Ch. 38 - The Blood Husk Buddha’s Gaze!

The pounding heartbeat thundered in their chests as the graveyard hidden in the mist fully took shape. Tombstones upon tombstones—each one shrouded in faint, weeping cries.

Sun Qian and the others pushed themselves to run as hard as they could, but the sea of gravestones only crept closer behind them, not further away.

What followed was horror piled on horror—the gravestones began to tremble. One after another, shadowy figures crawled up from beneath them.

A suffocating, bone-deep chill pressed down on them like a physical weight, stealing their breath.

“There’s way too many…” Wang Jian’s voice cracked. Now he finally understood why this place had triggered that heartbeat warning.

How many people had died in this cursed Mingkou Town? 

What on earth had happened here? What nightmare did this forest bury beneath its dirt?

There was no time to think—they could only run for their lives as the swarm of risen corpses closed in.

This dungeon’s difficulty had already surpassed their limits a hundred times over. No wonder it was an unsolvable dungeon, even veteran players might not walk out alive, let alone them.

Every last one of them was sprinting like they were trying to win a national relay. But the ghosts were still faster, closing the gap step by step.

Then Su Yuening’s foot snagged on a branch, sending her sprawling face-first into the dirt. Pain shot through her knees and elbows.

Feeling the icy presence closing in from behind, she yanked out a Blood-Seal Tag—but one look at the mass of ghosts made her heart sink. She only had a few left, not nearly enough to stop so many at once. Even if she had enough, there was no time. The ghosts were too close, too many.

Seeing them swarm toward her, a cold despair coiled up her spine. 

I’m really going to die here.

But if I’m going to die, I will die fighting.

Both hands clutched a Blood-Seal Tag each. She locked eyes with the two nearest ghosts. If she was going down, she’d drag at least two with her. Ever since she’d sworn herself a Para-Hunter, she’d vowed never to bow her head to anything inhuman—no matter what.

Swoosh!

One of the ghosts, face pale and feral, lunged at her first.

Su Yuening didn’t even have time to stand—she slapped the Blood-Seal Tag straight onto its leg.

Crack!

A burst of crimson light. The ghost lost its balance and toppled to the side. 

But more were already right on top of her.

Time slowed to a crawl. It had only been seconds since she fell, but it felt like forever.

She tore out another Blood-Seal Tag—but three more closed in together, crowding her all at once.

It was over. She had no time. No strength left to fight them all. The air turned to ice as ghostly claws reached for her throat. She braced herself for death.

Right then—

Bai Wan slammed to a stop in front of her, planting himself like a wall. He was facing her—his back to the ghosts.

Su Yuening’s eyes widened in horror. 

Is he insane? He’ll get torn apart—

And then she saw it…the moment a ghost’s claw sank into his back, an eye snapped open on his arm. A blood-colored eye.

“Get lost.”

SHRIP!

A wave of dread, thick and suffocating, burst out from that eye.

For the first time, the passive effect of his Blood Husk Idol—an abyssal-grade paranormal artifact—flared to life.

A giant eye flickered into being in the air behind him, crimson and unblinking, like a Buddha made of blood, staring down on insects.

A suffocating curse washed out in every direction. The three ghosts closest to Bai Wan dropped instantly, their limbs limp as rag dolls. A blood-red field spread out from him in a pulse. More ghosts further back froze where they hovered, paralyzed like statues—as if someone had hit pause on their souls.

Two seconds later, the giant eye closed. 

And the world snapped back to normal.

Su Yuening just stared as the unbelievable image burned into her eyes.

That… that blood eye… what even is that? 

It crushed three ghosts in an instant—and even pinned the rest in place. That can’t be just a rare artifact… That’s too powerful…

Sun Qian and the others stood frozen for those two seconds too, forgetting they were supposed to be running for their lives. The moment that eye appeared, they’d all felt it—a fear that clawed straight down to the soul.

Sun Qian had seen plenty of paranormal artifacts before, but never anything like that. Compared to the rinky-dink toys he’d seen other players use, that thing’s power was in another dimension altogether.

A blood-grade artifact? No, that felt like something even higher.

The others stared at Bai Wan too, now with a glint of awe they couldn’t hide.

Who IS this man? Most people would be grateful to own even a single paranormal artifact in their entire lifetime.

This guy? Still basically a rookie…and he just pulled out that.

Bai Wan didn’t waste a second. He scooped Su Yuening up, turned, and dashed away from the frozen ghosts.

“Can you run?” he asked as they moved.

“Y-yeah—I’m fine, really.” Su Yuening snapped out of her daze. She’d just stared death in the eye and somehow survived.

She squirmed down from his arms. Her legs were fine, just scraped raw. She’d run it off.

“Thank you.” She turned to him, genuine relief in her eyes. To save her, he’d used something that powerful. It must’ve cost him a fortune.

Of course, she had no idea that the eye was just a passive effect of the Blood Husk Idol—a free bonus. It could recharge every six hours, and each new dungeon would give him two uses.

That was an abyss-grade artifact for you. Even its passive could pin a swarm of paranormal entities to the dirt. If he ever triggered its active skill—the results would be much worse for anything in its path.

Not that Bai Wan planned to. He only used the passive when he had no choice, because the system would lock the idol for the next dungeon if he used its active.

But the passive? That was free real estate.

“Don’t mention it,” Bai Wan said lightly. “You’re my best friend, right?”

Su Yuening’s smile froze on her face. 

Right…

She’d been so touched for a second she almost forgot—she was only here because of him in the first place.

Still…looking back, she felt her opinion of him tick up, just a little.

But when she looked over his shoulder and saw the ghosts starting to twitch again, her blood ran cold. Even the strongest artifact could only buy them time. Once those things shook off the curse, they’d come crawling right back.

How are we getting out of this?

Bai Wan, meanwhile, just glanced at his delivery tracker. T

Ten more minutes.

Ten more minutes until the Giant Sunshine Mushroom gets here. Then it’s my turn.

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