Starting from his vigorous old age, he began to conquer Liaozhai.

Cao Xiong drew his Evil-Sniffing Blade and poked at the blanket. It didn't sink in; something underneath was holding it up.

"Phew~"

Just as Cao Xiong was about to pull the blanket away, the thing inside suddenly attacked, and the blanket came over like a fishing net, blocking Cao Xiong's view.

Cao Xiong was startled. He gripped his long knife and sliced ​​the blanket covering him in two from bottom to top.

The blanket fell to the ground, revealing a dried-up corpse.

The mummified corpse's flesh was rotten and shriveled, clinging tightly to the bones. Its empty eye sockets were facing Cao Xiong, and its raised hands were getting closer and closer to him.

"die!"

Cao Xiong channeled his inner energy, gripped the knife with both hands, and slashed across the dried corpse's neck.

"Thump~"

The mummified head fell to the ground and rolled slowly to Cao Xiong's feet like a weightless ball.

After Cao Xiong cut off the head of the dried corpse, he did not obtain any fragments.

Moreover, he did not sense any spiritual energy fluctuations or corpse energy on the dried corpse.

This indicates that the true mastermind controlling the dried corpse's actions has not yet revealed themselves.

His eyes were fixed on the mummified corpse's torso, not missing a single detail.

As more and more words were awakened, his five senses became extremely powerful, and no slight movement or abnormality could escape his perception.

"Buzzing~"

A faint flapping sound reached Cao Xiong's ears.

His ears twitched slightly, and he instantly pinpointed the location of the sound.

He channeled his inner energy into his legs and kicked the head of the dried corpse beside him.

"Bang!"

Cao Xiong's kick was extremely powerful, and the head of the dried corpse that was kicked exploded.

A black worm the size of a fingernail flew out of the shattered skull.

It was extremely fast, arriving in front of Cao Xiong in the blink of an eye.

Cao Xiong used the Leaf-Picking Step, retreating while his long sword flashed in a dense, impenetrable manner.

The black worm was cleaved in two with a single stroke.

[Slaying a Corpse Gu Worm in the early stage of the Spirit Awakening Realm, fragments +0.05]

"Corpse Gu worms? Is this what controls the dried-up corpses?"

Cao Xiong squatted on the ground and picked up the black insect's corpse with his hand. Apart from emitting a faint stench of decay, it was no different from an ordinary insect.

He searched the guest rooms again, and after finding nothing else, he returned to the corridor on the second floor.

His gaze fell on the red lantern hanging above the door frame.

The most striking feature of the entire inn is these red lanterns with candles burning inside for illumination.

Cao Xiong felt that these lanterns might be the key to figuring out the secrets of this inn.

"Lightning fast!"

Cao Xiong used a move from the "Eighteen Forms of Wind Slash," his longsword flashing as he slashed at the red lanterns above the door frame.

"Bang!"

The long sword struck the red lantern, but instead of causing it to fall, it seemed as if it had struck a phantom.

The red lanterns still emitted an eerie red glow.

The long sword finally landed squarely on the door frame below the lantern, penetrating deeply into the wood.

"This red lantern doesn't actually have a physical form. Could it be that this inn is like the one in the mural we saw before?"

"What we see and touch is all fake, actually an illusion, or perhaps an alternate dimension detached from reality?"

"But this inn, which he could come and go as he pleased, was not aggressive at all, and did not present any hallucinations that disturbed his mind."

So, the most likely explanation is that the inn itself is fine, it's just an abandoned inn, and the problem lies with the red lantern.

Cao Xiong then tried attacking the other red lanterns on the second floor with his knife, but the result was the same; all of these lanterns were just illusions.

Cao Xiong had never encountered anything so bizarre.

However, he never liked to create trouble for himself; if he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't think about it.

Now that things have come to this, the best solution is to burn the inn down.

Having made up his mind, Cao Xiong began searching the other rooms on the second floor of the inn.

Let's see if we can find more corpse worms. Even a mosquito's leg is still meat; he needs to obtain more fragments.

The light emitted by all the red lanterns in the inn grew stronger and stronger.

Soon, Cao Xiong had searched the other seven guest rooms on the second floor and killed a corpse worm that was living inside the dried corpse.

After confirming that nothing was missed on the second floor, he quickly went downstairs.

As soon as I stepped onto the second step, the dilapidated and quiet environment vanished like a bubble.

In an instant, the inn became clean and tidy, and the noisy sounds downstairs suddenly reached Cao Xiong's ears.

He quickened his pace and went downstairs, where he saw that Cao Man was not in the inn because of his large size.

The officers and soldiers with the two small flags were all sitting around the tables in the lobby on the first floor.

"My lord, come and eat, your favorite braised pork."

Li Cheng smiled and waved to Cao Xiong.

Cao Xiong felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had been pricked by needles. After that, his memory of entering the inn became increasingly faint. In the end, he only remembered that after entering the inn, he first went to his room to take a shower and then asked Li Cheng and the others to order food.

"Okay, coming."

Cao Xiong felt something was off, as if he had forgotten something important.

The jade pendant that Nie Xiaoqian had given him slowly began to glow white in his arms.

Cao Xiong sat down at the dining table, where a variety of dishes were already laid out.

Braised pork belly, braised chicken, stewed tofu, sesame seed cakes...

Having traveled all day, Cao Xiong was starving, and the sight of the delicious food immediately whetted his appetite.

"Don't just stand there, let's eat together."

Cao Xiong picked up his chopsticks and addressed Li Cheng and the others.

He picked up a piece of braised pork and was about to put it in his mouth when he suddenly felt a burning sensation in his arms.

"Hiss~"

The scene before Cao Xiong's eyes suddenly changed; there was no delicious food anywhere, and the table was covered with a thick layer of dust.

He was holding a lancet and shoving it into his mouth.

The other officers and soldiers weren't much better off; they wore expressions of ecstasy and chatted and laughed.

They either stab themselves in the mouth with a scalpel like I do, or they stuff their fists into their mouths and chew.

"Wake up~"

Cao Xiong channeled his inner strength and let out a loud shout.

Cao Xiong's voice successfully shattered the illusion in the inn; Li Cheng's scalpel was less than five centimeters from his chest.

He stood up in shock. "Sir, what happened?"

Cao Xiong drew his Evil-Sniffing Blade. "Everyone, leave the inn."

The officers and soldiers all got up and left the inn according to Cao Xiong's orders.

Several officers and soldiers who had already died were carried out by their comrades.

Cao Xiong looked around the inn. All the red lanterns were moving on their own without any wind, and the candles inside were flickering.

Nothing unexpected happened until everyone left the inn.

"Find some dry grass to start a fire and burn the inn down." Cao Xiong's face was grim as he looked at the red lanterns still hanging on both sides of the entrance for illumination.

Soon, more than ten soldiers dispersed around the inn and lit the dry grass with fire tinder.

The fire gradually spread, and the entire inn was engulfed in flames.

"Ah~"

Suddenly, a group of black figures appeared in the inn, rolling and screaming in the sea of ​​fire.

A red lantern slowly rose from the sea of ​​fire into the air, as if trying to escape.

"Where do you think you're going?" Cao Xiong threw out the Evil-Sniffing Longsword.

The long sword, like an arrow released from a bow, struck down the red lanterns in mid-air.

[Defeat the special ghost, the Human Skin Lantern, to obtain 1 fragment]