Chapter 40: Fengmen Village

The accident happened very quickly, and Shen Lin's reaction was ultimately a step too slow.

Xu Fang seemed to be affected by something. He collapsed on the ground, convulsing continuously. Though unconscious, he muttered strange, incoherent syllables in a garbled voice.

The corpse with wide-open eyes and blood bleeding from its seven facial orifices, paired with the living man muttering in his unconsciousness, formed a chilling and bizarre scene.

Shen Lin stopped Zhou Bin's movement and slowly stepped forward to observe.

His preliminary judgment was that the unconsciousness was caused by some supernatural influence, rather than the triggering of a certain vengeful ghost's killing pattern; otherwise, Xu Fang would already be dead.

The situation was eerie. Confident there was no immediate danger nearby, Shen Lin found a relatively safe spot and motioned for Zhou Bin to carry Xu Fang over.

They had no choice but to temporarily suspend their operation. Whatever Xu Fang had encountered could only be explained once he woke up.

Shen Lin inched closer. Xu Fang's appearance—bleeding from his seven orifices—reminded him of those corpses. It was hard to say this was a coincidence, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

The ability of the Ghost Visage silently permeated Xu Fang's surroundings. Shen Lin attempted to use a trace of the Inversion Ghost's power to investigate.

After a few seconds, he withdrew the dark red glow around him, his gaze turning solemn.

There was no influence of supernatural power from the outside; it felt more like an eruption originating from within the body, as if Xu Fang had foolishly tried to shake a giant tree and suffered the impact of an overwhelming force.

Rather than an external attack, this felt more like the backlash from the "Ghost's Inquiry."

Xu Fang had heard something he shouldn't have, and even the vengeful ghost residing within his body could not withstand it, leading to a near-collapse.

Shen Lin felt a creeping sense of horror. That ghost was far more terrifying than he had imagined.

Xu Fang was still murmuring incomprehensible syllables. Although that strange sound was clearly very faint, it echoed repeatedly in everyone's ears like a wandering phantom.

Whether it was the music box or that piano-playing woman, in a world experiencing supernatural resurgence, anything related to sound was extremely difficult to deal with.

"We can't wait any longer. Find a way to wake him up," Shen Lin said.

No one knew the killing pattern of that ghost, and Xu Fang's condition was deeply abnormal. If this continued, no one knew what might happen.

Zhou Bin acknowledged the order and quickly grabbed a basin of water nearby—a physical method to wake someone up.

Things went smoother than they had imagined. Xu Fang's state of unconsciousness was not deep; a basin of cold water brought him back to his senses.

The moment he woke up, Xu Fang looked around blankly. He gasped for air in huge gulps, his mental state appearing somewhat frantic.

Fear, death, and an icy chill that seeped into his bones—he seemed to have experienced all of it within the span of a few short minutes.

"What happened?" Regaining his composure, Xu Fang heard Shen Lin's voice. He took a few more heavy breaths, trying to calm himself down as the echoing sounds in his mind slowly subsided.

"I... I'm not sure. I tried to converse with that corpse, but I heard a strange sound. That sound was very familiar, but I can't describe it." Xu Fang shuddered violently. He vividly felt what had happened at that moment: the vengeful ghost inside him had been suppressed by some existence. If the medium had not been triggered incompletely, he would already be dead.

"Did you get any information?" Shen Lin frowned. Xu Fang's condition was very wrong; he hoped nothing would go wrong in the subsequent operations.

Swallowing hard a few times, Xu Fang nodded, his trembling fingers pointing toward the north.

"Over there. That bizarre corpse told me that the source of the incident comes from a shopping mall in that direction. Everything started there."

Shen Lin nodded. Good, a good start; the Ghost Staircase finally had some clues.

The accident happened very quickly, and Shen Lin's reaction was ultimately a step too slow.

"No, no, we can't go there. We'll die, we'll die," Xu Fang screamed. He leaped up from the ground, kicking over various objects, his mental state severely compromised.

Shen Lin frowned and signaled to Zhou Bin.

"Hold him down. We must get the information we need from his mouth."

Zhou Bin hesitated for a moment, then slowly nodded. Seeing his maternal uncle in such a frantic state felt truly unsettling to him, but at the same time, he understood that Shen Lin was right. Under such bizarre circumstances, information was their most urgent lifeline.

Xu Fang still retained a fair bit of sanity, and combined with the fact that it was his close relative Zhou Bin restraining him, it didn't take much effort to subdue him.

"What did you perceive?" Shen Lin stared directly into Xu Fang's eyes, asking word by word.

To drive Xu Fang to such a state of madness, he must have sensed something unimaginable.

Xu Fang was trembling; his hands shook as if he had Parkinson's disease. Even though he forced himself to believe he could handle it, the fear deep within his heart still consumed him.

"There's a ghost... a terrifying ghost in that direction. L-let's retreat, I don't want to die, I don't want to die."

"Quiet!" Shen Lin shouted sternly.

His expression was incomparably grave. He knew better than anyone how terrifying a vengeful ghost was if even the Inversion Ghost couldn't suppress it.

Fortunately, they didn't have only one choice. All roads led to Rome; there was only one shopping mall, but there was more than one path leading there.

They needed to bypass that ghost to avoid a direct confrontation.

"The Ghost Staircase incident is more complicated than you think. I practically forced myself through a supernatural resurgence to kick off all of this. Once the bow is drawn, there is no turning back; we don't have the capital to try a second time. So don't even think about giving up. Even if vengeful ghosts pave the road ahead, we have to step across it."

"Zhou Bin, take care of Xu Fang. I'll take the lead, and Xiong Wenwen will stay by my side. The threat level of the Ghost Staircase itself isn't high; we just need a quick resolution."

God knows how many ghosts hadn't been suppressed by the Inversion Ghost. In Shen Lin's memory, there was also an incomparably terrifying vengeful ghost capable of devouring a Ghost Domain—a monstrosity that could cause a Ghost Candle to burn down instantly.

They needed a swift victory. The longer they dragged it out, the greater the variables.

There were several paths leading to that shopping mall, and Shen Lin chose the outermost one. Even if it meant taking a detour, he would do his utmost to avoid that vengeful ghost.

Shen Lin maintained a high level of vigilance, the ability of the Ghost Visage primed and ready. If any accident occurred, it would strike immediately.

The Longhu Courtyard incident had drastically shortened the time until his supernatural resurgence. If not for the impending crisis of the Ghost Staircase, Shen Lin would never have wanted to muddy these waters, but he had an urgent need to master a second ghost.

The Ghost Visage was glaring at him like a tiger eyeing its prey, wanting nothing more than to devour him at any moment.

Xu Fang's madness had badly frightened the team, and Xiong Wenwen tried to use his ability several times, only to be stopped by Shen Lin.

Since the Headquarters had entrusted this unruly kid to him, he couldn't just let him do as he pleased. If he used his power frequently and triggered a resurgence here, things would become even more troublesome.

While precognition was undeniably crucial, it had to be used in the right place. Good steel must always be used on the blade's edge.

Near midnight, the street flickered with a faint, eerie light. The solar-powered street lamps had stopped working due to depleted energy. In the pitch-black darkness, bizarre whimpers drifted over from time to time.

Shen Lin and the others advanced very slowly, watching their surroundings with guarded eyes.

A faint light source illuminated the surrounding darkness.

A bizarre scene began to unfold. In the endless darkness ahead, a curtain of void seemed to appear, and an old-fashioned hand-cranked projector suddenly materialized. It slowly began to spin, projecting scenes that flashed past rapidly before finally freezing on a completely black-and-white film.

The woman on the screen wore heavy makeup and sat quietly in front of a dressing table, meticulously grooming herself.

Her hair was exceptionally long, thick, and pitch-black—a shade of black beyond description.

Even more bizarrely, every movement of the woman on the screen could be seen clearly, yet the figure in the bronze mirror remained entirely motionless. Shen Lin and the others couldn't even see the face in the mirror; they could only sense a bone-chilling gaze descending from the void, scrutinizing them in meticulous detail.

That feeling was hair-raising.

The woman's figure shifted closer and farther away, as if she might step out of the film and into reality at any second.

Shen Lin's expression sank. What lay before them was far more troublesome than he had anticipated. He gestured to the people around him, only to find no response. With another daze, he realized he was standing in an unfamiliar village.

"Fengmen Village!"

The archway at the entrance of the village read as such.

Bizarre and ominous, expressions of lingering fear were plastered across the faces of all four individuals.

"Shen Lin, w-what do we do?" Xiong Wenwen's voice carried a trembling edge. Everything before them was truly eerie, and he could feel the agitation of the vengeful ghost inside his body; the village ahead felt like a primordial fierce beast.

Shen Lin shook his head.

"I'm not sure yet. We seem to have been affected by that strange projector; we should be inside its cinematic world right now."

Shen Lin analyzed cautiously. They were suspected to be in an extremely special Ghost Domain world—a cinematic world evolved from that unique old-fashioned projector. Everything before them was filled with the unknown and the ominous.

Xu Fang wanted to say something, but he noticed that the villagers walking back and forth in groups of threes and fours at the village entrance had abruptly stopped. As if responding to some summons, their heads turned with the mechanical stiffness of machines, all staring in unison toward Shen Lin's location.

What was most terrifying was that many of the villagers who had their backs to Shen Lin twisted their heads a full 180 degrees backward. Pitch-black, foul-smelling blood flowed from their mouths, yet the villagers acted as if they didn't notice it at all.

It seemed the outsiders had touched upon something taboo to them.

They smiled—smiling in an incomparably eerie manner.

"Shen Lin, Shen Lin, think of something! Playing around like this will definitely get us killed!" Xiong Wenwen panicked. Anyone with half a brain could see that this place was pathologically malevolent; if they didn't do something soon, they would perish here.

Shen Lin frowned. Gazing at everything before him, his swelling brain raced with thoughts.

Assuming this was a Ghost Domain, the only way to break a Ghost Domain at this stage was with another Ghost Domain.

He had two choices: transform the Ghost Visage into his own appearance and abandon the Inversion Ghost's ability. There was a high probability that this could break the blockade.

Second, attempt to use the Inversion Ghost's power to distort this world. He might find a solution.

The first possibility was basically ruled out; a vengeful ghost capable of escaping the Inversion Ghost's domain was simply not something his current domain level could shake.

The second possibility was likely unfeasible as well. Even the Inversion Ghost in a fully resurrected state had been helpless against this monstrosity, and the incomplete ability gained by transforming the Ghost Visage stood even less chance of making an impact.

What should he do?

Shen Lin fell into deep contemplation.