Chapter 191: Our Side Fails To Pierce Enemy Armor
The Mannequin’s sleeping posture was very steady. If one could ignore those hideous wounds and overlook its pitted forehead, it actually looked a little cute.
But Zhang Qian was not moved by this ugliness that was cute in a way.
“Pa pa pa!”
Looking at the Mannequin sleeping soundly in his hand, he didn’t hesitate at all and raised his hand for several crisp, resounding slaps.
Now was not a good time for sleeping. These Ghostly Things in the Hall were like out-of-control Bombs, liable to explode at any unknown time, with no time to let the Mannequin wake up slowly on its own.
However, after several slaps, the Mannequin still showed no sign of waking. Apart from a few red marks added to its deathly pale round face, it didn’t even hum.
“It still won’t wake up? Could the Supernatural still be affecting its Consciousness? Is the suppression from True Qi no longer working?”
Zhang Qian suspiciously shook the Mannequin by grabbing it, then increased the output of True Qi, refusing to believe it.
But in his perception, the Supernatural Power inside the Mannequin wasn’t too strong—not even as much as Xu Zheng’s Ghost Hair. Suppressing such Supernatural Power with True Qi shouldn’t be a Problem.
Not even a few seconds later, Zhang Qian stopped.
“Can’t continue. The Supernatural Power in the Mannequin has already dropped to the lowest point. If suppression continues, what awaits it might be true system crash, and its Consciousness inside could dissipate.”
After searching with True Qi, Zhang Qian found no traces of other Supernatural Existences inside the Mannequin.
It was very likely because the Mannequin’s Body was a real Fierce Ghost, causing unknown interference to the perception of True Qi.
But no matter what, the idea of waking the Mannequin seemed impossible to achieve.
After all, even the cause of its Silence couldn’t be determined…
It didn’t seem entirely certain.
Zhang Qian suddenly remembered something.
The Musical Sound had attacked him more than once, but in previous attacks, as long as the Attack succeeded and his Memory disappeared, the Musical Sound would soon dissipate.
After that, regardless of whether his Memory recovered, the Musical Sound wouldn’t come immediately, nor would it last too long.
But the Music in this Hall had lasted at least several minutes, far exceeding the previous Limit time.
Was it possible that the Attack hadn’t fully succeeded yet?
He had already suffered the Attack, but the Musical Sound hadn’t stopped, meaning the thing preventing it from stopping wasn’t him.
Then it could only be the Mannequin.
“In this Hall, the only ones who could possibly be attacked are me and the Mannequin. Although the Mannequin is a Fierce Ghost, these Ghostly Things seem unwilling to go easy even on their own kind.”
“Seeing how harmonious the Singing and Music are, the Dancer and Piano are clearly in cahoots, so it makes sense that only the Mannequin, this outsider Ghost, is being attacked.”
Zhang Qian shook the lifeless Mannequin in his hand, feeling its current state was a bit like a comatose patient who had lost Consciousness.
The Supernatural Power inside still existed, able to instinctively control the Body to not move randomly, but the weak Consciousness couldn’t support the Body to act.
Just erasing Supernatural Memory shouldn’t affect Consciousness…
“Forgot this guy is a Fierce Ghost. How to control a Fierce Ghost’s Body is probably also a Memory related to the Supernatural,” Zhang Qian realized suddenly.
For ordinary Humans, the Music was just an Attack that erased Memory, but for the Mannequin, it was probably no different from a Certain Death Attack.
Or rather, the Mannequin’s Fierce Ghost Body was inherently undying and indestructible, while its Human Consciousness was too fragile.
“The Mannequin itself should be hiding other Secrets, allowing it to barely resist this Piano’s Attack.”
Zhang Qian slowly walked toward the Piano.
He wasn’t surprised that the Mannequin could resist the Musical Sound for so long, after all, he himself was somewhat special, able to quickly Recover Memory in the Musical Sound.
But the Mannequin’s situation was completely different from his.
The current situation was that the Music had failed to erase the Mannequin’s Memory, so it was stuck in the erasure phase and unwilling to dissipate.
And the Mannequin had fallen into paralysis under the Musical Sound’s Attack but had barely preserved its Consciousness.
For now, it seemed the two had reached a dynamic Balance, but this Balance wasn’t stable and would inevitably be broken, with the final loser definitely being the Mannequin.
“Need to find a way to help it fight that Musical Sound…” Zhang Qian muttered.
The Mannequin definitely couldn’t be abandoned. After all, though not entirely competent as a guide, it still had some use.
Even if it hadn’t played a big role in this Music Hall, there would be other places on the Ghost Ship later where it would come in handy.
But how to help was the Problem.
The Musical Sound was formless and intangible. Apart from Feeling noisy and piercing, Zhang Qian actually had no other sensations.
As for going deep into the Mannequin’s Body to help with True Qi, he had already tried that and couldn’t find the unknown Supernatural Power.
“Taking it away isn’t realistic either. Not to mention the Hall’s exit can’t be determined, even if leaving the Hall for real, the Music could still cross Space to Attack.”
Still had to start from the Source…
While thinking, he had already arrived in front of that black Piano from the Republic of China Era.
The Cabinet-like Piano had nothing special in appearance, just the self-moving Piano Keys looked somewhat eerie.
With quite a few Ghostly Things around, Zhang Qian decided to try a gentler method first.
“Pa—”
The keyboard lid slammed shut.
In Headquarters’ archives, there were also records of some things related to the Supernatural.
These Fierce Ghosts seemed not only to have taken on the appearance of familiar objects but also followed some Rules of those objects.
For example, turning off the Television could stop the haunting, closing the vanity mirror could terminate the Attack…
Unfortunately, this Piano was probably an exception.
The Musical Sound showed no sign of stopping; the Sound from the Piano even became more cheerful.
Hm… as expected, not that simple.
Zhang Qian, who had anticipated this, wasn’t disappointed and first glanced sideways at the Dancer’s reaction.
Seeing no other Actions from her, seemingly unaware of the anomaly here, Zhang Qian then turned back confidently.
“To avoid accidents, better to be quick.”
He casually tossed the Mannequin to the ground nearby.
Just after losing the suppression from True Qi, its hands and feet had already started twitching.
Under the influence of the Singing, the nearly Silent Supernatural Power was rapidly undergoing Resurgence.
But Zhang Qian didn’t pay attention to the Mannequin’s situation. The instant he let go of the Mannequin, he had already aimed the Wooden Stick at the slit on top of the Piano and thrust it in hard.
“Bang.”
The Pitch Black Piano collided with the deep red Wooden Stick, yet the Sound was as dull as a heavy object falling to the ground.
The two pieces of wood weren’t damaged by Zhang Qian’s great force—or rather, with this Stick strike from Zhang Qian, not even the paint on the Piano was scratched.
