HPDBC 225. Old Ghoul
225. Old Ghoul
Jin Shu injected qi into the dragon tattoo sprawled across his back, concentrating it into two of the dragon’s scales.A radiant barrier of qi blossomed around the mother and son. At the same time, Jin Shu’s body expanded—muscles swelling, skin darkening to a deep blue as two additional arms tore free from his ribs. Four lightning-shaped vajra materialized in his grasp, thunder cracking so loudly it shook the heavens.
The old ghoul’s laughter cut off abruptly. He staggered back under Jin Shu’s surging aura.
“D-demon descent?!” he roared in disbelief. “N-no… no, you’re not a demon. What are you?!”
“A runesmith and formation master,” Jin Shu replied, a cheeky grin tugging at his lips—utterly out of place on the face of a wrathful lightning deity.
“Hmph! Empty bravado!” the old ghoul spat. “You’re nothing but form without substance!”
Jin Shu summoned his heavenly lightning affinity, allowing it to flood his veins and push his lightning deity form beyond its limits.
With the formation alone, his strength rivaled a fourth-stage Spirit Realm cultivator. With heavenly lightning reinforcing it, his power surged to the peak of the sixth stage—teetering on the edge of the seventh.
A bolt of lightning slammed down from the clear sky, engulfing Jin Shu’s body in blinding radiance. When the light faded, he was gone.
The next instant, he appeared behind the old ghoul, fist already rocketing forward.
The ghoul spun around, arms crossing instinctively to block.
The impact sent him skidding backward, gouging trenches into the ground before his spine slammed into a thick tree. The trunk shattered with a violent crack.
“You—!” His words dissolved into a violent cough as blood sprayed from his mouth, laced with writhing strands of black-and-white lightning.
His body convulsed as the lightning ran rampant through his meridians.
“Y-you bastard!” he snarled through clenched teeth. “Just because I haven’t shown my full strength, you think you can do whatever you want?!”
“I don’t think,” Jin Shu replied evenly. “I know.”
“Mom,” Jiao’er whispered, tapping the glowing barrier around them. “This guy’s strong. I’ve got a plan. Later, you need to cooperate with me so we can rope him in and finally have a powerful backer.”
His mother responded with a noncommittal hum, which Jiao’er took as agreement. Though blind, she tracked the battle through sound, pressure, and the shifting currents of qi. Jiao’er resumed narrating—faster now, struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing battlefield.
The old ghoul roared, finally unleashing his full cultivation at the fifth stage of the Spirit Realm. Black claws burst from his fingertips, gleaming with an eerie, malevolent sheen.
He lunged.
Jin Shu sidestepped with lightning-fast precision, slipping past the attack and countering with a brutal uppercut to the ghoul’s chin.
The ghoul’s head snapped back with a sickening crack—then slowly rolled back into place.
…Is this guy actually an undead? Jin Shu wondered.
He pressed the advantage, hammering lightning-cloaked fists into the ghoul’s torso. Each strike forced blood from the ghoul’s mouth, yet disturbingly, his momentum never faltered.
Backing away, Jin Shu hurled his vajra. They vanished midair, leaving streaks of lightning in their wake. Two pierced straight through the old ghoul’s shoulders; the remaining pair impaled his legs.
He howled in agony—yet kept attacking.
Jin Shu was starting to believe the ghoul-like elder truly was undead. He maintained relentless pressure, but as the fight dragged on for several long minutes, neither side gained a decisive advantage.
Under normal circumstances, Jin Shu could maintain the minor deity formation for over two hours. However, with the pure-light trapping formation shielding the mother and son as well, his limit dropped to half an hour at most.
Nearly half of that time was already gone.
Enough.
Jin Shu stopped holding back.
He retreated a step and assumed a martial stance, four palms open and raised toward the sky. Each hand began to glow with a different elemental light—one deep blue like flowing water, one pure white like cutting wind, one crimson like raging fire, and the last a vibrant green, pulsing with life. Black-and-white lightning crackled across his body.
He looked like a resplendent, rainbow-hued deity.
“Five elemental affinities?!” the old ghoul roared in disbelief.
Inside the barrier, Jiao’er’s mouth fell open. “Holy— Mom, I wish you could see this!”
“I don’t need to,” she replied calmly. “This young man is quite extraordinary, isn’t he?”
Jin Shu didn’t have the leisure to indulge their amazement. Controlling all five elemental affinities simultaneously pushed his mental energy to its absolute limit—but the result was terrifying.
His power surged past the sixth stage, climbing to a half-step below the ninth.
His body brimmed with strength—yet qi poured out of him at an alarming rate. He had perhaps five minutes before exhaustion claimed him.
That meant this fight would end now.
He pushed lightly off the ground with his dominant leg.
The world blurred.
A fading afterimage lingered where he had stood.
Half a breath later, Jin Shu appeared behind the ghoul, all four glowing palms slamming into his back at once.
The ghoul didn’t even have time to blink.
His body was blasted forward, rocketing through the forest faster than the human eye could track.
Jin Shu followed instantly, appearing above him the moment his momentum ground to a skidding halt.
Every bone in the ghoul’s body was shattered. Even his jaw hung loose, leaving him incapable of speech—only a strangled grunt of shock and fear escaped him.
Yet, disturbingly, Jin Shu watched as shattered bones began knitting themselves back together.
“…Just what are you?” Jin Shu asked quietly.
“That’s my question…” the ghoul croaked once his jaw slid back into place. A warped grin twisted his bloodied face. “My only regret… is that I won’t get to taste the flesh of a being like you…”
Jin Shu frowned… until—
The ghoul produced a strange pitch-black dagger with trembling hands and drove it toward his own heart.
Jin Shu recognized the blade instantly.
No—!
If that dagger struck true, a Demon Beast would descend here.
Jin Shu thrust his palms forward, unleashing all five elements at once.
Roots erupted from the earth, coiling around the arm gripping the dagger.
Water cascaded over the ghoul’s body, weighing him down and slowing every movement.
Lightning surged through the water, locking his muscles in violent paralysis.
Blades of wind followed, slicing through flesh and roots alike, severing his body into pieces.
Finally—fire.
Flames roared through the wounds, incinerating each section to ash before regeneration could begin.
Silence fell.
Jin Shu stared at the drifting ashes as he dispelled the minor deity transformation, his body shrinking back to normal.
“Shit…” he muttered. “I was supposed to keep him alive.”
He ran a hand through his hair and let out a tired sigh.
“…Hopefully that kid will be fine.”
Jin Shu had never encountered a heart demon himself—fortunately. But from everything he had learned, he knew they were the most feared affliction a cultivator could suffer.
And the boy had already met two of the most dangerous prerequisites.
Extreme despair—witnessing his village slaughtered by a being he could never hope to defeat.
Extreme regret—being unable to exact revenge with his own hands.
Jin Shu shook his head. There was nothing more he could do. He could only hope the child possessed a mind strong enough to overcome it on his own.
Sifting through the ashes, Jin Shu soon spotted the strange dagger. He had no intention of leaving something so dangerous behind for someone else to stumble upon, so he pocketed it, slipping it into an empty corner of his space earring.
Unfortunately, the old ghoul’s storage pouch had been of inferior quality and had been completely destroyed by the elemental flames.
He doubted a demon worshiper would have carried anything worth coveting anyway, so he wasn’t particularly upset over the lost loot. With nothing left to do here, he turned back toward the forest path to check on the mother and son.
His body was heavy with exhaustion as he made his way through the trees. When he finally returned to the path, he found the two still waiting for him.
The pure-light trapping formation had already dissipated—they were free to leave—but they had chosen to stay.
“Haha! Mom! He’s back!” Jiao’er laughed, clapping his hands. “That means he killed that nasty old ghoul bastard!”
Jin Shu’s eye twitched.
So much for worrying…
The boy looked perfectly fine.
The mother bowed toward him, her movements precise and composed despite her blindness. “Thank you for your life-saving grace, sir.”
“Yeah! Thanks, big bro!”
Jin Shu chuckled. “There’s no need to thank me. I would’ve dealt with scum like them regardless of whether you were being attacked or not.”
He wasn’t being humble. He truly wouldn’t have minded killing hundreds of bandits like those—much less their demon-worshiping boss.
“Even so,” the woman said softly, “you saved this poor mother and her son. We remain in your debt.”
Now that everything had settled, Jin Shu finally took the time to properly observe them.
The boy looked around ten or twelve, tall for his age, dressed in a plain gray robe torn from his fight. His mischievous grin hinted at the handsome, roguish man he would likely grow into within a few short years.
As for his mother—
Despite her blindness and simple sky-blue robes, she carried herself with a quiet, restrained grace. Her presence reminded Jin Shu of the actresses from Gold’s world—the ones who portrayed immortal beauties in the xianxia c-dramas he used to enjoy.
Her beauty was difficult to describe.
At a casual glance, she seemed plain, almost forgettable. Yet the longer he looked, the more she drew his attention, quietly occupying his thoughts.
Jin Shu couldn’t help but recall the cliché he’d joked about earlier.
Luckily the son asked a question before Jin Shu lost himself.