515: Chapter 515 The Appearance of an Evil God

"Knock, knock, knock... knock, knock, knock..."

The sound of knocking echoed incessantly through the room. Instead of getting used to it, Li Hua grew increasingly terrified.

He wrapped his quilt tightly around himself while staring fixedly at the door.

If he hadn't guessed wrong, there was a terrifying ghost behind that door!

Not long ago, he had cautiously stepped out, intending to find his two subordinates and order them to travel through the night, even if they had to brave the wind and sand to leave this place.

As a result, he encountered a strange beast at the end of the corridor.

The little beast actually looked quite cute; it was a penguin with a single horn growing from its head.

It wouldn't have been a big deal, but that little penguin seemed to have latched onto him, following him constantly, and no matter what he did, he couldn't shake it off.

The key was that he didn't dare use his cultivation right now; his body would instinctively feel fear, to the point where he was completely helpless against such a small beast.

He originally thought nothing would happen and let it follow, but terrifying events followed one after another. As the penguin followed him, it suddenly spoke.

It actually asked him whether it looked like a person or a ghost.

Becoming somewhat irritated, Li Hua kicked the penguin and cursed:

"Stinking penguin, I don't care if you're a person or a ghost, get the hell away from me!"

As it turned out, that kick actually landed on the penguin, and it let out a sound—"hey!"

Then its whole body began to tremble, its mouth opened wide, and a pair of deathly pale hands reached out from its hideous maw.

The moment he saw this scene, Li Hua's legs began to shake.

That's right, Li Hua was afraid of ghosts.

Although it was quite shameful, it was the truth: a Nascent Soul Cultivator who practiced in a power primarily rooted in the underworld was actually afraid of ghosts.

Fear of ghosts seemed to be etched into his instincts; he had been afraid of such things since he was a child. Even if these things could be crushed to death by him with a single stomp, he was still afraid.

It was just like how some female Cultivators might be able to move mountains and fill oceans, yet still be terrified of insects.

Killing them was one thing, but the fear remained. Not to mention that Li Hua didn't dare use his cultivation now; once he used his magic power, his body would also instinctively feel fear.

But the more afraid he was, the more unstable his magic power became. Under the influence of his fear of ghosts, he fell into a state of both physical and mental terror, lacking any power to resist.

Consequently, he collapsed limply to the floor, staring blankly as those hands reached out from the penguin's mouth, followed by a head, and then a body.

A woman with a deathly pale body and withered long hair soon crawled halfway out of the penguin's mouth.

Seeing this, Li Hua screamed at the top of his lungs. Whether it was because of the scream or something else, one of his subordinates actually rushed over and saved him.

But for some reason, even though that subordinate had the cultivation of the Early Nascent Soul Stage, he seemed to have no resistance at all when facing that female ghost; he was tackled to the ground and could only shout for Li Hua to run.

After regaining a sliver of sanity, fear instantly transformed into strength, and Li Hua scrambled away on all fours. However, just as he reached the elevator lobby, he found that the original floor buttons had all disappeared, leaving only B1.

He instinctively pressed the B1 button, but only after pressing it did he remember that this was mentioned in the rules; he hurriedly pressed the door-open button and bolted out again.

Just as he wanted to rush toward the stairwell, he encountered a waiter crawling up from downstairs, covered in blood, with only half a body left!

Upon seeing this scene, Li Hua let out another piercing scream.

This cry also drew the attention of the female ghost and the waiter, and thus a thrilling Great Escape began.

Because his fear had reached its limit—perhaps due to two negatives making a positive or some other reason—Li Hua was actually able to use a tiny bit of magic power to accelerate.

Although after using his magic power to speed up, he could only crawl through the darkness in a twisted fashion like a maggot, it was still faster than running.

In this way, he narrowly shook off those two things, crawled back to his room, quickly locked the door, and activated a barrier.

He didn't know why he had come back, but fear had made him unable to think, and he didn't know where else he could go.

In desperation, he could only drink the extra cup of water on the table to calm his nerves.

It had to be said that drinking a cup of water after a fright really did help. After drinking it, he felt much better, and his body wasn't shaking as much.

But that bout of running had left him incredibly weak and even more thirsty.

Just as he was about to look for more water, the knocking sounded again, and a raspy noise drifted in from outside the door.

He was all too familiar with this sound; it was the female ghost that had chased him for so long. Fear struck again, and he could only huddle under the covers, shivering like a child having a nightmare.

His state returned to how it was before: the more afraid he was, the more terrified he became, to the point where Li Hua now had only one thought left.

To think that I, a grand Nascent Soul Cultivator, would... would actually die here in such a pathetic way.

Father! Grandfather! Master!

Where are you!

"Ah~ ugh!"

Li Hua finally couldn't help but let out a strange, eerie shriek.

At this moment, his body was like someone who had suffered a stroke; his eyes and mouth were skewed as he convulsed for a while. Then, a bizarre thought suddenly entered his mind.

Why not take a look through the peephole?

What if... what if the thing at the door isn't what he thinks it is?

Maybe... maybe he's just scaring himself.

It must be so!

It was one thing for him to be unable to use his magic power, but his subordinate was a veteran Nascent Soul; how could he possibly die at the hands of such a minor ghost!

With that, Li Hua swallowed hard, and with hollow eyes and a weakened body, he walked step by step to the door and leaned forward.

But just as his eye aligned with the peephole, he suddenly snapped awake.

Wait!

Why the hell did I come over here!

However, it was already too late.

When he saw the scene outside clearly, his whole body froze; he couldn't move an inch, and even his eyelids were unable to close due to terror.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The knocking outside continued, and the one knocking was a person with massive, protruding eyeballs, sunken cheekbones, and an extremely pointed chin.

They looked as if they had been forcibly molded into the appearance of a penguin.

It was pitch black behind them, and nothing could be seen clearly except for the things within a one-meter radius of the female ghost.

This extreme oppression and extreme horror caused Li Hua to lose control of his bladder.

"Hehe, hehaha, I'm going to die, I'm going to die..."

Li Hua drooled, his face contorted, as he stared blankly outside. And after he made a sound, the knocking seemed to become even more violent.

The knocking grew faster and faster, and the female ghost's expression became increasingly terrifying.

"Ding!"

Following the sound, Lv Yang suddenly looked above the hot spring shower area, where a clock hung that looked neither high-tech nor ancient, but rather had a bit of the style from the West River region.

"It's the Zi Shi hour."

Lv Yang set his broom aside and performed a quick calculation with his fingers.

"At the Zi Shi hour, the Evil God emerges; avoid it to live."

"It seems I can't go to the first floor for now; I'll have to stay in the Hot Spring Area for a while longer."

As he spoke, Lv Yang looked toward the furthest hot spring pool. There were lights in the Hot Spring Area, but not many, only enough to provide a bit of atmosphere.

Therefore, the water in that furthest pool was somewhat dark, making it impossible to see what was inside, but he could faintly see a shadow that seemed to be gradually growing larger.

At the same time, after several seconds of extreme terror, Li Hua somehow began to experience a sense of empathy from the monster outside the peephole.

The monster knocked faster and faster, and its expression became more and more miserable, but he could feel that the other party wasn't trying to intimidate him or had any other ulterior motives.

That female ghost... was afraid?

"Buzz, buzz—"

A faint sound came from the other end of the corridor.

Hearing this sound, the female ghost actually began to jump up and knock on the door anxiously. Her large face slid past the peephole, scaring Li Hua so much he almost fell over.

But some unknown feeling supported him, and he actually stood up again, leaning toward the peephole once more.

"Buzz, buzz—"

The sound grew slightly louder, and at the same time, a light seemed to flash on the right side of the peephole.

But it was very brief.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

A sound like a chainsaw rotating at high speed suddenly rang out.

Originally, Li Hua could only see things within one meter of the ghost, but now the darkness outside was illuminated as if by a lamp.

Li Hua saw a kind-looking man suddenly raise a large Light Wheel and swing it down fiercely toward the female ghost.

The man was shrouded in golden light, looking like a god descending to the world.

For some reason, amidst his extreme fear, that figure seemed to give him a hand, making him feel incredibly safe.

He couldn't help but mutter a sentence.

"Grateful to Taiyi."