Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 677: Chapter 533: Rewind_2

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After the sound of pounding on the door arose, Yang Xiao sharply sensed someone moving inside. That person seemed to be in a panic, followed by the sound of heavy objects being moved. Judging from experience, Yang Xiao surmised that it was a sofa or something similar being pushed against the door.

There was no time left. The Daoist robe old ghost was hot on his heels, already appearing at the end of the corridor. Yang Xiao helplessly had to give up and turned to run towards the other side of the corridor. However, this incident gave Yang Xiao a new idea. With the strength of the Mirror Ghost, there was no chance of resisting the Daoist robe old ghost. This door must represent a very special restriction. During his several attempts to enter the Mirror World to find the Mirror Ghost, he never discovered any trace. There was a high probability that the rascal was hiding behind this door.

Determined, Yang Xiao thought, if he could survive this time, he must figure out this matter.

The Daoist robe old ghost relentlessly gave chase. At a corner in a stairwell while running downstairs, Yang Xiao slipped and took a harsh fall. He rolled down the stairs, his heart growing cold at this moment. After all, with the old ghost right behind him, this mistake could be fatal.

But to his surprise, when the old ghost, who was less than 5 meters away from him, reached the corner of the stairway, he stopped. Then, as if drawn by something, his body stiffened and turned to look upstairs. This scene baffled Yang Xiao. What could be more attractive than the Drama Robe he was wearing?

Now, in the Mirror World besides himself and the Daoist robe old ghost, only the Mirror Ghost remained. Yet, even the Mirror Ghost had been scared witless by the Daoist robe old ghost and didn’t dare to come out from behind a peculiar door. Time was of the essence, and Yang Xiao struggled to get up with the support of the wall, gritted his teeth, and continued running.

A dozen seconds later, footsteps sounded from behind him again.

After running in circles within the building, Yang Xiao’s stamina was depleting, and his speed was inevitably slowing. However, the Daoist robe old ghost was still on his tail like a persistent maggot, not giving him a moment’s respite. The Drama Robe was still unresponsive. At this rate, he would be caught within 5 minutes.

Yang Xiao had once considered taking the elevator as a desperate gamble, but the elevator had also been corroded when the old ghost passed by. The elevator doors were rusted shut and couldn’t be pried open.

The old ghost was drawing nearer, and Yang Xiao was mostly spent. In this critical moment, a ferocious look flashed in his eyes. He turned his body around, deciding to confront his fear. With a thought, the Ghost Lantern appeared in his hand, and his other hand gripped the Human Bone Staff tightly.

As the flame within the Ghost Lantern leaped up, a green light rapidly spread towards the old ghost. However, upon touching the gray mist, it disintegrated instantly, as if a clay oxen had entered the sea. It couldn’t even drive away the gray mist, let alone wrap around the old ghost. Up to this point, he still hadn’t been able to see the old ghost’s true face.

The Vegetable Knife Ghost Duster, a close combat Magic Artifact, was not within Yang Xiao’s considerations. His right hand tightened around the Human Bone Staff, and with a tentative swing, he aimed an attack at the old ghost’s blurry face. However, the attack vanished into thin air just inches before reaching the old ghost’s face the next second.

Before Yang Xiao could even react, suddenly, the space a foot in front of him exploded. A wave of energy surged towards his head.

He was very quick to react, trying his best to tilt his head to the right side, but he was still affected by the attack and was knocked to the ground.

With no injuries on his body but his mind in chaos and his memory blurred, he saw the approaching Daoist robe old ghost. Still instinctively, Yang Xiao got up as quickly as he could, stumbling backward. He had been struck by his own Human Bone Staff.

Why? He wasn’t clear about it. He had even forgotten who the figure in front of him was. Instinct told him this was a very terrifying ghost.

Almost reflexively, he raised the Ghost Lantern in his left hand, hoping the green light could repel or reveal the true form of the ghost. But the next second, the flame in the Ghost Lantern exploded without warning, and its bursting brightness momentarily damaged Yang Xiao’s eyes.

Nearly blinded and with the Human Bone Staff ineffective, facing such a ghost, Yang Xiao had already sentenced himself to death in advance. freeweɓnovel.cøm

"It’s over..."

The split second before the gray mist was about to engulf him, Yang Xiao suddenly heard a very faint sound behind him.

"Rip—"

It sounded like a thin yet tough piece of paper being torn, merely an unclear sensation, but then Yang Xiao shuddered violently. At this moment, a hand was placed on his left shoulder.

With eyes still stinging and vision blurry, he could feel the world around him changing rapidly. He was moving quickly, shuttling at an incredible speed through stairways, corridors, and rooms—it was all in reverse.

His limbs moved swiftly as light and shadow flickered past in his unclear vision. He was retreating, running backward, everything was going backward. It was hard to describe the feeling, like living through everything that had happened before, only in reverse.

Including the Mirror Ghost, who was also cooperating with him, it too twisted the script. The only one not following the script was the Daoist robe old ghost.

It was apparent that the Daoist robe old ghost had also been affected by this bizarre power. It slowed down its pace, and its movements became eerie. It would suddenly step back as if the tape had jammed after taking a few steps, but its objective of pursuing Yang Xiao didn’t change, it persistently moved forward until Yang Xiao’s brain overloaded and everything went dark before his eyes.

Headache.

A severe headache.

Something soft was beneath him, and something was pressing down on his body. The next second, with an excruciating expression on his face, Yang Xiao jolted awake on his bed, cold sweat sliding down his neck. His surroundings were a bit blurry until ten seconds later, when his vision returned to normal. He was in his own room, lying on the bed, the sky outside was dark, and everything around him was quiet, but it wasn’t an unsettling silence.

"Huff—"

"Huff—"

He gasped for air, recalling the fragmented images in his mind. He had just been chased by the Daoist robe old ghost, who nearly killed him, but at the last moment, someone patted him on the back.

Pulling back the blanket that covered him and rolling up his trouser leg, the bruises from tumbling down the stairs were still clearly visible, proving that everything that had just happened wasn’t a dream. And then there were his eyes and muddled head—he had indeed suffered backlash from the Ghost Lantern and the Human Bone Staff.

The Daoist robe old ghost really had come for him, and at the last moment, someone appeared behind him and saved him.

That person was definitely not "good sister"; he was familiar with "good sister"’s presence, and this wasn’t "good sister"’s way of doing things.

Suddenly, Yang Xiao’s brows furrowed tightly. He remembered something; not long before he fell, the Daoist robe old ghost had suddenly stopped and turned to look in another direction. At that time, Yang Xiao couldn’t understand why, but now it seemed that the Daoist robe old ghost had detected the presence of this mysterious person.

"Hisss—"

The more Yang Xiao thought about it, the more horrified he became. Someone was able to stealthily enter the Mirror World and rescue him from under the Daoist robe old ghost’s nose. This level of skill was beyond terrifying; this person must possess at least Netherworld-level strength.

But when had he ever met such a divine person?

After linking together the recent events, Yang Xiao became somewhat panicked. The first person he thought of was the assailant from the previous night, someone capable of killing two elders alone, a force to be reckoned with.

But upon calming down and thinking carefully, it seemed implausible. After all, that person had no reason to save him. Plus, there was the most critical point—if the assailant truly had that level of power, then he would never have been able to escape last time.

If not the skilled murderer, then who could it be?

Judging from the middle-aged man from the Academy who had come to his door earlier, it seemed the higher-ups at the Academy were already suspecting his connection with the murder case from the previous night. However, they hadn’t taken him away or chosen to secretly investigate. Instead, they blatantly came to interrogate him, a move more likely to startle the culprit into silencing him...

Moments later, Yang Xiao’s tightly knitted brows gradually relaxed. He had a guess about the identity of the mysterious person—it was someone from the upper echelons of the Academy, and they were among the handful with the most outstanding abilities. Their purpose here was to protect him.

It wasn’t so much protection as surveillance; he was the bait. They wanted to use him to lure out the traitor lurking within the Academy’s upper ranks.

The Ru Lin Academy was not stupid. Two elders had been killed on their territory, and the implication of this was self-evident; they must have also realized the problem lay within their higher ranks.

This top expert secretly stayed close to him, ready to act if someone tried to kill him to shut him up.

Now that he thought about it, Yang Xiao finally understood why "good sister" had been reluctant to rescue him—it must be that "good sister" had also detected the presence of this person and knew that with them around, his life was not in danger.

"I knew it, sister still cares about me..."