When he finished speaking, sheet after sheet of yellow paper drifted up from nowhere, slowly gathering into a cluster as they circled and danced in the air.
Immediately after, the yellow papers fell one by one, covering the face on the newspaper.
But what was strange was that no matter how the yellow papers piled over it, the newspaper’s thickness did not change in the slightest, as though every sheet had sunk into that newspaper and vanished without a trace.
Liu San watched the yellow papers sink in one after another, as if weighing something. Only when the last sheet had completely disappeared did he speak.
“Pour it on.”
Cao Yang immediately did as told. A clump of foul, corpse-stinking liquid instantly soaked through the newspaper, spreading along its edges until it gradually covered the entire face.
The next second, a man’s face bulged out from the newspaper, mouth gaping wide in agony, letting out muffled roars through the paper.
It seemed to be struggling, trying to tear the newspaper apart, but it was being firmly suppressed.
“This is all we can do. When it comes to this sort of consciousness-type supernatural force, I don’t dare go too deep. If he survives, you can find Captain Yang. He should know one or two people of this type.”
Yet before Liu San could finish, the man’s face on the newspaper grew clearer and clearer, almost returning to the appearance of a living person.
A trace of surprise flashed through Liu San’s eyes.
“This fast?… A little beyond my expectations.”
On the newspaper, the man’s eyes snapped open, sweeping blankly over his surroundings.
Then a muffled, hoarse voice rang out.
“Save him first.”
Perhaps it was the final words Tong Qian had explained to him earlier, or perhaps it was his nearly abnormal power of observation, but within just a few seconds, Zhao Lei had already reacted to the situation before him.
Zhang Han’s gaze fixed on Zhao Lei. This man, whom he had only ever read about in records, had actually succeeded in coming back to life.
“Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with your current state?”
Since Tong Qian’s death was already a fact, the situation no longer allowed them to pause. The most urgent matter was to bring Xiong Wenwen back first.
Zhao Lei did not answer at once. Instead, he closed his eyes, as if readjusting to this body.
“Hurry… I won’t stay conscious for long…”
Cao Yang glanced toward Liu San’s position. There was no one there. The paper effigy medium had completely merged into the newspaper. Now they could only rely on the few of them.
“My ghost domain has been suppressed. We have to break open this ghost domain first, or we won’t be able to get anywhere near that corpse…”
The flesh and blood on Zhang Han’s back blurred into a mess as a gash was abruptly torn open. Half of a male corpse slowly rose upright from that wound. The current situation no longer allowed him to hesitate.
Zhang Han said in pain, “I don’t know what will happen next. This is the first time I’ve used the ghost’s power like this.”
On his blood-soaked back, the pale skin of that half male corpse was densely wrapped in hideous tattoos.
That half corpse seemed to be struggling, trying to peel itself away from Zhang Han’s back.
Then the tattoos on the half corpse’s body actually began to wriggle slowly, swimming off the corpse and spreading inch by inch along Zhang Han’s body toward the surroundings.
“Cao Yang, don’t resist my intervention for now. If you feel anything is wrong, take them and run.”
Zhang Han’s condition was deteriorating rapidly. On his blood-drenched back, that male corpse had already exposed its lower half.
Very soon, those tattoos began to make contact with Cao Yang’s footprints on the ground. The tattoos were covering the footprints—or more precisely, they were covering the edges of the footprints.
As the tattoos moved, the footprints representing Cao Yang’s ghost domain actually began to slowly gather together.
Cao Yang stared fixedly at the footprints covered by tattoos.
As the tattoos on that male corpse spread, every footprint seemed to be manipulated. The densely packed prints began to move, began to twist, began to be gradually pieced together…
In the end, all the footprints converged into a huge, pitch-black square shadow.
Cao Yang said in astonishment, “Are you kidding me?! A ghost domain is piecing itself together with itself?!”
This had already surpassed his knowledge and understanding of the supernatural. This situation was not merely a simple stacking of supernatural forces, nor was it a ghost controller fusing with a fierce ghost’s ghost domain. It was an even more insane application of the supernatural.
It was an angle of supernatural usage even stranger than the stacking of supernatural forces.
The footprints complemented one another. After the tattoos intervened in the footprints, they actually made every footprint become a puzzle piece for the others. It was equivalent to isolating the supernatural power, then forcibly stitching and assembling it back together.
In the end, these overlapping footprints constructed an extremely unconventional ghost domain.
It was an almost absurd reversal of logic. This method of using the supernatural like stepping on one’s right foot with one’s left to climb into the sky had become reality under the effect of the tattoos.
Cao Yang looked at Zhang Han and asked, “This method is too dangerous. Who taught you?”
“Who do you think?”
“That’s right… Ghost Eye Yang Jian. There’s nothing that man can’t do.”
“That’s right. The captain told me that ghosts can’t be viewed from a conventional perspective.”
“But the captain also told me that as long as someone is human, they have limits. If you keep standing here in a daze, we’re going to die miserably.”
Cao Yang swept a glance at the enormous square shadow in midair. He could not sense anything abnormal at all. Under the manipulation of the tattoos, his own supernatural power was becoming puzzle pieces with itself, forming another completely different kind of supernatural force.
The feeling was very strange. All the risks were being borne by the tattoos, while he only needed to use his ghost domain as he normally would.
“Work with me.”
The next second, the black square shadow in midair began to slowly sink, like a black coffin lid pressing down toward the corpse in the center of the square.
The supernatural forces began to collide, to clash head-on. There was no probing, no triggering of supernatural mechanisms, only the purest distinction in terror level.
The instant it came into contact with that bluish-purple ghost domain, not a single sound was made. The entire scene was like a silent mime.
The two supernatural forces instantly dispersed. Under the head-on clash, both Cao Yang’s ghost domain and that corpse’s ghost domain entered a brief shutdown.
“It worked. Zhao Lei, right? The rest is up to you.”
The human face on the newspaper seemed to respond, letting out a muffled sound. He had been observing from the side the entire time, and had fully reacted to the situation they were currently facing.
Immediately after, a faint cry sounded, accompanied by bursts of miserable laughter, slowly echoing through this world of ice and snow.
The sounds grew louder and more urgent.
Gradually, the two sounds seemed to slip out of control, beginning to intertwine and merge.
Without any warning, it was like a muted television whose volume had suddenly been turned to maximum. Every sound erupted abruptly, charging into the senses without the slightest warning.
Crying and laughter intertwined, producing a spine-chilling, high-frequency noise, like tens of thousands of mosquitoes vibrating beside one’s ears, echoing madly.
Even without relying on ghosts, the sheer volume alone would have been enough to kill any ordinary person.
Zhang Han glanced at Zhao Lei, finding it difficult to believe for a moment. He had never seen this exaggerated manifestation of the supernatural from Tong Qian before.
“Is this still the ghost face?”