LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 138 - 137: The Three Hatreds of the Ghost Gate Pass
Chapter 138: Chapter 137: The Three Hatreds of the Ghost Gate Pass
The ice spear sliced across the sky, leaving a white trail, swiftly met by the giant hand. Instead of shattering on impact as the flame short spear had, it broke through the outer layer of defense, stabbing into the palm of the hand.
Then, “crackling” sounds echoed high in the sky, a layer of white chillness spreading from the ice spear at the center, enveloping the black giant hand.
But the black giant hand simply swirled with green ghost flame on its surface and swept away all the chillness, continuing to slowly press down without hesitation.
Seeing this, Shen Luo’s face turned ashen. He knew that he was again on the brink of death. And with the terrifying strength of the Black Mountain Old Demon, even if he was to resurrect again, the hope of escape seemed extremely slim.
“Oh well, oh well! Let me at least see you off. It won’t be a total waste of our encounter.” Just then, the horse-faced ghost beside him suddenly sighed, opened its mouth, and spat out a flash of red light from its tongue, releasing two bright red Safflowers, throwing one of them to Shen Luo.
“What is this… What are you doing?” Shen Luo subconsciously took the red light, greatly astonished.
With the horse-faced ghost’s strength inferior to his, could it have found a way to escape?
The horse-faced ghost had already thrown the red Safflower into its mouth, swallowing it directly.
Then, it howled up to the sky. A substantial red light suddenly erupted from its body, its aura skyrocketing incessantly, as if it had no limits. Shen Luo, who was watching from the side, was immediately blown back dozens of feet. He felt his scalp tingling and his hair standing on end. It no longer seemed like he was facing a nameless small ghost, but a giant beast-like ghost.
“Huh, you are…?”
A startled sound came from high in the sky, and the pressing giant hand paused suddenly.
The horse-faced ghost paid no attention, instead pulling out a black writing brush about a foot long from his bosom and pointing it to the void above.”
The black writing brush seemed made of fine iron. On the penholder were densely drawn runes. As the horse-faced ghost pointed, a dazzling red light came from its tip, and red runes shot out.
Shen Luo saw that above his head, all the runes converged into an article. He could not recognize all the words but could vaguely see “Impeaching Ghosts, Exorcising Evil” and other words.
Once the rune essay was completed, it immediately turned into a giant red light rushing into the sky. Amid thunderous “rumbling” sounds, it managed to retreat the black giant hand, pushing it back into the dark clouds.
Shen Luo was dumbfounded.
“Soul Hooking Pen, Impeach Ghost Poem, Soul Hooking Envoy… it’s you, Soul Hook Horse Face?” From the distant sky came the surprised and angry voice of the Black Mountain Old Demon, echoing endlessly.
“Soul Hook Horse Face?” Shen Luo heard this and felt a surge of disbelief.
The horse-faced ghost completely ignored the roars of the Black Mountain Old Demon. It withdrew its black brush and made a vigorous stroke in the void.
In front of its tip, a sudden dazzling red light emerged. The originally empty void was directly torn apart by this red light, opening a narrow ripple about three feet wide and several feet long from which gray-white mist oozed out.
Before Shen Luo could understand what was happening, he saw the horse-faced ghost suddenly flash him a grin. Then, he kicked Shen Luo.
He staggered backward from the kick, falling directly into the rift.
The old horse-faced ghost and its black brush were both awash with bloody red light. Both of them dissipated like dust.
In Shen Luo’s ears, the last words of the horse-faced ghost rang out: “When the flower wilts, the man dies, the time of a cup of tea…”
In the next instant, the void crack disappeared, only the furious roar of the Black Mountain Old Demon reverberated through the void, with the sound fading away until it vanished.
After a bout of dizzying vertigo, Shen Luo only felt a blur in his vision as he reappeared holding the bright red Little Flower in a different place.
At this moment, he, tightly enveloped by the red light radiating from the Safflower, stood in an unfamiliar place shrouded in pale gray fog. Not far in front of him, there stood a massive archway reaching more than ten feet in height, pitch black and emanating a wicked aura.
It should have been a three-room, four-pillar, seven-story building, but for some reason the left half had already collapsed leaving only two and a half standing with relative integrity. From the eaves of its roof, bells the size of human heads dangled.
What was peculiar was that those copper bells, despite swaying in the wind, made no sound whatsoever.
Shen Luo furrowed his brows, closely inspecting the center of the archway.
On seeing this, he couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath. On the plaque’s position, three big, ancient seal characters were engraved:
“Ghost Gate Pass.”
“Ghost Gate Pass…isn’t this the place of Yinming? How did I end up here?”
Shen Luo was utterly shocked, as countless popular tales about this place involuntarily sprung up in his mind.
This was a place supposedly reserved for the dead!
More importantly, why did the Soul Hook Horse Face recognize him and even sacrifice itself to aid his escape?
Upon another close look at the plaque, he confirmed that the words “Ghost Gate Pass” were indeed written on it. And beneath those words were three giant characters inked with blood-red and black: “Hatred.”
“Hatred, Hatred, Hatred.”
The three “hatred” characters were lined up. Each one was written in brushwork so wild that the author’s resentment seemed to deepen with every character. Blood welled up and flowed down the bottom of the words, creating winding lines that made the sight increasingly menacing.
“First the Soul Hook Horse Face, now the Ghost Gate Pass, don’t tell me the Yellow Springs Road is next?” Shen Luo looked suspiciously at what lay beyond the archway.
He beheld, indeed, a road sprawled with yellow sand winding off into the distance and disappearing into the grey fog beyond the archway. Scattered along both sides of the road were bright red flowers blooming freely.
The flowers had single sepals and umbrella-like inflorescences on top, with petals curling backward like dragon claws and a color as vibrant as dripping blood. To his astonishment, they were all identical to the one he held, they were all Other Shore Flowers.
Legend has it that a unique flower named Other Shore grows along the Yellow Springs Road to the Netherworld, forever blooming without leaves, the only scenery in sight.
“It really is the Yellow Springs Road…” Shen Luo’s eyes changed as he muttered to himself.
Just then, a dull rumbling sound rang out from the void overhead, followed by gusts of wind from high above.
Shen Luo immediately looked up and saw the sky filled with swirling Yin winds, covered with dark clouds. There was a slightly brighter, circular hole in the middle, surrounded by thick clouds, shining with a white light. It looked like the entire sky had been pierced through with a hole.
Having a vague sense of an impending crisis, he subconsciously wanted to get away from there, but naturally, he couldn’t enter the Ghost Gate Pass in front of him.