Out of Control (VIII)

The first to react was Fang Shiming, who was closest to Tong Qian. Tong Qian felt a gale howl past, then a dark silhouette flashed before her eyes, with Yang Jian's ghost shadow close behind.

Ye Zhen roared and smashed a fist toward the Hungry Ghost's rotten, stinking head. A surge of blue-green flames spiraled up its rotten, blackened feet from below.

Almost in an instant, everyone struck at once.

"Watch out! Its hands have the Coffin Nail's suppressive effect!" The two deathly old people behind Wang Chaling flickered and appeared above the Hungry Ghost's head.

"Are you kidding me? You're only telling us now?" Yang Jian jerked his ghost hand back. The hands had been his first choice of target.

Just as everyone rushed toward the Hungry Ghost, Li Leping appeared silently before Shen Lin.

"Shen Lin, don't resist. Work with me."

Shen Lin felt himself being invaded, his memories beginning to blur.

"The same type of ghost... what is he trying to do...?"

Suddenly, the Hungry Ghost before them flickered incessantly, then abruptly vanished. Less than ten seconds had passed between its appearance and attack on them and its disappearance.

Fang Shiming stared at the empty ground before him.

"It disappeared?"

Yang Jian looked toward Li Leping and Shen Lin instead. He could roughly guess what they had done.

"To think a ghost's abilities could be used like that... a surprising line of thought."

Fang Shiming followed Yang Jian's gaze. After a moment's thought, he seemed to understand something too.

"To counter the Hungry Ghost this way, coming up with a solution in an instant and successfully carrying it out. What an extraordinary individual."

"What are you talking about? Didn't I send that little hungry ghost running with one punch?"

Ye Zhen gazed at his fist with an invincible expression.

"As expected of me..."

Shen Lin crouched on the ground, wisps of black smoke rising from his body.

"I was gambling too, actually. But once I invaded Shen Lin's memories, I realized my gamble had paid off..."

"Still, it was a little different from what you're thinking. I couldn't have done it alone..."

"The ghost inside Shen Lin is the same type as the one inside me, at least in one respect. That was what allowed me to carry out this plan."

"First, I invaded Shen Lin's memories. Then Shen Lin invaded me in turn, helping me trace back to the memory of when the Hungry Ghost attacked him, and made him forget that attack..."

"Of course, when dealing with the Hungry Ghost, complete forgetting wasn't possible."

"But ghosts always follow their killing rules, constantly reconstructing the memory of that moment and returning there to continue attacking Shen Lin."

"The Hungry Ghost only ate part of the ghost, not even enough to count as a puzzle piece. I assumed it could only appear within the same memory scene. It was dangerous... but my gamble paid off."

"Then, by having Shen Lin repeatedly recall and trace back to the instant we triggered its killing rules just now, the ghost would enter a deadlock. Because ghosts can't choose, it would keep appearing repeatedly in two different memories..."

"But an incomplete puzzle piece can't handle that kind of retracing. Endless memory retracing would cause endless deadlocks..."

"Still, Shen Lin and I have only restrained this portion of its supernatural power. The Hungry Ghost is still somewhere inside this Ghost Painting."

Li Leping patiently explained.

In this era of ghost resurgence, there was no one to guide their generation at all. Everyone was groping forward in the dark.

Li Leping was undoubtedly trying to share his experience by doing this. Everyone listened carefully, because that experience might save their lives at some point.

Wisps of black smoke rose from Jiao Qian's skin. Li Leping was in very bad shape.

"Li Leping, you're a man people can't remember, yet don't want to forget. I, Fang Shiming, rarely admire anyone. You're one of the few."

Fang Shiming walked over to Li Leping and helped him up from where he crouched on the ground. He greatly approved of Li Leping's selfless sharing.

"Yang Jian, you're the only one here who's encountered the Ghost Messenger twice. If you have any good suggestions, speak up." Li Jun crouched on the ground, frowning. He truly couldn't think of a way.

Yang Jian shook his head, gazing gravely at the Ghost Coffin suspended in the air.

"It can't be contained. The method we used at the training base to change the Ghost Messenger's killing rules and make him return to the Ghost Coffin can't be replicated. Now, because of the Hungry Ghost and the Ghost Painting, further unpredictable changes have occurred. We can only make contact first."

"Perhaps we should try changing our approach, just as Li Leping did. We can't think about the connections between these three ghosts with preconceived notions."

Fang Shiming stood beside Li Leping, also considering their next move.

"Find the Ghost Painting's true location, attack its source, and make the ghost restart. After restarting, the ghost will return to the Ghost Painting. Contain it the instant it restarts and returns to the painting," Wang Chaling offered his solution.

Shen Lin said, "But without the Ghost Painting restraining them, the Ghost Messenger and the Hungry Ghost might go out of control instantly. We have to contain both of them at the same time."

"That's impossible. Restraining the Ghost Painting is already the limit of what we can do. Trying to contain the Hungry Ghost and the Ghost Messenger as well would be no different from throwing our lives away."

"But the situation no longer leaves us a choice. We need a plan to contain at least two ghosts simultaneously."

Su Fan looked at the old-fashioned phone in his hand. The little figure on its screen had died again.

"The Ghost Painting's source is right here, but not on this layer. Every location within this Ghost Painting world can lead to its source, but I don't know how."

"It's a ghost domain. My Ghost Eye is suppressed by the Ghost Painting here. I can't use it..."

Yang Jian sensed the tightly shut Ghost Eye on his forehead. It had remained dormant ever since he entered the Ghost Painting.

Li Jun, who had been crouching by the roadside smoking, stubbed out his cigarette and stood. Blue-green flames abruptly burst from his charred half-body, and everyone felt a burning sensation rush toward them.

A world filled entirely with blue-green flames overlapped with the Ghost Painting's gray, hazy world, but that seemed to be all it could do.

"It failed. We need a deeper-level ghost domain to invade it."

"Wait, Li Jun. Inside your ghost domain, the Ghost Eye seems to have recovered..."

A streak of red light flashed as Yang Jian directly activated a fifth-layer ghost domain. But the next second, a surge of red light tore Li Jun's blue-green ghost domain apart, scattering it. The red light then sank back into Yang Jian's body, and the Ghost Eye closed tightly again.

"No, ghost domains only cancel each other out... no, perhaps mutual invasion could achieve some kind of balance and form a brief fusion. But your ghost domain's level is too low to withstand my invasion, so it disappeared. If your ghost domain were a little deeper, perhaps I could try something."

Li Leping glanced at Li Jun and spoke to him.

"Li Jun, this might help you."

He tossed Li Jun a blood-red, double-sided drum.

Li Jun looked at the small drum, which radiated an eerie presence. "The human skin from the Human Skin Lantern?"

"Yes, but I can't guarantee you won't undergo ghost resurgence immediately after controlling this skin. After all, controlling any ghost is extremely dangerous."

"There's nothing to hesitate about. When facing supernatural incidents, we often don't get a choice. A Hong, get ready to assist me."

Li Jun tore the human skin off the drum and laid it over his face without any hesitation.

The instant the human skin touched Li Jun's face, the blue-green flames on his body abruptly turned deep green. Everyone immediately felt an eerie, chilling burn.

"A Hong!" Li Jun's muffled voice came from behind the human skin.

A Hong had already begun moving before Li Jun called her. Beneath the scorching deep-green ghost fire, her entire body trembled uncontrollably, and the makeup on her face melted rapidly. Yet her hand remained steady as she painted the familiar face onto the human skin.

Finally, after half of A Hong's face had melted away, Li Jun's face reappeared on the human skin. But now it looked very strange, its expression wooden, like the face of a paper effigy used in traditional funerals.

"Yang Jian, let's begin." Li Jun's mouth didn't move as he spoke. His voice was muffled and eerie.

An even deeper green ghost fire slowly spread, enveloping everyone. They felt only a chilling burn.

"Li Jun, hold on! Suppress the ghost fire and expand its range!"

This deep-green ghost fire can even burn away my ghost domain. We can only reduce its erosion of my domain by expanding its range... then what if I shrink my ghost domain... what would happen...?

Vivid, concentrated red light flashed. Immediately afterward, the entire gray, hazy world seemed to light up in an instant, everything enveloped in golden light.

Yang Jian looked at this golden world.

"Did the fusion of ghost domains produce some kind of qualitative change? But the outer area is still Li Jun's ghost domain. I only used a shortcut to change the central area."

The scorching heat made everyone feel as though they were inside a furnace. The golden flames burning around them seemed to have an extremely powerful suppressive effect on ghosts.

Ye Zhen stared at the golden ghost domain before him, looking utterly bewildered.

"Holy shit..."

"It appeared! Over there!" Tong Qian's three faces instantly locked onto an oil painting half a person's height ahead of them.

The oil painting floated silently in midair, shutting out all the golden flames. Its surroundings were gray and hazy, so blurred that looking at it was like a nearsighted person looking into the distance. Within the bright-red frame was nothing but empty grayness, as though the ghost inside had already escaped.

"Was it the ghost that attacked Ye Zhen earlier...?" A Hong gazed at the empty oil painting in thought.

Abruptly, without any warning, a figure dressed in red stood behind A Hong, its features indistinct. A pair of eerily pale hands slowly reached toward her.

"Strike!" The person arrived before the shout did. Golden flames instantly enveloped the eerie woman in red. The golden fire suppressed her strongly; after only an instant of contact, those eerily pale hands gradually disappeared.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the sudden attack. From within the empty Ghost Painting, an utterly pitch-black hand abruptly shot out, reaching straight for Ye Zhen's neck.

Meanwhile, within the Ghost Painting's gray, hazy world.

The Hungry Ghost, which had remained motionless in place, suddenly moved. Some kind of balance was being broken, and its blue-black ghost domain rapidly expanded.

The Hungry Ghost's blue-black skin was slowly turning deathly gray...