Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 204: Everyone's Dead Except Yang Ming

"Locate the sound and move quickly! If he pulls out the copper nails from his ears, we might not even hear anything!" Hei Jiji shouted anxiously.

Her judgment was sharp and correct. After all, when this Specter pulled out the copper nails from his eyes, everyone went blind. Based on that, it wasn't hard to guess that if he pulled out the nails from his ears, everyone would likely go deaf.

If they lost both sight and hearing, they would be pretty much defenseless, completely losing the ability to perceive the outside world.

Before anyone could react, Fang Xiu had already made his move the moment they went blind.

His silver hair strands lashed out at the Specter furiously.

However, with a loud snap, the Specter broke all the silver strands wrapped around him.

Fang Xiu had anticipated this. He knew that this Specter had such terrifying means, making everyone blind, so he certainly wouldn't be subdued easily.

Fang Xiu stepped forward, and in the endless darkness, he could only feel the cold scalpel in his hand.

_SWISH!_

The others also attacked based on the sounds they heard.

In the darkness, a mix of hot and cold air flowed, along with the sound of several blades slicing through the air.

The hot and cold must be from Hei Jiji, given her ice and fire abilities. The blades came from Bai Qi and Yang Ming.

Soon, the sound of a blade cutting into flesh sounded.

Following that was Bai Qi's angry cursing.

"Idiot! You cut me!"

Just like that, Bai Qi got injured again. Everything quickly descended into chaos.

There were too many people, and only one Specter. Even though everyone's hearing was far beyond normal, it was still difficult to distinguish which sound came from the Specter and which from their teammates.

However, soon they didn't have to worry about that.

The Specter pulled out the nails from his ears, and the world instantly became silent, dead silent.

Zhao Hao and Liu Shuai screamed in fear, but they couldn't hear their own voices.

Losing both sight and hearing meant losing about ninety percent of their sensory input from the outside world.

Now, they were left with smell, taste, and touch. These senses weren't very useful for locating the Specter.

Unlike Ma Xingbang, they didn't have the ability to smell the Specter. Taste was even more useless—they couldn't exactly lick the Specter.

The only useful sense left was their touch.

In absolute silence and complete darkness, even Fang Xiu found it difficult to move. However, compared to the others, he was much better off because he could use the hair Specter's ability.

Fang Xiu's extremely fine silver strands spread out around him like a web, allowing him to sense any disturbances in the threads, just like a spider.

However, this type of sensing was slower compared to seeing directly. In a life-or-death situation, even a split-second delay could mean the difference between living and dying.

Fang Xiu instantly sensed movement at his ten o'clock, about ten meters away, where his strands were disturbed.

He could clearly tell it was the Specter, not a person. The Specter's power was unmistakable as it interacted with the silver strands.

His scalpel turned into a flash of silver light, slicing towards the Specter.

Unfortunately, it missed, as the Specter moved very quickly.

Suddenly, he felt movement behind him.

Fang Xiu was ready to attack, but the signal from his strands had a fatal time lag.

Just as he was about to turn, he felt a cold sensation on his back, followed by intense pain.

He could clearly feel a deep claw mark on his back, almost reaching his bones. If it weren’t for his bones, the attack might have torn through his heart.

Worse still, the claw mark carried a strong corrosive force, like acid, rapidly eating away at his body.

Despite the severe injury, Fang Xiu's expression remained calm.

Ignoring the pain, he attacked in the direction from which the Specter had struck.

But once again, he missed.

Meanwhile, thanks to his pain-absorbing ability, the deep claw mark on his back healed instantly.

However, the corrosive force in the wound consumed a significant amount of his Spiritual Energy during the healing process.

Soon, a second wound appeared on his body, this time on his neck.

A wave of pain hit him as his neck was nearly severed, with only a bit of flesh connecting his head to his body.

In the next moment, a flash of light appeared. The flesh and sinews in his neck intertwined rapidly, knitting back together and restoring his neck to its original state.

Although the wound healed, it drained a large portion of his Spiritual Energy.

Then, the Specter moved on. Realizing how hard it was to kill Fang Xiu, he targeted the others instead.

The first was the seemingly weakest Zhao Hao. Since it wasn't midnight yet, Zhao Hao was still very weak.

_SWISH!_

With just one swipe, Zhao Hao's neck was sliced open.

His head was cut off completely and rolled on the ground like a ball. His eyes were wide open, dying with a look of disbelief.

Zhao Hao's death was silent, mainly because no one could hear or see anything. Only Fang Xiu sensed it. His silver strands spread throughout the Old Mansion, so he clearly felt Zhao Hao being beheaded.

_WHOOSH!_

His scalpel shot out toward where Zhao Hao had died, but it missed again.

Soon, the Specter targeted Liu Shuai next.

Even though Liu Shuai had the ability to teleport, without his senses, he had no idea where the danger was coming from. He didn't know which direction to teleport to.

Naturally, Liu Shuai met his end. The Specter pierced his heart, and shattered pieces of it, along with blood, spilled all over the floor.

Liu Shuai didn't die immediately. He screamed in agony, but in this silent world, no one could hear his cries, not even himself.

As the Specter continued its rampage, Bai Qi was killed too.

In the end, only Fang Xiu, Yang Ming, and Hei Jiji remained alive.

Fang Xiu survived by absorbing pain and healing his wounds; Yang Ming relied on his Corpse Bead; and Hei Jiji had an interesting method—she kept deceiving herself, suggesting that she wasn't injured, thus numbing herself to the pain. However, judging by her heaving chest and pale face, she wouldn't last much longer.

Fang Xiu realized that, as they faced stronger Specters, the ones who survived were those with high tolerance for mistakes, the psychics who weren't easily killed in one blow.

Fighters like Bai Qi, with high attack power but low defense, had no room for error.

If he encountered a Specter he could handle, he'd win in one strike. If not, he'd be taken down just as quickly.

His battles were straightforward—he won without much excitement and lost without much pain.

Before long, Hei Jiji also died. She exhausted all her Spiritual Energy and succumbed to fatigue.

Fang Xiu followed, for the same reason.

Yang Ming's death was the last and most obvious because he was the chosen one. Perhaps he wouldn't have died at all and might have even turned the situation around, but he didn't get the chance to show it because Fang Xiu activated death reset.

When the timeline reset, Fang Xiu stood before the eerie Old Mansion once more, choosing to enter with the same calm determination.

He wouldn't die in vain, and was now seeking revenge. Moreover, he had figured out how to defeat this Specter."