Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 898: Chapter 648: Nightmare

The room was pitch black, and before Yang Xiao could react, he was pushed from behind, lost his balance, and fell through the door.

Staggering a few steps, he finally managed to steady himself. When Yang Xiao sharply turned around, he found that the door behind him had eerily disappeared. At the same time, an unsettling aura flickered in and out of existence around him, hidden within the darkness, making it impossible to pinpoint its location.

There’s a ghost in this room!!

Yang Xiao was unsure of Lu Youdao’s intentions, but there was no time for consideration at this moment. After all, there was an unknown ghost in the room, and ghosts are known for their unreasonableness.

With a thought, he summoned the Ghost Lantern in his left hand and the Human Bone Staff in his right. As the flame from the Ghost Lantern flickered faintly, its ghastly green light dispelled the darkness, and Yang Xiao was shocked to find himself standing within overlapping circles, like the circular targets used in shooting, with him at the very center of the smallest circle.

The surrounding darkness retreated as if melting snow. This darkness wasn’t ordinary—it was a strange and viscous black substance, one that absorbed all regular light. Only abilities like those from the Resentful Eye could scatter it.

"One ring, two rings, three rings..."

While keeping vigilant of his surroundings, Yang Xiao counted the circles appearing on the ground. These targets were not drawn by a person but were, in fact, inherent features of the ghostly entity known as the Ghost. In other words, he was now at the center of a supernatural event of unknown danger level.

Anyone who stepped into this room would be locked onto by these targets, appearing at the very center, which is related to the ghost’s abilities.

"Eighth ring, nine rings, ten rings."

Yang Xiao confirmed that there were ten rings in total. Beyond the tenth ring was a mysterious area impenetrable even by the ghostly light of the Ghost Lantern.

The area covered by the target alone had already far exceeded the size of the room—the space here was distorted and beyond normal understanding. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"Crack..."

"Crack...crack crack..."

A sound of bones shattering from behind caused Yang Xiao to spin around, only to see a silhouette appearing at the outer edge of the darkness, on the outermost ring.

The figure’s back faced him, shrouded in a layer of faint black mist, its body twisted and deformed as if it had been through a severe car accident. Now, the contorted body was slowly straightening out, seemingly not far from returning to its original state.

The person was dressed in the black uniform of the Patrol Defense Office, a silhouette all too familiar to Yang Xiao—it was... it was Director Nalan!

"Director!!"

The scene in front of him incited a fiery redness in Yang Xiao’s eyes. He immediately ran towards Nalan Shuo, but the distance between them didn’t change, and the circles beneath his feet moved in sync with Yang Xiao, keeping him firmly locked at the center.

Overnight, the Director had turned into this ghostly figure, something Yang Xiao found unbearable, especially since they had already left the Nightmare World.

"Calm down!" The composed voice of Lu Youdao came from the surroundings. "That’s not your Director. It’s just a ghost transformed based on Nalan Shuo’s appearance."

At this moment, Yang Xiao also noticed something amiss. The uniform on the figure was slightly different from the current issued ones—it was an old model, at least 7 or 8 years old, and he had never seen the Director wear this outfit.

Moreover, the chilling, rigid sensation emanating from this person was unsettlingly realistic; even when he tried to dispel it with the green light of the Ghost Lantern, it had no effect. He could even imagine the dead, numb face that must be behind the figure.

This was not the Director but a thoroughbred ghost.

"Why is this happening?" Yang Xiao roared.

He was certain that this ghost must have a profound connection to Nalan Shuo; otherwise, it had no reason to maintain the appearance of Nalan from years ago.

The next second, the ghost suddenly moved, stepping towards Yang Xiao. Though it faced away, its steps were positioned towards him, its toes pointed directly at Yang Xiao.

"Now is not the time for explanations. If you don’t want to die, try using the lantern in your hands to stop this ghost," said Lu Youdao’s emotionless voice.

Cursing inwardly, Yang Xiao was even unable to pinpoint Lu Youdao’s location, but the pressing menace from the ghost was tangible and threatening. There was no doubt in Yang Xiao’s mind—if allowed to close the distance, he would be in serious trouble.

Holding his breath, he poured a large amount of spiritual power into the Ghost Lantern. As he focused most of the green light in front of the ghost, the brightness of the green glow intensified and ethereal, Yang Xiao could feel the green light had encountered a physical entity, and two forces collided.

The ghost pressed on against the green light of the Ghost Lantern, one step, two steps... Beads of cold sweat formed on Yang Xiao’s forehead as the backward-walking ghost quickly moved from the outermost one ring to the fifth ring. Only then did the pace of the ghost begin to slow.

But it kept moving without stopping. Yang Xiao constricted the protective green light enveloping him, restricting the area to a minimal perimeter of alert while focusing most of the power onto the ghost closing in step by step.

Finally, just as it reached the position between the seventh and eighth rings, the ghost barely stopped its steps, its stiff legs struggling to lift but failing to do so.

Only then did Yang Xiao breathe a sigh of relief. Although he had expended a considerable amount of spiritual power, he was far from his limit. His spiritual power seemed to have grown substantially after leaving the Nightmare World—clearly, experiences from the Nightmare World were the optimal means to increase spiritual power, albeit highly dangerous and life-threatening.

As the standoff continued, Yang Xiao decided to counter-attack, aiming to drive the ghost back. However, no matter how hard he tried, the ghost refused to retreat.