Defeat and Secrets

Yang Jian risked great danger to approach the Door-Knocking Ghost. According to the plan he had conceived, the ghost hand, the ghost shadow, and the rotten human head in the ghost child's hand should have been enough to suppress a vengeful ghost of this level. In fact, he thought that the ghost hand and the rotten human head together would be enough.

The reality made Yang Jian realize that things were not so simple at all.

This emaciated old man, covered in lividity, seemed to be more than he appeared. Knocking on doors to kill might just be one of the patterns he displayed. There were many other terrifying things hidden within this old man, which many people subconsciously overlooked.

"Oh no."

However, at the crucial moment when Yang Jian was fighting the Door-Knocking Ghost, his eyes narrowed, and his hair seemed to stand on end in terror.

Because he saw that the highly decomposed human head in the ghost child's hand was slowly floating up, and at the same time, the oppressive force of the head disappeared.

The rotting head only works when it's focused on a target. Now that it's floating, the vengeful ghost is long out of sight, so the suppression from the rotting head has become distorted. This has a fatal effect, because even with the combined efforts of three ghosts, they barely managed to suppress the vengeful ghost's movements.

However, now that one of the main forces suppressing the vengeful ghost has been lost, it means that the vengeful ghost's actions can at least recover by half.

"Is it starting to struggle?"

Yang Jian felt the withered, cold body regaining its movement as he gripped the ghost's hand. The arm was swaying with an eerie strength, as if it was about to break free from the ghost's grip. However, this struggle was still within a barely controllable range, and it could only stabilize half of the ghost's body.

"Not good."

The old man turned around again, seemingly fixing his gaze on Yang Jian, who had been making strange moves behind him. An eerie aura enveloped him and began to try to invade his body.

The preservation of the ghost porcelain continues.

But Yang Jian noticed that patches of lividity were beginning to appear on the wrist where the old man was gripping him.

It's important to know that his wrist, which was being grabbed, was wearing a golden glove, meaning there was no real contact with the vengeful spirit. Gold can isolate the influence of supernatural forces, but even so, the eerie aura emanating from the surroundings was already causing Yang Jian's body to deteriorate rapidly.

The lividity spread along his arm, and the speed did not slow down at all; on the contrary, it became more and more severe. If this continued, Yang Jian's body would soon decompose and become a corpse.

It's important to understand that although Yang Jian currently controls three ghosts, the only parts that can truly be considered ghosts are a missing hand and a few Ghost Eye. The ghost shadows aren't even part of his body; they're more like shadows attached to him. Therefore, most of his body still belongs to a living person.

The human body is very fragile and easily susceptible to the corruption of vengeful spirits.

"The ghost porcelain is helping me resist this eerie corrosion; otherwise, I would be completely rotting by now. But this can't go on. If we can't suppress the Door-Knocking Ghost, we can't imprison it. Besides, that rotting dead head has already floated away. The ghost in the Head Balloon Incident has very likely obtained this puzzle piece."

"Once it's completed, what will happen next is unpredictable."

"A choice must be made at this time."

Yang Jian began to break out in a cold sweat. The situation was now on the verge of spiraling out of control, and he had to make a choice: to retreat decisively or to continue fighting.

If they really want to continue fighting head-on, they do have the capability.

He still had his Ghost Eye unused, and that rusty, eerie wood-chopping knife could also dismember the Door-Knocking Ghost.

However, the price might be too high. Yang Jian's real purpose was only to seize what was on the Door-Knocking Ghost, not to fight it to the death. After all, this was Kobe City, not Dachang City under his jurisdiction.

"If we continue fighting head-on in this situation, I'll be at a great disadvantage. I might actually die here, and we already have the goods." The idea of retreat instantly formed in Yang Jian's mind.

Retreat!

The Door-Knocking Ghost was too terrifying; this first round of probing attacks all failed. To deal with this ghost, a new plan and strategy must be devised.

Once a decision is made, Yang Jian acts very swiftly.

His ghostly figure began to retreat rapidly, but as it retreated, one of its arms pulled something back from the pocket of the old, retro-style long robe worn by the Door-Knocking Ghost. In the urgency of the situation, Yang Jian didn't look closely and quickly released the ghostly hand.

The suppression from the ghostly hand and the ghostly shadow disappeared together.

At this moment, the Door-Knocking Ghost fully regained its mobility, and no force could affect it.

The gaunt old man, covered in lividity, turned around completely at this moment, still gripping Yang Jian's wrist, as if he was about to do something else.

"Snap!"

Meanwhile, in a corner of the shop on that street, a strange piece of porcelain that had been placed there was now full of cracks. Finally, it seemed to have reached its limit and shattered with a bang, turning into fragments all over the ground.

The entire piece of ghost porcelain was completely used up.

Without the invisible protection of the ghost porcelain, the terror of the vengeful ghost is directly confronted.

At this moment, Yang Jian felt a terrifying threat. This chilling feeling made him realize his current situation. Without hesitation, he activated Ghost Eye and used Ghost Domain.

Instantly, the fourth layer of the Ghost Domain opened.

The red light enveloped itself and spread to a nearby area, including Nagazawa near the intersection, Mishima, and Keiko, the accompanying translator. The ghost child could freely enter and leave his Ghost Domain realm.

Although the range of the Door-Knocking Ghost's Ghost Domain has increased, it is actually not very powerful, far inferior to the original Ghost Messenger's ghost Ghost Domain.

Or rather, Yang Jian has surpassed many real ghosts in the Ghost Domain Realm. After all, as the first ghost to control it, the degree of revival and utilization of the Ghost Eye is extremely high.

Immediately.

A crimson Ghost Domain replaced the dim world, and the terrifying old man in the long robe vanished along with it. The nearby streets and buildings underwent a dramatic transformation; they were originally in the city, but now they were on a suburban highway in Kobe City.

The surging Ghost Slave vanished, and the dead heads floating in the sky also disappeared.

This sudden change made it feel like everything that had happened before was a nightmare.

The Ghost Domain invaded each other, and Yang Jian led the others out of the Door-Knocking Ghost's Ghost Domain, temporarily withdrawing from the terrifying Kobe City.

"They're out."

Yang Jian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. In critical moments, his Ghost Domain could still save his life. Otherwise, he would have had to use the substitute doll or even the eerie woodcutter's knife.

He also brought the others who were with him along.

The ghost child remained unaffected, standing not far away.

However, the highly decomposed human head disappeared. Yang Jian's Ghost Domain had covered it but failed to bring back the head that was gradually flying into the air. It seemed that the power of the four layers of Ghost Domain was interfered with, so in the end, a very precious vengeful ghost was lost.

"As expected, there is a certain connection between that head and the head balloon. Just a moment after the head was taken out of the ghost child's backpack, it was targeted, as if it was attracted by something. If this part hadn't gone wrong at the crucial moment, I wouldn't have had to make such a difficult decision."

"The only saving grace is that my previous guess was correct; the Door-Knocking Ghost really did have something in its pocket."

Yang Jian's gaze shifted to his feet.

The headless shadow seemed to stand up halfway, and on its shadowy palm, a square wooden box, larger than a palm, appeared before them.

Yang Jian sensed no eerie aura from the wooden box, nor did he notice anything particularly unusual about it. All he knew was that the box was coated with gold lacquer, which protected it from the influence of supernatural forces and the prying eyes of Ghost Eye.

"It was well hidden; I almost got killed by a vengeful ghost because of this."

Yang Jian didn't rush to investigate. Instead, he took the box directly and then put it into a larger gold box from his luggage bag.

It's still uncertain what's inside, so it's best to be cautious for now.