Bottom of the deep pit.
Eight people were bound to the nest walls by black cocoons.
They were arranged in a circle, surrounding the largest egg in the very center.
The thing was at least two meters tall, with a semi-transparent eggshell containing a human-shaped outline that was pulsating rhythmically.
Of the eight, the first to wake up was a woman exuding a strong sense of domesticity.
She was dressed in business attire, wearing black stockings that were torn from her calves to her thighs, and only her left high heel was on. Her hair was disheveled and stuck to her forehead, which was covered in cold sweat.
The moment she opened her eyes, the terror she felt before losing consciousness lingered.
"Where... where am I?!"
Lu Zheng, the prodigy of the Fourth Base of China, woke up in the third cocoon on her left. As soon as he opened his eyes, he scanned his surroundings.
His gaze lingered on the woman for half a second, his brows furrowing into a tight knot.
"Ordinary people."
Lu Zheng's tone wasn't one of questioning, but of shock. "No energy fluctuations, and his physical attributes don't even reach F-class."
"How did you get in here? You dare to come to the newbie trial? Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Zhang Yan's lips trembled twice before she could speak.
"No... I have no choice. Rather than staying on that ghost ship, I'd rather find a way to survive."
"A ship? What ship?"
"Ghost ship."
"I was teleported to Weird Island, landing on a black ghost ship."
"That female ghost captain, she... she pinned me to the mast and forced me to sing for her. If I sang wrong, she would whip me."
"I endured on that ship until the trial began before I escaped."
Lu Zheng didn't say anything more.
Ordinary people who were forcibly teleported were still on the Weird Island, and after surviving for almost 10 days, they were able to enter the trial.
This kind of luck is either ridiculously good or ridiculously bad.
Just as he was about to ask another question, a cracking sound came from right in the center.
The shell of the giant egg cracked.
A vertical slit extends downwards from the top, then the eggshell rolls up to both sides, and black gas surges out from inside.
The gas did not disperse upon landing, but instead spread in all directions, eventually converging in a human shape directly in front of the eggshell.
It is about 1.7 meters tall, completely black, with long limbs, and no gender characteristics, except for its terrifying facial features.
It twisted its neck, then raised its right arm and casually waved it at the two Ghost Brat on either side.
The two Ghost Brat immediately moved.
They climbed up the nest wall and used their bony spikes to sever the cocoons of two of the trapped individuals.
He then dragged the two unconscious black trial participants to the ground and pushed them towards the ghost.
The two were awakened by the sharp pain of falling to the ground, and the first thing they saw when they opened their eyes was the face of the ghost.
No!! No!!
The one on the left struggled desperately, trying to crawl backward by digging its hands into the ground, but its body was pinned to the spot by the Ghost Brat's bone spikes.
"Help me! Help me! Please, someone please help me!!!"
The one on the right was crying incoherently, kicking his legs wildly in front of him.
But the ghost just kept its head down and looked at them.
It bent down, stretched out its right arm, and extended its five fingers into the air, each finger transforming into a tentacle half a meter long.
The limbs split open at the ends, revealing sucker-like mouthparts inside.
It simultaneously inserted all five tentacles into the heart of the first person...
Throat...
Eyes...
Belly button...
Twist it inwards.
In less than three seconds, all that remained on the ground was a dried-up skin.
The second man screamed even louder than the first, but he died much faster.
The ghost retracted its five tentacles, combining them into a thick fleshy pillar, which it thrust directly into its open mouth and pierced through the end of its spine.
His soul was ripped from his body and carried back into the ghost's body by its tentacles.
Then the corpse fell to the ground, its eyeballs rolled back, and there was no light left in the depths of its pupils.
"Waaaaah..."
Although Zhang Yan was scared, she dared not make a sound and had to force herself to hold it in.
"Hurry... hurry up!"
Lu Zheng desperately tore at the cocoon membrane, veins bulging on his forehead, but the black membrane only tightened with each tear.
The ghost turned around, its eerie green gaze sweeping over the remaining trapped individuals.
Without pausing or hesitating, the arrow finally landed on Zhang Yan.
It nodded to the two Ghost Brat beside it.
The two Ghost Brat launched themselves into the air simultaneously, their four sharp claws reaching for Zhang Yan from different directions.
"Aaaaaaah!!!"
Zhang Yan finally managed to scream out the choked scream.
Then two clumps of black, minced flesh exploded in front of her.
It wasn't an explosion; it was trampled.
A dark shadow descended from the sky, moving so fast that Lu Zheng's eyes couldn't keep up with its trajectory.
The two Ghost Brat under Jiangnan's feet had been trampled to pieces.
Black, sticky liquid burst open, splattering all over Zhang Yan's head and face. She froze on the spot, her mouth still open, but her screams had stopped.
Jiangnan didn't look back at anyone.
"Moment..."
He snapped his fingers with his right hand, "That is eternity."
Everything around them was stripped of its color, and the Ghost Brat were frozen in various attack and defense postures.
The ghost stood among the eggshell fragments, its right arm raised, before it could react.
Jiangnan raises both arms horizontally, thumbs tucked inwards, index fingers extended.
The long-awaited starting stance, eighteen years of silence, were all for the purpose of ensuring that every bullet would be driven into the enemy's forehead.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Seven shots in quick succession.
They all stopped an inch in front of the remaining seven Ghost Brat's foreheads, waiting for time to resume its flow.
After dealing with the henchmen, Jiangnan used the momentum of his charge to thrust his spear like a dragon, aiming straight for the ghostly head of the third stage in the very center!
Jiangnan didn't waste any bullets.
The Ghost Brat is insignificant, but the third-stage ghost is different.
This thing has a domain, and a domain means uncertainties; the straight trajectory of a bullet is not reliable enough.
However...
The tip of the gun pierced through.
But there was absolutely no tactile sensation!
Jiangnan's pupils contracted slightly; what he passed through was not a physical entity, but Shadow.
He immediately looked down and carefully examined his surroundings.
It was then discovered that even in the still, black-and-white world, the ground beneath the ghost's feet...
A dark shadow still writhed, and within that shadow lay a still, ghostly figure.
That's... territory!
But the problem is...
The reflection is not in the same position as the main body, the distance between them is far, and the direction is clearly towards the Shadow of Jiangnan.
"I see."
"It's not just about moving through Shadow; it's about combining both forms."
"Ghost Infant have no physical form, but Ghost Brat have a physical form."
"In its third phase, it can both Intangibility to evade physical attacks and materialize to deliver fatal damage, and it can also teleport instantly between any Shadow."
"Its domain is to simultaneously switch between virtual and real worlds and move through space."
He switched the Godslayer Spear from his right hand to his left.
The newly reattached arm was not yet strong enough, and the tactile deviation from the previous shot led him to this conclusion.
"That way you won't just be a bug jumping around in the shadows anymore."
"You must maintain your physical form at the instant you switch between reality and illusion to deal damage."
"And in that instant..."
He gripped the gun barrel tightly with his left hand, and slowly raised his right hand in front of him, extending his index finger.
"That's your death day."
Time began to flow again.
The ghost hovered in mid-air, and the instant time resumed, it pounced on Jiangnan, ready to devour Jiangnan soul at point-blank range.
At the same time, all five of its tentacles spread out, each one locking onto a vital spot on Jiangnan's body!
"Careful!!!"
Lu Zheng tore open the first gap in the cocoon membrane, flipped himself off the nest wall, and pounced towards the south of the Jiangnan River.
But the ghost had already pressed down on Jiangnan, the distance between the two less than half an arm's length.
Jiangnan did not dodge, letting the ghosts rush towards him.
He's waiting.
The ghostly attack switched from Intangibility to being solid.
It cannot cause any damage in its Intangibility state; it must be a solid entity within 0.1 seconds of touching the hem of his clothing.
That 0.1 second is its Achilles' heel.
"Roar!!!"
The ghostly five tentacles touched the hem of Jiangnan's clothes, preparing to pierce his chest cavity.
In that instant, it transformed from a formless shadow into a flesh-and-blood black body.
Jiangnan's lips twitched.
His right hand sprang up from his side, and Zero Frame Start grabbed the ghost's neck.
Then it was pulled down from mid-air and slammed into the black crystal layer beneath its feet.
The phantom lay on its back in the pile of shattered crystals, its five tentacles thrashing frantically, trying to Intangibility again and escape back into the Shadow.
But it can't.
Jiangnan grabbed its neck,
Although it wasn't fully released, this aftershock was enough to temporarily disable its ability to switch between reality and illusion.
"How did we manage to run into each other?"
Lu Zheng knelt on the ground, his lunge having missed its mark. "Your gun clearly went right through!"
But Jiangnan had no intention of answering him; instead, he focused on dealing with the enemy before him.
The ghost let out a shriek, the first time it had shown any emotional fluctuation since being captured.
Its five tentacles simultaneously wrapped around Jiangnan's arm, attempting to forcefully insert themselves into his wrist vein.
Jiangnan glanced down at it, her eyes devoid of any emotion.
Is that all you have?
He stepped back from the ghost's chest.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the ghost sprang up, transforming into a black shadow and disappearing into the shadows beneath its feet!
But its target is not Jiangnan, but...
Using the Ghost Realm, he instantly teleported to the shadowy Shadow at Zhang Yan's feet, the furthest point on the nest wall!
It reformed from behind her, its five-fingered tentacles piercing directly at the back of her neck.
Zhang Yan didn't even have time to scream; she only felt a chill on the back of her neck.
Jiangnan stomped his right foot heavily on the ground.
"Boom!"
Centered on his feet, a shockwave spread outward in a ring, shattering the black crystalline layer on the ground.
"With the Emperor's might, we will pacify the eight wastelands!"
The True Dragon Chain shot out from beneath the shattered crystal layer he had stepped on.
It's not a physical object, but a chain that exists between the real and the unreal!
The moment the ghostly, Intangibility form touched the chains, it was dragged directly out of the shadows.
The True Dragon Chain passed through the center of his chest and then back through his back, locking him in place.
The ghost tried to escape by turning into a shadow, its body switching into a spirit form three times, but no matter how many times it switched, it could not escape.
Because the chains bind not the body, but the soul.
For ghosts, this is a prison without a key.
Jiangnan stepped forward, his dark eyes looking down at the struggling ghost.
Instead of raising the Godslayer Spear, he raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers together, and placed them on the Watcher Eye in the center of his forehead.
"The Extinction Tribulation Light."
He didn't shout it out; his lips just moved slightly.
The red light shot out from the fingertip and pierced right through the center of the ghost's forehead!
Follow its spine downwards, then out through its tailbone, and cut it completely in half.
The ghost's entire body structure was destroyed, all vital signs were gone, and it fell to the left and right, completely dead.