Out of Control (I)

"Li Jun, we can't hold on much longer. The Ghost Painting has undergone an unknown, drastic change, and the Ghost Messenger is suspected to be out of control. We could die here at any moment."

The woman named A Hong touched up the makeup while keeping a wary eye on her surroundings.

At that moment, the team stood at a delicate point of balance between the Ghost Painting and the Ghost Messenger. But that balance seemed unlikely to last much longer. The grayish masses congealing around them were slowly closing in.

A Hong had not been applying makeup to herself, but to Liu San's corpses. She spread the paper figure corpses across the ground as canvases, painting this location as it had first appeared as closely as she could.

But this did not seem likely to hold out much longer. Before long, the pigments on the corpses turned into patches of grayish congealed matter, along with the corpses themselves.

After all, A Hong's makeup kit was meant for applying makeup to the dead. Only by borrowing the supernatural power lingering in Liu San's paper figure corpses could she barely use it as paint.

"We can't sit here waiting to die."

A man with a sallow face sat atop a heap of tattered paper figures.

"My paper figures inside this Ghost Painting are almost all used up. I've also lost contact with a lot of them. It doesn't really matter to me, but if you lot don't hurry up and think of something, you're really going to meet your end here."

Liu San looked utterly unconcerned, as though none of this had anything to do with him.

"Tap, tap, tap... tap, tap, tap..."

Beside them, Su Fan stood frantically pressing the buttons on his phone, so hard that those nearby could hear the clattering clicks.

He stared at the screen and muttered, "Going to die... dead for sure... died again..."

Li Jun crouched off to one side, the ground littered with cigarette butts, another cigarette still dangling from his mouth. There was no telling what he was thinking.

Suddenly, without any warning, the group was enveloped in a gray-white world.

Liu San's expression changed.

"What's going on?! Why did the Ghost Painting suddenly change? Did the Ghost Painting suppress the Ghost Messenger in their confrontation...?"

Everyone stood up, brushed the gray congealed matter off their bodies, and carefully studied the changes around them.

"Find a way to contact headquarters. This isn't something we can handle. If the Ghost Painting and the Ghost Messenger were restricting each other, we'd still have a chance, but now..."

Liu San trailed off halfway through.

Everyone knew what they were facing. Once the Ghost Painting went completely out of control, all of Dajing City would be enveloped in its ghost domain. There would not be the slightest chance of survival here.

But the team had no idea what had happened outside. They could only move cautiously through the world within the Ghost Painting...

Half an hour earlier.

Headquarters.

"Zhao Jianguo?! What did he do?! Activate the emergency plan! Notify all the designated captains! Headquarters... has fallen!"

The instant Cao Yanhua finished speaking, a blue-black ghost domain enveloped the entire headquarters.

Without giving headquarters any time to react, the Hungry Ghost's ghost domain instantly engulfed the entire compound.

Cao Yanhua's face went deathly pale.

"The Hungry Ghost is out of control. Elder Qin should be on his way here. Evacuate all personnel! We can't walk out of the ghost domain! Gather everyone in the shelter!"

"Li Jun and the others are still inside the Ghost Painting... At a time like this, let's hope nothing goes wrong with the Ghost Painting or the Ghost Messenger..."

The underground shelter level.

Wang Xiaoming, Cao Yanhua, Shen Liang, and the others sat at a conference table.

"Professor Wang, what's going on? Why did the Hungry Ghost suddenly go out of control? Has the Coffin Nail stopped working?"

Cao Yanhua's complexion looked a little better. After all, he was now one of the pillars holding headquarters together. He could not show fear.

With dark circles under both eyes, Wang Xiaoming examined the information on the laptop in front of him and typed on the keyboard.

"After Yang Jian returned from the Caesar Hotel, someone began behaving in a way that defied common sense. If ghosts didn't exist, I might not have considered that possibility. But ghosts themselves are beings beyond common sense. So I am eighty percent confident that Yang Jian has gained control of some kind of ghost that alters people's perceptions or memories. Feng Quan is the best example."

"Following that line of reasoning, Zhao Jianguo was also attacked by this ghost at some point. Perhaps... some of us have been attacked too. It's just that the trigger hasn't been activated, so we can't tell whose memories have been altered by the ghost."

Horror filled everyone's eyes as they listened. They looked at one another, breaking into a flurry of discussion.

A terrifying, unknown supernatural power could actually alter people's memories without them noticing a thing.

Cao Yanhua slammed a hand on the table and stood up, looking as though he was on the verge of drawing a gun.

"Everyone, quiet! Since we can't tell who's being controlled by the ghost, our most urgent priority is to deal with the Hungry Ghost going out of control! We are now on wartime alert. Anyone who dares disobey orders will be shot on the spot!"

The room immediately fell silent. Everyone seated here was the best of the best. Cao Yanhua's roar brought them all back to their senses. Compared with the Hungry Ghost, a supernatural power that altered memories was no longer the first priority in their current situation.

"The emergency plan has been fully activated. Every ghost handler affiliated with headquarters will now receive a message on their satellite phone. Remember, our task now is to keep communications open and provide intelligence support to the ghost handlers coming to reinforce us! You all know the Hungry Ghost's killing rules. If necessary, we will be the trail markers. The bait!"

Meanwhile, inside a safe room on one of the underground floors of the Circle of Friends building.

"You woke me ahead of time... Is that fellow Ye Zhen here again?"

A hoarse, low voice drifted through the safe room as a gaunt man with bloodshot eyes slowly emerged from a coffin.

"Headquarters has fallen. The Hungry Ghost is out of control, the Ghost Painting is near Dajing City, and the Ghost Messenger is inside the Ghost Painting... Given the reach of the Ghost Painting's ghost domain, that distance is far too close."

The man froze briefly after hearing this.

"Is that so... This really is something. Three S-rank ghosts. That Elder Qin might not be able to hold them off. Fine, I'll make the trip. After all, I still have an agreement with Wang Xiaoming. I can't refuse to go."

As he finished speaking, fierce winds swept through the safe room. By the time they died down, the man had vanished as well.

Dahai City.

A young man stood atop a building, arms spread wide, looking down upon the multitudes beneath his feet.

"At the pinnacle of immortals, I stand proud above the world; where I, Ye Zhen, exist, there are the heavens. A Wu, do not panic. Even with one hand holding up the Ghost Painting, I could still subdue the Hungry Ghost and the Ghost Messenger. Watch over this place. I'll be right back!"

The moment he finished speaking, a fissure split the dim sky over Dahai City, and sunlight spilled through it onto Ye Zhen.

"I depart upon the sun."

A Wu stared in the direction Ye Zhen had left, his face covered in black lines.

"What a blockhead..."

At the same time, the people in charge of various regions and the designated captains were all making their way to headquarters by their own means.

Everyone knew that once headquarters fell and the terror revived, no one would have the ability to bring this supernatural era to an end...