Chapter 133: Fierce Battle Against the Hungry Ghost King

The head of the Hungry Ghost King barely paused at the entrance of the chamber for less than a second, and then Su Rou and I heard a series of Crack and Crack sounds, the shattered noise of blue bricks breaking at the doorway. Its shoulder then squeezed in, clearly intending to trap us like a turtle in a jar.

Su Rou and I exchanged a glance. From the start, we had not planned to rely on this chamber to escape the Hungry Ghost King. If it could even smash a massive stone door, what use was a small room like this?

We quickly moved to opposite sides of the chamber, trying to get as close to the doorway as possible. But after only a couple of steps, I saw the Hungry Ghost King staring at me coldly, its eyes carrying a strangely human hint of mockery.

Without warning, it opened its mouth and sprayed a stream of green liquid at me.

“Damn it!” I roared. There was no time to dodge properly. I could only roll on the ground and narrowly avoid the liquid. No need to think twice, something that looked so much like a serpent would not be spitting anything good.

The ground was covered with shattered ceramic fragments. That roll left my entire body aching. Before I could even get up, I heard a series of Bang and Bang Bang sounds as the blue bricks at the doorway were crushed and collapsed onto the ground.

The Hungry Ghost King’s shoulder and arm had already forced their way in. I saw it immediately reach toward Su Rou without hesitation.

“Su Rou, watch out!” I shouted urgently, unable to go save him in time.

Su Rou reacted quickly. The moment he saw the hand coming, he retreated deeper into the chamber. But he was still not a trained fighter, and his reaction speed was slightly too slow. The claw brushed past him, leaving several bloody scratches on his arm. His sleeve was instantly stained red.

I watched this with bloodshot eyes. I clearly saw that when the Hungry Ghost King withdrew its hand, there were bits of flesh stuck to its claws, Su Rou’s flesh.

I rushed to Su Rou’s side. Su Rou looked at me blankly and said, “San Wa Er, I am not in pain.”

I looked down at his wound. It was rapidly swelling, turning a strange dark greenish black. When I looked back at the Hungry Ghost King, I saw it licking the flesh and blood on its claws with its long serpent like tongue, its eyes flashing with a mix of satisfaction and brutality.

He had been poisoned.

Without hesitation, I tore off Su Rou’s sleeve and tightly tied it above the wound on his arm. Then I said, “Su Rou, bear with it.”

I grabbed the kitchen knife from Su Rou and, with a Whoosh, cut open the swollen part of his wound. The already dark greenish black blood spurted out. I gritted my teeth and forcefully squeezed his arm, pushing out the poisoned blood.

Su Rou screamed in pain, “San Wa Er, stop it, it hurts, San Wa Er...”

“If I do not do it, you will die...” I had not even finished speaking when I heard another series of louder collapsing sounds and falling bricks. The Hungry Ghost King had finished licking the blood on its hand and fully squeezed its body into the chamber.

I finally saw its complete form. And I understood why its footsteps sounded so strange. It had not fully evolved.

Its upper body looked almost perfectly evolved, with tightly coiled muscle lines full of power, entirely covered in black fine scales that gave the illusion of being impervious to blades and bullets.

But its lower body was extremely strange. From the feet to the knees it was complete human like legs, but above the knees it merged into something like a serpent body, not fully separated. From a distance it looked as if it was wearing a skirt.

Because of this, it could not stand and walk upright. It moved like a beast, using both hands and feet.

That was why its footsteps sounded so strange.

At this moment, the Hungry Ghost King had fully entered the chamber. It was less than three meters away from Su Rou and me. The chamber was not small, but it was tall. I estimated it was at least two and a half meters high if it stood upright. While crouching, it looked like the most powerful lion in existence, no, even larger than that.

It looked at us as if we were mice in a cage. It was not in a hurry to act. Instead, it seemed to be torturing its prey psychologically, wanting us to collapse in fear first, as if only such fear would make us taste better.

My hand was still pressing on Su Rou’s wound. Out of the corner of my eye I watched whether his blood had returned to normal, while my main focus remained locked on the Hungry Ghost King. I stared back fiercely.

I was afraid. So afraid that only by forcing myself to stay calm could my legs stop trembling. That vicious gaze was almost my only remaining courage.

Because my Master had once said, “When facing evil things, you must not lose in momentum. You must be fiercer than them. They come from darkness, and their greatest skill is finding your psychological weakness and tearing it apart before you even fight back.”

“Are ghosts like that?”

“No. All evil things are like that. When you are afraid, even if you can only curse them, you must curse fiercely. Sometimes that alone will make them retreat.”

I did not expect my gaze alone to drive it away, but I knew if this momentum broke, I would lose everything, even the courage to fight to the death.

The Hungry Ghost King did not seem to display human expressions. The only emotional changes were in its eyes, extremely clear and direct. It was likely a leftover instinct from when it was still a Hungry Ghost Worm. That kind of worm could heavily affect the human mind. My Master had said it was a sign of extremely strong spiritual power.

So those emotional traces meant nothing.

The air in the chamber felt frozen. It became a standoff between me and the Hungry Ghost King. Su Rou was already in so much pain that he was losing consciousness. Fortunately, his wound was slowly reducing in swelling, and the blood had turned bright red again.

At that moment, the Hungry Ghost King’s eyes suddenly shifted into a probing but indifferent gaze. The next instant, I felt a surge of instinctive danger. Almost reflexively, I kicked Su Rou away.

At the same time, a gust of violent wind hit my face. When I looked up again, I nearly wet myself in fear.

The Hungry Ghost King’s face was less than ten centimeters from mine. Its arm had formed a semicircle, trapping me in place. Its cold eyes stared directly at me.

My head spun. My mind went nearly blank. Even my heightened instincts were being affected. I had never expected that even I, with such strong perception, would be affected to this degree.

I almost saw it mocking me, looking down on me as if I were an insect.

The next moment, I watched in a daze as its arm lifted and came down, claws aimed directly at me. Its mouth opened to an impossible extent, revealing terrifying fangs and greed in its eyes.

If it ate me, its legs might finally fully evolve.

My consciousness finally snapped back, but it was already too late. All I could think of was something absurd like that.

But the Hungry Ghost King’s hand never landed.

I heard a dull Thud.

Su Rou had picked up the rolling pin I had casually thrown aside earlier when I took the kitchen knife from him, and smashed it hard into the arm of the Hungry Ghost King.

He struck with all his strength. The rolling pin shattered into two pieces at the moment of impact and flew away, but it finally blocked the arm that was about to grab me.

Everything happened so fast, yet it also felt like slow motion.

The Hungry Ghost King was actually hurt. It let out an enraged and deafening howl.

It might not care about Su Rou’s weak strength, but it could not ignore the blood of the rolling pin stained with Su Rou’s middle finger blood.

Pure yang energy had an especially strong effect on evil beings, capable of severely injuring them.

“San Wa Er, run!” Su Rou was still holding half of the broken rolling pin, shouting at the top of his lungs, his voice trembling. That strike had likely exhausted all his strength.

The moment he finished shouting, I saw Su Rou’s body fly through the air.

The enraged Hungry Ghost King had swept its arm sideways and sent him flying.

Thud.

Su Rou crashed heavily onto the ground. That strike had thrown him directly out of the chamber, since the doorway had already been destroyed. He did not get back up. He lay in the rubble of blue bricks, blood slowly flowing from his head.

At that moment, my rage reached its peak.

The moment the Hungry Ghost King turned its head, I roared, grabbed the kitchen knife, and swung it hard at its head.

Clang.

The blade sounded as if it struck iron, but I did not care. I pulled the knife down viciously. The blade dragged from the Hungry Ghost King’s massive forehead all the way to its sharp chin, even cutting across its eye.

The Hungry Ghost King let out its loudest roar yet.

Roar shook the entire chamber.

The kitchen knife, now coated with Su Rou’s middle finger blood, had caused its greatest injury since we encountered it.

My rage was still burning. I rammed my elbow into it with everything I had. Years of training gave me far more strength than Su Rou. The Hungry Ghost King was covering its eyes in pain, and my strike forced it to step back slightly.

That small gap was enough.

I immediately rushed out and ran toward the exit of the chamber.