"Dachuan City Airport is unresponsive, should the plane make an emergency landing?"
The private jet hovered overhead, and the captain observed the ground but received no landing instructions from the airport.
"Make an emergency landing, disregard other factors. After landing, immediately depart and leave; you have no further business here," Tong Qian ordered.
The captain hesitated no longer and immediately landed the plane.
But just as the plane touched down.
Lights lit up from all directions near the runway.
"Attention, attention, there's an incident at the airport, be careful of obstacles on the runway," the captain warned.
The plane taxied on the runway.
At this moment, lights approached.
Vehicles drove in from nowhere, blatantly ignoring airport management and stormed onto the runway.
"An accident occurred."
Yang Jian stood nearby, watching the vehicles rushing over. He did not intervene, as the plane had already landed, and the nemesis of the ghost had arrived.
The vehicles did not interfere with the plane's landing but instead trapped Yang Jian and others who had just arrived at the airport.
The lights of the vehicles cast many shadows of the individuals on the road.
The shadows were long and covered a large area, creating many opportunities for the malicious ghost to strike.
"It's dangerous, the ghost changed its strategy, actively highlighting our shadows; it intends to kill us here," said Li Yang, his expression slightly changing as he turned around on the spot.
All sides were surrounded.
And no matter where he stood, there were shadows; there were no blind spots.
"Isn't this good? Although there is danger, there are also opportunities. When the ghost attacks one of us, it must reveal itself, and once it does, it cannot escape."
Yang Jian's eyes shifted slightly: "Calm down, just be vigilant of your surroundings."
"Understood." Li Yang nodded seriously.
The plane came to a stop.
The cabin door opened.
The cool night breeze blew as a heroic-looking woman, her head wrapped in a scarf, stood at the doorway, her eyes observant and solemn.
As a gust of wind blew.
Tong Qian's scarf was blown away, and unbelievably, on both her left and right cheeks, there were eerie and horrifying faces.
Both faces looked androgynous, resembling both a man and a woman, but one face carried a smile that exuded an indescribable creepiness, while the other had a crying expression, like someone in mourning, which also sent chills down the spine upon prolonged observation.
"A person with three faces?"
Yang Xiaohua's expression changed instantly upon seeing this.
The first thing that crossed her mind was, is this a human or a ghost on the plane?
Tong Qian frowned slightly: "Captain, the situation here seems more complicated than you described, with people everywhere eroded by fierce ghosts. If we deal with the ghost, can we save them afterward?"
"Don't know, maybe yes, maybe no, but at least we can't let things get worse, can we?" Yang Jian replied.
"You're right," Tong Qian nodded.
Before he could step off the plane, a peculiarly skinned child, exuding a strange aura, squeezed out from the cabin and swiftly descended the stairs.
"Xiao Yang, do you really need Daddy Xiong to handle such a trivial matter? Don't you know I still have a lot of homework to do? If I don't finish, my mom will scold me again when I return."
Xiong Wenwen appeared carefree and arrogant in demeanor.
It was clear this child lacked discipline and needed a spanking.
"A little kid? No, that's not an ordinary child; it's like a corpse... No, not a corpse, but a paper effigy," Yang Xiaohua observed carefully, shivering inwardly.
A paper effigy child being able to move and speak normally.
What has this world turned into?
It doesn't quite seem so; ghosts don't communicate this much.
In her horror and hesitation, Yang Jian walked over and slapped Xiong Wenwen on the head: "You think you can call Xiao Yang? I think your ass doesn't know the pain; it only grows more reckless. I'll have your mom prepare some extra exercises for you later, let's see if you can still laugh."
"No, no, Brother Tui, I know I was wrong," Xiong Wenwen's face changed drastically as he quickly admitted his fault.
"Li Yang, are you okay?" Tong Qian also came down and greeted him.
"I'm fine. I was on a mission with the captain earlier, we almost succeeded, but the ghost escaped. Now, the ghost is about to launch a second attack, it should be right here in this airport. I've already told you about the previous murder pattern; this is a consciousness-invading type of fierce ghost, and the medium is the shadow."
Li Yang said in a low voice, "Our shadows will materialize in the light, and the fierce ghosts can then launch their attacks on us. Similarly, under the light, the ghosts will also manifest characteristics. Now in Dachuan City, only the living and the fierce ghosts have shadows, those living dead don't have shadows; this is the most important point for distinguishing between ghosts and humans."
"You have explained it very clearly, I think I know what to do now."
Tong Qian nodded, indicating that she understood.
They were not novices anymore.
Having this kind of information meant that the ghost had already lost its biggest threat.
Even if capturing might fail, it definitely won't let the fierce ghost succeed.
After all, they still had Xiong Wenwen on hand.
Knowing the next ten minutes was almost like game cheating, significantly raising the success rate.
"When do we act?" Tong Qian looked at Yang Jian again, seemingly waiting for orders.
Yang Jian said, "It's now, but we need to wait a moment, it seems someone is coming."
The expressions of everyone changed.
They looked toward the direction of the airport.
A few figures were quickly approaching them; they were jogging with their breath is heavy, their forms elongated by the car headlights behind them.
"Do all three of them have shadows?" Tong Qian's expression eased.
Only living people have shadows, so these three should be fine.
However, Xiong Wenwen looked strangely at the three strangers, as if thinking and sizing them up, a hard-to-describe feeling arising in his heart.
"Yang Jian, it's me, Li Yi," Li Yi gasped for air: "I received your earlier call to meet up, so I rushed here immediately. Although it was a bit delayed, it shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"It's just in time, any later, and it would not have worked," Yang Jian said.
Li Yi then said, "Are these your friends? How should I address the two of you?"
As he reached out his hand and saw Tong Qian's face, he suddenly stiffened.
Someone with three faces?
"Ghost Face, Tong Qian," Tong Qian said indifferently.
Xiong Wenwen said, "So you're Xiao Yang's friend? You look pretty battered; you must not be much. I'm called Daddy Xiong, you can call me Daddy."
"..." Li Yi looked at this odd child.
For some reason, hearing this tone made him want to beat him up, but he quickly held back.
Because this child was not simple either.
The body seemed not alive, devoid of any blood color or vitality, his complexion was wax-yellow like a body ready for burial, or like a yellow paper pasted on face, even having the texture of paper, without any pores and skin lines,
The thought suddenly brought back some terrifying implications to Li Yi's mind.
"Yang Jian, I want to know why you wanted us to meet up here? This place isn't Mingyue Community. Wouldn't it be better to meet at the gate of the other communities since our main purpose is to deliver a letter?" the woman in a cheongsam, Leuk Qingqing, asked curiously.
"The letter is with me. When we go to deliver it, or when we go to Mingyue Community, I will decide. I wanted us to meet up just to minimize some uncertainties, and also..." Yang Jian paused here.
"And also what?" Li Yi asked.
A cold smile appeared on Yang Jian's lips: "Also to lure the ghost here."
"Although I haven't seen the ghost now, I'm sure it's lurking right here in this airport because there aren't many living people left in Dachuan City. If the ghost wants to kill, it's bound to come here. We've been spotted by the ghost after circling around Dachuan City. If the ghost still needs a living body, a fresh head will definitely seek us out," he concluded.
Li Yi's eyes hardened.
There is no such thing as a rendezvous.
Instead, everyone is bait, used to lure the snake out of its hole.
Where the living gather, vengeful spirits will surely come.
"What do you plan to do?" Li Yi immediately followed up with a question.
Yang Jian responded, "From now on, just keep your mouths shut."
Li Yi was at a loss for words.
Facing the assertive Yang Jian, he dared not ask more, especially since Yang Jian had brought two helpers with him today. It was clear that today's mission was well-prepared, and it wasn't just about delivering a message.
Because Yang Jian had no intention of going to Mingyue Community at all.
However, while everyone was talking.
Under the distant light, who knows when, there appeared one after another eerie figure, no, not one, but a group, a throng, teeming.
Some of these people were coming from the direction of the airport, others from the direction of the city center, and some were walking down from the nearby planes.
All of them had an astonishingly unified pace, each with a dull and sluggish expression on their face, like so many marionettes.
The chilling cry that harrowed the soul echoed once again in the Black Night; the corpses were speaking as if vengeful spirits were claiming lives.
"Mom, Brother Tui save me!" Xiong Wenwen, frightened, quickly hid behind Yang Jian.
Yang Jian said, "Others can hide, what are you hiding for? I didn't bring you here to scream and shout. Get to work promptly, cooperate with Tong Qian to deal with this ghost. I have other matters to handle tomorrow, I can't afford to keep wasting time here with these ghostly things."
Xiong Wenwen puffed up her face, looking somewhat reluctant, but still obeyed Yang Jian's order.
Xiong Wenwen used the ability of the vengeful ghost to foresee all events occurring within the next ten minutes nearby.
The foresight was silent and uneventful, with no eerie phenomena occurring.
The only evidence of Xiong Wenwen's use of the ability was the nearby cars and the lights on the planes.
The lights flickered sizzlingly, brightening and dimming intermittently as if interfered by some unknown entity.
"Is this letting Xiong Wenwen act now?"
Tong Qian whispered, "Isn't this a bit reckless? If the ghost isn't there, Xiong Wenwen's ability will be wasted. Although he's resurrected, after all, he only commands a ghost."
"There's no mistake, trust my judgment." Yang Jian said.
Li Yang, on the other side, didn't speak, but was watching Xiong Wenwen closely.
The codename Spirit Child.
A ghost controller capable of foreseeing the future.
Such ability is exceedingly rare among ghost controllers. If it wasn't for Yang Jian's ability to rescue Xiong Wenwen from the photograph, the headquarters would never have allowed Xiong Wenwen to join Yang Jian's team.
"Tong Qian, no need to wait any longer, take action now, clear out these people around us."
Yang Jian, seeing the crowd converging once again, unhesitatingly instructed Tong Qian to take action.
"Are these people really unsavable?" Tong Qian turned to him with a crying face.
Her crying face showed a visage of pity for the world.
Yang Jian said, "Compared to Dachuan City, these things are just a small fraction. Eliminate this ghost to devise a way to save others. If you don't act, the ghost will attack us, or even possibly escape. Then, I might have to ask you to clean up this entire city."
"There might still be other living people in the city; it will be harder for you then."
"I've checked this airport; the remaining living are all here, the rest are ghostly things controlled by vengeful ghosts, so you can go ahead and act."
Knowing Tong Qian's kind and soft heart, he explained the reasoning to her, clarifying the situation.
As the team leader, it's also essential to understand the conditions of each team member, not just giving commands forcefully. This would only lead to disaffection and resentment among teammates.
Tong Qian looked at Yang Jian, then finally nodded. Her face turned, revealing a bizarrely smiling face towards those strange incoming people.
The smile-bearing Ghost Face opened its mouth, and a terrifying, bizarre laughter echoed through the night.
The ghost's laughter.
This kind of laughter was indiscriminate, meaning it did not differentiate between friend and foe.
Anyone who heard this laughter would unconsciously smile, and the moment you begin to laugh, it meant that you were already a corpse, already dead.
This was a horrifying and almost unsolvable method of killing.
Most despairingly, this laughter would echo in an area, continuously overlapping, and could even invade into the Ghost Domain.
Even Yang Jian at his best couldn't resist it.
But there are exceptions to everything.
The deaf could ignore the effects of this ghostly laugh.
The first to be affected were Yang Xiaohua, Li Yi, and Guo You.
They were ordinary people, close by, and without any resistance, so although other expressions appeared on their faces, the corners of their mouths involuntarily curled up, as if infected by the laughter, wanting to laugh.
Yang Jian initially wanted to avoid it or use Ghost Shadow to make everyone temporarily deaf, but before he could act, Tong Qian signaled with a look.
Another Ghost Face suddenly stirred.
A miserable and creepy cry floated over, pulling back those who were about to laugh,
and the range of this crying was very small, affecting only a few people nearby.
This meant that Tong Qian had become very adept at controlling her own ghosts, using another face to counteract the horrible effects of the laughter.
The crying reached a balance.
But the people who were approaching were still walking forward, all the while smiles forming on their faces.
The smiles were exceedingly bizarre.
Once formed, these people all simultaneously stopped in their tracks, then directly collapsed on the ground, losing all ability to move.
In the place where the laughter echoed, the crowd surged back, collapsing in swathes, leaving no chance for these people to approach.
"Is, is this even human?" Li Yi, Yang Xiaohua, and others were utterly shocked by the scene.
This person's laughter could disturb the supernatural, dispel fierce ghosts.
And not just affecting one or two people, but everyone was influenced.
However, behind the astonishing effect, an inexplicable chill emerged.
Those who had fallen were still wearing smiles, that smile becoming the trademark of the corpse, not disappearing even in death.
Imagining oneself facing the consequence of this laughter.
Everyone couldn't help but shiver.
But at the same time.
As the crowd dispersed and the actions of the ghosts were hindered, behind Li Yi, Guo You, and Leuk Qingqing, one of the shadows weirdly fluctuated.
The light was clearly coming from behind, so the shadow should have been in front, but the shadow started shortening instead.
Contrary to normal, it began to reverse.
The shadow in front gradually stretched to the back.