Hungry Ghosts Run Amok

Bao Ruijie raised his blade and walked step by step toward the Mortal.

"Hungry Ghost Path! Manifest!"

With a furious roar, Hanyu raised his hand and waved, a massive Hungry Ghost Diagram gradually emerging behind him.

Seeing the Mortal and his Cousin both in peril, with Ran Shiqing watching menacingly from the side, Hanyu could no longer afford to hold back.

Countless Skeleton Hungry Ghosts covering the mountains and plains slowly rose to their feet, then surged violently, crawling out from the diagram.

"Divine Ability!"

Ran Shiqing, who had been about to close in, retreated several steps in succession, his face a complex mix of wariness and envy.

A Divine Ability stood above a Mastered Technique!

A Mastered Technique was a move created by a cultivator after gaining some insight during cultivation, consuming vast amounts of True Essence to unleash formidable power. Yet above that power existed another force called Divine Ability.

It possessed all sorts of wondrous and unpredictable capabilities, even terrifying destructive force.

Without understanding the nature of a Divine Ability, no one was willing to act rashly.

What truly made Ran Shiqing envious was that most Divine Abilities were innate talents brought by a rare few cultivators at birth, gradually manifesting as they embarked on the path of cultivation. Only an extremely small number could be cultivated through post-natal practice, and even then, only by exceptionally gifted individuals after decades of effort.

"Damn it all."

Ran Shiqing gritted his teeth and spat out the words, his face twisted beyond recognition with jealousy.

Not far away, the half-dead Cousin had completely forgotten his injuries, staring dumbfounded at Hanyu.

"He learned it just from looking at the diagram once?"

He only assumed Hanyu had picked it up from the visualization diagram in the tomb.

At that moment, the first hundred or so skeletons to crawl out charged straight toward the Zhu You Sect, some swinging Bone Blades, others clawing and snapping...

Bao Ruijie, his face grim, kept retreating, with no thought left for bothering the Mortal.

"You go! The Medicine Master's Hungry Ghost Path has no eyes—it doesn't tell friend from foe!" the Cousin shouted hoarsely at the Mortal, his voice weak.

But the Mortal acted as if he hadn't heard, instead gritting his teeth and hobbling over on one leg, straining to haul the Cousin up.

"Wonder if one leg's agile enough for this."

The Mortal forced a bleak joke, then after laughing, he grabbed the Cousin and leaped into the air, stomping three times on one leg before crashing heavily back down.

Luckily, the landing spot was just behind Hanyu.

The Valley Mouth erupted with the sounds of battle and endless wails.

The disciples of the Zhu You Sect pressed back-to-back against each other, yet still couldn't hold off the Bone Horde's assault. Whenever someone was dragged out of the circle by a Skeleton Hungry Ghost, countless skeletons would swarm over them in an instant.

The Corpse King relied on his powerful physique to barely hold on, but that only drew more Hungry Ghosts. One after another, they pounced relentlessly, until they finally tore the Corpse King's limbs clean off...

In just a few moments, the remaining disciples were all dead. The Skeleton Hungry Ghosts then began searching for new targets, quickly fixing their gazes on Bao Ruijie and Ran Shiqing.

They clacked their teeth together, as if muttering something, then turned and charged as one.

Bao Ruijie, his face now pale, instinctively moved closer to Ran Shiqing, feeling that this would be safer.

The sect disciples had died too horribly—each one a bloody mess, arms stripped to bone, legs the same, and some even half their flesh flayed off.

Seeing the Hungry Ghosts surging like a tide, Ran Shiqing waved his hand and grasped a Three-Foot Long Blade, slashing it fiercely at the Bone Tide. A vast, rolling aura swept forward, instantly obliterating most of the tide.

It worked! Ran Shiqing's brow relaxed. Bao Ruijie's eyes lit up as he drew his blade to guard himself, but before he could celebrate for long, a new wave of Hungry Ghosts stepped forth.

"Why does only this many come out each time?"

Hanyu frowned slightly. Behind him, the Hungry Ghost Path was filled with mountains of bleached bones, yet barely a hundred Hungry Ghosts could at most hold the line. In that short span, Ran Shiqing had already wiped out the third wave.

"Your Sea of Consciousness's spiritual power isn't enough to fully manifest the Hungry Ghost Path. Maintaining a hundred is already your limit. Also, your energy is running out," Little Glazed said urgently in his mind.

No sooner had the words fallen than a deep weariness washed over Hanyu. A sharp pain stabbed through his mind, and the Hungry Ghost Diagram behind him instantly dissolved. The wave of skeletons mid-charge froze in place, then vanished in the blink of an eye.

"It seems your power isn't enough to wield your Divine Ability."

Ran Shiqing smiled, his gaze icy.

Hanyu panicked, his mind racing with frantic dialogue.

"Think fast! Is there a pill? Something with mild side effects?"

"I'm thinking, don't rush me."

Hanyu fumed. At a life-or-death moment, how could he not rush?

Hah~ ptui~

Suddenly, the Glazed Bottle gave a shake, then spat out a pill.

"At a time like this, Bottle, don't mess around!" Little Glazed scolded the Glazed Bottle angrily.

But Hanyu was momentarily stunned, then his face lit up with wild joy!

"Bottle, good work!"

God-Exploding Pill: Within a quarter-hour of ingestion, the user's Sea of Consciousness erupts, spiritual power gushing endlessly. Must be released in time, or the Sea of Consciousness will explode, leaving the user a mindless husk. Side effect: Sea of Consciousness empty for three days, reduced to the state of an infant.

Three days—no problem!

Hanyu gritted his teeth, swiftly retrieved the God-Exploding Pill from his mind, and hurriedly swallowed it.

"Don't let him recover—stop him now!"

Seeing Hanyu swallow a pill, Ran Shiqing assumed it was for recovery and immediately ordered Bao Ruijie.

Bao Ruijie hesitated, but dared not disobey; he took a step and lunged forward.

As Hanyu swallowed the pill, a burning sensation instantly detonated through his body, and he felt an endless surge of energy churning in his mind.

"Hungry Ghost Path! Appear again!"

Hanyu roared, and the massive Hungry Ghost Diagram materialized behind him once more. The moment Bao Ruijie leaped in front of him, he was thrust back by the surging tide of the Bone Horde. He steadied himself in shock and horror, only to feel a sudden pain in his foot.

Without him noticing, one of his legs had already been gnawed down to the flesh by several bones.

"Ah!"

Bao Ruijie screamed, kicked off with his remaining leg, and flew backward before hitting the ground, scrambling and crawling back to Ran Shiqing's side.

This time, the hungry ghosts covering the mountains and fields scrambled desperately to claw their way out of the diagram, an endless stream of bones surging toward the two men.

Ran Shiqing's body flickered with golden light as True Essence forcibly shielded him. Blade Qi burst forth, and after several consecutive slashes, he was horrified to find that this tide of hungry ghosts seemed inexhaustible.

Soon, the entire valley mouth was packed with hungry ghosts, densely packed and terrifying to behold.

In the span of a few blinks, Ran Shiqing was drowned in a white ocean, with only occasional flashes of light peeking through the bones, along with Bao Ruijie's agonized screams.

"Is he this terrifying?"

The Mortal's face was a mask of horror, and the Cousin was no less shaken.

"I have no idea where Yixian dug up such a freak."

The Cousin shook his head dumbly, over and over.

"Not good."

The Mortal's expression suddenly shifted drastically, for the hungry ghosts were multiplying, leaving no room to step, and were now closing in on them.

A group of hungry ghosts had already set their sights on them.

"Hold on to me."

The Mortal gritted his teeth, helped the Cousin hop back into the air on one leg, infused True Essence into his foot, kicked off empty air, and flew diagonally several meters, then kicked again, both of them crashing onto a rocky outcropping midair.

They clung tightly to the protruding cliff, finally letting out a slow breath of relief.

Looking down from above, they saw Hanyu standing alone in the center, surrounded by a white ocean.

A quarter of an hour later, the bones dissipated. A figure, bloody and mangled, gasped for breath. Half of his face was still recognizable as Ran Shiqing's; the other half had its flesh torn away, now hideously twisted.

The hand gripping his blade was now nothing but bone, and Bao Ruijie was nowhere to be seen—only a pile of bones with shreds of meat at his feet.

"Hungry Ghost Path!"

Hanyu waved his hand and shouted again. Ran Shiqing's face filled with terror; he dared not stay a moment longer. In panic, he summoned his long blade, stepped onto it, and fled into the distance...

Pian Shi Gang!

Ran Shiqing tumbled to the ground, staggered to his feet, and limped toward his farmyard.

What he needed most now was to heal his wounds as quickly as possible. Having lost a massive amount of flesh and blood, he was already teetering on the edge of collapse, on the verge of passing out at any moment.

He struggled to open the door to a small courtyard. The moment he stepped inside, his expression changed.

Inside the courtyard, a pitch-black figure stood silently, a black cloak completely covering its face.

"Ven... Venerable."

Ran Shiqing stammered out a greeting.

"You didn't get the job done?"

The shadow's voice was icy cold, and Ran Shiqing's heart leaped with terror.

"There was a troublesome young man with an incredibly tough body and the Hungry Ghost Path divine ability. Your subordinate was careless..." Ran Shiqing hurriedly tried to explain.

"But Bao Ruijie is dead. No survivors were left behind over there."

The shadow lowered its head in silence, then slowly looked up.

"No. There is still one survivor."

Ran Shiqing's eyes filled with despair as he stumbled backward...