Gu Zhe still had the composure to sneer.
"Perhaps if you really were allowed to grow unhindered, you might someday become a World Master, a Master of Heaven and Earth. You might even grasp some miraculous power to gather faith, but..."
Gu Zhe's body in the real world turned toward the Ghost Consciousness Tentacle still roaring savagely from within the little girl.
"Kekeke! Brat! Ant! And all of you! You refused to accept your fate! You dared resist the great King of the World, Du Xiao! Once all of me comes through, once my entire body arrives, once I completely possess this flesh, just you wait! Just you wait! I will teach your world the meaning of fear..."
Gu Zhe's voice turned icy.
"King of the World?"
"But... I've found you!"
"Kekeke! What are you talking about? What do you mean, found me? I'm right here! The great Du Xiao has never hidden! Just you wait..."
Gu Zhe wasted no more words on the ghost roaring like a lunatic. Compared to humans, these ghosts all had some measure of brutality and madness in their nature.
Gu Zhe leisurely clasped his hands behind his back.
He looked toward the Middle-Aged Couple and Ming Xuan.
"Everyone, don't worry. I've found him!"
Then, under the three people's puzzled yet expectant gazes,
he looked at the ghost once more.
"I really have found you!"
At the same time,
within that world the size of a small town,
Mysterious Paper Figures appeared out of thin air, one after another. Each stood around six feet tall, with stiff-looking fronts, wafer-thin profiles, and equally thin weapons in their hands.
There were dozens of them. Most materialized atop the little hill, surrounding the ghost.
They arrived without a sound, and without pausing or hesitating, they lunged straight at the ghost roaring skyward.
Their bodies were thin and weightless, more ghostlike than the ghosts within the town.
Their bodies bent and twisted as they swiftly crossed the already short distance.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...
White streaks flashed through the air.
Before the roaring ghost could recover from his bewilderment, the blades had already struck.
However,
this time,
they did not simply dismember and kill their enemy as they had the Vengeful Ghosts in the Netherworld.
This ghost was clearly much stronger.
The blindingly swift blades hacked at the ghost's pitch-black body and head, yet they rang out like steel striking steel. They left only thin black cuts, from which wisps of black mist seeped.
The sudden assault had failed to inflict any serious wounds.
The ghost's body, over six feet tall, shuddered violently, throwing back the overlapping waves of blades while fresh cuts appeared across his flesh. The stench of black blood spread, foul enough to poison an ordinary person and make them nauseous. Occasional drops of black blood fell, hissing against the ground as though eating into it.
Whenever traces of black blood splashed onto the Mysterious Paper Figures, strange black spots appeared on their bodies. Even their blades, already transformed into a sharp material, corroded as though drops of sulfuric acid had fallen onto metal.
Fortunately, the Mysterious Paper Figures had none of the weaknesses of normal flesh-and-blood humans. The stench did not affect them, nor did they feel any fear. The slight changes to their bodies and weapons did nothing to diminish their will to fight.
After being thrown back, they did not pause or change tactics. Expressionless, they continued slashing at him.
Confusion and astonishment appeared on the ghost's pointed head, along with rage and agitation. His bright red nose grew even more vivid.
His pitch-black body quivered and trembled.
His sharp-toothed mouth suddenly opened, countless fangs lining it, and he spat out a cloud of black mist.
It engulfed two Paper Figures closing in on him.
Before their eyes, the engulfed Paper Figures began to blacken. Dark ice crystals formed on them, and their bodies seemed to grow brittle. As though glued in place, the two figures slowed to a crawl.
"Roar!!"
The ghost lunged forward, stretched out his long arms, and tore the two Mysterious Paper Figures in half.
The Mysterious Paper Figures were resistant to ordinary fire and water, with tough, agile bodies. But this ghost's true body possessed supernatural qualities too: flesh as hard as steel and iron, and icy, corrosive ghostly aura.
Even as he tore the two Paper Figures apart,
fresh cuts appeared across his back and arms.
After all, Gu Zhe's other Paper Figures thought only of carrying out their Supreme Master's will. Even if every companion died, it would not affect them in the slightest. They would keep doing what they were meant to do, without the negative emotions of intelligent flesh-and-blood creatures.
This trait sometimes made the Mysterious Paper Figures seem rigid and stubborn, easy to lure into old traps. Yet it also revealed their fearless resolve to fight to the death.
"Roar! Who are you? Who are you all? What are you? How did you appear here? Ah! Die! Die!!"
The ghost Du Xiao swept his arm violently, knocking several enemies away. Then he lunged in one direction, seized a Paper Figure, and snapped shut the horrifying maw on his long, pointed head, biting the figure's head to pieces.
"Ah..."
More cuts appeared across his body and back.
"Roar!!" "Roar! Roar!!"
He spat out several more mouthfuls of black mist.
His frenzied body tore several more enemies apart.
But the Mysterious Paper Figures were light as swallows, uncannily swift, and untouched by fear. Even as he killed them, they kept attacking him. Their weapons, made real through ritual transmutation, were exceptionally sharp as well. Though his body seemed forged from steel, countless cuts opened across it, black mist spreading and black blood dripping.
"You... just who are you...? How dare you invade my Du Xiao World? How dare you offend me?"
Black mist surged within his body.
Once again, he blasted away those expressionless enemies who had unnerved even the Ghost Capital.
His towering body tilted its head back and roared.
"Roar!!"
"I am Du Xiao, the World Master! I rule this world, revered by heaven and earth!"
As that roar rang out,
something seemed to change within the town-sized world.
Some kind of energy arose from the ground and poured into his body, causing him to grow from over six feet tall to nearly ten feet. The cuts across his body seemed to contract and heal.
Beyond the hill, the Hunched Little Ghosts, already roaring as they rushed over in response to the disturbance, grew from roughly three feet tall to around four feet. Their eyes turned bloodred.
Their speed seemed to increase a little as well, and they surged toward the hill with even greater frenzy.
A bone-eroding chilling wind rose between heaven and earth. Any being of soul or flesh would likely have felt as though it were freezing to death.
"Kekekeke! I told you, I am the World Master! You things are courting death! Courting death..."
The Paper Figures seemed oblivious to the change.
They continued twisting their bodies with the wind, swaying and bending as they moved just as elusively as before.
His roaring did not affect them in the slightest. Nor did they care that this so-called World Master had grown stronger. They carried on exactly as before.
"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
"Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!"
Some of the Paper Figures seemed to receive an order and moved to intercept the charging little ghosts.
"Kekeke! Fine! You have no idea what death means! No idea! Then fight! Then die for me!!"
Boom!!
An even larger cloud of black mist spewed forth.
His massive body crushed rocks underfoot and tore enemies apart. On his now tougher flesh, the cuts inflicted by the Mysterious Paper Figures grew smaller and shallower.
In the real world,
Gu Zhe sensed everything happening.
He frowned slightly.
"He's stronger than I expected. The World Master? Haha, so there is some basis to it after all. There really are many secrets in this world."
At those words,
the Ghost Consciousness Tentacle within the little girl, which had almost fallen silent as though withdrawing, suddenly began shouting again.
"What? You're behind this? Those things are your servants? Fine! Fine, you ant! Once I kill them all, I'll devour you alive!"
"How dare you! What audacity! Mortal, you don't know your place! You don't know your place! Hehehe! Hehehe! You dared enter my domain! You dared enter my sanctum! Courting death! Courting death..."
Gu Zhe remained calm.
"I told you, I've found you!"
"Kekeke! Interesting! Interesting! You found me! You found me! You dared find the great Du Xiao! You dared come seeking death! Once my children and I tear them apart, we'll continue! We'll continue..."
The voice slowly faded.
He was about to devote his entire consciousness to the battle within that secret realm.
Hearing this exchange,
the other three were both excited and worried.
They were excited because this young man really did possess mysterious abilities. What worried them was that the ghost did not seem particularly concerned.
And Gu Zhe had just said that the enemy was stronger than he had expected.
"Master Gu, is everything all right? Can you... can you defeat him? If you can't, simply driving him out would be fine."
"Yes, a ghost's world sounds extraordinary just thinking about it. Killing him there must be difficult, especially since he claims to be the World Master."
Gu Zhe found that amusing.
"What World Master? He's merely the master of a patch of land a few kilometers across."
Ming Xuan gritted her teeth.
She looked anxiously at Gu Zhe.
"Mr. Gu, will it be dangerous? Maybe... maybe we should really do as my second uncle and aunt suggested and drive him out. After all, he's a real ghost. Can we humans really defeat them?"
"Ah, Mom, Dad, Sis, mister, I feel like he's left..."
Gu Zhe glanced at the little girl.
"This isn't some wandering ghost possessing her. A ghost like this has set his sights on her spirit child physique and her soul. Either we kill him, or he admits defeat and withdraws of his own accord. But from the looks of things, he won't willingly retreat now."
"Then!!"
"What do we do? Xiao Fei..."
Ming Xuan's face was full of worry, and Ming Xiao Fei grew frightened again.
"What do we do? Kill him, of course!"
"It just looks like this will be a tough fight!"