Chapter 152: Fusing Ghosts (4)

In the end, the Research Institute and the leadership of Huaguo decided to proceed with the third stage of research. They were going to make a desperate final stand! To sit back and wait for death was certain doom; to fight back at least offered a sliver of hope.

Several high-ranking Huaguo officials and researchers from the institute watched the experiment regarding the absorption of the apocalyptic black mist together via video feeds from their respective underground bases. Soon, three ghost-fusion subjects were transported from the research facility to the outskirts of Yanjing City.

Although the sky outside lacked the gentle warmth of the sun, the fresh air was something these ghost-fusion subjects had not experienced in months. Among the three was Li Jie, the very first ghost-fusion subject.

His beard had long since gone unshaun, making him look drastically different from his former self. Not a trace remained of the once somewhat handsome, comical live-streamer. In his place was merely a youth with a cold and gloomy expression.

The three ghost-fusion subjects were taken to the rooftop of a pre-constructed building in the suburbs. Following this, the Five-Star Spirit Detectives began removing the restrictive measures placed upon them, such as the containment magnetic fields.

Once these restraints were lifted, the spirit detectives who had come along immediately opened spatial singularities and departed the vicinity of the building without a moment's delay, looking very much like men fleeing for their lives.

A red rope began to coil around Li Jie's body, and faint wisps of grievance energy radiated outward from him. At the same time, a thick, black-covered book materialized in the hands of another ghost-fusion subject standing beside Li Jie.

The surface of the book was covered in the marks of time, the various impressions on its black leather cover bearing witness to its long history.

As for the third ghost-fusion subject, an eye with a blood-red pupil emerged from the center of his forehead. The red eye blinked repeatedly as it gazed up at the high sky, seemingly intensely drawn to the thick apocalyptic black mist above.

Without exchanging a word, the three subjects simultaneously opened spatial singularities and shot straight up toward the upper atmosphere! In the next second, the surrounding apocalyptic black mist formed three pitch-black vortices at a speed visible to the naked eye. Though none of the three could fly, they were simultaneously held suspended in mid-air by the churning apocalyptic black mist.

Positioned right at the centers of the vortices, the three ghost-fusion subjects absorbed massive quantities of the apocalyptic black mist directly into their bodies.

The red rope, the black-bound book, and the blood-red eye all began to exude rich waves of grievance energy. The fluctuations of this grievance energy grew intensely violent and increasingly dense, making it plain that the realms of these ghosts were rapidly advancing.

However, contrary to the expectations of everyone at the research institute, the one advancing the fastest was not Li Jie—who had fused with his ghost first and possessed the highest initial ghostly realm—but Wang Wei, who had fused with the black-bound book.

The black-bound book began to turn its pages autonomously, forced open by an inexplicable power. On the already yellowed pages, pitch-black characters emerged—characters that not a single person present could recognize.

The realms of the several ghosts escalated with abnormal swiftness. Soon, Wang Wei, the holder of the black-bound book, wore a look of agony! Despite already being a Five-Star Awakener, he now began to retch violently, coughing up tight spheres of yellow paper ball after ball.

In no time, paper balls were scattered all over the rooftop floor.

Before the book could fully break through to the Seven-Star realm—just as it attempted to reach that threshold—it began to backlash against Wang Wei, the host it parasitized. Amidst the swirling, overflowing grievance energy of the black-bound book, a flash of blue light appeared on its cover.

Faint spatial tears began to materialize in the immediate vicinity of the book.

That was the power of space hidden dormant within the core of the black-bound book ghost. As the blue light shone, Wang Wei stopped retching. The paper balls he had coughed out unfolded themselves and merged back into the black-bound book, making it appear somewhat thicker.

Although the black-bound book ghost seemed to halt its backlash against Wang Wei out of a certain apprehension toward the spatial power, it did not stop devouring the apocalyptic black mist. High above the experimental site, the apocalyptic black mist began to thin and fade at a visible rate.

Among the three ghosts absorbing the apocalyptic black mist, the rope ghost on Li Jie was the quietest. Although it was the first to reach the peak of the Six-Star level, for some unknown reason, it continually failed to break through to the Seven-Star realm.

As a result, the spatial power Li Jie had planted within the ghost's core never found an opportunity to be utilized.

In contrast, the other two ghosts showed frequent anomalies as their realms increased, though these were repeatedly suppressed by the awakeners using spatial power. While there were signs of backlash, things had not yet escalated to the point of assimilating the awakeners or completely devouring them.

As time passed, the black-bound book and the red eye also successively reached the peak of the Six-Star level. Their backlashes against the awakeners grew increasingly frequent, with individual sheets of paper or a red eye occasionally protruding from the bodies of the two fusion subjects.

As gaps were torn open in the apocalyptic black mist, the sky above Yanjing City welcomed the long-absent sunlight—warm and dazzling. People who had not seen the sun in ages could not suppress their surging emotions, and the researchers gathered below were immersed in the joy of seeing the light of day once more.

The holes formed by the absorption of the apocalyptic black mist gradually expanded outward from the suburbs of Yanjing City, and sunlight once again bathed the surrounding areas. Meanwhile, the grievance fluctuations emanating from the black-bound book and the red eye grew more and more violent.

Suddenly, a sharp-eyed spirit detective on the ground noticed that yellowed pages were emerging from Wang Wei's body, looking as though they were growing straight out of his flesh. On the other person, countless rolling red eyeballs had similarly broken through the skin.

As the last traces of human sentience vanished from the eyes of the two men, a massive phantom of a black book and a giant blood-red eye materialized towering above their heads.

The bodies of the two awakeners melted away like wax, transforming into pools of blood and flesh that fused into the phantoms. The spatial power that was meant to serve as a final mutual destruction measure remained entirely dormant.

The giant red eyeball rolled, casting its gaze down toward the researchers on the ground.

At that moment, a man felt an itch on his neck and instinctively scratched it. A sharp pain instantly followed; beneath the skin he had broken by scratching, countless tiny red eyeballs—each about the size of a thumb—were neatly rolling about.

On the other side, the colossal phantom of the black-bound book stirred, its pages turning once more. A person's name was inscribed onto the pages. This time, the book used the characters of Huaguo, and the name written was none other than that of the head of the research team!

In the base, the research team leader stared at the black-bound book in utter astonishment. He was certain he had never uttered his name aloud to these three ghost-fusion subjects. As the head of the research group, he was well aware of the terrifying nature of these entities; how could he possibly have committed such a rookie mistake?

Yet his shock was entirely futile. The moment his name was completely emblazoned upon the black-bound book, his body began to emit black smoke as if it were burning away. His meager magnetic energy rapidly converted into grievance energy before spilling out of his flesh.

The team leader roared and struggled in agony!

In a flash, his physical form vanished entirely, leaving behind only a black ghost servant composed of black smoke and bearing his facial features. This smoke ghost instantly bypassed the barriers of space and appeared directly beside the phantom of the black-bound book.

It then attached itself to the very page inscribed with the research leader's name. On that page, a continuously writhing humanoid silhouette gradually took shape. Though no sound escaped it, anyone who looked would feel the crushing, boundless agony of that figure.

The page was quickly filled by the writhing silhouette of the smoke ghost, after which the black-bound book turned once more, revealing the next blank, yellowed page. Immediately, new names began to manifest upon it.

Meanwhile, the man who had first felt an itch on his neck had already burst apart from within. Countless thumb-sized red eyeballs flew out from the bloody mist, soaring straight toward the giant red eye phantom in the sky to merge with it.

As for the spirit detectives, the very moment the experiment went awry, they severed all communications between the Huaguo leadership and the site to prevent the ghosts from corrupting the network. Immediately afterward, the pre-arranged containment magnetic fields were fully activated, sealing the entire perimeter with overpowering magnetic fluctuations.

The surviving researchers began to evacuate.

In the distance, one could see the space over the suburbs of Yanjing City washed over by blue magnetic energy, while wisps of stray grievance energy were pulverized en masse by the overwhelming magnetic force.

Taking advantage of the research institute's frantic efforts to contain the two Seven-Star ghosts, Li Jie vanished without a trace. For reasons unknown, right up until the other two fusion subjects suffered backlashes and turned into ghost servants, the rope ghost within Li Jie's body had never once acted up.

The spirit detectives' response measures had been remarkably prompt. Yet, regrettably, while such countermeasures might have proven quite effective against Six-Star ghosts, these were entities of the Seven-Star level!

Seven-Star entities—the kind that even Wuxiang and Jingqing had to treat with utmost solemnity.

Seven-Star entities that had already grasped the power of rules.

The black-bound book turned to a fresh page, and an infinite suction force surged outward from it. The surrounding blue magnetic energy was drawn into the page in torrents, a vast ocean of magnetic force rapidly condensing into an illustration upon the paper—an endless sea crackling with blue lightning.

By now, the magnetic energy surrounding the two ghosts had been completely swept clean.

Following this, the red eye and the black-bound book unleashed their immature ghost domains. One black and one red, the two domains converged from left and right, dragging the entirety of Yanjing City within their borders. The sky over Yanjing City, which had just regained its bright sunshine, plunged once more into gloom.

Within the combined ghost domains of the two entities, ghost servants roamed everywhere.

Red eyeballs the size of ordinary human heads, alongside yellowed book pages of comparable dimensions, drifted lazily through the sky over Yanjing City. They hunted for targets to devour, transforming their victims into grievance energy to feed their true bodies.

Under the gaze of the red eyes, human beings burst apart one by one, turning into smaller red eyeballs that integrated into the core of the ghost to fuel its might. As for the black-bound book, its victims were transformed into ghostly silhouettes or pages bound within the book itself.

That ancient-looking black-bound book had now grown immensely heavy.