The Ghost Eye watched Wang Shanshan and the Ghost Child. So long as he did not deliberately stop them, the two of them could indeed freely enter and leave his ghost domain. In essence, Wang Shanshan counted as his ghost slave, while the Ghost Child also had countless ties to him.
The Ghost Child’s eerie eyes stared blankly at Yang Jian, as if it were very curious about the current state of this “father” of its.
Yang Jian said to Zhang Han, “Zhang Han, before going to DQ City, did you all look into that mirror?”
Zhang Han nodded. “Captain, before the mission, I followed your instructions and had everyone take turns appearing before that mirror.”
“Mm.” Yang Jian nodded slightly, and the pitch-black outline of his head swayed with the motion.
“Take everyone back to Guanjiang Residential Complex first.”
“All right.”
Zhang Han stood up. After Yang Jian’s suppression, his body no longer had any sensation of revival. It was as if the fact that he had actively triggered the fierce ghost’s revival earlier had never happened at all.
Wang Shanshan looked silently at Yang Jian for a moment, then turned to the Ghost Child and ordered, “You stay here. If anything happens to Yang Jian, you are to bring him back.”
The Ghost Child immediately moved its short little legs and ran to Yang Jian’s feet, raising its strange bluish-black little face to stare blankly up at him.
Watching the others leave, Yang Jian did not say much. In truth, whether the Ghost Child stayed here or not made no difference to him, but in order to put Wang Shanshan a little more at ease, he left it behind.
“Wuu… woof!”
A low bark broke the silence. A massive black dog, its fur like thick ink, suddenly leapt out from the cold lake water. It bared its ghastly white teeth, a threatening growl rumbling in its throat as it stared fixedly at the Ghost Child not far away.
Yang Jian immediately ordered the big black dog, “Come here!”
This black dog was “Ghost Dream” itself, an anomalous existence with complete supernatural power and self-awareness. It had not been controlled; it merely resided deep within Yang Jian’s consciousness and obeyed his commands.
But at this moment, this vicious ghost hound actually revealed a trace of fear. It looked at Yang Jian’s head burning with black fire, then involuntarily averted its gaze.
When they were on the moon, it had once been burned by this black fire until it had nearly shut down completely. Possessing self-awareness, it held an instinctive terror toward it.
“Take me into the consciousness within this body.”
He could not determine who was currently controlling this corpse, so he could only force his way in through Ghost Dream.
“Woof!” The black dog barked wildly. In the next instant, Yang Jian felt his consciousness blur, and the surrounding scene rippled and dissolved like water. By the time he steadied himself again, he was already standing in a vast white world.
At this moment, Yang Jian had returned to the state of an ordinary person. He subconsciously shook his severed hand, a trace of disbelief flashing through his eyes.
“The speed of entering the dream has become even faster. On the moon, this black dog devoured the supernatural power of a King.”
He looked at the black dog. It seemed to have grown slightly larger.
“Nightmare… have the puzzle pieces begun to complement one another?”
But this kind of mutual completion between puzzle pieces was a good thing for Yang Jian. As long as it did not exceed the upper limit of Ghost Dream’s own supernatural power, no matter how many fierce ghosts it controlled, it would be able to maintain its self-awareness.
“Woof!” The black dog suddenly barked warningly toward the depths of the dense fog ahead. Its body crouched low, taking on a posture as if it would pounce at any moment.
The white mist before him churned, and Tong Qian’s figure slowly walked out from the depths of the haze.
However, at this moment, she looked extremely horrifying. Only half a face hung on her head, while the other side had nothing at all, merely a blank expanse.
“Yang Jian…”
Her gaze was unfocused, as if a faint trace of self-awareness still remained.
But that half-face immediately twisted, becoming incomparably ferocious. Its venomous gaze looked at Yang Jian as though it had taken physical form.
“Yang Jian! It was you people who killed me! You all thought Zhao Lei was more useful than me, so you chose to let him live, didn’t you?!”
Yang Jian silently watched the existence before him, one that had almost been completely altered by the Newspaper Ghost. At this moment, she was more like an evil spirit carrying Tong Qian’s memories.
“I came here only to confirm one thing.”
Yang Jian’s calm voice echoed through this pure white world.
“If you still retained even a trace of self-awareness, I would save you, whether by finding you a new body or temporarily letting you share a body with Zhao Lei…”
“But from the looks of it now, there is no longer any need for you to continue existing.”
Just as Yang Jian’s thought stirred and he was about to give the order, another voice sounded from behind him.
“Yang Jian, wait.”
Zhao Lei’s figure emerged from the fog. His state was symmetrical to Tong Qian’s like a mirror image; the remaining half of his face appeared on the other side of his head.
“Tong Qian should still be savable. I’ve also experienced the terror of having my memories altered. I can feel that she still has a trace of consciousness trapped inside.”
Yang Jian’s cold gaze turned toward this former classmate of his. Their relationship had once been very good.
It was just that the supernatural era had long since crushed everything of the past. What stood here now were nothing more than two anomalies reshaped by horror.
“Zhao Lei, your understanding of the supernatural is too shallow. Although her state has not yet been completely eroded by the fierce ghost, that is only a matter of time.”
Yang Jian’s voice was low.
“Under the influence of the supernatural, as time passes, her consciousness will be replaced by the fierce ghost’s instincts. In the end, she may become a fierce ghost with the memories of a living person. Once she loses control, no one knows what will happen.”
Bending down to stroke the restless black dog beside him, Yang Jian continued, “But I can give you two choices. Between you and her, I can only save one. If your consciousness is erased, Tong Qian can perfectly control this body.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the surrounding pure white began to fluctuate violently. The scene rapidly lost color, then reassembled.
The next moment, Yang Jian returned to reality, and Ghost Dream also forcibly dragged Zhao Lei’s consciousness back with him.
Zhao Lei looked around blankly. In the end, his gaze fell on Yang Jian’s terrifying fierce ghost form. His mouth opened wide, but he could not make a sound.
At this moment, Yang Jian was a fierce ghost through and through.
This was the first time Zhao Lei had met the real Yang Jian after piecing together his own memories from the newspaper.
But the Yang Jian before him was vastly different from the one in his impression. If not for that familiar face, Zhao Lei would even have thought that the person before him had already been controlled by a fierce ghost.
A terrifying appearance, a cold personality, indifference toward life and death, no emotions belonging to a human, and a mechanical way of acting that resembled the killing patterns of a fierce ghost.
It was as if what existed within this shell now was merely a fierce ghost that had inherited the memories of that youth named Yang Jian.
The real Yang Jian might have died long ago, perishing in some horrifying supernatural incident.
And the one standing before him now was only a supernatural product carrying his will.
Yang Jian’s cold voice sounded, interrupting Zhao Lei’s daze.
“My time is limited…”