Visibility was terrible. If he let his guard slip, he might find himself at the edge of a fathomless abyss, one misplaced step away from eternal ruin.
He narrowed his eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness as best he could, but he still could not make out his surroundings.
"Right, I'm not the Scholar Monk I used to be. I've mastered some supernatural power myself!" Qu Zan remembered his Lion Ghost Curse Seal.
The Lion Ghost Curse Seal lets a person become a male lion and gain its strength, Qu Zan thought.
According to what Qu Zan knew from his previous life, a lion's night vision was more than six times better than a human's.
He activated the curse seal without releasing it completely, merely controlling it to transform his eyes.
He had to exercise restraint when using power!
Only restraint would let him go further!
This was the rule Qu Zan had distilled from using supernatural power.
Waves of pain came from his eyes under the supernatural power's influence, and his black eyes turned into fierce, round amber eyes.
With this change in his eyes.
His field of vision instantly brightened. Though the colors were not as rich, he could see as clearly as in daylight.
"This is like having built-in night-vision goggles!"
Qu Zan was overjoyed. So this was supernatural power!
Being able to see his surroundings clearly eased some of the fear in his heart, and he slowly explored the area.
He surveyed his surroundings and discovered that this place resembled a vast underground cavern. Above him was not the sky, but clusters of hanging stalactites.
Suddenly, he saw someone lying facedown on the ground.
The man's internal organs had been hollowed out, and blood covered the ground. He wore the monk's robes of Corpse Camel Temple. Beside his corpse was a trail of footprints.
Scarlet footprints surrounded the corpse, reeking of an unusually foul, bloody stench, as though they had rotted. They looked like the footprints of a corpse or a ghost!
I can smell those footprints even from this far away! Qu Zan marveled inwardly. He felt it was not that this Vengeful Ghost had stinking feet, but that his sense of smell had improved.
A lion's sense of smell! Qu Zan thought.
A lion's night vision was six times better than a human's, while its sense of smell was more than a hundred times more sensitive.
But there aren't any footprints leading anywhere else! Qu Zan thought. Appearing out of thin air? Disappearing into thin air!
There's the corpse of a Corpse Camel Temple monk, and I was brought here too. There should be others, Qu Zan speculated.
Qu Zan walked slowly around the area, gradually exploring.
Qu Zan twitched his nose, sniffing the thick smell of blood around him.
Beneath a huge boulder, he discovered another person's corpse.
Qu Zan examined the corpse and found that the person was dressed as a villager.
This villager's internal organs had likewise been hollowed out. Qu Zan also discovered that the villager had broken bones, probably from losing his bearings in the darkness and falling from the boulder.
After all, in this darkness as thick as ink, even without ghosts, a person walking at night could fall hard enough to tear tendons and break bones.
Qu Zan slowly searched the surrounding area.
"This place is too big!" Qu Zan kept walking around. He had walked for who knew how long, yet it felt as though he could never reach the end.
Fortunately, his regular physical training kept him from feeling the slightest fatigue.
Suddenly, he felt a sinister chill coming from behind him, and the air filled with the thick stench of a corpse.
"Drip, drip..."
The sound of dripping water came from behind him.
What made Qu Zan's hair stand on end was that the dripping was drawing closer.
"What's going on!"
He sniffed the corpse stench. That was not the smell of water, but the rotten stink of corpse oil.
The sound following him all this way was dripping corpse oil. Whatever was making that sound behind him could not be alive, leaving only one possibility.
"A Vengeful Ghost!"
Qu Zan's body stiffened, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his back. He maintained his previous movements and continued walking forward.
I didn't find any dried traces of water or oil droplets around those two corpses just now.
Don't tell me this is another fucking Vengeful Ghost! Qu Zan felt his whole body going rigid.
"Drip, drip."
The sound of dripping corpse oil grew clearer and clearer, drawing closer and closer. It was approaching him.
Qu Zan did not dare look back. As a Buddhist-Taoist Warrior seasoned by supernatural trials, he knew not to make any unnecessary movements before the supernatural situation worsened.
But he could feel the sound of dripping corpse oil drawing closer.
He hurriedly picked up his pace.
The vision granted by the Lion Ghost Curse Seal let him see where to place his feet even on the rugged, uneven path.
Otherwise, if he had come in utterly blind, he would have died eight hundred times over already.
"Drip, drip!"
Qu Zan was already running through the darkness, yet the presence behind him continued pursuing at an unhurried pace, its sounds drawing ever closer.
It was not far from him now. That icy aura pressed against the back of his neck.
Qu Zan lunged forward into a leap and activated the Lion Ghost Curse Seal without hesitation.
He sprang into the air, grayish-white fur bursting from beneath his skin as though tearing him apart. A luxuriant mane grew from his neck, and he abruptly transformed into a majestic white ghost lion.
Immense pain surged through him. Qu Zan had anticipated it and activated [Pain Reduction] a moment beforehand, offsetting some of the agony.
Lions represented auspiciousness in Buddhism, but his lion form exuded a sinister killing aura. His round amber eyes embodied ferocity.
His four paws struck the ground, and his speed shot up.
The supernatural thing behind him was left in his wake.
But the sound remained, still following close behind.
I've already turned into a ghost lion, and this Vengeful Ghost still won't leave me alone. Qu Zan was anxious. It's marked me. I've triggered some kind of killing rule.
After becoming a lion, his speed and jumping ability had both multiplied. At the same time, however, this burdened his body.
This can't go on. I'm still fighting a Vengeful Ghost with human strength. Sooner or later, I'll be worn down to death! Qu Zan felt keenly how weak he was.
He ran those three laws through his mind.
Only a Vengeful Ghost could subdue a Vengeful Ghost...
There should be other Vengeful Ghosts in this damned place! Qu Zan worked his nose, sniffing the air and sensing changes in the auras around him.
Suddenly, he sensed an extremely terrifying aura ahead and to the left.
If it catches me, I'll definitely die. Up ahead, I only might die! Without another word, Qu Zan gambled everything and lunged forward.
He leaped down a slope, rolled, and landed steadily on a huge boulder with all four paws. He listened to the sounds behind him. After a long while, finding that the dripping corpse oil had not followed, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
By now, he was utterly exhausted. Using the Lion Ghost Curse Seal consumed enormous amounts of both his physical strength and mental consciousness. It was only because his body had been enhanced by the panel that he had lasted.
An ordinary person would have collapsed and lost control within a few minutes at most, ravaged into a monster of flesh and blood by that curse seal.
Qu Zan deactivated the curse seal and returned to human form, but all his clothes had been torn to pieces.
When he saw his surroundings, especially the scene below, his pupils abruptly contracted, and a look of terror and horror appeared on his face.
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