PGVCW 72

 

Playing God in Various Catastrophic Worlds

Chapter 72

The Vanguard of Exorcism

As Xia Wang'an had anticipated, although these four aberrant entities shared the S-rank classification, they possessed significantly greater combat efficacy across every metric compared to the solitary specimen she had encountered at the Pangu Base.

This observation reinforced her prior deduction: those anomalies had indeed been artificially released into the operational zones.

Regardless of whether they were feral anomalies or domesticated assets, in Xia Wang'an's estimation, they shared a singular categorical designation: targets to be purged.

Observing the towering plumes of resentful malevolent qi radiating from the anomalies, she mentally commended herself for her foresight.

Her recent dedication to intensive talismanic studies had been entirely justified.

Had she lacked talismanic methodologies, engaging them in direct kinetic combat would certainly have remained viable; however, with four S-rank anomalies clustered together, their overlapping malevolent auras intertwined so densely that direct engagement risked becoming protracted and cumbersome.

Conversely, talismanic arts constituted the absolute counter-measure for malevolent qi.

Exorcism talismans, brimming with righteous spiritual energy, possessed a natural elemental supremacy over hatred and grievance.

Consider the unfolding engagement.

The Golden Prison

As the talismanic array descended, sheets of brilliant golden radiance materialized to construct an inescapable boundary grid directly upon the terrain.

The local sentinel stared at the expansive expanse of golden illumination, his expression—ordinarily characterized by a casual demeanor—shifting into undisguised astonishment.

He had naturally listened to Cen Qi's detailed debriefs regarding talismanic potency; she had exhausted an array of descriptive adjectives attempting to articulate how formidable and visually striking those talismans truly were.

Because her rhetoric had been so exuberant, many colleagues initially suspected a degree of hyperbole.

Only upon witnessing the phenomenon firsthand did he finally comprehend the profound awe underlying Cen Qi's recounting.

The spectacle was genuinely... breathtaking.

His astonishment was shared by the garrison guards positioned near the Nüwa Base, whose eyes widened in uniform disbelief.

Xia Wang'an remained entirely unswayed by the surrounding stares.

Her hands moving with fluid precision, the raven-haired maiden snatched two yellow talismans into her grasp; as she initiated her hand seals, flames flickered to life along the margins of the paper.

While the golden prison array restrained the two closest anomalies, they shrieked and thrashed frantically within the barrier, slamming their colossal carapaces against the perimeter before howling louder as the golden spiritual fire scorched their flesh.

She ignored their lamentations entirely, her clear, dark eyes maintaining a gaze that was simultaneously tranquil and razor-sharp.

"Circle the Heavens and Square the Earth!" "By the Nine Chapters of the Edict!" "My brush descends this instant!" "Let all wandering specters lie hidden!"

The Execution

Accompanied by the incantation, the two yellow talismans fluttered gracefully from her fingertips, locking onto the crown of one anomaly's primary skull with pinpoint accuracy.

Had any spectator present ever viewed traditional cinematic depictions of hopping corpses, the choreography would have appeared intimately familiar.

The placement mirrored the exact methodology deployed by Daoist priests affixing control talismans to reanimated corpses—centered squarely across the bridge of the nose, neat and symmetrical.

Naturally, compared to mundane corpses, the anomalous entities bore little resemblance; they possessed towering stature, monstrous morphologies, and formidable threat profiles.

Yet the operational result proved identical: the moment the talisman struck home, the two restrained entities froze instantly in place. Although the one hundred and eight blood-shot ocular globes embedded across their anatomy continued to gyrate wildly, their physical frames remained locked in absolute paralysis.

Exhibiting a fluid, acrobatic grace, Xia Wang'an shifted her expansive Daoist robes through the air, drawing a fresh talisman mid-flight as she closed the distance toward the target.

"Crimson Cord!"

At an unspoken cue, Yuan Ning and Lin Ke materialized along the flanks, snapping their wrists upward to deploy specialized binding cords.

These were no ordinary ropes; they were ritual bindings saturated in potent rooster blood.

As the crimson fibers whipped through the air, they successfully entangled and immobilized the remaining anomaly.

Clearing the Field

Instantly, the struggling anomalies emitted shrill, distressed screeches.

Yuan Ning and Lin Ke immediately activated their ritual brass hand-bells.

As the melodic chimes reverberated through the domain, gods and specters alike were compelled to submit.

Fully immersed in her role as a transcendent Daoist cultivator, Xia Wang'an maneuvered her billowing vestments before unhooking the peach-wood sword from her waist.

Affixing a suppression talisman directly to the blade's edge, she confronted the anomaly and brought the weapon down in a definitive arc.

—Boom!

The cranial structures of both anomalies severed cleanly, plummeting to the earth.

Ordinarily, anomalies possessed exceptional resilience, capable of regenerating even if reduced to isolated limbs or extremities.

However, these entities, executed via the consecrated peach-wood sword, suffered absolute annihilation; even the fragmented human souls trapped within their biomass were successfully emancipated and purified.

With two S-rank targets remaining on the sector, Xia Wang'an uttered a concise command for the "Reincarnation Mantra" before sprinting toward the secondary engagement zone.

"I shall handle this," Yuan Ning stated.

Lin Ke hurried forward to maintain formation, though his facial pallor remained starkly white, assaulted by the overpowering stench radiating from the anomalies.

"Yue... I shall assist you... yue!!"

While organizing her diverse array of ritual apparatuses with rhythmic metallic chimes, Xia Wang'an offered a supportive mental nod to Lin Ke's display of "persistence despite physical trauma".

Concluding her mental approval, she offered practical triage advice: "Perhaps you ought to withdraw and engage the lesser anomalies instead; I can manage this sector independently."

Although high-tier anomalies preferred solitary domains during peacetime, whenever a major siege was initiated, lower-tier aberrant entities invariably trailed behind like aquatic predators tracking a blood trail, eager to participate in the assault.

Nascent unformed anomalies, minor specters, C-rank, B-rank, and occasional A-rank entities frequently utilized major vanguard pushes to feed on secondary resources.

The garrison soldiers—who had been paralyzed by the dazzling golden talisman arrays—shifted their focus toward intercepting these secondary incoming waves.

Refining the Routine

Lin Ke raised no objections; hearing Xia Wang'an advise withdrawal, he immediately bolted from the malodorous sector while continuing to dry-heave.

The base sentinel, his physical injuries partially mended, gripped his longspear and glanced toward Xia Wang'an. Though her countenance remained tranquil, her eyes gleamed with the focused exhilaration of a master thoroughly enjoying the engagement.

Offering no hesitation, the sentinel fell into step beside Lin Ke: "Let us advance together!"

Xia Wang'an smoothly executed a duplicate talismanic deployment, locking the remaining two S-rank entities within a golden containment lattice.

Practice bred absolute mastery.

While her initial deployment sequence had exhibited minor structural hesitation, she now operated with the fluid efficiency of a seasoned combat veteran.

She even improvised novel tactical applications.

As Yuan Ning moved to assist with the binding cords, Xia Wang'an activated a spatial transportation talisman, causing the ritual ropes to autonomously orbit the aberrant targets in a tight containment spiral.

—Boom!

A secondary concussive blast signaled the neutralization of the final S-rank pair.

The Rising Tide

The raven-haired maiden afforded herself no pause following the eradication of the primary S-rank threats, pivoting immediately to survey the massive tide of low-tier anomalies converging upon the Nüwa Base.

Countless aberrant silhouettes surged across the horizon like an oceanic tempest, shuffling, crawling, and drifting toward the installation.

Evidently, these entities had yet to register that their vanguard champions had been eradicated, driven entirely by primitive olfactory instincts and a simple, singular mandate to consume living flesh.

Unless she elected to deploy localized saturation strikes that flattened a ten-kilometer radius—thereby risking civilian casualties—clearing the horde manually required methodical operational throughput.

Discarding hesitation, Xia Wang'an raised her hand within a span of mere seconds; abandoning standard paper talismans and writing implements, she executed a palm rotation that manifested an oversized calligraphy brush directly within her grip.

Nearby, the sentinel skewered an approaching anomaly with his spear, rolling dynamically to evade a secondary strike before crushing a third entity beneath his boot.

Noticing Xia Wang'an orient toward the perimeter wall, he called out urgently: "Do you possess a methodology to secure the entire base perimeter?"

"Affirmative. Deploying a Household Pacification Array will suffice."

"Does a Pacification Array not require locating specific structural focal nodes? The perimeter is expansive—is it easily mapped?"

The sentinel displayed surprising theoretical literacy regarding talismanic mechanics.

Presumably, Cen Qi had disseminated technical briefings following her initial interactions with Xia Wang'an.

Household Pacification Talismans represented standard defensive media; across both traditional historical lore and the Anomaly World, inhabitants had historically maintained customs of affixing protective talismans across architectural lintels and boundary perimeters.

However, standard residential architecture differed fundamentally in scale and structural integrity from an extensive fortified military installation.

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