Chapter 177: Observing the Upper World, the Silhouette at the Door

"Young man, what's the matter? Why are you silent?" the old man's voice continued to echo.

"It's nothing, I'll let you out right away, but I still need to go upstairs first."

Zhang Hao said calmly, "So regarding letting you out, you'll have to wait a while."

"That's fine, after waiting all these years, this moment won't make a difference."

The old man seemed quite cheerful, like a rational elder, showing no urgency from years of confinement.

"There's a strange camera upstairs; watch yourself and just don't die there."

"Mm, I understand."

Zhang Hao replied and headed upstairs.

The staircase that once took Zhang Hao a full ten minutes to climb now seemed unable to block his path.

When he placed his first foot on the old, peculiar wooden steps, the stair infused with Ghost Power seemed unable to bear the weight of Zhang Hao's spiritual presence.

"Creak!"

At that moment, the stairs emitted a wobbling, collapsing sound.

As he took the second step, the first step behind him collapsed instantly, as if the long‑neglected wood had reached its final lifespan and could no longer retain its shape.

"That's impossible, you actually made it this far?"

The old man seemed to witness the scene, his voice tinged with horror.

One must know these steps are spiritual artifacts, sealed with terrifying Fierce Ghosts, not mere stairs.

Even though they appear ancient and shaky, they cannot truly be destroyed; even if you employ some spiritual means to partially break them, the staircase quickly restores itself.

Because each step, in a sense, embodies a genuine Fierce Ghost that cannot be truly slain or shattered.

"Looks like this path has reached its limit."

Zhang Hao seemed unfazed; withdrawing his spiritual aura, he directly used Ghost Domain invasion on the steps, ceasing to tread on them.

Because Zhang Hao feared that before he reached the second floor, the wooden house would be completely ruined by the steps' collapse.

Soon, Zhang Hao arrived at the second floor again.

On the second floor of the wooden house, numerous eerie figures roamed.

Clearly, Zhang Hao's previous visit had freed some Fierce Ghosts on the second floor, yet they did not descend.

However, the moment Zhang Hao appeared on the second floor, those Fierce Ghosts all fell still.

Zhang Hao glanced at the Fierce Ghosts, devoured them, and then walked toward the room that seemed to plunge him into a past world.

Opening the room, a dim, projector‑like glow fell on Zhang Hao, yet the light could not cast his reflection at all.

Just as when Zhang Hao entered the second floor of Baishui Town, the spiritual forces here could no longer pull him into another alternate world.

"Come out!"

Zhang Hao raised his hand, gesturing toward the illuminated direction while calling out.

Zhang Hao's voice seemed to carry a terrifying spiritual presence that roamed the room, disrupting the various Spirit Phenomena inside.

As the voice spread, the lights in the room faded away.

Soon, a camera placed nearby materialized.

Besides the camera, there were many skeletal frames nearby.

It seems these skeletal frames were people who mistakenly entered the room, killed there, their spiritual essence commandeered by the camera.

Ignoring the skeletons, Zhang Hao went to the camera and snatched it up.

This horror device that can replicate Zhang Dong, when Zhang Hao seized it, effortlessly yielded information about the camera as if it were a Supernatural Artifact.

It is a special camera that, based on the subject photographed, can generate a world belonging to a specific past time segment of that person.

"Camera, projector, Black and White Photo, looks like the puzzle has completed another piece."

Zhang Hao lifted the camera, applied slight pressure, and crushed it in his hand.

In the next instant, a meat ball appeared in Zhang Hao's hand, which he ate.

After swallowing the camera, the spiritual aura on Zhang Hao changed again.

Moreover, because Zhang Hao can invade others' memories, this transformation became even more terrifying.

The camera itself can only use a single person as a medium to project that person's past time segment world.

Zhang Hao possesses the ability to invade others' memories, but this invasion cannot fully unfold the past world; he can only access everything known within that past world.

For example, when Zhang Hao invaded a woman from Taiping Ancient Town, in her past world he could only see the Ghost Tamer and Fierce Ghosts she knew.

Now it's different; once Zhang Hao invades your past memory, a full real world will unfold, whether you are aware of it or not.

"Now I've consumed the projector's spirit; if this place is a derivative of the upper world, does it share the same?"

Zhang Hao let He Yuelian and Gui Xinniang find some ghosts to play with on the second floor, while he began researching how to connect to the spiritual projector.

Closing his eyes, the Precognition spirit activated, the Human Skin spirit activated, the Fierce Ghost projector spirit activated countless Precognition spirits, spawning possibilities from Zhang Hao.

"Connected to a lower world, switch to another!"

"This belongs to a past world I've invaded for someone, switch it."

No matter the world, Zhang Hao only needs a glance to assess its condition.

Because any lower world belonging to this world makes the Human Skin spirit effective here, granting Zhang Hao near‑omniscient ability.

Through repeated attempts, Zhang Hao nearly invaded every past world stored in the memories of all living people in this world, causing countless past worlds centered on him to emerge.

These worlds all have Zhang Hao at their core, yet they differ.

Because after invading the past, Zhang Hao does not deliberately intervene, allowing them to develop on their own.

Yet these worlds have already been invaded by Zhang Hao; even if he lets them evolve freely, their futures will inevitably diverge.

After all, each world's Baishui Town linked by Zhang Hao will undergo different changes.

After countless unknown attempts, finally in a test connection, Zhang Hao entered an unfamiliar world.

The strangeness here means that Zhang Hao cannot perceive all the information of that world at the moment he enters it; the all‑knowing paranormal of the Human Skin paper fails in that world.

This takes place in a special room, and Zhang Hao's perspective seems to correspond to the camera's previous position aimed at the door, but he cannot control the camera's movement.

At this moment Zhang Hao is like an observer, able to clearly sense everything outside, yet unable to truly affect it.

Through the door, one can faintly see that everything outside is shrouded in darkness.

The space beyond the room is not a corridor but a more special Spiritual Realm.

"Is this corresponding to the situation of the upper‑world camera in the world I am in? Judging from this scene, the situation here seems far more oppressive and special than my original world." "And it can be confirmed that this is not that wooden house; it resembles a wooden house that has been taken away by some entity."

"Indeed, the outcome of this world is completely different from my original world; I just don't know whether this is the world where Yang Jian resides."

Zhang Hao's current situation is very similar to when he was first pulled into another world.

The only difference is that back then Zhang Hao's body was in the Reality World while his consciousness was in a past world.

In this condition, Zhang Hao can connect to his body, thereby observing the room's changes to some extent.

His own self is entangled by the consciousness of countless people from past worlds, preventing a return to his body.

Now Zhang Hao's body is in the Reality World, while his consciousness is linked to the upper world.

Although his consciousness has already observed and even entered this world, his body has no connection to it and cannot physically enter.

"It seems that the living people of the original world may not have much to do with my departure from that world."

"Not so; perhaps there is a relation, but I simply have no connection in this world."

"I need more people in this world to know of my existence; perhaps then I can, by invading memories, gradually infiltrate this world."

Although the Human Skin paper knows nothing about this world's information, it possesses precognition and deduction abilities.

Zhang Hao can still use the original world as a blueprint to construct a precognitive world.

In the precognitive world, Zhang Hao continuously deduces how a person in the lower world could invade his own Reality World without any medium.

And in fact, once the camera spawns all the paranormal in a derived world, it can connect with the camera.

There are three methods to enter the Reality World.

The first is to reverse‑invade the camera of another world.

As the ultimate paranormal born from the camera world, you, to some extent, represent the camera's entire paranormal power.

Although the camera's own world strength may not reach the overwhelming level you have in the paranormal world, it is still considered an unsolvable Fierce Ghost.

Once you successfully seize control of the upper‑world camera, you can, with a contrast, bring in paranormal weakened by sixty percent into the upper world.

The second is to invade the upper world.

Through memory, influence, photos and other media, use the camera to help spread these paranormal methods.

In this case, you might be able to control certain upper‑world humans and make them act for you.

Thus you can gradually connect with the upper world, then continuously ride Fierce Ghosts to augment your own Terror Level.

Your paranormal will not vanish when leaving this world, but each time you employ a paranormal, you must supplement a Fierce Ghost as its container.

Compared with the first method, the second is more troublesome.

However, as paranormal derived from the camera, attempting to reverse‑ride the camera is even harder than invading the upper world.

In fact, for the upper‑world camera, the entire derived world is essentially its Ghost Slave.

Only, the camera's control over stronger Ghost Slaves is poorer.

For example, Baishui Town Zhang Dong, the projector can no longer control him, only influence his teammates' judgment.

And Zhang Hao, the projector is even less able to control his autonomous actions; it cannot even affect his emotions or implant malice toward certain people.

Besides these, there is a third method: taking the Yin Yang Lu.

After countless precognitive deductions, Zhang Hao discovered a special situation.

The Yin Yang Lu seems even more special than he imagined.

This path leads to all Spiritual Realms.

The concept of a Spiritual Realm is a special place deep within the Ghost Domain, where countless Fierce Ghosts reside.

In fact, Zhang Hao's spirit hall and the Ghost Bride's Republic Era manor also belong to Spiritual Realms, and the Painting World can likewise be connected via the Yin Yang Lu.

As long as Zhang Hao can open the door of the Yin Yang Lu, he can connect to more Spiritual Realms.

And these Spiritual Realms surprisingly include the upper‑world Spiritual Realm.

Regardless of how many worlds there are, the door of the Yin Yang Lu is unique; however, when a world's paranormal power is too weak, even the Yin Yang Lu cannot fully derive there.

In such a case, the derived lower worlds naturally cannot see the White Bone Gate at the end of the Yin Yang Lu.

And Zhang Hao only needs to open the White Bone Gate and continuously ride those Fierce Ghosts from the upper world.

When the ridden Fierce Ghosts can sufficiently bear his own paranormal, he gains the ability to enter the Reality World in true form, and the paranormal will not disappear.

In essence, the second and third paths are the same, merely realized in different ways.

The first path is to become a camera; the second is to detach from the camera.

In this situation, Zhang Hao naturally and decisively chose the second path.

"First, let's try to see if we can invade the Reality World."

Zhang Hao discovered that he can, to some extent, reverse‑influence the camera.

Because in the camera's perception, Zhang Hao is its own creation, the pinnacle intelligence of a paranormal product after it has spawned a complete world.

The camera's instinct makes it trust Zhang Hao's actions and judgments, aligning with his ideas.

Zhang Hao cannot affect reality, but the camera can, because it itself is a product of the upper world, a genuine existence of the upper world.

With the projector's cooperation, red paper and black‑and‑white photos quickly appeared in the room.

Accompanied by a gust in the room, the red paper and photos were blown out, drifting toward an unknown outside.

Perhaps someone will pick up the red paper or photos, become controlled by paranormal, or simply remember Zhang Hao's image in their mind.

However, as the photos drifted out, the outside seemed to change rapidly.

At an unknown time, a vague black silhouette appeared outside the room.

The black silhouette's face was indistinct, yet one could see that it had a pair of Hong Bai Shuang Sha eyes, and it held a long object in its hand, seemingly an ancient long sword?

The figure stood at the doorway, not actually stepping forward, but staring into the room.

Terrifying! The Fierce Ghost's instinct made Zhang Hao want to retreat, but his wisdom and his instinct to enter the real world forced Zhang Hao to suppress his urge to flee and continue observing the scene.

He couldn't tell if it was an illusion, but Zhang Hao constantly felt as if the other was staring directly at him.

This kind of gaze was not merely looking at the camera.

Rather, through the camera, it saw its own consciousness situated on the camera.

(End of chapter)