[Nether God Sacrifice] The second kind of ghost

The hand looked like it belonged to a corpse that had been floating in the water for ages. It was swollen and rotten, oozing yellow pus, its skin a purplish blue-black, yet its fingertips bore long, dark red nails.

The hand gave a sudden tug with astonishing strength. Qin Ning pitched forward and was dragged straight off the boat.

"Qin Ning!" Shao Lan roared.

In a split second, Shao Lan lunged forward and caught Qin Ning.

Only one of Qin Ning's arms remained in Shao Lan's grip. The rest of her body was already submerged in the sea.

Through the pitch-black seawater, Qin Ning saw a rotting female corpse before her. Who knew how long she had been soaking there? She had swollen to three times the size of a normal person.

Ghost. That was Qin Ning's first reaction.

Her second was-Why?

Why was there a second kind of ghost here besides the Blind Fish?

Before Qin Ning could think any further-

The female ghost's mouth opened wide on her waterlogged, ruptured face, as though she were smiling.

The ghost opened her mouth wide and shrieked, gripping Qin Ning's calf and dragging her into deeper water.

Qin Ning looked down, and her heart clenched.

In the unfathomable depths beneath her feet, there were three more identical rotting corpses.

There wasn't just one female ghost. There were four!

Being scared won't help. Fight first.

In a flash, Qin Ning drew the dagger at her waist and slashed down toward her own calf!

As she slashed, she kicked her leg upward with all her strength.

Caught off guard, the ghost's hand gripping Qin Ning's arm was struck by the dagger's sharp blade.

She let out an agonized shriek. Her entire hand, with its red-painted nails, fell from her arm and drifted away in the seawater.

Yet mere seconds later, a new hand grew from the severed stump of her wrist, complete with the same five red nails.

Fuck.

Qin Ning cursed inwardly, then flipped herself back onto the boat.

"There are ghosts down there. Four of them," Qin Ning said. "Their strength is above average, but their regeneration is terrifying. Cut off a hand, and it grows right back."

Before she had finished speaking, the four female ghosts' hands seized the wooden boat from every direction.

They pulled the boat as they swam back toward shore.

"Why are these things here..." Qin Ning murmured. "Why is there a second kind of monster in this sea besides the Blind Fish?"

Shao Lan shook his head.

He looked toward the shore.

Xu Jiawei stood high on the rocks, her long hair loose, meeting his gaze from afar.

In the moonlight, her beautiful face looked eerily ghostlike, her eyes chillingly cold.

"These ghosts don't belong to this Instance," Shao Lan said. "Their master is Xu Jiawei."

There was no time to wonder how Xu Jiawei could summon such ghosts.

Their most urgent task was to shake them off as quickly as possible.

If they were dragged back to shore, Xu Jiawei would win, and they would die.

Qin Ning severed every ghost's hand again, one slash apiece, but moments later, four new hands clamped onto the boat.

"They just won't leave us alone..." Numbly, Qin Ning hacked them off yet again.

Shao Lan sank into thought.

It was perfectly normal for a human's attacks to be ineffective against ghosts.

Then... what about a ghost attacking another ghost?

Shao Lan suddenly opened the barrel holding Xu Xiaocai!

"Sorry about this."

Shao Lan took out his dagger and cut Xu Xiaocai's palm. Blood instantly stained the blade.

He bent down and severed one of the ghosts' hands.

The rotting corpse no longer bled, but bright red blood marked the stump of her wrist-it was Xu Xiaocai's blood, smeared onto the ghost's wound as the blade cut through.

The next instant, the ghost's hand grew back just as before.

But at the same time, the Blind Fish surrounding the boat stirred.

As though it had suddenly discovered something, the nearest Blind Fish's expression turned savage-it bit into the ghost's wrist.

Like pack animals hunting, once the first attacked, the second followed. Soon, a second and third Blind Fish sank their teeth into her.

The female water ghost let out a piercing shriek, but no matter how she tried to escape, the hand stained with Xu Xiaocai's blood acted like bait, drawing the Blind Fish into a frenzy of biting.

In an instant, five or six Blind Fish surrounded the water ghost.

She shrieked, slashing at the Blind Fish with red nails like blades.

One Blind Fish was struck, its entire tail splitting lengthwise as though sliced open by a knife.

The dead Blind Fish sank to the bottom, but a moment later, even more swarmed in.

They gnawed at her all over. Unlike the wounds Qin Ning inflicted, those left by the Blind Fish did not heal immediately.

Shao Lan had guessed correctly. Humans couldn't hurt ghosts, but the Blind Fish, ghosts themselves, could.

The other three ghosts swam nearby, attacking the Blind Fish with their nails as well. But more and more Blind Fish gathered, and soon every ghost was surrounded.

At last, the first ghost's body was torn completely apart. She sank beneath the water, shrieking.

"No..."

On shore, Xu Jiawei's eyes widened.

Blood seeped from the ring finger of her left hand. A red nail fell to the ground, and the excruciating pain sent waves of darkness across her vision.

The female water ghosts were her last trump card. She had never intended to use them unless she had no other choice.

But now, faced with Shao Lan, even her last trump card was about to fail.

Xu Jiawei sank to one knee, blood flowing from her hand, her face deathly pale.

"Come back!" she shouted hoarsely.

Shao Lan and Qin Ning saw the remaining three ghosts abandon the fight and turn toward the shallows.

They had retreated.

Qin Ning glanced toward shore. Xu Jiawei knelt on the rocks, looking utterly drained.

She no longer had any means of taking back the sacrifice. Death was her inevitable fate.

Yet Shao Lan and Qin Ning were hardly in a better position.

The Blind Fish had stripped Xu Jiaojiao's corpse down to its skeleton. Those that had surrounded her scattered, swimming aimlessly in search of new prey.

Most of their bodies remained hidden underwater, with only their silvery-white hair floating on the surface. From a distance, they resembled jellyfish shimmering with a delicate silver glow. Soon, these "jellyfish" clustered thickly around the boat.

Shao Lan and Qin Ning exchanged a glance, while Xu Xiaocai sat in the barrel with an ashen face.

They all knew the best solution-Shao Lan and Qin Ning were not members of the Xu Family, so they weren't targets for the Blind Fish. All they had to do was throw Xu Xiaocai overboard, and their boat would be completely safe.

Shao Lan thought for a moment, then asked Xu Xiaocai to climb out of the barrel and sat inside it himself.

The barrel was large enough to float on the water. Shao Lan made another cut on Xu Xiaocai's arm with his dagger.

The Blind Fish underwater smelled the blood and eagerly poked their heads out. Qin Ning brutally kicked the first few back into the water, but they didn't swim away. They circled the boat, waiting for an opening.

Shao Lan took off his jacket, stained it with Xu Xiaocai's blood, and draped it over himself.

"What are you doing?" Qin Ning asked.

Shao Lan picked up the barrel. "There are too many Blind Fish. At this rate, Xu Xiaocai is bound to die. I'll sit in the barrel and lure some away. You stay here and guard the boat."

"It's too dangerous." Qin Ning pulled Shao Lan back. "You could easily die doing that."

Looking at the ever-growing swarm of Blind Fish around them, Qin Ning took Shao Lan's jacket, then hugged the barrel and jumped into the water.

"Qin Ning?" Shao Lan asked in alarm.

"I'm a little harder to kill than you," Qin Ning said calmly. "Besides, do you remember the terms of our first deal?"

Shao Lan had given Qin Ning information in exchange for one instance of her [Support]: when Shao Lan was in danger, she would help him once, unconditionally.

"This is my support for you."