The Falling Head

The streets of Kobe City were deserted and empty, a stark contrast to its former bustling and vibrant state, making it seem like a completely different city.

Because in this city, a terrifying urban legend has been circulating for some time now. It is said that whenever darkness falls, an old man who has been dead for a long time will come to your door, knock on your door, and whoever hears the knocking will die a mysterious death.

At first, many people thought it was just a ridiculous rumor with no credibility whatsoever.

But as time went by, more and more people died mysteriously, and some even witnessed the terrifying old man standing at people's doorsteps, knocking on their doors, and some even boldly managed to take photos.

Despite this, the majority of people still do not believe it.

One morning, panic gripped the city when the heads of long-dead people began floating in the sky.

Some people were lucky enough to escape from here and survived.

However, some were more unlucky. Although they still lived in Kobe City, they had disappeared because they had been drawn into a strange world, the Ghost Domain of the Door-Knocking Ghost, where they would be met with knocking sounds that could appear at their door at any time.

Disappearances and escapes have brought this once bustling city to its utter demise.

Just like Dachang City back then.

However, compared to the situation in Dachang City at that time, these people were lucky, because although the Door-Knocking Ghost's Ghost Domain was large, it had not yet reached the point of covering the entire city, and its killing efficiency was not high.

Regardless, the city is now under lockdown.

No one is allowed to approach.

But today, a special vehicle drove in without any obstruction and finally stopped outside the cordon.

The car door opened.

Three people got off.

A middle-aged man, a young man who looked like a high school student, and a woman in her thirties.

"Damn it, is the president joking? Sending us to handle the situation in Kobe City is like sending us to our deaths! Nagazawa, you should have refused. That old man is not someone we can deal with."

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth, venting his dissatisfaction.

The young man, named Nagazawa, wasn't afraid. Instead, he laughed, a somewhat innocent laugh, "There's no need to worry too much. The president didn't just send us here to handle things; we're just assisting."

"Assist? Assist whom?"

Nagazawa said, "Your information is too outdated. Don't you pay attention to what's happening abroad? This time, the president sent Team Leader Wang Xin abroad to invite a Ghost Tamer Yang Jian. He's a really powerful guy. I've seen some information about him. He solved an S-class paranormal case. He was originally just an unknown nobody."

"Then, with a whoosh, he darted out and instantly caught the attention of all the important figures. Although some doubted the authenticity of the incident, he was indeed extraordinary, and is now said to have become a captain."

"If there's someone as capable as him here, we'll definitely be fine,"

The woman next to her said, her expression uneasy and revealing fear.

"Who knows? We might all end up dying here."

Nagazawa laughed and said, "After all, we are still too weak to survive well in front of real demons."

The middle-aged man asked, "Nagazawa, do you have any good suggestions?"

"Not at the moment."

Nagazawa shrugged and said, "If I had any other choice, I wouldn't be standing here. But the club president gave us orders to follow Yang Jian's instructions. He's our captain now, so for everyone's safety, it's best to obey the order."

"If you offend the president, the consequences will definitely not be good."

The three of them were talking, exchanging ideas, passing the time, and discussing their mission to ease the tension.

Soon.

Two light footsteps suddenly came from the previously empty road behind them, and two people appeared there as if they had appeared out of thin air.

Ahead was a young man carrying a duffel bag. He was pale-skinned, had sharp eyes, and gave off a very dangerous vibe.

Behind him was a very cute girl in a sailor uniform. She was holding a phone and looked very nervous, but she kept up with the man in front of her, not daring to fall behind.

"They've arrived."

Nagazawa, who was sitting on the hood of the car, jumped down, clapped his hands, and greeted with a smile, "Kou Ni Ji Wa!"

"He's greeting you, Mr. Yang, meaning 'hello'," Keiko translated immediately.

"I understand this sentence without needing a translation," Yang Jian said.

"Now that everyone's here, let's begin our journey into Kobe City. Just a heads-up: if anyone doesn't follow my instructions and encounters danger, I won't be responsible. And if you're attacked by demons because of your own actions, well, good luck to you."

Keiko immediately translated Yang Jian's words.

"That's a cruel practice."

Nagazawa smiled and said, "But only cruel people deserve to live in this world, am I right?"

Yang Jian didn't speak, but instead used his Ghost Domain to take them into the city center of Kobe City.

When he retrieved the Ghost Domain, everyone found themselves in a city shrouded in darkness, deathly silent and chilling. The air was thick with the stench of corpses, indicating that many had died in the incident. However, previous reports also indicated that many others had survived.

The Door-Knocking Ghost is extremely inefficient at killing people; knocking on doors from house to house and eliminating these people would take a considerable amount of time.

This is why this paranormal event can at most be classified as A.

"Ghost Domain, huh? What a convenient ability. Mr. Yang, aren't you worried about the consequences of using the power of vengeful spirits so casually?" Nagazawa asked with a smile, while also expressing great curiosity.

Keiko moved closer to Yang Jian and translated in a low voice.

"If you have so much time to talk to me, you might as well pinpoint the location of that ghost first." Yang Jian gave him a cold look.

"Wouldn't Mr. Yang's abilities make it easier to find that thing?" Nagazawa asked.

Yang Jian said, "I have now invaded the ghost Ghost Domain. If I use my Ghost Domain to suppress such a large area of Ghost Domain, it will only increase my burden. In addition, I will not make any more explanations like this. If you cannot obey my orders, then you can stay here and wait to die."

"Understood," Nagazawa said.

Yang Jian ignored the man and opened his luggage bag.

A bluish-white body, dressed in a burial shroud, resembling a child who had been dead for a long time, emerged from a duffel bag with eerie eyes.

The ghost child seemed curious about its surroundings, observing its environment.

"Ah!"

The woman in her thirties was so frightened that she couldn't help but scream.

"A ghost?" Nagazawa and the middle-aged man's eyes narrowed, and they couldn't help but take several steps back, afraid of being attacked if they got too close.

Keiko didn't react for a moment, but instead watched with some curiosity.

But the next moment, the ghost child turned its head, and its pupil-less eyes looked at Keiko, their eyes meeting.

Keiko was so frightened that she covered her mouth and collapsed to the ground.

"A bunch of people who are dragging our feet; they don't play a very good role."

Yang Jian glanced around, his gaze finally settling on the woman in her thirties.

He had read the woman's file. Her name was Mishima. Strictly speaking, she wasn't even Ghost Tamer, but she had experienced paranormal events. After that, this woman named Mishima possessed a mysterious sense that allowed her to perceive the approximate location of ghosts.

However, this perception is vague and imprecise, so it doesn't have much effect; it can only play a role in large cities.

The Spirit Extermination Society sent Mishima here mainly to make up the numbers. Although she can be of some help, if she were to die here, President Mishima probably wouldn't care.

"In what direction is the ghost roughly located?" Yang Jian asked directly.

The woman named Mishima looked somewhat bewildered and fearful.

Yang Jian immediately pulled Keiko, who was sitting on the ground, to her feet. "Don't sit on the ground anymore. Get to work and translate what I just said. This thing is mine; it won't hurt you. You don't need to be afraid."

"Okay, okay, Mr. Yang."

Keiko then came to her senses, calmed herself down a bit, and then translated what she had just said in a stiff tone.

Only then did Mishima understand. She looked around, then pointed tremblingly in a direction ahead. She sensed something terrifying lurking there, making her afraid to face it. She felt an urgent urge to escape, a feeling even stronger than before.

If you approach rashly, you will surely die.

"Very good, then everyone follow. I need to pinpoint the location of the Door-Knocking Ghost as quickly as possible," Yang Jian said calmly.

He then sent the ghost child ahead to scout the way.

Although Yang Jian appeared calm, he was actually very vigilant. He knew that there were other unknown supernatural events hidden here, not just the Door-Knocking Ghost. This combination of supernatural events could easily lead to the death of the Ghost Tamer.

The more ghosts there are, the more patterns there are in the killings, and the more fragmented information there is, the more difficult it is to deal with a person's normal judgment than simply dealing with a paranormal event caused by a single ghost.

Yang Jian's goal was straightforward: to deal with the Door-Knocking Ghost possible, and if not, steal its belongings and make a quick getaway.

He didn't care whether it would be embarrassing or not.

Yang Jian acted swiftly. A series of changes happened too fast. From their previous encounter to their direct entry into Kobe City and the appearance of the Ghost Child, it all happened within minutes. As a result, Keiko, Nagazawa, and Mishima had not yet adapted, and their emotions had not even been adjusted.

However, in such an environment, people must grow; if they cannot grow and adapt quickly, they will be eliminated.

"Mr. Yang, please wait for Keiko."

With a hint of fear, Keiko hurriedly ran over. She dared not stray too far from Yang Jian's side, for the place was fraught with danger.

"Let's go. If we keep delaying like this, we'll be the ones who die in the end. This Yang Jian is very confident; we should trust him this once," Nagazawa said.

The middle-aged man nodded, and Mishima, who could sense the location of the vengeful spirit, immediately followed, not wanting to be separated from the group.

The only way to survive this time is to demonstrate our true value.

Otherwise, they will be ruthlessly abandoned.

The ghost child in Yang Jian wandered around the street ahead, occasionally slipping into nearby buildings and sometimes jumping out of windows.

There are no tall buildings on the streets, only several-story bungalows, but the buildings are very dense, which makes the terrain in some places somewhat complicated.

"Bang!"

Suddenly.

Something fell to the ground and shattered, some of the fragments splashing onto Yang Jian's feet.

He looked at it.

A putrid stench assaulted my senses, and lying at my feet was a mutilated, rotting human face.

"A completely rotten human head fell from the sky." Yang Jian looked up slightly at the sky. Normal people couldn't see everything clearly in the sky in this environment, but he could.

Heads floating above the city.

The animals varied in their degree of decay, but all had their eyes closed and their faces were deathly pale, devoid of any color, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.

"I've seen this Head Balloon Incident before, but I wasn't involved in it, so I don't know much about it. I only know that certain people are chosen to become part of the human heads in the sky. As for the conditions that trigger this, I don't know yet."

"But the best-case scenario is to avoid it. That's not my goal; let President Mishima worry about it."

Yang Jian continued walking forward expressionlessly.

It's highly unlikely that Mishima would ever know that the Ghost Knocking incident and the Head Balloon Incident were two separate paranormal events.

After observing, Yang Jian discovered that as time passed, the dead heads in the sky would fall down after they decomposed to a certain extent and lost the support of supernatural power.

This phenomenon made him feel like it was a form of selection.

From countless dead heads, one head is selected that meets the requirements.

The chosen head was definitely not the head of a living person; it must be the head of a vengeful ghost, because a living person's head would completely rot away and eventually become a pile of mud.

Suddenly.

Yang Jian looked at the small backpack on the back of the ghost child in front of him.

Inside was a highly decomposed but indestructible, eerie human head. That head belonged to a vengeful ghost that even the five layers of Ghost Domain couldn't send away. Moreover, it could suppress other vengeful ghosts by gazing at them.

Assuming the ghost originating from the human head balloon is searching for this human head, what would happen if the two ghosts complemented each other?

Is it the rotting human head that makes it even more horrifying?

Or will the vengeful ghost completely spiral out of control?

"Now doesn't seem like the time to think about that. This is the ghost Ghost Domain of the Door-Knocking Ghost. Although I don't fit the Door-Knocking Ghost's killing patterns right now, it's hard to say that the Door-Knocking Ghost might have undergone some unknown change." Yang Jian put away his thoughts and continued to move forward in the direction pointed out by the person named Mishima.

With each step they took, they got a little closer to the Door-Knocking Ghost.

The danger is therefore greater.

In this situation, just like a prisoner being led to the execution ground, the moment of actually being beheaded is not so scary; rather, it is the psychological torment of constantly approaching death that is the most unbearable.

People with low stress tolerance will break down.

Fortunately, although Yang Jian's teammates were of little help, they were still members of the Spirit Extermination Society, and their mental fortitude wasn't as bad as one might imagine.

Of course, it wasn't as good as I had imagined.

"Your pace is getting slower and slower. Are you planning to stay here and rest for a few days before making any further moves?" Yang Jian turned around and said coldly.

Keiko continued translating.

"I... I feel that if we continue forward, we might all die. It's too dangerous there. I don't want to go any closer," Mishima said, trembling. Her expression was terrified, and she lacked the courage to continue.

Nagazawa, standing to the side, chuckled, "Only those who can sense fear are consumed by it. Those of us who know nothing are less afraid, after all, there are others ahead of us."

Yang Jian glanced at Keiko.

Keiko quickly translated what Mishima and Nagazawa had said.

"If there's no way to move forward, then stay here. I won't slow down because of you," Yang Jian said calmly.

As Keiko went over to translate, she also comforted the woman named Mishima, saying, "We should trust this Mr. Yang. He is a mysterious and powerful man who can definitely protect our safety. I was once saved from a crisis by his help, and I believe he would be happy to look after you if danger really occurs."

Mishima remained silent, then pointed in terror at a house in front of her.

It was a two-story wooden building.

"There, in that house, there are ghosts, I can feel them. No, we have to get out of that house, I feel like I could die at any moment."

Upon hearing this, Keiko's face froze. She quickly looked up at Yang Jian and said, "Mr. Yang, she just said that there might be a ghost in that house over there."

"We're going to run into each other so soon?" Nagazawa smiled, seemingly unfazed.

Yang Jian's gaze fell on the house.

The house was shrouded in dim shadows, giving it a somewhat eerie appearance; however, this wasn't unique to this particular house, but rather to the houses in the vicinity.

"Should we go take a look?" he wondered to himself.

He believed the Door-Knocking Ghost shouldn't be inside the house. If the old man appeared, the nearby buildings would age rapidly, just like what he experienced when he was in No. 7 Middle School, while the outside of that house looked normal.

"That's not necessarily true. Anything can happen in the Ghost Domain. It's best to check it out."

Yang Jian slowly took off his gloves and gave the order at the same time.

The next moment, a strange child with a bluish complexion stood in front of the house. The child was mischievous and, without warning, immediately rang the doorbell.

"Ding-dong!"

The doorbell rang, echoing through the quiet street and carrying far.