Mysterious Revival

The streets of Kobe City were deserted, void of any people, and compared to its former prosperity and bustle, it was as if it were two different cities.

In this city, there began to circulate a very terrifying urban legend without anyone knowing when it started. It was said that when darkness fell, an elderly person, long deceased, would come to your doorstep and knock on your door, and those who heard the knocking would die in eerie ways.

At first, many people thought it was just a laughable rumor with no credibility at all.

But as time went by, more and more people died mysteriously, and some even witnessed the terrifying old man standing at someone else's doorway, knocking on their doors, and some even managed to take pictures of him successfully.

Despite that, the majority still did not believe it.

Until one morning, when heads of the dead, who had died long ago, began to float in the sky, the city plunged into panic.

Some people were fortunate enough to escape from here and survived.

But there were also some unfortunate ones; although they still lived in Kobe City, they had disappeared because they had been drawn into a strange world that belonged to the Door Knocking Ghost, the Ghost Domain, where they awaited the door knocking that could come at any moment.

Disappearance and escape led to the complete death of this thriving city.

Just like the initial situation in Dachang City.

But compared to what happened in Dachang City at that time, these people were luckier, because the Ghost Domain of the Door Knocking Ghost, though vast, had not yet reached the point of covering the entire city, and its killing efficiency was not very high.

But in any case, this city was sealed off.

No one was allowed to come near.

But today, a special vehicle drove in without any hindrance and finally stopped outside the police cordon.

The car door opened.

Three people got out.

A middle-aged man, a young man who looked like a high school student, and a woman in her thirties.

"Damn it, the boss must be joking, asking us to handle the situation in Kobe City, it's like sending us to our deaths. Nagase, you should have refused; that old man is not someone we can deal with," the middle-aged man said, grinding his teeth and venting his frustration.

The young man named Nagase was not afraid; instead, he laughed, a somewhat naive laugh, "There's no need to worry too much. The boss didn't just send us to deal with this. We're just here to assist," he said.

"Assist? Assist who?"

Nagase replied, "Your information is too outdated. Don't you keep up with what's happening abroad? This time the boss had team leader Wang Xin go abroad to invite a ghost master named Yang Jian. That guy is really impressive. I've read some information about him. He solved an S-level supernatural case when he was still an unknown little guy."

"And then, whoosh, he shot up, catching the eye of all the big players. Although some doubted the authenticity of that incident, he truly is extraordinary. Now, he's rumored to have become a team leader."

"If we have such an impressive person with us, we'll definitely be fine," said the woman next to him, her expression uneasy and betraying a hint of fear.

"Who knows. We all might end up dead here for all we know."

Nagase said with a smile, "After all, we're still too weak to survive well in front of real ghosts."

The middle-aged man asked, "Nagase, do you have any good suggestions?"

"Not at the moment."

Nagase shrugged and said, "If I did, I wouldn't be standing here. But the boss has given orders to follow Yang Jian's arrangements. Now, he's our team leader, so for everyone's safety, it's better to follow this order."

"Crossing the boss would definitely not end well."

The three of them talked, exchanged ideas, and discussed the mission to pass the time and relieve the tension.

It wasn't long.

Suddenly, two faint footsteps came from the previously empty street behind them; two people seemed to materialize out of nowhere and appeared there.

The one at the front was a young man carrying a luggage bag, his skin pale, his eyes sharp, giving off a very dangerous vibe.

Behind him, however, was a very cute girl in a sailor outfit, holding a cellphone with a very tense expression on her face, but she always followed the man in front, not daring to fall behind by a single step.

"Here we are."

Nagase, who was sitting at the front of the car, jumped down; he clapped his hands and greeted with a smile, "Kowichiwa."

"He's greeting you, Mister Yang, saying 'hello' in his language," Keiko immediately translated.

"No need to translate that one, I understood," said Yang Jian.

"Since everyone has arrived, let's start heading into Kobe City. I want to remind you in advance, if anyone doesn't follow my instructions and encounters danger, I won't help them. If you're attacked by a ghost due to your own actions, then you're on your own."

Keiko immediately translated Yang Jian's words.

"That's quite a cruel approach," remarked Nagase with a smile. "But it's only the cruel who are qualified to survive in this world, wouldn't you agree?"

Yang Jian remained silent and used the Ghost Domain to take them to the city center of Kobe City.

When he retracted the Ghost Domain, everyone realized they had arrived in the center of a city plunged into black night, silent and chill. The air was thick with the stench of corpses, suggesting that many had died in this event, even though previous information indicated that many had survived in the city.

The efficiency of the Door Knocking Ghost was very low, knocking from door to door; it would take considerable time to kill all these people.

This was also why this supernatural event could only be classified, at most, as an A-city ranking.

"Ah, the Ghost Domain, such a convenient ability. Mister Yang, aren't you worried about the consequences of using the power of fierce ghosts so casually?" asked Nagase with a smile, genuinely curious.

Keiko moved closer to Yang Jian and whispered the translation.

"If you have so much time to talk to me, you might as well start locating that ghost," Yang Jian said with an icy glance at him.

"Wouldn't your ability make it easier to find that thing?" Nagase asked.

Yang Jian said, "I'm invading the Ghost Domain of a ghost. If I use my Ghost Domain to suppress such a large area, it will only increase my burden. Additionally, I won't repeat explanations like this. If you can't obey my commands, then just stay here and wait for death."

"Understood," said Nagase.

Yang Jian no longer paid any attention to him, and instead, he opened his luggage bag.

A child with bluish skin dressed in burial clothes emerged from the bag, looking like a long-deceased child with strange eyes, surveying his surroundings.

Ghost Child seemed curious about the environment around it.

"Ah!"

A woman in her thirties screamed in fright.

"A ghost?" Both Nagase and the middle-aged man's pupils contracted, and they couldn't help but retreat several steps, fearing getting too close might attract an attack.

Keiko was slow to react and instead watched curiously.

But the next moment, the Ghost Child's head twisted around, its pupil-less eyes locking onto Keiko, and they stared at each other.

Keiko was so frightened that she covered her mouth and collapsed to the ground.

"A bunch of dead weight; you're not very useful," Yang Jian remarked, glancing over the group. Eventually, his gaze fell on the woman in her thirties.

He read her information. This woman named Mishima didn't exactly qualify as a spirit medium, but she had experienced a supernatural event and, since then, had the mysterious ability to sense the general location of ghosts.

However, this sense was vague and not very accurate, hence not very helpful. It was only somewhat effective in large city environments.

Exorcism Club sent Mishima just to make up the numbers. While she might be of some help, President Mishima probably wouldn't mourn her if she died here.

"In which direction is the ghost's approximate location?" Yang Jian asked directly.

The woman called Mishima looked bewildered and fearful.

Yang Jian immediately pulled Keiko up from the ground where she was sitting: "Don't sit on the ground, start working. Translate what I just said. This creature is mine, it won't harm you, there's no need to feel scared."

"Okay, okay, Mister Yang."

Keiko finally snapped back to reality, somewhat calming her emotions before she stiffly translated what had just been said.

Only then did Mishima understand; she shivered and pointed towards a direction ahead, where she sensed something terrifying lingering, unwilling to face it, feeling an overwhelming urge to flee, and this feeling was even stronger than ever before.

Approaching recklessly would surely mean death.

"Very good, then follow me, I will lock down the location of the Door Knocking Ghost in the shortest time possible," Yang Jian said calmly.

He then instructed the Ghost Child to scout ahead.

Although Yang Jian seemed calm, he was extremely vigilant inside, knowing that what lay hidden here weren't just Door Knocking Ghosts, but also other unknown supernatural events. A situation where several supernatural events mixed together was exceptionally likely to lead to the death of a ghost investigator.

Because the more ghosts there were, the more the patterns of killing, and a plethora of disjointed information could interfere with a person's normal judgement, making it much more difficult than dealing with a single ghost's supernatural event.

But Yang Jian's goal was straightforward: to deal with the Door Knocking Ghost if possible, and if not, to swipe whatever was on it and make a clean getaway.

He didn't care if it looked cowardly.

Yang Jian acted swiftly, the series of changes since their initial encounter happening so fast—from entering Kobe City to the appearance of the Ghost Child—all occurring within minutes, leaving Keiko, Nagase, and Mishima still struggling to adapt, their emotions yet unadjusted.

Yet, in such an environment, people must grow. If they cannot quickly adapt and grow, they will be directly eliminated.

"Mister Yang, please wait for Keiko."

With a hint of panic, Keiko hurried over; she didn't dare to stray too far from Yang Jian's side, as danger was all around her.

"Let's go. If we delay like this, we will surely be the ones to die. Mister Yang is very confident; we should trust him this once," Nagase said.

The middle-aged man nodded, and Mishima, who could sense the ghosts' positions, immediately followed. She didn't want to separate from the group.

If they wanted to survive this time, the only way was to show their value.

Otherwise, they would be callously abandoned.

Yang Jian's Ghost Child wandered the streets ahead, occasionally slipping into nearby buildings and then leaping out from a window.

The street was free of tall buildings, with just a few floors high, but buildings were densely packed, leading to complex terrain in some areas.

"Bang!"

Suddenly,

something fell to the ground and shattered, some fragments splashing at Yang Jian's feet.

He looked down.

A foul stench of decay wafted up, lying at his feet was a fragmented, rotting human face.

"A completely rotten Dead Man's Head fell from the sky." Yang Jian glanced upwards toward space. Normal vision could not make out everything in the sky in this environment, but he could see.

Heads floating above the city.

At varying stages of decay, all with eyes shut and faces so pale they lacked any trace of color, a sight to send shivers down the spine.

"I've encountered this Dead Man's Head balloon event before, but I didn't take part in it, so I don't know much about it, only that certain people will be selected to become one of the heads in the sky... As for what triggers this, I don't know yet,"

"But the best course is to avoid it; it's not my target. Let President Mishima worry about that."

Yang Jian continued forward, expressionless.

Probably Mishima would never guess that the Ghost Door Knocker event and the Dead Man's Head balloon event were two separate supernatural events.

Yang Jian observed that, as time passed, the Dead Man's Heads in the sky would rot to a certain point and then fall to the ground, losing support from their Supernatural Power.

This phenomenon made him feel like it was a sort of selection

process, sifting through the countless Dead Man's Heads for one that met specific criteria.

The selected head would surely not belong to a living person; it had to be a ghost's, because a living person's head would deteriorate completely, eventually turning into a pile of mush.

Suddenly.

Yang Jian looked at the small backpack carried by the Ghost Child in front of him,

inside which was a highly decayed but indestructible ghastly head—the head of a certain formidable ghost. Initially, even the five-layered Ghost Domain couldn't send it away, and by focusing on it, he could suppress other fearsome ghosts.

Suppose the Source Ghost behind the head balloon was looking for this dead man's head, then what would happen if the two ghosts complemented each other?

Would the decayed head become even more terrifying?

Or would the fearsome ghost completely lose control?

"Now doesn't seem to be the time to think about that. This is the Door Knocking Ghost's Ghost Domain. Although the current me doesn't fit the killing pattern of the Door Knocking Ghost, there's no guarantee that the Door Knocking Ghost won't undergo some unknown change," Yang Jian put away the thoughts in his mind and continued to advance in the direction that Mishima had indicated.

With each segment of road they traversed, they were a little closer to the Door Knocking Ghost.

And the danger was that much greater.

In such a situation, it was like condemned prisoners being led to the execution ground. The moment of actual beheading was not so frightening, but rather, this constant psychological torment of drawing nearer to death was the most unbearable.

Those with poor endurance would collapse.

Fortunately, although these pig teammates following Yang Jian were of little help, they were at least members of the Exorcism Club and their mental fortitude was not as bad as one might imagine.

Of course, it wasn't as good as imagined either...

"Your steps are getting slower and slower. Do you want to stay here and rest for a few days before moving on?" Yang Jian looked back and said indifferently.

Keiko continued to translate.

"I, I feel that if we keep moving forward, all of us might die. It's too dangerous there; I don't want to get closer," Mishima said, trembling all over, her expression terror-stricken, lacking the courage to proceed.

Nagase chuckled and said, "Those who can sense fear will be devoured by fear. People like us who know nothing are actually less afraid, after all, there are people walking ahead of us."

Yang Jian glanced at Keiko.

Keiko hastily translated what Mishima and Nagase said.

"If you can't continue, just stay here then. I won't hold back because of your slower pace," Yang Jian said calmly.

As Keiko went to translate and comfort this woman called Mishima, she said, "We should trust Mister Yang. He is a mysterious and powerful man who can surely protect us. I was fortunate enough to be under his care before and avoided a crisis. I believe he would be happy to look after you if true danger arises."

Mishima didn't speak. At that moment, she pointed fearfully at a house ahead.

It was a two-story wooden building.

"There, in that house, there are ghosts. I can feel it. No, we have to stay away from that house. I feel like I could die at any moment," she said.

Upon hearing this, Keiko's face turned stiff. She quickly looked up at Yang Jian, "Mister Yang, she just said that there might be ghosts in that house ahead."

"Are we going to encounter them so soon?" Nagase laughed, seemingly unafraid.

Yang Jian's gaze fell upon that house.

The house was shrouded in dim shadows, appearing rather sinister. However, this wasn't unique to that house; nearby buildings all looked the same.

"Should I go take a look?" he pondered internally.

Because he believed the Door Knocking Ghost probably wasn't inside the house; if that old man appeared, nearby structures would rapidly decay, just like what he experienced back at No. 7 Middle School. And the exterior of that house looked normal.

"Or maybe not, anything can happen within the Ghost Domain. It's better to check it out."

Yang Jian slowly removed his gloves while issuing a command.

The next moment, a bizarre, green-skinned child was standing in front of that house's door, the mischievous child pressed the doorbell of the house without warning.

"Ding-dong!"

The sound of the doorbell echoed in the quiet street, carrying far and wide.