The Blockade of Footsteps

Although Yang Jian successfully passed by the ghost despite the threat of death and walked down the stairs unharmed, Li Yang and the foreigner named Jimmy clearly did not have such courage.

They were terrified by the ghost slowly climbing the stairs. This fear made them hesitate, unsure of what to do. The two seemed to have frozen in place.

The terrifying footsteps behind them were rapidly approaching and showed no sign of stopping.

But Yang Jian acted first. The headless ghostly figure stretched along the wall beside them, like a human figure walking. The ghostly figure quickly arrived beside the two people, covering them completely and forcefully restricting their movements, trying to lead them away from the dangerous staircase.

Under the control of the ghostly figure, the two began to retreat rapidly. Although Li Yang struggled, his resistance was not strong and remained within the controllable range.

The ghostly figure led them around the ghost in the painting.

The narrow staircase is only wide enough for one person to go up and down at a time. Normally, people going up or down the stairs can only pass each other sideways, but ghosts do not give way to them.

The ghost, with its blurred features and dressed in red, continued to slowly ascend the stairs. Its small form blocked the way in the middle of the stairs. To pass, one could either force their way through like Yang Jian, or fearlessly flip over the ghost's head. As for whether such near-headed contact would result in an attack, there was simply no choice.

The eerie footsteps behind me were, in some ways, even more dangerous than the ghosts in the ghost paintings.

The ghost in the painting might not necessarily be attacked if it gets close, but the sound of footsteps is certain to kill anyone who gets close; even Yang Jian himself couldn't stop it.

Li Yang struggled to squeeze past the ghost painting from one side. He was too scared to do it himself, but the ghostly figure was controlling his body, making it impossible for him to do anything. No matter how terrified he was, his body involuntarily moved closer to the ghost in front of him.

A chilling feeling seemed to permeate his entire body. He smelled the scent of an old oil painting. The ghost in front of him was not the kind of dead person he had imagined at all; it was more like a walking old painting.

Through the squeezing and touching, he made real contact with the ghost.

He didn't feel the cold body beneath the red clothes, but rather it was as if he were touching a piece of paper, incomplete and empty, containing only a phantom body.

Jimmy was lifted up by the ghost and it was trying to flip him over its head. He couldn't struggle; the ghost seemed to be carrying a corpse.

The two of them forced their way past the ghost in this very simple and direct way.

But the footsteps behind them had already arrived. Judging from the sound on the wooden stairs, the footsteps were right behind the two of them, very close to the ghost in the painting, about three steps away.

This distance was extremely dangerous; they were very likely to be attacked by those terrifying footsteps.

The meeting of the two ghosts on the stairs seemed to trigger some unpredictable change.

Now.

The ghost's footsteps, which were going upstairs, suddenly stopped. It didn't continue up the stairs, as if something unseen was blocking its way.

The same footsteps stopped at this moment, as if they had stopped on a step and did not continue down.

Or perhaps the footsteps were also blocked by the ghost in the painting.

At this moment, the two seemed to be locked in a stalemate, neither willing to give way, engaging in a confrontation in an incomprehensible way on this narrow staircase.

Yang Jian's ghostly figure seemed to be disturbed, as if an unseen supernatural force was interfering with everything around him. The ghostly figure that had been standing up was now swaying and twisting, and in the end, he himself could not even fully control it.

"Bang!"

Li Yang and Jimmy, who had just passed by the ghost, fell off the ghost's shadow and crashed heavily onto the steps below, then tumbled down the stairs.

Fortunately, it wasn't a high fall. Although they fell quite hard, at least they didn't lose consciousness or suffer any fatal injuries.

"Stand up and leave this building immediately."

Yang Jian had already saved them once, so he retreated without hesitation. Only after leaving the building and backing up to the road behind it did the distorted headless ghostly shadow beneath his feet return to normal.

"The ghost isn't moving anymore?" Then he stared intently at the ghost on the steps inside the building.

He knew that the footsteps had disappeared and the ghost's movements had stopped, but he dared not say what the consequences would be.

"Wait, something's not right."

Yang Jian suddenly saw that the ghost's originally blurry figure, which was facing away from him, was gradually becoming clearer. He could even see the ghost's feet appearing, whereas before it was just a vague outline.

Everything seemed to be making the ghosts appear more real.

"Could that footsteps on the stairs be part of the puzzle for this ghost?"

Immediately realizing something, his expression changed abruptly.

The ghost doesn't need to be specified to collect all the puzzle pieces, just like the hungry ghost. It starts as a bluish-black baby, but after collecting all the pieces, it becomes a terrifying dead person dressed in a shroud. Its appearance changes depending on the puzzle pieces it obtains.

The ghost in the painting before my eyes is now undergoing some kind of change.

"If, as I suspect, the footsteps on the stairs are indeed part of the puzzle for this ghost, then things are getting complicated."

The ghost painting alone had already wiped out a team of Ghost Tamer from abroad. If you add the footsteps that trigger certain death, the terror of this ghost will rise to another level. Ordinary Ghost Tamer would be killed just by getting close, not to mention that the ghost painting itself has another unknown killing pattern.

Just as the ghost began to change, Li Yang and Jimmy scrambled to their feet. Before they could even stand properly, they ran out in terror, trying to get as far away from the building and the ghost standing on the stairs as possible.

"It's time to go."

Yang Jian saw them running out and immediately said.

Now, no matter how dangerous the ghosts here are, the priority should be to find a way to leave. He has already found the source ghost and even had direct contact with it, so he can be quite certain that this ghost is different from other ghost paintings.

The fact that he couldn't suppress it with just one spot is the best proof of that.

The purpose of this trip is to find a way to complete the transaction involving the Ghost Chest.

Immediately.

The three of them began to retreat without looking back. They moved quickly, all running, and Yang Jian was no exception, since his Ghost Domain was now being suppressed.

However, Yang Jian's current physical abilities are no longer those of a normal person; they have long exceeded the limits of a living being. Therefore, he runs very fast and does not feel tired at all. If we do not consider the possibility of his body collapsing, he can keep running like this.

The two people behind them were clearly exhausted. Although they had moved away from the building as if they were on adrenaline, driven by fear, they were eventually so tired that they almost collapsed on the ground, panting heavily.

"There's no time for you to rest. That's where you hid before. You'd better seize this opportunity before that ghost appears. I won't wait for you for long. If you delay, I'll leave first," Yang Jian said seriously to them.

"I see."

Li Yang seemed to have undergone some kind of change in his body after becoming Ghost Tamer. He caught his breath and recovered rather quickly, immediately running back to where he had been hiding.

Yang Jian glanced at it, but was more focused on the direction they had come from.

The stairs wouldn't stop the ghost for long, and besides, this was inside a ghost painting, meaning the ghost could appear right in front of us at any moment.

Therefore, Yang Jian will not let his guard down until he has completely left this place.

Time passed little by little.

In less than five minutes, a group of survivors rushed over from the building next door in a panic. There were more of them than before. Although they were somewhat disorganized, they were all in one thing: they didn't make a fuss or break away from the group.

In a sense, these people have all been filtered through paranormal events, and their survival to this day is not simply a matter of luck.

"As per our previous agreement, since you led me the way and located the ghost, I will take you away from here. There may be dangers along the way, but don't expect anyone to save you, because no one can survive in front of a ghost. So, good luck to you."

Yang Jian glanced at them and gave them a heads-up.

Li Yang immediately translated what had just been said.

Everyone remained silent, and no one raised any objections, which was considered tacit approval.

"Very good, then let's act immediately." Yang Jian glanced at the crowd again, but the man named David from before was not among them.

He kicked himself; although he didn't die, he's probably unable to move now.

At this time, no one wants to carry a burden.

David was abandoned.

It's a perfectly normal decision. Back when Yang Jian encountered the Starvation Ghost Incident, weren't all his classmates in the same boat? They couldn't care less about others. It was already good enough that they didn't harm anyone when they ran away.

Without saying anything, Yang Jian started running back towards the exit he had come from.

A large group of people followed behind him.

"Oh, shit."

Jimmy, still catching his breath, couldn't help but curse when he saw they were about to run again, his face covered in sweat.

But Yang Jian hadn't run far when he realized something was wrong.

When he first arrived, he hadn't walked far before entering another ghostly scene, but now, the distance seemed to have increased, or perhaps the ghostly scene had grown larger. What was originally a short road now seemed to stretch out into a strangely long distance.

"The size of that foreign city hasn't changed; it's still the same as before. What's changed is the background of the jigsaw puzzle of Greater J City. Has the city gotten bigger? Could it be that the Ghost Painting Incident has become more serious during this period?" Although Yang Jian noticed something was wrong, he didn't stop and kept running.

This is the clumsiest, but also the only, way to escape the garbled drawings.

"It's not that I've gotten bigger, it's that I've entered another ghost painting."

Yang Jian had calculated in his mind that he had passed by three ghost paintings before coming to Li Yang's place. The first one was the one that Li Yang had hung in his villa, the second one was of Da J City, and the third one was of Li Yang.

However, a fourth ghost drawing appeared during this period and filled in the gap between the first and second drawings.

That's why the sense of distance changed.

"Yang Jian, this is bad! That... that ghost has followed us!"

However, at that moment, Li Yang suddenly accelerated and ran ahead, pointing tremblingly behind him.

"What?"

Yang Jian was in front, hadn't been paying attention to what was behind him until Li Yang reminded him, at which point he turned around to look.

He immediately saw a strange red figure standing upright in the middle of the road about three or four hundred meters away from them. However, the figure did not stand there for long before it began to walk towards them. Although the steps were slow, the speed at which it approached was very fast.

This is its Ghost Domain. Don't even mention how slow it moves; even if it stands there motionless, it might suddenly appear right in front of you the next moment.

"Some unlucky guy in the crowd has been targeted by a ghost." Yang Jian immediately realized the problem.

Ghosts don't follow you for no reason; they're not that bored. When a ghost follows you, it means there's a possibility that someone fits the ghost's killing pattern, which is why it appeared.

"Who could be being targeted? Is it Jimmy and Li Yang, who had contact with the ghost before? Or is the ghost coming towards me?" Yang Jian immediately looked at the two of them.

The chances of these survivors being targeted are slim; if they had been, they would have died long ago and wouldn't have waited until now.

Therefore, he believed that the probability of the three of them being targeted was higher.

"If I were the one being targeted, there would be no point in continuing to run; I'd be attacked sooner or later." Yang Jian stopped, then grabbed Li Yang beside him, while Ghost Shadow left Jimmy behind.

"You two stop with me. The ghost is probably coming for us. Li Yang, you tell the survivors to keep running and not stop."

He made a judgment.

These survivors ran very slowly, not far in a minute or two, and he needed to shake off the ghost that was following him within that minute or two, and then catch up with the crowd and leave the area.

"It's us again?" Li Yang almost burst into tears.

He thought he could finally leave safely, but unexpectedly, an accident still occurred at this crucial moment.

There was no other way; he simply couldn't shake off Yang Jian's grasp and escape on his own, since he knew where the exit was.

"Don't be too nervous. Maybe it's just a ghost in another ghost painting. If it's the source ghost and it's coming for me, then I'll dismember it right here." Yang Jian's face was cold and stern. A strange, rusty woodcutter's knife had appeared in his hand at some point.

He always carried this machete with him, but he just hadn't had a suitable opportunity to use it.

However, he still has one slot left to suppress the demon, which, to some extent, means he can use it once more without any cost.

After three times, Yang Jian didn't know what the consequences would be for the fourth time, but he understood that the price for the fourth time would definitely be enormous, and he might even lose his life.

But there's no time to worry about that now.

If I were targeted, I definitely wouldn't be able to get out, because this is the Ghost Domain of Ghost Painting, which can completely trap people and then attack them relentlessly. Under such circumstances, no one can withstand it. Even a foreign team couldn't hold out and was wiped out.

Therefore, Yang Jian did not intend to waste any more time. The curse of the music box echoed in his mind, and time was very important to him.

"The three of us saw it in the stairwell just now, and we all met the same conditions, so there's a one-in-three chance I was being targeted. Sure enough, there wasn't enough time. The footsteps on the stairs didn't stop the ghost for long. If we had bought some more time, maybe we could have left here safely," Yang Jian thought to himself.

Li Yang said, "I've already told the others to run, but what do we do now? We can't stop that thing."

"We don't need to stop them, we just need to lure them away. The ghost isn't necessarily targeting all of us, it might be one of us. I suspect the ghost's target is one of the three of us, so we need to split up."

Yang Jian calmly said, "You stand on the right side of the road, Jimmy stands on the left side, and I'll stand in the middle. Let's see which person the ghost has its eye on. No matter which one of you is being targeted, you must stay here and cannot leave, otherwise you will kill everyone."

Li Yang slightly raised his head and looked at him in astonishment, his face full of disbelief.

"Don't look at me like that. Do you think you can be saved once you're being targeted?" Yang Jian said. "Translate this for Jimmy next to me."

"What if you, Mr. Yang, are the one being targeted? Wouldn't we all be unable to leave?" Li Yang swallowed hard and asked nervously.

Yang Jian said, "I will try to fight it. If I succeed, I will be fine. If I fail, I can only point you in the right direction, and the rest is up to you."

Of course, the chances of him failing are very small.

With a strange machete in hand and a scapegoat doll on his person, dying here wouldn't be so easy; it would just come at a price.

Li Yang didn't ask any more questions; he immediately told Jimmy about the current situation.