Several consecutive gunshots echoed throughout the neighborhood, brief and urgent.
The sound was loud; even Yang Jian in his room heard it.
Immediately, Yang Jian frowned and became alert.
Why would there be gunshots in a normally quiet community?
"Could it be Zhang Wei testing a gun? No, something's off about the sound, the gunshots are too hurried, not like test firing... More like returning fire as if someone's in danger."
While he was pondering, suddenly, something caught his peripheral vision.
Yang Jian abruptly saw the black cloth covering the Ghost Mirror bulging outwards, outlining the shape of a palm.
It was as if a hand had suddenly reached out from within the Ghost Mirror.
"What's going on?" Yang Jian instantly tensed up.
The Ghost Mirror had been fine for several days; why was there suddenly activity today?
Could it be related to the earlier gunfire?
Or was it that, imperceptibly, some balance within the mirror had been broken and a ghost was trying to come out?
But before he could contemplate further,
as the black cloth covering the mirror was yanked down by the palm, the Ghost Mirror appeared before him once more,
Inside the mirror, a person identical to Zhang Wei was stretching his hand out of the mirror, his face showing a look of horror as he struggled to leave. However, eerie hands, greenish, pale, and decaying, reached out from all around the mirror, seizing Zhang Wei's body and legs and relentlessly dragging him back into the mirror.
It seemed that the ghost inside the mirror was unwilling to let this Zhang Wei go.
"This is different from before," said Yang Jian, his expression unchanged.
Previously, the ghost that looked just like Zhang Wei stood inside the mirror, motionless for three days without taking any initiative to step out.
"Brother Tui, save me~!" Zhang Wei struggled to push his head out of the mirror, like a drowning person coming up for air and calling for help.
Quickly, the hands inside the mirror pulled Zhang Wei back in,
this time, Zhang Wei had no strength to resist and was dragged further and further away.
"Could it be…" Yang Jian remembered the words on the human skin scroll.
If the message revealed by the human skin scroll was true, then the current Zhang Wei…
Yang Jian rushed to the front of the Ghost Mirror and, just as Zhang Wei's hand was disappearing into the Ghost Mirror, he immediately reached in and grabbed his arm.
The warmth of a living person traveled from his arm, confirming that this Zhang Wei was alive and not a ghost.
"Just as I suspected."
Yang Jian yanked hard, trying to pull Zhang Wei out.
But countless hands behind Zhang Wei offered him relentless resistance. Before Yang Jian could pull him out, the force made him stick to the mirror, with half of his body pulled in, instantly overwhelmed.
The force emanating from the mirror was surely not human; if it weren't for the fact he was stuck outside the mirror, he would have been pulled inside the Ghost Mirror immediately.
"Trying to compete with me for a person? All of you, get lost," Yang Jian's ghost eye opened.
A red glow permeated into the Ghost Mirror, then enveloped Zhang Wei.
Hoping to use the method that saved his cousin to rescue Zhang Wei.
when he attempted the transfer, it failed.
On Zhang Wei's ankle lay a skinless, bloody hand clutching tightly; even the Ghost Domain seemed unable to affect it, and the Ghost Domain itself felt somewhat restricted.
"What kind of thing is this, able to grasp a person even within the Ghost Domain?" Yang Jian was shocked.
He could influence other palms, but that one hand remained unaffected.
There was no other way. If the ability of one ghost was not enough, then the ability of two ghosts should suffice.
The black ghost shadow under Yang Jian's feet also merged into the Ghost Mirror.
This was a dangerous move.
Once the Ghost Shadow was also pulled in and acquired a ghost's body, it was uncertain whether it would counterattack him after leaving the Ghost Mirror, especially since the human skin paper's warning still lingered in his mind.
But with the entrance of the Ghost Shadow,
Yang Jian felt the tremendous pulling force disappear.
The hand that was grasping Zhang Wei's ankle seemed to have chosen to let go.
Yang Jian fell backwards, dragging Zhang Wei out of the Ghost Mirror with him.
"Scared me to death, scared me to death. I was just doing my business when suddenly it got dark, and the next moment I encounter a ghost, and not just one." Zhang Wei sat on the ground, still shaken, then he looked around; "What, what place is this?"
"Brother Tui, is it really you? I thought I was seeing things just now, I didn't expect to find you here too."
Initial panic gave way to overwhelming surprise when he saw Yang Jian.
Yang Jian, however, didn't pay attention to him but abruptly looked at the mirror.
In the mirror, the reflection of Zhang Wei had disappeared, along with those hands, and the object had once again turned into a smooth mirror.
And the Zhang Wei who was pulled out…
"Are you really Zhang Wei?" Yang Jian was not sure, inspecting him with his ghostly eye, yet he discovered nothing abnormal.
He touched Zhang Wei's chest.
He felt a heartbeat and body temperature.
It was truly incredible how Zhang Wei ended up inside the Ghost Mirror.
"Why are you touching my chest?" asked Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei said, "It's not like it's not okay, but it feels a bit... homoerotic. If someone saw us, they'd definitely suspect we're gay."
"Don't talk for now, let me think this through," Yang Jian picked up the human skin paper once again.
At that moment, the human skin paper displayed a sentence:
"Zhang Wei died... and then he came back to life, resurrected from the Ghost Mirror. The information I received before was true, but it seems that the resurrected Zhang Wei does not remember what just happened. His memory is frozen at the moment he first saw the Ghost Mirror. The Ghost Mirror brought back the Zhang Wei from the past, not the current one.
Is the him from the past and the him from now really the same person? I don't know."
"As the price for resurrection, a ghost has been released. I can't determine whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."
Yang Jian looked at this line of text and furrowed his brows deeply.
It appeared that Zhang Wei's death and resurrection were real.
The human skin paper was completely correct, it really could bring the dead back to life.
But there was a condition, one must leave their own shadow on the Ghost Mirror.
It's akin to... saving a game?
"Let's not worry about that for now. Zhang Wei's death must be related to the earlier gunshots, which means there's trouble in the neighborhood now." Yang Jian narrowed his eyes and promptly put away the human skin paper.
Gunshots meant that this was no ordinary matter.
He had a vague premonition that this was probably targeting him.
"Go downstairs and find a place to hide, it's dangerous here. Don't go out until I come back," Yang Jian said, "and don't touch that mirror or enter this room. Be careful not to be snatched back by the mirror again."
"No problem, Brother Tui," Zhang Wei nodded.
Having said that, Yang Jian immediately left.