Chapter 424 299: Ghost City (2)

Back in his room, Zhao Xuanqi sat on his bed. After confirming there was no movement around him, he prepared to use Life Primordial Qi to strengthen this body and advance his Hundred Beasts Fist cultivation.

However, he soon stopped his cultivation, his brow furrowing slightly.

For some reason, he had a strange feeling—a faint sense of crisis that had been present ever since the Echo Worm incident this morning. And as time passed, that feeling seemed to be gradually intensifying.

'What on earth is going on?'

Zhao Xuanqi took a deep breath. From his contact with the evil plagues these past few days, the strangeness of this world's hidden dangers had been deeply ingrained in him. Being at the bottom of the power hierarchy, he lacked the ability to protect himself. He might even suddenly drop dead at any moment without knowing why.

The evil plague incidents he encountered today were the best examples. The victims had done nothing at all, yet disaster had struck from out of the blue.

It had been a long time, spanning two worlds, since he had felt this uneasy.

'Perhaps my decision was wrong. There's nothing wrong with slowly getting to know this world, but slowly recovering my strength is not the right choice.'

'It seems it's time to speed things up.'

Zhao Xuanqi took a deep breath.

His current method for using the Life Primordial Qi from the Rebirth Jade was conservative. It was a gradual process that ensured none of the energy was wasted. At the current intensity of the Life Primordial Qi, this method would be sufficient for him to break through to the Divine General realm and complete the Body Exchange, even after accounting for the losses during his rebirth.

But this method was slow. According to his estimates, it would take at least a year to fully recover his strength.

Besides that, there was another, more radical method. It could accelerate his power progression, but it would waste Life Primordial Qi. The faster he went, the more would be wasted, and the greater the consumption.

Now, he was preparing to use the latter method to advance.

He suppressed the lingering sense of crisis in his heart, sat cross-legged on the bed, and began to mobilize the Life Primordial Qi from the Rebirth Jade, entering a state of cultivation.

BOOM!!

The Qi and Blood in his body surged wildly. His muscles swelled and blue veins bulged. If he hadn't deliberately suppressed it, the commotion from his circulating Qi and Blood would have been noticed by the people in the surrounding rooms.

Time passed. Outside, a bright moon rose, gradually climbing toward its zenith.

Guming County Town was silent. At night, the common folk dared not leave their homes, every door bolted shut. Only the patrol teams, composed of men from the Government Office and the Red Heart Sect, made their rounds through the town, carrying torches.

At this moment, Zhao Xuanqi, who was cultivating in his room, unexpectedly felt a trace of drowsiness wash over him, his Spirit wavering.

For him, this was almost impossible. With his level of Spirit, he shouldn't feel drowsy even if he went without sleep for days.

He was suddenly alarmed. He tried to stand, only to find his body was completely unresponsive, as if he were trapped in a nightmare, experiencing sleep paralysis.

The irresistible drowsiness continued to surge. His Spirit wavered, and in his confusion, his consciousness sank into Chaos and he fell asleep.

「Who knows how much time had passed.」

RUSTLE! RUSTLE!

CREAK! CREAK!

A strange sound echoed in the room, reaching Zhao Xuanqi's mind and causing him to jolt awake, his eyes snapping open.

His hazy consciousness quickly returned, and his vision was filled with darkness.

The room's furnishings were the same as before, but the oil lamp had gone out at some point, shrouding the surroundings in a sinister gloom.

'I... fell asleep?'

Zhao Xuanqi frowned slightly, sensing that something was wrong. Even if he had fallen asleep, the oil lamp shouldn't have gone out.

RUSTLE! RUSTLE!

CREAK! CREAK!

A faint noise came again. Zhao Xuanqi was instantly on alert, his gaze snapping toward the source of the sound.

It was the room's window.

At this moment, a faint red light shone through the paper window. The window frame trembled slightly, revealing a thin crack.

A circular shadow was cast upon the paper pane. Through the crack in the window, a scarlet eye and bluish-black skin were visible. The eye was peering through the gap at him, its gaze a mixture of ferocity, cruelty, and glee.

Zhao Xuanqi's pupils contracted violently.

The next moment.

BANG!!

With a muffled crash, the window instantly exploded inward under immense force, and the owner of the eye burst through.

Zhao Xuanqi saw it clearly. It was an ugly monster.

Its body was bluish-black, its skin shriveled and wrinkled. Its limbs were long and thin, and its ten fingers were as sharp as blades. Its massive head had sparse hair, its fangs were vicious, and its eyes were crimson.

Cyan-faced Ghost, a D Class, Upper Level evil plague. It was a type of Demon Ghost, a tangible Evil Spirit. Its ten fingers carried a corpse toxin, and it delighted in eating flesh and blood.

In an instant, information corresponding to this monster surfaced in Zhao Xuanqi's mind.

Legend said that the Cyan-faced Ghost was formed from concentrated resentment. It was a common type among Demon Ghosts, with a tough Flesh Body, impervious to blades and swords.

'But a tangible Evil Spirit like a Demon Ghost shouldn't be able to hide in the town, let alone enter the station and sneak up to his room.'

The thoughts flashed through Zhao Xuanqi's mind in the blink of an eye. The next moment, the Cyan-faced Ghost lunged at him, its sharp claws streaking through the night air with a dark glint.

Any other New Disciple would have found it difficult to block an ambush of this speed, but Zhao Xuanqi was not one of them.

SWOOSH!!

His figure flashed, darting out like a nimble monkey. In an instant, he had leaped from the bed to a corner of the room.

SWOOSH!!

The dark light flashed, and the wooden bed where he had just been was instantly sliced into several pieces.

The Cyan-faced Ghost didn't pause for a second. Its figure blurred, and it immediately charged at Zhao Xuanqi again.

"Demons and ghouls!!"

Zhao Xuanqi let out a low growl as his Qi and Blood suddenly surged.

BANG!!

His entire upper body engorged with blood and expanded as he entered a state of Qi Surge. He instantly grew a dozen or so centimeters taller, and the terrifying, blocky muscles nearly burst his clothes in an instant.

This terrifying transformation momentarily stunned even the attacking Cyan-faced Ghost. But then, a greedy look appeared on its face, and it pounced toward Zhao Xuanqi with even greater excitement.

'This strong flesh and blood must be incredibly delicious!!'

Zhao Xuanqi's expression was cold and severe. He bit the tip of his tongue and spat a spray of fresh blood onto his hands.

Then.

CRACK!!

He slammed his hands together. The muscles in his palms rippled like waves, and the blood instantly condensed. When he separated his hands again, two Blood Qi Runes had appeared on his palms.

RIP!!

The Cyan-faced Ghost's claws tore through the air with a terrifying whistle. Yet, Zhao Xuanqi's massive frame now displayed an unimaginable lightness.

With a push of his feet and a contraction of his body, he once again dodged the Cyan-faced Ghost's attack, appearing behind it.

"Die!!"

Zhao Xuanqi struck with a single palm. The Qi and Blood from his entire body surged wildly toward his hands. The Blood Qi Rune on his palm suddenly burst with a dazzling light, spreading from his hand across his entire upper body, making it shine like a Blood Jade.

The palm descended.

BANG!!

A deep thud resounded as a blazing blood-red light filled the entire room, even bursting through the broken window and shining outside.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Soon, sounds of movement came from outside. A flying head, a grotesque man with limbs on the ground and joints bent backward, a translucent white-robed specter with disheveled hair...

Several Evil Spirits entered the room through the window. The only thing that met their eyes was the Cyan-faced Ghost lying on the ground.

The Cyan-faced Ghost—a D Class, Upper Level entity comparable to a peak Blood Strengthening realm Cultivator—had its entire, once-impervious upper body obliterated. Its lower body lay on the ground, the wound still smoking with signs of being seared.

This was the destructive effect of Blood Qi on Evil Spirits.

Sensing the residual Blood Qi in the room, the Evil Spirits revealed greedy expressions. They looked toward the broken window and quickly gave chase.

Meanwhile, Zhao Xuanqi, perched on the rafters, had seen everything. A moment ago, he had used his powerful body control to instantly smooth out his Qi and Blood fluctuations and retract the aura of his Life Primordial Qi.

An ordinary Blood Strengthening realm Cultivator couldn't do this, but for Zhao Xuanqi, it was no problem.

Sensing the Evil Spirits moving away, he focused his perception for a moment longer. After confirming there was no other strange sense of crisis nearby, Zhao Xuanqi lightly leaped down from the rafters, cautiously stepped out of the room, and looked outside.

"This is..."

His pupils contracted instantly.

Outside, the buildings were dilapidated and the sky was overcast. The entire world seemed to be covered by a dark, decaying filter, exuding a sinister and horrifying aura everywhere.

But the most eye-catching thing was the moon in the sky, which was about to climb to its highest point.

The moon was a faint red, and upon its surface, black lines converged to form strange runes.