Free Web NovelChapter 96: Chapter 14: Person of Strong Luck
Simply killing it wouldn’t be enough to end the Ghost Realm. For an existence like a ghost, the concept of "death" didn’t exist.
This was a problem. In ten minutes, the "hole" would compress the entire building to the size of a sphere. Trapped inside, Gao Tian would be instantly crushed into paste by the gravity, no matter how many times he resurrected.
The most troublesome aspect of this Ghost Realm was its complete spatial isolation. Once inside, nothing could escape—not the Mirror Ghost, not the black card.
It might look like Gao Tian had the upper hand against the Ghost Cave now, but in reality, if the Ghost Cave just dragged things out, it would still be the one to win.
But Gao Tian wasn’t panicking in the slightest.
The death toll in Jin Hai Mansion was still rising, already exceeding 300. His luck today was sky-high; no matter what he did, he was guaranteed to win.
If he couldn’t kill the Ghost Cave, then he would try to contain it and see if he could seal away its Ghost Realm along with it.
Gao Tian’s first thought was the urn.
The urn contained ghosts by forcing them into a game. However, the one he held already contained the Smashed-Face Ghost. To contain the Ghost Cave, he would have to release the former.
Fortunately, he still had the Supernatural Dice, the artifact Old Zhao had given him. Rolling a 2 would duplicate an existing Supernatural Artifact, and the copy would be in its initial state.
The negative effects of the Supernatural Dice were also severe. Of its six faces, three had negative outcomes. Rolling a 1 meant instant death, with no chance of resurrection by any Supernatural Artifact.
No one in their right mind would use this Supernatural Artifact. But Gao Tian’s black tie and the Supernatural Dice were a perfect combo. His luck today was terrifyingly potent; as long as he firmly believed he would roll a 2, he *would* roll a 2. It was an unquestionable, overwhelming fortune.
Gao Tian turned and saw the Ghost Infant’s pale, doll-like cloth face lunging at him. He just coolly said, "Get lost," and an instant later, a giant piano fell from the sky, slamming heavily into the Ghost Infant’s face and sending her reeling, flying away from him.
The three of them were still falling, passing the fifth floor and then the fourth. Under the compression of the outer ring of ghosts, the entire Jin Hai Mansion was getting closer and closer to complete collapse.
The Supernatural Dice were in the Mirror World, but the mirror he usually carried had been left in the bathroom.
As he fell, Gao Tian casually reached out into the swirl of flying debris and happened to grab a small ladies’ vanity mirror.
’My luck’s really not bad, getting another one here.’
He immediately activated the Mirror Ghost’s power, pulling the Supernatural Dice out from the mirror’s surface and into his hand. Continuing his descent, Gao Tian tossed the die upward. It spun three times in mid-air before falling perfectly and steadily back into his hand below. He didn’t even have to open his palm; he already knew he had won.
A 2.
The Supernatural Dice’s effect activated, and the number of urns doubled. Furthermore, the duplicated urn was empty, ready to contain a ghost.
After the effect was triggered, the ’2’ on the face of the Supernatural Dice instantly shattered. Each face of the die could only be used once; a number that had been rolled could not be rolled again.
Grasping the empty urn, Gao Tian began to search his surroundings as he fell, looking for the Ghost Cave.
’That ghost got hammered by a chaotic mess of stone pillars, walls, and long tables. Where did it run off to now?’
’It should be around here somewhere. Hurry up and show yourself.’
Just as Gao Tian was searching, he saw a dark shadow from above rapidly approaching him. The Ghost Cave’s hollow face was twisted in a knot.
What a coincidence. He had just started looking for the Ghost Cave, and the next moment, it was falling from the sky right toward him.
Gao Tian immediately activated the urn’s power, preparing to forcibly drag the Ghost Cave into a game.
"I told you," he said, "this is the price for pissing me off."
Just as he and the Ghost Cave were about to enter the same game, the Ghost Cave before him suddenly transformed into a bloodstained doll. It was the Ghost Infant’s substitute. At the same time, the real Ghost Cave appeared a hundred meters away, having switched places with the Ghost Infant.
Seeing Gao Tian moving toward the Ghost Cave and opening a gray box, the distant Ghost Infant instinctively sensed that something was wrong. A battle-hardened veteran, she immediately activated an ability called "Substitute Death Doll," forcibly swapping her position with the Ghost Cave’s.
Under the urn’s effect, a vengeful ghost’s killing pattern is nullified. However, the Substitute Death Doll was a Supernatural Artifact the Ghost Infant had used during her life as a Ghost Hunter, so it could still be activated.
"Ghost Cave, something’s very wrong with this guy’s current state!
"His luck... it’s just too ridiculously good. Every time we attack him, we’re interrupted for some bizarre reason, yet he can do whatever he wants with ease. He’s fallen all the way from the eleventh floor to the fifth without even messing up his hair!"
The Ghost Infant wasn’t an idiot. She was starting to realize just what the problem was.
"The Memory Ghost must have done something. He’s playing with us.
"Is his real power... luck?"
Gao Tian coldly cut the Ghost Infant off.
"Still worried about others? You should take a look at your own situation.
"I finally see how you died back when you were Ghost Hunters. Did your own stupidity kill you?"
Gao Tian had opened the urn intending to capture the Ghost Cave first. But because of the Ghost Infant’s interference, his opponent in the game had now become the Ghost Infant instead.
It didn’t matter, though. He would just deal with this troublesome Ghost Infant first, then go back and find the Ghost Cave later.
The result would be no different; the process was just taking a slight detour.
Such was Gao Tian’s absolute confidence. He was a person of overwhelming fortune, favored by the heavens. Whatever he set out to do, no matter how many twists and turns it took, the outcome was always preordained.
The Ghost Infant stared at Gao Tian in terror, blood streaming from her eye sockets.
She didn’t understand. Why was this happening?
She and the Ghost Cave were two of the Jialan Society’s top enforcers, and they were inside the Ghost Cave’s own Ghost Realm. So why were they being completely overwhelmed by this unknown, nameless ghost?
Their opponent was treating the Ghost Cave’s Ghost Realm as a complete joke. Not only had he not tried to escape, he was even trying to kill them instead.
’Calm down.’
’When I first chased him to Jin Hai Mansion, there was a clear trace of panic on this Memory Ghost’s face. He hid it well, but it was there.’
’When exactly did the situation completely turn around?’
Now, the Memory Ghost’s face showed only arrogance and confidence. He looked down on the two of them with the attitude of a winner.
’Was it because we let the Memory Ghost escape into the Mirror World?’
’No... if the Memory Ghost’s power was that easy to activate, he wouldn’t have been afraid of me and the Ghost Cave in the first place.’
’It was...’
At one point, the Memory Ghost had warned the Ghost Cave:
"Stop killing people. It’s for your own good."
At the time, the Ghost Cave, of course, paid no mind to the words of a mere nobody.
It was from that moment on that the Memory Ghost’s luck had become unstoppable, a force that would strike down gods and buddhas alike. All sorts of bizarre, overwhelming fortune had descended upon him, and nothing could stand in his way.
In the few short seconds of her fall, the Ghost Infant pieced together the various clues and, stumbling upon the truth by accident, managed to roughly analyze Gao Tian’s true power—
’The more people who die around him, the better his luck gets?’
The Ghost Infant wasn’t 100% certain her deduction was correct, but she had to get this crucial information to the Ghost Cave. This fight couldn’t continue. Gao Tian’s power had already been fully activated. More and more people would die in Jin Hai Mansion, and it was impossible to imagine what heights this guy’s overwhelming luck would stack to.
"Ghost Cave, you..."
The Ghost Infant opened her mouth, but before she could shout, she was forcibly silenced.
A cold expression hung on Gao Tian’s face.
"Still worried about others? You should be more worried about yourself.
"Forget about the Ghost Cave for now. Our game... has already begun."
The game drawn from the urn this time was—
Old Maid!
The rules of the game were very simple. Gao Tian and the Ghost Infant were each dealt 21 playing cards.
Twenty of the cards were normal, with standard suits and numbers. But mixed in among them was one card: the Joker.
The two players would take turns drawing a card from the other’s hand. The first person to draw the Joker would be the winner.
The Ghost Infant opened and closed her mouth, still trying to convey the crucial information about his "overwhelming luck" to the distant Ghost Cave.
But the game had already begun. A thin cloud of ash swirled around the two of them. The Ghost Infant discovered that her voice couldn’t travel out; she was completely cut off. All that remained was her, her opponent, and this game.
Her teammate was right there in front of her, yet she was utterly isolated. It had been a long time since the Ghost Infant had felt this way.
The last time... was when she was still a living person, just before she died.
The 42 cards were quickly dealt into Gao Tian’s and the Ghost Infant’s hands.
The Ghost Infant calmed down, forcing herself to observe the game before her and search for a flaw.
The Supernatural Artifact activated by the Memory Ghost was highly unusual; the Ghost Infant could feel that all of her killing patterns were disabled. She couldn’t physically kill her opponent either—even the slightest hostile move would trigger a punishment from the urn.
However, this was not a simple game of luck. It had a flaw.
The Ghost Infant tested it and found that some of the Supernatural Artifacts she had on hand could still be used normally within the game.
’That means the rules of the game can be bent, at least to a certain extent.’
The Ghost Infant slowly raised her hand, and a small, bloodstained notebook appeared in it.
"I will revise and reorder the sequence of events," she said.
She looked at Gao Tian, speaking in a voice only she could hear.
Gao Tian also saw the strange notebook in the Ghost Infant’s hand. At first, he didn’t understand what she meant, but a second later, he noticed something bizarre—
In his hand of 21 cards, there should have been 20 normal playing cards and 1 Joker.
But at some point, it had somehow become 20 Jokers and a single playing card.
’This is...’
Gao Tian immediately understood. This was some kind of effect from the Ghost Infant’s bloodstained notebook.
It didn’t have the power to directly change the game’s rules and declare Gao Tian the loser. But it could, to the greatest extent possible, reduce his chances of winning.
Now, the probability that the Ghost Card would be drawn from his hand went from one in twenty-one to twenty in twenty-one.
’This is not good.’
’If this were anyone with ordinary luck, it would have been a death sentence, wouldn’t it?’
