At 9:00 p.m. on July 31, 2007, in the unfinished Forest Park of Jinxi County.
Crack! A tree thick enough to take three people to wrap their arms around was snapped in half after just a few punches from Zhang Chen.
"Damn, I seemed to have used too much force." Zhang Chen looked at the fallen tree. "Let's call it here for today. I'll go home and sort out my things. I'm leaving tomorrow."
At that moment, Zhang Chen opened his left hand, and wisps of red vapor seeped from the center of his palm. Before long, a tiny red bug the size of a thumbnail appeared in his hand. That was right—it was the little creature hatched from the Blood Beetle egg.
In fact, it had been born half a year ago, during a math class. That afternoon, Zhang Chen had been taking notes attentively when he suddenly felt something moving inside his backpack. When he opened it, the Cosmic Bag was actually twitching as though some living thing inside was ramming against it.
Zhang Chen immediately realized what was happening and quickly asked the teacher for permission to use the restroom. In the bathroom, he opened the Cosmic Bag. A tiny red insect, smaller than his pinky nail, flew onto his hand. After staring at Zhang Chen for a long while, it suddenly seemed delighted and transformed into red vapor, drilling into his left arm.
Zhang Chen was terrified and had no idea what to do. However, he could clearly feel a tiny thing darting around inside his body. With every nerve taut, Zhang Chen could only watch as it traveled all over him before finally emerging from his left palm.
Gradually, Zhang Chen discovered that the little thing seemed quite friendly toward him. Perhaps it was because he had eaten part of the Nail Man. Besides, the little thing disliked staying inside the Cosmic Bag and preferred living in Zhang Chen's body.
After observing it for a long time, Zhang Chen discovered that he could convey information to the little fellow through his thoughts. Once he confirmed that it truly posed no danger, he began carrying it with him whenever he trained, hoping it could grow alongside him and help him someday.
Half a year had passed. Other than growing a little larger, Zhang Chen had discovered no other traits in the creature, nor did he know how it reproduced.
After some thought, Zhang Chen stored it back in his left arm, then leaped straight over the two-and-a-half-meter-high railing around the park. He was in high spirits today because the five friends had gotten together that afternoon and treated Zhang Chen and Wang Yizhi to a lavish meal.
"What's going on here? Why had I never noticed anything strange before?" Zhang Chen had walked this road from Forest Park to his home countless times. Yet today, as he passed the abandoned real estate sales office, he felt a faint palpitation in his chest. It was very slight, but Zhang Chen still noticed it.
"Creak..." The door to the abandoned hall was not locked, and Zhang Chen pushed it open. The sales center had only one floor, but it covered quite a large area.
Zhang Chen reached out and touched the light switch. Even if it still worked, the power had probably been cut long ago.
Just inside the entrance were the main reception desk, a Resting Area for customers, and models of the buildings. Since the place had been abandoned for a long time, everything was covered in dust, with construction debris scattered everywhere.
"Nothing seems out of the ordinary, does it? Sigh, I've been getting paranoid lately." Zhang Chen was about to turn around and leave when a light suddenly came on in one of the model home rooms down the corridor on the other side of the hall. The faint sound of running water also drifted out.
"Oh, there really is something here." Zhang Chen was not afraid in the slightest. He was even rather pleased. "I haven't eaten any 'raw meat' in a whole year. This came at the perfect time."
Zhang Chen was not like someone in a movie, creeping closer step by step. Instead, he rushed toward the lit room in a few long strides and shoved the door open.
"Huh? Nothing?" After pushing the door open, Zhang Chen found nothing inside the model home. However, it was lavishly furnished and completely free of dust. There was a bed, a television, a chandelier—everything. It was no different from a newly finished home.
"Where are you hiding? This sales office was abandoned a year ago, yet this room looks like this. Aren't you making it way too obvious?"
"Hissss..." The sound of water pouring from the showerhead in the bathroom reached Zhang Chen's ears. He immediately pushed open the bathroom door. A shower curtain blocked his view of the bathtub, but through the light, he could make out the faint silhouette of someone sitting inside.
Zhang Chen smiled, rushed over, and yanked the curtain aside. Just like in a movie, the silhouette vanished. Yet beneath the stream pouring from the showerhead, a large flyer floated on the surface of the water-filled bathtub.
Zhang Chen picked it up and saw that it was the very flyer for the trip he was about to take.
At that moment, something unexpected happened. A pair of deathly pale hands suddenly clamped around Zhang Chen's neck from behind, as if trying to force his head into the water. If it had been an ordinary person, the police would probably have been collecting the body the next day.
Zhang Chen steadied himself. Though the two hands behind him were extremely strong, he could withstand them completely. He also did not want to use Telekinesis. He had already used quite a lot while practicing in Forest Park, and if he used it again here, he feared he would reach his limit.
Just as Zhang Chen was about to reach back and grab the pale hands strangling him, he suddenly felt some kind of liquid seeping from them. It was ice-cold and began to penetrate his skin. A numb sensation spread through his cervical spine, and his body went limp in an instant.
Splash! Zhang Chen was shoved straight into the water.
He had no choice. After swallowing two mouthfuls of water, a thought flashed through his mind, and the hands around his neck instantly released him. He raised his head and looked around, but there was no longer any ghost in sight.
Drip, drip. A string of water droplets fell from the bathroom ceiling, landing right on Zhang Chen's arms. Like living creatures, they instantly spread over his clothes and seeped into both arms.
Before Zhang Chen could react, he lost all connection with his hands.
"Damn it, another one that fights hit-and-run battles." Zhang Chen turned and stared at the ceiling, only to find nothing unusual. Both his hands were useless now. If those droplets landed on his feet next time, he would really be finished.
He unleashed his Telekinesis at full power, spreading it through the entire room and inspecting every corner. However, a wave of dizziness struck his head, and the extra search proved unnecessary.
Splash, splash... A long-haired woman slowly floated up from the water in the bathtub behind Zhang Chen. Her eyes contained nothing but whites. Seeing that Zhang Chen's arms had lost their use, she split her mouth wide in a grin, water weeds mixed between her teeth. Then one of her hands stretched out, transforming into azure liquid as it shot straight toward Zhang Chen.
Crack! Though the female ghost's eyes were only white, disbelief was still visible within them. Just as her hand was about to touch Zhang Chen, he raised his left hand. Five long claws shot out, and with a single swipe, he cut her in half at the waist.
However, the female ghost seemed capable of healing. Blood poured from her severed waist, yet the blood transformed into azure water and slowly began reconnecting her upper and lower body.
"This thing seems pretty tough." Naturally, Zhang Chen was not about to wait. He opened his mouth and swallowed the female ghost's upper body whole. Without its upper half, the lower half, which had still held a trace of life, immediately became a dead thing.
Zhang Chen had intended to keep eating, but after thinking it over, he stretched out his left hand and said, "This is your reward."
A tiny red insect flew out from Zhang Chen's hand, landing directly on the lower half of the body before burrowing inside.
Slowly, Zhang Chen watched the female ghost's lower body shrivel after the Blood Beetle entered it, like a deflated balloon. In the end, the entire lower half crumbled into dust and vanished into the air. Two Blood Beetles appeared on the ground, and Zhang Chen happily recalled them into his arm.
Since Master Pu Hu had never mentioned anything about Blood Beetles, Zhang Chen had always been troubled by how they reproduced. After all, a single one looked very weak. Even Yang Zi in the past had probably possessed dozens of them inside his body.
By accidentally rewarding it this time, Zhang Chen had discovered the condition required for the little creature to reproduce. Thinking about it, it made sense. Since it was a ghost insect, it naturally had to feed on ghosts.
The battle just now had been extremely dangerous. If not for the little fellow, Zhang Chen might have suffered a major loss of vitality again today. After the ice-cold azure liquid entered his hands, Zhang Chen felt as though it had cut off his nerves, severing his connection with both hands.
However, the Blood Beetle resting inside his left arm seemed to smell something delicious and immediately darted to where the liquid was. It devoured it in just two or three bites, allowing Zhang Chen to reconnect with his left arm. That was how he had managed to catch the female ghost off guard and kill her.
Zhang Chen sent his thoughts to the two Blood Beetles. The two little fellows immediately swarmed onto Zhang Chen's right arm and devoured every last trace of liquid lingering there.
At the same time, a notification sounded.
Devoured one low-level Resentful Ghost. Saturation gained: 18%. Skill acquired: Water (Extremely Incomplete) Zhang Chen Main Soul Slot status: Open Main Soul: Gluttonous Ghost Saturation: 100% (Saturated) Compatibility with current **: 35% Secondary Soul Slot status: Closed Number of Skill Slots: 3 Skill Slots used: 2 Skills possessed: Telekinesis (Evolvable, used), Nail Growth (Arms only, used), Water (Extremely Incomplete, unusable) Telekinesis: Can use thought to control invisible force. Current proficiency: 82%. Nail Growth: Left and right arm strength increased by 350%, nail hardness increased by 1000%, length can be controlled freely. Physical condition: Medium Perception: High Overall evaluation: Medium Jailer rank: Pawn
"Huh? Wasn't that saturation thing at 95%? Why did it stop moving once it reached 100%?" Zhang Chen also noticed no changes in his body.
"Forget it. Sigh, if I hadn't overused Telekinesis, how could something like that have made me struggle so much?" Back when Zhang Chen's Telekinesis proficiency had reached 50%, he had already been able to compress air with it like Wen Jing had in the past, creating something like a shockwave.
Moreover, with his enhanced physical condition, if Zhang Chen went all out, he could practically level Forest Park in a single morning.
"Master Pu Hu said that Resentful Ghosts were formed when the resentment at the moment of death was so intense that it instantly altered the soul, leaving it behind at the place of death to kill every mortal who came near without any consciousness. That woman must have been drowned before she died."
"But why was that flyer there? How strange. Forget it, I should head home first." Zhang Chen had gained quite a lot from the female ghost tonight. Not only had his abilities improved, but he had also discovered the secret of Blood Beetle reproduction. At the same time, after swallowing the female ghost, his hunger had vanished.
After returning home and packing everything he needed into a suitcase, Zhang Chen called Wang Yizhi. The events of that night gradually faded from his mind, and he fell asleep.
In the bathroom of that abandoned model home, the flyer still floated quietly on the water's surface.
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