Chapter 30 The Snow Stops (Updated in Advance)

[Enter Exchange]

A simple and unadorned interface appeared before Zhou Yan. He moved quickly, exchanging the two rune factors, “Physique” and “Recovery”—which he did not urgently need at the moment—for the remaining two runes required by the “Drain Circuit,” at the cost of 400 points of Spirituality.

He immediately affixed them to his fate equipment, successfully activating the new rune circuit.

As for the cost in Spirituality, it was no burden to him.

He had traveled all the way from the southern side of Spring City to the northern City Lord’s Mansion. Although he had not actively sought combat, he had slain six Frostblade Fiends and two Armored Ice Demons, not to mention nearly a hundred Snow Puppets.

Moreover, thanks to his exceptional durability recovery ability for his profession equipment, aside from the final battle with the Armored Ice Demon—when he expended an extra two hundred points of Spirituality—he had suffered no losses elsewhere.

He still had over eighteen hundred points of Spirituality remaining.

Spending four hundred was hardly an issue.

As for the extra “Core Rune Circuit: Shattered (1),” since it was impossible to equip two circuit runes simultaneously, Zhou Yan decided to keep it for now and planned to exchange it later.

He had glanced at it earlier; the exchange function did allow for converting core rune circuits, but the price was steep.

It required “two circuit runes of the same level” plus “5,000 points of Spirituality” to exchange for a specified circuit of the same level. In addition to circuits like the Drain Circuit and the Persistence Circuit he had used before, there were also many other remarkable circuits.

But as he couldn’t afford it now, he did not dwell on it.

Having settled his preparations, Zhou Yan glanced at his current mission for this foray.

[Basic Mission: “Survive” One Day (11:06:32)]
[Extra Mission 1: Uproot “Karmic Lotus” (1/1)]
[Extra Mission 2: Purge Spring City of Demons (91/?)]

Then, Zhou Yan quietly lifted his gaze to the sky.

Hmm... The day was still young.

There was still plenty of time... Next, it was time to farm points...

He gripped the Karmic Lotus Calamity Sword in his hand and strode out of the City Lord’s Mansion.

The mansion stood on elevated ground. Standing outside its gates, he could take in nearly the entire expanse of Spring City.

Zhou Yan pondered for a moment, then walked to the side of the gate, tucked the Karmic Lotus Calamity Sword under his arm, and lifted the great drum he had noticed before entering.

Carrying the drum, he made his way to the platform at the top of the steps outside, set it down, and found the drumstick.

Gripping it, he raised it high, a wild smile spreading across his face.

Then, he brought it down with force!

“Boom!”

“Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!”

Zhou Yan did not pause but continued to beat the great drum in rapid succession.

The resounding drumbeats instantly carried far and wide, echoing throughout the small county town.

Very soon, in Zhou Yan’s excited gaze, tens of thousands of Snow Puppets lurking in the city, along with the Frostblade Fiends mingling among them, were roused by the sound, surging into the streets.

They unified into a single roar, charging in a black mass toward Zhou Yan—the source of the sound!

“In ancient times, the drum was beaten to call for justice. Today, I’ll play a new tune—drumbeats to exterminate demons!”

Beneath his mask, Zhou Yan’s lips curled into a wild grin. He tossed aside the drumstick and gripped the Karmic Lotus Calamity Sword.

The nearest regions to the City Lord’s Mansion were already swarming with hundreds of Snow Puppets.

They spotted Zhou Yan standing atop the platform before the mansion’s main hall, and bloodlust immediately flared in their eyes.

But Zhou Yan, unhurried and composed, retreated calmly to the mansion’s entrance.

There, he planted himself firmly at the doorway.

In the next instant, countless Snow Puppets swarmed, looking from above like countless ants pouring into their nest.

Zhou Yan watched this overwhelming spectacle but did not retreat a single step, blocking the entrance and facing the first rows of Snow Puppets advancing upon him.

He raised his left hand.

Where a hand should have been on his severed left arm, there was a half-real, half-illusory black lotus.

In the next second, the black lotus blossomed, its heart gathering a crimson radiance brimming with destructive energy.

Black Lotus Bloom!

Boom!

A wave of destructive crimson light burst into black-red miasmic flames, surging forth like a sea of fire, instantly engulfing all the Snow Puppets within the conical area before Zhou Yan.

They were blasted away by the force, the miasmic flames burning madly upon them. After crashing to the ground, they lay still within seconds.

[Slain “Snow Puppet” ×5, gained 65 Spirituality]

The terrifying recoil forced Zhou Yan back two meters.

The ground screeched beneath his feet, gouging out two deep tracks.

He glanced at his display—most of the durability his fate equipment had expended on Black Lotus Bloom had already been replenished.

His stamina, too, had recovered considerably!

This was the confidence granted by vampiric sustain!

Steeling himself, Zhou Yan faced the next wave of demons and struck again.

[Slain “Snow Puppet”...]
[Slain “Snow Puppet”...]
[Slain “Frostblade Fiend”...]

...

The Karmic Lotus Calamity Sword was incomparably sharp, and Zhou Yan himself possessed five times the physical strength of an ordinary man.

A divine weapon in superhuman hands, combined with doorway bottlenecking to control enemy numbers...

Whenever he faced overwhelming odds, he simply unleashed another Black Lotus Bloom to clear the field.

What followed was a massacre.

However, after only a few moments, Zhou Yan’s brows furrowed as he glanced at the notifications.

He realized that the Spirituality rewarded for slaying Snow Puppets had plummeted from over a dozen points to just one!

What the hell? What was the meaning of this?

The Snow Puppets, undaunted by death, continued their suicidal assault, soon piling corpses high before the gate.

Undeterred, they climbed over their fallen comrades, and before long, the mound reached the point where they could vault over the mansion’s gatehouse into the first courtyard.

Zhou Yan continued slaying as he retreated, holding the line at the second gate and beginning the slaughter anew.

Meanwhile, multitasking, he scrolled through the notifications with a frown until he finally found a crucial message amid the flood.

[Slaying more than “100” units of the same enemy type reduces bonus rewards]

Damn it!

Zhou Yan could barely contain himself.

Fine, fine—so there was a rule like this.

His plan to sweep the city and harvest thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of Snow Puppets for tens of thousands of Spirituality was dashed...

The system had no such loopholes.

Gritting his teeth, Zhou Yan refused to abandon his current course.

Though he had lost a juicy windfall, at least each Snow Puppet still yielded a guaranteed point of Spirituality.

Most importantly, his real goal was to eliminate as many—if not all—of the city’s demons as possible.

After all, he needed to achieve “above standard” completion of the extra mission.

For the “Purge Spring City of Demons” mission, without knowing precisely what “above standard” meant...

If he wanted a high score, he had to slay as many as possible.

“There are still some survivors in this city... I’ll consider it an act of kindness.”

Gritting his teeth, Zhou Yan swung the Karmic Lotus Calamity Sword with ever-increasing ease, the ground beneath him saturated with the blood spilled by the slain Snow Puppets.

With the sustain provided by the Drain Circuit, he felt no fatigue at all from the slaughter.

And so, time slipped by amidst the endless carnage.

*

When Zhou Yan, drenched in blood, charged from the City Lord’s Mansion back onto the main street, splitting the last Snow Puppet in two with a single stroke—

A new notification finally appeared before his eyes.

[Chaos Calamity Domain No. 668472: Walk Complete]
[Basic Mission: “Survive” One Day (Completed Early)]
[Extra Mission 1: Uproot “Karmic Lotus” (Completed)]
[Extra Mission 2: Purge Spring City of Demons (Completed)]
[Final Kill Count—6782]
[“Above Standard” Completion of This Calamity Domain Walk]
[This Walk’s Score—100]
[Score Reward: Blood Crystal of Talent]
[Settlement Complete. Preparing for Return.]

A flood of information scrolled before his eyes. Zhou Yan raised his head numbly.

On the main street, he was now the only living being; not a single demon still stood.

Turning to look back at the City Lord’s Mansion, he saw its gates piled high with mountains of demon corpses, a trail of bodies stretching all the way to his current position, thinning as they went.

The blood shed in the massacre had turned the ground into a sea of crimson, spreading from the mansion all the way to the street at his feet.

He had wiped out every last demon in Spring City!

In the next instant, before his mind could clear—

The world fell into darkness.

...

On the main street of Spring City, as Zhou Yan’s mission settlement concluded and he departed—

His remaining body disintegrated in an instant into countless particles, dissipating into the air.

A long, long time passed...

At last, the first surviving resident mustered the courage to open his door and step out onto the street.

Then, the second household, the third...

Altogether, several hundred people emerged, cloth masks tied over their faces, gathering instinctively at the spot where Zhou Yan had vanished.

They stared in bewilderment at the snow, stained crimson by demon blood.

Then, they gazed dumbly at the sky.

Zhang Facai hugged his youngest son, Zhang Decai, huddling with the other cityfolk, unsure whether to feel joy or confusion.

He could only murmur, as if waking from a dream:

“The snow... has stopped...”

***

(Dead City, Mad Snow Arc—End)