All the evil beasts in the world, I feed on demons and monsters

Chapter 405 Unforgettable Suffering

Bridgehead.

The old man slowly raised his head, revealing a familiar face. It was the grandfather—one of the three generations of grandfather and grandsons they had seen in the underworld before their return to the living world!
slam-la-

The increasingly heavy purple rain soaked through the old man's silver hair. The boy's head in his hand stared intently at Ji Ran, filled with deep terror and disbelief.

Ji Ran could sense that the old man's strength was constantly improving, and every drop of purple rain infused his hunched body with star energy and evil thoughts.

"I'm hungry...you're all hungry..."

"But why is it always us who get to sign?"

"Always—us!!"

The old man's voice went from pleading to hysteria, and finally, as if he were going mad, he suddenly looked up, revealing his blood-red, ferocious eyes!

Squeak!

He gripped the hard bow tightly! The boy's head floated beside him, and the old man reached out and pulled out a bloody spine from under the boy's neck!
He drew the bowstring and aimed the arrow at Ji Ran. The bowstring rubbed against his spine, making a teeth-grinding creaking sound.

The next instant, the bow was drawn to its fullest extent!

Whoosh!
The blood-soaked spine tore through the air, carrying resentment and savagery, turning into a scarlet afterimage that pierced straight into Ji Ran's heart!

Dang~!

Ji Ran simply raised his broadsword and accurately blocked the incoming arrow.

But the next moment, the arrow struck him but did not bounce off; instead, a boy's head grew out of his spine!

The head suddenly swelled up and opened its bloody maw to bite down on Ji Ran!

Bear!
Suddenly, a blazing flame erupted, instantly turning the boy's head into charred remains.

A fire demon, easily two meters long, leaped to Ji Ran's side, baring its teeth. It devoured the flesh of two ghost monks, its body rapidly growing larger. This was also a characteristic of the Six Ghost Talismans, allowing the demonic body to be enhanced by consuming flesh and blood.

At that moment, Ji Ran raised his hand and formed a hand seal, aiming it at the old man at the bridgehead. Drawn by the talisman, the fire ghost immediately let out a low growl!
boom!
The fire demon slammed its foot into the ground, shattering the bluestone beneath its feet and sending spiderweb-like cracks spreading instantly! Using this recoil, its body shot out like a meteorite!

The old man opposite him fired a rapid series of arrows, but the moment they touched the fire demon, they were all engulfed by the yang flames spewed from its mouth. The arrows were like ice shards entering fire, hissing and turning into wisps of blue smoke.

The true fire of the sun is like a dimensional reduction attack on evil spirits!

boom!
With a flash of fire, the fire demon was already upon him! Its ferocious giant hand, like a red-hot iron clamp, gripped the old man's withered head!
Squeak squeak squeak—cluck cluck!
A sickeningly loud squeaking sound of skull compression rang out.

The fire demon grinned maliciously, tilting its head back as if toying with a disobedient toy. It lifted the old man high, then, using its waist and abdomen to thrust it violently down to the ground!

Puff-!
Like a ripe fruit falling to the ground, the old man's head, along with his upper body, exploded with a deafening crash! Blood, flesh, and bone fragments flew everywhere.

Dang rang~
The hardwood bow fell limply to the ground, bounced a few times, and was then soaked by the falling purple rain. The wood turned black and rotted at a visible speed, turning into a puddle of mud in the blink of an eye.

The fire demon lowered its head, still not satisfied, and stuffed the headless ghost body at its feet into its huge mouth. With a gulp, a chilling swallowing sound was heard.

Its body has also grown slightly longer.

"Is it the old man we encountered?"

At this moment, Shuanghua Honggun walked up to Ji Ran's side. Clearly, he had also seen the old man's appearance. However, both the ghost monk and the old man were at the first level, so none of them paid them much attention.

"Ah."

Ji Ran nodded, but felt something was amiss. What he was encountering was almost a ghostly version of what he had seen in the underworld.

Ji Ran opened the Causal Record, and a purple aura drifted from the old man's corpse and fell into it—[Old Hunter].

Looking at the simple sketch of the hunched figure, Ji Ran gently stroked it with his fingers. Perhaps because the old man had just entered the underworld, the scene he saw was much clearer than that of the two ghost monks.

……

"I won the lottery!"

"It's the Liu family!"

How many people are left in his family?

"Hey, his family is all safe. That old man has spare food, a pair of grandchildren, and a widowed daughter-in-law, all still alive."

"Where is his son? I remember that man learned a few hunting techniques from the old man."

"Hey, the other day I saw the kids were starving, so I put on a raincoat and went hunting. I'd only gone a hundred meters or so when a gust of wind blew up a purple rain that soaked my face and I died instantly."

"I heard that the splinters from that straw raincoat covered his entire face!"

……

In the attic where the lottery was being held, the last glimmer of light vanished from the eyes of the white-haired old man. Amidst the numb, excited gazes of the crowd, he turned and walked downstairs.

The lower level here is divided into three floors, and each floor is further divided into four or five households. It's like a bunch of chicken coops.

The old man entered the cubicle, and the two children, who were so hungry they were unrecognizable, saw him and their voices were too weak to speak: "Grandpa."

"Did Father... bring back the roast chicken?"

The old man bent down, trembling as he touched the child's head, and said, "Almost...almost..."

"father."

Beside the child, a disheveled woman watched the old man return empty-handed, her face ashen. On the day of the lottery, they were always guaranteed a share of meat porridge.

If there's no porridge, it can only mean one thing.

"We... won the lottery?"

The old man silently stroked the child's head.

He didn't know how to start the conversation, just like his spine, which had forgotten what it felt like to stand up straight.

"I go."

The old man's voice was hoarse, like the sound of an arrow rubbing against a bowstring.

"Bao'er, Jun'er, come here." Upon hearing this, the woman gently hugged the two children, buried her head in their dry hair, and took a deep sniff.

"mother……"

The two children's voices were weak. The woman tenderly rubbed their faces and said gently, "Sweethearts, Mother will go buy you cloth and make you new clothes."

As she spoke, the woman gently pushed the two children away and stood up.

"you--"

"father."

The woman's voice was filled with bitterness and numbness.

"If there were no man in the house, I'm afraid the three of us wouldn't survive the night."

"I only beg you to let the two children live. Don't let them be trapped in a jar."

"Two kids, afraid of pain."

Squeak—Bang!

The door was open and closed.

The old man sat there blankly, his large, bony fingers scratching bloody marks on the floor. But the years had rendered him unable to draw even the lightest bow, and a lifetime of wasted time had rendered his throat unable to utter a cry.

At the very least, I must live until the rain stops so I can take my two grandchildren out into the world.

until--

"The Liu family has won the lottery again!"

How many people are left in his family?

"Hehe, we're in luck this time, they only have two kids left at home..."

……

The old man didn't know how he got back to his room.

He actually understood what this lottery was all about—that wealthy Liu from the main family, with five wives, six concubines, and six children, had never won a single lot.

Those families with few or no male heirs always seem to win the lottery. But why me, and not someone else…?

He picked up the bow from under the bed and tried with all his might, but he still couldn't draw it.

Dengdeng!

"Open the door!"

Outside the room, hurried footsteps urged them on, interspersed with the clanging of metal.

The old man's eyes were devoid of all color, and he didn't even have the thought of resisting. He hung the bowstring around his neck with a blank look in his eyes, but when he saw the two children's terrified and bewildered eyes, he let go.

"Sir... I'll see you off first..."

With trembling hands, the old man tightened the bowstring around the boy's neck, and with his almost numb exertion, it went straight into the boy's neck.

"Master!"

"It hurts—ouch!"

The boy gripped the old man's hand in terror, while the girl cowered in the corner, sobbing uncontrollably.

The old man's teeth chattered as he whispered in the boy's ear, "Good boy... relax, your father is coming to bring you roast chicken, and your mother is coming to make you some new clothes..."

The old man knew what those people were going to do, and rather than be skinned alive and cooked, he preferred to die a quick death.

His only, and greatest, courage at this moment was to prolong his own death so that he could send his child away first.

Upon hearing the old man's words, the boy's strength to struggle suddenly vanished completely.

Bang!
The sound of a head hitting the ground rang out along with the sound of the door being kicked open.

……

The diagram of cause and effect lay silent, as cold rain slid across the pages.

Ji Ran finally understood the problem.

Like the old man, the two ghost monks' story only has the second half. They are evil, suffering, and hatred—the pain and darkness in the hearts of those in the underworld who are unwilling to face.

But as long as a person is still alive, how can memories, no matter how unwilling to face them, simply vanish? The Buddhist city in the mortal realm is actually a projection of the underworld. It's just that these distorted and desperate memories have been materialized by Zi Yu's spiritual power and evil thoughts.

Crash-!
Rain, bigger.

As if to confirm Ji Ran's thoughts, the old man's hunched figure reappeared at the bridgehead. On the shadow of the city and the gate, two ghostly monks peeked out.

Through the crack in the gate, a jumble of figures could be seen within the city walls. They were the dead, representing endless suffering and evil.

"This is?"

Double Flower Red Stick also sensed that something was wrong.

"Ah."

Ji Ran took a deep breath, her tone carrying a hint of realization.

"There's no need to look for that Dragon Horned Ghost King. He can't be killed in reality."

Without addressing the root cause, these derivative memories will repeatedly be brought to life by Zi Yu. Even if the Dragon Horned Ghost King is truly in the city, killing him will only bring him back.

boom!
The ghost-headed chariot, which had just been put away, landed again. Ji Ran turned around and walked in, getting into the chariot under the staring eyes of the two ghost monks.

I must eventually visit the Buddhist realm of the underworld.

(End of this chapter)