The Terrifying Child

"This ghost child can freely enter and leave my Ghost Domain."

When Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to travel between the two places again, he discovered that the ghost child he brought from Wang Shanshan seemed to have become a part of his Ghost Domain after entering Ghost Domain. Not only did the child follow closely without falling behind, but it could also travel to any place within his Ghost Domain.

He tried it on the way.

No matter which level of the Ghost Domain one opens, this ghost child can invade at will.

In other words, Yang Jian's Ghost Domain has no way to stop this thing.

"Incomprehensible and bizarre, this ghost child possesses both the characteristics of a starving ghost and the characteristics of Ghost Eye." Yang Jian glanced at the ghost child that was roaming around the Ghost Domain, and his apprehension deepened.

Once this thing gets out of control, I will be attacked immediately. Activating the Ghost Domain will not only fail to stop it, but will also give it an opportunity to get closer to me.

"Although I've altered this thing's memories, I'm not sure if it will definitely work, so we have to be cautious no matter what."

Yang Jian had also considered eliminating this thing.

But this world is too dangerous. Whether it's the human skin paper, the ghost cabinet, the ghost mirror, or even this second-stage Ghost Infant, they are all assets to increase his chances of survival. He can't stop using them just because they are dangerous. If he didn't have the help of these things, he would have died long ago and wouldn't be alive now.

Absolute safety does not exist; as long as it is within a controllable range, Yang Jian is willing to bear the risk.

"Come over."

Yang Jian gave the ghost child an order: he needed to figure it out in a short time before he could determine when it should appear.

In the distance, the ghost child standing on a tree in the forest vanished in an instant.

The next moment, it appeared beside Yang Jian.

The ghost child, with its bluish-black skin, was frightening to behold. Its red, pupil-less eyes held an eerie ferocity. It tilted its head slightly, looking at Yang Jian as if awaiting further orders. Yet, this seemingly innocent gaze sent a chill down one's spine.

But Yang Jian gave no further instructions; he needed to determine what this thing would do next without his orders.

Should I just stand here like an idiot, or will I start to have some independent thoughts?

At this moment, Yang Jian was observing and also checking the time.

About ten minutes passed.

Before Yang Jian could give any further instructions, the ghost child began to look around and stopped staring at him.

About twenty minutes later, the ghost child began to walk around Yang Jian, but did not stray too far from him, and its activity range was about five meters around him.

In the last thirty minutes, the ghost child seemed no longer affected by the previous orders and began to revert to its previous state, wandering around Yang Jian's Ghost Domain. Sometimes it would stand on a tree branch staring into the distance, and sometimes it would run around randomly in the Ghost Domain, as if playing by itself.

"The restraint time of less than thirty minutes also proves that the ghost child can understand what I am saying." Yang Jian noted down this time.

"Don't leave within ten meters of me."

The next moment, he gave another order.

The ghost child looked at Yang Jian, then ran back immediately. Its range of movement was restricted. Although it was still running around randomly, it did not leave within ten meters of Yang Jian.

"Stand under that streetlight," Yang Jian said, pointing to the streetlight in the distance.

The streetlight was at least thirty meters away, while he had just given the order not to leave within ten meters of him. This meant the two orders conflicted, and he needed to determine how the ghost child would react if these conflicting orders were executed.

Will it crash like a real ghost?

The answer came quickly.

The ghost child ignored the previous ten-meter restriction on movement, ran to stand under the streetlight, and did not run back.

Yang Jian frowned slightly; "The new command will override the old one. The ghost child won't conflict or crash like a real ghost, so there's no need to worry about that."

After some trial and error, he had a general understanding of the ghost child.

"The rest is about analyzing the ghost child's condition. But before that, there's one thing we need to confirm."

Yang Jian then looked at the ghost child not far away and said directly, "Call me Dad."

This wasn't due to his perverse sense of humor, but rather to see if this thing could actually talk.

The ghost child looked at Yang Jian. It opened its mouth as if trying to speak, but no sound came out. The ghost child's mouth was pitch black, with no tongue, no throat, and not even teeth. It seemed to be underdeveloped, with many parts of its body missing.

"Is the inability to speak, yet the continued attempts to speak, due to the lack of a puzzle piece?" Yang Jian's gaze sharpened.

He remembered that the starving ghosts back then had teeth, as did the other derived Ghost Infant, but this thing did not.

"I'm starting to wonder what kind of changes will occur to this ghost child after it eats a ghost. Will it be corrupted by the ghost it ate, like a living person experiencing the resurrection of a vengeful spirit? Or will it be able to control the ghost it ate, turning it into a piece of its own puzzle?"

This answer is very important.

If it's the former, the potential of the ghost child isn't as great as imagined. Although it can provide some important assistance, the opportunities to use it are probably not many.

If it's the latter, then that's terrible.

Yang Jian could very well raise a starving ghost who obeys his commands.

Maybe in the future his nickname "Ghost Eye Yang Jian" can be changed to "Daddy's Man of Dachang City," which would be more appropriate.

Raising such a creature is like having a father, isn't it? Yang Jian will have to rely on it for support in the future.

"If I were to feed it a ghost, the first one must be one that poses no harm and that I can handle, to prevent myself from getting into trouble if it gets out of control," he pondered.

He doesn't have that many ghosts imprisoned.

Some were controlled by him, some were handed over to Headquarters, and only one ghost remained that met the criteria.

The ghost skeleton left behind after killing Wang Xiaoqiang.

That was the least dangerous ghost. Yang Jian guessed it was one of the pieces of a corpse puzzle, but it had been dismembered and scattered, just like his own ghost hand. Although it was a ghost, its level of harm was quite low.

"That thing is less dangerous, but it's too special. In a critical moment, it can be directly controlled by a living person, saving a dying person. Feeding it to a ghost child would be a waste."

"Or maybe that dead guy's head I got after that fight with my friends on WeChat?"

Yang Jian then thought of another ghost.

The ghost left behind by a Ghost Tamer after his death: a dead man's head.

That ghost is a bit dangerous. It's a terrifying head that even the five layers of Ghost Domain couldn't get rid of. If the ghost child swallows it, there might be a risk of it getting out of control. But that dead head is very useful. Ghosts stared at by the dead head will be suppressed, and the people being stared at will likely die in a short time.

As for whether there is a risk of recovery, Yang Jian didn't know, since he didn't know much about it yet.

The remaining items—bloodstained old newspapers, worn-out embroidered shoes, and Ghost Shroud —were all supernatural objects, not quite true ghosts in a certain sense. Yang Jian didn't want to experiment with these things.

While he was thinking, Yang Jian had already arrived at a villa community on the outskirts of the city once again.

Villa No. 8, left behind by He Tianxiong, is his temporary residence in J City. This way, he no longer needs to stay at the Ping An Hotel. After all, the Ping An Hotel is full of people from Headquarters, and many things and secrets cannot be hidden. If he appeared with the ghost child today, Headquarters would know immediately.

Yang Jian took a look.

Li Yang and the other overseas survivors from the daytime have already left, presumably having been settled by Headquarters and needing no further attention.

However, when he entered the villa, he found it brightly lit.

Sitting on the sofa in the living room was a petite young woman with two pigtails and a pure and lovely appearance. She was eating various snacks and fruits on the table while watching TV.

"Liu Xiaoyu? What are you doing here?" Yang Jian frowned, then looked around.

It seemed like she was all alone.

"Yang Jian, you're finally back! I knew you'd be here. I've been waiting for you for hours."

Upon seeing Yang Jian, Liu Xiaoyu hurriedly put down her snacks, turned off the TV, and stood up from the sofa.

"Are you alone?" Yang Jian asked.

Liu Xiaoyu nodded quickly; "Yes, yes, it's just me. I received a call from that Li Yang and found out that you stayed here after leaving the Ping An Hotel. The Deputy Minister asked me to stay with you for a few days, so I came over."

"Follow me for a few days? What do you mean?" Yang Jian continued to ask.

Liu Xiaoyu chuckled, "It means wherever you go, I'll go too. The Deputy Minister told me to stick close to you so we can stay in touch at any time."

Yang Jian thought for a moment and understood Cao Yanhua's consideration. Tomorrow was the deadline Wang Xiaoming gave him for an answer, and he was afraid that not being able to find someone in time would waste time, so he asked Liu Xiaoyu to come directly.

"I think it's partly surveillance, isn't it? Cao Yanhua wants to know what I've been up to lately? He doesn't trust me. But you're really bold, daring to come and watch me all by yourself. You know, it's not safe around me; one wrong move and you could die."

Liu Xiaoyu pouted helplessly and said, "What can we do? Someone has to do this job. I'm your operator, and now that you're suspended, I'm on leave too, so I'm the most suitable one."

"There are plenty of staff at Headquarters, so we're definitely not short of people. The only reason we asked you to come here is because we have a good relationship. If it were anyone else, you might have mysteriously disappeared the next day. Outsiders might not know, but don't you know that Cao Yanhua and I have already fallen out because of what happened on WeChat Moments?" Yang Jian said.

"It's all in the past, don't worry about it. Besides, I cried for you for most of the day, and I didn't blame you, did I?" Liu Xiaoyu said.

Yang Jian didn't reply to her, but suddenly realized something and shouted, "Come here."

Liu Xiaoyu was taken aback, then pouted and said, "Why are you being so fierce? What's past is past."

"I wasn't calling you," Yang Jian's gaze turned cold. "I was calling the thing behind you."

"What?"

Liu Xiaoyu subconsciously looked back, and her eyes widened in shock. Her heart seemed to stop beating. She saw a child of about six years old standing eerily behind her, staring at her. What was most bizarre was that the child's skin was bluish-black, like that of a dead person, and his eyes were bloodshot with no pupils, revealing a terrifying ferocity.

It was as if they wanted to devour them alive.

However, the next moment...

The ghost child abandoned Liu Xiaoyu in front of it, and ran barefoot across the ground. Its movements were very fast, like a black shadow flashing by. It quickly came behind Yang Jian and hid like a coward.

"This is... Ghost Infant?"

Liu Xiaoyu's heart pounded wildly, her whole body seemed to freeze, and her eyes revealed utter terror.

She had seen the files on the hungry ghosts, and because she had created the files, she was very clear about the image of the hungry ghosts. There were even special illustrations for the changes of the Ghost Infant at each stage.

In order to create a file on the starving ghosts, Liu Xiaoyu once suffered from insomnia and nightmares for a whole week.

"You were almost attacked by it," Yang Jian said seriously, looking at her.

Just now, the ghost child had arrived behind Liu Xiaoyu without his command, and after staring at him for a while, he even sensed that it intended to attack.

The intent to attack grew stronger over time.

If Yang Jian hadn't stopped him in time, the Ghost Infant might have really pounced on him.

"The second stage of the Ghost Infant attacks anyone it sees or touches. The ghost child is also affected by this pattern to some extent; it attacks any living person it sees. However, the blood-stained old newspaper seems to have had some effect in altering its memory."

"If it is seen by a living person, it will hide."

Yang Jian glanced at the ghost child hiding behind him.

Because the old, blood-stained newspaper rewrote his memory in this way:

First, obey Yang Jian and Wang Shanshan's orders completely.

Second, killing was prohibited without the orders of Yang Jian and Wang Shanshan.

Third, it is forbidden to appear in crowds at will.

Therefore, the ghost child avoids people because of the existence of the third commandment, but the second commandment is flawed; it forbids killing, but does not forbid harming people.

In other words, if the ghost child sees you without your knowledge, the ghost child will attack you from outside your line of sight.

This reminds me of what Wang Shanshan said before, that five nights ago, after the ghost child ran out, several living human fingers appeared in his mouth.

Yang Jian believed that the instincts of the starving ghosts remained, and they would hurt people even if they didn't kill them.

However, Yang Jian had no way of knowing the extent of the injury, because a person could die very quickly if they suffered serious injuries.

Therefore, it's probably impossible to completely prevent the ghost child from killing; the only option is to constantly restrain it.

Any leniency could lead to this thing attacking living people nearby.

"I need to issue an order prohibiting the ghost child from approaching living people. And considering that orders can be overridden, this order needs to be updated frequently and repeated every now and then, so that the ghost child doesn't get out of control," Yang Jian thought to himself.