After Rebirth, I returned to Miaojiang to inherit my family business - Chapter 45

[In the crack of the Tiankeng]

Half of Liu Hu’s head was sunken, and he was completely unrecognizable lying beside the blood river. Wu Rong could recognize him at a glance thanks to the black dog tattoo on Liu Hu’s upper body. The black lines of the tattoo squirmed on his body like a snake, and the bulging muscles on Liu Hu’s chest trembled with blood flowing out, as if the vicious dog had come to life. 

Liu Hu wasn’t dead, his face was scarlet like an Asura, he immediately turned over and stood up after feeling the strong ghost aura, looking vigilantly in the direction of Wu Rong, he was taken aback when he saw the huge green snake, and then grinned maliciously, hehe, saying: “It’s really a narrow road for an enemy, you coming to see me in such a big place.”

He noticed that Wu Rong had an abnormally strong sinister and ghostly aura, and his eyes became even more malicious: “In this kind of place, your handicapped ghost is probably about to die.”

The crack in the Tiankeng was nothing more than an area with heavy Yin, which could stimulate the viciousness of ghosts. Normal ghost raisers would receive backlash from their ghosts if they stayed here for a long time, and disabled ghosts would also backlash, but most of the consequences from its backlash would collapse into ashes.

Right now, Wu Rong was surrounded by a thick fog of ash, almost covering his figure, just like a scene in where a ghost is about to rebound and the ghost raiser was about to be defeated. 

Liu Hu spat out a mouthful of blood, his blood-stained and distorted face became even more ferocious, and the depths of his pupils were filled with hatred and greed. Hu Xian was fighting with the blood mud, and he didn’t care about him. Although Liu Hu suffered a lot of injuries, he escaped Hu Xian’s fox breath control through a blessing in disguise. He shuddered at the thought of what Hu Xian had done and wanted to slap himself when he thought of everything he had done for him before. Looking at the dog tattoo on his chest was like looking at a ferocious ghost, wishing he could gouge it out with a knife.

But not now. He had to save his strength and find a way to get out, and he had to find fresh meat to feed this increasingly greedy beast. It’s the only one who he can count on. He, Wu Rong and Hui Xin were the only three living people here. Right now, Liu Hu had just suppressed the ferocious and violent hunger of the vicious dog, and was about to find someone to kill and get fresh meat from. Just in time, Wu Rong delivered himself to him, it was a godsend. Liu Hu felt that he had been unlucky for so long, and that it was finally time for him to come forward.

If you want to blame someone, blame Wu Rong for being unlucky, for him being against Liu Hu all day long!

“Hey.”

Liu Hu’s bruised eyebrows twitched, and he grinned at Wu Rong, revealing his red and yellow canine-like fangs. His eyeballs were also like a dog’s, and the pupil in the middle was like a cold star, glowing faintly.

“You don’t know where this is, do you? This place is a crack in the Tiankeng. It’s extremely dangerous. Even if the Heavenly King came here, he wouldn’t be able to walk around.”

“I don’t want to waste my energy with you. Right now, your ghost is about to collapse. I have a bit of a foolproof method here. It’s just that I have to eat the raw flesh and blood of people. I’m very hungry. If you are sensible, you and I could make a deal, and I might still spare your life.”

With the backlash of his ghost, Wu Rong was almost a dead person in his eyes. Liu Hu didn’t want to waste his efforts, the most important thing was that he didn’t want to use the vicious dog tattoo, nor did he want to use the thing that Hu Xian bestowed on him. Who knew if that old and cunning fox had any back-ups, even though it’s now fighting the blood mud on the barren hills, Liu Hu didn’t want to take the risk of attracting his attention, simply wanting to get to safely. 

Wu Rong better be tactful.

Liu Hu moved his wrists, his joints crackling, and his fearful eyes fell on the big green snake that was following Wu Rong. This thing was not simple at first glance, it may even be a spiritual being, Liu Hu felt heart-wrenching jealousy and hatred, and some past memories uncontrollably emerged in his mind.

This kid, Wu Rong, was born with a good life, and such an ordinary person was actually taken in by Brother Liu Bao and regarded as his confidant. Liu Hu couldn’t remember how many times Liu Bao mentioned A-Rong to him: “A-Rong beat Xu San again today, and his skills are getting better and better.”

‘Today A-Rong used the blood of a black dog to get rid of a ghoul in the backyard, ho ho, a quiet person is sure to be bold. ‘ 

‘You should learn more from A-Rong, and stop making me worry about you.’

Liu Hu was not much older than Wu Rong, but he was much younger than Liu Bao in age. Liu Bao was not only his own brother, but sometimes acted more like a father, who cared about this and that. Since enshrining Hu Xian, Liu Bao had become more and more prosperous, he took Liu Hu from his hometown, and after a few years, he became very thoughtful.

In this world, ordinary people have many restrictions after all. Under Liu Bao’s arrangement, Liu Hu raised a ghost dog. In order to hide it, the two brothers had a gradual estrangement and fought. But actually, the two brothers had secretly been in contact with each other.

Liu Hu was also holding back his anger and wanted to make a career for himself, so that his elder brother could see that he was no longer a child. But he didn’t know why, every time he saw his elder brother, he would mention that damn Wu Rong. 

He’s obviously two years younger than him, but eldeer brother treated him like an adult, and Liu Hu got more and more angry every time he came to meet him. After two years of hard work, he finally raised a ghost dog with the vicious dog tattoo on his body, but before Liu Hu could be happy,  Xun An, who sounded like he was going crazy, said that he would be bitten to death by Wu Rong’s dog.

Knowing that Director Zhou’s son treated Wu Rong as a friend, he knew that this kid had also started to raise a ghost at some point.

There was also the exposure of the corpse pit back then, elder brother’s scolding never stopped. Even now, when Liu Hu had risked his life to enter the Tiankeng and fought for his life. He consequently saw that Wu Rong had also come in, and beside him was Fu Qing, who had become very famous recently.

The ghost dog made Liu Hu more irritable, the fox’s breath control made him more paranoid and violent and Liu Bao had raised him to be narrow-minded. Now when he saw Wu Rong again when he was in the most embarrassing of situations, Liu Hu’s mood turned to another extreme. After being extremely angry, he strangely calmed down. 

Wu Rong, Wu Rong, Wu Rong was his inner demon, like a rope around his neck.

Lf wera vlf tfgf abvjs.

Liu Hu had a murderous intent in his heart, but on the surface, the corners of his mouth curled up, showing the same smile as his elder brother Liu Bao. It’s just that Liu Hu has a ferocious face and couldn’t turn a tiger into a dog, this smile looked like a jackal’s.

“Lbk jybea la, C-Ebcu? Coafg jii, sbe’gf atf qfgrbc atja fivfg ygbatfg ilxfr. Pc remt j vjcufgber qijmf, P vbc’a kjca ab jguef klat sbe.” 

Ole Le rtfv mgbmbvlif afjgr, atf fnli vbu ajaabb bc tlr mtfra rwfiifv ogfrt yibbv, jcv qeoofv bea tlr abcuef ugffvlis. Ktf vjcuilcu vbu rajgfv ja Qe Ebcu. Cibcuklat Ole Le’r rwlilcu ojmf lc atf rjwf wbwfca, atfs wjvf j nfgs jwerlcu rluta.

“Hiss—”

He only took one step, and the extremely threatening big green snake threatened to open its bloody mouth, its flickering tongue almost licked Liu Hu’s forehead. Liu Hu’s face was livid, and he stopped in fear, thinking that Wu Rong was deliberately embarrassing him, the anger in his heart almost shattered his internal organs, and he couldn’t help but angrily say: “Wu Rong!”

“Wu Rong!” 

With the ghostly aura shrouded around him in the thick fog, Liu Hu couldn’t see Wu Rong’s face clearly, this unknown made him more cautious. Surpressing the mad killing intent in his heart, he waited for Wu Rong’s response, aggrieved.

But no one knew that behind the thick fog, Wu Rong’s eyes were closed, his breathing was steady, and he seemed to be in a deep sleep.

When Wu Rong first saw Liu Hu here, fragments of his memory flooded back again. Wu Rong was almost certain that it should be the special environment in the crack of the Tiankeng that caused these memories, that did not belong to him, to come to mind, or else, with how he met so many people outside, why didn’t a single memory emerge when he met other people?

Wu Rong had read some novels, but they had never said that the reborn would inherit the memory of the future timeline. Wu Rong now roughly understood that what he saw should be the memory of the ghost phone boy and the ghost dog who had experienced that timeline. But in this life, he didn’t plan to follow his old ways. Wu Rong thought these memories were dispensable and annoying. 

If he went here every time he met an old friend, would he still be able to live? If it wasn’t for the fact that the Qingling Gu was by his side this time, and if Liu Hu wasn’t acting like an idiot, he would’ve realized that Wu Rong had been ‘asleep’ since a while ago. This uncontrollable situation made Wu Rong irritated and resistant, he patiently skimmed through the memories of himself and Liu Hu in his previous life.

These memory fragments were very short, and most of them were after the death of ‘Wu Rong’. The crossing of the ghost king turned Yangjiaping and the surrounding area into a ghost domain. Wu Rong, who ate those ghosts, had ups and downs. The pain of being swallowed and torn countless times did not disappear, but was instead hidden in his soul like a dark wound, which would attack him from time to time.

Normally, Wu Rong would’ve followed the escape route of Xun An and others, but when the severe pain struck, he lost his rationality and consciousness and went almost fully insane, with him waking up in a different place every time. Sometimes the pain would be more severe, and Wu Rong knew that he was eaten by another ghost again. Sometimes the ghost energy in his body became heavier and his strength increased, so Wu Rong knew that he had eaten some ghosts.

He did not know how long this muddle-headed life lasted. One time, Wu Rong, who fell into madness again, woke up from the severe pain, and he found that he was pinching a living person in his hand. 

He was said to be a living person, but in fact he was about to die. Wu Rong saw the corpse spots on his body corroded by ghost energy. Ordinary people couldn’t stay in a ghost domain for too long. Those who escaped from Yangjiaping would die even if nothing else happened to them. The person in front of him was at their end. It was because this person was about to die, that the sweet smell of the soul’s imminent departure attracted Wu Rong.

Wu Rong was also aware of the changes in himself, the time he could keep his sanity was getting shorter and shorter, and the time he spent falling into madness was getting longer and longer. The more ghosts he ate, the more violent and mad were the murderous intentions he had, and it wouldn’t take long for him to completely degenerate, he was exactly the same as those ghosts who only had the appetite to kill, they don’t stop until they are killed. Just like that, if he devoured the pure soul of this dying person, next time, he might directly kill and devour the soul of a living one.

A sharp pain that woke him up came from the back of his legs, Wu Rong ignored the man infront of him and looked back. All he saw was a skinny, bruised and dirty little ghost dog.

Seeing him turn his head back, the little ghost dog licked him loosely, rubbed against Wu Rong’s legs, and wagged its tail at him. 

“Woof!”

This little ghost dog looked a bit familiar, but it looked like a dirty dog. It didn’t know what kind of dirty things it had eaten, and its body was deformed. It was hard to tell if it’s a dog. It looked small, but in fact, judging from the ghost aura on its body, it had reached the level of evil spirit, being even more powerful than Wu Rong, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to wake Wu Rong up in that moment.

From then on, wherever Wu Rong went, the little ghost dog followed him, biting him awake whenever Wu Rong fell into madness. He still didn’t know where it found pure ghost energy crystals, spiritual things and spiritual plants for Wu Rong to eat. Wu Rong’s spirit gradually improved, and he spent more and more time maintaining his sanity, and had more energy to sort out the ghost energy in his body.

He had devoured too many ghosts before, and he was not picky at all, resulting in too much ghost energy in his body, which was messy and disordered, and every riot would bring severe pain. But at the same time, this was also the reason Wu Rong became strong. As he slowly filtered out the Ghost Qi, he gathered the pure Qi which flickered in and out of existence. It was green like a will-o-wisp and it was able to harm ghosts as well. 

With this kind of attack method, more and more ghosts died at Wu Rong’s hands, and all the miscellaneous Ghost Qi abandoned by Wu Rong was swallowed up by the little ghost dog. Its body swelled like a balloon, and its ghost aura was overwhelming. But no matter what, it treated Wu Rong as loyally as when they first met. On the day when Wu Rong completely controlled the ghost energy in his body and his soul no longer ached, he stroked the head of the evil dog soul and said lightly:

“Who is your enemy?”

Vicious dogs don’t come into being out of thin air, they are either man-made, or they harbor great hatred and obsession.

“Woof woof.” 

The vicious dog looked at Wu Rong and tilted its head in bewilderment. It was almost as tall as Wu Rong when it squatted. Because of devouring Ghost Qi and resentment, sarcomas grew out of its body one after another, hanging down in clusters. At first glance, it looked like a horrible and disgusting monster. Even the intestinal stomach could be seen through the cavity.

This is the incarnation of resentment in its body. The torment it suffered before death corresponded to the ghost after death. The resentment would become heavier and heavier with time, and it would not stop until revenge was taken. The evil dog soul couldn’t speak, Wu Rong tore off the Yin Energy from its body, and amidst the layers of festering filth, the puppy’s eyes were as clear as before. It is said that human eyes would leave the shadow of the last person they saw before death, and the ghost dog was the same. Through its eyes, Wu Rong saw the person who killed it.

It was Liu Hu. 

In the crack of the Tiankeng, beside the blood river.

How much time has passed, one minute, or five minutes? Wu Rong remained silent all this time, Liu Hu, who had been confronting the big green snake until now, had pretended to be calm and sober at the beginning, now his face turned green and red, so ugly, like he almost wanted to find someone to eat.

What exactly was Wu Rong thinking? Why did he not speak for such a long time? Was he planning to fight without talking anymore, or was there some kind of conspiracy brewing? Or maybe Wu Rong had already run away after the Ghost Mist?

The more time passed, the more Liu Hu thought about it. At first, his fierceness dissipated a lot, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt that Wu Rong’s face hidden in the ghost mist was unfathomable. 

Could it be that he was still hiding his trump card, just like this snake that came out of nowhere?

Liu Hu’s expression was gloomy, and he fell into deep thought. He had the faint intention of retreating in his heart, but he was not reconciled. He took a deep breath, forced himself to suppress his messy thoughts, and tried his best to calm down.

Suddenly, Liu Hu heard a rhythmic, very slight breathing sound coming from behind the bluish-white ghost mist.

Hu——Fuu—— 

Hu——Fuu——

Liu Hu’s cheeks twitched, and the ghost dog tattoo on his chest suddenly raised his head and opened his mouth wide. Under the vigilance of the big green snake, he fiercely rushed in Wu Rong’s direction and let out a fishy smell. The big green snake jumped in front of Wu Rong, and the flexible whip-like snake tongue lashed at him out of thin air, dispelling the gust of wind. But it moved too fast, and the startled wind passed in front of Wu Rong, blowing away the blue and white ghost fog in front of him. Liu Hu’s muscles tensed instantly, ready to fight, but——

There was no imaginary conspiracy, no trump card.

Liu Hu saw Wu Rong standing there with his eyes closed, his expression was calm and serene, as if he was sleeping. The humiliation of being teased in an instant made Liu Hu’s eyes bloodshot and red, his canthus was tearing apart, and he was furious to the extreme. 

“Wu Rong——!”

A pitch-black ghost fog rose up, ghosts and wolves howled in gusts of wind, ghosts flashed one by one in the black fog. The big green snake that was not controlled by Wu Rong was waiting in full force, hissing and staring at the attacking ghosts, but it didn’t expect that the ghost fog, that appeared to be descending from the ghost realm, was just a cover-up, and Liu Hu, who was completely engulfed by anger, trampled on it and attacked Wu Rong!

Dense black hairs grew on Liu Hu’s bleeding face, the whites of his eyes were yellow and his pupils shrank like needlepoints, his nails were as sharp as dog’s claws, he was pitch black with corpse poison, and he grabbed Wu Rong’s left arm fiercely. Strike first! Wu Rong’s left arm was the place where the disabled ghost parasitized, as long as it was injured here, even if Wu Rong made any concealed moves, he would suffer from backlash!

The Qingling Gu reacted, and bit Liu Hu with an angry hiss, but it was too late, Liu Hu’s sharp claws had already touched Wu Rong’s left arm, and he opened his bloody, stinking mouth, biting towards Wu Rong’s head like a mad dog. At this moment, Wu Rong suddenly opened his eyes, facing Liu Hu who was close at hand. It was too late to resist now, Liu Hu’s eyes should have flashed with complacent malice, but for some reason, his hairs suddenly stood on end. 

With the intuition of a wild beast, a great sense of crisis passed over Liu Hu’s heart, like the shadow of death, his hair stood on its end. Liu Hu was too close to Wu Rong, and suddenly, he saw his dark and cold pupils, with more dead and deep emotions churning in their depths. Crazy and terrifying, like a god of death. He was different from before, Wu Rong’s aura suddenly changed. When Liu Hu subconsciously realized this, his world spun, and his soul was gripped by an unprecedented icy cold pain.

Liu Hu didn’t have time to think and didn’t care about the injury, so he dodged to one side with all his instincts – he dodged easily, and his whole body seemed to have no weight, and he moved six or seven meters in an instant.

No, no, it didn’t feel right.

Liu Hu subconsciously glanced at his body, which was translucent and could reflect the reddish-brown ground beneath him. The evil ghost dog in the tattoo raised its head at the same time, looking at him as if it had seen a ghost. No, it didn’t look like a tattoo now, more like an actual ghost dog embedded in his body…. 

Liu Hu shivered as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head. It was colder than ever. His whole body shivered as if he had been stripped naked and thrown into the snow in winter—he had indeed been stripped naked. When Liu Hu looked at Wu Rong again, his eyes widened. Wu Rong was holding the limp and boneless ‘him’ in his arms, which was Liu Hu’s body.

Liu Hu’s soul went out of his body after being hit, and Wu Rong stripped off his body!

Everything happened so suddenly that even Liu Hu didn’t come back to his senses at this moment, but Wu Rong’s movements were smooth and fluid, without even a pause. He glanced at Liu Hu floating in the air, and drew out the old Miaodao with his backhand, splitting Liu Hu’s body in half.

It was as if a big knife had cut Liu Hu’s soul. The pain caused him to twitch and writhe, his face was covered with blood and tears, and he screamed an ear-piercing scream. 

“Don’t——!!”

Every time Wu Rong woke up from a memory fragment, Wu Rong felt that he couldn’t distinguish between reality and memory. The memory just happened to be when ‘he’ killed Liu Hu, and he used all of Liu Hu’s methods of abusing dogs on him, torturing him to the point of dying, he then pulled out his soul, and gave Liu Hu’s soul to the little ghost dog to tear up and devour, completely avenging itself.

Since there ws no way to stop this kind of memory for the time being, it’s best to just enjoy it. Wu Rong figured out a lot of available methods from “himself” in memory, such as blasting a person’s soul out of his body with a strong ghost aura, just like when the ghost boy knocked his soul out of his body when he fell off the cliff. Wu Rong felt that this trick was feasible. Many ghost raisers would fall into a weak state after their souls left their bodies, and they would be easily eaten by ghosts.

Wu Rong could fully apply what he had learned. When encountering an enemy that was difficult to deal with, he would find a way to get their soul out of their body, and pull them down to the level he could defeat them at. 

The memories ended, and when Wu Rong opened his eyes, he still felt like he was a ghost. When he saw Liu Hu in front of him, without hesitation, he blasted his soul out of his body with a ghostly aura so thick that it was about to condense into a substance. After all, he had the experience of sinking into memories just before this, this time Wu Rong quickly realized that Liu Hu’s soul was still in midair, he drew his knife and chopped up his body.

For people in this world, the soul was the essence, and the body was like a residence, not only to house the owner (themselves), but also to live with the tenant (the ghost).

Wu Rong blasted out Liu Hu’s soul and chopped up his body. In a sense, what Wu Rong did was the work of the blasting team.

Liu Hu’s house collapsed. 

“Don’t——!!!”

Liu Hu wailed miserably. He looked like an arhat, with a vicious dog spirit embedded into his chest, and a fox head embedded into his back. All three members of the “house” were displaced, trembling and in a panic. The Qingling Gu felt that his negligence almost killed his master just now, and it had to do something good. It tried its best to bite and tear up Liu Hu. The Qingling Gu was the nemesis of ghosts. Liu Hu was cornered and had nowhere to escape to.

At the same time, Wu Rong stared at his hand. The series of movements he made to blast Liu Hu just now were too smooth, and it was only now that Wu Rong suddenly came to his senses. He was not a ghost now, and according to his memory, he had not devoured many ghosts to accumulate ghost energy, so how did he get so much Ghost Qi on his body?

It was from his left arm. 

Wu Rong realized that his left arm had turned into a ghost hand at some point. He hurried to perceive the consciousness of the big ghost, but there was only a thick and suffocating killing intent. A stream of heat, a piece of crimson. When blood dripped, the ice-like chill in his left arm suddenly stagnated, and there was a kind of calm before the storm.

Was it because too many ghosts had been killed recently, or was the big ghost hungry and it wanted to drink blood?

Wu Rong looked cold and serious, tightly clutching his left arm. At this time, his left hand had no feeling at all, as if it had become someone else’s hand. No, it was not the big ghost’s backlash. The coldness in his left arm didn’t spread to other parts of his body, and it didn’t mean to snatch his body. Instead, there was a feeling of pulling away and condensing. Wu Rong’s heart moved, and he suddenly had a very strong premonition.

Could it be that…… 

The big ghost was coming out?

The author has something to say:

Liu Hu [tears streaming down his face]: I saw a house collapsing over there, so I went to watch the fun, but I didn’t expect that my own house would collapse——

Shan Rong, the head of the blasting team: Learned blasting, went to the Rong Gang, it’s a good place! 800 houses were blown up casually, and its 200 masters are skilled! The Rong Gang has a large scale, with 200,000 students all over the world. There’re many benefits to learning blasting well, and the benefits are too many to say. The job is stable and the income is high, and lifelong employment is guaranteed! 

[Changed from New Oriental Advertisement~]

Editor: Cloud Chip Cake