Preparation

Yang Jian was sleeping, but he was sleeping very lightly. He could still hear the ethereal and eerie bell ringing in his mind. The melody, composed of only a few notes, played repeatedly. It would be difficult for anyone to withstand such mental torment and torture.

The sound of a music box can be both a death knell and a key to saving one's life.

When the music starts, the first person to open the music box will be cursed to immortality, and this curse will last for several days.

Conversely, once the music stops, the cursed person is doomed to die.

This curse remains unsolved to this day.

Because it was too dangerous, it was mostly stored away by Headquarters and rarely used.

However, today, Yang Jian is less than forty hours away from the time the curse will erupt.

However, while he was asleep, he seemed to have a dream. Guided by the melody in his mind, he suddenly found himself in a narrow, sealed room. The room seemed to have been sealed for a long time, covered in dust, dark and gloomy, with no light and no sense of his surroundings.

Moreover, there were no walls or any landmarks around.

The only thing present was an old piano placed in the middle of the room. Although Yang Jian felt that he was standing right next to it, he couldn't move or get close to the piano.

But he saw a pair of horrible hands resting on the old piano. The hands were dry and black, and should have rotted away, but they were swaying slightly, as if they were moving, or as if they were playing the piano. However, these horrible hands were not whole; several of the ten fingers were missing.

The old piano was missing several keys.

So when those terrifying hands moved, they were unable to press the piano keys or produce any sound.

The missing fingers and the missing keys complemented each other perfectly, as if this situation was deliberately created to prevent the figure in the darkness from using the piano.

But this barrier seems to be gradually losing its effectiveness.

Yang Jian noticed that several new keys had been added to the original damaged keys of the piano, looking brand new and out of place with the rest of the keys.

There are quite a few of these newly installed piano keys; there are five in total.

But when he tried to get closer to observe, he discovered that the terrifying hands that had been in front of the piano had disappeared. At the same time, a shadow appeared in the dark environment, constantly approaching him. The shadow was terrifying and eerie, like a vengeful ghost haunting him.

But the sound of a music box echoed around Yang Jian.

The ringing of the bell stopped the ghost from getting any closer, ensuring Yang Jian's safety and preventing the ghost from approaching.

The dream was absurd and somewhat bizarre.

It felt like a long time had passed, yet it also seemed like everything had changed in an instant. Yang Jian was gradually moving away from that enclosed room. He didn't move; it was as if the room itself was leaving him.

Then he regained consciousness.

His body trembled slightly.

Yang Jian suddenly opened his eyes, fully conscious and wide awake.

"I was dreaming?" He was surprised, and then frowned as he thought about it.

After becoming Ghost Tamer, he rarely dreamed, only dreaming at certain special times, such as when he was being corrupted by his own demon, or when his body was deteriorating significantly. But at those times, the dreams were not dreams, but rather a kind of information disclosure, which was a kind of mutual resonance that occurred after the human and the demon came into contact.

Yang Jian remembered Zhang Lei saying that he had received some memories that were not his own, which was why he knew about the existence of that graveyard, but he himself had never been there.

"Is this a message from the Music Box Curse? A vengeful ghost playing the piano? It's suspected to be the source of the curse. I'm about to be killed by the curse, so my body has become some kind of medium, through a sensory connection, or perhaps the ghost inside my body reacted and came into contact with the source."

He pondered for a moment, trying to recall the scene, but he couldn't figure out where the room in his dream was.

It's definitely not room 71 at the Caesar Hotel, that's for sure.

"Yang Jian, are you awake? Get up quickly, I've received a notification that Professor Wang wants you to go over there."

At that moment, Liu Xiaoyu's voice came from the living room. She shouted loudly, not knowing which room Yang Jian lived in, so she shouted randomly.

Yang Jian looked up at the time; it was nine o'clock in the morning. This meant he had slept through the night in a daze, but it felt like only half an hour had passed. It seemed his body was too tired. Although his mind could hold on, his body couldn't, after all, he had been active for a long time.

"I gave Wang Xiaoming two days, and it seems he's punctual; he didn't make me wait any longer."

His eyes flickered slightly; he naturally knew why Wang Xiaoming had contacted him today, since he had been waiting for this very moment anyway.

"I can't completely trust Wang Xiaoming, though. Even with the Ghost Chest's trading rules, I still have to be cautious."

Instead of focusing on himself, Yang Jian turned his gaze to the tightly closed door next to him.

The ghost child is a hidden existence unknown to everyone. It is most suitable as an emergency measure or a backup plan. However, the current ghost child has not yet eaten any other ghosts and entered the third stage of the starving ghost state. It is unknown how effective it will be. But for now...

He decided to temporarily train the ghost child.

Immediately.

Yang Jian used his Ghost Domain to retrieve something from somewhere underground.

A black, dirty, worn-out garment, like a burial shroud worn by a dead person.

The decision to put the Ghost Shroud on the ghost child was made after careful consideration. Although the Ghost Shroud was special, it could no longer be kept at this critical juncture, and it had to be put to use when the time was right.

"Get dressed and come out." Yang Jian opened the box containing the Ghost Shroud and threw it into the room.

A ghost child is locked in the room.

What happens when Ghost Portrait get together is predictable.

A short while later.

The door opened.

A strange child, resembling a six-year-old, appeared before Yang Jian wearing the Ghost Shroud. The Ghost Shroud was originally much larger than this, but it fit the child perfectly, as if it had shrunk automatically.

"As expected, the Ghost Shroud will not conflict with the ghost child himself, and if I am not mistaken, the ghost child can perfectly control this garment."

Yang Jian's eyes flickered slightly.

Wearing Ghost Shroud on a living person can protect them from attacks by other ghosts, but the consequence is that it will gradually corrode the living person's body, turning them into a corpse, and once worn, the living person cannot take it off.

Therefore, this garment is truly suited not to be worn by a human, but by a ghost.

The ghost is not afraid of the shroud's corrosive effects, so it can wear it perfectly.

In other words, the Ghost Shroud is a puzzle piece suitable for any ghost; it's versatile and can be perfectly matched, so even a ghost child can wear it perfectly.

"Take this dead man's head and come with me. You are not allowed to attack anyone without my orders," Yang Jian said coldly, tossing over another body bag.

Since the Ghost Shroud has been controlled, the ghost child should be able to withstand the terrifying attacks of dead heads after wearing it.

Today, Yang Jian didn't want to hold back at all; he wanted to be fully prepared.

Dealing with Wang Xiaoming is not so easy.

After doing all this, Yang Jian even carried a substitute doll with him before leaving the room.

"What are you doing? Why are you so late?" Liu Xiaoyu was already prepared; she was still wearing her cute dress and dressed up beautifully.

However, her eyes were somewhat unfocused, as if she were searching for the ghost child's whereabouts, and she was very afraid that the thing would appear beside her.

"I'll go to the address by myself. You can go back to Headquarters later tonight; you don't need to stay here. It's not safe for me here," Yang Jian said.

There were also ghost paintings in his other room. It wasn't a place for an ordinary person to live for long, especially while he was away.

Liu Xiaoyu said, "That won't do. I have to take you there; it's my job."

"Stop talking nonsense, give me the address," Yang Jian said seriously.

"Okay, I'll send you the address then, you can go there yourself." Seeing Yang Jian's firm attitude, Liu Xiaoyu had no choice but to send him the location.

After receiving the document, Yang Jian glanced at it and strode towards the door. The ghost child appeared and disappeared around him, secretly following him without showing itself in front of the living, thus avoiding Liu Xiaoyu's gaze.

Today, he's going to break the curse on the music box.

Whether it will succeed or what terrible things might happen along the way, Yang Jian cannot predict. He can only do his best.