Chapter 256: Tracing The Origin
“Still no use?”
Hearing the footsteps that appeared once again not far away, Zhang Qian’s gaze flickered, and he turned back to glance at the figure following closely behind him step by step.
In the previous attack, there were four fierce ghosts, but Zhang Qian had only dealt with three of them, leaving one behind.
It wasn’t because he lacked the ability to eliminate them all; he just wanted to verify the pattern of these fierce ghost attacks and any details he hadn’t noticed before.
If he could exploit a few loopholes, surviving these attacks would undoubtedly be much simpler.
Unfortunately, it now seemed that even if the fierce ghost from the previous wave hadn’t fully fallen, even if the previous wave’s attack hadn’t ended, the next attack still wouldn’t be delayed at all.
Having reached a conclusion in his mind, Zhang Qian wasn’t in a hurry to deal with the fierce ghost behind him; there was one last thing he needed it to confirm.
Soon, Zhang Qian stopped at the intersection of three passages.
At that moment, the footsteps suddenly paused for an instant, and when they resumed, they became layered and overlapping again.
And the number… there were four in total.
There was only one fierce ghost in each of the passages to the left and right, but the passage behind him had two figures, one of which had just appeared, and the other was the survivor from the previous attack.
“Too optimistic…”
Zhang Qian shook his head. He had been wondering if he could use the fierce ghost from the previous attack to replace one fierce ghost’s quota, but now it seemed that wouldn’t work.
A bit of a pity. If the previous wave’s fierce ghost could offset the next wave’s appearing fierce ghost, he could completely leave two weaker fierce ghosts like now without worrying about the fierce ghosts’ strength growing higher later on.
Since he had observed enough, keeping them now served no purpose…
With a thought, Zhang Qian turned around and charged forward instead of retreating, heading straight for the two approaching figures.
The fierce ghost didn’t change its behavior because of his actions; its expression was numb, advancing mechanically like a lifelike wooden puppet.
Combined with the dim, flickering lights inside the library, it actually looked somewhat intimidating.
However, the heavy blow from the wooden stick Zhang Qian struck on its head quickly shattered the terror atmosphere around it. With a crisp “bang,” the figure left over from the previous attack collapsed.
Only slightly stronger supernatural strength than Feng Quan, and it hadn’t shown any special supernatural power; such an existence didn’t even have the qualification to fight back in front of Zhang Qian.
But the other newly appeared figure wasn’t just for show. After Zhang Qian struck down its companion with one blow, it didn’t hesitate at all; its head tilted slightly, and it reached out to grab Zhang Qian.
“Finally willing to use supernatural power?”
Seeing the puppet-like figure make a new action, Zhang Qian’s eyes lit up.
However, he had no intention of testing it personally; now wasn’t the time to study the supernatural—he just needed to take these guys down.
Retracting the wooden stick would take time, and before that, the figure’s hand seemed like it could reach Zhang Qian first.
Fortunately, he had more than one method to counter the supernatural.
With a thought, the ghost mask that had been primed suddenly covered Zhang Qian’s face.
The reaching figure froze, its eyes and the glasses on its nose bridge simultaneously reflecting the black-and-white fierce mask.
“Crack—”
Several cracks suddenly crawled across the glasses’ lenses. As the glass shattered into fragments, the figure that had directly stared at the ghost mask went completely limp, collapsing to the ground like a deflated balloon.
And unlike the one that could still struggle after taking a few blows, this one attacked by the ghost mask was exceptionally quiet; no one would doubt it if you said it was truly dead.
Even Zhang Qian himself was startled by this effect.
Wait, no way, am I really this badass?
Although he hadn’t carefully sensed this fierce ghost’s supernatural strength, the tenth wave’s fierce ghosts were already stronger than Feng Quan; this first test wave’s fierce ghost couldn’t possibly get weaker the longer it lived.
Doesn’t that mean Feng Quan wouldn’t last even one move against him?
Hmm… seems pretty normal, alright then.
Thinking that Feng Quan was pretty weak to begin with, Zhang Qian no longer felt smug.
He could sense his own strength had improved, but this was the ghost ship after all; both the fierce ghosts’ and his own strength were suppressed quite a bit, so it was hard to say exactly what level he was at now.
After all, since his debut, he rarely clashed with other ghost controllers; the only one he was somewhat familiar with, Feng Quan, wasn’t much of a reference.
Closing the door to build a car wouldn’t do; he needed to exchange ideas with this generation’s ghost controllers when he had the chance. With headquarters backing him, no one should refuse to give face.
“Pa, pa…”
The footsteps ringing in his ears seemed like a reminder, also making Zhang Qian remember there were still two ghosts waiting for him over there.
However, bullying weaklings was really boring. In one-on-one situations, Zhang Qian took them out in just a few moves.
This process didn’t use the ghost mask; after all, for clearing small fries, there was no need to go all out right away.
Moreover, while the ghost mask was powerful, its pattern was also very obvious. If observed by someone with intent, it could put him at a disadvantage in a confrontation…
No.
Seeing the ghost mask would trigger the ghost mask’s attack pattern, unless someone could tank a hit and survive or he revealed it himself; otherwise, no one could possibly discover it.
Whatever, the stronger the ability, the greater the consumption. Who knew what he’d face later; no need to go all out on these small fries now.
After dealing with the fierce ghosts, Zhang Qian shook the stains off his stick and walked toward the source of the sound with a face full of black lines.
Having heard those footsteps so many times already, he had long deduced the source’s position. If the space here didn’t play tricks, there was no chance of going the wrong way.
The next wave of attacks was still a while away, so Zhang Qian quickened his pace, wanting to reach the source before the attack happened.
……
On the pitch black sea surface.
Two statues were still facing off.
Calling it a face-off wasn’t quite right; based on their positions, it was more like the captain was looking down condescendingly at Yue Linhai, scrutinizing this challenger attempting to overstep with eyes shrouded in shadow.
The current captain had no emotions, so seeing Yue Linhai didn’t spark any thought of revenge for the past seal.
After all, the captain’s name wasn’t for show; leaving the ghost ship would greatly discount its strength.
The ghost ship’s power was still slowly resurging now, and breaking through the blockade also required time, so although the captain didn’t know why Yue Linhai didn’t dare approach, it was happy to let him waste time like this.
Naturally, the longer time was dragged out, the better; this was the crucial point of resurgence, and it didn’t want to fail at the last step here.
