Double happiness (12)
This cycle of repetition seemed like a strange alternation. Each time the lake water receded, less of it emerged the next time.
The fourth-layer Ghost Lake was at a disadvantage in its supernatural clash with the female corpse, but that gave Yang Jian an opportunity.
With the supernatural forces counteracting one another, the terrifying female corpse bore all the risks. During this brief interval, Yang Jian could use the Ghost Lake's supernatural power almost without restriction.
That was precisely why Yang Jian dared to alter the contents of the eerie Marriage Certificate before him.
This was an alternative form of supernatural counteraction. Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for a ghost to undergo resurgence while a different target suffered the attacks.
This state defied reason, but through the bracelet and Ye Zhen's deeper use of the Substitute Ghost, they had forcibly sustained it.
Yang Jian knew it could not last long,
because a living person was never a true ghost.
Both Ye Zhen and Yang Jian had their limits.
Yang Jian pondered how to write their next actions into this Marriage Certificate.
The two people who had suddenly appeared had revealed the existence of an eerie post office to him, giving Yang Jian a new direction to pursue.
But he only had one chance now. If he failed, both he and Ye Zhen would die here.
The Ghost Hand wearing the bracelet picked up the pen. Even within the Ghost Lake, the thick Ghost Blood remained condensed like ink, completely unaffected by the Ghost Lake's suppression.
The tip of the pen lightly touched the Marriage Certificate, and bright red words began to appear one after another.
"To complete the post office's mission, Liu Qingqing entered the coffin in the bridal chamber to search for the bride after Ye Zhen completed the third bow."
Yang Jian did not know what Liu Qingqing would do at any given moment. He could only write the sequence of events more vaguely, guiding the future in the direction he needed.
Then he would use his own actions to fulfill what he had written first, before relying on this Marriage Certificate to fulfill the final part.
Yang Jian continued writing, and a second passage of blood-red words slowly began to emerge.
"The one who entered that coffin in the bridal chamber after the wedding bows ended was the bride."
Yang Jian deliberately blurred the definition of the bride. He did not attempt to directly replace the female corpse's identity.
After the wedding bows ended, the "bride" would enter the bridal chamber. This did not contradict the words already established on the Marriage Certificate. Instead, within the existing rules, it offered vague guidance: whoever entered that coffin after the wedding bows ended would be regarded as the bride.
Yang Jian was walking a tightrope now. One slight misstep, and he would lose everything, his body smashed to pieces.
Yet clearly, this Marriage Certificate was not something that could be easily altered.
With every stroke Yang Jian wrote, his consciousness rapidly blurred. His body rotted at a speed visible to the naked eye, flesh peeling away to expose ghastly white bones.
Yet whenever his consciousness was about to dissipate, a dense red light spread from within him to cover his entire body, restarting him to an intact state.
As Yang Jian wrote, red light kept flashing through the cold, sinister lake water, like a flame on the verge of going out in the night...
Just as Yang Jian was about to keep writing, the blood-red bracelet suddenly gave a crisp crack, then split in two.
"It's reached its limit..."
Yang Jian looked at the shattered bracelet before him. Without the bracelet's grafting effect, he could no longer use the Ghost Lake's supernatural power without restriction.
But he still had to write one final sentence. He had to ensure that what happened next would most likely develop in the direction he wanted.
A tattoo slowly sank into the Marriage Certificate, and words appeared on the paper as though embroidered onto it.
Having already reached the final step, Yang Jian could not spare any attention for what abnormalities might develop in his body after losing the Ghost Tattoo.
Blue-black words began to emerge bit by bit.
"Liu Qingqing had kept her letter on her person all along. After entering the coffin, the post office's mission was complete, and Liu Qingqing chose to return to the post office immediately."
Yang Jian did not know how the Marriage Certificate and the post office would judge what he had written.
He was gambling.
He wanted this to cause a conflict between the rules of the post office, the Marriage Certificate, and the female corpse, thereby achieving the result he envisioned.
The lake water gradually dispersed, and Yang Jian's figure reappeared. Water dripped constantly from his body as he looked at Ye Zhen.
"Don't resist. Let it bow."
The next instant, the humming around Ye Zhen's body abruptly stopped. The female corpse, which had remained motionless all this time, suddenly moved. Kneeling face-to-face with Ye Zhen, the red veil over her head swayed slightly before her head smashed straight toward the floor.
At the same time, Ye Zhen mechanically lowered his head, bowing toward the female corpse.
The entire process was eerie and silent, without a single sound. Only a stifling sensation that made one's hair stand on end permeated the room.
Ye Zhen and the terrifying female corpse moved in perfect unison, bowing down together.
Looking at Ye Zhen again, he now wore no expression, holding the female corpse's hand with a vacant look.
Behind Yang Jian, eight scarlet Ghost Eyes had opened on the enormous headless black shadow. Yang Jian was waiting for a change to occur.
Suddenly, the terrifying female corpse released Ye Zhen's hand. She paused for a second, then stood stiffly in place, utterly motionless.
Meanwhile, outside the bridal chamber where Liu Qingqing was, an eerie, twisted path could faintly be seen gradually approaching the chamber, as though it had invaded this place from some incomprehensible, uncanny land.
But that was as far as it went. Once the path extended to just outside the room, it could advance no farther.
Inside the coffin, Liu Qingqing had already gone still. Strangely, she was now wearing a dark red wedding dress, with an eerie red veil over her head. She lay quietly in the coffin, with a sheet of incompletely burned letter paper beside her hand.
A short while later, the bridal chamber's door was pushed open. Li Yi emerged from the room carrying Liu Qingqing, stepped onto the eerie path, and finally disappeared into its twisted end.
The scene returned to Yang Jian.
The instant he saw the female corpse let go, Yang Jian knew the first step had succeeded. An intensely scarlet radiance surged outward in an instant. He was going to restart Ye Zhen.
Back in the graveyard, this female corpse had been completely unaffected by the restart. That was also why Yang Jian had dared to let Ye Zhen make the third bow.
As long as the first step succeeded, he could save Ye Zhen.
Amid the red light, the forbidden act of reversing life and death began. Everything in the room except the female corpse and the Marriage Certificate was shrouded in scarlet.
Ye Zhen slowly moved backward, then gradually rose from his kneeling position. His vacant expression rapidly vanished, and the signs of a living person swiftly returned to his face.
Then the red light abruptly scattered, and Ye Zhen stood quietly in place, looking at Yang Jian.
"Your condition is improving."
Ye Zhen keenly noticed that Yang Jian's body, which had been close to ghost resurgence, now showed no signs of resurgence at all. The area-wide restart just now was the best proof.
Yang Jian nodded. Because of the bracelet and Ye Zhen, the source of the resurging Ghost Lake had been grafted onto the Ghost Bride and thoroughly suppressed by her, allowing Yang Jian to control the Ghost Lake more perfectly now.
"It's not over yet. I can't guarantee my method will work completely."
Yang Jian pointed at the Ghost Bride beside Ye Zhen. The Ghost Bride, who had been motionless, began to move again.