Chapter 24: Manifestation

A bizarre world.

Shen Lin jolted awake from his stupor. A sharp discomfort in his throat forced him into a fit of violent coughing. Once his body returned to a state of comfort, he surveyed his surroundings and knitted his brows.

He had arrived outside the villa, and now he found himself lying in the courtyard of a villa somewhere.

Shen Lin touched the soil beneath his feet with a delicate, probing motion. Everything seemed perfectly normal—even the crescent moon hanging in the night sky shone with a brilliant, unremarkable light.

"Two states completely contrary to the darkness within those mottled stone steps. What does this signify? Has everything returned to normal? Did I inadvertently interrupt or break the rules of that ghost? Has it all truly been restored?"

In his semi-conscious state, Shen Lin had perceived those events. He roughly understood what had transpired; the scorching heat belonging to the "Ghost Aspect" had nearly melted his left arm at the time.

He looked down at the pattern on his chest. The Ghost Aspect had returned to his torso, though the lines had turned blood-red, appearing profoundly ominous.

Shen Lin attempted to expand his Ghost Domain. The gray radiance blanketed the entire Longhu Villa complex, yet he discovered nothing amiss.

Shen Lin’s expression darkened further. The lack of anything wrong was, in itself, the greatest wrong.

It was deep into the night, yet he couldn't detect a single light glowing from any house in this residential area—this was inherently abnormal.

When he had fallen, he had been separated from Li Meng and the others; his Ghost Domain had likewise failed to detect any traces of them within the complex.

He attempted to shift his position again, only to find himself in the exact same spot. His Ghost Domain remained suppressed.

After pondering for a long while, Shen Lin stood up and set off in a chosen direction. He hoped to reach the main gate of the complex; perhaps there, he could learn something.

The threat level of that ghost was extraordinarily high. Had he not partially revived the Ghost Aspect and utilized a portion of the Ghost Mother’s power, he would have perished there completely.

The entity was like a holographic projection—you felt nothing as you passed through it, yet it could strike you with ease. This was not an equitable contest. You could not strike your opponent, yet it could claim your life with a whim.

Shen Lin walked slowly, intermittently expanding his Ghost Domain. Accelerating the revival of the Ghost Aspect was clearly not the primary concern at the moment. Now was not the time to consider conservation. He could not afford to gamble; he lacked the standing to wager against that ghost. If not for the fact that using a Ghost Candle would needlessly increase consumption, Shen Lin would have even relied on two of them to navigate.

While one should always prepare for the worst, one must hope for the best.

"The ghost must have been interrupted by the accident I caused. It shouldn't appear for a while," Shen Lin comforted himself.

After a long time, Shen Lin stared at his surroundings, his brow furrowed deep.

"Everything here feels familiar."

He seemed to have walked in a circle, returning to the very place he started. The Ghost Aspect pattern on his chest fluctuated, and Shen Lin felt a surging from his own flesh that left him deeply unsettled.

He began to walk again, keeping his Ghost Domain active. He attempted to shrink the scope of the domain; excluding the area immediately around him, he drew a straight line between his current position and the complex gate he was probing for, relying on his formidable physical capabilities to forge ahead.

The journey went smoothly. Everything around him appeared excessively real. As he moved, he destroyed flowers, trees, and even rockeries; they shattered just as they would in reality. This eerie world displayed the utmost realism in its own terrifying way.

This only made it more hair-raising.

Shen Lin walked quickly, only to discover that the line connected by his Ghost Domain was being stretched infinitely. Instead of getting closer to the complex gate, he was moving further away.

What kind of situation was this? Was the world fundamentally wrong, or had he made a mistake somewhere?

It was incomprehensible.

If one were to evaluate the truly troublesome abilities of a ghost, the Ghost Domain would absolutely rank among the top. It was an ability that caused countless Ghost Masters to suffer and filled many with dread.

Within a Ghost Domain, you are essentially on the entity’s turf. What you see, what you hear, and what you hold may not be real; even the entity you see might not be real. How could you possibly fight that?

Whether or not a ghost possesses a Ghost Domain is a critical metric for gauging its level. A ghost with a Ghost Domain is generally rated A-level or higher, a rank that alone causes most to shrink back in fear.

Yet now, Shen Lin’s Ghost Domain had hit a wall.

Despite feeling no pressure from a ghost, his domain seemed to be deceived by his opponent. To a certain extent, it was simply inconceivable.

Even someone as strong as the Ghost Mother could be struggled against within his Ghost Domain; even if he were eventually suppressed to the point of immobility, he would not have lost his way.

Now, after possessing a Ghost Domain famous for causing disorientation and visual chaos, Shen Lin himself had become lost.

Inconceivable. Unbelievable. Incomprehensible.

After several futile attempts, Shen Lin gave up and retracted his Ghost Domain. He sat slumped in place, contemplating a way to break the deadlock.

If nothing else, the opponent’s Ghost Domain was of a much higher level than his own.

Shen Lin gritted his teeth. To break a Ghost Domain, one either needed a counter-ability, absolute strength, or a higher-level Ghost Domain. Currently, he possessed none of the three.

Shen Lin shifted his focus back to the Ghost Aspect.

After the Ghost Mother incident, he had tried several methods to test the capabilities of the Ghost Aspect, but had come up empty-handed. The "Aspect-Shifting" ability of the Ghost Aspect had many limitations that he had not yet fully grasped. He could only make bold guesses based on everything he had experienced during the Ghost Mother event.

Aspect-Shifting, in a sense, meant taking on the likeness of a ghost and mimicking its abilities. Therefore, one had to have seen the ghost, and seen it completely—catching a glimpse of a single body part was insufficient.

Secondly, there were the rules. Shen Lin surmised that he had to understand the rules and abilities of the ghost he was shifting into. To master an ability, one must naturally understand it; there was nothing wrong with that logic.

Finally, there was time. He needed to endure under the ghost's power for a certain duration. This corresponded to several stages: cognition, understanding, and endurance. The transition through these stages led to the control brought by the Ghost Aspect's shifting.

The Ghost Aspect was like an empty bottle with high plasticity; it could take on the shape of another after going through the aforementioned process.

But this came with prerequisites. Not every ghost could be borne by the Ghost Aspect. One misstep could lead to one's own collapse—a situation too horrific to imagine. Furthermore, the Ghost Aspect could only maintain the ability of one ghost at a time; if it dissipated, one would have to repeat the entire process.

Given all these premises, Shen Lin once had a bold idea.

What would happen if he used the Ghost Aspect to shift into the Ghost Aspect itself?

"I shift into myself—it sounds absurd."

"Should I gamble?" Shen Lin asked himself.

There were several potential outcomes. It was possible that shifting into himself would grant him the power to change his current situation, allowing him to command enough strength to break through this Ghost Domain.

It was also possible that nothing would happen. Having dissipated the Ghost Mother’s power, he would be unable to shift into another aspect in time, and the moment the ghost returned, he would die—slaughtered without any ability to resist.

It was even more likely that the Ghost Aspect would instantly undergo full revival, and Shen Lin would be consumed by it, becoming a puppet for the ghost.

"Either it changes the situation, or, more likely, you die because of your own foolish actions."

"Should I gamble?" Shen Lin asked himself again.

The next moment, his expression turned ferocious.

He had no choice. He had to gamble. Just like at the beginning of the Ghost Mother incident—if he didn't gamble, he would die. He had no other options; he would be trapped here and slowly exhausted to death.

Shen Lin’s personality was very similar to Yang Jian’s, yet beneath that similarity lay differences.

Yang Jian was ruthless. In his daily life, he was unconcerned and irreverent, but when faced with an incident, his mind was razor-sharp. He was ruthless to himself, and even more ruthless to his enemies. If you pushed him too far, Yang Jian would kill one thousand of his enemies even at the cost of eight hundred of his own, just to finish you off.

Shen Lin was different. He was insane—the kind of madman Jiang Shangbai described. In his daily life, he was always smiling, treating others with gentle grace. But beneath that elegant temperament lay a madness that could never be extinguished. Do not attempt to drive him insane; he was a madman who would rather lose twelve hundred of his own to kill one thousand of his enemies. As long as he could take you down, he would use any means necessary.

Just like the high-stakes gamble in the Ghost Mother incident, Shen Lin would always bet. He was a reckless gambler.

In less than five seconds of thought, the Ghost Mother pattern on his chest dissipated. The sketch-like lines flowed like water and condensed once more. When it reappeared, it was a blood-red outline of a sketch; it seemed to have facial features, though they were impossible to discern clearly.

If one looked closely, they would discover that the combination of those features was identical to Shen Lin’s own.

Human aspect, ghost aspect, all-living-things aspect—this ghost was shifting into his own aspect.

Watching the flowing lines slowly form his own image, Shen Lin frowned. What did this mean? Because he was a Ghost Master, did it present his own pattern? Was there no such thing as the Ghost Aspect having no original form?

The next moment, the flesh around the sketch lines bulged violently, as if under immense pressure. A pain that felt like it would tear his entire body apart radiated from his chest. The Ghost Aspect was restless; it was attempting to break free from his control.

It was beyond his control. He had to end this immediately, or he would die.

*No! Wait a little longer!*

A battle raged in Shen Lin’s mind.

*Wait a little longer. Since it has taken on my own appearance, it shouldn't exceed my control by too much.*

Shen Lin was gambling—betting that this was not an accident, but a necessary stage of shifting into his own aspect.

If he lost the gamble...

There were no "ifs"!

The tearing in his chest ceased, and the restlessness of the Ghost Aspect vanished. Shen Lin gasped for air like a man who had just recovered from a grave illness.

On his chest, the protruding human face was unmistakably his own, as if someone had buried a human head inside his chest. The scene was strange enough to stop a crying child in its tracks.

Feeling the scorching heat on his chest, Shen Lin looked up and surveyed his surroundings. Everything that met his eyes was incredibly grotesque.

The mountains, the water, the villas, including himself—all of it.

It presented a strangeness that defied description in language.

This was an inverted world!