Mysterious Revival - Chapter 3 - Ghost Domain

Ghosts cannot be killed.

Only ghosts can deal with ghosts.

Insight into the patterns of ghosts.

These three sentences were clearly written on the blackboard, scrawled yet legible, indicating that Zhou Zheng had pressed hard while writing.

However, the students in the evening self-study session exchanged puzzled glances.

Was this man really a criminal police officer? Or was he just some lunatic who had escaped from somewhere? Was this supposed to be a safety lecture? It sounded more like he was spouting incomprehensible nonsense to fool them.

Some students shook their heads in disbelief at his words.

Others began to whisper among themselves, even chuckling.

Clearly, most people didn’t take Zhou Zheng’s words seriously.

Only Yang Jian’s expression turned grave. The story from that Forum yesterday, along with that photo, had left him feeling uneasy. Combined with this man’s bizarre remarks… could it be that the world was undergoing some unknown changes?

After writing the three sentences, Zhou Zheng didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he scanned the room with his weary, bloodshot eyes and said, “Classmates, if you have any questions or notice anything strange happening around you, feel free to ask me. I’ll do my best to answer. If there’s nothing else, today’s safety lecture will end here.”

But not a single student raised a hand to ask a question.

“Should I ask him about that old man in the photo?”

Yang Jian’s expression shifted as he pulled out his phone, opened the Forum, and once again flipped to the photo of the old man.

Just as he hesitated, the lights in the classroom suddenly dimmed, casting the entire room into a shadowy gloom.

“Hmm?”

On the podium, Zhou Zheng’s expression changed slightly, and he immediately became highly alert.

Yang Jian instinctively looked up. But when he inadvertently caught sight of a figure outside the classroom through the window, his eyes widened in an instant. His body tensed up, and an overwhelming sense of fear surged from within, quickly enveloping his entire being. At that moment, he even lost sensation in his body.

Outside the window stood an old man dressed in a black long robe, his face covered in postmortem lividity. His stiff, grayish-white eyes, devoid of any life, stared into the classroom like a cold, lifeless corpse.

Around the old man, there was nothing but pitch-black darkness, not a single glimmer of light. The corridor lights seemed to have completely vanished, and a thick, ink-like darkness rapidly encroached into the classroom like mercury.

The wall near the old man began to age at a visibly alarming rate. The freshly painted surface deteriorated as if decades had passed in mere seconds. Moss crept up the wall, the paint turned black and flaked off, and a damp, decaying odor began to permeate the air.

“It’s the old man from the Forum story… Impossible. How is he here?”

Yang Jian’s grip on his phone tightened until his knuckles turned white. The screen displayed the photo of the old man-identical to the one standing outside the window, yet the figure before him was far more terrifying.

Suddenly, he shot up from his seat in sheer panic, his chair toppling over with a loud clatter.

His abrupt movement drew the attention of the entire class, and everyone turned to stare at him.

“Yang Jian, what are you doing? Sit down immediately and stop disrupting the class!” Teacher Wang barked from the back of the room.

But Yang Jian didn’t seem to hear him. His eyes were locked on the old man in the black robe outside the window.

The old man moved.

His stiff body twisted in a mechanical, unnatural manner. His grayish-white, lifeless eyes, devoid of focus, followed the motion of his head as it turned.

“Tap, tap, tap.”

A series of crisp, echoing footsteps sounded from the hallway, faintly reaching the classroom.

“Is he leaving?”

Yang Jian broke into a cold sweat, desperately hoping the old man would walk away and not enter the room.

If the story from the Forum was true, then the consequences of the old man stepping inside were unimaginable.

But fate had other plans. The old man didn’t leave. After a few steps, he stopped right at the classroom door.

“Yang Jian, I said sit down! Are you ignoring me? How dare you disrupt the safety lecture?” Teacher Wang’s voice grew harsher.

“Ah-!”

A female student let out a piercing scream, pointing at her desk in horror, unable to speak.

The textbooks on her desk rapidly yellowed, then molded, and finally decayed into a pile of black, putrid sludge.

“Ugh, it stinks! Su Lei, why is there a pile of crap on your desk?” Zhang Wei pinched his nose, grimacing.

“No way… How can a Ghost Domain appear at school right now?”

Another male student’s face turned pale, and he abruptly stood up, backing away several steps in alarm.

“Fang Jing, what are you yelling about?”

Teacher Wang was furious. What had gotten into the usually disciplined students during tonight’s self-study session?

On the podium, Zhou Zheng narrowed his eyes, his entire body radiating vigilance. The weariness from earlier vanished, replaced by a fierce, almost savage intensity. He stared at Fang Jing and asked, “You know about the Ghost Domain?”

Fang Jing, however, remained unnaturally calm. “Zhou Zheng, you know exactly what the appearance of a Ghost Domain means. There’s at least a Danger Level ghost in the school. If we don’t handle this properly today, no one here will make it out alive-not even you.”

“Seems you know quite a bit. Are you a Ghost Tamer too?” Zhou Zheng pressed.

“Zhou Zheng, that’s my business. Stay out of it,” Fang Jing replied coldly.

Then, with a menacing glare, Fang Jing turned to Yang Jian. “I was planning to deal with you in a few days, but the future seems to have shifted. Yang Jian, I’ll say this now: I won’t let you grow. You’re too dangerous in the future.”

“?”

Yang Jian looked at Fang Jing, puzzled by his words. But his attention was more focused on the old man in the black robe standing outside the classroom door.

The other students were stunned by Fang Jing’s declaration.

“Holy crap, Fang Jing, that’s a lot to unpack! What’s going on with you? Future? Ghosts? Are you saying you’ve traveled back in time or something?”

“It has to be! That’s how it works in novels-the protagonist wakes up and goes back to the past. Fang Jing, are you the legendary main character? Is something huge going to happen in the future? Please, take me under your wing!”

“If Fang Jing’s the protagonist, then Yang Jian must be the villain. Fang Jing probably got killed by Yang Jian in the future and has come back for revenge. Everyone, stay away from Yang Jian from now on. Fang Jing, we’ve got your back!”

“This is insane. What’s going on today? Have they all lost their minds? Am I falling behind the times, or is the world changing too fast? Wait, why does my textbook look like a piece of crap now? I have a bad feeling something big is about to happen. I’m freaking out here.”

The students seemed oblivious to the danger unfolding around them, their curiosity mixed with excitement and even a hint of thrill.

Suddenly.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

A heavy, distinct knocking sound reverberated through the classroom, as if it were pounding directly on everyone’s heart. The eerie rhythm carried an almost supernatural tone, sending chills down their spines.

At that moment, everyone felt as if something had gripped their souls, an oppressive sensation like being held underwater, unable to breathe.

“It’s that knocking sound… It’s exactly the same.” Yang Jian’s heart trembled.

It was identical to the sound from the audio file in the Forum, but hearing it in person was far more chilling.

Zhou Zheng’s expression turned grave. He picked up a special phone and urgently pressed a button. The call connected instantly.

“Zhou Zheng? Report the situation,” a woman’s voice came through the other end.

“I’m at Dachang City’s Seventh High School. Emergency situation-there’s at least a Danger Level ghost on campus,” Zhou Zheng responded immediately.

“Noted,” the voice on the other end replied quickly. “Can you handle it?”

Zhou Zheng said, “The ghost has already formed a ghost domain. It’s starting to affect my location. The lights outside are gone. The ghost domain’s range is likely larger than I anticipated.”

“A ghost domain… The situation has escalated. This is beyond your capability. Retreat immediately.”

“It’s too late to leave now. There are too many students here. I need to do everything I can to ensure they survive,” Zhou Zheng insisted.

“Using your ghost’s power in your current state is extremely dangerous. If you do, there might not just be one ghost in your area-there could be two. I advise you to retreat. Even if you push yourself to the limit, you might not be able to save a single person. A ghost capable of creating a ghost domain could even be classified as Disaster Level,” the voice on the phone urged.

Zhou Zheng replied, “There’s no time. I’m less than five meters away from it, right outside the classroom door. It might already have its eyes on me. I’ll keep the line open. If it cuts off, it means I’m dead. Please deliver my will to my parents. That’s all. I’m taking action now.”

“Knock. knock…”

The heavy, oppressive knocking continued outside-one long knock, followed by two short ones, repeating at a steady rhythm as it pounded on the classroom door.

“Teacher Wang, someone’s knocking,” a clueless student called out.

Teacher Wang hesitated, but seeing Zhou Zheng’s grave expression, he couldn’t suppress his curiosity. He decided to open the back door of the classroom to see who was knocking.

“Don’t go out!” Zhou Zheng shouted urgently.

But it was too late. Teacher Wang had already stepped outside. In the blink of an eye, he vanished without a trace.

Yes, he was gone.

Outside the classroom door was pitch-black darkness, a thick void that seemed to swallow any trace of light. Teacher Wang had stepped into it and disappeared without a sound, as if he had been erased from existence.

As the classroom door remained open, the darkness began to seep in like thick black fog, rapidly encroaching on the space inside.

Even the most oblivious students could sense that something was terribly wrong.

Eyes wide with fear, some of the girls screamed and backed away from their seats, retreating as far as they could.

Was this… really a ghost?