Fang Zhitu did not answer; his entire attention was drawn to the small door opposite the pool—behind that should be the main burial chamber.
But what alarmed him even more was that the liquid in the pool was rippling slightly, as if something was swimming underneath.
"Sixth Master, I feel something's wrong..." The Rat took a few steps back. "There seems to be something moving in that blood pool..."
Before the words were finished, the surface of the pool suddenly exploded, and the red liquid in the blood pool splashed and stuck to the Rat's body.
The Rat was dragged into the pool of blood by an inexplicable force. Before it could even scream, it was completely swallowed up, leaving only a string of bubbles behind.
"Ah!" the one-eyed man yelled, forcefully throwing the knife in his hand towards the pool of blood.
The knife entered the pool of blood, but it vanished without a trace, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.
The blood pool gradually boiled, and the water level rose rapidly, submerging the one-eyed man's feet. He seemed to be entangled, unable to break free no matter how hard he tried.
"Save me! Sixth Master, save me..." His pleas for help were cut short as he melted into the pool of blood.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Chen Liu and Fang Zhitu rushed towards the small door opposite. Just as the liquid in the blood pool surged towards them and was about to touch them, the tattoo on Fang Zhitu's shoulder suddenly lit up, slowing down the flow of blood.
The two stumbled through the small door, and Chen Liu immediately used all his strength to push a stone up to block the entrance. The crashing sound outside continued for a few minutes before finally subsiding.
"Your 'friend' is quite useful, isn't it?" Chen Liu panted, shining his flashlight on Fang Zhitu's shoulder. The ghost face tattoo was now fully revealed, lifelike, with even a strange smile on its lips.
Fang Zhitu ignored Chen Liu; his gaze was completely captivated by the scene before him.
This is a circular tomb chamber with a coffin in the center, the lid of which is carved with many bas-relief ghost faces.
Most importantly, a tall, slender figure stood beside the coffin, dressed in trendy modern clothes, his cold eyes looking down at Fang Zhitu and Chen Liu.
Fang Zhitu could even see the other person's face clearly, a strange sense of fear and admiration welled up in his heart. He didn't know why he had two completely opposite and conflicting feelings.
Chen Liu was initially annoyed that Fang Zhitu was ignoring him, but when he followed Fang Zhitu's gaze, he realized that there was a third person in the tomb.
"Who the hell are you?" Chen Liu stood up menacingly, drawing his sword and pointing it at the figure.
The next second, Chen Liu froze on the spot, his body disintegrating inch by inch from his feet, like slicing beef for a ramen noodle, being crushed bit by bit.
Chen Liu remained conscious throughout, but he was unable to move or speak. His contorted expression revealed the immense pain he was enduring.
Upon Fang Zhitu this scene, Fang Zhitu was terrified.
Although he had taken lives, he had never seen such a death. He wouldn't deliberately torture someone unless he had a deep-seated hatred for them.
Could it be that the person on the other side has a grudge against Chen Liu?
--No, that's not true.
Hu Jiu's nature is simply that of a bad seed; sometimes he just tortures others for no reason, and the suffering of others is his joy.
"Who... who are you?" Fang Zhitu's face paled slightly; he had realized that the person in front of him was not someone to be trifled with.
But when he looked directly at the man, the ghost head tattoo on his shoulder suddenly stirred, as if it were an instinctive reaction of resistance and hostility after being stimulated.
Immediately afterwards, Fang Zhitu felt his body was losing control, and the ghost head tattoo on his shoulder actually launched an attack on its own!
He was terrified. The person opposite him looked like someone he was not to be trifled with. Wasn't this just courting death?
"It seems you have a problem with me on our first meeting."
Hu Jiu's gaze turned Fang Zhitu as he looked at Fang Zhitu, who was trembling all over, and he lightly tapped his finger.
A terrifying, suffocating feeling instantly enveloped Fang Zhitu.
It felt like being thrown into asphalt, so sticky you couldn't breathe or move.
"Ah--"
Suddenly, Fang Zhitu felt a sharp pain all over his body. Before he could even react to what was happening, Hu Jiu forcibly pulled the ghost head tattoo off his shoulder.
"Let me see what this thing is?" Hu Jiu's voice was deep as he carefully examined the vengeful Fierce Ghost that he had just pulled from Fang Zhitu's shoulder.
A terrifying Supernatural aura invaded, and Hu Jiu quickly learned all the characteristics and patterns of this Fierce Ghost.
It's devouring!
Hu Jiu raised an eyebrow. The ghost head tattoo on Fang Zhitu's shoulder could be released to devour people or ghosts.
After devouring someone, one can acquire the devoured person's talents, skills, and other artistic talents they have learned, such as playing musical instruments, chess, calligraphy, and painting.
After devouring Fierce Ghost, you can learn the ghost's killing patterns.
This ghost is currently very weak, but it has unlimited growth potential. If left unchecked, it will grow to a terrifying level in no time.
Thinking of this, Hu Jiu gave Fang Zhitu a strange look. What rare good luck!
This kind of good luck seems strangely familiar.
The Supernatural world is just beginning to revive, and someone has already received such a huge cheat code.
Almost instantly, the ghost became Hu Jiu's collectible.
As for Fang Zhitu...
Fang Zhitu was panicking. He realized that the person opposite him was looking at him with the same gaze one would give a rare and exotic beast.
What should I do if I'm being targeted by bad guys?
Fang Zhitu trembled all over; he was terrified of dying.
"Do you want to continue being Ghost Tamer?" Hu Jiu asked.
Looking at Hu Jiu's extraordinary face, Fang Zhitu nodded subconsciously. Although he had no idea what Ghost Tamer was, he still firmly said, "I want to become Ghost Tamer!"
He didn't know what Hu Jiu was planning, nor did he know what the consequences of his answer would be. Everything he did was a gamble, a gamble that he had a way out!
He's always been lucky.
Hu Jiu nodded, and under Fang Zhitu's uneasy gaze, Ghost Fire ignited in Hu Jiu's palm.
A sinister, emerald-green light bloomed before Fang Zhitu's eyes, causing his heart to beat even faster for no apparent reason.
In the blink of an eye, all that remained in Fang Zhitu's vision was that eerie green.
He felt both cold and hot inside his body, extremely uncomfortable, as if every cell was being burned, and his entire body was filled with a destructive force.
"It hurts so much..."
Fang Zhitu couldn't help but let out a muffled groan.
When the emerald green before him disappeared, his vision returned, and he could clearly feel a power within him moving at his will, as if controlling his own limbs. Wherever his gaze focused, Ghost Fire would ignite.
"This is the Ghost Tamer?" He looked at Hu Jiu with a puzzled expression.
Is "Ghost Tamer" just another name for an extraordinary being?
The next second, Fang Zhitu met Hu Jiu's eyes and felt dizzy, his memories starting to swirl.
"I am Fang Zhitu, a time traveler. I was hit and killed by a dump truck while crossing the street, and transmigrated into a cannon fodder character with the same name, 'Fang Zhitu,' in a novel."
"The main plot of the novel is the Supernatural Revival, the apocalypse of Fierce Ghost, and the struggle of those Ghost Tamer against the ever-resurrecting Fierce Ghosts. Relying on my foresight, I obtained a crucial key Fierce Ghost in the plot—the will-o'- Ghost Fire— before the Supernatural had fully revived."
The new memories overwrote Fang Zhitu's original memories, and Hu Jiu's existence was completely erased.
When Fang Zhitu's eyes regained their clarity, he glanced at Chen Liu's corpse and merely smiled disdainfully.
In his new memory, Chen Liu was an overconfident person who wanted to compete with him for the Ghost Fire. However, through his clever and courageous schemes, Chen Liu was ultimately defeated.
Fang Zhitu stripped Chen Liu of his clothes and put them on himself, then took Chen Liu's cell phone, cash, and other belongings.
Then, under his gaze, Chen Liu's corpse ignited with eerie green Ghost Fire and was burned to ashes in no time.
After finishing all this, Fang Zhitu calmed his excitement, looked around at his surroundings, and frowned slightly. "I feel like something's not quite right. Is there really only this one ghost in this ancient tomb?"
He recalled it carefully again, and it was indeed like that in the plot. There were only Ghost Fire in this ancient tomb, which originally belonged to the protagonist, but he controlled them ahead of time.
"Don't blame me. In this chaotic and desperate world, since I have the ability to foresee the plot, I can't waste this advantage. The rare treasures that haven't been taken by the protagonist are unclaimed and should belong to the capable."
Fang Zhitu took the protagonist's opportunity without any qualms, and even planned to take away the protagonist's other opportunities.
"Currently, the story is just beginning, in the early stages of Supernatural Revival. Supernatural phenomena are erupting around the world, and Jing City is besieged by hundreds of ghosts. Going to Jing City to steal the protagonist's cheat ability is too dangerous; it's better to go elsewhere, to the second large-scale Supernatural event the protagonist experiences..."
Having made up his mind, Fang Zhitu immediately took action. He left the ancient tomb without any obstacles. There was no collapsed tomb passage, no blood pool, and no corpses of other tomb raiders. It was as if, after defeating a boss in a game, everything had become harmless...
Fang Zhitu was in such a hurry to seize the original protagonist's opportunity that he didn't care about his kidnapped parents and sister?
Hmm... those were the original owner's closest relatives, not his, the transmigrator's, closest relatives.
In short, he has no extra emotions right now; his mind is only focused on "becoming stronger" and "causing trouble."
After Fang Zhitu's figure completely disappeared, the ancient tomb returned to its original hideous appearance—a collapsed tomb passage, a churning pool of blood, a demon statue holding a bronze lamp, and the coffin in the main burial chamber.
Hu Jiu remained standing beside the coffin, never leaving it from beginning to end.
The design of this ancient tomb is ingenious, using the killing patterns of Fierce Ghost that restrain each other to create a certain balance.
This balance has been maintained for thousands of years.
Unfortunately, tomb raiders disrupted the balance of the tomb. Although it was only a minor disruption, such an intricate and complex design meant that if even one small part went wrong, the entire structure would quickly collapse.
The blood pool outside the tomb, the Fierce Ghost statue holding a bronze lamp, and the Fierce Ghosts wandering in the tomb passage were all quickly collected by Hu Jiu as collectibles.
In the end, only the coffin in the main burial chamber remained.
It was a rectangular coffin that was entirely black, made of a material that resembled jade but was not jade, and it gleamed with an eerie luster under the light.
The surface of the coffin was covered with different hideous ghost faces, and several chains tightly wrapped around it from different directions. Each chain was hung with small, rusty bells, but they did not make a sound.
Hu Jiu touched it gently, wondering what was inside the coffin.
Hu Jiu's Supernatural seeped into the coffin, and the bells on the chains suddenly started moving without wind, emitting a series of piercing sounds.
"Ding--Ding--"
The sound was shrill, unlike anything metallic; it was more like the scream of Fierce Ghost. The bell rang for about ten seconds before suddenly stopping, and the tomb returned to Silence.
Hu Jiu was completely unaffected; he tore the chains off the coffin with his bare hands.
The chains hung limply to the ground like dead snakes.
He then pushed open the coffin. The lid was much lighter than he had imagined, and it slid open with almost no effort, creating a small gap.
A bone-chilling cold emanated from the crack, and when the coffin lid was a third of the way open, Hu Jiu finally saw what was inside—
Inside the coffin lay a male corpse, dressed in a magnificent black silk burial robe embroidered with ghost faces.
The body was exceptionally well-preserved, with skin exhibiting an unnatural bluish-gray hue and a waxy sheen.
Most remarkably, the corpse's eyes were tightly closed, but the eyeballs beneath the eyelids seemed to be moving slightly, and the corners of the mouth were slightly upturned, as if making a strange smile.
A normal corpse would never be so undecayed and shriveled, as if it had just been buried. Hu Jiu could tell at a glance that this was a Ghost Tamer had been dead for an unknown period of time.
It seems that he built this tomb in an attempt to prevent himself from reviving before he died.
The coffin, the clothes worn by the deceased, and the corpse itself were all extremely terrifying ghosts.
Hu Jiu thought for a moment. At this time, the Fierce Ghost he had released was still wreaking havoc in the Jing City, but it hadn't yet become common knowledge. He might as well throw the coffin and the corpse inside into the Jing City and add fuel to the fire...
No!
The coffin, the corpse, and the burial clothes must be disposed of separately. If they are all disposed of together, and someone lucky enough to encounter a ghost that is a perfect match for the body, that would be disastrous.
Just then, the corpse's eyes suddenly opened; they were pure white eyes without pupils, gleaming eerily in the darkness.
The corpse's hands were originally folded over its chest, and the fingernails were an unnatural black color and unusually long, with sharp, knife-like tips.
At that moment, the corpse's hand suddenly rose at an uncanny angle and grabbed at Hu Jiu.
Hu Jiu slapped a black talisman directly onto the corpse's forehead, and in an instant, the corpse returned to stillness.
Hu Jiu then roughly dragged the body out of the coffin and threw it remotely into the prop warehouse of a film crew in Jing City.
"Let's see who's got the guts to tear off the talisman on the corpse. I guarantee there'll be a big surprise." Hu Jiu said maliciously.
He then contacted Du Zhong, who was overseas, and had the coffin packed up and sent over.
"The mechanism of this coffin is very complex. Play with it however you like, just test its capabilities and patterns as soon as possible."
Du Zhong said with a hint of resentment, "You only contact me when you need something; otherwise, you just ignore me."
"Stop talking nonsense. If you don't want to do it, plenty of others will." Hu Jiu's voice was cold and hard.
Du Zhong immediately changed his attitude. "No problem, Boss. The one thing this world has no shortage of is living people; there are plenty of experimental subjects..."