Hungry Ghost

Yu Ziqing's consciousness was a bit hazy.

Ah, I've used up all my Blood Essence and strength. How long has it been? There's nothing left to digest, has it started digesting my own muscles?

His brain was resisting fiercely, even if it meant digesting his own flesh and blood, it had to replenish his brain's energy, to keep him a little more lucid.

Yu Ziqing struggled to sit up, leaning against the stone wall. He looked ahead. The stone wall was covered in claw marks and fist imprints.

Those were traces he'd left behind during his increasingly frantic moments before.

But now, he didn't even have the strength to be furious.

After an unknown amount of time watching, he noticed some movement on the stone wall in front of him.

A moment later, a claw broke through the stone wall and emerged from within.

As if sensing something, the owner of the claw became even more frantic. Its flesh was torn, its claws broken, yet it didn't stop. After a moment, it dug a small hole, barely over a foot wide.

A hungry ghost crawled out from inside and entered the cave where Yu Ziqing was.

The hungry ghost was overjoyed to see Yu Ziqing. After standing up, it anxiously paced back and forth, gesturing for a long time, wanting to say something but unable to make a sound.

After circling a few times, as if it had an idea, it turned around and continued to frantically excavate, constantly widening the hole, as if trying to make it large enough for Yu Ziqing to pass through.

"Stop digging, you don't need to..."

Yu Ziqing murmured weakly.

The hungry ghost seemed to think of something else, crawled back into the hole, and disappeared.

After an unknown amount of time, as Yu Ziqing's consciousness began to blur again, movement came from the hole once more.

The hungry ghost, holding a wooden bowl, carefully crawled out of the hole.

It held the wooden bowl with both hands and respectfully placed it in front of Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing remained motionless, his eyes shifting slightly. He recognized the wooden bowl as the one he had given the hungry ghost when he brought it soup. At the time, he had even teased the hungry ghost for not returning the bowl after eating, wondering who would bring it food next time.

But now, he saw that at the bottom of the wooden bowl, there was still some thick soup that had long since spoiled.

Yu Ziqing instantly understood. It wasn't that the hungry ghost hadn't returned the bowl after finishing the soup, but that it hadn't finished that small amount of soup yet.

After so much time had passed, the bowl still contained half of it, which had become gelatinous and spoiled. This hungry ghost had probably only drunk less than a quarter of it.

Yu Ziqing looked at the anxious hungry ghost, saw it hesitating, seemingly afraid to approach, and then saw that Yu Ziqing seemed to have no strength left. It picked up the wooden bowl and slowly walked towards Yu Ziqing.

Seeing the hungry ghost muster its courage, yet tremble, Yu Ziqing pulled at the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile. As he smiled, tears even streamed down his face.

"This has spoiled, it's poisonous. I can't drink it. You drink it."

"Come here."

The emaciated hungry ghost hesitated for a moment before slowly coming to Yu Ziqing's side. It still stubbornly held the wooden bowl and squatted in front of Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing extended a hand, now as thin as skin and bones, and placed it on the hungry ghost's ugly head. He gently stroked its head and then put the last piece of beef jerky into its hand.

"Take it. This is for you."

The hungry ghost was unwilling to accept it and pushed it back to Yu Ziqing.

"This is an order. I'm giving it to you, you must take it."

The hungry ghost dared not disobey and could only cradle the beef jerky in both hands, afraid of losing it.

"Are they looking for me?"

The hungry ghost nodded.

"Go tell them not to look anymore. I'm almost done, and I'll be back soon."

"And then, you should go too. Don't come here anymore."

"Go. I don't have the strength to speak anymore. I'm so tired..."

The hungry ghost left, holding the beef jerky, and stubbornly placed the wooden bowl back into Yu Ziqing's hand.

Yu Ziqing slumped there, leaning against the stone wall. The light in his eyes grew dimmer and dimmer. He no longer felt hunger, only exhaustion and weakness. He just wanted to remain still, not think of anything, and conserve his strength.

He knew that his current clarity of consciousness was a final burst of energy before death. He was not going to make it.

The flames of life were extinguishing. After an unknown period, Yu Ziqing's eyelids drooped slightly, and he became motionless. The brilliance in his eyes began to fade. His consciousness was gone, and his body was close to death.

The way of death he most wished to avoid.

Starvation.

The moment Yu Ziqing completely lost consciousness, wisps of black qi emerged from his body.

The amount of black qi exploded exponentially, rapidly enveloping Yu Ziqing's body. Following that, the black qi condensed continuously, transforming into black water, and then condensing again, forming something like viscous black oil.

The surrounding world began to be eroded and distorted. The solid stone walls, as if weathered by the wind, turned into powder, annihilated within the black oil-like substance.

A terrifying aura, filled with madness, despair, unwillingness, and coldness, condensed into a ball of black flame. With a whoosh, it ignited in Yu Ziqing's stopped heart, replacing the flames of life that were about to be completely extinguished.

Slowly, his already inhuman body gradually stood up, like an indescribable mass of black oil, distorting and eroding everything around it. Its aura was also rapidly climbing in an unprecedented state.

The large mass of black oil grew larger and larger, eventually filling the entire cave and continuing to erode everything around it.

At the same time, in the village, deep within the cave that had always been sealed and no one had ever entered, in the buried earth, pairs of eyes suddenly opened.

They were once people from the village. After starving to death, they became starving ghosts. However, unwilling to harm the villagers, they burrowed into the ground and buried themselves while they still had their sanity.

And at this moment, an unknown terrifying aura had begun to seep out from the depths of the earth. They were starting to awaken.

It was as if they could all see a new path to life unfolding before them. All they needed to do was step onto it, and a sliver of new hope would appear in their dark, dead-end existence.

Without any hesitation, all the starving ghosts chose to take that path.

This was because they saw that the only light in the darkness would give them something they had always desperately desired: the hope that they could eat again.

One by one, the starving ghosts who had buried themselves in the ground underwent a fundamental change in their life form at this moment. They became hungry ghosts.

The names were similar, but they were two entirely different existences.

Hungry ghosts rushed out of the ground.

The village experienced a brief moment of chaos. But soon, they realized that these gaunt, corpse-like hungry ghosts, whose internal organs seemed non-existent, paid them no mind at all.

After a large group of hungry ghosts emerged from the ground, they simply bowed in one direction, expressing their gratitude and respect to the being who had granted them new hope.

The hungry ghost who had interacted with Yu Ziqing was kneeling at the very front of the group. He opened his mouth wide, revealing the vortex deep in his throat and the small opening at its center.

This gave the new hungry ghosts even more hope.

The hungry ghost held the beef jerky Yu Ziqing had given him in his hands, cradling it. His eyes were filled with fervor and expectation. He could feel it.

That small piece of beef jerky was glowing.

The villagers stood far away, a mixture of vigilance and shock on their faces.

Old Yang, watching from afar, was completely stunned by the sight of the hungry ghost with its mouth agape.

"What... what are these?"

The Village Chief, however, suddenly recalled Yu Ziqing's words from before, as well as the message left by that hungry ghost earlier. No matter what happens, keep the village stable.

He straightened his back and roared, "Everyone, stay calm! Have you forgotten what I told you before? Even if the sky falls, you must not panic or cause chaos. Do exactly as I instructed!"

The village quickly returned to peace. All the villagers and the hungry ghosts coexisted without interfering with each other. The hungry ghosts did not harm anyone; they didn't even acknowledge them, merely kneeling there as if awaiting something.

Three days later, that terrifying aura grew stronger and stronger. Even the villagers could feel it.

A terrifying power was awakening, a dreadful existence was about to stir.

They immediately thought of the Jade Tomb in the back mountain. However, after investigating, they found the Jade Tomb to be exactly the same as before, unchanged.

Another seven days passed. By now, it had been several months since the mine had fallen into the void. The village's food reserves, even with strict rationing, were nearly depleted. Everyone was barely surviving, just enough to keep from starving.

It was on this day that everyone saw something like black oil seeping up from the endless darkness surrounding the mine, enveloping the entire area.

They looked up and saw a massive, indescribable mass of black oil rising into the sky, blotting out the sun.

Then, they watched as the towering black oil slowly took the shape of a human torso, though the head area was entirely obscured by darkness.

Following this, black flames began to burn on the surface of the indescribable black oil. A crack appeared at the mouth of the giant head.

A low, guttural growl, or perhaps a whisper in some ancient, strange language, echoed across the heavens and earth.

"Hungry..."

No one understood the language, yet everyone instantly understood the meaning of that single word.

Then, they saw the colossal entity, which they could only tentatively call a humanoid figure, slowly open its eyes. Where its eyes should have been, blood-red flames burned fiercely.

Within those flames, it seemed as though an endless purgatory was connected, an endless cycle of suffering. All the pain and despair in the world burned within them.

In that instant, a single word appeared in the minds of everyone who saw this giant.

Hungry ghost.

They knew. This was a hungry ghost.

And all those kneeling on the ground were hungry ghosts.

A non-human anomaly, unlike anything they had ever encountered.

And this formless, indescribable giant was their king, the beginning and the end of all hungry ghosts.

The King of Hungry Ghosts, the God of Hungry Ghosts, call it whatever you like.

The King of Hungry Ghosts' eyes swept across the surroundings. In the void, he saw the glowing beef jerky held in the hands of the hungry ghost on the ground. He didn't look at it a second time.

He cast his gaze into the dark void.

At the same time, in Cècè's Abyss of Despair, the mini-theater suddenly stopped functioning.

A blinding light bloomed in Cècè's embrace. She took out that item, the beef jerky Yu Ziqing had given her earlier.

She sensed something and gazed into the unknown distance, a brilliant smile on her face.