Chapter 895
Chapter 895
A pale gold “suppress” character made of pure contract runes flew out of his hand and imprinted on the burly man’s chest!
The burly man shuddered violently, his forward momentum abruptly halted! He felt a heavy, mountain-like, yet all-pervasive force of contractual suppression instantly invade his body, not only suppressing his physical strength but also disrupting the flow of his true essence, even causing his soul to feel dizzy!
In that instant of pause, Fu Shaoping's right index finger had already gathered a point of extremely brilliant golden light, containing the true meaning of "breaking the law" and "annihilation," and like a shooting star, it touched the strong man's brow!
"Destroy".
puff!
A sliver of golden light entered the man's brow, instantly dimming his fierce eyes. His massive body collapsed to the ground with a thud, as if his bones had been removed, kicking up a cloud of mud. A late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, with formidable defense, was easily pierced through the vitals of his soul by Fu Shaoping's highly targeted Contract Breaking attack, dying instantly!
In the blink of an eye, two out of the four were gone! An assassin and a main body cultivator were both killed by Fu Shaoping with lightning speed!
The remaining young man in brocade robes and the hunched old woman were terrified and had no will to fight left!
"Run!" the young man in brocade robes screamed, no longer caring about his reputation as the young master, and turned to flee for his life into the depths of the swamp! The old woman also let out a strange cry, her figure turning into a wisp of gray smoke as she desperately fled in another direction!
Fu Shaoping did not chase after the old woman. His gaze was fixed on the young man in the brocade robe.
This person is the young master of the Poison Dragon Gang, the instigator, and also the person most likely to know more inside information.
His figure "flickered" again, as if ignoring spatial distance, and in a few leaps, he had caught up to the young man in the brocade robe several feet behind him.
The young man in the brocade robe felt the approaching aura behind him, which was like the approach of death. He was so frightened that his soul almost left his body. While fleeing, he threw all the talismans and magical artifacts he could find behind him as if they were free, trying to block the attack.
Fu Shaoping neither dodged nor evaded; the pale golden contract light shield in front of him appeared and disappeared intermittently, blocking or deflecting all the attacks.
Seeing that he was about to be caught up, a desperate madness flashed in the eyes of the young man in the brocade robe. He bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood onto the small black shield in his hand!
The small shield emitted a dark light, and as it faced the wind, it expanded into a ferocious shield the size of a door panel, blocking the way behind it. The barbs on the shield's surface stood up, shimmering with a ghostly blue poisonous light.
At the same time, he crushed a life-saving jade talisman, and a layer of dim blood light enveloped his body. His speed suddenly increased by 30%, which was obviously a kind of escape technique that burned potential.
“A dying struggle.” Fu Shaoping sneered, a golden light flashing in his eyes.
He no longer used those ingenious contract techniques, but directly communicated with the source core in his arms, mobilizing a trace of the even more magnificent and ancient contract power contained in the fragment of the "contract order"!
He spread his right hand, fingers outstretched, and made a grasping motion towards the menacing shield and the fleeing young man in brocade robes.
"Contract... to be revoked."
There was no earth-shattering sound.
The menacing shield, gleaming with dark light, suddenly trembled! The spiritual light flowing across its surface and the eerie blue thorns instantly dimmed and withered, as if losing their foundation! The mental connection between the shield and the young man in brocade robes was forcibly severed and stripped away by a higher-level force of contract!
The shield lost its luster and fell downwards like ordinary iron.
The dim blood-red light on the young man in the brocade robe flickered like a candle in the wind, then suddenly went out! The speed boost he gained from burning his potential vanished instantly, and he staggered, his speed greatly reduced.
"No—!" The young man in the brocade robe screamed in despair.
Fu Shaoping appeared beside him like a ghost, pointing a finger at his dantian.
"seal up."
As the pale golden contract runes disappeared, the young man in the brocade robe froze, all his true essence was instantly sealed, and like a puppet with its strings cut, he fell headlong from mid-air, crashing heavily onto the muddy swamp, splashing up a large amount of filthy mud.
Fu Shaoping slowly landed and stood in front of him, looking down at the once arrogant and domineering young master of the Poison Dragon Gang who was now like a lump of mud.
The young man in the brocade robe lay sprawled in the mud, his face ashen, his eyes filled with fear and pleading: "Don't...don't kill me...my father is the leader of the Poison Dragon Gang...a Golden Core cultivator...if you kill me...he will never let you go..."
Fu Shaoping's eyes were cold and unwavering. He squatted down, reached out, and placed his hand on the forehead of the young man in the brocade robe.
Instead of using a brutal soul-searching technique (which would damage memories and potentially trigger restrictions), they employed a gentler yet more profound contract-based investigation method from the "General Principles of Contract Source"—"Heart Contract Inquiry." This method uses the power of a contract to communicate with the core of the other party's soul. When the other party's mind is compromised and they are powerless to resist, they can be guided to actively "recall" and "confess" specific information.
The pale golden spiritual energy of the contract, like the gentlest flowing water, seeped into the terrified mind of the young man in the brocade robe.
"Who ordered you to track me? Besides you, who else knows my whereabouts and about that fragment? Why is the Poison Dragon Gang so obsessed with this thing?" Fu Shaoping's voice, carrying the rhythm of a contract, resounded directly into the depths of the other party's soul.
Guided by absolute fear and the power of the contract, the young man in the brocade robe completely collapsed. His eyes glazed over, his lips moved, and he began to confess in broken sentences:
“It’s…it’s an order from ‘above’… ‘Above’ sent down a portrait and aura…saying…this person might be carrying…a treasure related to an ancient contract…the order is…to capture alive or…kill and seize the treasure…the source of the information…is unknown…”
“We…we’re only responsible for Lingxi County and the surrounding area…tracking…we found you in Youhuang Valley…so we reported it…the ‘higher-ups’ sent ‘Shadow Assassins’ to assist…the one you just killed…”
"The Poison Dragon Gang... is just one of the peripheral forces of 'the higher-ups' in the southwest of Zhao... My father... also wanted to obtain that treasure... to offer it to 'the higher-ups'... in exchange for... greater... benefits..."
"'The higher-ups'... are very mysterious... only communicate through special channels... one-way... we... don't know... who exactly they are... but... they have a lot of power... it's said... they have informants and... peripheral organizations in many places..."
"Please...please...spare me...I've told you everything I know..."
Fu Shaoping withdrew his hand, a cold glint in his eyes. "Above"? External forces? They have considerable power, with spies in many places?
This description... is so similar to Shadow Tower! Yet it doesn't seem entirely the same. Could Shadow Tower simply be a branch or codename of a much larger, more mysterious organization?
It seems that the "contractual artifact" on my body has indeed been targeted by an extremely troublesome force. The Poison Dragon Gang is just a pawn; the "Shadow Assassin" I killed was probably the real executor sent by "the higher-ups."
He looked down at the young man in brocade robes who lay at his feet like a dead dog.
This person is worthless; keeping him around would only cause harm.
A wisp of pale golden true essence from Fu Shaoping's fingertip swept across the other's throat.
The young man in the brocade robe trembled, and the light in his eyes dimmed completely.
Fu Shaoping quickly cleaned up the battlefield, collected the storage bags and valuables from the four people, and then unleashed several bursts of true fire to burn the corpses and erase most of the traces of the battle.
After doing all this, he looked towards the deeper and more treacherous direction of the Swamp of Ten Thousand Poisons.
The pursuit by the Poison Dragon Gang has been temporarily resolved, but that mysterious "higher-ups" will never give up. He needs greater strength, and he needs even more complete concealment.
The depths of this perilous yet resource-rich Ten Thousand Poison Swamp might be the perfect place for his next closed-door breakthrough and further research into the fragments of the "Contract Order" and the "General Outline of the Contract Source".
Without hesitation, he concealed his aura, discerned his direction, and strode towards the denser, multicolored poisonous miasma and unknown dangers deep within the swamp.
Sunlight filtered through the thin miasma, casting dappled shadows behind him.
The swamp remained silent, save for the rustling of the wind through the decaying leaves and the faint hissing of unknown poisonous insects in the distance.
A new and even more perilous exploration and training is about to unfold on this land where death and life coexist.
The thick, milky, multicolored miasma is a natural curtain deep within the Swamp of Ten Thousand Poisons. The further one goes, the dimmer the light becomes, and twisted, grotesque plant branches stretch silently through the mist like demonic tentacles. The ground is no longer muddy, but a slippery, strange sensation, as if stepping on countless tiny living things—a "fungal carpet" woven from billions of poisonous fungi and humus. The air is thick with a sweet and pungent stench, almost tangible, corroding any protective aura. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators must constantly maintain their true energy to resist.
Fu Shaoping, relying on the fragmented records about "Dragon Abyss" in the "Ancient Talisman Tales" he obtained at the auction, and combining them with his increasingly clear sense of the location transmitted by the fragments of the "Contract Order," struggled forward.
He dared not use "Contractual Spirit Fusion" to communicate with the distorted laws of the poisonous miasma here, as that would be tantamount to suicide. He could only rely on "Spell-Breaking Spiritual Eyes" and his enhanced spiritual sense to find a relatively safe path in the gaps between the miasma and the flow of energy.
Poisonous creatures are everywhere. Fist-sized "Rotting Swamp Toads," covered in pustules, lurk in swarms beneath the fungal carpet, ready to spray out highly toxic slime at any moment; "Ghost Shadow Vines," as thin as hair yet as tough as steel wire, hang from withered branches, instantly killing anyone who touches them, binding them tightly and secreting a venom that paralyzes the soul; and then there are swarms of palm-sized "Soul-Eating Poison Ants," with mottled carapaces and ferocious mouthparts, like a flowing, colorful tide of death, leaving nothing but bones in their wake.
Fu Shaoping employed every means at his disposal. The protective shield of the "Contract Protection" flickered erratically under the corrosive effects of the poisonous fog, requiring frequent replenishment of his true energy. When faced with attacks from poisonous creatures, the "Words Follow Law" technique—using the words "Slow," "Stabilize," and "Retreat"—was remarkably effective, capable of delaying or even forcing them back. For those that were truly unavoidable, he would use the true energy of the Contract, imbued with the essence of "Purification" and "Annihilation," to forcibly annihilate them.
He walked exceptionally slowly, as if dancing on a knife's edge.
Seven days later, the scene ahead changed drastically.
The multicolored poisonous miasma strangely thinned out here, revealing a relatively open depression. In the center of the depression was a small pool, less than ten feet in diameter, its water as black as ink, without the slightest ripple. Above the pool, a faint, colorless, and odorless mist rose.
Most strikingly, at the edge of the pool, lay a... enormous skeleton.
The skeleton snaked like a snake, but had thick limbs and a ferocious skull. Its whole body was a dull dark gold color. Even after thousands of years, it still exuded a terrifying pressure. The bones were covered with deep marks, as if they had been gnawed by some kind of corrosive force.
Dragon bones! And they are the remains of a sub-dragon species containing a trace of true dragon blood! Is this the origin of the name "Dragon Abyss"?
But what attracted Fu Shaoping was not the precious dragon bone (the dragon bone had been eroded by a strange force, losing all its spiritual energy and greatly reducing its value), but something that was entrenched in the skull of the dragon bone.
It was a cluster of... "flames".
It was not an ordinary open flame, but a fist-sized ball of "soul fire," deep dark purple in color, seemingly containing countless vengeful spirits twisting and wailing within, yet eerily emanating a chilling and deathly aura. The soul fire silently "burned," scorching a smooth indentation into the dragon bone skull below, with wisps of black energy being slowly drawn and devoured from the dragon bone by the soul fire.
"Dragon's Vengeful Poison Fire!" Fu Shaoping's pupils constricted. This was a terrifying poisonous fire born from the extreme resentment, pain, and unwillingness of powerful dragon beings who perished. Their remnant souls combined with highly toxic environments and even more evil forces to create this fire. It not only possessed terrifying physical and spiritual corrosive toxicity, but also contained the resentment of the dragon race and a trace of twisted dragon might, giving it a natural suppressive and corrosive power over the souls of living beings, making it extremely difficult to deal with.
Moreover, he could clearly feel the strong resonance emanating from the fragment of the "Contract" in his arms, as well as the trace of apprehension from the source core, all pointing to this cluster of poisonous fire! Or rather, pointing to the depths of the poisonous fire, to that almost imperceptible core that emanated the same origin as the fragment of the "Contract," yet was even more obscure and sinister...
"Could it be... that another fragment of the 'Contract', or some evil contract creation related to it, has been devoured and fused with this Dragon Vengeance Poison Fire?" Fu Shaoping thought with a chill. This poison fire had clearly become powerful, having lingered here for countless years, feeding on the remnants of dragon souls and poisonous miasma; it was by no means an easy opponent.
To obtain that core item, one must use this Dragon's Vengeance Poison Fire.
Just as he was intently observing and weighing the pros and cons, a sudden change occurred!
The cluster of dark purple soul fire that had been burning quietly seemed to sense the outsider's spying and the shared aura of the "Contract" fragment, and suddenly began to sway! Countless twisted vengeful ghost phantoms inside emitted silent shrieks, and a cold, venomous, and corrosive soul shockwave, like an invisible tide, swept towards Fu Shaoping!
At the same time, the seemingly calm fungal carpet and humus ground surrounding the pool suddenly exploded! Countless grayish-white, translucent "Rotten Dragon Maggots," resembling maggots magnified a thousand times, yet possessing sharp mouthparts, crawled out from the ground. They too were stained with a dark purple, poisonous aura, hissing as they surged towards Fu Shaoping like a tidal wave! (End of Chapter)