Mysterious Revival

Undoubtedly, there was a ghost standing behind the old wooden door mounted on the dilapidated wall, separated from the living inside the room by merely a wall.

Moreover, the most unsettling part was that the ghost was actually knocking on the door.

"Thump, thump-thump!"

The dull, oppressive sound of the knocks seemed to drift in with the darkness outside, and this knocking was all too familiar to Yang Jian.

Without question, these were the knocking sounds of the Door Knocking Ghost.

But...

After the sound of knocking, no one in the room died, not even Wang Shan, who was just a regular person. This was clearly abnormal because ordinarily, someone should die after the knockings, and while a ghost manipulator might withstand one knock, an ordinary person would have no reason to survive this almost certain death rule.

So, this wasn't knock-to-kill.

If the knocking wasn't to kill, what was it for?

Yang Jian's expression changed as he stared intently at the timeworn wooden door.

Whether it was due to some supernatural influence or not, at this moment, the dim and yellowish chandelier in the living room suddenly went out, plunging the already dark place into even deeper darkness. Had it not been for the light from the bedroom and the bathroom shining through, they would have been unable to see their hands in front of them.

"Thump, thump-thump!"

As everyone was briefly lost in thought and startled, the ghost outside seemed to have no intention of stopping, and a second knocking sound began, with the same rhythm, the same manner of knocking.

The sound echoed through the living room, reaching everyone's ears.

Even though it was the same as before, the second round of knocking made Yang Jian, Li Yang, and Sun Rui—the ghost manipulators—feel a threat of death.

Something terrible was about to happen.

If left unchecked, everyone in the room might die tonight.

Despite the rising sense of crisis, nothing happened when the second knocking sound echoed; no one died, and no one was attacked.

Yet there were indeed changes happening in the room.

At some point, the light in the bathroom went out.

The illumination around them dimmed once more.

Now, only the bedroom light remained on. The yellow glow was cast obliquely into the living room, adding a faint sense of security to this eerie environment.

Yang Jian noted this change. His mind raced as he swiftly looked toward the direction of the bathroom and then up at the extinguished ceiling lamp.

Two knocks, two extinguished lamps in Room No. 7?

This was no coincidence but a rule, a pattern in the ghost's method of killing.

"We can't just sit here and wait. Let's just open the door and face whatever's out there head-on. If the three of us work together, we might not be completely outmatched. Just suppress it from the front. If we succeed, we can contain the ghost right here and save ourselves the trouble," Sun Rui's face showed a determined look.

He wasn't the type to sit back and await his fate. In times of crisis, he chose to take proactive action.

"Yang, what should we do?" Li Yang didn't act rashly. He knew that as a novice, he still had much to learn.

In both discernment and agility, he was far behind top-tier ghost manipulators like Yang Jian.

It wasn't a matter of age but of personal skill and experience.

Yang Jian's gaze shifted slightly: "We can't open the door, we must not. I suspect this ghost doesn't just have one method of killing but possibly two, or even three—knocking sounds, the encroaching darkness of the room, footsteps outside, lights going out inside... These phenomena aren't just happening without reason."

"Furthermore, if the ghost really wanted to come in, such a door wouldn't stop it."

How frail is an old wooden door?

Yang Jian reckoned he could kick it down with one kick.

When he encountered the Door Knocking Ghost at school, it had stood at the doorway to the classroom, which didn't even have its door closed.

So the door wasn't important.

What mattered was the terror represented by the knocking behind it.

"Li Yang, block the door."

After a brief exchange, Yang Jian immediately made a decision and began to take action.

"Okay," Li Yang said without a second thought, gritted his teeth, ran forward a few steps, and slammed heavily against the door, using his body to block it.

Actually, there was no need to block the door at that time.

Because the ghost had no intention of entering, generally, the Door-blocking Ghost's ability was used to prevent a ghost from chasing out of a room, not for this kind of situation.

"Thump, thump-thump."

As Li Yang made contact with the aged wooden door, the third knock resounded.

"Fizz! Fizz!"

In the bedroom, the last hanging lamp that was still on began to flicker, dimming almost to the point of going out before brightening again, this time even more so than before.

The fluctuation of the light filled the entire room with an indescribable eeriness.

But in the end, the lamp did not go out.

On the contrary, with Li Yang blocking the door, the light in the bathroom that had been extinguished also came back on, and the living room's chandelier also flickered briefly, regaining its light. Although it remained dim and yellowish, it was much better than before.

```

"The lights are on again?" Wang Shan, being an ordinary person, also noticed this detail.

"Is it blocking the appearance of the ghost?"

After that, his tense nerves slightly relaxed, but his gaze remained anxiously on Li Yang, who was blocking the wooden door.

People cannot block ghosts.

But this person could.

Indeed, each of these three leaders was extraordinary, possessing the ability to face fierce ghosts directly. That person named Sun Rui was even thinking about opening the door to confront the ghost head-on?

This was certainly not reckless, but rather this person might truly have that kind of ability.

If that were the case, just how powerful would Yang Jian, the team captain, be?

Wang Shan pondered quietly to himself.

However, the fact that he could still be lost in thought at this time showed that his mental fortitude was also very strong. If it were an ordinary person, by now their mind would have ceased to work, filled only with fear and despair.

"Captain Yang, something is not right." Suddenly, Li Yang, who was responsible for blocking the door, shouted out.

Sun Rui noticed the change; "The doorknob is moving, the door is shaking… Damn, the ghost wants to come in, it is trying to open this door."

The doorknob on the old wooden door was shaking violently, and from outside the door, a tremendous force was transmitted, as if it wanted to smash the door open. Although it made no sound of impact, the wooden door had already eerily deformed, showing a concave arc bending inward into the room.

The arc was significant, as if the door was about to fall off the wall.

Yet, despite the door twisting to such an extent, it still did not fracture or break.

A certain supernatural power was maintaining this inconceivable phenomenon, continuing to resist.

Ghost Door Blocker.

This was the ghost controlled by Li Yang. As long as he touched the door, it would be impossible for anyone to open it, not even a top-tier ghost master like Yang Jian could break it down.

Moreover, it did more than just block the door; it also isolated anything supernatural.

The darkness in the room dispersed, and the light coming on again was the best proof.

Some terrible event that was about to happen had been forcefully stopped by Li Yang's door-blocking, but after three knocks, with no deaths in the room, the ghost had not left and was instead trying to enter.

"So, knocking is one sort of murderous rule, and opening the door is another?" Yang Jian wondered to himself slightly.

"The door absolutely cannot be opened."

Looking at the distorted wooden door, Yang Jian's feet were motionless, but the Headless Ghost Shadow behind him had stood up and taken a few steps forward.

The Ghost Shadow appeared on the door like a reflection, making a stand, beginning to resist the ghost that was about to open the door.

The deformed concave door was still shaking violently, but due to the Ghost Shadow's presence, the pressure on Li Yang decreased significantly, and the door regained some normalcy. The severity of the shaking also lessened.

But the ghost outside had not retreated.

It was still trying to come in.

At this moment, Li Yang's complexion was dim and blackening, in an obvious state of discomfort. Every silent impact and twist coming from the wooden door felt as if it would shatter his body, tearing his limbs apart.

If the Door-blocking Ghost failed to prevent the external ghost from invading, he would die instantly.

This was because his body had already been invaded by the ghost. If the ghost were suppressed, his physical functions could not be maintained, and death would be inevitable.

This was the drawback of a ghost master—needing a ghost to sustain life.

"Click, click."

Li Yang faintly heard sounds of something cracking near his ear. At first, he thought his own body was breaking apart, but he soon realized it wasn't.

It was like an invisible layer enshrouding his body was shattering.

As fragile as a piece of porcelain.

At the same time.

In a restaurant room near the unfinished building in Dahan City.

A piece of porcelain hidden in a secret corner of the hotel room was cracking continuously, with the fractures spreading along its surface—although not rapidly, the piece would ultimately shatter if this continued.

"Captain Yang, this can't go on, we can't keep contending with the ghost indefinitely," Li Yang called out.

He knew Yang Jian had already made a move.

The tall, dark shadow crouched on the door was proof.

"This place suppresses my Ghost Domain, so I have to grit my teeth and go for it," Yang Jian said with a cold face as he took off his left glove.

A blackened, rigid dead man's hand emerged.

This was his Ghost Hand.

But inside the post office, the four-layer Ghost Domain was suppressed, and the Ghost Hand was only capable of invading the three-layer Ghost Domain, so it was impossible to attack the ghost outside while standing here.

The only way was to make contact in person.

Yang Jian did not hesitate; he walked over quickly, glancing, "Sun Rui, join me in making a move. The suppression must reach its maximum at the same time, or it could easily go wrong."

"No problem," Sun Rui said, squinting his eyes. Although he stood motionless with his cane, he was ready to act.

```

Ghostmasters do not necessarily need to make noticeable movements when they act.

Yang Jian arrived at the warped wooden door.

The curvature of the wooden door formed a gap of about seven or eight centimeters, which was relatively small. At its most distorted peak, it had extended to at least twenty centimeters, which was simply unbelievable because the door would have already broken under such strain.

Through the gap, Yang Jian saw darkness.

Within the darkness, there seemed to be a vague and terrifying figure, yet it also seemed like there was none.

It was impossible to see clearly.

Knowing full well that a ghost stood outside the door, Yang Jian still stretched his hand through the warped door slit, roughly where the doorknob was.

A ghost hand only needs to touch to exert suppressive force.

It could at least instantly disable a ghost's ability to move, even if the ghost was highly complete in its formation, the ghost hand could still suppress it in part.

Yang Jian's ghost hand probed into the darkness, using the position of the doorknob inside as a reference, reaching towards that spot.

Very quickly.

He touched the old doorknob, but at the same time, he touched something else.

A dry, cold, rigid palm.

That palm rested on the doorknob outside the door, and Yang Jian could even feel the long nails on that palm and the raised knuckles between the fingers.

The hand was large and eerie.

Yang Jian couldn't help but think this.

Because he felt that hand's fingers were much longer than those of a normal person.

At the moment of contact between the ghost hand and the ghost outside, Sun Rui also sensed this critical opportunity.

"Cough, cough cough."

He coughed violently like a person on the brink of death, what was chilling was that his cough had an echo. It was clear that only one person was coughing, yet the room resounded with another coughing sound, overlapping with Sun Rui's but not entirely, there was a slight difference.

It was precisely because of this that it felt especially haunting.

At the instant the coughing arose.

It was as if the suppression exceeded the limit the ghost outside the door could bear.

Suddenly.

The strange palm Yang Jian had touched quickly retracted, leaving the door handle.

The vibrating warped door also calmed down immediately at this moment.

"Bang!"

The dented door returned to normal, and with a loud noise, it slammed shut fiercely.

Yang Jian did not manage to withdraw his hand in time, his arm was caught by the closing door, and with a snap, the bones broke, stuck in the door.

Agony surged through him, and Yang Jian's mouth twitched fiercely.

"Yang leader?" Li Yang's face changed, and he quickly spoke.

"It's nothing, just a broken arm," Yang Jian said calmly, he hissed to signal silence.

At this moment,

The footsteps outside the door started up again.

The sound of the footsteps had changed, it seemed as if the ghost was turning to leave, the dull footsteps gradually moved away, starting to leave the vicinity of the great door.

"Is the ghost leaving?"

Wang Shan's eyes widened in shock.

Had the three people, in unison, forcefully repelled the terrifying ghost that roamed the post office?

And even stopped it from entering the door?

"Cough, cough cough." As the ghost departed, there seemed to be a faint cough drifting through the post office hall.

Was the ghost coughing?

Sun Rui squinted, looking significantly more ill, his already deathly pale complexion turned even worse.

At this point,

The room was exceptionally quiet, none of the four people spoke, all were listening to the departing footsteps.

There was no doubt about the confrontation just now, the ghost inside the post office was terrifying.

So terrifying that it required three Ghostmasters to take action in order to push it back openly.

Although no one had exerted their full strength, the collision had already confirmed that this ghost was extremely dangerous—if they were to set up a profile, its level would certainly be A.

As the footsteps outside gradually faded away and completely disappeared, everyone finally began to breathe a little easier.

The post office outside was quiet enough to be terrifying, but the danger had left, and the darkness that tried to invade the room had dissipated.

The yellowed chandelier in the living room was not very bright, but it also had no risk of going out anymore.

After a good while, everyone dared to conclude.

The ghost that roamed the post office had truly left, not even remaining on this floor, and where it went was not important. What mattered was that the danger had been lifted.

Only after Yang Jian was sure that the situation was normal did he slightly open the door to retrieve his severed arm.

"Broken? Needs some treatment, but I've arranged for an ambulance on standby outside. Hold on for now, Captain Yang. It seems we won't be leaving tonight. It's too dangerous outside with ghosts wandering about. We'll have to wait till morning for treatment," Sun Rui said, glancing at the broken arm.

Wang Shan hesitated for a moment and then spoke, "I know some first aid, I can help set your bones, and I have some medical supplies in my room..."

"No need, I am not that fragile," Yang Jian said calmly.

Then, under the gaze of the others, his broken arm began to move on its own as if influenced by some unknown supernatural power, and it reattached itself, returning to normal.

He moved his fingers and flexed his arm. The join was still perfect.

Seeing this, Sun Rui was visibly taken aback. He recalled something Yang Jian had previously told him, which he had thought was a joke. Now it seemed to be true.

Could Yang Jian possess the ability to reattach his body?

"Incredible," Sun Rui exclaimed.

This ability was very useful; it could broadly maintain body functions to prevent severe deterioration after being infected by a ghost.

No wonder Yang Jian appeared to be in such good shape.

"This can't be considered a normal living person anymore, one more bizarre than the next."

Wang Shan fell silent at this moment, witnessing how terrifying the people within the Supernatural Circle could be for the first time.

"Captain Yang, what is the ghost's pattern of killing? Do you have any clue? If we encounter it again, it will be a very troublesome matter," Li Yang asked seriously at this moment.

Sun Rui touched his cane and said, "Without a doubt, opening doors is key. The ghost was so eager to open the door that it bent it like that just now, clearly one of the attack patterns. So, Captain Yang, when you blocked the door, it was a direct confrontation with the ghost's attack, and as you saw, the three of us joined forces and successfully blocked this assault."

"So, next time we encounter that ghostly thing, we must not let it open the door."

"But, I think this ghost is terrifying. There must be more than one trigger for its killing pattern; otherwise, there would be no need to knock before opening doors. This suggests that the knocking is also part of the murder pattern, though it's unclear why it stopped knocking after three times."

Yang Jian glanced over and said, "Your observation is sharp, to guess that there are at least two murder patterns with the ghost outside."

"Heh, after all the time I've spent observing, I should be able to figure out some things, otherwise, I wouldn't deserve to be the leader," Sun Rui laughed.

After a moment of silence, Yang Jian said, "I speculate it's to do with the lights in the room. The first knock, the living room light went out. The second knock, the bathroom light went out. The third knock, the light in the room flickered and was about to go out."

"But Li Yang blocked the door, isolating the supernatural, so the light in the room didn't go out."

"In this room, there are just three lights, corresponding to the three knocks. So, I have reason to suspect that the ghost outside was following a pattern of knocking out the lights, and as soon as a light goes out, the people inside the house are likely all dead."

"As people die like extinguished lights, this is a form of certain-death killing method."

Li Yang exclaimed, "Makes sense, which is why the post office turns off its lights after six o'clock every evening. The lights go out from the first to the fifth floor, and any messenger who hasn't returned to their room dies because the only lights on in the post office are in the rooms."

Sun Rui then asked, "You're Wang Shan, right? Does this room have any light switches?"

Wang Shan said, "There aren't any. The bathroom, the room, the living room—none have light switches. I checked several times already, and I can confirm, but the lights in the room always turn on automatically at six in the evening and go out at six in the morning."

"That's it, no light switches mean the lights aren't controllable by the occupants," Sun Rui nodded; "Captain Yang's analysis is correct."

"Knocking out the lights is the second attack pattern."

"So, this ghost has two ways of killing—killing by turning off the lights and by opening doors. Given the danger level of this ghost, they should both be instant death triggers with no chance of survival."

Thinking this, Sun Rui couldn't help touching his forehead, "It's truly frightening. We were almost wiped out."

"Indeed terrifying, but that's not the most terrifying part. If the Door Knocking Ghost were still here..." Yang Jian said, squinting his eyes.

If the Door Knocking Ghost was still inside the post office and wandered together with the other ghost, it would be an insolvable death trap, with the terror level straight to S-grade, an Unsolvable Level supernatural event.

Death on knocking, death on light out, death on door opening.

Now that the Door Knocking Ghost was gone, as long as the door was blocked and the supernatural was isolated to prevent the lights from going out, there was still a way to survive.

"Luckily, this time Captain Yang brought Li Yang over. He's very suitable for dealing with the murderous ghosts with patterns," Sun Rui said.

Wang Shan watched as these few people analyzed, his pupils slightly contracting.

Were these people all monsters?

To withstand the ghost's attack and then quickly analyze its killing method afterward was no mere speculation, but linking together various subtle changes logically and reasonably.

The ghost was being progressively decoded...

"So, under these circumstances, how should we handle the ghost?" Sun Rui tapped his cane, looking towards Yang Jian.

Upon hearing this, Wang Shan was even more startled.

What a joke, were these people actually planning to deal with the ghost that had just left?

Am I really from the same world as them?

The gap... is too vast.

And it's not something that can be bridged by effort alone.