The bus slowly pulled to a stop before the two of them. Without a word, Yang Jian pulled open the door and threw Lin Bei inside.
Yang Jian didn't dare board. Faced with this bizarre supernatural creation, he remained deeply wary even now.
Lin Bei struggled to climb up, casually found a window seat, and looking at Yang Jian outside the bus said, "Thanks, Captain Yang."
Yang Jian nodded and said, "If you encounter something you can't resolve, come find me in Dachang City."
In that dream earlier, without Lin Bei, he might have died inside. Especially at the final critical moment, the supernatural confrontation had appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, Lin Bei had been resisting the supernatural overlay of two fierce ghosts. To have persisted until now, it could be said that Lin Bei had already exhausted all his strength.
If not for his father lending Lin Bei a hand at the end, he likely wouldn't have lasted until boarding the bus.
Watching the bus that had already driven into the distance, Yang Jian didn't linger. His Ghost Domain instantly stretched into a straight line, racing rapidly toward headquarters.
In the dream, there hadn't been enough time to carefully question his father. Now he needed to find Old Qin and clarify exactly what had happened back then.
A strange red line streaked across the sky of Dajing City. Just as he was about to approach headquarters' airspace, a patch of frigid green flames surged up from within headquarters, blocking Yang Jian's path.
Yang Jian's face turned cold. With one hand, he gestured toward Li Jun, and large swathes of frigid lake water immediately poured down from the sky. The two supernatural forces touched for merely a moment before the green flames were completely submerged by the lake water.
At the same time, a vicious dog leaped out from the lake. After circling Yang Jian twice, it stood by his feet, bared its fangs, and glared ferociously at Li Jun.
"Li Jun, are you courting death?"
Yang Jian looked at Li Jun, who was wrapped in lake water. It seemed that after the hurricane incident, Wang Xiaoming had rescued this major general. However, Li Jun now looked extremely horrifying—half his body was completely charred, and within his exposed eye socket hung a ghastly pale eyeball.
Li Jun spoke with difficulty: "Minister Cao told me to tell you that Old Qin is currently guarding the Ghost Painting. No one is allowed to disturb him."
"Do you take me for a three-year-old? Something that could be said with a phone call, and you need to use a Ghost Domain to tell me?"
Winds howled ceaselessly above Dajing City. Yang Jian, carrying his machete and stepping on the lake water, walked toward Li Jun step by step.
"You should count yourself lucky I'm in a good mood today. Otherwise, you'd be a corpse right now. Remember—don't randomly unleash any supernatural abilities against me next time. You know I'm rather neurotic; I easily lose control and start killing indiscriminately."
After speaking, red light carrying the lake water instantly surged into headquarters' interior.
Li Jun hung suspended in midair, his pale half-face heavy with solemnity.
He had received Cao Yanhua's orders to probe whether Yang Jian was nearing fierce ghost revival. After all, every ghost controller who needed to board that bus was in an abysmal state.
But he hadn't expected that with just one exchange, he would be completely suppressed by Yang Jian, without even any room to resist.
Especially that dog—the moment it appeared, it made Li Jun feel that he would die the very next second.
It hadn't been that long since he'd last seen Yang Jian, yet Yang Jian had already grown to such a degree. He was an existence unheard of throughout the supernatural circle; if one spoke of it, no one would even believe it.
A concentrated streak of scarlet red stabbed straight into headquarters' underground level. Yang Jian arrived directly at Wang Xiaoming's laboratory.
Wang Xiaoming lifted his eyes to glance at Yang Jian, then continued with what he was doing, seemingly unsurprised.
"You're here?"
Yang Jian said directly, "Where is Old Qin? I want to see him."
Wang Xiaoming pointed at the ground and said, "Below. But I can't see him either."
Yang Jian asked coldly, "What do you mean?"
"Ever since the Dajing City incident, Old Qin has kept himself locked below, guarding those three ghosts to prevent any further mishaps."
As he spoke, Wang Xiaoming handed Yang Jian a document.
"What's past is past. Rather than focus on facts that can't be changed, it's better to think about how to face the future. No one can see Old Qin at this point in time. Take a look at this instead."
Yang Jian opened the file and read its contents.
"King's Organization? What kind of edgy name is that?"
Wang Xiaoming nodded and said:
"Correct. I've been watching this organization for a very long time. Recently, I sent a team captain abroad to investigate. The situation is very grim."
"What does this have to do with me?"
"The Ghost Ship Plan." Wang Xiaoming tossed Yang Jian a can of cola and continued:
"The number of ghost controllers in our country has always been at the forefront globally. This has caused other nations to view us as a threat. After all, if a person wields too much power, no one can sleep soundly. The same goes for nations."
Yang Jian opened the cola and took a swig. It was actually ice-cold. It seemed headquarters' investigation of him was exhaustive—from what movies he liked to watch down to what dishes he liked to eat, they knew everything.
Yang Jian quickly understood what Wang Xiaoming meant.
"So they want to unite to weaken our strength and prevent us from dominating alone?"
"Exactly." Wang Xiaoming adjusted his glasses.
"But I've never been one to passively wait. I originally planned to break them one by one, but according to the intelligence coming back from abroad, the situation no longer allows us to wait. We must strike first! Catch them off guard!"
Yang Jian was stunned. Was this the so-called "throw one punch to avoid a hundred punches"?
"But before that, I still need to complete another matter. Then we will launch an assault abroad. I hope you won't refuse when the time comes."
Yang Jian drank his cola, thinking for a moment. Although he had never liked following headquarters' arrangements, since they were already preparing to bring the fight to his doorstep, Yang Jian couldn't ignore it either. If headquarters were to fall to that so-called King's Organization, there would be no point in him guarding Dachang City.
He extended one finger toward Wang Xiaoming and said:
"When it's over, I want a coffin nail. Don't tell me you don't have one. This operation is too dangerous; otherwise, I refuse."
Wang Xiaoming nodded.
"Coffin nails are extremely rare supernatural items. In this raid on foreign soil, one person will be carrying a coffin nail. If you can obtain it after the operation, then it's yours."
"Deal."
Yang Jian tossed aside the cola and prepared to leave. Since he couldn't see Old Qin, he didn't want to remain here any longer.
"Wait." Wang Xiaoming called out to him.
"The investigation regarding your cousin is finished."
Wang Xiaoming pulled out an old file and handed it to Yang Jian; it was covered in quite a bit of dust.
The file was extremely old—even the information on it was handwritten. In the black-and-white photo was a little girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen, her hair in two long braids.
A strange light flickered in Yang Jian's eyes. The girl in this photo actually looked exactly like his cousin.
"Yang Yuanyuan's birth date was forty years ago?!"
Wang Xiaoming stepped forward and said, "Your cousin is actually of the same generation as your father. No, she might even predate your father's birth. It's just that the investigation ends here. There's no further information to support us continuing to verify."
Yang Jian's gaze fell on the last line.
Cause of death: Drowning.
Yang Jian narrowed his eyes slightly. The medium of the Ghost Dream was water, yet this cousin of his had died by drowning over a decade ago...
All of this was far too coincidental.
Wang Xiaoming took out a handgun from a drawer and said, "But I'm more interested in the gun your cousin was holding."
"Judging solely by appearance, compared to the era she was born in, the gun in your cousin's hand is somewhat too advanced. But according to the investigation results, she has been carrying that handgun from forty years ago up until now."
"To be honest, even with modern technology, it would require a nation's top-tier manufacturing capabilities to replicate. I don't think anyone could have possessed this kind of technology decades ago."