Just as the female Daoist’s palm was about to land on my face, it was suddenly entangled by a swirl of eerie black mist.
“Even the weak dare to block my path?”
“Hmph, those who collude with evil all deserve to die.”
She was a righteous cultivator from the legendary Mount Longhu, a red-robed Celestial Master of the Daoist sect.
Her cultivation had long since reached the pinnacle of the world—when had she ever been challenged like this?
The corner of her lips curled upward into an even more contemptuous sneer.
“Five Thunders True Technique!”
“Thunder Mother, Thunder Lord, descend your divine power—cleanse this evil! Boom boom boom boom boom! By order of the Supreme Elder, so let it be!”
As she formed a hand seal, a silver-white bolt of lightning cracked down from the sky, as if it were about to pierce through all worldly sin in one strike.
“Be destroyed!”
Compared to the mysterious and overwhelming might of the Daoist’s attack, the ghost fetus’s counterattack looked pitifully weak.
Through a layer of skin and womb, the most it could muster was a thin mist—so faint it looked like it could be dispersed with a single breath.
I had fallen to the ground and remained kneeling there since.
At that moment, I was probably the most nervous person in the room, silently praying in my heart: Please, ghost baby, don’t let me down.
Boom—!
As the thunder clapped and lightning flashed, the frail-looking black mist wrapped around me remained perfectly still.
The lightning dissolved right before my eyes—vanishing as if it never existed.
The Daoist woman was stunned speechless.
“How… how is this possible… A primordial ghost king has already transcended form and formlessness…”
If even the Five Thunders True Technique was ineffective, then the mist before her had already begun forming a ghost domain.
A single ghost forming a domain—if such a being were to fully manifest, it could bring ruin to the world.
“You’re no ordinary ghost king…”
“You are—”
Her pupils shrank sharply as she thought of an impossible conclusion, her voice now trembling:
“A future ghost emperor seed!!!”
The Daoist no longer carried the calm confidence she had at the beginning.
Her steps quietly began to retreat.
She might still have had a chance against a ghost king—but once the words “ghost emperor” entered the picture, it became a force even she couldn’t dare to meddle with.
If this ghost fetus truly evolved into a Ghost Emperor, even the founder of Daoism himself—Zhang Daoling—would be powerless to stop it.
“Kieh-heh-heh-heh—”
The signature villainous laugh echoed.
The ghost fetus hadn’t even been born yet, and it could already affect the world to such a degree.
Its sheer power shook me to the core.
Beautiful!
I bet on the right horse!!
I tried hard to suppress the excitement in my heart and sneered at the Daoist girl in return.
“That’s all you’ve got? Please. You’re not as badass as you thought you were.”
I hadn’t forgotten her earlier smug taunts.
Who said I couldn’t kick someone when they’re down?
“You—”
The Daoist’s voice faltered.
This damned wretch… she was being mocked by a mere insect.
Bang—!
Rolling clouds of black mist condensed into countless horrifying, barbed whips, each one covered in wicked barbs that dripped with black-red blood.
In the blink of an eye, the densely packed whips blurred into motion, lashing violently all over the female Daoist’s body.
In no time, she was drenched in blood, and whatever words she had meant to say were swallowed back down with a mouthful of it.
“Damn it!”
“You two little bitches, I swear I’ll get my revenge!”
The moment she spat out those words, the ghost fetus seemed to truly become enraged.
The whips lashed through the air with an ear-piercing whistle, each strike accompanied by the Daoist’s pitiful, blood-curdling screams.
“Die!” she roared, enduring the pain and gritting her teeth.
From her robes, she pulled out a golden talisman.
“Thunder, descend!”
She raised two fingers to the sky.
In that instant, the thunderclouds above clashed and boomed, unleashing a barrage of silver lightning bolts that rained down toward the earth in a frenzy.
The overwhelming power of the spell far exceeded her earlier Five Thunders True Technique.
My heart instantly jumped into my throat.
Can the ghost baby still block this?
The result shocked me beyond belief.
All I saw was—
The once-mighty lightning storm evaporated into mist the moment it touched the black fog.
And during that brief defensive contraction, the female Daoist vanished without a trace.
“Hee-hee—”
The ghost fetus’s laughter grew even more chilling, as if it wasn’t the least bit worried about the enemy fleeing.
*****
Ten kilometers away—
A faint wisp of black fog flickered across the Daoist’s forehead—but she didn’t notice.
She just kept her head down and continued fleeing with all her strength.
“Tch, and here I thought she was something special. Turns out she’s just some backwater wild ghost. A simple illusion talisman was enough to scare her into running for her life.”
“Today’s humiliation—I’ll remember it well.”
From birth until now, she had always been treated like a beloved little princess.
When had she ever suffered a defeat like this?
She buried the hatred deep in her eyes.
Her figure flashed—and she was gone.
The scene returned to the rented apartment.
Maybe it was the awkward tension after being toyed with by the enemy, but the air felt oddly stiff.
I didn’t feel the slightest bit disappointed that the ghost fetus hadn’t made some big flashy move.
On the contrary, I cheerfully and sycophantically shouted,
“Baby, you were amazing!”
“Love you!”
My disgustingly sweet words gave me a wave of goosebumps.
The room instantly fell silent with awkwardness.
A long while later, a slightly tsundere laugh echoed in my mind.
That laugh seemed to say:
Don’t think that just a few sweet words are enough for me to forgive you.
Liars are the worst.
I smiled to myself in quiet satisfaction.
The ghost baby’s tone was still cold, but no longer as mechanical as before.
There was something subtle and emotional in it—hard to describe, but undeniably there.
What a tsundere, I thought to myself.
Turns out, no one in this world can resist the power of flattery.
Just as I was inwardly marveling at my natural talent, a sudden gust of wind swept me off my feet and flung me back onto the bed.
“Put some clothes on.”
“From now on, you’re not allowed to act like that.”
I was stunned.
“You… you can talk?”
“Hmph, what’s the big deal? I just never bothered to talk to you before.”
The ghost fetus muttered from within my belly.
She would never admit that she had only just learned to speak human language.
No way she could let this idiot liar know something so embarrassing.
A mere incubator trying to act like the mother of this ghost king?
Hah. Once I’m born, I’ll strangle you with my own hands.
…That’s what she told herself.
But as the ghost baby recalled what had just happened—me, trembling in fear but still gripping the knife tight, stepping forward to protect her—she found herself unable to honestly claim that I wasn’t cool at all.
So she thought,
Fine then, when the time comes to kill her, I’ll just make it quick and painless.
What she didn’t realize was that when she whispered that final line to herself, her tone had lost its earlier conviction—and carried with it a hint of strange, fluttery delight.
She was just a ghost, after all.
She didn’t understand human emotions.
Like with language, she was going to have to start learning everything from scratch.
I looked down at the soft expanse of skin exposed after being flung onto the bed, and a faint blush crept onto my cheeks.
Now I finally understood why the ghost baby had told me not to act like that.
I really never imagined that I, a guy, could ever show such an indecently seductive expression.
I rummaged through the closet for a long time and tried on every size of shirt, but none of them could be buttoned up over my chest.
After a while, I gave up and changed into an oversized T-shirt, then knelt on the bed with a blank stare in my eyes.
“You’re someone carrying a baby now,” the ghost fetus muttered, her voice strangely gritted with frustration.
“From now on, no eating weird things.”
Being inside a human body came with all sorts of helpless situations—even she would feel uncomfortable or lose power if I ate too many cold or pregnancy-unfriendly foods.
Carrying a baby.
I kept repeating her words in my head.
And then, in a sudden flash, my brain seemed to get struck by lightning.
I froze completely in place.
No other reason.
It’s just—God knows how big of a shock that one sentence is to a newly adult boy.
Just yesterday, I was still a college student who had never even held hands with anyone.
And now, you’re telling me I’m pregnant with a ghost baby—and need to watch my diet?
I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t say a single word.
I just pursed my lips and screamed silently in my heart, trying to find some bitter amusement in the tragedy.
So then…
Am I now a teen single mom on the run?
Or a young unwed housewife who got knocked up?
Either way, both are just… unbearable.
Heart full of grief, I flopped onto the bed face-down.
My small hands gripped the bedsheets tightly as I screamed in silence, nearly going mad.
No matter what label you put on this…
I don’t want any of it!
Suddenly, my body stiffened.
The position I was lying in had squished something soft under me.
The distinct sensation of being pressed into the mattress made the full, round shape uncomfortably vivid in my mind.
Okay.
This bed…
I can’t even lie down on it properly anymore.
With tightly clenched lips, I furiously sat back up from the bed.
Nope.
I need to get some answers from that ghost fetus.
I have to figure out exactly why I turned into this.
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