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Chapter 338: 337: Single-person Assessment Task!
Chapter 338: 337: Single-person Assessment Task!
Chapter 338: 337: Single-person Assessment Task!
[Assessment task begins, this is a solo task, all team-based tools are ineffective!]
[Ding, detecting multiple worldviews in your mind, searching…]
[Your worldview has been matched with the known world and most upcoming worlds would be presented based on what you perceive!]
[This task’s world is: Ghost Lady]
[Task 1: Slay three major demons, rewarded with one point of merit.]
[Task 2: Ensure Ning Caichen isn’t beaten in the Guobei County government office, rewarded with one point of merit.]
[Task 3: Ensure Ning Caichen successfully meets Fu Qingfeng, rewarded with one point of merit.]
[After completing all three tasks, you can apply to return to the Heavenly Court.]
The moment Du Gang enters the peripheral waiting area of the task world, he is bombarded with a series of tasks.
This time, it is a solo assessment task, with only him participating, and no one will come in for ten minutes.
“Ghost Lady?”
Du Gang was taken aback but not overly surprised. The main world reflects all heavens and in other small worlds, it’s quite normal for various crossover characters and stories to exist.
There’s more than one character from the novels, films, and animations he’s seen.
Regardless, he has to seriously complete the task.
While the purple force below is invading, he starts pondering on the task.
“Ghost Lady has four versions of its first part alone…”
Du Gang looks at the three tasks and mumbles, “Guobei County, I remember, both the second and fourth versions have a Guobei County…”
He quickly noticed task three, “Fu Qingfeng, this is a character from the sequel of the second version, which means this task world might be the first version…”
“It’s not guaranteed, there could be some discrepancies…”
After all, this is the task world, not traveling to the movie world. Some differences are possible.
“Anyhow, I’ll find out once I enter the world!”
After waiting ten minutes, the purple force below slowly enters, looks like…
“Like game progress loading?”
Du Gang paused, it indeed looks like the loading bar at the bottom of the League of Legends, ten minutes, just about one hundred percent…
Perhaps this so-called task world was created by the Heavenly Court?
However, even if it wasn’t, it’s perfectly normal for a Ghost Lady world to exist at the same time.
Without mentioning how many God Spirits there are, even Sector Lords can create small worlds within their bodies, regardless of their size, they’re still small worlds.
How many Sector Lords are there on the Primordial Continent?
Countless!
Even in the hundreds of millions would be an understatement, even the term trillions seems a bit less, not only does the Primordial Continent possess such strong individuals, other smaller worlds can also harbor such powerhouses!
The most terrifying thing is, those deceased Sector Lords also once created small worlds, so counting these, there are countless worlds, far more than ten thousand.
And with the ability of the Heavenly Court, it’s too easy to change a small world and evolve it according to the direction of the movies in his mind.
“Also, there’s no mention of incarnation mode this time, so that means I’m entering with my own body, in which case…”
Du Gang breaks into a smile, with his current strength of being number one in the Human Ranking, who can resist his actual body entering the world?
“Whoosh!”
A purple light flashes and Du Gang is now in the task world.
He stands in a wasteland, surrounded by wild grasses. Not far from his feet, a crumbling stone appears in front of his eyes, with ‘Guobei County’ inscribed on it.
“Logically speaking, the plot should have just begun, right?!”
He believes that since the Heavenly Court can evolve the world into the films in his mind, there is no reason not to give him a complete experience.
He looks up at the sky, it has become dim and the surroundings appear gloomy.
“Just started, isn’t this when Ning Caichen just arrived in Guobei County? I remember it was already daylight when he arrived…”
Wait a minute!
Du Gang revisits the memory in his mind and discovers that before the plot begins, there’s a prequel about an unknown scholar being seduced by Xiao Qian and then swallowed by Granny Tree Sprite.
“From this perspective, current events might be syncing with the beginning of the plot?”
Lanruo Temple!
Du Gang thinks for a moment, if he goes to Lanruo Temple now, he might even be able to watch the beginning scene.
“However, where is Lanruo Temple?”
Du Gang frowns, the stone inscribing ‘Guobei County’ is right here, so the direction behind the stone is naturally Guobei County and can be excluded. Apart from here, there are three other directions.
In one of the directions, directly opposite Guobei County, is a dirt road with some footprints imprinted.
“This road can be eliminated too, Lanruo Temple has been desolate for quite a while…”
Then, he starts surveying the other two directions.
On the left, there’s also a dirt road, though not many people traverse it, it’s still clear that it’s a road.
He quickly moved forward and crouched down to observe the footprints on the ground.
“There are footprints coming and going, which means this road is relatively safe!”
Next, he goes to the right, which is a bit different with wild grass covering the ground, about three to four inches deep. However, in the middle, some of the grass is lower, only a few inches high. This indicates that people have traversed here before, but it’s been some time since anyone last passed through.
He takes a step forward and watches carefully. He can vaguely see some footprints still retaining their outlines on the ground.
“A one-way track, looks like it’s this way!”
Guobei County is next to Lanruo Temple, he is certain that walking towards the right will bring him to Lanruo Temple.
Du Gang doesn’t hesitate, he strides off to the right.
After a short walk, he encounters a low hill, a hill you would almost not notice from a distance. At the foot of this hill, there’s a clearly maintained mountain path.
“Hehe, this untrodden wilderness has been tidied up. Interesting!”
Following the mountain path upward, he soon saw the sign of Lanruo Temple and the gloomy, dilapidated temple itself.
“Thud!”
Du Gang lightly stepped forward, not entering the door, but leaping straight onto the rooftop, peering inside.
The whole inner courtyard was littered with fallen leaves, and there was a flickering light in one room, moving back and forth.
“Ting Ting Ting~~!”
Suddenly, a wind chime sounded, and an almost imperceptible presence rapidly approached from afar.
Was this the part where Granny devours people?
Du Gang squinted his eyes and wondered, “If I save this scholar, will there be an extra reward?”
He decided to act immediately. Like a wild goose, he skimmed across the courtyard with seemingly effortless grace but remarkable speed, stopping before the door of the lit room.
“Creak!”
Not knowing how to go through walls or turn invisible, he saw no need for secrecy and walked straight inside.
As soon as he entered, he saw a scholar lying on the floor, his eyes glazed over, oblivious to the intrusion.
On top of him was a woman in white, draped in gauzy cloth.
The woman’s clothes were disheveled, her bone-white shoulders exposed, and her long black hair cascading onto the floor.
On hearing the noise, she turned her head, and her face changed when she saw Du Gang, showing a touch of surprise.
It was clear that she hadn’t detected Du Gang’s presence initially.
Although Du Gang wasn’t skilled in going invisible or traversing walls, he could perfectly conceal his aura.
These creatures could locate people by sensing their breath. From her perspective, there shouldn’t have been anyone outside.
“Wow, she’s beautiful!”
Du Gang noticed that although this Xiao Qian looked different from her depiction in films, her beauty surpassed it. Her skin was as smooth as jade, lips red-hot, her bosom veiled by white cloth. Even he felt a slight flame in his heart on seeing her, let alone the scholar.
Of course, given his cultivation, he immediately extinguished this nascent flame of desire.
“Ting Ting Ting!”
Just as he was preparing to take action, something that looked like a tree root, essentially a tongue, shoot through the window, flying rapidly towards the scholar on the ground.
“Hmph!”
Du Gang, noticing this, naturally wouldn’t stand by. He leaped forward and threw a punch.
“Boom!”
The tongue, just about to reach the scholar, was struck by Du Gang’s punch. It crumbled into a dead vine and dropped to the ground.
“Who goes there?!!”
A masculine-feminine roar echoed from afar, followed by an even more fierce presence rapidly closing in.
“Puff!”
The gorgeous woman on top of the scholar pushed him away, who was just getting bold ideas. She flew into the air.
“Splash!”
She dived straight out the window, showing no intention to fight.
Xiao Qian is pretty clever!
Du Gang smiled faintly. He had thought the woman would fight him, but she escaped instead.
He didn’t give chase. The moment Xiao Qian jumped out, another vine shot into the room.
“Hehe, you can’t just appear and not show yourself, can you?”
Du Gang sneered, mimicking an axe with his hand. He swung forward, chopping down the vine in midair.
“Bang!”
An axe shadow appeared out of thin air, cleaving the vine in half. It then expanded across the surroundings, reaching the outside.
“Stop!”
Before the shadow of the axe could follow the vine to its source, the androgynous voice rang out again.
The suspended vine abruptly lost its support and fell to the ground.
“Who are you? Why did you intrude into my room? Where’s the lady from just now?”
Finally, the scholar jolted awake. As the haze in his eyes dispersed, he regarded Du Gang with caution.
Du Gang glanced at him, lightly flicked a finger, and a small air pellet shot out, hitting the scholar’s head.
“Crack!”
With a soft thud, the scholar’s eyes rolled back, and he immediately passed out.
Du Gang controlled his strength, just enough to knock him out and save himself the trouble. Without pause, he leaped forward and emerged into the courtyard in an instant.
In front of him, Xiao Qian was slightly behind a tall woman in black robe, wearing a black crown shaped like a fish tail, with a pale face.
This woman, the black-robed woman, was the Granny Tree Sprite.
She indeed was a tree sprite as in the ’87 version of Ghost Lady.
At this moment, Du Gang did not take his opponent seriously, and even had the leisure to ponder about the plot of the film.
“Who’s this stinky Taoist who dares to mess with me?!”
Granny roared, her eyes glaring at Du Gang menacingly, seemingly ready to attack.
However, she got it wrong. Du Gang wasn’t wearing the attire of a Taoist priest, but to her, any powerful figure had to be a Taoist.
She’s bluffing!
Du Gang sniffed disdainfully. This woman obviously couldn’t gauge his depth. Therefore, she didn’t dare to take action. Otherwise, she would have struck against anyone else, even Yan Chixia, never trying to intimidate them like this.
Should I kill this Granny?!
He didn’t rush into action, but started to think.
Having experienced the Red World, he had become more cautious, fearing a possible trap in the task.
Task one: Slay three major demons. That was straightforward, and the granny in front of him might be one of them.
He didn’t linger on the first task, but moved on to the second.
Task 2: Ensure Ning Caichen was not beaten at the Guobei County government office, the reward is a little bit of merit.
Ensure Ning Caichen was not beaten at the Guobei County Government Office?
With a little thought, he remembered what the plot was about. It was the development where Yan Chixia and Ning Caichen met, and Yan Chixia mistakenly killed a ghost, which led Ning Caichen to treat him as a murderer and report to the officials.
If this was the case, he would have to make sure the original plot remained unchanged and allow Ning Caichen to smoothly carry out his part.
While he was thinking, Granny spoke, “Xiao Qian, you go try him out!”
This old witch was clever, she wasn’t going to try anything herself but sent Xiao Qian instead.
Controlled by Granny’s spell, Xiao Qian didn’t dare to disobey. Despite discerning that this man was not simple, she rushed towards Du Gang.
“Slap!”
Just as she was about to reach Du Gang, she was caught by the neck with a slap from him.
“Let go of me!”
Xiao Qian was shocked, extremely fearful. She wanted to use spells to free herself but found that her soul power was out of control and could not use any techniques.
Du Gang, who was holding her, had a faint feeling that as soon as he released his divine power, he would burn the person in front of him to ashes.
Of course, he didn’t do that. To be on the safe side, he didn’t plan to disrupt the plot. His visit was firstly to identify which version of Ghost Lady this was, as he knew there were already four editions.
Secondly, he wanted to see if there were extra rewards for saving a condemned person.
Now, it’s been several seconds. The scholar who should have been dead was still alive, but he didn’t hear any system voice. This meant that saving a condemned person didn’t grant any extra rewards.
Meanwhile, some movement came from the distance accompanied by a dark aura, similar to Xiao Qian’s, indicating the arrival of the bunch of female ghosts under Granny’s control.
After a moment, Du Gang nonchalantly threw Xiao Qian away.
“Bang!”
Without control, she slammed into the courtyard wall with the impact leaving a huge hole.
“What happened?”
“Sister Xiao Qian got beaten up!”
A series of subdued voices echoed as a group of extravagantly dressed beautiful women turned up in the courtyard.
“Granny, who is this man? How come Xiao Qian…”
Granny didn’t answer them, instead, she squinted her eyes at Du Gang, then told the ghost crowd, “You all go and assist Xiao Qian, take him down for me!”
She still didn’t dare to take action herself, not knowing Du Gang’s capabilities. She wanted these female ghosts to test him out.
Her survival so far was simply because she knew that these Taoists only had limited magical power, which once exhausted, would render them ordinary and vulnerable.
The female ghosts didn’t refuse. Seeing Xiao Qian just being thrown away, they assumed the Taoist in front of them was just slightly stronger than Xiao Qian. With their combined forces, they could surely take him down.
“Whoosh!”
“Whoosh!”
“Whoosh!”
The female ghosts were light as a feather, swift as the wind, they charged towards Du Gang with an air of perfume and refreshing breeze.
Du Gang completely ignored their attacks, looked around, and picked out the most inconspicuous one among the group of female ghosts and struck with his palm.
“Boom!”
His attack, later but faster, hit the midair female ghost in an instant.
“Bang!”
A loud explosion signified that the female ghost couldn’t even scream and simply dissipated into nothingness, her soul completely shattered.
Though he felt it was unlikely, Du Gang still gave it a try.
No extra reward for killing female ghosts!
By this time, other people’s attacks finally arrived.
But at this point, Du Gang no longer had any murderous intentions. He had only killed a ghost to see if there was any extra reward. Upon getting the answer, he naturally didn’t want to make another move.
He wanted the plot to follow the movie. What if he killed these ghosts and caused the plot to deviate which could hinder his completion of tasks two and three?
He didn’t forcefully confront these attacks. He was sure that these ghosts would not harm him, but being hit would be quite a blow to his ego.
So…
“Boom!”
An aura exploded from his body.
The surrounding female ghosts were repelled instantly, they were flung in all directions, which included their white silk banners and long swords used for their attacks.
Such an impressive aura!
Granny’s face turned solemn. She didn’t expect this random person to have such a commanding aura, seeming even stronger than herself.
Little did she know, Du Gang didn’t only restrain himself from bursting out but didn’t even release all his basic combat power.
His combat power aura he just released, at most, was only around fifty or sixty thousand, and that alone made Granny somewhat wary.
His current strength was almost unrivalled in this task world, where the maximum combat power was only at the God Spirit Level!
The only thing that could constrain him was the tasks, failure to complete all three tasks would lead to his eradication by the Heavenly Court, no matter how powerful he was.
Therefore, killing was not his main choice. The goal was to complete the tasks!
After Du Gang swept away the ghosts, he turned around and entered the room. He approached the unconscious scholar, picked him up, glanced at Granny Tree Spirit, and left without saying a word the way he came in.
His speed was impressive. Covering hundreds of meters in a single step, he left Lanruo Temple in just a few strides and vanished from sight.
“Phew!”
He left!
Granny Tree Spirit released the breath she had been holding, and her tightly clenched toes slowly relaxed as they remained rooted in the ground.
Luckily, she didn’t attack. This Daoist probably wasn’t looking for her; he most likely just happened to pass by!
She felt somewhat relieved. If she had attacked, the result might have been uncertain. Fortunately, it didn’t come to that!
This was precisely what Du Gang wanted: to avoid making any unnecessary comment and maintain the illusion that he was just passing by to provent any changes in the plot.
“Granny, who was that man?!”
“Granny, why didn’t you stop him?!”
The surrounding female ghosts who were thrown aside, as well as Xiao Qian who crashed into a courtyard wall, all rushed to Granny’s side, bombarding her with questions.
Granny reluctantly said, “That Daoist was just passing by. He’s strong, and I might get hurt if I fight him…”
“What?!”
All of the surrounding female ghosts, including Xiao Qian, were taken aback and looked at Granny in disbelief.
In their eyes, Granny was the strongest. It didn’t matter whether it was a monk or a Daoist; over the years, many had died at the hands of Granny.
Who knew there could be someone whom even Granny feared.
Unfortunately, he left just like that…
Most of the ghosts seemed genuinely relieved, only Xiao Qian and a few other female ghosts had regret brimming in their eyes.
It was clear that they were all discontent living under Granny’s control.
Xiao Qian was not satisfied because she was relatively kindhearted and didn’t want to hurt people. As for the other ghosts’ intentions, that remained unknown.
They were trapped by Granny Tree Spirit and she was reaping all the benefits, their cultivation has not advanced an inch in over a hundred years. Those who want to escape Granny’s control might not necessarily be good ghosts; they could also be ghosts who wish to strike out on their own and become ghost kings…
After leaving Lanruo Temple, Du Gang returned to the stele in Guobei County and continued his earlier contemplation.
Task 3: Ensure that Ning Caichen meets Fu Qingfeng successfully, reward: one merit point.
“Task three requires me to ensure that Ning Caichen successfully meets Fu Qingfeng, does this mean, I need to ensure the plot progresses to the second part?!”
“No, it’s not only that!”
Du Gang squinted, “The precondition here is that I need to ensure Ning Caichen survives until the second part to meet Fu Qingfeng!”
“So, is this the trap within the task? While it appears the requirement is only for their meeting, the true goal is for me to protect Ning Caichen, not to let him die too early!”
“This means that the actual task world is filled with more dangers than in the movie, and these dangers are all aimed at Ning Caichen!”
“What I have to do is to prevent these threats from harming him, allowing him to follow the plot as expected and eventually meet Fu Qingfeng!”
After realizing everything, Du Gang showed a faint smile, “So, first, I need to find Ning Caichen!”
“I remember at the beginning of the movie, he takes shelter from the rain in a straw pavilion… at the Ten Mile Pavilion!”
As a cultivator who has reached the Nine Tribulations stage carrying seven God Spirits within him, his God Spirits can leave freely when not summoned by the Heavenly Court.
“Whoosh!”
A God Spirit flew out, hiding itself with Divine Thought, and flew along the main road.
“If you release one, you’re releasing them, if you release two, you’re still releasing them…”
Du Gang shook his head, “In that case, why not send them all!”
“Whoosh!”
“Whoosh!”
“Whoosh!”
After he spoke, one God Spirit after another emerged from his body and flew toward the predicted location.
One followed the main road to find Ning Caichen, one went to the left to scout, and one returned to Lanruo Temple to monitor the situation inside.
Another one flew towards the city, and the remaining three God Spirits stayed within his body, without straying too far away.
Du Gang closed his eyes and quietly waited.
When the distance isn’t too far, the information exchange between the God Spirits is quite swift, with almost no obstruction.
After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, he opened his eyes.
“Ning Caichen isn’t in the city; he hasn’t arrived yet!”
“Also, one of the God Spirits can be sent to the capital to see if the Centipede National Master who appears in the second part is there!”
Task number one is to kill three major demons, and according to his thoughts, Granny Tree Spirit, the Black Mountain Old Monster, and the Centipede National Master were just three.
“Whoosh!”
Of the three remaining God Spirits, one suddenly flew out and went in the direction of the capital.
“In the story, the Black Mountain Old Monster resides in the so-called Ghost Realm. At that time, Yan Chixia entered the Ghost Realm through a Yin Yang Inn…”
“Whoosh!”
With this thought, another God Spirit flew out from his body.
The God Spirit that flew out muttered, “I’m going to find the Ghost Realm!” and left straight away.
Only one God Spirit along with his physical body remained with Du Gang.
This is the benefit of possessing God Spirits. It’s like having multiple avatars who can do different things.
This was the first time he did this in the task world, and it seemed to work well.
“Next, as long as all scenes that appear in the plot are monitored, I just have to wait for the plot to progress!”