Only when he was sure the dust had settled did Gao Tian finally have time to deal with his injured hand.
The bleeding from his fingers wasn't severe. He went back to the bathroom, turned on the tap, and washed the area around the wound. After drying it with a towel, he found some cardboard to use as a splint. He placed the pieces on either side of his fingers, straightened them out, and secured everything with tape.
Gao Tian managed the entire process one-handed. Once the pain crossed a certain threshold, he simply stopped feeling it.
With that taken care of, he returned to the Study to inspect the "legacy" the red-eyed man had left behind.
After the roaring flames unleashed by the Urn incinerated "Gao Tian," a torn half of a photograph drifted down silently into the ashes.
The photo wasn't part of the ghost, so the Urn hadn't burned it to ash and sealed it away. He just didn't know why this ghost had kept a photograph hidden inside its body.
Gao Tian walked over and plucked the surviving scrap of the photo from the debris.
The intact picture was likely a family portrait. In this surviving corner, a chubby-cheeked little girl of about seven or eight was pouting at the camera. A larger hand rested on her shoulder—probably an adult man, a father or older brother, holding her steady.
Unfortunately, the ghost fire had devoured the rest of the image. With only this small fragment left, it was impossible to see the faces of anyone else in the family.
Why would a ghost hide something like a family portrait inside its body?Was this important to it?
Gao Tian figured that ghosts were naturally formed from people after death. Since they had once lived, they must have had families, friends, and fond memories just like ordinary people.
Even if their minds were now dominated by an uncontrollable, violent urge to kill, some of their most intense emotions and the people important to them in life might still be deeply ingrained. Even as ghosts, they might still cherish them.
This portrait showed the ghost's family from when it was alive. Despite twisting into this inhuman shape after death, its living family might have been quite happy. That was why it still couldn't let go, even after becoming a monster.
Of course, this was all just Gao Tian's subjective guesswork; there was no evidence for any of it. He didn't know much about ghosts yet, so he could only lean toward the most logical explanation based on what little he had grasped.
Gao Tian flipped the photo over and glanced at the back.
It was just a routine check, but he unexpectedly noticed a few words hastily scribbled in marker on the soot-stained back.
"...Person Apartment.
"15.9.12.”
What was this?
Gao Tian checked it several times to ensure he wasn't seeing things.
Was this the date and location the photo was taken?
Apartment buildings with names featuring the character for "benevolence" were common enough, but ones using "person" were incredibly rare. It was an awkward word to use in a name.
Rich Person Apartment? Kind Person Apartment? Good Person Apartment?
Gao Tian's hands noticeably stiffened.
...Person Apartment. Living Apartment!
He remembered now. In the Galan Society Chat Group, the administrator's ID was also Living Apartment!
In the Galan Society, every user's name—Ghost Infant, Ghost Cave, Burned Ghost—was an ominous one. But "Living Apartment," represented by the admin, was a real place. This ghost had gone there when it was alive and taken a precious photo with its entire family.
The date was from about ten years ago.
Sometime later, the owner of the photo had died and turned into this red-eyed man. Who exactly was he? Was he the little girl's older brother, her father, or was the ghost actually the little girl herself?
Why had this person become a ghost after death, and why had he been used by Ghost Cave as the breakthrough to find the living person in the Chat Group?
Gao Tian recalled something else. Among the most active users in the Chat Group, Living Apartment and Ghost Cave clearly held the highest status. One was the admin, and the other possessed a terrifyingly sharp intuition—Ghost Cave was the one who had inexplicably sensed a living person infiltrating the group.
Ghost Infant seemed to be a girl. As for Burned Ghost, he had the lowest standing and popularity; no matter what he said or when he sent a Black Envelope, Ghost Cave and the others treated him like he was invisible, ignoring him completely.
This was why Ghost Cave and the rest hadn't bothered to check the Urn that Burned Ghost had sent. They didn't know its effects. And that had become the key to Gao Tian turning the tables.
Right now, Ghost Cave was likely extremely confident in the curse he had sent. He undoubtedly believed the living person in the Chat Group was already dead.
Lost in thought, Gao Tian absently flipped the photograph back over to the little girl's face.
To his horror, the little girl in the picture seemed to come alive. Her lips curved up slightly, flashing him an eerie, subtle smile.
Gao Tian couldn't believe his eyes. The little girl's expression had changed.
In the blink of an eye, the girl returned to being completely motionless, like an inanimate object. It was as if she hadn't moved at all.
If he hadn't already experienced so many bizarre events, he would have thought the lighting had played a trick on his eyes.
But he was absolutely certain of his own eyes and memory. He hadn't been mistaken. The little girl in the picture had moved the moment he flipped it over.
This photograph was definitely a Supernatural Item too, and the little girl in it was also a ghost.
Not daring to delay for even a second, Gao Tian quickly folded the photo in half, grabbed a lighter, and burned the whole thing to ashes.
Even as it mingled with the leftover black dust of the red-eyed man, the eerie photo remained completely quiet, doing nothing sinister. Thankfully. This allowed Gao Tian to breathe a small sigh of relief.
Then, he turned around and picked up the Urn containing the red-eyed man's remains.
The Urn's function went far beyond forcing a ghost to play a game with a human and sealing the loser. More importantly, if the human won and trapped the ghost inside, they could acquire the ghost's Killing Rule.
As Gao Tian pressed his fingers against the Urn's casing, bits of information trickled into his mind in a wordless form.
The Shattered Face Ghost's Killing Rule was simple. It only required making eye contact with it five times; with each look, it would claim a piece of a person's facial features. After the fifth time, it would completely take their entire face.
This not only meant that the human whose face was stolen would suffer sudden death regardless of time or location, but it also meant the Shattered Face Ghost would obtain all of their memories, replace the victim's identity, and operate within their social circle.
Naturally, this "eye contact" had to be voluntary on the victim's part. Furthermore, no matter how long a single instance of eye contact lasted, it only counted as one look. To initiate the next instance, it had to pull spooky stunts to draw Gao Tian's attention—like knocking on the window or sitting on the swing—tricking him into turning his head willingly.
Otherwise, Shattered Face would have just smashed through the window, pinned Gao Tian's head down, and forced a deep stare. It wouldn't have gone through the trouble of watching him get in a car and chasing him all the way to the park.
Earlier, when Gao Tian had been forced to open the Chat Group's Black Envelope, he had seen a picture of the Shattered Face Ghost's true face. The Shattered Face Ghost had sensed a human gaze upon it, triggering its pursuit of Gao Tian.
But since that was just a one-sided look from Gao Tian, the Shattered Face Ghost hadn't replicated any of his facial features that time.
In the alleyway, the first eye contact.
Through the glass window, the second.
At the police station, the third.
On the park swing, the fourth.
With just one more look, Gao Tian would have triggered the rule and died on the spot. But he had opened the second Black Envelope right on time and obtained the Urn. That had instantly nullified the Shattered Face Ghost's Killing Rule, forcing the entity to wait until they reached the Apartment to settle things with Gao Tian through a game.
Moreover, the Shattered Face Ghost's Killing Rule wasn't just effective on humans; it worked on ghosts as well.
Granted, every ghost was an immortal, indestructible entity, so stealing their facial features wouldn't cause them to drop dead on the spot.
However, if the Shattered Face Ghost made eye contact with another ghost five times, it could copy one of that ghost's Killing Rules for its own use.
These were the full capabilities of the Shattered Face Ghost. And now, through the Urn, they had become Gao Tian's abilities.
Gao Tian now possessed the power of a ghost.
If he made eye contact with a person five times, they would drop dead, and Gao Tian would gain their memories and face. (He could choose not to use it.)
If he made eye contact with a ghost five times, he could steal one of its Killing Rules.
Watching the pale gray sky outside gradually brighten, he realized dawn was approaching. Gao Tian knew he couldn't stay in this apartment filled with corpses any longer. He packed his things, stowed the Urn in his backpack, and hurried out of Pingshui Apartment.
...
...
On his mobile phone, the Chat Group named Galan Society remained dead silent. Ever since Ghost Cave had dropped the cursed Black Envelope, no one had said a word.
Truthfully, the behavioral logic of these ghost users was incredibly strange. As a ghost himself, why would Burned Ghost develop an Urn specifically designed to counter ghosts? What did he stand to gain from doing so?
In fact, as Gao Tian checked the records of the Black Envelopes sent by other users, the obscure, morbid terminology they had used was slowly starting to make sense.
Questions like whether the "Spirit-Sucking Pot" could withstand the curse of the Human Skin Doll, or if Ghost Cave having the "Blood Shroud" would have prevented the total wipeout during the Woman in the Rain incident...
Looking at it now, things couldn't be clearer. Everything the users had mentioned were Supernatural Items used to deal with ghosts. They had been comparing whether a certain Supernatural Item could suppress a specific Fierce Ghost.
The user named Ghost Cave had been particularly active in these discussions. Based on his conversations with the others, it was apparent that his entire family—himself included—had died in an incident known as the Woman in the Rain.
As a flash of insight struck Gao Tian, he suddenly found an explanation for the contradictory behavior of these ghost users.
Was it possible that—
Back when the users of this group were still alive, they had been professionals armed with Supernatural Items, specifically tasked with fighting ghosts.
But that line of work was a highly dangerous profession. It was perfectly normal for so many of them to die. After death, they turned into ghosts and began to kill ruthlessly, unable to suppress their own abyssal desires.
Yet, even after becoming ghosts, the instincts and values shaped by their former professions remained unchangeable. These ghost-hunting ghosts still followed their instincts in death, earnestly discussing how to deal with ghosts.
To verify his theory, Gao Tian typed the words "Galan Society" into the internet, trying to find clues across various forums, or perhaps even traces they had left behind while they were alive.
At first, he didn't hold out much hope.