Lake and Wind (II)

A young man carrying a billhook and a man with a sallow face stood in a room in the apartment building, observing the world outside the window, which was filled with raging winds.

"After the incident in Dajing City where three S-rank ghosts went out of control, I thought you would die from ghost revival."

There was not a trace of expression on Liu San's sallow face as he stared woodenly at Yang Jian.

Yang Jian glanced at the sinister tattoo on his Ghost Hand and fell silent for a moment.

"I'm a man of my word. I promised Wang Xiaoming I would help him resolve one supernatural incident, so I was always going to come."

...Liu San really doesn't remember. Without him during the tattoo parlor incident, I would definitely have fallen there in the state I was in...

"If we find Li Jun or my missing paper man, we'll know what happened here..."

Liu San seemed very interested in the sinister tattoo on Yang Jian's Ghost Hand and kept staring at it.

Yang Jian's Ghost Eye turned restlessly as it watched the roaring, surging winds outside the window. Supernatural coverage on such a scale was beyond what an ordinary ghost could achieve.

"A supernatural phenomenon covering such a vast area might have a source. According to headquarters' intelligence, this hurricane seemed to deliberately approach and attack the Ghost Lake..."

After a moment's thought, Yang Jian continued.

"Even an existence like the Hungry Ghost wouldn't purposefully attack another ghost. Wang Xiaoming's assessment was right. There appear to be signs of someone manipulating things behind the scenes."

Liu San nodded.

"If it really is as you say, perhaps we need to find Fang Shiming."

The eyes made of yellow paper on Liu San's sallow face stared at the tattoo on Yang Jian's Ghost Hand. It seemed strangely familiar, but he could not remember where he had seen it...

...Of those three specially made paper men, only one remains. One disappeared here. Was the other one lost because of him...?

"Time to move."

Carrying his billhook, Yang Jian turned and left.

"We'll leave approaching the hurricane's source and finding Fang Shiming to your paper men. With his abilities, he might have a much easier time in here than we do."

Liu San said little else. Finding people was his forte. He turned and followed Yang Jian out.

A woman woke in a dark, damp alley. Her face was full of wariness as she looked at the unfamiliar surroundings. Outside the alley, raging winds howled past with a droning noise, as though countless corpses were moaning.

"Hmm? This is..." The woman followed the sound and looked out of the alley.

Corpses filled the sky, whirling violently in the raging winds. On closer inspection, great swathes of chilling lake water were also mixed into the wind. Lake and wind had formed a gigantic tornado in this area.

Looking up from where she stood, the woman could not see the top of this tornado composed of countless broken corpses at all.

"The Ghost Lake was invaded... Was this wind responsible...?"

"It can actually blow even the Ghost Lake apart. Although it's only around four layers, those four layers of the Ghost Lake and this wind now seem to have formed a puzzle with each other..."

"Or perhaps... this is an alternative form of supernatural counteraction."

He Yin'er stood in the alley, watching the countless corpses in the sky as she analyzed the situation before her.

She reacted quickly. Less than ten minutes had passed between her waking and seeing the hurricane, and she immediately began adapting to the environment here and working out what had caused the hurricane.

"The lake water inside me was blown away by this wind too, allowing me to wake up. What an unusual Ghost Domain. It's actually open. Only the central area has the complete properties of a Ghost Domain. Everything outside is a natural disaster caused as a knock-on effect of being caught up in it..."

"Unfortunately, I haven't fully mastered Soul Summoning yet. Otherwise, I could deal with the situation here right now..."

"I need to find a way out and figure out how to contact headquarters. I'm in very bad shape. Relying on my own supernatural power here would be no different from throwing my life away."

After thinking for a moment, He Yin'er moved away from the area of the tornado composed of corpses. Unable to perform Soul Summoning, she could only choose to retreat for now and seek support.

Raging winds filled the entire world. The chilling rain seemed about to join into continuous threads, covering the whole city. Not a single building around them was intact. Crumbling walls and ruins were everywhere.

"Fang Shiming, the boss of the Circle of Friends. Finding you in here really wasn't easy."

A sallow-faced paper man stood opposite Fang Shiming with a wooden expression.

Fang Shiming froze briefly, then reacted.

"Paper Man Liu San, one of headquarters' designated captains. The first captain to run when those three S-rank ghosts went out of control in Dajing City."

Liu San's expression changed slightly. Staring at Fang Shiming, he said,

"It wasn't that I was unwilling to help deal with that incident. There was too much uncertainty between my paper men and the Hungry Ghost. I couldn't take the risk..."

Fang Shiming waved a hand.

"There's no point saying more. What do you want with me?"

Liu San raised his hand and pointed toward somewhere low-lying.

"Yang Jian and I are over in that direction, moving toward the center of the hurricane. This incident isn't that simple. There appear to be signs of someone manipulating things behind the scenes. Let's act together, search for clues, and deal with this incident and the mastermind behind it."

"Possibly being manipulated by someone...?"

Fang Shiming narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Liu San as he thought.

...Judging by headquarters' information, this hurricane did indeed head straight for the Ghost Lake... His words stand up to scrutiny...

Then Fang Shiming continued.

"I agree to cooperate. After that incident in Dajing City, Yang Jian, at least, is someone I find relatively trustworthy. Lead the way."

Chilling lake water struck the ground. The fierce winds seemed never to stop, leaving the entire street shrouded in a haze.

Fang Shiming followed Liu San slowly forward, gripping his scissors tightly. If Liu San showed any sign of abnormality, he would dispose of this paper man in an instant.

Until he saw Yang Jian, he remained deeply wary of Liu San, this designated captain.

Liu San walked ahead, sensing the oppressive killing intent behind him.

This Fang Shiming... He's on the verge of ghost revival, yet he remains perfectly composed even in this situation...

"Hmm? What's that...?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Liu San suddenly glimpsed a deathly pale figure standing beside a sidewalk along the street, but when he turned to look, he found nothing.

"You've stopped..."

Fang Shiming also stopped, following Liu San's gaze toward the pedestrian crossing. The roaring winds continued to rage. The crossing was empty, with only trees snapped in half on either side.

"What rotten luck. It looks like the two of us have encountered a ghost."

Liu San turned back and spoke to Fang Shiming.

Fang Shiming shook his head. "No, you've encountered a ghost. Not me."

Fang Shiming reacted immediately and swiftly moved away from the street.

"There's no need to get bogged down here. Just leave this paper man of yours here." With that, Fang Shiming's figure vanished into the raging winds.

Watching Fang Shiming disappear, Liu San thought to himself,

He really doesn't leave a single crack for water to seep through. Still, under the circumstances, his approach is indeed the most correct one...

Just as Liu San was about to act, a deathly pale corpse suddenly appeared in front of him.

Its cold head, reeking of decay, pressed tightly against Liu San's face. Its pitch-black eye sockets stared fixedly at him.

Liu San's expression changed drastically.

"How is that possible!"

The deathly pale corpse abruptly spread its arms and embraced Liu San. The entire paper man instantly lost all signs of life, turning into scraps of yellow paper that scattered in the raging winds.

On the ruined street, a deathly pale figure could faintly be seen standing there, motionless and completely unaffected by the raging winds, like a sculpture. The next instant, as though someone had triggered an unknown killing rule, the corpse vanished from the spot, its whereabouts unknown...