Mysterious Revival
Chapter 1047 - 1013: Corpses on the Road

In the red dye vat, simply because Yang Jian took a closer look, leaving a reflection, a ghost identical to Yang Jian stepped out of the vat at this moment.

The ghost's appearance was exactly the same as Yang Jian's, whether it was height, features, or the traits of controlling a fierce ghost, the only difference was the skin color.

The ghost's color was consistent with the dye in the vat, a sticky red, like a skinned corpse drenched in blood.

But what Yang Jian cared about was not this, but that this ghost could actually replicate his ghost eye, Ghost Shadow, and even Ghost Hand.

Imitation? Duplication?

Or is it a supernatural reflection of Yang Jian himself?

It's still unclear now.

"Don't get close to the dye vat anymore; once you leave your reflection beside the vat, a ghost identical to you will emerge, and this ghost seems to be able to replicate even the other ghosts you control..."

Yang Jian perceived the information and reminded again.

The blood-stained ghost looked at Yang Jian, with a bizarre look in its eyes, not the kind of gaze from normal people, but a sort of inexplicable ferocity.

"Even if it is a ghost, it can't disguise itself as an exact living person; there must be differences."

Yang Xiao calmly said: "So the ghost's appearance is not the key; the key is to what extent this ghost can mimic the fierce ghosts you control. If the ghost surpasses you, then the situation will be dangerous. Neither I nor Zhang Xiangguang can contend with such a supernatural force; if this is truly the dye from the ghost painting, we risk being erased."

"Because the reason we exist is that these paintings were created with this dye; a painting made with the same dye has the possibility of being repainted, in other words, these dyes are the nemesis of us wandering souls."

Zhang Xiangguang, upon seeing this, said nothing and stepped forward, his finger touching a drop of scarlet dye on the ground.

The next moment, an unbelievable scene occurred.

His finger melted, and the drop of scarlet dye fell back to the ground like fresh blood, while half of his finger had disappeared, with no chance of restoration.

"Yang Xiao, your guess is correct. These dyes are the nemesis of our souls; we've found a means to eradicate wandering souls. It seems some people can find release in the future." Zhang Xiangguang said with gleaming eyes.

"Let's worry about the current situation first. If Yang Jian can't deal with this ghost, everyone will die, and even the entire oil painting world will go out of control."

Yang Xiao said: "Take a good look at how many supernatural features that ghost has. If we were alive, we wouldn't have to worry, but now, if such a ghost survives, plus it's naturally a curse to us, all wandering souls will be eliminated, with nowhere to escape."

"So, there's only one way now."

Yang Jian took over and said: "That is to confront that ghost here and eliminate it."

"Can you do it?" Yang Xiao asked, somewhat skeptical.

Because he didn't know to what extent Yang Jian could control the supernatural powers of the fierce ghosts he commanded.

"Of course."

Yang Jian was very confident; he signaled: "Zhou Ze, back off, guard the two of them, don't let them get erased, I'll handle this thing."

"Alright."

Zhou Ze retreated with trepidation, choosing to stand with Yang Xiao and Zhang Xiangguang.

Both as protection and self-preservation.

However, as soon as he moved, the blood-red ghost suddenly locked eyes on him, the ghost eye turning, and everything nearby swiftly turned red.

"Ghost Domain?" Almost everyone had this thought in their minds.

"We can't touch the Ghost Domain, otherwise we'll be erased in an instant," Zhang Xiangguang immediately said, his expression somewhat urgent, but he didn't retreat.

There is no retreat here, and even if escaping, it would be impossible to outrun the spreading speed of the Ghost Domain.

"Can even utilize the Ghost Domain from the ghost's eye? But I'd like to see how far this ghost can take the Ghost Domain from the ghost eye." Yang Jian's ghost eye also opened at this moment.

The next moment.

Red light flared around him, quickly spreading outward in all directions.

The two rays of red light touched each other; from a mere eye observation, there appeared to be no difference; the two Ghost Domains seemed identical, but each belonged to a different owner, one ghost domain belonging to the fierce ghost from the dye vat, and the other to Yang Jian.

At this moment, Yang Jian's gaze grew slightly cold, and he unhesitatingly opened the Ghost Domain to the fourth layer.

However, he felt his Ghost Domain being eroded and suppressed, and it was happening quickly, seemingly leaving little room for resistance.

"Can this fierce ghost's ghost eye actually reach such a degree? This is not a simple imitation; in this world, its ghost eye seems to be real, just like these wandering souls, although unable to leave the oil painting, they are a living person in this world."

Yang Jian's expression was serious; it seemed he had underestimated a bit.

But it was not enough to make him afraid.

If a four-layered Ghost Domain isn't enough, then the fifth layer it is.

The fifth layer of Ghost Domain is sufficient to send some not-so-terrifying supernatural phenomena into the Supernatural Space, and this layer of Ghost Domain is quite powerful, comparable to the Supernatural Space existing within the Ghost Post Office.

The suppression speed slowed down.

The release of the fifth layer Ghost Domain had an obvious effect; Yang Jian's Ghost Domain could no longer be suppressed, reaching a state of equilibrium.

"It's blocked?" Zhou Ze exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing this, his palms sweaty with tension.

"Only to the extent of the fifth-layer Ghost Domain? If that is so, it is still manageable, not too difficult." Yang Jian thought to himself.

But this thought had barely emerged.

Suddenly.

The bloodied ghost opened another blood-red ghost eye, at which point the ghost's Ghost Domain abruptly reached the sixth layer.

This layer of Ghost Domain was sufficient to pause all supernatural activities within, including living people.

Yet Yang Jian seemed prepared at this moment, opening another ghost eye simultaneously.

Six-layer Ghost Domain against six-layer Ghost Domain.

Neither supernatural force could affect the other.

However, Yang Jian's face grew grim: "It can even open the six-layer Ghost Domain? Luckily, I was prepared; otherwise, it would have been easy to suffer. This ghost is more terrifying than imagined; if one's own exploration of supernatural powers isn't deep enough, the authentic version might not even beat this imitation."

"Since that's the case with the ghost eye, what about the other ghosts?"

At this moment.

Yang Jian stopped observing and took the initiative to attack, striding toward the fierce ghost with a menacing momentum. He brandished a hatchet in his hand, which he had seized from a wandering soul earlier, an otherworldly item that could only exist in the world of the oil painting.

Yet, at this moment, he noticed a detail: that fierce ghost didn't have a hatchet.

Even though the ghost could replicate the supernatural powers of fierce ghosts, it couldn't create an exact supernatural item?

Is it subjected to a restriction, or does this hatchet not follow the replication law, making it impossible to appear?

But this has become Yang Jian's advantage for now.

The Ghost Domains clashed without yielding.

The next moment, the Ghost Shadows collided.

The red Ghost Shadow and the black Ghost Shadow contended against each other, and they seemed evenly matched.

This is quite incredible.

One must know that Yang Jian's Ghost Shadow was already in a halted state, able to exert the maximum capability of Ghost Shadow, yet in the process of confronting the red Ghost Shadow, it only gained a slight upper hand in the mutual depletion.

This advantage was not obvious.

It could not be converted into a victory.

"That's enough; even if the supernatural powers are equal, I still have the advantage." Yang Jian was approaching, his ghost eye and Ghost Shadow contending against the fierce ghost, unable to halt his advance.

The bloodied fierce ghost stood there motionless, its eyes still oddly fixating on him.

Very soon.

Yang Jian rushed over, and he raised the axe, swinging it down on the blood-soaked ghost.

"Wait a moment, that thing is also drawn. It might be useless..." Suddenly, Yang Xiao realized something and quickly warned.

But it was too late to speak; the action had already begun.

The axe fell, enough to split the ghost in two, but as soon as it touched the blood-soaked ghost, the axe melted instantly, even more fragile than paper, unable to inflict any damage.

The ghost seemed to have known this outcome all along.

A ghost hand, condensed from blood, immediately gripped Yang Jian's neck.

The strength was astonishing, and at the same time, the ghost hand's supernatural power emerged. Crimson hands appeared on Yang Jian's body, tightly gripping him, threatening to tear him limb from limb.

"The things in the oil painting can't deal with this ghost?" Yang Jian looked at the dissolving, broken axe in his hand.

The next moment.

His body was torn apart, blood streaming, bones twisting, and struggling only for a few seconds before falling silent.

"No way? Lost?" Zhang Xiangguang's calm face showed some shock.

Zhou Ze also trembled all over, suddenly feeling suffocated, because if Yang Jian died here, then he would accompany him, and there was absolutely no way he could leave alive by himself.

The broken corpse slowly fell from the ghost's hand.

The blood-soaked ghost turned its eyes to Zhou Ze, ignoring the two lost souls beside him.

"We should have acted earlier; now it's too late." Zhang Xiangguang said in a deep voice.

Yang Xiao said: "It's useless; our supernatural power comes from this dye vat, the axe will be erased instantly, and we will too, but it's not over yet, just keep watching."

"What do you mean?" Zhang Xiangguang asked.

However, before the words were finished.

Several spectral eyes suddenly opened on Yang Jian's broken, twisted corpse. The next moment, a red light covered him, and in less than a second, Yang Jian appeared again, intact, without a scratch.

This was the seven-layer Ghost Domain rebooting itself.

Yang Jian, awakened by the reboot, acted instantly, his dark and cold ghost hand grabbing the blood-soaked ghost's head.

The ghost struggled violently, and the red ghost hand also resisted Yang Jian.

Very soon.

The ghost broke free.

Yang Jian immediately retreated, creating distance, and calmly said: "Though a bit troublesome, we still won."

Blood dripped from his hand, tightly gripping an eyeball.

And the ghost's forehead was missing a chunk of flesh.

An opportunity was seized by Yang Jian, and a spectral eye was forcibly dug out, separated from its body.

This was the spectral eye's weakness.

Missing an eye meant that the spectral power of the eye was weakened; if the ghost could previously activate the six-layer Ghost Domain, now it's at most a five-layer.

The balance shifted.

At this moment, Yang Jian had the advantage.

Although the ghost could use the power of the spectral eye to the extent of the six-layer Ghost Domain, it was just shy of rebooting, but this small step short meant failure in the confrontation.

"What happened earlier? How did you recover in an instant?" Zhou Ze looked as though he had seen a ghost, he had never seen this while acting as a messenger.

"Rebooting oneself, it's a supernatural power only fierce ghosts possess."

Zhang Xiangguang's expression turned heavy again: "He still has this trick; it's unexpected. Are today's young successors already so excellent? Surpassing my generation."

Yang Xiao's eyes flashed, and he also felt a trace of surprise.

It seemed that at this moment, Yang Jian had given him too many surprises, exceeding expectations.

Once the balance between humans and ghosts was broken, Yang Jian used the six-layer Ghost Domain again.

At this moment, the ghost could not resist.

Missing an eye, the ghost was suppressed by the six-layer Ghost Domain, instantaneously immobilized, unable to move.

The next moment.

The ghost was missing two more spectral eyes.

Followed by being unable to resist under Yang Jian's five-layer Ghost Domain, although not sent away, the ghost's body began to melt, quickly turning into a pool of scarlet dye flowing on the ground.

The red dye did not dissipate but slowly wriggled again, flowing back into the dye vat in an eerie manner.

Only the dye in the vat was slightly reduced, not as much as before; some dye was consumed, but it was unclear where it went.

Yang Jian stared expressionlessly at the dye vat, although he won, the process was slightly thrilling.

Luckily, he reacted in time; if he had been curious to check out more dye vats, who knows, a group of fierce ghosts might have emerged instead of just one.

At that time, even with reboot capability, he would undoubtedly lose.

"It seems there was no danger, you did well, the ghost was eliminated, and as long as no one else approaches these dye vats, the ghost shouldn't emerge again." Zhang Xiangguang said.

Yang Jian said: "The ghost within the dye vat basically possesses around six layers of strength like a ghost rider, which is very frightening because most ghost riders can't fully wield six layers of power, so most people facing the ghost within the dye vat will be eliminated."

His Ghost Shadow malfunctioning was barely enough to gain some advantage, but that was also because Ghost Shadow needed to suppress Ghost Hand and spectral eye, and only when the spectral eye reached the seventh layer and rebooting himself did he win back.

But outside, how many ghost riders can fully exploit a fierce ghost's power to such a great extent?

So the ghost within the dye vat possessing six layers of strength is enough to make many feel hopeless.

"These dye vats must be avoided; without a reasonable plan, this thing will cause a disaster, both to the outside world and here alike." Yang Jian said.

"Indeed so." Zhang Xiangguang nodded.

Yang Jian returned his gaze after some time and said: "If Sun Rui has been here, his chances of survival are very slim; he is not the ghost within the dye vat's opponent, he likely was killed by the ghost."

"No, he should still be alive, as no ghost identical to Sun Rui has emerged here." Yang Xiao replied: "So he likely eliminated the ghost that came out of the dye vat."

"If I were him, having eliminated such a ghost would leave me in poor condition, at which point there are only two choices: wait here to die, or struggle onward, and since Sun Rui's corpse is not here, he chose the latter."

Yang Xiao said: "Sun Rui should be ahead, and very close; in such a state, he couldn't have gone far."

"Why wouldn't Sun Rui retreat from here? Or appear on another path?" Zhou Ze asked.

"Having reached this point, there's no way back, no possibility of retreat, and while showing up on another path is possible, I feel he's been here." Yang Xiao explained.

Zhang Xiangguang nodded slightly: "I agree, this path didn't exist before, showing it's not meant for lost souls, but rather for living intruders. I believe something is controlling it all; if this is true, Sun Rui will only appear on this path with no other possibility."

"No need to speculate, keep moving forward; go a bit further and we'll know the outcome." Yang Jian took a deep breath, gathered his energy, and chose to continue.

The group bypassed one dye vat after another, not daring to get close again, and found another small path, leaving here to continue ahead.

However, shortly after leaving.

On the small path not far off, Yang Jian's spectral eyes looked ahead and saw a man lying on the ground, motionless, lifeless, as if having died long ago.

"It's Sun Rui."

Yang Jian paused, finally finding the missing Sun Rui in the depths of this Supernatural Space.