Chapter 374 - Chapter 374: Chapter 373 Successfully Restrained
Chapter 374: Chapter 373 Successfully Restrained
“Brother Tui, did you hear that… there seems to be laughter.”
Despite being in the Ghost Domain, Feng Quan still faintly heard a strange, elusive laugh echoing near his ear.
The laughter seemed to be coming from a distant place but did not decay and vanish due to the distance.
On the contrary, the laughter appeared to grow clearer, initially intermittent as if it was an auditory hallucination, but it became increasingly distinct over time. It was as if someone was really laughing right next to his ear. This laugh had a bizarre infectiousness; after listening for a while, he couldn’t help but want to join in the laughter.
“It’s the laugh of Ghost Face; Tong Qian’s Ghost Face is now on that ghost, and that thing already knows we’re coming.” As soon as Yang Jian heard the laughter, he activated the second layer of the Ghost Domain.
The laughter was blocked.
But this kind of blockage couldn’t last too long. Laughter and wailing by ghosts were alike; if one remained in a place for a long time, the laughter would grow stronger.
In the end, even if Yang Jian used the third layer of the Ghost Domain, he couldn’t withstand the laughter; he would still die.
However, all he needed now was a little time.
While the laughter of the ghost had not yet become terrifying, he sought to restrain that ghost.
“Tong Qian is on the top floor.” Yang Jian immediately located the source of the laughter.
It was coming from a ward on the top floor.
Immediately, he took Feng Quan and Luo Su Yi with him directly to the top floor, to the room from where the laughter emanated.
As for Lin Luomei and Xiong Wenwen, Yang Jian felt that these two would not be particularly effective in such a situation, so he did not ask them to come along. Therefore, only the three of them were truly taking action this time.
Upon entering the room, the eerie laughter became even more terrifying.
The second layer of the Ghost Domain was instantly invaded; that indistinct laughter appeared within the second layer of the Ghost Domain and was becoming clearer gradually. Once it reached a certain threshold, everyone who heard this laughter would die, and even the masters of ghosts might not be able to withstand it.
Only true ghosts could ignore such laughter.
Having had the experience dealing with it once before, Yang Jian wasn’t about to give the ghost any chance to attack. He immediately locked onto the source of the laughter.
It was a woman with bandages wrapped around her head, wearing a hospital gown.
This woman had a slender figure full of youth and vitality, unlike the lifeless corpses in the hotel. She was very much alive, belonging to Tong Qian. The only difference was her bizarre complexion and a smile that emitted a chillingly strange laugh.
She seemed to be aware of Yang Jian’s presence, her hollow and spiritless eyes looking in their direction.
But, the next moment.
A tall, headless shadow suddenly materialized behind Tong Qian without any warning.
After that, a pair of arms covered in dark brown grave soil appeared out of nowhere beside Tong Qian.
On the floor, bloodstained threads spread like numerous worms, swiftly extending to Tong Qian’s feet.
Three utterly different terrifying supernatural forces attacked her at the moment she emitted the laugh.
Ghost Shadows invaded Tong Qian’s body, arms covered in dark brown grave soil, clutching her neck like the hands of a corpse, covering her mouth.
The bloodstained threads on the floor climbed up Tong Qian’s legs, quickly wrapping around her entire body, making her unable to move an inch.
The simultaneous suppression by the three supernaturals instantly stripped Tong Qian of her ability to act.
The laughter came to an abrupt stop.
“Is that a success?”
As the Ghost Domain gradually faded, Luo Su Yi, seeing that Tong Qian had become still, couldn’t help feeling somewhat incredulous.
The source of the supernatural phenomena that had entangled them for days, the ghost that could tamper with people’s memories, could it really have been restrained just like that?
It seemed too easy.
So easy that he began to doubt whether their previous desperate efforts had been worth it.
“The three of us acting together is equivalent to three ghosts attacking Tong Qian at once. This kind of suppression should leave her no capability to act. Otherwise, I would have to consider fleeing. Besides, this ghost itself isn’t that terrifying; if categorized, it’s at most a C, restricted level. The truly frightening thing is its ability to control people,” Yang Jian remarked, feeling that the Headless Ghost Shadow had not been expelled.
Tong Qian was truly suppressed in an instant.
Ghost Face also lost its supernatural presence.
However, they still couldn’t let their guard down; if the suppression was gone, the ghost could still kill.
“Brother Tui, this thing is pretty difficult to contain. If it keeps laughing, even if we put it in a gold container, the sound might still come out, not to mention that this time all we’ve prepared is a body bag,” said Feng Quan, his hands stained with soil, clutching Tong Qian.
Yang Jian said, “I didn’t plan to just contain it like this. I want to separate the ghost from Ghost Face, that way it’ll be much easier to contain.”
With that, he took out the bloodstained red newspaper.
First, the smile was removed to turn the ghost back into a faceless one.
The red newspaper quickly stuck to Tong Qian’s face, but after a few minutes, the result was not as expected— the smile wasn’t removed.
This bizarre smile still remained on Tong Qian’s body.
“How can this be?” Yang Jian’s expression changed, he hadn’t expected the red newspaper to lose its effect.
But this was impossible, he had clearly removed Feng Quan’s face before, and the experiment was very successful.
Then, Yang Jian realized the crux of the problem.
Removing Feng Quan’s face was merely utilizing a characteristic of the red newspaper’s indiscriminate attack on people, and not truly mastering the item. Since the newspaper and the ghost were originally one entity, how could one use someone else’s belonging to remove another’s face?
“It seems this thing is useless against this ghost. It looks like I have to use my own Ghost Shadow to remove the Ghost Face now,” Yang Jian muttered after the failed attempt, without any frustration.
He had another method.
However, the method of removing faces with the red newspaper was completely different from his.
Yang Jian’s approach was akin to a forceful patchwork, while the red newspaper offered a perfect imprint, which might affect Tong Qian’s body in ways he was not certain of.
“Has Brother Tui recovered? It’s bad to keep suppressing it,” Feng Quan urged at that moment.
He couldn’t keep using the power of evil ghosts to suppress Tong Qian indefinitely.
After all, Feng Quan had just regained balance in his body, and using the power of grave soil for a prolonged period risked awakening the evil ghost once more, disrupting the balance. Therefore, he couldn’t overstep the limits.
Upon hearing this, Yang Jian swiftly put away the red newspaper and directly used the Ghost Shadow to remove the smiling face.
The Ghost Face formed a black hand that emerged from Tong Qian’s body. Like a shadow, the hand covered Tong Qian’s face and with merely a slight tug, it removed the smile as if it were a puzzle piece.
Once the Ghost Face was in hand, Yang Jian immediately placed the item into a gold box and locked it away.
“Put Tong Qian’s body into a body bag. The Ghost Face is just a part of it. Tong Qian herself is now a ghost, and I haven’t yet figured out how to take her body back,” Yang Jian sensed that the suppression from the Headless Ghost Shadow was still in effect.
This indicated that Tong Qian, even without a face, still retained the ability to act.
This eerie fact showed that Tong Qian was the ghost that tampered with memories.
As for why this ghost still retained Tong Qian’s identity even after the Ghost Face was removed, Yang Jian had no idea.
It was probably something akin to a supernatural possession.
Yang Jian had previously hypothesized that the ghost altering memories might not have a physical form but was an invisible, supernatural force— whoever took on this force became the ghost.
Now, that seemed very likely.
Without a word, Feng Quan immediately packed Tong Qian’s body into a body bag and secured it.
As soon as they stopped suppressing it, noise immediately emanated from the body bag.
The Tong Qian inside was struggling incessantly, seemingly desperate to escape her confines like an evil ghost trapped in a cage making its last effort.
“Let’s leave it at that for now, and it’s best to find a box to keep her in. Contact Zhao Jianguo and have him handle it,” Yang Jian said.
“Alright, I’ll get in touch with Zhao Jianguo right away and also let him know the incident in Z City is over,” Feng Quan nodded.
But was the incident in Z City truly over?
The origin of the human head balloon event was still unclear to Yang Jian to date.
All he knew was that people in Z City were no longer dying.
“I can’t manage that much anymore. This trip was not in vain anyway, at least a potential major risk was eliminated, and I also restricted the movement of the ghost in the hotel. As for why the human head balloon event abruptly stopped, I don’t have the interest to know now,” Yang Jian thought to himself.
Moreover, he now had all the items the human skin paper asked him to collect.
The smiling face, the crying face, the red newspaper.
If possible, he could now directly create a ghost manipulator who controlled two ghosts.
The initial target for this was supposed to be Tong Qian.
But Tong Qian was a ghost, and choosing her would mean giving everything to the ghost.
It was a potential trap.
“Let’s think about it when I get back,” Yang Jian rubbed his head, feeling tired now.
Dealing with these ghostly entities was truly unpleasant, and it wasn’t until now that he could finally take a break.