Chapter 55: The Fragile Severed Head Phantom

A dozen or so severed head specters, with their protruding eyes staring wildly and drool dripping from their blood-thirsty maws, scrambled to fly toward Xia Tianqiong.

This sight was both terrifying and utterly repulsive.

Xia Tianqiong immediately teleported away without a moment's hesitation.

In his previous life, he had never heard of this kind of anomaly, and he had no idea what its rank or eerie arts were.

The crucial point was that these things could fly; neither the mirror specter nor the restaurant waiter could attack targets in the air.

Even if he sucked them into the mirror domain, he wouldn't be able to handle them.

He suddenly felt a slight pang of regret for not letting Huang Yu stay—her space-tearing technique was simply suited for aerial combat.

Fortunately, he still had shadow teleportation; if he couldn't beat them, he could at least escape.

After multiple consecutive teleports, he stopped only after fleeing several hundred meters away.

At such a distance, with countless large trees and plants obstructing the space between them, they should not be able to find him.

Yet, before even two minutes had passed, Liu Zhongjun led a squad of head specters right to him.

"You can't escape. This is my territory, and no matter where you run, I will find you."

Stepping on a head specter and floating in mid-air, Liu Zhongjun shouted at Xia Tianqiong from twenty or thirty meters away. "I'll give you one last chance. Hand over the cursed artifact, and I'll spare you. Otherwise, I'll kill you immediately."

Xia Tianqiong stared coldly at his opponent, his heart sinking.

Sure enough, this place was similar to the domain of the cat demon specter; no matter where one fled, the opponent could perceive it.

It seemed that blindly running away was no longer a solution; he had to test the strength of the head specters.

"I can hand over the cursed artifact, but you must let me leave first. Otherwise, if you go back on your word, there's nothing I can do."

"You are not in a position to negotiate with me. Hand it over immediately, or die right now!"

Liu Zhongjun looked down from above, completely disregarding Xia Tianqiong.

Xia Tianqiong suddenly sneered, "If you want to kill me, it depends on whether you can catch me."

With those words, he vanished on the spot.

Thinking that Xia Tianqiong had fled again, Liu Zhongjun was about to sense which direction he had escaped to when he suddenly lowered his gaze downward.

He saw Xia Tianqiong emerging from the shadow he cast on the ground.

Realizing something was amiss, he immediately controlled the head specter beneath his feet to fly away while mentally commanding the other head specters to surround and attack Xia Tianqiong.

Instead of attacking Liu Zhongjun, Xia Tianqiong flipped his hands and materialized dozens of clone mirrors.

A clone mirror only needed to reflect oneself to immediately create a mirror clone.

These clones possessed no offensive power, no independent consciousness, and could not be controlled. They would only exist for a dozen minutes or so, but they were quite effective at confusing the head specters.

There were only a dozen or so head specters, yet over thirty clones were produced.

The clones scattered and ran wildly through the forest without grouping together, forcing the head specters to scatter as well, flying everywhere in pursuit of the clones.

Flying was naturally faster than running, and soon a head specter caught up with a clone, opened its bloody maw, and bit down on the clone's head.

With a soft pop, the clone immediately shattered.

Hidden among the crowd of clones and witnessing this scene, Xia Tianqiong grew inwardly vigilant.

Although the clones were weak and fragile, even a wild specter couldn't shatter them with a single blow.

By comparison, the bite attack of the head specter was at least stronger than a wild specter's, though probably inferior to a fierce specter.

After observing for a while, he noticed that all the head specters attacked solely through biting and did not deploy any eerie arts.

This gave Xia Tianqiong a slight sense of relief.

Without eerie arts, the danger level dropped significantly.

He didn't idle either; spotting a stray head specter, he hurled out the heaven-reaching rope, bound it, and dragged it down from the sky to the ground.

Then he rushed forward, raised his foot, and stepped heavily on the head specter.

Xia Tianqiong wanted to observe it at close range to see if it had any weaknesses and figure out how to destroy it.

As a result, with a single stomp, the head specter burst.

It was like stepping on a balloon: first, there was a slight bounce, followed by a loud pop as it shattered, transforming into a wisp of nether energy that quickly dissipated into the air.

"So fragile?"

Xia Tianqiong was immensely astonished. Since these things were this fragile, what was there to fear?

He hurriedly used the heaven-reaching rope again, dragging the head specters down one by one and stepping on them until they burst.

As long as he wasn't facing more than three at the same time, there was basically no danger at all.

Seeing this, Liu Zhongjun wore a look of surprise. This fellow had quite a few tricks up his sleeve and rich combat experience; he was definitely no ordinary person.

Watching the head specters being eliminated one by one, Liu Zhongjun turned and flew away into the distance, not daring to linger any longer.

Yet before he had flown far, a teasing voice suddenly came from below.

"With just these few tricks, you still want to kill me?"

Xia Tianqiong once more emerged from his shadow. As he spoke, the heaven-reaching rope shot out, wrapped around Liu Zhongjun's ankle, and dragged him back toward the ground.

"Don't get cocky. Killing a few head specters is nothing special."

Liu Zhongjun's handsome face slammed into the ground, filling him with intense rage. He gnashed his teeth at Xia Tianqiong and spat, "When I come looking for you next time, I guarantee I'll finish you off."

"There won't be a next time. I won't let you off easily this time."

Xia Tianqiong hoisted Liu Zhongjun up, intending to tuck him into the mirror domain and interrogate him thoroughly.

Guessing what Xia Tianqiong was about to do, Liu Zhongjun glared fiercely at him before abruptly triggering self-detonation.

Just like before, his body turned into a wisp of pale smoke and vanished into thin air.

"Damn it, what is going on!"

Xia Tianqiong cursed in frustration. The guy had escaped again.

If things kept going like this, how was he supposed to find the fellow's true body?

"Right, don't I have that chubby orange cat?"

He suddenly remembered the cat fur he had obtained during the cat-and-mouse game, which happened to be adept at tracking things down.

Quickly retrieving an orange-red hair and a bar of gold from the mirror domain, he channeled the nether energy from the gold into the hair, which instantly transformed into a plump orange cat.

In essence, it was a cursed object; its method of tracking items and people did not rely on scent, but on rules.

As long as one mentally communicated the traits of the target—such as female, beautiful, or 1.8 meters tall—it would go and search for all individuals matching those traits.

The more detailed and specific the traits provided, the more accurate the target would be.

"Help me find a handsome, twenty-something young male in this space."

Xia Tianqiong communicated mentally with the orange cat.

In response, the orange cat spun around in a circle on the spot, then stared unblinkingly at Xia Tianqiong.

The implication seemed to be: You are right here!

"Not me, someone other than me."

Xia Tianqiong quickly corrected it. After pondering for a moment, he added, "Wearing a white suit, black leather shoes, and gold-rimmed glasses. Go find this person."

The orange cat stared at him with wide eyes, then spun around in a circle again.

"Meow!"

With a sudden cry, Xia Tianqiong furrowed his brows, filled with perplexity.

The orange cat communicated mentally that there was no such person in this space.

How could that be?

If Liu Zhongjun wasn't here, where on earth did he go?

Puzzled to the extreme, Xia Tianqiong thought for two minutes on the spot before suddenly telling the orange cat, "Help me find a specter that has only a head and no body."

This time the cat reacted, immediately dashing off in a certain direction.

Since he couldn't find Liu Zhongjun, he would go find the head specters.

Perhaps that would lead to some clues.

Man and cat raced through the forest. Without running far—only about two or three minutes—they stopped beneath an exceptionally thick tree.

This tree was as thick as two people embracing, and at its base was a tree root hole with a head specter embedded inside.

Only, this head specter was a bit different.

Its eyes were closed with a serene expression, as if it had fallen fast asleep.

Xia Tianqiong cautiously approached; it did not wake up. He gave it a gentle poke, yet it still showed no reaction.

Normally, specters did not need to sleep, and except when undergoing breakthroughs in rank, they would not fall into a state unresponsive to the outside world.

Hesitating slightly, he suddenly raised his foot and kicked it.

He wanted to test whether this head specter would burst from a single kick like the previous dozen or so.

The moment his foot landed, however, a surging force of rules suddenly erupted, directly blasting him flying backward.

"Damn it, looks like a seal!"