Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 965: Chapter 683: Team Annihilation

It’s the ghost that kills people!

This deformed ghost hand was too apparent, identical to the black handprint on the back of the deceased. The tall female ghost in floral clothes was missing her right arm, with half of her body crooked.

Beibei, who was pulled behind by Yang Xiao, also saw the female ghost materializing under the green light. This creature didn’t move very fast, but its silent approach was its advantage. That Dark Army member not long ago was killed just like this.

At this moment, a cold sweat broke out on Yang Xiao’s forehead; he knew this ghost was troublesome at first glance. He swung the Human Bone Staff and smashed it down on the female ghost who continued to walk upwards. The female ghost’s large body shook but continued its ascent.

The Human Bone Staff had an effect but was negligible. In the final analysis, Yang Xiao’s spiritual power was too weak to unleash the true power of these high-level Magic Artifacts. Failing to overpower her, Yang Xiao and Beibei turned around and dashed upstairs.

But before they could get far, Beibei who was running in front suddenly halted, causing Yang Xiao to bump into her unexpectedly, almost causing both to fall at the stair’s bend.

When Yang Xiao looked up, the sight tightened his heart. The female ghost was standing on the 5th-floor concrete platform, arm raised, swaying as she walked down.

It seemed they couldn’t run away; they had to fight. Yang Xiao realized that the ghost was targeting Beibei, with that raised ghostly hand always aimed at Beibei’s heart.

After a brief build-up of power, Yang Xiao struck out with two blows, one hitting the ghost’s body, the other its head. He noticed the female ghost’s steps slowed, but she still kept advancing toward them. freeweɓnøvel.com

"There’s a chance!"

As the female ghost drew closer, Yang Xiao decisively switched from the Human Bone Staff to his mentor’s modified Ghost Bamboo Stick, lit the Ghost Lantern, and covered his right arm and the stick with its green light. He then gripped the Ghost Bamboo Stick tightly, stepped forward, twisted his wrist, and with the stick as his sword, viciously stabbed towards the female ghost’s heart.

This strike was surprisingly effective, the Ghost Bamboo Stick piercing straight through the ghost’s body. Yang Xiao couldn’t precisely describe the feeling; it was like stabbing into a mushy mud pit, feeling a certain resistance, and at the same time, the female ghost’s footsteps nearly halted.

Down the Ghost Bamboo Stick, a strong cold aura climbed up Yang Xiao’s right arm, then to his torso, limbs, and brain. To resist this force, Yang Xiao had to frantically redirect his spiritual power, pouring it into the stick in his hands without regard for the consequences.

But just a few seconds later, this balance was broken. Yang Xiao’s limbs froze as if iced, unable to even step back. What was worse, the female ghost took a step, and although her pace was more than tenfold slower than before, she was indeed moving.

Now, Yang Xiao was within an arm’s reach of the female ghost, even able to see the dead, shocking eyes hidden beneath the messy hair, the same horrifying look as the middle-aged man who died on the sofa in Room 402. There was no mistake; this female ghost was the Source Ghost!

And at this moment, as the female ghost drew closer, step by step, her rigidly raised hand was about to touch his chest.

In the nick of time, Yang Xiao heard a crisp metallic sound from behind, like a metal chain breaking.

Yang Xiao knew that was Beibei’s necklace, from which hung a bizarre mechanical cat pendant. That thing didn’t distinguish between friend and foe, killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of oneself. He had warned her countless times not to use it unless it was absolutely necessary.

Suddenly, his mentor’s teachings flashed through Yang Xiao’s mind; he had forgotten he had a combination move. With the mindset of a gambler betting all on a single throw of the dice, he abandoned the Ghost Bamboo Stick and shoved all his remaining spiritual power into the Ghost Lantern. The next second, dazzling green light exploded, instantly dispelling the chill.

Gaining a brief respite, Yang Xiao staggered backwards and then, gripping the Ghost Lantern tightly, steeled his heart and swung it at the female ghost. Maybe it was the dire situation that squeezed out his potential, for a familiar sensation surged through him. By the time Yang Xiao realized what had happened, he saw the floral-dressed female ghost trapped within an octagonal green light cage.

Beibei, who was prepared to risk it all with the Ghost Pendant, beamed with joy as she hadn’t seen this move before. But as soon as the female ghost was trapped, the oppressive sensation that felt akin to a brush with death immediately vanished.

Not daring to be careless for even a moment, Yang Xiao gasped for air. The ensnared female ghost still walked, numbly and blankly, in Beibei’s direction. Yet in the eyes of Yang Xiao and Beibei, she was merely stepping in place.

"Mentor was right; this lantern truly is a treasure—Good Sister, you weren’t lying to me!"

Emerging alive from that ordeal, Yang Xiao’s heart pounded, relieved, while also strengthening his determination to find the missing parts and complete this precious artifact.

About ten seconds later, the trapped female ghost suddenly stopped moving, then faded bit by bit until she finally disappeared.

With the complete disappearance of the female ghost, the green light cage also vanished. From the ghost’s appearance to its disappearance, it hadn’t been more than a few minutes.

Beibei and he had survived.

Through this encounter, Yang Xiao had a profound understanding of the female ghost’s terror. If it weren’t for the Ghost Lantern, even Ghost-level Apostles would likely have had difficulty surviving. This ghost killed upon appearance, moving silently and invisibly, impossible to guard against.

"Captain, are you alright?" Beibei, looking eager, supported the exhausted Yang Xiao from behind and asked.

Yang Xiao shook his head and glanced at the broken Ghost Pendant in Beibei’s hand, a flicker of fear crossing his eyes. If Beibei had really used this thing, with one ghost before and another after, today would have indeed been quite eventful.

After calming down, Beibei took out a communicator. It had a message from Rongcheng saying that strange incidents had occurred in Rongcheng. The Luming Bureau had sounded the highest level of alert without any warning, shutting its doors and all entrances and exits, cutting off all external communication and self-isolating, clearly indicating that something big had happened.

"They received a ghost phone call and got contaminated. The man in room 402 is an example," Yang Xiao revealed, "Send a message to Director Nalan immediately and tell him to find a way to cut off all communication within Jingping Town. We’ll still use text messaging to communicate; don’t make phone calls, no phone calls!"

Beibei was quick to carry out these tasks. Afterwards, the two recalled the latest experimental equipment left in room 601. The urgent task now was to locate the position of the Resentful Eye and recover it immediately. Otherwise, if that female ghost made another appearance, Yang Xiao wouldn’t be able to withstand it. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The "persuaded" female ghost would probably be quiet for a while, but as to how long that would be—half an hour or an entire night—nobody knew. What they could do now was to hurry and, while determining the position of the Resentful Eye, try to learn as much as possible about the ghost’s abilities and methods of killing.

Arriving in front of room 601, the door was open as usual, and the six corpses were all there—none had shown signs of resurrection.

Yang Xiao, wary with the Ghost Lantern, had Beibei move He Tong’s body, which lay across the doorframe, into the room. Then the two of them went out, closed the door, but before that, they had already gotten the keys to this door, which were hanging on an old man’s belt.

After waiting for a moment, it was time to witness the miracle. This time, it was Yang Xiao who opened the door. The scene inside shocked Beibei; four people were huddled in terror in a corner of the living room, and another young man was squatting on the ground with a gun drawn, aiming at the two of them. In front of the young man was another body.

"Are you... Captain Yang, Yang Xiao?"

The young man with the gun recognized Yang Xiao. It was as if he had found a pillar of strength, he put down his gun and stood up to come over but was pushed back by Beibei with a gun, who shouted sternly, "Put the gun down and step back!"

"I... I’m Bo Feiyu, a member of Captain Wu’s team from the Luming Bureau. This is our deputy captain He Tong," the young man hurriedly explained.

"Why are you here?" Yang Xiao had anticipated the possibility of their revival and wasn’t overly panicked. He inspected them with the Ghost Lantern and saw no flaws, "How did your deputy captain die?"

"The deputy captain brought me here to question someone, but then she suddenly started screaming, as if possessed, and afterwards committed suicide by swallowing her gun," the young man explained in grief, his eyes turning red, not seeming like a lie at all. "It happened so suddenly, I... I just couldn’t react."

"You can ask them if you don’t believe me." The young man stepped aside, pointing at the four visibly frightened people huddled in the living room corner.

"It... it’s just like that, this young man is telling the truth," said the elderly man with white hair, wearing a pair of ill-fitting trousers—the key in Yang Xiao’s hand had just been taken from his belt.

Just a few minutes before, everyone in the room had been dead. If he was not mistaken, half of the old man’s skull had been blown away by a bullet, brain and blood mixed together; he was as dead as one could be.

The testimonies of the 5 "people" were exactly alike, and Yang Xiao used the Ghost Lantern to examine their bodies. None had the Ghost Handprint.

Of course, there were none on He Tong either, because she committed suicide, not killed by a ghost.

From the scene before them, Yang Xiao boldly speculated that those who committed suicide couldn’t "resurrect," only those killed by ghosts would be trapped in a terrifying cycle of "death" and "resurrection," and these living dead seemed unaware of it themselves.

Through communication, Yang Xiao roughly understood their mindset. They only remembered what happened before their death, and had no impression of the memory of their death or what caused it. Not only that, they would also self-fabricate some false memories to fill in the gaps and make sense of an otherwise incomprehensible reality.

"Did you hear any noise outside just now?" Yang Xiao suddenly asked.

"No, you suddenly opened the door just now, which startled me. By the way, how is Captain Wu and the others?" the young team member asked hurriedly, anxiety etched on his face.

"He’s fine, already moved to safety. Soon... you will be able to see him," Yang Xiao said, then looked towards the direction of the kitchen, frowning, "What is that?"

The young team member and the other four in the living room all turned to look, completely oblivious to the fact that Yang Xiao had already drawn his gun.

"Bang!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

After a series of shots, the 5 "people" fell to the ground. Yang Xiao’s face was impassive; he could have shot them directly, but he didn’t want to look into their eyes as he did it.

"Send a report to Director Nalan; we have partially grasped the spread of this supernatural event, preliminarily determined to be through ghost phone calls. Additionally, contact with the living dead will attract ghost attacks."

"The living dead can resurrect multiple times, but if a living person commits suicide before a ghost attack, they can avoid becoming a puppet after death."

Pausing, Yang Xiao took a deep breath, his voice hoarse: "Additionally, the investigation team under Captain Wu Zhengwu from the Luming Bureau has been annihilated."