The Human Skin Paper's Changed Prophecy / A Call with Headquarters
Half an hour later.
Jiang Li's screen suddenly went black, and he slumped in his chair.
He stared at the death screen on his computer and fell into thought.
"How did I die? Who killed me?"
Zhang Wei frantically dragged his mouse around as he shouted.
"How did we lose one already? Brother Leg, get in there! Flank that guy before his teammates arrive!"
"On it. That guy's almost out of health. One shot will definitely kill him."
Yang Jian worked the keyboard, sending his character charging forward, but his screen soon went black too.
"We can still win. Watch me pretend to be a loot box and ambush them." Zhang Wei still refused to give up, planning to take on several enemies alone.
But the next moment, his screen went black too.
"Why did the power go out? I'm lagging."
Jiang Li took off his headset and looked out the window. "Maybe the influence of the vicious ghosts has spread throughout the city and caused a problem at the power station downtown."
"Well, nothing we can do about that." Yang Jian leaned back in his chair and spread his hands.
Click.
The door suddenly opened, and a bespectacled man appeared in the doorway.
Wang Xiaoming glanced around the room and spoke with a hint of displeasure.
"The city center just fell completely. A large number of Ghost Infants have appeared there. Were you playing games just now?"
"Of course," Yang Jian replied.
"We've done everything we can. It's rare to have some time to relax now, and we even found another Ghost Tamer who's a high school student. Wouldn't it be a shame not to invite him to play a few games?"
"You're a detective with Ghost Tamer Headquarters, after all. Doing nothing at a time like this is very irresponsible."
"If you two have any ideas, I can put any request that can be met to Headquarters on your behalf. I can even offer each of you a supernatural item from Headquarters as compensation," Wang Xiaoming said.
"Wait."
"You already promised me a supernatural item and two Ghost Candles. This compensation isn't going to be included in those, is it?" Jiang Li asked, puzzled.
"The situation is different. At the time, I didn't think you could come out alive, so naturally a promise to a dying man didn't count. But my position is very clear now: as long as this incident can be resolved, the price doesn't matter."
Wang Xiaoming replied, "Besides, I can tell that both of you still have strength to spare. You're holding back some means of your own."
"You've said everything you came to say, haven't you? Then get out."
"I'm in very bad shape. The Ghost Eye could revive at any moment, and you might be the first person it kills when it does." Yang Jian coldly waved Wang Xiaoming away, intending to send him straight out.
Chapter 10: The Human Skin Paper's Changed Prophecy
Even though Yang Jian had made his position clear, Wang Xiaoming still stood in the doorway, unwilling to leave.
Just then, a voice came from the satellite phone on the table. It was Liu Xiaoyu, Yang Jian's personal operator.
"Professor Wang, stop provoking them. The higher-ups have made arrangements. You need to stay alive under Yang Jian's protection for at least fifteen days."
Yang Jian immediately laughed. "Zhang Wei, show him out for me. If Wang Xiaoming still won't listen, escort him out yourself."
"You got it! If he dares resist, I'll pin him down like a New Year's pig! Nothing can possibly go wrong."
Zhang Wei immediately rubbed his hands together and walked toward Wang Xiaoming with an eerie cackle.
"Tsk."
Once Zhang Wei and Wang Xiaoming had both left the room, only Jiang Li and Yang Jian remained.
The room fell silent. The two faced each other in the darkness, neither speaking.
Jiang Li took a sip of cola and finally spoke up.
"They've both gone. Now we can discuss our next move. Do you have any ideas?"
"I've been waiting for you to ask me that."
"To be honest, I do have an idea, but the risk is too high and the chances of success are too low."
As he spoke, Yang Jian made a gesture around his neck. "Imagine this: you're surrounded by vicious ghosts with nowhere left to turn, and something that's neither human nor ghost tells you that hanging yourself will solve everything. Would you do it or not?"
"If it were me... I'd probably decide what to do next based on how reliable that thing was. For example... what is it?" Jiang Li replied after a moment's thought.
"It's actually a ghost, just a somewhat unusual one."
"This thing is extremely sinister. I'd planned to keep it a secret, but things have reached the point where I have no choice but to use it." As Yang Jian spoke, he took out a sheet of brown human skin paper.
"Hold it, and it'll tell you some things. Give it back as soon as you've read it, then tell me what it said to you."
Looking at the Human Skin Paper held out before him, Jiang Li couldn't help swallowing, his whole body tensing.
He remembered that the Human Skin Paper gave completely different, almost unique information to different people.
What would it say about him?
The moment he pinched a corner of the Human Skin Paper, he felt its fine texture.
At the same time, pitch-black writing began to appear on the paper, which carried a faint stench of decay.
My name is Jiang Li. By the time you see this sentence, I deeply regret it. This situation was completely different from what I expected. My failure to intervene gradually caused the whole affair to spiral out of control.
Because of my appearance, Zhao Kaiming made contact with the Hunger Ghost ahead of time and broke into the safe house before Yang Jian awoke from hanging himself. No one in the safe house survived, and by the time Yang Jian woke up, Dachang City had already become a city of the dead.
Having only tamed one ghost, I was powerless against the changed Hunger Ghost and died unnoticed in the supermarket I came from.
Had I known this would happen, I would never have let Yang Jian hang himself in front of the Ghost Mirror again.
At the end, four twisted black characters remained on the Human Skin Paper: I deeply regret it.
After that, the writing on the paper changed no further.
Jiang Li's pupils trembled violently, and he froze. His fingernails unconsciously dug deep into the Human Skin Paper, pinching several creases into it.
"You seem surprised."
Yang Jian looked into Jiang Li's eyes. "Did you see something unbelievable? That's normal. The plans the Human Skin Paper gives are always shocking, yet you have no choice but to try them, even if there's no telling how deep a pit it's buried in them."
"Tell me what you saw, so I can decide which plan to follow next."
Jiang Li opened his mouth, but hesitated.
The contents of the Human Skin Paper that Yang Jian had seen were probably much as expected, but what Jiang Li had seen might not be entirely correct.
There was definitely a pitfall in it. If he wasn't careful, it could get someone killed.
But the problem was this.
The Human Skin Paper might hide pitfalls, but it would never lie.
He couldn't let Yang Jian hang himself at this point.
Jiang Li let out a long breath, took out a pale severed hand, and aimed it at the Human Skin Paper.
"I'm very dissatisfied with what you told me this time."
"This severed hand can suppress vicious ghosts. The ones it grabbed before all seemed to have a pretty rough time. Tell me something else, or I won't mind making you suffer a little, then having Yang Jian seal you in gold and bury you several thousand meters underground."
"Threatening the Human Skin Paper? So this really is a trick everyone figures out without being taught." Yang Jian raised an eyebrow and continued waiting.
But those words didn't seem to catch the Human Skin Paper's attention. It lay quietly in Jiang Li's hand, still unchanged.
Seeing this, Jiang Li hesitated no longer and reached for the Human Skin Paper with the severed hand.
The moment the severed hand touched it, the Human Skin Paper squirmed in his grasp, and new writing quickly covered the original text.
At the same time, the severed hand's little finger slowly curled up, leaving only the thumb.
The sight made Jiang Li wonder how a severed hand with only a thumb left could grab anything.
For now, though, he focused on the Human Skin Paper and carefully read the new text.
My name is Jiang Li. By the time you see this sentence, the Hunger Ghost Incident is already over.
I successfully persuaded Yang Jian not to follow the plan of hanging himself, and learned some information by threatening the Human Skin Paper.
The main reason for my previous failure was that the supernatural power of the Person-Hiding Ghost I had currently tamed was not very strong, leaving me completely at a disadvantage in a confrontation with vicious ghosts. But this time, the Human Skin Paper told me a method of stacking supernatural effects.
If I can use another supernatural power to forcibly prevent myself from disappearing while using the Person-Hiding Ghost's power, its supernatural attacks will keep stacking. Once they have stacked to a certain extent, the resulting attack will pose some threat to the Wishing Ghost and may even briefly suppress it.
So I thought of Yang Jian's Ghost Eye. With the Ghost Eye Ghost Domain he opened, the Person-Hiding Ghost's supernatural power would be unable to conceal me, causing the supernatural power of its attacks to keep stacking.
Using the Person-Hiding Ghost's stacked supernatural power, I brought this disaster to an end.
The plan the Human Skin Paper gave this time was very clear. It even provided a method for stacking supernatural effects and a good outcome at the end.
Even if there was a pitfall, he had to step into it.
Sitting across from him, Yang Jian saw Jiang Li's expression gradually clear and couldn't help reminding him:
"From the look on your face, the new information must be much better than last time. But don't forget, this thing is no good. You must stay on full alert."
"Naturally, but I've already obtained the best outcome now," Jiang Li said. "If you're interested, how about hearing my plan?"
After listening to Jiang Li's explanation, Yang Jian immediately fell into thought.
"That does sound a lot more reliable than having me hang myself in front of the Ghost Mirror. But my Ghost Eye is already on the verge of reviving. I need to find a way to relieve it, or I won't be able to open my Ghost Domain to help you."
Chapter 11: A Call with Headquarters
"That is a problem."
Jiang Li took a small, ancient-looking wooden chest from the thin mist curling around him and showed it to Yang Jian.
"I wouldn't easily show this chest to anyone else, but you're an exception. Before, I always thought it was just an illusion, but now it seems quite different. Perhaps we really were friends who could trust each other from the very beginning. Maybe it was heaven's will."
Seeing the supernatural wooden chest appear in Jiang Li's hands, Yang Jian couldn't help asking:
"What is that, a wooden chest?"
"This is my Supernatural Treasure Chest. If I put a vicious ghost inside, it gives me a supernatural item in return. I haven't had any spare vicious ghosts to put in it before, so I haven't tested its effects myself. If you have a spare vicious ghost, we could give it a try," Jiang Li said.
"So it's like bartering ghosts for items? We can certainly try it."
"Follow me," Yang Jian said, rising to his feet.
The two went upstairs to a room that had barely been furnished.
Two heavy gold chests stood against the wall, giving off a faint smell of decay.
Yang Jian opened one of them and lifted out a badly decomposed corpse with its limbs curled up.
"This is?"
"This is Wang Xiaoming's younger brother, Wang Xiaoqiang. I'm sure he'd be happy to help us with this," Yang Jian replied. "How do we put him in? Your chest doesn't seem big enough."
"Just stuff him straight in," Jiang Li said, opening the wooden chest.
The moment the vicious ghost was brought near the opening, its body began to twist and shrink, becoming just small enough to fit inside.
Click.
Once the vicious ghost had been put inside, the wooden chest closed on its own. After that, nothing happened.