Chapter 373: The Deceiver and the Truth Ghost, Language as a Spell

"We’ve found him. Move in!"

A voice suddenly came from outside the Clan Ancestral Hall, causing the expression of Su Huayun, who was in the middle of controlling the Truth Ghost, to change abruptly.

He had originally thought that the seventy-two ancient people were a manifestation brought about by the Truth Ghost’s killing rules.

They should have been nothing more than illusions, but he never imagined they were actually real.

This meant that even after he controlled the Truth Ghost, he would still have to face a group of people who wielded the power of ghosts.

’This is wrong. It shouldn’t be this difficult.’

The next moment, a strange THUD sounded as something landed, and then he saw fire and an explosion sweep toward him, engulfing the Clan Ancestral Hall he was in.

By the time he came to his senses, the death rewind had brought him back once again.

Without any hesitation, he began to act again.

’I have to be fast. I have to be faster.’ Inside the Clan Ancestral Hall, Su Huayun knew in his heart that his only chance of survival was to successfully control the Truth Ghost before that group of people arrived.

Otherwise, he would undoubtedly die.

His opponents possessed a far more powerful and lethal force, and their target was clearly him.

He didn’t understand why, but it didn’t matter. All he had to do was kill them and survive.

So, what he needed to do was simple: continuously familiarize himself with the process of controlling the Truth Ghost, then shorten the time it took until he succeeded.

This process would inevitably require him to use his death rewind many times.

Trial and error, practice—all of it took time he didn’t have.

As time passed, he heard the voice again, followed by the sound of something heavy landing, and then the fire and explosion.

Su Huayun replayed the explosion in his mind. It was eerily similar to the missiles from his home planet. ’Was that a bomb?’

But he quickly pushed this doubt to the back of his mind. To him, it wasn’t important.

Time was what mattered most.

He then once again immersed himself in practicing to awaken and control the Truth Ghost, striving for mastery.

He didn’t know how many times he had repeated the process, and his Spirit was extremely exhausted.

This spiritual fatigue wasn’t from depletion, but was psychological.

With every death, his memories were preserved. He inherited not only an informational advantage, but also an immense psychological fatigue and burden.

’If I keep this up, once the accumulated memories become too much, my physique and Spirit attributes won’t be able to bear them.’

’The death rewind isn’t invincible after all.’

He could clearly remember the details of every death rewind, which meant these memories would never disappear.

And his brain’s capacity was limited. Once he reached its upper limit, he himself would break down and die.

However, death would trigger the death rewind, and in the end, his fate would be to endlessly loop through his own demise.

He could guess what the outcome would be: complete collapse, until he was nothing but rotten flesh or simply annihilated.

As for erasing the memories? What could he possibly use to do that?

He couldn’t just solve it with a single sentence, could he? Even if he wanted to use his Reality from Deception ability, someone would have to believe him first.

Because he wasn’t a regular survivor but a Law Enforcer, he wasn’t part of a team but was surviving alone.

Besides himself, there was only the Truth Ghost.

Unfortunately, the Truth Ghost was immune to the lie effects of his Deceiver talent. Using it would just generate a corresponding killing rule.

Therefore, his Reality from Deception ability was completely useless in this survival mission.

’Since the death rewind has a weakness, do my other abilities have weaknesses too?’ Su Huayun’s heart tightened.

Judging from the previous mandatory mission, the highest grade should be SSS-rank. And although his Deceiver talent was special, it was only an S-rank talent.

To get rid of these flaws, he probably had to evolve it to SSS-rank.

However, the Apocalypse Game hadn’t told him how to evolve it, so he could only set the thought aside for now.

As these thoughts raced through his mind, he began to absorb the Truth Ghost.

The process of absorbing it was already extremely familiar to him. The real difficulty wasn’t there, but in how to successfully control the Truth Ghost.

Only by completing the act of control could he master the Truth Ghost’s abilities.

Truth and lies combined—Su Huayun believed this would be the most powerful force of all.

For example, using truth to enact a lie, or using lies to advance the truth.

Especially with the situational control granted by his Deceiver talent, combining it with truth and lies would be enough for Su Huayun to leverage immense power.

By then, even if he were just an ordinary person, he would have the ability to manipulate the world.

Absorption complete. Control initiated.

He focused his entire being on controlling it according to the Ghost Control Technique. A deathly chill, sharp pains, and more constantly tried to interfere, seeking to make him fail.

However, having already experienced this countless times, he was completely unaffected.

Outside the Clan Ancestral Hall, the enemy’s voice was heard once again.

But this time, he no longer panicked.

At the last moment, he successfully brought the Truth Ghost under his control.

A cold glint flashed in his eyes.

He directly activated Fortune Reversal. Disadvantage and misfortune were instantly reversed into advantage and good luck.

At the same time, because he had activated the power of lies, the Truth Ghost’s power was also triggered.

As opposing forces, the reversed disadvantage and misfortune were now trying to descend upon him again.

"Disadvantage and misfortune will befall me." He instinctively used the Truth Ghost’s power, channeling it like a lie.

Following his guidance, the reversal began to switch targets. He split the descending disadvantage and misfortune into seventy-two parts, each one falling upon one of the seventy-two people approaching the Clan Ancestral Hall.

This disadvantage and misfortune transformed into seventy-two killing rules. However, not all seventy-two rules would take effect on every person; each individual was subject to only one corresponding, effective killing rule.

However, these killing rules were highly specific and extremely easy to trigger, just like how he had been targeted by the Truth Ghost before.

But because he had only just brought it under control, he couldn’t fully command the Truth Ghost’s power. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been just one killing rule each.

Having controlled the Truth Ghost, his Spirit and physique also began to rise at an incredible speed. Just after he finished guiding the misfortune, his two basic attributes had already broken through 1 point.

Power was surging into him, yet he knew that with his current attributes, he was still no match for his enemies.

Fortunately, the killing rules had begun to take effect. Before the seventy-two people could even enter the Clan Ancestral Hall, three of them had already died.

But that wasn’t his main concern, because he had to deal with not only the enemies, but also the missile that was now visible.

"What the hell is going on in this Survival Area? Wasn’t this supposed to be an ancient setting? How can there be a missile?!"

Su Huayun had learned some details from three batches of survivors, and this, combined with his own personal experience, confirmed that it was indeed an ancient-style setting. That made the missile completely out of place.

"The missile will not be a dud." Without a hint of hesitation, he used a lie to trigger the truth.

So this time, the effect would be the opposite, meaning the missile would be a dud.

It was a good idea, but when the missile landed, it still exploded.

His power wasn’t a case of his words becoming law; rather, he interfered with reality through truth and lies.

This meant that if the gap in power was too great, he wouldn’t be able to interfere with reality at all.

The explosion and flames engulfed him directly. Everything returned to the starting point once more.

Fortunately, Su Huayun had the experience from last time, and he completed his plan even faster this time.

When he saw the missile again, he no longer tried to affect it, nor did he choose to confront the enemies head-on.

Instead, he turned and ran, saying aloud, "I will not be affected by the missile."

This time, he was interfering with himself.

As the shockwave arrived, he dove forward. Under the influence of the two forces of truth and lies, he successfully ducked behind cover.

The full force of the blast’s shockwave slammed into the cover and was completely blocked.

He couldn’t help but swallow, a look of joy spreading across his face.

He had escaped the death trap.

But soon, his smile froze.

The seventy-two enemies had indeed suffered heavy casualties. However, after they died, ghost-like patchwork monstrosities revived from within their bodies.

He knew the concept of "revival." If one used a ghost’s power too many times, the ghost would gradually corrupt them until they were completely consumed, at which point the ghost would revive.

But the Ghost Control Technique never mentioned that the ghost would also revive if its wielder died.

At the same time, he could be certain that the ghosts of these seventy-two enemies were not normal.

The Truth Ghost he controlled was certainly ugly and ferocious, but at least it wasn’t distorted.

Unlike those ghosts, which were nauseatingly twisted.

"The killing rules of all ghosts in the Clan Ancestral Hall, except for the Truth Ghost, will be strengthened." He once again used his Deceiver talent to drive the Truth Ghost’s power.

After failing to make the missile a dud, Su Huayun understood that his own power was too weak. Completely nullifying the ghosts’ killing rules was definitely unrealistic.

Since he couldn’t nullify them, he might as well weaken them.

Therefore, the opposite of "strengthened" was, naturally, "weakened."

Of course, he could have also chosen another opposite point of focus: the Truth Ghost itself.

Beyond that, "in the Clan Ancestral Hall" was also an opposing point, but if he were to actually choose that, he wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Perhaps he could do something like that once his Deceiver talent reached SSS-rank and he had completely mastered the Truth Ghost’s power.

This was the function of his Deceiver talent and his own guidance. Otherwise, the entire statement would take effect, and either the Truth Ghost would be weakened or the ability would fail to activate.

However, he was still being too optimistic. Even though the killing rules were weakened, they were not something he could withstand.

The seventy-two ghosts, twisted from being stitched together, fixed their gazes on him, the only living being present.

One can imagine what happened next. Su Huayun died instantly.

Once again, the death rewind sent him back to the moment he arrived.

’I can’t kill them. If I do, I’ll die too.’

’Or, I could find the killing rules for these seventy-two ghosts and look for a loophole...’

’The first option is easier to achieve. With my Deceiver talent and the Truth Ghost, as long as I go through a few more trials and errors, I should have a chance to control the enemies.’

Su Huayun felt helpless. ’It’s just one desperate situation after another. Don’t tell me there’s a final boss waiting after I deal with these seventy-two enemies...’