Chapter 372: Death Rewind, a Ghost Controller’s Infinite Trial and Error

"The first step is to find this Deceitful Ghost. I have to..." Su Huayun hadn’t finished speaking when he suddenly noticed a change in his Survival Area.

His Survival Area was a Clan Ancestral Hall, evidently one belonging to a prominent family, as the hall itself was no smaller than a large mansion.

It also had facilities like side chambers, an accounting office, and a kitchen, all governed by a mix of real and fake rules.

One careless mistake could lead to death.

Then, he saw seventy-two fully armed, ancient-looking warriors appear at the entrance to the hall.

The moment they saw him, they attacked without hesitation.

’This is bad!’ He didn’t recognize these people, but with their menacing advance, they were clearly not friendly.

He immediately turned to flee. However, he hadn’t taken two steps before an excruciating pain shot through him, as if something were tearing his body apart.

When he came to, the death rewind had already sent him back to his starting position inside the Clan Ancestral Hall.

He cautiously scanned his surroundings and breathed a sigh of relief.

’A dead end. This is a genuine dead end.’

Su Huayun understood that they hadn’t appeared yet because it wasn’t time. Once the moment arrived, they would materialize and come for him.

As for turning the tables on them, that was likely impossible.

Those seventy-two people surely all possessed Extraordinary powers.

’It’s not entirely hopeless. I just need to subdue the Deceitful Ghost within this time frame.’

’With my Deceiver talent, success isn’t out of the question.’

But that was all predicated on him getting the timing perfect. And, of course, not getting caught.

The death rewind had side effects. The memories remained. So if he were tortured to the point of a mental breakdown, he would still be a broken madman even after the rewind.

And what about killing himself if he got caught? How was he supposed to do that without any tools? Bite his own tongue off? That was a complete myth.

’Still, I have to nail down the timing first.’

He hadn’t recorded the precise time the seventy-two enemies arrived before. It had all happened too fast; they were far too strong for him.

He had died instantly, with no chance to even register what was happening before the rewind brought him back.

’Trial and error. Restart. Until it’s perfect.’ Su Huayun decisively found a hiding spot with a clear view of the Clan Ancestral Hall’s entrance.

He wasn’t planning an ambush. He just needed a well-hidden spot to buy himself enough breathing room to record the time, rather than being instantly killed right at the start.

The seconds ticked by until, at the entrance of the Clan Ancestral Hall, a long, narrow portal opened. The seventy-two figures emerged from it.

’They... are they native inhabitants of this Survival Area?!’ The thought suddenly struck Su Huayun.

He glanced down at his watch. The moment he looked back up, one of the ancient warriors spotted him.

The warrior closed the distance with ghostly speed. Before Su Huayun could say a word, he saw the man’s hand fall upon his head.

This death was different from the last one, but at least it wasn’t as painful.

His consciousness vanished the instant his head exploded. When he opened his eyes again, he was back at his initial arrival point in the Survival Area.

"Whew, that way of dying really wasn’t painful. I can choose that way to go for the next death rewind." With that, Su Huayun immediately sprang into action.

Now that he had established the timeline, his next step was to subdue the suspected Deceitful Ghost before his enemies arrived.

He scrambled to his feet and began his journey of infinite trial and error.

"Found you..." Su Huayun hadn’t kept track of how many times he had died, but during the last death rewind, he had finally located the Deceitful Ghost’s true form.

’Right under my nose. It was truly right under my nose the whole time.’

As Su Huayun thought this, he suddenly snapped his head up to look at the ceiling beams.

The place he first appeared was the main chamber of the Clan Ancestral Hall, where all the ancestral tablets were kept.

It was consequently the most opulent area in the entire Clan Ancestral Hall, and the one he had spent the most time searching.

He had, in fact, looked up at the ceiling beams before, but the ghost had deceived his vision.

After he stared for five minutes, a gaunt, elongated, ghostly face first materialized on the beam, followed by a bizarre body resembling that of a humanoid stick insect.

It was wrapped around the beam, hanging upside down.

’Lies are beautiful, but the truth is ugly.’

’You’re not the Deceitful Ghost I suspected. You’re a Truth Ghost.’

’That’s why every time I use my Deceiver ability, it’s countered by your truth.’

A flash of insight sparked in Su Huayun’s mind, fitting the final piece of the puzzle into place.

’Your killing rule—from the very beginning—has only ever been one thing: lies.’

’Where there are lies, the truth will tear them apart.’

’And every time I use my Deceiver ability, I trigger your killing rule, which in turn creates a new killing rule specifically targeting me.’

So what if his talent was ’Deceiver,’ not ’Liar’? Weren’t they completely different?

He could split hairs over the semantics, but what good would it do? The Truth Ghost’s killing rule couldn’t care less about his opinion.

It was pointless to argue about such things with a ghost. It would just kill you, not debate until it was red in the face.

As the weaker party, he was in no position to define the rules of the stronger one.

The reason he couldn’t see the Truth Ghost was that by using his Deceiver talent to weave lies, he had naturally become shrouded in those lies himself.

The death rewind was part of the deception, too. That’s why he needed enough time to pass for the lies to fade before he could see the Truth Ghost.

Against any other survivor, this Truth Ghost wouldn’t be nearly as powerful; in fact, it would be one of the simplest ghosts to deal with.

After all, their lies held little power. Su Huayun’s lies, on the other hand, were amplified by his Deceiver talent, imbuing his every action.

That meant he first had to quell all the effects of his own talent. Otherwise, surrounded by his own lies, he wouldn’t even be able to see the Truth Ghost’s form.

The Truth Ghost slowly crawled down from the beam, slinking along a pillar to the floor. It was massive, like a giant elephant, but its long, thin body made it appear utterly bizarre.

A mocking smile spread across its ghostly face. Then its mouth began to stretch unnaturally, and with lightning speed, it lunged forward and bit off Su Huayun’s head.

The headless corpse swayed twice before crashing to the ground.

But in the next moment, Su Huayun’s Deceiver talent activated the death rewind effect once more.

Back again, he looked up at the ceiling beam. The Truth Ghost was still there.

’It’s too fast. I didn’t even have time to try and subdue it before it killed me,’ Su Huayun thought, speechless.

He had thought it only had one killing rule, but it turned out there was another way it could kill him.

’Then again, it makes sense. People who learn the truth often get silenced. That’s perfectly normal.’

’After all, the truth is usually ugly, and not everyone is willing to accept it.’

’Why is this so difficult? Maybe it’s because I have dual talents and I’m a Law Enforcer.’ Su Huayun was truly frustrated.

The main problem was how perfectly it countered him. He had assumed its power was also based on deception, but it turned out all of its killing rules were a direct result of his own abilities.

Even his death rewind was affected; using it left him unable to see the ghost for a full five minutes. It was utterly ridiculous.

Once he could see the Truth Ghost again, it began to crawl down toward him.

Before it attacked, its movements weren’t fast, which was what had led him to mistakenly believe it lacked aggression.

This time, he struck first. Following the method described in the Ghost Control Technique, he forcibly absorbed the massive Truth Ghost into his body.

The enormous ghost entered his body, but it didn’t tear him apart. Instead, an intense, icy chill and a piercing pain erupted from within him.

"Subduing a ghost requires..." He couldn’t finish his sentence. The Truth Ghost tore its way out of his body, and he died again.

After the death rewind, he stared at the ceiling beam, mentally reviewing why he had just failed.

’I was too slow. I failed to subdue it instantly, which allowed the Truth Ghost’s backlash to immediately intensify.’

’I have to be faster this time, or I’ll just fail again.’

’If my Pollution Resistance talent wasn’t at the initial D-rank, I might have been able to hold on longer.’

-----------------

"What’s going on? Why is there no activity?" Qi Suian watched as the red dot on his monitor began to blink out with increasing frequency, a flicker of doubt in his mind.

The Jiachen Seventy-Two Guards had been inside for some time now, and he had no idea if they were dead or alive.

But now the red dot’s frequency had changed again. From its initially erratic pattern, it had settled into a cycle of roughly six minutes.

’Don’t tell me they’ve engaged? And he can revive in there, only to be repeatedly killed by the Jiachen Seventy-Two Guards the moment he comes back?’

Qi Suian considered the possibility. It wasn’t out of the question, but he wasn’t willing to gamble on it.

’Let’s fire a missile in first and see what happens.’

He had to go in, that much was certain, but not blindly. At the very least, he could let a missile scout the way for him.

As for the risk of blowing up the seventy-two Royal Shadow Guards? Qi Suian couldn’t care less.

Those Royal Shadow Guards weren’t exactly human to begin with; they wouldn’t die that easily.

And even if they did die, it didn’t matter. Someone else would cover for him anyway.

"Smart-brain, I’m opening the portal. You launch the missile," Qi Suian said. Using the live observation device, he opened the portal once more.

The next moment, a missile shot forth, streaking through the portal into the region beyond.

The portal snapped shut instantly.

[When you opened the portal, the Tai Sui God captured a momentary image.]

[It is not good news for you.]

With that, the momentary image materialized.

In the image, the Jiachen Seventy-Two Guards had just arrived at the entrance.

Qi Suian recognized the scene—it was identical to the one from when the guards first entered.

"They’re only just arriving now? Is there a problem with the flow of time?" Qi Suian’s expression turned grave. Faced with this situation, he had no choice but to suspect a temporal distortion.

Otherwise, how could they only be arriving now? It had been at least five hours.