Chapter 128: Shadow of the Demon

The dim, ghostly blue moonlight spilled over the desolate graveyard, casting a chilling and terrifying scene. Su Cheng’s expression was rigid, his eyes fixed in horror on the blood-red coffin that had erupted from the grave. He felt his scalp tingle and a ghostly chill seep into his bones.

The explosive power of an unstable arcane bomb was enough to raze a reinforced concrete high-rise to the ground; how could this redwood coffin remain unscathed? Just as Su Cheng struggled to comprehend this, the red-lacquered coffin seemed to shudder.

Suddenly, a bone-chilling, monstrous aura surged forth. The surrounding temperature plummeted to freezing, and even the physically formidable Su Cheng felt a cold that reached deep into his marrow.

"Ito-kun, are you alright?" Shiratori Saki, shaken from the previous explosion, asked with concern. From her vantage point, she could not see the terrifying blood coffin, only Su Cheng’s straight, rigid back.

Su Cheng could not respond, for the lid of the blood coffin, unable to withstand the pressure of the surging aura, flew off with a resounding "bang."

The scent of death permeated the air. Su Cheng’s face paled, his hair standing on end. He gripped the hilt of his blade, staring intently at the blood-stained coffin. His gaze pierced through the dense, gloomy miasma, landing inside the casket. To his astonishment, it was completely empty—there was nothing inside.

What was happening? Where was the corpse?

In the moment Su Cheng was stunned, a streak of lightning-fast, blood-colored ghostly shadow flashed before his eyes. He caught a fleeting glimpse of an exquisitely beautiful face.

"The monster in the coffin... it’s out!"

His heart sank, and he felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss in the dead of winter; a chill raced from his head to his toes. Suddenly sensing something, Su Cheng whipped his head around.

Standing behind him was a tall woman with delicate, stunning features and long hair. Strikingly, the woman was completely unclothed, her dark hair draped over her chest to cover her vital parts. Her eyes were hollow and vacant, like a soulless flesh puppet acting purely on instinct. Su Cheng noticed her nails were a deep, blood-red, and terrifying pulses of dark energy seeped from her pores.

As the miasma swirled, the woman felt like a walking freezer, radiating such horrific cold that one would turn into an icicle by merely standing near her. At a distance of less than ten meters, a layer of white frost had already begun to form on Su Cheng’s face.

"A Flying Corpse!"

The bitter wind howled through the silent graveyard. Su Cheng’s heart plummeted; this woman was undoubtedly a Flying Corpse-class zombie. The aura alone was enough to make it difficult for him to breathe.

The hollow-eyed corpse stared fixedly at Su Cheng, then suddenly opened her mouth and let out a piercing shriek. The aura surged like a tidal wave, the screech tearing through the eternal heavens. At that moment, the world spun for Su Cheng, his consciousness blurring as if his soul were being torn from his body to fly toward the woman.

Legend held that Flying Corpse-level zombies could directly consume a human’s soul, a move against which there was little defense. According to the mechanics of horror games, this was a high-level spiritual attack that most professional players with weak mental fortitude could not resist.

***

Although Su Cheng possessed items for spiritual protection, they were useless against this Flying Corpse. Just as he was on the verge of collapsing, the mage Yinian appeared soundlessly behind him and slapped the back of his head.

*Slap!*

A pain that felt like it pierced his very soul surged through him. A second later, Su Cheng snapped awake, cold sweat drenching him. That was close—he had nearly been soul-sucked by the beautiful zombie.

A powerful zombie, indeed terrifying!

Under the ghostly blue moonlight, Su Cheng saw that this female corpse was not shriveled or hideous like ordinary zombies. Her skin was snow-white and smooth, as delicate as a peeled, hard-boiled egg, glowing with a mesmerizing luster under the moon. Having been buried for countless years, her burial shroud had long since rotted away, revealing a flawless young body.

Though she was more beautiful than any "once-in-a-millennium" beauty found on the internet, a zombie’s ferocity was difficult to change; once she went on a rampage, no one could stop her.

"Mage Yinian, do you have a way to seal her?"

Zombies were special creatures that existed outside the Three Realms and were not governed by the Five Elements. A zombie with such unfathomable strength as this one was virtually immortal and nearly impossible to kill. At the very least, Su Cheng could not make her vanish into ash as of yet.

"I have a Soul-Suppressing Spirit Pearl that can temporarily seal her, but I cannot destroy her," Yinian said with a grave expression. The strength of this zombie far exceeded his imagination. "But we must suppress her first."

Yinian looked deeply at Su Cheng; the arduous task fell to him once again. Su Cheng took a deep breath, letting the icy air fill his lungs, and felt much clearer.

"I can't guarantee I can suppress this monster."

"Do your best."

The moment his voice echoed through the graveyard, Su Cheng moved. He lunged forward like an arrow released from a bow, appearing instantly before the corpse. His cold blade, like a streak of black lightning, tore through the air, slashing viciously toward the woman’s neck.

The corpse instinctively sensed danger. Her blood-red nails suddenly elongated, and her jade-like palms snatched at the blade.

*Clang!*

A sound like metal clashing rang out; the lightning-fast strike was easily blocked by the corpse. Su Cheng feinted, his figure flashing behind her as he decisively activated his skill.

"Demonic Light Wave Slash!"

At that moment, Su Cheng’s eyes grew deep and dark, as if a galaxy were spinning within them, radiating peerless magical power. With a horizontal sweep of his blade, spiritual energy roared. A massive black sword beam cut through the air, slashing toward the corpse like a phantom light.

Sensing the terror of the black blade, the corpse flickered, appearing a hundred meters away in an instant, darting toward the ghostly blue moon hanging in the sky, instinctively trying to evade the strike. Under the blue moon, the sword light soared upward, slicing the phantom figure directly in two.

***

After unleashing that strike, Su Cheng’s face turned deathly pale, his body looking utterly drained.

"Is she dead?"

Su Cheng was stunned, unable to believe the zombie had been dispatched so easily. But then, the dark energy in the graveyard erupted like a volcanic eruption. A heavy gloom settled over his heart, and his sense of foreboding grew stronger.

Before their horrified eyes, the two halves of the corpse Su Cheng had cleaved apart began to stitch themselves back together.

"It can do that?"

Su Cheng was shocked, cold sweat pouring down his back as he stared vigilantly at the female corpse.

*Screech!*

A piercing, high-pitched scream tore through the sky. Seemingly provoked, the zombie’s ferocity flared. With a leap, her figure transformed into a straight line, rapidly enlarging in Su Cheng’s field of vision.

The speed of the zombie was twice that of Su Cheng’s peak speed.

0.01 seconds later, a pale hand appeared before his eyes, clawing fiercely toward his eyeballs. In the nick of time, a look of resolve flashed in Su Cheng’s eyes.

"Come forth, Fear Knight!"

The [Ring of the Shadow of Fear] on his hand bloomed with a ghostly light, and a blurred, terrifying demonic shadow suddenly appeared, blocking the zombie.

*Whoosh!*

The zombie’s palm plunged into the shadow, but it was like sinking into a bottomless black quagmire, unable to pull free. A terrifying, malevolent aura erupted from the woman, and with a surge of immense power, she tore the demonic shadow into pieces like scraps of black cloth.

The shredded shadow re-formed, and a towering Knight of Fear clad in black armor emerged, staring expressionlessly at the female corpse.

"A Shikigami? No, this monster is not one summoned by an Onmyoji."

Seeing the Fear Knight emerge from the darkness, Shiratori Saki and Mage Yinian were stunned, their gazes toward Su Cheng shifting slightly.

At that moment, the pressure on Su Cheng eased, and he issued an order to the Fear Knight.

"Fear Knight, take her down!"

No sooner said than done. A demonic shadow surged through the air as the Fear Knight charged, brandishing a longsword wreathed in the flames of hell.