“Roar!! Roar!”
“Hehehehe! Hehe!”
Thousands of ferocious hungry ghosts were like wild tigers off their leashes, recklessly scrambling up the black iron chains. Their vicious, hideous eyes glowed with an eerie green light as they closed in on Nan Zhi!
“Damn it!”
The heavy iron chains shook as the ghosts yanked at them, causing the other end connected to the stone grottoes to sway wildly. Standing on the chains, Nan Zhi barely managed to swing her blade, cleaving a black hungry ghost that lunged straight at her in two:
Crack!
The hungry ghost snapped at the waist, splashing foul, rancid slime in all directions. Before its falling corpse could even turn to ash, it was swarmed and devoured by its companions.
Nan Zhi frowned inwardly. Flipping onto a higher chain, she relied on her agility to dodge the hungry ghosts along the iron links.
Black, emaciated monsters lunged at her one after another, only to be cleaved in two or narrowly dodged by Nan Zhi.
Like dumplings dropping into boiling water, three or four hungry ghosts plunged from the high stone grottoes, their eyes fixed on her as they let out unresigned, inhuman howls:
“Gurgle...”
“Roar! Roar!”
Nan Zhi was inwardly startled. She had instructed Xu Zi to take the lamp gifted by Huiyuan, so faced with so many hungry ghosts, she could only dodge for the time being.
Striking with a palm, lightning surged from her center, sending another hungry ghost plunging down.
There were too many.
The number of hungry ghosts in Ruyi Pavilion... seemed somewhat off.
Before Nan Zhi could give it further thought, she saw Huaguzi wielding her Cloud Gauze Kerchief against the hungry ghosts. The delicate silk kerchief flew forward, scattering plum-blossom-like golden specks of light that shielded against the heads of the hungry ghosts.
Though the Cloud Gauze Kerchief managed to hold them off slightly, within three breaths, the swarm of hungry ghosts pounced and tore it to shreds!
“This is intolerable!”
Huaguzi’s face turned pale green. Seeing no way to avoid them, she reluctantly threw the large scorpion off her shoulder. Expanding as it met the wind, the black-skinned scorpion landed on the ground, transforming into a massive, venomous scorpion with giant pincers several zhang long!
“Golden-Headed Scorpion! What an impressive Golden-Headed Scorpion!”
“Confound it, why is someone causing trouble again?!”
“Ah! These hungry ghosts have gone mad! Why are they biting everyone?!”
“Run! The hungry ghosts in Ruyi Pavilion are eating people!”
As soon as the scorpion hit the ground, it raised its two giant pincers and went on a rampage. At first, it held the upper hand, proudly impaling a pavilion guard on its barbed tail. Yet who could have guessed that the hungry ghosts inside the building were seemingly endless? Swarming upward all at once, their overwhelming numbers swallowed the giant scorpion whole, leaving behind nothing but a thin black shell!
“No! Old Black!”
Huaguzi screeched as if witnessing something utterly unbelievable. She spat out a mouthful of blood, her eyes rolling back as she glared fixedly at Nan Zhi on the iron chain:
“You wretched thief! You destroyed my artifact and ruined my spiritual Gu! Today, I will make you pay for Big Black's life with yours!”
—One had to know that she had raised this Golden-Headed Scorpion with half her essence blood, eating and sleeping with it every day; calling it half a child to her was no exaggeration.
Thinking of how she, an experienced hunter, had been blinded by a bird, resulting in all her artifacts destroyed and her Golden-Headed Scorpion dead beyond doubt, a surge of rage boiled inside Huaguzi's chest:
“Give me your life!”
With that, her body shuddered as her form shifted. The black robe draped over her seemed light as air as she floated straight toward Nan Zhi!
Nan Zhi had anticipated this. Stepping on the iron chain, she leapt high into the air, the chains clattering against each other. Gripping her Fish-Dragon Guillotine tightly, she slashed down fiercely at the black robe!
Whoosh!
Unexpectedly, the black robe moved like a ghost, swaying several times in midair before floating back onto Huaguzi—and the face hidden beneath the black veil was finally exposed to the light of day:
Phoenix eyes and a peach-blossom face, it was an extraordinarily striking, seductive beauty's countenance. Yet everything below her fair neck was an ancient corpse riddled with holes, pitted and with rotting flesh turned inside out!
Inside the pits of the corpse were no flesh and blood, but toads, centipedes, serpents, and spiders—a horde of venomous creatures!
How hideous!
Nan Zhi couldn't help gagging.
In that moment of distraction, Huaguzi lunged forward, creeping along the iron chain toward Nan Zhi like a boneless serpent. The five venomous creatures inside her chest and abdomen shot straight for Nan Zhi's face as well!
Nan Zhi flipped away to dodge, but the black robe proved to be a treasure. Flying in front of her, it darted back and forth in tandem with Huaguzi's movements, leaving Nan Zhi dazzled, feeling tipsy and light-headed as if she had been drinking!
“Sss!”
Unwatchful for a moment, Nan Zhi narrowly dodged a hungry ghost, only to be bitten on the arm by a red serpent—
“Giggling, what a fine body you have, sturdy enough. Once you're dead, Big Sister will use your flesh to raise another Golden-Headed Scorpion!”
Huaguzi laughed gleefully, yet she kept a distance of one zhang from Nan Zhi:
“Though I underestimated your cultivation strength, in martial skill, I am inferior to you; yet in applying poison, you are no match for me.
As for this venomous bug of mine, let alone a little thief like you at the Qi Refinement stage, even a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage would suffer greatly after a single bite—”
Before she could finish her sentence, the smile on her face froze, and she exclaimed in disbelief:
“You... why aren't you dead yet?”
Above Nan Zhi's head, a golden lotus slowly rose, firmly protecting her within its light, while the venomous serpent that had bitten her arm instantly died in grievance after losing two of its teeth.
The other venomous creatures met similar fates. They clung to Nan Zhi, biting frantically, but after striving for half a day, their efforts proved entirely futile, leaving them lying reluctantly on her body.
At first glance, it looked as if she were wearing a furry blanket.
“The prerequisite for poisoning is that its teeth can actually bite through my skin.”
Nan "Thick Health Bar, Cheater, Enhanced Constitution" Zhi cupped her hands together and pulled back her sleeve with utmost sincerity, showing her smooth, unblemished arm to Huaguzi:
“See? Just these two tiny venomous fangs didn't even break the top layer of skin on my arm. How am I supposed to be poisoned?”
Thank you, Abbess, for the golden gear, and for the absurdly high Constitution points on the status panel!
Huaguzi: “...”
I have some filthy words I absolutely must say.
Before her opponent could react, Nan Zhi grinned villainously and lunged forward. Hitting Huaguzi in the abdomen with the flat of her blade, she severed the other end of the iron chain with a single strike, lifting her up as if about to throw her down:
“Now, tell me. Why do you want to kill me? And how did you know I have the Yin Wine Worm in my possession?
Though I suggest you think carefully before speaking, or if my hand accidentally slips, you'll fall down to keep your Big Black bug company.”
“I'll talk.”
With the hideous hungry ghosts below and the sharp blade pressed against her neck, Huaguzi composed herself and revealed everything without hiding a single detail.
—She and One Eyed Immortal were merely sellswords taking money for lives. Now that One Eyed Immortal was dead, even if the mastermind behind the scenes had some grudge with this dark-faced lass, it had nothing to do with her.
Staying alive was what mattered most.
...
The commotion at the bottom of Ruyi Pavilion naturally couldn't escape the notice of the spectators at the very top.
A crowd of bizarre ghosts and demons of all shapes and outfits gathered together, sitting inside the largest stone grotto at the summit, leisurely taking in the farce.
“It hasn't been this lively in years.”
The speaker was a demon beast with a dragon head on a human body, clad in silver armor with a bright pearl hanging at his waist. Casting a side-glance at his tablemates, a puff of white mist blew from his nostrils:
“Is this how your Ruyi Pavilion treats its guests? Don't tell me you think finding any ordinary mortal to make a scene can satisfy the likes of us?”
Rate on N.U.
