“Don’t believe it! Seal it away immediately!”
Cao Yang said at once, his eyes fixed on the corpse. He held the body bag in both hands, ready to throw it over the corpse at any moment.
Zhang Han raised a hand to stop Cao Yang and said, “Wait. Although what I’m doing is indeed inappropriate, I still want to confirm something. If anything happens, I’ll take responsibility. If we can seal him away once, we can do it a second time.”
Zhang Han understood that he could not be considered clever—he was even a little prone to stubbornly fixating on things. But in the course of following Yang Jian to handle supernatural incidents, he had, imperceptibly, developed his own way of thinking when facing malicious ghosts.
This was a kind of growth, a growth between life and death as he followed in Yang Jian’s footsteps.
Words gradually began to surface on the newspaper, as if responding to Zhang Han. But a closer look would reveal that this was some sort of medium that had long since been set up, triggered by Zhang Han’s question.
“My name is Zhao Lei. I am Yang Jian’s classmate.”
“I tried to find an alternative way to control ghosts.”
“The plan failed.”
“Yang Jian took the newspaper away, but that action of his unintentionally helped me complete the most difficult part...”
“I succeeded... My memories have controlled this incomplete malicious ghost.”
“But the newspaper is also invading me.”
“My consciousness is gradually being erased...”
“Fortunately, I found this ghost, but the incomplete newspaper cannot fully suppress it...”
“I can’t contact Yang Jian. No matter who sees these words, help me find Yang Jian and save me...”
The words ended there. Zhang Han stared at the newspaper in contemplation. Just as he had guessed, up until now, no two supernatural objects had ever appeared that were completely identical. This newspaper was indeed the ghost Yang Jian had encountered at the Caesar Hotel.
Now it seemed that the person called Zhao Lei was trapped inside this half-torn, damaged newspaper. Although it truly seemed unbelievable, the supernatural had always been this way; it could not be understood through common sense.
Zhang Han continued to ask:
“What is this ghost’s killing pattern? To what extent can you control it now?”
Another passage of text quickly surfaced on the newspaper.
“After someone sees it, it will continuously appear within their field of vision...”
“As time passes, the face that appears will gradually become complete.”
“When you clearly see its full face, you will die.”
“With the help of the newspaper, I can only keep it in a state of half a face...”
Riiip—!
Suddenly, the surface of the newspaper bulged violently, and a hideous human face struggled up from within.
The face’s mouth gaped wide, letting out a muffled low roar.
“Save me. Find Yang Jian and help me...”
The voice stopped abruptly. The newspaper writhed violently, and in the end, that face slowly sank away, leaving only a single eerie line of words on the newspaper.
“That three-faced woman—her body... is mine.”
Everyone turned their heads in unison to look at Tong Qian. Apart from Cao Yang, the others all knew that Tong Qian’s body was not her own, but they had not expected that the original owner was actually one of Yang Jian’s classmates.
Tong Qian had her head lowered at this moment, making it impossible to see her expression or know what she was thinking.
Just as everyone’s attention was focused on Tong Qian’s body, the pungent stench of frozen meat rotting inside a refrigerator suddenly spread through the air.
A patch of deathly white followed the footprints behind Cao Yang, spreading over at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Xiong Wen immediately pointed at the footprints beside Cao Yang and shouted, “To your left! Run!”
Cao Yang was startled, but without the slightest hesitation, he immediately did as told. His figure vanished from where he stood. In the very next second after he disappeared, a shriveled corpse, so thin it looked as though it would collapse with a single gust of wind, stood silently on the snow where he had just been.
Its skin was pale and cracked, its eye sockets sunken deep, as if it had been completely frozen by extreme cold, even the decay after death forcibly halted.
Beneath the corpse’s feet, a patch of blackish-yellow soil slowly bulged up. It was Feng Quan’s grave soil. He had been observing their surroundings all along. As one of headquarters’ veteran handlers, when facing supernatural incidents, he had long since developed the habit of being ready to use his malicious ghost’s power at any time.
The soil slowly writhed, as if something was about to surge up from underground, extending along the corpse’s ankles.
However, the instant the grave soil came into contact with the corpse, countless cracks immediately appeared across the surface of the soil. Then it collapsed and peeled away, shattering into a ground full of frozen clods.
Feng Quan looked at the scattered chunks of soil on the ground, astonishment in his eyes. Although this grave soil was not the malicious ghost itself, it was still a derivative similar to a ghost domain. Yet he had not expected that in the face of this corpse, it could not even make contact.
“It can’t be restrained at all...”
Seeing this, Cao Yang immediately unfolded his own ghost domain.
Footprints—one string of eerie footprints after another—appeared out of thin air in the snow. Accompanied by the sound of footsteps, they gradually pressed toward the feet of the group.
This was Cao Yang’s ghost domain. He did not choose to continue retreating; instead, he used his ghost domain to cover everyone.
Since there was no way to shake off the attack, he intended to figure out this ghost’s killing pattern right here.
As everyone entered Cao Yang’s ghost domain, the corpse seemed to lose its target for attack and fell into a brief stillness, standing stiffly in place without moving at all.
But the ghost was invading through the footprints spread all over the ground. Within Cao Yang’s ghost domain, the faint deathly white became increasingly distinct.
Cao Yang’s expression was grave. This ghost’s trait was similar to suppression, yet not entirely the same. The malicious ghosts inside their bodies felt as though they had been frozen. Although they could still sense them, they could not use them.
“Damn it... If Shen Lin were here, this kind of suppression-like effect would be completely useless against him. This ghost seems to have an extremely high danger level, but in reality, its terror level hasn’t reached S-rank. At most, it’s hovering around A-rank...”
The invasion was still continuing. The white was gradually corroding the space covered by the ghost domain.
Everyone knew this state could not last for too long. The attack through the footprints just now was the best proof.
Zhang Han looked outside the ghost domain. Frozen, cracked grave soil was scattered all over the ground, and a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes. This malicious ghost’s suppression was different from the Ghost Messenger’s absolute numerical suppression. Instead, it was a gradual process, continuing until the malicious ghost inside one’s body was completely “frozen” by it, yet one could still sense the existence of one’s own ghost.
In that instant, he thought of a plan. If a ghost controller on the verge of resurgence were placed within this ghost’s ghost domain, and then something was used to restrict the malicious ghost’s activity, could that ongoing resurgence be stopped?
The thought flashed through his mind, but in theory, it should be feasible. Now he had to test it. Although it was dangerous, facing malicious ghosts had always been like this—seeking life from the jaws of death. If one did not have the resolve to die, one could never survive long under the erosion of malicious ghosts.
No longer hesitating, Zhang Han raised his foot and stepped out of the ghost domain.
Seeing this, Tong Qian immediately said, “Zhang Han! What are you doing?! Come back!”