Chapter 162

It was a dark and windy night.

Xu Shulou and his fellow junior brothers and sisters climbed up the vine-covered wall and sneaked into the small building.

Bai Roushuang couldn't understand: "Why do we have to sneak in like thieves when you clearly live here?"

"Because I welded the door shut."

“……”What a simple and crude reason.

"Actually, you two don't have to come with me."

"I'm just curious. I haven't seen any traces of demons in the mortal world for a long time. There is no spiritual energy here, so they can't practice."

"Besides, it's been a long time since we went on an adventure together, Senior Sister."

The three of them nimbly climbed through the window into the small building. Song Ping and the other two looked around: "Senior Sister, which room is the strange thing you mentioned?"

"There seems to be something wrong with the whole building," Xu Shulou stepped on the ground, "Didn't you notice anything unusual?"

Bai Roushuang shook her head: "No, but it makes sense. After all, you are a person who has reached the level of a half-step god. Your senses are naturally sharper than ours."

"Should we search separately?" Song Ping suggested.

Bai Roushuang suddenly laughed.

"What are you laughing at?" Song Ping was puzzled.

"Nothing," Bai Roushuang smiled as she shook her head. "It's just that I suddenly felt like we were in a horror movie on earth. The guy who suggested splitting up to search was usually the first cannon fodder."

“…”

Fortunately, the three of them were skilled and courageous, so they followed this bad advice and explored separately.

After just an hour of thorough search, the three found nothing. The entire building stood still, as if quietly mocking them.

Xu Shulou took out a shovel and asked: "How much compensation do I have to pay for demolishing this building?"

"It's okay, Senior Sister, you can tear it down," Song Ping said generously, "I can afford the compensation."

The three of them came to the lobby on the first floor. Xu Shulou knocked on the ground with a shovel, picked a suitable location, and prepared to dig.

"Experts believe that there were indeed traces of immortal cultivators in ancient my country..." An extremely abrupt male voice sounded in the empty lobby, stopping Xu Shulou's actions.

The three of them turned around together and saw a TV in the corner that was lit up without anyone controlling the remote control, and a not-so-popular late-night interview program was still playing.

Two interviewees were debating, one suggested that there were ancient texts recording the existence of the world of cultivation, while the other insisted that it was just some kind of ancient storybook.

The three of them gathered in front of the TV and stopped for a moment. Xu Shulou raised his hand and turned off the power.

Tick. Tick.

In the silence, the sound of falling water was heard again around.

"It's a faucet." Bai Roushuang took a few steps forward and observed carefully for a moment. There was a leaking faucet in the lobby, which seemed to be used for fire fighting.

She raised her hand to tighten it, but Xu Shulou stopped her: "Wait, let me do it."

The moment she touched the faucet, she suddenly felt a suction force. A tornado-like vortex appeared under the faucet, sucking all three of them in. In an instant, everything returned to calm.

When they opened their eyes again, the three of them looked at each other and were surprised to find that they had all turned into paper men. Literally, their entire bodies had turned into light pieces of paper, in a slightly sloppy cartoon style.

The three of them looked at each other, and when they started talking, they all laughed weirdly unconsciously, which were "Oh, oh, oh," "Ehehehe," and "Hehehehe."

“…”

The three of them tried hard to overcome this strange urge.

Xu Shulou suddenly realized something and thought to himself: "Be careful!"

Bai Roushuang and Song Ping had already had a tacit understanding with her, so they did not look back at this moment, but rolled over subconsciously to avoid the attack. After avoiding the attack, they looked back and saw that it was a group of Q-version-style squids, spitting fireballs from their mouths, attacking in this direction.

Bai Roushuang tilted her head and looked at him: "A fire-breathing squid? This is the first time I've seen one."

Xu Shulou waved the light paper sword in his hand, thought for a while, and was reluctant to use his Quexie, so he took out a long sword and tried it instead. Sure enough, the long sword that had turned into paper turned into ashes instantly when it touched the fireball.

“…Let’s run first.”

The three men were experienced in escaping and soon left the Q-version squid behind. During this time, Xu Shulou had an idea and picked up a stone on the side of the road and threw it at the squid.

This stone was obviously just a piece of paper, but it had an unexpected effect when it was thrown at the squid.

The three soon discovered that the things they brought in were of no use, but all the items in the scene could be used.

"It's a bit like some kind of video game in the mortal world," Song Ping commented as he moved the rocks, "Maybe we have to clear the game before we can leave?"

Xu Shulou raised his eyebrows: "Could it be that as the technology of the mortal world has advanced, the demons have also kept up with the times?"

Back in the day, man-eating demons used money and beauty to lure scholars preparing for exams. Now, they use games to lure internet-addicted teenagers instead?

"I didn't expect the demon to be so ambitious." Bai Roushuang complained.

After completely getting rid of the squid group, the three of them ran into a group of monkeys blowing whistle arrows at them while climbing the mountain. Song Ping was climbing in the front and was unable to dodge, so his arm was scratched by the whistle arrow. Suddenly, the light screen flashed in front of his eyes, and two red and blue light beams appeared. The red light beam flashed and slid down a bit.

"Wow," Bai Roushuang was surprised, "What is this?"

"It really is a video game from the mortal world," Song Ping smiled bitterly, "It seems that red generally represents life, and blue represents physical strength?"

Xu Shulou responded quickly: "You mean if the red reaches the bottom, we will die, and if the blue reaches the bottom, we will be unable to move?"

"Maybe," Song Ping was not sure, "I have never played this kind of game. I just looked up some information when collecting business information."

Bai Roushuang was cautious: "No matter what, be careful and try not to let the light column slide down again."

The three of them looked for something useful in the scene, but unfortunately the rocks here were all integrated with the mountain and could not be moved. Xu Shulou suddenly had an idea: "Banana!"

The remaining two reacted and immediately rushed to the banana tree on the edge of the cliff, picked bananas and threw them at the monkeys. The monkeys took the bananas and really put down their hidden arrows, happily peeled the bananas and let them go.

After all this trouble, the light screen in front of them began to flicker again, as if reminding them to pay attention to the blue bar that was about to reach the bottom.

The three of them really had no sense of direction in a place like this, so they groped their way into a mine cave at random and rode a mine cart all the way into the depths of the cave.

"Does this feel a bit like a roller coaster on earth?" Bai Roushuang spread her arms on the mine car and asked Song Ping curiously.

"I don't know, I've never ridden it," Song Ping shook his head, "I've never been to an amusement park."

Bai Roushuang gave him a meaningful look and said, "You should enjoy the pleasures of the human world, Second Brother."

Song Ping smiled at her and said, "Perhaps I haven't really opened my arms to embrace this era yet."

The mine cart soon stopped in front of a fork in the road, with a wooden door on each side.

There was a winged elf carved on the door, chanting a mantra to them: "There are two roads under your feet, please choose carefully, one is to replenish your physical strength, the other is to go to hell."

There were subtle hints painted on the door panel. None of the three had ever played games in the mortal world and they were at a loss as to what to do. The elf kept chattering and urging them. Xu Shulou became a little impatient and simply kicked open one of the doors.

“……”The elf on the door panel fell silent.

Following this road, the few people walked a long way before arriving in front of a garden house.

A man dressed as a gardener was fertilizing the garden, applying some strange red and white fertilizer to the beautiful flowers, while a man dressed a little more flamboyantly saw them through the window and immediately happily invited the three of them to come in and rest.

"Does resting mean replenishing physical strength?" Xu Shulou guessed.

"Three warriors," the gorgeously dressed guy held out a few cups after the three entered the room, "Please drink the blood-replenishing potion and continue on your way."

The three of them had strange expressions on their faces. From their perspective, the word "poison" was clearly floating on the cup.

Song Ping took a step back and suggested, "How about we go back and choose another way? I just don't know if the remaining energy can support it..."

Before he could finish his words, Xu Shulou jumped up, pushed the strange guy to the ground, put the cup with poison written on it to his mouth, and prepared to drink it.

"Okay," Song Ping nodded optimistically, "beating up the NPCs is also a way to pass the level."

Bai Roushuang tilted her head and looked at a scribbled Q-version character with big eyes waving her fist angrily, and couldn't help but sigh: "Senior sister is so cute like this."

Song Ping gave his junior sister a look that was difficult to describe.

"Let him go!" The gardener who was fertilizing the flowers rushed in.

"Where's the potion to replenish your strength?" Xu Shulou threatened, "Hand it over!"

"You've chosen the wrong path. We're not here to replenish your energy," the gardener protested. "Let him go!"

"No?" Xu Shulou raised his hand to pour the medicine.

The guy she pressed down tasted the bitter taste, and quickly struggled to turn his head and spat a few times: "I'll give it to you, I'll give it to you, isn't that enough?"

The gardener gritted his teeth, took out the key reluctantly, opened the cabinet door, took out a small box and handed it to Xu Shulou.

The latter raised his eyebrows and tilted his head towards the cabinet. Bai Roushuang very tacitly went to rummage through the drawers and cabinets, searching the cabinet clean like a bandit. Before leaving, she even took away two long loaves of bread on the chopping board.

The three of them happily left the cabin amid their crying, and the door was politely closed for them, considerately leaving them a space to cry as much as they wanted.

Bai Roushuang and the other person were about to leave when Xu Shulou stopped them: "Wait..."

She walked into the garden, looked at the machine that was producing fertilizer, opened the lid, and revealed something that was being crushed inside. Bai Roushuang looked inside and saw several dead bodies of paper people stuffed inside. There were two crosses drawn in the eyes of the paper people, and their tongues were sticking out. To be fair, this style of painting did not look scary at all, but rather a bit funny. However, this could not hide the fact that the gardeners here used people as fertilizer.

"Hiss," Bai Roushuang took a breath, "Is this still a horror game?"

Xu Shulou shook his head: "I just don't know if these people are the NPCs that Junior Brother mentioned, or if they are living people who were dragged in before us."

"..." Song Ping frowned, "Let's try to clear the game first and see if we can find a way to destroy this game."

"Okay," Xu Shulou opened the box he had snatched and looked at the red and blue potions inside, "I'll try it first."

She tilted her head back and drank a tube of blue potion. She watched the blue bar representing her physical strength flash and increase to the full value. Only then did she feel relieved and distributed the stuff to her fellow junior brothers and sisters.

After the three of them had replenished their supplies, they continued on their way and soon encountered a giant bird. After feeding it bread, it picked up the three people by their collars, flew up and took them to the bird's nest on the giant tree.

There were a few cute little birds in the bird's nest, as well as a sloppy-drawn living person. The person looked at Xu Shulou and the other two, stunned for a moment, then rushed over crying, "Wahahahaha, are you, are you also living people? Were you swept in by the small building in the film and television city? Save me!"

"..." Xu Shulou stared at his scribbled face for a long time before he could barely recognize him from his clothes. "Are you a staff member? You showed me the way when I asked about Yu Xing."

"Hahaha, it's me, it's me!" The man was surprised, "Beautiful girl, you came in too?"

"Well, have you seen the missing martial arts director Yu Xing?"

“Hahaha, no, I thought I was having a nightmare at first,” the man shook his head. “I’ve played a lot of games and have some experience. I barely made it to this level, but my health bar is almost empty. I don’t dare to leave, so I’ve been staying in this bird’s nest. Can you take me with you?”

"Okay," Xu Shulou motioned for him to follow, "Let's leave now."

"Haha, wait a minute," the man stopped him, "The mother bird here comes to feed her baby birds every few hours. I'll open my mouth and wait here. The mother bird will also stuff a worm into my mouth. The worm can replenish my blood a little. Do you want to eat some too?"

"...No," Xu Shulou opened the box, "We have medicine here."

The man opened his mouth wide: "Wahahaha, how come you are so rich?"

Xu Shulou said casually: "I robbed an NPC."

“Hahaha, there’s such a thing?” The man wolfed down the red tube of medicine. “Thank you, thank you, I’m starving. By the way, why don’t you make these weird noises before you speak?”

"Try to overcome."

The man nodded. The fact that he was the only one who laughed so strangely seemed to make him a little embarrassed to speak.

The four of them set out on their journey in silence, climbing along the vines hanging from the giant tree. When they reached the highest point and saw that there was no way forward, they jumped onto a nearby cliff.

There was a river not far away. The staff they brought with them stretched their legs down to explore and suddenly screamed.

Xu Shulou quickly pulled him out. The man was holding his half-soft leg that was soaked in water and jumping on the ground in fear: "Wahahahaha, I dissolve in water, we dissolve in water!"

“…”

Bai Roushuang stood on the edge of the cliff and looked around. The mountains, rivers, and trees in the distance were all in cartoon style. When the wind blew, the green grass swayed like a stop-motion animation. Coupled with the staff members who were waving their arms in the wind on the edge of the cliff and occasionally exclaiming "Wow, Hahaha" in fear, and Xu Shulou who was holding him with one hand and shaking him in an attempt to dry him, there was a kind of weird beauty.