Chapter 82: Coffin Collides with the Flower Sedan, the Faded Great East City

Indeed.

When Hong Bai Shuang Sha completely walks out of the Ghost Fire's range.

Beside Hong Bai Shuang Sha, a red‑clothed bride slowly appears.

"Trouble!"

Chen Qiaoyang stared at Zhang Hao and the ghost bride, silently lamenting inside.

Fortunately, after Zhang Hao and the ghost bride emerged, they did not attack Chen Qiaoyang but instead assaulted Li Jun.

The ghost bride wandered and roamed, and clear footsteps rang out one after another, those footsteps ill‑matched to its height and weight.

Although it was clearly wearing red embroidered shoes, the footsteps that came out sounded like a pair of leather shoes stepping on old wooden planks.

This kind of footstep carries a terrifying supernatural aura; once it gets close to a person it will kill them. It is a Certain Death Killing Rule, hard to resist.

At the same time, inside the building, a terrifying, eerie crying sounded.

Li Jun originally had Ghost Fire burning in his hand, but at this moment it suddenly and oddly extinguished, and then he half‑knelt down.

Being half‑knelt invokes Certain Death, and an unsolvable supernatural attack hit him.

Fortunately, the current Li Jun is already a ghost, and will not die easily.

However, even so, as Li Jun half‑knelt, a line of blood tears began to flow from his eye sockets hidden beneath his sunglasses, which blaze with a strange flame.

The blood tears marred Li Jun's face, making his expression extremely twisted.

The effect of the ghost makeup is weakening; if this continues, Li Jun's facial makeup will dissipate.

However, the matter did not end there.

Above the Ceiling, several White Curtains continuously assaulted Li Jun.

"Something's off, why isn't this thing attacking me?"

Chen Qiaoyang's expression grew serious; logically, he and Li Jun were both here, so they should have been attacked together.

But whether it was the ghost bride or the Mourning Ghost, the attacks were all on Li Jun.

"Could it be that this thing wants to kill Li Jun first to get out of the bind?"

Chen Qiaoyang thought briefly, then immediately made a decision: he would help Li Jun.

Around Chen Qiaoyang, four eerie figures materialized, resembling Fierce Ghosts, but looking more like four corpses.

Those four corpses were strange: some bodies were desiccated and blackened, skin tightly clinging to the bones; others were swollen and pallid, as if soaked in water.

Some bodies were mutilated, bearing many slash marks from sharp weapons; the last corpse was relatively intact but wore Republic Era clothing, starkly out of place with the modern setting.

These four corpses should be four completely different Fierce Ghosts.

Strangely, those four Fierce Ghosts held hands and stood there, encircling Chen Qiaoyang and Li Jun, and also acting like four walls that blocked the influence of the Ghost Realm.

The defense line formed by those four ghosts firmly blocked the assault of the ghost bride and Zhang Hao, providing Chen Qiaoyang and Li Jun with an unaffected safe zone.

The ghost bride wearing embroidered shoes still wandered and roamed, but never approached Li Jun again, because of the barrier formed by those four ghosts.

Li Jun and Chen Qiaoyang are no longer part of the Ghost Painting World; he relied on supernatural power to guarantee that he and Li Jun would not be attacked by the Fierce Ghosts.

At the same time, Li Jun, whose half face had already become twisted, also stood up.

Because his makeup had been marred by blood tears, his face showed no expression, but from his stance beside Chen Qiaoyang, staring at Zhang Hao, it seemed both sides had temporarily formed a united front.

"I don't want to help you, but I really can't let you just die like that."

Chen Qiaoyang sighed, and took out an ancient bell from his hand.

Inside the building, the sounds of old pendulum clocks suddenly rang out.

These are the bell sounds from the already‑vanished Ghost's Zhang Dong's Ghost Residence's Interior, now ringing again.

He wants to Restart the time inside this ghost residence, to send away this grim painting and the Coffin.

When the bell sounded.

The building that had invaded reality twisted, fading like an illusion, while the surrounding darkness rapidly receded, and the colorless structures regained color at that moment.

Even Zhang Hao and the ghost bride's figures slowly faded at this time.

Time Restart occurred, and Chen Qiaoyang wanted to revert everything to the moment when Li Jun released the Ghost Fire.

But was it really that easy to solve? The Restarted time lasted only two or three seconds; the previously dissipated darkness returned, the sky again fell with ash, and the entire ghost residence lost its color once more.

The Restart failed; the total supernatural energy on Zhang Hao and the ghost bride was no longer something the Wang Family's ancient bell could easily affect.

The Restart's effect on them was diminished, most evident in that Zhang Hao and the ghost bride only experienced three seconds of Restart.

Nevertheless, even so, Chen Qiaoyang and Li Jun successfully escaped this building.

The ancient bell's Restart was ineffective for Zhang Hao and the ghost bride, but not for Li Jun and Chen Qiaoyang; their time reverted to half an hour earlier.

With the times offset, Zhang Hao and the ghost bride could not locate Chen Qiaoyang.

At the same time, Yang Jian, outside the ghost residence, also heard a bell sound.

This bell sound was a bit far apart from the previous one; thus it can be seen that this is not a time‑adjusting bell, but rather someone was forced to perform a Restart.

Yang Jian, wielding a cracked Long Spear, stood on the rooftop of the building.

The high building's fierce wind blew; his whole body was icy, without a trace of living warmth, yet he remained motionless like a statue, his Ghost Eye watching the interior and exterior of the ghost residence, awaiting the enemy's appearance.

Wang Chaling also heard the commotion; because Li Jun ignited the ghost residence, he did not go inside.

After all, he himself was just an ordinary person, unable to block the Ghost Fire's blaze, so he stayed outside waiting for the outcome.

At this moment, beside Wang Chaling stood four terrifying human silhouettes; they faced the direction of the ghost residence's main gate, ready to attack anyone who emerged at Wang Chaling's command.

Soon, inside the ghost residence's main gate, two figures stepped out.

It was Li Jun, and Chen Qiaoyang.

"Why did you Restart! Why did you bring me out!"

At this moment Li Jun only had half a face left, yet as soon as he appeared, he let out a hoarse questioning cry toward Chen Qiaoyang.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

A red light flashed, and Yang Jian came to Li Jun's side, stared at Chen Qiaoyang a few times, and asked Li Jun.

Looking at Li Jun's eyes burning with Ghost Fire, Yang Jian felt an inexplicable unease.

"Li Jun? Yang Jian, how is the situation?"

Wang Chaling jogged over, staring intently at Chen Qiaoyang.

This person is trapped in the Wang Family Ancient Residence; without even thinking, Wang Chaling could guess that this person bears a grudge against his parents.

"Red and White Double Evil escaped!" Li Jun said in an almost desperate tone.

As a participant in the original Ghost Painting plan, among everyone present, no one understood how terrifying the Red and White Double Evil was more than he did.

"What!" Yang Jian was startled, and an ugly expression appeared on his cold face.

"Are you telling the truth?"

Li Jun nodded: "Yes, that ghost escaped."

Seeing Yang Jian and Wang Chaling, Li Jun's previously sinking heart recovered a bit.

"But now the three captains are here, we can try to re‑imprison that ghost."

"Easy to say, those are three S-level Paranormal Events; if I'm not mistaken, the escape wasn't just the Red and White Double Evil, right?" Yang Jian said coldly.

"If I'm not mistaken, the Ghost Painting and the Ghostly Servant should also have escaped."

Wang Chaling's pupils contracted upon hearing that, and he looked at Li Jun as if questioning.

"Is what Yang Jian said true?"

This is Da Dong City, the city Wang Chaling is responsible for, and the location of the Wang Family Ancient Residence.

If the Red and White Double Evil truly escaped here and also took the Ghostly Servant and Ghost Painting, the Wang Family Ancient Residence would almost become a forbidden place.

"At least three captains are here now, and with my suppressing Ghost Domain of the Ghost Painting, perhaps we can re‑imprison the Ghost Painting."

Li Jun remained silent, and after a while spoke slowly: "No matter what, the Wang Family Ancient Residence cannot hold the Red and White Double Evil for long."

Chen Qiaoyang looked at the others, a hint of contemplation flashing in his eyes.

"What are you planning to do about that terrifying painting and the Fierce Coffin?"

Chen Qiaoyang couldn't quite understand why these guys were willing to risk their lives against that terrifying thing.

"At the very least, we must not let the people of Da Dong City be threatened," Li Jun said gravely, nodding.

"Chen Qiaoyang, regardless of any grudge you have with Wang Chaling, in the face of a Supernatural Incident of this level, I hope you won't cause trouble and add complications for us."

Although Li Jun wanted to capture Chen Qiaoyang, he also knew what was more important. "Hahaha, I, the Shepherd of Ghosts Chen Qiaoyang, am not the type to be indifferent to right and wrong?" Hearing Li Jun's words, Chen Qiaoyang laughed loudly.

"Although I do indeed want to eliminate the third generation of the Wang family, I'm not at the point of acting now."

"Li Jun, I respect you as a hero; let me remind you of something."

With that, Chen Qiaoyang looked at Wang Chaling—more precisely, at the pair of aged, lifeless figures behind Wang Chaling.

Wang Chaling noticed Chen Qiaoyang's gaze, heard his words about wanting to kill him, and at the instant the other turned to look, the four figures behind him also looked over.

"So you intend to settle the grudge with me now?" Wang Chaling said gravely.

Perceiving Wang Chaling's change, Chen Qiaoyang dared not be careless, even though the other currently had no intention of striking him.

Facing the first generation of the Wang family, this Shepherd of Ghosts would, if careless, truly end up dead here.

Four terrifying corpses also materialized around Chen Qiaoyang; these four horribly disfigured, distinct bodies held hands, trapping him in the middle.

"Four ghosts?" Wang Chaling's hair stood on end, and his heart sank instantly.

But this sudden change immediately caught Chen Qiaoyang's eye.

"The third generation of the Wang family seems useless; he doesn't know the terror of the first generation's Fierce Ghost; he's futile."

"As for you, third generation of the Wang family, I don't want to kill you; at least until the fourth generation is born, I don't want to kill you. The grudge of your family has already been settled with the death of Wang Lu and his wife."

Having said that, Chen Qiaoyang looked at Wang Chaling: "If I kill you here, the Wang family will be cut off; then your whole clan will turn into uncontrolled Fierce Ghosts, which would be a very troublesome matter."

Chen Qiaoyang put on a show of confidence, but inwardly he held extreme contempt for Wang Chaling as he looked at Li Jun.

"I remind you, if you want to deal with that terrifying painting and the Fierce Coffin, the first generation of the Wang family might be your key."

"So, that's enough; I have other matters to attend to, no time to play fight with you youngsters."

Chen Qiaoyang let out a cold snort, like a pretentious senior, leaving no room for doubt.

Thus he crossed his arms, strolling leisurely toward the exterior of the ancient residence.

Wang Chaling's gaze flickered; hesitating, he wanted to eliminate the guy here, yet feared his control over Ghost Power, not to mention the even more dangerous Red and White Double Evil now.

Soon, Wang Chaling internally judged the current situation.

A direct clash now is unprofitable; both control four ghosts, I'm not a Ghost Tamer, Chen Qiaoyang is a Ghost Tamer, so I'm easily at a disadvantage.

As for Chen Qiaoyang saying he doesn't want to act now, Wang Chaling doesn't believe it; in his view, it's because Li Jun and Yang Jian are by his side.

"Alright, let's discuss the Red and White Double Evil first," Yang Jian said, staring at Wang Chaling.

"Those two old ghosts beside you may have methods even you don't know; I hope you won't chicken out at the crucial moment."

"This is Da Dong City; if later even you refuse to give your all, at most I'll return to Dachang City."

Hearing Yang Jian's warning, Wang Chaling nodded; though he didn't know what Chen Qiaoyang meant, at this moment the Red and White Double Evil's escape was evidently no benefit to Chen Qiaoyang.

While the three were discussing, the sky suddenly changed.

The once clear Da Dong City turned gloomy at that moment.

At an unknown time, a gray, rain‑like cloud appeared in the sky—no, it should be paper ash.

The falling ash, like burnt paper, continuously drifted down from mid‑air, resembling a rain of clouds.

The Wang Family Ancient Residence lost its color at that moment, as the invisible terror that bleaches everything spread rapidly.

The once vibrant city turned lifeless; both buildings and plants were losing color.

Some thought night had fallen and turned on the city's neon lights, the multicolored illumination shining continuously.

But before this ever‑spreading terror, even the bright, colorful lights lost their hue.

Combined with the continuously falling gray ash from the sky, the whole city looks like a black‑and‑white television, broadcasting a scene from the eve of the end of the world.

Just after stepping out a short distance, even before leaving this street, Chen Qiaoyang's complexion changed.

The scene was so terrifying that it reminded him of some extremely bad memories.

In a daze, he seemed to see a white silhouette appear on the street ahead, though he didn't know when.

The person faced away, only the back visible, but from the Funeral Clothes draped on them, Chen Qiaoyang immediately made a judgment.

Isn't that the thing that was standing on the Ghost Coffin before?

"Damn, they latched onto me so quickly?"

Chen Qiaoyang's face changed; he had just triggered that ghost's Killing Rule, and after seeing the back, the color on his body began to fade.

At the same time, a Footsteps sound rang nearby, drawing closer.

Chen Qiaoyang recognized that the Footsteps came from the embroidered shoes of the Ghost Bride.

Four terrifying Fierce Ghosts instantly materialized beside Chen Qiaoyang, hand in hand forming a circle, trying to fend off this incomprehensible horror attack.

However, even those four ghosts could only ensure that Chen Qiaoyang would not be attacked by the Ghost Bride in the face of this unfathomable fading.

The terrifying, color‑draining supernatural phenomenon continued.

Seeing this, Chen Qiaoyang gritted his teeth and, astonishingly, reached out and tore open the flesh on his own chest.

As the flesh on Chen Qiaoyang's chest was ripped open, a foul‑smelling, slightly black blood gushed out, soaking his body and turning him into a Blood Figure.

"Hu hu hu!"

The massive outflow of blood seemed to affect Chen Qiaoyang greatly; his skin cracked and kept oozing blood outward.

Fortunately, it was worth it; after the blood soaked his body, it successfully blocked the true loss of color from him.

Although he now looks entirely blood‑colored, Chen Qiaoyang thinks it's still better than turning black‑and‑white.

Do ghosts know whether a completely colorless body will trigger an even more terrifying attack?

"The world has changed; just now, I met a captain called Headquarters, and he's that fierce."

"Fortunately, my reputation as a Shepherd of Ghosts isn't just empty talk."

Chen Qiaoyang whispered, and suddenly a paper‑crafted Flower Sedan appeared in the distance, being carried by four multicolored Paper Persons, materializing out of thin air and barreling straight at him.

"Here it comes! Bride, act!"

Seeing the Paper Flower Sedan, Zhang Hao, who had been turned away from Chen Qiaoyang, instantly turned around.

At that moment, Chen Qiaoyang felt an invisible Ghost Hand appear in his mind, as a woman was about to emerge from his memory.

"This is the Killing Rule of that fierce painting!"

Chen Qiaoyang, seated inside the Paper Flower Sedan, showed a slight change in complexion and hurriedly suppressed the thought that kept surfacing from his memory.

He commanded those four ghosts to attack Zhang Hao and the Ghost Bride respectively.

Simultaneously, the Paper Flower Sedan flew toward the outside of Da Dong City at a bizarre speed.

"Can you escape?"

Zhang Hao ignored the Fierce Ghost attacking him; passing through the Ghost Domain, he appeared directly beside the Bride.

As he waved his left hand, the Summon Ghost Technique activated, and the four Fierce Ghosts attacking Zhang Hao and the Ghost Bride instantly lost their movement.

The Shepherd of Ghosts, Chen Qiaoyang, could control Fierce Ghosts, and the Ghost Bride could also summon ghosts.

Under the influence of the Summon Ghost Technique, Chen Qiaoyang lost control over those ghosts.

And at the same time.

Just as Chen Qiaoyang had just taken the Paper Flower Sedan to the edge of the ghost painting's Ghost Domain, about to exit this terrifying Ghost Domain.

Darkness descended.

A deep, lightless expanse, like a Black Coffin, the Ghost Domain shrouded the area.

In the darkness, four eerie figures dressed in white Funeral Clothes lifted a Coffin and collided with the Paper Flower Sedan.

"Damn, why is it this Fierce Coffin!"

The Paper Flower Sedan was struck by the Ghost Coffin, fell straight to the ground, and became motionless.

Even as blood continuously dripped from Chen Qiaoyang onto the Paper Flower Sedan, it could not be made to move again.

However, after the Ghost Coffin halted the Paper Flower Sedan, the four Coffin Bearers did not stop moving.

They lifted the Ghost Coffin and crashed into the Paper Flower Sedan again.

If one were truly hit by this coffin,

Chen Qiaoyang sensed he would certainly die inside it.

(End of chapter)