Chapter 61 Release the Ghost with One's Own Hands

There are many kinds of Ghost-controllers. Different ghosts yield different methods of manipulation in different hands, and even the same ghost will be handled with entirely different approaches by different people.

Often, in this world of supernatural revival, the belief that human effort can conquer nature is no empty phrase. Find the pattern of the ghost, figure out a way to circumvent it, and as long as the opposing entity is not an unsolvable threat, you can always carve out a glimmer of survival amidst despair.

Much like most of the incidents Shen Lin had encountered, it was about struggling for life amidst death, scraping by to survive.

The moment he came into conflict with Jiang Shangbai, Shen Lin had fully prepared himself mentally for standing in opposition to the Circle.

This could not be blamed on him. The Circle had always been domineering, and in the eyes of Fang Shiming, there were only two kinds of people in this world.

Those who submitted to him, and those who opposed him.

If someone could not be controlled, they were eliminated—this was the fundamental logic of the Circle.

Yet, Shen Lin had still underestimated many things; he never expected the Circle to deploy such a massive lineup merely to target him.

At the same time, he understood many other things. In this incident, he was probably nothing more than a chess piece, a pawn used to kill the chicken to frighten the monkeys, a warning shot fired to intimidate the Headquarters.

This was a game of chess between the Circle and the Headquarters, a subtle struggle between private forces and official authority.

Amidst all of this, Shen Lin appeared utterly insignificant.

It was known that the Circle had dispatched at least six Ghost-controllers this time. Shen Lin had wiped out three, and severely injured two.

The closer a ghost was to complete revival, the more ferocious it became. The revival of the Phantom Phase was already on the verge, lacking only a final step. Although the inverted ghost of the phase transformation was still quite incomplete, it was already fatal enough for most Ghost-controllers who only controlled a single ghost.

This was the gap between ghosts.

Just as Ye Zhen, who controlled two ghosts, stood at the absolute pinnacle among controllers of dual ghosts.

The practical disparities brought by the differing abilities of ghosts could simply not be erased.

Zhao Ziliang before him was someone Shen Lin was unfamiliar with, but from the way the distorted power of the inverted ghost acted upon him without any warning, Shen Lin understood that this was a thorny opponent.

He was the absolute main force in this operation to assassinate Shen Lin.

The piercing pain in his chest was intensifying. Both the physical toll brought by the approaching revival and the mental pressure were pushing Shen Lin to the brink of overload.

His Ghost Domain was restricted, the abilities of the Phantom Phase had been used numerous times, and his most lethal method—the inverted ghost twisting life and death—had also been rendered ineffective by the opponent.

This situation could be described as utterly unsolvable, or rather, the fact that Shen Lin had managed to hold on this far was something neither the Circle nor most of the people present had expected.

Fortunately, it was Shen Lin. If it had been anyone else, they might have already become a corpse beneath the siege of those four Ghost-controllers or the specialized bullets of the mercenaries.

"What? Is that all the little tricks you have? Your ghost's ability seems quite special, but it's merely special. No matter how special it is, you're still just a Ghost-controller who has only harnessed a single ghost. I told you, the world is vast. In front of a Ghost-controller who has harnessed two ghosts, you don't even have the qualification to fight back."

Zhao Ziliang sneered. He had sensed that something was amiss with Shen Lin and was amazed that he could manage to create such a spectacle.

However, it stopped right there, just as he had said from the beginning.

Shen Lin was outstanding, and there was a reason he was valued by the Headquarters. His biggest mistake was probably running into him.

A natural disaster or a man-made calamity—he could only chalk it up to bad luck.

Shen Lin took a slight step backward. The opponent's mockery had no effect on him whatsoever. His brain, still barely functioning, thought at lightning speed, maintaining the utmost vigilance as he looked at the figure before him.

Zhao Ziliang's words practically amounted to an admission that he had already mastered two ghosts. One of them was the bizarre voice Shen Lin had heard.

Its effect was unknown, but based on a broad understanding of reviving ghosts, Shen Lin guessed that this ghost's ability might bear a heavy resemblance to Tong Qian's ghost face, using sound as a medium. Anyone who heard it would trigger its pattern, and the longer they listened, the stronger the curse's ability would become.

Yet none of this mattered. Shen Lin was far more concerned with the second ghost the opponent had harnessed.

If his guess was correct, it was precisely that ghost which had blocked the attack of the Phantom Phase. If he could not deal with that ghost, Shen Lin had zero chance of winning.

Or rather, he had never held the advantage from start to finish. The enemy outnumbered him and had made thorough preparations.

Time ticked away second by second. The Phantom Phase was likewise struggling to revive, and Shen Lin knew in his heart that he could not drag this out for too long, or the ghost would devour him from within before the enemy could even finish him off.

"In a life-or-death situation, what is the point of saying things like this? Showing off? Or trying to persuade me to surrender?" Shen Lin sneered.

"That's why I say youthful arrogance is never a good thing. You have no idea how vast the gap is between Ghost-controllers like you and those who have harnessed two ghosts. I've met several people as arrogant as you, and later on, without exception, they all died."

Zhao Ziliang suddenly thrust out his hand again. The movements of his tightly wrapped body seemed to carry a much wider amplitude, and a section of his clothing tore audibly. Shen Lin caught a glimpse of the bizarre sight concealed beneath the garments.

It was not a human body; the skin, completely dark cyan in color, was rigid and stiff, signaling eeriness and ominousness. Shen Lin seemed to be able to trace the purplish veins beneath that cyan-black skin.

Something was wrong. This Zhao Ziliang was deeply wrong.

Shen Lin did not know what that thing was, but he knew it must be a terrifyingly ferocious entity. The incomplete power of the inverted ghost had once been neutralized by it.

Was this Zhao Ziliang's core ghost? Shen Lin frowned.

Ghost-controllers who harnessed multiple ghosts usually possessed a core ability, using it as the foundation to assemble their puzzle.

Just like Ye Zhen, whose core ghost was the substitute ghost—that was the foundation of his dominance.

Just like Yang Jian, whose ghost eye was his absolute core, granting him an undefeatable status in most situations through the power of multiple Ghost Domains.

Just like a very peculiar captain at the Headquarters, Li Leping, whose oblivion ghost was his core, allowing him to become an anomaly and reach the pinnacle.

Abilities capable of serving as a Ghost-controller's core were never easy to deal with, and Shen Lin felt a trace of dread.

Zhao Ziliang's bizarre body was deeply abnormal, and everything regarding his second ghost remained entirely unknown to him.

"I can't fight him head-on. A direct confrontation offers zero chance of winning. I have to find a way to resolve this ghost, otherwise, I'll never stand a chance."

Shen Lin's eyes narrowed slightly. He still had a fair amount of his Ghost Domain left, allowing him to stall briefly, but this was ultimately not a long-term solution. The opponent was closing in step by step.

On the bright side, because the ghost harnessed by the controller had not fully revived, its power was far less ferocious than a truly resurrected entity.

Shen Lin racked his brain for a solution to all this.

The inverted ghost's ability was completely useless, and his Ghost Domain could only manage clumsy relocations. He had no third resort.

Wait, he did!

Shen Lin's gaze sharpened, shifting toward the direction of the villa.

The human heart at the Headquarters was unfathomable, and even the starving ghost had once been stolen. Out of caution, the ghosts Shen Lin had captured had been privately withheld by him and sealed within the walls of a certain room in the villa.

Shen Lin remembered the ghost staircase.

That cursed thing possessed a certain ability to influence ghosts, and if utilized well, it might produce an unexpected effect.

The situation had fallen into a dilemma. Although the ghost staircase could influence ghosts, it required corpses as fuel. Where on earth was he supposed to find corpses at a time like this?

Shen Lin was suddenly jolted. He looked at the whimpering ghost slaves surrounding him—these were the mercenaries who had previously died at his hands. A bold idea sprouted within his heart.

He could only try; it was his sole opportunity.

Seizing a momentary gap, the dark red light around Shen Lin flashed once, and his figure continuously closed in on the direction of the villa.

The ability of the ghost locking the door restricted the size of his Ghost Domain fiercely. He could now only control an area of about twenty meters around himself. Normally, this was barely enough, but right now, it was fatal.

"Trying to run?"

Zhao Ziliang sneered, his body eerily sinking into the darkness as if Shen Lin's Ghost Domain had no effect on him whatsoever.

Zhao Ziliang acknowledged how thorny Shen Lin was, which only intensified his desire to cut weeds and eliminate the roots.

If controlling a single ghost could create such a predicament, allowing this brat to escape with his life today meant his future days would be spent in constant anxiety.

Having offended such a figure, Zhao Ziliang feared he would have nightmares in the middle of the night from then on.

Since the deed was done, he would carry it through to the end. He had to nip everything in the cradle.

Zhao Ziliang's hands began to wriggle bizarrely. Small gaps appeared in the centers of his palms, rapidly expanding until they occupied half of his palms, revealing a jagged, saw-like appearance.

It was as if mouths filled with serrated teeth had grown out of his palms—a truly grotesque sight.

Zhao Ziliang's ability was exceptionally special. This bizarre body did not merely grant him protection; it also provided a buff, under which he could maximize the ghost's abilities.

Crack!

Like termites chewing through food, the Ghost Domain gnawed upon by those mouths shattered like glass in a specific spot. The spatial fracture caused Zhao Ziliang's distance to Shen Lin to close manifold.

Closer, even closer—he caught him!

Like a ghost devouring its prey, the flesh and blood around Shen Lin's body vanished at a rapid pace, completely turning into a skeleton the very next second before collapsing to the ground.

"A fake body?"

Looking ahead, four or five figures of Shen Lin were running in different directions. Zhao Ziliang shook off the fake body in his hand and lunged toward one of them.

"Childish tricks. Let's see how long you can drag this out."

This was an absolute suppression of strength, an all-encompassing crushing force originating from a ghost. Such petty tricks could only buy him a few minutes at most, and Zhao Ziliang was confident that the Shen Lin before him was already a turtle in a jar.

Shen Lin naturally knew this as well. With his Ghost Domain sealed and his Phantom Phase suppressed, under the crushing weight of such absolute strength, the illusions created by his Ghost Domain were nothing more than low-level parlor tricks.

As the opponent gnawed away at his Ghost Domain, he ultimately could not escape the enemy's clutches.

Yet so what? From the very beginning, he had never expected these little tricks to accomplish much.

All he needed was time—just a few seconds. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't even be noticed, but in this situation, it was enough to alter the entire battlefield.

Dark red light flickered, and Shen Lin reappeared inside the bedroom. The villa's interior was pitch black, but he had no mind to care about that.

His hands, enveloped in dark red light, reached straight into the wall, probing inward until they pulled out a tiny box.

With another flash, his figure vanished from the spot.