Another Painting

Yang Jian left the courtyard he had just left and headed to the next place where an anomaly had occurred. Since most of the city had been covered by his Ghost Domain, he had memorized many of the locations. However, today's operation was more discreet; he didn't use his Ghost Domain to cover the entire city in a high-profile manner, otherwise the Headquarters would have thought he was up to something again.

He didn't want to be bothered, nor did he want to trouble others, so he searched discreetly.

This time, Yang Jian arrived at a residential community.

The neighborhood isn't large, and although the buildings have been renovated, they still look rather old; they're the kind of low-rise walk-up buildings.

"There's a problem here too, and it hasn't been sealed off either, which means no one in charge has ever been here. It's an unusual place that hasn't been discovered." Yang Jian stood at the foot of a residential building.

He looked up.

The Ghost Eye reacted strangely; it dared not look at a certain room on the fourth floor and immediately closed its eyes.

"Another ghost painting?" Yang Jian pondered.

He looked around.

The discovery that the neighborhood was unaffected meant that the ghost painting had not yet formed Ghost Domain, unlike what he had encountered in Miao Xiaoshan's dormitory. This was good news for him.

The absence of Ghost Domain means that the danger level of the ghost painting is very low, and it can be easily imprisoned without much effort.

"Let's go up and take a look."

Yang Jian was not afraid, but rather cautious, because his Ghost Eye was completely useless in front of the Ghost Painting, essentially suppressed, making it impossible for him to escape in time, so there was still a risk of being trapped.

Soon.

He climbed the stairs to room 401 on the fourth floor.

"Indeed, no Ghost Domain has formed. Even this floor hasn't been affected. There are still people living on the floors above and below." Yang Jian heard the voices of residents upstairs.

These residents are truly lucky.

They lived only one floor apart. Because of the ghost painting's unique nature, they didn't come into contact with this supernatural phenomenon and weren't targeted by it, allowing them to continue living normal lives.

The door to room 401 remained locked, but for Yang Jian, breaking down doors was already second nature.

Soon, the door opened.

Yang Jian glanced inside; it was dimly lit, with no stench of corpses or any eerie or chilling feeling. The dimness was simply because the lights weren't on.

Without hesitation, he went straight in and turned on the lights in the room.

As the lights in the living room came on, the situation inside became clear.

There was absolutely no suspense.

He saw a painting in the living room, a huge oil painting.

A canvas lay fallen beside the oil painting, presumably used to cover it up.

Yang Jian walked in and stood in front of the oil painting. He glanced at it and saw that the painting depicted a woman dressed in a red European-style dress. The woman's features were blurry, and she seemed to be smiling, or perhaps she was spying on everything in the room. There was an indescribable strange feeling about her.

The background of this oil painting is different from the previous oil paintings at Headquarters; this one depicts the scene of this residential area.

In the dim and oppressive environment, rows of dilapidated and desolate residential buildings are hidden inside, as if no one lives there, making what was originally a highly artistic painting seem somewhat eerie.

"The woman's hands in the ghost painting didn't extend out." Yang Jian noticed that although the woman's hands in the ghost painting were still fair, they did not appear outside the painting.

All the abnormalities seemed to have disappeared, and the painting appeared perfectly normal.

But besides that, Yang Jian also paid attention to another place.

It was in an inconspicuous, dimly lit corner of the oil painting.

In that corner lay a corpse that had been dead for many days. The corpse looked out of place against the background of the oil painting, appearing very abrupt. The corpse lay curled up and twisted on the ground, its sunken features revealing deep fear as it tilted its head back.

Yang Jian's eyes flickered slightly. "The person in the ghost painting was a resident of this house. Since he lived alone, no one cared after he was killed by the ghost painting. Therefore, we can deduce that the ghost painting did not kill people, nor would it kill anyone who had seen it."

He was standing right in front of the ghost painting, but it didn't attack him.

"But seeing the ghost painting is definitely one of the conditions for being killed. This explains why no one has been attacked around this ghost painting for so long. If no one enters this place, this ghost painting will probably never kill anyone again."

After thinking for a moment, Yang Jian decided to move the ghost painting away.

The ghost painting was discussed at a previous Headquarters meeting.

The backgrounds in the ghost paintings seem to be interconnected. If one could enter one of the ghost paintings, one could find the source within that painting.

Therefore, Yang Jian only needs to collect a ghost painting as a breakthrough.

Immediately, he picked up the canvas on the ground and covered the ghost painting to prevent others from peeping at it and thus causing some uncertain changes.

Yang Jian carried the ghost painting downstairs.

Two people were walking up the stairs from the bottom, and the three of them met in the stairwell.

"It's you? Yang Jian?"

Suddenly, one of them seemed to recognize Yang Jian, his tone surprised and his face showing a hint of disbelief.

Um?

Yang Jian glanced at her briefly and saw that she was a woman wearing sunglasses, but he didn't think he recognized her.

Because he didn't know many people in this city.

"Who are you?" Yang Jian stopped in his tracks and stared at her.

The woman quickly took off her sunglasses, her expression somewhat complicated, and said, "My name is Su Qing. We met on the plane before. Although Mr. Yang's attitude wasn't very friendly last time, I still have to thank you."

"An airplane?" Yang Jian thought for a moment.

I think I vaguely remember it.

The female passenger who was attacked by the ghost hand?

"I remember now, you're the woman who almost died? Your attitude seems much better than last time. People really do learn their lesson after being wronged."

Yang Jian remained expressionless. "But there's no need to thank me. I have nothing to thank you for. I was just completing a mission."

After saying that, he prepared to leave.

A simple greeting is enough for a woman you've only met once; there's no need to waste time.

"Hey, friend, my girlfriend just thanked you, and this is how you treat her? That's incredibly disrespectful," a burly man next to him said, frowning with displeasure.

Yang Jian glanced at him, then at the woman named Su Qing: "It seems you're very cautious, not spreading what happened last time. That's definitely good for you. But when you have time, teach your boyfriend a lesson: there's a type of person you have to put up with no matter how annoying or rude they are."

"Because it's good for me, and also, don't waste my time, I'm very busy."

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Yang, I'm so sorry."

Su Qing quickly apologized, while pulling hard on her boyfriend, signaling him not to provoke the person in front of him.

Because this person Yang Jian is indeed very dangerous, and even more frightening.

Yang Jian didn't say anything, he just took the ghost painting and went downstairs.

As soon as he left, the man couldn't help but curse, "What a jerk! His attitude was awful! He completely disregarded people. Su Qing, if you hadn't held me back, I would have definitely made a scene with this guy."

"Stop talking, he's someone you can't afford to offend." Su Qing was a little annoyed, afraid that her boyfriend, who had just been oblivious to the situation, might cause some trouble.

"What's so untouchable about them? Are they rich?"

Su Qing didn't know how to explain, and she didn't dare to tell anyone about what happened on the plane that day, lest it cause trouble.

"Alright, let's go home. Let's forget about what happened earlier. This was an accident. We won't encounter someone like Yang Jian again."

"Etc."

But Su Qing suddenly stopped after climbing just half a flight of stairs, her expression turning terrified, and her whole body trembling slightly.

"Quick, we need to get out of here!"

Her voice was panicked, and she hurriedly grabbed her boyfriend and turned to go downstairs.

"What's wrong with you all of a sudden?" Her boyfriend looked puzzled, even confused by this unusual behavior.

Su Qing acted this way because she realized something terrifying: why was Yang Jian here?

Could it be that this neighborhood is haunted?

Moreover, when Yang Jian left, he seemed to be carrying something in his hand, which was wrapped in a white cloth and looked quite peculiar.

"This neighborhood is no longer safe to stay in," Su Qing suddenly felt a chill run down her spine.

Because I've actually been living in this problematic building for several days now.