# 25
**Chapter 25: Ghost-Face Reversal**
The moment that ghostly face appeared, Zhao Kongcheng felt as if heaven and earth had flipped. A dizziness like nothing he’d ever known surged through him.
He locked his brows, forced his body rigid, and barely kept his footing.
In his eyes the whole world became a spinning kaleidoscope—fragmented, chaotic, impossible to track.
“Damn… it can still use a Forbidden Ruin. I’m screwed…” he muttered. The briefing Wu Xiangnan had given before the mission replayed in his mind:
“… Forbidden Ruin Sequence 176, 【Ghost-Face Reversal】. Within its range it deceives the senses of every being whose realm is equal to or lower than the user’s, flipping spatial concepts.
Inside Ghost-Face Reversal, up and down, left and right, front and back all shift at the Ghost-Face King’s will. Experience and willpower can resist it somewhat, but every attack is crippled.
So, apart from our River-realm captain, no one fights the Ghost-Face King head-on—anyone else is walking into death…”
Disgusting ability… Now, experiencing it firsthand, Zhao Kongcheng finally understood how broken it was.
So the captain carved the Ghost-Face King up while inside this thing?
He’s a monster too.
Zhao Kongcheng sucked in a breath and slowly shut his eyes.
“ROOOAR!!!”
Roars came from every direction; there was no telling where the king was. The ground trembled— it was closing in fast.
From where?
Reality.
On that grotesque ghost-face, Zhao Kongcheng stood eyes-closed like a statue, Straight Blade gripped in both hands, brows knitted.
He never noticed the Ghost-Face King had already slipped behind him.
To his senses, sight, sound, smell, touch were all tumbling inside a giant washer—false data flooding his brain, reality unreadable.
The king’s eyes fixed on the oblivious man; its bloodless face split in a hungry grin.
It crouched, then shot forward like a shell, tearing rain curtains, claws trailing cold arcs straight for Zhao Kongcheng’s neck.
It could already taste the warm blood.
But the instant those claws almost touched—
Zhao Kongcheng’s body twisted as if he had eyes in his back, barely evading!
His Straight Blade swept a long arc through the rain, aiming for the king’s head!
CLANG—!
Sparks flew; the king’s hand clamped the blade, then a kick hurled Zhao Kongcheng away like a sandbag.
Yet shock filled the monster’s eyes.
How had the man sensed the strike?
Zhao Kongcheng crashed down, groaning, yet a grin spread across his face.
“Surprise, asshole.”
Leaning on his blade, he smirked.
“Your Ruin’s nasty. Any other day I’d be dead. Too bad—”
He pointed skyward. “—it’s raining.
You can fool living senses, but not gravity’s rain. Every drop that hits my skin talks to me.
You can twist that touch, make me think rain comes from everywhere—yet I can still reverse-engineer the real directions!
Give me one true vector and the rest is math.”
He hawked and spat blood, cockily raising his Straight Blade.
“Not bragging, but if I had a Ruin you’d’ve died eight hundred times already!”
“ROOOAR!!”
Enraged, the king charged. Eyes still shut, Zhao Kongcheng tracked its rush.
Clash-clash-clash-clash!!
Steel rang ceaselessly. Relying on raw instinct and experience he traded a dozen blows—
But that was the limit.
A rib-shattering strike to the chest sent him flying.
Five seconds passed before he could stand; without the blade absorbing part of the blow, he’d be dead.
“Cough—!” Blood splattered; his face went paper-white.
The king stalked forward through the rain…
Then a voice shouted from behind Zhao Kongcheng!
“Zhao Kongcheng! Zhao Kongcheng!! —ZHAO KONGCHENG!!!”
He froze. That voice… familiar.
Wait, isn’t that—
He opened his mouth, hesitated, then stayed silent, eyes complicated.
…
Outside the 【Borderless Void】.
Lin Qiye stood in the downpour, hair soaked, yelling himself hoarse:
“Zhao Kongcheng! Stop hiding! I know you’re nearby!”
He quieted, listened—only rain.
“Damn bat swore it saw a cloak guy and monster vanish here… was it wrong?”
He scanned around, gaze suddenly locking on three odd signboards ten-odd metres away.
Stepping up, he wiped rain off the nearest board and read aloud:
“‘No Entry Ahead’? When did these pop up? Weird setup…”
Eyes narrowing, memory clicked.
“Didn’t he say his Ruin hides battlefields… called… 【Borderless Void】?”
Lin Qiye studied the trio of boards, grinned, and bellowed again:
“Zhao Kongcheng! I know you’re inside! Open the door and let me in!!”
One second, two…
From behind the boards came a ghostly growl:
“The hell you doing out here instead of eating dinner? Piss off!!”