Chapter 449

Chapter 449: Awakening the World

In the Ghost Domain, Chu Jiang realized that he had returned to Luoxi No. 7 Middle School.

Yes, the school that had been completely demolished still existed within Slender Man’s Ghost Domain.

But the bodies were gone, and countless ghost servants were nowhere to be seen. Only the ghost’s true form stood motionless in front of him.

In front of Slender Man, Chu Jiang threw the Two Realms Bell into the left empty space.

In this way, the only way for the other side to get this bell is to kill Chu Jiang and take it out from his body.

Before Chu Jiang could retrieve his hand, the ghostly figure instantly teleported over, its right hand transformed into a sharp black cone, and it stabbed straight towards Chu Jiang’s chest!

This time, even the very tip of the cone perfectly matched the spot where it had attacked Chu Jiang last time.

However, this time, Chu Jiang didn’t get pierced through his body before he could react. He calmly held onto the cone with his left hand.

At the same moment, a radiant light of life bloomed in his hand, and he murmured, "Tonight, the pearl shines; it shall follow the full moon’s opening."

With Chu Jiang’s whisper, the remaining moon in the sky instantly brightened! It went from being a crescent to a full circle, with endless moonlight shining throughout the night sky. It overpowered all the darkness in the Ghost Domain and finally fell onto Slender Man.

In that instant, it was like hot soup poured onto cold snow. The ghostly figure’s body quickly melted, and the hand that Chu Jiang held visibly turned into a black mist, dissipating.

When about a quarter of its body had been dissolved and even its head was reduced to half, Slender Man initiated a time reset.

This is its signature move, but now Chu Jiang can do the same!

Time froze in this moment, the moonlight poured down like water and turned solid; the darkness that was suppressed in the shadows came to a standstill; the school was quiet, with two S-class ghosts facing each other without moving.

Yes, time stopped because the two powers were locked in a stalemate. It was the moment when Slender Man wanted to restart and Chu Jiang hadn’t put away the Two Realms Bell yet.

But on Chu Jiang’s side, he was vying for control over time in this area with the ghost shadows. He didn’t want to go back to that time point.

The powers of both sides were evenly matched, which prevented the ghost shadows from achieving their goal. Time could only stay frozen in this moment, no longer flowing forward or backward.

After a full few minutes of stalemate, the situation changed again.

Suddenly, the black hole in Slender Man’s mouth expanded, it was actually… devouring time!

It wasn’t just devouring time, the ghost shadows were also devouring Chu Jiang’s supernatural powers, to be precise, the powers of the Black Sun, and even consuming its own power.

This immediately reminded Chu Jiang of the [Ghost Tree] that was resurrected from the body of the librarian. It was eaten by Slender Man.

It should have instincts like "being greedy" and "devouring". By eating other ghosts, it becomes stronger.

In fact, Fang Tianci’s "ghost mouth" and Kujo Kazuki’s "Blood Eating Ghost" have similar abilities, but the power they show is not as terrifying as Slender Man’s.

The shadow not only can devour other ghosts, but can even devour abstract concepts like time, and indiscriminately devour supernatural powers.

The black hole in its mouth is like a real black hole, causing a disruption in the surrounding time. There was even a moment when Chu Jiang couldn’t see anything.

But soon, everything started flowing again because time is an endless river that theoretically cannot be fully devoured. Once one area is cleared, time from other places will naturally rush in to fill it up like a tide.

As time started flowing again, a full moon representing vitality appeared in the sky and continued to emit light.

However, this time, the light was devoured by Slender Man as soon as it fell, and its body began to rapidly regenerate, returning to its original state in an instant.

So, Chu Jiang decisively stopped this attack. It was the first time he encountered a ghost that could swallow anything.

Then, the two sides looked at each other, their lifeless eyes meeting.

In the blink of an eye, Slender Man disappeared.

But its Ghost Domain was still there, overlapping with Chu Jiang’s Ghost Domain, and then both Ghost Domains vanished together in the same spot.

Yes, the support staff from Research Institute No. 21 were anxiously observing everything from the outskirts, hoping that Chu Jiang would return victorious.

However, the battle between the two sides didn’t last long, and the overlapping Ghost Domain vanished, leaving nothing behind.

This caused some of the staff to feel fearful, like… Chu Jiang was gone? Disappeared together with that ghost??

Several experts were also observing from the side, and Chen Yehua promptly contacted headquarters with Chen Yuting.

As soon as the call connected, Chen Yuting immediately said, "Slender Man’s Ghost Domain has returned to the original site of Luoxi No. 7 Middle School."

Expert Chen was somewhat puzzled, "What is it doing? Running away?"

Expert Liu, standing nearby, asked, "I’m curious, did Chu Jiang get taken there by it, or did he voluntarily chase after it?"

Only the person themself knows the answer to this question, I’m afraid.

But now, Chen Yuting can’t just call and disturb them, she can only closely monitor everything that’s happening on the scene through satellite maps and other live images.

……

On Chu Jiang’s side, he forcefully used his own Ghost Domain to anchor onto the opponent’s Ghost Domain and followed along in pursuit.

He didn’t quite understand why Slender Man found it difficult to defeat him, so he fled at the critical moment?

Very quickly, Chu Jiang realized he was wrong because as their positions shifted, a familiar yet unfamiliar figure appeared before him.

It was a sweet-looking, petite lady dressed in an intellectual manner.

This is Chu Jiang’s English teacher, Yu Fengmei, who had suffered a fatal blow from the Ghost Tree while protecting students at the library entrance.

Teacher Yu died in Chu Jiang’s arms during the subsequent pursuit by the vengeful spirit. He couldn’t even find time to bury her properly, so he hastily placed her body by the side of the green belt…

In fact, later on, Chu Jiang wondered about the teacher’s fate. She found herself in Slender Man’s Ghost Domain, and eventually, she would transform into one of his many ghost servants.

However, Chu Jiang never expected that this lady would appear before him in a different way. Her face was pale, her eyes tightly closed, just like when she was alive.

If Chu Jiang hadn’t fully transformed into Chu’s Jiang, he would have felt angry. Therefore, this act was disrespectful to the deceased.

But because he had transformed into Chu’s Jiang, the current Chu Jiang had no emotions. He was just analyzing rationally why Slender Man did this.

The current "Yu Fengmei" looked like a ghost with a very weak presence.

Even if Slender Man managed to evoke this existence that seemed like a ghost servant but not a ghost servant, it would still be difficult for him to defeat Chu Jiang, especially now that Chu Jiang was in a state where he could not be provoked.

After the English teacher appeared, within a few breaths, Chu Jiang saw more and more "acquaintances."

This includes Han Feixiong, the classmate who died in front of him first; his deskmate and best friend, Li Yan; and many others in his same class, those whose names he can and cannot remember. Suddenly, they seemed like classmates from years ago in his memory.

After these people appeared, all the deceased from Luoxi No. 7 Middle School followed one after another. They had their eyes closed and stood all around Chu Jiang, as if inviting him to attend their funerals…

Chu Jiang simply stayed quiet for a few seconds, then he stretched out his right hand. Countless black flames flowed out from his palm, transforming into three thousand streams of fire, ready to destroy everything!

Whether they were real or fake, common sense told Chu Jiang that the dead were already dead and couldn’t come back to life. Now it was a fight to the death between him and Slender Man, and nothing could stop him from sealing this ghost, no matter what appeared.

Unexpectedly, the three thousand black flames turned into chains and flew out, causing Slender Man’s Ghost Domain to shift again.

With no other choice, Chu Jiang had to interrupt his attack and merge once again into the opponent’s Ghost Domain, jumping away together.

This was seen by others as the disappearance of the Ghost Domain at the ruins of the original Luoxi No. 7 Middle School. Chen Yuting immediately reported this to Expert Chen and the others.

Soon, the monitoring department received the latest information that a black Ghost Domain had appeared in Luohe City!

That’s right, it was Chu Jiang’s lair, and even more so, the lair within the lair.

Once this Ghost Domain appeared, it occupied Tianfeng Mansion and the surrounding area.

After Chu Jiang discovered that this was the location of the transfer, even if he didn’t have any emotions, he couldn’t help but search around. He wanted to protect the people he knew, and common sense told him that he should do so, otherwise, he would surely regret it once he left this state.

But there were no living people in this Ghost Domain, it was quiet everywhere. Even during this time, there should have been people in the company.

No, Chu Jiang looked around and immediately recognized a familiar face, it was his former assistant Luo Yifeng.

Luo Yifeng hid the truth about the previous manager’s death, but he just revealed it to Chu Jiang. Then, he died under the influence of Black Sun’s meme infection.

Chu Jiang witnessed him dying in his own office, and saw him transform into a black fire skeleton.

But at this moment, Luo Yifeng was just like Yu Fengmei before, pale and motionless, with his eyes tightly shut, standing right in front of him.

Soon, Chu Jiang saw more deceased people, those who tragically died during the Black Sun incident.

Many of them Chu Jiang didn’t even recognize, but they were just appearing and filling the entire Ghost Domain, closely packed together…

Chu Jiang was about to take action again, the Slender Man’s Ghost Domain was shifting once more.

Outside, when the Ghost Domain took control of Tianfeng Mansion, all the Ghost Masters here were startled and immediately stood up.

But Zhou Wenshan, Jing Ruoxue, Lin Mohua, Duan Mingen, and others didn’t notice any danger and didn’t see anything in the Ghost Domain. They could only sense that it was a special kind of Ghost Domain.

Jing Ruoxue could sense Chu’s Jiang’s power, but before they could analyze or investigate further, the Ghost Domain suddenly disappeared. It was as if nothing had happened…

Fifteen minutes later, back at Expert Chen’s headquarters, they finally arrived and entered the emergency operations room.

Here, they learned a crucial piece of information: Slender Man’s Ghost Domain was rapidly shifting on a global scale!

It initially started within the Nine Provinces, such as Luoxi City, Luohe City, Xiaoyue City, Fanhai City, and Dongzhou City. But now it has begun to spread to other countries, with its coverage expanding.

Several experts immediately analyzed and noticed a common factor among these locations: they all had a significant number of innocent victims who died in supernatural events.

These cities correspond to the supernatural events known as the "Slender Man incident," "Black Sun incident," "Cold Machine," "Draw a Circle to Curse You," and "Silent Dreamland."