Chapter 84: The "Erosion of Authority" function unlocked. Thanks to the top-ranked God for the generous donation...

Using shadow puppets will interrupt the dungeon's Erosion casting; these two actions cannot be performed simultaneously.

[If the host wishes to use the shadow puppet, they can wait until the dungeon erosion cast bar finishes.]

Hearing the system's response, Zhou Fangdong had no choice but to patiently continue watching the live broadcast.

The situation in Fengrao Village is now quite clear. To summarize, the 'human sacrifice' and 'ancestor protection' practices in the village are real.

The Bone Heirs have their eyes on this village and want to start a blood sacrifice ritual here as a warm-up for the ritual to revive the consciousness of the evil god.

He Shunliang said that the strange people appearing in the village were probably referring to the group of cult members who were causing trouble in the village.

The troublemaking cult members were discovered by the villagers, and Fengrao Village then activated the power of 'ancestral protection' to hide the village.

The pregnant woman, Lin Yuanxin, who went to the supervisory bureau to report the case, was a member of the Bone-Succession Society cult and a potential blood sacrifice.

To prevent Lin Yuanxin from harming He Shunliang, the 'guardian spirit' on He Shunliang controlled his body, sending him back to the village and blurring Lin Yuanxin's memories, making it impossible for her to find He Shunliang or the village.

However, He Shunliang was eventually killed.

Lin Yuanxin used the people from the Supervisory Bureau to find the location of Fengrao Village, not only to kill He Shunliang, but also to meet up with the remaining cultists in the village and then start a blood sacrifice ritual in the village.

I have a feeling that Hong Zhong and his group are in a very dangerous situation... There are cultists hiding in the village, Lin Yuanxin pretending to be a victim, xenophobic villagers of Fengrao Village, and ghosts created by the main god's copy, among other threats.

Hopefully, the small round thing Hong Zhong threw down was a bugging device. At the very least, he should discover that Lin Yuanxin is a cult member, so we can stop being fooled by her.

In the live video from the system interface, after He Shunliang died, Lin Yuanxin still did not pull the dagger from his neck. Instead, she used the exposed blade of the dagger to cut her own finger.

Her blood flowed down the dagger, and scarlet runes emerged from the blade. Then the entire dagger began to emit a faint red glow, and He Shunliang, who had already lost all life, stood up again.

The resurrected corpse moved with stiff, uncoated movements, like a robot whose joints were not oiled.

After moving around a bit and getting used to his body, He Shunliang pulled the dagger from his neck.

As the dagger was removed from his body, the gruesome wound on his neck healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. The blood on his face and body also disappeared rapidly, and soon he looked no different from the He Shunliang he had at the beginning.

Lin Yuanxin stood up from the chair and respectfully addressed the corpse, saying, "High Priest."

He Shunliang nodded to her and handed her the dagger: "I already know about the God's Instance. Tell me what the system wants you to do and whether it will affect the upcoming ritual."

Lin Yuanxin shook her head: "It won't affect the ritual. The system doesn't have an erasure function. The countdown erasure I mentioned before entering the village was just to get those investigators to bring me into the village as soon as possible. My system mission is to hide my identity under the villagers' search and start the blood sacrifice ritual. The other believers in the village should have the same system mission as me."

He Shunliang looked at her with his hands behind his back: "It's not easy to find a suitable blood sacrifice. The ceremony at the abandoned amusement park in the northern suburbs has already failed. You can't afford any mistakes this time... You know where the ancestral hall in the village is, right? I'll go with you. We're just missing you there."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

When Zhou Fangdong saw He Shunliang come back to life and leave the He family with Lin Yuanxin, Hong Zhong and the other two had already arrived at a private house under the guidance of the middle-aged man.

Seeing that Hong Zhong remained calm and oblivious, Zhou Fangdong silently took out his phone.

He tried sending a message to Hong Zhong using his mobile phone.

Even though there was no signal in Fengrao Village, the message was still successfully sent.

Just as he had expected, the phone that had been modified by the system must have been connected by some kind of supernatural power, like ghost calls, so that the phone holders could exchange information no matter where they were.

Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief and began frantically typing on his phone, writing down all the information he knew and sending it to Hong Zhong.

In fact, even if Zhou Fangdong hadn't sent a text message to Hong Zhong, Hong Zhong would have known about it anyway.

What Hong Zhong threw under the threshold of He Shunliang's house was indeed a listening device. He not only heard Lin Yuanxin kill He Shunliang, but also heard that 'He Shunliang' had come back to life and that the two of them planned to go to the ancestral hall together.

Unexpectedly, these cult members were so audacious that they actually used the Bureau of Supervision to help them find the location of Fengrao Village.

At the same time, Hong Zhong also received a message from Zhou Fangdong.

The information on his phone matched everything he already knew... Although he already knew that the landlord was incredibly powerful, Hong Zhong was still terrified by this omniscient and omnipotent precognitive ability.

...These people are like little characters in a game, while the mysterious landlord is the player, observing their every move from a god-like perspective.

He felt utterly powerless; he didn't even want to imagine what would have happened if the landlord of Liwan Apartments hadn't been on their side.

Hong Zhongping calmed his turbulent emotions and glanced at the middle-aged villager next to him who was explaining the room layout to him.

We can't reveal that Lin Yuanxin and He Shunliang are cult members right now. These two are villagers, while the other three are outsiders, and the villagers will naturally side with Lin Yuanxin.

Even if there were wiretapped recordings, the villagers would likely believe that He Shunliang's resurrection was fabricated, as they had no evidence to prove that Lin Yuanxin had ever killed him.

If you confront them directly, you're likely to be restricted in your movements by these villagers, just like those three paranormal livestreamers who are imprisoned somewhere unknown.

Let's investigate secretly after this middle-aged man leaves.

But to Hong Zhong's surprise, just as the middle-aged man was about to leave, he suddenly stopped and stared at him.

Just as Hong Zhong thought he had broken some taboo and was secretly preparing for battle, he heard the middle-aged man ask, "Master, what do you do for a living? Besides being a bodyguard, do you also do cleaning?"

Hong Zhong was stunned, as if someone had suddenly punched him in the temple, and his brain abruptly stopped thinking.

What is this person saying? Why did they suddenly bring up cleaning services?

Then Hong Zhong saw the middle-aged man point to his chest: "King of Cleaning, since you have received this medal, your cleaning work must be exceptionally good, right? I have a cleaning job I'd like to ask you for help with. Would that be convenient?"

Hong Zhong looked down at the small badge of a person holding a trophy aloft that was hanging on his chest, paused for a moment, and then asked, "What kind of cleaning job?"

“Some strange people came to the village a while ago. After our ancestors dealt with them, their bloodstains and remains were left in the courtyard of the ancestral hall. Those remains have a kind of unclean feeling, and it feels wrong to leave them in front of the ancestral hall. The villagers don’t have much experience in dealing with corpses. I see that you are so professional, so I wanted to ask you for help… Of course, we will pay you.”

The middle-aged man suddenly became unusually candid, as if after seeing the "King of Cleaning" medal, he had developed complete trust in Hong Zhong and his goodwill towards him had reached its maximum. He had no other thoughts in his mind except to have Hong Zhong do the cleaning work.

Hong Zhong, who had originally planned to sneak into the ancestral hall, agreed without hesitation after the middle-aged man gave him a reason to go there.

Although the reason is a bit bizarre, they can now openly investigate the village ancestral hall without being afraid of being discovered by the villagers.

Zhou Fangdong hadn't expected Hong Zhong's "King of Cleaning" badge to have this effect.

He asked the system curiously, "Does Hong Zhong's 'King of Cleaning' badge give a favorability bonus?"

[Sort of. When someone needs cleaning services, they will subconsciously ask the badge wearer for help upon seeing the badge.]

So that's how it is. No wonder that villager suddenly trusted Hong Zhong so much, and even openly revealed that there was a corpse in the village ancestral hall.

After hearing that Hong Zhong had agreed to the cleaning job, the middle-aged man seemed very happy and clearly relieved.

He took a small cloth bag made of coarse cloth from his pocket and handed it to Hong Zhong: "Take this with you when you do cleaning work. You can enter the ancestral hall smoothly, and the villagers won't make things difficult for you."

Hong Zhong took the cloth bag: "My two companions are also professional cleaners. I need them to help me. Could you please give me two more cloth bags?"

Although Li Zhe and Duan Wenyu didn't understand why the villagers would suddenly hire Hong Zhong as a cleaner, neither of them criticized their team leader.

Seeing the middle-aged man looking over, one of them raised his arms, showing off his muscles in a bodybuilding pose, while the other stretched out his leg and did a lunge, placing his fist against his chin in a Thinker pose, showing that they were 'very professional'.

Hong Zhong wanted to facepalm at the sight.

Why would a cleaning lady show off her muscles? That's highly suspicious.

The middle-aged man also looked somewhat puzzled. But perhaps because Hong Zhong's "King of Cleaning" medal was so prestigious, he only hesitated for a moment before taking out two more cloth bags and handing them to Li Zhe and Duan Wenyu respectively.

He then told Hong Zhong how to get to the village ancestral hall and where the cleaning tools were located before leaving in a hurry.

After watching the middle-aged man leave, Hong Zhong breathed a sigh of relief and said to the two men, "Duan Wenyu, you stay. Your internship assessment is suspended. The simultaneous appearance of a main god instance and cultists in Fengrao Village is too dangerous for you. Li Zhe, quickly pack your equipment; let's go to the ancestral hall."

“Captain Hong, I can help too.” Duan Wenyu called out to Hong Zhong, “I have a talisman and amulet that the landlord gave me, so I should be able to save my life.”

Just as Hong Zhong was about to persuade him to stay, he received another message from Zhou Fangdong.

Zhou Fangdong, who had a holistic view, knew how strange this village was and that it would be even more dangerous for Duan Wenyu to be alone. Therefore, he directly sent a text message to Hong Zhong, telling Duan Wenyu to follow them.

After receiving Zhou Fangdong's instructions, Hong Zhong said nothing more and took Duan Wenyu with him. The three of them headed towards the ancestral hall.

Because they were delayed by talking to the middle-aged man, by the time Hong Zhong and the other two arrived at the ancestral hall, Lin Yuanxin had already brought the resurrected 'He Shunliang' to the front of the ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall in the village is the most exquisite building in the village, and it is completely different from the villagers' houses made of rammed earth.

In the very center of the village is a pond with flowing water, and a solemn ancestral hall stands beside the pond.

The ancestral hall is made of flat blue bricks, and large granite blocks were used directly for the foundation to prevent moisture.

Firewalls shaped like official hats stand on both sides of the ancestral hall. The walls have smooth lines. Although the reliefs on the top of the walls have become somewhat blurred after years of wind and rain, the shapes of auspicious clouds and mythical beasts can still be discerned.

The ancestral hall has three doors: one main door and two side doors. A pair of stone lions stand at the foot of the stone steps in front of each door.

Although Lin Yuanxin was the one who knew Fengrao Village well, He Shunliang was unwilling to walk behind her. After arriving at the ancestral hall, he went straight to the central gate and tried to push it open.

Lin Yuanxin wanted to stop it, but it was too late.

The main gate of the ancestral hall in Fengrao Village is only opened for important events such as sacrificial rites or the recording of family genealogies. Villagers enter and exit the ancestral hall through the side gate.

The moment He Shunliang's hand touched the middle gate, the two stone lions at the entrance suddenly moved.

Black chains emerged from the stone lion's mouth and wrapped around He Shunliang's body. At the same time, a deep, indistinct male voice boomed like thunder: "Unfilial descendant, disrespectful to your ancestors, kneel down."

Bound by chains, He Shunliang's knees slammed heavily onto the ground.

His expression was a mixture of surprise and embarrassment, as if he had never expected that this small, dilapidated village, which was used as a ritual consumable by the Heirs Society, would have the power to bind him.

Just as He Shunliang's expression grew increasingly gloomy, the side door on the right side of the ancestral hall suddenly opened, and an old woman who looked like him walked out from inside.

The old woman looked at He Shunliang with a heavy expression and said to the person inside the door, "My son has also been possessed by evil spirits. I don't know if it's a system or a cult that possesses him. Lock him under the ancestral tablets and let him be purified."

He Shunliang initially tried to struggle, but when he heard the old woman say that she was going to lock him up near the ancestral tablet, he suddenly calmed down and let the villagers who came out from the side door escort him into the ancestral hall.

Before leaving, he glanced at Lin Yuanxin.

Lin Yuanxin nodded obediently.

After the villagers escorted He Shunliang away, the old woman's gaze fell on Lin Yuanxin: "Come in too, my good daughter-in-law."

Lin Yuanxin pursed her lips and followed the old woman into the ancestral hall.

Not long after those people entered the ancestral hall, Hong Zhong and his two companions arrived.

Following the middle-aged man's instructions, they entered the ancestral hall through the left side door.

The ancestral hall in Fengrao Village has a three-courtyard layout. After entering through the side gate, you will reach the outer courtyard. You must then go through a second gate to reach the inner courtyard of the ancestral hall.

Upon entering the inner courtyard, Hong Zhong and the others saw the corpses on the blue brick floor.

The middle-aged man was right; these corpses did indeed need to be cleaned by professional cleaners.

The severed limbs and remains were almost entirely in the form of flesh and blood, nearly blending into the blue bricks on the ground. Many bone fragments were also tightly lodged in the gaps between the bricks, making it difficult to clean them all with ordinary sweeping.

Moreover, judging from the state of the corpses in the courtyard, it looked as if some heavy object had fallen from the sky and smashed everyone in the inner courtyard into a pulp.

Hong Zhong subconsciously looked up at the sky.

The supernatural power in Fengrao Village was even more terrifying than he had imagined.

Hong Zhong led Li Zhe and Duan Wenyu to the west wing to find cleaning tools... Although they were there to investigate, the cleaning work on the surface could not be neglected, otherwise it would be difficult to explain to the villagers.

Just as the three of them entered the west wing, the old woman had already locked up Lin Yuanxin and the other villagers in the east wing opposite.

These villagers imprisoned in the east wing are all players chosen by the main god.

The main god descended upon this village not to select players, but purely to annoy the 'evil god' who provoked it yesterday.

Therefore, the main god specifically separated the villager players and cultist players in this instance and divided them into two camps according to their identities.

Its original intention was to use the dungeon to provide clues, help the villagers find the cultists hiding in the village, and stop those cultists from performing the ritual of reviving the evil god.

However, the villagers chosen as players were treated as possessed by evil spirits, and were all discovered by the 'ancestor' and locked in the east wing of the ancestral hall. They were not allowed to go to find the cultists, and couldn't even leave the ancestral hall.

However, even without the 'help' of the main god, the villagers of Fengrao Village, with the help of their ancestors, still managed to find villagers who were acting strangely—either they had been brainwashed by cultists or their identities had been replaced by cultists using supernatural props.

These cult members, along with 'He Shunliang' who had just been taken away, were taken to the backyard to prepare for purification by their ancestors.

In the main hall in the backyard, the ancestral tablets of all the ancestors of Fengrao Village are placed, arranged in a tiered manner. The names of the ancestors are written in gold powder on the shiny black wooden tablets, and the densely packed tablets are like pairs of eyes, watching the 'unworthy descendants' kneeling below.

The so-called purification is to allow the spirits of ancestors who have no descendants to attach themselves to these people... According to the villagers' simple idea, as long as they carry enough ancestors on their bodies, they will not be controlled by other evil spirits. Even if they are brainwashed by cults, even if they are cult members, they can be transformed back into villagers of Fengrao Village.

As villagers of Fengrao Village, bloodline is not important; what matters is the protection of our ancestors... As long as we are bound by our ancestors, we are all of the same lineage.

Those that cannot be purified will be dragged to the inner courtyard and subjected to annihilation by the ancestors.

That's how the fleshy remains that stained the blue bricks in the inner courtyard came about.

He Shunliang knelt before the memorial tablets, looking at them that emitted a black aura.

Because this body had died once, all the 'ancestors' he carried had returned to their ancestral tablets.

The villagers only possess the ability to bear the supernatural, but not the power to communicate with it. They can only obtain warnings from their ancestor through sacrifices and the Holy Grail, and cannot learn in time about He Shunliang's resurrection.

The villagers personally brought the most dangerous things into the ancestral hall.

Looking at the memorial tablets, He Shunliang suddenly laughed.

We've found him! The true ancestor of Fengrao Village was right to come in person.

"Let the blood sacrifice ritual begin." After uttering these words, 'He Shunliang,' who had been kneeling on the ground, suddenly collapsed. A gruesome, penetrating wound appeared out of nowhere on his neck, and blood gushed from the wound, staining the floor of the bedchamber red.

The villagers guarding the sleeping quarters were all frightened by this sudden situation. In order to prevent the blood from soiling the ancestral tablets, they hurriedly carried the corpse out and temporarily relaxed their restraints on the villagers who were preparing to undergo purification.

The cultists and brainwashed villagers who had been kneeling on the ground obediently accepting purification seized the opportunity and suddenly sprang up, rushing out of the door at an extremely fast speed.

In the midst of the chaos, no one noticed that a shadow had broken away from He Shunliang's corpse and disappeared beneath the ancestral tablets placed on the steps, into a hidden underground space.

Lin Yuanxin, who was locked in the east wing, also sensed something and said to the old woman standing at the door, "Mom, I'm going to keep A-Liang company first. After we leave, you must believe in the gods. After A-Liang and I are resurrected, our family can live happily under the protection of the gods."

After saying that, without even looking at the old woman's reaction, he took out a talisman from his pocket and stuck it on his chest.

The next moment, Lin Yuanxin disappeared from the east wing.

When she reappeared, she was already in the sky above the inner courtyard.

Lin Yuanxin's body slammed heavily onto the mangled corpses, nearly hitting Hong Zhong and the other two who were carrying cleaning tools.

The talisman on her chest condensed into a red light, like a spear, and pierced straight through her body.

Blood spilled onto the ground, and at the same time, other cultists with talismans on their chests appeared out of thin air in the inner courtyard, falling one after another around Lin Yuanxin's body.

They all died in the same way: their bodies were pierced by talismans. What was even more bizarre was that they showed no fear on their faces, but rather wore satisfied smiles, like martyrs.

Thirteen corpses lay in a circle in the inner courtyard, their blood flowing rapidly across the ground, outlining a rune array.

Hong Zhong could not possibly stand by and watch the blood rune array be completed.

Although he didn't know what had happened, he could tell that Lin Yuanxin was in charge of the talisman array. So he rushed into the array at top speed, trying to tear off the talisman on Lin Yuanxin's chest.

The situation was urgent, and Hong Zhong didn't even have time to take any protective measures.

The instant Hong Zhong charged into the talisman array, the room key hanging on his chest instantly became scalding hot. The next moment, his body changed—his skin turned two shades darker, and the bones in his fingers twisted and deformed, protruding from the tips in sharp cone shapes, as if he had grown sharp nails.

Then, his hand, which resembled a cat's paw, broke through the invisible barrier as easily as cutting tofu, and smoothly reached Lin Yuanxin's chest, tearing off the talisman from her chest.

The talisman turned into black ash the moment Hong Zhong grasped it in his palm, and the blood flow on the ground noticeably slowed down.

Just as Hong Zhong was about to do the same to tear off the talismans from the other corpses, an overwhelming sense of nausea suddenly welled up inside him.

It's like when you first started working and jumped into a dry toilet to rescue a drunkard who had accidentally fallen into the cesspool; or like searching for evidence in the rotten garbage and swill of the sewers in the summer… These feelings piled up and were amplified infinitely. That's how Hong Zhong feels right now.

He felt his mental fortitude had been greatly weakened by an invisible force, to the point that he couldn't even force himself to endure it. His only thought was to escape the range of the rune array. Then his body acted instinctively, completely ignoring the commands of his brain.

By the time Hong Zhong realized what was happening, he had already moved far away from the talisman array, but the nauseating feeling he had was still there.

Just as he was leaning against the wall, retching, the wounds on the corpses within the ground rune array stopped bleeding and were replaced by a viscous, black substance. This oil-like black substance, like spring water gushing from a spring, emerged from the wounds and slowly overlapped with the rune array on the ground.

The runes are slowly turning from red to black, and the blood that outlines the runes is being replaced by that dark substance.

As Hong Zhong's physical appearance changed, Zhou Fangdong noticed that the progress bar for the erosion instance in Fengrao Village had increased significantly out of nowhere, surpassing Zhao Dawei and his team's mall instance and successfully completing the erosion.

It was midday, the sun was at its brightest, but suddenly the sky darkened.

Several shrill meows suddenly rang out, and then countless small black cats emerged from Hong Zhong's sleeves, collar, hem, and trouser legs, and began to run quickly on the ground.

The tiny black cats, no bigger than a palm, ran around the rune array in the middle of the ground, and the corpses with black substances oozing from their wounds suddenly began to tremble.

The wounds that originally only reached the chest of the corpses began to slowly slide down, like a zipper turning all the corpses into disemboweled figures. Then, large clumps of black, yarn-like mist poured out from inside the corpses.

The balls of yarn transformed into countless mice. Upon seeing the 'mice' appear, the little black cats that had run out from Hong Zhong's body all had green eyes and began to meow as they hunted the mice.

As the cat hunted the mouse, the rune array, which had turned from red to black, began to turn red again, and Hong Zhong felt the nausea in his heart subsiding.

He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that these strange cats must be the landlord's help.

The unknown talisman array had been brought under control. Hong Zhong quickly called Li Zhe and Duan Wenyu and led them to the east wing to check it out.

He needed to find the remaining cultists hiding in the shrine; it wouldn't be good if they created another talisman array to summon something terrible.

We still need to find the source of the supernatural phenomenon in this village... It feels very dangerous that these villagers possess such a terrifying power that can easily crush humans into mincemeat.

However, before the three of them could enter the east wing, the villagers guarding the east wing rushed out, each of them dragging a chain that was formed from black mist and had no physical form.

On the other side, a group of fanatical cultists rushed over from the direction of the rear palace, their target being the slowly fading rune array on the ground of the inner courtyard.

A group of villagers, also dragging chains, followed behind the fanatical cultists.

Hong Zhong and his group became the focus of attention for the three parties. What was even more critical was that at that moment, all three of them felt the small cloth bag that the middle-aged man had given them was faintly warming up.

The small cloth bag that allowed them to enter the ancestral hall seemed to act as some kind of medium, slowing their movements as if an invisible chain was binding them.

The little black cats on the ground acted as if they hadn't seen anyone coming, completely ignoring Hong Zhong and the other two, and continued to happily catch the rats that emerged from the corpses.

Just as those people were getting closer and closer to Hong Zhong and his group, a low growl like thunder suddenly came from the sky above.

Everyone present froze for a moment, instinctively looking up.

The sky wasn't darkening; rather, a gigantic cat made of black mist blocked the sun. Its paws rested on the firewall of the ancestral hall, its head peeking out from above the hall's main gate, its eerie green eyes curiously observing the courtyard, as if watching mice in a mouse hole.

Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief when Hong Zhong finished casting the erosion spell on his side.

The blood sacrifice ceremony in the inner courtyard of the ancestral hall has been interrupted and failed. There is no need to worry about the resurrection ceremony of the evil god in the northern suburbs.

After marking all the cult members and having the cat ghost deal with them, Zhou Fangdong stopped paying attention to whether the cat ghost was playing or eating, and began to observe Hou San's situation.

Hou San is in some danger; the thing attached to 'He Shunliang' has already approached him.

That thing is similar to the slime body captured by Zhou Fangdong; it is a fully formed evil god clone with self-thinking capabilities.

Just now, after it detached from 'He Shunliang's' body and crawled under the memorial tablet, it went directly to the hidden underground space of the ancestral hall and manipulated a corpse in the underground space to stand up.

The location of the evil god's clone was an underground passage, while Hou San's location was a secret room resembling a shrine.

The reason they knew the two of them were in the same place was because the evil god's clone that controlled the corpses appeared in the live broadcast video of Hou San's instance.

Each of the three raid groups' live stream videos for each instance is displayed on a separate system panel, and each panel provides a comprehensive monitoring view.

This evil god clone jumped directly from Hong Zhong's team's panel to Hou San's system panel, making it hard to miss.

Judging from Hou San's actions just now, his main god instance is a dungeon mechanism similar to the infinite escape room of Another Dimension Killing Array.

He needs to find a way out from one secret room, enter another, and then, based on all the clues in the secret rooms, find the real way to escape this instance.

This instance was modified by the main god based on the hidden underground space of Fengrao Village; all those secret rooms actually exist beneath the ancestral hall.

Although there were no clues or hints from the points system, Hou San always managed to steal a way out while sneaking around in the secret room.

Hou San originally came to buy goods. When he went for a stroll at the Sigu Society's stronghold, he overheard them planning to cause trouble in Fengrao Village.

He suspected that there might be something good in Fengrao Village that had attracted the cultists, so he decided to steal it before they caused any trouble.

The reason why the members of the Bone Inheritance Society have their eyes on Fengrao Village is precisely because of what's hidden in the space beneath this ancestral hall.

They coveted the ancestral spirits accumulated in Fengrao Village over the years and planned to sacrifice the entire village and their ancestral spirits to the evil god.

Those cultists prepared blood offerings on the ground as a warm-up for the resurrection ceremony.

The evil god's clone is searching underground for the source of the village's supernatural phenomena, intending to use it as the core energy for the revival ritual to activate the ceremony.

Then, due to the deity's deliberate spilling of oil, both rituals were exposed during the preparation period, and neither has been completed to this day.

After Hou San left the last secret room, he also came to a passageway.

The passageway floor was covered with corpses, each in a different degree of decomposition; the further in you went, the more skeletal the corpses became.

Above the passageway were densely packed yellow talismans, their weathering matching the decomposition of the corpses, becoming increasingly broken the further one went in.

Zhou Fangdong looked at the system panel, ready to use the shadow puppets at any time.

Zhao Dawei's dungeon erosion spell in the mall is almost finished, and Xiao Xiaoyu has already brought the situation under control, so there's nothing to worry about.

Right now, Hou San and the evil god's clone are located in two passageways, one on the left and one on the right. Both passageways lead to the same place, and he will inevitably encounter the evil god's clone sooner or later.

Zhou Fangdong had also encountered an evil god's clone before. That clone seemed weak because it appeared in the apartment. Zhou Fangdong was on his home turf, and with the system's help in capturing it, he directly controlled it with the [Shadow Soul Contract]. The clone didn't even have a chance to make a move.

But Hou San's situation is very dangerous; hopefully, he can be more vigilant.

As they approached the intersection, Hou San seemed to sense something and touched his chin.

The next instant, he disappeared into the passageway.

The evil god's clone seemed to have noticed something and quickly arrived at the intersection of the two passageways, but Hou San's figure had already disappeared.

Only a small piece of bone was found in the pile of rotting corpses.

Hou San had reached the end of the passageway.

The bones here are piled very high, and an elderly man sits naked on top of the pile.

Half of his body was rotting and festering, with countless tiny maggots crawling around in the rotten flesh and pus; the other half of his body was just bones, with only his heart still beating gently beneath his ribs.

Even in this state, the old man is still alive.

Hou San sighed, "It's really tough..."

Upon seeing Hou San's appearance, the old man remained calm: "Has my time of liberation finally come?"

"You're the source of those 'ancestral guardian spirits' in Fengrao Village, aren't you?" Hou San observed, and a pair of bluish-purple ghostly hands reached out from his chest. "Would you mind if we took that thing off your chest?"

The old man laughed: "You've already taken so much from the ancestral hall, you don't need to ask me about this anymore, right?"

Hou San smiled sheepishly, no longer bothering to be polite with the old man. He reached his ghostly hands directly into the old man's ribs and pulled out the still-beating heart.

Once the 'heart' was grasped by the ghostly hand, it transformed into a fist-sized, crystal-clear red jade stone.

The moment his heart left his body, the old man turned into a skeleton, scattered on the ground, merging with the white bones at the end of the passageway.

"Whoosh! Open the door!" Hou Sanxi rubbed the red jade in the ghost's hand with a smug look. "This thing can only be kept out of the eyes of others if it's in the landlord's possession. I have to hurry back."

Just as he was about to leave, a figure appeared in the direction of the tunnel exit.

The evil god's clone stared at Hou San, his face unusually grim: "Who are you? How did you get here?"

"Oh my, look at your expression. Anyone who didn't know better would think we'd killed your whole family," Hou San said with a grin. "First come, first served~ Don't be a sore loser."

The evil god's clone snorted coldly, "This kind of behavior, a player sent by the main god?"

Although Hou San didn't know what he was talking about, he didn't refute it.

The evil god's clone took it as tacit agreement: "Since you're here, don't leave."

“Indeed, since we’re already here, let’s not leave.” A third voice suddenly rang out in the passageway, and a dark figure emerged from behind Hou San.

Hou San nimbly hid behind Zhou Fangdong and presented the red jade stone that had been transformed from the heart as if it were a treasure.

Zhou Fangdong took it and put it into his inventory. Then, starting with zero frames, he used [Dead Zone Invasion] directly on the evil god clone in front of him.

This fully formed evil god clone was clearly stronger than the one in Penghu Home. The ghostly hands formed from the yin energy that emerged from the cracks couldn't drag him away; they only imprisoned him in place.

Seeing this, Zhou Fangdong took the opportunity to use the [Shadow Soul Contract], completely stripping the body of its power.

Unlike the slime in the apartment, after he used his skills to control this body, the evil god's clone instantly weathered into a pile of bones.

Before Zhou Fangdong could even ask, the system's electronic voice sounded:

[The corpse that the evil god's clone was just controlling was solidified from a supernatural artifact and is no longer usable. Congratulations, host, for capturing the evil god's clone.]

[Beep—Conditions met. The last function in the [Evil God Disguise] interface, [Erosion of Authority], is now activated.]

At the same time, the ghostly hands that emerged from the [Dead Zone Invasion] gap, having lost their target, tore a hole in the talismans above the passageway.

A tiny black cat, no bigger than a palm, fell off and landed face down on the ground.

The power of the cat demon spread to the underground of the ancestral hall, and Hou San's solo main god instance merged with Hong Zhong's group's instance.

Zhou Fangdong was relieved and put away the shadow puppets.

Next, just go back to the apartment and wait for the cat ghost to corrupt both main god instances.

Xiao Xiaoyu's erosion instance at the mall has also finished loading. After all three main god instances are eroded, she will receive at least six thousand ghost coins.

The main god first provided the location for the Bone Inheritance Ceremony, and then provided three instances.

While he was eroding the main god's instance, he was also able to stop the evil god's resurrection ritual and clean up the cultists at the same time... He was winning by leaps and bounds.

Hopefully, the main deity will continue its efforts to target evil gods.

The Cat Ghost and the Dismemberment Ghost will take some time to corrupt the dungeon. Zhou Fangdong checked the live video feed on the system interface and, after confirming that there was nothing he needed to do, opened the [Evil God Disguise] interface.

He was ready to see the effects of the newly unlocked [Erosion of Authority] feature.

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Author's note: The shop dungeon is almost finished. The next chapter will wrap it up, and then we'll take stock of the loot.