Mysterious Revival

Chapter 629: Chapter 626, Anomaly on the 3rd Floor

Yang Jian had only just finished climbing the first set of stairs and arrived on the second floor of the building when he had already startled an unknown ghost.

This ghost was most likely a lingering hazard left behind by a necromancer who had been wiped out here in the past, now trapped in a ghost painting and having become a part of it, thereby indirectly increasing the danger of this place.

“If this is a ghost left behind by a necromancer after death, then there must be a ghost painting in this building. Whether it’s the source or not is uncertain, but at least it can be confirmed that the information from that guy named Jimmy was not wrong.”

Although Yang Jian was aware there were ghosts upstairs, he was still calmly thinking.

“However, I have the curse of the Eight-Tone Music Box on me, so the ghost on the stairs may not necessarily be able to kill me, but those two might not be so lucky.”

He looked back at Li Yang and the foreigner named Jimmy.

Once targeted by a ghost, they would undoubtedly die.

“Right now, none of us are making any noises, and the ghost upstairs has stopped moving. This means footsteps are the key.” Yang Jian stepped back down from the stairs above.

He arrived on the second floor.

The second floor had a concrete road surface, and footsteps were very faint, almost inaudible.

As expected.

Just as he had surmised, there were no sounds coming from the wooden stairs above—all was eerily quiet.

“Come on up, get to the second floor. The ghost is still a bit away from us. If you walk over here, there shouldn’t be immediate danger, and if you watch your step after you reach me, you should be safe,” Yang Jian called out to them.

If they were to leave this place, it would be a bit safer to jump down directly from the second floor.

Although he said so, Li Yang’s legs were trembling, and looking back, he truly wanted to abandon the mission and leave this terrifying place now.

The Jimmy beside him was even more cowardly, closing his eyes and not daring to look.

But despite their fear, they were still somewhat clear-headed. At this moment, gritting their teeth, they braved themselves and continued walking up the staircase.

Creak, creak.

The two stepped on the worn wooden stairs, and the noise began to sound again, as careful as they were, the inevitable creaks were still produced when their weight pressed down on the steps.

The sound echoed in the silent building.

Soon, that eerie set of footsteps from above also started to resonate.

Creak, creak… The footsteps were moving down the stairs.

Yang Jian seized the moment to stare intently upstairs, trying to gauge on which floor the ghost was.

This building wasn’t particularly tall, with only seven floors in total, so he could roughly judge from the sound that the ghost’s location was probably on the fourth or fifth set of stairs.

This distance was relatively safe.

“Is this okay now?” Li Yang asked breathlessly, having reached the second floor and stepped onto the solid concrete floor.

The creaking from the wooden floorboards ceased, and so did the noise above.

“That’s fine. Follow me to check out this floor, and be alert to the left, right, and behind,” Yang Jian prompted.

Yang Jian began to move, adding, “After you find that ghost, your task is completed. But before that, if we encounter danger, you might very well die here. I won’t go out of my way to protect you, but as long as you stick close to me, I’ll take the brunt when the ghost attacks.”

“Thank–Thank you.”

Li Yang said, then muttered a few words to the Jimmy beside him, informing him that this Mister Yang could fend off that terrifying entity.

Jimmy opened his eyes, looking at Yang Jian while mumbling something under his breath, seemingly thanking God again.

Yang Jian didn’t speak; he started searching this floor.

Lacking the vision of a ‘ghost eye’ and the support of the Ghost Domain, his actions were slow; having these two encumbrances was an act of necessity. Alone, he could easily miss something in his surroundings; sometimes a ghost could pass behind him unnoticed, for after all, one pair of eyes is limited in observation.

There were quite a few rooms within the floor.

Yang Jian would not overlook any corner; he directly opened the door to a room, entered, and began to search.

He watched the front and the sides; Jimmy was responsible for the rear, while Li Yang took care of supplying supplemental observations of the left and right, which might not be immediately visible.

“There’s nothing wrong with this room.” After a complete round, Yang Jian led them out again.

Within the silent building, everything was very quiet. The ghost on the stairs had become still, its movements ceased.

Fortunately, Yang Jian had made the discovery early. If they had found out later and continued up the stairs, it would be too late by the time they met the ghost on the staircase.

“Let’s take a look around the room by the front door; we can’t overlook any corners. I don’t want to have to search again,” Yang Jian said seriously.

He aimed to finish searching the building within an hour and find the location of the ghost in the ghost painting.

Yang Jian’s actions were quick and meticulous, and he soon had a thorough understanding of this floor.

But his luck was somewhat poor.

He couldn’t find the ghost on this level.

In other words, he would have to search on the third floor.

“Take the external staircase outside to go up, this way you can avoid those wooden stairs and also bypass the ghost that’s on them.” Even though Yang Jian didn’t find anything on the second floor, he discovered another route upstairs.

Li Yang, despite being covered in cold sweat, found his fear slightly reduced, and his legs stopped trembling.

Maybe it was due to Yang Jian’s excessively calm demeanor, or perhaps it was because he had started to get used to it.

In any case, this was good news, at least he wasn’t so paralyzed with fear that he couldn’t move.

Jimmy was the same, scared as he was, his actions didn’t fall behind; he always kept up, without straying.

Yang Jian, though confident enough to confront the ghost on the stairs head-on, didn’t want to get targeted by another ghost without reason. He would definitely circumvent if he could and wouldn’t do anything foolish.

The external staircase was made of iron.

The paint had flaked off, leaving behind dark red rust, but fortunately, it was still sturdy. Walking on it with deliberately slowed steps, he made no sound.

He listened intently.

The creaking noise from the wooden stairs inside didn’t arise.

“The ghost is still there, not moving.” Yang Jian’s expression shifted as he confirmed the situation.

This approach of using the external staircase was good; it didn’t alert the ghost.

“Same as before, follow me and keep searching. Keep an eye on what’s behind us.” What Yang Jian was most worried about was what was behind him, since it was out of his line of sight.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be careful. We’re afraid of dying too, and won’t joke with our lives,” Li Yang said in a suppressed voice.

Yang Jian nodded, “It’s good to have this awareness.”

He climbed through a window and entered one of the households.

But no sooner had he entered the room than Yang Jian involuntarily frowned; he saw a completely rotted corpse in the living room of this house. The body had been dead for quite some time, at least a few months; whether it was a death by despairing suicide or killed by a ghost in this building wasn’t clear.

In any case, this person did not manage to leave the building alive.

Yang Jian’s Ghost Shadow covered the past.

The corpse showed no anomalies.

“No need to mind it; it’s just an ordinary corpse, unrelated to ghosts,” Yang Jian withdrew his gaze, showing no fear.

After a quick search, he left the household and came to the corridor on the third floor.

However, it didn’t take long for Yang Jian to notice something was off.

The corridor on the third floor was littered with numerous bodies, an initial sweep revealed at least a dozen; they varied in size and were in different stages of decay, sending chills down one’s spine.

“Something’s not right. There are no bodies on the second or first floors, they’re all on the third floor,” Yang Jian’s eyes narrowed.

The concentrated locations of these deaths could only mean one thing: these people were trapped to death on the third floor. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to leave; they couldn’t escape.

If it had been other ghosts killing, the bodies would likely be scattered across different floors.

“The only thing here that could trap people to death in one spot is the Ghost Domain, and we are already inside a ghost painting. Other Ghost Domains would be completely suppressed… so there’s only one possible reason for these deaths: the ghost painting is on this floor.”

Yang Jian quickly pieced things together, but immediately turned around to look.

At that moment, Li Yang cried out in horror, “Yang Jian, Jimmy said the window we just climbed through has disappeared, turned into a wall.”

Before he could finish, Yang Jian had already seen for himself that the route they had taken had changed.

The window was gone.

The external staircase outside was no longer visible.

The ghost painting had altered some of the layout of this floor.

The exits were blocked.

“Looks like we’re in luck,” Yang Jian’s gaze grew heavy.

The target he was searching for was here.

But accordingly, so was the danger.