Chapter 56: Ten Thousand Decapitated Phantoms

The head-like ghoul was shrouded in a layer of rule-based power. The moment Xia Tianqiong stomped down, he was immediately repelled by the rebounding force of those rules.

The force was so immense that it sent him flying backward.

He traced an arc through the air and landed far away.

The orange cat squatted beside a tree root, tilting its cute little head, its big eyes filled with utter bewilderment.

It probably couldn't fathom how this human was capable of flying!

While still airborne and about to collide with a large tree, Xia Tianqiong had a sudden flash of inspiration and activated Shadow Teleport.

His figure vanished, instantly reappearing within the shadow of a nearby tree.

"That was close!"

He stood up and shook his right leg, which felt slightly numb from the shock.

Fortunately, it was nothing serious.

Thank goodness he knew how to teleport; otherwise, he definitely would have been injured.

While quietly feeling grateful, Xia Tianqiong also recalled some useful information.

One method of sealing anomalies and ghouls involved using the power of rules to encase them in a specific location, plunging them into a deep slumber.

This type of seal was both a imprisonment for the ghoul and a measure to prevent it from being harmed by the outside world.

The unresponsive head-ghoul inside the tree hollow was most likely trapped under just such a seal.

But why?

Why would someone seal a ghoul here instead of killing it or forging a contract with it?

Xia Tianqiong approached the head-ghoul once again, bent down, and observed it closely, hoping to find some clues.

Suddenly, the young man's voice came from behind him once more.

"I am truly surprised that you were able to track this place down so quickly."

Upon noticing the orange cat at Xia Tianqiong's feet, Liu Zhongjun's eyes lit up again. "Which family do you actually belong to? How do you possess so many good items?"

Xia Tianqiong whirled around, only to be met with a shocking sight.

This time, his opponent had brought thirty or forty zombies—the kind portrayed in movies, dressed in ancient official robes, wearing court caps, with greenish faces, tusks, outstretched arms, and long, black nails.

At the very least, zombies of this caliber were fierce-ghoul class, and they carried corpse poison. Anyone scratched or bitten by them would be transformed into a zombie.

In his past life, barely a handful of zombie-ghouls had ever appeared; how on earth had this guy managed to acquire so many?

Even stranger was that they had appeared without a single sound; Xia Tianqiong hadn't heard the slightest noise.

Seeing that Xia Tianqiong remained silent, Liu Zhongjun's anger flared even higher. "Kill him!"

At his command, the thirty or forty zombie-ghouls moved in unison.

They hopped straight up with rigid bodies, executing synchronized leaps that spanned four or five meters each. Strangely, not a single sound was produced.

It was as if their feet never touched the ground.

As he had done previously, Xia Tianqiong generated dozens of mirrored Doppelgangers, scattering them around to confuse the zombie-ghouls and disperse their targets.

Meanwhile, he prepared to launch a sneak attack on one of the zombies.

However, the next scene left him utterly stunned.

Every single zombie-ghoul charged straight toward his real body, completely ignoring the mirrored duplicates.

Hiding in the background, Liu Zhongjun wore a sneering expression. "Don't try the same trick on me twice!"

Xia Tianqiong's heart tightened. The man had a way to distinguish his true body from his mirrored illusions!

That made things difficult.

Hesitating for a moment, he raised the bronze mirror and cast "Mirror Swallows All Things" at the zombie-ghouls.

This time, there were no unexpected hitches. Five or six zombies in the front line were sucked into the mirror space. He immediately instructed the mirror-ghoul and the tavern waiter to join forces and destroy them.

He was about to cast it again to pull the rest of the zombies in.

Instead, he caught sight of Liu Zhongjun, who remained completely calm with a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Something was wrong; this guy was acting far too confident.

The moment Xia Tianqiong felt a surge of doubt, drastic changes occurred within the mirror space.

The few zombie-ghouls that had been sucked in suddenly opened their mouths and spewed vast amounts of black mist, which possessed terrifying corrosive properties.

The duplicates generated by the mirror-ghoul couldn't last even a second before dissolving; no matter how many were copied, it was useless.

Even the white walls and black tiles were corroded into pitted, uneven ruins.

The tavern waiters had it even worse. They had tried to seize the opportunity to launch a sneak attack, only to be engulfed by the black mist, which severely corroded their ghoul bodies.

Had Xia Tianqiong not reacted quickly and timely expelled the zombie-ghouls and the black mist from the mirror space, all of them might have perished on the spot.

He hadn't anticipated that zombie-ghouls could spit toxic mist, nor had he ever heard of such a thing in the past.

Presumably, this was a rather specialized breed.

"I already guessed you would use that trick, so I specifically sought out zombie-ghouls to deal with you."

Standing in the rear with a smug expression, Liu Zhongjun said, "Do you have any other new ghoul-artifacts or anomalous items? Hurry up and use them, because you won't get another chance."

"You seem to be overlooking one detail: even if I can't do anything to your zombies, you can't do anything to me either. If you've got the guts, come catch me!"

Seeing the swarm of zombie-ghouls about to leap right in front of him, Xia Tianqiong wanted to avoid coming into contact with the corpse poison. That stuff was far too lethal to humans, acting much like a virus where even the slightest touch could prove fatal.

With no other choice, he dropped those words and instantly teleported away.

Seeing him flee, Liu Zhongjun didn't rush in pursuit; instead, he leisurely walked up to the sealed head-ghoul.

Xia Tianqiong's shadow teleport had a maximum range of about fifty meters. When he activated it the first time, he materialized beneath the shadow of a certain tree.

The moment he appeared, he spotted seven or eight zombie-ghouls scattered loosely around the vicinity.

The zombies spotted him as well and came bounding toward him in unison.

Xia Tianqiong teleported again, but no matter where he fled, he invariably ran into more zombie-ghouls.

It felt as though throughout the entire forest, there was a zombie-ghoul stationed every twenty or thirty meters.

"How can there be so many? There must be hundreds, if not thousands of them!"

Xia Tianqiong was struck by mounting terror, utterly unable to comprehend how so many zombie-ghouls could possibly exist.

There were simply far too many!

With nowhere left to run, he finally used the Heaven-Reaching Rope to haul himself up onto a tree branch dozens of meters in the air, thereby evading the zombies' encirclement.

Yet, before he could catch his breath for two minutes, a flock of head-ghouls came flying toward him.

A glance across the expanse revealed a dense, dark cloud of them—easily one or two hundred.

"Damn it, this is definitely not a normal anomaly!"

Cursing angrily, Xia Tianqiong immediately activated Shadow Teleport, keeping himself in a state of constant motion so that no one could touch him.

Yet doubts swirled in his mind.

Liu Zhongjun hadn't brought any head-ghouls with him when he first arrived, yet suddenly he had conjured up so many.

This wasn't normal!

Nine times out of ten, it was similar to his own mirrored duplicates, belonging to some form of duplication-type ghoul technique.

Or perhaps it was related to that sealed head-ghoul.

"No, I have to go take him out. Otherwise, being constantly hunted down is far too annoying."

Initially, Xia Tianqiong hadn't planned on killing Liu Zhongjun.

Because it was pointless; after killing him once, he would reappear in less than two minutes. It was likely some rule that made him an immortal presence in this place.

Now, however, zombie-ghouls and head-ghouls were everywhere, flooding every corner of the forest. Annoyed beyond measure by the constant pursuit, Xia Tianqiong decided to kill Liu Zhongjun once more.

When he had beaten Liu Zhongjun to death the first time, the head-ghouls the man had brought hadn't attacked Xia Tianqiong; instead, they had simply dispersed on their own.

Based on that deduction, both the zombie-ghouls and the head-ghouls were under his control.

Once he died, they would temporarily lose control, buying Xia Tianqiong at least two minutes of peace without being hunted everywhere.

Having made up his mind, Xia Tianqiong began actively searching for Liu Zhongjun.

Before he could find the man, however, he accidentally teleported to the edge of the forest.

Beyond the forest lay a vast expanse of desert, with rolling sand dunes stretching as far as the eye could see.

The most magical part was the boundary line between the desert and the forest, which was as straight as a ruler without the slightest curve.

It looked entirely man-made, neat and precise.

Crossing the boundary into the desert, Xia Tianqiong immediately felt a wave of intense heat wash over him; the temperature must have been thirty or forty degrees Celsius.

After merely sampling the heat for a moment, he retreated back into the forest.

At that moment, several more head-ghouls and zombie-ghouls came chasing after him from behind, forcing him to teleport away once again.

The desert was extremely unfriendly to him because there were no shadows, making it impossible to use Shadow Teleport.

Although the Heaven-Reaching Rope could similarly help him escape into the sky, it wasn't as fast or as safe to use as teleportation.

Therefore, he couldn't flee into the desert; he had to remain in the forest.

After a series of consecutive teleports, he finally located Liu Zhongjun.

To Xia Tianqiong's surprise, the fellow had stayed right where they had last met.

Even more surprisingly, he saw Liu Zhongjun holding stacks of underworld bank notes and stuffing them into the mouth of the sealed head-ghoul.

Immediately afterward, individual head-ghouls materialized out of thin air.

"So that's how it is!"

Only then did Xia Tianqiong understand how all those head-ghouls and zombie-ghouls had been produced.

These entities clearly weren't true ghouls at all.

Right at that moment, Liu Zhongjun abruptly turned around and looked over, having sensed Xia Tianqiong's presence as well.

"So you've figured it out!"

Having his secret exposed didn't rattle Liu Zhongjun in the least.

A confident smile still hung on his handsome face. "I have to admit, wanting to kill you is indeed very difficult. Your teleportation technique is truly a formidable means of self-preservation."

Xia Tianqiong didn't rush to attack. "Neither of us can do anything to the other. How about we have a proper talk?"

"Heh, it's too late."

Liu Zhongjun gave a dismissive laugh. "If you had handed over the ghoul-artifact at the very beginning, I might have let you go. But now? If I don't kill you, it won't be enough to vent my anger."

"If you had a way to kill me, you wouldn't be standing here running your mouth."

"Don't rush, the game has only just begun. The next time we meet, I will definitely give you an even bigger surprise."

Liu Zhongjun wasn't afraid of being killed; he was immortal in this place.

However, he was afraid of being subdued and restrained. The moment he saw Xia Tianqiong's figure abruptly vanish, he knew the fellow would appear inside his shadow.

Without a moment's hesitation, he triggered a self-detonation, transforming into a wisp of blue smoke that dissipated entirely, leaving Xia Tianqiong no opportunity whatsoever.

Once he vanished, the head-ghouls and zombie-ghouls acted as though they had lost their souls.

They wandered about aimlessly and ceased attacking Xia Tianqiong.

Xia Tianqiong approached the sealed head-ghoul and examined it closely.

Since Liu Zhongjun used it to generate massive numbers of head-ghoul duplicates, the best course of action would be to destroy it so Liu Zhongjun could no longer use it.

Yet it was protected by rules, making it completely impossible to harm even in the slightest.

Wait, why did it have to be destroyed?

Could he also use it to generate head-ghoul duplicates of his own?

A flash of insight struck Xia Tianqiong as he considered a possibility.

He then produced a tael of gold and experimentally pushed it into the head-ghoul's mouth.

Suddenly, head-ghoul duplicates popped into existence out of thin air, tumbling out in a massive, swarming wave just like dumplings dumped into a pot.

Elation washed over Xia Tianqiong's face as he clearly sensed the connection established between himself and the head-ghoul duplicates.

With merely a thought, he could issue simple commands to them.