Chapter 54: Falling into a Peculiar Space

Outside the warehouse rental company.

A large red sedan chair appeared abruptly, as if stepping out of the void.

Xia Tianqiong lifted the sedan curtain, looking at the plaque at the warehouse entrance with astonishment, "We're here already?"

From the moment he got into the sedan, barely ten minutes had passed, yet they had crossed over six hundred kilometers.

It was simply too fast, so fast that he found it hard to believe.

"Mr. Xia, the mission is complete. We are heading back."

A man dressed in red spoke, and without waiting for Xia Tianqiong's reply, they hoisted the sedan and stepped back into the void, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Xia Tianqiong looked in the direction where the eerie sedan had disappeared, feeling a sudden itch in his heart.

If he could get his hands on it, traveling anywhere in the future would be extremely convenient, and he could even stroll around the entire world.

Next time he visited the Netherworld Restaurant, he would have to ask the Ghost Bride and see if he could buy the eerie sedan.

Anyway, she was short of money, and he had money to spare.

"Where is Jiang Yu?"

Xia Tianqiong looked around the entrance, but Jiang Yu was nowhere to be seen.

The warehouse rental company covered a vast area, and rows of warehouses inside all had their heavy doors tightly shut.

Inside one of those warehouses, four men in black were tearing at Jiang Yu's clothes.

She screamed and struggled desperately, trying to draw the attention of others, but the doors were thick and heavy, and her cries could not get out at all.

Liu Zhongjun stood nearby, arms crossed with a hand supporting his chin, watching with keen interest as if he were attending a show.

This fellow was purely a pervert.

Suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadow behind one of the men in black.

As soon as this person appeared, he tapped the man in black on the shoulder. The man instantly went blank and stopped what he was doing.

"Watch out!"

Liu Zhongjun's expression changed abruptly, and he shouted loudly.

The other three men in black had no idea what was happening and stared blankly at him. Before they could react, their shoulders were also tapped, instantly losing consciousness.

"Are you all right?"

A familiar voice sounded. Jiang Yu burst into tears immediately, turning and throwing herself into Xia Tianqiong's arms.

"Sob, sob..."

"Alright, don't cry! I'll avenge you. Were they the ones who stole your supplies?"

"Yes, it was them. They were bullying me, too."

Jiang Yu wiped away her tears and left Xia Tianqiong's embrace with some reluctance. Looking up, she saw a face that seemed overly young.

"You're not Xia Tianqiong?"

She cried out in alarm and stumbled backward by two steps.

Xia Tianqiong was slightly stunned, only then remembering that when she last parted ways with him, he still looked twenty-five years old.

Later, after encountering the gambling-life ghost and acquiring a massive amount of lifespan, his appearance reverted to that of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old.

Although it was still the same face, it had changed to some extent.

"It's me, I just became younger."

"Really?"

Jiang Yu was somewhat skeptical, but considering Xia Tianqiong's miraculous methods, becoming younger seemed possible after all.

At this moment, the four men in black stood frozen in place with vacant eyes.

Liu Zhongjun, however, showed no fear whatsoever. He looked like a wealthy prodigal son, yet the combat power he possessed surpassed that of many official Ghost Hunters.

Even if a squad of official Ghost Hunters stood before him, he would not be afraid, let alone some unknown character.

"A Ghost Hunter? Which family do you belong to?"

Hearing this, Xia Tianqiong guessed that the other party was very likely a member of an ancient family.

"Why did you steal my supplies?"

"What kind of ghost art was that you used just now, actually emerging from a shadow?"

"Since you're unwilling to answer, I won't ask anymore. Go to hell!"

The two talked past each other, neither answering the other's questions, both striking a lofty, aloof, and extremely cool pose.

Xia Tianqiong had already loathed members of ancient families, and since the other party had stolen his supplies and attempted to humiliate Jiang Yu, there was nothing left to hesitate about. He would simply kill them and be done with it.

Holding the bronze mirror, he shone it toward Liu Zhongjun, intending to suck him into the mirror space.

This trick had never failed before, but an accident occurred at this moment.

When the suction force enveloped Liu Zhongjun, the jade pendant hanging on his chest suddenly flared, instantly neutralizing the pull.

Xia Tianqiong's brows knitted together, and he immediately took the matter seriously. This person was no ordinary opponent!

Liu Zhongjun, on the other hand, stared fixedly at the bronze mirror in Xia Tianqiong's hand, intense interest shining in his eyes.

"What kind of ghost artifact is this?"

After asking, before waiting for an answer, he shook his head himself. "Forget it, you wouldn't tell me anyway. I'll just take it by force!"

Liu Zhongjun suddenly produced a palm-sized object resembling a Go board and tossed it directly onto the ground.

In an instant, Xia Tianqiong felt the entire warehouse expanding, along with the neatly stacked supplies.

The only things that remained unchanged were the few people present.

However, the distances between them were rapidly stretching, growing farther and farther apart.

Xia Tianqiong tried to grab Jiang Yu, only to find his own feet anchored to the ground, unable to move.

Shadow Teleportation was also restricted and could no longer be used.

Beneath his feet was no longer the concrete floor of the warehouse, but a black surface divided into a grid of squares. Turning his head to look around, it felt as though he were standing upon a gigantic chessboard.

This was not the end; the transformations continued violently.

In the blink of an eye, the grid lines all vanished, and the ground beneath his feet turned a lush green, while white, yellow, and blue patches of terrain appeared in the distance.

Interlaced and arranged, it looked precisely like a colorful checkerboard cloth.

Immediately afterward, the green ground continued to expand, and dense green vegetation sprouted from it.

At first, it was very small, but in a flash, it grew rapidly upwards, soon towering even higher than Xia Tianqiong into massive, sky-scraping trees.

A sudden realization struck him: it wasn't that these plants were growing.

It was that he was shrinking!

This explained why the warehouse and supplies appeared to be growing larger, and why the people around him seemed to be moving farther away.

Because they were being infinitely shrunken down; during the process of shrinking, everything around one would naturally feel larger and more distant.

The entire process lasted about five or six seconds.

When the changes finally ceased, Xia Tianqiong found himself standing amid a lush and dense primeval forest.

He stared dumbfounded at the trees dozens of meters high, feeling somewhat bewildered.

The scene before his eyes was very likely conjured by that chessboard, or perhaps it was a different dimension similar to a Ghost Domain.

Thinking carefully, in his previous life, he had never heard of such a ghost artifact, nor of any similar circumstances.

Now he was in trouble!

Without any understanding of the situation, he had no idea how to respond and could trigger certain rules at any moment.

When the surrounding changes stopped, Xia Tianqiong's feet recovered their freedom simultaneously, and Shadow Teleportation became usable again.

He scanned his surroundings with vigilance.

It was frighteningly quiet here, without the slightest sound.

Not even a breath of wind stirred. Looking up through the dense canopy of leaves, only a grayish-white sky was visible.

"Tianqiong, Tianqiong, where are you?"

Jiang Yu's voice drifted faintly from afar, extremely weak, indicating that the two of them were separated by a vast distance.

Through the Ghost Infant, Xia Tianqiong sensed Jiang Yu's location and executed Shadow Teleportation three times in succession before reaching her side.

"Tianqiong, what is going on?"

Jiang Yu's previous tears had not yet dried, and now she looked terrified enough to cry again.

"You go hide for a while; you won't be able to help by staying here."

"Where should I hide?"

Just as his words fell, Jiang Yu vanished on the spot, tucked safely into Xia Tianqiong's mirror space, while he instructed the Takeout Ghost to take good care of her so she wouldn't be frightened by his other bound ghosts.

"What kind of ghost artifact is that? It actually comes with its own space!"

A voice suddenly came from behind.

Xia Tianqiong whipped around to see Liu Zhongjun floating mid-air.

He was stepping on a massive, living human head beneath his feet.

This was clearly a terrifying entity!

The human-head ghost glared with a pair of bloodshot, bulging eyes that looked as though they might pop out at any second, making Xia Tianqiong's scalp tingle.

"If you hand over that ghost artifact to me, I can let you leave, and this matter will be written off."

Liu Zhongjun spoke again, making it sound entirely natural.

Xia Tianqiong was so angry he almost laughed. "You stole my supplies, and now you want to steal my ghost artifact too? You want to write it off, but I don't!"

While speaking, he launched a sudden attack.

Instead of the bronze mirror, he directly flicked out the Heaven-Reaching Rope.

As the saying goes, strike first to gain the upper hand, strike later and suffer disaster. He had no desire to waste words with the opponent, especially in such an environment with unknown conditions.

The best approach was to subdue the adversary first.

The Heaven-Reaching Rope appeared only about two meters long, but once unleashed, it instantly elongated.

Like a whip, it lashed fiercely toward Liu Zhongjun.

The speed was so astonishing that Liu Zhongjun's expression changed drastically. He tried to dodge, but it was too late, and his waist was instantly bound.

"Get down here!"

Xia Tianqiong pulled with all his might, yanking him straight down from the sky.

Then, tapping him lightly on the shoulder, he executed the ghost art known as "Abductor's Touch."

Without knowing the rules, one could not casually kill people, nor even injure them, otherwise, certain death rules might be triggered.

To Xia Tianqiong's astonishment, however, with just a gentle tap on the shoulder, Liu Zhongjun's body shattered.

Like a wisp of smoke, it dissipated into thin air.

As for the human-head ghost suspended in the air, it did not launch an active attack on Xia Tianqiong, instead turning and flying away.

"What is going on? This wasn't his real body?"

Xia Tianqiong stood frozen in place, his expression growing increasingly solemn.

If this was not Liu Zhongjun's true body, then his real body must be hidden somewhere. Until he found him, there was no way he could leave this place.

After pondering for a moment, Xia Tianqiong decided to search around; simply staying put was no solution.

The forest was dense, and numerous weeds grew among the trees.

He walked cautiously through them, observing every blade of grass and tree around him.

He could basically confirm that the environment here was an illusion, completely different from the Ghost Domain of the Cat Demon Ghost.

This place lacked a trace of reality.

He hadn't walked far before Liu Zhongjun appeared once again.

This time, he was followed by more than ten floating human-head ghosts, each glaring at Xia Tianqiong as if gazing at prey.

"I gave you a chance, but you courted death yourself. Don't blame me."

Liu Zhongjun said flatly, and immediately afterward, the dozen-plus human-head ghosts lunged at Xia Tianqiong.

Every single one of them bared rows of sharp, jagged teeth. If they managed a bite, he would likely be devoured down to the bones in no time.