Mysterious Revival

“No, no, no, big brother, you should go first.”

“I’m only eighteen years old, I’m younger, so I should be calling you ‘big brother’. Plus, I’m just a temp worker at most, so you should go first.”

“Your abilities are strong, I can just follow you. You lead, and I will follow your commands.”

“You’re too modest; you’ve been a ghost controller longer than I have, you’re my senior. I still have a lot to learn from you.”

Yang Jian and Yan Li stood in front of the clothing store, trying to outdo each other in humility.

The glass door in front of them opened by itself, the inside was dim, and an unusual sense of oppression was conveyed invisibly.

Especially knowing that there was a ghost inside made their hearts even more uneasy.

It was supposed to be a joint ghost hunting operation.

But when it came down to it, no one had enough courage to be the first to walk in.

Because one mistake in there could be fatal.

Becoming a ghost controller only meant you had the capability to deal with fierce ghosts; it didn’t mean you could act recklessly in front of a ghost.

After a while of mutual deference, neither was willing to enter first.

In the end, Yang Jian suggested, “Since neither of us is certain, why don’t we just leave?”

“…” Yan Li was speechless.

“If you miss this ghost, you might encounter an even more terrifying one next time, and then it won’t be that easy to catch.”

Yang Jian touched the back of his hand and said, “That’s true, this ghost’s level isn’t very high; otherwise, it would have killed more people these days. Since that’s the case, let’s not be polite anymore, let’s go in together.”

“Okay, let’s go in together.” Yan Li nodded.

He did not want to miss this opportunity; his situation was more serious than Yang Jian’s, with less and less time for revival, so he wanted to give it one last shot.

“Let’s start.”

Yang Jian took a deep breath, looked at the glass door that had already opened, and walked towards it cautiously.

Yan Li went along with him, his face tense, already prepared to use the Evil Ghost Power at any moment.

The clothing store wasn’t very big; by estimate, it was just a little over a hundred square meters. Due to the mannequins and merchandise strewn about, it appeared somewhat untidy and cramped.

“The ghost is in one of those mannequins; you’ve already seen the photo. Find it, and we’ll take it on together,” Yang Jian whispered.

He turned on the flashlight and placed it on a shelf by the door.

The flashlight’s beam was directed into the store, perfectly illuminating the clothing store.

“I remember that mannequin; it’s very distinctive. I won’t mistake it,” Yan Li said.

Yang Jian didn’t speak but slowly entered the clothing store, surveying the surroundings.

Dead silence.

Nothing strange.

It was just like a normal shop that had temporarily closed.

Except… a persistent smell of a corpse began to spread gradually.

“Crack…” A soft noise.

The glass door that had opened earlier now slowly closed. Though the sound wasn’t loud, it was particularly clear in this extremely quiet environment.

Yang Jian and Yan Li were startled and turned to look back.

There was nothing there.

Just like before, it was as if the door had closed on its own.

“There’s nothing there,” Yan Li said solemnly.

“I know, but with this happening, I can be sure that the ghost is here,” Yang Jian said.

Everywhere else was normal; it was only this clothing store that felt off. Plus, Jiang Yan had been checking the surveillance footage in the monitoring room, which also confirmed that the first supernatural event in this mall had occurred here.

“Is it okay that the door is closed?” Yan Li asked again.

“We’re not planning on running away, so it doesn’t matter if it’s closed. And if we really have to run, I’m not planning to go through the main door,” Yang Jian said.

“Wait, listen, what’s that sound?”

Yan Li’s expression grew stern.

A series of faint and bizarre noises arose from the clothing store, sounding like something rotating and scraping.

“Yang Jian, look at these mannequins…” Suddenly, Yan Li exclaimed in surprise.

Yang Jian had already noticed without needing him to say it.

The mannequins that had been randomly placed around the store began to slowly turn their heads.

Not just one, but all the mannequins in the shop started to rotate their heads at that moment, facing the direction of Yang Jian and Yan Li with their mechanical expressions, and fake eyes that conveyed an eerie look, as if signaling a terrifying message.

I’ve got my eyes on you~!

“Don’t turn your backs to them,” Yang Jian said. “Be careful not to get your heads taken off.”

He saw that a mannequin on the ground without legs suddenly raised its head to look at him, and a pair of fake hands reached out towards him.

The other mannequins began to show signs of activity too, and their movements seemed to be getting more frequent.

It was as if… the ghost was reviving.

As Yang Jian and Yan Li quickly adjusted their positions, making sure not to show their backs to any of the mannequins, the commotion among the mannequins gradually subsided.

“Can that ghost control even these fake mannequins?” Yan Li said with a slight shock, growing nervous.

Yang Jian said, “It seems that anything with a head switched by a ghost can be controlled, but I still can’t confirm how exactly the ghost exists. Whether it’s the mannequins or the corpses with heads swapped before, these things are not real ghosts. The real ghost has been hiding in the dark, and to catch it, we must force it out.”

“Is there any way to do that?” Yan Li asked.

“Not at the moment…” Yang Jian hesitated for a moment in his mind.

He could actually try covering the area with Ghost Domain to see if he could pull the ghost into it.

But if his guess was wrong and the ghost was no longer in this clothing store, then he would have wasted an opportunity for nothing.

“Better hold off, use Ghost Domain when a ghost actually appears, can’t afford to strike empty air.”

“Yang Jian, look at that fitting room. The door is open. Could the human mannequin possessed by the ghost be in there?” Suddenly, Yan Li pointed to a fitting room that was slightly ajar and said.

“Very likely, let’s check it out together.”

The two approached cautiously.

They slowly opened the fitting room door in the beam of the flashlight.

There was a person standing in the fitting room.

A woman with closed eyes and pale complexion. She was unfamiliar, probably one of the victims in the mall. And though she had the face of a woman, her body wasn’t human but that of a mannequin.

Had the ghost attached a human head onto a mannequin’s neck?

However, the woman’s head had been placed here for some time. The color of the flesh had changed, emitting a strong stench of rot.

“It’s not this one,” Yan Li whispered.

But just then, the door of the fitting room next to them slowly opened.

A strange, nearly two-meter-tall mannequin with long arms and legs walked out silently. its body blocked the light from the flashlight behind it, and a pair of hands reached from behind towards the heads of Yang Jian and Yan Li.

“Hm?”

However, the moment he noticed the shadows change under his feet, Yang Jian’s eyes suddenly narrowed, sensing something was amiss.

His tightly wound nerves caused an instinctive reaction.

A pair of crimson eyes burst open through the flesh at the back of the head.

As soon as the Ghost Eyes appeared, the scene behind his head immediately flooded into his mind.

Before he knew it, the mannequin he had seen in the photos on the phone was already standing behind him, reaching out.

“Behind us.”

Yang Jian roared lowly, quickly stepping forward to dodge the creature’s attack.

But Yan Li was a step too slow in reacting, and something touched the back of his head.

An icy chill as if piercing through his scalp spread throughout his body, instinctively raising goosebumps all over.

Yan Li’s reaction was quick, too; his hand was already smeared with blood, and instead of dodging, he reached out to grab the mannequin.

“Got you.”

His bloody hand, without any suspense, caught the long arm reaching out to him, and the fresh blood seemed to merge into the mannequin.

Soon, fresh blood began to ooze out from the joints, eyes, neck… of the mannequin.

“My Ghost Blood can suppress the abilities of any ghost. Take this chance to subdue it…” Yan Li shouted.

But before he could finish, the female corpse behind him suddenly stirred to life.

Greenish-black rotten arms reached out from behind towards Yan Li.

Apparently, just stopping the mannequin was not enough.

“Catching one is useless, you’re not paying attention to the other surroundings,” Yang Jian said as he watched the suddenly animated female corpse, without hesitation, giving it a kick.

His foot glowed with a faint red light.

He kicked the female corpse, which then embedded itself into the wall behind.

Its legs struggled but it couldn’t come out.

Yan Li turned and looked back, suddenly feeling a false alarm.

Fortunately, he was working with Yang Jian this time. If he had come alone, he would have been dead the moment he turned around.

But something even more terrifying happened.

As Yang Jian walked out of the fitting room, ready to join Yan Li in dealing with this special mannequin.

A casual glance outside left him stunned.

Somehow, the entire shop was now full of people blocking the entrance thoroughly, one of them even walked into the shop and picked up his flashlight from a shelf.

This person had no head but was wearing a security guard’s uniform.

“Liu Qiang?” Yang Jian recognized the body.

“Hey, Yang Jian, it’s bad. I saw Liu Qiang’s corpse walk out just now. I was too scared to make a sound. Be careful on your side,” Jiang Yan’s voice came from the satellite-located cell phone.

“I know,” Yang Jian’s face darkened.

Now you tell me, after the man has already come up to me, you did a great job, woman.

“Click~!”

Accompanied by a faint sound, the headless security guard turned off the flashlight.

The surroundings immediately fell into endless darkness.

In the darkness, Yang Jian heard the rustling sounds of person after person walking into the clothing store.

More and more ghosts were pouring in, as if to fill up this not-so-large clothing store.