Yang Jian was brainstorming about possible countermeasures like a madman.
Because he knew very well that the door knocking that came from the previous call would definitely lead the old man to them.
And once the old man shows up, the end result is obvious.
The forum, the story, the audio files...the old man who knocks on doors, and the phone call.
All the conditions were colliding in Yang Jian's mind, quickly becoming a mess. He figured out one of its rules, but he wasn’t able to discern any more information.
Because this is the first time he’s encountered a ghost, he hasn't ever been in contact with paranormal forces before. It was already plenty impressive for him to have got to this point. He wasn’t Fang Jing, who claimed to know everything that will happen in the future.
"Wait, Fang Jing… the future." Yang Jian's expression suddenly changed: "That parchment."
Hurriedly, he took out the folded dark brown parchment from his pocket.
"Yang, Yang Jian, l-look over there..." Suddenly, Zhang Wei tremblingly pointed to the direction of the school.
Yang Jian raised his head and glanced at that direction, his hands went cold.
A few hundred meters out, a thick and ink-like darkness gradually eroded the surroundings, engulfing everything in it, the ground began to decay, trees began to wither and rot... The cement became mottled. The street lights rusted, on the verge of collapsing.
An old man wearing a black gown, his skin covered with blood pools, his face deathly gray, he gazed numbly and walked towards them with stiff steps.
Steadily, a step at a time.
"Damn it, it’s already here?" Yang Jian's heart thumped around wildly.
"Yang Jian, n-now, what? What should we do now? Are we going to die?"
Zhang Wei’s tears were almost streaming out; "I don’t want to die, I’m still so young, I’m still a virgin, Yang Jian, you’ve got to think of a way, Fang Jing said you would become awesome in the future, you must have a way out right?"
"We can't get out, can we?"
Wang Shanshan who was beside him clutched his arm till her fingers went white, and said with a look of fear.
Zhao Lei’s whole body trembled when he saw the approaching darkness, and kept moving back, trying to escape from school, but when he turned around, he found that there was also a thick darkness approaching from behind.
They were surrounded by the darkness, there was no escape.
Yang Jian ignored them for the moment, and opened the parchment in his sweaty hands, trying to find some key information on it.
On the parchment paper, a line of clear and large characters appeared before his eyes: On June 22, at five in the morning, the ghost’s domain appeared in before us again, yes, that ghost was here again...
On June 22, At 5:30 a.m., we all died, none of us survived.
...I’m Yang Jian, and when you’re reading this, I am already dead.
"You went and sealed our deaths just like that? Fuck off, there must be a way to get out of here. The old man didn't follow in when I was dragged into the toilet before. I want to know the reason. If you don't tell me right now, I will find a place and bury you there, don’t even think about seeing the sky in your lifetime."
Yang Jian gritted his teeth, appearing to be somewhat threatening .
The parchment seemed to have heard what he said, the writing on it began to blur, until all the writing disappeared without a trace, then another line of words appeared:
" On June 21, at nine o'clock in the evening, I was dragged into a toilet by a ghost. I didn’t die. Because there was an even more fearsome ghost in the toilet. That place was another ghost’s domain. I saw some terrifying things there. I just didn't realize at the time.”
"On June 21, at half past nine in the evening. I lost my way in the toilet, and the old man had come to the toilet door. He was knocking on the door, looking for me, but I didn't hear it. Maybe this was the reason I had escaped death."
When Yang Jian saw these words, his chest tightened.
The old man knocked on the door of the toilet when he was lost in there?
Soon, more handwriting appeared on the parchment.
"...After that incident, I guessed that another ghost’s domain was the key to survival. If I could manifest my ghost’s domain, I might have a chance to survive. After all, I am also... a ghost, Zhou Zheng was right. Only ghosts can deal with ghosts, and only one can get out of a ghost’s domain through another ghost’s domain. "
"On June 22, at a quarter past five in the morning, the old man appeared. I tried to manifest my ghost’s domain, but I failed. My strength wasn’t enough."
"On June 22, at 5:30 in the morning, we all died..."
When Yang Jian saw these words, his pupils shrank.
Although he still died at half past five in the end, he saw some hope for him to survive.
Another ghost’s domain~!
Yes, the ghost domain was manifested where the old man had appeared, now that I’m also a ghost user.
Why can't I manifest my ghost’s domain?
If Zhou Zheng was here and knew about Yang Jian’s thoughts he would have laughed at how ridiculous they were, because not every ghost could manifest its domain. It’s very rare for ghosts to manifest a domain... but correspondingly, they are very terrifying.
"I have to give it a try, there is no other way." Yang Jian squeezed the parchment in his hands; "Tell me how to manifest my ghost’s domain."
MOre writing continued to appear on the parchment soon.
"Yang Jian, who are you talking to? Look, everything is becoming abnormal. What should we do now?"
Zhang Wei was so scared he had begun to cry, he only counted on Yang Jian for help, and feared hearing bad news from him
"Shut up for now, I'm thinking of a way, give me some time." Yang Jian's tone was very anxious, but he still glanced up.
The old man is still coming here, he’s less than a hundred meters away now.
They are anxious, they are afraid, but he was equally anxious and afraid.
After all, no one wants to die.
The writing continued ] on the parchment: On June 20th, at 5:20 , after the first failure, I think I failed because the ghost in my body had not been awakened enough. If I could open more eyes it might work.
The amount of eyes?
Yang Jian didn't have much time to think about it. There was only ten more minutes before half past five. He didn't want to become what had been written on this parchment, to really die here.
Immediately, the skin and flesh on his arm stretched apart, and his five blood-red eyes all opened in unison.
There was a faint red light glowing from each eye.
"At five twenty two, I decided to increase the number of eyes." Writing on the parchment appeared.
"Tell me how, I need a method."
Yang Jian snarled at the parchment: "If I die, you will be left behind. You didn't want to be thrown away before, if I'm dead, do you think you’ll be picked up by others?"
The handwriting on the parchment blurred again, until finally another line came out: At 5:24, after some tests, I ate one of the eyes on my arm and successfully increased an eye. With six eyes, I successfully manifested my own ghost’s domain...I am more and more like a ghost.
At half past five, I did not open up the ghost’s domain, we all died...
I need to eat my eyes?
Yang Jian looked at the five strangely blood-red eyes on his arm, and he was shocked.
But when I saw that last sentence, “we all died.”
He knew that he had no choice.
At this moment, the darkness had fully enveloped them, and the surroundings quickly dimmed. The old man was less than 20 meters away from them.
"Creak..."
The instant darkness took over, the door of the security room not far away slowly opened, and a pale palm stretched out.
Beyond the guardrail behind them, a vague figure on the road covered in darkness slowly approached.
Nearby, a few phone screens shined faintly through the darkness, as if the classmates who had been separated before were approaching them with their mobile phones in hand, a step at a time.
Yang Jian, Zhang Wei, Zhao Lei, Wang Shanshan, Miao Xiaoshan, Qian Wanhao...All of them had been surrounded by ghosts.