Chapter 244 - 243: The Birth of the Ghost King

Chapter 244: Chapter 243: The Birth of the Ghost King

Of course, what he’d hoped for didn’t happen. The two adults abandoned the child at the edge of the woods and fled at top speed without a single glance back, as if an Evil Ghost was chasing them.

The child neither cried nor fussed, simply watching their retreating figures. After they had vanished completely from sight, he sat on the ground, his face numb, and quietly awaited his fate.

When night fell, a predator lurking in the darkness discovered the scrawny little prey. It crept up carefully from behind, then chose its moment to pounce, sinking its teeth into the prey’s shoulder and darting swiftly back into the forest.

Afterward, the surrounding scenery became like a chaotically fast-forwarded movie. By the time it returned to normal, the child, covered in blood, had been dragged deep into the Primitive Forest.

Strangely, the predator didn’t kill him right away. Instead, it threw him on the ground and turned to bring several of its young out from the den.

As the young predators surrounded him, it dawned on the child. It hadn’t killed him not because it wanted to raise him as its own, but because it needed him as a sparring partner for its young.

At this thought, the child, who had been so quiet from the very beginning, suddenly laughed, his expression dripping with sarcasm.

Even a beast knows to teach its young how to find food, yet humans will just throw their children away when there’s none left.

’Oh, maybe I should even thank them. Unlike other adults, they didn’t eat their own child. I guess that counts as having a conscience, right?’

Faced with the charging young predators, the child remained motionless. Perhaps he truly had no strength left. Or perhaps this little life, having been in the world for only a few years, no longer wanted to live. He wanted to go home, even though he had no idea where home was.

But he had underestimated the pain of death. As the predators began to devour him, he wasn’t even fully dead. The excruciating agony ignited an immense hatred for his parents—parents in name only.

Until the moment he lost consciousness, his heart was still filled with anger, hatred, and endless sorrow.

The child thought he would leave this place when he woke up, but things didn’t go as he’d hoped. When his consciousness returned and he opened his eyes, he found himself still in the same spot. Only now, the predators seemed unable to see or touch him.

It wasn’t just the predators. The child discovered he could pass through any object. He didn’t get wet when it rained. And most importantly, he no longer felt hungry.

The child was overjoyed. He wanted to go home and tell his mommy and daddy that he didn’t need to eat anymore. ’Even though Mommy and Daddy abandoned me, I can forgive them. I know there really wasn’t any more food at home.’

But to his dismay, it was as if he were tied down by an invisible rope. He could only walk a certain distance. His area of activity was restricted.

The child felt dejected and angry, but eventually had no choice but to accept reality. He wandered about aimlessly until one day, he discovered a small skeleton, picked clean, scattered inconspicuously in the grass.

He stood there staring at it for a long time. The longer he looked, the more of an eyesore it became, and the harder it was to contain the rage simmering in his heart.

Finally, that surge of rage shattered the restraints on his form and radiated outward, creating the very first Ghost Realm.

The child discovered he could touch things again. First, he buried his own remains. Then, he turned to take revenge on the family of predators.

He killed them and devoured their souls. Afterward, he felt a sense of fullness once more. And upon digesting them, he was thrilled to discover that his range of movement had expanded slightly.

From then on, the child decided to hunt more often so he could leave this place sooner and go find his mommy and daddy.

But he soon discovered a problem. As time went on and he consumed more and more souls, he slowly grew up. He was terrified. He had changed so much. When he finally got home, his mommy and daddy wouldn’t recognize him.

So, he began to consciously and unconsciously imitate his former self.

By this point, from consuming too many souls, his consciousness had grown clouded. For a time, he lost his mind completely, driven by pure instinct.

Then one day, quantity produced quality. He broke through and became a Ghost King, his sanity restored once more.

Now in the form of a full-grown adult, on the very day his sanity returned, he broke through his territorial constraints and returned to the edge of the forest where his parents had abandoned him. But after standing there for a long time, gazing toward the distant village, he turned and went back into the forest. He took over the den that had once belonged to the predators, making it his own prison.

All the ghouls and goblins of Ai Lao Mountain knew there was a Ghost King in this area, and they all knew of his strange quirk: he hated going out, preferring to stay within his own small patch of land. He was an absolute shut-in, and absolutely ferocious.

After all, over so many years, you could count the number of people who had passed safely through the Ghost King’s territory on one hand.

The illusion ended there. As the dense fog dissipated, the Ghost King’s figure appeared before the group. He was tall and thin, his disheveled hair making him look like a wild man.

The two groups stood five or six meters apart, staring at each other in a standoff. For a long moment, no one spoke.

Just as Zhang Qiuyan began to relax from her initial tension, the Ghost King finally spoke. His voice wasn’t the affected, childlike tone they might have expected, but a normal, slightly deep male voice. "I’m so jealous."

Gu Qingyin froze for a second before it hit her. Though the Ghost King’s eyes were on her, his words were meant for Huo Xingchen.

Huo Xingchen was at a loss for words. ’He used to envy other kids for having moms to pick them up and drop them off, too.’ But he didn’t know what to say. Anything he said felt like it would just provoke the ghost.

"Want to play a game?" The Ghost King obviously didn’t care about their reactions; he moved at his own pace. "Let me help you test whether your mother truly loves you." As he finished, his gaze shifted to Huo Yunjing. "And your father, he can play along, too."

Huo Xingchen frowned. "He’s not my father."

The Ghost King scoffed, clearly unconvinced.

Huo Xingchen started to explain again, but Huo Yunjing cut in. "We don’t have time to play your games. Get out of our way, or die."

’Whoa,’ Huo Xingchen thought to himself, and then it clicked. ’What’s the point of explaining things to a ghost? If he wants a fight, let’s fight. Why make it so complicated?’

The Ghost King’s gaze darkened. "Play this game, and I’ll let you go." He grinned, splitting his face. "You wouldn’t want such an adorable child to be buried here with me, would you?"

Gu Qingyin sneered. "What big talk." Before the words had even left her mouth, the talisman in her hand, imbued with soul power, shot forward.

The Ghost King didn’t dodge or even flinch. He stood his ground and took the hit full-on, letting out a muffled grunt of pain.

At the exact same moment, Huo Xingchen also cried out in pain and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Gu Qingyin’s face paled in an instant. "Xingchen!"