Chapter 28: A Phone Ringing Nearby

Shen Lin’s timing was impeccable. At the very moment he was about to be overwhelmed by a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, a silent, eerie force restored balance to everything.

The dark red ghostly domain belonging to the Inverted Ghost vanished completely from around him, and the decaying aura enveloping Shen Lin, on the verge of turning to ash, ceased entirely.

In the next instant, the entire world seemed to crumple and twist like a sheet of paper. Shen Lin’s body, once about to disintegrate into ashes, began to slowly return to its original form. His previously pale skin even regained a flush of color.

His flesh and blood regenerated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

For the Inverted Ghost, the opposite of survival is death, and naturally, the opposite of death is survival.

Negative times negative equals positive—he had survived, wielding the power of the Inverted Ghost!

As he revived, Shen Lin stretched out both hands. The eerie power of the Inverted Ghost activated instantly, like a reversal of time and space. The figure that had been retreating was reset.

It was moving toward Shen Lin.

In the next moment, Shen Lin grasped the other’s hands once again!

His hands visibly strained between withering and restoration—a deadly struggle between fierce ghosts, a realm humans had never dared to tread.

"Now, we’re on the same starting line," he said.

At that moment, Shen Lin’s smile grew more ferocious. He raised his legs and slammed down upon the fractured skull pierced through by branches, like the crushing weight of Mount Tai.

The stiff, flailing limbs around him exploded utterly. The inverted world stretched infinitely.

If the opposite of survival is death, then the opposite of intactness is fragmentation.

The power of the Inverted Ghost existed almost only as a concept—it was an unimaginable mode of haunting.

The surrounding jungle dissipated rapidly. Amidst the sea of corpses and blood, one could faintly see a solitary body pierced through by branches, the head slowly detaching.

Shen Lin understood: this was not because the fierce ghost had developed a conscience and relented, nor from sudden mercy.

It was simply that the rules had not been triggered.

Trying to act normal in an inverted world was the key to triggering the Inverted Ghost’s rules.

After transforming, Ghost Form perfectly avoided this pitfall. Shen Lin, who also possessed part of the Inverted Ghost’s power, now acted in a manner that might seem like a reversed video tape to others, but in this upside-down world, his behavior was perfectly natural.

"Don’t pursue a cornered enemy." Shen Lin had no intention of chasing them—he had no grounds to do so.

He had used a small trick to circumvent the rules in this strange world, but that didn’t mean he could do anything to the Inverted Ghost. This was a bizarre power that existed only as a concept. Now that they shared the same starting line, he was temporarily powerless against it.

Having escaped disaster, Shen Lin stood in the center of East China Plaza, gazing upon the bloodstained scene, deep in thought.

The phone in his arms rang at just the right moment. Having evaded the Inverted Ghost’s rules, everything in this world was meaningless to him.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the satellite phone.

He was glad he had chosen a compact ghost candle with a golden casing along with the phone; otherwise, both would have turned to ash in the earlier distortion.

“Hello? Is this Shen Lin?”

“It’s me,” Shen Lin replied, breathing heavily.

He did not relax his vigilance, his eyes still scanning the surroundings. This ghostly place was deeply sinister—the strange staircase exhibited a bizarre and unnatural aura, making him feel something was wrong.

“Thank God, you finally responded. Is the situation resolved?” Wu Qiu sighed in relief. Shen Lin’s contact was one of the few good news in recent days.

Glancing at the ruined surroundings, Shen Lin answered, “Not exactly. I ran into big trouble and just escaped. Why are you so eager to find me?”

“We checked your last satellite location and reviewed the basics of Longhu Villa. The surveillance showed everything was normal. This incident closely resembles a previous case at headquarters called the Ghost Staircase.”

Wu Qiu hurriedly explained, having recovered the elite staff’s concise briefing skills.

The Ghost Staircase? Not the Inverted Ghost? Shen Lin’s pupils contracted sharply as he once again fixed his gaze on the strange stone steps before him.

Scenes from the past flashed in his mind.

When the Inverted Ghost first appeared, the ghost candle’s burning speed was irregular, often fluctuating between fast and slow.

At the moment the door opened, endless darkness and an infinite staircase appeared.

But the Inverted Ghost’s power was merely inversion. Its ghost domain was this strange inverted world, where everything was reversed from normal life.

There was only one possibility: the endless darkness and bizarre staircase were not caused by the Inverted Ghost. They came from another fierce ghost.

The Inverted Ghost was affected by some strange force. This ghost was the true origin of everything!

Shen Lin’s pupils contracted again as a mental storm foretold all.

“Hello? Shen Lin? Are you there?” Wu Qiu called out.

Shen Lin took a few cautious steps back. The mottled stone steps, once unnoticed, now seemed indescribably eerie, as if they would swallow him whole at any moment.

“I’m here. The information you brought is important. If I’m right, I’ve encountered that ghost thing. Help me retrieve all files on the Ghost Staircase, and find any ghost handlers who have experienced it. I need clear, precise information. This is vital!”

“No,” Wu Qiu replied.

Shen Lin was momentarily stunned.

“No what? Is the data nearly nonexistent? Or did none of the handlers survive?”

Either way, it was bad news.

“What do you mean no?”

“The Ghost Staircase incident is classified as Dangerous Level C in the headquarters archives. Its area is limited, extremely narrow even, and it kills only one person per day. Its rule is simple: anyone who steps on the stairs invariably triggers the rule and disappears in some eerie manner,” Wu Qiu answered.

The rule was straightforward. Shen Lin frowned. The Ghost Staircase merited a C-level classification despite its simple rule and limited range only because what happened after triggering the rule was unknown.

It reminded Shen Lin of the top-ranked fierce ghost on the forum: the Ghost Caller, which also killed only one person at a time, had no physical form, and whose method of killing seemed tied to causality.

Causality? Shen Lin frowned deeper. This was more complicated than he thought. This ghost was almost unsolvable.

“Since you have data, then someone must have handled it before. What happened to them?” Shen Lin asked, bracing himself.

“They disappeared, just as the archives say. Several ghost handlers who experienced the incident vanished without exception,” Wu Qiu answered honestly, emphasizing the severity.

The operator couldn’t, nor would she try to sway the handlers’ minds.

She wanted Shen Lin to grasp the strangeness and gravity of this event, hoping to dissuade him from trying to resolve it.

Shen Lin frowned. The downfall of multiple handlers only proved the incident’s strangeness. He didn’t think he was special, nor that he could escape.

Retreat! That was Shen Lin’s first thought. The Ghost Staircase’s danger level wasn’t high—it killed one person a day. Even if left unattended for a hundred years, that’s only 36,000 deaths, far fewer than annual traffic fatalities.

The Ghost Staircase itself posed no real threat, as long as you didn’t provoke it, Shen Lin judged.

“Understood. Inform headquarters to lockdown Longhu Villa. Raise the incident to unsolvable level. After this call ends, I’ll prepare for evacuation,” Shen Lin said.

“Alright, Officer Shen Lin. We look forward to your return.” The voice was sweet and courteous. Wu Qiu had gotten the answer she wanted.

The call ended. Shen Lin slowly retreated, eyes never leaving the Ghost Staircase. There was one missing detail in the headquarters files.

This eerie staircase possessed a special power—it could influence other fierce ghosts. Shen Lin suspected that most ghost handlers who tried to solve this incident were doomed by this hidden ability and disappeared completely.

Retreat was necessary. The Inverted Ghost was nearby, lurking terrifyingly in the garden’s grass. This cursed place was best left as soon as possible.

The immediate priority was to find Li Meng. The Ghost Staircase incident had taught Shen Lin a lesson in his own foolishness—he should never have brought Li Meng into such danger. Originally, even if something went wrong, he could escape through the ghost domain, but events had slipped beyond his control step by step.

He unlocked his phone and searched for Li Meng’s number. The rules of the Inverted Ghost were now meaningless to him. The ghost form had transformed the Inverted Ghost, preventing him from using the ghost domain. Without a quick search method, he had only the most primitive option.

Calling.

Praying that the foolish kid hadn’t lost, broken, or damaged his phone during the escape—otherwise, not even divine intervention could save him.

Number found. Dialed instantly.

After the pleasant ringing tone sounded, Shen Lin frowned, listening carefully.

Something was wrong.

Wait, no—there was a second ringtone?

Li Meng was nearby!