The Person in the Painting

"Ah!"

Yang Jian kicked open the door to a dormitory room, and a woman's scream immediately rang out from inside.

In this dormitory room, there were two students who were still stuck on this floor. They looked terrified, as if they had seen a ghost. They huddled together, curled up on the innermost bed, trembling.

"Is anyone there?"

He paused for a moment, realizing that Wang Quan's assessment was correct; there were indeed still students in the building who hadn't left in time.

However, judging from the expressions of the two girls, they were clearly aware of what was happening in the dormitory building.

That's good; Yang Jian no longer needs to waste time explaining.

"This floor is haunted right now, and I'm dealing with it. You all stay here and don't wander around." After saying that, Yang Jian turned and left the dormitory to check the next room.

"Wait, wait, take us with you." One of the girls hesitated for a moment, then hurriedly said in a tearful voice, "I don't want to stay here."

They no longer cared who Yang Jian was; all they wanted was to get out of there.

"The ghost might be on this floor. Are you sure you want to come with me?"

Yang Jian said coldly, "You might die even faster if you follow me. Of course, I won't object if you really want to come, but don't expect me to save you if you encounter danger. I believe you've encountered some situations before and have some understanding of them."

The girl immediately hesitated, startled.

"Bang!"

Yang Jian didn't say anything more, and simply closed the door and left.

He was unwilling to take two burdens with him, and for ordinary people, hiding in their dorm room and sleeping is actually safe, because the probability of being targeted by a ghost is actually very small if you hide and don't move around. This is the experience of all Ghost Tamer.

After all, ghosts who kill indiscriminately are relatively few in number.

Yang Jian continued his search, looking for the dormitory room where Miao Xiaoshan had previously stayed.

He was certain that the dormitory room on the fifth floor must have been hidden by the ghost painting. Since his Ghost Eye were no longer useful and he could not invade the ghost painting's Ghost Domain, he could only use the simplest method to search. As long as he was careful and did not miss anything, he should be able to find it.

As the search deepened.

Unbeknownst to Yang Jian, he was getting closer and closer to that extra dormitory room that didn't belong to the fourth floor. If he continued, he would definitely discover that unique dormitory room.

And at this time...

At the other end of the corridor.

Wang Quan and two other staff members were also quickly searching through the dormitories.

"Team Leader Wang, there's a student stranded here," a staff member reported immediately upon entering the dormitory.

"Record the number of people and their dormitory room number, tell her to stay there, and instruct her not to wander around, as it is dangerous outside."

Wang Quan immediately said, "The way back has been lost. Bringing them with us would only make things more dangerous. Let's wait until Yang Jian has resolved things here. Remember, our current mission is to find the Ghost Painting. Don't get distracted."

"Yes, Captain Wang, I understand."

The staff member immediately began to comfort the girl, telling her not to wander around and to stay there and wait for them to return to rescue her.

"Did you find anything there?" Wang Quan asked again.

Another staff member, after carefully searching a dormitory room, replied, "Nothing has been found so far."

Wang Quan frowned. They had almost finished searching, and apart from finding a few students who hadn't left in time, they hadn't found anything unusual. It seemed the problem was with Yang Jian. Hopefully, he had already discovered the issue.

"Two dorm rooms remain. Report back immediately after searching them."

The corridor had come to an end; the last two dorm rooms were almost completely searched.

Just as a staff member was comforting the female student and leaving the dormitory to continue the search, he suddenly caught sight of a woman in red who had appeared in the corridor at some point.

He paused slightly, thinking it was a student who had run out of the dormitory, and was about to shout, "Female student, it's dangerous outside!"

Before he could finish speaking, his body trembled and he froze, then his pupils contracted sharply.

Because he could clearly see what the woman looked like.

The face was blurry, with only the features vaguely discernible, giving it a hazy feel. But no matter how hard you tried to see it clearly, you could never quite make it out, because that was just how the face looked. The red clothes worn on the outside were an old-fashioned European style, completely out of place with the clothing of modern girls.

Only his hands were particularly noticeable; they were deathly pale, as if they had been made of porcelain, with a faint white halo.

Ghost!

The staff member then felt a buzzing in his head, as if he had been hit by an explosion, and a word that filled him with dread instantly popped into his head.

Are you kidding me?

Where did this come from? Why were there no signs at all before?

"Team, Captain."

This staff member's mental fortitude wasn't as good as during training; after a brief moment of distraction, he instinctively cried out.

But before he could shout, Wang Quan appeared behind him without him noticing and quickly covered his mouth with his hand.

"Calm down, don't shout."

Wang Quan suppressed his voice, his face contorted with rage, his strength immense, and his entire body tense, preventing the team member from losing control.

As ordinary people, they must remain calm. Any action that attracts the attention of the ghosts will only lead to their death, even if there is a top-notch Ghost Tamer on this floor.

The ghost appeared in the corridor, but it did not linger for long.

The red figure seemed to ignore Wang Quan and his companion, and walked straight into one of the dormitory rooms.

The dormitory room had already been investigated, and it was confirmed that there was a female student inside.

Clearly, the appearance of ghosts is not without purpose.

Someone inside must have triggered the ghost's killing pattern, and thus became the ghost's target.

However, Wang Quan could only watch helplessly as the ghost silently walked inside, daring not to make any move.

Because any measures taken will be useless.

"Take a deep breath, calm down, have you forgotten your usual training?" Wang Quan said in a low voice to calm the player down.

It took the team member about ten seconds to recover, and then he nodded.

Wang Quan then carefully released his mouth.

"Captain, did you see that?"

The team member's voice carried a tense emotion, just like his current mood; he was speaking with great difficulty.

Wang Quan's face was grim as he replied, "I saw it. The ghost entered room 402. We have no way to deal with it. Notify Mr. Yang; only he can handle it. Let's retreat and get far away. Even if we get killed, at least we won't die so quickly. Give Mr. Yang some time; we still have a chance to survive."

After saying that, the two began to retreat quickly.

However, the end of this corridor is a dead end. If the ghost comes out of room 402 and walks this way, they will have no choice but to close their eyes and wait to die.

Yang Jian was unaware that the ghost had already appeared in the corridor, only about twenty meters away from him.

Since he arrived here, his Ghost Eye have been dormant, to the point that his ability to detect his surroundings has been reduced to a minimum. He can only rely on his own eyes to see everything, as neither the Ghost Hand nor the Headless Ghost Shadow has much of an ability to perceive his surroundings.

As he continued to feel along the wall with his palm, he suddenly stopped when he touched the door frame of the next dormitory room.

The door frame of this dormitory room is not right.

Then Yang Jian saw that the dormitory door suddenly changed its appearance, as if a layer of falsehood had been suppressed and disappeared by a ghostly hand.

The wood grain, with some old reliefs, and the dark red paint that looks like dried blood, with its mottled and peeling paint, gives it a sense of antiquity.

It's almost like the frame of an oil painting.

"Found it." Yang Jian's gaze sharpened.

Sure enough, his guess was correct; the flaw of the ghost drawing was that it could not be moved easily.

That's the case, at least until there's a full recovery.

When Yang Jian grasped the picture frame, he exerted his own pressure.

Now that he no longer needs to suppress his Ghost Eye, it's like having a freed-up Ghost slot, allowing him to suppress a Ghost's actions without any countermeasure.

The dormitory door was immediately transformed.

The door frame became a picture frame, and the door panel became an oil painting.

The oil painting depicts a dormitory room, complete with beds, books, and a desk. From the layout and some details, it's clear that this is the dormitory room where Miao Xiaoshan used to live.

Yang Jian even saw a female roommate he had met before in the painting.

It was on the floor tiles above the oil painting. A girl with only half a body and missing legs lay there, motionless. From the profile depicted in the painting, it was clear that the girl was dead. Her pupils were unfocused, her face was stiff and ashen, and her body was frozen in a twisted shape.

"Something's not right. This painting seems to be missing something." Yang Jian glanced at the oil painting and frowned.

Although he had never truly seen the ghost painting clearly, even when he was in the neighborhood where the incident occurred, he had only looked at it from a distance, standing on a dozen or so floors, but a blank space was very conspicuously displayed in the middle of the painting.

That area had no paint on it, only a blank outline of a human figure.

One can imagine that this area probably depicts a person.

No, to be precise, it should be a drawing of a ghost.

However, the ghost in the painting has disappeared, leaving only a blank space.

"Did the ghost step out of the painting?" Yang Jian immediately speculated.

Considering Sun Yujia's previous fright that led her to jump off a building, if ghosts exist, then she must have encountered one that came out of a ghost painting.

But where is that ghost now?

Yang Jian frowned deeply.

There are two floors, one above the other, and we've searched both, but we haven't seen any ghosts.

My Ghost Eye now, but they shouldn't be this bad.

Before he could think any further, Wang Quan's voice came through the satellite-guided phone. "Mr. Yang, a ghost has appeared. It's over here, in room 402."

His voice was low, revealing tension and unease.

Yang Jian turned around abruptly, his gaze following the corridor to the opposite side.

Wang Quan stood at a distance without speaking, pointing to the dormitory room not far away, as if to say, "The ghost is inside."

I've decided to make up for the missed chapters today, starting with three updates per day. This is the first update.