This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and Yeenie.
Evil Ghost King
Time: 1:30pm
“Anyone feeling hungry?” After we walked a long distance away from the hall, someone suddenly asked this question.
After we walked a long distance away from the hall, someone suddenly asked the question.
“I prepared lunch.” The only girl in the group, Miao Miao said such thoughtful sentence.
Everyone looked at her.
Miao Miao spontaneously took out a perfectly wrapped lunch box from her backpack, and it was also four layered, “Before departing, I went to the restaurant to buy some simple meal.”
She was probably the only one amongst us, who thought of this matter.
Surrounded by stone walls, we were already deep inside the path. Senior roughly took a look around, “You can all take a break first.”
I remembered Senior saying that he doesn’t eat during work. I wondered if he is currently considered as working now?
“You can go ahead and eat, I’m not hungry.” Red eyes glanced at me. I think I guessed correctly.
“In here, it’s safer in here.” Chifuyu found a place that looked like a small room. Inside, was empty except for something that looked somewhat like a stone table. Due to his accurate foreknowledge, everyone went inside the small room without any questions.
Senior didn’t follow us in, and was wandering around outside.
“I wonder how much longer it’ll take before we reach the place with the badges teacher had mentioned.” Looking at Miao Miao who was opening the lunch box layer by layer, inside was several simple triangular rice balls, with a variety of colours, causing me to think of Ryan’s beloved.
“If we continue onwards with the same speed, and don’t encounter anything along the way, we should be able to reach it in about twenty minutes.” Chifuyu pressed his hand on the table, and silver thin lines came from under his palm forming a small square simple map, “We’re already in a very low altitude, if we continue onwards, we won’t be in the building anymore. It’ll be a tunnel that was dug after the war, so we’ll just need to head downwards and we’ll reach soon enough.”
I saw some glowing dots moving around on the silver map.
“Looks like there are still two groups of students who have yet to be killed.” Chifuyu said with a cold smile.
To be truthful, along the way, it was thanks to the Chifuyu Radar, that we didn’t encounter any traps, wraiths or the like, and our journey went on very smoothly.
“Looks like the people from Class A aren’t too bad.” Miao Miao took out small paper cups from the corner of the lunchbox and started making tea, and then she put them on the table, passing them to us, “And I thought their skills only included talking through their nose and nothing else.”
I noticed the relationship between different classes was rather unpleasant, “Isn’t Class A the so-called class for the gifted students?”
Chifuyu, who was about to bite into his rice ball, turned around to face me, “That’s true, but the criteria they used for the class placement, is not according to our results and the like.”
Not according to our results?
“The criteria of the class placement is in based on our abilities, unity and group formation.” Chifuyu put down the food on his hands, and sat upright while explaining, “The school selects the people according to their level and relationship coupled with their family background, etcetera. For the class placement, Class A is the class that has the best unity and the highest combined abilities of the grade, so you can see that all the people of Class A would use their nose to look at people.”
Which means they are a very united group of people?
“And Class B are relatively a little inferior, as their combined abilities are not as good as Class A, and the last, Class C… you should be able to notice it, right.” He gave two short laughs, “In Class A it should be rather difficult to find people who have feuds or come from conflicting sects, because these people are all thrown inside Class C, Class C is the class which has the worse integration in the whole grade, the most divided, and it’s even possible to have internal conflict with addition to having gang wars in the class.”
I understand…
I knew just by looking at the five-coloured rooster head and Chifuyu; the two of them are the best representative of an internal conflict.
“If we only compare our solo abilities, Class C will not necessarily lose to Class A, as you can see, Ryan is a White Robe already, and Miao Miao is also from the medical team.”
That’s true, Ryan is indeed very powerful. I should amend my previous thoughts. Seems like I’m currently studying in the chaotic class and not the last class.
“Quickly finish your food, Senior is still waiting outside.” Miao Miao, who upgraded from medical team to supply team, urged the two of us.
After she said that, the both of us remembered that there was still one more person strolling outside.
I glanced at the doorway, and I just so happen to see Senior walking past. Silver hair floating in the wind with a rather faint glow, probably the light from the wall was reflected off his hair.
“Why is it that Senior doesn’t eat every time during work?” I was very curious, and then I took a bite of a black rice ball.
Spoot! It’s sweet, this is actually a bean paste wrapped in purple glutinous rice.
“I’ve heard that for some high level spells, before using them, one needs to cleanse the body and fast. For example, to request for the God to descend and the like, perhaps Senior was afraid there would be a day where he would need to use it during work, so he avoids eating during work to keep himself in tip-top condition?” Miao Miao looked across following my sight with glittering and shining green eyes.
So that’s the reason. Senior really works hard.
* * *
We finished our food about ten minutes later. Not really sure if it was already calculated, but Senior also came in just at that same moment, “If you guys are ready then we’ll continue moving.” He glanced at us and then he went out again.
Miao Miao quickly tidied up the lunch boxes, which was, throwing everything back into her backpack.
“Next will be that dug up tunneled path, be careful not to slip.” Chifuyu, who was responsible for leading the way, said to us, and then he took the lead and headed to an unobtrusive path at one side.
To say that it was a path, but I felt it was more like a forest trail. It’s just a long tunnel dug underground. I felt like we were walking through a path made by rats or ants.
“A few days were used to dig up this place during the period where the Elves were trying to bury the Evil Ghost King’s corpse in the coldest depth. There used to be a ladder of sort, but was later completely destroyed. I think this was later dug up again by some tomb raiders.” Senior was walking in front of me while explaining. Due to the tunnel being rather small, he had to walk with his body bent. Even Chifuyu, who was further in front, had to do the same. Fortunately this path was heading down, thus the journey was not too tiring and was rather smooth instead.
The lower we went, the colder it felt, and I heard sounds of water dripping.
“There are water veins below, so it might be extremely cold.” Miao Miao shivered, walking closely beside me. It was obvious she was also feeling the chill.
Now I slightly regretted not bringing a jacket before coming. Other than senior, the rest of us were wearing short sleeved uniforms.
Senior suddenly stopped, and I almost crashed into him from behind, but luckily I stopped in time.
“Take it.” He threw something at me, and I quickly grabbed at it, but only to find out it was a small red bead. The red lines inside the beads seemed to be moving, and my hands started to feel rather warm. “I sealed some flames in the crystal. It can keep you warm, and you can use fire spells without consuming any energy. You guys can take turns to hold onto it for a while.”
So this is a handy heat bag?
After rubbing it for a while, I passed it to Miao Miao, she seemed to be more afraid of the cold compared to me.
“You don’t need to pass it to me, I’m not afraid of the cold.” This sentence came from Chifuyu who was in front.
Then we continued onwards.
As we went lower down the path, white frost started appearing on the rocky walls around us. There was a moment where I was careless and I put my hand on the wall. My hand almost ended up being stuck to it. I currently feel that the next time I attend this class, other than bringing a jacket, I also need to bring a pair of gloves…
“We’re almost there.”
Just as the coldness in the tunnel reached a certain extreme extent, Chifuyu’s voice wonderfully resounded in front.
The path had widened a little, we came out of the tunnel, and arrived at a… It seemed to be a natural underground cave. It was extremely spacious, and was sparkling, and it wasn’t because of senior. It seemed like it was originally like this; each and every stone was glittering, reflecting a very cold type of strange silver light.
The underground was really huge, and it felt like it lead to another place, and there were sounds of water a short distance away. It should be an underground river.
About a few meters away, there was a stone table, which was similar to the one where we ate our food, but this was a little bigger, and there was something emitting light on top of it.
“Found it.” Miao Miao quickly ran over, doing a flip, she jumped on top of the stone table, “The badges.” She smiled as she picked up a shiny object, which was indeed the school’s badge. There were several badges placed on top.
“Should take the badges according to the number of people?” She glanced at them, and swept four of them away.
“Now we need to head back the same way?” I looked at senior, but he wasn’t looking at the badges. He had been staring at the river on the other side, “Senior?” For some reason, he seemed to be acting strangely since we entered the tomb. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking about.
Only then did he turned around, “There’s no need for that, this place seemed to have been set with the school’s connection point. We just need to use the teleportation charm to leave.” He paused for a moment, and the red eyes stared at me for a while, “Just now due to the Elves’ barriers in the tomb, we weren’t able to use that type of thing, so I didn’t ask you to use it.”
He already finished answering the question I wanted to ask.
I actually wanted to ask: if the teleportation charm is so convenient, we should have used it from the start when we entered the tomb.
“Then we can go back now.” Chifuyu took out a light yellow charm from his pocket, it was rather different from the one senior gave me, but by looking at it, it should be considered as a type of teleportation charm, right?
“You can all go back first, I want to ascertain something here.”
The eyes of the other two people immediately brightened up.
“There’s something in here?” Miao Miao curiously asked, “That’s right, where is the place the Ghost King was buried? Can we go and take a look?” Not too long ago she was so cold that she kept shivering, but now she’s completely spirited.
To be truthful, I also wanted to take a look, because curiosity is in the human nature. But I heard curiosity killed the cat.
Senior turned around and glanced at us, “Nothing good can come out of looking at that kind of thing.”
“But it can be thought of as an experience, right?” Chifuyu stared at Senior, too. It was obvious he also belongs to the group of people who really wanted to have a look.
Senior seemed to be rather reluctant to let us have a look, but in the end he helplessly heaved a sigh, “Come on then.” And then he walked towards the river that held his attention just now.
For some reason I felt something was rather strange, but I couldn’t tell what it was. The closer we got to the river, the colder it got, and when we saw the river, all of us were stunned for a moment.
If I really have to say it, this looked more like a glacier. Ice was floating across the flowing water, piece by piece, and the stone bank was completely covered with ice, making it very slippery.
No wonder the bottom was so cold! There’s a natural air-conditioner.
“The corpse of the Ghost King Yelu is buried underneath.” Pointing at the glacier, Senior explained.
* * *
To be truthful, this place… there was… Nothing that could be seen! In front of my eyes, other than water and ice, it was still water and ice.
“A seal is placed here, how could it be possible for you to simply just see it.” Senior gave me a slap behind my head.
I slipped, and then I immediately grabbed onto Chifuyu. Because everything under my feet were ice, it was really slippery.
It was only then that I noticed. Other than me slipping, Chifuyu was also nearly dragged into rolling down together with me. Miao Miao wasn’t too close to the riverbank, she maintained an optimum distance.
The only one who was standing on the ice and was completely stable and indifferent, was the damn Great God senior!
“This seal is created by the Ice Elves, of course it would only consist of water and ice.” Senior glanced at me, and sneered, “Since you’ve already seen it, go back now.”
He was driving us away, he really was driving us away! My first instinct was there was something senior didn’t want us to see.
“I want to try and see if I’m able to disperse these ice, we’ve already come so far, it’s not worthwhile just looking at these water and ice.” Chifuyu issued a rebellious and refusive declaration.
“This is an absolute seal, you cannot simply touch it.” Senior’s attitude was also very persistent.
And then they no longer continued their conversation, because there were some noises coming from the tunnel, and then a few people ran out.
Oh, oh, it’s the schoolmate, who was talking with his nose just now, from Class A, looking rather ashen, and his clothes were rather torn.
“Hmph, and I was wondering who was here, and it turns out to be a few Class C students barking.” Probably the leader, he continued using his nose to talk, I realised he was the first one who jumped out of the ice web from awhile back. Seems like he didn’t recognise senior was a black robe, and had grouped him together with us, “What’s the problem, don’t know how to go back to the school?”
This person looked a bit strange, a whole lot shorter than me, probably not even reaching up to a hundred and sixty centimeters? Looking rather robust with curly hair and also had pointed ears, looks like he’s probably not a human.
The two people following beside him looked like people who would oppress others… that was a slip of the tongue, it’s the follower type of yes-man. One was fat while the other was thin, causing it to be rather balanced. They looked more or less rather similar to him.
Senior didn’t utter any sound, and only continued to smile coldly. I think he was too lazy to correct them.
“We are not like some slowpoke, who are late and don’t know how to return to the school. Not only are you ignorant but you are ashamed to ask us who are from Class C, and also wanted to probe us for the answer.” Chifuyu, who literally twisted the topic, learned their way of talking with his nose, and also lifted his chin 45 degree up, to fully show his disdain.
[T/N: This is a Chinese idiom which means: Never feel ashamed to ask and learn from those who are inferior to you.]
I found out that in quarreling, Chifuyu had the qualifications of women who are good at gossiping.
“What did you say!”
Following the convention of a light novel, the person from Class A would become mad.
“I’ve heard that Class A is very strong, can you guys see the object is under the glacier?” Convention number two, Chifuyu started instigating with additional sarcasm, “But I guess you guys won’t be able to do it.”
“That’s enough!” Senior opened his mouth to stop him.
But normally, when a gifted student became mad due to being criticized, he won’t care if there was anyone trying to stop him, “Of course I can see it! You guys from Class C with lousy skills had better move further away.” While saying that, I suddenly saw a layer of gold powder appearing in the Class A’s leader’s hand, and then it became a whole piece and shot into the glacier, “Disperse, reveal to me the object.”
His movement was very quick, before Senior could take any action to stop him, the gold dusts had already been scattered around inside the glacier.
The whole glacier violently shook for a moment. Then the ice above the water dispersed. The white mist which was originally floating on top also seemed to have been quickly blown away by the wind, and I saw the clear river water.
“You are from the fairy clan, right.” Senior looked towards the person, who just sprinkled the gold dust, from Class A, “Fairy messenger of the Black Helm Mountain uses the powder made from the golden flowers.”
Fairies look like this!? The glamorous figure of a fairy in my mind completely shattered. Earlier, I thought that they were some whatchamacallit little Blue Elves or Mushroom people.
“Hmph, Class C actually had someone who is well informed.” The fairy of Class A continued using his nose to talk, “This type of pollen could only be used by aristocrats, scared now!”
The two attendants beside followed and laughed. They were really a very united group, one would know by just looking at this.
Senior sneered, didn’t continue to say anything.
After the glacier vibrated for a while, the water completely became transparent, and then inside the water was the thing we saw earlier at the place where Elf coffins in the hall were; a thick layer of silver thing.
“I’ve heard that Elfin blood will glow, on top was also… that war during that period, how many people died…” I heard Chifuyu’s almost inaudible voice, as if he was mumbling to himself.
So to say, this layer of silver stuff is Elfin blood? Elfin blood was actually silver?
“The color of an Elfin blood differ from each Elf, it’s because the flow of time here had been too long, the colour had all been washed away, leaving only the glowing matter.” Senior looked at the thing inside the river and said.
This reminded me of something. So after Elfin blood has expired it will actually turn into mercury?
With a “bam” sound, Senior smacked my head.
“Hmph, what’s so difficult about this.” The fairy of Class A sprinkled more golden powder, and then the silver thing inside the water slowly dispersed.
I saw a person. A man.
A very tall and huge man. His corpse was completely set at the lowest part of the river, scattered all around were signs of rotting, several places had already turned into white bones, constantly being scoured by the water.
Giant? I estimate that this person was probably about three times my height.
His face looked rather scary, completely twisted and deformed, and below his left eye, there was a row of five to six horizontal slits. It looked somewhat like eyelids. There were horns on his forehead, three black horns, where two of them were already broken and one of them had cracks on it.
Should be a dead giant, but for some reason it made my scalp tingle. I noticed Chifuyu and Miao Miao’s face had completely turn pale, and was repeatedly moving back.
The three students of Class A was the same, unable to even utter one word.
The man in the water below had purple skin, looking rather like expired rotten meat, completely swollen, and the blood vessels, tendons, and whatnot, felt like they were constantly floating along with the water.
I felt like vomiting. A very disgusting corpse!
“This is Ghost King Yelu’s corpse.” Senior calmly opened his mouth, his voice suddenly became very clear, “Didn’t you guys wanted to look at it? Look as much as you want.”
I vaguely felt that senior was angry, and it’s the “extremely bad mood” kind.
“Urk—!” Miao Miao couldn’t take it anymore. Kneeling at one side, she threw up.
In fact the corpse wasn’t so horrifying to the extent that will make one throw up, but for some reason, that corpse gave off a very heavy pressure, the type of pressure which felt like it could crush my internal organs or brain. My whole body completely felt powerless and nauseated.
So this was a ghost king?
Chifuyu helped Miao Miao to move away, not willing to stay here for even one more second.
I directly stared at the ghost king’s corpse. For some reason, I felt horrified with the thought that came to my mind.
Because I felt that, he could be resurrected.
* * *
“Chu! You can’t!” Senior suddenly yelled out loud, and I didn’t have the time to realize what had happened.
I saw a blackish gold light, and then my eyesight came in contact with a pair of eyes where half of it was depressed.
What happened? Why was the floor shaking? Why was the glacier suddenly writhing?
I couldn’t feel my own body, but I heard many people screaming.
Just as I snapped out of my trance and gained consciousness, I was being dragged away by a huge force, and my whole body fell on the stone floor, completely aching all around. Then someone pulled me up and started running to the other side.
When my focus returned, I saw a giant hand on the riverbank where I was standing on just a moment ago. The fingers on the hand were completely rotten, everywhere was white bones, and was followed by an extremely disgusting odor.
The one who dragged me and ran away was senior, he threw me at the other side of the stone table where the school badges lay. “Chifuyu, Eutica, quickly head back to the school using the teleportation charm!” It was only then that I realized the unfamiliar name belongs to the fairy of Class A, who was so scared that his face was miserably white. Both his companions legs weakened and fell down into a sitting position at one side. But our side wasn’t any better, Miao Miao kept screaming, so frightened that she completely clung onto me, as she was in a huge shock.
Just as the second hand stretched out and grabbed the floor, and next it was a pair of eyes being exposed, blackish gold eyes where half of it was missing. All of the horizontal slits below his left eyes had opened, revealing several muddy yellow eyes, where most of them were depressed and rotten.
I finally realized, the ghost king had come to life for some reason. Exactly the same as the thing that came to my mind moments ago.
“Yang Yang, don’t simply move around!” Chifuyu was shivering as he dragged both me and Miao Miao together, and then he went to the other three, dragging and pulling them. “Senior!” He took out his teleportation charm but he saw senior had already rushed towards the Ghost King.
The Ghost King who required a whole army of Elves to handle…
My hands were shaking, my body was completely frozen, and kept exuding cold sweat.
“Creature who formed a contract with me, allow the tresspassing outsider to witness your killing.” A silverish transparent spear appeared in Senior’s palm, “You guys head back first, hurry!” And then his spearhead swept at the horizontal row of the Ghost King’s eyes.
This was the first time I saw senior’s silver spear missing its target. The rotten boney hand was held up in the middle, and the spear was abruptly stopped.
The Ghost King looked at the spear beside his hand. His teeth and mouth, which were rotten until there were only the bones left, suddenly started laughing, “…”
I was certain he had said something, because senior’s expression changed, but I couldn’t hear what the rotten skeleton had said. His voice was very soft, but it also felt like it was screaming, because my ears were buzzing in pain.
That row of muddy yellow eyes suddenly turned around, his eyesight was focused on me.
What he said next, I couldn’t have heard any clearer.
“The Dark Cult who helped me resurrect… where is he!?”
I suddenly remembered, a long time ago… In fact it wasn’t that long ago, the Ghost who chased me also mentioned a similar sentence.
“Dark Cult.” What’s that?
“Chifuyu!” Issuing a huge roar, Senior then clasped his hands together, and when he opened his hands, golden powder appeared, forming into a huge net covering the Ghost King, who probably didn’t expect this attack, and the Ghost King fell back into the water.
I recalled the person from Class A said that only fairy aristocrats are able to use this powder, right?
Chifuyu’s body was trembling, and then he took out his teleportation charm and placed it on the floor.
Just as the array was about to form, I saw something shooting through Chifuyu’s hand, and then bright red blood sprayed on my face.
“No one… is allowed to leave…” The Ghost King who climbed back up said using his strange voice. The entire underground natural cave was echoing with his voice. My eardrums almost burst due to the vibration.
Chifuyu held on to his right hand, which was completely covered with blood, and his teleportation charm was completely broken into pieces.
Something blue grazed past my face.
“Stop the bleeding.” A very familiar voice. I saw a blue shadow suddenly appearing between us, and then he pulled Chifuyu’s hand and pressed on it, and the bleeding immediately stopped, “You guys, immediately head back to school. We will deal with the things over here.” Different from the usual, the assistant was wearing a big blue robe and wasn’t laughing and fooling around like usual, he passed another charm to Chifuyu.
Several people wearing dark blue clothes appeared all around us.
I guess these people were the medical team senior mentioned that were in hiding, because their color was different from senior and the other coloured robes. There were also several people wearing black robes and purple robes mixed inside.
Senior moved back some distance, and then I saw someone who was wearing a purple robe giving senior a pat on his shoulder. That person was wearing a white mask on his face, and there was a red heart totem on the forehead of the mask.
“Older brother!?” I heard Chifuyu’s surprised shout.
“Don’t delay anymore, you guys will only become a burden. Go quickly!” The assistant forcefully held onto Chifuyu’s shoulder and then he moved out of the teleportation charm’s array.
We were immediately surrounded by white light, and I lost consciousness the next second.