Seeing the sonic attack that had nearly killed him a few months ago, Ling Yun couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Although it was the same attack, and even more powerful than the one he had seen Young Master Fan before, he no longer took it seriously.
All the workers stopped what they were doing, frozen in place as if under a spell, frozen in place for the instant the sound waves were emitted. Their tattered clothes billowed and rippled as if whipped by a fierce wind, accompanied by a rustling sound. It was the powerful shockwave generated by the sound waves passing through the air; although the corpse puppets were actually just corpses, they were still inevitably affected by the aftershocks of the sound waves.
With a deafening roar, the sound wave crashed into the invisible yet solid psychic barrier in the air. Like a torrent striking an unyielding mountain, the impact produced a thunderous boom. Last time, the sound wave had almost instantly shattered the four mental energy field barriers erected by Ling Yun, but now, with its power doubled, it couldn't even penetrate the barrier Ling Yun had casually erected. The sturdy defenses neutralized the sound wave's attack until it weakened and then completely disappeared.
Chapter 144 Memory Carrier
Young Master Fan stared in astonishment at the boy's outstretched hand, the whites of his eyes clearly reflecting the incredibly powerful telekinetic energy emanating from Ling Yun's palm. This power was overwhelming, completely shattering the ghost's will to resist and charge forward.
A wisp of black energy flashed across Young Master Fan's ferocious face. It suddenly felt an unprecedented fear. The human boy in front of it seemed to be a completely different person compared to a few months ago, and his strength was far beyond what it could compare to now.
With a flap of his wings, Young Master Fan attempted to leap into the air and escape, but Ling Yun merely clenched his hands in mid-air and then released them. Young Master Fan screamed as he plummeted from the sky onto the plaza, crashing into several motionless corpse puppets. His wings were kneaded and torn apart by an unseen, invisible force, leaving them a bloody mess. The cartilage and blood vessels supporting his thin wings were reduced to a gruesome, unrecognizable mass of flesh, with blood gushing incessantly from his wounds.
Ling Yun's figure vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of Young Master Fan's body. The ghost seemed to sense the danger and turned around with difficulty, about to use its black, venomous claws to grab its opponent's calf. But immediately, an invisible spear of air pinned its claws to the hard concrete ground.
Young Master Fan let out another painful roar. Before he could even recover, another telekinetic spear was hurled down, pinning his other claw to the ground. With several swift movements, Ling Yun conjured telekinetic spears, embedding them in Young Master Fan's legs, feet, and chest. Suddenly, bright yellow flames ignited at the tips of the spears, causing Young Master Fan to writhe and roar in agony.
The telekinetic spear not only possessed physical attack power, but the flames at its tip could also burn its form. The possessing ghost was immediately severely injured. Just as it tried to raise its head and struggle with all its might, with a "pop," another spear burning with blazing flames was deeply embedded between its eyebrows.
In the blink of an eye, the flames had spread to Young Master Fan's limbs and body. The high temperature of several hundred degrees quickly carbonized the surface of Young Master Fan's skin. The ghost could not bear the burning of the flames and tried to break free from Young Master Fan's body several times. However, whenever its invisible body emerged from Young Master Fan's body, the telekinetic spear would emit a dazzling silver light and continue to suppress it back into Young Master Fan's body.
Ling Yun looked down at the ghost struggling desperately like a living creature being cooked, and a cold smile suddenly appeared on his lips. He suddenly raised his head and flicked his finger into the empty air in front of him. A dazzling light suddenly appeared at the tip of his index finger, turning into a small spot that suddenly struck a dozen meters ahead.
A sharp, painful scream rang out, and where the light struck, a hideous ghost suddenly reappeared. Its misty body thinned in the dim light, and judging from its form, this ghost was clearly far less powerful than the one possessing Young Master Fan. It had been seriously injured by Ling Yun's mere flick of his finger.
"More than one?" Ling Yun muttered to himself, not even glancing at the ghost still struggling at his feet. Suddenly, he made a gesture with his fists in front of his chest. As he stretched, his expression became strained. The strange technique he was about to use was not easy. Ling Yun had no patience to get entangled with these ghostly creatures.
A dazzling light burst forth between his fists, and a white flame suddenly appeared out of thin air between his slowly separating fists. It then suddenly multiplied into seven, forming a circle that perfectly resembled a lotus pedestal, burning evenly in the narrow space.
The mere sight of the white flames caused the severely wounded ghost to scream uncontrollably, and soon, the area around Ling Yun was filled with this terrifying scream. A dozen ferocious ghosts suddenly appeared around Ling Yun, and a chilling aura instantly enveloped the vast plaza. The air temperature plummeted, and within moments, a layer of white frost covered the plaza.
However, the ghosts' purpose in manifesting wasn't to join forces and attack Ling Yun, but rather to unanimously choose to flee. These beings, lacking independent consciousness, are easy to control and absolutely obey their master's commands. But this also brings an involuntary fear of their superior, a fear akin to that of their master. Clearly, the power Ling Yun displayed was far beyond their capabilities. Therefore, like the simplest single-celled organisms, upon sensing the overwhelming power and destructive energy of their superior, the ghosts' first reaction was to flee. Whether they could truly escape was not their concern.
The ghost possessing Young Master Fan was the most powerful of all, but also the most severely injured. Each inch the flames burned was equivalent to a sliver of its chilling energy being taken away. Its form was almost entirely composed of this chilling energy; each inch lost was like a part of its body disappearing. The flames of the telekinetic spear showed no sign of abating, clearly intending to burn it to ashes. Seeing its companions scrambling to escape, it, though unwilling to lag behind, could only watch helplessly as it was slowly devoured by the flames. Moreover, Ling Yun had added a mental energy field attack to the flames, because the pure mental burning inflicted on the ghost was no less painful than being burned to death by fire.
Ling Yun gently pushed his hands outwards, and seven white flames flew out at an accelerated speed. Each white flame accurately struck a ghost. The ghosts that were hit didn't even have time to scream before they quickly turned into wisps of green smoke in the flames. After the green smoke disappeared, the ghosts no longer existed in the world.
In the blink of an eye, the white flames had caught up with more than a dozen ghosts. Faced with the extremely high temperature and the pure white flames carrying a mental force field attack, the ghosts had no ability to fight back and had already disappeared.
"It seems your master failed to protect you." Seeing the last ghost being consumed by the flames, Ling Yun slowly withdrew the white flames and muttered to himself. Each white flame disappeared as it returned to the tip of his finger and automatically transformed into pure spiritual energy, returning to his body. Only the last white flame spun around in the square, and with just a light touch on each corpse puppet, a raging fire burned the corpse puppet into ashes.
The white flames finally landed on the mountain of drug crates, and with a whoosh, they transformed into a bright fireball, turning the drugs into a burning volcano that illuminated the hall brightly.
Young Master Fan had become a charred, mummified corpse, and the ghost was completely silent. It seemed to have been burned into a wisp of smoke and vanished. Ling Yun frowned, slowly retracting the telekinetic spear stuck in the mummified corpse, and carefully searched the body of Young Master Fan with his telekinetic powers.
This ghost seemed a little different from the others. It had survived the scorching flames for such a long time. Although it had stopped breathing, Ling Yun knew that the ghost had not died completely. Instead, it had transformed into a tiny being in another form, curled up motionless inside Young Master Fan's body. It was unknown whether it still had any consciousness.
For ghosts, a form of icy coldness, even if they are reduced to the size of flies or mosquitoes, it does not mean they are dead. As long as they have the right energy, they can reshape themselves at any time. However, the loss of icy coldness also means that the telekinetic imprint of the original master controlling them will also disappear. Regaining control will require a lot of effort and will be much less effective.
After a moment's thought, Ling Yun used his telekinesis to slowly pull the ghost out of Young Master Fan's body. Without the last bit of support from the chilling energy, Young Master Fan's desiccated corpse instantly turned into countless charred particles, dissipating without wind. From that day forward, Young Master Fan ceased to exist in this world.
The ghost had transformed into a fist-sized, crystal-like entity, hovering in mid-air before Ling Yun like a mindless, inanimate form. It was crystal clear, and under the glow of the still-burning drug fire, one could clearly see the scenery on the other side of the crystal with the naked eye. Ling Yun gently stroked the crystal with his hand, feeling its smooth yet hard texture, as if the ghost had indeed become an inanimate entity.
Ling Yun slowly closed his eyes, and his mental energy field transformed into countless fine silver threads that slowly sank into the crystal. From the outside, the crystal formed by the ghost looked perfectly normal, but in the world of his mental energy field, one could clearly perceive countless blue halos rippling inside the crystal. Within each ripple, bizarre and wonderful scenes were constantly being generated.
"What is this?" Ling Yun approached the largest blue halo, and the tendrils of his mental field slowly extended into the deepest part of the ripples.
Suddenly, a bright light shone before Ling Yun's eyes, as if he were in a vast space, or as if he were standing in front of a giant projection screen in a 3D cinema. Vivid and clear images kept changing before Ling Yun's eyes, but most of the images were filled with cruelty and bloodshed.
On screen, ghosts relentlessly possess one person after another, unleashing a frenzied massacre and attack. Although the actions and characters differ each time, the basic process and plot remain consistent, and at the very end, crimson blood always fills the entire screen, forming the shape of a blood-red skull.
Ling Yun watched quietly for a while, then suddenly seemed to understand. These images were probably the ghost's memories? Perhaps it had experienced too much, and after burning away all the energy belonging to its body, only these bloody memories of slaughter condensed into heavy material crystals in the flames, surviving using the last bit of energy in the ghost's body.
So, has the ghost actually disappeared? Ling Yun frowned as he pondered, and for some reason, he felt that things weren't that simple.
Chapter 145 Lord of the Ghosts
The scene suddenly changed again. After another monotonous and bloody massacre, the blood-red skull slowly began to change, gradually transforming into the shape of a human face. Although it was only a single shade of blood, its appearance vaguely resembled that of the ghostly master. Ling Yun couldn't help but narrow his eyes, feeling slightly surprised, and focused intently on the changes on the screen.
The ghostly figure in the image gradually developed other body parts, but they were still entirely composed of blood red. He looked like a portrait drawn purely from blood, yet his expression and movements were no different from a normal person's. In particular, his constantly rotating blood-red eyes and even deeper red pupils were chilling to behold.
Soon, the scene was dominated by the fully transformed ghost master, the background turned pure white, and only the blood-soaked figure stood tall, staring coldly at Ling Yun, who was also staring at him in front of the screen. It seemed that he could see from the memory all the way to reality. However, the scene was so huge that the blood image of the ghost master looked as big as a small mountain. Ling Yun could only see the face of the blood image by looking up.
"You killed all my pets." The ghostly master's blood-red mouth opened, and a deep, angry voice came from the screen, making the entire underground plaza buzz.
Ling Yun was startled. Wasn't this the ghost's memory vessel? Why would the ghost's master's blood image suddenly appear, and even speak to him within the memory vessel? Could it be that the ghost's master had been hiding within the ghost's memory vessel all along? No wonder he hadn't made a move when he was killing all the ghosts.
"You will pay for this!" the ghost master continued, his voice instantly transforming into a blinding bolt of lightning that shot out from the screen and struck Ling Yun fiercely.
Ling Yun was taken aback and quickly dodged. With a loud bang, lightning struck the spot where he had been standing, but it disappeared instantly as if it had never been there, as if it had been attracted by a lightning rod.
As Ling Yun dodged his attack, the Ghost Master's Blood Image revealed a cruel smile: "You are very strong, seemingly much stronger than when I last saw you. That's good. All my pets have been killed by you, so you will become my pet. This is the price you should pay, and the best pet I deserve."
"You're dreaming." Ling Yun retaliated without hesitation with his mental energy field. His telekinetic energy condensed into several spears burning with silver flames of mental energy, which he swiftly launched towards the blood statue. No matter what form this guy took, the telekinetic spears, possessing both physical and mental attack capabilities, would be effective against him.
The ghost master's blood-red face laughed wildly, "Looks like you're still not giving up. Fine, it's been a long time since I've played this cat-and-mouse game. Let you taste the fear before becoming my pet." His tone was laced with mockery.
Ling Yun's heart sank instantly. The telekinetic spear passed silently through the image of the blood image, as if passing through a non-existent illusory image, and disappeared behind the image in an instant. This meant that the blood image was actually non-existent, just like a memory, and was just an illusory image. But how could an illusory image condense into a physical attack?
Although the lightning bolt was only fleeting, Ling Yun's perception was correct; it was indeed a genuine bolt of lightning. While its power wasn't particularly strong, if one were struck by it, even if they didn't die, they would likely be severely injured.
A massive, blood-red, icy hand suddenly reached out from the scene, grabbing Ling Yun by the throat and lifting him into the air at level with the blood-red statue's eyes. The arrogant voice rang out again: 'I think you'll never understand in your entire life that I am the master of this place.'
With a single step, the twenty-meter-tall ghostly master's blood-red image stepped out of the scene. After his body stepped out, the scene did not become blank, but left behind an equally huge blood-red shadow, as if the blood-red image had only been embedded in the scene.
Countless drops of bright red blood dripped continuously from the blood image, then transformed into tiny ghostly blood images on the dark, gleaming ground. These miniature ghostly blood images emitted mournful cries as they ran aimlessly across the ground. Occasionally, one or two miniature ghostly blood images would collide with each other, immediately merging together and undergoing subtle transformations, instantly becoming slightly larger ghostly blood images.
The ghostly master let out a low, piercing laugh. Its enormous, blood-red right hand almost completely enveloped Ling Yun's body, leaving only his head exposed. Every moment, countless miniature ghostly blood figures emerged, attaching themselves to Ling Yun's body and desperately burrowing into his flesh. In a short while, Ling Yun was covered in blood.