Using the Leave Fire Spirit immediately attracts three terrifying Yao Kings.
In the face of this situation, Su Nan had to repeatedly predict and try to find a way to hunt down a Paper Puppet Yao while avoiding the three King-level Yao.
In the blink of an eye, he had predicted four or five times.
During this period, he tried various methods, but they all ended in failure.
It wasn't until he saw the sixth prediction that he finally understood where the problem was.
[You don't know that the City God Temple at night is completely different from the one during the day. What you see as the City God Temple is not a true City God Temple in the true sense but a product formed by the Divine Ritual Instrument.]
[Paper Puppet Yao is an attachment to this place, and they cannot leave the City God Temple.]
"Not a real City God Temple? A product formed by a Divine Ritual Instrument?" Su Nan was amazed. This was the first time he had encountered something like this, and at the same time, he felt a sinking feeling.
Paper Puppet Yao couldn't leave the City God Temple, which meant that if he wanted to hunt down Paper Puppet Yao, he had to do it inside the City God Temple. However, once he entered the City God Temple, he would undoubtedly be devoured by the three King-level Yao!
"My interdimensional teleportation limit for today has been reached. Otherwise, I might have been able to try using Leave Fire Spirit to hunt down Paper Puppet Yao while instantly teleporting into the City God Temple to retrieve Leave Fire Spirit and exit the game."
Hunting down Paper Puppet Yao was not the problem; the problem was how to retrieve Leave Fire Spirit after hunting down Paper Puppet Yao.
The time required to retrieve Leave Fire Spirit was very short, but even if it were shorter, it still wouldn't be as fast as the reaction of the three King-level Yao.
"The power of fire is still a bit lacking. If it were stronger, I might be able to turn Paper Puppet Yao into ashes with the power of fire."
In one of the recent predictions, he tried using his Bloodline power, Fusion of Yin and Yang, to fully infuse his vitality and energy into the power of fire. The effect was very obvious, and he could indeed ignite Paper Puppet Yao. However, compared to Leave Fire Spirit, the power of fire alone couldn't instantly turn Paper Puppet Yao into ashes.
The result was that he died, and the fire on Paper Puppet Yao's body went out.
"It seems that I won't be able to complete the task of hunting Paper Puppet Yao today."
"I can only wait until daytime to see if I can get that Divine Ritual Instrument out and figure out what to do."
Su Nan was unwilling, but he had no choice.
After checking the time, he logged out of the game.
Two hours later.
In the real world, night had fallen, and he logged back into the game.
In the game, the sun was shining brightly.
Once again appearing a few hundred meters away from the City God Temple, he could see many worshippers entering the City God Temple one after another.
It seemed that due to the increased frequency of monster appearances recently, these ordinary people were aware that something was about to happen, and many of them had come to the City God Temple to pray for safety.
Su Nan disguised himself as an ordinary player and started predicting again.
This time, he tried to move the incense burner!
"In the City God Temple of Tianyun City, there are objects related to the Divine Ritual, and you intend to take them away for research."
"During the day, the City God Temple is very safe, with worshippers coming in continuously. You pretend to be an ordinary worshipper and enter the City God Temple with the others."
"You go straight to the main hall, where a statue of an old man with white hair and a smiling face is worshipped. At this moment, there are two worshippers praying here."
"At the feet of the old man's statue, there is a small bronze incense burner the size of a head, and incense smoke rises from it. You walk up to it and try to pick up the incense burner."
"Noticing your actions, one of the worshippers is shocked and immediately tells you that touching the incense burner is blasphemy against the City God and will incur the City God's punishment."
"Hearing the words of the worshipper, you become interested and ask the worshipper what punishment touching the incense burner will incur."
"The worshipper tells you that the taboo here is not to touch the incense burner. Even if you are offering incense, you should not touch it at all. Anyone who touches it will be considered disrespectful by the City God and will be punished, dying on the spot."
"Upon hearing this, you are not surprised but delighted. You realize that the incense burner that is used to worship the City God is very likely the object you are looking for."
"This time should be right!"
Su Nan's eyes lit up, and the idea that anyone who touched the incense burner would die made sense.
"You brace yourself and try to touch the incense burner, but the moment you touch it, you suddenly find that the light in front of you changes abruptly, and what was originally daytime suddenly turns into night."
"In the main hall, the two worshippers have disappeared, and in front of you, the statue of the old man has turned into a monstrous monster with a grimace and fangs."
"Before you can react, the voice of the old man suddenly rings out, questioning you why you dared to blaspheme the deity. You are attacked, and you immediately lose consciousness."
"Two minutes later, you are awakened by intense pain, and when you open your eyes, you see yourself lying on a red altar."
"A monstrous monster with a grimace and fangs is devouring your internal organs, and your blood is flowing down from the altar."
"You are dead."
"You don't know that the moment you touched the incense burner, your soul was already pulled into another space, a space belonging to the soul."
"Another space? Belonging to the soul?"
Su Nan was astonished, stunned by the last part of the prediction.
Then, when he thought back to the previous prediction that told him, "The City God Temple at night is not a true City God Temple, but a product formed by the Divine Ritual Instrument," he suddenly understood.
Wherever he still didn't understand, the entire City God Temple at night was a fake, a bizarre space constructed by the Divine Ritual Instrument.
"Touching the incense burner would pull the soul into the space created by the incense burner. In that case, I will try not to touch it directly."
Su Nan quickly came up with a plan.
Chapter 178: Sacrificial Space
Using the Fire Essence will immediately attract three terrifying demon kings.
Faced with this situation, Su Nan had to repeatedly predict and attempt, trying to find a way to hunt down a Paper Puppet Demon while avoiding the three king-level demons.
In the blink of an eye, he had already predicted four or five times.
During this time, he tried various methods, but all ended in failure.
It wasn't until he saw the prediction content for the sixth time that he finally understood where the problem was.
[You don't know, the City God Temple at night is not the same as the City God Temple during the day. What you see as the City God Temple is not a real City God Temple in the true sense; it is a product formed by the Daoist sacrificial artifacts.]
[As an accessory to this place, Paper Puppet Demons cannot leave the City God Temple.]
"Not a real City God Temple? Formed by Daoist sacrificial artifacts?" Su Nan was surprised. This was the first time he had encountered something like this, and it left him perplexed.
If Paper Puppet Demons couldn't leave the City God Temple, it meant that in order to hunt down a Paper Puppet Demon, he had to be inside the City God Temple.
However, once he entered the City God Temple, facing three terrifying king-level demons, his fate would undoubtedly be to be torn apart!
"My Heavenly Translocation uses are exhausted for today. Otherwise, I might be able to try using the Fire Essence to hunt down the Paper Puppet Demon and instantly teleport into the City God Temple to retrieve the Fire Essence and exit the game."
Hunting down the Paper Puppet Demon wasn't the issue; the problem was how to retrieve the Fire Essence after killing it.
The time needed to retrieve the Fire Essence was very short, but even in this short time, the three demon kings would react rapidly.
"The power of fire is still a bit lacking. If it were a bit stronger, I might be able to turn the Paper Puppet Demon into ashes using the power of fire alone."
In a recent prediction, he had tried using the Enraged Shadow Body to fully infuse the power of vitality and spiritual energy into the power of fire, and the effect was quite apparent. It could indeed ignite the Paper Puppet Demon.
But compared to the Fire Essence, the power of fire alone couldn't instantly turn the Paper Puppet Demon into ashes.
The result was his death, and the fire on the Paper Puppet Demon was extinguished.
"It seems that I can't complete this Paper Puppet Demon hunting mission today."
"I can only wait until daytime and see if I can retrieve the Daoist sacrificial artifact from the City God Temple and then figure out a way."
Su Nan was unwilling, but he had no other options.
Checking the time, he logged out of the game.
Two hours later.
In the real world, night had fallen, and he logged back into the game.
In the game, the sun was shining brightly.
Once again, he appeared a few hundred meters away from the City God Temple. Even from this distance, he could see many pilgrims entering the City God Temple one after another.
It seemed that due to the recent increase in monster attacks, ordinary people were becoming aware of impending changes and had come to the City God Temple to pray for safety.
Su Nan disguised himself as an ordinary player and began predicting once again.
This time, he attempted to move the incense burner!
"In the City God Temple of Tianyun City, there are artifacts related to Daoism hidden. You plan to take them away for research."
"During the day, the City God Temple is very safe, with a constant stream of pilgrims. You disguise yourself as an ordinary pilgrim and enter the City God Temple along with others."
"You arrive in the courtyard of the City God Temple, where the incense burner is placed. At this moment, a pilgrim is inserting incense sticks into the incense burner."
"You don't make any rash moves, observing for a moment and ensuring there are no dangers, then you attempt to lift the incense burner."
"The incense burner is heavy, but it's no problem for you. You easily lift it."
"Your actions immediately draw the attention of other pilgrims. Many people are angry about your actions, thinking that you are disrespecting the City God, and some even scold you loudly."
"You pay no attention to them and directly put the incense burner into your spatial ring."
"Contrary to your expectations, the incense burner is successfully stored in your spatial ring without any mishaps. You quickly leave the City God Temple."
"Two minutes later, you are far away from the City God Temple, and nothing unusual has happened. You take out the incense burner and examine it carefully."
"Three minutes later, as you look at the now broken incense burner, you realize that what you obtained was just an ordinary incense burner with no special powers."
"The first prediction ends. Do you want to continue?"
"Just an ordinary incense burner?" Su Nan furrowed his brows. The joy of successfully obtaining the incense burner disappeared instantly.
Previously, when he saw the Paper Puppet Demon worshipping in front of the incense burner, he thought the incense burner was the Daoist sacrificial artifact he was looking for. Now it seemed he had been mistaken.
The Paper Puppet Demon might not be worshipping the incense burner at all but rather something placed in front of the incense burner.
"If it's not the incense burner, then what could it be?"
"Sacrificial artifact, understood literally, is an object used for rituals."
In the City God Temple, the only object that could be called a sacrificial artifact seemed to be the incense burner.
But now it was telling him that the incense burner wasn't it, so what could it be?
Su Nan pondered in silence.
Suddenly, he thought of something and his eyes lit up.
"No, there is more than one incense burner in the City God Temple. Apart from the large one in the middle of the courtyard, there are also three smaller incense burners in front of the three statues of gods. Those might be it."
He hadn't entered the City God Temple in person, but the information from the previous prediction had mentioned that there was a small incense burner in front of each statue, which was used for offering incense.
"Maybe I'll know for sure with another prediction."
"During the day, the City God Temple is very safe, with a constant stream of pilgrims. You disguise yourself as an ordinary pilgrim and enter the City God Temple along with others."
"You head straight to the main hall. Here, a statue of an old man with white hair and a smiling face is enshrined. At this moment, there are two pilgrims worshipping."
"Beneath the statue of the old man, there is a small bronze incense burner the size of a head, with incense smoke rising. You walk up and try to lift the incense burner."
"Noticing your actions, one of the pilgrims who was worshipping is greatly alarmed and immediately tells you that touching the incense burner is blasphemy against the City God and will incur the City God's punishment."
"Hearing the pilgrim's words, you become interested and inquire about the punishment for touching the incense burner."
"The pilgrim tells you that the taboo here is not to touch the incense burner; even when offering incense, one
should not touch it at all. Anyone who touches it will be deemed disrespectful to the City God and will be punished, dying on the spot."
"Upon hearing this, you are not surprised but delighted. You realize that the incense burner used to worship the City God is very likely the object you are looking for."
"This should be it!"
Su Nan's eyes lit up, and the fact that anyone who touched the incense burner would die made sense.
"You brace yourself and attempt to touch the incense burner, but the moment your fingers make contact, the light in front of you changes abruptly. What was once daylight suddenly turns into night."
"In the main hall, the two pilgrims have disappeared, and in front of you, the statue of the old man has transformed into a hideous monster with a twisted face and sharp fangs."
"Before you can react, the voice of the old man suddenly rings out, questioning why you dared to blaspheme the deity. You are attacked, and you immediately lose consciousness."
"Two minutes later, you wake up in intense pain, and when you open your eyes, you see yourself lying on a red altar."
"A grotesque monster with a twisted face and sharp fangs is devouring your internal organs, and your blood is flowing down from the altar."
"You are dead."
"You realize just before your death that not only is it forbidden to touch the incense burner directly, but even attempting to move it is also prohibited."
"Moving it is not allowed? How am I supposed to get it then?" Su Nan's face darkened.
He could solve the problem of not touching it directly, but if he couldn't even move it, then he would really be out of options.
"No wonder this is a four-star mission; it's practically impossible to complete."
Even when he saw the mission's level, he had guessed that it might not be as simple as it seemed.
But now that he had tried it, he fully understood the difficulty involved.
"To obtain the incense burner, I either need to find a being without a soul or it's practically impossible to succeed."
Every living being had a soul; the only difference was in its strength.
Even the skeleton demons in the Bone Cavern definitely had souls.
"This mission is going to be difficult to complete. Perhaps I can only hope that my soul's power will become strong enough in the future to resist those three demon kings."
Su Nan decided not to continue predicting for now.
He took a deep look at the City God Temple and then turned and left.
Until he found a solution, continuing to predict would be futile.
There were just over three hours left until the end of today's mission.
Walking on the gradually bustling streets, Su Nan checked the missions for three characters today.
Among the four three-star missions, only Zhang Yang's "Revenge for the Former Chief of the Exorcism Bureau" had been completed.
The "Fulfill the Last Wish of the Former Chief of the Exorcism Bureau" and Wang Nan's "Hunt a Paper Puppet Demon" missions couldn't be completed.
Now the only one he could attempt was Lang Shisan's "Worries of the Green Wolf Demon King" mission.
After thinking about it, he decided to head towards Li Mansion, where the Green Wolf Demon King was located.
He planned to use prediction to see what the demon king's worries were.
If it was something he could help with, he didn't mind lending a hand.
"It's been seven days since the Grand Princess fell into a coma. I wonder how long it will take for the Bloodline Symbiosis Art to take effect and gain control. I also don't know if there is any information related to it at the Heavenly Pavilion. "
Feeling the invisible connection with the Grand Princess, Su Nan thought silently.
Initially, due to his resurrection and the reverse backlash suffered by the Grand Princess from his suicide, the Bloodline Symbiosis Art was not only not dispelled but also caused him to become the caster.
According to the information provided in the initial prediction, over time, the victim would gradually be controlled by the caster. However, Su Nan didn't know how long this process would take.
Now, with only a few days left until the Grand Princess woke up, he had to be prepared in advance.
Although the Grand Princess was currently inside the Universe Ring, as long as he didn't release her, she might not be able to leave even after waking up.
But the Universe Ring was the Grand Princess's possession, and he couldn't be sure whether she would have a way to leave the ring once she woke up.
"Three days from now, I'll make another prediction. If the Grand Princess can't leave the Universe Ring even when she wakes up, that would be the best outcome. Otherwise, I'll have to prepare for the worst."
While contemplating countermeasures, he continued walking.
Unconsciously, he had already arrived at Li Mansion.
Li Mansion was neither too big nor too small. From a distance, Su Nan could see an old-fashioned mansion.
Not daring to approach any further, he immediately began predicting.
"You arrive at Li Mansion. In the eyes of ordinary people, this place is home to a wealthy man named Li, but you know that it is actually the residence of one of the two Demon Kings of Tianyun City, the Green Wolf Demon King."
"You disguise yourself as a wolf demon and approach Li Mansion. After a dozen breaths, an old man opens the courtyard door."
"You size up the old man and find that he doesn't appear to be a demon, but from his aura, you are sure that he is a demon, a profound-level demon."
"The old man also assesses you up and down and seems to realize something. He asks if you are the newly recognized brother of Tiger Roar Heaven. You nod in agreement."
"The old man inquires about your purpose for coming here, and you reply that you wish to visit the Green Wolf Demon King on behalf of Tiger Roar Heaven."
"With the name of Tiger Roar Heaven backing you up, the old man doesn't outright refuse. After scrutinizing you for a moment, he instructs you to wait outside the courtyard."
"After a few breaths, the old man returns and informs you that the Green Wolf Demon King is resting and cannot be visited by anyone at the moment. He suggests you come back tomorrow and then closes the courtyard gate, leaving you outside."
"You don't give up and continue knocking on the door. After a minute with no one paying attention to you, you keep knocking."
"Two minutes later, your persistence finally angers the Green Wolf Demon King. The Green Wolf Demon King appears, and without waiting for you to say anything, he knocks you out."
"Three minutes later, you awaken in a small river. The frigid water instantly wakes you up."
"Chapter end."