Mysterious Revival

Dachang City was shrouded in gloom, silent as the grave, as if the sun would never shine again. It seemed the city was on the brink of becoming a true Ghost City, destined to forever sink into the darkness and drown out the last glimmer of twilight.

Yet outside the city.

Where the gloom hadn't spread, the sun blazed in the sky, and the air was scorchingly hot. There was no trace of chill or uncanny atmosphere.

All roads leading to the city were under martial law.

Within five miles of the gloom, the area was designated a forbidden zone, patrolled by armed special forces personnel.

The headquarters for Asia's ghost hunters had prepared for both eventualities in Dachang City.

They would either resolve the large-scale supernatural event by working together both inside and out, or they would have to quarantine the entire city to prevent the spread of the entities within, to avoid greater casualties and losses.

At this moment.

On the road leading to Dachang City.

A middle-aged man in uniform, resolute and composed, stood just outside the boundary line, staring intently at the dark green expanse of gloom before him.

The gloom writhed as if it were alive; it couldn't be dissipated by the wind, nor could it be cleared away using large-scale weapons, rendering it impossible to carve out a path into Dachang City.

The only relief was that communication signals were not affected; some contact was still possible.

"Li Jun, the latest intelligence is grim. The situation at the professor's end is dire. Most of the ghost hunters gathered in Dachang City are dead. Only Zhao Kaiming, Yang Jian, and that Zhang Han are still alive. The liaison officer Sun Yi we sent earlier has been sacrificed," said Zhao Jianguo as he walked over with a stern face, the special forces personnel beside him saluted.

"The professor is planning to stake everything on Yang Jian, hoping for one last fight. There is a chance, but it's slim."

Li Jun's sturdy frame shuddered slightly, and he turned with an ugly look on his face, "Can't any other ghost hunters break through? With so many of them, surely a few exceptional ones can emerge."

Zhao Jianguo shook his head, "This Hungry Ghost incident has been classified as an S-level event. The number of ghost hunters who can handle this level of event isn't just scarce in Asia; they are few and far between globally. Once those things revive, they evolve too quickly for our research and arrangements to keep up."

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"An entire city... are we just going to stand by and watch it die?" Li Jun roared, tears rolling in his eyes.

"I will come forth to fight with my life on the line."

"Li Jun, don't act rashly."

Zhao Jianguo pressed on his shoulder, "This isn't something that can be resolved by sheer desperation. Yang Jian is still trying, and there may still be a chance. Besides, you should know, if you were to truly sacrifice yourself, and the ghost within your body were to escape, it would only make things worse."

Li Jun understood this rationale, but how could he sit idly by and let such despair happen?

"What are the orders from above?"

"The minister has contacted headquarters to see if they can resolve it. After all, there have been precedents of S-level supernatural events exploding abroad. Although they weren't resolved, at least they were suppressed," Zhao Jianguo explained.

Li Jun said, "It's no use, they would rather see us in Asia make a fool of ourselves. Even if they had the ability, they wouldn't help."

"Offering a higher price could still yield some possibility. But even if we can't save the city, we must save the professor; he cannot die here," Zhao Jianguo said in a low voice; "Yang Jian has left a contingency plan, and I have agreed to it. At the critical moment, I will have him save the professor."

"Will it work?" Li Jun asked.

"I'm not sure, but I trust Yang Jian. Like those wild cubs in the army, he has the talent, but he is unruly, lacking a drill instructor to tame him. However, in the face of such a major event, he knows his limits."

"Even if he saves the professor, it won't last long if the situation can't be resolved. But delaying for some time is still good, let's see what the higher-ups decide. Perhaps they will resort to 'that thing'; after all, the professor's value is too great. We just need to follow orders and avoid causing further chaos and expanding the loss," he continued.

"I understand," said Li Jun.

Zhao Jianguo looked at him standing straight once more, watching over Dachang City, and couldn't help but sigh.

He, too, felt suffocated.

Coming from the military himself, how could he bear to watch helplessly as a city of his own country fell into the hands of a ghost?

However, joining the Asian ghost hunting division, Zhao Jianguo came to a profound understanding.

The world was no longer the same.

Facing these ghostly entities, desperation wouldn't solve anything. In the end, this incident was a hidden danger left by the desperate actions of Zhou Zheng.

But could Zhou Zheng really be blamed?

No.

Zhou Zheng initially had good intentions that turned out badly, faithful to his duty, but he had not anticipated the mess left behind would evolve into this.

At this moment.

In a hospital in Dachang City.

Yang Jian looked at the Ghost Candle in his hand that had about two minutes left to burn and knew he no longer had the luxury of hesitation.

"I've already figured out the patterns of the first, second, and third stage Ghost Infants. Their conditions for killing are triggered individually, whereas the source Ghost possesses the trait of repeatable superimposition. I can guarantee that the first ghost to attack you once you extinguish the Ghost Candle will definitely be that source Ghost."

"...I don't want to say anything else, it would be a waste of time. If the operation fails and you're still alive, just run. Maintain necessary communication and report the subsequent situation here to the higher-ups, at least you will have done your part. The rest is up to fate, and as for me, don't bother about me. Right now, you are more useful than a regular person like me.

My death is but a death."

After finishing, Wang Xiaoming didn't give Yang Jian a chance to speak and immediately blew out the Ghost Candle.

The last bit of the Ghost Candle had to be reserved for Yang Jian to flee; it couldn't be all used up here.

As soon as the Ghost Candle was extinguished, the surrounding gloom instantly enveloped them.

The silence outside was once again disrupted by the sound of cluttered footsteps.

The sound was heavy, rigid, sending chills down one's spine.

Yang Jian didn't speak but turned and left the bathroom. At this moment, he was not so noble. He wasn't doing this for the city, nor for the country, but purely for himself.

To survive this supernatural event.

After all, the entire city was involved; no one could stay out of it. If he could have escaped, he probably would have done so long ago.

"Zhang Han, go help him," Wang Xiaoming said in the darkness.

"Professor, what about you?" Zhang Han was startled.

"It's okay; there's still Zhao Kaiming. I shouldn't die so soon, holding on for a bit should be no issue." Wang Xiaoming looked toward Zhao Kaiming again in the darkness. His words were not meant for Zhang Han but for Zhao Kaiming.

He planned to use his own life to keep Zhao Kaiming in check, to prevent him from doing anything that could interfere with Yang Jian.

Zhao Kaiming didn't show whether he saw Wang Xiaoming's glance or not, only a cold smile appeared on his lips.

By sending Zhang Han away, it was clear that Wang Xiaoming was guarded against him.

Dealing with these people was never easy.

But that didn't matter. No matter what, they all had to die here. The idea of resolving this event was a pipe dream.

The Ghost had grown to an unspeakably terrifying extent...

In the end, only he would survive. No, only his entire family would.

Zhao Kaiming looked back into the darkness.

A shadow that seemed non-existent in the darkness behind him caught his eye, but his face bore no smile, only a gloomy and insane expression.

"Yang Jian, I'm coming to help you," Zhang Han charged out.

Harnessing just two ghosts, he was years away from a ghostly resurrection, but the recent attack had greatly shortened the hard-earned time left to live.

A few more times like that, and he would likely face an early ghostly resurrection.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

However, he couldn't wait for that resurrection now. If they didn't succeed this time, he would also die here.

"I must open the Ghost Domain again to have a fighting chance. Once you enter my Ghost Domain, you just need to do one thing: help me suppress the Ghost Shadow behind me with all your might. If it kills me, or if it takes over a ghost's body, then we're done for."

Yang Jian spoke quickly and acted just as fast.

He had to retract the Ghost Eye, giving up the suppression of the Ghost Shadow. Once this suppression was gone, the Ghost Shadow would become uncontrollable, and so would the Ghost Eye.

He was planning to use this resurrection-induced change to fight for a chance.