"Bzzz—"

Everything seemed to freeze for an instant.

Xiao Gui'an's appearance at this moment was truly too unexpected.

All of his D-level ghost's Ghost Power surged forth, completely poured into that single sentence.

Like mental control, it transformed into countless threads sweeping toward the ghostly old woman.

Briefly halting her thoughts and movements.

Xiao Gui'an didn't ask for much.

Just buying a moment of the ghostly old woman's stunned hesitation would buy time for Xu Zisheng.

Xu Zisheng naturally didn't miss this opportunity Xiao Gui'an fought for him, tearing off the blood-red paper dolls on his feet, then rapidly retreating.

Xu Zisheng reached Xiao Gui'an's side in just a few steps.

Xiao Gui'an subtly glanced at him a few times; he was injured in several places, but as long as nothing major was wrong, it was fine.

But looking at the earlier situation, was Xu Zisheng planning to unleash some ultimate move or something, and got interrupted by him?

Xu Zisheng lifted his gaze to look; the suddenly appeared ghost was tightly clutching that rusty axe.

It looked foolish and stupid, ugly and unattractive, yet somewhat obedient.

His already disfigured face was even more deeply scarred from forcibly breaking through the blood-red threads in the hallway, now continuously bleeding.

The black-haired ghost saw the approaching Xu Zisheng, let out a slight growl at him, casually threw the axe directly on the ground, then didn't look at Xu Zisheng again.

As if he only took the axe to chop through those red threads hindering his path.

As for how this ghost got the axe, naturally, he encountered a certain betraying [Gui Yi] downstairs and directly snatched it from his hands.

Xiao Gui'an growled at the ghostly old woman standing on the other side, his voice extremely unpleasant, full of a "come fight if you're not convinced" attitude.

"Roar—"

Good, just like that!—

Pretend they have a grudge!

Generally, in such critical situations, someone who just betrayed wouldn't turn back.

And a ghost with completely different properties appearing now, even holding an axe, would easily lead the other's thoughts toward the so-called betrayer meeting misfortune, making him feel pleased, thinking betrayers inevitably have bad endings.

People's subconscious tends to favor what aligns with their interests, making it hard to connect the ghost with [Gui Yi]; this is general human psychology, and Xiao Gui'an felt he handled it quite well.

But—

Clearly, Xu Zisheng beside him couldn't be considered a normal, ordinary person.

"Neither human nor ghost thing, dare to come before this old woman?" Clearly feeling provoked, the ghostly old woman was stirred to anger and attacked Xiao Gui'an.

After maneuvering for a while, he'd just go up and sacrifice himself!

Bet you didn't expect it, you need to attack this taunting minion first!

Xu Zisheng presumably wouldn't care about a suddenly appearing ghost and would naturally make a quick escape.

If he could escape later, he'd change back to the [Gui Yi] student identity and make a brief appearance in the second round.

Xu Zisheng probably wouldn't care about a betrayer like him; with some behind-the-scenes manipulation, he could die instantly.

In this ghostified form, forget Xu Zisheng who only spent a little time with him recognizing him.

Even Xiao Gui'an himself, who personally designed the face, wouldn't recognize this as another state of [Gui Yi] if not told.

Xiao Gui'an pushed off with his toes, his entire body moving extremely lightly as he charged toward the ghostly old woman.

He could feel his ghostified body filled with power, countless times stronger than when he was an ordinary human.

With no intention of surviving from the start, Xiao Gui'an adopted a method of harming the enemy eight hundred while losing one thousand himself, just to attract more firepower onto him.

Soon, there wasn't a single intact place on his body.

Even bones were exposed outside flesh and blood, but he still seemed to feel no pain, only able to growl lowly.

"None of you think of escaping!" The ghostly old woman seemed to see through his plan.

She directly bit her finger, her bleeding fingertip lightly swiping over the paper cutouts.

Those paper dolls instantly doubled in size.

"Great! Let's scram!" Seeing a disruptor had arrived, the D-level ghost shouted, clearly happy about this chance to benefit, "Some guy from who knows where, going to block attacks for us, go, go!"

"After leaving here, I'll help you teach that damned kid a lesson!"

Xu Zisheng was silent for a moment, then gripped the axe in his hand tightly, cursing lowly, "Idiot!"

D-level ghost: ???

It didn't quite understand who this curse was directed at, "Hey, hey, what's with you, kid? Hurry up and go! This chance is rare—"

What it didn't expect was Xu Zisheng advancing instead of retreating, seizing the moment to grab Xiao Gui'an by the collar and throwing the D-level ghost like a shot put.

"Damn it, Xu, what are you doing?!" The D-level ghost screamed, but facing the attacks about to land on it, it had to use full strength to defend, not daring to hold back anymore.

Xu Zisheng had his reasons for doing this; because of the contract's existence, as long as the distance didn't exceed his control range, he could recall the D-level ghost back into the Blood Book anytime.

So, no reason not to use it as bait.

Feeling his collar being grabbed, Xiao Gui'an slightly turned his head and saw Xu Zisheng's dark and icy face.

The other tightly pressed his lips together, his originally handsome and gentle face covered in frost; anyone could see he was in an extremely suppressed state ready to erupt at any moment.

Xiao Gui'an: ???

No way, why haven't you left yet?

I'm a ghost! A suddenly appearing, disrupting ghost, do you still want to save me?

This doesn't make sense?

That rusty, blood-stained axe seemed to double in size in Xu Zisheng's hands, making sharp metallic clashing sounds when chopping the charging red paper dolls.

Xu Zisheng glanced at the ghost beside him; the ghost whose collar he held had bloodshot, vacant eyes that seemed to show a few traces of human-like confusion, but didn't resist much nor use mental control abilities on him.

"Go!"

Xu Zisheng seemed to grow stronger the more he fought; the blood-red paper dolls couldn't stop him at all.

Over there, the ghostly old woman was slightly distracted by the D-level ghost fighting for its life, giving them time to retreat.

"Bye bye, old woman—"

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Gui'an and the others broke through to the fifth floor, and the D-level ghost about to be left behind was instantly recalled by Xu Zisheng back into the Blood Book; before disappearing, it gave a provocative smile at the ghostly old woman.

"Damned brats!—"

The hoarse, unpleasant voice behind them faded into the distance, enough to know how furious the ghostly old woman was.

This series of changes happened too quickly; Xiao Gui'an still hadn't fully processed it when Xu Zisheng changed from grabbing his collar to his wrist, running all the way to the second floor before Xiao Gui'an suddenly snapped out of it.

Wait, this isn't the script he imagined.

What kind of development is this?

It's gone completely off track.

No, no, he needs to salvage the situation.

He fiercely shook off Xu Zisheng's grip on his wrist; to be honest, the other's terrifying strength made Xiao Gui'an suspect his wrist might be crushed.

Xiao Gui'an truly couldn't understand why Xu Zisheng was taking him along downward.

If they don't separate soon, he can't possibly transform back into the [Gui Yi] appearance in front of Xu Zisheng.

"Get lost—" The completely disfigured ghost let out a resisting sound from its throat, its black hair hanging down like withered grass messy, partially covering its features.

Xiao Gui'an watched Xu Zisheng's deep gaze continuously staring at his face, his fingertips slightly curling, completely unable to guess what the other was thinking.

He tentatively planned to immediately make a quick escape but was once again grabbed by the collar and pulled back.

"Who are you?" Xu Zisheng moved closer, meeting Xiao Gui'an's blood-red eyes.

No way? No way? He won't be recognized, right?

This appearance has no similarity to the original [Gui Yi] at all.

Xiao Gui'an subconsciously covered his face, retreating two steps, shaking his head, denying the thought in his heart.

This face is so disfigured, can it still be recognized?!

"It's okay..."

Xu Zisheng gently released him, his expression somewhat complicated, wanting to laugh at his clumsy covering action but unable to.

He knew; he had already realized what was happening.

Xu Zisheng tightly gripped Xiao Gui'an's shoulders, making him look at himself, facing the completely transformed ghost, he said with slight self-blame yet extremely determined, "It's okay, I'll help you, I will definitely help you, Gui Yi, don't give up..."

Xiao Gui'an: Huh? ? ?

No way, you really recognized me!?