The Corpse Stench Appears Again

The next day, Yang Jian woke up very early.

Since becoming a ghost wielder, with that ghost eye now in his body, he had gradually noticed some changes in himself.

The most obvious characteristic was that he found himself needing less and less sleep, yet his mind remained alert and not tired.

"Only slept for six hours?"

Yang Jian washed his face, looking at himself in the mirror.

He didn't look haggard. On the contrary, he exuded an indifferent aura that kept people at bay, making even himself feel like a stranger.

He looked at the red paper on the back of his hand.

After a night passed, he hadn't experienced the torment of ghost resurgence. Instead, he had slept soundly.

However, a barely noticeable crack had appeared on the red paper.

"Is this red paper only a superficial fix and not addressing the root cause? Or is it just a fragment, not complete?" Yang Jian withdrew his gaze and couldn't help but rub his head.

"It seems that solving my current half-dead state isn't as easy as I imagined."

That made sense.

A global catastrophe, supernatural events were occurring all over the world.

None of the ghost wielders had figured out a way to survive. How could he possibly find a solution alone?

The red paper's ability to suppress ghost resurgence was just something he stumbled upon by chance.

"Wait, wait."

Yang Jian suddenly remembered the parchment.

He took out the parchment he carried in his pocket and opened it.

There was a line of text on the parchment:

Today I woke up very early. I'm gradually realizing that my body is being influenced by the ghost eye. This influence is subtle because I've noticed I've been sleeping less and less these past few days. If this continues, I estimate I'll soon be able to go without sleep all day and night.

I've heard ghosts don't need to sleep, and perhaps this is true.

"When I got you from Fang Jing, he said you knew the way for ghost wielders to survive, right? I don't think he lied to me, so you must hold the key clue."

Yang Jian stared at the parchment: "If you're willing to tell me, I think I'll reconsider your existence."

Text appeared on the parchment: I really want to live. I'm gradually experiencing the pain of being a ghost wielder, the pressure of death, the worry of ghost resurgence, and the changes in myself. This isn't something I should have to endure at my age. Today, I finally couldn't resist asking that strange human skin again, but I didn't get the answer I wanted. The human skin didn't tell me anything useful.

Or perhaps, there's a secret hidden within this human skin, but it just refuses to speak.

What is it hiding?

Yang Jian's expression flickered as he read the words.

Before, he had once thought this parchment had its own consciousness. But ever since he left school, the parchment had lost its ability to guide him.

If it hadn't been for the parchment's guidance in that old man's ghost domain that day, he wouldn't have been able to leave alive.

"Since you're not giving me any information at all, you're useless. I might as well burn you, it's creepy carrying a piece of human skin around all day."

After finishing washing up, Yang Jian took the cursed object and placed it on the gas stove.

He lit the flame.

However, under the natural gas flame, the parchment remained completely unaffected.

The fire couldn't burn it at all.

"Yang Jian, what are you burning? Making noodles?"

Liu Qiang, smelling the natural gas, ran out of his room.

Yang Jian looked at the still intact parchment, his lips twitching: "Not burning anything, just testing if the stove works."

"If you're making noodles, I have some ham sausage here," Liu Qiang said.

"I have some too."

"I really should find a place where no one will ever find it and bury it," Yang Jian frowned slightly.

If he were to die, he absolutely wouldn't leave behind such a bizarre object.

Just as he was about to put the human skin parchment away.

Suddenly, another line of text appeared on it: I can't get any more useful information from this parchment. For future plans, I intend to discard this parchment and prevent others from finding it. But I'm thinking, if I can use this parchment to catch a ghost, perhaps I can get the answer I want.

"Catch a ghost? I think you're trying to trick me into dying."

Yang Jian glanced at it, not believing the ghostly words on it. He simply put it away, planning to find a place to bury it in a couple of days.

Two hours later.

The mall opened.

Although it was still closed for business, Yang Jian and Liu Qiang still had to work.

At 8:30, they began their patrol.

"By the way, the elevator was off yesterday, right? Why is it open now?" Yang Jian stood on the escalator, suddenly remembering that they had turned off the lights and the elevator before going back to rest yesterday.

Logically, the elevator shouldn't have been open this early in the morning.

"Sister Li has the key to this place. Look, the mall doors are already open. I heard the boss might be coming today, so maybe Sister Li prepared in advance. Why do you keep worrying about this kind of thing?" Liu Qiang asked, sounding a bit puzzled.

"It's nothing, just asking," Yang Jian replied.

Indeed, all the lights in the mall were on today, unlike its usual dark and empty state.

After patrolling for a while, Yang Jian didn't find anything out of the ordinary.

Everything was normal.

But it was precisely this normalcy that made Yang Jian uneasy.

If even he couldn't find the source of the problem, then this mall shouldn't have any supernatural events happening. But then why were people disappearing?

Moreover, Yang Jian felt that something in the mall was wrong.

But he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

However, around ten o'clock.

Several luxury cars stopped at the entrance of the mall.

A group of people got out of the cars.

Leading them was a middle-aged man in a suit, who was rather short.

"The boss is here. Be careful. The mall has been closed recently, and the boss has a bad temper," Liu Qiang whispered a reminder.

This short, middle-aged man's surname was Tang, and his name was Tang An. He was the owner of this mall. He used to be in real estate, but in recent years, he changed careers and opened this mall.

"Master Luo, this is my mall. Please take a look and tell me what exactly is wrong with it. People have been disappearing here every few days recently? Master Luo, please watch your step."

Boss Tang, with a fawning smile, led a man in his fifties with a greasy, shiny face.

Three to five followers trailed behind them.

This man called Master Luo suddenly gestured and said, "We can't enter through the main entrance. We have to go through another door. Does your mall have any other doors?"

"Yes, yes, there's a delivery entrance," Boss Tang said quickly.

"Then let's enter the mall through there and take a look," Master Luo said.

Yang Jian, standing at the entrance, twitched the corner of his mouth upon seeing this.

This was clearly a charlatan.

Making up arbitrary rules and fooling people.

Everyone entered and exited through the main entrance, including customers. But it was not allowed for this so-called master? Even if there were ghosts, he should have discovered them during his patrol.

Unless this Master Luo was also a ghost wielder, and even more skilled than himself.

But looking at his greasy, shiny, and energetic appearance, it was clearly impossible for him to be a ghost wielder.

"You guys stay here and watch. Don't let anyone else in. I'll call you if anything happens later."

Sister Li hurried over at this moment and said this before leading a few female colleagues to greet the boss.

Master Luo entered the mall through a side door, leading Boss Tang, the manager, Sister Li, and a group of people around the mall. He looked left and right, then nodded with a look of complete understanding, as if he had thoroughly grasped the strange occurrences in the mall. It was unclear what exactly he had figured out.

Or perhaps he had already decided on the script in his mind.

Yang Jian had no interest. Although he knew Master Luo was a charlatan, he didn't expose him.

If there really were no supernatural events, this one million yuan would only go to this charlatan, and it wouldn't come to him anyway.

"Hmm?"

However, at this moment, Yang Jian's nose twitched, and he smelled a faint corpse stench again.

"That smell has reappeared. This time it seems... very close, because the smell is stronger than before."

He turned around to survey the area. The mall remained calm, and nothing seemed to have happened.