Just as Yang Jian felt as though a ghost were pressing down on him in bed, leaving him unable to move, the one-inch photo belonging to Teacher Wang—the one he had carefully placed on the bedside table before lying down—suddenly showed something abnormal.
Teacher Wang’s one-inch photo trembled on the bedside table despite there being no wind. A cold, sinister sensation emanated from the photo, which was not even the length of a finger.
When that icy aura came into contact with Yang Jian, even the restlessness of the ghost eyes inside his body weakened considerably.
“Huff, huff.”
On the bed, Yang Jian abruptly opened his eyes. Regaining the ability to move, he sat up, sweat pouring from his body as he gasped heavily for breath.
“What’s going on? These eyes, and... Teacher Wang’s one-inch photo!”
Yang Jian turned his head to look at the photo on the bedside table that was still radiating coldness, but a single glance made his face fill with shock and doubt.
Because the image of Teacher Wang in the photo was undergoing an eerie transformation. The hair grew longer, covering the face; the clothes turned white; the figure became even thinner.
‘It’s that female ghost that fought against the Knocking Ghost. Why did this change suddenly happen? Is it because of the abnormal movement of the ghost eyes in my body?’
Enduring the restlessness of the ghost eyes reviving within him, Yang Jian got out of bed and stood before the bedside table, not knowing what to do next.
After all, everything about this left him somewhat baffled, whether it was the ghost eyes or Teacher Wang’s one-inch photo.
Creak.
The door to the room was pushed open. Yang Jian turned his head to look and asked in confusion:
“Dad, why did you come in? Is something the matter?”
A man walked in, then sat down on the chair in front of the desk in the room. From beginning to end, he held a newspaper in front of his face, blocking it from view. His sitting posture faced Yang Jian, but he remained completely silent, giving no response to Yang Jian’s question.
Yang Jian faintly felt a stinging pain coming from behind him. It was the cold sensation emitted by Teacher Wang’s one-inch photo, and it seemed to be growing increasingly distinct.
So he turned around, wanting to put that one-inch photo away first. He did not want his father to notice anything abnormal about it.
His father was only an ordinary person. He should not come into contact with these supernatural things.
But just as Yang Jian stretched his hand toward the one-inch photo, the female ghost inside it suddenly moved.
A pallid arm covered with black blood vessels horrifyingly reached completely out from the tiny one-inch photo, its fingers digging into the edge of the bedside table.
This sight made Yang Jian’s pupils shrink in shock, and he hurriedly retreated two steps.
At the bedside table, after the pallid arm reached out, it grabbed the edge of the cabinet and pushed outward. An entire white-clothed female ghost with disheveled hair crawled straight out of the photo on all fours and dropped to the floor.
Yang Jian knew that summoning this female ghost was one of Teacher Wang’s methods. Although he did not know why it had suddenly come out, it should not harm him.
So he immediately turned his head, preparing to explain this scene—one that could be called horrifying—to his father, who was an “ordinary person.”
But the moment he turned around, a foul, fishy stench assaulted his nose. A newspaper, scarlet all over as though soaked in fresh blood, so dense it seemed about to drip blood, came directly toward his face.
Yang Jian’s heart sank. He knew he had been attacked by something supernatural and wanted to activate the ghost eyes to deal with it.
But it was too close. There was no time at all. In the next instant, that bloodstained newspaper was about to cover his face.
Yet at that moment, Yang Jian suddenly felt his shoulder sink. The sensation was icy cold, instantly numbing nearly half his body.
Then a tremendous force pulled him backward. At the same time, a pallid arm reached out from beside him and met the newspaper that was attacking.
It was that female ghost!
The white-clothed female ghost dragged Yang Jian behind her and grabbed the flying blood-red newspaper. The black blood vessels bulging on the back of her hand ruptured, and thick, foul-smelling black blood flowed out.
The black blood trickled down along the female ghost’s palm. The moment it came into contact with the blood-red newspaper, it produced a sizzling sound, as though it possessed extremely strong corrosive power.
“Damn it, what’s going on? Dad, are you all right—”
After Yang Jian had turned his head only to be attacked by the blood-red newspaper almost right in his face, he knew he had once again fallen into a supernatural incident. Inwardly, he could not help but curse his own luck.
After steadying himself, he was just about to show concern for his “father,” but before he could finish speaking, his gaze inadvertently swept to the side, and he suddenly saw a black-and-white memorial portrait of a middle-aged man placed on the cabinet.
This made Yang Jian’s expression stiffen. With evidence from reality appearing before him, Yang Jian felt everything was deeply unreal, as though it were a dream.
At this moment, he vaguely realized that his father... seemed to have died a long time ago. Then who was that person in front of him?!
Yang Jian abruptly turned his head to look ahead. There, the white-clothed female ghost was using both hands to tear at the blood-red newspaper, thick black blood constantly seeping from her hands and spreading over the newspaper. The sizzling sounds continued without end.
Meanwhile, the blood-red newspaper kept “struggling” in the female ghost’s hands. At times, it violently pulled outward; at times, it directly wrapped around the female ghost’s palms. But it was firmly held by the female ghost and could not break free.
And in front of the female ghost and the newspaper, the middle-aged man sitting at the desk in his room also raised his head at this moment to look at Yang Jian.
With the newspaper no longer concealing him, Yang Jian clearly saw the man’s face. This man had no facial features at all—only a layer of smooth flesh!
This was a ghost!
Realizing that he did not have a father at all, scarlet ghost eyes abruptly emerged from Yang Jian’s face and arms. He immediately activated the supernatural power of the ghost eyes, red light rising from his body as he tried to cooperate with Teacher Wang’s female ghost to suppress the ghost in front of him.
The ghost before the desk seemed to know that it had been exposed as well, and stood up.
In the next instant, the blood-red newspaper forcibly tore itself free from the white-clothed female ghost’s hands. The blood-red paper fluttered wildly, and that newspaper continuously split apart in midair.
In an instant, a large number of blood-red newspapers drifted through the room, attacking Yang Jian and the female ghost.
Some newspapers covered the female ghost’s face, but the moment they stuck to her, black blood likewise flowed from the female ghost’s face, rotting away the derivative newspapers on her face.
But immediately after, several more newspapers pasted themselves onto her, temporarily entangling the female ghost.
Several other newspapers attacked Yang Jian in the rear. Red light spread from Yang Jian’s body as he opened his Ghost Domain.
But he discovered, shocked and furious, that in the face of these blood-red newspapers, the red light of his scarlet Ghost Domain was being easily sliced apart piece by piece, and it was difficult for it to heal in a short time.
A Ghost Domain was a world that operated around a malicious ghost, existing between illusion and reality.
Once opened, the ghost or ghost controller was equivalent to being in another space, able to alter distance and distort scenes. Without special means, one could not enter, could not escape, and could not be attacked. It was extremely powerful.
But right now, Yang Jian discovered that his Ghost Domain was being effortlessly torn apart by sheet after sheet of blood-red newspaper, as easily as a hot knife slicing through butter.
This ghost countered his ghost eyes!
Yang Jian retreated a few steps. On Teacher Wang’s white-clothed female ghost’s side, she was entangled by a large number of fluttering newspapers. Although they would be rotted away by that strange black blood as soon as they stuck to her and could not pose a threat in the short term, she had still been held up.
However, before Yang Jian could think of a way to respond, before the Ghost Domain was completely cut open, he discovered that the newspapers fluttering in the air were becoming fewer and fewer. One derivative newspaper after another turned to ash and vanished inside the room.
In the original work, it was not explained in detail when Yang Jian’s memories were affected by the Newspaper Ghost.
There are several possibilities.
One is that his memories may have been affected very early on. The Newspaper Ghost might have had something to do with his father. After modifying his memories, it did nothing unnecessary and wandered around Yang Jian for a long time, maintaining a balance.
But after Yang Jian became a ghost controller, he noticed something was wrong. After resisting it once, he broke free from its control, and at the same time, the Newspaper Ghost went out of control.
——
The second is that this Newspaper Ghost happened to have just arrived and chose Yang Jian as its target. Yang Jian’s memories were only affected by the supernatural influence after the Newspaper Ghost approached him, and had not been completely altered. After realizing something was wrong, he immediately broke free. (Yang Jian’s own speculation in the original work: he was affected after it approached.)
——
Both seem reasonable, but it doesn’t matter. Either one can connect with the plot I’m writing. In both cases, only after the wandering Newspaper Ghost approached Yang Jian did Wang Liang sense it.