Mysterious Awakening-Chapter 520: Variation

"The operation has begun. Will they succeed?"

Outside the city at night, this was the training base where the Ghost Envoy incident had occurred. It had long been sealed off, and its personnel had evacuated. Yet, tonight, Yang Jian revisited the old haunts, returning to the deserted training base. He stood atop the tallest building, shrouded in darkness with only a glimmer of scarlet light faintly twinkling.

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Although this operation was not directly related to Yang Jian in principle, he was indeed curious to see if it would go as expected.

Curiosity is something everyone has, and Yang Jian was no exception.

Especially with such a significant event, any slip-up could bring unimaginable terror.

Even standing at a high vantage point, Yang Jian could only rely on his Ghost Eye to see everything clearly under the dim night sky, as his naked eye was not enough to discern the distant scenery.

It was a grey and misty area.

As if covered by a thin layer of fog, or like the haze that drifts through a metropolis, it didn’t look unusual at a glance. However, within that grey expanse, Yang Jian saw many strange things. It didn’t seem like an area overwhelmed by the Ghost Domain; rather, it resembled a world hidden beneath some peculiar veil.

Within that world were skyscrapers, roads, fields... but regardless of the scenery, everything was dead silent and grey, devoid of any other color.

"Is this an illusion formed within the Ghost Domain?"

Yang Jian’s eyes flickered as he thought to himself, "But what sense would these false structures have for a ghost? In other words, if these buildings and landscapes have appeared, there must be a reason for their existence. The behavior of ghosts and those who control them are entirely different. Nothing meaningless would appear."

He had seen many ghosts’ Ghost Domains, and as far as he could tell, everything in a Ghost Domain revolved around the ghost itself.

That is to say, within the Ghost Domain, ghosts have an absolute advantage in terrain.

Therefore, any changes and features within the Ghost Domain must have a reason for existing.

For instance, in the Hungry Ghost’s Ghost Domain, the dark green fog carries a curse. Any who breathe it in could become cursed, even pregnant with a Ghost Infant, and become targets for ghostly pursuits.

The Door Knocking Ghost’s Ghost Domain forms a space identical to the real world, with the intent of facilitating the ghost’s lethal door knocking.

While Yang Jian was analyzing and pondering with the limited information he had.

Inside the grey, ghostly world.

Li Jun, Leuk San, and a few others were rapidly approaching the valley.

They needed to verify whether the Ghost Envoy’s Ghost Domain had been suppressed.

"Wait, was this road here before?"

Suddenly, the heavily made up woman stopped and pointed at a winding asphalt road that joined the valley.

The road became darker as it trailed inward, and the trees lining it were densely packed in an eerie way, twisted or straight, as if a wall that didn’t let any breeze through. Moreover, many of the trees were strikingly similar, as though they were produced from the same mold.

"No, this is an extra road."

Li Jun’s expression darkened, "A certain unpredictable change has occurred within the Ghost Domain, and it’s not a good sign."

"Of course it’s not good. An S-level specter is roaming around here; we are in a highly dangerous state. One wrong move, and we could end up dead at any moment. The headquarters knows how dangerous this is, so they sent us, the spirit manipulators with strong survival capabilities, to handle it," said Leuk San, with his sickly, sallow face.

It was no accident that they had been chosen for the mission; this group had the capability to survive in almost any paranormal event.

Unless they foolishly confronted a fierce specter head-on.

"If we don’t take this road, we’ll have to cross this eerie forest."

Another man said slowly, "The additional road might appear dangerous, but it could be safe. Changes in the Ghost Domain are constantly happening; no one can be sure which path is the correct one. Why not try using your Ghost Domain, Li Jun?"

"Using my own Ghost Domain inside the Ghost Domain of the ghost is very limited and works poorly, even worse than walking," Li Jun said. "Besides, the situation is unclear now; it’s not a good suggestion. If there is real danger, or if it becomes a critical moment to detain a fierce ghost, I will use my Ghost Domain."

"It’s not far anyway, just a short distance. There’s no need to waste our powers. Better to save it for a life-or-death moment. Su Fan, you choose a direction," Leuk San turned to another person.

At that moment, Su Fan was looking down at his phone, seemingly engrossed in a game to the point of addiction.

Anyone with a bit of sense would know this wasn’t the time for games, yet no one stopped him.

Because they had all checked Su Fan’s profile.

On Su Fan’s phone, a very rudimentary and crude game was running.

The game had a first-person view, showing a deep and dark road through the eyes of the protagonist, who could be seen rapidly running forward. But there was also a hazardous warning on the side, indicating: Danger nearby.

Su Fan tapped the screen, controlling the direction of the character in the game, occasionally using some items collected earlier.

Danger was closing in...

When the warning signs changed, Su Fan used an item: a torch.

The character in the game stopped, took out a lighter, and started to ignite the torch.

Unexpectedly, the moment the protagonist halted, darkness engulfed everything around, plunging the entire screen into blackness as if the display had been turned off.

A red character then appeared, revealing: "You have died."

Su Fan’s brows knit together, his complexion somewhat gloomy.

This sudden death without warning had not been the first, and this crude, unsystematic game could drive a person mad. Yet, Su Fan had no choice but to spend a great deal of time on this nauseating game each day, because it was somehow linked to reality and carried some mysterious and terrifying curse.

"Su Fan, do we have a result?" Leuk San, seeing him put down his phone, asked again.

Su Fan’s face remained grave as he said, "Heading towards the Ghost Envoy will bring unknown dangers. I don’t know where the danger will come from, but what I can be sure of is that once the danger arrives, there will certainly be deaths, and there won’t even be a chance for self-rescue. After all, the information I get from the game in my hands is very limited. Perhaps Xiong Wenwen, who can foresee the future, is better suited for this kind of situation."

"Is that so?"

Liu Jun’s expression shifted, "If that’s the case, there’s no need to conserve resources. We should directly use the Ghost Candle to move forward and ensure a safe passage."

After speaking, he immediately took out a red Ghost Candle.

Without hesitating, he lit it.

The sinister light of the candle illuminated this murky world, its flickering light dispelling the gloom around them. The weirdness that had been lurking in everyone’s hearts instantly vanished as if some invisible, terrible danger had been temporarily forced back.

However, the Ghost Candle was burning at an alarmingly fast pace, visibly consuming itself at a rate noticeable to the naked eye.

"Without ghosts nearby, a Ghost Candle can last less than five minutes at most."

Having taken a look, Su Fan estimated, "Around three and a half minutes should be quite safe. It’s really hard to imagine the impact of Ghost Painting being so substantial. During normal paranormal events, even when there are ghosts around, a Ghost Candle easily lasts half an hour."

"So we need to speed up."

Li Jun, leading with the Ghost Candle, moved quickly forward, directly taking the unknown road to the Ghost Envoy’s location.

The group remained silent, simply picking up the pace to keep up.

The seemingly endless winding road was actually not that long, but as they moved along, all sorts of strange changes occurred around them. Continue your adventure at

They saw many forks in the road, and glimpses of familiar yet foreign landmarks at the ends of these branches.

There were abandoned, old city buildings, unnervingly weird old mansions, and paths leading to graveyards for the buried; they even saw shaky figures at the ends of some branches...

This place was full of unpredictable weirdness, beyond the grasp of normal thinking.

But Li Jun did not venture down these side paths. It seemed that under the cover of the Ghost Candle’s light, some unknown danger was blocked, which allowed them to smoothly reach the valley.

The true location of the Ghost Envoy.

"We’re here, right in this place," Li Jun stopped in his tracks, his expression growing even more solemn.

Their GPS indicated they had arrived at the destination, but the valley that Yang Jian had used to isolate the Ghost Envoy had disappeared.

In its place was a small village.

A sign stood at the head of the village road, inscribed with three characters: Huanggang Village.

"Where’s the Ghost Envoy?" the woman with heavy makeup said with a trace of horror.

"We need to go back."

Feeling that something was terribly wrong, Li Jun hurriedly turned around to leave.

Su Fan, Leuk San, and the others also furrowed their brows tightly, intently staring at the sign with "Huanggang Village" written on it.

They had all read the files. This S-level paranormal event, codenamed Ghost Envoy, actually stemmed from the Ghost Coffin incident, which had occurred just outside of Dachang City in a place called Huanggang Village.

And now, this village was appearing right here.

But the Ghost Envoy had disappeared, as had the coffin-shaped Ghost Domain. Without their objective, their mission was essentially futile.

This showed that the collision of two paranormal events had led to some unpredictable, terrifying change.

Retreating was both the most prudent and the most correct action.

Although they hadn’t encountered any danger on the way, the shock was evident on their faces as they turned to leave.

Very soon.

Their apprehension and premonition of unease became reality.

Having not walked far after turning around, just passing through a grey, foggy woodland, everyone discovered that a village had materialized before them again.

Huanggang Village.

"Are we trapped?" the group immediately realized their plight.

It wasn’t terrible, but it was certainly not good.