Chapter 59: Eerie Ghost, Great Harvest
The sound of swallowing saliva rang out at this moment.
Fear, horror, spine-chilling.
Lin Qian’s expression was grave, and he felt nauseous inside.
Xu Zhou, Yuan Xue, and the others felt severe psychological discomfort.
They felt like their eyes were dirtied.
What kind of head was that?
Eerie, chilling.
Countless eyes the size of cigarette butts, pitch black, densely covering the entire head.
Chin, nose, mouth, ears, scalp, all covered in such eyes.
The eyes piled together, wriggling.
Like maggots.
Xu Zhou couldn’t look anymore and quickly moved away his eyes.
The others did the same.
The door-banging sound continued, but its intensity grew weaker each time.
After just seven or eight times, the iron door no longer shook, and the banging sound abruptly stopped.
The moment the sound stopped, the naked woman holding the umbrella slowly turned around, the white umbrella covering the eerie head.
In the blink of an eye, she disappeared in the corridor.
“This is ridiculous… perfect body, a head that wastes it all.”
Lin Qian grumbled in his mind.
Sure enough, ghosts are never normal.
“That… that ghost…” Xu Zhou swallowed, still feeling uncomfortable inside.
Urp~!
Yuan Xue dry-heaved, nearly vomiting up stomach acid.
Fatty and Alice weren’t much better off.
Their stomachs felt queasy too, though the foreign little boy was okay. Alice had covered the little boy’s eyes the moment she noticed something wrong.
“Don’t talk about it. I’ve never seen such a disgusting ghost in my life.” Lin Qian waved his hand, and the mask on his face slowly disappeared.
In his life from birth until now, he’d encountered plenty of disgusting things, but something this revolting was a first.
It was practically a lower-body killer!
Lin Qian stopped thinking about that ghost.
The situation now wasn’t quite normal.
On the rooftop, he hadn’t smelled that eerie corpse stench.
But that didn’t mean the thing didn’t exist.
“Damn, fighting a ghost, and it has a second stage?”
Lin Qian tossed the fierce ghost in his hand onto the ground.
He ran straight to the rooftop edge and looked toward the direction he had fled from earlier.
The others didn’t understand what had happened and hurried over as well.
“Holy crap, what hornet’s nest did I stir up?”
Lin Qian’s expression grew grave.
Down on the street below, that fierce ghost was still standing in place.
Thick black water gurgled out from the crack on its back.
Human heads struggled and surged on the fierce ghost’s body.
The nearby streets and buildings were enveloped in a faint black mist.
The fierce ghosts emerging from alleys and buildings gathered on this street.
But they didn’t attack each other; instead, they stood on the black liquid.
Some fierce ghosts even pounced onto the ground and drank the black liquid with their mouths.
“This is creepy.”
The scene below made Lin Qian feel extremely eerie.
What was going on?
A fierce ghost in second stage mode, and the black water it leaked was some kind of nutrient?
Lin Qian didn’t understand and could only keep watching.
Xu Zhou and the others watched this eerie scene too.
They’d been here a while, but they’d never seen anything like this.
It was their first time seeing so many ghosts.
The scene was eerie; the fierce ghost leaking black water stood motionless in place.
And the black water kept spreading outward.
Gradually, several surrounding streets were covered in black water.
The fierce ghosts appearing on the streets stood motionless in the black water.
Lin Qian even spotted the umbrella-holding naked ghost.
She too stood in the black water, one snow-white jade foot stepping in it.
Lin Qian saw clearly: the veins on the female ghost’s foot were slowly turning black.
Clearly, the black water had entered the female ghost’s body.
“What is this?”
Lin Qian counted: several streets, about twenty ghosts in total.
These twenty or so ghosts had all emerged from the black mist-covered area.
All twenty-plus ghosts were taking in this black water into their bodies.
For a moment, Lin Qian couldn’t tell if the black water was invading these fierce ghosts or if the fierce ghosts were consuming the black water.
“This feels a bit dangerous…”
Normally speaking, this situation meant the black water on the ground was invading the fierce ghosts.
And that black mist was the medium attracting the fierce ghosts here.
Though it felt very dangerous, they should be safe here.
Lin Qian thought this but still felt something was off.
He checked the situation inside his body.
Without hesitation, he reached into the wound on his abdomen, feeling cold and rampant.
He directly yanked out a fierce ghost.
Lin Qian squatted on the rooftop wall, gazing below.
The fierce ghost in his hand slowly turned into a pool of liquid and merged into his arm.
Xu Zhou and the others saw this and no longer felt afraid.
Though still a bit shocked, having seen it too many times, they were getting used to it.
“Failed.”
Lin Qian narrowed his eyes, unperturbed. For an A-grade fierce ghost, plundering to crash it was all about luck.
Succeeding on the first try would be like winning the lottery jackpot.
Lin Qian kept observing below while his hands didn’t stop, repeatedly yanking fierce ghosts from his abdomen and plundering them.
His actions didn’t cease.
Xu Zhou and the others watched Lin Qian’s actions; after he repeated it thirty or so times, they stopped looking.
Numb, completely numb.
They watched the situation on the street below.
Scenes like this were rare.
“Did you note it down?” Xu Zhou asked softly.
Yuan Xue beside him nodded. “A total of twenty-six ghosts.”
Xu Zhou nodded in satisfaction. “The range covered by the black mist is these fierce ghosts’ activity range.”
“Knowing how many ghosts are nearby will make it much safer when we go looking for food next.”
“Understood.” Yuan Xue’s expression was grave, her gaze fixed unblinkingly on the fierce ghosts below.
She was trying to observe these ghosts’ killing patterns.
To lay some safety foundation for finding food in the future.
They discussed softly.
But Lin Qian had no time to listen.
His hands kept moving, his facial expression growing uglier.
When the fierce ghost turned into liquid and merged into his body again, his face stiffened.
“Crashed after fifty times?”
“You’re kidding.”
Lin Qian’s mouth twitched; it took plundering the same ghost fifty times to crash it.
That probability…
Utterly ridiculous.
Was it a probability issue or his luck?
Lin Qian rubbed his face, a bit conflicted.
“It should… probably… maybe… not be a luck issue, right.”
Lin Qian didn’t want to admit he was a super jinx.
Non-chief stuff…
Lin Qian shook his head firmly. “Absolutely not a luck problem, absolutely not!”
Suddenly.
Lin Qian’s gaze sharpened, instantly looking below.
“Good grief…”
Lin Qian was now certain: it wasn’t the fierce ghosts consuming the black water; it was the black water invading the fierce ghosts!
Below, the fierce ghosts standing in the black water suddenly began struggling.
Supernatural forces coursed through their bodies; they lifted their feet to leave the black water-covered streets.
But at that moment, the black water on the ground suddenly leaped up and wrapped around the fierce ghosts.
The black water clung to the fierce ghosts like mad venom.
The fierce ghosts struggled, their bodies twisting eerily.
But the black water became extremely viscous, emitting a thick rotten stench.
The fierce ghosts were pulled into the black water one by one.
In less than the time for a cup of tea, black protrusions appeared on the streets, dragged there by the clinging black water.
“What… is it doing?”
Lin Qian was puzzled.
But soon, he knew what the black water was doing.
The source ghost standing motionless in place suddenly twitched.
Then, a horrifying scene unfolded: the black water began retracting, rapidly dragging those fierce ghosts toward the source.
Lin Qian’s pupils shrank; the ghosts were pulled into the crack on the fierce ghost’s back!
One by one, fierce ghosts that didn’t seem terrifying were dragged into the crack on that ghost’s back.
Lin Qian watched with chills; it could even pull in ghosts, so him…
Good thing he ran fast.
He didn’t know what this ghost was doing.
His plundering of its fierce ghost seemed to have caused it issues.
“A dangerous fierce ghost.”
Lin Qian no longer planned to touch this ghost.
He had already obtained the ability he wanted.
【Flying Thunder God. Beggar Edition】
Next was another ghost, the one that walked without sound; its killing pattern was death if you made noise while walking.
This ghost’s killing pattern made it an ideal sneak attack ghost.
As long as you made noise walking, congrats, big move right in your face!
But Lin Qian wasn’t in a hurry; he kept watching below.
It was about to end soon.
The black water fully retracted, taking those fierce ghosts into the crack.
But suddenly, an extreme cold emerged.
From the viscous black water, a pale arm abruptly stretched out.
Immediately after, the black water eerily receded, spitting out a completely naked woman who, even sprawled on the ground, held a white umbrella.
At this moment, that woman had most of the densely packed eyes on her head closed.
The closed eyes left large black scars on her head.
Those were the closed eyes.
As the black water receded, the woman slowly stood up, holding the white umbrella to cover her head.
And the moment her head was covered, the closed eyes on her head suddenly opened.
The surrounding environment twisted slightly at that instant.
Lin Qian was startled inside. “This… terror level, what a joke!”
It could briefly distort the environment inside the ghost painting.
This ghost wouldn’t be an S-grade fierce ghost, would it?
The female ghost suddenly looked up toward them.
Lin Qian’s eyes narrowed instantly, meeting her gaze.
“Triggered the killing pattern?”
They might have already triggered this ghost’s killing pattern.
But due to this building, the fierce ghost wouldn’t attack them from afar.
One person and one ghost, far apart, staring at each other.
Just like before, when Lin Qian squatted on the rooftop watching it under the pillory.
That was their first encounter.
The fierce ghost slowly turned, the white umbrella fully covering its head, and its figure disappeared in the alley.
Lin Qian withdrew his gaze and looked to the other side.
In his mind, he directly rated this ghost’s danger as S-grade.
Twenty-five ghosts, all pulled into the crack on the fierce ghost’s back by the black water.
A total of twenty-six ghosts came; only one escaped, the rest didn’t get away.
All dragged into that crack.
As the twenty-five ghosts were pulled in, the crack on the fierce ghost’s body began slowly healing.
During healing, some fierce ghosts tried to escape the crack, but as soon as a hand emerged, black water pulled it back.
After about half an hour, the crack healed, the fierce ghost moved, and clothes reformed over its back.
Thud thud thud.
The fierce ghost lingered in place a moment, then turned and walked back along the road it came, muffled footsteps echoing on the street.
Even audible here.
But only the sound, no sight of it.
That fierce ghost had disappeared.
On the ground, footprints kept appearing, stretching into the distance.
The incident was over.
“This ghost, I can’t mess with it.”
No wonder after plundering three of its ghosts, he still couldn’t truly suppress it.
How many ghosts were in that back crack?
Undoubtedly, Lin Qian classified this ghost as S-grade, but only for terror level.
If it was a second stage fierce ghost, its harm level might also reach S-grade.
“The ghost painting is full of ghost talents; S-grade fierce ghosts aren’t everywhere, but there are plenty.”
Lin Qian stroked his chin; if not in a rush to leave, developing inside the ghost painting wasn’t impossible.
But the ghost painting was too dangerous.
Lin Qian gave up the idea of staying in the ghost painting to develop.
There were many ghosts in the ghost painting, but for him, it wasn’t a good place to grow.
Still, one word: too dangerous.
“Mommy!”
Suddenly, a shrill scream rang out.
Lin Qian’s mouth twitched slightly.
Xu Zhou and the others instantly looked toward the sound.
At once, their pupils shrank slightly.
Alice, face full of terror, ran toward the sound.
There, Hunter had somehow run to the side of the fierce ghost Lin Qian brought back.
He clutched his arm in agony, eyes full of despair and terror.
Xu Zhou’s expression grave, staring at Hunter’s arm.
The arm was turning blue-black, corpse spots emerging on the skin.
The bulging veins, like poisoning, were turning black.
Everyone watching this knew what was happening.
Hunter had touched that ghost.
Alice hugged Hunter tightly; seeing his eerie arm, how could she not know what her son had done.
She suddenly looked at Lin Qian, eyes pleading:
“Please, help him, he is just a child, not on purpose!”
Xu Zhou quickly looked at Lin Qian. “She’s begging you to save her child.”
Lin Qian was calm. “Though I don’t understand, I’m not stupid.”
He glanced indifferently at the pained, sweat-drenched little boy.
“I thought it would be Fatty or Alice touching the ghost, but it was you, little brat.”
“Makes sense; kids don’t know what fear is.”
Lin Qian came down from the wall and looked at Xu Zhou. “Chopping off the arm can save him.”
Xu Zhou, without hesitation, drew a dagger from his waist and stepped to Hunter.
He grabbed the deteriorating arm and chopped it off with one strike.
Clean and swift.
A small arm fell, black blood flowing out.
Thud thud thud.
Alice was stunned by the scene.
Hunter had already fainted.
Lin Qian went to Alice’s side, looking down at the mother and son pair with no sympathy in his eyes.
Looking at the nonstop-bleeding wound, Lin Qian was silent a moment, then lightly touched it.
The wound stopped bleeding instantly.
“Your child is very brave.”
“But understandable.”
Kids, after all, are full of curiosity about the unknown.
Hunter had touched the ghost he just brought back from outside.
Though this ghost had crashed, down below, due to the thick corpse stench, fierce ghost revival had already begun.
Though it didn’t fully revive in the end, the supernatural power lingered.
Touching it led to supernatural invasion by this ghost.
Lucky the ghost was still in a crashed state; otherwise, Hunter would be dead.
Xu Zhou looked at the staunched wound and breathed a sigh of relief.
His life was saved.
Lin Qian picked up the crashed ghost and directly controlled it.
Supernatural puzzle piece completed.
He instantly knew this ghost’s killing pattern.
“Death if you don’t move?”
Lin Qian’s gaze shifted, walking to the ghost he’d tossed here earlier, doing the same and directly controlling it.
Fierce ghost puzzle piece completed; Lin Qian instantly felt the crashed fierce ghost’s terror level reached an eerie height.
The fierce ghosts he now controlled were:
Ghost Performer: Terror Level A-grade（ One of the Ghost Play puzzle pieces）
Abilities: Borrowing a Body to Rebirth, Ghost Wind
Killing Pattern: Not looking and looking
Killer Ghost: Terror Level A-grade（ Source ghost of the first supernatural event with ghost domain in Da Jiang City）
Abilities: Passive evasion of supernatural attacks from any male, Ghost Domain
Killing Pattern: Man must die
Faceless Ghost: Terror Level A-grade（ Core fierce ghost of the faceless person in Taiping Ancient Town）
Ability: Peel Off Face Skin
Killing Pattern: Having a face triggers attack
Sneak Attack Ghost: Terror Level A-grade（ Plundered fierce ghost from Ghost Painting）
Ability: Can adapt to any killing pattern, walking without sound
Killing Pattern: Immobile, death if walking makes noise…
Ghost Messenger partial supernatural: Terror Level Unknown
Ability: Can brainlessly suppress three fierce ghosts
Killing Pattern: Fierce ghost below own suppression quota
“Luxurious lineup.”
Lin Qian’s eyes flickered slightly: four A-grade fierce ghosts, two crashed, two revived.
Plus Ghost Messenger’s suppression power.
Now, handling A-grade supernatural events was no problem; he could even try S-grade supernatural events.
If he completed part of the Ghost Play puzzle, his strength…
Unimaginable, simply unimaginable.
Lin Qian’s heart grew hot; Sneak Attack Ghost was his own name for it—its ability was outrageous. No ghost domain, but comparable to the Ghost Messenger with one.
And he already had a ghost domain himself.
“Among the new generation of ghost controllers, I’m probably far ahead now.”
His current setup was undeniably luxurious.
Against any new-era ghost controller, he could win.
Even one-shot them.
Of course, one person excepted.
“Wah wah wah~…”
A woman’s sobbing rang out; Lin Qian came back to his senses and looked toward the source.
It was Alice.
She held the unconscious Hunter, sobbing helplessly.
Xu Zhou sighed, wiped his dagger, put it away, and gently patted Alice’s back.
He said no comforting words, unsure what to say.
Lin Qian looked at the rotting severed arm on the ground, somewhat silent.
He couldn’t heal; none of his ghosts could heal.
Using supernatural to stop bleeding and pain was the limit.
Though this was the child’s deserved end, it was still just a child.
Lin Qian exhaled, looking at Xu Zhou. “I’m going into that mansion.”
“At most rest here one day, then leave.”
“Before I go, I’ll catch a ghost for you all to control.”
“Um, consider it a meeting gift.”
Xu Zhou was stunned; wasn’t this too rushed?
Rest one day and leave?
This…
Deep down, he didn’t want Lin Qian to leave.
With Lin Qian here, at least they wouldn’t die so quickly.
But Lin Qian had his own plans; he couldn’t interfere, didn’t dare to.
He could only agree.
“Okay.” He nodded.
Lin Qian nodded too, grabbed a rag, and scooped some ashes from the bucket.
Then he leaned against the wall, eyes slightly closed, starting to nap.
The others, seeing this, walked and spoke more quietly, afraid to disturb Lin Qian.
They had no issue with Lin Qian taking the ashes mixture; he took little.
If it were them, they might take the whole bucket.
Leaving nothing for the survivors here.
Lin Qian napped with eyes closed:
“Check inside the mansion; complete the Ghost Performer puzzle if possible, if not, whatever. I should head back anyway.”
Thinking this, Lin Qian let his consciousness sink into sleep.
