Chapter 249 Run

At that moment, Zhang Yuanqing  was like a poor wretch in a horror film that had been possessed by a ghost, his body being wrenched by the vicious spirit into a shape no human frame should take. It was ghastly to look at.

His head was cranked around to face behind him so that if his eyes dropped low enough, he could see his own shoulder blades. The joints of his hands and feet had been twisted a full one-hundred-and-eighty degrees around as well. Every limb had been turned backward. Only his torso stayed as it was.

Any other class, barring Wood Demons or Water Ghosts, would have dropped dead after being put through such grotesque torture. His Nocturnal Specter's fierce vitality and self-healing abilities were the only reason he hadn't died on the spot.

"Hee hee! This is so much fun, so much fun!" exclaimed the clear voice of a little child, which was coming out of Zhang Yuanqing's body.

The next second, his upper body slowly began to bend backward while his feet remained planted to the ground. His waist was curving degree by degree, like a bow slowly being drawn. His ribs stood out one by one, and his spine creaked, on the edge of snapping.

A cold dread ran through Zhang Yuanqing. No, I can't hold this…

If his spine snapped, his Level 3 Nocturnal Specter's self-healing would not be able to restore it any time soon. He'd lose the ability to face the dungeon's other dangers, and death would be a certainty.

Right then, it felt as though it was the first time he'd unleashed the ghost bride. His limbs were cold and numb, he had no strength to draw on, and his body would not respond to his mind.

His spine bent further, and Zhang Yuanqing began to feel a faint pain in the bones of his neck. Given how little control his brain had of his body, feeling even a faint sensation of pain was a warning. His spine had already begun to fracture.

Zhang Yuanqing drew upon the last dregs of his strength, and black, syrupy power welled up within his eyes, filling the sockets.

Soul Devouring!

Soul Devouring was the bane of every spirit body, the divine skill by which a Nocturnal Specter ruled the domain of shadow. Despite a gap in strength, it could still briefly suppress and unsettle a vengeful spirit.

"Yah~" came a child's low cry from inside his body, edged with fright.

At once, Zhang Yuanqing felt the coldness inside him ease a fraction, and his mind won back some measure of control over his flesh. Only then did he feel it clearly, the savage pain shooting through his back, the kind that had him sucking air through his teeth.

There's no time to attend to my wounds. He seized the chance and howled at the sky.

A shaft of brilliant, pure moonlight broke through the clouds and fell on him like a searchlight.

Moon Howl!

Moon Howl was the Nocturnal Specter's ultimate skill, and could only be used at night. Under its effects, a Nocturnal Specter borrowed the Dark Moon's power to sharply boost their stamina and skills. The price was that, for the next three hours, the Nocturnal Specter fell into a depleted state. It was a life-or-death technique. Because of this, Zhang Yuanqing rarely used it.

His aura surged all at once, and his Soul Devouring power rose a small notch along with it, further suppressing the ghost girl inside him.

In an instant, Zhang Yuanqing had wrested back fifty percent control of his body. His spine sprang back upright, and he straightened. 

Crack! 

His right arm snapped back into place. From the air in front of him he pulled out a Yin Yang Spell Robe and a pair of long boots, woven of yellow silk and embroidered with fine cloud patterns. He meant to use the Yin Yang Spell Robe to break the ghost girl's killing rule.

Zhang Yuanqing raised his right foot and slid it into one of the boots. But when he went to move his left foot, he found, to his dismay, that the ghost girl still retained control of that foot.

The ghost girl seemed to catch on to what he was doing. That tender, innocent little voice turned dank and cold, and then the suppressed yin energy came surging back, seizing his body in an instant.

"Hmph, you bad man, you won't play a game with me. I'm going to kill you~"

Crack!

His right arm wrenched backward again, and his spine bent backward again. This time the force struck fast and hard, as if the ghost girl was trying to break his neck outright.

Corpse No. 1, having twisted off the old man's head, came charging over and kicked Zhang Yuanqing in the right leg, sending him toppling to the ground and saving him from having his neck snapped.

The yin corpse then swept its leg lightly and kicked the other boot toward the left foot of Zhang Yuanqing's true body. Once the boot touched his sole, it miraculously put itself on.

Finally, Corpse No. 1 snatched up the Yin Yang Spell Robe that had fallen on the ground and flung it into the sky with a snap of its wrist.

Fwoosh!

The robe spread open, revealing the taiji fish symbol on its back, which began spinning like a millstone. Blazing flames streamed down from the yang fish, while ethereal currents spilled out from the yin fish, creating a great array of water and fire covering thirty meters in every direction.

Zhang Yuanqing's true body vanished, and in its place, two clay figures rose from the ground.

Their bodies were solid and sturdy, yet their joints were nimble, resembling terracotta warriors of old, with features identical to Zhang Yuanqing's own.

The clay figure standing in the flames looked itself over and said, "It's kind of… interesting… This body, not bad… But I feel weird. Can't say… what's weird…"

The clay figure within the ethereal currents said, "Why do I… feel that… you… got… even dumber…"

Corpse No. 1 (controlled by Zhang Yuanqing's consciousness), standing on the dividing line between water and fire, looked at his two selves and couldn’t help but to frown. Are these two clowns really also me? Why are they acting like a pair of morons…?

The twin avatars of fire and water were already expressionless, and now their speech came in stops and starts as well, like a couple of half-witted simpletons.

Oh, it's because my soul's been cut into too many pieces, Zhang Yuanqing figured out quickly. 

The avatars weren't dim-witted. There was just too little consciousness within each of them. Half his consciousness had been in his true body, and the other half in the yin corpse. Once the Yin Yang Spell Robe had been triggered, his body had to split into two, and so each avatar only had a quarter of his consciousness. That was why they were so wooden.

Just then, the squat shadow that was deeper than the dark itself skated quickly toward Corpse No. 1, ignoring both the searing flames and the pull of the ethereal currents. It let out a tender, girlish laugh.

"Let's play a game~"

Seeing this, Zhang Yuanqing wasted no more time. Before the squat shadow could take over Corpse No. 1, he arranged the two avatars and the yin corpse into a triangle.

"You clap one, I clap one, play a game before the day is done…"

The clay figures started up the chant, and the game, which had been so unfortunately interrupted, picked up again.

The ghost girl roamed around the three of them, circling, complaining, weeping, trying again and again to latch on but failing every time.

Zhang Yuanqing felt uneasy. The Yin Yang Spell Robe's array lasted ten minutes. If he went past that, he might never get his human form back. That meant that if the ghost girl didn't leave within ten minutes, the Demon-subduing Awl was the only option left. And at that point, everything would begin to slide uncontrollably toward an abyss.

Time slipped away like water, and just as it neared the ten-minute mark, the ghost girl stamped her foot.

"Meanie, none of you will keep me company! I'll come find you again tomorrow~"

The squat little figure sped off into the distance, melting into the deep of the night, and disappeared completely.

Zhang Yuanqing dropped the array at once, returning to his human body. He lay spread-eagle on the ground, gulping down ragged breaths, as Corpse No. 1 stood guard beside him.

I got lucky, he conceded to himself. Luckily, that old man turned into a corpse only some time after the first watch started, or that really would've been the end of me this time. Damn it, this dungeon isn't one bit safer than Yin Yang Town.

He lay in the thick dark for close to ten minutes, then laboriously hauled himself upright. The broken bones in his neck, leg and arm had grown back together decently enough, enough to support normal movement, though it would not sustain anything strenuous.

Zhang Yuanqing was in rough shape, partly because of his wounds, and partly because of the aftermath of using Moon Howl. Thankfully, the village was steeped in yin energy and it was nighttime, the perfect environment for nourishing a Nocturnal Specter, which sped up his rate of recovery.

The night was still deep and black as ink, and the mountain village lay still and soundless. Zhang Yuanqing sat in the dark, unable to see his own hand in front of his face, the yin corpse beside him standing guard. Not far off was the remains of the old man, his head parted from body.

Despite the oppressive circumstances, he didn’t feel any fear. On the contrary, he felt like a fish in water. It all felt oddly like home. 

He took some time to think through his situation. If I've got it right, the first watch is two hours long, before the second watch begins. I'm safe until then.

The paper figure will show up at the start of the second watch. By normal logic, the danger should increase as the hours go by. The ghost girl that appeared at the start of the first watch was already this terrifying. What would the paper figure in the second watch be like?

And I still don't know what horror appears during the third watch. Tch, the old man turned into a yin corpse, and I'm sure the same happened to the rest of the villagers as well. There’s no more intel to dig up.

To test his theory, he summoned Little Goofball and urged the little infant spirit to crawl toward a house of rammed earth not far off.

As Little Goofball passed through the enclosing wall and into the house, Zhang Yuanqing sent his consciousness into the infant spirit, and he used his gaze to pierce the dark and survey the room.

Two yin corpses stood inside, one man and one woman, presumably a married couple. Their eyeballs were shot through with red veins, with thick drool leaking from the corners of their mouths. They stood there in the middle of the room, staring blankly ahead.

Well, they don't seem to have the desire to hunt down people on their own, Zhang Yuanqing surmised. So long as I don't go into the houses, this crowd of villagers probably wouldn't attack on their own.

By day, the villagers were normal people, and by night, as the yin energy spread through the mountain village, they turned into yin corpses.

He couldn't help thinking of what the old man had said as he turned: "during the fourth watch, everyone died!"

Turning a whole village of the living into yin corpses has to be that princess's doing, he thought grimly. I was wrong. She's not merely nasty, she's monstrously nasty. Can a Transcendent-tier Walker really handle this sort of boss?

Something was off about this dungeon. The dungeon's difficulty was already way past the A-rank bracket. This was plainly an S-rank dungeon. In fact, even an S-rank dungeon might not be this terrifying.

What am I sitting here fretting for? he chided himself. I've got the Demon Lord's experience to go on, haven't I? Free wool off a senior is wool you'd be a fool not to pluck.

Zhang Yuanqing fished the Cat King Speaker out of his trouser pocket, set it in front of him, gave the black metal shell a light tap, and asked, "About the next stage, the paper figure. How do I get past it?"

This time the Cat King Speaker played along, and a burst of static came from the speaker grille.

A few seconds later came a shrill, terror stricken scream. "Run, run now~"

The voice was quivering and thick with fear as it echoed through the pitch black night, carrying a chill that made Zhang Yuanqing's hair stand on end.