STG 25
Chapter 25: Ghost-Faced Surveying of the Land
The moment the ghostly face appeared, Zhao Kongcheng felt as if heaven and earth had flipped upside down. An unprecedented dizziness surged through his mind.
His brow furrowed as he tensed his body, barely managing to steady himself.
In his vision, everything before him twisted like a kaleidoscope—disjointed, fragmented, and utterly incomprehensible.
“Damn it… It can still activate its Forbidden Ruin? I’m screwed…” Zhao Kongcheng muttered to himself, recalling Wu Xiangnan’s words before the operation.
“…Forbidden Ruin No. 176, [Ghostface Earth]. Within its domain, it can deceive the perception of all creatures at or below its own level, inverting spatial concepts.
Inside Ghostface Earth, up, down, left, right, front, and back can shift at the Ghostface King’s will. While one can resist to some extent through willpower and experience, there’s no doubt that all offensive capabilities will be severely hampered within this Ruin. Combat effectiveness plummets.
That’s why, aside from the Captain—who’s also at the ‘Chuan’ level—no other team members should engage the Ghostface King head-on. Otherwise, it’s a death sentence…”
This Ruin was truly disgusting… Zhao Kongcheng, experiencing it firsthand, understood just how perverse it was.
So, the Captain had managed to hack the Ghostface King to near-death inside this Ruin?
That guy was a monster too!
Zhao Kongcheng took a deep breath and slowly closed his eyes.
“ROOOOAR—!!”
The roar came from all directions, making it impossible to pinpoint the Ghostface King’s location. The ground trembled faintly. Zhao Kongcheng could sense it—the Ghostface King was closing in fast!
Where would it strike from?
In reality.
On the grotesque ghostly face spread across the ground, Zhao Kongcheng stood like a statue, eyes shut, gripping his straight sword tightly as he pointed it forward, his brow furrowed in concentration.
He had no idea the Ghostface King had already crept up behind him.
In Zhao Kongcheng’s perception, all his senses—sight, hearing, smell, touch—were rapidly distorting, as if he’d been tossed into a high-powered washing machine. Misleading signals flooded his mind, rendering him incapable of discerning reality.
The Ghostface King’s eyes locked onto the oblivious Zhao Kongcheng, its pale face twisting into a bloodthirsty grin.
It crouched slightly, then exploded forward like a cannonball, tearing through the rain so fast it left afterimages. Its razor-sharp claws slashed through the air, aiming straight for Zhao Kongcheng’s neck!
It could already envision the scene—hot blood gushing forth, drenching its body in euphoric satisfaction.
But the instant its claws were about to connect—
Something unexpected happened.
Zhao Kongcheng twisted aside as if he had eyes on the back of his head, narrowly dodging the lethal strike!
At the same time, his straight sword carved a gleaming arc through the rain, aimed directly at the Ghostface King’s head!
Clang—!
A sharp metallic clang rang out as the Ghostface King caught the blade mid-air with its bare hand—then kicked out, sending Zhao Kongcheng flying like a sandbag!
Yet even so, the shock in its eyes was unmistakable.
It couldn’t comprehend how Zhao Kongcheng had sensed its attack.
Zhao Kongcheng crashed heavily to the ground, groaning in pain as he struggled to rise. But despite his injuries, the corners of his mouth curled into a smirk.
“Surprised?”
Using his sword to prop himself up, Zhao Kongcheng laughed—a laugh full of mockery.
“Your Ruin is indeed sickening. Under normal circumstances, I’d have fallen for it and died by your hands. But unfortunately…”
He raised a finger and pointed skyward.
“Today, it’s raining.”
“You can deceive a creature’s perception, but you can’t stop the rain from falling due to gravity. Raindrops hitting my skin give me tactile feedback.
You can distort that feedback, make me feel like the rain is coming from all directions… and I can use that to deduce the true orientation!
Once I have one fixed reference point, the rest becomes simple.”
Zhao Kongcheng grinned, spat out a mouthful of blood, and raised his sword with a flourish, pointing it at the Ghostface King.
“Not to brag, but if I had a Forbidden Ruin, you’d have been dead eight hundred times over by now!”
“ROOOOAR—!!”
Enraged, the Ghostface King charged at him like a maddened beast. Zhao Kongcheng kept his eyes shut, relying on his instincts to predict its movements.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The two clashed violently. Through sheer combat intuition and experience, Zhao Kongcheng actually managed to trade blows with the Ghostface King several times!
But that was his limit.
Under the Ghostface King’s full assault, Zhao Kongcheng—a mere human—quickly faltered. Seizing an opening, the monster landed a crushing blow to his chest, shattering two ribs and sending him flying.
This time, it took Zhao Kongcheng a full five seconds to stagger back to his feet.
Had his sword not blocked part of the impact, that strike would have killed him outright.
“Cough… cough…” He hacked up several mouthfuls of blood, his face deathly pale.
The Ghostface King loomed in the rain, its gaze icy as it advanced step by step…
Then—
A voice suddenly rang out from behind Zhao Kongcheng!
“Zhao Kongcheng! Zhao Kongcheng!!
—Zhao Kongcheng!!!”
Zhao Kongcheng froze. That voice… sounded vaguely familiar.
Wait, wasn’t that—
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but after a brief hesitation, chose to remain silent.
His eyes were filled with complex emotions.
.
.
Outside the [Boundless Void].
Lin Qiye stood near the empty lot, drenched by the rain but seemingly oblivious as he shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Zhao Kongcheng! Stop hiding! I know you’re around here somewhere!”
After yelling, he paused to listen. But aside from the relentless downpour, there was no response.
“Damn it, that bat clearly saw a cloaked man and a monster vanish here. How can there be nothing… Did it see wrong?”
Frowning, Lin Qiye scanned his surroundings.
Suddenly, his gaze sharpened.
About ten meters away, three peculiar signboards stood alone in the rain.
Lin Qiye approached, wiping the rainwater off one to read the words:
“No Entry Ahead”?
“Since when were these signs here? And… their placement is weird.”
Lost in thought, something suddenly clicked. His eyes lit up.
“Didn’t he say his Forbidden Ruin was an auxiliary one for hiding battlefields? Something like… [Boundless Void]?”
Examining the three signboards closely, a smile tugged at his lips. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted again:
“Zhao Kongcheng! I know you’re inside the Boundless Void! Open up and let me in!!”
One second. Two seconds…
Zhao Kongcheng’s voice drifted out from behind the signboards, dripping with exasperation:
“What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night instead of eating dinner?! Get lost!!”
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