Although Yang Jian had avoided danger and returned safely to Dachang City to rest, that did not mean the crisis of the Ghost Painting Incident had ended.
On the contrary, after he left, the situation began deteriorating just as expected.
At this very moment.
Within an empty, deathly silent city, the sky was gray and murky, as though paper ash were constantly drifting down. The air was filled with gloom. Such a bizarre city could not be found anywhere in the world, because it did not belong to reality, but to the world within the painting.
The operation had failed.
The first operation to contain the Ghost Painting had ended in an utterly predictable defeat. They had not been completely wiped out, but their losses were still devastating.
One of the survivors sat beside an empty road. He sat upright, but his body was covered in blood, his face scorched black like a charred corpse. It was hard to imagine that someone in such a state was still breathing, still alive.
Li Jun was indeed still alive, but surviving was difficult and painful for him.
"It failed."
His voice was hoarse, as if even his throat had been burned away. That quiet murmur sent chills down one's spine.
Under Li Yang's guidance, Li Jun had successfully found the building suspected to contain the source of the Ghost Painting. They had climbed those strange wooden stairs and even entered the room containing countless portraits without much trouble.
They had found the place Yang Jian had visited last time.
But the outcome had been cruel.
That room was far from as simple as they had imagined. They experienced the most horrifying supernatural incident. The ghosts' attacks were enough to drive people to despair. Forget containing the Ghost Painting—even surviving had been a