The photographs in the village, along with the photographs Wang Liang carried on him, had mostly been used by him before he stood here to release Sadako’s curse and summon derivative Sadakos.
Together with the Sadakos crawling out of the ghost blood, the number of derivative Sadakos surrounding the area had now reached more than fifty, and was still increasing.
Summoning more than fifty derivative Sadakos in one go put no pressure on him at all.
Sadako’s true body showed no sign of being stimulated into revival either, which meant this still was not his limit.
In fact, if he was merely summoning Sadakos and not continuously using an exaggerated ability like the alternative reboot, he might not have a limit at all.
If there was anything that restricted him, it was only the speed at which he could stack up the number of derivative Sadakos.
Wang Liang stood roughly thirty meters away from the rotting female corpse. More than a dozen derivative Sadakos that had crawled out of the ghost blood swayed around him, surrounding him in the middle to protect him.
All the other Sadakos in the vicinity swarmed toward the rotting female corpse on the dirt road, crawling rapidly. Strands of ghost blood flowed down along the derivative Sadakos’ bodies, exuding a cold, fishy stench.
The rotting female corpse moved. Perhaps it was restricted by some sort of rule, or perhaps it was due to the influence of the ghost bell.
It did not use a ghost domain. Instead, it stiffly stepped directly in Wang Liang’s direction, intending to release the supernatural power of killing with its split mouth once it got close to him.
But Wang Liang judged this range to be a radius of twenty meters. At this moment, it was clearly not enough, so the rotting female corpse needed to draw closer.
Before that, however, more than a dozen derivative Sadakos that had crawled over first had already entered this dangerous distance.
Yet the rotting female corpse’s target at this moment was only Wang Liang, who was shaking the bell. Even if the behavior of movie ghosts possessed a certain peculiarity,
after arriving in this world, they were likewise rigidly restricted by some kind of rule and had not completely broken free of it. At this moment, it did not immediately attack the Sadakos crawling over around it.
Only after one derivative Sadako reached out with its bloodstained claw and touched the rotting female corpse did the corpse’s behavior change.
The corners of the rotting female corpse’s mouth split open ferociously, and the terrifying split-mouth supernatural power was released indiscriminately toward all targets around it.
The derivative Sadakos were affected; the corners of their mouths began to curl upward and tear apart. But at this moment, they were extremely close to the rotting female corpse.
The instant the split-mouth supernatural power was released, the rotting female corpse was knocked to the ground by the first derivative Sadako that had touched it.
Then came the second, the third.
Pale claws streaming with foul-smelling ghost blood tore at the rotting female corpse. The sizzling sounds of corrosion and the noises of flesh being ripped apart continuously rang out from within the encirclement.
A few seconds later, the derivative Sadakos tearing at the rotting female corpse in the center scattered, standing quietly in place together with the other derivative Sadakos at the outer edge that had been unable to squeeze in.
And in the spot they had surrounded, only a puddle of black blood remained. A heap of rotten flesh and shattered bones floated atop the black blood, still rapidly corroding and melting into the ghost blood, no longer resembling a human shape at all.
At the perimeter, Wang Liang saw the rotting female corpse’s end clearly through the perspective of a derivative Sadako.
He narrowed his eyes. The vessel possessed by the Slit-Mouthed Woman had already been destroyed. What came next was the key.
Wang Liang remained vigilant at all times. Sure enough, a chilling cold that made one’s scalp crawl suddenly appeared behind him.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman’s true body, more than two meters tall, squeezed out of the air behind Wang Liang. The moment she appeared, she stretched out two huge hands to seize Wang Liang’s neck.
But the instant Wang Liang sensed something abnormal behind him, he had already rolled forward without the slightest regard for appearances, dodging the grab.
A fierce ghost was still a fierce ghost. Even if movie ghosts seemed somewhat special, their behavioral patterns were still rigid.
Seeing through a ghost’s rules—this saying applied throughout this world from beginning to end.
After the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s vessel was destroyed, what followed was indeed an attack from behind through a ghost domain. There was no change at all.
This was information he had exchanged one death for.
Wang Liang rolled forward, his body passing between two derivative Sadakos.
At the same time, the dozen or so derivative Sadakos that had originally been standing around him turned together, stepping through the ghost blood on the ground as they swayed and pounced toward the Slit-Mouthed Woman.
The ghost blood covering the ground also wriggled eerily. The moment the Slit-Mouthed Woman appeared, it submerged her feet and began creeping upward along the fierce ghost’s calves.
After Wang Liang finished his roll and got to his feet, he continued running forward without looking back. The several dozen Sadakos ahead of him were also rapidly crawling in his direction at this moment, carrying a cold, hair-raising aura as they brushed past him one after another and surged behind him.
At the spot just now, the black blood had only climbed a short way up the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s calves before it suddenly lost all of its supernatural power. As if turning into an ordinary puddle of black blood, it fell back down and spread over the ground again.
The Slit-Mouthed Woman’s figure faded. One Sadako after another pounced through her, as if lunging at empty air, colliding with each other instead.
Ahead, Wang Liang, who had been running, abruptly stopped and hurriedly retreated.
Because the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s towering figure had already appeared in front of him once more through the ghost domain. The moment she emerged, she reached out with both hands, wanting to seize him.
Cold fingertips brushed past Wang Liang’s neck. Just that graze alone made him cough softly, and half of his neck lost all sensation.
The nearby derivative Sadakos pounced at her, but just like before, they passed through the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s body as it faded the instant it had solidified.
The next second, the Slit-Mouthed Woman abruptly shifted a distance again, appearing behind Wang Liang’s retreating body. This time, Wang Liang had no time to dodge. She grabbed the back of his neck in one hand and stopped him in place.
After successfully attacking Wang Liang with her unpredictable ghost domain, the terrifying supernatural suppressive force in the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s broad hand was once again applied to Wang Liang’s body.
At the same time, the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s bloodstained fangs rubbed against one another, producing an extremely uncomfortable sizzling sound. The corners of her mouth, raised and torn all the way to the roots of her ears, looked even more ferocious at this moment.
The split-mouth killing supernatural power acted on Wang Liang’s body, causing the corners of Wang Liang’s mouth to begin tearing apart. Just like that time on the mountaintop, it wanted to kill him while suppressing him.
As a component of Sadako, the ghost blood bore the brunt and tried to resist, but it was the first to fall silent.
Before Sadako’s supernatural power could be affected, Wang Liang swiftly gave up resisting head-on this time and decisively performed the alternative reboot one step in advance, letting his consciousness escape.
This was his second reboot today.
The body of Wang Liang in the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s hand rapidly rotted, and the vitality within it quickly vanished.
Judging by the result of the previous confrontation on the mountaintop, after using the ghost bell to stop the Slit-Mouthed Woman from leaving, the Slit-Mouthed Woman would continue chasing Wang Liang to kill him.
After killing Wang Liang once, the Slit-Mouthed Woman would disappear and leave. She would not keep chasing and killing him endlessly.
Wang Liang had no ghost domain and could not fire the coffin nail like a sniper bullet.
As for close-range contact, he could not evade the Slit-Mouthed Woman’s grasping hand. Even the slightest graze would make his body cold and rigid. Once grabbed, even raising his hand would be difficult, let alone exerting force to nail her down.
So if he wanted to use the coffin nail to restrain the Slit-Mouthed Woman, he could only succeed within that tiny span of time after he was killed—or rather, before his body completely died.
During that period, the Slit-Mouthed Woman was in a physical state. From the alternative reboot to the complete death of his old body, there was only one or two seconds. That was the opportunity Wang Liang intended to seize.
And the series of probes and evasions just now had also verified that the Slit-Mouthed Woman was indeed acting according to some sort of rule.
Then, after figuring out the rule, this time, his role was to be bait through and through.