The Whole Story

Before Yang Jian could even ponder why the human skin paper was here, the ghost child had already run over, grabbed the paper from the ground, and stuffed it into his mouth, seemingly about to swallow it. Startled, Yang Jian quickly told the ghost child to spit it out.

Putting aside whether this human skin paper is edible, and whether eating it would have any negative consequences for the ghost child, let's consider the following:

At the very least, he would choose to keep the paper effigy until he made a decision.

Even if the schemes on the parchment are full of traps, at least some key information is indeed useful and of great value.

Whether we'll need it or not is unknown, but at least we can't feed it to the ghost child now.

The ghost child puffed out his cheeks, tilted his head slightly, and looked at Yang Jian. His mouth was still stuffed with human skin paper, which he hadn't swallowed, but he slowly spat it out.

The parchment was rolled up into a ball, covered in saliva, and had two rows of bite marks on it. There were no teeth, but there were gum marks.

Yang Jian walked over with a dark expression.

The instigator, Ghost Child, remained oblivious, still tilting its head as it looked at Yang Jian, seemingly awaiting the next command.

Yang Jian ignored the ghost child.

He simply looked at the human skin paper that had been spat out on the ground and roughly understood what had happened.

The remaining dark blue handprint on the parchment.

In other words, the paper parchment was touched by the ghost child.

According to the killing pattern of the second-stage Ghost Infant, it will kill anyone it sees or touches. Therefore, the ghost child's loss of control was because its own starving ghost pattern was triggered. However, this trigger is not mandatory. It will only act unconsciously when it reaches a certain range and the ghost child has no command to restrain it.

"That was dangerous; the paper human skin was almost eaten," Yang Jian thought to himself.

Looking at the water stains all over the ground nearby, he now understood what they represented. They must have been the ghost that the human skin paper had swallowed back in Huanggang Village. That ghost used to be in Ye Jun's hands at Xiaoqiang Club.

It's a horrible corpse fluid.

If a living person comes into contact with the corpse water, their body will rot within a few days. However, before the vengeful spirit revives, the person who controls the corpse water can withstand all kinds of attacks without dying.

"Human skin paper, Ye Jun's corpse fluid, and these things actually appeared in this building, and they even appeared during the time when my consciousness was being stripped away." Yang Jian recalled carefully, a chill running down his spine.

Because it represents one thing.

The paper, resembling human skin, is suspected to have the ability to move.

However, this ability requires the support of other ghosts, and this strange corpse fluid is the ghost that the human skin paper relies on.

"Assuming the human skin paper can control the ghosts it previously devoured, then this thing escaped from underground without my knowledge, invaded this building, and was just unlucky enough to encounter the ghost child, suffer an attack from the ghost child, and then had its corpse fluid swallowed by the ghost child, leaving it behind once again."

Yang Jian's eyes flickered slightly; he felt a lingering fear at that moment.

You should know that he held this human skin paper in his hand more than once, and at the very beginning he even stuffed it into his pocket, almost to the point of sleeping by his bedside.

However, if the human skin paper can move with the help of ghosts, then it means that it possessed this ability after leaving Huanggang Village, and it's not that it can only move now; it's just that the human skin paper chose this particular time.

Yang Jian fell silent, a chill spreading from the soles of his feet throughout his body.

He rarely felt this way anymore, but it was especially strong today.

"Wei Jing's bizarre resurrection, Guo Fan a trap set by the spirit ghost, my subsequent invasion by the spirit ghost, and Wei Jing's loss of control all seem like accidents, but in reality, when connected, they form a huge scheme, with a human skin paper behind each event."

"It was no accident that the paper doll started moving for the first time this time. It must have known what was happening in the lab. It knew that Wei Jing and I would both lose control, which is why it appeared in this building. It just happened to encounter the ghost child when it was preparing to do something."

"The ghost child wasn't part of its plan; it was an unexpected addition. Or perhaps the ghost child was neither a ghost nor a human. These kinds of unusual beings are unpredictable, which is why it was almost eaten by the ghost child."

Yang Jian pondered this.

"Wang Xiaoming said before that during the experiment, when the anomaly occurred, the memorial tablet where my consciousness was located was bleeding, and my portrait was covered in blood. This phenomenon reminded me of the ghost cabinet. The ghost cabinet had also bled before. Was it because the transaction rules were working? That blood was resisting the invasion of unknown supernatural entities on the memorial tablet."

"I don't know if the human skin paper already knew this, but given the situation at the time, it didn't matter whether it knew or not. Even if I was still conscious, without the ability to act, I could only watch helplessly as everything happened."

Yang Jian thought about many things, and he slowly peeled back the layers of the whole matter, gradually revealing a rather terrifying truth.

The key point is the ghost child.

If it weren't for the fact that he had left the ghost child inside the building and hadn't ordered the building sealed off, Yang Jian felt that the human skin paper would have definitely succeeded this time.

As for its purpose, Yang Jian didn't know yet. He only knew that something terrifying was going to happen, and that his chances of surviving were extremely slim.

"This thing is more dangerous than we imagined. It's lurking and dormant, which is terrifying. Its plan isn't just about traps; all its plans seem to have loopholes. Even if you succeed for a while, these loopholes will eventually come into play."

"But by then it was too late."

Yang Jian looked at the human skin paper on the ground again, feeling an urge to chop it up completely with a wood-chopping knife.

However, it would be a waste to use the machete only once for this. Although the plan on the human skin paper is dangerous, it is indeed effective. Besides, the plan on the human skin paper is only chosen when all other options are exhausted.

If Yang Jian hadn't chosen the paper effigy option this time, he would definitely have died from the music box's curse.

The choice is between taking the enormous risk of using the above plan and choosing a path that leads to certain death.

I believe anyone knows how to choose.

At this moment, Yang Jian recalled the last words written on the human skin before the curse was broken, "Trust Wang Xiaoming."

When you consider this statement in the context of current events, it becomes truly terrifying.

Because this is true, Yang Jian should indeed have trusted Wang Xiaoming this time. If he had taken some countermeasures to guard against Wang Xiaoming before, those countermeasures would have directly ruined him, leaving him with no chance of recovery.

This is a psychological game, and also a trap beyond the usual options.

This trap wasn't aimed at anyone in particular; it was solely targeted at Yang Jian.

"I'll say it again: as long as I face danger, I'll gamble with the plan on the parchment. I've won every time so far, but if I lose just once, I'm finished."

Yang Jian pondered for a long time.

He was torn. Should he try to destroy it completely, or take the huge risk of staying?

After a long while, he sighed.

In the end, they decided to keep the human skin paper.

Although they knew it was wrong, the hope of survival overcame their fear of ghosts.

Although Yang Jian had to gamble with the human skin paper to survive each time, at least he had the chance to gamble. If he really destroyed the human skin paper, he would lose the chance to gamble altogether and might die even faster. After all, he had watched many Ghost Tamer die in front of him along the way.

Without resorting to extreme measures, how can one survive in this cruel world?

Yang Jian put the paper doll back in and looked at the ghost child.

These second-stage starving ghosts are so dangerous, yet they're still kept close by.

Although there are no problems at the moment, it might be the most dangerous thing around him in the future. Yang Jian felt that if he were to die in the future, he would probably either die in the trap of the human skin paper or at the hands of this ghost child. The possibility of dying in a supernatural event was probably not high.

Because when real danger strikes, he will definitely seek help from the paper effigy or the ghost child.

The ghost child was completely unaware of Yang Jian's strange gaze. With no new orders given, it regained its freedom of movement and continued to wander around, clutching the rotting human head.

"It's time to leave."

Yang Jian put the human skin paper away again. He decided to find a special small bag or box, put it inside, and hang it around the ghost child's neck. That way, if the human skin paper could move again, it would depend on the ghost child's mood. It might be eaten by the ghost child if anything unusual happened.

The idea of using a ghost to subdue another ghost is feasible.

Even if things get out of control, at most one side will lose control; it's unlikely that both sides will run into problems one day.

As Yang Jian stepped out of the building, he couldn't help but stop in his tracks.

He forgot something.

The ghost rope in Wei Jing's hand.

"That thing was left in that room when Wei Jing was imprisoned. I was in a hurry to leave and forgot to take it with me." Yang Jian frowned, preparing to go back to get it.

But then he hesitated.

It wasn't that he was unwilling to make the trip, but rather that he suddenly realized he didn't have enough of his own suppression slots.

Ghostly Machine controlled Ghost Hand and Ghost Eye. This time, Ghost Hand possessed the abilities of Ghost Messenger, further suppressing the soon-to-be-resurrected Ghost Eye. A good balance was achieved among the three. If Ghost Rope were added, this balance would be broken.

This is the consequence of using the machete twice before.

"Forget it, the ghost rope isn't that important to me. Besides, Wei Jing did try to help me when I lost control, otherwise I wouldn't have been possessed by a ghost. If he died and took it, that would be one thing. But Wang Xiaoming said he might still survive. What if he actually comes back to life one day and finds that I've taken it? That would really be a bit unreasonable."

Yang Jian did not turn back to retrieve the ghost rope.

He didn't want to do such a thing for Wei Jing, who had helped him to some extent.

Moreover, there's a pair of Ghost Scissors outside, and it's unknown whether they're now in Cao Yang's hands.

That thing is much more powerful than a rope; I should be thinking about it.