Ashen God
Chapter 564 - 563: The Abandoned Haunted House

Chapter 564: Chapter 563: The Abandoned Haunted House

On October 22, fourteen days after the end of the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holidays, and also the second day since Zhang Yanhang left the Ashen World, at 12:30 a.m., in the Southern City District, Dunhua Road, at the Nameless Mountain.

Upon reaching the Nameless Mountain located on Dunhua Road, Zhang Yanhang gave it a cursory scan and found to his amazement that it was even shorter than the small hill next to Beiling Mountain, standing at just about 18 meters in height.

But that wasn’t a big deal. As the saying goes, "It’s not the height of the mountain that matters, but the immortal spirit that resides within." As long as there were Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures on the mountain, even a small mound of dirt was far more valuable to Zhang Yanhang than a famous mountain or great river that yielded nothing.

After locating the exact spot where the Sky Demon Orange Crystal Grass was situated, Zhang Yanhang leaped straight up to the middle of the small mountain.

However, what made him slightly uncomfortable was that while the hard surface of the road provided a solid platform for takeoff, the soil where he landed was unexpectedly soft, causing his feet to sink deep into the earth and submerge part of his calves.

Zhang Yanhang frequently encountered such situations when hunting monsters in the Goblin Plain, so he was quite familiar with it. His strategy to deal with this involved maneuvering his Energy Shield to prop himself up—actually, he was just too lazy to exert himself physically.

To an outsider, Zhang Yanhang might have seemed to magically fly up from the ground, but in reality, he had simply modified the shape of his Energy Shield.

If Technique Immunity’s Energy Shield formation had been his Talent Ability, Zhang Yanhang speculated that he might have exploited it to perform all kinds of clever maneuvers. Unfortunately, Technique Immunity was just one of his Skills, lacking the flexibility and refined control of a Talent Ability.

Besides, any fancy tricks he could perform with the Energy Shield were already covered by superior abilities at his disposal, eliminating any need for redundant developments with the Energy Shield. It was a waste of time and pointless since they wouldn’t be used anyway.

For instance, Zhang Yanhang had once considered adding offensive capabilities to the Energy Shield, such as expanding it rapidly when facing a monster by a wall to squash it flat. But later on, he felt that fists and cannons worked best and abandoned the idea of these unnecessary flourishes. After all, an Energy Shield is fundamentally a defensive ability; there’s little point in forcing it to serve as an offensive tool.

Moreover, the issue of attack range was another concern—he could only attack a few meters around him. It was better to just knock the enemy out with a punch than bother adjusting the Energy Shield.

Also, the efficiency of such a maneuver heavily depended on the environment. In the open fields of Goblin Plain, expanding the Energy Shield might at best push enemies away; flattening them into a pulp was impossible.

Unless the enemy was very close and could be enveloped by the Energy Shield, then forcefully compressing it inward might work regardless of the environment, albeit being much more troublesome.

And for Zhang Yanhang, there was also the slight mental pollution of watching a monster get squashed into a bloody mess right in front of his eyes. But one could argue that it’s not too different from the usual mess he made using his fists to pulverize enemies.

In comparison to offensive capabilities, back in the early stages, Zhang Yanhang also considered adding mobility features, like transforming the bottom of the Energy Shield into two legs to move forward without personal exertion. But this idea was also discarded due to its complexity and sluggishness; his regular speed was 97 meters per second, a feat the Energy Shield could not hope to match.

Zhang Yanhang had already located the Sky Demon Orange Crystal Grass during his initial scan. It was hidden within a pile of pebbles, revealing only an orange leaf stalk.

He swiftly cleared the stones aside, unearthed the Sky Demon Orange Crystal Grass, and nodded in satisfaction at the entirely orange Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure, consuming it immediately.

Despite the familiar bitter taste, perhaps because he had just eaten the Sky Demon Green Crystal Grass, Zhang Yanhang surprisingly found the lower-ranked Sky Demon Orange Crystal Grass to be quite bearable. Or maybe after eating so many of the Crystal Grasses, he was finally getting used to the flavor.

After carefully sensing the warm current inside his body, Zhang Yanhang discovered that this Sky Demon Orange Crystal Grass was roughly equivalent to two of the Sky Demon Crimson Crystal Grasses, similar to the Plum Li Zerui had brought him, enhancing his Stamina Limit by about 10%.

"Later ranks do have their benefits. Although it’s just one lower in color, the effectiveness has doubled."

Having enhanced his Stamina Limit by another 10%, Zhang Yanhang estimated that the maximum number of times he could unleash his Death Wave Skill should increase from roughly eighty to eighty-five.

"If I could find more Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that increase my Stamina Limit while searching other hills, that would be great. It would be ideal to raise the number of times I can use the Death Wave Skill to a hundred, which would mean I could unleash two hundred of them after narrowing the range."

Zhang Yanhang had been concerned that his endurance might suffer a significant reduction due to increased consumption after recently upgrading to Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Evil·Original Scripture LV.6. However, it now seemed that not only would his endurance not decrease, but it might even improve to some extent.

After all, in just under a day, he had increased his Physical Strength Limit by 40%, and there was a chance he might find more relevant Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures later, though the likelihood wasn’t high.

"So, the question is, what should I do next? Should I trigger the Multiple Choice option and use Time Pause to explore the various hills in search of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures? No, let’s take a look at the map first."

Zhang Yanhang thought it would be better to look at the map first to find the various hilltops within Qin Island City more efficiently.

After all, scanning for Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures used a completely different precision compared to normal scanning, making it a more troublesome task. It wasn’t possible to simply scan the general terrain and the number of monsters and then just end it, like he did on the Goblin Plain.

To find Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, one must meticulously search every inch, as the growing range of these treasures was utterly random—be it the outside of the mountain, the peak, the belly, the valley or the middle, it was completely normal for them to appear anywhere.

Because scanning for Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures was so troublesome, Zhang Yanhang only chose to scan individual hills rather than the entire Qin Island City. The workload for the latter was simply too great, and even with the ability to pause time, he felt it was very troublesome and currently seemed quite unlikely to complete.

Perhaps in the future, if he reached Third Tier and had the time, he could attempt it, although he wasn’t certain there would be much to gain. And it was precisely because he might put in a lot of effort without much to show for it that Zhang Yanhang thought to leave that task for later.

After carefully reviewing the map, Zhang Yanhang began to ponder what reason to use to trigger Multiple Choice. But because thinking up a reason was rather bothersome, he decided to stick with the same reason as last time. After all, what the Multiple Choice was specifically didn’t matter, as long as it could be triggered.

"Choice! What should I eat for the late-night snack early this morning?" Zhang Yanhang remembered that last time he used this question as a Multiple Choice, he encountered that upperclassman, but this time it definitely wouldn’t happen again, right? That upperclassman surely couldn’t be idly looking for things to do and popping into his home whenever she was free—it defied logic.

[What to eat for the late-night snack early this morning?]

[Option One: Eat grass (You, who just woke up not long ago, felt a bit hungry after a ten-kilometer long-distance night run, but because you possess the Fasting ability, you’re actually not that hungry. To be specific, a very subtle sense of hunger pervades your body, irresistibly making you want to eat something.

Because of this state where you seem hungry but also not quite hungry, you did not go to any convenience stores or barbecue stalls to look for food. Instead, you headed straight north, and while passing a gas station, you were drawn to the Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass on a small hill beside it, which could increase your Energy Value limit.)]

[Option Two: Eat dirt (After a ten-kilometer long-distance night run, you suddenly feel a bit hungry, wanting to find something to eat. However, after buying and finishing a few buns from a convenience store on the way, you still feel a bit hungry. That subtle hunger makes you think that maybe ordinary food can’t alleviate this hunger.

As a Second Tier Awakened who has already mastered the Grain avoidance ability, you think you should look for something rich in Energy to eat, which would be more suitable for an Awakened person’s diet. You set off toward the west, and just as you’re about to reach the seaside, you come across a Six-way Intersection, next to an abandoned house.

After using your Perception, you discover that this house seems to harbor an old ghost, with the potential to become a century-old ghost. However, you are not interested in century-old ghosts. What’s valuable to you is the Corpse Nourishing Soil about two meters deep under the doorstep’s tiles of their house, which contains traces of Yin Qi and appears to have a few Spirit Stones buried within. You didn’t hesitate to dig up the tiles and started feasting on a large chunk.)]

[Option Three: Drink northwest wind (Although you inexplicably feel a bit hungry after a ten-kilometer long-distance night run, you believe it’s probably just a psychological effect. After all, the Fasting ability you acquired during your Second Tier upgrade has been continuously in effect. As long as your Energy is sufficient, you wouldn’t have a problem not eating for your entire life.)]

"You probably feel hungry right now just because you haven’t fully adapted to the grain avoidance ability, hence the hunger after two days without eating," you thought. To verify this, you stood on the mountain peak, taking deep breaths of the northwestern wind in a manner akin to swallowing a storm. Sure enough, just sipping on a bit of northwestern wind made the hunger in your body disappear without a trace.

"Eating grass, eating soil, drinking northwestern wind—I’ve got this weird feeling that there’s something off with these options." Although Zhang Yanhang hadn’t started checking the details yet, just glimpsing at the names of the options made him feel uneasy.

"I genuinely just wanted to use the time pause to search the hills a bit, and out of nowhere, multiple choice presents me with Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass, putting it right in the first option. How outrageous is that? Could it be because of the sudden surge in my energy value limit?"

Zhang Yanhang had previously thought he might have to wait until another chance encounter tomorrow to obtain the Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass, but unexpectedly, it popped up on its own after he casually took an option for a late night snack.

"After I get this last Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass, it’ll feel like I’ve gathered all seven colors of the Sky Demon Crystal Grass, giving me this odd sense of déjà vu to the Dragon Balls. Ranking them by effects, the strongest, the Sky Demon Purple Crystal Grass, I passed on to the group leader. But no matter, it’s not a big deal since I have no need for that spatial insight anyway; eating it would be a waste.

This time the options don’t seem to give a location, only mentioning that if I head north I might find the Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass beside a gas station on a small hill— but there are many gas stations up north. Along the way, there’d be at least a dozen, and about a third of them are next to hills."

Zhang Yanhang figured that gas stations in Qin Island City preferred being close to the mountains—probably because the land there was cheaper. Of course, it could also be just because there were plenty of small hills inside the city area.

"So, since this Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass is another of the heavenly materials and earthly treasures capable of increasing my energy value limit, its effect should be stronger than the Sky Demon Green Crystal Grass I ate before, right? Can’t help but look forward to it.

The last Sky Demon Green Crystal Grass bumped up my energy value limit by fifty points. I’m not greedy—I’d be satisfied with a seventy-five-point increase from this Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass."

Zhang Yanhang began to hope that, maybe this time, his energy value limit might finally surpass his life value limit.

"The Sky Demon Blue Crystal Grass in the first option seems normal enough, but the corpse-nourishing soil in the second option? What the hell is that? Who would eat that? And savor it, no less? Have I gone mad? Don’t force weird stuff down my throat just because I can digest well!

And what on earth is this Six-way Intersection? I wasn’t even aware such intersections existed. If there were two more branches, wouldn’t a six-way just become an eight-way, like a grid intersection? Are the traffic flows by the seaside that heavy? Though, Qin Island City is indeed a tourist destination."

Zhang Yanhang could no longer suppress his urge to make sarcastic comments.