The Eerie Background

A portrait?

No, to be precise, it's a portrait of someone who has died in a funeral.

All eyes were on it, their faces showing both solemnity and hesitation.

The only strange thing in the room was this portrait. Could it be that the commotion earlier was caused by this portrait?

Looking at the dimly lit old man's face in the portrait, a chilling feeling gradually crept into my heart.

This is definitely not Ghost Messenger!

Everyone had this idea in their minds, and they were absolutely certain of it.

Since the information about the Ghost Messenger was already very clear, the difficulty lay in how to imprison them, but this seemed to be a strange thing that had never been encountered before.

"Another newly discovered ghost?" Li Jun frowned, hesitant to approach, and glanced at the ghost candle in his hand.

The burning speed remained steady, indicating that there were no ghosts in the vicinity.

But if there are no ghosts, then what is this strange portrait before us?

The information doesn't match at all.

"Regardless of whether there's anything wrong with this portrait, the safest approach is to lock him up to prevent any accidents from happening," Liu San said immediately, taking out a handbag he always carried with him.

It is made of gold.

Because gold is very malleable, it is more suitable to carry around.

"That makes sense. Let's put this away first, then leave this room. Something's eerie here; I have a bad feeling about it." Su Fan stared at the lit-up screen of his phone.

A game is still running on the screen, but the main character in the game is already shown as dead.

The death was completely inexplicable, with absolutely no clues whatsoever.

This kind of sudden death wasn't the first time for Su Fan. Usually, it meant that the surrounding area was extremely dangerous. Normally, he wouldn't even come to a place like this. If it weren't for this mission, he would have left long ago.

"Interesting. The disappearing ghost and the mysterious portrait are changing more and more. This is no longer a simple matter of Ghost Messenger. Perhaps what we are really facing is not Ghost Messenger, but something else. There are too many uncertain factors," the heavily made-up woman said softly.

While they were talking, Liu San had already picked up the portrait from the ground.

"Be careful," Li Jun warned.

"The ghost candle is stable and there's no immediate danger," Liu San said calmly after glancing at it.

He has a strong ability to withstand danger, and only he can so recklessly come into contact with such terrifying things. If it were anyone else, they would likely be attacked by ghosts and die on the spot.

"It's good that you're alright."

As Liu San was about to put the portrait away, he suddenly glanced at it with a hint of curiosity. However, this glance made him let out a soft exclamation and stop what he was doing.

"What's wrong?" Su Fan asked from the side.

"It's nothing, I think I've made a new discovery."

Liu San noticed that there was some dust on the portrait, obscuring some of the details. He gently wiped away the dust, trying to reveal some of the content next to the portrait, because he found the background behind the portrait to be somewhat familiar.

The old man in the portrait was revealed in his entirety as the dust settled.

It was an elderly man with a wrinkled face and a deathly expression, like a portrait of a corpse. But his eyes were open, and a smile played on his lips, as if he were eerily surveying his surroundings. No matter which angle you looked at him from, it seemed as if the old man was observing you, sending chills down your spine.

The background of the portrait, however, is a dark, unlit house.

The front door of the house on the first floor was wide open, and the inside was pitch black, exactly like the house they were in now. This portrait appears to have been taken at the front door of this house.

Liu San's eyelids twitched slightly. His attention wasn't on the identical house in the background, but on the strange few people standing behind the portrait of the old man.

There are two people standing on the left and three people standing on the right.

There were five people in total.

The five people are only shown in a blurry outline, like an oil painting, not very clear, but some physical characteristics can still be identified.

One of them had indistinct facial features but a sallow complexion, another was carrying a candle with a green flame burning on it, and the third was holding a cell phone.

"This is the five of us."

Liu San's eyes narrowed, he felt his scalp tingle, and an indescribable chill ran through him.

This was even more terrifying than seeing the five paper figures in the viewing room earlier.

"How is this possible? There are five of us in this portrait too?" Fearing danger, Li Jun approached with the ghost candle, and when he saw this scene, he was instantly shocked and suspicious.

"When? When did this happen? Are you kidding me? We actually took a picture with a ghost?" Su Fan leaned over for a look and immediately became uneasy.

Because this eerie portrait seems to be foreshadowing something.

Photograph?

When the topic of taking photos came up, Li Jun immediately thought of the eerie camera at Headquarters, which was said to be able to capture vengeful ghosts and, if successful, imprison them in the photograph.

However, the current situation is clearly not caused by the Ghost Portrait, since that thing is still at Headquarters and wasn't brought out for this operation.

There must be some other reason causing this situation.

"Liu San, stop looking, put your things away, let's leave here immediately." Li Jun couldn't understand this strange situation, so he decided to act quickly and decisively to deal with the current predicament first.

He put the eerie portrait into a bag, sealed it, and immediately turned and left.

"Keep up, everyone. This house has been explored. We don't have time to waste here. Let's go to the next house. We must find the Ghost Messenger as soon as possible."

Everyone else was eager to leave this eerie house.

While the other houses were terrifying, at least the situations were understandable—either they were haunted or not. If they were haunted, you just needed to determine if it was Ghost Messenger. But the situation in this house was very strange.

The five paper figures of Liu San's death, the fallen portrait, and the figures of the five people in the portrait.

However, when they quickly walked out of the house and arrived at the front door, the scene before them made them suddenly stop in their tracks.

A blurry black figure stood with his back to the crowd not far from the gate, his body stiff and motionless. From the blurry figure, it could be vaguely discerned that it belonged to an old man.

The old man's back was shrouded in the darkness of the house, with five people standing behind him.

This scene?

Li Jun, Liu San, Su Fan, and the other three men showed expressions of shock.

This is exactly the same as the previous portrait.

Could it be that the person who died in the portrait doesn't refer to the old man, but rather to the five of them?

Worst of all, the ghost candle in Li Jun's hand was now flickering, as if it had expanded, and began to burn intensely, consuming the candle at a visible rate.

The abnormally fast combustion rate serves only to prove one point.

Ghosts appeared around us.

"Things are getting bad now," Su Fan said, his face grim as he gripped his phone tightly.

He now understood why he could never beat this part of the mobile game; he died every time he tried, no matter how many times he revived and started over.

Despite their efforts, they never escaped danger.

Ghosts are all around us.

At this very moment.

Beyond this Ghost Domain.

Yang Jian had finished all the skewers in his hand, but he still didn't see any improvement in the situation around him.

The ghostly Ghost Domain of the painting still exists, and no good news came through the phone.

Three hours had passed since the operation began at Headquarters.

To be honest, that's taken quite a long time.

"Did we fail?" Yang Jian put down the bamboo skewer in his hand and stood up with a solemn expression.

He has handled many paranormal events and may not be sensitive enough to other things, but he has absolute authority to speak on this matter.

Based on his experience, he could tell that the team sent out by Headquarters had definitely encountered a huge problem.

They may have been completely wiped out.

Perhaps he's still barely alive.

Perhaps only a few people are left alive.

But regardless of the outcome, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this operation can essentially be considered a failure.

The collision of two S-class paranormal events was indeed far too dangerous.

"I need to do some preparation. Hopefully, Wang Xiaoming has a backup plan, otherwise we'll be in big trouble." Yang Jian turned to leave.