Chapter 146: Backpacker Youth Hostel (6)

Soon, Old Zhao also propped up the small whiteboard, which read: "There is an online camera inside the hostel, broadcasting live right now. The golden components inside that prevent ghostly tracking have all been replaced! There are over a million people in the live stream, and the room number is..."

Wu Zui's expression tightened as he cursed at Old Zhao: "You guys are incredible! The paranormal investigators went through all that trouble to isolate this place with a sealing magnetic field, and you geniuses went ahead and built a direct highway for the ghosts! Are you afraid it won't kill fast enough?"

Without hesitation, Wu Zui used the mobile phone he took from Xiao Ke'ai to dial the emergency number for the Yanjing Supernatural Center. He reported the relevant information, hoping they could shut down the network in this area as soon as possible.

According to the Investigation Bureau's data, the original five-star ghost in the hostel had likely broken through to six-star, nourished by the massive amount of flesh and blood. Moreover, the more flesh, blood, and resentment it devoured, the more formidable it would become.

*(Let's go inside and stall for a bit. If I can get close enough, it would be even better to just finish it off with the Heart-Quest Sword!)*

Wu Zui grabbed the back of Xiao Ke'ai's collar and stuffed her into his arms. Then he said to her: "We're going in. The ghost inside might already be at the six-star level. Be careful!"

Xiao Ke'ai raised the small whiteboard with her paw.

"Don't worry, Master! Once I enter the ethereal state, it can't hurt me! (*￣︶￣)"

"Still, be careful! We're going in!"

With that, Wu Zui extended his finger, opening a spatial singularity. He tore the doors of the Backpackers' Youth Hostel apart using spatial force. Looking in from the outside, the interior was pitch black, and the energy of resentment pouring out from the breach was incomparably dense.

Wu Zui summoned a protective shield of magnetic karmic fire around himself, then plunged directly through the gap with Xiao Ke'ai in tow.

Only then did Old Zhao realize a serious problem: with Wu Zui gone, who was going to take him to the hospital? The investigator's ointment was only meant for emergency hemostasis; a wound this large still needed stitches, otherwise, once the medicinal effect wore off...

And so, with gauze wrapped around his neck and a whiteboard strapped to his back, Old Zhao began to crawl outward step by step. The small whiteboard read: Please! Help me call an ambulance!

That blood-red bug had not only pierced Old Zhao's neck but had also eroded his body. Now, the moment he exerted any magnetic energy, his entire meridian system felt as though it were being slashed by tiny blades. Combined with the massive loss of blood, his body lacked even an ounce of strength.

Fortunately, given the social climate of China, as long as Old Zhao managed to crawl close enough to someone's home and be discovered, his chances of surviving after being sent to the hospital were still quite high.

...

By this time, Wu Zui had grown increasingly cautious upon entering the hostel. In his perception, something in the dark was staring at him with malice, while the invisible mental contamination filling the hostel attempted to corrode his sanity.

Had it not been for the visualization techniques Wu Zui practiced, which possessed miraculous efficacy against mental contamination, he would have already stumbled. Within Wu Zui's sea of consciousness, wave after wave of mental contamination incessantly battered the blue figure formed of psychic energy.

This mental contamination seemed relentlessly intent on magnifying some negative emotion deep within Wu Zui, as if the moment that negative emotion was amplified, the ghost would achieve absolute victory.

Naturally, Wu Zui had no intention of testing the ghost's capabilities with his own physical body. A brilliant flash of blue light burst from the surface of the blue figure as magnetic energy reinforced its defenses. No matter how fiercely the mental contamination surged, it failed to disturb Wu Zui's composure.

The room was now pitch black, saturated with a massive amount of resentful energy. This energy exerted a faint suppressing effect on the magnetic power within Xiao Ke'ai's body, yet it produced not the slightest effect on Wu Zui's magnetic karmic fire.

After a short while, the relentless assault of mental contamination began to recede slowly, seemingly utterly defeated by his impregnable mental defense.

However, the physical entity of the ghost itself had arrived in person.

Whoosh—

A dark shadow streaked past rapidly behind Wu Zui.

Bang—

The magnetic karmic fire quickly condensed into a slash, shooting from Wu Zui's hand toward his back.

Unfortunately, this strike missed the shadow entirely, though the wall covered in blood-red markings was directly ignited by the magnetic karmic fire. Like burning grease, the wall continuously shed dripping fragments enveloped in burning karmic flames.

Taking advantage of the moment Wu Zui's attention was focused behind him, the shadow revealed its true form: a red rope that tightly strangled Wu Zui's neck, hoisting him into mid-air. Dense mental contamination surged directly into Wu Zui's sea of consciousness, crashing into it like an invisible sledgehammer.

Caught off guard, the blue figure vibrated violently.

A surge of inexplicable terror welled up inside Wu Zui, followed by the sensation that his entire body was spinning out of control; he could no longer govern his own physical form.

Simultaneously with the emergence of this emotion, a blood-red trace resembling a wound appeared around Wu Zui's neck. Eerily, no blood flowed from the wound; instead, tiny red bugs wriggled incessantly within it.

Xiao Ke'ai swung her paw at the rope strangling Wu Zui's neck, their collision producing the sound of striking metal. Seeing this, Xiao Ke'ai immediately lowered her head and burrowed into Wu Zui's arms, quickly fishing out a small transparent bottle containing Wu Zui's blood.

Smash—

Xiao Ke'ai shattered the small bottle with her claws, splashing blood all over the red rope. A sheet of karmic fire immediately erupted along the rope. A screech of venomous malice echoed from the rope as it instantly released Wu Zui's neck and vanished rapidly into the darkness.

At the same time, the entire hostel began to shudder.

Though the ghost stained with Wu Zui's blood was not directly incinerated to death, it suffered catastrophic trauma. Otherwise, the confinement space it had released could never have produced such violent tremors.

Meanwhile, the remaining red bugs at Wu Zui's throat had also come into contact with his blood. They scrambled to flee his body, but were quickly reduced to ashes by the karmic fire.

Freeing himself from the rope, Wu Zui touched his neck; a chunk of flesh was missing there, yet no wound existed. This was perhaps the very reason why those red bugs could consume Wu Zui's flesh without being incinerated by the karmic fire within his body.

Seeing Wu Zui regain consciousness, Xiao Ke'ai immediately raised the inscribed whiteboard.

"Are you alright, Master? (Worried face)"

"I'm fine!"

Wu Zui felt his neck, where a purplish-blue bruise had been left by the red rope. Enraged, he summoned the Heart-Quest Sword, making it hover and guard within a radius of one meter around him. If he laid eyes on that wretched rope again, he would chop it into seventeen or eighteen pieces.

"Master, should we still chase it?"

Xiao Ke'ai raised the whiteboard and asked.

"Chase it! You think you can just take advantage of me and run? Not that easy!"

With that, Wu Zui directed the Heart-Quest Sword to plunge into the wall of the room, igniting the karmic fire instantly. Before long, the entire room where Wu Zui stood was burned to ashes. Viewed from the outside, a room on the second floor of the Backpackers' Youth Hostel simply vanished abruptly.

The entire confinement space shuddered once more.

The flawless confinement space that originally enshrouded the hostel now developed a tiny fissure in the sky. A multitude of red bugs flew toward the crack, rapidly patching it up with their own bodies.

Even though Wu Zui could have used a spatial singularity to leave the moment the confinement space fractured, the person who had nearly been hanged moments before chose not to depart. He picked up the Heart-Quest Sword and struck yet another newly appeared wall nearby.

This wall failed to escape the fate of being reduced to flying ash by the karmic fire.

The newly mended fissure within the confinement space reappeared, fracturing even more severely than before.

By this time, two of the twenty-eight rooms in the hostel had been completely destroyed, both containing the origin essence of the ghost. If all of them were destroyed, the ghost would perish utterly. Driven to desperation, this newly breakthrough six-star ghost, whose realm was still unstable, unleashed its full fury!

That red rope appeared above the Backpackers' Youth Hostel, whereupon the remaining twenty-six rooms all collapsed on their own, transforming into tendrils of black smoke that merged into the red rope in the sky.

In a desperate gambit, the ghost condensed all its power into its core, enabling it to engage Wu Zui with its absolute peak combat strength. Furthermore, the collapsed twenty-six rooms now fused into an organic whole, immune to being picked off one by one by Wu Zui.

Infused with the black smoke, the rope composed of red bugs now gleamed as crystalline and translucent as red jade. Dazzling crimson brilliance radiated from the rope, rendering it incomparably bewitching.

The red rope began to swell rapidly, wrapping around every area enveloped by the black confinement space until it formed a lid made of red crystal, sealing Wu Zui and the surroundings of the youth hostel completely within.

The ghost intended to crush him with sheer force, utilizing its six-star ghost core to relentlessly grind Wu Zui's physical body into complete oblivion. As the ghost core locked down the surrounding space, the red rope began to slowly contract.

Pop—

At that exact moment, the sound of a bursting bubble echoed.

An aura far more overwhelming than that of the red rope suddenly erupted from the vanished youth hostel, and an invisible force began to sweep across the surroundings.

The magnetic karmic fire on Wu Zui's body began to extinguish rapidly, as if deprived of an oxygen supply. Meanwhile, the red rope filling the entire space began to fracture inch by inch. The crystal-red rope crashed onto the ground, instantly shattering into crimson debris.

Soon, the red debris littered the ground all around.

Hiding in Wu Zui's arms, Xiao Ke'ai was trembling violently, the magnetic energy within her sinking into an uncontrollable lethargy. The intuition bestowed upon her by Commander Cat told her precisely what this sudden development signified!

That was ultimate terror!

A tiny paw holding the whiteboard reached out from Wu Zui's arms, trembling uncontrollably.

Scrawled crookedly upon it were the words: Seven-star~~

The Heart-Quest Sword also danced spontaneously around Wu Zui, blocking the overflowing forces of natural laws. Protected by the barrier of the sword, Xiao Ke'ai's trembling body grew quiet. However, as the Heart-Quest Sword whirled faster, the overflowing power of the laws grew increasingly formidable.

Before long, the swift motion of the Heart-Quest Sword formed a barrier of crimson sword energy around Wu Zui.