Ghost-faced Tong Qian

Now.

The second floor of a hot pot restaurant by the roadside.

The place was dark, all the lights were off, and only a few scattered cell phone lights gathered in one corner. From there, one could faintly hear suppressed sobs and rustling conversations.

Dozens of people gathered here.

They are survivors caught up in the incident, and after experiencing some things, they have begun to understand what they are facing now.

Fear nearly destroyed their sanity.

The reason they haven't completely collapsed is because of one person.

A Ghost Tamer from Headquarters.

On a bench outside the crowd sat a tall woman dressed in business attire, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail, looking very capable.

His mature and aloof face was filled with solemnity and unease.

Her name is Tong Qian. She is Ghost Tamer from another city and is responsible for handling paranormal events in that city. Because the population of the city under her jurisdiction is small, paranormal events rarely occur, so her daily responsibilities are not heavy. This time, Ghost Knocking incident broke out in Dachang City, and she was assigned by Headquarters to come to Dachang City to provide support.

However, the situation here is worse than imagined.

As soon as she entered the Ghost Domain, Tong Qian sensed that something was wrong.

She didn't encounter the Door-Knocking Ghost from the file, but the sheer number of Ghost Slave here was enough to send chills down her spine.

This is no longer just dealing with one ghost, but a whole horde of ghosts.

Furthermore, they were trapped in Ghost Domain.

Tong Qian was no longer confident that she could lead these survivors out of here alive. All she could do was hold out for as long as possible, waiting for a change in circumstances and for reinforcements from above.

So she gathered dozens of survivors and hid in this hot pot restaurant.

However, at that moment, a woman's scream made her expression change immediately.

"Who's yelling? Didn't I already tell you that no matter what emergency you encounter, don't shout? If you want to live, follow my orders." Tong Qian stood up angrily, turned around and scolded.

"She, she just called out," someone nearby said, pointing to a middle-aged woman.

The middle-aged woman's face was extremely pale, and she stammered, "No, it wasn't me who called it, it wasn't me."

"You called it, so why deny it? Tell me, what was the reason?" Tong Qian said.

"I already said it wasn't me who called it, you can't blame me." The old woman stubbornly denied it.

Tong Qian raised an eyebrow. "Speak up immediately if anything happens. This is a special time. Tell me if anything seems amiss. We are in a very special place, and the situation is more complicated than you can imagine. There can be no more shouting and yelling like this. Otherwise, I can't guarantee the safety of all of you if something goes wrong."

"Aren't you Ghost Tamer? How can you say such things?" the older woman said reproachfully.

Tong Qian's face darkened, and she was about to speak when a voice immediately made her tense up, and she couldn't help but turn around to look.

"Thump, thump thump~!"

A series of footsteps ascending the stairs came clearly from the darkness ahead, each one heavy and stiff, lacking the lightness and agility of a normal person's footsteps.

Tong Qian could tell the difference just by hearing those footsteps.

This is a corpse walking.

"Shut up, all of you," Tong Qian snapped in a low voice.

She quickly pressed herself against the glass door of the hot pot restaurant, shining her flashlight into the stairwell ahead, trying to use the bright light to see what was going up the stairs.

If it's Ghost Slave, Tong Qian is confident she can handle it.

The footsteps rose from the bottom floor to the second floor.

Although the military flashlight in my hand was bright, after passing through the darkness, only a layer of hazy light covered the stairs. Although it was no longer bright enough, it was still possible to see the situation ahead.

The stiff, muffled footsteps grew closer.

Tong Qian's heart tightened.

She knew the ghost had come.

Indeed, hoping to avoid all danger by hiding in a hot pot restaurant was a bit too naive.

Hiding here was a last resort. There were too many survivors, and if they acted as a group, given their mental fortitude, each of them would be a burden. Wandering around outside would be more dangerous, so it was better to stay together and hide somewhere.

A moment later.

Suddenly, a head appeared at the stairwell, which was shrouded in a dim light.

Tong Qian's beautiful eyes suddenly narrowed.

It was an old man with a withered face, wrinkles like hills and valleys, and empty, lifeless eyes. His withered skin was covered with lividity, as if he had been dead for several days. He was wearing an old-fashioned black jumpsuit, and his stiff feet made a dull thud as he walked on the steps.

Moreover, as the old man approached, the bright beam of the flashlight seemed to be forced back.

A wave of darkness gradually crept in.

Everything around was affected; the ground was rotting, and the walls were crumbling.

"This ghost is no ordinary one." Tong Qian's heart instantly turned cold.

She had been Ghost Tamer for so long, and had never seen such a terrifying ghost.

Just one glance gave her the feeling of having a nightmare.

Almost without guessing, Tong Qian was completely certain that this was the culprit behind the paranormal event, codenamed: the old ghost that Ghost Knocking.

"What should I do? What should I do now? Should I run away?" Tong Qian forced herself to calm down and quickly started thinking.

She can still leave on her own.

But the dozens of survivors behind him are likely to be lost here.

But the old man in front of him wouldn't give him that time to think.

At this moment, the old man had completely reached the second floor and was walking straight into the store.

Although Tong Qian was less than three meters away from the old man, separated only by a glass door, she dared not act rashly. She was not confident in dealing with this ghost, nor did she have the ability to do so. Moreover, her purpose in coming here was not to resolve the paranormal event, but to save people and minimize losses.

She didn't act irrationally; instead, she slowly backed away.

The old man didn't walk in as expected. Instead, he strangely stopped at the door, then slowly raised his stiff, withered hand and began to knock on the glass door.

"Thump, thump thump~!"

It was dull, oppressive, and almost suffocating.

Tong Qian had reviewed the files on the Ghost Knocking incident, and her expression changed drastically. She shouted, "Get out of here! Everyone get out of here!"

The others were stunned for a moment, still not understanding what was going on.

"Hurry up, go through the side door!" Tong Qian shouted again.

The others then snapped out of their daze, screams rang out, and they fled in panic toward the side door.

But when the first person ran to the side door, he crashed into the wall with a bang, and blood even flowed from his nose.

The door from before has disappeared.

There was only one wall covered in moss and smelling of decay.

"What's going on?" Tong Qian turned around and glanced back. When she saw the door disappear, her expression changed drastically.

Then look at the glass windows facing the street.

It vanished at that moment, transforming into an impenetrable wall.

Even the hot pot tables inside the restaurant have started to disappear.

"This isn't a hot pot restaurant at all." Tong Qian suddenly realized this.

"Thump, thump thump~!"

The knocking sounded again.

Thump!

Amidst the panic and screams of the crowd, someone collapsed to the ground with a thud, lifeless and cold-blooded.

He died.

Tong Qian understood that this was the way the Door-Knocking Ghost killed people; killing by knocking on doors was almost unsolvable, as explained in the files.

"There's no other way." She gritted her teeth and untied the ponytail from the back of her head.

Her hair was loose and was pulled to the front by Tong Qian.

Without the hair covering it, a pale, strange face appeared on the back of Tong Qian's head.

This face has a nose and a mouth, is neither male nor female, has its eyes closed, and its lips are curved upwards, revealing a pale and eerie smile.

Ghost-faced Tong Qian.

That's how she's referred to in the Ghost Tamer's files.

Tong Qian turned her back to the old man outside the door, turning the human face on the back of her head towards him.

"Giggle, giggle~!"

The next moment, the face's mouth split open, emitting a chilling, eerie laugh. The laughter was indescribable—sharp, eerie, and spine-chilling. Just hearing it made one instinctively understand that it was a ghost laughing; it could never be a person.

A series of funny faces and laughter erupted.

The old man at the door suddenly stopped knocking.

The stiff, withered hand remained motionless in mid-air.

The knocking of death was stopped.

But Tong Qian's ghostly laughter couldn't last forever; the restlessness of a resurrected evil spirit arose in her heart.

Moreover, the power of the vengeful spirit needed to subdue this old man is beyond anything previously imagined.

Soon.

Tong Qian felt the ghostly face on the back of her head moving forward along her scalp while emitting a ghostly laugh.

She knew that once the grotesque face moved onto her face, it would completely cover it.

At that time, she will no longer be human, but a ghost.

"This can't go on." Tong Qian realized that things were going badly, so she immediately turned around, combed her hair back to cover the ghostly face.

The laughter stopped.

The face stopped moving.

But as soon as the grotesque laughter stopped, it was followed by a terrifying knocking on the door.

"Thump, thump thump~!"

The old man, dressed in a long black robe and covered in lividity, raised his hand again and knocked on the door.

Like headless flies, another survivor scurried around and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Ghosts kill people, it's that simple.

The survivors panicked even more when they saw three people dead beside them, screaming and calling for help echoing through the air.

Tong Qian bit her lip, finally making up her mind. She turned around and shouted, "Stop shouting! Let's find a way to get out of here first. Anywhere is fine. I'll hold this ghost off for now!"

After saying that, she brushed the hair behind her head again.

"Is it worth it? If this continues, you'll soon die from the resurgence of the vengeful ghosts. Then, with two more ghosts here, these survivors will only die even faster." Just then, a calm male voice suddenly rang out from a corner.

"Who?"

Tong Qian was startled and immediately turned around to look.

In an inconspicuous corner of the wall, a young man in a short-sleeved shirt stood there. A hideous gash appeared on his forehead, and a scarlet eye stared at them.

The man held a scarlet candle in his hand.

The candle is lit.

It emitted a sinister, greenish glow.