Forge a path to success

"I can't tell their skill level; they're a master," Chu Hengkong said. "We'll go out of town and take a look later."

Vande nearly choked on the eel meat: "Were you even listening to the expert?! The expert told you it's dangerous outside the town!"

"Is the town truly safe?" Chu Hengkong countered. "Can we completely trust Bernhard's words? And what about Qi Su's?"

Van der was speechless; he understood their concerns. Bernhard and Kisu, while not displaying malice, were not entirely revealing their secrets. Stories abound of chivalrous heroes being welcomed by the villagers for their acts of justice, but stories of those who are robbed of their belongings after spending the night with wicked people are equally numerous…

Chu Hengkong used his tentacles to curl up a piece of raw eel and pondered, "I have to see it with my own eyes and try it before I can make a judgment."

He seemed to have come up with an idea and began carefully peeling the eel's skin with his sword. Van der thought this made sense, but out of conscience, he still strongly advised, "Buddy, I advise you to take it easy. No matter what, you're only one point in time. What if there's something really strange out there that you can't handle?"

Chu Hengkong put down his sword and looked at Yanqiu with great sincerity.

“Vande,” he said, “I was just about to tell you something. I’m entirely your fault for ending up in this situation. Shouldn’t you do something to make amends and help me out?”

Vande slapped his forehead, exclaiming with boundless pride, "Absolutely! I, Vande, will certainly lend a helping hand!"

·

"You bastard Chu Hengkong!" Fan De cried, tears streaming down his face. "You son of a bitch! I'll become a demon and never let you get away with this!!"

"I'll definitely get you out of danger."

"Look at how long the rope you made is!" Van der screamed. "You're still trying to pull me out! By the time you dragged me back, I'd be dead already!!"

Venturing out of town alone was far too risky, so Chu Hengkong devised a compromise. He carefully peeled the skin off the giant eel, cut it into long strips, and wove it into a long rope. This eel was 20 meters long, and its skin was very resilient; if used carefully, the entire body of skin would be enough to make a very, very long rope. One end of the rope was tied to Chu Hengkong's tentacle, and the other end…

This put a knot in Vande's body.

To the north of the town were mountain walls, and to the southeast lay the sea. Chu Hengkong traveled westward until he reached the stone wall that the townspeople had used as a boundary. Flickering yellow lights illuminated the wall, beyond which stretched a plain overgrown with tall grass, and in the distance, the high slopes leading to the mountains could be faintly seen. He gazed for a while, determined his location, and then picked up the Vandeball with one hand.

"What are you going to do, you little bastard? What do you want to do?"

"Vander, get ready." Chu Hengkong grabbed the end of the rope and spun it around like a lasso. "Let's go!"

Chu Hengkong threw it with all his might, sending Fan De flying like a baseball into the dark wilderness!

“I &*%￥#——”

Vande traced a long arc through the air, its screams fading into the distance until they were almost inaudible. Upon landing, Vande slammed to the ground three times. The first thing it did upon getting up was to unleash a torrent of curses, each different for a full half-minute.

After cursing, it cautiously tugged at the rope, and a weak pull came from behind. Vande was slightly relieved, confirming that the bastard could at least feel it, and then, with a sense of resignation, he looked around.

Under the cover of darkness, the tall grass swayed in the wind, like slender, ghostly shadows. Vande shivered; this eerie place was eerily quiet, devoid of the chirping of small animals, insects, or birds. It stirred the soil beneath the grass with its tentacles, finding no insect remains, no excrement, and not even a stench. It was like a silent, dead land.

"What kind of place is this...?"

Vande grew even more uneasy. It first looked up at the night sky. The absence of a dark moon was the best news, indicating that this place was not under the shadow of the First Abyss. But starlight was almost invisible; only a mischievous shooting star streaked about in the far east, and another star in the far west was hidden in the deep darkness, occasionally emitting blinding flashes of light without any discernible pattern.

The presence of stars symbolizing the two "destined ones" not only indicates their presence but also their radiance, suggesting a life fraught with hardship and an uncertain future.

"This is terrible," Vande thought. It was even more confused because it didn't see the other star that should have been there. But now was not the time to worry about the celestial signs; if it probed any further, it would have the assassin take it back. Vande lowered its head. A towering black shadow stood in the night.

……

That's strange. Was that thing there before?

Van der felt dizzy and rubbed his eyes. This time he saw it more clearly: a tall, imposing steel humanoid figure, a colossal bronze statue seemingly commissioned to celebrate something. The statue was tall, but not as large as the previous centipede.

……

It became clearer. About 20 meters tall, with legs like doorposts and iron hands crossed over its chest, the iron figure had no head; a face was embedded in its chest. The expression on that face was…

……

It was a crying face. Silver tears streamed down its face, from the corners of its eyes. Van der saw it clearly; the face wasn't far away...?

Vande felt a chill run down his spine. He had only glanced at it! A single glance shouldn't have led to such a gradual, layered observation! Yet the Iron Giant was becoming increasingly clear, for the distance between them was shrinking…

……

Shortened. From thousands of meters to hundreds of meters... no, tens of meters!

Only then did Van der realize that the rope around his waist was shaking incessantly, and the friction marks on the Iron Giant's hands were clearly visible. The Iron Giant's massive hand was reaching for him!

Vande pulled the rope with all his might and ran away as fast as he could. He dared not look back and waste even a moment, but if he did look back...

……

Only after turning around did it realize how terrifying that thing was. Its presence cast a dark, night-like shadow that covered the entire area in front of it without warning, pressing down from above like a mountain.

They were almost face to face, and Vande could feel the presence of the giant steel hand behind him! He lunged forward in despair, just as the iron giant's massive hand pressed down!

The Iron Giant raised its palm, unaware of the strange creature. It "looked" towards the distant Stone Town.

At the last moment, an immense force pulled through the leather rope, and Chu Hengkong yanked Vande back as fast as he could. They returned to town immediately, and Vande trembled for almost a minute.

"Why...where were you all this time...?"

“You were spacing out for about twenty seconds,” Chu Hengkong said. “I thought you were trying to show off, but then I realized you were the one who fell for it.”

Fan De remained silent. Chu Hengkong tugged at him and asked, "Are you still breathing?"

“It was a huge success.” Van der’s eyes were pale. “I never want to use it again.”

Chu Heng chuckled and looked out over the wall, where he saw the giant still standing in the night. Its weeping face gazed at the town, as if hesitating whether to go any further.

At that moment, a short staff struck the stone wall, its tip flashing with yellow light, forming an abstract "sun" character. This "sun" character merged into the wall, and the lights on the stone wall instantly blazed brighter, as bright as sunlight. The giant seemed to turn away in fear, step by step returning to the night.

Qi Su retracted his short cane, put one hand on his hip, and poked the limp Vande hard with the cane tip: "Can't you squids understand human language? If I said it's dangerous at night, then don't go out!"

"My lady, please understand, it was this barbarian who ruined me," Vande said sorrowfully.

Qi Su stood on tiptoe, wanting to hit Chu Hengkong on the head with his cane, but because he wasn't tall enough, he could only awkwardly hit his shoulder instead: "You too! Learn your lesson, I won't care next time!"

"Okay." Chu Hengkong readily agreed and followed the fuming Qi Su back to the town.

The first day after the summoning incident ended with yet another setback.

Chapter 74 Creation Theory of Another World

The next day, early morning.

Chu Hengkong, shirtless, stood outside the church, ready to punch. His punches were strange; each movement was like a slow-motion scene from a movie, slowed down tenfold, as if he were a snail practicing martial arts. But as he threw a punch, a surge of "force" rose from his fingertips, spreading along his arm to all parts of his body, forming visible "ripples."

The ripples originated from the extremities, sweeping across his body with each movement, causing his bones and joints to crackle like popping beans. With each crack, Chu Hengkong's body swayed, as if adjusting his posture. The ripples finally converged at his spine, about to merge into a single point…

But suddenly, that point of convergence shattered, the unrestrained force dissipating and rampaging through his body. Chu Hengkong withdrew from his stance, sweat splattering onto the ground in damp circles.

"Is it your hobby to not breathe during cultivation?" someone said behind him.

Chu Hengkong then slowly exhaled: "It's another kind of training."

"How strange. You have both Qi cultivation techniques for bone forging and this kind of quirk. You really are a martial arts cultivator."

Fan De hopped over, his eyelids drooping as if he hadn't fully woken up. Chu Hengkong glanced at him: "You know Longquan Township, huh?"

"How many powerful forces in the entire Submerged Realm have the 'Path to Ascension'? It's hard not to know about them." Vande's tone was sour. "People from humble backgrounds would risk their lives for a skillful hand, but you guys are guaranteed to become architects as soon as you enter the sect. Who can compare?"

Chu Hengkong had never heard of this saying and was too lazy to correct the other party's misunderstanding. He shook off the sweat from his body and went back to the church to get a piece of leftover eel. Vande was still nagging behind him: "But your secret technique isn't quite up to par. Usually, you concentrate your energy in your spine to complete a cycle, but in your case, it dissipated at the end..."

"My spine was corrupted by a demon a few days ago."

“Oh, no wonder…” Van der said, “Huh? Huh??”

Chu Hengkong ignored Fan De, who kept babbling on, and headed towards Yingshi Town. He had sensed something strange when he rose early to cultivate, because although the sun had been up for a long time, there was no noise in the town. Even if there were no restaurants in the town, there should have been merchants selling their goods early in the morning.

Do these people from God's kingdom not need to eat? Do they not even do business?

He left the church and walked along the road into town, finding all the houses deserted. It wasn't until he approached the town square that he finally heard voices. The entire square was filled with townspeople, over a hundred people forming several large circles, their hands clasped in prayer. In the center of the square stood a tall cherry blossom tree statue, several meters high, with a jade dragon statue coiled atop the tree, its posture both compassionate and majestic.

Qi Su stood beneath the statue, the only one in the town to speak. She waved her short staff like a conductor, reciting poetry in a sung tone. It was a rather ancient long poem, its language obscure and profound. Chu Heng listened for a while, only vaguely understanding that it was a myth about creation.

Long, long ago, there was a magnificent and colossal "world giant." Feeling lonely, He created the first light in the world. And at the moment the light appeared, the giant also gained a shadow.

Light could think, and shadows could speak; the eloquent beings multiplied from one to three, and the area around the giant spirit became lively. This lively atmosphere spread outwards, making even the empty places joyful, and so the chaos of nothingness began to evolve, and the prototype of the world appeared.

"...One begets three, three begets ten thousand. Chaos gives rise to change, and the mortal world is created. The original spirit is pure and simple, and the past is like a song~"

Qi Su concluded with a summary, indicating the end of the long poem recitation. The townspeople bowed to Qi Su and then dispersed. Xiang Fuzi stepped out from the crowd and waved to the two of them.

"Our Netherworld Kingdom respects tradition and values ​​inheritance. Every day, we begin with a prayer and a long poem. Only after the ceremony can we resume our daily routines. Please do not take offense."

Chu Hengkong found it amusing and asked, "Did you bring Qi Su here to train the child's language skills?"

"No, no," Xiang Fuzi explained seriously. "The way of the prayer is to communicate with the gods and pay homage to heaven and earth. The lead singer must step onto the path of the floating light, and at least one must have a 'bitter staff' to be able to take on this role. Qi Su is the only lead singer in the town, and his task is of great importance, not something to be taken lightly."

So, Qi Su is a "bitter staff"... This name is an advancement of "foundation," and the weapon she used last night must have been her own relic. So young and already a point mass 2, no wonder she's so arrogant.

Qi Su tilted his head back smugly, a particularly irritating smile on his face: "There's no need to say so much to Squid~ Hey, Big Squid, no matter how ignorant you are, you must have heard of the 'Song of the Mortal World' that I recited today, right?"

"Never heard of it." Chu Hengkong shook his head.

Qi Su and Xiang Fuzi were shocked as if they had seen aliens, while Fan De felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

"Old man, which dusty island are you from?" Vande rolled his eyes. "You don't even... you don't even have this basic common sense... how did you even learn to talk like that??"

"Brother, can you write?" Xiangfuzi asked with concern. "Would you like me to teach you how to hold a pen?"

Chu Hengkong was both amused and exasperated. He thought to himself, "I'm a legitimate graduate student, and my family even spent a fortune to buy me two doctoral degrees. How did I end up in another world as an illiterate?" He didn't bother to argue and simply said, "I've never heard of a long poem, and I'm doing just fine."

“How can we communicate with you if you don’t even have a worldview…” Qi Su sighed. “Little Squid! Talk to him!”

"Shut up and listen to me, you illiterate person." Vande started digging at the ground with his tentacles. "First of all, you're a skilled craftsman, you must have seen sealed ones before, right?"

Chu Hengkong nodded.

Vande drew the core of the seal on the ground, a triangle formed by three overlapping circles. Each of the three circles contained simple symbols whose meaning could be easily understood by those who saw them: dust, light, and shadow.

“These three secret symbols are the story you just heard.” Vande pointed to them one by one with his tentacles. “They represent the ‘dust’ of the giant spirit, the ‘light’ born from the dust, and the ‘shadow’ that is the opposite of the light. These three great, distant, and unimaginable beings are the ‘origin’ of all things and all life in the world, so we call them the Primal Spirits.”

Vande patted his tentacle: "The Primal Spirit is the world. The vast majority of techniques that borrow external forces are based on the symbols of the Three Primal Spirits. This includes the magic circle you came into contact with during your ascension, and the summoning circle I used to summon the tentacles..."

Vande glanced at Qi Su: "Little girl, you deliberately used common sense that everyone knows to start the conversation, and you're a 'bitter stick,' so you must have something to say, right?"

Qi Su crossed his arms, remaining silent with an arrogant expression that seemed to say, "You're all waiting to beg me for a beating." Chu Hengkong, never one to argue with children, directly asked Xiang Fuzi, "May I ask, given the vast power of the Divine Kingdom, is there a way to leave this town?"

“Of course,” Xiang Fuzi replied fluently, clearly having rehearsed several times. “If your hometown is remote, I’ll have to apologize. This city of trends has had long-standing relations with my divine kingdom, so sending you back home wouldn’t be difficult. However…”

Chu Hengkong had been waiting for this, but said, "If you have any difficulties, just tell me."

“Brother, you must have seen the ‘great void’ that cuts off the ocean yesterday while you were sea fishing, and know that the sea route is cut off, and there is no hope of sailing by ordinary means.” Xiang Fuzi pondered, “My divine kingdom is vast and rich in resources, and it is not lacking in emergency methods. However… this method is quite costly, and you and I are, after all, strangers to each other…”

Chu Hengkong simply smiled and repeated, "If you have any difficulties, please feel free to speak up."

"Brother, you are truly a straightforward man! To be honest, there are many strange beasts around the town. Although they pose no threat to us, their rampage in the mountains is still a nuisance. If you are willing to rid the town of these menaces, we would be happy to help." Xiang Fuzi clapped his hands and laughed. "And around the town, there are three particularly rampant strange beasts: a giant from the plains, a centipede from the mountains, and a jade fox from the mountaintop. If you can kill these three beasts, Qi Su can use their remains as 'symbols' for the ceremony. At that time, you can leave the danger, and we can also have some peace and quiet. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

Chu Hengkong readily agreed: "I didn't ask..."

"no!"

Vande quickly jumped over and interrupted before he could finish speaking: "You think you can get our help with just empty words? What kind of good deal is that? What if you kill all the monsters and still don't get out? Wouldn't we be doing all the work for free for your whole town?"

Xiang Fuzi, having anticipated this, smiled and said, "Brother Yan, don't be in such a hurry. Hunting exotic beasts is a mutually beneficial endeavor. The craftsmen in the town are highly skilled. If you two hunt down a powerful beast, you can carve its remains into protective gear and weapons, which will also provide you with some assistance on your journey. What do you say?"

After pondering for a while, Vande said in a low voice, "I can consider it. I remember that the Netherworld God Kingdom is quite skilled in enchanting secret texts."

"I was going to kill anyway, so I don't care," Chu Hengkong nodded. "What are your current needs?"

Qi Su walked over and led the two away, not forgetting to put on airs as he spoke: "We citizens of the Divine Kingdom are not used to communicating much with outsiders. Our needs are all written down on paper and nailed to boards. After you kill the alien beasts, you don't need to go around looking for people; just tell me. This job is more about personal connections than practical matters. In reality, nobody cares about those things at all... Hey, what are you doing?!"

In one corner of the square stood a wooden board, clearly newly built. The paper marking the needs was stacked three layers high, making it look like it was being used to plaster a wall. The townspeople surrounded the board, scrambling to stick paper on it, arguing as they did so: "You go first, I'm in a hurry!" "Get lost! I've been waiting here since early morning!" "We agreed that everyone would rely on their own abilities after the blessing ceremony, how could someone sneak off in the middle of the night?"

One unlucky fellow, pushed to the back, yelled angrily, "Stop fighting! Have some shame! This paper is already pasted up in almost four layers; if we paste it any more, outsiders won't be able to see it!"

The townspeople nodded in agreement, then eagerly pulled out the paper that had been pasted on the bottom layer to paste on top. This made the scene even more lively, with everyone getting along well, mingling together, respectfully addressing each other as father and son, and jokingly asking about each other's parents—a truly elegant and refined ancient custom.

Qi Su jumped up in anger: "Go back! Have some self-respect! What kind of behavior is this!"

Seeing that the lead singer had lost his temper, the townspeople dared not say anything more and quickly dispersed. The last one to leave was a man with a headscarf. As he left, he didn't forget to secretly pull out his share and stick it on top of the whole thing.

Chu Hengkong and Fan De crossed their arms, tilted their heads, and stared at Qi Su with great interest. The little girl's face turned pink, and her eyes almost bulged with anger. She raised a finger, trying her best to explain something, but couldn't say anything. Finally, she angrily let out an "Ah!", stomped her foot, and ran away.

Xiang Fuzi rubbed her forehead vigorously: "This...this...everyone is so eager to help..."

"I understand, I understand," Chu Hengkong said.

"They're all hospitable," said Vande. "That's how people in our old divine kingdom are!"

Chu Hengkong walked to the wooden board, glanced at it, and found that most of the tasks were simple ones such as "finding mushrooms" and "urgently needing round stones". Each piece of paper was filled with small handwriting, detailing the characteristics of the required items, their possible locations, and each also had hand-drawn illustrations, describing them in great detail, as if they were practically guiding him there step by step.

Among the various search and find tasks, only one task sheet stood out. This task sheet was the last one the turban-wearing man had pasted on; it depicted a large, bright yellow spider with six legs and an exceptionally fierce gaze.

Hunting the Yellow-armored Iron Spider

[Habitat: Grassland outside the town]