snatched her mother's Guan Dao.

Looking at Chen Mo wearing a straw hat, and especially at that large Guan Dao (a type of halberd), Juan'er retreated in fear, her face showing extreme terror.

"Father, why did you bring him along?"

Li Qing revealed a kind expression, "Juan'er, don't be afraid. This young hero is just asking you a few questions. Answer with whatever you know. Understand?"

Juan'er nodded and hummed in agreement.

Chen Mo entered the room directly, sat down in a chair with an air of authority, and noticed the broken puppet on the table out of the corner of his eye. Then, seeing the blood on Juan'er's hands, he knew that Juan'er had put in a lot of effort to repair the puppet.

This isn't right.

She had beaten her mother, and her brothers were all dead. Juan'er didn't seem worried at all, only preening her puppets?

This is too weird.

However, considering that Juan'er is not human, she cannot be measured by human logic.

Moreover, Juan'er is not a normal ghost.

After a moment of silence, Chen Mo spoke, "Did your mother come looking for you just now?"

Juan'er shook her head in fear.

Chen Mo then asked, "Do you know how to get out of this Li residence?"

Juan'er shrank her neck. "Isn't it easy to get out of the Li residence? You'll just walk out."

Chen Mo was taken aback, sensing that something was amiss, and said, "Lead the way."

Juan'er stared longingly at the shadow puppet on the table, feeling very distressed. "I...I haven't fixed the shadow puppet yet. Please wait until I've fixed it, okay?"

Click!

Chen Mo brandished his Guan Dao (a type of halberd), pointing it at Juan'er: "Immediately, right now!"

Juan'er was clearly terrified of the guan dao, but she gritted her teeth and threw herself onto the table, protecting the shadow puppets, stubbornly declaring, "No, I'm not going anywhere until the shadow puppets are repaired. I'd rather die than go anywhere!!"

The situation became awkward for a moment.

Li Qing, who was standing to the side, spoke up, "Juan'er has something on the back of her head. I saw Shen Yujun carving something on the back of her head with a knife."

thing?

In this emergency, Chen Mo wanted to immediately pin Juan'er to the ground and see what was on the back of her head. But seeing Juan'er's defiant look, he knew he couldn't force her.

Chen Mo released the ghostly figure.

A ghostly figure, invisible to everyone, left Chen Mo's body and moved behind Juan'er to look at the back of its head.

It would have been better if he hadn't looked, because once he did... Chen Mo was extremely surprised.

The back of her head was carved with the pattern of the entire Li residence, with a shadow puppet at the center.

Chen Mo suddenly understood something. He opened the control panel and looked at Juan'er.

[Deconstructable material detected]

[Should we deconstruct it?]

Deconstruct!

As Chen Mo made a thought, a moment of dizziness passed, and the panel changed.

It's still a transparent box, still has eighteen transparent bars, but the information has changed.

【Name: White-Robed Demon】

[Level: Transparent Life Aura]

[Type: Yin-type ghost]

[Note: The Daoist practice of the Jiazi year has brought forth vengeful ghosts seeking revenge.]

[Ingredients: First, an evil spirit was worshipped; then, the ghostly energy of the Li residence was combined with a Qimen Bagua formation; the spirit was nurtured in the mother's womb before birth.]

[Characteristic: The core of all the ghostly formations in the Li residence.]

[Note: The array's core possesses the ability to manipulate and operate the entire ghostly energy array. As long as it remains within the Li residence, it is indestructible. However, it is prone to going out of control, so it has been restrained using shadow puppetry. As long as it focuses on the shadow puppetry, it means the array's core is not out of control.]

While Chen Mo exclaimed "Deconstruction" was awesome, he also felt a sigh.

It turns out that Juan'er is not only a ghost, but also the key to the circulation of ghostly energy in the entire Li residence.

No wonder Juan'er will never leave the Li residence in her life. No wonder Juan'er said that leaving the Li residence is not difficult at all. No wonder her mind is different from ordinary people. No wonder she likes watching plays and choreographing shadow puppet shows so much.

Shen Yujun has some impressive skills.

If Chen Mo didn't have the ability to deconstruct, who would have known... that the maze of the Li residence, and even the entire Qinghe Town, was actually a little girl!
As long as Juan'er is killed, the magic array of the Li residence will be broken.

The astonishing ghostly energy that had gathered here would dissipate, and I would be able to leave the Li residence and even Qinghe Town.

Thinking of this, Chen Mo slowly raised his Guan Dao, his eyes turning cold.

and many more……

At that moment, a thought popped into Chen Mo's mind: Such a miraculous array core, can Shen Yujun use it? But I, Chen Mo, can't? If I could get my hands on it and use it... that would be like having a cheat code.

So the question is, how do we use this Juan'er?
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

P.S.: Bonus chapter! 20,000 words today. I think this might be the beginning; I'll try updating 20,000 words daily from now on. Maybe three chapters (7,000 words each), maybe two (10,000 words each). But I promise there won't be any filler or a drop in quality. Writing is tough for a new author, so please subscribe and support me! Thank you!
(End of this chapter)