A Good-for-Nothing

266. The King of the Forest

 

Translator: Dragon Rider

 

Nakayi Hakute was sitting on the ground, looking the worse for wear, surrounded by charred wood, his clothes ragged, a vacant expression on his face.

He Zheng, whose internal energy had been depleted due to the Quintuple Lightning Enchantment he had used, panted heavily for a few moments, his hands clamped over his chest. Each and every single one of his muscles was aching. He Zheng was eager to sit on the ground to have a good rest, but he couldn’t.

He stood where he was, propped against the hilt of his sword, staring fixedly in the direction of Nakayi Hakute.

Even He Zheng himself felt his heart fluttering with horror as he thought back to that moment.

He had not expected that Honyani Susuhana, Nakayi Hakute’s Contracted psychic entity, would rush to her master and took the blow of the powerful thunderbolt for him at the last moment.

Susuhana had saved Nakayi Hakute at the cost of her soul. Hit by a blow that powerful, she had directly vanished, leaving nothing behind. However, though she had taken the brunt of the blow, Nakayi Hakute had still sustained some minor injuries in the subsequent shock wave, which had reduced his clothes to rags. His Contracted psychic entities destroyed in succession, Nakayi Hakute, as their master, had suffered loss of power correspondingly.

“Mr. Nakayi!” The woman who had been fighting with Qiu Luo all along gave up attacking and rushed to Nakayi Hakute.

Nakayi Hakute was spitting out big mouthfuls of blood one after another, but he looked as though he was not aware of his physical conditions at all. He raised his head, his eyes unfocused, gave the woman a soulless smile and said in Japanese, “Miyata, is Susuhana missing?”

“Mr. Nakayi, please pull yourself together,” said Miyata tremulously. Then she summoned her Contracted psychic entities, which stood guard beside them. She glared resentfully at He Zheng and the others. “Qianli Yu has been put out of action. Susuhana has also … We’re the only ones left. These people won’t show us mercy.”

“Winner takes all,” wheezed He Zheng. Standing straight unaided, teeth gritted, he pointed his sword straight in the direction of Nakayi Hakute and enunciated, “Nakayi Hakute, if you keep resisting, I’ll take your life. If you admit defeat, I’ll let the organizing committee take you away.”

“Is she dead?” asked Nakayi Hakute, as though not having heard any of He Zheng’s words, trying in vain to hold Miyata’s hand, wanting to hear an answer.

Blood gradually dyed the front of Nakayi Hakute’s clothes red, his lifeless eyes covered by his hair. Looking like a sluggish senile man, he rolled his eyes and said, “Answer me.”

Miyata could tell that there was a loving look in Nakayi Hakute’s eyes. Unable to bring herself to watching him in such pain, she averted her eyes and buried her face in her hands in distress. “Mr. Nakayi, Susuhana has … gone.”

A Contracted psychic entity was like a beast of burden for a Yin Yang Master, and they would instinctively come to their master’s rescue when their master’s life was in danger.

Miyata’s words were the straw that broke the camel’s back. Nakayi Hakute’s pupils instantly contracted and his body started trembling uncontrollably. The next second, large amounts of black gas burst out of him!

“Demonic Qi!” He Zheng’s eyes widened with alarm, staring at the black gas enveloping Nakayi Hakute.

Before he could finish speaking, Nakayi Hakute rose to his feet, his hand pressed against Miyata’s head. There was resentment and incredulity in her eyes before her death. The next second, Nakayi Hakute sucked her dry.

Nakayi Hakute stood up from the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood with every movement of his body. The scene was so gory it made everyone present feel uncomfortable.

Nakayi Hakute attempted to reach out a hand as though trying to hold someone’s hand, but he failed, finding that he could no longer raise the hand of his with which he used to hold Susuhana’s.

His eyes were veiled by demonic Qi. Nakayi Hakute smiled a watery smile, having regained part of his former strength after absorbing Miyata’s vital essence.

“Sorry, Susuhana, I failed to help you get your revenge. Instead … ” Nakayi Hakute shook his head, muttering to himself. “Finally things have come to this. I can’t kill Li Zong, but I will make your killer pay for his action with his life, whatever the cost may be.”

At this moment, the situation was different from what it had been a few moments ago. Nakayi Hakute had lost two psychic entities in succession, and he had also killed Miyata with his bare hands, Qianli Yu now in no fit state to fight.

As for the other side, although Tao Wujiu and Chen Qianlin were injured and He Zheng was exhausted, they could still fight. In addition, Qiu Luo, Chen Kai, and Carnotte had only suffered minor injuries.

Considering Nakayi Hakute was outnumbered six to one and grievously wounded, he did not stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning.

Nakayi Hakute tilted his head to one side. One of his eyes had been filled with demonic Qi. His other eye which still had normal-looking pupil and white was staring at He Zheng. “Do you know why I lured you guys here?”

He Zheng’s heart jumped, a sense of foreboding rising in him.

“If you want to win the championship, you’ll have to defeat – him.”

Everybody else present felt a chill down his spine.

In the depths of the pitch-dark forest, the sleeping King of the Forest was woken up by these uninvited visitors. His green eyes gave him the greatest advantage in the dark. The smell of blood was an intense stimulus to its taste buds.

Therefore, he slowly walked out of the forest.

The white-bearded geriatric had told him that he was to have a fight with these humans. If he lost, he would have to give the orb to them; if he won, he would be rewarded with temporary freedom.

It was a very good deal and he liked it very much.

The monster in front of them was almost the same as what He Zheng had depicted in that sketch.

It sported bushy knee-length hair and pointed horns on its forehead and feet. In fact, it was more like an eccentric human than a monster.

He Zheng noticed that as the monster walked out, the fog in the forest was drawn to it, overlaying its body, flowing around him like liquid.

“Are you the challengers?” inquired the monster. Though his voice was low and hoarse, the others managed to make out those words.

Smiling, Nakayi Hakute opened his arms and slowly walked over to “it”. “King of the Forest … I’ve come a long way to see you.”

While speaking, he mercilessly cut his arm with his katana, blood immediately gushing out from the wound.

He Zheng’s eyelids twitched painfully as he saw this kind of near self-harm. Something was wrong.

As expected, the next moment, He Zheng saw that the monster, who had been acting normally so far, suddenly started breathing much quicker. “It smells … so good.”

“Is that so? Then come and eat me,” said Nakayi Hakute casually.

“Shit!”

Everyone perceived that something was not quite right. However, Nakayi Hakute was now very close to the monster. The next moment, when He Zheng and the others tried to separate the monster from Nakayi Hakute, the monster abruptly reached out his big hand, grabbed Nakayi Hakute, sank his sharp teeth into Nakayi Hakute’s flesh and started gulping in his blood.

He Zheng and the others even heard the sound of chewing, which made their scalps prickle.

A black sphere of demonic Qi materialized at Nakayi Hakute’s fingertips as he smiled a bland smile at He Zheng and the others. “It’s true I don’t have much strength left, but what about him?”

All the demonic Qi was injected into the monster’s head, and with that the monster paused in the act of sucking blood, raised his head and let out a long howl.

Demonic Qi immediately took control of the monster, who broke Nakayi Hakute’s neck with a single bite. Nakayi Hakute had a contented smile on his face until his last breath.

Open-mouthed, everyone watched as the monster suddenly dropped Nakayi Hakute and slumped to his knees, his whole body cloaked in black gas. Also, the mist around him seemed to have been assimilated by the black gas. With a roar of the monster, the black gas turned into something like a tornado of blades and cut down all the trees behind him.

“Damn it!” said He Zheng, looking at the monster that had lapsed into a state of madness. Probably none of them had bargained on Nakayi Hakute having a contingency plan like this. “That monster has gone crazy!”

In the blink of an eye, the monster released a shock wave without warning, roaring. At this moment, the unfortunate Lion-Tiger Alliance, who happened to have noticed the lightning and finally found this place, caught sight of He Zheng’s team who were in deep trouble. Delighted, they were just about to make their move to eliminate a rival or two when the shock wave issued from the monster knocked them off their feet.

It had never crossed He Zheng’s mind that the monster would be so powerful. For a moment they were stunned, gazing at Ben and the others flying backwards. It was quite a while before Tao Wujiu said in a husky voice, “Th–They were thrown away just like that.”

Members of the Lion-Tiger Alliance were former champions! Though exhausted, they shouldn’t have been defeated so easily.

The only plausible explanation was that the monster was too strong.

Fear was the most normal reaction when an exorcist was faced with an evil creature far more powerful than them.

He Zheng took two deep breaths to calm his nerves. “Easy. Don’t be afraid,” he told himself.

But even as he spoke, his hand holding the sword was trembling slightly.

The monster had obviously lost his marbles. After the first shock wave died down, he let out another roar which was so loud and contained so much energy that everyone still standing clapped their hands to their ears. When they put down their hands again, they found their palms wet with blood that had flowed from their auditory meatuses.

All of them widened their eyes in shock, watching the monster march up to Ben lying unconscious on the ground, presumably intending to eat Ben alive.

“What should we do?”

“We fight!” He Zheng took a deep breath. Actually he was exhausted already, but he had no other choice. The monster had lost his own will after being controlled by demonic Qi. Either they killed the monster or the monster killed them all.

Carnotte, a Yōkai with a lot of spunk, turned into a wolf and was the first to charge at the target. He was very fast and the monster, whose attention was focused on Ben, did not notice Carnotte until the latter’s sharp canine teeth sank deep into his arm. The next moment, Carnotte heavily brought the monster to the ground.

“Now!”

Qiu Luo and Chen Qianlin, teeth clenched, launched themselves at the monster and stabbed their swords into the monster’s head one after another.

But no one dared to drop their guard. He Zheng’s pupils abruptly contracted and with that he shouted, “RUN!”

It was too late.

The monster whose head was stabbed did not die as they expected he would. The demonic Qi over his body was substantialized and attacked Chen Qianlin, Qiu Luo, and Carnotte.

He Zheng only heard the three of them let out a muffled groan at the same time and with that all of them were heavily thrown away, blood flowing from the corners of their mouths.

He Zheng widened his eyes to such an extent as though his eye sockets were about to break. “Lao Ka! Chen Qianlin! Qiu Luo! ”

He Zheng took an elementary lightning Fu (Fu is a piece of rectangular paper on which magical figures are drawn by Chinese Taoist priests to invoke or expel spirits and bring good or ill fortune) and then a Quintuple Lightning Fu from his pocket. He quickly started incanting the spell and performing the required hand movements, but because he had too little internal energy left, he spat out a mouthful of blood before he could finish the incantation.

The half-burnt Fu fell from mid-air and there was no sign of thundercloud whatsoever in the sky.