Mysterious Revival

Yang Jian watched as Xiao Yuan drew closer, and he glanced at the corpse covered by clothes sitting next to him, immediately issuing a warning.

"Stop, don't come near me, my current state is very delicate, whether it's someone I trust or not, everyone should keep a certain distance from me, otherwise my overly vigilant self might do something unexpected."

Saying this.

His gaze was fixed on Xiao Yuan.

This was not a threat, but a reminder.

Once the corpse awakened, and the ghosts from the nightmares invaded reality, it would cause terrifying changes.

At this point, Xiao Yuan stopped. She asked curiously, "Cousin, what's wrong with your eyes? Did you stay up late last night? They are all red."

Yang Jian's eyes were not just red, but the area below the eyeballs looked inflamed, blood red, even glowing red, which wasn't evident during the day, but at night it was very noticeable.

"It's the erosion of Ghost Eye... it's a minor issue for me, don't worry about it, you should obediently go back now."

He knew he was deeply eroded by Ghost Eye. As long as he didn't suppress it, some traits eroded by the Evil Ghost would show, and at the same time, the paranormal power would uncontrollably leak out. His view was slightly tinged with red light right then, as if his eyes were about to be replaced by Ghost Eye.

But once the quota of Ghost Hand was retracted, this phenomenon would disappear, because suppression had formed.

"Oh, I see. I don't really understand, but I don't want to go back right now, I want to find someone." Xiao Yuan was still very stubborn and couldn't be persuaded.

Standing in the raincoat amidst the torrential rain, her thin figure looked lonely and a bit eerie.

After all, which normal person would wander about dressed like that in the middle of the night?

"But you don't even know who you're looking for," said Yang Jian.

Xiao Yuan was slow to respond, her gaze somewhat vacant as if pondering or spacing out. After a while, she suddenly pointed at Yang Jian's side and said, "The person I'm looking for is that one."

"Me?" Yang Jian was taken aback for a moment.

"Not cousin! The person behind cousin." Xiao Yuan said.

Yang Jian's gaze shifted: "You want this corpse? It's already dead, and as long as I'm here, I can ensure it won't wake up. You don't have to worry."

It seems my cousin is still not at ease about this ghost?

After all, they had clashed more than once in nightmares, mortal enemies. Even if it awakened, she would want to strike at this ghost's body.

Yet Xiao Yuan puffed up her face and said, "No, cousin, you're such a blockhead, not the person in the car, but the one hiding behind the car, it's watching you right now. Didn't you notice? I saw it from a distance, it seems to want to kill cousin, but cousin won't let me help and is blocking me."

What?

Hearing this, Yang Jian was shocked.

Someone else was by his side?

The next moment.

Yang Jian, who was sitting in the car, immediately jumped out, one hand still grasping the wrist of the corpse, maintaining suppression, and then immediately looked over to the left side of the vehicle.

There was no one.

Only the torrential rain fell from the sky, drenching Yang Jian completely.

"No one?" Yang Jian's gaze swept quickly but found nothing. However, to be prudent, a crimson eye forced open the flesh like the gaze of an Evil Ghost peering around.

Besides being able to ignore the darkness and release the power of Ghost Domain, Ghost Eye actually has another ability.

It can see ghosts.

Some ghosts have no physical form, hiding from view, invisible to ordinary people, but Ghost Eye can see them.

Within the vision of Ghost Eye.

Yang Jian suddenly spotted clues.

On one side of the vehicle, a silhouette remained, the outline of two hands, which did not match the water stains flowing down the nearby paintwork, as if something had placed its hands there.

These were traces left by a ghost.

As long as he closed his "ghost eye," such traces would be very difficult to find.

"My cousin wasn't wrong, there really is something approaching me... But how is this possible? I'm sure I've escaped the nightmare and have suppressed this body. From beginning to end, the body has never woken, could there be other ghosts in this village?"

"No, that possibility is very small."

Yang Jian didn't believe there were other ghosts in the village, he was certain there was only one ghost.

Unless there was another possibility, there truly was only one ghost, but its abilities were perhaps not limited to one.

"Where is that thing now?" Yang Jian turned around and asked his cousin standing in the rain.

Xiao Yuan looked around, seemingly distracted, and did not even answer Yang Jian's question.

This behavior might seem impolite to others, but to Yang Jian, it was clear that she was searching for something, focusing so intently that she ignored everything else.

"Is it nearby?"

Yang Jian's heart sank; he started surveying his surroundings, but he saw nothing, not even with the sight of his "ghost eye."

His ghost eye could see the traces left by the ghost, but it couldn't see the ghost's figure.

"It seems... to be behind you," suddenly, his cousin Xiao Yuan spoke up and pointed behind Yang Jian.

Hmm?

Yang Jian quickly turned around.

Catching something out of the corner of his eye, and not sure if it was an illusion, he saw someone standing behind him, no, more like a shadow, similar to his own, because it had a striking resemblance to his own outline.

But that shadowy figure had its own movements.

The outline of an arm, like a blurry reflection in the rain, unclear and intermittent, as if it didn't exist in reality.

Yet, Yang Jian felt a chilling touch spreading up his arm.

It was like a drop of ice-cold rain had suddenly fallen on him, causing his pores to contract instantly and involuntarily making him shudder.

Ghost~!

In that moment, Yang Jian fully believed Xiao Yuan's words and understood what she had been looking for.

A ghost indeed lurked by his side, when it had appeared and how long it had been hovering around him, he didn't know.

Almost instantly.

A dark shadow emerged on Yang Jian's body, dense and pitch-black, tall, but peculiarly lacking a head, with only half a neck.

The Ghost Shadow made a move to confront.

The dark shadow was a true Evil Ghost, it moved swiftly, trying to make contact with the other ghost. Just a touch and the Ghost Shadow would have a certain restraining power, which might resolve the situation.

However.

The chilling touch vanished quickly.

The rain continued to fall, passing through the dark Ghost Shadow, splattering onto the ground.

The vague figure in the rain swayed a few times and then disappeared. The drops of rain in mid-air scattered as if breaking apart, and the figure was dispersed, vanishing from sight.

The Ghost Shadow had lunged at nothing.

Yang Jian turned to look around, but he saw no similar shadow.

It was as if the glance from the corner of his eye had been merely an illusion, a consequence of being too tired, a trick of poor eyesight.

"What was that just now?" Yang Jian asked with a stern face.

Although he hadn't seen it clearly, he wasn't foolish enough to think it was just a hallucination. Without a doubt, what had appeared was a ghost.

A ghost that looked similar to himself.

His cousin, Xiao Yuan, pondered for a while before responding, "It's a delayed attack."

"What do you mean, a delayed attack? What does that mean?" Yang Jian asked.

Xiao Yuan seemed to become serious again, as if some memory had been awakened, "After the ghost in the nightmare attacks a person, that person won't die immediately in reality. They will commit suicide at some point later, but it's not themselves doing it, it's the ghost that has invaded their body."

"Once the ghost invades the body, it can control the person and then kill themselves."

"It's like some kind of murder pattern... or a kind of curse infection. So, the ghost attacking me is not from yesterday's nightmare, but from the nightmare the day before yesterday? The attack of the ghost is not over, it's just delayed," Yang Jian immediately grasped the meaning behind Xiao Yuan's words.

Xiao Yuan seemed to go back to normal, giggling, "It seems so."

Yang Jian felt a chill in his heart.

He understood why this was happening to him. It was because the night before last, after being attacked by a ghost, he had awakened from the nightmare with someone's help.

The attack of the ghost had been interrupted.

But the attack didn't stop there.

It kept looking for opportunities.

But the next night, he entered the nightmare again, encountered the next day's ghost, killed it, and forcibly escaped the nightmare, which resulted in the first day's ghost's attack being delayed.

Delayed for too long, the ghost from the first day started invading from the realm of nightmares into reality.

That's why that inexplicable, bizarre phenomenon had just occurred.

After deducing this, Yang Jian's expression darkened.

"Are you kidding me? This is possible? I am being hunted by the ghost from the first day's nightmare? Even though I have suppressed the ghost, this kind of irrational attack can still exist... No, now that I think about it, this phenomenon is not entirely inexplicable. It's like a kind of alternative reboot," he said.

"Each day's nightmare and its ghost exist independently, but they share the same origin."

Suddenly, Yang Jian remembered the words spoken to him by that person in the nightmare.

If the ghost returned to reality and reclaimed its body, this nightmare would become incredibly terrifying, and someone like him wouldn't survive the first day's nightmare.

At the time, he thought it was an exaggeration.

Now, upon reflection, it might not be an exaggeration.

If you don't kill the first day's ghost and the second day's nightmare begins, the second day's ghost appears, but the first day's ghost continues to chase you, and then the third day's ghost... It goes round and round continuously. The longer you exist in the nightmare, the more ghosts there will be, adding up infinitely.

In the end, you will be overwhelmed by the number of ghosts.

And even if you can kill the first day's ghost, the next day's nightmare will come again, creating a vicious cycle.

Whether you're an ordinary person or a ghost controller, entering this dream means death.

Beyond that, there is no other path to take.

Having thought it through, Yang Jian didn't know why, but he broke out in a cold sweat.

Because once the ghost fully revived, his conjecture would manifest into reality.

This is an existence more despair-inducing than any S-rank paranormal event.

So far, the nightmares Yang Jian knew of and experienced, this one was the most unresolved.

And you can't even find a method to counteract it.

Thankfully.

Fortunately, this ghost couldn't fully resurrect, having been shattered into pieces like a jigsaw puzzle after a decade-long struggle against his own father.

But, that was only for now.

How was this ghost dealt with in the past?

Yang Jian couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat just thinking about this evil ghost that someone had managed to get rid of over a decade ago.

"Cousin, what are you thinking about? That thing has appeared again," Xiao Yuan said at this moment and then pointed to the side.

The heavy rain poured down without any intention of stopping.

Next to Yang Jian, that scattered figure began to coalesce again amid the raindrops in mid-air, blurred and twisted, but still recognizably bearing a resemblance to Yang Jian.

Was the ghost planning to take his form to invade his own body?

"It hasn't fully invaded reality, lacking a physical form, or maybe it isn't complete enough to fully enter our world," Yang Jian stared intently at the figure in the rain.

There was no fear, no trepidation, just analysis.

The figure in the rain also stared at Yang Jian, its eyes under the dim light as ghastly as those of a corpse, causing one's hair to stand on end.

These deathly eyes were identical to those of the corpse inside the train carriage.

"Yet, such an incomplete invasion can still attack me. Ghosts are indeed terrifying," Yang Jian glanced behind him slightly.

He didn't want to let go of the corpse.

The suppression had to be maintained.

The Ghost Eye shouldn't move recklessly; there were signs of revival, and the Ghost Shadow couldn't touch something without a physical form.

Should he use the Firewood Knife?

If he used the Firewood Knife, he could completely eliminate the ghost from the first day's nightmare by following the source of the curse.

But that would come at a great cost.

It wasn't worth it.

With this thought in mind.

Yang Jian involuntarily took a few steps back.

He needed a strategy.

A way to kill the ghost from the first day's nightmare.

But as Yang Jian hesitated and retreated, the ghost wouldn't give him such an opportunity.

The indistinct figure in the rain, like pieces of a puzzle being put together, was advancing towards Yang Jian.

Although it was just a shadow, it moved like a normal living person—no slowness, no hesitation, and very fast.

"Do you need help, cousin?" his cousin Xiao Yuan tilted her head and asked.

"Don't come over, I can handle it myself. This isn't just fighting against ghosts in a dream," Yang Jian immediately said.

This ghost had been able to pursue him from the nightmare of the first day for a reason; as long as he found this reason, he could definitely fight back.

The Ghost Shadow's probing had already been very obvious.

Normal methods of retaliation were no match for the ghost, only slightly disrupting the timing of the ghost's attacks, but after a short while, the ghost would reappear.

It was clear the ghost was not entirely present in reality.

The blurry shadow was the best proof of that.