The Casual Crush

She felt a summons, growing stronger and stronger.

She felt the thing in her hand guiding her toward a new path, yet no matter what, she could not take that step.

The Abyss of Despair beneath her feet bound her fast, leaving her no chance at all to break free.

The resistance grew stronger. In the abyss at the end of the hillside, a special force began to emerge as well. As it fought against the summons, it transformed into black chains one after another.

Those chains appeared out of thin air. Two locked around her shoulder blades, one around her neck, two around her hands, and one around her lumbar spine.

The ends of all those chains disappeared into the abyss behind her.

Two more chains bound her feet, their other ends vanishing into the hillside beneath her.

All of it restrained her, leaving her unable to make a choice even when she had one.

She stood there without moving, the tiny strip of dried beef in her hand shining brighter and brighter.

In that unknown, dark void, the churning black oil had already wrapped around the entire mine. The King of Hungry Ghosts' twisted upper body had grown ten thousand zhang tall, and the mine, stretching across dozens of li, could barely compare with its form.

His eyes, burning with blood-red flames, gazed into the depths of the void. There was a marker there—and some force was obstructing his call.

In the void, the drifting mine was swept along by him, flying together toward the direction indicated by the marker.

Halfway there, he seemed to notice something. He turned to glance at the dark void. The churning black oil transformed into a great river and surged away, stretching more than a thousand li in an instant. Its crest condensed into one of his hands, which reached into the depths of darkness.

With a wet pop, a point of light shattered and vanished in his palm.

He turned his head again and continued flying, following the marker's guidance.

Time passed slowly. The King of Hungry Ghosts' aura grew stronger and stronger. The closer he drew to the marker, the more summons he heard—endless pain, endless despair, and the dying cries of the doomed. They burned in his eyes, making him stronger and stronger.

No one knew how long he flew through the dark void. With no landmarks, everything seemed frozen in place.

Suddenly, the churning black oil once again formed two black talons gleaming with metallic luster. The talons plunged into the dark void at the same time and slowly tore toward opposite sides. A glowing crack appeared.

Beyond the crack was a world of wind and snow, white as far as the eye could see, with a dazzling halo of light.

An Lan had not left yet. She was still here because Great Qian had sent more people.

They wanted to see whether some Jinlan Ore might still remain after that half-Blessed Land had fallen into the void. Whatever they could scavenge, they wanted to take it all.

After all, half-Blessed Lands were exceedingly rare, and part of this one overlapped with the Wasteland.

The exploration and excavation had continued without pause. Over the past few months, they had already fought Great Li's people several times. However, she had not rashly unleashed the full power of One Day Cold again.

Great Li had lost a Spirit Transformation expert, who had even destroyed a half-Blessed Land before dying. How could Great Li possibly let such an obviously abnormal matter go?

An Lan had just finished a battle and had not yet rested when she suddenly sensed something. She landed at the edge of the enormous pit and searched for whatever had triggered her alarm.

Then she saw the sky split open.

A gigantic crack spanning heaven and earth shot from the bottom of the pit straight into the sky.

Huge black talons thrust out from the crack, which stretched over a hundred li, forcibly tearing open the space here.

As the talons emerged, something resembling black oil also spread in through the crack.

Terrifying pressure and a violent aura erupted from the crack. The wind and snow across the sky rolled backward, while the leaden clouds that had lingered overhead for months shattered beneath the impact of that dreadful aura and fled in all directions.

An Lan, standing at the edge of the pit, was struck at close range. She froze in place, her face as pale as paper. Though that terrifying pressure held not the slightest intention of targeting her, the true essence throughout her body had already solidified, leaving it utterly unable to circulate.

Her qi sea contracted into a knot, and her spirit became rigid. Her body seemed to have encountered an unbeatable Natural Enemy and instinctively froze in place, not daring to move as she did everything she could to diminish her presence.

At the same time, a word appeared out of nowhere in her mind.

"Hungry Ghost."

The next moment, the black oil surging from the crack like a dark tide came crashing down from above her head like a tsunami.

Her eyes trembled with despair. Yet at such close range, facing the King of Hungry Ghosts directly, she could do nothing. She could not even muster the slightest thought of resistance.

Silently, her flesh, spirit, Dharma Treasure, and everything else were annihilated in that tide without even a token resistance.

Of course, there was still one piece of good news: at least she knew whose hands had killed her.

The bad news was that the King of Hungry Ghosts had no idea who he had casually crushed to death before he had even truly entered the Wasteland.

The immense body manifested by the King of Hungry Ghosts used both arms to force the spatial crack wider. His head emerged first, and he glanced toward the Abyss of Despair.

The place had already been sealed off completely. Swathes of talismans floated in midair, while formation flags had been planted in all eight directions around the Abyss of Despair. The pillars of light from the formation they created locked the place down completely.

They had originally been waiting for someone from Langya Academy to come and see whether this strange domain could be refined and moved away whole.

Meanwhile, the Locust tree forest, which had likewise been hurled away by the explosion, remained mostly intact. It too had been sealed by a formation, awaiting further study.

At that moment, the first thing to change upon sensing the King of Hungry Ghosts' aura was the Locust tree forest, which had still not recovered.

The thick layer of fallen leaves covering the ground began to churn, revealing the earth beneath. One road after another opened before the locust trees.

The locust trees split down the middle, and Hungry Ghosts emerged from within.

Every one of them was emaciated, their limbs nothing but skin stretched over bones. Their abdomens were sunken, as though their internal organs had been hollowed out. Across their backs and behind their arms and legs grew masses of root-like things, one end buried in their bodies and the other connected to the locust trees.

The act of walking out had already snapped many of those connections, but not one of the Hungry Ghosts cared.

They emerged from the locust trees and prostrated themselves on the ground, releasing silent roars to welcome their king—their beginning and their end—as he descended upon this world.

The King of Hungry Ghosts did not spare them a glance. His gaze remained fixed on the Abyss of Despair.

Some force there was obstructing his summons. Against all reason, someone had actually dared to hold on to his marker.

That was something he could not tolerate.

His two arms continued widening the enormous spatial crack, while the churning tide of black oil surged straight toward the Abyss of Despair.

Just as it was about to arrive, the black-oil tide rising high into the air suddenly condensed into a metallic-black talon.

Before the blow even landed, the formation pillars sealing the Abyss of Despair shattered layer by layer. The formation flags erupted into flames and turned to dust, while the great mass of talismans floating in midair likewise burned to ashes.

When the blow landed, the Abyss of Despair was instantly forced into tangible form, like a grayish giant bowl overturned upon the ground.

That terrifying, twisted force instantly tore countless cracks across its surface. With a sharp crack, the entire outer layer of the Abyss of Despair was smashed apart.

The probing talon stabbed into the Abyss of Despair and reached straight toward the abyss behind the hillside.

As the talon pierced the abyss, something within the darkness let out a soul-shaking wail. In the blink of an eye, it fell utterly silent, and the hidden force there vanished along with it.

The King of Hungry Ghosts' talon did not continue clawing. His outstretched giant claw seized Cècè, who had stood there all this time with her head held high and a smile on her face, and dragged her toward the outside of the Abyss of Despair.

The chains suddenly went taut. Cècè's bones were torn through her skin. Her brows knitted slightly, yet the smile remained at the corners of her lips. When she looked back toward the abyss, there was even a trace of mockery in her eyes.

The King of Hungry Ghosts seemed enraged. Two streams of blood-red flame suddenly shot from his eyes, plunging into the abyss.

The pitch-black abyss was completely illuminated. Blood-colored flames burned within it. At its end, the abyss seemed to connect to another place, where raging flames had now erupted into a sea of fire—flames that could never be extinguished.

The flames burned their way upward, severing the chains and completely cutting off Cècè's connection with the depths of the abyss.

As the King of Hungry Ghosts withdrew his giant claw, the entire Abyss of Despair began to twist and rise together with Cècè. Under his power, it warped and compressed, flowing into Cècè's body.

When the King of Hungry Ghosts dragged Cècè forcibly out of the Abyss of Despair with utterly unreasonable force, the positions of master and subordinate completely reversed.

The domain formed from the Abyss of Despair now belonged entirely to Cècè.

Even if she refused the summons and did not take that step, it would still be hers.

The King of Hungry Ghosts did not want it, nor had he ever considered this small benefit a gift. It was merely something he had accomplished along the way while searching for his marker.

After dragging her out, the King of Hungry Ghosts' giant claw transformed back into a surging tide of black oil.

Cècè stood on the ground and looked up at the enormous King of Hungry Ghosts. Without the slightest hesitation, she smiled and took one step forward.

The next moment, she transformed into an ugly Hungry Ghost resembling a dried corpse, with a sunken abdomen and skin stretched over bones. Yet a smile still hung from the corners of her mouth, while countless pieces of information appeared out of nowhere in her mind.

She raised her head and saw that the King of Hungry Ghosts had widened the enormous spatial crack enough.

His immense body, carrying the Jinlan Mine along with it, finally stepped into the Wasteland.

The enormous mine settled back into its original position, except that it was now much, much higher than before, as though a huge mountain range had suddenly appeared upon the earth.

That was because this time, it was no longer a half-Blessed Land.

Instead, the King of Hungry Ghosts had torn open space and forcibly squeezed it into the Wasteland. The mine now differed no more from the other mountains of the Wasteland. It belonged to the Wasteland.

Behind the King of Hungry Ghosts, the enormous spatial crack slowly closed.

Cècè looked several times toward the southeast, east, and northeast. Then she glanced at the King of Hungry Ghosts, whose aura was still climbing sharply. Clutching the glowing strip of dried beef in both hands, she walked toward the depths of the mine.

The surging tide of black oil and its power to twist everything automatically parted beneath the marker's radiance, making way for Cècè.

She walked onward, descending deeper underground. Following the path opened by the black oil, she reached a cave at the very bottom.

When the black oil ahead parted, she saw Yu Ziqing floating silently within it. His eyes were tightly shut, his body was emaciated, and pain still lingered on his face. He clenched his teeth, looking no longer human.

She walked forward, holding the marker in both hands, and arrived before Yu Ziqing.