“I heard the entire process. First, the black flames will attack those who launch an attack against him—or rather, those who harbor malice toward him.”
Wang Xiaoming spoke very quickly. He had only just finished a sentence when a burst of chilling laughter immediately came from the phone.
“You’re all going to die... hehehe...”
The voice sounded as if someone were speaking right beside one’s ear. As that horrifying voice rang out, the staff member connected to the other end of the thin thread trembled all over, his eyes rapidly losing focus before he toppled over.
Seeing this, another staff member beside him did not hesitate at all. He immediately pulled out the thin thread that resembled an intestine, opened his mouth, and swallowed it down his own throat.
Wang Xiaoming silently glanced at him, a complicated look in his eyes. Then he continued speaking rapidly:
“Second, its method of killing may not be like the conventional kind, using a ghost domain or medium to launch an attack...”
“The disappearance of Yang Jian’s ghost domain, the hand Shen Lin used to hold the coffin nail—was it cause and effect?”
“This ghost replaced the result of the attack launched against it... and then invaded the ‘cause’ at the moment the thought of attacking arose.”
On the moon, everyone listened in silence. At this moment, time was life.
“Yang Jian’s ghost domain didn’t disappear. Rather, Yang Jian never activated it at all. The same goes for Shen Lin’s hand—he never chose to pin that ghost down with the coffin nail.”
“Although I don’t know how it did this, that isn’t important. Ghosts have always been existences without basis or logic. We only need to find a solution...”
Along with Wang Xiaoming’s calm analysis, the staff members in the conference room died one after another. Yet the call was never cut off.
Death was like a relay baton being passed on, handed from countless people to the next.
Every single one of them knew they were about to die, yet they still resolutely picked up that thin thread that maintained communication.
No hesitation. No retreat.
The shadow of malicious ghosts had never dissipated, but at this moment, fear lost its meaning.
At this moment, humanity’s will was condensed to its utmost limit. The emotion called courage burned amid blood and despair.
Every breath, every decision, was a counterattack against the malicious ghost, as if they were using their lives to interpret a silent belief:
Malicious ghosts were not terrifying. What was terrifying was submitting to fear and losing the courage to face malicious ghosts head-on.
Fear was the instinct of living beings, but courage was mankind’s hymn.
“This killing pattern, akin to cause and effect being reversed, likewise follows the essence of malicious ghosts.”
“Do not attempt to harbor any thought of attacking it. Head toward a more distant future, so that it cannot determine a result that has yet to occur.”
“Beep, beep...”
After Wang Xiaoming finished speaking, he hung up the phone. He raised his head and looked at the corpses being carried out one after another, a rare, indescribable emotion appearing in his eyes. Then he lowered his head again and continued his analysis in silence.
On the far side of the moon, only faint light shone.
After listening, everyone fell into thought for a moment. Liu San looked toward Yang Jian. The eerie black flames were gradually beginning to appear on the surface of Yang Jian’s body.
They were about to invade reality from Yang Jian’s consciousness. Once the invasion completely succeeded, it would mean Yang Jian’s consciousness had been fully eroded, and he would die immediately.
“There is something, but I cannot be certain whether it will be useful. Up until now, I have never heard of anyone being able to go to a future that has yet to occur...”
Wang Chaling looked at the two deathly still figures behind him, as if recalling something.
“Moreover, that thing is not here...”
No one knew what the thing Wang Chaling spoke of was. It was an old pendulum clock inside the Wang family’s ancestral residence, existing at a certain point in the past. Those who knew of the old clock were all imprisoned within the ancestral residence. In the outside world, aside from Wang Chaling, very few people knew of the old clock’s existence.
Time flowed by urgently. Everyone simply had no time to weigh their options.
Shen Lin suddenly said, “I once used memories to accomplish some inconceivable things, so I’ve always had a conjecture.”
He looked at Li Leping and continued, “Inside the Ghost Painting, you invaded my consciousness and erased the Starving Ghost that had already completely invaded over, moving its position back to where it originally was. Since that time, I’ve always been thinking—what if it were reversed?”
A trace of surprise flashed across Li Leping’s face, but he immediately understood Shen Lin’s intention.
Walking up to Li Leping, Shen Lin asked a question that only the two of them could understand. “Can you do it? Like a reverse invasion. It’s just that the danger is too great. We may become lost within endless fragments of memory.”
“Even if we can’t do it, we still have to. When facing the supernatural, we have never had a choice.”
Then Li Leping turned to Wang Chaling and said, “Don’t resist. If we fail, abandon us and Yang Jian. Retreat to Headquarters and find Wang Xiaoming. I still left some contingencies in Dachuan City.”
“Understood.” Wang Chaling nodded, took out a pocket watch, and handed it to Li Leping. Then he said, “There is an old residence in Dadong City. My grandfather built it. Inside, there is a pendulum clock. That thing may be able to help Yang Jian.”
Wang Chaling did not know what the two of them intended to do, but he still told them the location of that pendulum clock. At a life-and-death moment like this, any concealment would be brainless and foolish.
“Begin.” After he spoke, Li Leping and Shen Lin’s figures gradually became blurred and transparent.
As the two of them disappeared, Wang Chaling’s memories began to change. Two terrifying figures abruptly appeared within his memories.
One of them carried a hatchet. The other looked extremely blurry, his face impossible to see clearly.
They were Shen Lin and Li Leping.
The two of them seemed to be acting in great haste, as if searching for something.
“Search ahead. Find a safe fragment.”
Li Leping nodded. The black smoke around his body grew increasingly dense, to the point that even Wang Chaling in reality could smell a burnt stench.
It was a dilapidated old residence in the style of the Republican era, clearly visible within the memory. A man dressed in Republican-era clothing was directing a group of workers in repairing the building.
The man appeared to be around forty or so, and he actually bore a forty to fifty percent resemblance to Wang Chaling. However, his face was exceptionally terrifying; large patches of brown livor mortis appeared and disappeared across it.
Beside him was also a child. At a rough glance, he looked simply like a miniature version of Wang Chaling.
The timeline here seemed to be during the Republican era. That middle-aged man should be Wang Chaling’s grandfather, and if nothing unexpected had happened, the child beside him was Wang Chaling’s father.
But it was very strange. Why would Wang Chaling have memories from the Republican era? Logically speaking, the era in which he was born was modern society. Such a thing should have been absolutely impossible.
But at this moment, the two of them had no time to think about this question. They had to find that pendulum clock and save Yang Jian.
The two quietly observed. This fragment of memory was very safe, and they planned to wait here for the pendulum clock to appear.
“Something’s wrong.”
Li Leping looked at the middle-aged man who was directing the workers. That was Wang Chaling’s grandfather.
“He seems to be able to see us...”