Yang Jian sat on the sofa, looking at the cola on the coffee table.
"Two hours."
It was quiet outside the door, without even the sound of wind.
Knock, knock.
The knocking was steady.
Yang Jian shifted his gaze from the cola can to the door. "Who is it?"
"Suguru Geto." The voice outside was warm and gentle. "Mr. Yaga asked me to bring you some everyday supplies."
Yang Jian went over and opened the door.
Suguru Geto stood outside with a plastic bag. As they handed it over, Geto abruptly froze.
He tilted his head, his narrow, foxlike eyes looking past Yang Jian's shoulder and locking onto a corner of the room.
"Something smells wrong in here."
Yang Jian turned.
The corner was empty, but a puddle had appeared. At its center, a deathly pale, swollen shape was squeezing up through the floor.
There were no cursed energy fluctuations. But a signal of extreme danger stabbed at Suguru Geto's nerves. His foxlike eyes narrowed.
"Step back," Yang Jian said flatly.
Suguru Geto did not retreat. Instead, he stepped forward and shielded Yang Jian.
"Leave it to me."
A Grade 2 Cursed Spirit covered in fine scales shot out of Suguru Geto's shadow, its gaping maw lunging straight at the white shape.
Its jaws snapped shut.
There was no sound. No struggle.
The instant the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit touched the white shape, a chunk of its body vanished.
It had not been corroded or bitten off. It had been completely erased.
The white shape kept squeezing upward. An extremely swollen arm emerged, coated in slime, its fingers twisted backward.
Before the Grade 2 Cursed Spirit could even scream, its enormous body began rapidly losing color and disintegrating from the point of contact.
In the blink of an eye, it was gone.
Suguru Geto's pupils contracted sharply. His connection to the cursed spirit had been severed.
Completely erased.
"I said, step back." Yang Jian grabbed Suguru Geto's shoulder and yanked him backward.
"What is that?" Suguru Geto summoned two Grade 1 Cursed Spirits into the air with a sweep of his hand, cold sweat trickling down.
"Something you can't handle." Yang Jian stared at the arm.
An equally swollen head squeezed out after it. It had no facial features, only a layer of deathly pale human skin stretched taut.
"No cursed energy, yet it killed a Grade 2 Cursed Spirit instantly." Suguru Geto stood blocking the doorway. "Jujutsu High's barrier didn't react."
"Your barriers don't govern it." Yang Jian glanced at the system panel on his retina.
[Cooldown: 1 hour, 58 minutes.]
Too long.
Right now, he was an ordinary person.
The puddle spread. The swollen, skin-covered face pointed straight at them.
"Geto," Yang Jian said.
"Here."
"Was it moving when you looked at it just now?"
Suguru Geto quickly recalled what had happened. "It was. Squeezing its way out."
"And now?"
The monster stood in the corner, deathly still. The puddle had stopped spreading.
"It's not moving."
Yang Jian understood.
"Keep watching it. Don't blink, and don't look away." Yang Jian spoke faster. "This thing's rule involves sight. As long as someone watches it, it won't move."
Suguru Geto wasted no words. During the half second he had turned to summon his cursed spirits, the thing had indeed shifted forward.
"We just have to keep watching?"
"Yes. Nothing can block your view." Yang Jian moved to the side, keeping his gaze fixed on the ghost. "It kills through contact. Your cursed spirit touched it and disappeared."
Inside the cramped dorm room, two men and a ghost fell into a deathly silent standoff.
The white ghost stood motionless in the middle of the puddle. Drops slid off its deathly pale human skin and struck the floor without a sound.
"What the hell is this?" Suguru Geto's eyes ached. The oppressive weight of the unknown made him intensely nauseous.
"A specialty of my hometown," Yang Jian said coldly. "You can call it a 'ghost.'"
"A ghost?" Suguru Geto sneered. "How is that different from a cursed spirit?"
"The difference is that your cursed spirits are man-made garbage. This thing is a rule." Yang Jian stared at the featureless face. "Cursed spirits can be killed. Ghosts can't. Only a ghost can deal with a ghost."
"So we just stand here staring at each other?"
"Until I recover." Yang Jian added, "This ghost may possess a ghost domain."
Suguru Geto glanced at Yang Jian out of the corner of his eye. This ordinary man without a trace of cursed energy was as calm as a machine in the face of such a monster. "A ghost domain?"
"Think of it as a higher-level domain."
Time ticked by.
Fifty minutes later.
Suguru Geto's eyes were bloodshot, their dryness pushed to the limit.
"I can't keep this up."
"I'll take over," Yang Jian said. "Count to three before you blink."
"One, two, three."
Suguru Geto closed his eyes and instantly opened them.
In that gap of less than half a second, the white ghost shifted half a meter forward!
It did not take a step. It simply blinked into place.
"It's closing the distance." Yang Jian's gaze turned cold. "One person watching isn't enough. It's adapting to the rule."
The restraining effect of their gaze was weakening.
[Cooldown: 45 minutes.]
Still far too long.
"It's coming." Suguru Geto positioned a mantis cursed spirit in front of himself. "What about physical attacks?"
"You can try."
The mantis cursed spirit swung its scythelike forelegs, slashing viciously at the ghost's neck.
The blades passed through without resistance.
The next second, the mantis's forelegs turned into a puddle of foul-smelling black water.
"Physical attacks don't work. Cursed energy doesn't work." Suguru Geto gritted his teeth. "What kind of monster is this?"
"I told you. A rule." Yang Jian backed up to the window and yanked the curtains open.
Sunlight pierced the room.
It struck the ghost without eliciting any reaction. The ghost did not fear light.
"Did you bring your phone?" Yang Jian asked.
"Yes."
"Call Satoru Gojo. Tell him to come here."
Suguru Geto dialed with one hand.
The phone rang.
"What? I was just about to buy Kikufuku." Satoru Gojo's languid voice came through.
"Come to Yang Jian's dorm. Now." Suguru Geto spoke rapidly. "Something got in. None of my attacks work."
The other end went deathly silent.
Less than ten seconds later.
Bang!
The dorm door was kicked to pieces.
Satoru Gojo stood amid flying splinters, wearing sunglasses and holding a half-full can of soda.
He pulled off his sunglasses, his azure Six Eyes sweeping across the room.
Finally, his gaze settled on the white monster in the corner.
Satoru Gojo's brow gradually furrowed.
"What did the Six Eyes see?" Yang Jian asked.
"Nothing." Satoru Gojo clenched his fingers, bursting the soda can, then tossed it onto the floor. "No cursed energy, no vital signs, no spatial distortion. To the Six Eyes, that spot is pure 'nothingness.'"
"But it's right there," Suguru Geto said grimly.
"Visible to the naked eye, invisible to the Six Eyes. Interesting." Satoru Gojo grinned and raised his right hand.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
Violent gravitational force erupted.
A horrifying hole tore through the wall in an instant, sending bricks and rubble flying.
The dust cleared.
The white ghost stood where it had been, completely unharmed.
The attack had passed straight through it and struck the wall behind it.
"Can't hit it." Satoru Gojo lowered his hand. "It didn't dodge. It's not in the same physical dimension."
"It's getting closer," Yang Jian warned coldly.
Their gazes had shifted during the attack. The ghost had moved another meter forward.
It was less than two meters from the three of them.
An icy corpse stench gripped the room by the throat.
"This thing follows a rule when it kills. Watching it restrains it for now, but the effect is weakening," Yang Jian quickly explained.
Satoru Gojo pushed his sunglasses back on. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's leave."
"You can't escape. Once a ghost targets you, you either contain it or withstand it."
"Contain it with what?" Suguru Geto asked.
"Gold," Yang Jian said. "Gold is unaffected by supernatural forces. A pure-gold container can hold it."
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto exchanged a look.
"The Jujutsu High Restricted Storehouse doesn't have a pure-gold container." Suguru Geto shook his head.
"Then we'll have to withstand this attack." Yang Jian glanced at the panel.
[Cooldown: 10 minutes.]
"Can you two stall it for ten minutes?"
Satoru Gojo laughed.
"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm the strongest."
He stepped forward, facing the deathly pale human skin.
"Limitless, activate."
White Ghost stepped forward.
Its deathly pale, swollen fingers reached toward the space in front of Satoru Gojo.
An endlessly narrowing distance-the absolute defense of Achilles chasing the tortoise.
And yet.
No pause. No resistance.
The ghost's fingers passed through Limitless without the slightest hindrance and lightly touched Satoru Gojo's chest.
"You've got to be kidding!"
Satoru Gojo's pupils shook as he shot backward.
A wet, deathly pale handprint stood out starkly on the chest of his uniform.
An intensely chilling aura of death burrowed through his flesh and into his marrow.
"Satoru!" Suguru Geto shouted.
"I'm fine." Satoru Gojo bit the tip of his tongue, the taste of iron filling his mouth. "Limitless doesn't work. This thing doesn't follow any logic."
The strongest defense had been rendered meaningless.
A dimensional mismatch.
Yang Jian frowned slightly. Did it invade the space of Limitless with a ghost domain? It's growing far too fast. Did the supernatural residue in my body cause this ghost to follow me here?
"Don't let it touch you. If it does, you die," Yang Jian said coldly.
That had only been a graze. If it got a solid grip, even Reverse Cursed Technique would be useless.
"Ten minutes, right?" Satoru Gojo wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Geto, cover me."
Suguru Geto pushed his cursed energy to the limit. More than a dozen cursed spirits swarmed out, piling into a wall of flesh that blocked their line of sight.
Satoru Gojo teleported repeatedly, frantically drawing White Ghost's attention back and forth within the cramped room.
White Ghost was not fast. But its ability to erase anything regardless of defense left both men drenched in cold sweat.
Yang Jian huddled in the corner, staring at the panel.
Five minutes.
Three minutes.
One minute.
Suguru Geto's stock of Cursed Spirits had been emptied. The ground was covered in foul-smelling black water.
Satoru Gojo panted heavily, the relentless teleportation pushing his brain's workload to its limit.
White Ghost was only half a meter from Yang Jian.
His pallid, featureless face nearly touched the tip of Yang Jian's nose.
The stench of decay was suffocating.
"Yang Jian! Get out of the way!" Suguru Geto roared.
Yang Jian didn't budge.
The countdown hit zero.
[Cooldown complete.] [Drawing trial card...] [Obtained: Mysterious Revival-Ghost Hand Trial Card (early stage, includes 1 slot for suppressing a malevolent ghost). Duration: 10 minutes.]
Ghost Hand.
Yang Jian closed his eyes.
Then opened them again.
Every trace of life vanished from him in an instant. A sinister chill, deeper and more despairing than White Ghost's, erupted from within him.
He raised his right hand.
His once-slender hand became the bloodless, rigid, ice-cold hand of a corpse.
White Ghost's fingers had already touched Yang Jian's eyelashes.
Yang Jian thrust out his Ghost Hand and clamped it around White Ghost's neck!
The spreading water stopped abruptly.
Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto froze where they stood.
That unstoppable monster, who had ignored every attack and passed straight through Limitless, now dangled in Yang Jian's one-handed grip like a dead chicken.
He didn't struggle.
In this supernatural clash, Ghost Hand suppressed him.
The sinister chill within White Ghost instantly dissipated, leaving him nothing more than a limp corpse.
Yang Jian turned his head, his pale face utterly expressionless.
"I told you. Only ghosts can deal with ghosts."
Before you continue