Chapter 229 (I): A Narrow Escape and a Flash of Insight

The paper figure's face was blank and stiff, with nary a spark of life in it. Zhang Yuanqing could see the two dots of vivid crimson within its ghastly white eye sockets as it stared straight under the bed.

His heart lurched, goosebumps rising as a fear he hadn't felt in ages surged up in him. This fear wasn't the plain fear of danger. It was a typical human dread of the supernatural and the grotesque, the kind that left one afraid to walk to the toilet after a horror film, that left one sleeping with a blanket pulled over one's head.

The paper figure had elicited a childhood fear out of Zhang Yuanqing. Since becoming a Nocturnal Specter, he'd never once run into a situation like this.

Night Wandering, which had never failed him, had proved ineffective this time. He'd met enemies who countered it with technique, but a vengeful spirit that saw through Night Wandering outright was a first.

Zhang Yuanqing was dead certain the effigy had spotted him. His heart was drowning in fear, but his body didn't hesitate for a beat. He rolled clear of the bed, reached out into the empty air, pulled out the Burst Pistol, and calmly squeezed the trigger.

The paper figure had a physical body, and a physical body could be broken. A pistol firing from range suited that best of all.

Going by the rouge box's item description, the vengeful spirit could only possess things smeared with the rouge. If he destroyed the vessel it possessed, the vengeful spriti within the paper figure should be dealt with.

He had to give it a try.

The Burst Pistol's muzzle spat flame in a steady rhythm, the dark red tracer rounds streaking across the room and slamming into the paper figure. However, the bullets didn't burst on impact. Instead, he heard a faint hissing sound, as if a branding iron had been plunged into a cooling barrel.

Dense yin energy roiled up around the paper figure, and the bullets that struck it immediately lost their momentum, their fire snuffed out.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes widened slightly. Yin energy that was so dense it had almost turned solid...

There was no way a Transcendent-tier vengeful spirit could possess power like this.

Zhang Yuanqing held his stance and continued to fire, letting off a dense stream of bullets that hit the yin energy barrier in a dense stream, coloring it with dim red light.

At the same time, two more smears of dim red light appeared in the dark room.

Tap tap, tap tap...

The red dancing shoes rose and fell, marching in place.

Zhang Yuanqing gave the order at once: Hunt down the paper figure.

The red dancing shoes shot forward and kicked out at the paper figure's face, hard and precise. The thick yin energy surrounding it shuddered violently, churning turbulently, but the paper figure's face was untouched. The red dancing shoes hadn't been able to penetrate the yin energy surrounding it.

Still, the red dancing shoes didn't give up, launching attack after attack relentlessly.

Against a vengeful spirit of this level, the red dancing shoes just don't put out enough damage, Zhang Yuanqing conceded.

Still, he wasn't surprised. He knew their limits well, and had summoned them purely to distract the vengeful spirit and pile on the pressure.

He ran quickly back through his items and his bag of tricks. The Red Veil came to mind first, but he dropped it just as fast. The ghost bride's yin energy fell below that of the paper figure in front of him. Besides, he didn't have the nerves to trade blows with the paper figure up close.

The Houtu Boots' killing kick could put out Saint-tier strength. Wrecking the paper figure with that shouldn't be hard. Without hesitation, Zhang Yuanqing pulled out the Houtu Boots and tossed them to Corpse No. 1.

Corpse No. 1 slid both feet into the boots, and Zhang Yuanqing put on the Yin Yang Spell Robe himself.

Thud, thud, thud...

Corpse No. 1 charged toward the paper figure with heavy steps. As it neared the effigy, the boot on its right foot slowly began to glow with a thick, nearly solid yellow light.

The muscle of its right leg swelled all at once, splitting the trouser leg open.

Snap!

The kick flew through the air, trailing a series of afterimages as it lashed at the effigy, striking it and blowing it to pieces like a mirror shattering. The sheer force of the kick whipped up a gust of wind that swept its way across the room.

But the effigy was gone. What Corpse No. 1 had kicked apart had been a shadowy illusion. This kind of spectral art came naturally to a vengeful spirit.

Suddenly, the red dancing shoes raced back toward their master.

A chill ran through Zhang Yuanqing. Is it behind me?

At the same instant, the paper figure, its ghastly white face smeared with garish red rouge, appeared behind him. It raised a stiff arm and reached for the back of his neck.

The crude paper hand hadn't touched him yet, but the cold energy surrounding it hit him first. A thin film of frost formed over Zhang Yuanqing's back and neck.

Bang!

He raised the muzzle of the Burst Pistol and put a shot into Corpse No. 1's chest. The bullet burst in a flash of fire.

With a whoosh, a crimson stream of fire leapt up and swallowed Zhang Yuanqing's body. The dying flame from the exploding bullet suddenly swelled, and from within, a figure draped in the Yin Yang Spell Robe appeared.

Zhang Yuanqing had put on the Yin Yang Spell Robe not to make use of the fire-and-water array, but to fight the paper figure using the Fire Sage's Fire Walk and the Water Ghost's water melding.

The twin avatars of water and fire ignored physical attacks, but they couldn't ignore damage at the spiritual level. Against a strong vengeful spirit, unfolding the robe's array would be a foolish move, because splitting the spirit body even more just amounted to crippling his own power, and a strong vengeful spirit would kill him in a blink with its ability to damage the spirit.

Against the ghost girl, the key had been to maintain the right number of players, and the avatars came in handy. So long as that criteria was met, the ghost girl had no way to attack him. But this paper figure was different.

Flame appeared in Zhang Yuanqing's palm, and he pressed it to the back of his neck. His face twisted at once, the corner of his mouth twitching at the hissing sound. Wisps of gray smoke began to rise.

This yin energy can freeze my flesh. If it gets hold of me, even a Nocturnal Specter won't be able to survive.

Zhang Yuanqing drove away the yin energy with fire, as his other hand was busy the whole time, pulling the trigger over and over.

At the same time, he reached for the mark in his sea of consciousness, split his consciousness in two, and took up residence in the yin corpse. He pushed it forawrd into a heavy, powerful charge.

He stopped firing, dug his fingers into his trouser pocket, and pressed one of the Cat King Speaker's buttons.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The deafening roar of war drums rolled through the room, emanating immense pressure and shaking the mind, inciting dread from deep within.

The paper figure's body trembled, then froze. Corpse No. 1 closed in with heavy steps, the boot on its right foot again shining with that thick, nearly-solid yellow glow.

From the earlier exchange, Zhang Yuanqing had noticed the paper figure's wariness toward the Houtu Boots' killing kick. After all, that kick possessed Saint-tier power. So, he'd come up with a quick plan. He would use the Cat King Speaker's War Drums to intimidate the paper figure that was, at its core, a vengeful spirit. The reason he'd split his consciousness was because the drums couldn’t differentiate between friend from foe. Corpse No. 1 wasn't immune. Only he, the Cat King Speaker's master, was.

The muscles on Corpse No. 1's right leg bunched up, about to lash out with a devastating kick.

Suddenly the two smears of blood in the paper figure's eye sockets flared bright with twisted, uncanny runes. Enchanting Eye!

This is bad, Zhang Yuanqing realized immediately.

He had looked straight at the runes through the yin corpse's eyes. His heart sank. The next moment, his mind fell into utter chaos. His thoughts collapsed into a tangled mess, and his ability to think calmly was obliterated.

The yin energy shrouding the paper figure surged, and a thin layer of ice began to form over Corpse No. 1's surface. In the blink of an eye, it had been turned into an ice sculpture.

The paper figure's head turned ninety degrees to look at Zhang Yuanqing, who had been standing behind the yin corpse. It vanished at once, appearing behind the one and only human in the room.

It lifted its crude paper arm and clamped it around the back of Zhang Yuanqing's neck. The yin energy in the room churned, and a spiraling, unseen vortex appeared at the nape of his neck. The vortex drew out great gouts of blood essence from within him that poured into the paper figure, and its ghastly white face took on a faint human ruddiness.

The fierce shock jolted Zhang Yuanqing enough that he threw off the Enchanting Eye's hold, only to feel his limbs go stiff and numb. His body had been so frozen by the terrible yin energy that even twitching a finger was almost beyond him.

In a few breaths, Zhang Yuanqing's skin lost its luster, going dry and dull, and then fine wrinkles crept in bit by bit at the corners of his eyes and across his forehead. The lines that streaked his face from nose to mouth began to deepen. He'd aged twenty years in one stroke.

Zhang Yuanqing hurled orders at his yin corpse to attack for all he was worth, but Corpse No. 1 was frozen solid, its flesh and joints turned stiff and numb. It was unable to come to its master's aid.

Bleak and hopeless, Zhang Yuanqing realized the plan of muscling through this creature on raw strength just wasn't realistic. The attempt failed. I can't beat this paper figure like that. The gap in strength is too wide.

Even with all his items and his fancy tactics, he still couldn't beat the paper figure.

The Demon-subduing Awl was the only card left.