Mysterious Revival

Everything was ready, and as Yang Jian looked at the mature and alluring Zhang Liqin before him, his attention wasn't on her figure but rather on her slightly bulging belly.

He was well aware of what a forming Ghost Infant meant.

Although he didn't know if this Ghost Infant was related to the one Zhou Zheng had encountered before, the pressing matter was to extract it now.

If a few more days passed and Zhang Liqin became too deeply eroded by the Ghost Infant, it would be too late to save her.

She could only wait for death.

"I need to make some attempts, don't be nervous," Yang Jian instructed, standing in front of her.

Zhang Liqin's body tensed up, and she nodded solemnly.

"First attempt," Yang Jian thought to himself.

In the next moment, red light emitted from his body, and the Ghost Eye on his forehead opened instantly, shrouding Zhang Liqin within the Ghost Domain.

"No effect?" he wondered, looking at her slightly raised stomach.

The Ghost Infant showed no reaction, nor did it resist, smoothly entering the Ghost Domain.

"Just as I had speculated, time for the second attempt," Yang Jian said without hesitation, his shadow immediately began to change underneath him.

The black shadow thickened like ink, flowing slowly on the ground like mercury before rising from the floor.

Soon, a headless shadow eerily stood behind him.

For Zhang Liqin, it was her first time seeing Yang Jian's true form so clearly—it was indeed eerie and terrifying because she knew in her heart that neither the extra red eye nor the tall black figure behind him was human, but two truly terrifying ghosts.

The Ghost Shadow slowly approached her.

As they almost touched each other, Zhang Liqin felt a cold aura drawing near, causing her hair to stand on end and goosebumps to appear on her pale skin, a chill spreading from the soles of her feet throughout her body.

"Behave yourself," Yang Jian said sternly.

"Yes, sorry," Zhang Liqin's complexion turned grim.

"Not you, I was referring to my shadow. It wishes to possess your body. The nature of a fierce ghost still lingers; it would lose control if I suppressed it."

After Yang Jian finished speaking, the body of the Ghost Shadow suddenly split open with several cracks, and within those black openings hid several crimson eyes, a total of five.

The appearance of the Ghost Eyes immediately brought the Ghost Shadow's movements to a halt, freezing in place, unable to move.

"You can only move where I permit," Yang Jian said.

He closed one of the Ghost Eyes on the body of the Ghost Shadow, and one of its black arms regained movement.

This time it behaved.

The arm of the Ghost Shadow reached towards Zhang Liqin's slightly bulging belly.

"Yang, Yang Jian?" Confronted with such a strange situation, even Zhang Liqin, no matter how composed, began to succumb to fear and panic.

"It's okay, trust me," Yang Jian said, furrowing his brow deeply.

The Ghost Shadow's hand had no substance and, like an actual shadow, it passed directly through Zhang Liqin's pale skin and into her belly.

But the next moment, the attempt failed.

The Ghost Shadow's hand passed right through Zhang Liqin's body without touching the Ghost Infant inside.

"The second attempt has failed, just as imagined," Yang Jian wasn't surprised because all this was within his considerations.

As expected, if Zhang Liqin's body became ethereal, the Ghost Infant would also become ethereal, and the Ghost Shadow wouldn't be able to touch it.

So, the only way to perfectly extract the Ghost Infant was to make Zhang Liqin's body ethereal while the Ghost Infant remained solid.

Of course, raw force could also extract it, but that would kill the person.

Yang Jian was here to save a life, not take one, and he wouldn't resort to overly aggressive methods.

"Has that thing been taken out?" Zhang Liqin, trembling slightly, if it hadn't been for Yang Jian's calm presence, she would have screamed and run away by now.

Yang Jian said, "One last attempt is needed. If this also fails, your situation will become very dire. But don't be afraid, I'm eighty percent confident in the third attempt. However, it requires a bit of time to prepare. Stay here and wait for me."

The third attempt involved merging the Ghost Domain with the Ghost Eye, enabling a perfect synergy of the two powers to extract the Ghost Infant.

And this required a medium.

The medium was Yang Jian's own body, for he was a ghost controller.

Only Yang Jian himself could blend the abilities of two formidable ghosts, as ghosts do not naturally synergize with each other.

"So I've returned to the starting point once again," he mused. "The method described on the human skin scroll, hanging in front of the Ghost Mirror, resurrecting from death, and perfectly controlling the revived Ghost Shadow?"

Yang Jian felt as if he had unconsciously retraced his old steps. Explore more at empire

Could he have been tricked?

Let that be for now, since it's an experiment, there's no need to take undue risks; a small trial would suffice.

Yang Jian suddenly looked at his right hand.

Merging just one hand would mean that the risks were controllable, even in the event of failure.

"Hmm, that's what I'll do," Yang Jian nodded.

However, after pondering over his right hand for quite some time: "Better use the left hand instead."

And so, he decided to use his left hand for the trial.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Miss Zhang, do you see that lighter and candlestick over there? If I lose control, upon your command, you must immediately light the red candle with the lighter," Yang Jian instructed; "If everything goes smoothly, there's no need to do so."

"Okay, got it," Zhang Liqin nodded in agreement.

Yang Jian was just adding an extra layer of protection.

He was merely dealing with a minor ghost, not facing a highly dangerous supernatural event; how could he allow things to go awry?

He took a deep breath, now it was his turn to be nervous.

At that moment, the Ghost Shadow withdrew, once again standing behind him.

Subsequently, the pitch-black arm of the Ghost Shadow moved again, but this time, instead of using it on someone else, it gradually entered Yang Jian's left arm.

He was attempting to control one of the Ghost Shadow's arms.

With the suppression of the Ghost Eye, there was still a chance of success.

But there was also the risk of failure; if he failed, Yang Jian faced two possibilities. The first was that he would have to give up one of his own arms to the Ghost Shadow, and the second was the Ghost Shadow going out of control.

However, the second possibility was constrained by the Ghost Candle; within the light of the Ghost Candle, the Ghost Shadow could not go out of control.

Therefore, Yang Jian only needed to worry about whether he could keep his own arm.

"It's not only about saving Zhang Liqin, but if I succeed, I can find a new way based on controlling two ghosts, without taking the risk of hanging myself," Yang Jian thought to himself.

At this moment, as the Ghost Shadow fused, Yang Jian felt his left hand enveloped by a chill, rapidly losing sensation.

It was as if his arm was no longer his but that someone else was contesting the control of it.

Being possessed by the Ghost Shadow meant handing your body over to a ghost, you're no longer yourself.

"Suppress it," Yang Jian immediately shifted the Ghost Eye within his body.

A Ghost Eye suddenly popped out, protruding through the flesh in the palm of his hand.

The coldness in his palm quickly subsided, and he felt his hand slowly regain sensation as if it had thawed from being frozen.

"Did it work?" Yang Jian's face was marked by gravity.

But in the next instant, his expression underwent a drastic change.

The Ghost Shadow within his arm had become uncontrollable, starting to agitate restlessly as the skin along the entire arm split inch by inch, resembling fragile porcelain on the verge of shattering.

In less than ten seconds, his arm would be destroyed due to the uncontrollable Ghost Shadow.

"Damn it, the power of this Ghost Shadow is stronger than I imagined. Without a body, the Ghost Shadow didn't feel significant, but once it possesses a body, the threat escalates dramatically," Yang Jian struggled to maintain control, but his power was no match for the Ghost Shadow's.

Now, the entire arm was twisting bizarrely after sprouting cracks, and if it were a normal person's, the arm would have been rendered useless.

"Should I light the candle?" Zhang Liqin asked in a panic upon seeing Yang Jian's arm in that state.

"Not yet, let me try again," Yang Jian gritted his teeth and transferred the last Ghost Eye to his arm.

The Ghost Eye on his forehead disappeared, and the seventh eye appeared on his arm.

As the Ghost Eye opened, the strange agitation within his arm immediately settled.