The forest was shrouded in shadow, yet outside, everything remained normal, still as bright as before, unaffected. It seed that the only problem was with this particular forest.
Engulfed in darkness, the woods now appeared exceptionally sinister.
The cold wind blowing through the trees rustled the leaves, producing a shushing sound. Shadows lood uncertainly, as if figures hid in the dark, and faint footsteps could be heard, stepping on the fallen leaves, drawing nearer.
In the forest, unbeknownst to everyone, sothing had appeared.
There could be no mistake about this feeling.
Sothing incomprehensibly eerie had indeed slipped into the forest.
Because at this mont, no one was moving about rashly—all were standing still; the noise couldn’t have been them.
"The ghost is near."
At this mont, the man holding the pistol, nad Zhou Lin, had replaced a teammate who had died. By his qualifications, he shouldn’t have been able to easily obtain this pistol.
"It’s up to you now, Zhou Lin. This gun should be able to fire once more. We must hit the ghost as it approaches us to repel it temporarily, ensuring we aren’t killed," the woman beside him leaned in and said. She was called Zhao Li, around thirty, and despite the fear and tension, she seed relatively composed.
Life and death were at stake—remaining calm was essential.
"I know," Zhou Lin’s hands trembled with nerves. "But I have no experience repelling ghosts, and with only one shot, the margin for error is too low..."
Hitting a ghost accurately with a single shot was difficult enough.
Now, with only one chance left, under this nervous fear, it’s uncertain when a shot might be fired in panic.
"You have to manage. Don’t be too afraid. I’ll use this ’spirit money’ when the crucial mont cos," the woman called Zhao Li said.
Zhou Lin glanced at her.
He knew this woman was holding back, trying to keep sothing in reserve to save her own life, but at this mont, even if she had ideas, there was no stopping it.
The ghost could very well be nearby; any discord could get everyone killed.
"Ghost Eye’s vision has been affected," Yang Jian frowned. .
In Ghost Eye’s view, everything was a shade of red, but the trees were too dense. For so reason, he couldn’t see through them now—an entirely different situation from before. He didn’t know if it was due to the letter received earlier or because of the presence of Ghost Shadow.
Fortunately, the impact wasn’t significant.
This also ant that the threat level of whatever was erging wasn’t insurmountable.
He should be able to contend with it... Yang Jian couldn’t be sure because so ghosts didn’t seem threatening, but in reality, encountering them ant certain death. He had experienced this firsthand with the ghost footsteps on the staircase in The World of Ghost Drawing.
Out of the corner of his eye, a flicker.
He thought he saw a figure shaking behind a tree not far away.
The figure stood motionless, seemingly hidden between several trees, creating a blind spot in the field of view from this angle. The trees, lined up and intersecting, seed to form a wall, blocking Ghost Eye’s surveillance.
"A ghost?"
Yang Jian’s heart tightened, not out of fear but as he moved to get a better look and see just what the eerie letter had brought into this forest.
But as he changed direction and looked toward that position again...
The figure had vanished.
Behind the tree, there was no one; only the shadows of leaves on the ground, not at all a human-shaped shadow.
"Coincidence, or an illusion?"
Yang Jian returned to his initial spot but when he looked again at the previous position, the figure beside the tree did not reappear; it wasn’t as it was before.
He realized sothing from this situation.
Perhaps he hadn’t determined correctly—at that mont, the ghost was indeed there, Ghost Eye had glimpsed the ghost’s shadow, but now the ghost had shifted its position.
And by comparing the previous location...
Yang Jian could be certain.
The ghost’s position was very close to where he and the others were...
"Ghosts that appear under such special circumstances are likely no longer bound by any rules of killing; everyone in this forest is probably going to suffer attacks from the ghost. These few people, like we ntioned before, probably failed to deliver the ssage and are now subject to the wrath of the malevolent spirit. As for , it is most likely because I read that letter."
"Perhaps there was originally content in that letter, but it changed when I forcibly tore open the envelope, turning into a curse that summons the malevolent spirit. Or perhaps the letter’s intention was just that from the start, aid at ."
Yang Jian didn’t panic; he calmly waited for the ghost to appear.
Unable to pinpoint the ghost’s location, blind actions would only put him at a disadvantage.
The wind rose again in the woods, trees swaying, casting elongating Ghost Shadows; the rustling sound of branches and leaves colliding filled the air, and a faint sll of decay seed to erge within it.
The ghost seed to be moving again.
Yang Jian noted this detail; whenever the ghost made a move, anomalies would occur nearby. Previously, the ghost had stopped in one spot without moving, hence the brief mont of silence in the woods just now.
But even though the ghost was moving, it was still impossible to discern towards which direction it was heading, or which person it was attempting to approach.
Silence, oppression, the coming and going of the ghost.
Such extre environnts tested a person’s endurance.
Yang Jian remained expressionless, even preparing himself for a direct confrontation with the ghost when it appeared. But the others were not so composed.
Li Yue, who stood on the ground covered with bone ash, was tense all over, dripping with cold sweat. In just a short while, he felt both sore and tired, but he dared not make the slightest move, not even stepping out of the ash-covered spot, because as long as he didn’t leave the safety of the ashes, the ghost would not attack him.
In the past, it was thanks to this very thing that he had survived.
But bone ash wasn’t omnipotent. If this situation couldn’t end and the ghost lingered, hovering nearby indefinitely, he would eventually be attacked.
The cold wind continued to blow.
The swaying of the trees masked the approach of an eerie set of footsteps.
These footsteps were heavy, falling on thick layers of leaves, incessantly drawing nearer.
The first person the ghost approached was not Yang Jian, nor Li Yue, but a man nad Zhou Lin.
Nobody could be aware of this creeping proximity. Even Yang Jian’s Ghost Eye could glimpse the anomalies, but with the trees obstructing his view, he could not pinpoint the ghost’s location imdiately. He only knew, the ghost nearby was moving, unable to discern the specific range.
Perhaps, if he were to activate the Ghost Eye to the third or fourth level, he might be able to see.
But Yang Jian didn’t do so.
He only needed to ensure that there were no ghosts approaching him; recklessly confronting the ghost without understanding the situation was an extrely foolish act.
"Zhou Lin, there seem to be footsteps behind us," the woman beside him, nad Zhao Li, suddenly said with frayed nerves.
"Don’t joke around, don’t scare ," Zhou Lin’s heart almost leaped from his chest.
"No, I’m not joking, I think I heard the sound of branches breaking. Under these circumstances, we haven’t moved, Li Yue hasn’t moved even less, and Yang Jian has been cursed ever since he read that letter, staying near that spot... so tell , who else would appear beside us, breaking branches?"
Although Zhao Li was frightened, her clear head allowed her to analyze the situation in front of them.
"I—I think we might have been targeted," Zhou Lin stuttered, his hands trembling as he clutched the old-fashioned handgun.
Only one chance.
He must hit the ghost, or the outco would be dire.
But as much as they speculated, they did not act on it, didn’t daringly change their positions to escape the ghost’s approach. They just stood there, tense and afraid.
As the two conversed with each other, attempting to seek a bit of safety,
The ghost appeared.
Behind the nearest tree, a terrifying shadow erged—it was a person, yet not soone who could be called a living being. Only half of its body and face were visible; the other half was concealed by the tree, not revealed at all.
This person seed to have been dead for a long ti, his body covered in mud, as if he had just been dug up.
Zhou Lin and Zhao Li had no clue at all, not even aware that the ghost had arrived right beside them.
They were only about half a ter apart, close enough that a reached-out hand could touch.
But at that mont, the ghost stopped.
The wind in the woods died down, and everything once again seed to take a turn for the better.
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