Proofreader & Editor: Lotas
Wang Xiaoming's hastily conceived plan sounded promising, making full use of Yang Jian's strengths and perfectly circumventing the formidable source ghost. Despite some lack of detail, coming up with such a scheme in just five seconds was quite clever.
But even the best plans require a good understanding and execution.
Yang Jian was quick on the uptake, and although his analytical thinking wasn't on par with Wang Xiaoming's, he knew what to do as soon as he heard the plan.
"No wonder the forums say that an S-level specter can destroy a city, and without restrictions, could even bring down a nation. Now it seems that's no exaggeration. If we can't deal with this thing and it leaves Dachang City for another, that city too will face catastrophe."
"Just a little time is all it would need to bring down a nation."
"As a ghost controller, except for anomalies like Zhao Kaiming, anyone else facing this specter is just delivering their own death. Even if I perfectly control a revived ghost, I'd only be qualified for a direct confrontation. Who could withstand that last attack?"
Yang Jian stood atop the communication tower's signal mast, enveloped in complex thoughts, as he covered himself with the ghostly shadow and then opened his ghost eye to its limit.
His entire being was shrouded in red light, reflecting off the surrounding gloom and dyeing the entire area crimson.
The ghostly shadow now covered him completely; Yang Jian's body was, for the moment, akin to a ghost's, rendering the ghost eye unable to revive.
This brush with death had once again resolved the issue of his ghost's revival.
The ghost domain around him rapidly condensed under his control, minimizing its range to maximize its terror.
At its limit, the ghost domain was extraordinary. Back in Guanjiang Residential Area, he could cover at least ten kilometers, even under a shroud of gloom.
But here…
Even condensing into a beam of red light only extended a little over a thousand meters, reaching the gates of No. 7 Middle School at its limit, unable to penetrate further.
The dark cyan gloom there was so dense it seemed almost solid, eerily thick.
Yang Jian, standing on the communication tower, couldn't breach it.
"No. 7 Middle School is essentially the starving ghost's stronghold, turned into an iron fortress. The specter's power most deeply affects that place. My ghost domain would be eroded there, let alone at such a distance. The only way to resolve this is to get closer to No. 7 Middle School, or even return to the school itself."
"But that would mean entering enemy territory. The specter would definitely guard against my presence, and with the suspected time-reset ability there, I'd stand no chance."
Yang Jian frowned, "I'll have to ponder over the ghost eye's capabilities."
"Suppose that specter's ghost domain is that dark cyan gloom, and mine is the red light emitted through the ghost eye. If its gloom can condense, then logically the red light from my eyes should be able to stack as well."
"Both are ghost domains; there's no reason for such a disparity."
"Is the stacking method incorrect?"
His mind raced with thoughts.
Specters were an unknown since their emergence, studied worldwide, and each ghost's powers were unique. Without precedent, any control over these abilities was a matter of groping in the dark.
Moreover, the exploration was slow, as using a specter's power was akin to suicide for a ghost controller, who typically wouldn't employ such abilities.
"Perhaps, having more eyes isn't necessarily better…" For some reason, Yang Jian thought of the original owner of the ghost eye.
That three-meter-tall giant shadow.
It had only one eye, whereas Yang Jian had nine.
"Maybe the stacking isn't about overlapping ghost domains, but rather overlapping the ghost eyes themselves." A possibility dawned on Yang Jian.
"If a single ghost eye on the brink of revival can open a ghost domain, what if another ghost eye opens its domain within the first one?"
A domain within a domain.
Yang Jian felt this was a method worth trying.
He shifted the ghost eye to the palm of his hand, stacking his palms so that two ghost eyes overlapped across the backs of his hands. Then, the first ghost eye emitted red light and opened its domain, followed by the second eye opening another layer within the first, directing it towards the school.
An unthinkable scene unfolded.
The ghost domain, which could only extend to the school gates, suddenly intensified, like a powerful searchlight piercing through the dark cyan gloom and into the school.
"I can see inside the school now," Yang Jian's face lit up with surprise.
His experiment was a success; the ghost eye wasn't just a single-layer domain—it represented a domain for each eye.
Perhaps the true terror of the ghost eye lay in stacking ten layers.
"I can only see the playground; the teaching buildings are still unclear. I need to add another layer." Yang Jian grew more confident, transferring a ghost eye to his forehead.
Then he crossed his palms in front of him.
Three ghost eyes lined up in a straight line.
Then, within the second layer, he opened a third layer of the domain.
This seemed to trigger a terrifying qualitative change.
The red light was almost blinding, and the world appeared as if drenched in blood, eerie and terrifying.
This concentrated beam of ghost domain, like a sharp knife, tore through the layers of gloom enveloping the school.
Everything was laid bare before Yang Jian, no secrets could hide.
The gloom was no longer frightening.
"It seems… I've unearthed some incredible abilities." Even Yang Jian was startled.
This was just three ghost eyes stacked; what changes would nine bring?
Unimaginable.
In fact, this method was highly stimulating for the specter's revival. If Yang Jian hadn't perfectly controlled the headless ghost shadow, he'd be in danger by now.
The deeper the specter's power was delved into, the closer to death one was.
Only the ghost shadow, on the brink of death itself, gave him face, allowing him to control and suppress the ghost eye.
"Now, let's see where your ghost is hiding."
Yang Jian felt confident, with a coffin nail at his side, ready to end this once the eerie red light found the starving ghost.
At that moment…
The red light, like a searchlight, swept across the skies of Dachang City, tearing through the layers of gloom, shining into the school from afar, and began to move, seemingly in search of prey, a target.
The beam surveyed the playground, then lit up the teaching building.
It lingered especially at the site of the recent attack.
But unfortunately…
The ghost wasn't there.
No rush.
The red light shifted, illuminating an adjacent laboratory building, starting from the top and searching every floor, not missing any detail.
Yang Jian was intimately familiar with the school he'd attended for three years and knew how to search without overlooking anything.
The ghost that had made No. 7 Middle School its lair seemed to have bound itself.
If it roamed Dachang City, Yang Jian felt it could take a month to lock onto its position, given the city's vastness.
"Found it."
Suddenly…
The red light emitted by Yang Jian's ghost eye, passing by the school's north gate, spotted a terrifying figure in the guardroom.
Dressed in funeral clothes, with a dark cyan dead man's face, Zhou Zheng was sitting rigidly and straight in the guardroom chair, motionless like a corpse placed there, his belly still bulging with something dreadful writhing inside.
The moment the red light fell on the starving ghost…
Its stiff body moved, its head turning mechanically, its pupil-less eyes, full of the ghost baby's ferocity, looked towards Yang Jian.
"Now!" Yang Jian roared inwardly.
The rusty coffin nail vanished.
The next moment…
The nail appeared on the forehead of the starving ghost.
It plunged deeply, almost piercing through the entire head.
A sniper shot from over a kilometer away, an attack that was almost instantaneous. A modernized combat method combined with ghost controlling.
Even if the specter could restart time, it would be useless.
It lacked the reaction time.
"Success."
Yang Jian watched intently as the starving ghost, its head impaled by the coffin nail, seemed to lose all its eeriness and collapsed powerlessly to the ground like an ordinary corpse.
The gloom over Dachang City was rapidly dissipating…
The Starving Ghost incident, concluded.