Shattered Face Ghost

After confirming that everything had settled down, Gao Tian finally had time to tend to his injured hand.

The bleeding from his finger wasn't severe. He returned to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and washed the wound. After drying it with a towel, he found a piece of stiff cardboard to use as a splint. Placing it on both sides of his finger, he straightened it and then wrapped it securely with tape.

Gao Tian completed the entire process with one hand. Once the pain exceeded a certain limit, he no longer felt it.

After dealing with his hand, he returned to the study to examine the "inheritance" left by the Red-eyed Person.

The intense flames released from the urn, after burning "Gao Tian," left behind a small piece of a photo floating down amidst the ruins.

This photo was not part of the ghost, so it wasn't burned to ashes and contained within the urn. It was just unknown why the ghost would hide a photo inside its body.

Gao Tian walked over and picked up the remaining corner of the photo from the ashes.

The complete photo might have been a family portrait. In the surviving corner of the photo, there was a little girl with a round face, about seven or eight years old, pouting towards the camera. A larger hand was resting on her shoulder, likely an adult man, perhaps her father or older brother, supporting the little sister.

What a shame. Most of the photo was also burned away with the ghost fire. Only this small piece remained, making it impossible to see the faces of the girl's other family members.

Why would this ghost's body harbor something like a family photo?

Was it important to it?

Gao Tian speculated that ghosts naturally came from people who died. Since they lived once, they must have had families, friends, and even many beautiful memories just like ordinary people when they were alive.

After becoming a ghost, although only the violent desire to kill remained uncontrollably in their minds, some strong emotions and important people from their past lives might have been deeply imprinted in their minds, cherished even in their ghostly state.

This family photo represented the ghost's family from its living days. Even though it had become a monstrous being after death, its family might have been quite happy, which is why it still held onto it after becoming a monster.

Of course, everything above was Gao Tian's subjective speculation, with no evidence to support it yet. He didn't know much about ghosts and could only try to reason in the most logical direction based on the current information.

Gao Shen flipped the photo over to look at the back.

It was just a routine check, but he accidentally saw, on the back that was blackened and smudged, a few words hastily written with an oil-based pen.

"... Person Apartment.

"15.9.12."

What was this?

Gao Tian looked at it several times, confirming he hadn't misread it.

Was this the date and location the photo was taken?

There were many apartments with "Ren" (仁) in their names, but apartments with "Ren" (人) were extremely rare. This character was difficult to use in compound words for names.

Rich Person Apartment? Good Person Apartment? Kind Person Apartment?

Gao Tian's hand visibly froze.

Living Person Apartment, Living Person Apartment!

He remembered, the chat group "Jialan Society," the group owner's ID was also called Living Person Apartment!

In the Jialan Society, every user's name, "Ghost Infant," "Ghost Cave," "Burning Death Ghost," was an ominous name. And "Living Person Apartment," represented by the group owner, was a real place. This ghost had also been there in life, and had taken a precious photo with all his family.

The time was about ten years ago.

Afterward, the owner of the photo also died and became this Red-eyed Person. Who exactly was he? Was he the little girl's brother, her father, or the little girl herself, who was the only one left?

Why did this person become a ghost after death, and why was he exploited by Ghost Cave to become a breakthrough point for finding living people in the chat group?

Gao Tian recalled something. The few people who spoke the most in the chat group, the highest in status were clearly Living Person Apartment and Ghost Cave. One was the group owner, and the other had an inexplicable intuition that a living person had infiltrated the group, which he found unreasonable.

Ghost Infant should be a girl. As for Burning Death Ghost, whether in terms of status or popularity, he had the worst. No matter what he said, or if he sent out Black Packets, Ghost Cave and the others treated him like air, completely ignoring him.

This also led to Ghost Cave and the others being too lazy to look at the Urn that Burning Death Ghost sent out, and they didn't know its effect. It became Gao Tian's key to turning the tables.

And now, Ghost Cave was very confident about the curse he had sent out. He definitely thought that the living person in the chat group was already dead.

Gao Tian mused, and unintentionally flipped the photo over, returning to the front of the little girl.

At that moment, he was shocked to see that the little girl in the photo seemed to have come alive, her lips curving slightly upwards, giving him a smile that was not quite a smile.

Gao Tian couldn't believe his eyes. The expression of the little girl in the photo had changed.

In the blink of an eye, the little girl was now as still as a dead object, not moving at all. It was as if she hadn't moved at all.

If Gao Tian hadn't experienced so many bizarre things, he would have thought that he had just seen wrongly due to light refraction or other issues.

He was very sure of his eyes and memory; he wouldn't be wrong. The little girl in the photo moved when he flipped the photo.

This photo was indeed a Supernatural Item, and the little girl in the photo was also a ghost.

Gao Tian dared not delay in the slightest. He quickly folded the photo in half, then found a lighter and burned it to ashes along with the photo.

Even when mixed with the remaining black dust of the Red-eyed Person, the eerie photo remained quiet, showing no signs of malevolence. Fortunately, this made Gao Tian slightly relieved.

Then, he turned around and picked up the Urn that contained the remains of the Red-eyed Person.

The function of the Urn was not just to force ghosts and humans to play games, and then seal the loser. More importantly, if a human defeated a ghost and sealed it in the Urn, they could obtain the ghost's killing pattern.

As Gao Tian's ten fingers pressed against the outer shell of the Urn, bits of information, in a non-textual form, gradually flowed into his mind.

The killing pattern of this Shattered Face Ghost was very simple. As long as one's gaze met its gaze five times, it could obtain a part of the person's facial features with each gaze. After five gazes, it would directly obtain the other person's entire face.

This not only meant that the person whose face was copied would die suddenly, no matter when or where they were, but it also meant that the Shattered Face Ghost could obtain all of the victim's memories, impersonate the victim, and operate within their social circle.

Of course, "gazing" must be voluntary. And one "gaze," regardless of its duration, only counted as one. To initiate the next "gaze," it had to attract Gao Tian's attention through means like knocking on the window or sitting on a swing, as the Shattered Face Ghost did, to make him voluntarily turn his head.

Otherwise, the Shattered Face Ghost would have smashed through the window and pinned Gao Tian's head down for a deep, meaningful stare. There would have been no need to watch him get into the car and chase him all the way to the park, which was such a hassle.

At that time, Gao Tian was forced to open the Black Packet in the chat group. He saw the full face of the Shattered Face Ghost, and the ghost, sensing it was being watched by human eyes, began its pursuit of Gao Tian.

However, this was only a one-sided gaze from Gao Tian, so this time the Shattered Face Ghost did not copy any of Gao Tian's facial features.

In the alley, the first stare.

Through the glass window, the second stare.

At the police station, the third stare.

On the park swing, the fourth stare.

Originally, there would have been one more stare, and Gao Tian would have triggered the pattern and died on the spot. But he managed to open the second Black Packet in time and obtained the Urn. This directly nullified the Shattered Face Ghost's killing pattern, and the ghost could only wait until the apartment to decide the victor against Gao Tian through a game.

Furthermore, the Shattered Face Ghost's killing pattern was effective not only on humans but also on ghosts.

Although every ghost was an immortal and indestructible existence, so even collecting a ghost's facial features would not cause it to die on the spot.

But once the Shattered Face Ghost stared at a ghost five times, it could copy one of the ghost's killing patterns for its own use.

This was the Shattered Face Ghost's full ability, and now, through the Urn, it had become Gao Tian's ability.

Gao Tian now possessed the abilities of a ghost.

Stare at a human five times, and the other party dies, with Gao Tian gaining their memories and face. (Optional)

Stare at a ghost five times, and steal one of its killing patterns.

Watching the gray and white sky outside gradually brighten, signaling the passing of dawn, Gao Tian knew he couldn't stay in this apartment full of dead people any longer. He packed his belongings, put the Urn in his backpack, and hastily left the Pingshui Apartment.

The chat group named Jialan Society on his phone remained silent. Ever since the Ghost Cave released the cursed Black Packets, no one had spoken.

To be honest, the behavior logic of these ghost users was quite strange. Why would the Burning Fire Ghost, being a ghost itself, develop an Urn specifically designed to deal with ghosts? What benefit would that bring him?

In fact, Gao Tian looked through the records of Black Packets sent by other users before, and the obscure and difficult terms they used back then were now gradually becoming clear.

Like whether the "Spirit Absorption Pot" could withstand the curse of the Human Skin Doll, or if the Ghost Cave had obtained the "Blood Shroud," would they not have been wiped out in the Woman in the Rain incident...

Now, everything was crystal clear. What the users were talking about were all Supernatural Items used to deal with ghosts, comparing whether a Supernatural Item could restrain a specific Vengeful Ghost.

Among them, the user named Ghost Cave was particularly active. Based on his conversations with others, it could be deduced that his entire family, including himself, had died in an incident called Woman in the Rain.

Gao Tian had a flash of inspiration, and at this moment, he found an explanation for the contradictory behavior of these ghost users.

Is there a possibility—

That the users in this group, when they were alive, were professionals who specialized in fighting ghosts with Supernatural Items.

But this profession itself is high-risk. It's normal that so many people died. After death, they became ghosts and began to kill wantonly, unable to restrain their abyss-like desires.

But even after becoming ghosts, their instincts and values, shaped by their professions in life, couldn't be changed. These ghosts who dealt with ghosts still followed their instincts after death, earnestly discussing how to deal with ghosts.

To verify his guess, Gao Tian typed "Jialan Society" into the internet, trying to find clues in different communities, or even traces left behind when they were alive.

At first, Gao Tian didn't hold out much hope.