Steadily Upgrading Everything!
Chapter 42: Ghost Snakes Comes in Couple.

Chapter 42: Ghost Snakes Comes in Couple.

The ghost spirit’s hiss turned into a shriek that shook the very walls of the cavern. Its serpentine body rose higher, spectral mist curling off its scales as it coiled with unnatural speed.

John immediately dropped into a combat stance, spiritual energy flaring around him.

The serpent lunged.

He dove to the side just in time, rolling across the stone as its massive body smashed into the ground where he stood moments before.

The impact sent cracks rippling across the floor, and a cold shockwave blew through the chamber.

John’s eyes snapped open wide, his Spatial Sense had returned the moment the serpent fully awakened.

"Spirit Fruit Realm!"

The realization hit like a hammer to the gut. This wasn’t just a ghost spirit, it was a beast two realms above him.

A slithering voice crept into his mind.

"You’re just a seedling. Still soft, still green... let me show you despair."

The moment the words echoed, John’s head jerked back as the spirit’s mental pressure slammed into him.

Everything turned black.

A heartbeat later, he found himself in a vast, empty desert. Endless, burning sand stretched in every direction.

No wind. No sky. Just silence.

’This again... At least try something new.’

The memory of the Core Formation ghost spirit returned sharply, the cruel hallucination, the isolation, the madness he had nearly succumbed to.

He had broken his own bones to escape that illusion.

And this time, he didn’t waver.

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth as he stood tall within the mental mirage.

"You’re not the first thing to crawl into my head and fail."

John slammed his will forward, channeling his strengthened soul through the Soul Piercing Gaze.

In the real world, a faint golden beam erupted from his forehead, shattering the psychic attack instantly.

The serpent recoiled, eyes narrowing in confusion.

"You... you’ve been touched by something far darker."

Its momentary distraction opened an opportunity.

"NOW, CAROS!" John roared.

Caros had been waiting, circulating qi through a strange purple talisman in his hand.

His brows were furrowed in full concentration.

The air beneath them glowed with runic light.

Suddenly, hundreds of glowing purple ropes erupted from the ground like striking vipers.

They tangled around the serpent’s body with explosive speed, binding its movements and yanking it violently back to the cavern floor.

"What is this?!" the snake screamed. "You dare bind ME?!"

As it thrashed, its aura surged, and for a heartbeat, John caught the flare of Caros’s true cultivation.

Spirit Bud Realm...?

It stunned him.

All this time, Caros had hidden his level, a full realm above John.

Caros’s voice broke the tension.

"I didn’t want to show this... but dying with secrets is worse than living with them."

The ghost snake’s power spiked, the horns on its head glowing as it attempted to tear through the restraints.

Some of the ropes started fraying under the immense pressure.

John’s eyes focused sharply.

He had seconds at best.

His qi surged through his body like a raging river.

He concentrated it into his fists, channeling both brute force and precision, one strike, to end it.

With a furious yell, he launched himself forward, appearing atop the bound serpent’s head in a blink, his body twisting midair.

Caros shouted, "DO IT NOW!"

The serpent turned its head, trying to unleash a final psychic roar, but the ropes constricted at its neck just as John’s foot slammed down.

The snapping of bone echoed like thunder through the cavern.

The serpent’s long neck twisted violently, and its entire body convulsed before going limp.

Its ghostly glow flickered, then faded.

Silence filled the cavern again.

Only the sound of John’s breathing, heavy and sharp, remained.

He slowly stepped down from the spirit’s corpse, eyes scanning its remains warily, still not trusting that it was truly dead.

Caros exhaled long and deep.

"Well," he said, brushing dirt off his robe, "you almost let me die... but I’ll admit, that was impressive."

John didn’t respond at first.

He simply looked down at his trembling hands.

That was Spirit Fruit Realm... And we survived.

He turned to Caros. "Spirit Bud, huh?"

Caros grinned. "What can I say? I’m full of surprises."

John didn’t smile back. "If you ever hide something like that again—"

"Yeah, yeah," Caros waved him off, "you’ll throw me off a cliff, feed me to a beast, and dance on my grave. Noted."

John rolled his eyes but said nothing more. Instead, he walked over to the serpent’s corpse and bent down.

A faint core, swirling with eerie blue and black light, emerged from its skull and floated into the air.

A ghost spirit core.

Their prize.

John caught it, holding it in his palm for a moment.

It pulsed with power, and danger.

"This... is going to change everything," he whispered.

John turned the ghost core over in his hand once more, feeling its power pulse like a second heartbeat.

A faint chill brushed his spine.

Then, a sound echoed through the cave.

Soft at first.

Almost like... weeping.

John’s body froze.

Caros, who had just started to sit down to recover, immediately snapped his gaze up.

The very stone beneath their feet vibrated with unnatural rhythm.

From the back of the cave, a tunnel of black mist began to swirl.

A figure stepped out, tall, elegant, and impossibly pale.

Her eyes were blood-red, her tongue forked and flickering like a snake’s.

Two thin, curved horns adorned her head, and long black hair cascaded down her ghostly back.

Her robes shimmered like flowing ink, trailing behind her like smoke.

And she was beautiful, in the way a nightmare might be.

Her eyes fell upon the corpse of the great serpent, and then to the core in John’s hand.

Her scream was deafening, a shrill wail that cracked stalactites from the ceiling.

"MY HUSBAND! RETURN HIM TO ME!"

The temperature plummeted.

Caros stumbled backward, half-breathless. "You’ve got to be kidding me! Ghost snakes come in couples?!"

John barely moved.

His grip tightened on the core.

"We’re in for it," he muttered, shifting into stance.

She didn’t wait for a reply.

The ghost lady lunged, her figure vanishing and reappearing midair in a blur.

Her claws, sharp and glistening with spiritual venom, slashed down toward John.

He barely blocked with his forearm. Even with qi reinforcement, the force of the blow threw him back against the cavern wall.

Caros retaliated immediately. "Shadow Bloom Bind!"

Dozens of purple ropes erupted again, but this time, they passed through her.

"Illusion?" John called out.

"No, she’s just that fast!"

The ghost woman’s form flickered back into view just as her hand sliced open Caros’s shoulder, blood spraying into the air.

Caros let out a growl of pain and rolled backward, already forming a defensive seal.

John engaged again, leaping toward her and launching a wave of sharp slashes with his short sword. "Twelve Circle Slashes."

Twelve blade-like spiritual arcs tore through the air, but she spun, gliding backward with unnatural grace.

Her tongue flicked mockingly in the air as she dodged all twelve.

"You think you’re worthy to wield his death?"

Her voice seeped into John’s mind like oil.

She retaliated, one claw tearing a gash across his side before he even saw her move.

The battle turned desperate.

One Hour Later...

The cave floor was soaked with blood. Caros lay against a rock wall, panting and nearly spent.

His body trembled, his legs refusing to obey.

"I’m... done..." he gasped, coughing. But he had already done enough and wekaned the ghost spirit many times with his glowing Blue ropes.

John stood alone now, sweat drenching his robes, one eye partially closed from swelling.

His breathing was steady though, rhythmic, Level Five Breathing Technique in full effect.

Each inhale restored a fraction of his endurance.

Each exhale cleared the fog in his mind.

The ghost woman circled him, slower now but still brimming with malice.

"You’ve got stamina, little seedling. But endurance means nothing when you cannot reach me."

John didn’t respond.

His gaze stayed fixed.

She darted forward.

He blocked. Slid back. Spun. Countered.

Every time she slashed, he deflected just enough to avoid lethal damage.

Wounds accumulated, on his arm, his thigh, his cheek.

But his gaze never wavered.

She smirked. "Just give me the core and I’ll let you die painlessly."

John spit out blood and straightened.

"You killed Caros’s confidence and ruined my robes. You’re not walking out of here."

Caros’s brows twitched at John’s words but he stayed silent.

He suddenly stepped into a slow, circular stance, sword dragging lightly against the floor, spiraling.

Her eyes narrowed.

"What technique is this?"

"Twelve Circle Slashes," he whispered.

He moved.

A whirlwind of steel and qi engulfed the space between them.

Twelve perfect arcs of blade energy spun outward from him like rings, all connected, all layered.

She dodged the first five.

The sixth grazed her shoulder.

The seventh ripped her dress.

By the ninth, panic had begun to flicker in her eyes.

Then, he stepped into the tenth slash.

Faster.

He vanished from her line of sight.

"What..."

A clean arc of light passed behind her.

The eleventh.

She turned, too slow.

John appeared above her.

"Twelfth."

The blade fell, silent.

Her head separated from her body.

The wail that escaped her fading form was less a scream than a final breath, a ghost’s death rattle.

Her form turned to mist, dispersing like fog in sunlight.

And silence reclaimed the cave once more.

John collapsed to his knees, sword slipping from his fingers, panting heavily.

Caros stirred. "Did we... win?"

John didn’t answer immediately. He was staring at the core still clutched in his bloodied palm. And now, beside it, a second, more radiant ghost core, hers.

He looked at Caros.

"We killed a married couple of Spirit Fruit Realm ghost snakes."

Caros managed a grin through his pain. "Remind me never to go hunting with you again."

They both laughed, weak, breathless, but alive.