So we've successfully imprisoned a ghost?
It was so easy that they all started to doubt and feel uncertain.
But it was precisely this that further confirmed the unease Yang Jian had felt before.
Looking at the motionless corpse inside the body bag, he became more convinced that his previous guess had been correct.
An incorrect signal, coupled with prior uncertainty, had led to a wrong action.
"Did we succeed?" Zhang Han asked uncertainly.
Zhang Yiming frowned and said, "I'm not sure. Based on the probe by Ye Jun earlier, we can conclude that this old granny is definitely not normal. But to say she's a fierce ghost seems far too simple. A ghost capable of killing two ghost charmers should not have been captured so easily."
"Yang Jian, what do you think?"
"Ghost Slave," he said gravely. "It's something a fierce ghost controls after a person's death. It's not human, but it's not a real ghost either. We're wasting our time."
"Let's leave this place and go back to the spirit hall we visited before. That's where the solution to this problem lies."
"You mean to tell me we've been busy capturing a decoy?" Zhang Han became somewhat annoyed.
Yang Jian didn't speak. He just picked up the body bag and swiftly went out the door, leaving behind a sentence.
"Follow me if you don't want to die. If all goes well, we may still proceed with the original plan."
Exiting the door, he didn't stop walking and hurried towards the spirit hall.
"Let's go," said Zhang Yiming, and he and Zhang Han quickly followed.
But once they were outside, they could not find Ye Jun.
"Ye Jun, where are you?" Zhang Han shouted.
"No need to shout. He's certainly dead. There's been no sound outside since we started moving in the house," Yang Jian replied without looking back. "If he weren't, he would have joined us by now."
The two of them shuddered at his words.
We hadn't been separated for long at all, just a few meters' distance. How could he have become a victim so quickly?
Moreover, that shouldn't count as being alone, right?
As Yang Jian was heading towards the spirit hall, he suddenly discovered that the sunlight above grew rapidly dim. The brightness was fading away, and the village was gradually being enveloped by darkness.
It seemed like in an instant, daytime turned into night.
Yang Jian's heart chilled. The thing he had most feared was happening.
Before, the two ghosts in the village appeared to be restraining each other, and although he didn't know the outcome of that restraint, it was supposed to be a good thing.
However, their recent actions seemed to have broken this balance.
No, the balance was probably broken the moment they entered the village. This misguided action was just the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the ghost known as the Sick Ghost... had been completely defeated.
A more vicious and unknown ghost began taking over Huanggang Village.
"We must get back to the spirit hall."
Without further hesitation, Yang Jian clenched his teeth, a red glow emanated from his body, covering a range of a good ten meters all around him.
His Ghost Domain had grown larger... indicating he was becoming even closer to the resurrection of the fierce ghost.
But then Yang Jian realized something.
Even using his Ghost Domain, he couldn't neutralize the Ghost Domain of the village; the ground remained as it was.
This was completely different from the situation with the Door Knocking Ghost.
This village might not be a Ghost Domain at all but something uniquely special.
Yang Jian recalled the archival information that indicated Huanggang Village mysteriously vanished for three days and then reappeared.
"It's possible that this place can't be left even with the use of a Ghost Domain..."
He now faced two choices. Try to escape using the Ghost Domain, although it might not be successful, but there was still a chance.
The second option was to fight for survival in a dire situation; he had an emergency method, but its effectiveness was uncertain.
Two choices lay before him!
A wrong move in either case meant death.
In that moment, cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he became agitated; this situation was much more severe than any business timing, not even comparable in terms of severity.
"Dying due to the resurrection of the fierce ghost if I escape or dying if I don't escape; it seems like an escape is the way to life, but in reality, that's the dead end. Damn it, I'm going all in."
With a decisive grit of his teeth.
Carrying the corpse, Yang Jian, within his Ghost Domain, vanished on the spot.
"Where did Yang Jian go? He disappeared into thin air?" Zhang Han, who was running behind, was taken aback.
Zhang Yiming said hurriedly, "That must be one of Yang Jian's abilities. Don't be surprised. Quick, we should also head to that spirit hall. The village is undergoing a change, and I too have a terrible feeling, as if a tremendously frightening event is about to occur. Yang Jian noticed it before us, and that's why he was in such a rush to leave, risking the use of the fierce ghost's power."
He was extremely anxious, not only because of Yang Jian's behavior but because the entire village had suddenly gone from day to night.
This abrupt change gave off a sense of oppressive death.
"All the villagers have disappeared?"
Utilizing the convenience of the Ghost Domain, Yang Jian almost instantly returned to the entrance of the village within two seconds.
Previously, there were more than a dozen elderly villagers sitting there, chatting and drinking tea, and in the spirit hall, there were four or five old men and women burning paper to keep vigil. Everything was quite normal.
But just from one moment to the next.
The sky darkened, and the village was quickly enveloped in darkness.
The villagers from before had vanished as well.
And with them, the house set up as the spirit hall had disappeared.
It wasn't just the coffin that was missing, the spirit hall was gone, but the entire house disappeared. In its place was a piece of deserted wasteland overgrown with wild grass, as if that house had never existed in the village.
Yang Jian, carrying the corpse, was stunned.
Zhang Han and Zhang Yiming, who arrived later, both displayed incredible looks of shock and disbelief.
"What happened? The villagers disappeared, the house is gone, and where is the spirit hall? The one that was just here, could we have gone to the wrong place?" Zhang Han said as he looked around.
The other houses were still there, the only one missing was this one.
"We haven't gone to the wrong place, it's right here."
Yang Jian found a few drops of foul-smelling corpse fluid on the ground, which seemed to have just dripped down.
This was Ye Jun's ability.
Ye Jun had been here before.
But... he may have died before he arrived here.
"Yang Jian, what exactly have you found out? Speak up, let's think of a solution." Zhang Yiming urged.
"It's too late now, the whole house has disappeared, we can't go back to the spirit hall. I was misled by that wrong piece of information; I thought that old woman was the ghost or even if she wasn't, as long as we acted quickly, nothing bad would happen. But I was still too naive... The balance of this village has been disturbed by us, the real fierce ghost is about to appear, brace yourselves."
As Yang Jian spoke, he placed a gold box on the ground.
Then he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the gold box, ready to shoot.
"What are you doing? That box is..."
Zhang Yiming's eyelids twitched when he saw that somewhat deformed but sealed gold box.
"There is a fierce ghost imprisoned inside this box, and now I'm going to release it. This is an emergency measure I prepared," Yang Jian said.
"You're crazy, you're actually going to release a ghost?"
The usually stable Zhang Yiming couldn't help but roar, "People will die."
"There's no choice, the Sick Ghost initially aimed to open this box to release the ghost inside, and this ghost might be the key to restoring balance." Before Yang Jian could finish, he fired the gun with a bang.
But it did not go through.
The gold was sturdy and thick.
"Now the actions of the ghost within the village are no longer significant. When the balance was maintained, it was able to easily kill a Ghost Slave on its own, and once that balance is lost, based on the information I've got, this is a dead end with no solution, a mere overwhelming terror-level threat, with no chance of surviving."
"If you don't want us all to be annihilated, don't stop me, because this way, there is still a glimmer of hope."
Yang Jian fired another shot.
Sparks flew from the gold box, which now sported a thin slit.
Through that slit, blood continuously seeped out.
The blood was Yan Li's Ghost Blood.
Once the Ghost Blood ran out, the Headless Ghost Shadow would be released by him.
This was a ghost that was not particularly terrifying, but its rate of growth was frightening.
"After this ghost comes out, fend for yourselves and find a way to survive. As long as we don't die immediately, there should be a turn for the better," Yang Jian said as he fired another close-range shot at the slit.
The gold box was blown wide open.
Blood was forcibly squeezed out from inside, spilling everywhere.
Then, as the blood drained, a black shadow appeared to wriggle its way out through the slit.
"Damn it, you actually released it! I regret agreeing to come here with you now," Zhang Han exclaimed in alarm.
Although he knew Yang Jian had captured a ghost, it must have been a perilous task, and now to release it just like that?
That was a move only a madman would make.
"Now, I have no other choice," Yang Jian said as he looked at him.
But his Ghost Eye was fixed intently on the black shadow that was gradually emerging.