Ghost Infant

Chapter 80 Ghost Infant

Once the Wraiths had departed, Niu Ding cast off his aura-concealing cloak and approached the dried corpse once more.

Though thoroughly rattled by the Wraiths' sudden arrival, he managed to regain his composure. He systematically searched the shriveled remains, his fingers probing every inch.

When his hands reached the abdomen, Niu Ding's expression shifted.

Applying pressure, his fingers pierced right through the dried flesh of the stomach, exposing a blood-red stone the size of an egg.

Delight flashed across Niu Ding's face as he lunged forward to seize the blood stone.

Yet, before he could stash it away, the corpse's stomach violently ruptured. A demonic entity the size of a large bowl burst from the entrails, lunging directly at Niu Ding's face.

Before Niu Ding could react, the creature latched onto him.

Only then did he get a clear look at its hideous form.

It was a Ghost Infant. Its body possessed a disturbing solidity, appearing as though an infant's corpse had transitioned into a ghost through malicious yin transformation. It was completely naked and stained a vibrant, visceral red.

A manic grin split the Ghost Infant's face, its massive jaw tearing open all the way back to its ears, revealing rows of dense, needle-like teeth.

Opening its maw so wide it seemed ready to tear in half, it swallowed Niu Ding's entire head in a single bite.

Fortunately, Niu Ding was a body-tempering cultivator at the late stage of Qi Condensation, boasting an exceptionally resilient physical form. The Ghost Infant's attempt to crush his skull instantly failed.

Even so, Niu Ding felt countless sharp teeth gnawing madly at his skull, while a long, barbed tongue scraped fiercely across his face. Within breaths, the flesh was stripped from his face, exposing the stark white bone beneath.

"Ah!"

Enduring the agonizing torment of his bones being chewed, Niu Ding slammed a talisman against the Ghost Infant's body.

The talisman erupted with a blinding, searing radiance as a violent torrent of spiritual power surged forth.

"Ji! Ji! Ji!"

The Ghost Infant's flesh rapidly dissolved like butter subjected to boiling water.

Caught completely off guard, the creature took the full brunt of the talisman's might, unleashing a succession of shrill, piercing shrieks.

In an instant, more than half of its body was obliterated, leaving it tattered and ruined like a mangled rag doll.

The Ghost Infant detached from Niu Ding's head and fell to the floor. With only half its torso remaining, it hopped frantically on its lone leg, fleeing toward the deeper recesses of the lair.

Having narrowly escaped with his life, Niu Ding panted heavily.

In that brief exchange, the Ghost Infant had devoured most of the flesh on his head, leaving him looking thoroughly monstrous.

Half of his face and one eye were entirely gone, reduced to a ghastly visage of exposed white bone. The remaining half was a mangled, bloody ruin without a single patch of intact skin.

At this moment, his appearance was far more terrifying than any ghost.

Without wasting a single breath to recover, Niu Ding bolted toward the exit of the lair.

Yet, just as he reached the mouth of the cave, the Ghost Infant returned. Behind it surged six Wraiths and dozens of ordinary spirits.

Horror seized Niu Ding. His remaining eye widened in sheer terror as the heavy shadow of death loomed over him.

Quickening his steps, Niu Ding attempted to leap down from the elevated ledge of the lair.

But mid-leap, dozens of malevolent spirits swarmed him. Despite his desperate, thrashing resistance, they dragged him kicking and screaming back into the darkness of the cave.

Several successive flashes of spiritual power illuminated the dark as Niu Ding unleashed more talismans, severely wounding the Wraiths and obliterating the lesser spirits.

Ultimately, however, Niu Ding failed to break free from the threshold of the lair.

A short while later, the cavern fell entirely silent.

Nothing remained but the sickening sound of the Ghost Infant tearing into flesh. With only half its head intact, the creature chewed painstakingly slowly, taking a full half hour to devour Niu Ding's flesh and bones down to nothing.

By then, the spectral entities and Wraiths that had pursued Xuan Ye had all returned to the cavern.

Song Wen silently watched the events unfold within the lair, his mind racing. He wondered if they had managed to kill Xuan Ye. If Xuan Ye was dead, finding the Empty Cicada Wood without a guide would become significantly harder.

When the Ghost Infant finally finished devouring Niu Ding's remains and dragged its mangled form deeper into the cave, the other spirits dispersed as well, plunging the lair back into a quiet stillness.

Song Wen stared at the two Storage Bags, the aura-concealing cloak, and the blood stone left on the ground. A spark of desire ignited in his chest.

His Beetle Gu burrowed out from the soil.

It first scurried over to the aura-concealing cloak. After evaluating the massive size disparity between itself and the fabric, it decisively turned away.

It wasn't that the Beetle Gu lacked the strength to move it; though it was merely an ordinary insect at the first layer of Qi Condensation, it was capable of dragging a low-tier Magical Artifact. However, moving the bulky cloak would inevitably create too much noise. Having just witnessed the terrifying power of the spirits, Song Wen dared not risk alerting the creatures dwelling in the depths.

The Beetle Gu shifted its attention to the blood stone. This was the very treasure Niu Ding had thrown his life away for, yet Song Wen could discern nothing unusual about it.

Even so, its origins were bound to be extraordinary.

The Beetle Gu pressed its back against the blood stone, driving all six legs into the ground. Like a dung beetle rolling its prize, it began to push the stone toward the cave exit.

Before long, the blood stone reached the precipice of the lair.

With one final heave from the Beetle Gu, the stone rolled over the edge and fell to the cavern floor below, landing with a muffled thud.

The Beetle Gu did not immediately follow. It remained motionless on the ledge for a long time, ensuring no movement stirred within the inner lair before spreading its wings and descending.

Latching its legs firmly onto the blood stone, the insect buzzed into the air.

The stone proved heavier than Song Wen had anticipated. The Beetle Gu flew with visible strain, but it managed to keep the prize airborne.

Hugging the ground, the Beetle Gu flew onward. It did not return directly to Song Wen; instead, it flew down the opposite end of the tunnel, tracing the path Xuan Ye had taken.

After traveling over a mile, the Beetle Gu located a narrow rock crevice and dropped the blood stone safely inside.

Song Wen waited in concealment for nearly another hour. Confirmed that the spectral lair remained undisturbed, he finally emerged from the crevice and headed in Xuan Ye's direction.

Once he had cautiously bypassed the cave housing the lair, Song Wen activated his Blood Escape Technique, advancing at maximum speed.

After retrieving the hidden blood stone along the way, he covered another ten miles before finally spotting Xuan Ye taking shelter inside a small cavern recess.

Xuan Ye appeared to be in good condition. At the very least, he bore no signs of having undergone a bitter struggle.

It seemed he had shaken off the pursuing Wraiths with relative ease. It was no wonder he had agreed to Niu Ding's reckless distraction tactic.

"Brother Guo Tao! It is truly a relief to see you alive. Did you happen to spot Fellow Daoist Niu?" Xuan Ye inquired upon seeing him.

Song Wen shook his head grimly. "I never saw Fellow Daoist Niu emerge from the lair. I fear he has already met an unfortunate end."

Xuan Ye let out a soft, regretful sigh. "Sigh, what a tragedy. I had hoped to rely on his assistance to secure the Snake Scale Fruit. To think things would turn out like this..."

Song Wen asked, "Fellow Daoist, how should we proceed now?"

Xuan Ye lowered his gaze, counting the hours on his fingers before speaking.

"The hour is late; it should be nightfall on the surface. Although this subterranean network sits over a hundred meters deep and never sees the sun, the spirits and Walking Corpses here still follow their nocturnal instincts. They become far more active at night. It would be wisest for us to wait until morning to move."

Song Wen nodded in agreement. "Very well. We shall do as you suggest and move out tomorrow."

Xuan Ye remained within his small cavern recess for the duration of the night, while Song Wen sought out another hollow a few dozen meters away.

With little trust existing between them, maintaining their distance allowed both men to rest and recuperate with greater peace of mind.

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