Chapter 899: Chapter 648: Nightmare_2
"Crack... crackle..."
The next second, a bone-chilling sound of bones shattering resounded, and Yang Xiao abruptly widened his eyes. The ghost in front of him shook, its upper body gradually twisting backward.
This ghost... was turning its head!!
"Try to control your power to stop its movement," Lu Youdao’s hoarse voice came again, "Remember, you must gauge your strength properly, or it will twist around from another direction."
Yang Xiao got the subtext in Lu Youdao’s words; it didn’t matter if the ghost turned from the left or the right, the outcome would be the same. In other words, if he saw its face, he would die.
Seeing its face meant certain death; is this a bandit or a ghost... Yang Xiao cursed inwardly, not daring to relax even a fraction mentally.
The situation had become more complicated now. He had to not only stop the ghost from coming closer but also divert strength to keep it from turning around—a dual task that was an immense test of both power and skill.
Time ticked away by the second, and Yang Xiao encountered several close calls. To prevent the ghost from turning and keeping it facing away was an extremely high demand for control of this bizarre power.
Too little strength wouldn’t suffice as it would turn around; too much was even worse, as the ghost would spin in a circle and then face him from another direction. This was a delicate and arduous balance, with his life as the stake.
"Mr. Lu, that’s about enough. If we continue this game, I’m going to die here. How will you... How will you explain to Director Nalan?" Knowing that Lu Youdao could hear him, Yang Xiao said this while being trapped inside the Ghost, yet Lu Youdao was not.
"I told Nalan Shuo beforehand that I would train you, and the price is that if you die, your body is mine."
"Wanting a big man’s body, are you some pervert?" Unable to hold back any longer, Yang Xiao blurted out curse words.
Lu Youdao did not reply, but an image of Lu Youdao’s terrifying countenance flashed through Yang Xiao’s mind, reminding him of something Lu Youdao once said to him.
At their first meeting, Lu Youdao had stared straight at him, eerily complimenting his good skin. Now it seemed Lu Youdao had been coveting him for more than a day or two.
Sure enough, not only women were after a good man, but men too. Yang Xiao was close to his breaking point, but the thought of his body falling into Lu Youdao’s hands after his death was unbearable, and he gritted his teeth and persevered.
As time passed, Yang Xiao found it increasingly difficult to maintain his effort; his head throbbed with pain, and it seemed like the ghost in front of him moved.
The next second, countless fragmented and chaotic images were forcibly stuffed into his mind, accompanied by noisy, meaningless sounds.
The scenery before his eyes began to blur, and when it cleared a bit, two people appeared before him, both with their backs turned, the view shaky as if through a trembling camera lens. Yang Xiao soon realized he was sitting in the back seat of a vehicle, likely an SUV given its spacious interior. A burly man sat in the driving seat, while a woman with short hair was in the passenger seat. Due to the angle, Yang Xiao could not see their faces clearly, only their profiles.
Both individuals were dressed in the black uniforms of the Patrol Defense Office, but the style was older and matched what the ghost was wearing.
Yang Xiao tried to open his mouth to say something, but all that came out were meaningless noises quickly drowned out by the engine’s sound.
The man’s stern right face was marked with a long scar, twitching with his ongoing chewing motions, while the clover pendant under the woman’s left ear swung back and forth with the vehicle’s movements.
"We mustn’t be careless this time. Intelligence indicates that the target appeared in a densely populated downtown area. Try to avoid harming innocents during the operation."
Yang Xiao’s heart trembled; the voice came from his seat, as though he had uttered it himself, yet... yet it was the voice of Nalan Shuo.
"Understood, boss," the man at the wheel gripped the steering wheel tightly, responding steadily.
"Boss, intelligence also indicates that in addition to the Evil Mage, there are several of his disciples. We’re still confirming the exact number." The woman’s voice was clear and cold as she controlled a laptop with her slender fingers fluttering elegantly across the keyboard.
"Tell them to confirm the number and location of the adversaries before we arrive. These people are desperate fugitives; any slip could have unimaginable consequences." Nalan Shuo’s voice emanated from within Yang Xiao once again.
After a silent moment in the car, Yang Xiao saw the woman turn her head to "look" back at him. It was a young face, only about 3 or 4 years older than Beibei’s, with a flash of concern in her eyes:
"Boss, should we wait for reinforcements? This is a joint operation. If we act first..."
"Speed is of the essence, we mustn’t let him escape again!"
The woman was interrupted by a chilling response before she could finish. Yang Xiao rarely heard Nalan Shuo speak in such a tone, especially to a subordinate—decisive and unquestionable—it weighed so heavily that even Yang Xiao, as an observer, felt suffocated.
"Mingxi, don’t worry. With the boss here, nothing will go wrong." The driving man chuckled, seemingly reassuring the woman.
The young woman hesitated no longer, nodded, and continued to type. Yang Xiao could tell that both people had absolute trust in Nalan Shuo.
The next second, a violent spasm in his mind felt like a nail had been hammered through his skull, brutally piercing inward, shattering the previous images. Yang Xiao’s head ached terribly, and it was unclear how much time had passed before he regained his senses, facing yet another scene.
