Out of control (end)

With the eerie Dead Man's Banner in his hand, Yang Jian could only perform an imperfect, small-scale restart of four seconds.

But that was already enough for Yang Jian.

"Now!"

The supernatural forces had completely lost their balance, and the Ghost Domain had long since escaped his control. Yang Jian mustered every ounce of strength, leaped up, and lunged at the Hungry Ghost.

Blood gushed like a jet of water, and his bones creaked. Forcing himself to raise the paper banner in his hand, he swung it hard at the Hungry Ghost.

At once, the Hungry Ghost's grayish-white body shuddered, and it stood rooted to the spot.

"Get in there!"

The Ghost Shadow instantly spread over it. The Ghost Hand shoved forward with force, and the Hungry Ghost's entire body toppled straight into the coffin.

That ashen, rotting face slowly sank into the pitch-black Ghost Coffin. At the same time, the black arms suppressing Ye Zhen and the other two suddenly began to shake violently.

"What did Yang Jian do? Let go!"

Wang Chaling and Li Leping had barely released their grip when the pitch-black arms abruptly withdrew into the enormous picture frame and vanished.

Meanwhile, the Ghost Messenger had already emerged completely from the other enormous picture frame, but he ignored everyone, walked toward the Ghost Coffin, and lay straight down inside...

The supernatural forces were clashing, two top-tier ghosts colliding with each other.

Suddenly, the coffin began to shake violently. Fine cracks started to appear, and the dense black substance gathering inside slowly took on traces of bluish gray.

"Wang Chaling! The Corpse Shroud!" Shen Lin shouted at Wang Chaling.

Wang Chaling appeared beside the coffin, picked up the Corpse Shroud, and draped it over the coffin. The instant it touched the coffin boards, the entire piece of sackcloth stretched taut, tightly wrapping the coffin's entire opening.

But the shaking continued. Gradually, the Corpse Shroud was actually torn apart by the vibrations.

Everything happened too fast. A figure flashed past their eyes-it was Ye Zhen! Holding the Hungry Ghost's two arms, he thrust them hard into the two sides of the coffin. The arms, which possessed the effects of the Coffin Nail, easily pierced through the Corpse Shroud and nailed themselves into either side.

The coffin instantly stopped shaking, but wisps of black substance flecked with bluish gray slowly seeped through the torn opening in the Corpse Shroud.

"Are you kidding me? Even this can't restrain them..."

Yang Jian was in terrible condition now, unable to move at all. He could only rely on the Dead Man's Banner to barely maintain his fifth-layer Ghost Domain.

"The Ghost Painting!"

Fang Shiming suddenly realized.

"Let the Ghost Painting restart back into the painting! Someone help me!"

The golden flames had already dimmed, as though they would go out in the very next second. A cloud of black smoke appeared beside Fang Shiming, and Li Leping's charred arm gently rested on the red figure before him.

Fang Shiming immediately felt the resistance against his hands slacken, and the Ghost Scissors swiftly snipped toward its head.

Rip...

The red figure before him was cut in half and faded little by little. Inside the enormous picture frame, however, a woman in red whose features could not be clearly made out slowly appeared.

"There's another one! Hurry! We can't let the Ghost Painting restart out of it!"

Li Jun looked toward the second Ghost Painting. Without any hesitation, he dug both hands into his chest. Chunks of charred flesh fell to the ground, and a mass of cold, dark-green Ghost Fire in his chest instantly flared up, rapidly spreading over his body.

Just then, two lifeless old people abruptly appeared behind the female ghost in red before Li Jun, hemming her in from the front and back.

Wang Chaling nodded to Li Jun. He was also in terrible condition now, and this was already the limit of what he could do.

Raising his arm, which burned with Ghost Fire, Li Jun plunged it into her head, then flung her hard toward the other picture frame, throwing her inside.

"Ye Zhen!"

Looking at the two Ghost Paintings that were restarting, Fang Shiming only had time to shout Ye Zhen's name.

A fierce wind of decay swept past. Fang Shiming rushed toward the two Ghost Paintings, whose restarts were almost complete, taking Ye Zhen with him. They exchanged a glance, each confirming their next move in the other's eyes.

Each carrying a Ghost Painting, they rushed beside the Ghost Coffin and slammed them over it, one from above and one from below.

The eerie picture frames challenged the limits of everyone's imagination. In a way that defied visual logic, the frames, each half a person's height, gradually enclosed the enormous Ghost Coffin.

Slowly, the two bright-red picture frames gently met. Then the entire world fell into a heart-stopping silence.

A heavy, double-sided oil painting fell from high in the air.

Within the frame, a tattered Corpse Shroud covered a pitch-black coffin, with two bluish-gray arms embedded deep in its sides.

A memorial portrait stood above the coffin. In the portrait was a woman dressed in red, her features too blurred to distinguish. Her pale yet cold, eerie hands were particularly conspicuous...

The entire world was silent. They could only see one another's mouths moving, but could not hear a sound.

Then.

A noisy clamor abruptly reached them. Their surroundings suddenly changed, and dazzling sunlight shone on them.

The surrounding high-rises came into view. They were now high above some part of Dajing City, in free fall.

A fierce wind swept over them. The next moment, they appeared on the ground.

"Did we succeed?"

Yang Jian watched the heavy picture frame slowly descend. At this point, no one dared touch the painting.

Clang. The oil painting fell onto the ground...

Eerily, the entire frame stood bolt upright on the road.

With no knowing when it began or why, pulses of black light suddenly radiated from the frame like shock waves, instantly covering all of Dajing City before abruptly contracting and withdrawing entirely.

The next moment, another burst of bluish-gray light erupted from the Ghost Painting, then abruptly contracted and vanished.

Then a gray, hazy light spread out. This time, its range was outrageously vast, even reaching the outskirts of several neighboring cities. But this gray light also lasted less than a second before contracting and disappearing.

Like a heartbeat, rising and falling. The sky over all of Dajing City kept changing colors. Finally, the entire frame suddenly shook violently, then fell flat onto the road.

A helicopter slowly landed, and a large box made of gold was carried out.

Dozens of staff members arrived in vehicles one after another, and the crowd began slowly closing in around the heavy, double-sided oil painting.

"Getting this far was already our limit. If it goes out of control again, there's nothing we can do. Let's go. Whether that painting goes out of control again or not, there's no point in us staying here."

With that, Yang Jian turned and left.

The others took a long look at the Ghost Painting being placed inside the gold box, then turned and followed Yang Jian.

The sun was slowly setting. Several figures walked out of the shadows into the sunset's lingering glow.

"Why don't we exchange contact details?"

A Hong suddenly spoke.

"After everything we've been through, the nine of us might never get another chance to gather together."

"Ten of us..." A voice came from beside them. Li Leping was walking alongside the others, his limbs stiff...

With their backs to the setting sun, they slowly walked forward. The lingering light shone from behind them, casting long, slanting shadows.

At this moment, the scene seemed to freeze. No one knew what would happen in the days ahead. The horror continued, and ghosts were still reviving. Yet in this world of despair, there was always a group of people who bore the bodies of ghosts but performed the deeds of bodhisattvas.

"Qin, I think you've truly gone senile."

Beside a bus, Elder Qin stood facing off against an old man. Several corpses dressed in Republican-era clothing lay nearby.

The old man held a rotten ball of flesh that kept oozing corpse fluid.

"The future can no longer be seen. Why are you still stopping me?"

The cane in Elder Qin's hand struck the ground heavily, and a deathly white Ghost Domain swiftly swept toward the old man.

"Fool! You've already forgotten the Reform Society's original purpose. Though our beliefs differ, what we do is still meant to resolve the supernatural, not let ghosts slaughter innocents as you did today!"

The old man tried to use the ball of flesh in his hand, only to discover in shock that his body could not move at all.

Leaning on his cane, Elder Qin walked toward him step by step.

There were no lights at all beside the pitch-black bus. Only by the moonlight could the murderous look in Elder Qin's eyes barely be made out.

"I told you long ago that you must be cautious on the path of a ghost controlling a person. This time, I'll take it that you were influenced by a ghost and knock some sense into you."

He raised his cane and struck the old man hard on the forehead.

"If you dare stand in my way again, you can go down and keep my old friends company, just like those people."

The bus slowly started up and drove past the old man.

The old man looked at the ball of flesh in his hand, the fear on his face not yet fully gone. In that instant just now, he had truly felt death.

He stood up and said to the corpses on the ground:

"Those who aren't dead, get up and come with me. It's confirmed: he can no longer see the future completely."

Three corpses on the ground stiffly rose to their feet and followed the old man, disappearing into the gloomy night...