Chapter 2

“Is this the spirit stone?”

Tan Yu held a small white stone in his hand. It was beautifully sparkled as if it was the most precious treasure in the world. Even before the doomsday, such a stone would fetch for a high price.

Tang Yu was quite sure it was the spirit stone and not a precious gem, even though this was the first time Tang Yu ever saw it. As he held the stone in his hand, he felt warm energy overflowed from it.

The system instantly recognized the newly found stone as one unit of spirit stone, even the hunters couldn’t find it. He thought either the hunters weren’t as good as he expected, or they just didn’t have enough time to bring those stone during their escape attempt. He searched through several hunters’ body but couldn’t find anything good.

He extracted the spirit stone from a demonic beast. He had cut open several demonic beast head but this was the only spirit stone he found. His dagger skill was getting better as he continued cutting through the heads of demonic beasts.

As time passed by, Tang Yu began to worry for the worst case if he didn’t manage to find one hundred units worth of spirit stones. If any of the hunters survived and encountered him, they would definitely cheat and rob Tang Yu for his spirit stones.

As more time passed by, he found some food, just enough to fill his stomach as he needed the energy to continue his search. The condition in the villa area was better. He searched through most of the villa and found more than a dozen spirit stone in his hand.

“Shame, this amount is far from enough. I hope I can find enough spirit stones in this last villa.”

This one was a luxurious family villa which covered a larger area. This was the last villa in the eastern district. The whole villa area was divided into two districts, west and east. Although the western district’s area was larger, the distance was quite far from here. He had to travel west if he didn’t find enough stones in the eastern district. It’s simply not worth the risk.

He walked carefully to the villa garden, when suddenly…

“Ding! More than 100 units of spirit stones have been detected within 100 meters. Please collect them immediately. Ding!

The system’s voice rang inside his head, completely startled him. Usually, the system speaks with flat mechanical voice, but just now it unexpectedly spoke with a joyous tone. After he heard it, his face brightens as he said,

“Even the Gods couldn’t stop me!”

Although the villa was large, it still suffered heavy damage. As he walked inside the villa, he saw some deep crater which means it was hit by an explosive force. All the vegetation in the garden was scorched by the fire, littering what’s left of the garden with ashes.  

Tang Yu entered the villa from the broken wall, he saw the entire villa was in a complete mess. The door of one bedroom was left open, vaguely he catches a glimpse of a safe vault inside.

“Found it!”

He rushed forward to the bedroom door. Just as he was about to get inside, his legs froze. 

His pupils widen.

He saw a brown, wild boar-sized creature in the next room. Its fur expanded outward the body like steel spines, its back was facing Tang Yu as he noticed it was gnawing something.

Crack!

The sound of something broken by the creature echoed through the room.

Tang Yu held his breath, making as little noise as possible.

He recognized it as a demonic beast.

Unlike humans, animals who came in contact with the red fog turned into a demonic beast. The demonic steel rat in front of him was an ordinary rat demonized by the fog!

It was classified as the lowest rank within the demonic beast species, but it still possessed a deadly threat to Tang Yu!

He was about to step back when the demonic steel rat spotted him. Shrieking, it rushed towards Tang Yu like a deadly brown bundle.

This brown bundle was extremely fast, the steel spines on its fur gleamed. Overcoming his hesitation, Tang Yu realized there’s no escape!

His only chance of survival was to kill the demonic steel rat and get the spirit stones!

He watched as the frenzied demonic steel rat approached him. Although he only saw its rapid movement.

Thoughts flashed inside his head as he calmed down.

Thirty steps left… twenty steps… ten steps!

Tang Yu aimed the gun at the demonic steel rat. His holds tightened as it came closer and closer!

“Bang bang bang bang bang!”

Bullets were fired from the type 54 pistol. The bullets violently hit the demonic steel rat.

Tang Yu had never held a gun in his life but maybe because the target range was close, or he was simply too focused on it, all the five shots landed on its body.

The shot damaged the fur and skin of the demonic steel rat. Dark green blood was continuously seeping from the wounds. It was heavily injured and shrieked in pain, but a demonic beast had incredible strong vitality. Dangerous light flickered from the demonic steel rat’s eyes.

It no longer cared about its wound and continued charging at Tang Yu!

Tang Yu’s ferocity also rose rapidly. He threw away the now emptied pistols, pulled out his dagger and stabbed it mercilessly.

He stabbed brutally as green blood splattered everywhere, staining his arm and chest. Tang Yu felt numb, he just kept stabbing it over and over again.

When he calmed down, Tang Yu didn’t realize how many stabs he had given out to the demonic steel rat before it died in its own pool of blood.

“Ha… Ha…”

He panted. His arms were weary, his clothes tattered, and his skin full of scratch. The arm holding the dagger received a large number of scratches from the steel spines. Every time he moved, he flinched in pain.

Before he could even rest, his expression tensed again.

Outside the villa, the demonic beast howled.

He knew it was the gunshot noise that attracted the beast.

What approached was a humanoid demonic beast covered in grey and black fur. It was more than two meters tall and had sharp claws on each pair of its hands. Tang Yu saw more beast approached…

A large fiery scorpion also followed along.

As well as a huge black snake shrouded in green gas.

He was desperate. All the three demonic beasts, each were far on the different rank than the demonic steel rat he just killed earlier.

He had no power to eliminate them!

Tang Yu turned around and started running. Ignoring the pain, he ran toward the spirit stones and grabbed them all.

“Ding! One hundred and twenty-five units of spirit stones has been detected. The Lord has a total of 141 units of spirit stones. Would you like to build the Lord’s castle?”

“Build it now!”

The spirit stones instantly turned into small spots of light, it shone like a brilliant display of fireflies and disappeared. Tang Yu felt ached in his heart. That was probably the largest sum of “money” he ever had in his entire life.

The light and shadow danced brilliantly. All of a sudden, a gust of wind swept through the land while everything changed.

The once devastated villa disappeared, it was now being replaced by a classical building instead.

The floor was covered with red carpets, beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling.

The walls were adorned with either exquisite murals or encrusted with exalted crystals.

The furniture gave off a faint woody scent. He wasn’t familiar with the material wood used, but there were spacious leather sofas which could be used as beds.

Several vivid and lifelike statues decorated the hall.

A basketball-sized crystal hung down in the center of the hall.

Tang Yu froze at the luxury. How could he go from a dire place to this resplendent scenery? This was indeed too shocking!

Although this castle was indeed magnificent, he still had to deal with the three demonic beasts outside.

Tang Yu shifted his attention back to the problem. A gate of three meters tall and four meters wide was placed in the front where the villa’s front door was once there. The gate opened, two puppets appeared.

They were dressed in blue and white armor and helmet, holding spears in one hand. Both appeared on each side of the gate as if they were a gatekeeper.

Tang Yu recalled the system had mentioned the two guard puppets attached to the castle.

Beyond the gate, the outside world was still the same as ever, but now it clashed with the luxurious castle within the gate.

Tang Yu was still nervous, these three demonic beasts were tough. Furthermore, he didn’t know how strong were these two puppets compared to the beasts. Or if they could slay the three demonic beasts.

The guard puppets said nothing. One of them went back to guard the castle gate.

Another puppet guard stepped forward with fighting stance. When the giant fiery red scorpions rushed forward, it suddenly moved!

The puppet charged forward, it rushed towards the giant fiery red scorpion. A roaring wind was heard as its spears penetrated the layer of shells from the scorpion. Before it could even move, the spear pierced through its shells.

From the bottom to top, one stab pierced through its skull!

The first demonic beast died!

But it’s not over yet!

After finished dealing with the giant fiery red scorpion, the puppet guard prepared to attack again. Even when donned in heavy armor, it still moved faster than all demonic beast Tang Yu has ever seen. As if its whole body turned into blue lightning, he rushed forward to the remaining two demonic beasts.

The strikes echoed. The guard puppet’s fighting style was simple and rough. With chops, stabs and simple attack, but the most frightening thing was the lightning speed and the incredible strength behind each attack.

In an instant, the humanoid demonic beast’s head was crushed, and the big black snake was penetrated with a single attack!

Only a few second had passed, the two demonic beasts still maintained their previous forward postures. After death, their carcass fell and rolled with a heavy thud, colors of blood stained the ground.

 The sound of roaring wind whistling through the air echoed in his mind. Tang Yu froze and thought; Were the three demonic beasts this weak?

But deep down he knew, it’s not that the demonic beast was too weak, it’s just his puppet guard was too powerful. He didn’t know how they’re much stronger than the hunters he had seen before!

These puppets guards were amazing!

Although Tang Yu still felt one hundred units of spirit stones were too pricey. He kept wondering if he could manage to get a discount from the system!

Three large demonic beast carcasses laid flat outside the castle gate as a wave of energy escaped from the dead carcasses, it’s invisible to the naked eyes. Only a small wave of energy dissipated into the air, but a large wave of energy reached Tang Yu.

Tang Yu’s face brightened, he couldn’t hide the excitement on his face.