Ch. 42 - The Dark Blood Skeleton Shop

The Dark Blood Shop…

This was one of Bai Wan’s main goals for coming to this dungeon in the first place. Inside were rare tickets for the Desolate Village dungeon and rare recipe scrolls.

“Sorry! Are you okay?” Su Yuening came running over from a distance. Just now, she’d suddenly felt drowsy and nearly nodded off. When she snapped back to her senses, she’d seen Bai Wan blasting a ghost with a bomb—clearly, the ghost had used some trick to knock her out and impersonate her.

“I’m fine. You’re just in time—I need your help with something.” Bai Wan patted his Sunflower, then summoned two Snow Peas and two Gatling Peas.

Then, he grabbed the Gatling Peas straight up with his hands.

Su Yuening stood there, blank-faced, watching Bai Wan carry one Gatling Pea in each hand—both plants looking extremely reluctant about the whole arrangement.

“Cover me. You hold these two Snow Peas.” Bai Wan looked at her and said.

“Huh? I have to hold them too?” Su Yuening hesitated, but seeing Bai Wan’s grin fixed on her, she quickly sighed like she could see the future. “Alright, alright, let me guess—you’re about to say I’m your best friend, right? Got it.”

Muttering, she took the Snow Peas in her arms. They felt cold and crisp to the touch…surprisingly pleasant.

“Come on! I’ll take you on a shopping trip. To the Dark Blood Shop!” Bai Wan smiled at her, then turned his eyes forward, gaze burning with anticipation as he looked toward the distant shop.

Su Yuening had spotted the shop earlier too—the Dark Blood Shop was practically a legendary existence. Many ordinary players never got to enter one their entire lives. With Bai Wan leading the way, Su Yuening steeled herself to make a run for it as well.

And so, while plants and ghosts battled fiercely behind them, Bai Wan and Su Yuening quietly slipped around and made their way toward the Skeleton Shop.

The Snow Peas’ icy suppression had most ghosts pinned down, so there weren’t many along the path. A few strays who’d skipped the main fight were lurking around, but when they spotted Bai Wan and Su Yuening, they rushed over at once, scrambling to salvage their performance.

Facing the charging ghosts, Bai Wan and Su Yuening raised their Peashooters and opened fire.

Bang bang bang!!

Su Yuening’s Snow Peas fired frost bullets, slowing the ghosts’ movements, while Bai Wan’s Gatling Peas mowed them down one by one. The graveyard had plenty of ghosts, but none seemed strong—just ordinary, half-wit NPCs. Compared to the ones in the cabin, these were nothing. If time wasn’t so tight, Bai Wan honestly wanted to dance for them one by one — he might rake in a mountain of paranormal coins that way.

Bang!

Bai Wan took careful aim and fired.

Suddenly, as they ran, he called out to Su Yuening, “Yue Ning! Go for the head—that’s the weak spot, blow their heads clean off!”

Su Yuening froze mid-step, then asked doubtfully, “Wait, ghosts have head-weakspot too? I thought only zombies had that.”

Bai Wan paused too, then cleared his throat awkwardly. “Oh… My bad. I forgot I’m not playing a zombie shooter.”

Su Yuening: “…”

Can you please take this seriously?! You’re in an unsolvable dungeon right now!

Her mind was a mess—this was a dungeon more than capable of wiping out a rookie team several times over, yet Bai Wan had single-handedly held the line with zero sense of crisis.

She couldn’t help recalling what Captain Zhou Lu had said: Paranormals hunt people—but people can hunt paranormals too.

Looking at Bai Wan, Su Yuening saw a glimpse of a different future. Humans always stood at a disadvantage against the paranormals—but Bai Wan was different. Maybe, one day, this seemingly reckless young man really could bring humanity a sliver of new hope. 

Just like the Captain wished—no, like every para-hunter wished. A day when people would face paranormals without helplessness, but with the power to strike back.

Su Yuening shook her head, clearing her thoughts, and refocused on the fight ahead.

She couldn’t just rely on others forever. She, Su Yuening, might be weak now—but one day, she’d banish every paranormal entity herself!

Bang bang bang!

With the Snow Peas and Gatling Peas working together, the two pushed deep into the graveyard, finally reaching the massive tombstone at the back.

Just as they were about to step into the Skeleton Shop, a huge ghostly silhouette flickered out from within the tombstone—its massive hand lunged for Bai Wan and Su Yuening.

A chilling, sinister aura poured off its body. This was surely the most terrifying entity in the graveyard—nothing like the weaklings they’d fought before. Not even the black mist ghost in the cabin could compare.

Its mottled, corpse-blue hand reached for them.

But a blue glow suddenly flared across Su Yuening’s body—she blurred into motion, faster than ever. The Blood-Seal Tag in her hand gleamed blue too, slapping right onto the ghost’s body.

Hiss!

The Blood-Seal Tag flared scarlet as its curse power clashed with the towering ghost’s.

Paranormal versus paranormal—it all came down to whose curse was stronger.

Normally, the Blood-Seal Tag wouldn’t stand a chance against something like this, but Su Yuening’s character skill Rapid Rescue boosted the item’s power. The clashing curses struck a perfect balance.

This was a spur-of-the-moment gamble as the giant ghost’s hand was reaching for both of them, so she’d kept telling herself she had to save Bai Wan. Sure enough, she’d managed to trigger her character skill right on cue.

Of course, Bai Wan didn’t need saving—she’d just exploited her skill’s trigger setting to slip in a little bug. And it worked perfectly.

Seeing Su Yuening deadlocked with the ghost, Bai Wan didn’t waste a second—he pulled the Bloody Skeleton Bandage from his pocket and flung it at the giant ghost.

Hiss!

The blood-red curse power of the Bloody Bandage burst to life and wrapped tightly around the ghost’s huge body.

The ghost that had been locked in a stalemate fell silent at once. The combined curse power of the Blood-Seal Tag and the Bloody Skeleton Bandage easily overwhelmed it.

Bai Wan spent all but two seconds on this, each second burned through 40 paranormal coins. In total, he’d just spent 80 coins. He didn’t mind at all—with the Skeleton Shop right in front of them, it was worth clearing the way fast before anything went wrong.

Meanwhile, Su Yuening just stood there, completely sour.

Damn it! How many trump cards does Bai Wan have hidden up his sleeve?!

That Blood Eye before, now this Bloody Bandage—that was two top-grade paranormal items already. 

And every single one looked seriously powerful.

She thought back to when she’d worried he might not have any last-resort escape tools, so she’d given him two Blood-Seal Tags for protection. Looking at it now, what a joke! That was like a beggar sharing pocket change with the emperor!

She really wanted to snatch them back!

But Bai Wan had no idea about Su Yuening’s inner meltdown. All his focus was on the Dark Blood Skeleton Shop before him. 

They’d finally made it. Who knew what rare treasures this legendary shop might hold?

Together, Bai Wan and Su Yuening stepped inside.

A chill of blood-red gloom swallowed them whole.

Comments