Mysterious Revival: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost, Part 15

"There haven't been many people at our temple for a long time, and there's nothing valuable here. If you're looking to steal something, please go elsewhere."

"Master, I remember you," Yang Jian said. "You're the abbot of Hongfa Temple. We've met a few times before."

"We've come to borrow something."

Chapter 22: The Crows in the Basement

"Borrow what? Even if you know me, I don't have much money to lend you."

"Besides, an evil spirit was just causing trouble here. You'd better leave quickly."

The bald monk's face was pale, and his panic didn't seem feigned. It was as though he had just experienced something utterly terrifying.

But Jiang Li looked around and found no trace of any Ghost Infants.

He did find a pair of shoes by the entrance to the hall. Presumably, someone had tripped over the threshold while going out in the dark.

Just as Zhang Han had said, this was a small, secluded temple with few visitors. Perhaps even the Ghost Infants hadn't wandered this close.

Then what was he so afraid of?

"Don't stay here any longer, or you'll have big trouble coming to your door!"

The monk grabbed Jiang Li and spoke incoherently:

"Just over ten minutes ago, my junior brother came out to get some water. A dead man's arm suddenly came out of the ground and dragged him underneath! I even saw a person with only the upper half of his body crawling on the ground, chasing after the dead man's arm!"

"I was scared out of my wits. By the time I dug my junior brother out, he was already beyond saving..."

A person with only half a body left-wasn't that the half of the Person-Hiding Ghost that had escaped from his body?

As for the hand, it was probably the revived pale severed hand. It had already started killing.

This was a bad sign.

At the thought, Jiang Li frowned and glanced back at Yang Jian.

Yang Jian immediately understood and said, "I used my Ghost Domain to search and clear the area when we came in. There are only a few first-stage Ghost Infants within a hundred meters, and no other vicious ghosts. Your ghost seems to have left."

"Wait, there's a place here that my Ghost Domain can't penetrate?"

Yang Jian walked over to a corner of the hall and found a locked basement.

"What we want should be in here."

A few gunshots broke open the iron lock on the door.

"Oh!" The monk turned pale with shock. He hurried over to Yang Jian, stamping his feet as he said, "If you wanted to go in, you could have just told me! Why did you have to shoot the lock apart? I have the key!"

"Sorry for the offense, but we really need the Coffin Nail inside. We have to use it to deal with the vicious ghosts wandering outside. I can only apologize."

The monk frowned.

"What Coffin Nail? Do you mean the Demon-Subduing Vajra? But that's a treasured artifact passed down through generations at Hongfa Temple. It must never be given to outsiders lightly."

"Wait, are you planning to use it to subdue the evil spirits in Dachang City?"

"...I understand. Subduing demons and vanquishing evil, protecting all living beings-that was always the artifact's destiny. You may take it."

As he watched the three enter the basement, the monk's expression changed. He seemed to hesitate, but in the end, he didn't try to stop them again.

The basement was small, with cold gray bricks covering the walls on both sides. The whole basement seemed to have been built along with Hongfa Temple, giving it a distinctly ancient air.

The three made their way forward by the light of the flashlight the monk had given them, finally stopping in front of an old wooden door.

A lock, rusted almost beyond recognition, still hung on the door. Clearly, no one had been here for a long time.

Jiang Li reached out and squeezed the lock, snapping it in two.

The moment the door opened, some fragments of gold foil fell to the ground. They had originally been attached to the inside of the wooden door as a protective layer.

Beyond the door was a boundless darkness that seemed to have no end.

Jiang Li didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to hear a "drip, drip" of liquid falling in the darkness.

The sound wasn't loud, but it had a viscous quality, like the liquid he had encountered in that supermarket.

Though Jiang Li wasn't sure exactly what it was, he suspected it was also the blood of some kind of thing.

"What on earth is in there? Why can't I see anything?" Zhang Han asked.

"It seems only my Ghost Eyes can see clearly here. My Ghost Domain should also be able to clear away some of the darkness," Yang Jian said.

Four enormous scarlet eyeballs appeared and floated above the three of them, casting red light on the scene ahead.

There stood a tree hung with white bones and withered limbs. Its branches were covered in shriveled limbs and heads, and it was hard to tell whether they were ordinary corpses or dormant vicious ghosts.

What drew the three men's eyes was a pitch-black figure nailed to the trunk.

It was about three meters tall, but it had been nailed upside down to the tree in an extremely strange position. Drops of pitch-black liquid fell from its extremity and merged into the darkness.

No matter how the red light shone on it, the three could only make out its dark, indistinct outline. It seemed to have no facial features, just a mass of pure darkness.

Notably, something seemed to be missing from its head, in the shape of an eye.

"Wait, what's that?"

Jiang Li raised his head and looked at the branches.

Was that... a crow?

No, not one.

It was a flock, densely packed, with crows on nearly every branch.

Their black feathers blended into the surrounding darkness, making them hard to notice without a careful look.

But why were there crows here?

As Jiang Li pondered, Yang Jian strode toward the towering black figure nailed to the tree.

Perhaps Yang Jian's approach had provoked the crows. They were no longer still, spreading their wings and raising their heads one after another.

Were they about to caw?

As Jiang Li recalled, the cawing of crows was harsh and unpleasant, and seemed to carry some ominous meaning.

A flock of crows cawing under these circumstances would undoubtedly be a bad omen.

Jiang Li watched the crows on the tree open their sharp beaks, a faint unease rising in his heart. He simply turned his gaze to Yang Jian, who was busy beneath the tree not far away.

Unexpectedly, however, even after a long wait, no caws came from the tree. Instead, it grew even quieter.

What had happened?

Jiang Li looked up at the top of the tree again, only to find that the crows had closed their beaks at some point and were silently facing him.

Those countless gazes were cold and deathly still, even giving Jiang Li the illusion that he was facing vicious ghosts.

But perhaps it wasn't an illusion?

A strange thought suddenly occurred to Jiang Li: Must ghosts always be human?

Since a corpse, an arm, and even a sheet of human skin can be vicious ghosts, why can't those crows in the tree be vicious ghosts?

If they really are vicious ghosts...

At the thought, Jiang Li swallowed. If that many vicious ghosts attacked at once, anyone would have to cry, "Are you kidding me?"

Just then, Yang Jian suddenly turned around beneath the tree and said to Zhang Han beside him:

"Zhang Han, scrape some gold foil off the wall for me. I don't feel comfortable pulling the Coffin Nail out of the ghost's head with my bare hands."

"Okay, I'll go right now."

"Zhang Han." Jiang Li abruptly called him back. "Wait a moment. I have a bad feeling."

Chapter 23: The Hunger Ghost Comes into Contact with the Ghost Rope

"What's wrong? Has the ghost in your body started acting up again?"

Zhang Han asked, puzzled. He had already scraped quite a bit of gold foil off the door with his hands and was getting ready to take it back to Yang Jian.

"Just assume I'm overthinking it. Let's wait a little longer."

After speaking, Jiang Li turned his gaze back to the crows in the tree.

As if a chilly wind had blown in from somewhere, the crows' black feathers began to move.

At once, Jiang Li's eyes widened in utter disbelief.

Beneath those black feathers, there was no flesh at all-not even any bones. There were only countless layers of feathers, making their exteriors look like crows, while inside they were nothing but rot and emptiness.

Once again feeling the flock's sinister, terrifying stare, Jiang Li couldn't help feeling his scalp go numb.

"There's no mistake. These crows must have something to do with ghosts. We have to be on guard."

"They still haven't attacked us. Maybe it's because we haven't triggered their killing rule, or maybe there's another reason."

"For example..."

Jiang Li looked at the towering black figure beneath the tree, or more precisely, at the Coffin Nail in its body.

Yang Jian had also obtained his Ghost Eyes here. Why hadn't the vicious ghosts here attacked him then?

Perhaps it was because of the Coffin Nail, or perhaps something else.

But to be safe, Jiang Li decided to watch and wait a little longer.

"Why are you two standing there? Have you found something new?"

Yang Jian suddenly stood up beneath the tree and turned to ask them.

Before Jiang Li could answer, the crows in the tree suddenly grew restless. They spread their wings and flew into the surrounding darkness, vanishing without a trace.

An inky black feather drifted down from the air, slowly falling before Jiang Li's eyes.

Immediately afterward, all three felt the ground beneath their feet shake violently. Even many of the gray bricks paving the floor cracked.

"Something big must be happening outside. We need to find out what," Jiang Li said, bending down to pick up the crow feather. "Wang Xiaoming must have a way to get information about what's happening outside. Call him and ask."

"All right, but my satellite phone might be low on battery. I'll try it first."

Yang Jian took out his satellite phone and found a large number of unread messages, most of them from his communications operator, Liu Xiaoyu.

"Liu Xiaoyu's messages might be useful too, but at a time like this, it's better to ask Wang Xiaoming directly."

So Yang Jian quickly called Wang Xiaoming.

The voice on the other end sounded somewhat tired, but remained composed.

"Yang Jian, calling me at a critical moment like this-it seems your operation isn't going very smoothly," Wang Xiaoming said.

"I'll get straight to the point. Two others and I are at Hongfa Temple to retrieve a supernatural item. What was that shaking just now?"

"I'm not at the scene, so there isn't much information I can obtain," Wang Xiaoming said.

"But a friend who stayed in the urban area of Dachang City just told me that a large number of figures have appeared in the city center, hanging in the air from ropes. They all seem to be moving toward one place, and the shaking just now is suspected to have spread outward from there."

"The Ghost Rope? No wonder I didn't see it after I woke up. So it went downtown after reviving," Yang Jian said thoughtfully.

"Wait, don't ghosts just kill according to rules? The Ghost Rope shouldn't be consciously taking living people to a specific place, should it?" Zhang Han scratched his head and asked in confusion.

"That's how it normally works, but don't forget, there's more than one kind of ghost wandering around outside," Jiang Li said, feeling his right eye twitch.