67: Chapter 67 The Hungry Ghost Pounces on My Face, Take This!

"Ugh… ugh…"

Extremely heavy, guttural sounds squeezed out of Li Wei's throat. These noises, hoarse and mixed with strange, airy gasps, no longer belonged to any normal human vocalization. Her face, already severely twisted by greed and jealousy, was now undergoing an even deeper level of mutation.

Crack… crack… A series of subtle yet dense bone-breaking sounds emerged from her jaw. Her formerly delicate chin was being torn open to the sides at an extremely distorted angle.

The external skin was forcibly ripped apart, revealing the black-red muscle tissue and massive gum lines inside. This terrifying maw extended all the way back to her earlobes, splitting her entire face almost in two. Her torso bulged uncontrollably, growing rapidly until her school uniform tore apart inch by inch. The rosy, bloody hue of her exposed skin quickly faded, replaced entirely by an ominous, grayish-blue color.

"Roar~!!!"

An extremely shrill screech erupted from that torn opening, the intense airflow whipping up a large amount of dust from the Cafeteria floor.

"Ah~!"

"W-what kind of monster is that! Li Wei, she… how is she…"

The few girls who had been following her side also let out shrill screams, their bodies likewise undergoing this terrifying mutation.

Their originally short nails rapidly grew long, black, and sharp. Their hair fell out in huge clumps, leaving only a few sparse, withered strands on their scalps. Scarlet blood vessels rapidly proliferated in their eyes, completely covering the whites and transforming them into a multi-layered, grid-like structure. A thick, foul stench erupted from them, instantly overpowering the enticing aroma of meat dishes in the hall. Their bodily structures had completely departed from the human category, turning them into absolute, bloodthirsty mutants.

The most hair-raising situation occurred: such a gruesome bodily mutation and shrill screaming in the Cafeteria failed to draw a single glance from any of the ghost students or ghost teachers in the hall.

Those bizarre figures, completely lacking facial features, maintained their initial eating posture, mechanically and numbly stuffing food from the table into where their faces should be. The hall was filled only with the monotonous, repetitive sound of chewing. One of the girls who had just finished mutating, in the throes of agonizing pain, frantically swung her thick arm and accidentally knocked the tray in front of a ghost student next to her onto the floor, scattering cooked meat and potato chunks everywhere.

The ghost student's eating motion paused for only half a second. It stiffly bent down, picked up a chunk covered in thick dust, and stuffed it directly back into the position on its face representing its mouth, as if all the strange phenomena happening around it had nothing to do with them.

The living students underwent bodily mutations amidst agonizing torment, while the deathly specters continued to swallow in extreme silence. This stark contrast made girls like Su Qingxue and Jiang Ning in the back feel extremely suffocated, their very breathing becoming intermittent.

"Roar!"

Having completed her mutation, Li Wei used her grid-filled red eyeballs to scan the Cafeteria back and forth, finally locking her gaze onto a specific direction: the exact spot where Teacher Qin Bing was standing.

Perhaps because Teacher Qin Bing, as an S-rank skill holder, possessed an extremely vigorous life aura, or perhaps simply because she happened to be standing next to Fang Che at that moment, that vibrant life force held an unimaginably strong temptation for the monster's special perception.

"Food… hungry… eat food!!!"

Intermittent, garbled syllables squeezed out through the rift in Li Wei's fully torn face.

The next second, she bent her waist drastically, and with an incredible burst of limb strength, she forcefully flipped the heavy metal dining table in front of her.

With a loud boom, the heavy table slammed into the ceiling before crashing heavily onto the floor, its metal edges instantly twisting and deforming.

Li Wei landed on all fours, blue veins bulging on the large muscles protruding from her back. With a powerful kick from her hind legs, she lunged forward rapidly. As she moved, she brought with her a thick, pungent odor, rushing straight toward Teacher Qin Bing, who was not far away. Her movement speed was so fast that she left only a visible residual outline.

"Teacher Qin! Beside you… hurry and dodge!"

Seeing the mutation occur, Jiang Ning hurriedly screamed, losing her composure as she gave the warning.

Teacher Qin Bing's pupils constricted sharply. The body moved too fast; her brain couldn't issue a complete evasion command in time. However, facing this absolute death threat did not cause her to lose her sanity or collapse to the ground. After being significantly strengthened by Fang Che's help, her physical attributes had long since far exceeded the average person's level. Her latent combat instincts were instantly triggered by the crisis. In that critical moment, Teacher Qin Bing clenched her teeth, took a half-step forward instead of retreating, quickly crossed her arms in front of her, and used all her strength to desperately protect her face and the vulnerable vital point of her neck.

Bang~!!!

With a dull, massive impact sound, Li Wei's black-red-tinged claws slammed heavily onto the outside of Teacher Qin Bing's blocking forearms. An extremely powerful force surged straight into her bones. Teacher Qin Bing felt a wave of numbing pain in her arms. The huge impact caused her to lose control and stagger backward seven or eight steps, her back finally slamming heavily against a load-bearing pillar before she could barely stabilize her center of gravity.

"Hiss…"

She slowly lowered her numb arms. Five extremely deep gashes had appeared on her fair skin. As the flesh curled back, blood instantly surged out, staining half of her sleeve. Teacher Qin Bing was horrified by the sheer brute force of her opponent. Without a moment's hesitation, she immediately connected with her consciousness to activate her innate S-rank skill.

"Life Tide!"

An extremely gentle green halo spread outward from her body. The lacerations on her injured arms immediately began to heal rapidly, visible to the naked eye. Blood vessel networks and subcutaneous tissues quickly reorganized and reconnected, restoring them to a normal, undamaged state in just a few seconds, with no traces of the injury left on the surface at all.

"Roar!"

The first wave of attacks failed to land directly, which seemed to further enrage Li Wei, who was in a manic state. A sharp roar erupted from its throat as its massive body sprang forward again to attack.

This time, Teacher Qin Bing was prepared in advance. She quickly sidestepped to avoid the frontal impact force, brought the fingers of her right hand together, and mobilized all her strength to deliver a powerful hand strike, chopping hard at the back of Li Wei's neck. Teacher Qin Bing poured almost all her current strength into this blow, yet when it struck the monster's body, it only produced an unusually dull thud.

Li Wei's massive figure merely swayed slightly to one side. It turned its large, twisted head with extreme stiffness. Those grid-like, bloodshot eyes, devoid of any human emotion, stared fixedly at Teacher Qin Bing's face from an extremely close distance. The fact that such a powerful physical attack had absolutely no effect sent a wave of shock crashing through Teacher Qin Bing's heart.

At this extremely critical moment, Fang Che, who had been watching from the back, finally made a clear move. Or rather, from the moment Li Wei mutated and locked onto Teacher Qin Bing, he had been quietly waiting for this opportune moment. He needed Teacher Qin Bing to personally feel this sense of powerlessness, to truly understand that without his absolute protection, she would undoubtedly die, and to clearly see who was the real reliance in this apocalypse. Seeing Li Wei's fully torn face open wide again, with large amounts of viscous liquid dripping onto the floor and emitting bursts of corrosive white smoke, it was about to bite down directly on Teacher Qin Bing's unprotected, snow-white neck.

A cold snort escaped Fang Che's throat.

That's enough; this extreme psychological test ends here.

He exerted force with his feet and leaped upward. His entire movement was silent, without any unnecessary sound. His figure vaulted directly over several broken, collapsed tables, appearing in mid-air behind the mutated monster from a high vantage point. At this moment, the look in Fang Che's eyes as he gazed downward was filled with extremely cold killing intent.

"A-rank skill… Size Manipulation!"

As the mental command was confirmed, the muscle texture inside his right arm, which was gripping the fire axe, underwent a dramatic change. The entire arm suddenly swelled outward by a full circle, with thick, bulging veins crisscrossing on the surface. Then, in the instant he began to fall, it contracted and solidified to a high degree. A domineering, explosive force was compressed to a great extent beneath the skin and flesh of his arm. Under the pale, blinding lights of the Cafeteria, the sharp blade of that fire axe—ordinarily used for breaking through obstacles—instantly refracted a cold, dark-red light.

"Die!"

The cold, short command word was quickly spat out from Fang Che's mouth.

He took the momentum to raise the fire axe high, exerting his full strength to swing it while in mid-air. His gaze was precisely fixed on the monster's weird, massive head below, and he hacked down hard, aiming directly at it with the terrifying momentum of his falling body.

Whoosh~!

The thick, wide blade caused violent friction in the air, producing an extremely shrill, wind-tearing sound. All the chaotic noises filling this corner of the Cafeteria hall were forcibly smoothed over and terminated by this domineering, downward strike.