Chapter 496: Undying!

"Can evil ghosts even demolish houses?" Tang Luo said. "No, wait — building houses for themselves?"

"Master, it should've been blown up by people," Zhu Bajie said.

Both he and Ao Yulie had cast spells on Tang Luo, able to see the scene here and maintaining communication at all times.

Seeing those buildings turned to ruins, Zhu Bajie thought of some information he had dug up.

For several days, rumbling sounds often came from within the residential compound — not loud, but still heard by quite a few people.

Demolition! Boom boom boom!

Blow it straight up — that line of thinking is extremely clear.

Whether the evil ghost is anchored to or reliant on some object, blast the whole area to smithereens and see how you play then?

Often, the reason you can't kill it is simply insufficient power, insufficient range, and insufficient yield.

The approach is actually completely correct.

Conventional evil ghosts, besides things like black dog blood, are also intimidated by vigorous qi and blood.

There are also figures like butchers — a pig-slaughtering knife stained with countless blood can harm evil ghosts.

One person might be attacked by an evil ghost; a hundred people would not.

As for a squad of a hundred battlefield veterans, their murderous qi soaring to the heavens, they can directly exterminate evil ghosts.

It's just a pity, this time it's an evil ghost that's not a ghost — boom boom boom couldn't play any role.

Otherwise, this residential compound wouldn't have been directly abandoned.

The location here isn't gold-tier, but it's silver-tier — short of a last resort, why would they completely give it up?

Tang Luo walked along the edge of the ruins, hearing no insect chirps or bird calls, nor sensing any anomalous presence.

"Master, the matter here seems related to a lamp," Ao Yulie said.

"A lamp?"

"Mm, it's been a while; a lot of messy stuff got deleted. The only keyword we could retrieve is 'lamp'," Ao Yulie said.

Tang Luo looked up at the streetlamp beside the compound's green belt.

The streetlamp was naturally off, not a shred of light.

But intact and undamaged — the bulb wasn't broken.

He thought a moment, then went to the compound's power distribution room and fiddled with it, but couldn't light the streetlamps.

Clearly, the electricity had been cut off outside.

Walking out of the distribution room, he fished out his phone, turned on the "flashlight," and Tang Luo waved it around absentmindedly, his gaze not even following it.

"Master!" Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie spoke simultaneously, "Left side."

"Left side?" Tang Luo shone it to the left.

The phone cast a beam in the darkness, its landing point right beneath the streetlamp.

The patch of ground under that streetlamp was enveloped by the phone's light.

In a place originally empty of people, a lantern appeared within the light.

A white lantern!

The candle burning inside was a bright-red wedding candle, even carved with a "Double Happiness" character.

Yet the light it emitted, passing through the white lantern, turned an eerie red.

A hazy, indistinct mass.

Holding the lantern was a hand — an exceptionally beautiful hand, slender jade fingers, clean nails, wearing no adornments.

A short distance past the wrist, it vanished into darkness; neither the phone's light nor the lantern's red glow could penetrate that darkness.

To let one see the hand's owner's appearance.

"Looks like it's this thing," Tang Luo said, moving the phone's light away.

As the light moved away, that side fell back into darkness.

Of course, this ordinary darkness differs from the darkness behind the lantern.

Ordinary darkness, when needed, simply doesn't exist for the three of them.

So they clearly saw: when the light vanished, the white "red wedding lantern" and the hand holding it disappeared.

Tang Luo shone the phone over again — the lantern reappeared; moved the phone away — the lantern vanished.

He tested repeatedly a few times; all the same.

"Gulp..." Ao Yulie swallowed, a creepy feeling in his heart.

"Master, this thing seems to be closing in on you," he said.

Have to admit, it got under his skin — even just watching remotely through a spell, Ao Yulie felt a massive wave of fear spreading over him.

This lantern is a few degrees more terrifying than that hide-and-seek ghost.

"A lantern that only appears when there's light?" Zhu Bajie frowned.

The hand owner's true appearance — no one could see clearly; that dense darkness completely cut off their vision, and Tang Luo's perception too.

Maybe try Erlang Shen's Heavenly Eye — might be able to make out something.

"Let me think." Tang Luo shone the phone under the streetlamp; Ao Yulie was right — the distance between that lantern and him had indeed drawn a bit closer.

Advanced roughly half a meter.

Yet under this illumination, Tang Luo neither saw nor sensed any sign of the lantern moving.

"This ghost — wouldn't be called Da Vinci, would it?" Tang Luo said after thinking.

"Hah?" Ao Yulie blanked.

"Who's Da Vinci?" Zhu Bajie asked.

Tang Luo said: "World-renowned inventor; main works include the 'Take Your Life 3000' — a flashlight that lights up when there's light, and absolutely won't light up when there's no light."

「……」

"Master, aren't you afraid?" Ao Yulie asked.

"Not really." Tang Luo said.

"I also feel some fear." Zhu Bajie said solemnly, "Ordinary people seeing this lantern would probably be scared to death."

"This thing is pretty yin, huh." Tang Luo said.

Most people definitely don't like darkness; darkness represents the unknown, and the unknown often triggers fear.

Why is there thalassophobia?

Because at a glance, you have no idea what exists in that deep, dark seabed?

Giant sharks, octopuses, monsters? Or, sea surface babies?

Don't think sea surface babies aren't scary—if a real sea surface baby walked up to you, touched your conscience, and answered, would you really not be afraid?

In the dark, turning on lights is normal procedure.

But turning on lights summons this "red and white lantern," and the fear it brings is the "method of killing," which can scare people to death.

If you encounter someone bolder, like Ao Yulie, who can withstand it.

The natural reaction is to flee, but once you flee, the darkness not illuminated by the light will cause the lantern to approach.

Tang Luo swaying back and forth isn't particularly fast, but who can guarantee the red and white lantern won't speed up?

Just looking at it can scare someone to death; truly touching it means certain death.

Either way, you're dead.

Tang Luo just said this thing is quite sinister.

"Be careful, Master." Ao Yulie had already closed his eyes and refused to look.

This lantern isn't like a hide-and-seek ghost with an explosive "instant kill"; it's cumulative—at least for Ao Yulie, that's how it feels.

He can't keep staring until he nearly kills himself, causing trouble for his master.

Indeed, simply not looking makes that indescribable, unresolved fear gradually fade away.

Zhu Bajie continued to stare intently at the lantern alongside Tang Luo.

He's not as weak as Bai Long Ma.

Tang Luo stepped forward, approaching the red and white lantern, closing the distance to about two meters.

In an instant, darkness fell around them.

"Master, I can't see anymore..." Zhu Bajie managed to utter half a sentence before falling silent.

Including the connection of divine abilities and spells, as well as the link through the gray mist—all severed simultaneously.

"Sinister, sinister." Zhu Bajie, who had been sitting outside the high wall, stood up and paced back and forth.

"I feel the malice of the entire world." Ao Yulie said, "Second Senior Brother, we've been targeted."

Zhu Bajie shook his head: "It's probably not us being targeted, but the humans of this world."

Inside the high-walled residential area.

The darkness around Tang Luo is the same as the darkness behind the red and white lantern—impossible to peer into, impossible to see through.

Even the phone's light has gone out.

The only remaining light is a hazy red glow emanating from the red and white lantern before them.

"Come, try to kill me." Tang Luo smirked, stepped forward without hesitation, and reached out to grab the hand behind the red and white lantern.

The red and white lantern remained motionless, showing no reaction to Tang Luo's actions.

Tang Luo grabbed its wrist.

He pulled hard, bringing the lantern and the hand toward him.

But the owner of the hand did not appear.

Darkness followed Tang Luo's movement, as if this darkness itself were the "true form."

After Tang Luo extended his hand to the wrist, he touched nothing tangible.

It was just this hand, holding a red and white lantern, appearing in the beam of light in the darkness, bringing fear and death.

Tang Luo gripped the arm and began to apply gradual force.

The hand showed no reaction, but the originally steady candle suddenly began to burn down rapidly.

The flame remained perfectly steady, with no flickering.

But in an instant, the entire candle burned out completely.

The red light vanished, and the surroundings plunged into total darkness.

……

A few seconds later, a voice echoed from the darkness: "Is that it?"

Tang Luo clearly felt this was the red and white lantern's second lethal method—different from "death by sight."

The red candle represents the life of the one who touches it.

When the candle burns completely out, the toucher dies.

The sound of a single flame appearing in the silent darkness is unusually clear.

Before Tang Luo's eyes, red light reappeared—the previously burned-out candle reappeared, its flame flickering yet steady.

In the next breath, the candle burned out again, and darkness returned.

Shortly after, the candle reappeared, and the red light returned as well.

"Enough, enough." Tang Luo gripped tightly, his right hand truly forming a fist.

That jade hand suddenly became illusory, letting Tang Luo's fingers and palm pass through, then strangely shifted direction, eventually overlapping completely with Tang Luo's right hand.

Tang Luo felt a small wooden stick being shoved into his palm.

At the end of the wooden stick was a white lantern, inside which a red candle burned steadily—this time it did not instantly burn out.

Instead, it decreased at a visible speed to the naked eye.

After a moment, the red candle burned out completely, the red light faded, the held lantern vanished, and the surroundings fell into darkness.

This darkness, however, was a darkness that could still be seen through.

"Master." Zhu Bajie and Ao Yulie also reconnected with Tang Luo.

"It can be confirmed now—so-called evil spirits are truly a kind of nearly rule-bound, unsolvable ghost." Tang Luo said, "They likely kill upon fulfilling certain conditions, and for now there is no way to truly harm them."

"Then..."

"I'll go first." Tang Luo said, turning and walking back toward the direction he had just come from, and as he took his first step.

A red-and-white lantern appeared to his front left, the red candle burning steadily and quickly.

Upon taking his second step, the red candle burned out and vanished, while simultaneously a red-and-white lantern appeared to his front right, held in delicate jade hands, the red candle burning.

"Hmph." Tang Luo let out a light laugh, paying no heed.

One step, one red candle; red-and-white lanterns frequently appeared and vanished, leaving behind a flickering path of death.

Tang Luo walked through it, fearlessly undying!