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Nightmare screamed, "Arghhhh!! Stop it right now!"
But Fang Xiu didn't care and kept swallowing the black smoke. Soon, his consciousness turned black.
"You can't eat Specters! Stop!" Nightmare was desperate. It was the first time it saw someone eating a Specter. And Fang Xiu seemed unaffected by eating it.
"You're eating me alive! Are you even human? Only Specters do that! Ah!"
Fang Xiu bit off one of Nightmare's blood-red eyes and chewed it. It felt soft and slippery, like jelly.
Nightmare's screams got weaker until Fang Xiu ate it all.
But Nightmare didn't die; it lived in Fang Xiu's dreams and joined him every night.
Fang Xiu felt something was touching his body. He quickly returned to the outside world and took control of his body.
He opened his eyes to see a big face and pursed lips, getting closer. It was Yang Ming.
SNAP!
Fang Xiu's silver hair whipped Yang Ming's face.
"Ah!" Yang Ming yelled. "You're awake. Why hit me? Did you think I wanted to give you mouth-to-mouth? So, did you deal with Nightmare?"
Fang Xiu nodded and used his hair Specter to stand up.
He saw he was out of the bloody space and back at Putuo Temple, which was a mess. It looked like it was hit by a big earthquake. There were broken limbs everywhere, and the temple was partly destroyed.
Clearly, Yang Ming and Bai Qi did this.
Speaking of Bai Qi, Fang Xiu saw him unconscious on Yang Ming's back, his handsome face covered with bruises.
Yang Ming quickly said, "Don't get me wrong. I was just trying to wake him up by hitting his face. Bai Qi turned evil and was very cunning. He pretended to be free from Nightmare's control when we fought each other. I didn't believe such a poor trick. He was deeply controlled and then suddenly free? So I pretended to believe him, caught him off guard, and knocked him out by beating his head."
Fang Xiu was silent for a moment before saying, "Bai Qi probably wasn't pretending to be free; I just took care of Nightmare, so he must have really broken free. The disappearance of the Specter Zone in Greenvine City is the best proof."
Yang Ming's eyes widened, and he quickly changed the subject. "Oh, well… That, hey, speaking of which, the moonlight is really nice tonight, right? Now that Nightmare is dealt with, let's head back. Nightmare caused a lot of damage, and there's a lot of work to do dealing with the aftermath. Oh, and I'll leave Bai Qi to you. Carrying him slows me down, and as the team leader, I have too much work, especially at this crucial time. I need to get back as soon as possible."
Without waiting for Fang Xiu's agreement, Yang Ming dropped Bai Qi on the ground, raising a cloud of dust, and then vanished into the night with a flash of red light from his shoes.
Fang Xiu was left speechless.
Eventually, Fang Xiu used his hair Specter to create several silver strands and dragged Bai Qi back like a corpse. Bai Qi, now a third-tier psychic with the Extreme Speed ability, had physical abilities far beyond a normal human, so he wasn't in danger of getting hurt by getting dragged, except for maybe some torn clothes.
Fang Xiu tried to lift Bai Qi, but his hair Specter was also heavily drained. Moreover, he had to control his own body and had no strength left to do more.
…
A month had passed since the Nightmare incident, and Fang Xiu had been in bed the whole time due to severe physical exhaustion.
The Investigation Bureau used a lot of cell repair fluids and even brought in psychics with healing abilities to treat him.
Fortunately, he advanced to the second tier, which strengthened his body. If not for these factors improving his recovery, the battle might have left him completely disabled.
Fang Xiu wasn't too concerned about becoming disabled. He had already planned to find some Specter bodies and use his hair Specter to connect their parts to reassemble himself if he couldn't be healed. He was already dissatisfied with the frailty of the human body.
During the month Fang Xiu was recovering, the outside world had undergone dramatic changes. According to reports, at least 100,000 people died in the Nightmare incident, and the number of psychics was halved as about half of them died in the incident, leading to severe losses.
The most challenging part was explaining the situation to the public. The government claimed it was a gas leak, a type of psychic gas that caused hallucinations and fear.
Of course, the actual death toll was not disclosed.
This kind of explanation might deceive people from other cities, but it couldn't fool the local residents.
The authorities had no other choice. They couldn't disclose any Specter events to the public because there are more Specters like Nightmare that grow stronger through fear. Revealing this information would only cause chaos and allow Specters to grow faster. This was why the Investigation Bureau's headquarters delayed revealing the truth.
Though it was harsh, the truth was that ordinary people didn't contribute much in Specter events apart from adding chaos and becoming fodder.
The Investigation Bureau took some measures within their capacity. They sent more personnel to handle the aftermath in Greenvine City and secretly spread rumors about their existence, letting people know there were protectors against Specters.
The rumors also suggested that Greenvine City, having been cleansed of many Specters, was now safer than other cities that might still face new Specter events.
With various calming measures, the public sentiment in Greenvine City stabilized within a month, even though an economic downturn was inevitable.
At night, hardly anyone dared to wander outside.
In the psychic community, the situation was buzzing.
Fang Xiu became famous, especially after revealing his ability to foresee the future, adding fuel to the fire.
Fang Xiu, the foreseer, became a celebrated topic in the psychic circles of Greenvine City.
The few civilian psychics who survived in his team became his loyal fans, greatly exaggerating his performance in the Specter Zone.
Some even claimed that Greenvine City would have become a dead city without Fang Xiu. With Fang Xiu leading, addressing any Specter event below S was a walk in the park, even guaranteeing a 100% survival rate.
Fang Xiu's fame wasn't limited to Greenvine City; it spread to surrounding cities and even shook the headquarters.