Chapter 306: Cicada Dies, Butterfly Emerges
The pain of consciousness being annihilated was even more devastating than being cut into pieces by a thousand knives and ten thousand cuts, the constant intense stabbing pain in the brain, the trance of the mind, and the chaos of memory were enough to easily destroy anyone with an unstable mind.
At this moment, Wang Shanshan, enduring Supernatural Erosion, and the woman in the painting faced each other.
Their appearances were completely identical, staring at each other like people in a mirror.
“I cannot fall asleep. Once I close my eyes, death will await me, and Yang Jian will die too. No matter what, I cannot close my eyes or escape.”
Wang Shanshan, who had lost perception of the outside world, kept repeating this sentence in her heart.
Even though she had forgotten her own identity due to the intrusion of memories that did not belong to her, her heart always remembered this one thing:
Alive.
Time passed slowly, minute by minute, second by second.
Nine minutes after Yang Jian and Wang Shanshan held hands.
“Who am I? Who is she? Why am I wearing a Wedding Dress? Is someone here to marry me?”
“It hurts so much. Why does she keep standing in front of me? I seem to remember now. She is a Fierce Ghost. Because of it, I’m about to die.”
Although facing this situation, Wang Shanshan did not know what she should do, and the prolonged pain had already driven her mentally deranged. In her brief moment of clarity, she knew she must do something.
Otherwise, if she continued to endure like this, she would undoubtedly die.
So she began trying to touch the ghost in her consciousness. This was the best method that involuntarily surged from her subconscious, perhaps due to her luck, or perhaps because of a hint from the previous wielder of Ghost Painting.
Unknowingly,
Wang Shanshan, who suddenly regained clarity, discovered that she had already walked up to the woman. Without hesitation, she reached out directly toward the woman.
However, the moment she touched the Fierce Ghost before her eyes.
The puzzle pieces of the once controlled Fierce Ghosts were completed, and the Supernatural reached balance in that instant. The chaotic memories filling Wang Shanshan’s mind suddenly became orderly.
At this moment,
Wang Shanshan saw the woman in front of her unexpectedly reveal a slight smile.
Relieved,
Kind.
“The help I can give you is only this much. The road ahead is yours to walk alone. I know that you are not actually my current life.”
“But I have already died. Resurrection would be too greedy. You are also a pitiful person. Carry my Supernatural and live well. Do not do evil, do not…”
The woman’s words were not finished. She, who only existed in Wang Shanshan’s consciousness, immediately began to shatter like fragile porcelain, withering away.
At this time, Wang Shanshan had regained clarity. She could clearly sense that the memories in her mind also disappeared along with the woman’s shattering.
The reason Zhang Xiangguang spent decades creating He Yuelian was because she carried the same Supernatural as the previous wielder of Ghost Painting.
To put it in the words of a fantasy novel, her body bore the karma of that woman.
So in the original work, when He Yuelian controlled Ghost Painting, the woman said to her: “I am your previous life, and you are my current life.”
Wang Shanshan, whose appearance was only modified by Supernatural, was not the woman’s current life. This meant that if Wang Shanshan controlled Ghost Painting, the woman would completely die.
Whether from reality or Supernatural.
The world would have no trace of her. She would have no resurrection, no current life.
Perhaps because she no longer had an obsession with being alive, or perhaps because she had let go during the long and painful time, even knowing she would completely die, she still chose to hand over the Supernatural of Ghost Painting to Wang Shanshan.
Not only that,
Having been a Ghost Wielder her whole life, she naturally knew the pain of becoming a Ghost Wielder. She did not let her memories fuse with Wang Shanshan’s consciousness but chose to dissipate.
She wanted Wang Shanshan to live freely and without pain.
That was all.
“Hmm? Wang Shanshan succeeded in controlling?”
Jiang Shan, who was observing the situation, narrowed his eyes. His gaze had always been on Wang Shanshan, as if trying to discover something from certain details.
Yang Jian, who was holding Wang Shanshan’s hand, had his figure completely vanish at this moment, as if he had vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
Wang Shanshan’s hands became exceptionally pale, the aura on her body began to turn chilling and weird, and the sound of her painful struggling also disappeared.
Seeing this scene, Jiang Shan frowned tightly. Wang Shanshan’s current state was almost identical to He Yuelian’s state when she successfully controlled Ghost Painting in the original work, with hardly any differences.
But the one thing he was uncertain about was how Yang Jian could vanish without any trace.
It must be known that he had Ghost Eye, Ghost Shadow, and Ghost Hand. Even if his body vanished due to Supernatural Erosion, the ghosts would not.
But at this moment, the shocking situation presented before Jiang Shan’s eyes was exactly this.
Yang Jian had disappeared, and the ghosts on him had also disappeared.
So where did they go?
Nearly four hours after Yang Jian disappeared, while Jiang Shan continued to wait, a mutation suddenly occurred.
“It’s here! Is Yang Jian resurrecting from Wang Shanshan’s body?”
Wang Shanshan, who had originally regained some color in her face, suddenly looked as if she had died violently. A weird gray-white swept over her entire body, and even the bright red Ghost Wedding Dress instantly lost its luster.
Immediately after, her figure and appearance began to change. Her increasingly tall body and increasingly masculinized face made Jiang Shan frown tightly.
Back then, Zhang Xiangguang told Jiang Shan that he needed to use a certain Supernatural of his own to steal He Yuelian’s body.
But how exactly Yang Jian resurrected, Jiang Shan had no way of knowing. Even Yang Jian himself, as the person involved, only half understood it.
So with the current anomaly, Jiang Shan did not know how far controlling Ghost Painting had progressed.
But through the various weird changes on Wang Shanshan’s body, he could at least judge that Yang Jian was resurrecting using Wang Shanshan’s body, at least for now.
As Jiang Shan continued observing, he suddenly noticed.
At some unknown time,
A scarlet eye grew on Wang Shanshan’s arm, followed by another Ghost Eye tearing open the skin, appearing on the back of Wang Shanshan’s hand.
The two Ghost Eyes were now rotating weirdly.
With the appearance of Ghost Eye, Jiang Shan could confirm that Yang Jian was now replacing Wang Shanshan, coming back to life in a state that no one could understand.
“Ding, ding ding…”
Suddenly, a crisp, ethereal sound echoed faintly around.
This sound was like a child with a beautiful voice singing beside you, and the individual notes sounded pleasant and melodious.
But when these notes combined into a piece of music, it gave an indescribable weirdness and emptiness, making one feel despair and horrified.
“Hmm? The curse of the Music Box?”
Hearing this bell-like sound, Jiang Shan was astonished, but he quickly recalled that in the original work, when Yang Jian was attacked and killed by Fang Shiming, he opened the Music Box.
The cursed and Supernatural bell sound from the Music Box had once rung in reality.
It seemed because the music from the Music Box was real, and Yang Jian’s body could not serve as the carrier for this curse, causing the sound to leak out.
“Has Yang Jian now become an anomaly, or has he already died, becoming a memory like the previous wielder of Ghost Painting?”
The various anomalies made Jiang Shan involuntarily speculate about Yang Jian’s current state.
After all, if it were just He Yuelian or Wang Shanshan controlling Ghost Painting, he would not be so curious, because both of them were ordinary people without Supernatural in some sense.
The balance between the Supernatural of Ghost Painting and Ghost Bride made control possible.
But Yang Jian was different. He had three ghosts: Ghost Eye, Ghost Shadow, and Ghost Hand. Any Supernatural between Ghost Painting and Ghost Bride would cause imbalance, leading to resurrection and outbreak.
Not to mention Yang Jian, who controlled three ghosts.
This complex and terrifying Supernatural Change was exactly what Jiang Shan was focused on and concerned about.
He was now staring intently at the increasingly horrifying changes on Wang Shanshan’s body. As her body became more and more weird, a chilling aura began to emanate from her body.
That chill seemed to freeze the surrounding air.
“This is…” Jiang Shan knew that they had now reached the most critical point of Yang Jian’s resurrection. He immediately moved away from Wang Shanshan, holding Chinese Medicine in his hand, ready at any moment.
He speculated that if Yang Jian did not resurrect from Wang Shanshan’s body, he was very likely dead.
But Wang Shanshan probably would not be.
Because she had already successfully controlled Ghost Painting, Ghost Wedding Dress, and Ghost Veil. She was the main body, while Yang Jian was the invader in terms of consciousness.
Even if Yang Jian died, her consciousness might still remain.
So if the resurrection failed, as long as he could feed this Chinese Medicine that could suppress the balance of the Fierce Ghost to Wang Shanshan at the right time, she might still have a chance to survive.
After all, for Jiang Shan,
It did not matter who lived or died. He only needed one person to survive and control Ghost Painting. That was enough.
While thinking, as Wang Shanshan’s figure twisted, her body instantly regained its previous color at some moment, like a gray-white painting being recolored.
Suddenly,
Wang Shanshan abruptly opened her eyes. Her gaze was extremely hollow, yet faintly revealing Yang Jian’s sharpness.
A low roar came from her throat, as if two consciousnesses were fighting for control of the body, causing it to tremble violently.
Immediately after,
Strands of Dark Shadow began to emerge on Wang Shanshan’s skin, like ink spreading on rice paper.
These Dark Shadows gradually gathered, outlining the contours of Yang Jian’s face, like an eerie sketch coming to life.
Jiang Shan stared fixedly at the changes in Wang Shanshan, not daring to miss a single detail. He could feel an extremely terrifying and chaotic Supernatural Power spreading and mutating in this small space.
“Crack”
With an indescribable sound suddenly ringing out, the Ghost Eye on Wang Shanshan’s arm abruptly swelled, the eye socket tearing the skin, fresh blood gushing out, only to be instantly sucked back by an invisible force.
The Ghost Eye rotated madly, and a dark red covered the entire room in the blink of an eye.
“Paper Ash? This Ghost Domain can actually invade Ghost House’s Ghost Domain. It seems to be the Ghost Domain Fusion of Ghost Eye’s Ghost Domain and Ghost Painting’s Ghost Domain, leading to some kind of mutation. Previously, neither Ghost Domain could spread in Ghost House’s Ghost Domain, but now…”
“So, if nothing unexpected happens, Yang Jian should have resurrected.”
Looking at the dark red enveloping his surroundings, Jiang Shan rubbed the dark red Paper Ash in his hand that resembled an eye, already having made a judgment.
However, not even ten seconds later.
Among the many Ghost Eyes on Wang Shanshan’s body, Yang Jian’s illusory figure became increasingly solid, as if forcibly squeezed out from a sea of blood.
At this time, the weird bell sound of the Music Box became increasingly urgent, the notes like dense raindrops, pounding one’s heart into chaos.
Jiang Shan noticed that this bell sound seemed to have become some kind of catalyst for Yang Jian’s resurrection, or perhaps a balancing factor.
With every bell ring, Yang Jian’s figure solidified a bit more, while Wang Shanshan’s vitality faded a bit. The two were like ends of a scale of fate, one gaining as the other lost.
As time passed slowly minute by minute, second by second, Yang Jian’s body gradually overlapped with Wang Shanshan’s, and traces belonging to Yang Jian began to appear.
One of Wang Shanshan’s hands suddenly turned pale; her shadow was no longer petite, replaced by a tall headless Dark Shadow; Ghost Eyes rotated uneasily on the back of her hand and arm.
A while later.
The replacement and fusion of consciousness completely ended.
At this moment, in the dark red Ghost Domain, Wang Shanshan, who had completely taken on Yang Jian’s appearance, slowly opened her eyes.
He survived, and also woke up.
But he was somewhat different from before. Yang Jian’s control was not like Zhang Xiangguang’s, using Supernatural to annihilate He Yuelian’s consciousness and then oust and take over.
As the invader, Yang Jian could only replace her after Wang Shanshan allowed the intrusion. However, precisely because of this, their memories inevitably fused.
Even though Yang Jian’s memories were dominant, he was still affected to a certain extent, leading to many changes in him, whether in consciousness or body.
But the awakened Yang Jian took no action. He was thinking and adapting to the new Supernatural Power.
“Are you Yang Jian, or Wang Shanshan?”
After a moment, Jiang Shan suddenly asked Yang Jian, who showed no emotion on his face like a dead person.
“Yang Jian. Wang Shanshan is already dead.” Yang Jian seemed still immersed in the fused memories, replying calmly.
Jiang Shan said: “Don’t waste time. Handle whatever problems you have after we get back. The top priority now is to withdraw the Ghost Domain first.”
“Impossible. I need to leave Ghost House to do that.” Yang Jian, who had come back to his senses, regained his usual cold sharpness in his eyes. He looked at Jiang Shan, shook his head, and said.
Even though he had barely survived and mastered extremely terrifying Supernatural, as a natural Ghost Wielder, he quickly gained a specific understanding of his own Supernatural.
Now, even though he could use Ghost Domain for counter-invasion against Ghost House’s Ghost Domain, without a medium connected to reality, even he who controlled six ghosts could not do it.
And this,
was one of the reasons Jiang Shan coveted Ghost House.
