Mysterious Awakening

Night.

Yang Jian was alone in his room, looking over the incident report from Z City and the files of the related personnel.

Having already read through the information on Gui Lian Tong Qian, there was no need to review it, but he had limited contact with the other two International Ghost Controllers who had gone to Z City—they only looked somewhat familiar to him.

"It's actually him... Feng Quan," Yang Jian recognized a familiar file.

The person dispatched to support Z City this time was Feng Quan, the one Yang Jian had rescued from Huanggang Village in the past.

Feng Quan was the first International Ghost Controller from Dachang City, trapped by the Ghost Coffin incident in Huanggang Village until Yang Jian arrived and broke the deadlock, solving the supernatural event and rescuing him.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Jianguo had sent him to Z City this time.

The other file also featured someone Yang Jian had met before, Guo Fan, an International Ghost Controller who had entered the city with Zhao Jianguo during the Hungry Ghost incident and was responsible for transporting the Hungry Ghost away.

Feng Quan and Guo Fan should be considered top-tier Ghost Controllers.

Clearly, Zhao Jianguo had put a lot of thought into resolving the Z City incident, summoning two very significant players.

Not only that, but Yang Jian also saw a list of external support: Luo Su Yi, Huang Fei, Lin Luomei.

"It's the 'rookie trio' who came looking for me last time, I remember they should be members of the supernatural forum. How did Zhao Jianguo manage to get people from the supernatural forum? Could it be some back-door deal with Ye Zhen, the forum administrator?" Yang Jian pondered.

It was a pity that he didn't have the files of this 'rookie trio.'

Since they weren't International Ghost Controllers, naturally there wouldn't be any file backups.

"Including the missing Tong Qian, there are at least six Ghost Controllers in Z City right now, and if Xiong Wenwen and I go over tomorrow, that'll make eight... What on earth requires such a large-scale operation?"

"The Z City People Head Balloons incident."

Yang Jian turned to the last file.

This was the file recording the supernatural events in Z City, not much information inside, just some brief descriptions and a few on-site photos.

The photos showed a cityscape with black objects floating in the sky above.

Turning to the next photo, which was taken closer, the black objects floating in the sky turned out to be pale, head-like balloons, unnaturally still as if released by someone to float there, and thus it was no wonder they were called the People Head Balloons incident.

"Every night, people in Z City would die mysteriously, their heads floating up like balloons, suspended in the sky above the city, with the number of heads increasing daily."

"Supernatural cause unknown, method of killing unknown."

The two 'unknowns' indicated that this was a ghost never before recorded in any file, all information was absent, requiring the International Ghost Controllers to explore at their own risk.

It was precisely because of this reason that Tong Qian had fallen, her life and death uncertain.

"Based on the current casualties, this supernatural event has been defined as Level B, but since the incident hasn't been quickly resolved, considering the casualties are continuously increasing, and with Tong Qian's disappearance, headquarters has defined the incident as Level A."

"A Level B horror degree, yet possessing Level A harm, no wonder that Guo Fan went to Z City."

Yang Jian had encountered this Guo Fan before; the guy had been quite dissatisfied that Yang Jian had earned recognition for resolving a Level S supernatural event and had become famous in the circle, so this time going to Z City was probably his attempt to claim some glory.

After all, once headquarters defines the level of an event, solving the corresponding level's event would be credited to you as an achievement.

"If this were just an ordinary supernatural incident, that would be one thing, but Zhao Lei's appearance complicated matters when a ghost capable of altering memories sneaked into Z City. If not properly resolved, and if the ghost controlling Zhao Lei grows in strength, then without a doubt, this would turn into another Level S supernatural event."

After finishing reading the materials, Yang Jian thought for a while and then began preparing for his trip tomorrow.

Some standard equipment, a handgun, bullets, a baton, documents, satellite positioning cell phone... these were definitely indispensable.

Then there were the special items: the Ghost Rope and Ghost Candle were unquestionably necessary to bring.

"Should I bring this face-covering cloth?"

Yang Jian looked at a small box in the room, which contained the face-covering cloth he had obtained from the Ghost Car incident.

It had the outline of a crying face and might be connected to Tong Qian, who had a smiling face.

Moreover, the memory-altering ghost also used the copying of human faces to steal others' memories, so this face-related cloth might have some connection.

"I'll bring it; it might turn out to be useful," Yang Jian decided to take it anyway. Having it couldn't hurt, as it wouldn't do any harm if not used.

After checking several times to ensure nothing was missed, his gaze shifted back to the floor.

Of course, Yang Jian wasn't looking at the floor but at the spot where, deep below, ten thousand meters down, there was a box containing person-skin paper.

Before the Ghost Car incident, he had sent the person-skin paper deep underground.

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Now, with various information missing in Z City and given the presence of the memory-altering ghost, this key message-revealing person-skin paper seemed particularly important… yet dealing with such eerie items was truly unsettling.

"The information on this incident is critical; I must rely on the person-skin paper. Whether I use it or not, I'll decide when the time comes. And if this incident isn't handled well, the danger involved would not just be as simple as this sheet of person-skin paper."

After much consideration, Yang Jian decided to bring this item with him this time.

Keep in mind, he didn't carry the person-skin paper with him even during the Hungry Ghost incident.

That was because information on the Hungry Ghost incident was already thoroughly detailed, and it was only a matter of lacking the capability to resolve it, but this time was different. He was facing a terrifying existence that could alter memories at will.

If you're not careful and get caught in their tricks, you might not die, but you'll be at the mercy of ghosts playing with your memory, completely under their control.

So this time, Yang Jian might not have to risk his life, but he absolutely had to be extremely careful.

As he was preparing, Jiang Yan's voice came from the corridor, "Yang Jian, are you upstairs?"

She was even more timid than Zhang Liqin, rarely daring to come to the fifth floor alone, knowing that there were unclean things there and that it was taboo.

"What's up?" Yang Jian replied.

"I pieced together those scraps of paper from last time, do you want to come take a look?" Jiang Yan sighed with relief. It would be scary if Yang Jian weren't there, especially since odd noises were sometimes heard coming from upstairs.

Yang Jian said, "Alright, I'll be right over."

With his preparations nearly done, he picked up a body bag and headed downstairs.

He stopped for a moment as he passed the room with the Ghost Mirror, looked at it, and then remembered that his body was different now, unable to leave a shadow on the Ghost Mirror. Otherwise, for the sake of caution, he might even leave a shadow on the Ghost Mirror before going on a trip.

The Ghost Car incident had nearly been Yang Jian's downfall, making him exceptionally cautious.

In no time at all, Jiang Yan, grinning from ear to ear, took Yang Jian by the hand to her bedroom.

"How are you going to thank me for this big favor I've done for you? I haven't slept well for five or six days because I was piecing together these scraps for you."

"I'll give you a raise later," Yang Jian said.

Jiang Yan responded, "No, I don't want a raise, I want you to sleep with me tonight. Look, I've even made the bed."

"Aren't you scared I'll turn into a zombie and kill you at night?" Yang Jian teased her.

"Ah, you can turn into a zombie now?" Jiang Yan shivered with fright.

She had witnessed Yang Jian losing control before, which had happened while they were living in the apartment.

"No," Yang Jian changed his statement.

"Fine, you're just trying to scare me. I feel like I might be scared to death by you someday," Jiang Yan said with a mix of tears and laughter, finding her boyfriend far from normal.

Ignoring Jiang Yan's clinginess, Yang Jian flipped through a notebook that had been pieced together.

It contained various notes that Zhao Lei had written when his memory was being manipulated.

Yang Jian had already checked everything but asked Jiang Yan to put it together again to make sure no clue was missed.

Being careful is always the right move.

"There's nothing of value, wait..." After going through the notebook several times and thinking it was useless, Yang Jian noticed that on the upper-right corner of several pages, there was a small character written in each corner.

The handwriting was tiny, inconspicuous when viewed individually, but as he quickly flipped through the pages, these characters formed an incomplete sentence.

The pages were nailed together out of order, so they couldn't make a complete sentence. Yang Jian copied down each character from the upper-right corners and tried to put them together coherently.

The words were few, easy to put together.

A sentence appeared before him: Room 31, Caesar Hotel in Z City.

"How's that possible? How could Zhao Lei know the ghost would go to that place?" Yang Jian's gaze sharpened.

This sentence was exactly like the message from the Ghost Cabinet, the only difference being the door number.

The Ghost Cabinet had the number 13, whereas the message Zhao Lei left before his death was for room 31.

Checking the crucial numbers on the notebook again, it was indeed 31, written as a whole, so there was no chance of having arranged it backwards.

"Was this sentence written by Zhao Lei, or by the ghost? If it was Zhao Lei, then this sentence is highly credible, but if it was the ghost, could this be a trap set deliberately by the ghost?"

Rooms 13 and 31 are two different rooms.

If Zhao Lei was in one of them, then the other must hold some kind of immense horror.

Because if the trap was set by the ghost to kill Yang Jian, it would have to be extremely dangerous.

"So, should I trust Zhao Lei's notebook, or should I trust the Ghost Cabinet?" Yang Jian's heart sank.

He was already sensing an eerie foreboding before even setting out for Z City.

All these doubts seemed like a trap set long in advance, targeting him.

But when it came to making a judgment, Yang Jian inclined towards the message from the Ghost Cabinet because it demanded he find the Ghost Bride within a year, so it wouldn't likely use false information to send him to his death—then who would continue to trade with it?

However, Zhao Lei's message had been left before his death.

If the ghost was plotting, it wouldn't likely be possible, because at that time, Yang Jian had no idea any of this was going to happen.

Both pieces of information seemed trustworthy and also suspect.

But the messages were different, meaning one of them must be fake.

It was even possible that both were false.

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