Zhang Tinglei muttered softly, then immediately activated his qinggong, rushing toward Zuo Lin'an's direction at his absolute fastest speed.
Zuo Lin'an, on the other hand, was startled by this sudden turn of events.
The distance between him and Zhang Tinglei wasn't actually that far. A normal person might have to walk for a long time, but to a Xiantian Rank martial artist, it was nothing.
After all, those at the Xiantian Rank could release their true qi externally and fly through the air!
“Oh no!”
“I won't make it!”
Zuo Lin'an immediately threw the unconscious player in his hand into the head-high weeds nearby, then completely concealed his figure and vanished from the spot!
After distancing himself from the unconscious player he had discarded, he found a random pile of rocks and stuffed his hidden phone into one of the crevices.
Regardless of whether he would be repelled by Zhang Tinglei this time, he still had to take these precautions.
After all, if he was repelled, the phone on his body wouldn't disappear with him!
Zuo Lin'an kept watching Zhang Tinglei, who was relentlessly pursuing him from behind.
He noticed that even though he kept changing directions, the other party was always able to pinpoint his exact location.
And...
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt that Zhang Tinglei's speed seemed slightly faster than at the beginning.
This continued for about two or three minutes. Zuo Lin'an noticed that Zhang Tinglei was constantly increasing his output of true qi, chasing after him relentlessly.
“How is he keeping up so closely? It feels like...”
Zuo Lin'an felt that he must have “committed a crime.”
As for how he “committed a crime...”
It definitely had to do with that player who had turned into an unsolvable specter. One of the rules in Zhang Tinglei's hands must be related to that dead player.
Thus, Zuo Lin'an couldn't figure out for the time being why the player's death could be linked to him.
That player was clearly killed by a fellow player, and the injuries on his body were caused by taking a misstep and falling on his own while walking along the mountain path.
What did it have to do with him?
He hadn't harmed that player from beginning to end.
“I don't get it...”
However, he didn't have the time to think too much about it right now.
He only knew that before he figured out the rules set by Zhang Tinglei, if he ever targeted players again in the future, he had to take the corpses with him and ensure they disappeared before he could put his mind at ease.
Another two minutes passed.
Zuo Lin'an's initial nervousness had also eased up.
Although Zhang Tinglei's speed was indeed very fast...
But just as he had thought.
A martial artist, even one at the Xiantian Rank who could fly through the air, was still not fast enough compared to the speed of his specter body.
Furthermore, Zuo Lin'an could move without limit, whereas Zhang Tinglei had to constantly consume his true qi.
In other words, was it down to stalling for time and competing in consumption again?
This wasn't actually the most troublesome part.
What Zuo Lin'an worried about the most was Zhang Tinglei realizing that he, as a specter, was running away and avoiding him.
If the other party realized this, it would be equivalent to realizing that the specter in this dungeon possessed intelligence—and not a low level of it, either.
After all, the specter even knew that he possessed a means to repel specters.
Calculated this way, Zhang Tinglei would be shocked to discover that the intelligence of the specter in the dungeon was actually high enough to rival a normal human's!
Or even higher!
Because he had never displayed his talent or specter items, yet the specter knew he could repel it and had deliberately avoided him during his pursuit.
In Zuo Lin'an's view, it was best not to let players realize that specters possessed high intelligence. After all, the more players knew, the more difficult it would be for him as the dungeon boss.
It was already hard enough now.
He didn't want to make things even harder for himself.
However, the situation was urgent, and Zuo Lin'an didn't really want to waste an opportunity to be repelled.
Yet, just as he was thinking of continuing to stall for time and waiting for Zhang Tinglei to give up on his own...
He realized he had still oversimplified things.
Under his God's-eye view, he saw the small pink seashell he had seen earlier appear in Zhang Tinglei's hand.
Zhang Tinglei threw the seashell in the direction of Zuo Lin'an's specter body, and the pink seashell dissolved into specks of pink light in the darkness, vanishing from sight.
The specter item had vanished, indicating that it was a one-time consumable specter item.
At the same time, Zuo Lin'an suddenly felt himself lose his sense of direction. He had intended to move forward, but to his surprise, he moved to the left instead.
So, the special effect of this specter item was to scramble directions. He just didn't know how long it would last.
But based on his past experience, he estimated it should be between five to ten seconds.
But looking at the current situation, Zuo Lin'an realized that even if it lasted for the minimum estimated five seconds, it was already too late to avoid him.
Zuo Lin'an stood in place and stopped moving.
Only a brief two seconds had passed since the specter item was used, yet Zhang Tinglei's figure had already appeared within his field of vision.
Although he was still in a concealed state and had even retracted all of his specter aura, the other party was still able to pinpoint his position with precision.
After closing the distance, Zhang Tinglei didn't waste any words. He raised his hand and slashed downward through the air.
Zuo Lin'an saw a streak of gold-and-purple flame descend from the sky, briefly splitting the pitch-black night in two before silently landing on him.
The flames ignited his body.
He couldn't help but look down at himself. The gold-and-purple flames illuminated the dark, withered forest around him, bringing a touch of brilliant color to the otherwise dead-silent mountains.
As time passed, the flames completely enveloped his specter body, and the blazing fire incinerated him to nothingness within a brief two to three seconds.
After the flames gradually dissipated, his specter body also transformed into a mass of blood mist and disappeared from the spot.
Zhang Tinglei drifted down, looked around, and frowned slightly.
“As expected, the night is indeed inconvenient.”
Even if he could see at night, it didn't mean he could see as clearly as during the day. Once the blood mist dissolved into the darkness, it became extremely well-concealed, making it completely impossible to track.
He had originally planned to follow the direction in which the blood mist vanished to confirm the specter's birth location.
“But this isn't bad either. I've successfully completed one repel.”
Zhang Tinglei glanced at the wild pheasant in his hand, which was still full of energy.
“Next, I need to stockpile enough food and water to last me at least three days... No, five or even six to seven days, and wait for the specter to respawn and appear once more.”
“It's a pity about my seashell, though...”
Thinking up to this point, a sudden sense of incongruity welled up in Zhang Tinglei's heart.
“So... why was the specter rushing in this direction so quickly earlier?”
He hadn't even considered that the specter was running away earlier; he had simply assumed the specter had something it needed to do.
Because normal players would never expect a specter to run. All the specters they had encountered before basically only attacked players.
Even if players flaunted their specter items and talents right in front of them, the specters wouldn't show any reaction!
Rate on N.U.
