Chapter 238: Time Stop Once More
“No need, I’ll handle things on this front.” Yue Linhai listened to Zhang Qian’s offer to take the initiative but had no intention of letting him assist.
It made sense too; having his strength swallowed was embarrassing enough. Now that he was awake, if he still couldn’t beat that unfilial son, Yue Linhai might as well lie back in the coffin early, find an auspicious place, and bury himself.
Of course, Zhang Qian was just being polite. He could barely protect himself on the ghost ship now, so where would he have the chance to go to Dadong City and catch Little Linhai? It was mainly to express his stance as a junior, lest asking too many questions upset Yue Linhai.
After the pleasantries were mostly done, Zhang Qian turned to ask about this big shot’s purpose: “Since Senior has it under control, I won’t say more. I just don’t know what this place is. What does Senior want by bringing me in here?”
Yue Linhai had anticipated Zhang Qian would ask, so he didn’t hesitate and immediately explained: “This isn’t my turf, and I didn’t pull you into this space either. I just had a sensing and borrowed the venue.”
“Sensing?” Zhang Qian was puzzled.
The content in this book was just a simple recording. Under such circumstances, could Yue Linhai with incomplete strength sense it?
This was inside the ghost ship, and Yue Linhai should still be in Dadong City, right?
“Mm.” Yue Linhai nodded. Feng Quan, this junior, was somewhat interesting, so he didn’t mind saying a bit more.
“You seem to have little concept of such things. You’ll need to pay more attention to issues like this in the future. Ghost controllers’ perception is extremely sharp, especially after you establish a connection with them. Many people can detect it or even use that connection to counter-invade.”
“For example, this book. After you opened it and my phantom appeared, though the connection with me isn’t tight, I have strength in this area, so replacing the person in the image with my consciousness isn’t difficult.”
A bit advanced.
Zhang Qian rubbed his chin. Though Yue Linhai made it sound easy, probably very few could do it—definitely not many in the current era.
However…
Glancing sideways at the impenetrable thick fog, Zhang Qian said softly: “Since Senior can invade here via the phantom, doesn’t that mean the ghost ship captain can too? Why doesn’t he come in?”
According to Yue Linhai’s own account, his strength was down to less than a tenth now. Things he could do, the captain had no reason not to be able to.
But in reality, the captain showed no reaction at all to their meeting. He still acted like a movie character, not intervening, just no longer speaking.
“…”
Yue Linhai didn’t speak, just giving Zhang Qian a look to let him figure it out himself.
Zhang Qian then came to his senses. Right, who the hell am I to warrant the captain’s personal attention?
Though his goal was to prevent the ghost ship’s resurgence, to the captain, the two sides probably weren’t even on the same dimension from the start.
It felt like an ant punching an elephant’s toenail with its tiny fist, hoping to beat the elephant to death. Not impossible, but the probability that the little ant could live a hundred years until the elephant died of old age was much higher.
And Zhang Qian felt his gap with these big shots was even bigger than ant and elephant—mainly because the elephant might not step on the ant, but if these big shots really wanted to kill, probably no one could escape.
“Good thing he looks down on me, or I probably wouldn’t have gotten this far.”
Zhang Qian felt relieved, no dramatic reversal like thirty years east of the river, thirty years west.
He really couldn’t beat him; even the ghost ship’s rooms alone had hindered him greatly. If he accidentally provoked the captain into personally intervening by insulting him, all his efforts would be wasted.
Now he just hoped the captain would stay aloof and do nothing, waiting for him to deliver the letter.
But even a peer like Yue Linhai couldn’t get the captain to take notice?
Noticing Zhang Qian’s contemplative gaze, Yue Linhai gently raised his left hand and pointed into the air with his shriveled finger.
A click from an old-style camera triggered from somewhere unknown.
In an instant, the world before them suddenly brightened.
Zhang Qian didn’t pay much attention to the sound, though; his line of sight was drawn to the changes before him.
The previously thick gray fog suddenly dispersed—no, it should be called vanished.
Because the process had no preamble at all. Even glaring with wide eyes at Yue Linhai’s actions, Zhang Qian saw no clue.
It was as if at that moment, an invisible giant mouth swallowed all the thick fog into its belly, leaving only this world before them.
Seeing the blue sky and white clouds outside again, Zhang Qian couldn’t help but frown.
Too quiet.
So quiet that his own heartbeat felt piercingly loud.
Not only had the conversation sounds vanished, even the surging waves and howling sea winds seemed to have stalled at this moment.
However…
Looking at the stagnant light beam before him, Zhang Qian felt this might not be an illusion.
With sharp eyes, he looked into the distance and soon spotted some tiny black dots that were eerily still.
Those were soaring seabirds, now as if fixed in place by a large net.
“Time stop?” Zhang Qian swallowed. He took back his earlier claim of having seen much.
Even the way he looked at Yue Linhai changed a bit.
Time stop—though Zhang Qian didn’t share ordinary men’s lowbrow tastes, from past chats with classmates, he knew how exalted this ability’s status was in men’s hearts.
Probably no one wouldn’t want such an ability, right?
But in most people’s eyes, even cultivating immortality seemed more reliable than trying for it, since cultivation had many myths and legends, while time stop was mostly from island nation works.
But now, someone had done it right in front of him…
Calming himself, Zhang Qian suddenly realized this wasn’t the real world after all. Maybe it was just pausing the player—not that terrifying.
“Time stop?” Yue Linhai paused. “Not quite accurate.”
Zhang Qian’s excitement deflated by eighty percent upon hearing that. As expected, time stop wasn’t that easy to achieve.
But Yue Linhai continued, “My strength is still very limited now. I can’t completely freeze everyone, and the controllable time is very short too.”
In the end, wasn’t that still time stop?
Zhang Qian automatically ignored the limitations and pressed: “Then this area now…”
Yue Linhai shook his head calmly. “This space doesn’t even qualify as a world. I mainly controlled the captain’s phantom to prevent him from personally intervening. The rest was just incidental.”
