Chapter 199: Breaking Free
In what seemed to be a void of dark space.
A grayish-white mountain peak rose abruptly from the ground, its sharp summit like a sword, as if it wanted to pierce straight through this eerie space with no visible end.
This mountain peak was extraordinarily tall, far exceeding any natural wonder humans had ever explored. Standing midway up and looking down, one could only see the mountain body below submerged in darkness, completely unable to discern the base of this great mountain.
To sustain its massive volume, the mountain peak’s shape was extremely bizarre, like a sharp cone, wider at the base and narrower toward the top.
Its shape was very regular, as if this mountain peak was not naturally formed, but rather built up bit by bit with stone blocks, solely to reach the highest point.
Suddenly.
A stone near the mountaintop seemed to be pried loose, detaching from the mountain body and rolling down the grayish-white slope with a rumbling sound.
Its speed increased rapidly, far exceeding the gravitational acceleration in the real world, as if this stone had its own consciousness and was constantly accelerating downward.
Even so, the stone took a long time to smash into the valley bottom.
“Bang!”
The high-speed spinning flying stone finally came to a stop, accompanied by a dull sound, smashing onto countless stones identical to itself.
No, these things did not seem to be stones.
Chisel marks were all over these grayish-white stones, outlining indistinct facial features.
Although the details in between were no longer discernible, those sharp fangs still emanated a deterrent force as if ready to devour anyone.
They were stone statues derived from headworms.
Moreover, this head was not unique; around it were countless identical heads, laid flat, forming what seemed like a vast grayish-white plain.
That mountain peak stood upon this boundless plain.
What composed it was not anything else, but the bodies of one stone statue after another.
Those remains and severed arms gripped each other, like forming a human ladder, borrowing each other’s strength bit by bit to climb toward the sky, all to escape this bizarre room.
Yes, merely to escape.
Even if these stone statues were endless and could easily kill off all the local inhabitants here, it did not mean they could leave from here.
The garbage dump on the ghost ship was too vast.
So vast that even the massive number of stone statues could not fill it, only barely building a ladder to send their companions upward.
And at the mountaintop at this moment.
One stone statue arduously climbed upward, finally stepping atop all its companions.
Its state was also poor; its right arm was severed at the root, and its back bore several extremely terrifying huge claw marks.
These things were not caused by the worms.
Rather, they were wounds inflicted by the “garbage” accumulated on the ghost ship over decades.
Fortunately, the stone statues had tenacious vitality, so it did not take these injuries to heart.
At this moment, its one-eyed gaze was scanning around, seemingly searching for an exit to leave.
However, just then.
An arm full of cracks rested on the one-eyed statue’s shoulder.
Then, with a gentle press from this arm, the one-eyed statue uncontrollably knelt to the ground, lowering its posture to become a step for ascending higher.
The newcomer was nothing else, just another stone statue.
Its face was similarly blurred, but its facial features were not normal.
Two vertical horns shot skyward, and the corners of its grinning mouth revealed several ferocious fangs.
Compared to a human, this thing resembled a true fierce ghost more.
It somewhat resembled Zhang Qian at full power onslaught, but upon closer inspection, there were slight differences.
Like a counterfeit with only the form, though its appearance could gradually approach the original owner, its spirit and soul could not be imitated.
To solve this problem, there was perhaps only one method: kill the original owner, become the one and only, and there would naturally be no question of authenticity.
Even so, this impostor’s strength was still very great; it had not sustained any significant injuries even after confronting many fierce ghosts, completely unlike the wretched state of the one-eyed statue under its feet.
Unfortunately, this strength offered no help whatsoever for the current situation.
The portal out of this garbage room had long closed; unless one could counter the rules set by the ghost ship, there was absolutely no possibility of opening a door from inside.
It could only wait, wait for others outside to reopen a portal.
This time was hard to define, perhaps a day, a month, or even decades…
Or perhaps the next moment.
Suddenly.
A pitch black wooden door over four or five meters tall appeared before the evil ghost stone statue.
Before it could make any move, this main entrance had already opened inward on its own, as if welcoming its arrival.
The evil ghost naturally did not hesitate; with a light kick, its body shot upward, leaping into that portal.
And behind it, the mountain piled from remains collapsed entirely, countless stones crashing into the abyss amid a huge rumbling sound.
The massive momentum was like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting, yet an inconspicuous figure leapt into the portal just before the mountain peak crumbled.
Inside the music hall.
Zhang Qian’s figure vanished without a trace immediately after stepping through that light screen, leaving only several hundred baffled audience members in the hall and the unrelenting musical sound.
The chains swayed incessantly under the audience’s tugging, emitting bursts of dull collision sounds.
But these figures still had not broken free from the restraints up to now.
The rust-stained iron chains on their bodies were not as fragile as they appeared, impossible to break easily. And the ends of the chains seemed bound to a massive giant anchor, impossible to yank open casually.
Unless all the audience transformed into fierce ghosts, they would not have the ability to escape.
However, with the attack target gone from the music hall, these eerie figures surprisingly ceased their fierce resistance.
Even under the suppression of the chains’ immense force, several figures that had stood up began to slowly descend, as if to sit back in their seats.
Moreover, the speed of this suppression would surely accelerate; perhaps in less than an hour, these guys would obediently sit back down until someone awakened them again.
But shortly after Zhang Qian left.
That main entrance, which had not yet closed in time, admitted a new visitor.
All the figures’ gazes were drawn to this strange thing, unanimously falling on the evil ghost stone statue.
Thus… the stone statue froze.
The entire hall fell silent for a moment, followed immediately by even more intense struggling sounds.
The audience did not care if the stone statue would fight back, nor whether this stone statue was human; they simply wanted very much to kill the guy before their eyes.
“Bang!”
Suddenly, a crisp sound of metal breaking echoed from the hall’s corner.
The iron chains that had suppressed the audience for decades finally snapped at the moment of their collective resurgence.
