Chapter 1572: Chapter 931: Something’s Not Right
Underfoot is a slightly muddy swamp, and the salty, fishy smell comes from here.
Even with the Ghost Lantern in hand, Yang Xiao can only see a radius of 5 meters around him; beyond that, everything is shrouded in a blur of darkness, which remains as the illusion within the deep sea world.
Given Yang Xiao’s current strength, he could dispel a larger area of the illusion, but he won’t; doing so would consume too much spiritual power, and the opponent’s spiritual strength is far superior to his—even trying to outlast them would be foolish.
Yang Xiao stayed alert, scanning his surroundings—yet after a minute passed, the opponent hadn’t launched an attack, leaving the area eerily silent.
This feeling made Yang Xiao increasingly uneasy; to dispel the illusion, the Ghost Lantern was continually consuming energy, and it was clear the Japanese woman intended to wear him out.
Yang Xiao adjusted his posture constantly, changing directions, prepared for any possible ambush, but in reality, he had already detected the opponent’s location using the Human Bone Staff.
Though the position was rather vague, it was enough for Yang Xiao to sense the opponent had approached to about 7 or 8 meters behind him.
As that aura leapt from the illusion behind him, Yang Xiao moved swiftly; pivoting, he struck downward fluidly, the Human Bone Staff, charged for a long time, released its attack in an instant, catching the Japanese woman off guard, causing her body to halt involuntarily.
For experts clashing, victory can be decided in a split second; this brief moment of hesitation spelled disaster for the Japanese woman as Yang Xiao pressed the advantage, charging forward and switching the Human Bone Staff for the Ring-Headed Saber, with one stroke severing the woman at the waist.
This sequence of attacks was executed flawlessly, without any hesitation, because Yang Xiao had rehearsed it numerous times in his mind.
But as the sharp blade cut through the woman’s body, Yang Xiao sensed something was off—there was no resistance of cutting through flesh and bone; his strike seemed to cut into nothingness, as if he was... slashing at a mere shadow.
"Damn..." Yang Xiao’s heart sank instantly as he realized he had fallen into an illusion, but how could it be? His Ghost Lantern had never extinguished.
If it were a different high-rank Apostle attempting to tease him with an illusion, perhaps it’d be feasible, but he couldn’t believe the Japanese woman could achieve this.
Earlier at the Esoteric Sect, Yang Xiao had sought advice from Dean Sheng, who candidly stated that with the Ghost Lantern in hand, only someone with Netherworld Realm strength could fully deceive him, even if he couldn’t completely break the illusion, he could detect some flaws; no illusion is perfect.
Clearly, the Japanese woman didn’t possess that strength, otherwise Jiang Qingluan wouldn’t have managed to escape back then.
The "Japanese woman" whom Yang Xiao had slashed stopped moving immediately, freezing in place as if crashing, maintaining her last pose before being "killed" by Yang Xiao.
Realizing he had been duped, Yang Xiao swiftly changed his tactic to the Qin King’s Sword-carrying Style, pushing the saber from his waist to his back, with the hilt up, his arm stretched back, gripping the hilt tightly, defending his rear while ready to strike again.
But when he turned back, he saw no trace of the Japanese woman—just an empty space behind him.
"She’s gone..." Yang Xiao’s pupils shrank suddenly, seemingly realizing something as he leaned forward, drawing the saber to slash behind.
As the sound of blades clashing rang out, two sabers collided fiercely—the Japanese woman, previously "killed" by Yang Xiao, had come back to life, delivering a precise slash aimed at Yang Xiao’s back.
Were it not for Yang Xiao’s quick reaction, that strike would’ve resulted in serious injury, yet even so, Yang Xiao’s arm was sliced by the blade, blood immediately flowing.
Enduring the pain, Yang Xiao warded off the blade edge and thrust forward, piercing the woman’s chest—but just like before, it felt as though he hadn’t hit anything solid, as if the entity he faced wasn’t a person, but a mere ghostly shadow.
Seeing the attack fail, the "Japanese woman" swiftly retreated, vanishing into the illusion again.
Despite Yang Xiao’s experience with grand situations, this scene left him astonished; he sensed the spiritual power fluctuations from that retreating figure—it should indeed be that Japanese woman, yet strangely, that thing lacked physical form but could wield the woman’s Magic Artifact.
Yang Xiao couldn’t immediately ascertain what that thing exactly was, but it was likely the woman’s trump card indeed, truly formidable.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao recalled the woman’s nickname, "Shadow Spider"—that entity was like a ghost, a Shadow Ghost identical to the woman.
Yang Xiao also possessed a Mirror Ghost, but the Mirror Ghost has a physical form, whereas that thing did not.
Yang Xiao had struck that thing twice—once slashing the waist, once piercing the chest—both deadly moves, but to that entity, they were useless.
Breathing heavily, Yang Xiao remained alert for potential subsequent ambushes while inspecting his injury—his right arm, wielding the saber, had been cut by the sharp Ninja Blade, the wound wasn’t severe, just a few scratches, but the problem was the peculiar nature of the blade, in just half a minute, his right arm could no longer control the Ring-Headed Saber, the spiritual power was isolated.
Yang Xiao thus determined that Ninja Blade was also a Magic Artifact, getting wounded by it was troublesome—the struck limb would be unable to manipulate Magic Artifacts.
In a sense, that saber was somewhat similar to the Ghost Chef’s Knife held by the Mirror Ghost—effective only after injuring the opponent.
Raising the Ghost Lantern, Yang Xiao increased spiritual power infusion, manipulating the Ghost Lantern to contract the green light, enveloping his right arm holding the saber.
