A young man wearing a cloak, a treasured sword hanging at his waist, walked at the very front. Behind him was a man with half his body burned black, yet still holding a cigarette between his lips. Beside the man was a pale-skinned woman whose face was painted with blood-red makeup, a young man who kept his head lowered as he played games on an old-fashioned phone, and at the very rear of the group walked a gaunt man with bloodshot eyes.
“Su Fan, can that crappy game of yours hold up or not? After we deal with the Ghost Painting, come to Dahai City. I’ll give you a top-of-the-line computer!”
Ye Zhen walked at the front of the group, looking left and right, as though this had always been the way he searched for ghosts.
From just now, the entire world of the Ghost Painting had stopped functioning. In this whole gray, hazy world, there was not even the slightest breeze.
“Go left. Something fell down over there.” Su Fan had not looked at the road at all, his eyes fixed the entire time on the old-fashioned phone in his hand.
“It seems to be one of headquarters’ persons in charge.” A-Hong looked at the intermittent green dots flickering on the satellite phone.
The group had only taken a few steps when, in the distance, the ground and the densely packed high-rises on both sides seemed like a sheet of paper being slowly folded toward Ye Zhen and the others by some unknown supernatural force.
A stifling atmosphere echoed through this gray world. The entire Ghost Painting world was folded into a sealed rectangle, like a coffin that had shut everyone inside.
“The Ghost Painting has changed. Looking at this shape, it’s hard not to suspect it’s because of the Ghost Messenger.”
Shen Lin and Wang Chaling walked side by side through this eerie gray-white world.
“Hmm? What’s that?”
Wang Chaling looked above his head. Three black dots suddenly appeared in the sky. From Wang Chaling’s perspective, the three black dots seemed to be rising at high speed. Then a cloud of black smoke suddenly appeared, enveloping those three black dots and steadily landing on the ground far ahead above them.
Shen Lin looked at the satellite phone in his hand.
“The positioning system isn’t of much use in this terrain anymore. We need to think of another way to contact the others. Let’s go. That distance is too far. Even with a ghost domain, we can’t get there inside the Ghost Painting.”
“The communications are being interfered with. I can only barely receive intermittent location signals.”
Tong Qian was trying to use the satellite phone to contact the others.
“My ghost eyes are being restricted here. Li Leping, can your ghost domain cross this distance in this place?”
Yang Jian looked at the two black dots moving slowly in the distance overhead, as if pondering something.
“I can’t do it. The ghost inside me is being suppressed here too. But for me, that’s good news.”
Li Leping had completely regained consciousness. However, five black fingerprints could faintly be seen on the right side of his face.
“Follow those two things. Move in the same direction.”
After saying that, Yang Jian and the other two followed the two black dots in the far distance overhead, which were almost impossible to see clearly, and began moving in the same direction.
A pitch-black coffin hung in the very center of the Ghost Painting world.
“That’s the Ghost Coffin. In less than two minutes, another change has occurred inside the Ghost Painting.”
Fang Shiming held a pair of scissors. His bloodshot eyes were fixed firmly on the Ghost Coffin in the air.
The satellite phone in Li Jun’s hand suddenly let out a long beep, and Wang Xiaoming’s voice came through from inside.
“Li Jun, from now on, no matter what you hear, you must not respond. Listen carefully to what I’m saying.”
“Li Jun! Can you hear me? Hurry and come save us! Headquarters has fallen!”
“The makeup box in A-Hong’s hand is contaminated with the medium from the Starving Ghost, but the scissors in Fang Shiming’s hand can cut away the faint connection to the Starving Ghost inside the makeup box...”
“Li Jun! Why aren’t you speaking? Aren’t you a soldier? A soldier absolutely obeys orders! Answer me immediately if you hear this!”
“After that, have A-Hong draw a door inside the Ghost Painting. The doorknob in your hand should still be usable. Although you can’t get out, moving within the Ghost Painting should be possible.”
“Hehehe, Li Jun! All of you are going to die in there!”
“Beep, beep, beep.” The call was suddenly disconnected.
“What’s going on? Did Wang Xiaoming get scared insane?” Ye Zhen, listening from the side, was completely confused.
Fang Shiming looked at the scissors in his hand, thinking over Wang Xiaoming’s phone call just now.
“To be able to contact us through the Ghost Painting’s ghost domain, he must have borrowed some supernatural object. If you had answered just now, you would have immediately suffered an attack from a ghost.”
Headquarters.
Wang Xiaoming sat in front of an old-fashioned hand-cranked telephone. Behind the telephone was a thin cord like a human intestine, and the other end of the cord was connected to the mouth of a woman who had died long ago.
Tears welled in Liu Xiaoyu’s eyes. In a call that had lasted less than twenty seconds, three staff members had been sacrificed, and Liu Xiaoyu did not even know their names.
All of those people had volunteered to complete this communications mission. Liu Xiaoyu remembered the light in their eyes two minutes ago. It was not fear of death or the supernatural. It was courage.
No fear of death. No fear of the supernatural. As though the certain-death supernatural before them was not worth mentioning at all. They had resolutely picked up the telephone cord and inserted it into their own mouths.
Liu Xiaoyu silently wiped away her tears, picked up the headset, and began assisting the persons in charge in handling the out-of-control fierce ghosts within Dajing.
Only this time, there was no longer the fear of the past in her eyes. In its place was an emotion called courage.
“Fang Shiming.” Li Jun had just been about to say something when Fang Shiming raised a hand and interrupted him.
“No need to say more. I, Fang Shiming, am not the sort of fool who can’t tell what the situation is. In this current state of affairs, I will also do everything in my power.”
Fang Shiming pointed the scissors at the makeup box in A-Hong’s hand.
“A-Hong, open it.”
“Thank you.” A-Hong took out the makeup box wrapped in gold and opened it. A mirror was embedded in the upper part of the inside of the makeup box, while several small compartments below held pigments of different colors.
Fang Shiming took off his gloves and held the old scissors wrapped in black hair, lightly touching them to the makeup box.
The surrounding environment immediately darkened, but inside this Ghost Painting world, it seemed to be suppressed. The surroundings flickered between light and dark. The sound of dripping water abruptly rang beside his ear. Fang Shiming could smell a rotten, foul stench, mixed with a strong reek of blood.
Without hesitation, Fang Shiming made a snip through the air at a certain part of the makeup box. It was as if nothing had happened. Only Ye Zhen frowned, looking at the scissors in silence.
“All right. The rest is up to you.”
After hearing this, A-Hong immediately took the makeup box and began smearing pigment on a wall by the roadside, moving with great caution, as if avoiding some kind of supernatural force.
Yang Jian looked at the red door that had abruptly appeared beside them. The pitch-black Ghost Shadow instantly spread toward it.
“Li Leping! Do it!”
“Yang Jian! Stop!” Before the Ghost Shadow could get close, a flash of green fire flickered from within the door, and Li Jun, half his body already burned black, walked out from behind it.
Several strangely dressed men and women walked out from behind the door.
Ye Zhen stood with his hands clasped behind his back. A bamboo hat slightly shaded his brows, and he looked at Yang Jian with a face full of emotion.
“So you’re Ghost Eye Yang Jian? Interesting.”
“Do we know each other?” Yang Jian looked at the strangely dressed and oddly behaving young man before him.
Did headquarters’ persons in charge also have people who liked cosplay?
After a brief exchange, everyone could be considered acquainted with one another.
Fang Shiming seemed very interested in Tong Qian’s three faces, deliberately walking to the side and observing those two ghost faces.
Tong Qian looked at Fang Shiming somewhat awkwardly.
“You keep staring at me like this... Is there something you need?”
“I’m just curious about the way you’ve controlled fierce ghosts like this. If you have the chance, you can come sit with us at the Friends’ Circle. I think we should be able to become friends.”
After Fang Shiming finished speaking, he no longer looked at Tong Qian, only frowning as though pondering something.
“An anomaly? Another path? If I had been able to meet this person earlier, perhaps my plan would have had a better solution...”
Ye Zhen seemed very interested in Li Leping. He kept walking beside Li Leping, constantly muttering things like “sparring” and “invincible,” words that no one could make sense of.
Li Leping seemed to have been annoyed by Ye Zhen’s pestering. He closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep, stiffly following behind Li Jun.
“Li Jun, it’s time.”
Yang Jian looked at the two black dots in the distance overhead. Those two black dots seemed to have discovered the situation on this side as well and had already stopped moving.
It was a wooden doorknob painted with red lacquer, exuding an eerie aura.
Li Jun placed the doorknob on the door A-Hong had drawn and pushed lightly.
Behind the door stood a one-armed man whose entire body was rotting. Beside him was also a young man in casual clothes, his figure looking somewhat unreal.
“Wang Chaling?” Li Jun called out Wang Chaling’s name with some hesitation.
“It’s me. You came too late...” Wang Chaling’s deathly pale face showed not a trace of emotion.
“Reinforcements from headquarters? Hello, everyone. Let me introduce myself. My name is Shen Lin.” Shen Lin smiled and greeted Yang Jian and the others.
Li Leping walked toward Wang Chaling.
“What happened to your hand? And your current state seems...”
Li Leping and Wang Chaling had met several times at headquarters. Unlike his previous refined and elegant image, the current Wang Chaling was like a corpse.
“Just now, Shen Lin, Zhou Zheng, and I were attacked by the Starving Ghost. But we managed to survive without too much danger. However, now—”
“Wait!!!”
Wang Chaling’s words made Yang Jian’s eyelids twitch violently.
“Wang Chaling! What Zhou Zheng? Zhou Zheng already died in the Ghost Infant incident! The Starving Ghost was released after the fierce ghost inside him revived!”
Before Yang Jian had even finished speaking, the Ghost Shadow spread toward Shen Lin and Wang Chaling, but it seemed unable to lock onto Shen Lin’s body. Shen Lin stood where he was, brows tightly furrowed.
“I’m not a ghost... Just now, the Starving Ghost ate part of my body. Could it be—everyone, be careful!”
The moment his voice fell, a memory that did not belong to them surfaced in everyone’s minds. In that memory, a green-black human figure stood eerily behind everyone.
In the next second, the figure suddenly split open its lower jaw, revealing a mouthful of pitch-black, savage teeth, and lunged toward the nearest person, Tong Qian.