The quiet night was silent.
But at some point, a clear dripping sound began to echo around.
The sound wasn't coming from the bathroom but was emanating from the ceiling of the apartment building.
Another droplet sounded.
The noise started near the head of Yang Jian's bed, where he was asleep.
The air was thick with a pungent smell of blood.
What was dripping from the ceiling wasn't water but bright red blood.
The blood seeped through cracks in the rooftop, infiltrating everywhere, and the quantity was gradually increasing.
Soon, the entire ceiling was soaked in blood, a crimson expanse.
Within the blood on the ceiling, one could discern the outline of a person with an open mouth, the blurry features contorted in agony, struggling as though it were an Evil Ghost tortured and wailing, screaming, but all of it was eerily silent, with not a single sound being emitted.
Yang Jian suddenly opened his eyes.
He hadn't been fully asleep but was in a state of semi-consciousness, extra sensitive to changes in his surroundings.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw nothing out of the ordinary in the room.
There were no droplets on the ceiling, let alone bright red blood.
The events that had transpired seemed like an illusion, as if they had never existed at all.
"No, it's not an illusion." Yang Jian suddenly caught sight of a drop of bright red blood staining his pillow red next to him.
The blood was rich and thick.
It had a distinctive stench, as if it were already rotting.
After thinking for a moment, Yang Jian's expression changed slightly, and he immediately sat up, got out of bed, dressed, and left the apartment.
As soon as he stepped outside.
The corridor was marked with trails of crimson footprints, made of congealed blood, as if someone had been there before, and at the door of the apartment, the bloody footprints were particularly chaotic and dense.
That person must have lingered at the door previously.
Yang Jian immediately followed the bloody footprints.
He went down the stairs and exited the apartment building.
The last of the footprints led to a bench beside a green belt within the residential area, stopping there.
In the dim light, the silhouette of a person seemed to be seated, waiting for Yang Jian's arrival.
"Yan Li?" Yang Jian tentatively called out.
This blood was not left by an ordinary ghost but by the Ghost Blood from Yan Li's body.
He was aware of this.
So he wasn't panicked.
"Yang Jian, this is probably the last time we'll meet. I don't have much time left, and I wanted to say goodbye and talk to you one last time."
Yan Li was wrapped in a trench coat, wearing a hat, making it impossible to see his face clearly.
But on him, the blood flowed incessantly like water from an open faucet, staining the ground around him, unable to disperse.
"It's been a while since I've seen you, and your situation seems dire."
Yang Jian narrowed his eyes slightly as he approached cautiously.
Yan Li said, "You better not get too close to me. The ghost inside me has revived, and I don't know how long my consciousness will last. It's dangerous for you to approach me."
Yang Jian's heart grew cold; indeed, Yan Li was on the verge of a resurgence.
Through the streetlight nearby, he could faintly see that Yan Li's face no longer existed, only a mass of blood outlining his shape.
He couldn't be considered human anymore.
"What do you want to tell me?" asked Yang Jian.
Yan Li said, "People from the Xiaoqiang Entertainment Club are targeting you. The incident in Huanggang Village has angered them, and they plan to kill you because your existence threatens many. If possible, it's best if you leave Dachang City and live elsewhere."
"Xiaoqiang Entertainment Club, huh? If they want to deal with me, let them come. Leaving Dachang City is not an option. If I leave here for another city and then someone in that city threatens me to leave, where can I go?"
Yang Jian's lips curled into a cold smile. "If they really want to deal with me, then I'll just resolve the people from Xiaoqiang Entertainment Club. I'm already in this state; what more is there to be afraid of?"
"There's one more thing, the box you gave me was stolen by people from Xiaoqiang Entertainment Club."
Yan Li said, "I'm sorry, I owe you a debt I'm afraid I'll never be able to repay."
"Is that so? No worries, I'll handle it," said Yang Jian.
He didn't mention that the box was a fake, swapped by himself.
"I have one last request of you," Yan Li added.
"Let's hear it," said Yang Jian. "If it's too difficult, I might not be able to help."
"I don't think leaving my wife and children in Dachang City is a good choice. I want you to tell them for me, ask them to go back to their hometown," Yan Li said.
Yang Jian replied, "You can tell them yourself. A phone call or something like that should still be within your capabilities, right?"
"I've been targeted by people from the Xiaoqiang Entertainment Club. I haven't contacted my family for several days. No one else knows my family's address except you. I don't want to expose it, especially now that I'm about to die," Yan Li said, his tone revealing a profound sense of helplessness and reluctance.
"Fine, I'll personally notify your family."
"Thank you," Yan Li said. "The time is almost up; I need to go."
"Where are you going?"
Yan Li replied, "I'll find a deserted place to die. I absolutely can't resurrect within Dachang City. If that Evil Ghost appears here, you won't be able to handle it."
After speaking, he stood up and then got into a sports car parked nearby.
Without any hesitation, he floored the accelerator.
The sports car quickly surged past a hundred miles per hour, accelerating even more, and eventually disappeared at top speed into an intersection, heading in what seemed to be the north. He intended to leave the city from the north side, to get onto the highway and away from the urban area.
"Another ghost controller has died," Yang Jian murmured as he watched Yan Li drive away. His gaze shifted slightly and he felt a complex mix of emotions.
He had come to say goodbye this time.
Yan Li's condition was clearly so severe that he could no longer suppress the Evil Ghost, and even without wielding the Ghost's power, the Ghost itself was about to emerge.
"If you had come with me to Huanggang Village initially, perhaps you wouldn't have ended up ," Yang Jian thought to himself.
But then he slightly shook his head.
Perhaps he would have died even faster in Huanggang Village, since only Zhang Han and he himself survived from that group.
The roar of the car engine filled the air.
The roads were sparsely populated in the early morning.
Yan Li's car sped up to over two hundred miles per hour, running red lights and weaving through traffic, racing out of the city as fast as possible.
The surroundings blitzed by in a mad reverse.
At that speed, even a minor collision meant certain destruction and death.
But he felt not a trace of fear.
Because he was already dead.
He was merely holding onto some semblance of consciousness.
So he just kept pressing the accelerator to the floor, going as far as possible. If by bad luck he got into an accident, it wouldn't matter to Yan Li.
After all, he had tried his best, and there was nothing he could do if the Ghost inside him appeared in the city.
It seemed that fate still favored him somewhat.
He encountered no mishaps along the way but managed to get onto the highway smoothly and left the urban area.
The car continued its mad dash, speeding along.
Now away from the city, he tried his best to move as far from the urban areas as possible. If he could, it would be best to find an uninhabited field or mountainous area.
Perhaps sensing his impending death,
Despite trying to resist contacting his family, Yan Li couldn't help himself and picked up the phone on the passenger seat.
His hand no longer bore any trace of flesh; it was just a shapeless mass wrapped in blood.
But just as he was about to dial,
His entire arm suddenly melted into a thick pool of blood and splattered onto the seat.
"Time's up," a thought flashed through Yan Li's mind.
It wasn't just the arm.
His legs, torso, and head all began to melt.
The blood formed nearly filled the interior of the car.
The sports car went out of control, charging off the highway, and after a brief sprint through a field, it started to roll over.
The car began to break apart,
and finally came to a stop at the bottom of a depression.
The car emitted thick smoke, which faded before it could ignite.
The rich blood, like a spring bursting forth, began to gush out from inside the car, increasing in volume until it submerged the crashed vehicle... Even so, the outpour of blood did not cease, and in less than half an hour, it filled the muddy pit, forming a Blood Pool.
As time passed, the Blood Pool gradually expanded, becoming a crimson pond.
After an indeterminate amount of time,
a grisly, bloodstained arm extended out from the Blood Pool.
A humanoid silhouette, in a bizarre posture, slowly climbed out from the bloody depths.
It did not head towards the nearby Dachang City, but towards the closest village instead.
A bloody trail lingered across the fields, stretching onward...