Chapter 181: Entrance to the Upper World

After successfully invading the Ghost Shadow's memory and learning the other's experiences, Zhang Hao no longer intended to let the other continue the invasion.

He began to invade deeper into the Ghost Shadow's memory, invading to a time before it had returned to Yang Jian's head.

However, this Ghost Shadow, apparently because it already possessed a perfect ghost body, presented itself in its prime state no matter which period Zhang Hao invaded.

"Another ghost that has already been lodged on the timeline; its existence can no longer be struck through past or future. No matter which era, one must face the present Ghost Shadow."

Zhang Hao still remembered that his first time being lodged on the timeline was when he faced Meng Xiaodong's Wraith.

However, the current Ghost Shadow was clearly stronger than he had been at that time.

Yet this strength was also limited.

Even theoretically, a Ghost Shadow that can splice bodies has almost limitless growth potential, able to use any Fierce Ghost as parts of a corpse.

But the Ghost Shadow's growth, from start to finish, was still confined to the concept of a human body.

No matter what, the Ghost Shadow could not equip four legs and four arms on its body.

Unless, in the subsequent splicing process, it incorporated a ghost such as a starving ghost.

Clearly, this ghost failed to obtain the Ghost Power of the starving ghost and instead entered the Yin Yang Lu.

The Mindless Suppression Ghost Power on Zhang Hao activated, and the countless Zhang Haos across timelines stacked their Suppression Quota onto the same period.

Now, his rate of stacking Suppression Quota was faster than when he previously faced Zhang Dong.

The speed referred to here is not merely the faster stacking due to increased base quota, but an acceleration in the temporal dimension.

If the earlier Zhang Hao added two Suppression Quotas from different periods per unit of time,

then the current stacking speed has reached the efficiency of adding ten Suppression Quotas from different periods.

In just a brief moment, Zhang Hao completely stacked the Suppression Quota.

The departed Ghost Power activated.

The unsolvable black and white emerged from Zhang Hao, and these colors began to invade the Ghost Shadow enveloping him.

Before long, the Ghost Shadow surrounding Zhang Hao dissipated, turning into nothing.

At that moment, a rustling of countless powder hitting the ground echoed in the darkness.

The Ghost Shadow was suppressed; everything about it was fading, even the hard‑won spliced ghost body could no longer wield Ghost Power at this moment.

Whatever was in its body—blood or anything else—was at this moment completely turned into powder.

Indeed, the Ghost Shadow was fully reduced to powder, apparently not retaining the Fierce Ghost's immortality.

"Hmm, what is the reason for this?"

Zhang Hao was stunned by the scene.

He had not consumed the ghost on the Ghost Shadow, as would be expected.

After being fully suppressed by Zhang Hao, the Ghost Shadow could at most fail to sustain its own Ghost Power due to extreme suppression.

However, Zhang Hao quickly recovered his composure.

"It seems to be because it detached from its original world."

"This darkness appears to be an unknown Spiritual Realm that can accommodate any derivative Ghost Power."

"But after leaving its original world, even though a derivative Ghost Power can exist here, it loses immortality because it is not a true Fierce Ghost."

This, Zhang Hao found easy to understand.

In fact, it is like a doppelgänger of a ghost painting, a Wraith within an oil painting.

These entities, while inside the artwork, do not die from attacks, and are almost indistinguishable from a real Fierce Ghost.

And when these ghosts leave the painting, they naturally lose their immortality.

Just as a Wraith in an oil painting can act within the ghost painting, once it steps into the ghost painting's world, it can be killed.

"It seems I must be more cautious in this place."

Although the current Zhang Hao possesses Infinite Restart, can become a Ghost Domain, and harbors several unsolvable self‑preserving Ghost Powers such as temporal lodging.

Yet in this unknown place, even he cannot be sure that he can employ these Ghost Powers when suppressed.

The just‑now Ghost Shadow is a perfect example: possessing Yang Jian's Ghost Eye, a perfect ghost body, already lodged on the timeline, and capable of a large‑scale Restart.

However, under these circumstances, facing Zhang Hao, the Ghost Shadow had no chance to Restart.

At any point in time, it was assaulted by Zhang Hao's so‑called departed Ghost Power.

Devoid of the Fierce Ghost's immortality, it at this moment could not even leave any residue, only powder remained.

And this scene made Zhang Hao's desire to devour a higher‑world Fierce Ghost even stronger.

When the upper world collides with the lower world, the Ghost Power disparity is utterly crushing.

Leaving aside the Fierce Ghost's immortality, even Six‑Tenths of the Ghostly Power alone is an unsolvable problem.

Perhaps this ghost's performance in the lower world is no worse than in the upper world, but once it enters the upper world or clashes with its Fierce Ghosts, it hits a limit and can no longer stack without bound.

After dealing with the Ghost Shadow, Zhang Hao no longer considered attacking the other two ghosts.

If it loses immortality, the derived Yang Jian facing him could not be his opponent.

After all, even if Yang Jian devours countless ghosts, he still cannot consume them all.

Zhang Hao walked through the darkness.

However, his lack of intent to act does not mean the other Fierce Ghosts in this darkness will not attack each other.

Shortly after, Zhang Hao discovered that the earlier Painting Ghost had clashed with a Mirror Ghost.

The Painting Ghost at that moment truly stepped out of the painting.

Visually, this Painting Ghost resembled a ghost painting, both wearing red clothing, though it was not a Wedding Dress.

The Painting Ghost wore a Red Cheongsam.

And its body seemed to have become a Wooden Puppet.

"Is this… the ghost painting commandeering the ghost on Zhang Youhong's body?"

Or perhaps a reincarnation of Zhang Youhong rode the Ghost Painting and then completed the Puzzle on the Ghost Painting?

Although he didn't take part in the battle, Zhang Hao's observational ability is still quite good.

This Ghost took a different path from the Ghost Bride; the Ghost Bride cooperated with the Ghost Painting, following the wedding route to complete the Red Room path.

And this Ghost combines Zhang Youhong's Ghost, Ghost Painting, Ghost Makeup, oil painting, and painter as supernatural elements.

Moreover, her body is not the female corpse in the Ghost Cabinet, but uses Zhang Youhong's Wooden Puppet as its body.

In this situation, this Ghost's disguise replication ability has been greatly completed.

If we incorporate the so-called Conceptual Supernatural Puzzle, the one between me and the Bride is a mourning marriage, and then it is divided into Red Affair and White Affair.

And now this Painting Ghost should be a Record Derivation.

This Ghost is growing toward the ultimate direction of recording; whether it's a wooden puppet or a painting, both are supernatural related to recording others. As Zhang Hao continues to observe, he quickly discovers the supernatural of this Painting Ghost.

The wooden puppets derived from this thing have all sorts of forms, including the Republic Era Seven Elders that Zhang Hao is familiar with.

However, the supernatural of these Seven Elders is considerably stronger than that replicated by the Ghost Bride.

Those Seven Elders, rather than being Six-Tenths of the Ghostly Power Seven Elders derived from the Painting Ghost, are better described as the Painting Ghost disguising itself as other Ghosts during Infinite Derivation.

These disguised Fierce Ghosts possess supernatural abilities similar to those of the deceased in life.

In this case, it's like Zhang Hao's own doppelgänger, also having nearly 100% of the original's supernatural, even usable as the original for judgment.

This Painting Ghost, using such a doppelgänger to disguise as other Seven Elders, can naturally unleash the full supernatural power of those Seven Elders.

Moreover, it seems because that Ghost had further development of Ghost Makeup.

Consequently, after these Seven Elders appear, Zhang Hao actually observes that the wooden puppets of these Seven Elders now exhibit a hint of thought, albeit very faint.

But even the most rudimentary thinking ability greatly enhances these Seven Elders' combat methods.

In just a few seconds of observation, Zhang Hao sees those Seven Elders' wooden puppets employing many former-life techniques, even resisting supernatural attacks.

So this is the ultimate of walking this direction, huh?

Zhang Hao thought of the Ghost Bride; by now, that red Cheongsam has also been taken by the Ghost Bride, along with high heels, red handkerchief and other Supernatural Artifacts.

The supernatural that Zhang Youhong left for Hong Jie to derive, except for that wooden puppet, have all the Puzzles been taken by the Ghost Bride.

In this situation, Zhang Hao only needs to hand over the supernatural belonging to the wooden puppet completely to the Ghost Bride; she seems able to walk this path as well.

"Perhaps, when there's time, we can try it."

"But for now, let's continue observing; this Painting Ghost might greatly improve the Lady's tactics."

Perhaps because the time was too short, Zhang Hao hasn't heavily developed the Ghost Bride's supernatural.

Especially after the Ghost Bride took a path similar to Zhang Youhong's, Zhang Hao is even more at a loss on how to develop the Ghost Bride's supernatural techniques.

And now this encountered Painting Ghost clearly offers Zhang Hao a good line of thought.

"Even without a wooden puppet, this step can be achieved."

"The supernatural between me and the Lady has already become shared; we can completely hand the wooden puppet's supernatural over to the Bride."

Zhang Hao observes the battle between the Painting Ghost and the Mirror Ghost, while pondering inside.

Come to think of it, this Mirror Ghost is also extremely formidable.

Each time the Painting Ghost spawns a new entity, a matching reflection appears in the mirror world.

These reflections, and the reflections within the mirrors, seem to possess a supernatural that can transfer attacks.

Each time a supernatural attacks the mirror, it is transferred out, which is very bizarre.

I don't know how this thing grew.

It can't be that Yang Jian, just after becoming a Ghost Tamer, was killed and replaced by that Fierce Ghost from the class reunion, right? After that thing killed Yang Jian, it also obtained a Ghost Mirror, and after replacing Yang Jian, it gained the Fierce Ghost on Yang Jian's body, making this Ghost utterly unsolvable.

I have to admit, this possibility is relatively high.

Don't underestimate this Ghost; after all, its ability replaces the living person before the mirror.

When the supernatural involves a replacing Fierce Ghost, none is simple.

Shen Lin's Ghost Mother, the revived Meng Xiaodong, the deceiving Ghost that replaces consciousness, the Ghostly Servant that replaces villagers and Restarts, Zhang Hao that replaces the past and Restarts.

These Fierce Ghosts, each of them, belong to conceptual Fierce Ghosts.

"The lower world often takes the development of the upper world as its core," Zhang Hao keeps pondering.

"It's like the lower world I derived using a camera, although the vast majority of it I won."

"But a small portion of situations arise, where some unexpected events midway affect the whole world's development, leading to my ultimate failure to grow."

"Whether it's me, the Mirror Ghost, the Painting Ghost, the Drowning Corpse, or the earlier Ghost Shadow, evidently all have caused enough accidents to affect the direction of the Derived World."

"If that's the case, then those worlds where the great gates weren't opened are actually the worlds where Yang Jian became the victor? Or perhaps, worlds where living people became the victors?"

Zhang Hao turned his head to glance at himself; among the countless pieces of darkness, few can connect to the unknown world.

Most of the darkness also connects to the unknown world, but has already been blocked by certain things.

The battle between the Mirror Ghost and the Painting Ghost continues; the Terror Level of these two Ghosts is evidently comparable, and neither has a means to completely crush the other.

In this situation, the two Ghosts repeatedly Restart, clash, and become stalemated, requiring an unknown amount of time to determine a winner.

"Let's go back first; now the main body can enter, but before that, we must confirm whether we can return after leaving the original world."

Zhang Hao used Ghost Domain and quickly returned to the previous darkness.

The darkness here, though it blocks all light, does not impede the spread of Ghost Domain.

Feeling this darkness that connects to the main body, Zhang Hao plunged straight in.

Returning to the original world, this action was surprisingly smooth.

This door does not present a restriction that prevents return after leaving.

Having confirmed this, Zhang Hao immediately ended the Restart, leading the Ghost Bride and He Yuelian into the White Bone Gate.

Having the prior experience, Zhang Hao walks through this darkness, yet does not linger.

He Yuelian, seeing this, though a bit curious, still tightly grasps Zhang Hao's hand and stays by his side.

Only along the way, He Yuelian would occasionally scan the surroundings; this place was far too strange.

This time, Zhang Hao did not walk in the direction he had previously been heading, but chose a new direction.

As for that painted Ghost, Zhang Hao was somewhat curious, but not particularly concerned.

After all, the Ghosts wandering in this darkness were clearly beyond Zhang Hao's control.

All he needed was a direction for the Ghost Bride's Ghost's Growth.

The top priority was still to find the Upper World.

Zhang Hao didn't know how long he had been wandering in the darkness—perhaps a few days, perhaps a few months, or even possibly years.

This darkness seemed to have no sense of time at all.

Even Zhang Hao only knew that during this period, he, with the Ghost Bride and He Yuelian, encountered countless Fierce Ghosts.

Finally, after an unknown amount of darkness, Zhang Hao sensed a threatening aura.

The patch of darkness beneath his feet seemed to connect to the Upper World.

Zhang Hao could feel that within this darkness there were many terrifying auras.

Even the surrounding darkness now concealed numerous terrifying Fierce Ghosts.

These Fierce Ghosts, one after another, all seemed instinctively eager to break into this darkness.

Unfortunately, for reasons unknown, the gate of this darkness was sealed off.

(End of chapter)