I Got My Cheat Skill by Acting My Way into a Horror Protagonist Role Chapter 58

[Maybe it’s because he’s too close to a Chosen One of Fate…]

[After all, the Ghost Bride’s body was fabricated by the Proxy System and was about to be decommissioned. Although she lacked a soul and consciousness, she was still bound by resentful energy; red wedding garments carry murderous aura, and she belonged to that dangerous, malevolent class of things. Given the current world trend favoring humans, your path as a Ghost Bride follows the yin road of demons, malevolent spirits, and vengeful ghosts. For an existence that appears before you, within arm’s reach, capable of opening a direct path to the Dao and changing your Fate Configuration, if you don’t want to devour them, then you’re not fit to be a ghost—]

Xiao Gui’an: Huh???

This was bad news.

Normally, a Chosen One of Fate seals their five senses, and many major horrors can’t calculate their exact location. On top of that, he was somewhere within the Southwest Ten-Thousand Mountains, a vast range whose abundant spiritual energy hid all sorts of things and masked heavenly signs. If he didn’t actively reveal himself, beings like the Ghost Bride—insufficient of cultivation and lacking yin virtue—wouldn’t ordinarily have the chance to encounter a Chosen One, especially close enough to touch with guardians nearby.

The Ghost Bride had once been a living person; her life energy had dissipated. Although she had risen as an animated corpse because of resentment, her five senses would inevitably be sluggish. She would hardly notice scents unless she deliberately tried to perceive them. Yet having been so close to the Little Heavenly Master just now, Xiao Gui’an clearly felt a lethal, intoxicating aroma radiating from that spiritual body. Even with his sense of smell fully sealed, that fragrance only weakened slightly; it still existed, making his flesh and blood ache to devour the other. If it weren’t for Xiao Gui’an’s soul-consciousness being present, any other lingering ghost in his place under those circumstances would have taken a bite already.

Only after they were five meters apart did the effect of the Chosen One’s sealed senses kick in, and Xiao Gui’an ceased sensing the other’s aura.

[Is there any solution?]

He would have to guard the Chosen One from now on. Even if he wasn’t that close again, if danger came he’d have to stay bound to the child to ensure safety.

[Fine, consider it detoxification.] Xiao Gui’an quickly came to terms with it and set a mental goal for himself to reinforce the suggestion: [Refuse to ingest narcotics, cherish the lives of yin-ghosts…]

Zero System: ?

It suddenly seemed to glow a healthy green.

No—did you really quit? Comparing a Chosen One of Fate to a drug? Is that what normal people think? The Zero System felt Xiao Gui’an’s logic was slowly becoming accustomed to these thought patterns. That was good; if he could suppress his craving for spirit flesh, any method would do.

Blind Zhang didn’t try to examine the crisp sound they’d heard earlier. From the Ghost Bride’s appearance to the contract signing had barely taken three minutes; the sinking western sun had only its last rays left. “By deity make this pact, by body make this vow… uphold body form, protect the Dao body…” Blind Zhang’s expression turned grave as he murmured the words, drawing the peachwood sword from his back. Spiritual energy trembled slightly and golden light shielded his body. But in an instant, all that light was devoured by the churning, dark evil clouds on the horizon.

A low, thunderlike, spine-chilling chorus of beastly howls could be heard.

The surroundings suddenly grew desolate and cold, draped in a layer of gray gloom. Vitality seemed to have been stolen, like a festering disease clinging to the bones was advancing. From the world around them poured countless plague ghosts, endless and advancing without end—bones stark, ghost fire faint. Where they passed, plagues spread and deathly miasma never ceased; once touched, one would be beset by ten maladies.

Like moths drawn to light, like a mountain surging forward, the plague ghosts had no clear consciousness but were hypersensitive to the presence of a Chosen One of Fate. They felt an even more primal hunger to devour him. If they could infect and kill the Chosen One, he could be absorbed among them. Without a doubt he would become their strongest plague ghost—undying, omnipresent, transformed into a primordial concept-like existence. Then a terrible, catastrophic plague would begin to spread from the Southwest Ten-Thousand Mountains and sweep across the entire world.

Though Blind Zhang couldn’t see, his other senses were keen and his movements nimble. With willow-leaf talismans opening his eyes and discerning yin and yang, light flickered in Zhang’s gray vision. He could see the formation he’d laid being trampled and destroyed by the plague ghosts like withered reeds. Immediately he lifted the bamboo basket and, in a hurried burst, shoved it straight into Xiao Gui’an’s arms. “Protect him well, please…”

Xiao Gui’an had originally cast himself as the muscle—the type to go on a murderous rampage. The Ghost Bride’s malevolent aura swelled; the red wedding dress’s hems whipped in the cold, sinister wind, and her fingernails dark, black-blue and rapidly lengthening into sharp, terrifying talons. She faced the approaching plague ghost army, which reacted only by instinct from a distance.

“Hiss—”

On the balls of his feet, Xiao Gui’an prepared to meet the vast tide of plague ghosts.

But everything was interrupted by the bamboo basket suddenly shoved into his arms. The Ghost Bride’s chilling aura immediately diminished. Faced with the unexpected child, she hurriedly clutched the basket, cradling it with palms and wrists while avoiding scraping the infant with her long nails. The red bridal veil lifted slightly, unintentionally revealing a face pale with disbelief beneath.

What is this?!

Xiao Gui’an felt like he was holding not a Chosen One of Fate but a furnace hot enough to burn everything. No—why was she so careless? She actually handed him this child to run with?! Wasn’t she afraid he’d bite the baby right away?!

“I won’t hold him…” The small objection died on his tongue and was cut short by Blind Zhang’s hurried shout, “Stick close! Move!”

Wind rose beneath Zhang’s feet as his steps became profound and swift; a flurry of yellow talismans shot out from him. In this dim, frightening setting, Blind Zhang showed not the slightest resemblance to a half-blind man.

Reluctantly, Xiao Gui’an tried to divert his attention from the Little Heavenly Master placed in his arms. He straightened his arms and held the bamboo basket upright, quickly levitating to trail closely beside Blind Zhang. Of course, if he’d truly wanted to bite, Xiao Gui’an didn’t have the nerve. He sealed his sense of smell.

Yet that enticing spiritual fragrance continued to burrow into his mind.

Xiao Gui’an found it hard to describe that scent; it was truly like the poppy of ruin—the drug that leads one astray—swaying and perfuming the air. It circled him; once tainted by it, one would seem to fall into a guilty, indulgent dream from which one didn’t want to wake.

[Detoxing is really hard…]

That thought popped into his head—END