Mysterious Awakening

Chapter 559: 556

Chapter 559: 556

"The source is the haunted painting in the fifth-floor dormitory. Just contain it, and this mission will be complete. The process is very simple; the only thing to worry about is any danger encountered along the way. Currently, the Ghost Domain of the haunted painting has affected two floors, and it might continue to expand, so it would be best if you act quickly,”

Yang Jian walked along the dimly lit corridor, speaking to Wang Quan who followed behind him.

"There might be students stranded on the fourth floor. I think we can stay here for a moment to confirm if anyone is present,” Wang Quan hesitated, then suggested.

"There’s no need. The path downstairs is already blocked, and what can we do even if we find a few stranded students? We can’t take them out. If there are still people, let them stay here. They weren’t killed by the ghost before, and it’s unlikely they will be killed now,”

Yang Jian spoke bluntly.

Those meant to die would have died already; those alive aren’t targets of the ghost and won’t die for the time being; the logic was simple.

...

Wang Quan immediately nodded and followed Yang Jian directly towards the fifth floor.

However, Yang Jian wasn’t rushing to the fifth floor; he lingered in the fourth-floor corridor for a few seconds, looking left and right, hoping to make some special discovery, because Sun Yujia had previously jumped from the window of a fourth-floor dormitory, which suggested that the ghost might have been to the fourth floor.

Yet, the dark and quiet corridor had nothing out of the ordinary. The dormitory doors on both sides were some open, some closed, but all were exceptionally silent.

It seemed as though there was no sign of trouble.

"That doesn’t make sense,” Yang Jian thought with a trace of confusion.

According to his judgment, there had to be something on the fourth floor; that’s why he had considered whether to come to the fourth floor when he was at the third-floor staircase.

But the fourth floor, despite showing signs of Ghost Domain invasion, seemed as normal as any other floor, with nothing amiss.

So, why did Sun Yujia jump out of the window just now?

Was it just out of fear?

Or was it because the never-ending staircase on the third floor left Sun Yujia with no other choice?

Unfortunately, the woman had been scared witless and, with the pressing time, they couldn’t get any information. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a need for this wild guessing.

"What’s wrong? Is there something that doesn’t seem right?” Wang Quan, seeing Yang Jian not moving, whispered.

"Not seeing a ghost makes me feel there’s something off,” Yang Jian said.

Wang Quan felt a chill. What kind of reasoning was that?

Not seeing a ghost should be a good thing, at least it meant they were safe for the time being. Yet, this made it seem like there was a worse feeling looming.

He wasn’t a Ghost Envoy, of course, so he wouldn’t know that in supernatural events, if the ghost’s location could be identified, the survival rate could increase significantly. Most people died without warning.

"Let’s go to the fifth floor and have a look.”

Yang Jian didn’t want to waste time searching room by room. Perhaps there might be some discoveries, but that would delay them even more, especially since there were many dorms on one floor.

After making sure, he didn’t hesitate to step onto the stairs leading to the fifth floor.

It was still dim, and the sound-controlled lights in the corridor were still on, although the light was dim, barely enough to make out the path ahead.

But the good thing was, this staircase was normal and showed no signs of anomaly.

However, as Yang Jian left the fourth floor, he did not notice that in the dormitory building, where each level normally had ten dorms, this fourth floor had eleven. The extra dorm’s door appeared on the wall between two other rooms, the section of wall seemingly stretched to make it look like any other dorm.

Unless one looked closely, it was impossible to tell there was any difference.

But the students living there could tell, because the door of that extra room was not like the others. This door was made of wood, painted with dark red paint, and had some old, engraved patterns. If one looked closely, it was almost like… a picture frame.

The extra dormitory door was open, the inside dark, seemingly empty.

No, there was a window.

The view outside this window was entirely different from that of the other dorms. It showed a gray and gloomy world; the sky was filled with ash-like particles, falling endlessly as if they could never stop.

This was a strange and eerie world.

However, the view outside the other dormitory windows was a dazzlingly lit, bustling city.

They seemed entirely dissimilar.

"Without the sight of the Ghost Eye, I’m really not as comfortable as I used to be,” Yang Jian subconsciously touched his forehead, missing the vision of the Ghost Eye, which made him walk more cautiously than before.

Because in the dim environment, he had also become half-blind.

A wrong step could very likely lead to an unknown location,

If only he could open his ghost eye now, there would be no need to be this timid, and he would be more bold in his actions; he would also have had the capacity and time to search the fourth floor earlier.

Everything went smoothly.

Yang Jian did not encounter any ghosts, nor was he attacked by one; he arrived at the fifth floor with Wang Quan and two accompanying personnel.

Since the floors were built identically, there was not much difference from the fourth floor, but he had been here before, so he knew where the ghost painting was in the dormitory.

Without hesitation, taking advantage of the current safety, Yang Jian moved quickly, heading straight for Miao Xiaoshan’s dormitory.

Once the ghost painting lying on the bed was placed into the specially made bag to isolate its influence, the Ghost Domain here would disappear, and the mission would end.

But when Yang Jian arrived at the door of the dormitory from his memory, his expression darkened.

The door of Miao Xiaoshan’s dormitory bore the footprint from when he had kicked it in before, and when he left, he remembered the door was dented.

But now… the dent on the door had vanished.

He pushed open the dormitory door without hesitation.

What Yang Jian suspected became reality; neither the layout within the dormitory nor any item on the bed was what he had seen before. It was not possible to find the ghost painting here because this was an unfamiliar dormitory.

In other words, he had walked into the wrong dormitory.

"Are we lost?” Wang Quan reacted quickly; seeing the minute expressions on Yang Jian’s face, he knew they had come to the wrong place.

"I underestimated the ghost painting. I thought that while the influence wasn’t at its peak, coupled with swift action, I could contain the ghost painting without risk. Now it seems, as it began to influence the floor, it has already completely altered the environment here, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

"Battling in the Ghost Domain is something no one can win, not even a Ghost Envoy. Getting lost like this is normal.”

His expression remained calm; he was not shaken by this minor setback.

Even if the ghost painting was labeled as an S-rank supernatural event.

"What do we do now? It’s extremely difficult to find the ghost painting in the Ghost Domain. I’ve researched this matter, and it might turn out that instead of finding the ghost painting, we might run into a real ghost,” Wang Quan said gravely.

The two accompanying personnel behind him also looked a bit unnatural, even mentally preparing themselves to die here.

After all, they were ordinary people, and encountering a ghost meant almost certain death.

"What’s the rush? Like I said before, the Ghost Domain of the ghost painting hasn’t completely influenced reality yet. As long as that’s the case, it’s much easier to handle. Besides, since the ghost painting is just a painting, it shouldn’t be capable of moving around freely, right? It’s just hiding using the Ghost Domain. If we search carefully, we can still find it,” Yang Jian said calmly.

"But we’re already lost? The position of the previous dormitory can’t be determined at all,” Wang Quan said.

Yang Jian didn’t speak. Some things were hard to explain to Wang Quan, an ordinary person. Instead, he just looked up at the dormitory door number plate and reached out to take it down directly.

The number plate hanging at the dormitory door changed immediately once grasped by his Ghost Hand.

As if shedding a layer of color, the plate that originally read ‘503’ changed to ‘603’.

Seeing this, his eyebrows furrowed.

“603? This is the sixth floor, not the fifth. How is this possible? We were clearly certain earlier Wang Quan suddenly widened his eyes.

"Sun Yujia didn’t jump from the fourth floor, she jumped from the fifth floor. The floor we were just on was the fifth floor,” Yang Jian said.

"But the third floor wasn’t affected. If you go up one level, it’s the fourth floor; there’s no way to miscalculate that. Even with a Ghost Domain, it shouldn’t be doable,” Wang Quan said. “After all, you confirmed it yourself.”

"We didn’t miscalculate the floor, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t take the wrong path. If I’m not mistaken, the fifth floor and the fourth floor have overlapped,” Yang Jian said. “The real fourth floor and the fifth floor within the Ghost Domain have switched places. You can’t even tell if you’re on the fourth or fifth floor; it’s a trick I’ve played before. Not just two floors—I could overlap five floors together, and they wouldn’t affect one another.”

With the activation of a five-level Ghost Domain, Yang Jian had the ability to distort reality, layering five floors on top of each other without interference from one another.

Wang Quan was left speechless.

This kind of eerie situation was enough to shatter anyone’s worldview, and with normal human reasoning, it was simply incomprehensible. Only someone like Yang Jian could understand it in an instant and know the reasons behind it.