Chapter 193: A Different Approach
With a gentle shake, the wood chips on his left hand rustled and fell to the floor.
Immediately after, it was as if several hundred years had passed in an instant, turning into ash and disappearing from Zhang Qian’s view.
“As expected, the piano has nothing special about it; the core lies in the thing hidden inside…”
Glancing at those increasingly restless audience members, Zhang Qian didn’t hesitate and pressed his palm on the previous palm print.
Although he didn’t quite understand why he could obtain part of the Severed Limb Ghost’s ability, the current situation clearly wasn’t the time to delve into the principle behind it.
Although he had previously wanted to retreat, now that there was hope to avoid the supernatural power, he definitely couldn’t give up easily.
Of course, if using the Severed Limb Ghost’s supernatural still couldn’t deal with this piano, then Zhang Qian wouldn’t hesitate and would probably just run away from the main entrance.
“The time until the audience breaks free won’t be too long, but it’s not yet imminent; I can try again to see if I can awaken the mannequin.”
Keeping an eye on the movement in the hall behind him, he began to mobilize his own True Qi.
Soon, the True Qi collided with the supernatural power on the piano’s surface.
“True Qi and the supernatural on the piano’s surface are clashing.”
If it were just an ordinary piano, under such an offensive, it probably couldn’t hold out even for a second.
Not to mention True Qi, even Zhang Qian’s own strength was enough to easily smash a piano.
And now, the True Qi surging from Zhang Qian’s hand was completely neutralized, unable to stir up the slightest ripple.
Although the piano didn’t actively counterattack, its supernatural strength was evidently very high, more than enough to block the True Qi’s attack.
It was precisely this layer of supernatural barrier that allowed this old piano to endure for so long.
If it continued like this, Zhang Qian could only stalemate with the piano, neither able to do anything to the other.
However, that portion of supernatural stolen from the Severed Limb Ghost took effect.
“Crack crack crack—”
The sound of inch-by-inch cracking rose from the top of the piano, with cracks spreading outward along the palm full of blood threads.
Just like how the Severed Limb Ghost could harm Zhang Qian simply by touch before, now Zhang Qian didn’t need to push his True Qi into the supernatural power’s interior to damage the piano’s body beneath the supernatural protection.
Moreover, this speed was extremely fast.
The Severed Limb Ghost’s supernatural was equivalent to true damage that could break through shields; it hadn’t instantly killed Zhang Qian earlier only because his health bar was relatively thick and continuously recovering.
This piano didn’t have such a thick health bar; just after brief contact with the palm, it already faintly showed signs of collapsing.
Kicking away the pouncing mannequin again, Zhang Qian suddenly felt his hand loosen.
The wood touched by the palm had completely shattered, and a pitch-black hole instantly appeared at the top of the piano.
Cautiously leaning in to look, inside it was like a pitch-black void, with nothing else visible.
But that musical sound became even louder.
Like finding a vent, the previously somewhat muffled music suddenly became clear, surging out from that hole all at once.
The eerie music grew increasingly noisy, and the dancer seemed affected too, her singing becoming more urgent.
Vaguely, Zhang Qian seemed to hear the sound of chains swinging.
Rustling sounds of metal clashing continuously rang out, like someone frantically shaking a chain.
Of course, it wasn’t really a person doing that; it was just the audience in the hall becoming somewhat agitated.
Looking sideways, those audience members had previously been sitting obediently, and even the few standing ones made no other actions.
But now, they seemed stimulated by something, their two arms clawing at the sides of their necks, as if trying to tear off that invisible iron chain.
“This dancer and piano are indeed in cahoots, and they might even be a kind of alternative puzzle piece.” Zhang Qian sped up the actions on his hand a bit more.
The figures that had risen in combat power were nearing ten percent, and these guys were taking an interest in him again, one by one turning their eyes back.
Although there were no emotions like killing intent in those eyes, Zhang Qian was certain that once they broke free, he would be in big trouble.
But Zhang Qian wasn’t afraid; he even felt a bit pleased.
“The more the enemies oppose it, the more correct my actions are. If these ghostly things ignored me completely, I might still consider whether to continue; now that they’re so anxious, at least it shows this isn’t futile.”
With confidence in his heart, Zhang Qian worked even more vigorously.
Looking at the wooden stick idle in his hand and that small hole, he directly thrust the wooden stick into it.
But the space inside this piano was much larger than it appeared on the outside; in just an instant, the wooden stick was fully embedded to the hilt, without touching any obstacle.
“Just breaking a hole on the outside, but the supernatural inside hasn’t been greatly affected yet?”
Looking in, the darkness in this pit couldn’t be pierced by True Qi, clearly not a normal situation.
If he wanted to get the thing inside the piano out, he probably really had to dismantle the entire piano.
Just as Zhang Qian was pondering.
Suddenly, a massive force came from the darkness, nearly yanking the wooden stick from his hand.
Fortunately, that force only appeared for an instant, without intending to wrestle with Zhang Qian; failing to succeed immediately, it dissipated right away.
“Want to escape?”
Zhang Qian thrust toward the depths of the pit, but didn’t hit anything.
Pulling out the wooden stick to look, surprisingly, about one-third from the end of this stick, there was a pitch-black palm print.
The size of this palm print was somewhat like that of an adult woman, but from the print, each of its fingers seemed extremely eerie.
Just the mark left by the thumb had wrapped around the wooden stick two full circles; this length was four or five times longer than normal.
Evidently, the thing hiding inside the piano was getting uneasy.
But such an attack was truly unworthy of the supernatural strength displayed by the piano.
“It seems this fierce ghost’s main attack method is just the musical sound; although the supernatural power isn’t weak, there’s no effective way to use it.”
Since that’s the case, his actions could be a bit bolder.
As he was thinking, the mannequin that had just landed not long ago quickly crawled over from afar again.
Under the influence of that singing, its recovery speed seemed to be getting faster and faster.
Seeing the mannequin charging over, Zhang Qian didn’t kick it away this time, but changed strategy, stepping on it underfoot.
The mannequin’s mouth immediately opened, emitting a sob-like sound.
Its limbs thrashed unwillingly, seemingly trying to scratch at Zhang Qian’s foot pressing down on it.
