Chapter 538 – The Gate of Hungry Ghosts (1/2)

The pool of blood surged, spattering blood everywhere. A large, withered, greyish-white hand with long, sharp nails extended out and splayed its fingers, enveloping the three fireballs. They stopped growing in size, shrinking instead until they were completely extinguished. At the same time, it used its index finger and middle finger to easily catch the Heavy Water sword.

Li Qingshan’s eyes narrowed suddenly. Even though he had not used the strength of the ox demon, the strike was still not something anyone could catch easily with two fingers.

However, the feeling that the hand gave him already resembled a terrifying monster. If its entire body crawled out from the pool of blood, then even if he assumed his daemon form, he probably still would not be its enemy. He had never thought the Burial Mound mountain would actually be hiding such a terrifying thing.

Hua Chengzan abruptly experienced a great sense of crisis. Before he could even respond, a great force smacked into him violently, launching him into the air viciously. He stared at Li Qingshan in shock as he sailed through the air.

What struck him was not the terrifying, strange hand, but Li Qingshan.

Has he discovered my suspicions and wants to silence me with death?

Li Qingshan was stern. Without even looking at Hua Chengzan, he placed his sword across his body, assuming a defensive posture.

Boom!

The withered hand smacked against Li Qingshan. The ground beneath him immediately cracked and collapsed as he sank to his waist.

Li Qingshan’s body could be considered as lofty, but under the hand, it was like a tiny nail being hammered into a wall.

“Qingshan!” Hua Chengzan came to a realisation. Li Qingshan had saved him. With his reactions, he would not have been able to respond to the hand’s attack. If it were not for Li Qingshan, he would have been reduced to a pile of pulp already. He would be as dead as he could be.

“Hmm?” The owner of the hand was rather surprised. If regular Foundation Establishment cultivators took on that attack, death would be certain for them. Not only did this puny cultivator possess endless strength, but his body was as tough as steel too. He gave off a feeling that he was indestructible.

“If you’ve stared long enough, get going!” Li Qingshan glanced at Hua Chengzan. Before he could finish, the hand suddenly closed around him, dragging Li Qingshan into the pool of blood.

Hua Chengzan rushed to the side of the pool, only to see that the blood had already settled. His heart completely sank. Suddenly, the pool of blood began to surge violently like boiling water. The entire underground palace shook.

He gritted his teeth, turned around, and left. He would be of no help even if he remained here. Instead, he would waste his opportunity to escape that Li Qingshan had earned for him with his life.

Grabbed by the hand, Li Qingshan constantly descended towards the depths of the pool. The gurgling blood constantly surged towards his ears and nose. A ring of faint, blue light rose up, pushing away all the blood.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. There was actually a dim light at the bottom of the pool, but it did not resemble any glow of spiritual qi. Instead, it was like sunlight. He tried extending his soul sense into the bottom of the pool.

At that moment, a boundless world unfolded in front of his eyes before his soul sense immediately broke off. A blade seemed to cleave apart his soul sense. However, he would never be able to forget the landscape he saw momentarily.

White bones scattered the lands and blood flowed as rivers. The miserable gathering clouds and rolling mists obscured all celestial bodies in the sky.

Zombies roared at the skies madly, wrapped in extremely thick corpse qi. Not only were there Corpse Generals, but there were even Corpse Commanders.

If that was not alarming enough, the number of Corpse Generals amounted to tens of thousands like they were common soldiers. They gathered in noisy groups, strewn across the wilderness, while the number of Corpse Commanders amounted to over a hundred.

The number of Corpse Soldiers could no longer be described with words. They filled his entire vision, stretching as far as the eye could see.

At the very centre of this horrifying image was a dried corpse standing over three hundred meters tall, reaching towards the sky. The corpse qi on his body could basically be described as rising clouds. His eyes shone as two specks of horrible, green light as his arm extended towards the sky as if it was holding it up.

It was a legendary Corpse King!

What is this place? Why are there so many zombies!?

The omen of warning in his heart was set off like a police siren. If he were dragged in there, then even if he had ten lives, it would be nowhere near enough!

Li Qingshan immediately reverted to his original form. His body tightened, and he pushed the fingers away from his body. Tremors of the Ox Demon! The faint blue Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell swelled up as well, pushing apart the five fingers of the huge, withered hand.

Bang!

The pool of blood exploded loudly, and Li Qingshan burst out. The wings of the phoenix unfurled gloriously as his scarlet hair drifted through the air. He landed beside the pool and dared not remain for a second longer, rushing out of the palace.

The huge, withered hand tailed right behind him. It snatched down, brushing Li Qingshan’s back, merely millimetres away.

The phoenix wings were ripped to pieces, turning into scarlet feathers that drifted through the air.

Li Qingshan lunged forward as hard as he could. The warning vanished, and he let out a deep breath. Only then did he feel the severe pain from his back.

His back seemed to have become plowed farmland. His flesh had been turned inside out, having gained three bone-deep injuries. Even suffering three strikes from an anti-cavalry blade would not be so horrific.

The protruding flesh became a dark green as the colour rapidly spread. He had been poisoned.

The huge hand reached about madly in the surroundings, shattering and crushing the tough rock like mud. However, it could not extend too far away.

“You’ve been infected with corpse poison! You won’t last long!”

A dry, hoarse voice boomed out, making the entire underground palace tremble.

“What are you?”

With a wave of his hand, the scattered feathers turned into specks of fire and returned to his body, transforming his flesh and blood contaminated with corpse poison into fire. When the flames subsided, he had already made a full recovery, completely unscathed.