This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 325: The Real Nightmare

Chapter 325: Chapter 325: The Real Nightmare

The cabin door was swinging, emitting creaking and groaning sounds, and the abyss leading downstairs was pitch-black, with the inside lights flickering on and off, truly terrifying.

Laura hid near the door, wanting to accompany Chen Ke to the fish hold to investigate, but Chen Ke refused her, not wanting to be distracted during a fight with the eerie creature.

His clothes had dried out a bit, and Chen Ke handed his cell phone to Laura for safekeeping, taking only his wallet full of Holy Relics and his pistol.

He left a wet footprint with every step, like a deep diver, dragging a scent of the sea as he walked into the cabin.

The severed limbs and body parts on the ground had been cleaned up, but on the staircase below, a corpse was facing Chen Ke, kneeling on the last step, one arm stretched into the adjacent railing, its expression grotesquely distorted.

"Hey... what happened?" Chen Ke asked.

The other person did not respond; their eyes were lifelessly staring upward, as if they had seen something incredibly terrifying.

Chen Ke descended slowly, approaching the body for a closer look, and then gently kicked its right shoulder with his foot, toppling it over.

The person fell to the ground on their side, revealing a pile of guts on the floor, their back gruesomely slashed by something sharp, chunks of flesh and blood gone...

"Dead."

Chen Ke stepped over the corpse; it must have been one of those who were in the line closer to the leaky spot... Where was the leak?

He pulled out his pistol, assuming the standard center-axle relocking stance, moving slowly, scanning the entire corridor.

Although the gun was of little use, for some reason he felt reassured having it in his hand.

As a modern person, he could never get used to fighting with melee weapons.

The fish hold was located further down, at the very bottom of the crew’s quarters. Chen Ke heard the sound of running water.

The leak didn’t sound too severe, but the water had already risen above the ankles after all this time.

Under the red light, the water was also blood-red, the blood of the dead crew members scattered throughout, leaving a heavy, bloody scent in the air.

At the end of the corridor ahead, three bodies lay face-down in the water, immobile. Chen Ke slowly waded over to examine the surroundings, then squatted down to inspect the bodies.

They too had been killed by claws; their waist muscles were torn apart, everything in the abdominal cavity pulled out.

He covered his nose, flipped one of the bodies over with his foot, and saw that its face had been entirely ripped off.

Two big eyeballs grotesquely stuck to a bloodied face, with the teeth exposed without lips, presenting a penetrating sight.

Hmm... the creature had sharp claws... And from the nature of the wounds, its style was to appear swiftly, then attack frenetically, giving the victim no chance to react.

Chen Ke looked up at the ceiling, conjuring an image of a licker-type creature, wary of it dropping from the ceiling to ambush him.

He got up and continued towards the sound of the water; the further he walked, the bloodier the water became, signifying he was nearing the place with the most casualties.

Sure enough, he saw the source of the leak: a crack in the wall near the water storage compartment, less than a meter long, a dire situation.

It seemed that when the ship was gripped by the giant squid, the pressure was too great, causing the steel plate to bend and crack.

The crew had attempted an emergency repair of the crack, trying to add another layer over the crack using a welding torch, but water still poured out ceaselessly.

And next to it on the ground lay eight bodies in varying positions, stacked upon each other forming a small pile of corpses.

It was not only blood; after being gutted, the body’s fat liquids, undigested food in the stomach, and feces from the large intestines also leaked out, utterly disgusting.

And that was the current state, with the bodily wastes and blood of the eight corpses all smeared in the water.

"Ugh... God damn it..." Chen Ke cursed, slowly circumventing the pile of corpses and crouching down to examine the crack.

The iron plate was only half welded; the other side was open. Holding his gun in his left hand, Chen Ke checked the plate with his right, unwittingly lifting the entire plate off.

The water flow became even more rampant.

"Think of a solution..." Chen Ke muttered to himself, looking up around him for any abnormality, then continued studying the crack.

Without any tools at hand, the welding torch was submerged in water, with a gas can lying sideways in the water, connected to the back end of the welding torch by a hose.

He neither knew nor dared to use the device; if it went wrong, it could explode, and the ship could not withstand that now.

He pondered for a long time, and finally thought of a method. He pressed his hand against the crack, submerged in the flowing water, letting the water scald the back of his hand.

Time froze!

With a thought, Chen Ke felt an extra layer of film form in his palm, and the sensation of touching the water became very strange.

The next second, the leaking water flow seemed to freeze at the moment it had just seeped into the cabin, with splashes suspended in mid-air.

Chen Ke reached out and touched the hanging droplets, finding that they had become as hard as pearls.

Unlike the previously frozen piece of paper, this drop of water had changed its state, from liquid to solid, and it could float in the air.

Perhaps it was because the splashed water was considered part of the flow, and after the flow ceased, it transformed its physical properties into a water wall while time was halted.

He pinched the droplet, unable to burst it; it remained in the form of a droplet, suspended in mid-air, while the water seeping into the cabin also clung to the wall, blocking the subsequent flow from entering.

This essentially plugged the gap with water; as long as Chen Ke did not leave this ship, this crack could be considered non-existent.

"The distance of time freeze is limited... Although I don’t know how far it can reach, it should be fine as long as I don’t leave this ship..." Chen Ke pondered and slowly tried to move away from the leak.

"Splash splash splash..." A sound of wading water came from behind, sounding like a child playing in the water.

Chen Ke turned around, summoning the Fire-igniting Broadsword in his right hand, while his left hand held Cassandra’s war spear.

In the corridor ahead, circles of ripples glided over the surface of the water.

Chen Ke gently lifted his foot, slowly moving in the direction of the ripples, leaning against the cabin wall and peeking around the corner.

At the end of the opposite corridor, he saw the back of a woman, dressed in a white dress, with long black hair.

"..."

Chen Ke didn’t know who this woman was. He was certain there were no other women on the ship besides Laura, so this could only be someone’s nightmare.

Whose nightmare was it... Could it be Laura’s? Nathan’s? Or one of the three crewmen?

While he thought, Chen Ke slowly walked forward, noticing that the life countdown at the corner of his eye was still deducting his lifespan at double speed, indicating that the range of time freeze was still quite vast.

He was now only twenty steps from the woman, gripping Cassandra’s war spear tightly in his left hand, slowly raising it, aiming at the woman’s back.

He chose this spear because the soul gun was too powerful; if it accidentally shot through the monster, the ship would be doomed.

Chen Ke held his breath, ready to throw the spear. He had to hit with 100% accuracy!

Just as he was about to throw the spear, the woman suddenly spoke.

"Why didn’t you come to save me?"

This question, stemming from the depths of her soul, confused Chen Ke and froze him in his tracks.

"Why didn’t you come to save me? You could have saved me." As the woman spoke, she turned around.

It was an Asian girl, who seemed no older than seventeen or eighteen, somewhat frail, with long hair draping over her shoulders. She wasn’t particularly beautiful, but she had a comforting appearance.

"You promised me, you would come to save me..." The girl said, tears flowing like a breached dam.

Chen Ke didn’t recognize the girl, but he suddenly realized something.

"You didn’t come to save me... Brother... you broke your promise..." The girl sobbed as if reproaching Chen Ke.

She must be Lin Mo’s sister...

This nightmare... was Lin Mo’s nightmare...

Chen Ke slowly backed away, clenching his teeth, still raising the war spear he had just lowered.

He couldn’t let this illusion deceive him! She was only a personification of the nightmare, he couldn’t afford to be merciful!

"I’m sorry, I’m not your brother," Chen Ke said.

"You didn’t come to save me... you breached the contract... you owe me a soul!" The girl’s voice began to sound peculiar, reminiscent of a fearfully familiar entity.

The girl’s facial expression suddenly turned fierce, and then with a "bang," she exploded into a mess of blood, accompanied by that familiar line, a contract demon stood before Chen Ke!