Just as Yang Jian was about to lead his team to evacuate Ning'an Building.
anwhile, elsewhere.
Outside the ancient mansion in Dadong City.
Wang Chaling and Li Jun had already passed through the iron gate and entered the premises of the mansion. However, they didn't venture inside imdiately; rushing in recklessly would be foolish. Instead, they began discussing and observing the surroundings carefully.
"So this is your Wang Family's ancient mansion? What's the deal with those coffins at the entrance? Are they holding ghosts? Doesn't seem like it. If they were, the place would've been uninhabitable by now."
Li Jun's voice was hoarse, as if his throat had been scorched—it was grating, strange, and unsettling, hard for anyone to get used to.
His eyes lingered on the coffins scattered throughout the courtyard, so old, so new.
The sheer number of coffins in such a place was sothing no one could afford to ignore.
"The coffins contain the dead mbers of my Wang Family."
Wang Chaling said, "Did you think I was the only one left in my family? The Wang Family used to be a large clan. But having dealt with supernatural events for so long, we gradually perished, one by one. The deceased mbers of the Wang Family were placed in these coffins and left in the courtyard of the mansion."
"Why not cremate them and bury them properly?" Li Jun frowned and asked.
"For... certain reasons," Wang Chaling avoided elaborating, sidestepping the topic. "Li Jun, do you plan to just barge right in?"
Li Jun was holding a pocket watch.
Yang Jian had given it to him before their departure. The watch was synchronized to the ti inside the mansion.
But now, it seed to have lost its purpose.
The reason? The ti on the pocket watch fluctuated unpredictably, and the constant chiming of the pendulum clock inside the mansion added to the chaos. In this situation, there was no longer any correct sense of ti within the mansion.
"Rushing in won't achieve much. If solving the problem inside the mansion were viable, Yang Jian would have done it already. His absence is proof that venturing deeper into the mansion is aningless. Besides, ti within the mansion is now under soone else's control. If we go in, we'll just get lost—there's no other possibility."
Li Jun analyzed rationally. He had evidently matured and improved.
Wang Chaling squinted slightly. "It seems Yang Jian didn't bother warning you about this."
"We're all team leaders; we're adults. Everyone knows what they should and shouldn't do. Besides, his choice to stay out is the biggest warning of all."
Li Jun said, "If you can't see through this, then with Yang Jian's philosophy, you'd deserve to die anyway—better now than becoming a liability later on. Honestly, it's good he stayed outside. Dachang City needs soone like him to hold down the fort. I can't do it—I'm not as ruthless as Yang Jian. And you can't either—you're not as decisive as he is."
"That's true. The odds are against us. Entering the mansion is suicide. Yang Jian made the right call by staying out... unless we can find the right tiline to enter in." Wang Chaling smiled faintly, glossing over Li Jun's remarks about Yang Jian.
"What's the current ti outside?" Li Jun asked.
Wang Chaling replied, "9:20."
"At exactly this ti, we'll burn the mansion to the ground. Whoever's inside, trying to sync the clocks and lure the ghosts to 9:20, I won't let them succeed. We may not be able to deal with the ghost, but we can deal with the one manipulating the pendulum clock."
Behind Li Jun's sunglasses, his scorched, hollow eye sockets flickered with eerie Ghost Flas.
The flas carried no heat—instead, they radiated a chilling coldness, yet they could ignite the living and burn them to death.
"What about ? What should I do?" Wang Chaling asked with a sly smile. "I'm more than happy to take orders from you."
"Be vigilant of our surroundings. The mont I take action, I'll stir up the hornet's nest. If anyone moves against from inside, you handle them. I don't want to manage burning down the mansion while also fending off ambushes." Li Jun replied.
"No problem. I'd be happy to assist." Wang Chaling responded.
Li Jun shot him a long, scrutinizing glance. "Whatever your motives are, control the situation first. If the mansion spirals out of control, headquarters will hold you accountable. Even soone from the third generation of the Wang Family can't escape bla."
This was both a caution and a reminder.
Team leaders with ulterior motives were plenty. Li Jun was well aware. That's why he preferred dealing with Yang Jian over soone like Wang Chaling.
Headquarters' assessnts and reports described Yang Jian as soone with a deeply rooted, traditional farr's ntality—content to guard his small territory in Dachang City and live a modest life. He disliked creating trouble, only taking up arms when his "crops" were threatened. Beyond that, he had neither dreams nor ambition.
"You're overthinking it, Captain Li. I fully support headquarters. We should interact more often in the future to dispel misunderstandings and grievances." Wang Chaling said with a faint smile.
"Let's move."
Li Jun didn't waste ti. He strode toward one of the mansion's windows.
The old window fra was already rotten, leaving behind only an empty space through which the interior of the mansion could be seen.
Dim, decrepit, abandoned, oppressive.
The atmosphere reeked of sothing disturbingly eerie.
With the recurring chis of the pendulum clock from within, so sort of equilibrium had been disrupted. Supernatural phenona were intensifying.
Li Jun lightly rested a hand on the windowsill.
In the next mont—
A ghostly green fla began spreading from his arm outward.
The window ignited, followed by the decayed blue bricks of the wall. The Ghost Fla began rapidly consuming everything.
The walls burned. The main hall of the mansion burned. The corridors burned. Even the depths of the darkness were being driven out by the flas.
In no ti, the entire mansion was engulfed by Ghost Flas, blazing fiercely.
"Ah!"
A piercing scream echoed through the mansion, filled with agony.
A humanoid silhouette cloaked entirely in Ghost Flas flailed in tornt, running back and forth in the mansion's main hall. Charred footprints accompanied a nauseating stench of burnt corpses. Yet, suddenly, the flaming figure vanished into thin air, as if its presence had been nothing more than an illusion.
It was likely a powerful ghost.
Under attack from the Ghost Flas, the ghost was being suppressed.
Within the mansion—
A gaunt middle-aged man with graying temples sat in an old rocking chair, his eyes closed, as if calmly awaiting a certain mont.
Nearby, Zhang Qing, back in his wheelchair, wore an expression of unease, frequently glancing at the man in the rocking chair.
Wan Tong squatted nearby, chain-smoking, cigarette after cigarette.
Then, suddenly—
Chen Qiaoyang, the man in the rocking chair, abruptly opened his eyes and stood up.
In the next mont—
The rocking chair he had just vacated was suddenly set ablaze by an eerie green fla. At the sa ti, fire began seeping out from cracks in the floor and walls.
In no ti—
The floor was afla.
The walls and the ceiling were engulfed by fire.
Everything around them was consud by inexplicable flas.
"This is... Ghost Fla? Damned Ghost Fla! Li Jun is here. He ans to burn the entire mansion and incinerate us!" Zhang Qing cried out in alarm, panic written all over his face.
As one of the team leaders from headquarters—
It was standard practice for ghost tars to gather intelligence on their own kind.
Going against headquarters ant that any day they might face a team leader's purge. Naturally, they were well-inford about Li Jun.
"So he didn't die in the Ghost Painting incident after all." Wan Tong stood up abruptly. He could already sll the burnt scent of his own body.
The strangest part was that he didn't feel any pain.
Sohow, it felt entirely natural, as though it were ant to be.
"Ghost Fla Li Jun? Who's that? Fall asleep for a bit, and suddenly soone shows up looking for a fight. These young folk really don't let us rest, do they?" Chen Qiaoyang straightened his hair and clothes unhurriedly, his expression serious.
"He's a team leader from headquarters, sa rank as that Yang Jian. He was forrly a senior officer, deeply vindictive against evil. Running into Yang Jian might not be too bad—so long as we don't provoke him, he won't bother us. But encountering Li Jun ans he's already marked us for death." Zhang Qing explained.
"Oh? A senior officer, you say?"
Chen Qiaoyang blinked briefly. His eyes shifted as though weighing his options.
"What a predicant. I'd rather face that young Yang fellow than deal with Li Jun. It just wouldn't sit right if a man of such stature perished at the hands of a nobody like ."
Zhang Qing glanced at him, surprised.
Who would've thought this old fox harbored such a sentintal side?
Chen Qiaoyang paced back and forth, hands clasped behind his back, visibly anxious.
Yet, behind him, several unnerving footsteps echoed.
The steps varied in size, and wherever they tread on the Ghost Flas, scorch marks were left on the ground. Strangely, the flas in those areas were extinguished and didn't ignite again.
The spectral Ghost Flas spread like wildfire.
The only exception was the area around Chen Qiaoyang, which remained unaffected as if an invisible force suppressed the flas' expansion.
Thus, a safe zone temporarily ford.
"Chen Qiaoyang, we're already targeted by three team leaders—Yang Jian, Wang Chaling, and Li Jun. If we don't co up with sothing, we're dead. There's no way they'll let the mansion's events go unchecked." Zhang Qing and Wan Tong hurriedly moved closer, entering the safe zone.
Yet the Ghost Flas continued to spread.
At this mont, faint green sparks speckled the air.
The flas seed to ignite the very air, engulfing the entire space.
"Is Li Jun insane? Using Ghost Flas like this—doesn't he fear the resurrection of his own ghost?" Zhang Qing's heart pounded wildly. He felt that soon even this safe zone would beco perilous.
"We should just fight our way out. With your abilities, escaping here shouldn't be too difficult. There's no way Li Jun could stop you."
He anxiously urged Chen Qiaoyang to lead an escape.
In a scenario like this, regardless of the outco, both he and Wan Tong, as surviving Pendulum Clock Cursers, were practically already dead.
"No rush. As capable as today's youngsters are, they're still inexperienced. It's too early for any of them to take down here." Chen Qiaoyang seed unfazed by the widespread, all-consuming Ghost Flas.
He appeared to be contemplating sothing else, not even acknowledging the imminent danger.
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
Suddenly—
The mansion's pendulum clock chid again.
Ti was being manipulated once more.
The Ghost Flas engulfing the mansion abruptly vanished into nothingness.
"The mansion's been reset. Indeed, the one controlling the pendulum clock is a tough adversary. The mansion, once ignited, was displaced to another tifra." Wang Chaling observed as the scene unfolded.
"It's now 9:21."
"The pocket watch still reads 9:20. The person controlling the clock has rewound ti by one minute."
Li Jun rasped, "So the Ghost Flas persist—they've just been delayed by one minute."
Wang Chaling's eyes narrowed. "That confirms the person we're after is inside the mansion. If we enter now, we'll be in the sa tifra as them. If they reset ti, we'll reset too. If they rewind, we'll also rewind. Ti won't be relevant to us anymore."
"Then let's stop waiting." Li Jun understood imdiately and charged into the mansion.
"Wait!" Wang Chaling wanted to stop him, but it was too late.
Li Jun had already rushed through the mansion's open doors.
The next mont—
The pendulum clock chid.
Li Jun disappeared.
The mansion's tiline was scrambled again.
"What recklessness." Wang Chaling sighed eerily.
He had only been analyzing the situation, but Li Jun couldn't restrain himself and acted prematurely.
Wang Chaling had a lingering concern: this particular tifra might be a deliberate trap left by the enemy. Entering without caution might an confinent alongside vengeful spirits.
Even if it wasn't a trap, if the enemy exposed a vulnerability, it was likely because they were prepared. The outco was still uncertain—whether they'd overco the enemy or be outmaneuvered remained to be seen.
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