Dozens of fires burned all around, yet Wang Liang could not feel the slightest warmth.
The temperature around him was dropping. A cold, gloomy wind swept past pile after pile of ghostfire, making the dark-orange flames sway and roar.
The old woman ghost and the ghostfire brazier before her slowly appeared in the air, going from blurry to clear as they manifested in this supernatural place.
And the instant the old woman ghost appeared, Wang Liang pulled out the coffin nail tucked at his waist, held it in a reverse grip in his right hand, and strode toward her.
No dawdling. The moment they met, he attacked.
A cold, sinister aura emanated from Wang Liang. Sadako’s supernatural power completely filled his body, and strands of black ghost blood seeped out of his skin, forming a viscous black protective layer, preparing to withstand the burning ghostfire when he drew near.
The old woman ghost sensed the presence of the living. Without even lifting her head, her stiff, withered hand brushed over the top of the brazier.
At once, a large shower of sparks was flung into the air and drifted toward Wang Liang.
They collided with Wang Liang’s body, forming clusters of eerie dark-orange ghostfire that clung to the surface of the black ghost blood.
The supernatural power of the ghost blood was not enough to resist these ghostfires. It was quickly burned through, and the ghostfire began scorching Wang Liang’s flesh and blood, which was filled with supernatural power.
Fortunately, by then, Wang Liang, being burned for the fourth time, had already crossed the region filled with flying sparks and arrived before the old woman ghost.
The old woman ghost turned her head stiffly with a cracking sound. Her deathly silent eyes, devoid of the slightest emotion of the living, quietly stared at Wang Liang before her.
The corpse-spotted skin on her face began to burn and rot as it had last time. Specks of sparks drilled out from the flesh beneath her skin, capable of instantly forming a vast sea of ghostfire that would completely drown Wang Liang.
But this time, Wang Liang did not try to use his own supernatural power to forcefully resist and suppress it. The moment he got close, he decisively raised the coffin nail in his hand and stabbed downward.
The plain, unadorned tip of the coffin nail pierced into the old woman ghost’s forehead. An almost unsolvable supernatural suppression instantly formed. Against ghosts with physical bodies like this, the coffin nail was practically an absolute killing weapon.
Whoosh.
The coldness permeating the surroundings vanished in an instant. The sparks in the air also gradually scattered and returned to nothingness.
After four confrontations, the body of this old woman ghost finally fell stiffly to the ground, motionless.
They had been in contact long enough. Her rules of action had all been figured out. Wang Liang only needed to seize the right moment to drive the coffin nail in, and he could deal with this old woman ghost from the Republican era.
Even a fierce ghost whose terror level had reached A-rank could not resist the terrifying suppressive power of the coffin nail.
In the original plot, there had only been one instance where an accident occurred after the coffin nail nailed something down: the S-rank fierce ghost that had grown to maturity—the Starving Ghost.
But even the Starving Ghost, after being nailed by the coffin nail, had undergone a long period of deathly silence before it could gradually devour and assimilate the coffin nail, thereby regaining its ability to move.
Wang Liang’s body, which had previously recovered through an unconventional restart, had become charred black again in this brief confrontation, with large burns covering his surface.
This dangerous ghostfire was unlike Li Jun’s ghostfire, which only worked on supernatural power. This dark-orange ghostfire burned everything. Fortunately, it was over now.
Standing before the nailed-down old woman, every breath Wang Liang exhaled was now scorching hot.
[Anomalous Record Value: 55%]
After providing another 5% anomalous value, this old woman ghost finally could no longer yield any more.
Wang Liang turned his gaze to the ghostfire brazier at the side. Even though the old woman ghost had been nailed down, the brazier was still burning eerily.
At the bottom of the brazier, through the dark-orange firelight, he could see a layer of ash. It was supernatural ash capable of forcibly sending a person into a supernatural place.
Aside from the supernatural ash, there was nothing combustible inside the brazier, yet a layer of eerie dark-orange flame still drifted and burned within it, as though it were burning the ash at the bottom or the air itself, never extinguishing.
This also confirmed Wang Liang’s previous guess: this ghostfire brazier was an independent supernatural item.
“It’s settled. Time to leave. Perfect chance to test the effects of this supernatural ash.”
Wang Liang attached Sadako’s supernatural power to his right hand, then reached into the brazier, preparing to scoop out a handful of supernatural ash.
He did not summon a derived Sadako to do this. In any case, this body was already charred and broken; if it became a little more damaged, it did not matter. Once he returned to reality, he could simply restart it again.
The dark-orange ghostfire that never went out inside the brazier burned his charred right hand. Wang Liang quickly grabbed a handful of ash from the bottom, then lifted his right hand back out.
A handful of supernatural ash carrying a faint warmth appeared in Wang Liang’s palm. He could sense the slight coldness emanating from it.
Wang Liang lifted the ghostfire brazier and placed it on the old woman ghost’s stomach. Then he raised the old woman ghost’s withered, corpse-spotted hands and made them grip the two sides of the ghostfire brazier.
Finally, Wang Liang used his own left hand to grab the old woman ghost by the neck. Then he prepared to scatter the ash in his right hand over himself and the old woman ghost, traveling back to reality together. A handful of ash should be enough.
As for the other fierce ghosts burning in the fires within this supernatural place, he had no intention of taking them away.
It was not that he did not want to take them, but if he did, he would inevitably have to spend more supernatural ash. He had only just obtained this ghostfire brazier and had not yet studied how to produce supernatural ash.
What if he could not form a complementary puzzle without controlling the old woman ghost, and thus could not produce supernatural ash through the ghostfire brazier?
Wouldn’t that mean the remaining layer of supernatural ash in the ghostfire brazier was all he would ever be able to use, with every bit used being one bit less?
So before figuring it out, he could not waste this precious supernatural ash for the sake of a few fierce ghosts whose strength was not that high.
The supernatural ash scattered over Wang Liang and the old woman ghost. Wang Liang’s vision blurred, and a familiar sense of disoriented direction came over him.
When his vision recovered, he had once again returned to the intersection on Changxing Road. His left hand was gripping the old woman ghost’s neck, the coffin nail was embedded in the old woman ghost’s forehead, and her two hands were holding the ghostfire brazier.
He had successfully returned.
“As expected, it’s a very special supernatural item. With this, I essentially have the ability to travel back and forth between supernatural places and reality.”
Wang Liang felt invigorated. This was the greatest gain of his trip.
Although the old woman ghost was terrifying, her value to him was not that great. Sealing her away was mainly for the sake of dealing with the supernatural incident in the city.
The old woman ghost’s abilities did not match Sadako’s, nor did they feel like they matched any other film or television ghosts in his memory. Most likely, she could not directly serve as a film-ghost puzzle piece to be controlled in a deadlocked state.
A fierce ghost of this level was also very difficult for others to control, so she could not be used to train subordinates.
But the ghostfire brazier and the supernatural ash were different. Not only did they also possess the ability to travel between supernatural places and reality, equivalent to a key, but anyone could use them without side effects. Their value was extremely high.
Wang Liang used an unconventional restart to completely restore his body, then went to the side of the building to retrieve the golden body bag he had thrown on the ground. He took out his satellite phone and checked the time: 2:42 a.m.
He called Su Xinxi.
The call was immediately connected, and Su Xinxi’s anxious voice came through.
“Wang Liang, how did it go? Did everything go smoothly?”
“The containment was successful. Make arrangements to lift the lockdown on Changxing Road. I’m heading back. Oh, and have someone send a gold box to my place. Keeping this ghost thing in a bag doesn’t feel very secure.”
“That’s great. I’ll arrange for someone to deliver the box and clear the streets right away.”
“There’s no need to rush that much. There’s no danger here anymore. You can clean it up whenever. All right, I’m hanging up.”
“Wait, Wang Liang, Captain Zhao wants—”
Beep—