Chapter 898 - 865: The Burning Old Mansion

Just as Yang Jian was about to lead his team to evacuate Ning’an Building.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

Outside the ancient mansion in Dadong City.

Wang Chaling and Li Jun had already passed through the iron gate and entered the premises of the mansion. However, they didn’t venture inside immediately; rushing in recklessly would be foolish. Instead, they began discussing and observing the surroundings carefully.

“So this is your Wang Family’s ancient mansion? What’s the deal with those coffins at the entrance? Are they holding ghosts? Doesn’t seem like it. If they were, the place would’ve been uninhabitable by now.”

Li Jun’s voice was hoarse, as if his throat had been scorched—it was grating, strange, and unsettling, hard for anyone to get used to.

His eyes lingered on the coffins scattered throughout the courtyard, some old, some new.

The sheer number of coffins in such a place was something no one could afford to ignore.

“The coffins contain the dead members of my Wang Family.”

Wang Chaling said, “Did you think I was the only one left in my family? The Wang Family used to be a large clan. But having dealt with supernatural events for so long, we gradually perished, one by one. The deceased members of the Wang Family were placed in these coffins and left in the courtyard of the mansion.”

“Why not cremate them and bury them properly?” Li Jun frowned and asked.

“For… certain reasons,” Wang Chaling avoided elaborating, sidestepping the topic. “Li Jun, do you plan to just barge right in?”

Li Jun was holding a pocket watch.

Yang Jian had given it to him before their departure. The watch was synchronized to the time inside the mansion.

But now, it seemed to have lost its purpose.

The reason? The time on the pocket watch fluctuated unpredictably, and the constant chiming of the pendulum clock inside the mansion added to the chaos. In this situation, there was no longer any correct sense of time within the mansion.

“Rushing in won’t achieve much. If solving the problem inside the mansion were viable, Yang Jian would have done it already. His absence is proof that venturing deeper into the mansion is meaningless. Besides, time within the mansion is now under someone else’s control. If we go in, we’ll just get lost—there’s no other possibility.”

Li Jun analyzed rationally. He had evidently matured and improved.

Wang Chaling squinted slightly. “It seems Yang Jian didn’t bother warning you about this.”

“We’re all team leaders; we’re adults. Everyone knows what they should and shouldn’t do. Besides, his choice to stay out is the biggest warning of all.”

Li Jun said, “If you can’t see through this, then with Yang Jian’s philosophy, you’d deserve to die anyway—better now than becoming a liability later on. Honestly, it’s good he stayed outside. Dachang City needs someone like him to hold down the fort. I can’t do it—I’m not as ruthless as Yang Jian. And you can’t either—you’re not as decisive as he is.”

“That’s true. The odds are against us. Entering the mansion is suicide. Yang Jian made the right call by staying out… unless we can find the right timeline to enter in.” Wang Chaling smiled faintly, glossing over Li Jun’s remarks about Yang Jian.

“What’s the current time outside?” Li Jun asked.

Wang Chaling replied, “9:20.”

“At exactly this time, we’ll burn the mansion to the ground. Whoever’s inside, trying to sync the clocks and lure the ghosts to 9:20, I won’t let them succeed. We may not be able to deal with the ghost, but we can deal with the one manipulating the pendulum clock.”

Behind Li Jun’s sunglasses, his scorched, hollow eye sockets flickered with eerie Ghost Flames.

The flames carried no heat—instead, they radiated a chilling coldness, yet they could ignite the living and burn them to death.

“What about me? What should I do?” Wang Chaling asked with a sly smile. “I’m more than happy to take orders from you.”

“Be vigilant of our surroundings. The moment I take action, I’ll stir up the hornet’s nest. If anyone moves against me from inside, you handle them. I don’t want to manage burning down the mansion while also fending off ambushes.” Li Jun replied.

“No problem. I’d be happy to assist.” Wang Chaling responded.

Li Jun shot him a long, scrutinizing glance. “Whatever your motives are, control the situation first. If the mansion spirals out of control, headquarters will hold you accountable. Even someone from the third generation of the Wang Family can’t escape blame.”

This was both a caution and a reminder.

Team leaders with ulterior motives were plenty. Li Jun was well aware. That’s why he preferred dealing with Yang Jian over someone like Wang Chaling.

Headquarters’ assessments and reports described Yang Jian as someone with a deeply rooted, traditional farmer’s mentality—content to guard his small territory in Dachang City and live a modest life. He disliked creating trouble, only taking up arms when his “crops” were threatened. Beyond that, he had neither dreams nor ambition.

“You’re overthinking it, Captain Li. I fully support headquarters. We should interact more often in the future to dispel misunderstandings and grievances.” Wang Chaling said with a faint smile.

“Let’s move.”

Li Jun didn’t waste time. He strode toward one of the mansion’s windows.

The old window frame was already rotten, leaving behind only an empty space through which the interior of the mansion could be seen.

Dim, decrepit, abandoned, oppressive.

The atmosphere reeked of something disturbingly eerie.

With the recurring chimes of the pendulum clock from within, some sort of equilibrium had been disrupted. Supernatural phenomena were intensifying.

Li Jun lightly rested a hand on the windowsill.

In the next moment—

A ghostly green flame began spreading from his arm outward.

The window ignited, followed by the decayed blue bricks of the wall. The Ghost Flame began rapidly consuming everything.

The walls burned. The main hall of the mansion burned. The corridors burned. Even the depths of the darkness were being driven out by the flames.

In no time, the entire mansion was engulfed by Ghost Flames, blazing fiercely.

“Ah!”

A piercing scream echoed through the mansion, filled with agony.

A humanoid silhouette cloaked entirely in Ghost Flames flailed in torment, running back and forth in the mansion’s main hall. Charred footprints accompanied a nauseating stench of burnt corpses. Yet, suddenly, the flaming figure vanished into thin air, as if its presence had been nothing more than an illusion.

It was likely a powerful ghost.

Under attack from the Ghost Flames, the ghost was being suppressed.

Within the mansion—

A gaunt middle-aged man with graying temples sat in an old rocking chair, his eyes closed, as if calmly awaiting a certain moment.

Nearby, Zhang Qing, back in his wheelchair, wore an expression of unease, frequently glancing at the man in the rocking chair.

Wan Tong squatted nearby, chain-smoking, cigarette after cigarette.

Then, suddenly—

Chen Qiaoyang, the man in the rocking chair, abruptly opened his eyes and stood up.

In the next moment—

The rocking chair he had just vacated was suddenly set ablaze by an eerie green flame. At the same time, fire began seeping out from cracks in the floor and walls.

In no time—

The floor was aflame.

The walls and the ceiling were engulfed by fire.

Everything around them was consumed by inexplicable flames.

“This is… Ghost Flame? Damned Ghost Flame! Li Jun is here. He means to burn the entire mansion and incinerate us!” Zhang Qing cried out in alarm, panic written all over his face.

As one of the team leaders from headquarters—

It was standard practice for ghost tamers to gather intelligence on their own kind.

Going against headquarters meant that any day they might face a team leader’s purge. Naturally, they were well-informed about Li Jun.

“So he didn’t die in the Ghost Painting incident after all.” Wan Tong stood up abruptly. He could already smell the burnt scent of his own body.

The strangest part was that he didn’t feel any pain.

Somehow, it felt entirely natural, as though it were meant to be.

“Ghost Flame Li Jun? Who’s that? Fall asleep for a bit, and suddenly someone shows up looking for a fight. These young folk really don’t let us rest, do they?” Chen Qiaoyang straightened his hair and clothes unhurriedly, his expression serious.

“He’s a team leader from headquarters, same rank as that Yang Jian. He was formerly a senior officer, deeply vindictive against evil. Running into Yang Jian might not be too bad—so long as we don’t provoke him, he won’t bother us. But encountering Li Jun means he’s already marked us for death.” Zhang Qing explained.

“Oh? A senior officer, you say?”

Chen Qiaoyang blinked briefly. His eyes shifted as though weighing his options.

“What a predicament. I’d rather face that young Yang fellow than deal with Li Jun. It just wouldn’t sit right if a man of such stature perished at the hands of a nobody like me.”

Zhang Qing glanced at him, surprised.

Who would’ve thought this old fox harbored such a sentimental side?

Chen Qiaoyang paced back and forth, hands clasped behind his back, visibly anxious.

Yet, behind him, several unnerving footsteps echoed.

The steps varied in size, and wherever they tread on the Ghost Flames, scorch marks were left on the ground. Strangely, the flames in those areas were extinguished and didn’t ignite again.

The spectral Ghost Flames spread like wildfire.

The only exception was the area around Chen Qiaoyang, which remained unaffected as if an invisible force suppressed the flames’ expansion.

Thus, a safe zone temporarily formed.

“Chen Qiaoyang, we’re already targeted by three team leaders—Yang Jian, Wang Chaling, and Li Jun. If we don’t come up with something, we’re dead. There’s no way they’ll let the mansion’s events go unchecked.” Zhang Qing and Wan Tong hurriedly moved closer, entering the safe zone.

Yet the Ghost Flames continued to spread.

At this moment, faint green sparks speckled the air.

The flames seemed to ignite the very air, engulfing the entire space.

“Is Li Jun insane? Using Ghost Flames like this—doesn’t he fear the resurrection of his own ghost?” Zhang Qing’s heart pounded wildly. He felt that soon even this safe zone would become perilous.

“We should just fight our way out. With your abilities, escaping here shouldn’t be too difficult. There’s no way Li Jun could stop you.”

He anxiously urged Chen Qiaoyang to lead an escape.

In a scenario like this, regardless of the outcome, both he and Wan Tong, as surviving Pendulum Clock Cursers, were practically already dead.

“No rush. As capable as today’s youngsters are, they’re still inexperienced. It’s too early for any of them to take me down here.” Chen Qiaoyang seemed unfazed by the widespread, all-consuming Ghost Flames.

He appeared to be contemplating something else, not even acknowledging the imminent danger.

“Dong! Dong! Dong!”

Suddenly—

The mansion’s pendulum clock chimed again.

Time was being manipulated once more.

The Ghost Flames engulfing the mansion abruptly vanished into nothingness.

“The mansion’s been reset. Indeed, the one controlling the pendulum clock is a tough adversary. The mansion, once ignited, was displaced to another timeframe.” Wang Chaling observed as the scene unfolded.

“It’s now 9:21.”

“The pocket watch still reads 9:20. The person controlling the clock has rewound time by one minute.”

Li Jun rasped, “So the Ghost Flames persist—they’ve just been delayed by one minute.”

Wang Chaling’s eyes narrowed. “That confirms the person we’re after is inside the mansion. If we enter now, we’ll be in the same timeframe as them. If they reset time, we’ll reset too. If they rewind, we’ll also rewind. Time won’t be relevant to us anymore.”

“Then let’s stop waiting.” Li Jun understood immediately and charged into the mansion.

“Wait!” Wang Chaling wanted to stop him, but it was too late.

Li Jun had already rushed through the mansion’s open doors.

The next moment—

The pendulum clock chimed.

Li Jun disappeared.

The mansion’s timeline was scrambled again.

“What recklessness.” Wang Chaling sighed eerily.

He had only been analyzing the situation, but Li Jun couldn’t restrain himself and acted prematurely.

Wang Chaling had a lingering concern: this particular timeframe might be a deliberate trap left by the enemy. Entering without caution might mean confinement alongside vengeful spirits.

Even if it wasn’t a trap, if the enemy exposed a vulnerability, it was likely because they were prepared. The outcome was still uncertain—whether they’d overcome the enemy or be outmaneuvered remained to be seen.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com

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