NOVPUBYang Jian didn't leave to rush back home and rest but to handle some unfinished business.
The red wooden stool he brought back needed to be locked up and stored, along with the vengeful ghost taken from Chen Qiaotou, which required proper handling. If the supernatural leaked out, it could very well result in another troubling paranormal incident.
Yang Jian didn't trust anyone else to deal with these matters, so he had to do them himself.
Fortunately, there wasn't anything too pressing in Dachang City at the moment, so Yang Jian's workload was relatively light.
By the time he finished handling everything, it was already late at night.
Yang Jian left the safe house and walked alone along the path in Guanjiang Residential Complex, his brows furrowed as though he was deep in thought.
"After struggling on the brink of death and coming back alive, Feng Quan has now controlled his third ghost. If my judgement is correct, by now Feng Quan's memory has likely returned. The bloodstained newspaper's supernatural ability to rewrite memories seems to have failed—this is evident from the change in how he addresses me."
"But it doesn't matter anymore. Under the current circumstances, even with his memory restored, what can he really do?"
Yang Jian dismissed the matter and then began calculating his next moves: "The Ghost Post Office issue hasn't been resolved yet. If another letter delivery task appears, I'll find myself on the fourth floor of the Ghost Post Office. The fourth floor must have ghost controllers present; otherwise, with the level of danger involved in delivering letters there, ordinary people would already be dead."
The third-floor mission in the Ghost Post Office had already thrown him into the Dachuan City Room 301 incident, where he nearly fell victim to it.
The fourth floor would certainly increase in danger.
Yang Jian couldn't predict what kind of paranormal events he might encounter next.
Aside from that, there was an even more pressing matter than the Ghost Post Office that needed attention—the transaction with the Ghost Cabinet still hadn't been completed.
The deal with the Ghost Cabinet required him to enter an old, dilapidated manor and unlock a wooden door within it.
The key to that door was still in Yang Jian's possession.
But the location of the manor remained unknown.
The Ghost Cabinet had given Yang Jian only ninety days to complete the transaction. Though nearly two months remained, the terror behind the deal and the consequences of breaking it made him uneasy.
"Am I capable of enduring the punishment for failing this transaction with the Ghost Cabinet?" Yang Jian's first instinct wasn't to complete the task.
Instead, he immediately thought about cheating his way out of it.
The transaction with the Ghost Cabinet was a one-way ticket to death.
It could only be used as a last resort to ensure survival, but long-term dealings with the Ghost Cabinet were impossible; they would eventually result in death. The best chance would be to wait for the right moment to cheat the deal. If not, sooner or later, the Cabinet's task would claim his life.
With this thought in mind,
Yang Jian arrived at the top floor of a decorative clock tower within the complex.
There stood an old, blood-red painted cabinet, quietly placed there. Though the cabinet looked normal, it exuded an indescribable eeriness, making it deeply unsettling.
"The red wooden stool, the red cabinet... these are both products of the same era." Yang Jian stared at the cabinet coated with crimson paint that seemed like blood ready to drip off, instinctively associating it with the red wooden stool he had brought back earlier.
This paranormal object bore the hallmarks of the Republic of China period in its appearance and design.
But Yang Jian wasn't interested in studying it now.
He fixed his gaze on the Ghost Cabinet, his eyes showing hesitation and contemplation.
After less than half a minute of deliberation, Yang Jian seemed to have made up his mind.
His ghostly eyes moved unnaturally. A flash of red light passed, and suddenly, a golden-fractured spear appeared in his hand.
"It's time to put an end to this."
Yang Jian glanced at the rusty firewood knife, over which a black shadow gradually spread.
Without any hesitation, he swung the supernatural weapon down against the red Ghost Cabinet.
If the Ghost Cabinet possessed paranormal power, then the firewood knife would undoubtedly inflict damage.
Tonight, Yang Jian planned to destroy the Ghost Cabinet.
As expected,
the rusty blade of the knife fell, splitting a massive crack through the wooden red-painted cabinet, almost splitting it in half.
The weapon in his hand seemed too sharp; he hardly felt any resistance.
Yang Jian stared at the gaping wound on the Ghost Cabinet, his expression shifting slightly.
From the split in the cabinet, fresh blood began to seep out eerily, as though the strike had landed not on wood but on a living, breathing body.
"Now that I've started, there's no turning back."
Yang Jian ignored the supernatural phenomenon and raised the golden-fractured spear again, letting the ghostly shadow permeate the firewood knife for another slash.
The second strike was even fiercer, directly severing the cabinet door completely off.
The interior of the cabinet was pitch-black, and within the darkness, faint movements could be seen, as though something was squirming inside.
"This is strange. I haven't succumbed to the curse backlash from the firewood knife." Yang Jian quickly realized his body was normal.
The dreaded curse of the firewood knife hadn't manifested.
"Why? Could it be that the Ghost Cabinet isn't classified as a 'ghost,' nullifying the knife's judgment? But if it isn't a ghost, why does the knife's ghost-splitting ability still work?"
This puzzled him.
Nevertheless, Yang Jian set the mystery aside for now.
The absence of the curse was a positive development.
Without hesitation, the third slash descended.
The Ghost Cabinet split apart even further, its door shattered completely.
The darkness deep within the cabinet dissipated with the strike, as though it had been nothing more than an illusion.
But the blood continued seeping out.
The blood wasn't flowing out from the interior of the cabinet but from within its wooden panels.
When Yang Jian struck, the blood splattered outward.
Still, this supernatural occurrence didn't deter him. Once Yang Jian decided on something, it was hard to stop him.
The fourth slash, the fifth slash...
Yang Jian's movements were swift. With each strike, the Ghost Cabinet collapsed at an unimaginable pace, reducing itself to a pile of wooden boards and fragments. However, these were soaked in blood, exuding an indescribable sinister air.
Quickly,
his movements came to a halt.
The task was finished.
[End of the display due to char limit.] Let me if to end rest.
