The Ghost was currently very bored, drifting aimlessly around the lounge.
He had just finished a quick browse through the miscellaneous books Yue Shi had collected.
The content was a chaotic mess, practically a form of mental contamination.
It was so outrageous and bizarre that he didn't dare to delve too deep.
If he read too much, he was afraid he would become abstract himself.
“Sigh, how dull.”
The Ghost let out a sigh, his form appearing somewhat listless.
He didn't know where Yue Shi had gone, leaving him here all alone.
With nothing better to do, the Ghost found a private computer Yue Shi had left behind.
Permissions and passwords? To the Ghost, they were practically non-existent.
He easily bypassed all the protections and dove inside.
The interior of the computer was very clean—no entertainment software, no games, and no strange browsing history.
There were only a few clearly categorized folders.
The contents of the folders were: Self-Study for Practical Combat, Encyclopedia of Common Poisons, Logical Deduction and Trace Processing for the Perfect Crime, One Hundred Common Techniques for Destroying Corpses and Eliminating Evidence...
The Ghost: “...”
Well, that was very Yue Shi.
Goal-oriented and murderous.
The Ghost also found a hidden folder.
He had expected to find something good inside, but it turned out to be just a few restricted horror movies.
He randomly clicked on one and fast-forwarded a few minutes.
It was the usual blood and screaming, along with some twisted monsters.
How could he describe it?
It lacked creativity.
It wasn't as visceral or stimulating as the murder scenes Yue Shi casually created.
The Ghost silently closed the video.
At this moment, Yue Shi, who was being silently criticized by the Ghost, was in another extra-dimensional space.
The scene here was a stark contrast to the warm, daily life of the lounge.
A strange odor permeated the air.
It was the lingering scent of high-proof spirits mixed with fresh blood.
The once-arrogant Resonant Daoist had been stuffed into a large jar half the height of a man.
The mouth of the jar was sealed with a special gel, leaving only his head exposed.
His face was as pale as paper, and his white wig was disheveled, plastered against his cheeks and the walls of the jar.
His arms and legs, severed at the roots, were discarded carelessly nearby.
He was a half-finished Bone-Drunk Vase.
Yue Shi hadn't yet had the time to gouge out his eyes or pull out his tongue.
A ball gag had been forced into the Resonant Daoist's mouth, secured tightly behind his head with a leather strap.
He couldn't even bite his own tongue to commit suicide; he could only let out muffled, incoherent whimpers.
Yue Shi sat on a wooden chair not far from him, his back turned. He was focused on fiddling with a radio.
The radio's casing was mottled and its style was old-fashioned.
Yue Shi patiently turned the frequency knob, but the knob seemed stuck in a certain position, only emitting bursts of static.
Occasionally, a few unidentifiable, strange syllables would pop out from the static, only to be drowned out by noise again.
The Resonant Daoist's ability was very special; he could passively receive various types of knowledge from unknown sources.
This knowledge could be contaminating and extremely dangerous.
His formidable combat strength did not come directly from his supernatural power itself.
Instead, it relied on the knowledge he received, which he then studied and converted for his own use.
Yue Shi had always been a studious person; he wanted that miraculous knowledge too.
But the Resonant Daoist was truly stingy and refused to cooperate.
Left with no choice, Yue Shi had to use some small measures on him, hoping he would confess honestly.
While crafting the Bone-Drunk Vase, Yue Shi had also found a purplish-black talisman on the Resonant Daoist.
The Mind Exchange Talisman. Its effect allowed the user to briefly exchange mental consciousness with a target, allowing them to control each other's bodies.
This talisman was originally something the Resonant Daoist had prepared to use against Yue Shi.
In a desperate situation, it might have allowed him to turn the tables or take his enemy down with him.
If, during a fierce battle, the Resonant Daoist and Yue Shi had swapped unexpectedly...
The Resonant Daoist would have been prepared, while Yue Shi would have been confused, making it highly likely for him to be killed.
Though the move was risky, the chances of success were high.
The Resonant Daoist whimpered and sobbed on the side, though it was unclear what he wanted to say.
Yue Shi continued to fiddle with the old radio.
This was a supernatural object, the 【Midnight Radio】.
At exactly 3:00 AM every night, the radio would randomly broadcast a real secret from this world.
It was a very amusing supernatural object, though its effect was somewhat useless.
Most of the secrets it broadcasted were trivial, mostly domestic gossip.
Like who the biological father of Old Wang's son really was, the strange sexual fetish of some random person, or the true relationship between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo.
However, after this radio was brought near the Resonant Daoist, some incredible changes occurred.
It had altered its original characteristics; it no longer broadcasted on schedule, but instead began to emit irregular, meaningless noise and broken syllables.
Yue Shi hoped it would broadcast all the knowledge the Resonant Daoist had received.
“Awooo!”
The Resonant Daoist began to struggle violently, the veins in his neck bulging as he made some unseemly sounds.
Yue Shi finally stopped fiddling with the radio.
He removed the ball gag from the Resonant Daoist's mouth and slightly tilted his head. “How are you considering it?”
The Resonant Daoist breathed heavily in tremors, his eyes fierce as he hissed.
“You want me to teach you swordsmanship? My hands and feet are severed! How am I supposed to teach you!”
Yue Shi didn't seem to care.
“If you can't teach swordsmanship, you can teach other things.”
“How was that mind-swapping talisman drawn?”
“And how was that painting that can make people pregnant created?”
“We have plenty of time to discuss this slowly.”
Horror flashed across the Resonant Daoist's face. His trump cards had been seen through completely!
This feeling of being entirely exposed was even more terrifying to him than the physical pain.
Subsequently, that fear transformed into a deeper resentment.
“Are you truly devoid of all humanity?”
“You've turned me into this—neither human nor ghost—and you still expect me to be willing to teach you?”
“In your dreams!”
Yue Shi smiled, stood up, drew a small dagger, and walked toward the Resonant Daoist step by step.
“It doesn't matter. I have plenty of strength and methods to make you talk.”
The flow of time within the Painted Realm space was different from the outside world and could be adjusted.
Yue Shi really did have plenty of time to slowly pry open the Resonant Daoist's mouth and drain all the forbidden knowledge from his brain.
He also had plenty of time to make up for his own shortcomings.
Yue Shi not only needed to strengthen his martial arts, but he also needed destructive methods with a wider range of lethality, higher efficiency, and stronger contamination.
...
Inside the secluded, mysterious mountain villa.
Time passed second by second.
There was a ghost in the villa that would appear on the hour and wander for five minutes.
During those five minutes, the ghost would do everything in its power to find and kill the players.
The remaining time was a brief safety period until the next hour.
The three surviving players were hiding everywhere.
The good news was that there were only two hours left in this supernatural survival game.
The bad news was that the closer the game got to its end, the stronger the ghost became.
The only transcendent among the surviving players, the Acrobat, was also finding it extremely difficult.
Rate on N.U.
