Shattering the Stubborn, Crushing the Decayed

After leaving the Palace Road, Chen Chuan soon reached the place where Young Master Xu and the other man had run out from earlier.

With a sweep of his gaze, he saw more than a dozen headless corpses on the ground.

Their blood had not yet dried, flowing along the cracks between the floor tiles. One or two of the bodies had left drag marks across the ground, extending into a side hall nearby. From within, he could hear something chewing.

He turned and walked over, entering through a breach littered with broken bricks. He immediately saw a six- or seven-meter-long creature, like a snake yet also like a dragon, with a single horn on its head. It was sprawled there, gnawing on a mutilated corpse.

As he entered, the creature suddenly froze before sharply turning its head. Most of its face had been reduced to tattered, dried flesh, while its body was riddled with ruptures. The fresh flesh and blood it had just chewed into its mouth was flowing out through those gaps.

Chen Chuan watched intently and saw specks of light representing mental power flickering across the creature's skull and spine. This showed that it was not one of the mutated demon ghosts he had encountered before. Rather, its shell had been occupied by some highly condensed spiritual entity.

Practitioners of the Aspect of the Gods, as well as the beings on the other side, could undoubtedly accomplish such a thing, though there would always be some degree of mismatch. Yet this spiritual aggregate fitted its outer shell exceptionally well. It seemed more like its original spirit had been gathered anew through the reinforcement of a ritual, then returned to occupy its own decayed body.

He remained where he was, but the creature could no longer restrain itself.