Chapter 147: Eerie Music
Flames swirled, quietly wrapping around the dark brown map.
Probably influenced by the environment inside the Ghost Ship, the orange-yellow flames didn’t bring Zhang Qian the slightest warmth; instead, they seemed like post-processed special effects, just a layer of texture without any real sensation.
However, he had previously used this lighter to ignite the Ghost Candle, proving that the flame’s temperature was still fine.
So Zhang Qian wasn’t in a hurry. He picked a corner on the map and started roasting it over the outer flame.
Time gradually passed, and Zhang Qian had prepared himself for an attack, but the Ghost Map’s reaction surprised him somewhat.
The leather merely bathed in the flames, seemingly unaffected in the slightest—neither burning or damaging from the high heat, nor showing resurgence from the stimulation.
“No reaction even like this? As a Fierce Ghost, that’s a bit too laid-back.”
Continuing to drag it out was meaningless, so Zhang Qian thoughtfully turned off the lighter and reached out to touch the corner that had just been roasted.
The texture was still very smooth, with no trace of being affected. The flames hadn’t even left any residual warmth on the map; the entire leather still felt cold, as if it had just been taken out of a freezer.
Was the stimulation not strong enough, or had he not satisfied the Killing Pattern yet, so no matter how he provoked it, it wouldn’t work?
Zhang Qian shook his head slightly. It was a pity the bullets were all used up; otherwise, he could have fired a shot at this thing to test it.
“Thinking about it now, repelling a Fierce Ghost with a Gold Bullet earlier was something that had never been recorded before.”
Normally, Gold Bullets had a hard time killing even Ghost Slaves, let alone having any effect on Fierce Ghosts.
According to some records from Headquarters, after Wang Xiaoming discovered the rule that Fierce Ghosts couldn’t affect gold, besides using gold as a means to Imprison Fierce Ghosts, many more hoped to use gold as a Weapon to Attack Fierce Ghosts.
Since Gold Bullets couldn’t kill them, someone proposed gold grenades, gold shells, even gold missiles.
However, these proposals were all similar, merely replacing some alloy with pure gold and metal fragments with gold fragments.
It was just increasing the quantity without qualitative change; no matter how much was added, it had no effect. Apart from making a bigger Movement, it couldn’t even kill the weakest Fierce Ghost.
“Attaching True Qi to bullets can harm Fierce Ghosts; both the Shadow Ghost and the Severed Limb Ghost were affected by the bullets.”
“But the amount of True Qi carried on the bullets is too little; the influence on Fierce Ghosts can at most make them pause momentarily, recovering in an instant, far less damaging than a punch from me.”
This was a Problem Zhang Qian had discovered long ago. He had even made a set of gold Weapons for himself before, but the effects were mediocre.
Although gold wouldn’t be corroded by True Qi, the amount of True Qi it could carry was also very limited, far inferior to the directness of a punch.
Its only use was probably to avoid direct contact with Fierce Ghosts and prevent being tainted.
“The number of Fierce Ghosts I can devour in a short time is limited; maybe I need to find some Magic Treasure to strengthen my Strength.” Zhang Qian murmured, looking at the Handgun at his waist.
As a Cultivator, he had to get himself a set of Magic Treasures. Every day it was either fists or a gold Stick; other Immortal Cultivators seeing that would think he couldn’t afford better.
Although orthodox Magic Treasures were hard to find, since he had started cultivating by eating Fierce Ghosts, he wasn’t exactly a proper Immortal Cultivator anyway, so using Supernatural Items would have the same effect.
Putting aside the vague idea, he still needed to deal with the matters inside the Ghost Ship first; whether he could get out was another question.
“This thing just doesn’t match my stereotype of a Fierce Ghost.”
All conventional methods that could be used had been Attempted, yet the Ghost Map showed no Resistance, dangling listlessly in Zhang Qian’s hand—clearly lifeless, yet giving off a listless feeling.
As for probing the Ghost Map with True Qi, the True Qi in Zhang Qian’s hand hadn’t stopped, continuously surging into this Blueprint.
But he felt no Resistance; the True Qi lost contact the instant it entered the map, like falling into some bottomless pit—not only unfillable, but also invisible.
Like it had been eaten by something.
Just as Zhang Qian was deep in thought, some eerie Sound suddenly reached his ears.
“Hm?”
Zhang Qian instantly raised his head, looking around, trying to find the Source of that Sound.
But he failed.
The entire Room had already been searched by Zhang Qian; the only anomalous map was in his hand, and aside from himself, there shouldn’t be anything else that could move.
Moreover, the Room’s furnishings were extremely simple, without even a single outlet, let alone a Television or Radio-like appliance.
That Sound seemed to have crossed numerous obstacles, somewhat distorted, indistinguishable in content or what had produced it.
Zhang Qian temporarily set aside the Ghost Map and tried to interpret the meaning of this eerie Sound.
“Seems like a piece of Music?”
Though blurry, this Sound indeed had some Pattern, or rather, melody.
But before Zhang Qian could listen carefully, the Music abruptly stopped, as signless as its appearance.
As Zhang Qian held his breath, the surrounding Space fell into complete silence, save for the Waves outside the porthole continuously crashing, raising bursts of Wave sounds.
That Sound seemed truly gone, leaving not the slightest trace, as if it had just been an Illusion.
But Zhang Qian hadn’t even considered the possibility of hallucination, because that Sound seemed to contain some melody, not something an illusion could form.
Moreover, he hadn’t eaten any mushrooms; even if he had, they probably couldn’t poison him now.
What he cared about was the meaning of the Music, but the Sound had appeared for too short a Time to discern any crucial information.
“A piece of Music, doesn’t seem like one I’ve heard before…”
When Zhang Qian tried to hum that melody from Memory, he felt his Head go into a muddle, unable to recall even the tiniest detail.
Even when he tried to delve deeper, his whole body felt somewhat light and floaty, as if something was about to detach from within him.
The next Moment.
“Where is this?”
His pupils slightly dilated, then refocused, and Zhang Qian’s face actually showed some confusion.
His Memory had glitched again; all those Memories about himself and the Supernatural had completely vanished.
At that moment, from a perspective Zhang Qian himself couldn’t observe, a yellow paper stuck to his Forehead gently swayed.
In less than a second, his eyes regained clarity.
The reacting Zhang Qian only felt a blur before his eyes, but the Feeling of losing Memory just now was vividly etched in his mind.
This Feeling was exactly the same as when he had just awakened from unconsciousness.
“Just because I tried to recall this Music, my Memory nearly vanished…”
