A fierce ghost capable of killing people in their sleep. After being attacked by the Nightmare, injuries sustained in the dream would synchronize with reality. If one was killed by a ghost in the dream, the person in reality would die along with them.
"Cousin, what are you thinking about?"
Xiao Yuan walked over, gripping a dagger, her face still stained with a great deal of dark red blood.
"Nothing." Yang Jian subconsciously took a step back, putting some distance between himself and this cousin.
Only then did Yang Jian notice that his cousin's left eye socket was completely empty, pitch-black inside. Combined with the blood on her face, it made Xiao Yuan look utterly terrifying.
"Xiao Yuan, where is your eye?"
Yang Jian asked probingly. He couldn't confirm whether this cousin before him was real. If she suddenly turned into a ghost like Liu Jing, he wouldn't even know how he died.
"Ah, right."
Xiao Yuan patted her head.
"I remember now. I was supposed to give you my eye."
"Eye?"
Yang Jian didn't quite understand what Xiao Yuan was saying. This cousin of his was always a bit unhinged.
"That's right."
Xiao Yuan reached up to touch her eye socket, then sighed and continued, "But there are some things that can't be brought in here. I can only give it to you after we get out."
Yang Jian asked in confusion, "Some things can't be brought in?"
Xiao Yuan nodded hard twice and shook the dagger in her hand. "Something like this can be brought in, but the kind on your left hand can't."
As she spoke, Xiao Yuan pointed at Yang Jian's mangled left hand.
"Left hand?" Yang Jian looked at his empty palm.
Could it be that supernatural forces couldn't be brought into this world?
Yang Jian immediately understood what Xiao Yuan meant. When facing the supernatural, he was always especially sharp, even though he was just an ordinary person right now.
Yang Jian could almost confirm that he was currently dreaming, and his current location was within an incredibly realistic dream.
Xiao Yuan's meaning was clear: a fierce ghost could pull a person's consciousness and items that existed in reality into a dream, but it couldn't pull other ghosts in.
Or rather, the fierce ghost that Yang Jian controlled couldn't function within the dream.
When exactly had he been attacked in the dream?
Yang Jian rapidly searched his memories.
"Could it have been Lin Bei?... When the bus stalled, he once displayed supernatural abilities related to dreams, but he and I haven't had any conflict. There's no reason for him to make a move on me."
"Lin Bei... the bus... Old Qin?!"
Yang Jian suddenly recalled that Old Qin had once told him that he had driven the bus and killed Yang Jian's father. Combined with intel on Lin Bei, Yang Jian had already confirmed that his father was a ghost controller.
"Could it be that when I was back home at Father's memorial portrait, I was already attacked? Perhaps the real reason Old Qin killed Father was because he was on the verge of a fierce ghost revival and had no choice but to do it..."
Yang Jian was rapidly analyzing. This practically perverse reaction speed when facing the supernatural was something no one else could accomplish.
"If that's the case, then it all makes sense."
Yang Jian was organizing all the information he currently possessed. Chaotic clues were connecting in his mind, and some long-sealed past events were gradually floating to the surface.
"The fierce ghost Father controlled while alive is the one currently attacking me, and the time of the attack was when I was at the memorial portrait during the day."
However, even though Yang Jian had analyzed the origins of this ghost in an extremely short time, it was of no help to his current situation.
"How do I get out? Or rather, how do I make my consciousness return to my body?"
Right now, Yang Jian was a cripple. Forget ghosts—even if a random dog jumped out, his only option would be to flee.
He had to get out as quickly as possible now. If he died in the dream, the first to suffer would be Lin Bei. That bald man definitely wouldn't be able to withstand the revival of his fierce ghost. At that time, the entirety of DQ City, and even the surrounding areas, would be attacked by the fierce ghosts belonging to him and Lin Bei.
"Xiao Yuan, get me out."
Yang Jian immediately said. It seemed this cousin was very familiar with this dream; she had even prepared a dagger to bring inside. Although Yang Jian couldn't determine whether she was human or ghost right now, he had no choice but to cling tightly to this lifeline.
"Okay, Cousin." Xiao Yuan giggled and said to Yang Jian, "Follow me."
"Where?"
Xiao Yuan said matter-of-factly, "To find and kill the ghost, of course. Didn't Cousin want to get out? Just find the ghost and kill it, that's all. If we don't kill the ghost before dawn, people will die."
"Kill the ghost... so that means ghosts can be harmed in the dream."
Yang Jian walked alongside Xiao Yuan, silently memorizing this crucial piece of information.
Following Xiao Yuan along this country path, the sinister sky was dark and oppressive. Faint moonlight barely illuminated the road ahead.
"Xiao Yuan, have you entered this kind of dream many times?"
"Mm." Xiao Yuan tapped her chin in thought.
"I can't remember. Anyway, I just know we have to kill the ghost to get out."
"Splash, splash..."
Rushing rivers surged past on both sides, making splashing sounds that were especially grating, as if something were struggling to climb onto the banks.
Xiao Yuan seemed to be very afraid of water, deliberately walking in the middle of the path to avoid the splashing river water as much as possible.
"Thud!"
A muffled impact rang out, like a heavy object falling from the sky into the river.
Yang Jian squinted for a closer look. Under the hazy moonlight, he could only faintly make out a round object drifting with the current, like a ball.
"Thud!" Another, louder splashing sound. This time, Yang Jian saw clearly: a long-haired female corpse fell from high above, crashing straight into the river.
He suddenly realized that what he had seen just now wasn't a ball at all, but a dead person's head!
But this wasn't the most terrifying part. In the instant that corpse fell into the river, he had clearly seen the appearance of that female corpse from Ghost Lake!
It was exactly the same as in his memory, without the slightest difference. The things on both sides of the path weren't rivers at all—they were Ghost Lake!
"Thud!" Another corpse fell into the lake. Yang Jian seemed to sense something and slowly looked up.
Under the gloomy sky, countless female corpses hung from ghost ropes beneath the cloud layer, stacked endlessly with no visible end. These corpses hung their heads low, yet they were all staring dead at the two of them.
Moonlight shone through the gaps between the corpses onto Yang Jian's shocked face.
"You've got to be kidding me..."
The next second, the ghost ropes began to snap...
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
Corpses fell one after another like raindrops, crashing heavily into the lake. Wet heads emerged from the water one by one, staring dead at Yang Jian.
"Run!"
Yang Jian grabbed Xiao Yuan's hand and ran madly forward. At this quantity, the falling bodies alone could crush the two of them to death.
However, the corpses falling from the sky grew increasingly dense, the thudding sounds unceasing, each impact beating like a drum against Yang Jian's heart.
Perhaps because it was still the initial stage of the dream, these female corpses didn't move.
But the number of falling corpses grew greater and greater, increasingly exaggerated, almost forming a rain composed of corpses.
"Smack!"
A female corpse suddenly smashed down beside the path, her body mangled beyond recognition from the impact. The next moment, the corpse's limbs actually began to slowly rise to a standing position at an extremely unnatural angle.