No one knew what method Zhao Lei had used, but after the sound swelled explosively, not the slightest trace of it reached their ears again.
Yet on the surrounding high-rises, the glass curtain walls covered in white snow shattered with a thunderous crash. Deep cracks split through the walls, exposing the steel reinforcement within. Beneath their feet, fissures spread and branched across the earth like a spiderweb.
Everyone watched it happen, disbelief filling their hearts.
They had seen Tong Qian’s ability to stack crying and laughter together. It was indeed bizarre and lethal, but it had never been outrageous to this extent—this terrifying degree that was enough to alter the terrain itself.
But only Yang Jian would know. If he were here now, he would understand that this was the kind of supernatural power one ought to possess after a near-perfect supernatural counterbalance, after controlling two complete, fully stalled ghosts.
This exquisitely precise use of the supernatural was something Tong Qian had been utterly incapable of before. Yet Zhao Lei had only controlled these two faces for less than five minutes, and he had already adapted to such a degree.
It had to be admitted that Zhao Lei’s sensitivity toward the supernatural was truly astonishing. Even so, the current situation was no longer something they could handle.
Zhang Han watched as Xiong Wenwen’s figure in the photograph grew increasingly indistinct. The child was already nearing his limit.
The sound was still stacking, seemingly endless. Without the restriction of that bluish-purple Ghost Domain, under Zhao Lei’s assault, Xiong Wenwen’s figure was gradually being dragged back into reality.
“Save him!”
Zhang Han and Cao Yang rushed toward that corpse. Without any fancy tricks, they grabbed Xiong Wenwen by the shoulders and began pulling him out.
“We can’t move him?!”
Zhang Han looked at Xiong Wenwen’s swollen, bluish-purple face. His whole body seemed to have been nailed to the quilt; no matter how hard the two of them pulled, he did not budge in the slightest.
At that moment, two even stranger sounds came over.
The sounds were neither high nor low, neither light nor heavy. It was as though someone were pressed against their ears, sometimes weeping, sometimes letting out a sinister snicker.
“This guy…”
The corners of Cao Yang’s mouth had already begun to show signs of rising slightly.
“Why does it feel like this is his first time using a fierce ghost’s power? He’s not caring about anyone else’s survival at all.”
Zhang Han glanced back at Zhao Lei and said, “How the hell would I know? All I know is that he’s Yang Jian’s classmate and went through one supernatural incident. Those two faces are too dangerous. Put your back into it—hurry up and get Xiong Wenwen out.”
Cao Yang had even braced his foot against the corpse for leverage.
“I’m already using all my strength. I can’t pull this thing out either.”
“Hm?... What’s this?”
Cao Yang noticed a charred hole in the old quilt. A rag about the size of two palms was hanging from it. Judging from its appearance, it had probably been burned away by some even more terrifying supernatural force. It was dangling precariously, as though it might fall at any moment.
At this moment, Zhao Lei’s assault was still continuing. Unlike Tong Qian, he was not cautious and restrained at all. Instead, during this brief period of wakefulness, he was frantically exploring and excavating the limits of these two faces.
Immediately afterward, the weeping and laughter that had originally been separate beside their ears actually began to merge. The pitch turned strange, the rhythm bizarre.
It was like thousands upon thousands of corpses screaming madly. Gradually, the two of them felt the faint sound beside their ears grow louder and louder, more and more piercing.
The supernatural was beginning to stack. Unlike the previous separate stacking of laughter and weeping, this time, after the two pieces complemented each other, it was the stacking of an entirely new supernatural power.
Along with that abrupt sound that seemed neither laughter nor weeping, Cao Yang’s and Zhang Han’s faces suddenly stiffened and twisted. The corners of their mouths rose uncontrollably, revealing an eerie, symmetrical smile.
Immediately after, their hands suddenly felt light. The two of them successfully pulled Xiong Wenwen out.
By now, Xiong Wenwen was no longer breathing. His face was livid, as though he had been frozen in a freezer for an entire day and night. His whole body was ice-cold.
Cao Yang casually tore off that piece of rag. It felt chilly in his hand, unlike ordinary cloth. In its inner layer, there seemed to be some kind of chunk of flesh sewn inside. Touching it gave him a soft, sticky sensation that made his scalp go numb.
There was no time to think. He stuffed the rag into his bag, then picked up Xiong Wenwen and ran backward. By now, the corners of his mouth were completely beyond his control. His entire face wore an eerie, rigid smile that looked extremely horrifying.
Zhang Han ran beside him, shouting, “Zhao Lei! Stop laughing! Stop laughing! Stop! We’ve already saved Xiong Wenwen!”
However, Zhao Lei did not stop. Behind the two of them, the frozen-to-death ghost was gradually regaining movement. The Ghost Domain that had previously been counterbalanced away was also slowly recovering. A faint layer of bluish-purple had already begun to appear around them.
Seeing that Zhao Lei had no intention of stopping, Zhang Han and Cao Yang instinctively looked back. Their pupils instantly contracted. That corpse had actually slowly raised an arm...
Cao Yang immediately realized that it was because he had torn off that rag, causing the puzzle that would originally have needed time to complete itself to become whole in an instant.
Zhang Han glanced at Cao Yang. Only then did he remember that Cao Yang seemed to have torn something off the ghost just now.
He immediately roared, “What did you do?! In this kind of situation, you still dared to interfere with an already unstable supernatural force?! Do you have a death wish?!”
Cao Yang remained silent and did not answer. His actions had indeed caused the frozen-to-death ghost to regain movement ahead of time, but now it was impossible to put the rag back.
He threw Xiong Wenwen to Zhang Han, then took out a ghost candle from his coat. Only a short stub of it remained.
“Take him and go first. I’ll deal with the consequences I caused myself.”
Without looking back, Zhang Han shouldered Xiong Wenwen and started running.
As he ran, he shouted, “Zhao Lei! Louder! Louder!”
At this moment, Zhang Han did not dare take out the ghost camera and gamble again. He ran to a pile of grave soil, grabbed Huang Ziya and Feng Quan on either side, and sprinted madly into the distance.
Behind him, the dim, dark-green candlelight gradually spread. But this situation lasted less than a second. The deep, ghostly candlelight seemed to have been frozen, unable to spread even the slightest bit farther.
A large patch of bluish-purple snowflakes immediately condensed over the surface of that short stub of ghost candle, rapidly extending upward. It actually froze even the burning flame along with it.
But this gave Cao Yang enough time to react. A string of footprints immediately appeared beneath his feet.
Immediately afterward, a wave of sound swept over, mixed with that eerie tone that seemed neither laughter nor weeping, as though countless corpses were howling behind him.
The footprints stepped through empty air along the sound wave, rapidly moving away from this place at an unbelievable speed.
The next second, when everyone came back to their senses, the setting sun was spilling down and the air was warm.
All around them were police cordons that had long since been set up. Dozens of headquarters personnel gathered around. Noisy voices, radio communications, medical shouts—all kinds of sounds filled their eardrums.
Zhang Han abruptly stopped and looked around, somewhat unable to believe it.
“A Ghost Domain?”
Just now, he had only seen a wave of sound sweep over. By the time he reacted, he was already here. As far as he knew, aside from a Ghost Domain, there were no other supernatural methods capable of achieving this kind of ultra-long-distance displacement.
But Tong Qian had never possessed a Ghost Domain, and Zhao Lei could not possibly have conjured one out of thin air.