Mysterious Revival

Shen Lin’s appearance was a bit unexpected for several people.

Yang Jian, Leuk San, Li Jun, and Ah Hong watched him emerge from the drain of the sewer, not only soaked but also wearing a woman’s dress.

“Shen Lin, what happened over there?” Li Jun immediately walked over, pulling Shen Lin away from the sewer.

Leuk San asked, “You just said you know where Ghost Lake is? Have any new clues?”

“Ghost Lake is not in Zhongzhou City, is it?” Yang Jian frowned, having some rough guesses.

Shen Lin shook off the water from his body, took off the soaked clothes, and said, “I previously managed to enter Ghost Lake and survived, obtaining some crucial information. But unfortunately, I haven’t encountered the source ghost. However, I have roughly pinpointed Ghost Lake’s location.”

“Where is Ghost Lake located?” Li Jun pressed.

Shen Lin smiled, walked to a roadside clothing store, casually picked up a men’s shirt and put it on, then said, “Its location isn’t actually important.”

“What do you mean?” Li Jun frowned.

Shen Lin said, “Ghost Lake can appear anywhere, be it Zhongzhou City, whether it’s Daxia City or even Dachang City… Every place affected by paranormal phenomena will have a Ghost Lake. It can affect reality yet doesn’t exist in reality; it’s an indescribable supernatural place.”

“That’s as good as saying nothing.”

Leuk San frowned and said, “And not only have you entered Ghost Lake, I have also entered Ghost Lake, Yang Jian has figured out the killing pattern of Ghost Lake, and if activated intentionally, you can also enter Ghost Lake.”

“We all have ways to enter Ghost Lake.”

“Really? But after entering Ghost Lake, you likely would die, wouldn’t you? Cao Yang’s downfall was possibly because of this reason. That lake water should not be ventured into lightly, otherwise, even a captain-level ghost controller would drown in the lake water. To solve it, there are just two methods.”

“Either pull the ghost into the real world, or enter the supernatural space where the ghost is, but the premise is not to trigger the ghost’s killing pattern, otherwise you might not be able to handle it once inside and perish there.”

After Shen Lin finished speaking, he looked at the three of them and said the most important thing: “I have clues on how to enter Ghost Lake without triggering the killing pattern.”

“Just say it, don’t hide anything.”

Yang Jian said in a deep voice, “Do you think we have the patience to chat with you here?”

“True, I need to change my slow nature.”

Shen Lin said, “Then I’ll say it straightforwardly, after entering Ghost Lake, I saw a river leading to Ghost Lake. That river exists both in the supernatural space and extends into reality. If my guess is correct, the Ghost Lake incident originated from that river.”

“Are you saying the lake water from Ghost Lake came into reality through that river, thus brewing the supernatural incident? If we find that river and follow it upstream, we can smoothly enter Ghost Lake?” Yang Jian immediately understood Shen Lin’s point.

Li Jun was a bit anxious, “Where’s that river?”

Shen Lin pointed ahead with his hand, “That direction.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

Yang Jian didn’t waste time and immediately deployed the Ghost Domain, taking everyone in the direction Shen Lin pointed.

Soon.

They temporarily left the city center of Zhongzhou City and arrived at the outskirts.

Indeed, there was a river here, not large nor small, the river water was murky and cold, and faintly there were a few corpses floating in the water. Around the corpses, there were no maggots or flies, just a faint corpse odor.

“This river indeed has problems, is this the place?” Yang Jian stopped and looked at Shen Lin.

Shen Lin said, “It’s this river, but it’s just one of the places affected by paranormal phenomena, not the correct connection point; it’s further ahead.”

After finishing, he pointed again with his hand.

In the distance.

A small town came into everyone’s sight.

It was a relatively historical town, with green bricks and gray tiles, stone-paved roads, and faintly many colored lanterns hanging on the houses, full of ancient charm.

“Ah Hong, check it out.” Li Jun immediately said.

Ah Hong quickly started checking the information, and shortly said, “That’s Ping’an Ancient Town, a characteristic tourist town heavily developed by Zhongzhou City in recent years…”

She quickly recited the information about the town.

“Based on the information, there’s nothing weird about it.” Li Jun looked at the others, “Do you have any other opinions?”

Leuk San frowned, “A town with historical significance is out of the ordinary.”

“Its history can be traced back to the Republic of China period, not recently built,”

Yang Jian suddenly said, “The source of Ghost Lake is coming from there, the town must be unusual.”

Sure enough.

The most worrying thing still happened.

The Ghost Lake incident isn’t accidental but involves an ancient town.

This makes things complicated.

“There have already been many tourists visiting there without any problems before.” Ah Hong said.

Yang Jian said, “Before the Door Knocking Ghost incidents appeared in Dachang City, I was just attending classes at school, without any problems either, but after leaving, it was a different story.”

“Now people still reside in the town, including old residents of the ancient town, tourists temporarily staying there, and some citizens from Zhongzhou City.”

Li Jun’s gaze slightly tightened, “We’ve got to evacuate all those people.”

“The matter isn’t certain yet; evacuating them is not urgent, let’s go over and see first.” Yang Jian said.

Leuk San said, “I agree, nothing’s happened over there so far, why should we disrupt the balance unnecessarily? If something does happen, evacuating people later isn’t too late. With Yang Jian’s means, he can empty a city in seconds, let alone a town.”

“What if supernatural interference occurs?” Liu Jun said.

“Supernatural interference has already occurred.”

Yang Jian, with ghost eyes watching, saw some buildings in the town becoming distorted, the vision was affected by something, and it seemed like something special was mixed in the town, but the influence wasn’t severe; he couldn’t conclude whether there was a ghost in the town or if there was an elder ghost controller present.

“Going over there will make everything clear; the source is in that ancient town. Maybe we’ll find some clues.” Shen Lin said.

“Let’s act together.” Li Jun reminded them.

Soon.

They walked along the road paved with bluestone slabs, arriving at the stone archway at the front of the town.

Taiping Ancient Town.

The archway is new, a modern construction built in recent years for Taiping Ancient Town, not the old archway.

Without hesitating further, they directly entered this ancient town.

The town had some newly constructed streets, but when Zhongzhou City initially funded the construction of this town, they preserved the historical appearance of the town, with some old streets and old buildings well preserved.

The few people seemed to sense something, or as if drawn by something, although they didn’t know the way, they all moved towards the old streets of Taiping Ancient Town, heading in the same direction.

“Seems there really is something unusual here, you must feel it too, right?” Leuk San lowly murmured.

“Yes.” The others replied softly.

Yang Jian said, “Feng Quan, don’t come along, stay in the newly built streets, just in case, I need someone to respond outside.”

“Understood.” Feng Quan didn’t say much, just nodded and turned away.

Because as they continued forward.

They saw another archway.

Also made of stone but eroded by wind and sun, this archway was heavily weathered and worn, blackened and old, with missing parts, even the words ‘Taiping Ancient Town’ were blurred, at a glance resembling ‘Shikou Town.’

However, this town seemed less affected by Zhongzhou City.

It still had a lot of vitality.

There were pedestrians on the streets, along with some open shops.

“This place being so close to Zhongzhou City isn’t sealed off?” Li Jun said a bit in surprise.

Ah Hong said, “Downstream cities where incidents have occurred haven’t been sealed off, and although this place is close it hasn’t had incidents, hence it’s not sealed off.”

“I see.” Li Jun nodded, understanding now.

The influence range of Ghost Lake is too large. If it’s simply because of proximity, then who knows how many cities would need to be sealed off.

At this moment, Yang Jian was walking through this ancient town. His ghost eyes peered everywhere, able to see many things ordinary people couldn’t.

However, he hadn’t found anything particularly unusual yet.

This place seemed just like any ordinary tourist town, unremarkable, but from observing outside the town, there was indeed something wrong here. Just what the issue was still needed some exploration to uncover.

At this moment.

Yang Jian saw a young couple walking towards him on the street of the ancient town.

Ghost eyes glanced.

Confirmed without mistake, these were just two ordinary people, nothing strange about them.

However.

Yang Jian’s ghost eyes suddenly noticed that the young woman was holding a mask in her hand. The mask was a toy and very new, probably bought at some nearby stall.

Masks like this are very common at any tourist attraction.

But what Yang Jian noticed was that the design of this mask was somewhat peculiar.

It resembled a human face, but with glaring eyes, appearing extremely angry.

This mask style for some reason reminded Yang Jian immediately of the two eerie ghost faces on Tong Qian, though Tong Qian’s ghost faces were one smiling and one crying.

Suddenly.

As the couple passed by Yang Jian, he suddenly stopped and grabbed the woman’s wrist, asking coldly, “Where did you buy this mask?”

“Who are you? Are you crazy? Let go!” The woman was suddenly confused and began to struggle and resist.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Beside her, the woman’s boyfriend immediately rushed over, questioning loudly.

Yang Jian glanced at him, his gaze cold and dangerous, “I’m asking her a question, it has nothing to do with you, get lost.”

This man was taller and stronger than Yang Jian, but for some reason, he felt fearful at these words, instinctively wanting to escape.

Danger!

This thought surfaced in the man’s mind.

Suddenly, he stood there at a loss.

“Tell me, where did you buy this mask?”

Yang Jian turned back to continue questioning, “I don’t have much patience. You’d better cooperate.”

“Yang Jian, don’t cause trouble.” Li Jun reminded.

Yang Jian ignored him and snatched the strange mask, “I’ll ask you one last time, where did you buy this mask?”

The woman seemed scared by Yang Jian, hurriedly pointed to the street, “Bought it on that street over there.”

“Which street? Be clear.” Yang Jian asked again.

The woman said, “Straight ahead, over the bridge, on the street to the right. I forgot which stall.”

Only then did Yang Jian release the woman’s wrist and push her away, “You can go. I’m confiscating this.”

“Who are you to dare to steal?” The man beside her said angrily at this moment.

“We’re investigating a case, hope you cooperate a little. My colleague has such a temper. If there’s anything offensive, you can call this number to complain.” Li Jun came over, took out a badge, and handed over a business card.

The man took the card, looked at Li Jun, as well as Leuk San, Shen Lin, and the others beside him.

“There’s no such way to conduct an investigation, I will definitely complain about you.” The man took the card and left angrily with his girlfriend.

Li Jun said, “Yang Jian, are you always like this outside?”

“Why care about ordinary people’s opinions? I haven’t used supernatural intrusion to probe her memory, already showing restraint.” Yang Jian said indifferently.

Shen Lin looked and changed the subject, “Have you discovered anything?”

Yang Jian tossed the mask in his hand to him, “This mask looks very similar to a ghost face I saw before. If no one has seen the ghost face, it’s impossible to create this kind of design.”

“Indeed, it doesn’t seem like something a normal vendor can produce.” Shen Lin inspected it, scrutinizing the ghost face.

The mask’s style indeed exuded a kind of eeriness.

But it was just a strange style; in truth, it was a very ordinary item, nothing special.

“Over the bridge, right-side street?”

Yang Jian squinted his eyes, “Having a bridge means there’s a river. It seems the river you mentioned runs through this ancient town.”

“Let’s take a look.” Leuk San quickly strode away.

The group set off again.

Soon.

A stone bridge appeared about halfway down the street.

The stone bridge was very old, clearly having at least a hundred years of history. The railing was stainless steel, likely added in recent years; originally, there was no railing.

Under the bridge was a river.

The water was very clear and cold, just standing on the bridge, one could feel a chill rising from below.

“You’re right; this river connects to that one outside Zhongzhou City’s suburbs,” Shen Lin said, then glanced ahead, “But after crossing the bridge, there’s no street on the right. You were deceived.”

After crossing the bridge and walking forward.

There was no street.

No street on either side, only old residential buildings, some with shops open, and pedestrians passing by.

“There’s only this one street, no other street.” Leuk San also looked around.

Yang Jian stood on the road calmly, “You think I was deceived as well?”

“That woman wasn’t lying.” Leuk San added, “Her words were true, I can tell truth from lies.”

“If her words were true, then the street is also real.”

Yang Jian said, “Quite interesting, an invisible street within the ancient town.”

“We came to enter Ghost Lake, handle the Ghost Lake incident, not to get distracted.” Li Jun said, “We can revisit and investigate if needed; there’s an order of priorities.”

Yang Jian replied, “How do you know that this street isn’t related to the Ghost Lake incident we are to investigate?”

“I want to check out that street. Are you interested?”

Shen Lin’s eyes flickered slightly, “I’m not very interested. I will continue with Li Jun to confirm the connection point; if you want to investigate first, do so. Let us know if anything comes up. Since we’re in the same place, just inform us.”

“I want to stroll around the ancient town.” Leuk San said.

“Splitting up again?” Li Jun frowned.

“The town is just this small, it’s no big deal.” Yang Jian said, “Just let me know when you’ve confirmed the location; I’ll be there immediately.”

“Same here.”

“Hope so.” Li Jun didn’t say anything further.

Being captains, it’s sometimes hard to follow each other’s arrangements, preferring to act according to personal preference, making unified command difficult.

“Yang Jian, once Shen Lin, and I confirm the location, I’ll notify you. Maybe ten minutes will be enough, be ready.” Li Jun reminded once more, then left with Shen Lin.

He didn’t want to waste time on this matter.

As for Shen Lin, it was unknown what he thought; knowing the street was problematic, yet he didn’t want to delve deeper into the investigation.

Leuk San remained where he was, unmoving, but elsewhere in the small town, other Leuk Sans appeared.

His paper figures had already begun to explore every corner of the town.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com