This world of three years ago is now collapsing and dissipating at an unimaginable speed.

And as this illusory world dissipates, it is only now discovered that Yang Jian, Wang Shanshan, and the Ghost Child never returned to the so-called three years ago at all, but have been in this room all along. Everything they just experienced was not real, like a dream, or an illusion in their minds.

“Back?”

Wang Shanshan is now surveying her surroundings, standing in a wooden room with a candle lit inside. The dim light flickers, casting her shadow on the wall.

Besides, what makes Wang Shanshan feel somewhat eerie is that in the middle of the room there is actually a wooden shelf with a stone on it. No, it is not a stone; it is a curled-up mummified corpse. This mummy covered in layers of dust seems to have formed a stone-like skin, at a glance looking just like a gray stone.

However, strangely, the mummy’s head has no eyelids, and the eye sockets are large, occupying most of its face, with the insides pitch black, like an unfathomable abyss, impossible to probe.

Wang Shanshan stared at the eye sockets of the mummy. An eerie force made her somewhat lost, unable to tear her eyes away for a moment.

Suddenly.

In the hollow, dark eye sockets, a pair of fresh eyeballs suddenly appeared, turning to meet Wang Shanshan’s gaze.

Wang Shanshan was startled, instinctively stepping back a few paces because she realized that the suddenly appearing eyes were very familiar, identical to her own. At that moment, it felt as if two versions of herself were staring at each other.

Even more, she began to doubt whether she was inside or outside the hollow eye sockets at that moment.

Not daring to think too much.

Wang Shanshan hurriedly shifted her gaze, refraining from approaching the dusty mummy on the wooden shelf.

“Wait, why hasn’t Yang Jian returned to normal yet?” She noticed that she had regained movement after escaping the strange attraction of the mummy but Yang Jian still stood there immovable.

Yang Jian’s state is peculiar; he has no injuries, yet his eyes remain open, unmoving.

Moreover, Wang Shanshan observed that Yang Jian’s eyes at this moment were pitch-black and hollow, seemingly devoid of consciousness.

“Yang Jian.” Wang Shanshan tried calling a few times, hoping to awaken him.

But it was to no avail.

Yang Jian still stood there unresponsive, with no reaction to external sounds; instead, it was the Ghost Child who reacted, tilting his head to look at Wang Shanshan.

“Is there a problem? Or perhaps he is trapped in that world and has not escaped, whereas I have exited, so Yang Jian should be fine too, because if he had issues, I would definitely have them too.” Wang Shanshan thought, slightly furrowing her brows.

Nonetheless, she lacked much supernatural experience and couldn’t judge the current situation.

Suddenly.

Wang Shanshan thought of something, reached out to feel around her body.

A small golden box was taken out.

“This is still on me?” Inside the box she opened was a dark brown parchment.

She recalled that in the world of three years ago she traded this item to Yang Jian.

“It seems that actions taken in that world do not affect reality; everything is like a dream.”

Wang Shanshan hesitated a bit while staring at the parchment, then looked at Yang Jian again, finally deciding to take out the parchment.

“Ghost Child, come here.” Wang Shanshan commanded.

The Ghost Child immediately ran over barefoot.

“If the parchment tries to escape my hand, eat it.” Wang Shanshan said seriously.

The Ghost Child still tilted its head, eyes without pupils emitting a faint red glow, unclear if it heard.

Wang Shanshan did this because she witnessed uncontrollable factors with the parchment in the world three years ago; she must prevent such occurrences while using it now.

Spreading the parchment in her hand, she observed the surroundings again, finally confirming no issues before questioning the parchment: “Tell me, what’s happening to Yang Jian now?”

At this moment, the parchment seemed to have lost its supernatural power and did not respond to Wang Shanshan’s question.

“If you won’t answer, I will feed you to the Ghost Child. After all, the Ghost Child will acquire your supernatural powers if it eats you, and feeding it afterwards will be the same.”

Wang Shanshan picked up the parchment, preparing to stuff it into the Ghost Child’s mouth.

After all, in the previous world, the Ghost Child had eaten a parchment and nothing bad happened; it even became smarter, obedient, answering queries promptly and cooperatively.

Besides, Wang Shanshan was unlike Yang Jian, who would consider issues of the Ghost Child losing control; she even thought feeding it the parchment was the right choice.

At this moment, the parchment seemed to ‘panic.’

In a blink, a line of black twisted text emerged.

Wang Shanshan frowned slightly, reluctantly taking back the parchment from the Ghost Child’s mouth.

Upon unfolding it again: I am Yang Jian; when you read this sentence, I am no longer in this world.

This time there was only this line, no other text appeared.

This is not the parchment’s prelude, but stating a fact.

“Yang Jian isn’t dead, but he is no longer in this world, is that what it means? So, he is still trapped in that world?”

Wang Shanshan suddenly raised her head to look at Yang Jian again.

The worst-case scenario has occurred.

Both she and the Ghost Child have escaped, yet Yang Jian is left in that world.

“How long will Yang Jian be trapped in that world?” Wang Shanshan asked again.

The parchment quickly displayed text, with only two words: “Forever.”

Being trapped forever, though not dead, is tantamount to death.

Upon seeing this, Wang Shanshan’s facial expression changed slightly, then she continued: “Is there any way to help Yang Jian escape from that world?”

The parchment did not show new text for this inquiry.

“Still refusing to answer? Do you really wish for Yang Jian to permanently leave this world?” Wang Shanshan asked.

Subsequently, new text appeared again: “No one can bring Yang Jian back; he has already left this world.”

When Wang Shanshan saw this sentence, her expression immediately became grim.

The parchment does not lie; saying so means it is definitely true.

At this moment.

Yang Jian is alive, still haunted by the scene of the haunted house elderly suddenly attacking him earlier echoing in his mind.

An irresistible despair and the feeling of being instantly killed.

This was not pleasant.

But seemingly fortunate, at the last second, the world collapsed, the ancient house elderly Zhang Dong disappeared, which indicated his attack stopped abruptly, allowing Yang Jian to survive; he did not die.

“Something seems off.” Yang Jian quickly sensed something was wrong.

Though the world from three years ago had collapsed and vanished, Yang Jian had not returned to his original place.

The sky still held the outline of the wooden house.

The ghostly children around him had all disappeared as well, leaving nothing but emptiness, with only him remaining.

He checked himself,

and discovered that his body was uninjured; the previous attack by Zhang Dong had not left him missing limbs.

“No, that’s not right. It seems my supernatural powers have gone silent. Did Zhang Dong erase the supernatural within me again during that last strike?”

He then realized he was unable to use his supernatural powers at the moment, although the fierce ghost residing in his body was still there, it showed no signs of activity.

Having lost all supernatural powers, even the long spear that had cracked in his hand had disappeared.

Yang Jian frowned, deep in thought.

Eventually, he gained some understanding of his current situation.

“I should be trapped at the intersection of illusion and reality. Under normal circumstances, I could use a large-scale reboot to reverse this predicament, but I can’t do that now. My supernatural powers are dormant because of what Zhang Dong did, so I cannot rescue myself.”

“So the final attack wasn’t meant to kill me but to trap me at that last moment.”

Yang Jian was shocked as he thought of this.

Had Zhang Dong already discovered that the worlds of illusion and reality coexist?

If not, how could he employ such a tactic?

“Moreover, such an attack targeted only me. The ghost child isn’t here, indicating it has already left. I believe Wang Shanshan is the same.”

Yang Jian saw that he was the only one left here and understood the situation.

But the more he understood, the more shocked he felt.

Someone constructed from a supernatural world can influence reality.

Under normal conditions, Yang Jian should have escaped the disturbances of the previous world and returned to normal.

Some of the current circumstances were beyond Yang Jian’s understanding; he only knew that the last attack by the Haunted house’s elder, Zhang Dong, had left him in this ghostly place.

“In this situation, I have no means to break free. The only way is to rely on external changes or wait for time to pass until my body’s supernatural powers return to normal…”

Yet, staying here alone, he couldn’t even sense the passing of time.

No matter how long Yang Jian waited, he never felt any change within himself.

Gradually, he developed a rough theory.

Perhaps it wasn’t his body trapped in this world, but his consciousness.

So Zhang Dong’s parting words: sending you on your way.

Referred to sending Yang Jian’s consciousness on a road of no return.

“If it’s the consciousness that’s trapped, then the only one who can save me might be the Evil Hound.” Yang Jian thought secretly.

But here’s the problem.

If his consciousness was trapped, the Evil Hound might save him, but who would give the command to the Evil Hound?

However, inside the wooden house, Wang Shanshan looked at the human skin paper and came to some understanding: “No one can save Yang Jian, in other words, what can save Yang Jian isn’t a person, right?”

The human skin paper did not respond.

“Here, the only one that fits this condition is the Ghost Child.” Wang Shanshan continued to ponder.

But she didn’t think the Ghost Child could help.

However, at this moment, Wang Shanshan suddenly heard footsteps coming from downstairs in the wooden house, the sound of footsteps ascending the staircase.

“Yang Jian, are you there?”

Then a voice called out, it was Liu Qi’s shout.

Time had passed for a long while, though according to the previous agreement if time ran out without Yang Jian coming out of the wooden house alive, Liu Qi had to leave alone. But in the end, Liu Qi couldn’t set his mind at ease, deciding to break into the wooden house to take a look.

Because Liu Qi couldn’t bring himself to turn and run, leaving Yang Jian and Wang Shanshan alone in this bizarre place.

“Liu Qi, is that you?”

Wang Shanshan responded, her tone unsure, with a hint of doubt.

Quickly, the footsteps sped up, and Liu Qi arrived on the second floor, then followed the sound towards the room.

“Don’t get close to this room. The moment you open the door, you’ll be affected by the supernatural and drawn into the past world.” Wang Shanshan immediately warned.

Liu Qi halted immediately.

“Wang Shanshan, what’s the situation now?” Liu Qi asked.

“There’s a ghost in this room, but it hasn’t attacked me for the time being. The situation isn’t good though, I have escaped the ghostly influence, but Yang Jian is trapped. I’m trying to find a solution.” Wang Shanshan replied.

Liu Qi said, “Can you tell me exactly what happened? As a ghost tamer, I have more experience than you, perhaps I can think of a way to resolve it.”

Wang Shanshan briefly recounted the events that had occurred.

“I roughly understand your guess. From the human skin paper’s words, it’s not hard to determine that the one who can save Yang Jian isn’t us, nor the Ghost Child. It’s probably the Evil Hound beside him. I’ve seen that Evil Hound before; it is a true fierce ghost, meeting the conditions on human skin paper.” Liu Qi said immediately.

As an old classmate from No. 7 Middle School, he had seen the human skin paper before; it was what saved them from the Door Knocking Ghost incident.

“But I didn’t see the Evil Hound in the room.” Wan Shanshan said.

Liu Qi replied, “Just because you didn’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The Evil Hound needs water as a medium to appear, but whether the Evil Hound can be seen isn’t important, what matters is how to make the Evil Hound follow orders to save Yang Jian.”

“Except for Yang Jian, no one can give orders to that Evil Hound.”

Combining the information from the human skin paper, Liu Qi and Wang Shanshan arrived at the same conclusion as Yang Jian, facing the same difficulty.

Who will command the Evil Hound?

Liu Qi didn’t know much about the Evil Hound, having seen it once, but was unclear on its specifics.

As for Wang Shanshan, she hadn’t even seen the Evil Hound.

In fact, besides Yang Jian, there was another person who could command the Evil Hound.

That would be Yang Xiao, who was trapped in the painting world of the Ghost Post Office.

But it was impossible to bring Yang Xiao to this place.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com

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