Chapter 99: The Truth
“That’s it.” Yue Linhai’s tone was relaxed, as if he had just done something utterly insignificant.
The instant the Ghost Candle went out.
The world in Zhang Qian’s eyes suddenly changed.
The surrounding light dimmed all at once. The clear weather that had been cloudless just moments ago turned overcast, with thick clouds blocking the sun, leaving only faint rays of light illuminating the environment.
Everything seemed to be covered in a filter: the brown of the wooden floor, the lush green of the weeds, the blue-green of the algae on the river surface…
These vibrant colors faded away in an instant, leaving only dull black and white. It was as if they were in a world inside a black and white photo, where everything felt somewhat unreal.
Xu Zheng beside him was also shocked by the changes before his eyes. He rubbed his eyes, confirming he wasn’t seeing things.
If it wasn’t an illusion, then it could only be the influence of a Ghost Domain. But a Ghost Domain of this scale…
They clearly hadn’t encountered Ghost Controllers of this strength before. Why had they run into two in just half a day in Da Dong?
Xu Zheng felt his heart growing weary. He secretly decided to avoid Zhang Qian on future missions.
He had thought controlling two ghosts made him pretty strong, but now it seemed he was still too green. High-level matches like this could be left to Zhang Qian alone.
Fortunately, Yue Linhai didn’t attack them when the Ghost Candle went out. On the contrary, he seemed very pleased with Xu Zheng’s shocked expression, and his tone became lighthearted again.
“How about it? Now this is what I call strange, right?”
Zhang Qian nodded and asked, “Is this an illusion?”
“Illusion?”
Yue Linhai glanced at the surrounding environment and said with a hint of emotion, “The scene before was the illusory one. This is the true appearance of this old house. A world with only black and white colors is revolting to look at, so that’s why I didn’t want to come back here.”
At this moment, the colors had also faded from Yue Linhai’s body. But since he was originally wearing a black Zhongshan Suit, aside from the change in skin tone, there was no noticeable difference.
Zhang Qian looked down at his own body and found his situation was much the same as Yue Linhai’s—like a black and white photo, with no color existing.
Not only him, but Xu Zheng beside him was the same, including the Cloaked Fierce Ghost by his side. The black cloak’s color had become even deeper.
However, the cloak’s enclosure was good, so it was still unknown if the fierce ghost was affected.
The changes hadn’t ended. Besides the colors turning black and white, the size of the entire space began to change as well.
The old house before had a garden-style structure, with various rockeries and greenery inside. Though it covered a large area, it was still within the normal range.
But as the sky darkened, the surrounding space began to stretch eerily. This garden’s area was starting to exceed the scope of a building.
The most intuitive change was the covered bridge under Zhang Qian’s feet. Clearly, he could see the end at a glance before, but now he could only see the wooden floor extending continuously until it vanished into the darkness.
Not only that, as the covered bridge stretched in length, pale paper lanterns suddenly appeared out of thin air on both sides.
The number of lanterns increased with the corridor’s extension, and for a moment, it was impossible to count how many there were.
“No retreat either.”
Zhang Qian looked back. The entrance where he had come onto the bridge was also rapidly receding. That vermilion main entrance kept shrinking and, in the blink of an eye, turned into a small dot and disappeared.
“Holy…” Xu Zheng was already leaning on the railing and immediately noticed the change in the water surface.
It might be more appropriate to call it the sea surface now.
The artificial river, which had looked like a stagnant pool before, had now become vast and boundless. Whether left, right, front, or back, there was no end in sight.
Chilling winds of unknown origin blew across the sea surface, constantly stirring up surging waves.
“The Ghost Candle went out, so we entered a supernatural land? But we didn’t light the Ghost Candle before, so why didn’t such a change happen then?”
Calming himself, Zhang Qian looked at Yue Linhai, who had a smile all over his face. He had the feeling this guy was inexplicably thrilled.
Some escaped lunatic…
Zhang Qian withdrew his gaze and said calmly, “This really is eye-opening… But aren’t we going to worship your father? Now that the space has become this big, we should walk faster.”
No matter how strong the old house owner and Yue Linhai were now, their influence on Zhang Qian wasn’t actually that great.
Anyway, they were unbeatable. Whether the gap was tenfold or a hundredfold, to Zhang Qian, it was all just instant kills with little difference.
Anyway, he was out of options. Better to have the Post Office come out early and take care of this family of monsters.
“Oh?” Yue Linhai said playfully, “No rush. Don’t you like looking at the scenery? The road is still long. We can take it slow.”
Zhang Qian was somewhat stunned. Why did it feel like Yue Linhai was deliberately going against them, as if he wanted to toy with them with his absolute strength?
Unfortunately, even knowing Yue Linhai’s intentions, Zhang Qian had no way to resist. The situation was stronger than the people; without enough strength, resistance was just suicide.
Yue Linhai was now leaning on the railing, leisurely blowing in the icy cold chilling wind, his narrowed eyes showing some enjoyment.
The white lantern above his head swayed continuously, as if someone were shaking it from inside.
After thinking for a moment, Zhang Qian also leaned on the railing and feigned ease as he said, “Living in this kind of environment all the time must be really uncomfortable. But this place probably didn’t look like this at the beginning, right? Why has it become like this now? Is it because of your father?”
Zhang Qian had figured it out: facing this kind of fun-loving person, you definitely couldn’t rush. Once you revealed your intentions, Yue Linhai would surely deliberately mess with you.
Since Yue Linhai wanted to stall for time, he might as well use the opportunity to probe for some information.
The delivery mission still had seven days left. Did this guy really have the patience to drag it out for seven days?
Even if he did, the mourning period probably wouldn’t last that long. According to him, the old house owner had been dead for several days, so the funeral shouldn’t take many more days to end.
With both of them stopped, Xu Zheng had no choice but to stop too, casting an inquiring look at Zhang Qian.
Zhang Qian just gave him a look, letting him figure it out himself.
So Xu Zheng could only stand in a row with them, full of confusion.
“Mm, indeed, it’s because of my father.” Yue Linhai blew in the chilling wind and admitted generously.
“But I don’t know what this garden looked like before either. At least since I can remember, this place has been transformed by him into this ghostly state. As for the reason, naturally it was to counter those ghostly things, according to him.”
Yue Linhai cleared his throat and imitated the old man’s voice, “In this day and age, just surviving is hard enough. As for living comfortably, that’s not something I should worry about.”
