With the help of the eerie Dead Man’s Banner in his hand, Yang Jian could only perform an imperfect, small-scale restart of four seconds.
But for Yang Jian, that was already enough.
“Now!”
The supernatural had completely fallen out of balance. The Ghost Domain had long since slipped beyond control. Yang Jian used every ounce of strength in his body, leapt up, and threw himself toward the Starving Ghost.
Blood gushed out like columns of water. His bones creaked and groaned. Forcing himself to hold up the paper banner in his hand, he swung it hard at the Starving Ghost.
Immediately, the Starving Ghost’s ashen-white body shuddered, then stood frozen in place, motionless.
“Get in there!”
The ghost shadow covered it in an instant. The ghost hand shoved forward with force, and the Starving Ghost’s entire body toppled straight into the coffin.
That deathly gray, rotting face slowly sank into the pitch-black Ghost Coffin. At the same time, the black arms that had been suppressing Ye Zhen and the other two suddenly began to tremble violently.
“What did Yang Jian do? Let go!”
The moment Wang Chaling and Li Leping released their hands, that pair of black arms suddenly withdrew into the enormous picture frame and vanished.
On the other side, within another huge picture frame, the Ghost Messenger had already walked out completely. But it ignored everyone, walked toward the Ghost Coffin, and lay down inside.
Supernatural forces were clashing. Two top-tier malevolent ghosts were colliding with one another.
All at once, the coffin began to shake violently, and fine cracks started to appear. The dense black condensation inside slowly became tinged with traces of ashen gray.
“Wang Chaling! The shroud!” Shen Lin shouted at Wang Chaling.
Wang Chaling appeared beside the coffin, grabbed the shroud, and covered the coffin with it. The instant it touched the coffin boards, the entire sheet of coarse hemp cloth snapped taut, tightly wrapping around the opening of the coffin.
But the shaking continued. Gradually, the shroud was actually torn apart by the tremors.
Everything happened too quickly. A figure flashed past before everyone’s eyes—that was Ye Zhen! Holding the Starving Ghost’s two arms, he stabbed them fiercely into both sides of the coffin. The arms, which possessed the effect of coffin nails, easily pierced through the shroud and nailed into the coffin’s sides.
The coffin instantly stopped shaking. But from the torn gap in the shroud, waves of black condensation, flecked with ashen gray, slowly seeped out through the cracks.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Even this can’t contain it...”
Yang Jian’s current condition was terrible. His whole body could not move, and he could only rely on the Dead Man’s Banner to barely maintain five layers of Ghost Domain.
“The Ghost Painting!”
Fang Shiming suddenly reacted.
“Make the Ghost Painting restart back into the painting! Someone work with me!”
The golden flames had already dimmed, as if they would go out in the next second. A cloud of black smoke appeared beside Fang Shiming. Li Leping’s charred arm gently rested on the red figure in front of him.
Fang Shiming immediately felt the pressure on his hand loosen. The Ghost Scissors swiftly cut toward the figure’s head.
Rip...
The red figure before his eyes was cut in two, gradually turning dim. But within that enormous picture frame, the figure of a woman in red whose appearance could not be seen slowly emerged.
“There’s still one more! Hurry up! We can’t let the Ghost Painting finish restarting!”
Li Jun looked at the second Ghost Painting. Without the slightest hesitation, he dug both hands fiercely into his chest. Piece after piece of charred flesh fell to the ground, and a mass of cold, dark green ghost fire in his chest suddenly flared up, rapidly covering Li Jun’s body.
Just then, behind the female ghost in red in front of Li Jun, two lifeless old people suddenly appeared, one in front and one behind, surrounding her.
Wang Chaling nodded at Li Jun. His own condition was also extremely terrible. This was already the limit of what he could do.
Li Jun raised his arm burning with ghost fire, stabbed it fiercely into her head, then hurled her with force toward the other picture frame, throwing her inside.
“Ye Zhen!”
Looking at the two Ghost Paintings that were restarting, Fang Shiming only had time to shout Ye Zhen’s name.
A decaying gale swept past. Fang Shiming and Ye Zhen charged toward the two Ghost Paintings that were about to complete their restart. The two looked at each other, and both confirmed the next move in the other’s eyes.
Each of them held one Ghost Painting and rushed to the side of the Ghost Coffin. One from above and one from below, they slammed them down over the Ghost Coffin.
The eerie picture frames challenged the limits of everyone’s imagination. In a way that defied visual logic, the half-man-tall frames gradually covered the enormous Ghost Coffin.
Slowly, the two bright red frames pressed lightly against each other. Then the entire world fell into a heart-palpitating silence.
A heavy, double-sided oil painting fell from high above.
Within the frame, a pitch-black coffin was covered by a tattered shroud. Two ashen-gray arms were deeply stabbed into both sides of the coffin.
A memorial portrait stood above the coffin. In the portrait was a woman wearing red clothes, her features blurred and impossible to see clearly. A pair of pale yet cold and eerie hands stood out in particular...
The entire world was silent. Everyone could only see each other’s mouths moving, but could not hear any sound.
Then.
Noisy clamor suddenly rang out. The surrounding environment changed abruptly, and dazzling sunlight shone down on everyone.
Tall buildings appeared in view all around them. Everyone was now in the air somewhere above Dajing City, in free fall.
A violent gust swept over. In the next moment, everyone appeared on the ground.
“Did we succeed?”
Yang Jian looked at the heavy frame slowly falling down. At this moment, no one dared to touch that painting.
Clang. The oil painting fell to the ground.
Strangely, the entire frame actually stood upright on the road.
For some unknown reason, from the position of the frame, waves of black light suddenly radiated outward like shockwaves, instantly covering all of Dajing City before sharply contracting and withdrawing completely.
The next moment, another wave of ashen-gray light erupted from within the Ghost Painting, then suddenly contracted and disappeared as well.
Then a gray, hazy light spread out. This time, its range was absurdly vast, even affecting the edges of several neighboring city districts. But this gray light also lasted less than a second before shrinking back and vanishing.
It was like a heartbeat, rising and falling. The sky over all of Dajing City constantly changed colors. In the end, the entire frame suddenly shook violently, then fell straight down onto the road.
A helicopter slowly landed, and a large box made of gold was carried out.
Dozens of staff members arrived one after another by car. The crowd began to slowly approach the heavy, double-sided oil painting.
“Being able to do this much is already our limit. If it goes out of control again, there’s nothing we can do. Let’s go. Whether that painting loses control again or not, there’s no point in us staying here.”
After saying that, Yang Jian turned and left.
Everyone took a deep look at the Ghost Painting being loaded into the golden box, then turned and followed Yang Jian.
The sun was slowly setting. Several figures walked out from the shadows into the afterglow of the sunset.
“Why don’t we all exchange contact information?”
A-Hong suddenly said.
“After going through so much, maybe the nine of us won’t have another chance to gather together again.”
“It’s ten...” A voice came from beside them. Li Leping was walking stiffly alongside everyone.
With their backs to the setting sun, they slowly walked forward. The afterglow shone behind them, stretching out long, slanted shadows one after another.
At this moment, the scene seemed to freeze. No one knew what would happen in the days to come. Terror would continue. Malevolent ghosts would continue to revive. But in this despairing world, there would always be such a group of people, bearing the bodies of malevolent ghosts while carrying out the deeds of bodhisattvas.
“You Qin, I think you really have gone senile.”
Beside a bus, Old Qin was confronting an old man. Several corpses dressed in Republican-era clothing lay nearby.
The old man held a rotting ball of flesh in his hand, from which corpse water was still continuously oozing.
“The future can no longer be seen. Why are you still trying to stop me?”
The cane in Old Qin’s hand struck heavily against the ground. A deathly pale Ghost Domain swiftly attacked the old man.
“Foolish! You’ve already forgotten the original purpose of the Reform Society. Although our beliefs are different, what we do is still for the sake of resolving the supernatural, not letting malevolent ghosts slaughter the innocent as they please like today!”
The old man wanted to use the ball of flesh in his hand, but was shocked to discover that his body could not move at all.
Old Qin leaned on his cane and walked toward him step by step.
Beside the pitch-black bus, there was no light at all. Only by the moonlight could one barely make out Old Qin’s eyes, filled with killing intent.
“I said long ago that on the road of ghosts controlling people, one must be cautious and prudent. This time, I’ll take it as you being affected by a ghost and help you clear your head.”
He raised his cane and struck it heavily against the old man’s forehead.
“If you dare stop me again, you’ll end up like those people and go down to keep my old friends company.”
The bus slowly started and drove past the old man.
The old man looked at the ball of flesh in his hand, the terror on his face not yet completely gone. In that instant just now, he had truly felt death.
He stood up and said to the corpses on the ground:
“Those who aren’t dead, get up and follow me. It’s been confirmed. The current him can no longer fully see the future.”
Three corpses on the ground stiffly stood up and followed the old man, disappearing into the gloomy night...