Jiang Yu Gave It a Zero-And It Already Lost Its Cool?

The ghostly laughter that suddenly came from behind startled Stelle.

Little Grey Hair shuddered, her muscles tensing as she instinctively stood at attention.

A baby who had been born less than a month ago really couldn't handle this sort of thing.

Stelle's body remained rigid, panic in her eyes as she gripped the Bat tightly.

Jiang Yu, who was walking ahead of Stelle, felt the same thing. The laughter and that cold breeze were right behind him, as though someone had blown against the back of his neck.

A chill shot up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, then washed back down like ice water.

Jiang Yu shuddered, his hair standing on end.

For a moment, he panicked, but he quickly calmed down.

As his mind relaxed, the fists Jiang Yu had clenched in fright gradually loosened.

"Phew..."

Jiang Yu raised a hand and patted his chest, the panic slowly fading from his eyes. He had almost unleashed his ultimate just now.

For a Xianzhou native, this approach really was rather frightening. After all, they had grown up hearing about such things.

Even now, Jiang Yu still felt a little creeped out.

Stelle was much more nervous than Jiang Yu. Just as he turned back to check on her, she spun around and swung the Bat-hitting nothing.

There was nothing behind them. Out of the corners of their eyes, they could see only the maze's high walls stretching into the distance, until its narrow paths and branching passages disappeared into the darkness.

But the eerie absence of anything was even more unsettling. After all, what they had just felt had been so real.

Stelle had even felt someone place a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around and looked to Jiang Yu for help. "Jiang Yu, did you feel that?"

Jiang Yu nodded. "Yeah, but there's nothing to be scared of. If it can touch you, that means you can touch it too!"

As he spoke, Jiang Yu raised a hand and mimed swinging a bat. "So just beat it up."

"But I can't see anything now... And I didn't feel like I hit anything just now, either."

"Then there's even less to worry about! It can't even touch you. The most it can do is scare you like this." Jiang Yu held his head high, so confident that people instinctively felt he had a point.

Seeing how confident Jiang Yu was, and how much sense every word made, Stelle felt as though she had achieved enlightenment!

Her expression gradually changed. Fear and panic faded from her face, and her golden eyes shone with confidence!

"I get it!"

"Good!" Jiang Yu nodded in satisfaction.

"So, how exactly do you want to beat me up?" Stelle's voice suddenly turned cold.

Before Jiang Yu's eyes, the excited Stelle's expression suddenly changed. She broke into a twisted smile, her golden eyes dimming as she stared at him with malice.

Watching Stelle's sudden transformation, Jiang Yu's expression remained unchanged. He regarded her calmly, then a few seconds later, a look of realization crossed his face.

"Oh. So that's the kind of illusion this is."

Jiang Yu raised his hand and instantly flicked two fingers against Stelle's head. A whirlwind spread outward from him!

The next instant, the eerie Stelle before him vanished, as though the whirlwind had blown away a layer of fog.

Then Jiang Yu looked around at the largely unchanged surroundings before glancing at the dazed Stelle behind him.

"Just as I thought. A seamless insertion. Was that gust of wind the trigger for this intense interference?" Jiang Yu asked.

"You fucking... If you already know, why the hell are you asking?!" The Horrific Maze swore, then abruptly stopped itself. It shouted again, "Are you a damn ghost yourself?! Can't you be scared for once? That was a possession!"

Jiang Yu folded his arms and said flatly, "I'm a Xianzhou native."

"..." The Horrific Maze fell silent for a moment. "Xianzhou, my ass! Being a Xianzhou native doesn't mean you're not afraid of ghosts!"

"Oh, you mean that." Jiang Yu blinked and spread his hands. "Your initial buildup was pretty good, but the twist afterward was too abrupt. I think you should add some more buildup and steer things along in between.

"Otherwise, with what you've got now, even a Xianzhou kid would kick away their baby bottle and teach you how to scare people.

"With all due respect, this was the part best suited to your ability to interfere with minds and create illusions, and your execution scored-zero."

Jiang Yu raised a hand and made a pinching gesture.

Although he hadn't uttered a single swear word, his body language and seemingly professional critique had torn the Horrific Maze to shreds.

"You..."

The Horrific Maze angrily spat out the word "you," then got stuck, unable to say anything else for a long while.

At last, its state of mind changed completely-it cracked.

"Waaaaah! Aaaaaah!"

The Horrific Maze broke down sobbing.

"Why does Herta Space Station have someone as horrible as you?! Waaaaah!"

The Horrific Maze's sudden breakdown didn't make Jiang Yu feel guilty in the slightest. In fact, it almost made him laugh.

So Jiang Yu delivered the finishing blow.

"What? You've cracked already?"

In just over thirty minutes, with a few words thrown in, the Horrific Maze's dignity, pride, and reason for existing had been shattered.

It cried even more inconsolably.

Then the entire maze began to tremble, gradually turning translucent and disappearing. The surroundings around Jiang Yu slowly reverted to the space station's original appearance.

With the Horrific Maze's complete breakdown, the maze it had created could no longer hold together.

Once he realized this, Jiang Yu casually set down the Imaginary Overflow Interference Field, which had occupied his hand but ultimately gone unused, and went over to snap Stelle out of her daze.

Jiang Yu patted Stelle on the back.

"Ah!"

Stelle jolted and screamed, then instinctively began swinging the Bat, battering empty air for quite a while.

Once she came to her senses, Stelle froze for a moment, then looked warily at Jiang Yu beside her.

"Are you human or a ghost?"

Jiang Yu looked at Stelle, holding her gaze for two seconds.

"Human."

Sensing Jiang Yu's speechlessness, Stelle raised a hand and scratched her head in embarrassment. "I just saw you get possessed..."

"Yeah, I know. I saw the same kind of illusion." Jiang Yu nodded.

Stelle looked at the collapsing maze around them, thoroughly confused.

Why was the maze disappearing as soon as she woke up?

"Have we already gotten within five hundred meters?"

"No."

"Then what's going on now...?"

"I said its scare tactics were worse than a Xianzhou kid's, and it cracked."

"Huh?"

"But it's the truth. The ghost stories Xianzhou kids grow up hearing are scarier than the illusions it created."

Jiang Yu planted both hands on his hips, looking proud.

"Huh?" Stelle blinked blankly twice. "Is that something to be proud of? And wait, Xianzhou kids actually have to listen to ghost stories?"

Stelle trusted Jiang Yu completely.

So... one had the nerve to say it, and the other was willing to believe it.

Just then, a burst of loud sobbing approached from the distance. A pale cyan cube-the Horrific Maze's true form-shot past them like a little brat whose entire worldview had been beaten to pieces.