“Teacher Wang, is that really you? How do you prove you’re not a ghost?”
Zhang Wei poked his head out from behind Yang Jian and asked with the same wary expression.
“Mm. A little lesson for you: the vast majority of ghosts don’t possess human-like thought. They’re merely killing machines that act according to certain rules. And if you run into one that can simulate human thought and behavior, you won’t have the chance to ask questions—you should already be dead by now. As for proof, Zhang Wei, you scored 9 points on the last monthly math exam?”
“Stop, stop, it really is Teacher Wang!”
“Teacher Wang, it really is you.”
“Wuu, we thought you were dead.”
“Teacher Wang, they—they’re all dead. So many people died.”
After seeing their teacher—especially a teacher capable of contending with a malevolent ghost—come to their side, the surviving students finally began to relax. One after another, they ran up to Wang Liang and started pouring out their fear and grief.
Yang Jian did not completely let down his guard, but he did hide the ghost eye on the back of his hand back beneath his skin, lowering his vigilance somewhat.
At this moment, the only two girls among the seven had already begun sobbing quietly. Tonight had been a nightmare none of them would ever forget.
Although Yang Jian had also been their pillar of support, for students like them, an adult teacher still made them feel far more at ease.
“Don’t panic. It’s over now. Sit down and rest for a while.”
Wang Liang comforted these young people whose worldview had been violently shaken. At the same time, he looked at the system’s uncanny record value and discovered that it had not increased after he approached Yang Jian.
‘In other words, malevolent ghosts controlled by ghost controllers don’t provide uncanny points? Why is that?
Yang Jian’s ghost eye isn’t dead silent; it’s in a state of ghost revival.
Even the tall black shadow nailed down by the coffin nail could provide uncanny points, yet a ghost in the middle of reviving inside a ghost controller can’t. Is it because there’s no ownership? Ridiculous.’
However, the system reserved all rights of interpretation, and Wang Liang did not dwell on it too much.
At this moment, Yang Jian, who had been standing beside him and had always appeared relatively calm, opened his mouth with some hesitation.
“Can we talk alone, Teacher Wang?”
Wang Liang looked at Yang Jian, nodded, and walked off to the side with him.
After they arrived nearby, Wang Liang looked at the back of Yang Jian’s hand. The skin there was wriggling slightly, and beneath it, a round object was hidden under the skin—the ghost eye.
“It seems you’ve already become a ghost controller.”
“Ghost controller? Right.” Yang Jian touched the bulging ghost eye on the back of his hand. “I want to know more about this. Before this, I’d never come into contact with any of it. And Teacher Wang, how did you appear here? I saw Zhou Zheng already…”
“That old ghost was very strong. Even with Zhou Zheng and me working together, we could only suppress it for a short while. Zhou Zheng was already on the verge of ghost revival, so he couldn’t hold on at all on the spot. But I have my own methods. If I can’t beat it, I can still run.
“However, my method is rather special. It can only let me escape by myself. If I want to bring others along, I can only use a ghost domain. I imagine the ghost you control has a ghost domain, doesn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s the ghost eye I controlled in a toilet that had a ghost in it.”
Yang Jian raised one arm. His flesh split open, and several blood-red eyes opened on it all at once, restlessly darting around.
Wang Liang hurriedly pressed down Yang Jian’s arm and said to him solemnly,
“Don’t use a malevolent ghost’s power casually. Before reaching a certain level, every use of a ghost’s power will accelerate its revival.
“These controlled ghosts revive step by step inside your body until they completely go out of control in the end. And when an out-of-control malevolent ghost appears inside a ghost controller’s body, I think you can imagine the outcome.”
“…I’ll die.” Thinking of the palpitations he had felt when using the ghost eye earlier, and the six ghost eyes that had now grown inside him, Yang Jian spoke in a somewhat low voice.
The ghost eye was still barely under his control now, but if it continued reviving, then on the day it was no longer under his control, it would probably kill him on the spot first.
“That’s right. You’ll die. Controlling an unkillable malevolent ghost—how could it possibly be simple?”
At this point, Wang Liang paused, because it seemed that controlling Sadako and ghost blood had indeed been quite simple for him—an immediate deadlock…
Wang Liang coughed and prepared to tell Yang Jian something else.
This world was cruel. Even though he had a cheat, he did not dare claim he could live to the very end and resolve everything. So, to be safe, he planned to use some basic information to invest a little in the early-stage Yang Jian.
Yang Jian, who was still this immature and so easy to trust others, would not exist for much longer. In his place would be a seasoned, indifferent, and decisive Yang Jian.
Moreover, he and Yang Jian still had a teacher-student relationship. Strengthening that relationship would only bring benefits, with no downside.
Of course, it would stop at maintaining a decent relationship—one where they might help each other in times of danger in the future.
Excessive fawning was meaningless. In this cruel world, in the end, one still had to rely on oneself.
“Ahem. Once you control a malevolent ghost, it’s equivalent to entering a countdown to death, and that time is often very short. Depending on the terror level of the ghost and how far its revival had progressed when it was controlled, the length of that countdown will differ.
“Some people die in three or four months, or even less. Some may last a little longer, but not by much—and that’s under the condition that they don’t use the ghost’s power.
“As for the ghost you control, it possesses a ghost domain. Ghosts with ghost domains are often extremely terrifying, but this also means the time until your ghost revives will be even shorter.”
Yang Jian became somewhat nervous and hurriedly asked,
“Is there any solution? Teacher Wang, I see you, uh, seem to have been fine this whole time.”
In Yang Jian’s view, Teacher Wang should have become a ghost controller quite some time ago.
Because ever since he had entered high school, Teacher Wang had been the same back then as he was now.
His school life and teaching routine had never changed. He probably had not become a ghost controller only recently, otherwise he could not possibly be so calm.
Uh, wait. Why did he seem even younger?!
Yang Jian carefully looked him over a few times and felt his view of life waver slightly.
After using a ghost’s power, his condition seemed to have become even better instead. This made Yang Jian feel that something was absurd.
Because this clearly did not match the claim that a ghost controller’s condition would only get worse and worse, and that they would not live long.
Of course, Wang Liang could not possibly say that he was a damn cheater, so he changed the subject and said,
“There are ways. Using balance to control a new malevolent ghost and extend the time until revival is one method. Another is to find a way to make the ghost you control enter a deadlock. A deadlocked ghost is equivalent to entering an extremely deep sleep. The time until ghost revival will be extended by a tremendous margin, and under normal circumstances, you can even use the ghost’s power almost without cost.”
Wang Liang had no intention of hiding this information, because it only had some value at the present stage. After some time passed, once one entered the supernatural circle, this information would not be difficult to obtain.
What was truly difficult was how to make use of balance, and how to create a deadlock.
Hearing this information for the first time, Yang Jian was instantly filled with shock. One ghost was already enough to suffer through, yet he actually had to control even more ghosts? Wasn’t that just courting death?
But after thinking carefully, Yang Jian immediately understood that perhaps this really was one of the correct solutions.
Ghosts could not be killed. Only ghosts could deal with ghosts. These were words Zhou Zheng had said.
And if a ghost controller wanted to survive, then when facing a ghost that was about to revive, naturally they had to use other ghosts to keep it in check.
However, Yang Jian still had some doubts. How exactly did a deadlocked ghost come about? If he could use the ghost eye almost without paying any price, how satisfying would that be?
Most importantly, Yang Jian suspected that the ghost Teacher Wang controlled might be a deadlocked malevolent ghost!
Perhaps even more than one!
Because compared to the feeling he had when using the ghost eye, and Zhou Zheng’s condition when he had still been alive, Teacher Wang’s usual state—as well as his performance when urging on supernatural power outside the classroom back then—seemed somewhat relaxed.
Even now, he did not look at all like someone who had just clashed with that old ghost and used a malevolent ghost’s power. His entire person looked as if he had not been affected by a ghost at all.
Friends, I received the contract offer site message! I’m so moved. The work status will change in the next few days. When the time comes, everyone is welcome to add it to your favorites, keep reading, invest, tip, and vote with monthly tickets~~
If there are storylines you like to read, or suggestions you want to make, everyone is also welcome to comment directly. I’ll see them all.