Chapter 1676: Chapter 970: Land of Graves (Part 2)
Here, there are only four of them, and the Horse-faced Ghost.
The Ghost Lantern shattered the Ghostly Illusion Realm of the Horse-faced Ghost, and the sudden change in the surroundings caught everyone else off guard. Butterfly Lady stared at the sunken grave at her feet, utterly confused. Beneath it, severely decayed skeletons could still be faintly seen, but their appearance and gender were beyond recognition.
The Ghost Lantern indeed can break illusions, but it cannot help them escape from the Ghost Realm. Yang Xiao had a feeling that the four of them were already marked by the Horse-faced Ghost, and unless they killed them all, the Horse-faced Ghost wouldn’t stop.
Now Yang Xiao finally understood the threat Blood Flesh Immortal made before dying; he said if he couldn’t survive, then the rest would be buried with him.
As the Horse-faced Ghost was about to catch him, Yang Xiao opened the Mirror World and hid inside. After a brief pause, the Horse-faced Ghost shifted its target again, this time picking the unlucky Butterfly Lady.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiao was observing the battle through a few mirrors left in the Ghost Realm. As he flashed into the Mirror World, he threw some mirrors around him.
Seeing the Horse-faced Ghost select Butterfly Lady again, Yang Xiao felt an unease rising within him. This meant that for the Horse-faced Ghost, familiarity didn’t matter. Escaping once didn’t mean complete liberation. The creature wouldn’t stop until it killed them all.
"Ah!!"
Accompanied by a scream, Butterfly Lady ultimately didn’t escape her fate and was locked by wooden shackles.
Once she was locked, she seemed unable to bear the weight of the wooden shackles and with a thud, fell to her knees as if a convict waiting for execution.
But no one beheaded her; instead, her body below the wooden shackles decayed rapidly at a visible speed. Within a few blinks, she was completely rotten. Simultaneously, the ground sank, and the decayed skeleton rolled into a pit while a new grave appeared on the ground.
This scene terrified the Trickster; he had never expected that the endless graves surrounding them came to be like this.
After Butterfly Lady’s death, the Horse-faced Ghost paused briefly and shifted its target again, this time choosing the Trickster.
Seeing the Horse-faced Ghost chase after him, the Trickster regretted deeply. He originally had a chance to save Butterfly Lady last time, but he hesitated because he gambled that the Horse-faced Ghost would stop after killing one person. Unfortunately, he lost the gamble. Worse still, now, besides him, the other two teammates had survival skills.
Yang Xiao escaped into the Mirror World, becoming invisible. That bastard Chen Nang also went invisible, making him the easiest target now.
Complaining was useless now; the Trickster could only brace himself and deal with the Horse-faced Ghost, relying on the Magic Cloth’s abilities, which temporarily held the creature off. But only for now; after all, the Horse-faced Ghost could keep chasing while his short-term teleportation abilities weren’t endlessly usable.
At this moment, the Trickster felt chillingly hopeless inside. He realized, based on Yang Xiao’s ability, he could have saved Butterfly Lady earlier too, but he didn’t act.
If Yang Xiao didn’t save Butterfly Lady, the chance he would act to save him was very slim. Indeed, he was ruthless; to him, everyone might just be expendable, only worthy as replaceable materials once deceased.
"Prisoner, save me! Help me!" After narrowly escaping another attack, the Trickster urgently called for help, disregarding his pride. He’d rather ask Chen Nang for rescue than Yang Xiao, knowing it was futile.
However, this time the Trickster gambled right, as Chen Nang indeed appeared and drew the Horse-faced Ghost away, buying him valuable respite.
But Chen Nang appeared not out of sympathy; reality forced him. Even if the Trickster didn’t seek help, he wouldn’t let the latter be killed by the Horse-faced Ghost.
Butterfly Lady was already dead, and if the Trickster died too, he’d be left alone.
Actually, it would be him and Yang Xiao, but Yang Xiao had such good items, disappearing when least expected. Presumably, at last, the ghost would come for him.
"Trickster, hang on, brother, I’m with you!" Despite thinking so, Chen Nang wouldn’t utter those thoughts aloud; he had to make the Trickster owe him one.
The Trickster, fortunately escaping a disaster, was clear-minded enough to know Chen Nang wasn’t a good person either; full of brotherhood in speech but selfish at heart, yet he didn’t blame him, for he was the same.
Meanwhile, Yang Xiao hidden in the Mirror World wasn’t idle; he understood among these people, in terms of appearance and wisdom, he was the best. To break this deadly impasse today, he would rely on himself.
During this time, he realized something troubling: in this Chaos Burial Mound, his Mirror World was affected too. The spiritual power consumed was far higher than usual, and he couldn’t sustain for long like this.
If not chased to death by the Horse-faced Ghost, he would face backlash from the Soul-Capturing Mirror. The last backlash had left a shadow in his mind.
But Yang Xiao had seen great storms before and knew how crucial it was to remain calm in perilous moments. Though the Horse-faced Ghost was terrifying, it must have flaws. Experience told him every supernatural event had a solution, albeit sometimes hard to find.
Yang Xiao carefully reviewed events from the Horse-faced Ghost’s appearance to its pursuit of them. There was something odd; theoretically, the four of them weren’t far from Ku Daoist and Funeral Guanyin, so why did the Horse-faced Ghost only target the four, sparing Ku Daoist and Funeral Guanyin?
Following this thought, Yang Xiao suddenly furrowed his brows, recalling something; due to backlash, Blood Flesh Immortal exploded in his final moment, and the flying flesh splattered on all four.
Counting distances, Ku Daoist and Funeral Guanyin likely weren’t splattered.
Yang Xiao had a bold guess that these splattered flesh might be a kind of mark, more precisely, a curse. Once touched, one would be marked by the Horse-faced Ghost, trapped in the Ghost Realm, in a relentless struggle.
He immediately acted upon it; Yang Xiao illuminated the Ghost Lantern and meticulously examined himself. Soon, he made discoveries in his left arm and right calf, both having abnormal reactions precisely where the rotten flesh had splattered before, but Yang Xiao had promptly cleaned them off.
Yang Xiao attempted to focus the green glow of the Ghost Lantern onto his left arm area, and within less than ten seconds, the small marked area was cleared.
Without hesitation, Yang Xiao poured abundant spiritual power onto his right calf, where there was more marking, taking over half a minute this time.
Once confirmed he was free of marks, Yang Xiao didn’t forget the teammates fighting outside and immediately left the Mirror World, where the Trickster and Chen Nang were reaching their limits, being chased like dogs.
To verify his guess, Yang Xiao deliberately moved closer to the Horse-faced Ghost, and the following scene confirmed his theory; even brushing past, the Horse-faced Ghost didn’t attack him, or rather, ignored him, as if he wasn’t visible at all.
"Don’t be afraid; I found a way to deal with it!" Yang Xiao loudly announced, "Places splattered with flesh are marked; I can clear it, but it takes time. You need to come one at a time!"
"Who’s first?" Yang Xiao hurriedly asked.
Once he spoke, both Chen Nang and the Trickster desperately rushed towards Yang Xiao, fearing being abandoned if delayed.
Seeing this, Yang Xiao didn’t choose between them, but instead pulled them both into the Mirror World and immediately used the Ghost Lantern to check their bodies.
As all three entered the Mirror World, Yang Xiao faced increased pressure. The spiritual power needed to maintain the Mirror World depleted rapidly at an exaggerated rate.
Yang Xiao preliminarily estimated, at this pace, he could only hold out for 5 minutes max.
And now, the Horse-faced Ghost, having lost all targets, began wandering aimlessly like a headless fly, seemingly sensing people nearby but unsure of where precisely.
