Chapter 279: Deviation In The Information
After all communication was completed, the three immediately headed towards the depths of this deathly still city.
The surroundings were so quiet it was somewhat terrifying, with only their footsteps echoing in the eerie silence on the empty streets.
Compared to Jiang Shan’s and Yang Jian’s calmness, Chen Hao’s footsteps were slightly heavy yet extremely cautious, his eyes quickly scanning the surroundings from time to time, his hands unconsciously clenching into fists, his ears vigilantly catching any subtle sounds.
This was his first time returning to the city after being attacked by the Ghost Painting and hiding in the church.
Even though he now had two fierce ghosts in his hands that could block the Ghost Painting’s perception and medium, he still did not dare to relax his vigilance. After all, he knew all too well how dangerous that ghost was.
If not for the supernatural item left behind by his grandfather back then, he would have died in that building two months ago.
“This puzzle piece is huge.”
Yang Jian looked at the architectural style around him; compared to when he entered before, it still hadn’t changed. He judged that he was now in another Ghost Painting, and the background of this Ghost Painting was even more complete than the previous one.
The more complete it was, the larger the ghost’s Ghost Domain.
Similarly,
the danger level was also higher.
“It’s right here!”
When the three arrived at a cluster of buildings with a foreign renovation style, Chen Hao suddenly pointed to one of the buildings and said in a deep voice.
After giving Yang Jian and Chen Hao a look, the three quickly took action.
Soon,
Jiang Shan arrived in front of that building.
This was a foreign residential building. Behind the narrow door was a deep aisle extending into the house, where dimly lit stairs could faintly be seen winding and turning continuously, connecting the upper and lower floors.
“It’s right here.”
Jiang Shan’s gaze shifted slightly. He knew the composition inside this house was very complex; not only was there a wandering fierce ghost, but also some unknown supernatural existences.
“Yang Jian, the plan Human Skin Paper gave you is: use those two ghosts to block the Ghost Painting’s perception, then use you and the Ghost Bride’s medium, that is, the Ghost Hand, to hold the woman in the Ghost Painting?”
Before going upstairs, Jiang Shan suddenly asked.
Though Yang Jian was somewhat puzzled, he still nodded: “Yes, the plan Human Skin Paper provided twice before is this one.”
Jiang Shan thought for a few seconds, then replied: “Got it, let’s go upstairs.”
Because the plan to control the Ghost Painting did have a certain feasibility; after all, in the original work, when Zhang Xiangguang had He Yuelian control the Ghost Painting, the fierce ghosts needed weren’t that many.
The key to controlling the Ghost Painting was to balance its terrifying supernatural nature.
Although the fierce ghosts Yang Jian used to balance the Ghost Painting Supernatural were a bit few, He Yuelian, who was an ordinary person back then, had still succeeded in controlling it.
So even if the Ghost Painting’s supernatural wasn’t completely balanced, the possibility of Yang Jian, as a Ghost Wielder, controlling the Ghost Painting was still very high.
The only thing that made Jiang Shan feel a trace of unease was Zhang Xiangguang, who had set up the trap with the Ghost Painting and lurked for decades—how could he possibly allow the Ghost Painting to be controlled?
If this grand scheme capable of destroying the domestic Supernatural Circle had Zhang Xiangguang as one of the masterminds behind the scenes,
then as the key to the “Peach Blossom Spring Plan” and the “Dajing City chaos” plan, would the place where the Ghost Painting’s body was placed really have no backup left by Zhang Xiangguang?
“As long as we see the source of the Ghost Painting, the rat behind this man-made disaster will come out on its own.” With that thought, Jiang Shan directly walked into this building.
The narrow aisle was dim and oppressive, with a chilling, damp breath hitting them in the face.
Jiang Shan’s expression remained unchanged as he looked left and right, then followed the aisle to the old wooden stairs.
It was clear that this house had some years on it and hadn’t been renovated, making it appear exceptionally dilapidated.
This place abroad was definitely rented to families in straitened circumstances or miserable workers going to work; people with slightly better conditions probably wouldn’t live here, as most people could hardly tolerate this rundown environment.
And the world of the Ghost Domain wasn’t real; it was copied from reality.
But the Ghost Painting was very special; the Ghost Domain could affect reality, so every scene here felt exceptionally real.
No,
everything that appeared here truly existed.
In other words,
the Ghost Painting’s first appearance was very likely right in this foreign building.
“Creak.”
As the group stepped on the stairs, the wooden stairs emitted a tooth-grinding sound, echoing up and down the floors in an especially weird and eerie way.
“My Ghost Domain can’t transfer you all. The source of the Ghost Painting is on the fourth floor, but there’s a ghost wandering on this staircase. Try to make your footsteps as light as possible.”
Just as they started up the stairs, Jiang Shan raised one hand, signaling to stop, then spoke.
Though Yang Jian and Chen Hao were astonished at how Jiang Shan was so certain about the Ghost Painting’s location and the intelligence that there was a ghost on the stairs, it was clearly not the time to focus on that now.
Suddenly,
a creaking footsteps sound came from the ceiling above them, as if someone with mobility issues was walking down the wooden stairs.
But soon the sound disappeared again, as if the footsteps had stopped somewhere upstairs.
“Not an echo.”
Yang Jian narrowed his eyes and looked up. Nothing was clear from this angle—it was all dim, and he couldn’t even tell which floor the footsteps were on.
“Is that the ghost on the stairs?”
Yang Jian frowned, but his heart didn’t ripple much.
Not to mention that he was now under the protection of the Music Box Curse, making it hard to die from a supernatural attack.
Moreover, he now knew this ghost’s killing pattern; for a ghost whose killing pattern was known, its terror was equivalent to being reduced by more than half.
The reason was that people encountering the ghost no longer needed to live in fear, worrying about being inexplicably attacked by it; nor did they need to risk their lives to figure out the ghost’s killing pattern.
After all, the unknown was the most terrifying.
“Is Jiang Shan’s intelligence reliable? If the Ghost Painting is really on the fourth floor… that means the Ghost Painting moved positions?”
Hearing the sound, Chen Hao furrowed his brows tightly. What he cared about wasn’t the ghost on the stairs, but that the Ghost Painting’s position had actually shifted.
If it were a humanoid fierce ghost, he might not have this doubt.
But the source of the Ghost Painting was an oil painting; if no one moved it, it was very unlikely to move on its own.
So how exactly had it moved from the third floor to the fourth floor?
However,
Chen Hao didn’t tell Jiang Shan about this anomaly; he thought he already knew, so he chose not to say more.
And Jiang Shan, who remembered from the original work that the Ghost Painting was on the fourth floor, didn’t think much about it after confirming it was on the fourth floor, where his Ghost Domain couldn’t invade.
Unwittingly,
the intelligence on the Ghost Painting had a deviation.
