Dachang City, Paranormal Forum headquarters.
Three minutes earlier.
[Ding! Sky Screen detected in the Mysterious Revival Plane. Initiating cross-dimensional broadcast.] [Firmament law fluctuations detected. The host may spend check-in points to infiltrate and obtain partial permissions.]
"Infiltrate," Lin Cheng said calmly.
An invisible ripple seemed to split apart in the void.
The system panel before Lin Cheng instantly reconfigured itself, splitting the single broadcast feed into several windows.
He could see not only Yang Jian, but also Ye Zhen, who stood at the center of the golden light ghost domain.
"Permissions acquired. Sky Screen split-screen setup complete."
Watching Yang Jian and Ye Zhen face off in the separate feeds, Lin Cheng rubbed his temples helplessly.
After stopping the conflict between those two,
he casually swiped his hand, locking the Sky Screen's broadcast perspective onto Ye Zhen.
On-screen, Ye Zhen had already moved.
With his nearly unstoppable golden ghost domain, he rampaged through the decaying campus.
The air reeked of corpses, and the surrounding walls kept peeling under the erosion of the bluish-black haze.
"Found you."
An arrogant smile curled Ye Zhen's lips.
Less than ten meters ahead, an old man covered in ashen corpse spots slowly raised a skeletal hand.
It was the Knocking Ghost.
Knock, knock, knock.
The dull, monotonous knocking echoed through the deathly silent corridor.
On-screen, Ye Zhen's body suddenly stiffened.
His skin rapidly turned gray. Large patches of dark-purple corpse spots spread wildly from his neck, and his eyes instantly filled with a murky, deathly gray.
But he did not fall.
In just half a second, the corpse spots were forcibly erased by some invisible power, and color returned to Ye Zhen's face.
"A paranormal attack that can kill me instantly? No wonder Boss Lin wanted this ghost. Interesting! Truly interesting!"
Ye Zhen twisted his neck with a series of cracks, his voice brimming with an almost pathological excitement.
Rather than draw the Certain-Death Sword, he clenched his fist and slammed it into the Knocking Ghost's head with an overwhelmingly domineering surge of paranormal power!
A dull impact rang out. There was no explosion of soul power, yet the sheer weight of the blow seemed to shake space itself.
The punch caved in the Knocking Ghost's rigid skull and smashed its entire body against the wall.
The second round of knocking, just about to begin, abruptly stopped.
The Knocking Ghost froze, and the bluish-black ghost domain it emanated began shaking violently, as though it might collapse at any moment.
"Hahahaha! Before my iron fist, all is illusion!"
With one hand on his hip, Ye Zhen threw back his head and laughed wildly, his over-the-top theatrics practically spilling out of the screen.
Watching this, however, Lin Cheng frowned slightly.
He pressed his Earpiece, transmitting his cold voice into Ye Zhen's ear.
"Stop showing off. Finish this quickly. I need what he's holding."
Hearing the voice in his Earpiece, Ye Zhen said, "Don't worry, Boss Lin. I'll bring this old man back to you right away!"
But while Ye Zhen was speaking, something suddenly changed!
The Knocking Ghost, which had already been rendered inert, suddenly twitched in an eerie manner and recovered with startling speed.
A moment later, its bluish-black ghost domain rapidly moved into the distance.
"It escaped? It escaped right under my nose?" Ye Zhen shouted in furious disbelief.
"Stop standing around! Hurry up and stop the Knocking Ghost!"
Yang Jian, who was reflecting on things on the other side of the teaching building, suddenly heard Ye Zhen's roar through his Earpiece.
Yang Jian frowned, and his crimson ghost domain rapidly expanded.
He could clearly sense the Knocking Ghost's ghost domain moving swiftly away.
Yang Jian tried to forcibly overlay it with his own, but with the power of only three Ghost Eyes, he could not completely pin down that vanishing paranormal presence.
A few seconds later, the bluish-black haze on campus dispersed completely.
Yang Jian flickered into view before Ye Zhen and asked coldly, "Why did you let it leave?"
Ye Zhen held his head high with his usual arrogance, but a trace of guilt showed in his eyes.
"Haha, obviously because I was too strong. It couldn't beat me, so it ran."
But both of them knew ghosts would not leave of their own accord. Some outside force must have interfered.
Lin Cheng stared fixedly at the screen, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.
"Someone used a paranormal object to lure the Knocking Ghost away."
He muttered to himself as several names surfaced in his mind.
"Could it be those old fellows who still aren't quite dead? It seems they think the time hasn't come yet."
On the Douluo Continent, before the Sky Screen.
Xue Ye of the Heaven Dou Empire, Dai Tian of the Star Luo Empire, Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Bibi Dong of Spirit Hall, and the others all wore expressions of shock.
From the principles shown earlier, they had already deduced the Knocking Ghost's rules.
But their perspective only showed Yang Jian coming to Ye Zhen's side, after which they heard the remarks about the Knocking Ghost escaping.
"You die just from hearing its knocking. With such a powerful ability, it was actually driven off by that young man named Ye Zhen?" Xue Ye's voice was laced with disbelief.
Yu Xiaogang stepped forward. "Everyone, look. This proves that the ghosts in that world aren't invincible! With enough power, you can even frighten them into fleeing!"
"That punch Ye Zhen threw definitely contained the power of a Titled Douluo."
Yu Xiaogang analyzed the situation with a stern expression. "Besides, we've already figured out the Knocking Ghost's rules. As long as we stop it from knocking, or repel it before it knocks, there's nothing to fear!"
Tang San stared intently at Yang Jian and Ye Zhen on-screen, silently calculating.
If I could possess that kind of power to fight ghosts,
then, combined with those supreme hidden weapon techniques and the Mysterious Heaven Skill, even slaying gods wouldn't be impossible!
The footage continued.
Yang Jian did not expose Ye Zhen's lie.
With the Knocking Ghost gone, the entire school was left in a state of utter decay, with signs of weathering everywhere.
Using their ghost domains, Yang Jian and Ye Zhen instantly moved to the school gates.
There, the eight remaining survivors were trembling.
Looking at his classmates, Yang Jian felt little emotion and simply spoke in an even tone.
"The ghost domain is gone. You're safe for now."
At that moment, however, one of the survivors secretly pulled a yellowed sheet of Sheepskin Paper from inside his clothes.
He stared fixedly at the blood-red writing appearing on the Sheepskin Paper, a flicker of madness crossing his eyes.
He quietly tucked the Sheepskin Paper back into his clothes, then abruptly raised his head and pointed at Ye Zhen, shouting to Yang Jian.
"Yang Jian! I know you're no ordinary person! Watch out for the man beside you! He's going to ambush you and kill you!"
A cold smile curled Yang Jian's lips.
Through his Ghost Eye's vision, the Sheepskin Paper in Fang Jing's hand radiated an unnerving paranormal aura.
And the writing on it was clearly visible.
[My name is Fang Jing. By the time you read this letter, I will already be dead. Don't find this strange. I am you from ten years in the future, using a special method to tell you what lies ahead. My past self, please make absolutely certain you remember the following.] [Ye Zhen will kill you in one minute. The way to survive is to use the person beside Yang Jian and provoke a conflict between them.]
Before you continue