197: Chapter 197 The Coward Who Was Stared At, The Birth of the Evil God's Vessel

Night fell.

The previously cheerful deck seemed wrapped in a layer of damp, cold plastic wrap, exuding an indescribable eeriness.

Chen Du was leaning back on a lounge chair, resting with his eyes closed.

"Awoo... wooo..."

A sound like a dog getting its tail stepped on broke the dead silence.

The iron door leading to the lower hold was violently slammed open with a loud clang.

A huge, grayish-white figure came scrambling and rolling onto the deck.

Because it was running too fast, it tripped over its own feet and took a nasty tumble.

It was the Ghoul, Mao Mao.

This fellow usually saw zombies as an all-you-can-eat buffet, but right now it looked like it had seen a ghost—even though it was a ghost itself.

Mao Mao rushed in front of Chen Du, its massive two-and-a-half-meter frame curling into a ball of flesh.

Its sharp claws tightly covered its dead-fish eyes, and the bone spurs all over its body shook like a sieve.

It pointed at the pitch-black entrance to the lower hold, then pointed at its own head, letting out anxious "he-he" sounds.

It was as if it was saying: "Scared the baby to death!"

"Mao Mao? Are you performing some kind of shamanic dance here?"

Tang Ran walked over, drying her wet hair, steam still rising from her body.

She was amused.

She reached out a finger and poked Mao Mao's hard back: "I say, big guy, what's going on down there? Could that Wang Ce actually boil you?"

"You're a Ghoul, for goodness' sake. Can't you have a little dignity as an undead creature?"

However.

Faced with Tang Ran's teasing, Mao Mao didn't react at all.

It kept clutching Chen Du's pant leg, looking as if it wanted to shove its big head under the hem of his trench coat.

Chen Du slowly opened his eyes.

In that instant, his lazy golden eyes became as sharp as a honed blade.

He knew his summoned creatures too well.

Ghouls were killing machines without pain or fear, unless...

It encountered an existence that could crush it on a biological level.

"Something happened below."

Chen Du kicked away Mao Mao, who was clinging to his leg, and stood up.

"Tang Ran, Xia Mo, come down with me."

"Everyone else, stay put. If you don't want nightmares, behave yourself."

Even so.

Lin Keke and Li Yaozhi couldn't help their curiosity and quietly followed at the end of the line.

...

The stairs to the lower hold.

The further down they went, the thicker the air became.

The air, originally a mix of mold and brine, now had an added scent of sulfur.

"So cold..."

Xia Mo instinctively rubbed her arms.

She was an expert at manipulating ice.

Yet at this moment, she felt this chill wasn't acting on her skin, but was drilling directly into the marrow of her bones through her pores.

"Shh."

Chen Du stopped and raised a finger.

At the end of the dark corridor ahead was the storage room where Wang Ce was being held.

The pig-slaughtering wails had vanished.

In their place was a rhythmic thumping sound.

Thump, thump, thump—

The sound was dull and wet.

Like a ripe watermelon being smashed hard against a concrete floor.

Chen Du narrowed his eyes, a golden light swirling within them.

His vision instantly shifted.

The dim lower hold turned into a world of grayish-white lines in his eyes.

In the room at the end of the corridor, a dense, inseparable black vortex was coiled around Wang Ce.

That wasn't just shadow energy.

It was twisted laws, an unspeakable malice.

[Warning! Warning!]

[High-level mental pollution source detected!]

In his mind, the sacrifice notebook, which had been playing dead, suddenly began to vibrate violently as if going mad.

The split-mouthed monster on the cover snapped open, dripping a string of thick saliva.

Lines of blood-red text, carrying extreme greed, exploded forth:

[Fragrant! So fragrant! Top-tier ingredients!]

[This is the product of the purest despair and fear after fermentation!]

[That waste was so scared out of his wits that he actually accidentally connected to an Evil God!]

[He's a genius! No, he's the perfect vessel!]

[This is... a wisp of the soul projection of the 'god of fear'!]

[Though it's only one ten-thousandth, it is divinity! Eat it! Eat it quickly!!]

The notebook's greed almost burst out of his mind, threatening to manifest physically and devour the room ahead.

"A soul fragment of an Evil God?"

This apocalypse survival was truly absurd.

A second-generation heir who only knew how to rely on his father was actually so cowardly that he gained the favor of an Evil God?

With such luck, it was a pity he didn't buy a lottery ticket.

"None of you come in."

Chen Du reached back to stop Xia Mo and Tang Ran from approaching. Black shadows surged like a tide from his body, shielding the two women and the peeking Lin Keke and others behind him.

"This is a high-level game; you won't be able to handle it."

After saying that.

He strode forward and kicked open the iron door of the storage room!

Bang—!

The iron door slammed heavily against the wall, making a tooth-aching sound of twisting metal.

Even though everyone was mentally prepared, the scene inside the room still made them gasp.

"Ah—!!"

Lin Keke immediately covered her mouth and let out a terrified scream.

Li Yaozhi was so scared she almost collapsed to the floor.

Too disgusting! Too eerie!

In the center of the room, Wang Ce was kneeling in a posture that defied human biomechanics.

He wasn't tied up—

The steel chains that were originally used to bind him had actually turned limp like candle wax.

He was frantically kowtowing to a mass of shadows in the corner.

The second-generation heir's forehead was already a bloody mess, revealing white bone.

But he seemed completely oblivious, a highly distorted yet blissful, eerie smile hanging on his face.

The corners of his mouth stretched to his ears, revealing bright red gums.

Most terrifying was his shadow.

Under the dim emergency light, the shadow wasn't flat on the ground; instead, it was flailing on the wall like a living thing, splitting into countless tentacle-like slender limbs that greedily licked the air.

It seemed to sense the presence of living humans.

Wang Ce's movements abruptly stopped.

Crack, crack, crack...

A series of sharp snaps, like dry wood being broken, rang out.

His body didn't move.

But his neck turned a full 180 degrees, staring straight at Chen Du at the door.

There was no longer any white in his eyes.

Only two swirling black abysses remained, seemingly capable of sucking out one's soul.

"Mortal..."

Wang Ce opened his mouth, but the voice that came out was no longer his raspy one.

It was an overlapping sound.

Hoarse, grand, and carrying a shivering echo, it exploded directly in everyone's minds.

"You... smell... fear..."

Boom!

An invisible mental storm erupted suddenly, centered on Wang Ce!

The tables and chairs in the room instantly shattered, and the steel on the walls twisted and deformed.

Xia Mo and Tang Ran, standing outside the door, felt as if their brains had been struck hard by a sledgehammer.

They both groaned, blood seeping from the corners of their mouths, nearly falling to their knees.

"God... Is this a god..."

Lin Keke trembled, her eyes beginning to lose focus.

"Stop pretending!"

A cold shout full of disdain exploded like thunder, directly shattering this sinister force field.

Chen Du directly activated the strongest ocular power of Tyrants Gaze!

His entire being carried a domineering aura of a monarch descending upon the world. Ignoring the flurry of tentacles, he stepped right in front of Wang Ce!

He raised his hand.

Swung his arm.

And delivered a massive backhand slap!

Slap—!!

This crisp sound was louder than a firecracker in the confined lower hold!

Wang Ce's head, which had been turned 180 degrees, was slapped right back around.

Due to inertia, it spun an extra half-turn on his neck, producing a tooth-aching crack of bone.

Crack!

The air suddenly went quiet.

The Evil God's pressure that had just surged up came to a screeching halt.

The girls behind him were all dumbfounded.

That actually worked?!

Chen Du shook his hand, looking at the dazed Wang Ce with a face full of disdain.

He sneered:

"Playing god on my ship? Did you pay the fee!"