Chapter 206: The Subjective Pattern
When the silver light covered the entire restaurant, the sound of knife and fork clashing against the porcelain plate coming from inside suddenly stopped.
“Not buddy?”
At this moment.
Jiang Shan stood in front of a dining table.
A spotless white tablecloth was laid on it, with a vase placed in the middle of the table containing a fresh and fragrant white rose, as if it had just been bought from a flower shop that morning, standing out starkly from the withered flowers on the other dining tables.
Next to the dining table was a white porcelain plate with a set of knife and fork beside it, and inside the plate was surprisingly a human face.
That human face faintly showed an expression of fear and despair.
Jiang Shan glanced at the knife and fork beside it, which were stained with blood, as if this human skin face had been brutally cut alive from a person’s face using that knife and fork—no, it wasn’t “as if,” that was exactly what had happened.
He even saw the fresh blood flowing from under that human skin face pooling at the bottom of the plate, emitting faint wisps of heat.
Everything indicated that something extremely terrifying had just been happening here.
“As I thought, it’s different from the tangible bloodstained newspaper in Yang Jian’s hand. Whether it was when I first crossed over and it appeared as the original host’s high school teacher, or in the original work when it deceived Yang Jian in the form of his father, all of this shows that the Newspaper Ghost needs a living person’s body to carry certain supernatural elements in order to manifest.”
“Yang Jian was right; the Newspaper Ghost doesn’t have an identity of its own at all. Without an identity, it means non-existence, and non-existence is likely idealistic.”
Jiang Shan glanced at the chair next to the dining table that seemed to have just been used.
Even though he had activated his Ghost Domain the moment he discovered this restaurant, and he had indeed sensed the existence of a “person” within the Ghost Domain.
But almost instantly, that person had vanished into thin air in a weird manner.
It was as if that person didn’t exist in this world, existing only in a world constructed by the supernatural.
Recalling that previous encounter, Jiang Shan had now confirmed a certain pattern of the Newspaper Ghost.
Because in the original work, although the process of Yang Jian detaining the Newspaper Ghost seemed elusive, a close look would reveal that neither the Newspaper Ghost’s ability nor its pattern was explained, not even the process of analysis.
It could control living corpses; it could disregard distance and use the idealistic fierce ghost of the smiling face ghost’s attack on headquarters, yet it was detained by Yang Jian so easily, with no further mentions of this ghost afterward.
So at this moment, Jiang Shan had to attempt to detain this Newspaper Ghost, which possessed Yang Xiaotian’s memory and the wisdom of a living person, through his own observation and analysis.
“If the ‘person’ in the restaurant just now was the Newspaper Ghost, then it proves it hasn’t occupied Tong Qian’s body yet, so to detain it, it must first exist.”
“Since I’ve already startled it, there’s no need for any more reservations.”
Jiang Shan had originally worried that the intelligent Newspaper Ghost would leave because of his arrival, but his earlier action had already broken this silent initiative.
Decisively, Jiang Shan took out a mirror from his pocket, framed with gold inlays.
This mirror was very small, like the compact mirror a girl carries for touch-ups.
The only difference was,
This small mirror wrapped in gold had an irregular shape, as if it were a piece of a broken mirror shard that had been remounted.
Without a doubt,
This Ghost Mirror Shard carried by Jiang Shan contained certain valuable items in its supernatural space.
“Cha~!”
The brief sound of a flint striking rang out.
Unlike the eerie green candle flame emitted by the Red Ghost Candle, the candlelight from the White Ghost Candle was black.
This black candlelight was even weirder than the green one; the moment it was lit, everything nearby was eroded, covered by a layer of darkness like smog or an endless abyss, seemingly isolating all interferences and connecting to some incomprehensible weird place.
After lighting the White Ghost Candle, Jiang Shan sat expressionlessly at the dining table holding the human face, smoking quietly as he waited for the unexpected change to appear.
Although the White Ghost Candle’s property of attracting fierce ghosts was quite special in a sense, it was also extremely terrifying.
Especially lighting it in a place for detaining fierce ghosts—what it would attract in the end, no one could be sure.
This unknowable unknown was the most terrifying part, and even Jiang Shan, who knew the intelligence on Caesar Grand Hotel, didn’t dare to be careless.
If lucky, the White Ghost Candle’s supernatural power might draw out the Newspaper Ghost.
If unlucky, it would attract unknown terrors, and perhaps not just one kind.
The Dead Face Ghost was still attached to Jiang Shan’s face at this moment; if some unknown and hard-to-resist supernatural appeared, he would immediately use his Ghost Domain to leave.
After all, the terrors in Caesar Grand Hotel weren’t limited to Li Qingzhi’s corpse.
Precisely because of this,
Jiang Shan was solemn at this moment, not arrogant due to his own strength, but vigilant to any movement around him.
Time passed second by second.
Thirty seconds after the White Ghost Candle was lit.
Suddenly, a footsteps sound abruptly rang out in the aisle outside the restaurant—heavy footsteps, each step bearing the full weight of a body, with no echo at all, and they appeared extremely suddenly, not approaching from afar but materializing out of thin air outside.
“As expected, Li Qingzhi was attracted first. Looks like my guess was right: the higher one’s puzzle piece completion, the stronger the perception of more terrifying supernatural ghosts toward the Ghost Candle. Wait a bit longer.”
Hearing that heavy footsteps sound, Jiang Shan knew it was the ghost in Li Qingzhi’s corpse drawn by the Ghost Candle, so it controlled his corpse to appear in the restaurant’s aisle.
The Newspaper Ghost hadn’t appeared yet, and Jiang Shan wasn’t anxious; after glancing at the door, he continued waiting.
About five seconds later, the footsteps suddenly stopped. Through the dim restaurant door, a vague tall black humanoid silhouette could be faintly seen standing abruptly behind the frosted glass door.
Although they were less than ten meters apart, separated only by an unlocked sliding door.
But Jiang Shan showed no panic at all.
Because he knew Li Qingzhi’s corpse’s killing pattern by heart; as long as he didn’t trigger the killing pattern, even dancing and singing in front of it wouldn’t result in any attack.
Although the ghost was very terrifying.
But as long as their killing patterns were known, the chances of surviving from the ghost’s hands would greatly increase.
For most relatively lucky people who hadn’t been attacked by ghosts, their deaths at the ghost’s hands were largely not because they weren’t smart enough to discover the ghost’s patterns.
But because of the fear in their hearts, which would stagnate their thinking and cause chaotic actions.
This was the fundamental reason they would be killed by ghosts.
