The Mysterious Revival: Starting by Controlling the Person-Hiding Ghost, Part 9

Jiang Li's face darkened as he sensed that something was wrong.

If he raised his voice even a little, the hundreds upon thousands of ghost children in the school would open their eyes and come straight for him.

Even if he kept quiet, there was still a good chance that a first- or second-stage ghost infant would see or touch him, triggering its killing condition.

A normal high school playground could generally hold several thousand students gathered at once, but the number of ghost children before them had probably already reached ten thousand.

Such a terrifying number would likely overwhelm any ghost handler completely, drowning them in an instant.

"We can't go straight in. We'll have to rely on your Ghost Domain to get inside. I'll make contact with the ghost when the time comes," Jiang Li said in a low voice.

"All right. Get ready, then."

"Time to start burning through my lifespan."

Two Ghost Eyes snapped open, and a scarlet Ghost Domain enveloped them both in an instant, shutting out all the ghost infants.

"My two layers of Ghost Domain can only keep these ghost infants out. I can't see through the darkness inside the school, so we'll have to... ngh."

Yang Jian clutched his forehead, his whole body trembling violently. Even the scarlet Ghost Domain around them began to waver, on the verge of collapse.

"You're in bad shape. At this rate, you won't last until I make contact with the fierce ghost."

Noticing that something was wrong with Yang Jian, Jiang Li took out a deathly pale severed hand.

"This might be a bit like drinking poison to quench your thirst, but it should temporarily slow your fierce ghost's revival. Even if it leaves us with another unknown fierce ghost afterward, it doesn't matter."

The moment the severed hand touched Yang Jian's face, it clamped tightly around his head. Its sole remaining thumb pressed firmly over the Ghost Eye on his forehead.

The pain on Yang Jian's face eased considerably, and the Ghost Domain overhead gradually stabilized.

The two set off and entered the school, which was full of fierce ghosts.

Since Jiang Li wasn't familiar with the place, Yang Jian led the way.

When they reached the entrance to a restroom on the third floor, Yang Jian spoke in a low voice:

"Actually, I know another place. There's a Coffin Nail there, so maybe we can... Jiang Li?"

When Yang Jian turned back and looked around again, he found that Jiang Li had vanished.

He immediately grew alert.

"Jiang Li disappeared silently from my Ghost Domain. That seems to be some kind of signal, a signal that something's happening."

The next moment, the restroom door creaked open.

A middle-aged man in a suit walked out unhurriedly. He looked somewhat familiar.

Yang Jian took two steps back, his expression turning grim again.

Someone had forced their way into his Ghost Domain, and the whole domain was even being pushed back.

The Ghost Domain formed by two Ghost Eyes could no longer resist the erosion of the other party's supernatural power. It was about to collapse.

After emerging from the restroom, Zhao Kaiming merely glanced at Yang Jian and spoke without expression:

"So it's you. I thought everyone had died in that hospital. But you've come here to die, because the ghost in my body is about to revive..."

Suddenly, Zhao Kaiming stopped and frowned at something behind Yang Jian.

"A guy who appeared out of nowhere? That school uniform of yours has no taste. You look just as annoying as Yang Jian here."

"Counting just now, this is the third time we've met." Jiang Li stepped out of the mist and continued, "Compared to my school uniform, isn't a middle-aged man who's put on weight but still insists on squeezing into a suit even greasier and more disgusting?"

"Still talking tough when death is at your door."

Zhao Kaiming snorted and walked stiffly toward Jiang Li.

At the same time, a chilling figure emerged from him and followed his steps toward Jiang Li.

"Making a move right in front of me? You're getting a little too confident."

Yang Jian raised his head and gave a low shout. Three Ghost Eyes opened in unison, looking down restlessly at everything around him.

At the same time, the scarlet Ghost Domain expanded wildly once more.

Before Zhao Kaiming could react, Yang Jian lunged forward and grabbed one of his arms.

Rip.

Zhao Kaiming's arm was torn off and flung into the darkness beyond the corridor.

"You couldn't beat me when you first took up your post, and it's the same now."

Zhao Kaiming staggered back several steps, his face still expressionless, as though losing an arm meant nothing to him.

The next moment, the arm Yang Jian had thrown into the darkness suddenly flew back and reattached itself firmly to Zhao Kaiming's body.

"That's not a trick a living person can pull off. Even I can't quite make out what you are now. Chances are you're not alive anymore, are you?" Yang Jian said warily.

"My relationship with the fierce ghost in my body is special. It's not something a low-level ghost handler like you can see through."

"Wait."

An ominous aura swept over him, bringing Zhao Kaiming to an immediate halt.

"What's he doing?"

At some point, Jiang Li's figure had begun flickering in and out of sight within the Ghost Domain, as though he might vanish from the world the very next moment.

The ghostly face on his neck also seemed to have been affected, growing more and more distinct.

It even wriggled out of Jiang Li's neck like a living thing.

At that moment, the sunken ghostly face, growing clearer by the second, stared straight at Zhao Kaiming and smiled silently. A chill that seemed to come from the depths of hell surged into his heart.

Dealing with the Wishing Ghost every day was like walking a tightrope over a cliff, and it had long since left him somewhat unhinged.

Now he had to meet the gaze of an unknown fierce ghost and make contact with it... It was utterly contaminating to the mind.

Zhao Kaiming felt a chill on his face, and the blood throughout his body seemed to flow backward.

This was the second time since his encounter with the Wishing Ghost that he had felt such terror in his heart.

But the Wishing Ghost was still attached to him, and Zhao Kaiming didn't believe he would lose. He quickly calmed himself and said in a low voice:

"Your tricks won't help. Your appearance is an unstable factor after all. But it's not that I want to kill you; it wants me to dispose of you both."

"It? So the fierce ghost in your body is the one plotting everything, and you're nothing but its puppet."

Yang Jian retreated several steps, using the Ghost Domain to dodge Zhao Kaiming's approach with Jiang Li.

Together, the two were like a spring being steadily compressed, building up layer upon layer of supernatural power as they waited for the moment it reached its absolute limit and released that power.

Zhao Kaiming could see what the two were doing, but he had no intention of backing down. Instead, he planned to let their plan proceed smoothly.

To him, this was also an opportunity, a chance to break free of the fierce ghost's control.

Zhao Kaiming could feel the terror of the supernatural power piling up, and his anticipation secretly grew.

If Yang Jian and this kid could truly deal the Wishing Ghost a heavy blow, he could reap the fisherman's reward when the fish died and the net tore in their struggle.

He only hoped they could really bring it to that point.

Chapter 14: An unexpected restart

"The supernatural power is almost fully stacked."

"Yang Jian, after I disappear, keep a close eye on what's happening inside the Ghost Domain. Don't let Zhao Kaiming escape it."

After a long silence, Jiang Li suddenly spoke.

Yang Jian turned to look at him, and his eyelids twitched sharply. Even the open Ghost Eyes on his face seemed unwilling to keep watching, instinctively wanting to look away.

Seeing Yang Jian's reaction, Jiang Li stiffly turned his neck to examine his own condition.

"My left eye has completely closed at some point, and I didn't even notice... And there's this face."

Jiang Li's heart trembled, and he swallowed hard.

The ghostly face that had clung to his neck like a tattoo now had a clearly protruding outline. If this continued, it would likely wake from its dormant state.

When that happened, perhaps both his eyes would close completely, and the fierce ghost would replace him entirely.

Luring his own fierce ghost into revival-was this the trap the Human Skin Paper had left for him?

Still, things weren't too bad at the moment. At least there was good news.

Just as expected, the Person-Hiding Ghost's stacked supernatural power had been gathering little by little in his ghost finger.

Wisps of dense deathly aura flowed steadily toward the ghost finger, filling its swollen, split nail.

Once it had finished accumulating, even a true fierce ghost wouldn't be able to withstand the blow.

Across from Yang Jian and Jiang Li, Zhao Kaiming still wore the same expressionless, deathlike look, but now all that remained of him was his head.

During their earlier confrontation, Yang Jian had used the Ghost Domain to remove his head and transport his body away.

Even so, Zhao Kaiming's body continued to approach and return to his head in a manner that couldn't be stopped.

Zhao Kaiming's head gave a dry laugh from the floor and said:

"Give up. As long as it's still on me, you have no chance of killing me."

"No matter how powerful ghost handlers are, they can't outlast a true fierce ghost, let alone one as special as it is-a fierce ghost with no solution at all."

"That's just your side of the story. You're so terrified of the ghost on you that you've presumptuously started talking about it having no solution. If a fierce ghost truly had no solution, how could you have controlled it?" Yang Jian said coldly.

"As a person in charge, you've been brainwashed by a fierce ghost to this extent. You're a laughingstock just by living. If I were you, I'd have slit my own throat long ago."

Hearing this, Zhao Kaiming merely smiled and said nothing more.

Just then, Jiang Li suddenly looked toward Zhao Kaiming-or, more precisely, toward the area behind him that lay beyond the Ghost Domain.

"Yang Jian... something's coming."

As soon as he spoke, the Ghost Domain formed of red light shuddered violently, and a jagged gash was torn through it.

In an instant, boundless bluish-black darkness poured through the opening.

A person whose figure couldn't be clearly seen appeared behind Zhao Kaiming's head, carrying something in one hand.

It was Zhao Kaiming's headless corpse, which had been dragged along like a dead dog.

"Hm? Why did it get dark?"

Zhao Kaiming suddenly sensed that something was wrong. Although he couldn't turn his head to look, he still sensed something.

The next moment, a hand with bluish-black skin picked up his head and lifted it in front of a face.

Bluish-black and deathly still, without the slightest trace of a living person.

That was... the source of this disaster.

The Hunger Ghost.

The next moment, its pitch-black eyes moved. They had no pupils at all.

Gulp.

A muffled swallowing sound came from the figure opposite him, and the outline of its swollen belly churned in the darkness.

Zhao Kaiming's head opened its mouth, as though he still wanted to say something.