Chen Ge hadn't deliberately lowered his voice, so everyone around him heard what he had just said. Their reactions, however, varied widely.
"Above Red-clothed? Inseparable, bound by shadow and form?"
When those words reached the headless female ghost, she finally let out a breath of relief. Exhaustion surged into her body like a tide. Covered in wounds, she collapsed behind Chen Ge, her red outer garment turning noticeably more translucent.
Zhang Ju and Zhu Long, who were locked in combat with the blindfolded man, also heard Chen Ge's voice. The two merely exchanged a wry glance and paid no mind to his words.
Ying Hong, who was standing guard beside the old principal, rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, "Again? If you're going to lie, at least have some sense of proportion. Half-truths are what people actually believe—exaggerating this much? How are you going to back it up later?"
"Is it impossible for something above Red-clothed to exist?" The old principal had an inexplicable trust in Chen Ge, perhaps because he had met Chen Ge's parents and knew of certain hidden truths.
"The Painter, Chang Wenyu, and the man who came through from the blood city—the reason the three of them have been fighting over the door is because they want to use that self-moving door to transcend into something above Red-clothed. Even the three of them haven't taken that step yet. Do you really think anyone will believe what Chen Ge says?" Ying Hong looked at him with the exasperation of someone watching a promising student waste his potential. "This clumsy lie is way too easy to see through."
"Is that so?"
Neither the blindfolded man nor Lin Sisi, who had dissolved into gray mist, paid any attention to Chen Ge's words. Their devotion to the Painter had reached the level of blind obedience—if the Painter deemed Chen Ge unremarkable, then unremarkable he was.
"Playing mad, stalling for time—is this all you have left?" The figure of Chen Ge appeared in the blindfolded man's right eye. The black cloth covering his eyes vanished. "Let me take a look at how you'll look when you die."
A Red-clothed ghost had to pay a price when using its special abilities. The stronger the ability, the greater the cost. That was one of the reasons the blindfolded man had initially refrained from using his power on Chen Ge.
If the other party harbored a top-tier Red-clothed ghost, his ability might not work at all, wasting one use.
If the other party had no Red-clothed ghost at all, then using a special ability to kill an ordinary human would be an even greater waste.
The figure of Chen Ge in the blindfolded man's left eye slowly began to change. His body didn't age—instead, wound after wound appeared across it.
"Death by misfortune? Cut down before old age? You've entangled yourself too deeply with vengeful spirits—this kind of death is only natural…" The wounds on Chen Ge's body in the blindfolded man's vision kept multiplying. The sea of blood in his left eye gradually grew calmer, the surface seemingly dropping.
The blindfolded man's ability showed him the moment of his target's death in his right eye, but doing so consumed the sea of blood accumulated in his left eye.
"Covered in wounds, haunted by evil spirits, cursed endlessly—you're a living human, so why won't you just die?"
The sea of blood in his left eye plummeted. Even an ordinary Red-clothed ghost should have been able to make out a rough picture by now, yet he simply could not see Chen Ge's death.
Zhu Long and Zhang Ju clearly felt the pressure ease. The blindfolded man seemed to be restrained by something, his strength declining steadily.
Neither of them was about to let such an opportunity pass. They struck with everything they had, and for the first time, the blindfolded man sustained a wound.
He didn't care about the physical pain. What he cared about were his eyes.
The blood-sea surface in his left eye kept dropping, and in his right eye, Chen Ge's figure grew ever clearer. He was covered in wounds, beset by curses and torment, clinging to life by a single breath—but he simply refused to die.
"Impossible!"
A suction force erupted from his left eye, as if trying to pull his own body into it. A piercing pain shot from his right eye—a pain that struck directly at the soul, enough to drive anyone mad.
"Why won't you you just die?!"
Just as the sea of blood in the blindfolded man's left eye was about to dry up completely, the figure of Chen Ge in his right eye finally changed once more.
The wound-covered Chen Ge looked like an emotionless doll as he slowly raised his head. Rising along with his head was his shadow.
The shadow screamed and wailed, then dissolved into the sea of blood. A new shadow appeared behind Chen Ge.
Red garments as crimson as blood. Pale arms draped gently around his shoulders. Black hair cascading down like a waterfall, revealing a sliver of a face so beautiful it was suffocating.
Vermillion lips slowly parted. The woman seemed to be whispering something in Chen Ge's ear.
Her voice grew clearer and clearer. The sea of blood in the blindfolded man's left eye began to dry up entirely. The last drop of blood vanished, yet the suction force did not weaken—it continued to wring blood from the blindfolded man's own body.
"What is that?!"
*Snap!*