Chapter 171: Ghost Art

I was unarmed. The wooden coat hanger I wielded was quickly hacked to pieces by Zimao's Precept Blade. His state was entirely abnormal—he looked consumed by bloodlust, completely out of his mind.

"I'm going to kill you and avenge my brother! It's the only way Lu Xing won't kill me! You have to die! You have to die!" Zimao raved, utterly deranged.

Blood and saliva drooled from the corners of his mouth, but he didn't seem to notice. He just kept his mouth wide open, screaming as he attacked relentlessly.

I barely fended him off, grabbing anything I could find in the room to use as a shield. He lunged at me like a rabid dog, driving the tip of his blade straight for my eyes. Backed into a corner, I had no choice but to take the strike head-on.

Channeling Chasing Eye, I caught every detail of Zimao's movements. I waited for the perfect opening and clamped both hands onto his weapon arm.

"Die!" The blade tip bore down on me. Even with both hands, I couldn't hold Zimao back. His strength was simply monstrous, completely beyond the limits of a normal human.

Planting one foot firmly on the floor, I launched a vicious kick right into his lower abdomen. If an ordinary man took a blow like that, he would be curled up on the ground clutching his stomach, unable to rise for half the day.

Yet Zimao didn't even flinch. More blood spilled down his chin. His expression was twisted and terrifying, his eyes burning with pure hatred and absolute resolve. The only things missing from his gaze were pain and hesitation.

"Get back!"

The blade tip crept closer and closer to my eyes. I drove my foot into him over and over to kick him away, but he didn't budge. His stance was as immovable as a deeply rooted tree.

"Stop struggling and just die!" Zimao bit down so hard his lip split open, sending blood cascading over his chin. Looking like an evil spirit from hell, he let out a twisted laugh and clamped both hands onto the hilt of his blade.

The downward pressure from the Precept Blade suddenly spiked. Even giving it everything I had, I couldn't stop it. My pupils shrank to pinpricks as the lethal tip hovered a fraction of an inch from my eye!

Crash!

With a massive impact, the bed frame flipped over. The lights in the room flickered wildly. From the shadows, masses of long black hair slithered rapidly across the floor like an aquatic monster from a deep lake, instantly entangling Zimao's body.

"What the hell is this?!" he shouted in shock, completely unprepared for a ghost to be hiding in the room.

The black hair coiled tightly around his wrists, neck, and joints, locking his limbs in place so he couldn't swing his blade.

"The Yin threads of a Fate Ghost! How do you have such a thing?!" Zimao roared. He had been so close to slaughtering his enemy with his own hands—he was only inches away.

A Black Eyeball rolled over to my side. Now that the Fate Ghost had made its move, I finally let out a sigh of relief. I scooped up the Black Eyeball and leaned back against the wall, my body already drenched in cold sweat.

That had been way too close. My chest heaved as I gasped for air.

"You think a Fate Ghost is enough to stop me? Gao Jian, you are a dead man today!" Zimao abruptly slashed his own wrist, drenching his blade in blood. Because he practiced Buddhist mental disciplines, his blood contained the power of karma. Paired with the corresponding incantation seals, the solemn chanting of a Buddha actually echoed from the Precept Blade.

The sound was deafening; even the security guards patrolling outside the building must have heard it.

"Sin-Slaughtering Mantra! Chi, Tuo, Jia, Luo!"

"Sin-Extinguishing True Word! Chi, Tuo, Sha, A!"

The two consecutive Buddhist mantras rang throughout the small room, and motes of golden light flared from his crimson blood. Zimao didn't use any other dharma artifacts or talismans; relying entirely on those two mantras, he violently blasted away the Fate Ghost's black hair entangling him.

Buddhist mantras countered ghostly entities far more drastically than Daoist talismans. Daoism allowed for raising, taming, exorcising, and commanding ghosts, but Buddhism was far more absolute—its methods were purely designed for total eradication.

The black hair disintegrated. That single counterattack alone inflicted grievous injuries upon the Fate Ghost.

"You're too naive if you think a Fate Ghost is enough to stop me." He stood in the center of the room with his Precept Blade in hand. Golden light swirled through his flowing blood as the chanting of Buddhas enveloped him. Even though he acted like an evil spirit crawling out of the Eighteen Levels of Hell, he currently looked profoundly sanctimonious, appearing like some reclusive high monk here to vanquish demons.

"Master, save him! Please, you have to save him!" Lu Tianxiao cried, clinging to Wang Erjun's lifeless corpse. Pointing right at me, she screamed, "That monster is the murderer! He killed him!"

I really didn't look like the good guy right now. Three ghostly silhouettes hovered behind me, and Yin energy manifested as black hair writhing across the floor all around my feet. It was the exact look of a horror movie villain.

Zimao's sudden intervention had already sent the situation spiraling out of control. Now that this woman was screaming her lungs out, the security guards outside would be sprinting toward the villa. In ten minutes at most, this place would be completely surrounded. Escaping then would be next to impossible.

Zimao had his Precept Blade and Buddhist mantras, but with the Fate Ghost protecting me, he wouldn't be able to kill me quickly. We were deadlocked in the room, neither of us daring to make a reckless move.

The clock ticked. The woman clinging to Wang Erjun tried to drag his corpse to the side, but the Old Master clearly hadn't finished reveling in his vengeance. The moment the corpse shifted, black hair instantly wrapped around her hands.

"Help!" She frantically tore at the black hair on her arms, but it wouldn't budge. Terrified, she abandoned Wang Erjun's corpse entirely and threw herself over to Zimao, gripping his arm desperately. "Master, save me! Name your price—I'll pay anything you want!"

"Get away from him!" I yelled, my heart skipping a beat when I saw her grab Zimao. That lunatic had completely lost his mind—running to him for help was sheer suicide.

Far from believing me, the woman clung to him even tighter. She pressed her ample chest against Zimao's scrawny forearm, glaring at me with venom. "You murdered Brother Jun, and now you want to trick me, you monster!"

"Monster?" I let out a dry, infuriated laugh and didn't say another word.

Seeing me fall silent, Lu Tianxiao assumed I was afraid of Zimao. The shrew grew even more brazen. "Master, quickly exterminate him! We can negotiate whatever price you want, but Brother Jun can't die in vain!"

Zimao's expression was freezing cold. His refined features were originally handsome and flawless, but perhaps due to some forbidden drug he had consumed, thick veins now bulged across his pale face. "Let go."

Hearing him speak, Lu Tianxiao thought he was considering her offer. Instead of letting go, she clamped onto him even tighter. "Master, I'll give you anything."

"Get lost!" Zimao swung his arm and shoved the woman away. Outside the window, harsh spotlights flashed, and the wail of police sirens approached.

He was even more anxious than I was. "You have to die, Gao Jian! You have to die today!"

His eyes were completely bloodshot. He kept repeating those words like someone following an absolute command.

Zimao lunged forward, unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks. This time, however, the Fate Ghost stepped in. Black hair repeatedly lashed out from the shadows to entangle Zimao, drastically diminishing his threat to me.

"You aren't going to be able to kill me." I was just as desperate to leave. I was indirectly responsible for Wang Erjun's death, and there was an eyewitness right here in the room—Lu Tianxiao. If I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a police cell, I had to run for it immediately.

Zimao's Buddhist mantras dealt catastrophic damage to the Fate Ghost. The black hair continued to shrivel. After several more clashes, the threads of Yin energy that had once covered the entire room could now extend only about a foot away from my body.

"If I don't kill you today, Lu Xing will kill me when I get back! I don't have a choice!" Zimao flipped his grip on the Precept Blade and suddenly leaped right next to Lu Tianxiao.

"Didn't you say you wanted me to avenge your husband?"

"Master, please! Kill that monster!"

"Not a problem. But first, I need to borrow something from you." Zimao's vein-bulged face looked utterly horrifying under the harsh lighting.

"W-what is it?"

Instinctively sensing danger, Lu Tianxiao backed away toward the corner of the room, only for Zimao to snatch her by the arm. "Don't be afraid. I'm very fast. You won't feel any pain at all. It will be over in an instant, just a few seconds."

"What are you doing? Stay away from me! Stay away!" Lu Tianxiao finally realized something was terribly wrong. Thrashing like a cornered stray cat, she clawed wildly at Zimao's face, gouging deep scratches into his skin with her nails. But even someone with my combat background was no match for Zimao—let alone a frail woman like her.

The Precept Blade plunged straight into the woman's torso. Zimao used a reverse grip, which typically caused deep puncture wounds. The entry point was small, but the fatality rate was terrifyingly high.

Zimao completely impaled the woman's stomach. But the sheer insanity was what came next—he sank his teeth directly into Lu Tianxiao's neck. As he gulped down her warm, fresh blood, his eyes turned completely crimson.

"Gao Jian, you have to die!" he howled, lunging at me once more. His speed had spiked to an entirely new level. Even pushing Chasing Eye to its limits, I could barely track his movements.

"Absolute rabid dog." I threw myself toward the balcony. Stripped of all other options, I didn't even dare to look back. I stepped onto the balcony railing, dropped onto the outdoor air-conditioning unit, and vaulted directly down into the overgrown garden below.