18: Chapter 18 A Ghostly Concerto
Chapter Eighteen: The Phantom Concerto
Fear is something more capable of dismantling one's fighting spirit than any poison.
The bizarre way Zhang Wei collapsed was like a heavy hammer smashing ruthlessly into Zhang Meng's heart, shattering all his previous arrogance and bluster into pieces.
He looked around in panic; in his eyes, the dim alleyway seemed to have transformed into a demon's den fraught with peril.
The shadows in the corners, the swaying trash cans, and even the plastic bags blown by the wind all seemed like monsters hiding, waiting to devour someone.
"Who?! Who's there?! Get the hell out here!"
He roared with hollow bravado, his voice carrying a hint of a tremble due to fear.
Responding to him was only his own echo and... Lin Qingzhi's approaching footsteps, steady as a death knell.
"No need to look."
Lin Qingzhi's voice was cold and devoid of any human warmth. "Your opponent is I."
With every step she took forward, the aura around her grew a degree colder.
That terrifying pressure originating from the Empress's soul crushed toward Zhang Meng like a physical tide.
Zhang Meng felt as if he were being stared down by a hibernating dragon; even breathing became difficult.
The meager, chaotic blood energy within him was like a firefly encountering a bright moon before Lin Qingzhi's pure, abyss-like Emperor's Qi, suppressed to the point where it could barely circulate.
"You... who exactly are you?!" Zhang Meng's voice already carried a sob.
He finally realized that the person he had provoked was not some ordinary schoolgirl at all, but a terrifying existence he completely failed to comprehend!
"The one who takes your life."
Lin Qingzhi's answer was concise and overbearing.
Immense fear instead provoked Zhang Meng's final ferocity.
"I'll take you down with me!"
He let out a roar, mobilizing all the blood energy in his body.
His muscles could be seen expanding by a full circle with the naked eye, an unnatural flush surfaced on his skin, and his eyes became bloodshot.
He stomped his foot violently, and the concrete ground beneath him actually cracked with fine fissures from the impact!
Like a maddened bull, he roared and charged toward Lin Qingzhi!
This was the fighting style of low-level Awakened Ones: simple, crude, pouring all energy into strength and speed.
His fist, as large as a casserole, carried a whistling gale as it smashed ruthlessly toward Lin Qingzhi's seemingly delicate body. The power of this punch was enough to blast a large hole in a brick wall!
Facing this violent strike, Lin Qingzhi's gaze remained as calm as still water.
In her eyes, Zhang Meng's movements were full of openings.
Wide and sweeping, with no technique to speak of, he was ten thousand times more clumsy than the guards at her palace gates in her past life.
But her current body was, after all, still too weak.
With her current cultivation, even if she could take this punch head-on, she would inevitably suffer significant internal injuries.
Therefore, she chose the most economical and effective method—evasion.
The moment Zhang Meng's fist wind was about to hit her, her body was like a weightless willow catkin, drifting half a step to the left.
That half-step was calculated to perfection, just barely letting the violent fist pass her by.
Boom!
Zhang Meng's punch missed and smashed heavily into the alley wall, bricks and stones flying everywhere, leaving a terrifying fist print.
Failing to hit, he immediately turned and threw a heavy, powerful sweep kick toward Lin Qingzhi's lower body.
Lin Qingzhi tapped her toes lightly, her body like an elegant butterfly floating backward, easily avoiding it again.
For a moment, a dance of 'Beauty and the Beast' played out in the alley.
Zhang Meng's attacks were wild and fierce, each strike heavy and powerful, stirring up gusts of foul wind.
Lin Qingzhi, meanwhile, was like a butterfly weaving through trees, strolling leisurely through the storm of attacks; every evasion was just right, not wasting a single shred of energy.
She was like a top-tier matador, toying with a bull whose fate was already sealed.
Although on the surface it looked like Zhang Meng was on the offensive and Lin Qingzhi was passively dodging, I could see clearly that every one of Zhang Meng's attacks was consuming his already meager physical strength and blood energy.
Lin Qingzhi, on the other hand, was waiting—waiting for the perfect moment to counterattack.
And I, as the second musician in this concerto, naturally couldn't stay idle.
My task was to create that 'perfect moment' for her.
I vibrated my wings, turning into a ghost difficult to track, and began my performance.
When Zhang Meng threw a punch, his old strength exhausted and his new strength not yet gathered, I would fly like lightning before his eyes, using the breeze from my wings to precisely brush past his eyelashes.
He would subconsciously blink; that 0.1-second lapse in focus was enough for Lin Qingzhi to calmly adjust her stance.
When he threw a sweep kick and his center of gravity became unstable, I would silently land on his ear, using my sharp mouthparts to lightly—without injecting toxin—prick his auricle.
That sudden prickling pain and itch would cause his body to stiffen, instantly disrupting the rhythm of his attack.
I was like a top-tier battlefield ghost, a most annoying master of harassment.
Every one of my strikes was perfectly timed.
I didn't seek to wound the enemy, only to disturb him.
I attacked his eyes to obstruct his vision.
I attacked his nostrils to make his breathing labored.
I attacked the hairs on the back of his neck, making them stand on end and making him think there was a ghost behind him.
"Argh! What is that?! Get away!"
Zhang Meng was about to be driven insane by me.
He felt as if he were fighting two phantoms.
One was in front, with movements so elusive he couldn't even touch the corner of her clothes.
The other was hidden in the shadows, formless and invisible, yet always able to give him a jab at the most critical moment, making him incredibly disgusted yet helpless.
His mental state completely collapsed.
His attacks became increasingly messy and disorganized, with more and more openings.
A flash of approval passed through Lin Qingzhi's cold eyes.
She had clearly noticed my 'assists' as well.
Between us, a wordless, seamless understanding had formed.
When I harassed from the left, she would launch a probing attack from the right.
When I attacked his lower body and made him look down, she would noiselessly close in on his upper body.
Our cooperation was like an exquisite concerto, driving Zhang Meng, the sole audience member, step by step into the abyss of madness and despair.
Finally, after being distracted by my harassment once more and throwing a wild punch, Zhang Meng revealed a fatal opening.
Lin Qingzhi seized the opportunity!
Her figure closed in on Zhang Meng's chest like a ghost, and her right hand, which had been hidden in her sleeve holding the Black Dagger, finally moved!
However, right at that moment, a sudden change occurred!
A flash of ferocity and madness suddenly crossed the face of the cornered Zhang Meng.
"Go to hell! You bitch!"
He actually didn't dodge, allowing Lin Qingzhi's attack to come while simultaneously pulling a rusty dagger shimmering with an eerie green light from his chest, stabbing it ruthlessly toward Lin Qingzhi's heart in a suicidal gesture!
That dagger was imbued with a filthy and evil energy; it was clearly no ordinary item!
This was a poisoned, cursed weapon!
He actually still had such a trump card hidden!
Lin Qingzhi's pupils constricted suddenly!