After going through something like that, even if Wang Liang felt exhausted, there was no way he could sleep. Too much had happened, and his mind was a tangled mess, so he decided to do something else to distract himself.
Wang Liang thought of a coffin nail. He might as well go to Hongfa Temple tonight and take that coffin nail!
But he had to take it slow and wait until the latter half of the night before going. Otherwise, it would be awkward if he ran into the Knocking Ghost’s ghost domain on the road.
That thing was a divine weapon for resisting evil ghosts. Leaving it there meant it would only gather dust for the time being. He might as well take it and use it first to strengthen his ability to fight evil ghosts.
The thing was so powerful it was almost unsolvable. Once an evil ghost was nailed by it, the ghost would immediately be suppressed into dormancy. It couldn’t just be left there gathering dust.
The only known exception was against the S-rank evil ghost, the Starving Ghost. But even the Starving Ghost had been restrained by the coffin nail for a very long time, relying on its devouring trait to very slowly swallow the coffin nail bit by bit.
And if he went to retrieve the coffin nail, he could also conveniently gain some Weirdness Value from the huge black shadow on that bone tree.
That was also a terrifying evil ghost, currently restrained by the coffin nail. Once the coffin nail was pulled out, it would disappear to who knew where, and it had shown no activity for years, so there was no need to worry too much about the danger it posed.
His current top priority was still to accumulate Weirdness Value as soon as possible, obtain information on a second film-and-television ghost, and quickly control a second ghost—preferably one with a ghost domain.
Only with greater strength could Wang Liang do more things. Many of his current worries were ultimately caused by insufficient strength.
As for disrupting the plot, affecting Yang Jian’s development, and the appearance of Yang Jian…
Damn it, Yang Jian didn’t even pay him any attention. He might not even exist in this world with Wang Liang in it. Why worry about so much?
If he was going to worry about this and worry about that, not touch this and not interfere with that, then had Wang Liang transmigrated here just to watch the show?
He might as well kill himself sooner rather than later.
As for Old Qin at the Ghost Controller Headquarters, the one who could foresee the future and currently had arrangements and plans for many things, there was no need to bother with him either! Nor could he do anything about him!
Whatever Wang Liang was going to do, Old Qin should be able to foresee it. If he truly didn’t want Wang Liang to disrupt the situation, perhaps Old Qin would already be driving the ghost bus downstairs, ready to run him over.
And since he hadn’t come, that was a kind of indulgence within the rules. There was no need to pay him too much mind!
With these thoughts, Wang Liang’s mood relaxed quite a bit. But he gave up on sleeping, opened the bedroom door, and walked out.
……
After leaving the residential compound, Wang Liang hailed a nighttime taxi and headed toward No. 7 High School.
He had to go back to No. 7 High School to pick up a few things before going to Hongfa Temple.
There was a car the original owner had bought parked in the school parking lot. If he wanted to move freely tonight, it would be better to drive his own car.
The Knocking Ghost’s ghost domain had long since left No. 7 High School by now, so there was no need to worry about accidentally falling into the ghost domain again.
Sitting in the taxi, Wang Liang felt a little uncomfortable. Not having a ghost domain really was troublesome.
Just now, he had still been using Sadako to fight the Knocking Ghost, and now he had to hail a nighttime taxi to get around. The shift in style was so drastic that he found it hard to adapt.
The taxi stopped at the entrance of No. 7 High School.
“Fare’s twenty-two. How are you paying?”
“No money.”
“Huh? Don’t get out!”
“If I have no money, why would I keep sitting here?”
“That makes sense—wait, no, hold on!”
“Wait here for a bit. I’m a teacher at this school, I can’t run. See you in a moment.”
“Hey, hey!”
Wang Liang ignored the driver calling after him and got straight out of the car.
He truly had no money on him right now. He didn’t even have his phone, only the clothes on his back.
The restart couldn’t bring along the phone he had been carrying before. The fact that it could restart the clothes from the photo with him, instead of making him crawl out naked, was already something to thank the heavens for.
After getting out, Wang Liang unexpectedly discovered that the school was not deathly silent as he had imagined. Instead, quite a few people had gathered outside the school gate.
A small number of students and parents were gathered together outside the gate, lingering confusion and fear still on their faces.
Some parents were anxiously pacing back and forth at the school entrance, occasionally talking with the security guards maintaining order. Some with fiery tempers even wanted to charge straight into the campus.
Wang Liang quickened his pace, walked forward, grabbed a security guard, and asked,
“What’s going on here?”
“Teacher Wang? Where did you just go? My god, I thought you’d disappeared too. Something happened! Didn’t you shout in the teaching building earlier that there was an earthquake? It was late at night, so basically everyone heard it. Some students and teachers on the first floor ran out, but most of the students and teachers just vanished!
“After evening self-study ended, some parents couldn’t pick up their children and are going crazy with worry now. Someone has already called the police. Quite a few people disappeared—even the principal and directors are gone. It’s really strange.”
At this point, the security guard leaned a little closer to Wang Liang, looked left and right, then lowered his voice and said,
“Ahem, Teacher Wang, is our school… haunted? Or is it aliens? Did you see something earlier? There was no earthquake, but a whole bunch of people disappeared. The teaching building also kept going dark and lighting up before. With so many people missing, they couldn’t have all been collectively kidnapped, right?”
Wang Liang shook his head and did not answer the guard directly. This matter was not easy to explain. However, judging from the situation, his earlier shout of “There’s an earthquake, run!” had still had some effect. He had indeed made some changes.
Wang Liang patted the security guard on the shoulder, told him he would leave this place to him for now, then took advantage of the fact that the parents had not noticed him and hurried into the campus.
The lights in the teaching building had come back on by now, but there was no one inside. Those who had run out earlier did not dare go back in, while those who had not run out had already been taken away by the ghost domain.
Wang Liang quickly ran back to the teachers’ office on the fifth floor of the teaching building, took the original owner’s car keys, wallet, and a few other things from the desk, then ran toward the office door.
But just as he pushed open the door to leave, Wang Liang suddenly thought of something and turned back again.
He opened the drawer beneath the desk, took out a small stack of one-inch ID photos that homeroom teacher Wang Liang had previously taken, then turned and went downstairs, driving away the car parked in the school parking lot.
When he drove to the school gate, Wang Liang told the security guard he had spoken to earlier to follow the relevant personnel’s arrangements when the time came and just say whatever he knew.
Then he slammed down on the accelerator, dodged the parents who wanted to stop his car, and drove up beside the taxi parked by the roadside outside the school. Through the two car windows, he tossed a red hundred-yuan bill from his wallet over.
Before the driver could show the joy of recovering his lost fare, Wang Liang had already stepped on the accelerator and quickly left the place.
……
Dachang City, by the roadside three streets away from Hongfa Temple.
After driving away from No. 7 High School, Wang Liang had come here and parked to wait.
He cautiously waited all the way until three in the morning. Feeling that the time was about right, he started the car again and drove to Hongfa Temple.
After parking the car by the roadside, Wang Liang climbed over the wall and entered Hongfa Temple.
Hongfa Temple was not large. In the original owner’s memories, he had come here several times, so Wang Liang was fairly familiar with the place. He skillfully bypassed the sightseeing area and arrived at the rear.