Chapter 50: Drastic Change!

Again, another one came...

Xiong Wenwen grabbed Yang Jian's collar, her voice trembling as she whispered.

Following Xiong Wenwen's gaze, Yang Jian and the others suddenly felt delighted.

At some point, a rotting human head with closed eyes and a pallid complexion appeared on the corridor's ceiling; the decay was so advanced that its gender could no longer be discerned.

"Finally found it, let's move! Detain both of them together."

Guo Fan thought that dealing with one was the same as dealing with two, so he might as well handle them together! That way this tall male corpse wouldn't cause any further supernatural incidents later.

Feng Quan nodded in agreement. Exactly, they couldn't just leave the tall male corpse aside and then go deal with the head-balloon incident; who knew if it would suddenly attack them in the process?

Yang Jian didn't speak, his eyes locked firmly on the tall male corpse holding a hatchet; his feeling told him that this ghost's terror level was very high, possibly reaching an A-rank supernatural event.

But if we could grasp its killing pattern, could we detain it? Any terrifying ghost, as long as we avoid its killing pattern, would surely give us a chance to detain it.

Thinking this through, Yang Jian then did not speak to stop them.

But what Yang Jian didn't know was that the male corpse before him was no ordinary ghost!

"Wait, there's more!"

Yang Jian, using his Ghost Eye vision, clearly saw a rotting human head drifting along the ceiling not far away.

There was more than one head balloon in the hotel!

"Wait, you guys hear footsteps too."

Feng Quan's face grew solemn as he said, under these circumstances, the approaching footsteps might not be human.

They seemed to have underestimated the number of supernatural phenomena in this hotel.

"\"Xiong Wenwen, use your precognition ability! \""

Yang Jian decisively led Xiong Wenwen backward, while calmly saying.

They must first find the source ghost of the head balloons; otherwise, detaining however many head balloons would be futile.

"Okay, okay."

Xiong Wenwen obediently nodded, no longer showing any arrogance outwardly.

In the next moment, Xiong Wenwen's face turned deathly pale, a cold aura emanated from her body, as if she had instantly become a stiff corpse.

"\"After about three or four seconds, Xiong Wenwen fearfully opened her eyes and said with a sobbing tone: \"I saw you rush forward and suppress those nearby heads, but it was useless—Guo Fan's head suddenly floated up, and then many eerie people appeared behind us, surrounding us!! \"\""

Xiong Wenwen's words instantly changed Guo Fan's expression; he subconsciously touched his own head—damn, he was actually the first to get killed.

At that moment, the footsteps grew denser; hearing Xiong Wenwen's words, Yang Jian's expression changed, and he decisively blew out the candle in his hand, taking out a blood-red candle.

He lit the blood-red candle directly; in an instant, an eerie deep green light enveloped the surroundings, shrouding Yang Jian and the three others.

Yang Jian let out a slight sigh of relief; with the aid of the red Ghost Candle, they should be safe for a while.

Meanwhile, the footsteps drew ever closer; Yang Jian looked back and felt his scalp tingle—a dense crowd blocked the hallway behind them, wearing various clothes: some in waiter uniforms, some in suits...

Yet unanimously, their faces were grotesquely strange—for example, a burly face bore a seductive woman's visage, while a child's face bore an elderly man's wrinkled countenance...

In their hands they held all sorts of objects—fruit knives for cutting fruit, kitchen knives for vegetables, even scissors... and at that moment they were staring at Yang Jian and the others without any emotion.

An eerie, terrifying feeling came over them—they were the missing guests of the hotel.

Seeing them, Yang Jian suddenly recalled a question: Are people whose memories have been altered by the Newspaper Ghost still human or have they become ghosts? If they are human, wouldn't that mean the Ghost Candle has no effect on them?

"Yang Jian, let's do this—waa waa waa waa, are we going to die here today? No! I don't even have a stepdad yet; if I die, who will take care of my mom? Waah waah waah."

Xiong Wenwen wanted to cry but feared drawing attention from those people, so she could only muffle her sobs with both hands over her mouth.

Misfortunes never come singly; just then the Ghost Candle suddenly flared up violently, its burning speed far exceeding normal—this indicated that someone among the four had just been attacked, and the Ghost Candle had blocked that strike.

"We can't keep draining it like this; we must break out, otherwise once the Ghost Candle goes out we'll lose our chance."

Feng Quan said to Yang Jian.

"My Ghost Realm has been suppressed; I don't know whether it's because of this hotel or due to the Newspaper Ghost's influence,"

Yang Jian spoke with a somewhat grim expression.

When they entered, Yang Jian's Ghost Realm could still be deployed, but now it has been suppressed.

Meanwhile, someone had already stepped into the green candlelight's range, suffering no effect whatsoever.

The worst outcome had appeared—these fellows were actually humans...

Yang Jian handed the Ghost Candle, which had burned down to one-third, to Xiong Wenwen, then held her in his arms and told Feng Quan and Guo Fan: "Later I will actively extinguish the Ghost Candle, then release a non-selective attacking ghost; then it will be up to your own abilities."

Yang Jian intended to release a non-selective attacking Ghost Rope; those controlled by the Newspaper Ghost would surely be targeted by the Ghost Rope, giving him and his companions an opportunity.

This also involved a gamble, because there were too many other factors—for instance, Feng Quan and the other might be taken down directly by the Ghost Rope, or they might unknowingly violate the head balloon's killing rule; moreover, what worried Yang Jian most was the male corpse wielding a hatchet, since he currently couldn't use his Ghost Realm to clear footprints, making it likely he would trigger the Hatchet Ghost's killing rule.

And the best option now was simply to walk along the wall, hoping not to attract the Hatchet Ghost's attention—after all, with so many people around, there would certainly be plenty of footprints left.

"Good!"

Feng Quan also didn't hesitate, responding with a solemn expression.

Guo Fan's face showed little fear either, after all, the ghost he commanded had high life-preserving ability, so he wasn't overly panicked.

Without hesitation, the next moment Yang Jian blew out the greenish flame on the Ghost Candle; the surroundings instantly went dark, yet one could still barely make out the situation around them.

Yang Jian didn't hesitate and directly released the suppression on the Ghost Rope in his hand.

In the next instant, one, two... countless Ghost Ropes hung suspended in midair, blocking the crowd behind them, which were hoisted up one after another; meanwhile, Ghost Ropes had also appeared at some point around Yang Jian's and Xiong Wenwen's necks,

In the next instant, a pitch-black headless ghost shadow rose from the shadow behind Yang Jian, it directly seized the Ghost Ropes on Yang Jian and Xiong Wenwen, and once caught, the Ghost Ropes seemed to lose all vitality.

Right now, Yang Jian seized the moment, directly hugging Xiong Wenwen and charging toward the feet of the crowd being hoisted up, while the headless ghost shadow clung to his back like thick ink.

What Yang Jian didn't notice was that, as he ran, the half-burnt candle fell from his hand and rolled onto the ground.

At the same time, a Ghost Rope appeared on Feng Quan's neck, but the next moment it was buried by some dirt that had seemingly come out of nowhere, allowing Feng Quan to seize the chance and rush forward.

Guo Fan, however, was not so fortunate; he desperately tugged at the Ghost Rope around his neck to no avail, his face flushed as he tremblingly produced that spirit tablet; the next moment his gaze lost all luster, his body was easily hoisted by the Ghost Rope, and the spirit tablet in his hand fell limp to the ground.

And in the center of the spirit tablet, a black-and-white photo of Guo Fan smiling broadly was affixed right in the middle.

The non-selective attacking Ghost Rope naturally wouldn't let the Hatchet Ghost off; it eerily coiled around the tall male corpse's neck, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't lift him—while the hatchet-wielding corpse merely swung his blade silently, the grass rope around his neck snapped into several segments and fell to the ground.

The Firewood Knife Ghost moved forward numbly, stopping from time to time along the way, meanwhile swinging the firewood knife in its hand; at that moment, a certain corpse hanging in midair would inexplicably split into several pieces.

Moreover, among those hanging up, someone's neck suddenly snapped off in midair, their head floating lightly toward the ceiling while their body plummeted down with a heavy thud, sounding like a heavy object striking the ground.

Thus, in this corridor, a heavy thud would occasionally echo, indicating that a headless corpse had fallen to the ground.

——————————

"Chen Shoushan! It's not good—Yang Jian and the others have sent out a distress signal, and the locations of their satellite phones are all scattered."

"Chen Shoushan, waiting in the tent, received Li Yiyun's urgent message, and at the same time Tong Qian also received a message from her operator."

"Their eyes met, and Tong Qian suddenly stood up, asking, 'What should we do? Should we go in to support them?'"

"Just wait a bit longer—each of Yang Jian's people is considered an elite responsible person of headquarters; they won't die so easily."

"Chen Shoushan frowned and refused, saying, 'Strange, didn't I already tell Li Qingzhi about the killer's pattern? Could something new have happened?'"

"Tong Qian felt a bit anxious, but for some reason she felt that what Chen Shoushan said made sense."

"What Chen Shoushan and Yang Jian didn't know was that the white Ghost Candle that Yang Jian had originally dropped in the corridor had been mysteriously relit, and its dusky black light spread like a thin veil, lightly covering the surrounding headless corpses."

"Above ZS City, hundreds of rotting floating heads slowly drifted toward the Kaisa Hotel, and within ZS City, people who had originally been chatting with friends, working, or reading suddenly turned stiff, their eyes glazed, indifferent to onlookers, merely coldly seizing nearby knives or any sharp weapons, and slowly moving in the direction of the Kaisa Hotel."

"Damn, I stayed up all night with friends yesterday; I woke up after five this morning, feeling numb. I wrote 3000 words for this chapter—maybe there will be an update late at night, maybe not. If there isn't, I'll make it up tomorrow; if not, my friend will be short ten centimeters."

(End of chapter)