Chapter 157: Xu Yuan's Ghost Domain, Incinerating Heaven and Earth

Old Man Sun unleashed his ultimate technique, the Fengdu Avici Gate. Tens of thousands of Fierce Ghost ability users from the Galan Society were instantly dragged into the world behind it, leaving Xu Yuan standing alone.

Even as the battle reached its decisive conclusion, Xu Yuan strolled with leisurely grace, completely unruffled. Up to this very moment, he had never fought seriously.

Now, a massive shadow looming like a mountain slowly materialized behind Old Man Sun, standing between him and the colossal Ghost Gate.

As Old Man Sun turned his head, Gao Tian, hiding within the Mirror, finally caught a clear glimpse of the entity outside.

It had been a long time, Multi-Headed Ghost.

Gao Tian remembered their last encounter on the Supernatural Bus. Back then, the Multi-Headed Ghost had only consumed a dozen or so heads and stood less than two meters tall.

It had still been within a manageable range then. A single strike from his Terror Blade, coupled with the suppression effect of the Bus, had even forced it back. He had actually gained a slight upper hand in a clash with an S-Level Fierce Ghost.

Over the past two months, Gao Tian's rate of progress had been astonishing, but he was ultimately human, not a ghost.

The Multi-Headed Ghost had become something fundamentally wrong.

Its height now exceeded fifty meters. As it lifted legs formed from the heads of men, women, children, and the elderly, its slow advance resembled a moving mountain. Wading through the skyscrapers flanking the Huangpu River, the reinforced concrete groaned in agony as it was slowly bulldozed aside.

Countless faces were violently stitched together with crude tendons and rusted iron wire. Their skin bore the lividity and waxy pallor of the dead. Their lips were all stretched into an identical, mocking half-smile, revealing jagged rows of yellowed, rotting teeth.

Dark blood and foul pus oozed endlessly from the gaps between the skulls, tracing the contours of its body and pooling into viscous streams on the ground.

Myriad eyes were pinned along its sides—some sunken, others bulging, with pupils either dilated or contracted. Occasionally, hundreds of these eyeballs would swivel simultaneously to lock onto you before slowly slipping shut, shifting to yet another face.

The arrival of the Artist brought an overwhelming stench of decay. It blanketed the area, a sickening concoction of blood, grave dirt, and charred flesh that induced violent nausea.

Beneath the Artist's feet, the battling Old Man Sun and Xu Yuan were reduced to mere ants.

Even the Ghost Gate, having just devoured tens of thousands of ghosts, looked cramped standing next to the Artist.

From within the Mirror, Gao Tian seriously doubted if the Ghost Gate's low frame could even drag the Artist inside.

It seemed that under Xu Yuan's meticulous grooming in the Inner World, the Artist had dined well and developed rapidly.

The moment this deformed monstrosity of tens of thousands of heads descended, even Old Man Sun—a ghost hunter for sixty years—froze in stunned silence for a brief moment.

He had seen all kinds of bizarre things in this vast world.

But a true monster of this magnitude? He had never seen anything like it.

Had Old Man Sun known the Artist had grown to this terrifying degree, would he still have asked Gao Tian to stall it for a minute?

This was no longer something humanity could contend with.

It was a cataclysm.

Upon materializing on the battlefield, the Artist didn't spare a glance at Old Man Sun or its master, Xu Yuan. It dragged its hulking mass forward, its tens of thousands of heads turning in unison toward the still-open Fengdu Avici Gate.

Then, the Artist extended two arms stitched together from countless heads and planted them firmly on the double doors of the bronze gate. It began to exert force, physically pushing the heavy doors shut.

It was trying to close the gate!

From behind the gate, an equally massive pair of pale corpse hands strained to push outward, locking into a desperate contest of strength with the Artist outside.

"The eighty-seventh Killing Rule: Futile Affection.

"Any Supernatural Item touched by the Artist loses all its effects, entering a scrapped state."

Out of the dense web of tens of thousands of Killing Rules the Artist possessed, it had activated one of the most inconspicuous.

This colossal bronze gate was, naturally, a Supernatural Item. Upon the Artist's touch, its abilities and effects rapidly drained. The bronze doors rusted into a decaying yellow right before their eyes.

Consequently, the giant, liver-spotted corpse hands pushing from within could no longer resist the Artist's strength.

With a deafening boom, the colossal gate slammed shut and vanished into thin air.

Xu Yuan had achieved his goal.

Using the Artist's eighty-seventh rule, he had completely dismantled the Ghost Emissary Old Man Sun's ultimate technique.

He would never be able to use that technique again.

The instant the Ghost Gate slammed shut, the tens of thousands of faces across the Artist's back stirred. There were strangled youths with protruding tongues; women who died in childbirth with their eyes bulging; and children buried alive with their mouths stretched wide in silent screams. The faces flickered between clarity and blur, as if an invisible hand were constantly kneading and tearing at the flesh beneath the hair.

In perfect unison, they all turned to look down at Old Man Sun.

"The third Killing Rule: Final Decree.

"When the ghost looks at a living person, all of their Supernatural Items and abilities are nullified."

The target the Artist looked at was Old Man Sun right beneath its feet.

Gao Tian had experienced this firsthand on the No. 444 Supernatural Bus. The instant the Artist noticed him, all his items—including the Shattered Face Ghost—had failed completely. He had temporarily been reduced to a normal person, utterly powerless.

He truly never wanted to experience that absolute despair a second time.

This absolute instant-kill mechanic was just unleashed on Old Man Sun.

At the same time, Xu Yuan—who had been suppressed for the entire battle, chased and beaten like a stray dog—slowly picked himself up off the ground, finally baring his fangs.

He casually dusted himself off. His eyes held only indifference and a sovereign's cruelty: "It seems arrogance truly is a ghost hunter's greatest enemy. Old Sun.

"I admit, you are powerful. You are the strongest living person I have ever encountered. My countless combat simulations in the Inner World confirmed that in a direct confrontation with you, my chances of victory were slim to none.

"But isn't the greatest distinction between humans and ghosts our intellect? Our ability to use strategy to manipulate a disadvantageous environment?

"You were too arrogant. You didn't even bother to understand me, or anything regarding the Galan Society. At the very beginning of this war, I repeatedly studied your life, your abilities, your combat habits, and the Supernatural Items you possessed.

"Your strongest technique has already been dismantled. I knew exactly when you would open the Ghost Gate, and I knew exactly how to shut it. You lost the moment this war started. I know you better than you know yourself.

"Remember this in your next life. A true master always maintains a humble heart."

The tide of battle had instantly reversed. Even more terrifying was the fact that Xu Yuan had yet to unleash his own ghost domain.

Gao Tian had experienced that ghost domain firsthand back in Xu Yuan's hometown.

The entire world had been inverted into a blood-red purgatory. Within seconds, a mortal's flesh and blood would be incinerated into white bone, not even leaving a drop of blood behind.

And that had merely been a rudimentary ghost domain, not even a tenth of Xu Yuan's personal power.

Now, gazing at Old Man Sun, who had lost everything, Xu Yuan finally unleashed his true ghost domain: "Myriad Phenomena Incineration Furnace Realm."

Radiating from Xu Yuan's feet, a scarlet purgatory erupted like a splattered bloodstain, exploding and spreading across the ground. It surged hungrily over the marble, the intense heat warping and twisting the very air it passed through.

Every inch of marble that touched the scarlet glow instantly lost its luster and disintegrated from within, crumbling into clouds of ashen dust. The marble tiles on the walls cracked and peeled away in silent shrieks, turning to powder. The massive stone pillars supporting the dome were devoured inch by inch, collapsing from their bases without leaving a single structural fracture.

Buildings wailed and collapsed in the purgatory of crimson flames. Steel rebar glowed cherry-red before melting away, and glass soundlessly sublimated into powder. Wherever Xu Yuan's scarlet ghost domain spread, the once-bustling metropolis was reduced to unrecognizable ash. Even the pitch-black sky above was stained with an ominous red light.

More terrifying still, his ghost domain was endlessly expanding outward. It seemed boundless, as if it would never end. Xu Yuan had previously suggested taking their fight to Chongming Island, warning that if he fought seriously, he might wipe out half of Shanghai City. He really hadn't been exaggerating.

Standing alone in the plaza, Old Man Sun was simultaneously facing the overlapping Killing Rules of two S-Level Fierce Ghosts.

The Artist had shattered his ultimate technique and sealed away his other abilities. Now, Xu Yuan had unleashed his spectacular ghost domain, fully prepared to take Old Man Sun's head.

No matter how one looked at it, Old Man Sun was dead. No human could possibly survive this situation.

Inside the Mirror, Gao Tian watched the scene unfold. Despite so many things happening, all of it had occurred in barely a dozen seconds.

Old Man Sun's instructions before their departure echoed in his ears: "If possible, I hope you can do me a favor.

"When the Artist appears, stall it for one minute. One minute will be enough."

It turned out Old Man Sun hadn't been joking.

If he couldn't buy that single minute, the old bastard might really die here tonight.

Time flashed back to before they departed.

He remembered their heated argument, and the practically invisible Ye Jiu trembling to the side, not daring to interject.

"How is that possible? How am I supposed to stall for a minute?

"Xu Yuan isn't an idiot, and he'll be right there watching. The instant I show my face, he'll know I'm a spy and kill me.

"Forget a minute. I couldn't even buy you thirty seconds," Gao Tian complained.

Even if he used his ghostification, it would be difficult to pull off.

The Artist would devour him in a single bite. Then, it would add yet another new Killing Rule to its endless arsenal.

Old Man Sun stroked his chin, deep in thought: "You mentioned earlier that among the Multi-Headed Ghost's tens of thousands of rules, there's one where if someone calls its true name, it will instantly teleport to their side and kill them?"

Gao Tian nodded. "That's right."

Because of this, Xu Yuan actively avoided calling the Artist by its true name.

It proved that he still hadn't fully mastered the Artist.

Old Man Sun's eyes lit up, as if he had just thought of something. "We can work with that."

He began to explain in meticulous detail. A ghost's existence was much like a computer program, only killing according to preset Killing Rules.

Most of the time, these programs functioned normally.

But there were occasional exceptions. Some ghosts had overly complex Killing Rules, and under highly specific circumstances, their self-imposed rules would contradict and clash, making it impossible to execute them simultaneously.

When that happened, the ghost would encounter a bug. Its left brain would fight its right brain, and then it would freeze up.

Naturally, such situations were exceedingly, incredibly rare. Even Old Man Sun had rarely witnessed one during his long career as a ghost hunter.

But the Artist was an exception.

It simply had far, far too many rules.

It looked like a flawless behemoth that was seemingly invincible. But it was also a generational mountain of spaghetti code. Whether it could even run properly was highly debatable.

The more rules it consumed, the more likely it was to consume contradictory ones. Once it did, things would get very interesting.

Before the battle, Old Man Sun had evaluated him dismissively: "This is exactly why Xu Yuan is just a theoretical expert. His experience takes too many practical combat variables for granted.

"His plan to save the world has a much lower probability of success than he imagines.

"If Xu Yuan actually forced it to consume the tens of millions of Fierce Ghosts across the world, plus whatever new ghosts continue to spawn—the Artist wouldn't become the King of All Ghosts. It would more than likely spawn countless conflicting rules, paralyzing itself into a colossal piece of garbage trapped in an eternal crash loop.

"That is also why I must stop him at any cost.

"It isn't because I'm some stubborn relic clinging to the past. It's because radical idealists always drag the entire world into an even deeper abyss."

Of course, none of that mattered now. The most important thing was tonight's decisive battle.

"If things truly reach the brink, as an absolute last resort...

"You can try to trigger a bug in the Artist," Old Man Sun had said.

Now, standing within the Mirror World, Gao Tian glared out at the Artist pinning down Old Man Sun.

He did one thing.

He loudly called out the Artist's name: "Hey—Artist!

"Get your ass into the Mirror World—

"I'm right in here, you idiot, come and get me—

"You motherless thing—I'm your daddy, Artist!"

One minute.

He just needed the Artist to leave the battlefield for a single minute. That would be enough.