Life Countdown

"Hold hands and follow me. Don't get separated. I can get you out of this teaching building."

"Zhang Wei, why are your hands so sweaty?" Yang Jian asked.

Zhang Wei said with a serious expression, "Sweat? How could it be sweat? Yang Jian, you're overthinking it. This is obviously pee, okay? Virgin boy pee, for warding off evil. I just took a leak not long ago, and it's still warm. Feel it properly again."

As he spoke, he brazenly smeared it all over Yang Jian's hand.

"Damn, that's disgusting." Yang Jian said, "Don't hold my hand anymore. Get lost."

"Don't be like that. I don't mind you, so why do you mind me? It's just a little pee. What does it matter? Worst case, once we get out, I'll let you pee on me in return," Zhang Wei said.

"Yang Jian, do you really have a way out of here?" Miao Xiaoshan asked from behind.

Yang Jian led them down the stairs without showing any sign of getting lost. "Of course. I've more or less figured out this so-called Ghost Domain. This place is shrouded in darkness, and ordinary people can easily hallucinate after entering it. What they see may not be real. But there are still some things I can't understand. If nothing goes wrong, getting out won't be difficult. Stop first. There's something ahead."

Suddenly, he shouted and immediately stopped.

At the stairwell on the first floor, he saw several classmates lost there. They stood motionless like wooden puppets, their bodies straight and stiff.

They were the people who had left with Fang Jing earlier.

However, only some of those who had stayed behind were here, not all of them.

"Zhao Qiang?"

Yang Jian's expression changed slightly as his gaze settled on one male student.

This Zhao Qiang had been one of the culprits who, along with Fang Jing, Duan Peng, and Zheng Fei, had shoved him into the restroom.

"Fang Jing isn't here. Does that mean these people were abandoned by Fang Jing?"

Yang Jian frowned. "If that's the case, Fang Jing has pulled the same trick again. He wants to use their lives to hold back the evil ghost."

If that was really the case, then it was truly karma.

He stepped forward and patted Zhao Qiang, intending to ask what had happened.

Zhao Qiang, who had been standing stiffly with his back to Yang Jian, slowly turned his head around. His body did not move, but his head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees at an eerie angle. Then his dead gray eyes stared numbly at Yang Jian.

Yang Jian was so frightened that he immediately stumbled back several steps.

Dead... dead?

If he was already dead, why could he still move?

Could he turn into an evil ghost too?

Yang Jian was on high alert, and his heart tightened involuntarily.

If a few more ghosts appeared, they would really be finished.

However, Zhao Qiang's corpse remained standing there without making any further movement. It merely slowly turned its head back around, then continued standing motionlessly with its back to everyone.

"No reaction? Looks like he isn't a threat for now."

After observing him, Yang Jian let out a sigh of relief.

"Zhang Wei, this way. Something's blocking the path ahead, so we'll make a detour." He then led the others around the corpses.

Since Zhao Qiang had already ended up like this, Yang Jian no longer held on to what he had done before.

The dead paid their debts.

But Fang Jing was the real culprit.

"Wah gaga~!"

All of a sudden, a chilling cry echoed through the stairwell. It pierced through layers of darkness, ignoring the obstruction of the Ghost Domain as it reached everyone's ears.

"W-what was that? It sounded like a baby crying, but not quite." One of the students jumped in fright and asked shakily.

Zhang Wei said, "Maybe your mom's calling you home for dinner."

"Your mom sounds like that. I'd say there's a ninety percent chance it's a ghost too."

"If you know that, why the hell are you asking?"

Zhang Wei said, "If it isn't a ghost, do you think some beauty is asking you on a date? We're in a horror movie right now. Do you think we're at school?"

He was like an irritable old man now, snapping at anyone he could.

"Stop wasting time. Hurry up. It's the Ghost Infant. That thing is coming after us," Yang Jian said immediately, his expression darkening.

It was the ghost that had crawled out of Zhou Zheng's body, named the Ghost Infant.

Its danger level was unknown, but it was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.

"Damn it, it really showed up the moment we mentioned it. Even someone hanging themselves needs a moment to catch their breath," Zhang Wei said, shuddering as he hurriedly ran.

Everyone picked up their pace and, under Yang Jian's lead, left the teaching building as quickly as possible.

After finally getting through the staircase that had been like a ghostly maze, the remaining people could already feel hope right before their eyes.

But at that moment.

A bluish-black infant crawled swiftly along the wall at a horrifying, bizarre speed, like a spider.

Its pitch-black, round eyes watched everyone. There was not a trace of human emotion in its gaze, only the eerie quality of something dead.

It seemed to recognize Yang Jian ahead. Suddenly, it let out a strange cry and stretched out an arm toward him.

Its thin infant arm was eerily stretched long and swiftly reached through the darkness.

Yang Jian, who was walking at the front, did not notice this.

Suddenly.

Yang Jian abruptly felt a wave of icy cold air rapidly approaching from behind. This feeling... was exactly the same as when he had been attacked by that ghost in the restroom.

Just as he was about to turn around, he suddenly felt an intense stabbing pain at the back of his head. The flesh on the back of his skull was forcibly torn open, and a blood-red eye rolled around a few times before abruptly appearing.

"Ah~!"

The pain made him stop. He grabbed the wall beside him and nearly fell over.

A strange cry rang out as the infant arm that had been reaching through the darkness suddenly stopped behind him.

A red eye appeared on the back of Yang Jian's head, staring fixedly at the hand reaching toward him. The eye gave off a faint red glow, seemingly blocking its attack.

The Ghost Infant turned its head halfway around and stared strangely at Yang Jian. Its elongated arm slowly retracted.

"Yang Jian, why did you stop?" someone asked.

The pain gradually faded. Yang Jian caught his breath. "N-no, it's nothing. The Ghost Infant attacked me just now, but luckily I'm fine."

He subconsciously touched the back of his head.

His heart chilled.

He felt an eye.

The view behind him entered his mind. At that moment, he could see what was behind him.

"Did this thing save me?"

Yang Jian recalled what Zhou Zheng had said and thought, This eye is also a ghost. Under constant stimulation, it will gradually awaken. Once it reaches a certain limit, I'll be killed by this ghost, just like Zhou Zheng was.

So this was what it meant to be a Ghost Tamer?

Humans controlled the power of evil ghosts.

And were controlled by evil ghosts in turn.

A bitter smile appeared on Yang Jian's face. What kind of thing was this?

The price of gaining an evil ghost's power

Was a countdown to death.

After the Ghost Infant failed to attack Yang Jian, it seemed unwilling to give up. It swiftly crawled down from the stairwell at a strange speed beyond that of ordinary people. Finally, it leaped from the ground and suddenly hugged a female student from behind, wrapping its two slender arms around her neck and hanging its entire body from her.

The female student's eyes widened in terror. She screamed wildly and hurriedly grabbed the arms around her neck, trying to throw the Ghost Infant off.

"Wang Shanshan, how are you?"

The students beside her were terrified. They hurriedly raised their phones and shone their lights on Wang Shanshan.

Under the light, an infant's head tilted crookedly as it looked at everyone. Its thin arms possessed monstrous strength beyond that of ordinary people, tightly strangling Wang Shanshan's neck as though they would snap it. Wang Shanshan could not even speak. Her head was thrown back, and she was nearly suffocating, her face flushed red in agony. Even more unbelievably, where the infant's skin touched Wang Shanshan, the two gradually began to stick together.