Chapter 132: Hungry Ghost King

I did not know what it felt like to be on a battlefield, hearing the rumble of artillery fire and chatting and laughing with brothers beside you, but I felt that Su Rou and I were in a similar situation right now.

“San Wa Er, Liu Chunyan has written you so many letters. Be honest, did you ever reply?” Su Rou asked while we were sort of walking, as the footsteps around us grew clearer and clearer.

“You kid, do you actually like Liu Chunyan? Why do you keep bringing her up?” I said while observing the terrain.

“Alright, I will tell you the truth. A little bit,” Su Rou said shyly.

“What?” I almost choked. I looked at Su Rou and asked, “You are serious?”

Right after asking, Su Rou grabbed my neck and shouted, “But that damn girl only writes me one letter per semester and sends you a pile of them. I have been pissed off for a long time.”

Choking each other was something Su Rou and I often did when messing around, and we never used real strength. I laughed wildly while pushing him away, and Su Rou also found it funny. While we were fooling around, I suddenly spotted a side chamber and had an idea.

“Su Rou, honestly, are you nervous?” I asked, as the heavy footsteps were already almost right next to us.

“Nervous, I am so nervous I am about to pee myself. What about you?” Su Rou replied.

“Of course I am nervous, but as long as we hold it off a bit, Master will come save us. We have to push through,” I said. It was like pre battle encouragement.

Su Rou looked at his precious watch and said, “It has already been twelve minutes. We have eaten buns, we are full. We can fight it for five minutes, and Jiang Ye should arrive.”

I said to Su Rou, “Hold your pee for now. We are going over there.”

I pointed at the side chamber I had just noticed and said, “We are going there.”

Holding my slightly aching middle finger, Su Rou and I stood on both sides of the chamber entrance. We could hear each other’s heavy breathing and the pounding of our hearts. The footsteps were like artillery exploding beside us on a battlefield, shaking our emotions with every sound.

What would the Hungry Ghost King be like? At that moment my mind was almost blank, and that was the only thing I could think about.

An oil lamp sat in the center of the chamber. When Hu Xueman led us running earlier, he had also stuffed a military flashlight into each of our pockets so we would not be completely blind. Now that oil lamp was useful again, allowing us to hide at the entrance and observe through the shadows outside.

“San Wa Er, I am hun...” Su Rou had not finished speaking when the chamber suddenly darkened.

A shadow blocked the warm light. A massive silhouette appeared on the wall, so large we could not see its head. It was vaguely humanoid, with arms and a torso, but its lower body could not be made out at all.

Su Rou immediately covered his mouth tightly. I saw pure fear in his eyes, completely replacing the courage he had just shown. Ordinary people instinctively fear a dog that is about to bite them. This thing was far more terrifying, something unknown and overwhelming.

I was the same, maybe slightly better than Su Rou, but cold sweat still soaked my back instantly. At least I still had the courage to fight.

There was no escape now. The Hungry Ghost King already knew we were here. I shouted at Su Rou, “Su Rou, stay strong! If you are not strong, you die, understand?”

Su Rou shouted back, “Alright!”

The moment that word left his mouth, a deafening roar suddenly exploded right beside us. My entire body’s hair stood on end. Before I could even catch my breath, a huge head was already thrust into the doorway.

“Damn it!” Su Rou instinctively jumped back.

My eyes widened completely. What the hell was that thing? It looked nothing like the hungry ghosts we had seen before. Its head was snake like, long and pointed, covered in dense black fine scales. It even had two horn like protrusions on its head, yet its facial features were still vaguely human.

It was roaring, but I clearly saw a forked, snake like tongue in its mouth.

“You are shouting nonsense!” At that moment, fear turned into anger inside me. It was pure instinct. When fear reached a certain point, it turns into rage.

Without knowing where the courage came from, I raised the gun Hu Xueman had given me and fired straight into the monster’s mouth.

Boom.

The sharp gunshot echoed through the tomb chamber. The huge head instantly pulled back. I roared in anger and was about to rush forward and fire again, but Su Rou grabbed me and pulled me back into the chamber.

“Damn it, I will blow you up...” I kept cursing with bloodshot eyes, struggling.

Su Rou punched me hard on the back and shouted, “San Wa Er, calm down! Did you forget our plan?”

That punch seemed to snap me out of it. I immediately recovered from that rage. Yes, why had I become so impulsive just now? Normally I was the calmer one, while Su Rou was the hot headed one, but when things truly hit the limit, I was actually the one who would fight to the death.

“Good thing your shot forced it back...” Su Rou wiped cold sweat and said.

Does this thing really get affected by guns? I looked at the weapon in my hand in doubt. What kind of bullets were inside it?

But then I looked up and immediately shouted, “Damn it, useless!”

A hand appeared.

A half body was now blocking the doorway. That hand reached straight toward us without hesitation. I grabbed Su Rou and pulled him into the corner.

Then something even more unbelievable happened.

That arm seemed to have a strange stretchable property. It had originally only reached partway into the chamber, but it kept extending longer and longer while also becoming thinner.

My expression changed instantly. I thought of the disgusting trait of Hungry Ghost Worms, able to expand into a ball or shrink into a thread. If hungry ghosts could also do this, then our plan meant nothing. We would just be waiting to die.

The arm kept approaching us, covered in the same black fine scales, giving off a strange, numbing sensation, and a complete sense of helplessness, as if resistance itself was meaningless.

But it was not time to despair yet. I had to try. Hungry Ghost Worms have no bones. If they become hungry ghosts, they gain structure, but they should not be able to completely ignore natural law.

I said to Su Rou, “Stay here, press against the corner, do not move. Not even an inch.”

After speaking, I pressed against the wall and quickly moved to the opposite corner, sticking tightly to it as well.

The arm began wildly grabbing inside the chamber. Fragments of what used to be its nest scattered everywhere as it moved. Su Rou and I were hit several times, but we did not dare move.

The oil lamp had been smashed, and the chamber fell into darkness. That darkness worked against us. I took out my flashlight and turned it on, giving us at least a little light, enough to calm the mind slightly.

I stayed pressed against the wall, watching that arm thrash around. Several times it brushed past my body, the wind it carried raising goosebumps all over me. I forced myself to resist the urge to fire at it and waited silently.

We were lucky. That arm did not have the near unlimited stretch of Hungry Ghost Worms. It always remained just a little short of grabbing us, even though that distance was less than ten centimeters.

This discovery relaxed both Su Rou and me a little. Su Rou even leaned against his wall and started talking.

“San Wa Er, I finally understand why ancient legends describe devils the way they do. Green faced, fanged, with horns. There is literally one standing outside right now. I used to think ghosts and demons were just stories. Turns out they really exist,” he said.

“They always existed,” I shouted back. “My Master once vaguely mentioned that in the Ming Dynasty a lot of things were wiped out for some reason. From the Qing Dynasty onward, stories of demons almost disappeared. After the Qing army entered the pass, many things were lost. Even earlier, in the Yuan Dynasty, there had already been a great disaster.”

“What exactly happened?” Su Rou asked.

How would I know? Go ask someone from the Ming Dynasty.

I shouted back.

The arm kept flailing inside the chamber for nearly a minute, then suddenly retracted.

Su Rou finally caught his breath and said, “I have been sticking to the wall so long I am about to turn into a pancake.”

I said, “Stay sharp. It is probably coming in next.”