Chapter 137: Thirty-six Dissecting Ghosts
After Jiang Shan and the others safely passed a few hours, anomalies arose everywhere.
First, Liu Qi inexplicably died in his sleep,
then the male university student “died of old age” right under everyone’s eyes.
At some inadvertent moment, they triggered the ghost’s killing pattern, and thus suffered a ghost attack.
And the most terrifying thing was,
this curse could not even be stopped by Jiang Shan, who had controlled four ghosts.
“The problem now is not just finding that ghost’s killing pattern; the urgent matter is to know where it is?”
“If the ghost that launched the attack is one from the ghost tide, then it’s no longer safe here, and we can only head towards that path deliberately left by the ghost.”
Jiang Shan smoked, calmly analyzing the changes around him.
Glancing at the woman who was also aging and discovering she had died, he then looked at the panicked crowd and spoke:
“Qin Xi, Zhang Dongxing, you two lead the remaining four towards that path. Once any abnormality appears in the surrounding ghosts, don’t wait for my command—leave immediately along the path.”
Hearing this, Qin Xi and Zhang Dongxing nodded solemnly, then organized the crowd to head towards that “safe path.”
Based on his previous conclusion about the ghost candle flame, Jiang Shan lit the ghost candle once again.
“If we want to verify whether these inexplicable curses are really from the surrounding group of restricted ghosts, simply lighting the ghost candle is far from enough, because without being attacked, the ghost candle flame is hard to show much change.”
“This group of surrounding ghosts didn’t launch any attacks for a full three hours, instead constantly wandering in the woods, which very likely indicates their perception is blocked, or their killing pattern is restricted.”
“That ghost has already launched a curse on people, which means the restriction on it has disappeared. It should now be in a resurrection state. Luckily, I have a way to test it quickly.”
Blood-red ghost characters spread from under Jiang Shan’s feet like an alternative blood tide.
The extremely blood-red ghost characters followed the uneven gullies in the woods, slowly approaching the darkness surging with the ghost tide.
When they spread to the feet of the group of ghosts, the ghost characters slowly climbed up their bodies, covering their entire forms.
One ghost,
two ghosts.
When a large swath of black tide was thoroughly dyed blood-red, this weird scene finally stopped.
The scene at this moment,
was like a blood line flowing into viscous black ink, with a touch of terrifying and weird red mixed into the darkness!
“What is Brother Jiang doing? Is he going to break the balance here? If that’s really the case, what should I do?”
Zhang Dongxing, who had followed Jiang Shan through the “slaughterhouse” incident, watched the reddish-black woods with furrowed brows.
Zhang Dongxing naturally knew what that weird scene in the woods was about, but because he didn’t know Jiang Shan’s intentions, he fell into confusion for a moment.
After hesitating repeatedly,
he chose to use the luck ghost’s ability on Jiang Shan.
A pleasant yet inexplicably irritating yin wind blew past.
Seize thoughts and steal affections, alter fate and change luck.
Even if the luck ghost dead machined, its instinct had not disappeared.
After enduring some effect from the luck ghost, the dazed Zhang Dongxing had dazed eyes. He barely maintained his standing posture, staring intently at the distance.
At the same time,
the ghost characters had already dyed nearly half the area of the surrounding woods.
Perhaps because those fierce ghosts had their perception blocked, or perhaps because those fierce ghosts were in a dormant state.
One hundred ninety-seven ghosts,
this was the limit of the ghost characters’ main body quantity, not the limit of the supernatural in Jiang Shan’s body.
“If that ghost is really one from this hundred ghosts ghost tide, then it’s no longer safe here. Even if it causes some unexpected change, that doesn’t matter.”
“But there are quite a few weird ghosts here. Although they are also wandering, unlike most ghosts’ ruleless wandering and pacing, their movements are very stiff.”
After noting this anomaly in his mind, suddenly a familiar feeling surged in Jiang Shan’s heart.
“The luck ghost’s supernatural?”
Glancing at the unwell Zhang Dongxing, he immediately urged the densely packed ghost characters covering the hundred ghosts.
The ghost characters’ killing pattern of death upon touch erupted on those one hundred ninety-seven ghosts in the woods.
“The ghost candle flame’s fluctuation shows no difference from before. The ghosts here are still restricted by some unknown force. They remain in a non-resurrection state, without even showing basic ghost characteristics.”
Jiang Shan calmly looked at the ghost tide in the woods before him that had stopped surging.
Normally,
even if a ghost’s terror level is not high and its puzzle piece completion is insufficient,
but in resurrection or full resurrection states, due to supernatural characteristics, the ghost’s surroundings will involuntarily emit supernatural.
That chilling coldness comes from this.
But he felt no trace of supernatural chilling coldness or the threat of triggering ghost instinct attack from these ghosts.
On the contrary,
from these numb, stiff group of ghosts, he felt a familiar sensation.
Slaughterhouse,
ghosts in an infinite restart state, nearly dead machined.
Although these ghosts’ situations were not exactly the same as those, their states were almost indistinguishable from “dead machine”!
After discovering this anomaly,
Jiang Shan’s expression showed no change. He calmly looked at the short old man covered in ghost characters.
“Hm?!”
Just a few seconds after the ghost characters’ attack launched, Jiang Shan’s face darkened. He narrowed his eyes and solemnly looked at the short old man.
The ghost that had always been in a state of dullness suddenly raised its hands, covering its hollow black eye sockets.
At the same time,
certain ghosts in the woods with weird behaviors all made the same motion in unison.
“Thirty-five ghosts? This number…”
After counting the ghosts making the face-covering motion, Jiang Shan frowned tightly:
“If these ghosts are related to that man, plus the ghost shopkeeper, that makes thirty-six ghosts in total. This number again—did this group from the Republic of China era love this number so much?”
The ghost candle flame in Jiang Shan’s hand showed little change, but a faint ominous feeling arose in his heart.
The ghost characters, silent for a long time, unprecedentedly appeared in his mind once again.
Only this time,
the ghost characters could no longer present clearly in image form as before.
Like the human skin paper, they appeared in textual form, fragmented in Jiang Shan’s mind:
“I am Jiang Shan… when you passed… I died in Shen Bao’s control… seventy percent ghost rain”
“I must leave… otherwise he… thirty-six dissecting ghosts will… and seventeen seconds… dead”
