Chapter 79: To Slay the Foes, Capture Their Leader First!

Wang Chen placed Forest Gale on his shoulder and turned back, pulling as if he were a barge-hauler drawing a vessel. The giant ghoul's legs were bound, preventing it from adjusting its stance to regain balance. Its hulking form was already unwieldy, and its enormous belly only exacerbated the instability. In this situation, Wang Chen amplified the power of his immobilization spell, exerting tremendous force on the ghoul's relatively fragile neck. Unable to resist the tugging of the luminous threads, the ghoul involuntarily bent its neck downward, losing its balance completely and crashing face-first to the ground.

Any upright-walking creature would panic when confronted with such a sudden fall, especially the giant ghoul. Feeling the immense pressure on its neck, it instinctively reached out to grasp the source of the force, but the luminous threads were invisible and intangible, leaving it to claw at nothing. This frantic grabbing only delayed its chance to brace against the ground with its arms, missing the opportunity to cushion the fall, managing only to touch the earth with its right elbow. The impact bruised its right arm, which was then trapped beneath its body.

This fall proved disastrous for the ordinary ghouls nearby. With its massive bulk and Wang Chen's forceful pull, the giant ghoul crashed down with overwhelming momentum. Five or six regular ghouls were struck; two were smashed to pulp and died instantly, while the rest were either severely crippled or gravely injured, all but losing their ability to move.

Most crucially, when the giant ghoul was standing, Wang Chen found that the amount of Celestial Spider silk he could use for restraint was insufficient due to its immense size. He had to choose: either concentrate all the silk on the giant ghoul or scatter it mainly on the ground to first immobilize the regular ghouls. Now, with the giant ghoul toppled, this dilemma was resolved. It had fallen directly into the web, almost entirely sprawled and with much of its body touching the ground. Thus, every part of its torso was more or less stuck to the web. Its lower body was further restrained by Wang Chen's skills, rendering it completely immobile, little different from the ordinary ghouls.

But Wang Chen felt this was not enough. As his plan progressed smoothly, he adapted his tactics to the shifting battlefield, devising new strategies. He wanted to see if he could utterly disable the giant ghoul's mobility.

He swung Forest Gale, and a heavy wave of light crashed to the earth.

"Hand of Stone!"

The wave of light darted toward the giant ghoul's neck, suddenly bursting forth as a massive stone hand rose from the ground.

Wang Chen controlled the hand, twisting it slightly and letting it descend upon the ghoul’s neck.

"Boom!"

The stone hand, already substantial, gained even more force from its plunge, delivering a crushing blow to the ghoul's cervical vertebrae. Though not enough to cause paralysis, its neck and monstrous face were smashed deep into the soil. When it finally managed to pull its face free, the mud would bear a clear imprint of its features.

But Wang Chen's purpose was not mere theatrics; he meant to use the stone hand for further restraint. He directed the fingers to dig deeply into the earth, then drank a potion to sharpen his mind.

Forest Gale's head glowed again, releasing another heavy wave of light.

"Hand of Stone!"

Wang Chen guided the wave swiftly to the underside of the giant ghoul's neck, where it erupted. The bedrock beneath churned as a second gigantic stone hand burst from the soil. He manipulated this hand to meet the first, which pressed down from above. The two hands joined together, as if clasped tightly, locking the ghoul's neck in a stony vise, like an enormous plaster cast.

With this task complete, Wang Chen immediately flashed toward the ghoul’s waist. He did not try to make the stone hands squeeze the neck tightly enough to suffocate it, uncertain about their strength. The ghoul's fat-laden body made him wary that excessive force might shatter the stone hands and diminish their restraining effect. So he left them as they were and prepared an additional measure.

Upon reaching the giant ghoul's waist, Wang Chen swapped Forest Gale for the Flame Python Blade and brought it down with force. A scorching crescent-shaped wave of flame slashed at the ghoul’s waist. Though the technique relied chiefly on heat, its blade’s edge offered some armor-piercing effect, akin to a sword's aura.

The fiery wave cut deep into the ghoul’s waist, burning and hacking, revealing stark white bone amid charred flesh and blood.

The giant ghoul wailed in agony, its limbs flailing wildly, but with its waist muscles devastated, it could muster little strength. The motions were noisy but lacked the vigor of its earlier struggles.

"Excellent. Thankfully, the ghoul fell forward. Had it toppled backward, I might not have been able to slice through the fat on its belly," Wang Chen thought to himself.

Fortunately, everything was proceeding as planned. Even if this blow hadn’t truly severed the giant ghoul, it at least destroyed its waist muscles. Power rises from the ground, transmitted through the waist; with this center disrupted, its combat ability was greatly diminished.

Wang Chen thus left the giant ghoul behind and charged toward the ordinary ghouls, running while retrieving potions from his storage space and drinking them.

“You’re finally here! Look at these troublesome spider threads—they make it impossible for me to kill the ghouls properly. What should I do?” Lin Lehan complained.

Wang Chen paused to observe a moment, then understood her predicament. Earlier, when they laid down the web, they focused solely on covering the ghouls as much as possible, neglecting to leave any pathways through the threads. As a result, the web trapped not only the ghouls but also left Lin Lehan stranded outside. She could only target those ghouls at the edge of the web, or wait for them to slowly struggle free before striking them down, always at risk of accidentally falling into the web herself.

But plans are never without flaws. Luckily, Wang Chen's preparations could be put to use. He took out two long poles from his storage space. These poles, seized from scavengers on the Dark Plateau, seemed handy, so he had kept several sets.

Wang Chen tied a chunk of rotting flesh to the end of a pole and extended it toward a regular ghoul. The scent lured the ghoul to stretch its neck and open its foul jaws for the meat. Seizing the moment, Wang Chen tucked the pole under his arm, freeing his left hand to cast a skill.

From his palm came the sound of waves, and with a sharp whistle, a sinuous water dragon shot forth!