Starting with the frog, he has ruled for eternity.

Chapter 59 Croak, get ready to break out!

Dark and deep.

This is the deeper part of the Ghost Realm.

There are no hawkers' cries here, no fake prosperity, only a suffocating solemnity and deathly silence.

A massive government office, constructed from countless gray-white bones and black stones.

Above the towering gatehouse hangs a plaque with no words, only a huge, slowly blinking eye.

……

We passed through the government office and entered the main hall.

Inside the main hall, two towering armchairs stood side by side.

Two figures were sitting on the chair.

The one on the left is bloated like a ball, with skin that looks like it has been drowned for a long time. He is wearing a large official robe, on which are embroidered countless faces of people wailing.

The one on the right, on the contrary, was extremely thin, even more so than the gaunt ghost from the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, resembling a skeleton dressed in official robes.

They are the "officials" here.

Both ghost officials were about nine meters tall.

If Liang Wang is the ruler of this ghost realm, then they are the enforcers who maintain the operation of the rules of this ghost realm.

"...The...Drunken...Immortal...Tower...has...collapsed..."

The bloated ghost official spoke slowly, his voice muffled as if coming from his stomach, with a gurgling sound, "The meat... has stopped..."

"Go...back...take...it...back..."

The two ghosts conversed in this way, unusually slowly.

But their movements were not that slow.

As the withered ghost official rose and pointed with his withered finger, the ground in the center of the hall suddenly cracked open.

A lump of black, still writhing, rotten flesh was forcibly pulled out of the crack by some invisible force.

That was the gaunt ghost who had his spine broken by Fang Yuan's kick and was severely injured when the Drunken Immortal Pavilion collapsed.

At this moment, it had completely lost its human form.

It's like a pool of black asphalt, rolling, churning, and flowing on the ground, with countless black hands trying to spread out and break free from the darkness.

The bloated ghost official remained silent, his empty eye sockets staring at the ghostly figure on the ground.

Suddenly, a gash appeared on its belly, and a fist-sized piece of blood jade was spat out.

pat.

The blood jade fell onto the black, rotten flesh.

sizzle-

Like a red-hot iron block thrown into cold oil, after a piercing sound, the rotten flesh began to frantically devour the energy in the blood jade.

Black energy surged, and bones began to reorganize.

A moment later, the gaunt ghost figure stood up again.

However, its body was more hunched than before, and it swayed slightly, like a withered tree branch stuck in the mud that was about to break.

Its blackened, rotten flesh was still writhing, repairing the broken bones and torn muscles.

As the blood jade's energy was depleted, its previously collapsed chest swelled up as if inflated, emitting a series of teeth-grinding cracking sounds.

Finally, it stood up straight.

Those jet-black eyes moved slowly, finally settling on the two armchairs above.

It did not bow, nor did it show any fear or awe.

It simply stood there, arms hanging limply, like a newly repaired instrument, awaiting the user's next instruction.

The bloated ghost official on the left leaned forward slightly.

Its face, covered in wrinkles and lividity, showed no expression, except for its exaggeratedly large mouth, which slowly opened once again.

"Why...did...the building...collapse...?"

The sound was dull, like a heavy hammer striking a decaying coffin, echoing throughout the hall.

The gaunt ghostly figure hissed and leaked air from its throat.

Its vocal cords seemed to be still recovering from the previous reconstruction.

After several breaths, it finally uttered a few words very slowly.

"It was... demolished..."

"By...who...?" the withered ghost official on the right asked immediately.

The gaunt, ghostly figure remained silent for a moment.

It seems to be reminiscing.

After a moment, it opened its mouth and, in a tone that remained completely flat, gave its answer:

"A...toad..."

?

?

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

It's like it's stuck.

The air in the entire lobby seemed to freeze at that moment.

The two high-ranking ghost officials stopped moving at the same time.

They didn't blink, they didn't breathe, they just stared fixedly at the gaunt ghostly figures below.

A toad?

What is a toad?

Quack?

frog?

frog?

A small, harmless green creature hopping around in the territory of living things.

Why...? It's a toad?

"Toad...toad...?"

After a full cup of tea's time, the bloated ghost official finally spoke again.

For the first time, a wave of something akin to "confusion" appeared in its voice.

"Are you... sure...?"

"Toads...are...food..."

The emaciated ghost official also spoke, tilting its skeletal head as if trying to understand the absurd answer from a different perspective: "How...can...food...demolish...a...building...?"

In their understanding, this is as absurd as saying "a piece of bread killed a butcher".

Because it is truly incomprehensible.

The gaunt ghost offered no explanation.

It simply nodded mechanically; it had witnessed the facts firsthand, and there was no need for explanation.

"Dark...green...giant...knows...kung fu...and...can...talk..."

It adds some details.

"Huge...big...?" The bloated ghost official grasped the key point.

"How...big...?"

The gaunt, ghostly figure raised his hand, gesturing to indicate a height.

About half a meter.

Although it seems to be considerably larger than a toad in the living world...

but……

Can a half-meter-tall toad demolish a building?

The two ghost officials fell silent again.

To a toad that is half a meter tall, there is no essential difference between half a meter tall and the size of a palm.

They are all nearly nine meters tall, even the gaunt ghost of Zuixianlou is three or four meters tall.

How could something half a meter tall demolish the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, which was built from countless resentments and flesh and blood?

The logic still cannot be closed.

"Martial arts...?" The gaunt ghost official caught another key word.

"What...kung fu...?"

The gaunt ghost recalled the force that was powerful enough to split mountains and shatter rocks.

"Very...hard...strength...very...great...like...military...hard...kung fu..."

A talking toad that has practiced military kung fu.

If this combination were used in a human storyteller's tale, it might elicit a laugh.

But placed in this solemn and ghostly hall, it only evokes a strange sense of disorientation.

The two ghost officials exchanged a glance.

That's not right.

This description is absolutely incorrect.

They captured quite a few soldiers, but none of them had ever seen anyone whose martial arts could rival their ghosts.

Even if one cultivates martial arts to its fullest extent, one can probably only defeat a few ghost soldiers.

Even if they trained to the extreme, they would still be no match for this guy from Zuixianlou. They had made many preparations at Zuixianlou.

Although there was no eye contact between the two ghost officials in their empty eye sockets, they reached a consensus at the same moment.

An anomaly has occurred in the Ghost Realm.

……

If something is abnormal, it needs to be cleared.

Whether it's a toad or something else, it broke the rules, and that's a capital offense.

Moreover, since it was able to demolish the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, it means that it has the ability to threaten the operation of the Ghost Realm.

This uncontrollable factor cannot be allowed to remain.

"Where...is it...?"

The bloated ghost official threw the severed hand on the ground and slowly stood up.

As it moved, its fat body trembled like waves, making gurgling sounds, and a strong stench of decay instantly filled the air.

"Location……"

The gaunt ghost official also stood up, and the chair behind him groaned as if it could no longer bear the weight.

The gaunt ghost shook his head.

"have no idea……"

"When I...woke up...I was...here..."

It was resurrected and summoned here by two ghost officials using blood jade, and knew nothing about what happened after the collapse of the Drunken Immortal Pavilion.

"waste……"

The bloated ghost official coldly uttered two words.

Ghosts rarely have emotions.

But ghosts aren't without emotions; even they can get annoyed by such ignorant creatures.

It ignored the gaunt ghost figure and turned its head to look at the dark void outside the hall.

In this ghostly realm, nothing can truly escape their eyes.

Unless the other party has already escaped from the Ghost Realm.

However, the exit of the Ghost Market is sealed off, and no one can leave without the permission of the King of Liang or at a specific time.

Therefore, the toad must still be inside.

"check……"

The withered ghost official raised a finger and pointed it into the void.

Its fingertip suddenly split open, and a drop of pitch-black blood fell to the ground, instantly transforming into countless tiny black threads that spread rapidly in all directions.

Wherever those countless tiny threads flew, countless dense leeches proliferated rapidly.

The human eye on the leech's back glanced at its surroundings before quickly disappearing...

It's like the drag marks left by a silk thread.

The only sound was the rustling of countless black threads moving across the ground.

A moment later.

The withered, ghostly official's fingers trembled violently.

The wandering threads suddenly stopped, then quickly contracted and converged back at its feet.

Its face, which was just skin and bones, remained expressionless, but the chilling aura emanating from it suddenly intensified.

"Found it..."

Its voice carried a hint of bewilderment that was difficult to comprehend.

The bloated ghost official turned his head and looked at it.

"Where...is it...?"

The gaunt ghost official slowly raised his hand and pointed in a direction.

That direction was neither wilderness, nor ruins, nor some hidden corner.

Rather, it is the core area of ​​this ghostly realm.

"Jail..."

"It...was...caught...by...a...ghost...soldiers..."

"They've already...locked...in...the...cage..."

"..."

The bloated ghost official was stunned.

Something seemed to be shimmering in its empty eye sockets.

Once again, a logical conflict has arisen.

A toad with formidable martial prowess, capable of dismantling the Drunken Immortal Pavilion and defeating the gaunt ghost.

They were actually captured by those lowest-ranking ghost soldiers who could only mechanically patrol and couldn't even think?

Moreover, he was imprisoned in a special prison for ordinary meat-eaters?

? ?

"Sure……?"

The bloated ghost official couldn't help but confirm again.

"Sure……"

The withered ghost official extracted a scene from the ghost soldier's memory.

In the scene, the giant dark green frog is tightly bound by several black chains and is being dragged into the prison by several ghost soldiers like a dead dog.

It did not resist.

There wasn't even a struggle.

and……

The footage also shows that, prior to this, the toad had even been brought before King Liang.

That's normal.

I have met Prince Liang...

But soon, new doubts quickly arose.

"It...saw...King Liang...?"

The bloated ghost official's voice carried a hint of tremor. Why was this guy able to survive after meeting the Prince Liang?

"Liang...Wang...didn't...eat...it...?"

"No...no..." the emaciated ghost official replied, "The...King...disliked...it...not...tasty..."

"..."

The two ghost officials fell into a long silence once again.

King Liang did not eat it.

This means that King Liang did not regard the toad as a threat, and may not even have considered it as a being with higher intelligence.

In Liang Wang's eyes, it was just an unpalatable frog.

So King Liang let it go, and ordered the ghost soldiers to throw it into the prison to be treated as reserve grain or waste.

"...Let's...go...take...it...away...from...it......"

The bloated ghost official shook his head, his enormous head bobbing and making a sound like a water bag rattling.

"……good……"

The withered, ghostly official's voice remained icy.

"Go...to...jail..."

The gaunt, ghostly official strode out of the hall.

With each step it took, it left a dark footprint on the ground, emitting a corrosive blue smoke.

"Mention...someone..."

The bloated ghost official followed.

"Crush...it...to...grind...it...to...crush...it..."

"Look...look...in...what...is...it...?"

Two enormous figures, one fat and one thin, exuding a suffocatingly terrifying aura, slowly walked out of the government office and moved towards the prison.

……

Viewing the Vast Ocean

Countless negative emotions were quickly pushed out of my body: fear, inferiority, apprehension, and worry.

Fang Yuan, however, felt little joy.

It is as solid as a rock.

To the east is the Jieshi to view the sea.

With the blessing of [Viewing the Vast Ocean], the surrounding emotions were seen more clearly.

Countless emotions and thoughts are spreading, like ocean waves.

However, his own thoughts remained steadfast and unwavering. Even when hungry, Fang Yuan was able to completely control his body's movements.

It's as if the first-person holographic experience has been replaced by a third-person mouse and keyboard operation.

He is able to be more rational, more objective, and more able to see his own thoughts from the perspective of others.

More importantly, it allows one to manipulate one's thoughts as easily as one manipulates one's body.

Fang Yuan glanced to the side.

The little white dog, curled up in its cage, had several thoughts clearly visible on its body, even without deliberate attention.

【Hungry】

【Afraid】

Don't steal my food!

Fang Yuan turned his head away dismissively.

Caw! Even if he was starving, he wouldn't steal the other person's food!

...Looking into the distance again, the ghost soldier's thoughts became even clearer.

Fang Yuan took a deep breath.

He tried to have a ghost soldier come over and infuse it with the idea of ​​'unlocking'.

He's about to break out of prison!