Mysterious Revival

Chapter 634: Chapter 631 Dangerous Building

Yang Jian compared the paintings hanging in this room with everything that had just happened and discovered some mysteries about these paintings.

Each painting actually corresponded to a ghost, and also to a scene within the Ghost Painting world. Once you found yourself in the scene depicted in the painting, there was a high probability you would encounter the lingering specter haunting that place. Moreover, the most important thing was that the scenes in the paintings were not always the same.

The content of the paintings changed constantly based on what was actually happening.

Take for example the painting behind Yang Jian, which depicted a ghost sitting on a sofa in a room. But now, that ghost had been tamed by Li Yang, so the ghost in the painting had disappeared as well.

But now, Yang Jian’s gaze was fixed on the painting in front of him.

The painting depicted a seven-story building.

Standing at the entrance on the first floor was a sinister woman, her facial features blurry, standing motionless at the doorway as if she had become part of the background of the painting.

Yet, such a scene struck Yang Jian as particularly horrifying.

If the content of the painting was, as he suspected, a real scene from the Ghost Painting, then the ghost was now standing at the bottom of the building he was in.

“When did this ghost appear? When I went upstairs earlier, I had already confirmed the surroundings; there were no ghosts approaching… Or could it be that when I reached the third floor, the environment changed and the ghost from the Ghost Painting had already arrived? Is that change in environment just a sign of impending danger?”

“Wait, something’s not right. The ghost down at the entrance is part of the Ghost Painting itself and shouldn’t be considered the ghost from this painting. Based on the previous situations, each painting should have another distinct ghost.”

Yang Jian’s expression turned grave, feeling that this particularly large painting was very unusual.

Because, aside from the ghost at the lower entrance, he now suspected that there was another ghost in this building.

A ghost that had never been documented before.

In order to verify his theory, Yang Jian meticulously searched from top to bottom again, not overlooking any corner, attempting to locate that unknown ghost. Unknown ghosts represent unknown dangers, and it was very likely he would encounter one in what was to come.

The place he was in was a building.

But the representation in the painting was only a flat surface—it was the front of the building. Black streaks roughly sketched out the shape of the building in a style that was casual, like a beginner randomly doodling on a sketchpad, so the painting was not detailed, with little content discernible.

A few twisted lines of the building’s silhouette, over twenty dark and empty windows, dim walls, and the murky gray sky.

As for the adjacent streets and other buildings, they were absent from this painting.

Time, it seemed, did not allow Yang Jian to continue his meticulous search for the unknown ghost hiding in the building, for he suddenly noticed a change occurring in the painting.

The ghost that had been standing at the entrance turned around.

Yes.

Yang Jian wasn’t mistaken; the ghost that had been facing the front just a moment ago was now seen from the back. The position of the ghost had also changed. It had been at the entrance, but now it was inside the door on the first floor of the building.

The information conveyed by this change was already quite clear.

The ghost was moving.

And it had already entered the building, possibly even starting to ascend the stairs.

“I can’t stay here any longer. I must leave this building as soon as possible. The ghost has arrived, it has discovered me, and there is a terrifying ghost on the stairs of the building. Besides, the building itself hides an unknown ghost. If the Ghost Painting completely alters the appearance of this building, I’ll be trapped here alive.”

Yang Jian’s face turned pale as he realized the danger.

What worried him wasn’t a direct confrontation with the Ghost Painting, but the possibility of being trapped within the Ghost Painting without the protection of the Ghost Domain, and then succumbing to the curse of the Eight-Tone Music Box.

However, the Ghost Painting on the third or fourth floor, which had yet to be found, left Yang Jian uncertain whether he had completed the task of the Ghost Cabinet.

Perhaps discovering the Source Ghost would count as completion, but that was an easy task; the ghost was on the first floor and about to ascend—it would definitely be encountered during retreat.

But what if the task was to find the Ghost Painting? Or what if both were required together?

“I can’t take that gamble. I came here utterly unprepared for a confrontation with the Ghost Painting. The risk of staying now exceeds all other options. If I wanted to handle this perfectly, I’d have to resolve the Ghost Painting incident alone, which is impossible given my current state.”

Yang Jian was assessing the situation.

Even though he was already close to the Source, with a few helpers to suppress the ghost downstairs and restart the Ghost Painting, the S-class supernatural incident could be smoothly resolved.

But that step would require risking his life, and it was not something one person could do.

Glancing at the other paintings in the room.

Yang Jian noticed that these paintings were beginning to fade gradually, starting with the one farthest in, as if everything that had happened was an illusion, and there had never been so many paintings hanging here in the first place.

It wouldn’t take long for everything in this room to disappear completely, even the room itself might no longer exist.

“Changes have begun again, this means the ghost is approaching, altering the scenery here, not wanting me to continue digging.”

He knew that the Ghost Domain within the ghost painting was changing, a change he could not stop, just as he had previously used the Ghost Domain to trap others—you could only be forced to accept it.

“The more it happens, the more it proves that I am very close to finding the Source Ghost painting, possibly less than ten meters away. It could be somewhere in this room, maybe in the next one, or perhaps in some inconspicuous place lies the ghost painting…”

Yang Jian felt some reluctance, but the reality told him that it was time to leave.

Getting this far was already quite lucky. For other ghost controllers who entered this place, finding the ghost painting within such a vast Ghost Domain seemed nearly impossible, let alone getting close to it.

Without hesitation or regret,

Yang Jian turned and left, but he didn’t touch any of the paintings nearby, nor did he tempt fate by trying to take one of the paintings or a ghost from within a painting.

Any action could lead to his death here.

As he left the room, things happened just as he had anticipated.

The moment his front foot stepped out, the door of the room disappeared, leaving only an old, dim wall. The changes within the Ghost Domain had grown more significant, attempting to alter everything on this floor and erase all suspicious traces to prevent Yang Jian from getting any closer to the ghost painting.

The phenomenon was exactly the same as before, in the school dormitory.

“Li Yang, are you still downstairs?”

Yang Jian had now reached the stairway. Looking down and not seeing Li Yang, he called out.

“Mister Yang, I’m still downstairs, and something is not right. I think I vaguely saw someone coming upstairs,” Li Yang’s voice revealed a hint of panic.

He was indeed alert, not expecting to have already noticed the fact that ghosts from the painting were heading upstairs.

“We need to leave this place now. I’ll rush downstairs as fast as I can shortly, and you follow. No matter what you see or encounter along the way, don’t stop. This floor isn’t very high, so it should be no problem to burst out of here in one go,” Yang Jian said directly.

“I understand,” Li Yang replied.

Yang Jian looked once more at the wooden staircase before him.

The staircase could not be influenced by the Ghost Domain from the ghost painting, so it was the only way out right now, but it wasn’t safe because another ghost was lingering on the staircase.

Once they acted, that ghost would follow their footsteps.

Then, anyone could be killed.

Even Yang Jian himself might lose the optimal moment to leave due to a brief loss of consciousness, and then get trapped in the building by the ghost painting.

However, the next moment.

Yang Jian moved, almost without any hesitation, acting very quickly. He rushed down the wooden staircase.

He stepped over four steps at once, and in two steps, he had almost crossed half the staircase. He wanted to get out of the building before the ghost caught up or even reacted to him. Once outside, he believed he would be safe.

After a few steps, Yang Jian had returned to the third floor.

He saw Li Yang, whose tense face kept looking down the stairs, seemingly observing the situation below, while Jimmy was paying attention to the abnormality on the floor behind them.

“What are you waiting for? Let’s go,” Yang Jian barked.

Li Yang also froze for a moment. Although he was prepared, he did not expect Yang Jian to come rushing down so directly—that was a bit too fast.

But before he could think further,

The wooden stairs from the fourth to the third floor creaked urgently, as if someone was swiftly heading downstairs. Yet, the staircase was empty.

“Run, Jimmy!” Li Yang shouted in terror.

Yang Jian didn’t rush ahead; he paused, knowing that the faster he moved, the faster the ghost would. To leave, all three of them had to move nearly simultaneously; otherwise, the person in the rear would quickly be caught by the ghost, and then escaping from the building would be impossible.

The sound of descending footsteps on the staircase continued, and the ghost was about to finish the steps to the third floor.

At that moment, Yang Jian started to move again.

He moved quickly, rushing towards the second floor, while Li Yang and Jimmy followed in terror, mustering all their strength to dash downstairs.

Their rapid actions did not shake off the footsteps behind them, which became even more urgent, as if also running swiftly, relentlessly closing the distance between them.

According to what had happened before,

If someone was caught by those footsteps, they would immediately die, without any ghost appearing to attack them; it was like an inevitable curse.

Even Yang Jian could not resist it.