Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Hua Yuling jumped up.

“Wait for me, my stomach hurts too.”

As soon as the door closed, the three of us circled around to the back, crouching down to peer through the rear window.

“Qiao Moyu, aren’t you a Sect Master? This kind of Ghost Mother hasn’t even given birth yet. She’s on a completely different level than the ones in the legends. Can you really not beat her?”

Hua Yuling refused to give up. I reached out and covered her mouth, gesturing for her to look inside.

The mountain forest late at night was deathly silent, save for the occasional chirp of insects or birds. A fine mist of rain drifted through the air. Inside the small wooden hut, the flickering orange firelight cast a somewhat soft glow over Wang Cuiping’s silhouette.

Her back was to us when she suddenly reached down beneath her skirt.

Soon, the faint cry of an infant drifted out. Wang Cuiping held a fuzzy baby in her hands, its body still coated in thick, viscous fluid.

Wang Cuiping stroked it tenderly, humming a low tune.

As she hummed, she brought the infant to her lips, opened her mouth wide, and bit into the baby’s neck.

I immediately held my breath. Wang Cuiping tore and bit with large gulps, fluids splattering everywhere. In just a few bites, she had devoured the infant completely. Then, she reached under her skirt again and pulled out another one.

“Blegh-”

Hua Yuling covered her mouth. The three of us exchanged looks, our eyes filled with resolve.

Run!

I pulled formation flags and copper coins from my bag, quickly setting up a simple Soul Locking Formation outside.

A low-level formation like this certainly couldn’t trap a Ghost Mother, but I had smeared Hua Yuling’s blood on the coins. She had the Golden Cicada Gu inside her, which could suppress evil spirits.

I hoped this formation would stall her for at least half an hour, buying us some time to escape.

The three of us quietly retreated. Once we were a good distance from the wooden hut, we broke into a sprint, running for our lives.

“I’m seriously exhausted! Qiao Moyu, I really regret agreeing to come to this godforsaken place!”

The midnight jungle was thick with shadows. Unknown behemoths seemed to lurk in the darkness. Because of the rain, the ground was muddy, making our flight incredibly difficult.

As we ran, I explained the different ranks of a Ghost Mother to the others.

When a Ghost Mother first forms, she is very weak after giving birth. She will consume all the children she bears, and then her belly will swell again. This process repeats for several years until she reaches a point where she can pull a child from her womb to eat at any time.

A Ghost Mother at this stage has already reached the Ghost General rank and is extremely difficult to deal with. As for the higher ranks-the legends of those who birth ten ghosts at once-those are mythic-level entities I’ve never even seen.

Wang Cuiping had been guarded by those Wild Men and couldn’t leave Wildman Valley. Now that we had brought her out, there was no telling what kind of chaos she would cause.

I felt a deep sense of regret. There hadn’t been a trace of ghostly energy on her, which had made me let my guard down and fail to make an accurate judgment.

“It’s not your fault. Those at the Ghost General rank can restrain their ghostly energy. It’s normal that you didn’t notice.”

A deep voice came from behind a nearby tree, making my entire body freeze.

“Hua Yuling, why is your voice so gravelly?”

Hua Yuling covered her mouth and shook her head, pointing forward.

I slowly turned my head. The rain was pouring down now. Jiang Haoyan held a flashlight, illuminating a small circle in front of us.

Wang Cuiping stood there, one hand supporting her belly while the other toyed with the ends of her hair.

“Qiao Moyu, thank you for taking me out of that hellhole.”

“Since you’ve helped me this far, why don’t you let me eat you all? How about it?”

Me: “Pah!”

I spat a mouthful of blood from the tip of my tongue onto Wang Cuiping’s face, making her let out a shrill, piercing scream.

In a moment like this, even a second of hesitation would be a sign of disrespect to a Ghost Mother. I drew the Seven-Star Sword and plunged it into Wang Cuiping’s belly. Sure enough, her stomach was as hard as steel; the Seven-Star Sword couldn’t even scratch the skin.

I hurriedly pulled out the Thunderstruck Wood Talisman. Several bolts of heavenly lightning struck down. Wang Cuiping took some damage, but her rage also hit its limit.

My whole body was tense as I waited for her to unleash a finishing move. Instead, she suddenly clutched her stomach and slowly lay down on the ground.

A Ghost Mother… is that it?

Hua Yuling let out a scoff and walked forward.

“Qiao Moyu, I don’t think this Ghost Mother is as-”

Wang Cuiping lay on her back with her legs spread wide. Something began to crawl out from between them.

The monster had the head of a tiger and the eyes of a flood dragon with vertical pupils. It had wings on its back like a pterodactyl-not feathered, but made of smooth, fleshy skin. It was covered in slime, its shape grotesque to the extreme.

At the same time, Wang Cuiping’s body collapsed like a tattered sack, leaving nothing but a layer of human skin slumped loosely on the ground.

“-as tough to deal with as you said! Run!”

Hua Yuling spun around and bolted. My hands and feet went cold, and my heart sank like a stone.

We were finished. This was an existence even higher than a Ghost General!