Chapter 1048 - 1014 The Awakened Consciousness

After delving into this eerie world of oil paintings for so long, there is finally some progress.

Yang Jian’s ghostly eye spotted Sun Rui. At this moment, he was lying motionless on a nearby path in a position that seemed to have been maintained for a long time. Whether he was alive or dead was uncertain, but from a rough observation, it appeared he had managed to escape the ghostly attack from the dye vat earlier. However, reaching this point had already pushed him to his limit.

But the only reason that could cause a ghostly handler to lose their ability to move and remain immobilized on the ground is just one.

A ghostly revival!

If it weren’t for the ghostly revival, Sun Rui would be able to stand and move, no matter how poor his physical condition was.

Therefore, after getting close enough, Yang Jian stopped.

“Is he dead?” Zhou Ze asked, somewhat uncertain.

Yang Jian frowned, “Most likely already dead. Although he only went missing a few days ago, he must have already fought against a ghost before, and his condition is no longer sufficient to sustain his survival. However, the real situation requires a closer examination to confirm.”

“Let me go and take a look.” At this moment, Yang Xiao spoke up.

Yang Jian gave him a glance.

Yang Xiao added, “If he’s still alive, I can sense it.”

“Alright.” Yang Jian nodded, not refusing.

Yang Xiao walked over. He approached with the normal pace of walking, unlike Yang Jian, who was full of caution, his face calm and unperturbed.

Soon, he approached Sun Rui.

But as he got closer, Yang Xiao suddenly felt something amiss. It seemed as though he was affected by something, as he couldn’t help but cough twice, his face turning pale as if he were a sick person. The closer he got, the more frequent and severe the coughing became.

“It’s the supernatural power interfering with me,” Yang Xiao said. “But it’s not a big deal, I’m a lost soul, already neither human nor ghost, and I can’t die. If a living person were to approach, they would have already caught the disease and died.”

“Sun Rui, code-named Sick Ghost, can even infect ghosts. Now that he’s dead, a ghostly revival and supernatural power are interfering around. As expected, approaching impulsively was wrong.” Yang Jian analyzed the situation, standing not far away.

“Right now, he’s like a source of infection. Luckily, he collapsed here. If he had fallen outside, it would have been another significant supernatural event.”

As he spoke, Yang Xiao had already reached Sun Rui’s side.

His face looked particularly awful, and his coughing intensified, his body feeling exceptionally weak, his limbs lost their strength, as if he would collapse from illness at any moment. His skin also started to show some spots resembling corpse spots or liver spots, as if infected with some contagious disease.

Yet, despite this, Yang Xiao remained unfazed. He didn’t possess a living human body; although affected, he was able to endure.

Yang Xiao crouched down and turned over Sun Rui’s body, his eyes slightly widened.

At this moment, Sun Rui’s face was gaunt, his eye sockets hollow, his mouth agape, emitting a stench not caused by a rotting corpse but an unhealthy odor akin to that of a sick person. Most disturbingly, large patches of disease spots appeared on his skin.

“Too late?”

Yang Jian also saw Sun Rui’s current state and understood that Sun Rui had been too deeply eroded by supernatural power, and now with the ghostly revival, he was most likely already dead.

However, just as this thought occurred to him, an eerie scene unfolded.

The air around Sun Rui’s body seemed to twist and shimmer, and then a ghostly figure appeared out of thin air before their eyes.

The figure was blurred, but still recognizable as Sun Rui.

“What’s happening? Isn’t he already dead? How could another person appear? Is it human or ghost?” Zhou Ze was stunned.

Zhang Xiangguang said, “Don’t be surprised; this is the ability of Yang Xiao’s Nightmare. This young man called Sun Rui isn’t dead yet; he still retains some consciousness. Now Yang Xiao has pulled him into a nightmare. What we’re seeing is merely Sun Rui’s projection within the Nightmare World. Through this method, Yang Xiao can ignore reality, communicate with people in dreams, and even interfere with reality through dreams.”

Zhou Ze couldn’t help but remark, “This is just like the legends of the deceased delivering messages to their loved ones in dreams.”

“Almost,” Zhang Xiangguang replied.

Yang Jian couldn’t help but think to himself, “Is this Ghost Dream’s ability? Drawing the living into dreams, and in the world of oil paintings, he possesses such supernatural power as well.”

He understood Ghost Dream.

It’s a terrifying supernatural event where even the most powerful ghost handlers become exceptionally weak in the Ghost Dream world.

“Am I…alive?” Sun Rui’s remaining consciousness regained clarity.

“No, you’re not dead yet; you’re currently in a dream.”

Yang Xiao said, “But you’re also close to dying. Your remaining consciousness is being devoured by supernatural power. You can be considered a wounded person waiting to die. Now your consciousness has fallen into a coma. I could only bring you into the dream so you could escape the supernatural influence for a brief respite.”

Sun Rui’s adaptability was strong; he immediately realized his condition.

He felt an indescribable relief and no longer perceived his body as weak. His leg… Okay, he only had one leg left, the other was gone. Besides that, everything else seemed normal, which clearly couldn’t be the case in reality.

If all this appeared only in a dream, then everything made sense.

“How long can this consciousness last?” Yang Jian walked over and asked.

Being an anomaly himself, he didn’t need to worry too much about getting infected.

“Hard to say, maybe ten minutes, maybe half an hour, maybe half a day. It depends on how fast his consciousness is being eroded by the supernatural force,” Yang Xiao replied.

Yang Jian glanced at Sun Rui’s body again. It was no longer a body but a corpse, already starting to emit a stench.

“As long as he’s alive, I can figure something out,”

Upon finishing, the tall, dark Ghost Shadow behind him slowly stood up and began walking towards Sun Rui’s body.

“Yang Jian, you also ended up here?” As Yang Jian approached, Sun Rui seemed to see him and was somewhat surprised.

Yang Xiao said, “Connecting reality and the Nightmare World, you can communicate.”

“Can this be done without a medium?” Yang Jian glanced at him.

The supernatural power of Ghost Dream requires a medium to connect to reality.

“It’s just conversation; it doesn’t interfere with reality, so it doesn’t need a medium.” Yang Xiao looked at him, somewhat surprised, as if he hadn’t expected Yang Jian to know even the medium of the Nightmare World.

Yang Jian didn’t ask further; he directly conversed with Sun Rui, “The post office matter is almost resolved. I noticed your disappearance, so I did some investigation. I didn’t expect you’d enter the world of oil paintings.”

“I’m not in a good state, even if I left the Ghost Post Office and returned to Dahan City, I wouldn’t last long. Once the ghostly revival occurs, it would cause another supernatural event, so this place is suitable for me. I wanted to try my luck here and also find a final resting place, but I didn’t expect that after collapsing, there would still be a possibility of regaining consciousness,”

Sun Rui remarked with some sentiment, instinctively reaching out and realizing that his cane was no longer there. He had previously sent it out of the post office, conveying some information outside.

“Now that I hear the matter with the post office is almost resolved, I can be at ease. I’ve already arranged everything afterward, so there’s no need for Captain Yang to worry too much about whether I live or die. After all, for those who control ghosts, death is inevitable one day, and I’ve lived quite long already.”

He’s not afraid; he was prepared to die long ago, so now he’s very calm.

“For people like us, death can indeed be a form of relief sometimes, but living is what’s hard. The problem with the post office stems from the lack of a competent manager. I need to arrange for a manager to go to the sixth floor of the post office to change the letter delivery tasks and end the fate of the messengers, which is why I found you.”

Yang Jian plainly stated his purpose.

“Post office manager? I’m just barely conscious now and won’t live much longer, I’m afraid I can’t help you with this.” Sun Rui shook his head.

Yang Jian ignored him and continued, “Becoming the manager of the post office will result in a curse, preventing you from ever leaving the post office. However, correspondingly, the manager will also never face the risk of a ghost revival. You can use this opportunity to survive, but the price is being trapped here forever, unless you die.”

“This is not an easy thing to decide, it’s up to your choice—whether to endure the curse and live here forever or be relieved now. I hope you can give me an answer.”

He didn’t think becoming the post office manager was a good thing.

While you can live a little longer, it’s ultimately a long-term curse and torment, because agreeing means you could be stuck here for ten, twenty, or even more years.

Sun Rui was taken aback; he didn’t immediately agree but hesitated slightly.

He understood the implications.

But then he still agreed: “Thank you, Captain Yang, for giving me a choice, but for people like us, we really never had a choice. Everyone has their own things they need to do. Since you’ve come to me, then let me stay in this ghostly place for a lifetime, don’t trouble anyone else.”

“After all, people outside already think I’m dead, I’m an unnecessary person.”

“This promise can’t be reneged upon, otherwise the Ghost Post Office will have problems again,” Yang Jian said gravely, making a final reminder.

Sun Rui said, “I understand, the post office manager definitely cannot be easily replaced. Now the post office is out of control, clearly there’s a problem with the manager. If I become the next manager, I must not have problems before the supernatural events are resolved. If the events are never resolved, I might be stuck here for a lifetime.”

“I understand the consequences and the cost, which is precisely why I agreed with you.”

He explained to Yang Jian, expressing his resolve.

“Since that’s the case, it’s settled then.” Yang Jian no longer persuaded him, finalizing the decision.

The next moment.

The Ghost Shadow invaded Sun Rui’s corpse.

With its entry, Sun Rui’s corpse immediately harbored three ghosts.

A new balance was forming.

The Ghost Shadow was suppressing the ghost revival, striving for Sun Rui’s temporary survival.

Quickly.

In the dream, Sun Rui immediately felt it; his body became less blurred and gradually cleared up, and the consciousness on the verge of disappearing was forcibly pulled back.

“He’s come back to life,” Yang Xiao said, “but it’s temporary. Once your shadow leaves his body, he’ll immediately die.”

“I understand this state won’t last long,” Yang Jian said.

Under the Ghost Shadow’s invasion, Sun Rui couldn’t even wake up and could only continue to sleep.

However, Sun Rui’s corpse stood up at this moment. Although his eyes were closed and he looked dead, he could walk like a normal person.

The Ghost Shadow was controlling Sun Rui’s corpse.

“I should leave here; there’s still something I need to handle in the post office,” Yang Jian said.

Yang Xiao didn’t stop him but only said, “Bring back that ghost painting, everything here will change. I hope you don’t forget about this; there’s no doing your best, it’s a must-do task. I can feel everything outside has gotten really bad.”

He stared at Yang Jian’s face, which resembled his own by seven to eight parts.

Because he understood, knowing the information about the Ghost Dream so thoroughly meant something went very wrong during his life, leaving him to rely on others.

Given Yang Xiao’s character, he wouldn’t consider Yang Jian a good successor, nor would he want his future kin to step into this field. The fact that Yang Jian appeared could only indicate that a more important reason convinced him.

What could that reason be? He didn’t know yet.

But regardless, he needed to appear and know more, so he couldn’t be trapped in the painting; he needed to play some role.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do it,” Yang Jian nodded.

“Yang Xiao, you should have faith in the younger generation, we’re obsolete, just souls now, mere witnesses unable to be participants,” Zhang Xiangguang said as he walked over; “Don’t put too much pressure on the younger ones.”

Yang Xiao didn’t respond, only asked once more, “How’s your mom?”

Yang Jian replied, “She’s fine, now retired in our hometown, and she hasn’t remarried.”

“Is that so?”

Yang Xiao was silent for a moment: “It’s been hard on her, and on you too. I’m sorry, I can’t do anything in this state.”

“You’ve done enough,” Yang Jian said.

“That’s good.”

Yang Xiao said, “Go ahead, I shouldn’t waste your time; there are still many things outside waiting for you. Zhang Xiangguang’s right, this era belongs to you guys, I’m just a ghost.”

Yang Jian nodded, then left quickly, with Sun Rui’s corpse and Zhou Ze following behind.

“If I had such outstanding juniors, I might have long escaped the curse here,” Zhang Xiangguang said, shaking his head.

“That’s what worries me the most.”

Yang Xiao said, “Do you know, the name ‘Yang Jian’ wasn’t something I thought of first, it was that mysterious person surnamed Qin who told me. The younger and more outstanding he becomes, the more I worry.”

Zhang Xiangguang was thoughtful.

He knew who Yang Xiao referred to by that person surnamed Qin.

“After all these years, maybe that person has died too,” Zhang Xiangguang then laughed and said.

“People may die, but ghosts won’t,” Yang Xiao said.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com

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