Chapter 112: Chapter 112: Human Face Balloons
"These things are very sensitive to sound but have average vision," Yang Xiao deduced from his recent escape experience in the Nightmare World.
"Sound, huh?"
Yan Junyang took a smartphone from Doctor Wang, set an alarm for three minutes later, placed the phone inside a hollow of a nearby dead crooked tree, and everybody hid.
Soon, the alarm went off punctually, its shrill ring echoing far and wide in the quiet mansion.
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
The familiar yet spine-chilling sound of footsteps followed the noise, moving at least twice as fast as before. Moments later, that group of ghost children carrying the green lantern returned, the eerie, greenish glow reflecting off their horrific faces, creating an indescribably bizarre scene.
It was then that Yan Junyang made his move. He stepped out from where he was hiding, took a red balloon out of his pocket, and started blowing it up.
The balloon inflated at an incredibly rapid pace, and as it grew larger, strange protrusions began to appear on its surface.
Yang Xiao saw clearly that it was a human face, the face of a person in anguished screams—a dead man’s face!
The face seemed alive, struggling incessantly.
Suddenly, heart-wrenching screams rang in Yang Xiao’s ears.
With Yan Junyang letting go, the face balloon floated lazily towards the ghost children. The next second, something astonishing happened—the balloon rose above the group of ghost children, slowly lifting the entire group into the air. In no time, both the face balloon and the ghost children had disappeared into the mist overhead.
Yang Xiao and the others watched, dumbstruck, while Yan Junyang seemed to have had his energy drained, gasping for breath. Before long, a small red object fell from the sky, landing beside Yan Junyang, who bent down to pick it up and put it back in his pocket.
It was an uninflated balloon skin, and Yang Xiao saw it very clearly.
Without a doubt, that balloon was certainly a Resentful Eye, and a very powerful one at that. Le Zhengshan was the first to emerge from hiding, "Captain, are you alright?"
"I’m... I’m fine. Just a bit tired," Yan Junyang wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled, "Thankfully, the situation is resolved."
Yang Xiao hadn’t recovered from the shock he’d just witnessed. It was his first time seeing someone use a Resentful Eye against a ghost.
"Captain Yang, I’ve temporarily contained that ghost. Next, we just need to find the exact location of the Resentful Eye, contain it, and this supernatural event will be over," Yan Junyang said, as if merely informing Yang Xiao and not expecting him to do anything. He then turned to his subordinate Le Zhengshan and commanded, "Turn on the detector, quickly confirm the approximate range of the Resentful Eye. I believe it should be that green lantern; it’s very dangerous."
Le Zhengshan immediately activated the detector and put on the headphones, appearing highly professional in her actions. Yan Junyang and Le Zhengshan’s abilities and coordination highlighted the gap between Yang Xiao’s team and theirs, of course, the biggest gap lay with their leaders.
In both the use of the Resentful Eye and judgment of the situation, Yan Junyang was far more experienced than him.
"Don’t be envious, Captain," Beibei leaned in and whispered, "They’re at least a B-level Squad, not even on the same level as us. They’ve got good gear, which gives them confidence. We can’t get our hands on stuff like that. Take the Ghost Hourglass, for instance—our office doesn’t even have one."
"B-level Squad?" It was the first time Yang Xiao heard about there being levels for squads.
"Yes, the level is determined by the highest Supernatural Event Levels a squad can handle. For instance, our team can handle up to C Level supernatural events, so we are a C-level Squad. Almost all teams in Rongcheng are C-level Squads."
Beibei gave Yang Xiao a meaningful look, gesturing toward Yan Junyang’s pocket, "Tsk tsk, no wonder he’s dispatched from the provincial office. Look at that Resentful Eye in his possession—such a fine item."
"But the stronger the Resentful Eye, the more severe the repercussions," Beibei added, his tone neither clearly envious nor regretful.
"Hm?" Le Zhengshan, who was in the middle of detecting, paused and became flustered, "Captain, the signal is still there. The ghost hasn’t been contained!"
"It’s coming this way, getting closer!"
Now everyone was panicked. Their surroundings were shrouded in fog, and from a distance, the "Crack—, crack—" of friction grew closer, a green lantern quickly appearing within the mist.
Yan Junyang made a snap decision, opened the music player on his phone, started the playback, and threw it into the mist.
The moment the music started, the green lantern immediately changed its course and chased after the phone. Yan Junyang and the others slowly followed.
"It seems my method wasn’t right. It’s ineffective against the whole troop. I should focus on containing the ghost child holding the lantern," Yan Junyang quickly analyzed based on his past experiences.
By the time they reached it, the music from the phone had just stopped, and the phone itself was crushed to pieces, with several coffin nails sticking out of it.
Taking a deep breath, Yan Junyang no longer hesitated. He took out the balloon, ready to try again. This time, he approached even closer, stopping less than five meters away from the ghost child with the lantern.
"Using Resentful Eye twice in such a short period, this kid is ruthless," Beibei couldn’t help but sweat for him.
The balloon swelled rapidly, quickly becoming larger than half of Yan Junyang’s body. Just when everyone thought he was about to release the balloon, an accident occurred.
The ghost child holding the lantern seemed to sense something, suddenly turned around, and aimed the lantern at Yan Junyang.
The green light from the lantern shrank in a strange way. Although its range became much smaller, it extended a large area towards Yan Junyang’s direction, enveloping him instantly.
The balloon, now shrouded in green light, stopped swelling; on the contrary, it began to shrink violently. As this happened, Yan Junyang’s body swelled rapidly, as if being inflated.
Yan Junyang struggled intensely, trying to tear the balloon out of his mouth, but he couldn’t. In the end, with a "bang", he exploded, his flesh and organs scattering everywhere.
The incident happened too abruptly for Yang Xiao and the others to react. Le Zhengshan was stunned, and only after a long while did she scream heart-wrenchingly, "Captain!!"
The ghost child, whose face was smeared with blood, whirled around and headed toward Le Zhengshan’s hiding spot. Da Xiong turned on the music on his phone and threw it in another direction, then the group, dragging Le Zhengshan with them, turned and ran.
The ghost children, attracted by the closer music, did not chase them.
After running a great distance, they stopped, gasping for air. Le Zhengshan was trembling nonstop, and Da Xiong had taken over her equipment.
"Aside from Captain Yan, can anyone use that hourglass?" With people dead, what Yang Xiao was most concerned about at the moment was this.
"The hourglass doesn’t need special operation; anyone can use it," Da Xiong stepped forward and said, "As long as we make it back in time, before the sand runs out, if we invert it, we can return to reality."
Yang Xiao checked the time; they had half of the one-hour time limit left. But they needed that half-hour to deal with the ghost children and get back to the hourglass, which didn’t leave much room for error.
"Do... Do any of you have a Resentful Eye like the captain’s?" Le Zhengshan was gradually coming back to her senses. Now that the captain was dead, they could only rely on themselves.
Doctor Wang and the nurse weren’t under consideration, and both Beibei and Da Xiong looked bitter. Although they were also Angel Envoys, what they had paled in comparison to what Yan Junyang had.
"I... I have a Resentful Eye, but I’ve never used it," Yang Xiao gathered his courage. "However, a senior once told me that this Resentful Eye might be...might be pretty powerful."
"You’re not familiar with it, and you say it’s just a bit powerful..." Le Zhengshan’s face had already turned to despair. It was the training she had received that was supporting her, not allowing her to give up.
"Let’s not panic, everyone. Let’s analyze this. The reason Captain Yan failed was because he was disrupted by that Green Lantern. He acted recklessly without any external noise to distract the ghost children, and that’s how he got noticed. We can’t repeat the same mistake," Yang Xiao tried his best to unite the team. "Soon I’ll need someone to help distract the ghost children."
"Can’t we use the phone... the phone?" the female nurse asked in fear.
"I’ll do it; the phone is too uncertain," Doctor Wang was the first to volunteer. "All of you have experience; it’s least costly if I make the mistake."
Su Tingting also wanted to help but was persuaded by Doctor Wang. "You’re young, and have a bright future ahead of you. Besides, you and Captain Yang are the only ones who know the way here. To put it bluntly, if something happens to you and Captain Yang, we won’t be able to find our way back to the hourglass, and we’ll just be waiting for death."
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
The sounds of deathly footsteps came again. Yang Xiao took out the Drama Robe, and although he claimed not to be scared, he was terrified; his fingers were trembling. Thinking about the Big Red Blood Coffin in the nightmare, he wondered if it was prepared for him.
Doctor Wang left the team alone and stood in an open space, shouting, "Hey! I’m here!"
The footsteps immediately turned in his direction and quickened. Yang Xiao was hiding behind a broken wall near Doctor Wang, constantly adjusting himself. He needed to find the perfect moment to act, to save Doctor Wang and protect himself from the Green Lantern’s attack.
Right now, his mind was in chaos. He had no idea how to use the Drama Robe, but the situation was urgent, so he was playing it by ear.
"Crack—"
"Crack—"
The group of ghost children appeared, heading straight for Doctor Wang, who stood his ground to create an opportunity for Yang Xiao, withstanding the pressure without retreating and continuing to curse at the ghost children.
The green spectral light began to contract, spreading toward Doctor Wang.
"Now!"
Yang Xiao put on the Drama Robe inside out, with the Nether Garment side out, and leaped from behind the broken wall. Actually, Yang Xiao didn’t know how to use the robe; he was just relying on sheer tenacity, planning to rush at the ghost children. As for what to do after that, he hadn’t thought it through.
"If not... do I just try to snatch its lantern?"
But everything came to a standstill the moment Yang Xiao donned the Nether Garment. The world before his eyes darkened as if all color had been stripped away. The team of ghost children, as well as those people who were killed behind them, disappeared. All that remained was a girl, her back to him, holding the Green Lantern.
