Chapter 165: The Bride's Terror, the Captain Who Is Gradually Going Offline

He Yuelian's sudden attack on He Yiner was something no one had expected.

Earlier, Yang Jian and the others noticed He Yuelian standing beside the Ghost Bride, but because their outfits were almost identical and He Yuelian's appearance did not differ much from the Ghost Painting,

this led Yang Jian and the others to think that He Yuelian was merely a duplicate created by the Ghost Bride.

They know that the White Demon possesses intelligence; likewise, they know that the Red Demon lacks intelligence.

Facing the Ghost Bride's sudden attack, the infinite derivations and infinite stacking of Supernatural phenomena, everyone focused their attention on the Ghost Bride.

And the fact that He Yuelian would launch a sneak attack was beyond their imagination.

"She is not a duplicate of the Ghost Bride; she is a living person controlled by a Fierce Ghost, possessing part of the Fierce Ghost's Supernatural power."

Zhang Baihua was the first to react; with his extensive experience, he judged He Yuelian's condition merely from her actions and expression.

"What!"

Everyone was startled by the words.

Yang Jian, who was in the crowd, hurriedly withdrew at this moment, trying to rescue He Yiner, but it was already too late.

Facing the suppression of Ghost Blood, even Yang Jian's area-wide Restart could not help.

The absolute suppression of the area-wide Restart cut off the Ghost Domain's influence on the Ghost Blood.

If He Yiner were an Abnormal, she might still have a chance to be saved by the area-wide Restart, because the distinction between an Abnormal and a Fierce Ghost is minimal.

But He Yiner's peculiarity lies in that, although she is an Abnormal, she became one by using Soul Summoning Incense to call a Wraith, and thus lacks the immortality of other Abnormals.

"Damn!"

Yang Jian, after He Yiner was killed, saw He Yuelian vanish instantly from the spot, and couldn't help muttering a curse.

He Yiner's death meant that the inheritance of Taiping Ancient Town was completely broken.

Because a Soul Summoner requires the previous generation's Soul Summoner to die before passing to the next generation.

When the old Soul Summoner is about to pass away, he continuously burns Soul Summoning Incense for the chosen successor, allowing that already-dead successor to return to reality as a Wraith and inherit the ghost that represents the Soul Summoner.

He Yiner's death, although it does not mean that no one can later wield the ghost within her body, as the only stable path of inheritance, this blow is obviously huge.

"Don't get distracted!"

Li Leping rushed to Yang Jian's side; although he had forgotten part of the events, when Yang Jian later contacted him, he still voluntarily joined the incident.

"I know, it's just that too many things happened in a short time, that's all."

Yang Jian nodded; golden flames sprouted on him, and terrifying Ghost Fire spread outward, dispersing the Ghost Bride's Ghost Domain.

If Ghost Fire has a slight suppressing effect on the Ghost Painting, then Ghost Furnace Fire is an absolute suppression against the Ghost Painting.

This flame that can burn all Supernatural phenomena was ignited in this Old Forest; whether the trees below that bore terrifying Supernatural aura or the Ghost Painting's Ghost Domain, they all began to contract because of this Supernatural.

However, the mastery of this Supernatural comes with very large side effects.

The furnace fire can burn any Supernatural; likewise, Yang Jian, as the one who wields the furnace fire, will also become a burning target.

If not for Zhang Baihua's help, the tall male corpse that Yang Jian wielded, which possessed extremely strong defense and regeneration, would have caused Yang Jian to die early when facing the Ghost Furnace Fire.

Nevertheless, even so, when Yang Jian employed the furnace fire's Supernatural, the first target the furnace fire burned was often his own body.

But the furnace fire's Supernatural was clearly not possessed by him alone.

Li Qingzhi, summoned by the Ghost Bride and Hong Jie, also possesses the Supernatural to use this furnace fire.

However, each summoned Li Qingzhi only has Supernatural strength at sixty percent of the original.

Although it's sixty percent Supernatural, without merging into one, ten individuals each with sixty percent Supernatural would only barely match the original's strength.

And now Yang Jian, because he can activate nine layers of Ghost Eye stacking, can also achieve infinite stacking of Supernatural.

The Ghost Furnace Fire disperses the surrounding Ghost Painting's influence, allowing the Ghost Eye to open smoothly, thus preventing Yang Jian's combat power from being impaired when facing the Ghost Bride.

With Ye Zhen and Zhang Baihua's help, aside from being caught off guard at first, they soon began to suppress the Ghost Bride.

But is the matter really that easy to resolve?

He Yuelian, having dealt with He Yiner, quickly rushed to the Ghost Bride's side.

"Ghost Bride, we should be able to replicate those people's appearances, right?"

Because the Ghost Bride had been wielding Ghost Blood the previous two days, Zhang Hao was idle with nothing to do, giving He Yuelian plenty of time to spend with Zhang Hao.

During conversations with Zhang Hao, He Yuelian keenly noticed the topics that Zhang Hao was more interested in.

If it were about love affairs, Zhang Hao would have little mind to converse with He Yuelian.

But when it comes to topics like Supernatural development, Zhang Hao would be more interested in talking with her.

To get Zhang Hao to speak more with her, He Yuelian began actively seeking topics about developing various Supernatural.

Two days also greatly improved He Yuelian's methods of using Supernatural; compared to the captain, she is no longer weak.

After all, because He Yuelian wields a sixty-percent Supernatural duplicate of the Ghost Bride, whether the Fierce Ghost revives is entirely decided by Zhang Hao and the Ghost Bride.

In this situation, He Yuelian can almost use any Supernatural without restriction, trying to develop Supernatural techniques.

Zhang Hao's guidance is clearly different from Sun Rui's guidance of He Yuelian in the original work.

Sun Rui, only a Ghost Tamer who wielded two ghosts, believed that Supernatural merely required mutual balance, coordinated cyclic use, to achieve stronger attacks.

Moreover, Sun Rui's understanding of the Ghost Painting is lacking; what he could teach He Yuelian is more about experience with Supernatural Incidents.

Also how to control one's own Ghost Power, preventing one's Supernatural from going out of control and harming others.

This also caused him to be rather useless later during the Eastern and Western Nations War.

But with Zhang Hao, what he taught He Yuelian were how to develop Supernatural, how to stack Supernatural, and how to use various Mediums to make her attacks stronger and more bizarre.

Although in the Ghost Bride's view, He Yuelian's importance is not high; she is merely a derived duplicate.

And because of Zhang Hao, the Ghost Bride does not greatly need Ghost Slaves with intelligence.

But He Yuelian's identity is still special.

She is a living person created by Zhang Xianguang using a Ghost Painting; after wielding part of the Ghost Bride's Supernatural, she now has no difference from the true Ghost Bride derivative.

As He Yuelian's voice faded, the Ghost Bride easily understood He Yuelian's inner thoughts.

Facing unhelpful ideas, the Ghost Bride naturally ignores them.

But when faced with ideas that can develop the supernatural, the Ghost Bride naturally does not overlook them.

Immediately, several new paintings appear beside the Ghost Bride.

These paintings look completely different from the previous few people; they are not the Seven Elders' appearances.

The people in these paintings resemble Yang Jian and the others without much difference.

As the Ghost Bride summons them, painting ghosts possessing Six‑Tenths of the Ghostly Power of people like Yang Jian and Zhang Baihua appear one by one. When Yang Jian sees the painting ghost that looks exactly like himself, his complexion changes, and the terrifying Ghost Furnace Fire instantly ignites his own painting ghost.

However, at this moment, he is surprised to find that while attacking those painting ghosts, he himself seems to have been afflicted by some extremely terrifying curse.

This comes from the painter's supernatural ability; he can attack others through his portraits.

Having completed the painter's supernatural, the Ghost Bride now directly copies Yang Jian's appearance; when Yang Jian attacks a painting ghost, the damage the painting ghost receives also synchronously affects him.

Yang Jian himself, who commands Ghost Furnace Fire and a towering male corpse, is doing it desperately with Zhang Baihua's assistance.

Although he has the herbal medicine provided by Zhang Baihua and other supernatural suppressions, he has no worry of Fierce Ghost revival in the short term.

But as he endures both Fierce Ghost revival and the synchronized damage from painting ghosts, Yang Jian cannot help but feel something odd in his body.

The special herbal medicine Zhang Baihua gave Yang Jian can indeed suppress Fierce Ghost revival.

But the premise is that he must not heavily employ supernatural power.

In the invasive battle, Yang Jian basically uses his own supernatural at maximum strength throughout, even beginning to stack his own supernatural power.

Under these circumstances, the herbal suppression of Fierce Ghost revival has long since begun to fail.

Now he also endures this horror, and attacks that share the same source as Ghost Furnace Fire; the Fierce Ghost revival naturally becomes even more severe.

It's not only Yang Jian; at this time Ye Zhen, Zhang Baihua and others also encounter similar predicaments.

As this batch of painting ghosts that mimic their appearances appear, their attacks become restrained, unwilling to fully unleash them.

Even Ye Zhen, who possesses a Death Substitute, feels somewhat helpless in this situation.

The Death Substitute Ghost, which can transfer damage, is indeed a dead end; even if Ye Zhen's supernatural is killed, it can still be transferred away by it.

But Ye Zhen's Death Substitute Ghost also has its own flaws.

The substitution frequency has a limit; when the number of hits exceeds the amount of damage it can transfer per second, it cannot quickly restore its own state.

Furthermore, there is another problem.

That is, Ye Zhen is extremely fearful of continuous suppressive supernatural, such as Coffin Nail.

The Ghost Bride does not have a Coffin Nail in hand, but she possesses Ghost Blood.

Ghost Blood's suppressive power is not weaker than a Coffin Nail, and it also has the effect of isolating supernatural.

Once shrouded by Ghost Blood, Ye Zhen will continuously suffer its suppression, and because Ghost Blood isolates, he cannot transfer damage away.

Because Ghost Blood can isolate all mediums Ye Zhen uses for substitution.

"No way, Yang Invincible, think of a way quickly. Our whole group can't beat a woman; if we keep dragging it out and they fight as a married pair, how can we continue?"

At this moment, Ye Zhen dodges an approaching painting ghost; these painting ghosts not only replicate others' supernatural abilities but can also employ the Ghost Bride's supernatural techniques, making them extremely dangerous to Ye Zhen.

Earlier, when he faced a painting ghost disguised as an old man, he was almost covered entirely by Ghost Blood from that ghost; fortunately, others later intervened to help.

"What can I do?"

Yang Jian feels a bit helpless; if he truly had a way, he wouldn't be forced into this situation now.

Moreover, due to the constant fighting, Yang Jian now doesn't even have the chance to open the Human Skin Paper and ask its opinion.

"Bang!"

In the battle, another captain soon couldn't hold on.

This time the captain is Cao Yang; his body is smeared with strange red blood, lying motionless on the ground, making it impossible to discern his condition.

Cao Yang, who commands Ghost Wind, has strong self‑preservation abilities; Ghost Wind can blow away most supernatural techniques.

But he still falls short; even with Zhang Baihua's help these past days, which raised his strength a bit, the gap to the Seven Elders remains large.

If previously Cao Yang was a lower‑mid‑tier captain, with Zhang Baihua's assistance he has only risen to the upper tier of captains.

Cao Yang's fall is like a signal.

As he falls, another person soon cannot bear it.

This time the person is a man whom Ye Zhen and Yang Jian have never seen before; he looks quite young, with an Eastern face but dressed in a more Western style.

At this moment his body is ashen, motionless, his complexion devoid of any blood, like a corpse.

The only sign of life may be his continuously rising and falling chest; faintly, even from a distance, Ye Zhen can hear the man's heartbeat.

"Has the Fierce Ghost revived?" Ye Zhen glanced back at the man.

His impression of this man is still relatively deep.

This man only returned to the country this morning; due to lack of time, Zhang Baihua did not guide him to become stronger, and the group had already arrived at this Ancient House and Old Forest.

Being able to persist to this point in such a situation without Zhang Baihua's guidance, even Ye Zhen himself is not confident of that.

"Zhang Sun also died?"

Han Mo turns his head, his complexion extremely grim, and looks around.

Cao Yang is dead, He Yiner is also dead, and with Zhang Sun, there are already three captains dead in this confrontation.

Meanwhile, Yang Jian is also suppressed, emanating a chilling aura, and the Fierce Ghost could revive at any moment.

Li Leping's side is relatively fine; thanks to the Forgetting Ghost's peculiarity, even when the Ghost Bride deals with him, she inadvertently overlooks targeting him.

On Liu San's side, the Paper Person is more than half dead; from the current situation, he may not hold out much longer.

The only relatively good situation is Zhang Baihua, Ye Zhen, and Han Mo himself.

Zhang Baihua is one of the Seven Elders, very strong in developing supernatural usage.

And Ye Zhen, because of the Death Substitute Ghost's supernatural, can continue to persist.

As for Han Mo himself, similar to Ye Zhen, he has a Disaster Blocking Ghost, and now he can have others help block disasters.

At this moment, Han Mo gritted his teeth, looking around, his expression constantly shifting, and his heart seemed to be making choices he was unwilling to accept.

"Bang!"

Accompanied by another sound, this time it was the noise of Yang Jian's body being blasted away.

Now Yang Jian's body radiated Hong Bai Shuang Sha, and his pair of scarlet eyes seemed to blaze with terrifying flames.

Yang Jian's body continuously shed corpse fluid tinged with bright yellow flame onto the ground.

Yang Jian is about to have the Fierce Ghost revived, and both the Ghost Eye and the Ghost Furnace Fire are reviving simultaneously.

"Ye Zhen!"

The sight of Yang Jian being blasted away seemed to cement a certain resolve in Han Mo.

He hurried to Ye Zhen's side and blocked the ghost that was attacking her.

(End of Chapter)