The black hand appeared suddenly, but Dong Zheng had always been paying close attention to his surroundings. He immediately raised his hand, and the silver arrow sliced across the ghost hand. A scream exploded out in an instant, and the Bright Holy Water and the light of the lantern made the hand evaporate like water vapor.
But this was just the beginning. So long as Dong Zheng carried the lantern, his body would inevitably cast a shadow, which provided a good place for ghosts and monsters to breed. The shadow that was always accompanying him suddenly morphed into a deadly existence.
Three black hands reached out from behind him again, but this time, they didn’t try to snatch away the lantern and instead directly attacked Dong Zheng’s back!
But how could Dong Zheng fail to realize what they were planning. He poured a majority of the holy water that was left in the bottle on his back, and its sacred blessing power immediately stopped the ghosts from attacking his back. They twisted and tangled in temptation, but finally retreated into the darkness out of fear.
The Siamese cat had disappeared, replaced by a slender black cat with emerald eyes. As Dong Zheng was busy dealing with the black hands, it faded away in the blink of an eye. Its black fur allowed it to hide perfectly in the darkness, and the soft pads on its feet silence every step. It completely left no traces behind.
As a hunter in the shadow, it waited in the darkness to catch its grey off guard and take its life.
Dong Zheng had already increased the data ports that corresponded to his vision, auditory, and tactile senses to the extreme. No slight changes could escape his five senses. The subtle change in the air was a good sign. When it appeared, Dong Zheng abruptly shifted to the left and swung the arrow at the black figure, which immediately fled to evade it. He knew without a doubt that the cat’s sharp claws were no joke and would cause his blood to flow in an instant.
Midnight gracefully landed on the ground, and his figure disappeared with a swish behind a shelf. Dong Zheng didn’t have time to rejoice, before he caught the air stirring behind him again!
The complicated frames of the shelves in the showroom restricted Dong Zheng’s movements, but provided a big benefit to Midnight. Dong Zheng knew fighting here would be beneficial to the cat and so, as he concentrated on avoiding Midnight’s attack, he began to retreat toward the door.
The Bright Holy Water on his body made the ghosts hiding in his shadows afraid of getting close, but Dong Zheng knew that this was not a long-term solution. The reason why a consumable item like the Bright Holy Water could be rented was because it would gradually weaken over time. It would only last for about 15 minutes before it needed to be reapplied. This caused its value to be greatly reduced; otherwise, the team that had acquired it in the first place wouldn’t have been willing to sell it to Heimdall.
As Dong Zheng fought, he retreated. With the lantern in one hand and the arrow in the other, he was alert to Midnight’s sneak attacks. The black cat stepped lightly on the wall and threw himself in front of him. As Midnight’s claws collided with the metal, it made a piercing, screeching sound. The force of the blow pushed Dong Zheng back, and his back knocked hard against a display shelf. The red high-heeled shoes in the glass case swayed and fell over.
The lantern also shook, causing the light to sway violently. Taking advantage of this moment, a thin, black hand suddenly stretched out from under Dong Zheng’s feet and grabbed his ankle. It tried to drag Dong Zheng into a different dimension as it had done to Cui Zuojing, but in an instant, an arrow stabbed down on it. The ghost screamed and melted away. But it wasn’t reconciled, and so it hovered near, waiting for the next opportunity to act again.
Aside from Dong Zheng’s rapid breathing, Heimdall was as quiet as a tomb. Normally, the moment the alarm system detected such big movements in the showroom, it would have sounded. But at this moment, the alarm system was indifferent. Even the voice-activated lights were no longer working. If it weren’t for the fact that he was carrying a lantern, Dong Zheng would have had to rely on the fluorescent light from the exit sign to see.
The black figure flickered again and again, dragging out afterimages. Dong Zheng staggered out of the showroom and felt a burning pain on the back of his hand. Blood flowed from the narrow wound and stained the silver arrow.
The kernel allowed Dong Zheng to perfectly predict Midnight’s position and attack time every time. But while his brain could make the correct decision every time, his body couldn’t keep up with the rapid rhythm of Midnight’s attacks.
This was a problem that brain domain developers would often encounter. Dong Zheng’s physical quality was already considered the best in his class, but he was still far from Cui Zuojing’s level.
His nerves communicated the pain to his brain. The location of the scratch on the back of his hand was right by the Arabidopsis symbol. After the blood contract was lifted, the imprint no longer worked and had, instead, changed into a special tattoo. Dong Zheng raised his hand and pressed the scratch on the back of his hand to his cheek for a few seconds, trying to alleviate the pain.
He ran out of the showroom and walked down the long hallway. His brain was swifting spinning, thinking about how to create a situation that would be beneficial to him.
The sounds of his footsteps and heavy breathing echoed in the hallway. The completely shattered moon hung outside the window, casting the shadow of the window frame on the wall. In the dim blood-colored light, a black shadow appeared in the rectangular illumination. Its pointed ears were standing upright, and its tail was curled up elegantly.
But the shadow quickly disappeared, chasing after someone as fast as an ineffable illusion.
—–
Cui Zuojing opened his eyes. The lights from the seals gradually faded away. There was benefit to understanding the power of time, but for Fu Zhe’s power of space, it was nominal. Especially since it didn’t belong to him.
He looked around. He appeared to be in the same exact place where he had disappeared into Dong Zheng’s shadow. The puppet that fell from the ceiling was still lying on the steps. Even though its head was broken in half, it still carried a stiff, dull smile while its black eyes stared vacantly into the distance.
Dong Zheng was nowhere to be seen nor was there any traces of the lantern. Something white flashed by in the darkness around the corner. Cui Zuojing’s breathing stagnated, and so he could only shelf his worries for Dong Zheng and immediately ran upstairs.
A cold liquid dripped down from the ceiling, carrying a fishy breath, like seawater. Cui Zuojing ignored it and rushed toward the prop showroom at the other end of the hallway. Seeing that the door was open, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
It seemed that Dong Zheng had already been there…Cui Zuojing quickly walked to the area where the spiritual props were placed, and when he saw the scene in front of him, he suddenly stopped.
The entire area where the spiritual props were placed seemed to have suffered a catastrophe. All the glass covers were violently smashed, and the spiritual props inside were missing, not even leaving a little bit behind
Who was the culprit? There was no doubt at all.
Cui Zuojing’s teeth clenched with hatred. Now he proclaimed, this cat was not lovable at all, and he made people just want to strangle him!
He was certain that Midnight wouldn’t leave anything useful behind for him, so he didn’t even bother looking. He quit the props showroom and went straight to Heinrich’s office. If he was lucky, there would be something useful there.
In just 20 seconds, the fishy seawater had accumulated in the hallway. Under the dim blood-colored light filtering through the window, Cui Zuojing could vaguely see ghostly shapes gathering there. He couldn’t help thinking of the fish butchers of Bildgewater Slaughter Wharf, who died in the fishes’ bellies and were regenerated as lonely, wandering ghosts.
Where did the water come from? Cui Zuojing didn’t have time to think about it carefully. With a snap of his fingers, time slowed. He rushed through the ghostly shadows and ran to the top floor. When he finally faced the closed door of Heinrich’s office, he didn’t hesitate to pull a card out from his sleeve and cut off the door lock. Finally, he hurried in.
Heinrich’s office was very tidy. Cui Zuojing ran straight to the cabinet by the wall and fetched the baseball bat placed on top of the cabinet.
Heinrich bought the baseball bat from a team long ago. At that time, the team claimed that it was a very good spiritual weapon and used some shameful tricks to deceive the young Heinrich into believing them. After he bought the bat, he realized that he had been fooled. It was just a broken stick, and though it could make substantial contact with spirits, it couldn’t cause any additional damage.
Heinrich was so angry that he threw the bat among the happy displays in his cabinet, so that it would always remind him to be a treacherous old fox. Only he could lie to others, not the other way around.
How did Cui Zuojing know about this? One day, he went out to play baseball with Heinrich, and Beverly “kindly” told him about the history of the baseball bat in Heinrich’s hand, causing her president boyfriend to chase her away in a rage.
He didn’t know and he didn’t care; regardless, he wanted to try it out. Cui Zuojing waved the baseball bat, exited the office, and closed the door very considerately.
Of course, the broken lock couldn’t be replaced. Cui Zuojing thought it was a little regretful. When Heinrich came in tomorrow morning and discovered that not only was the props showroom completely messed up with so many spiritual tools gone, but his office door was also broken, he would probably die young of a heart attack from extremely high blood pressure.
Cui Zuojing was more assured now, and since it seemed that Dong Zheng had already met Midnight, he must find him as soon as possible.
He knew that Dong Zheng wasn’t Midnight’s opponent. It wasn’t because he lacked confidence in Dong Zheng’s strength. It was because Dong Zheng and Midnight fighting head-on was like a game support and assassin 1v1. Midnight would use every opportunity he had.
He walked in a hurry and had just turned the corner when a pale figure jumped out through the wall and came face to face with Cui Zuojing.
“Ahhhhh!”
The skinny face with hollow cheekbones, bulging, bloodshot eyes, and bloodstained mouth directly hit Cui Zuojing’s line of sight. He was so startled that his pupils shrunk and his heart jumped. With a yell, he swung the baseball bat out of reflex–
The ghost also hadn’t anticipated directly running into Cui Zuojing and was startled when the young man screamed. It had just stepped back when the baseball slammed into its face!
The ghost didn’t even have time to scream before it was thrown directly into the wall and completely disappeared from Cui Zuojing’s sight.
Clutching his pounding heart, Cui Zuojing stepped away from the wall and finally heaved a sigh of relief. He glanced at the plain baseball bat in his hand, narrowed his eyes, and a cruel smile slowly spread across his face.
It seems…to be pretty useful.
I thought Cui Zuojing were already pretty expressive even when his feeling still with the clown. But now after seeing how lively he is, I realize he is really rather calm before.
These ghosts aren’t scary at all and are rather funny …