Borrowing Money

Run.

Run for your life.

A Fei and his friends fled forward as if their lives depended on it. Their faces were deathly pale, their eyes filled with terror, as though they had just witnessed something horrifying.

They had indeed encountered something terrifying.

They seemed to have run into a ghost.

They did not know how long they ran until they were too exhausted to move another step. Only then did they stop, bend over, and gasp for breath.

Thinking back on what had just happened, A Fei felt his hands and feet trembling slightly.

"A-A Fei, what was up with that person just now?" one of his companions beside him asked fearfully.

A Fei cursed, "What else could it be? We probably ran into something evil. We'll go to a temple later and get a talisman to ward it off. Damn it, what bad luck today. If I'd known, we wouldn't have taken the less crowded route. We finally cornered someone to get some money, only to run into that thing—"

Before he could finish, another companion beside him pointed ahead with a trembling hand. "Y-you guys, look. What's that up ahead?"

The thugs raised their heads, and terror immediately replaced the expressions on their faces.

A public restroom.

The very place where they had encountered something evil earlier.

In front of the restroom stood someone glowing faintly red, staring motionlessly at them.

That person was Yang Jian.

After running so far, they had somehow gone in a circle and returned to where they started.

At the sight of this, someone was so frightened that he collapsed onto the ground. Overwhelmed by terror, he no longer had the strength to run.

"Run!"

Though A Fei was exhausted, he was even more terrified of Yang Jian standing before the restroom. He turned around and ran again.

In his panic, he had no time to think about why he had run so far only to end up back where he started. He had only one thought now: get away from this person, get away from this restroom.

Yang Jian frowned. "My Ghost Domain is somewhat different from that old man's Ghost Domain. That old man could make everyone in the entire school building lose their sense of direction, even affecting walls and buildings. But I can only confuse people?"

"No. Since the Ghost Domains are the same, I must not have figured out how to use it yet."

"Ghosts and humans are different."

Yang Jian took a step forward.

Suddenly, he vanished from where he stood. When he appeared again, he was walking toward A Fei from the direction A Fei had fled.

It was like a circle. He had merely moved from one end of it to the other.

"So that's how it is. Within the Ghost Domain, I can appear anywhere. That explains why the Knocking Old Man could silently appear nearby after hearing a knock."

"Ah!"

Seeing Yang Jian suddenly appear in front of him, A Fei was so frightened that he hurriedly stopped. He scrambled away in all directions with the others.

"Since I can change my own position, what about affecting things around me?" Yang Jian's gaze shifted slightly. He grabbed a thug who had gone limp with fear and slammed him toward the restroom wall beside them.

Beneath the red glow, it seemed as though everything was under his control.

The thug screamed miserably as he felt a sharp burst of pain.

The next moment, his head crashed into a ventilation opening in front of the restroom.

The vent was not large enough for a human head to pass through, yet Yang Jian shoved the thug's head into it, through the wall. His neck was lodged perfectly in the opening.

"So that's how it works."

Yang Jian gradually came to understand some of the secrets of the Ghost Domain.

Here, distance could be distorted, objects could be altered, and even the scene before one's eyes could change. Everything was both false and real, while also cutting off everything outside.

Within the Ghost Domain was a world that operated around a vicious ghost.

It appeared because of the ghost and changed because of the ghost.

Yang Jian tested many uses of the Ghost Domain, using these little thugs as experiments. Gradually, he came to understand what this vicious ghost's power represented.

No solution.

Yes, no solution.

For humans, the power to freely distort reality truly had no solution. No wonder even bombs could not destroy a Ghost Domain.

Because within the Ghost Domain, it was no longer the reality you knew.

A bomb could destroy everything in reality, but how could it destroy something between illusion and reality within a Ghost Domain?

"If I shrink the Ghost Domain's range and only cover myself, then I'll become something between real and unreal." Yang Jian contracted the Ghost Domain's power.

The red glow around him rapidly faded.

The streetlights returned to normal. Neon lights lit up on the distant high-rises, and car horns could once again be heard around him.

Yet Yang Jian's body still emitted a faint red glow.

He took a step forward.

His body naturally passed through a wall and entered the residential building next door.

He saw a married couple in a lit room, doing something intimate.

Yang Jian looked at them, and they looked at Yang Jian.

Seeing someone suddenly appear in their room, glowing faintly red, the couple's eyes widened. Extreme terror surged into their hearts.

"Sorry to interrupt. Please continue." Yang Jian turned and left, vanishing into the wall.

"Ah, a ghost!" The couple's screams echoed through the room and even carried outside.

A ghost?

Yang Jian looked at himself in this state.

He really was becoming more and more like a ghost. If he had not retained his human consciousness—

Ghost Tamers truly were neither human nor ghost.

Yang Jian felt the agitation within his body grow again. The red paper covered one Ghost Eye, but using this vicious ghost's power for too long was still a heavy burden. He could feel the eyes inside his body becoming restless again.

"The Ghost Domain can only last five minutes. After five minutes, I'll reach my limit."

Yang Jian checked the time on his phone and memorized it.

He withdrew from the Ghost Domain state.

Today's experiment had indeed been important.

He looked around.

A Fei and the other thugs were either huddled behind trash bins, shivering with their heads covered, or so terrified that they had lost their senses.

With nerves this weak, they still wanted to extort money?

"Brother, you're shaking? We're friends, so if one of us is in trouble, we should help each other, right? I happen to be a little short on cash right now. You don't mind lending me some money, do you?" Yang Jian asked with narrowed eyes, patting his shoulder.

Extort money?

He was broke himself. He only had a little over two hundred yuan in his pocket, and now he could not even go home. He had to get some money somehow.

"H-here, take it all. Don't come looking for me, don't come looking for me. I'll burn incense for you later. Go find someone else." A Fei was on the verge of tears. Trembling, he took everything out of his pockets.

There was only a little over a hundred yuan.

"I'll count it as a loan. I'll pay you back next time." Yang Jian took his money and smiled.

"N-no need to pay it back. Big Brother, I'm giving it to you." A Fei lowered his head and said tremblingly, not even daring to look up at Yang Jian.

It was only a hundred-odd yuan. Pay it back, my ass.

All he wanted was for this ghost to leave him as soon as possible.

As long as it never came after him again, he would agree to anything.

"Extort more money in the future. That way, it'll be easier for me to find you." Yang Jian stood up, his voice carrying an eerie note.

"W-wah..." A Fei burst into tears from fright.

I'm still just a kid. Why are you doing this to me?

He swore that he would never extort money again for the rest of his life. He would become a good person.

Tomorrow, he would help an old lady cross the street.

Yang Jian gave the other thugs a warning one by one and conveniently borrowed several hundred yuan from them as well.

After today's experience, they would surely give up the idea of extorting people for good. Who knew whether the next person they tried to extort would be human or ghost?

"Enough playing around. Taking care of business is more important." Yang Jian glanced around.

When he saw the little thug whose head he had stuffed into the vent trying every possible way to pull himself free, he could not help but find it amusing.

Call someone to knock down the wall tomorrow.

And they had dared to wave knives around and threaten people.

They were lucky he had not let them see a real ghost.

However, when Yang Jian returned home again, he found the door wide open.

The dim room was empty.

The red newspaper that had previously been torn into pieces all over the floor had vanished.

That ghost was gone.

"The ghost left?" Yang Jian's expression changed.

He had prepared to fight that ghost, yet he had come up empty-handed.

Had that ghost been afraid of him and fled?

Or had it gone looking for its next target?

"I have to find that ghost." Yang Jian thought firmly.