The surface of the moon.
Yang Jian abruptly opened his eyes.
What met his eyes was Li Jun's back. His bare upper body had already been burned charred black, and beneath the charcoal-like flesh, a few scattered gloomy green flames still flickered faintly.
But even so, Li Jun's figure remained perfectly straight, steadily blocking in front of Yang Jian and the other two.
Before Li Jun, a man wearing a cowboy hat was kneeling on the ground with difficulty. The flesh on his body had also been burned charred black, and the cold green fire continuously drilled into his body.
However, he was still capable of movement. He gripped an old hunting rifle in his hand, the muzzle angled slightly upward, pointed directly at Li Jun's chest, trembling slightly.
He wanted to pull the trigger, but his fingers couldn't exert any strength. They could only rest stiffly against it.
Not far away, Wang Chaling's upper body was covered in banknotes, but his hand was firmly pressing down on a foreign man's shoulder. One could vaguely see a faint, nearly imperceptible figure slowly overlapping with his body.
And beneath Wang Chaling's feet, foul-smelling soil surged incessantly, gradually swallowing his body bit by bit, as if trying to drag him beneath the ground.
That foreign man's face was deathly pale. His skin had already begun to rapidly rot. On his numb, ashen face, a hint of an incredulous expression faintly emerged.
"Impossible. The intel showed you were just an ordinary person."
Wang Chaling looked at the Banker before him, who was on the verge of death, and spoke indifferently, "What decent person believes intelligence reports?"
Then, a rich scarlet red flashed before everyone's eyes. The King codenamed Cowboy's face showed shock, and his finger, which was about to pull the trigger, instantly stiffened.
The next moment, his vision flipped, followed by a whirl of heaven and earth. When Yang Jian's figure appeared again, an ice-cold head was gripped in his hand.
Almost simultaneously, before Wang Chaling, a corpse fell straight backward. The Banker, who was already at a disadvantage, was killed by the First Generation of the Wang Family in practically an instant during that moment of distraction.
In the pitch-black deep pit at his feet, a figure transformed into a clump of black earth and vanished. The Gravedigger's reaction was very fast—he had been staying underground the entire time and fled the instant he saw Yang Jian and the others regain mobility.
Shen Lin and Liu San didn't even have a chance to make a move.
His gaze fell behind Wang Chaling. There stood two deathly still old people. Shen Lin pondered.
Ever since the incident where Great Jing City spiraled out of control, Wang Chaling had grown significantly. He was no longer as timid and indecisive as he had been in the past, overly cautious with every move.
Although his supernatural abilities still focused primarily on self-preservation, he had become much more flexible in their application. Being able to face two Kings alone and successfully turn the tables and kill them was the best proof of Wang Chaling's growth.
Wang Chaling, seeing that everyone had awakened, immediately said, "Li Jun is almost done for. A ghost was beaten into his body."
Liu San walked up to Li Jun and supported him by his side. During the Hurricane Event, Li Jun had once risked his life to open an escape path for him. This made Liu San's attitude toward Li Jun consistently much friendlier.
Although that had only been one of Liu San's paper men, and it had ultimately failed, Liu San knew that the obsession deep in Li Jun's heart was a grand righteousness that none of the other team captains could match.
A major general barely over thirty years old, his future should have been bright. Yet he had volunteered to control vengeful ghosts, becoming Wang Xiaoming's test subject. Only after wandering at death's door time and again did he reach this point today.
He didn't have Wang Xiaoming's intellect, nor did he have Yang Jian's judgment that was extremely sensitive to supernatural phenomena. He only had a heart full of hot blood, all of it spilled for the cause of protecting his home and country.
Li Jun never cared about the process, only the result. Whether he became a Ghost Controller or some other indescribable monster, as long as he could protect the land he so loved beneath his feet, he would never regret it.
"What is this?"
Liu San frowned slightly. Li Jun's entire body was filled with the scent of Chinese medicine. Looking at the corner of Li Jun's mouth, a few herbal fibers still remained there.
The smell of this Chinese medicine was extremely strong, mixed with a rotten stench that only existed on dead bodies.
"Looks like it's something from Headquarters."
Wang Chaling stepped forward and looked at the Chinese medicine in Li Jun's mouth.
"For a moment just now, Li Jun nearly burned that cowboy hat to death. It should be because of this Chinese medicine."
Liu San nodded. The yellow paper on his arms gradually spread apart, gently wrapping around Li Jun. The withered arm hidden inside was revealed, but was quickly covered by newly added yellow paper.
Wang Chaling watched clearly from the side, but he didn't say much. Every team captain had their own secrets. He turned to look at Yang Jian's side—that Cowboy had actually not died even after Yang Jian chopped off his head with a single blade.
"I won't say anything."
This head wearing a cowboy hat stared at Yang Jian with venom, its eyes full of resentment. He believed that if not for his poor condition and being ambushed, he wouldn't have lost to Yang Jian.
Yang Jian didn't even look at him properly. He turned his gaze to Shen Lin, his tone calm.
"Of course, I believe you."
Shen Lin nodded. Then his figure vanished from where he stood. That head's expression suddenly twisted, and then a hint of terror surfaced on its face.
"Wait! What did you do!?"
Within the Cowboy's memories, a blurry and terrifying figure was holding an axe, continuously hacking away at his memory fragments.
With every hack, a part of his memories would go missing. Gradually, a confused expression appeared on the Cowboy's face. He couldn't even remember who he was anymore.
Suddenly, the flesh of the entire face ripped violently open, and Shen Lin's face burst out from inside the head.
"Found it. Besides the few Kings who ambushed us here, there's no one else. But this person's memories also don't contain information about the other Kings. Let's move quickly."
Yang Jian turned around and said, "Let's go. Get Zhang Sun's corpse. Liu San, keep an eye on Li Jun. We still need him to open that door."
"It will take a bit more time to wake him."
Liu San nodded. Without anyone noticing when, two paper men had appeared beside him, supporting the dying Li Jun.
The scarlet Ghost Domain gradually spread out. Yang Jian was gauging the distance. When he had attacked the Cowboy earlier, he had already discovered that his Ghost Domain was being burned by something. That burning sensation was extremely bizarre—it seemed to inherently exist within the Ghost Eyes. The Ghost Domain had already been attacked before it even fully unfolded.
Yang Jian shook his head.
"The Ghost Domain can cover ten meters at most... We can only go on foot."
The group walked across this desolate silver land. From afar, the azure outline of Earth was visible behind them. Their movements appeared light and graceful due to the moon's low gravity.
Yang Jian kept frowning. That strange burning sensation always gave him an indescribable feeling.
It seemed this kind of attack had already exceeded the scope of his understanding, leaving him completely unable to analyze it.
The group walked for roughly ten minutes.
Shen Lin, who was leading the way in front, stopped.
"We're here..."