Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 196 Resentment Shards and Rule Pollution

As night deepened, Jiang Han stood on the balcony, a half-smoked cigarette between her fingers, her phone pressed to her ear, listening to her mother's rambling voice on the other end of the line.

"Since your brother is determined to marry Liu Yan, there are many things that need to be planned in advance."

Zhou Huilan's voice came through the receiver, tinged with helplessness, saying, "But she's not bad. You saw it when we were eating. She didn't even want a dowry, and she said a second-hand house would be fine for the new house. She also said she would basically listen to Jiang Jin's opinions on the decoration. These days, girls like her are rare."

Jiang Han exhaled a puff of smoke, which quickly dissipated in the night breeze.

"Mom, Liu Yan is a good girl. Her parents sacrificed their lives as war correspondents, so they can be considered martyrs."

“Whether she’s a martyr or not, I don’t care about that,” Zhou Huilan sighed. “The key is that she has no parents, and I always feel like something’s missing.”

Zhou Huilan's voice lowered a few decibels: "You know, if we have children in the future, they won't even have maternal grandparents, and we won't have any in-laws either."

Jiang Han chuckled: "Mom, what era are we living in? Why are you still so particular about this?"

“I’m not being picky!” Zhou Huilan retorted immediately. “Do you think marriage is just about a man and a woman getting together because they love each other? It’s about two families coming together. Besides, Liu Yan lost her parents at such a young age, and I’m worried that she might have underlying psychological issues and won’t be able to adapt to family and married life like children from normal families.”

She paused, then her tone suddenly turned serious: "However, compared to that, the more crucial matter is the house; I need to discuss it with you."

"Please speak." Jiang Han was most concerned about her younger brother's wedding home.

"What I mean is, since Liu Yan doesn't want a bride price, the house must be bought entirely by our family, and it can't be registered in her name. She also doesn't need to help with the mortgage payments after the marriage. That way, it will be entirely premarital property."

Zhou Huilan stated firmly, "It's not that I don't trust her, but with such a high divorce rate among young people these days, what if in the future..."

Jiang Han frowned: "Mom, your thinking is too outdated. Nowadays, many newlywed couples pay off their mortgages together."

“I’m planning to sell the house we’re living in now. Anyway, your dad and I are retired now, and we can move to your grandpa’s old house in the suburbs…”

"No!" Jiang Han interrupted her abruptly. "Absolutely not!"

His voice was a bit loud, startling Lin Yue inside the house.

His wife peeked out from the living room and gave him a questioning look. Jiang Han waved his hand, indicating that everything was fine, then lowered his voice and said to the person on the other end of the phone, "Mom, don't be impulsive. Jiang Jin and I will discuss the house matter again. Please don't touch your retirement money. I'll find some time to talk to Jiang Jin again, okay?"

Zhou Huilan reluctantly agreed: "Okay, but you have to hurry. I heard that the average SAN value in the suburbs has dropped recently, and the housing prices are going to rise again... After all, the per capita SAN value in the central urban area is still relatively stable."

After rambling on for a few more minutes, Jiang Han finally hung up the phone, let out a long sigh, and turned back to the living room.

Lin Yue was sitting on the sofa watching TV. When he came in, she asked without looking up, "Mom talked to you about Jiang Jin's marriage, right?"

"Hmm." Jiang Han sat down next to her, picked up the water glass on the coffee table and took a sip. "He said he was going to sell the house to buy a new house for Jiang Jin."

Lin Yue's finger paused on the remote control for a moment, then she turned to look at him: "Which house are you selling?"

"The house they currently live in in Yunjue District."

"What?" Lin Yue's voice suddenly rose. "Has Mom gone mad? That house may not be in a great location, but it's still within the outer ring road. Sell it and move to the suburbs?"

Jiang Han sighed: "That's why I didn't agree. You know, the average SAN value in the suburbs has been declining. What if Mom and Dad get contaminated by memes one day..."

Lin Yue stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly put down the remote control and said in a serious tone, "Jiang Han, let me make this clear: it's a good thing that my brother is getting married, but don't even think about touching our family's money. Not to mention the monthly mortgage payment on this house, we'll have a lot of expenses for Xiao Yu in the future. I'm planning to send him to a private school for junior high."

Jiang Han frowned: "But Jiang Jin is my younger brother, I should at least help him out with his wedding, right?"

"Supporting us is fine, just give us a generous gift, but it can't affect our own lives!" Lin Yue retorted firmly. "You should be secretly happy. Luckily, the school district housing policy has been abolished, otherwise we wouldn't be able to get Xiaoyu into a good private school. You want to be a 'brother-supporting demon'? I will never allow it!"

Jiang Han remained silent, after all, at home, Lin Yue made the final decisions.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Lin Yue's tone softened a bit: "I'm not being heartless, but we need to take care of our own families first. Jiang Jin and Liu Yan are both adults, and we don't need to take on everything they can handle themselves. Didn't your sister-in-law not even want a dowry? That means she's not after money. If you ask me, it's best for them to save up and buy a house themselves. It doesn't matter whose name is on the deed, we shouldn't interfere."

Before Jiang Han could say anything more, Lin Yue stood up and said, "I'll go see if Xiao Yu is asleep. This is settled then. Don't agree to anything I say to Mom."

Watching his wife's departing figure, Jiang Han let out a long sigh.

He took out his phone, hesitated for a moment, and then dialed Jiang Jin's number.

The call connected quickly, and Jiang Jin's voice sounded somewhat tired: "Brother? Is something wrong so late?"

“Mom just called me,” Jiang Han said bluntly. “She said she’s going to sell the house to buy you a new one.”

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Jiang Jin's helpless laughter: "Mom is really... I told her it's not necessary, Liu Yan and I can handle it ourselves."

How much savings do you have right now?

"Brother, you don't need to worry about the house. We will never ask the family for a single penny."

For Jiang Jin, with so many resentment crystals and resentment fragments in his possession, building a house is a piece of cake.

"We're planning to look at houses soon, and I might ask you for your advice on the layout and decoration."

Jiang Han hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice: "Don't try to put on a show. Do you think I don't know how much you earn? Housing prices in the city center are almost the same as in Shanghai now. I've saved up some money on the side these past two years..."

“Hey, brother, really, there’s no need for that. Wouldn’t that affect your relationship with your wife?” Jiang Jin immediately said, “Brother, don’t you know me? Am I the kind of person who just talks big?”

"Here's what you'll do: when you go to see a house, take some photos and I'll help you check the floor plan."

"Okay, I got it, bro."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Han walked to her son's room and gently pushed the door open. Lin Yue was sitting on the edge of the bed, gently patting the sleeping Xiao Yu.

When he came in, she made a shushing gesture, then tiptoed out of the room.

"I'll go talk to Jiang Jin tomorrow," Jiang Han said in a low voice. "Don't worry, I won't touch the family's money."

Lin Yue glanced at him, seemingly wanting to say something, but in the end just nodded: "Go to sleep early, you have to go to work tomorrow."

She turned around, preparing to put on another face mask, when suddenly, she froze.

"Jiang Han!"

"What's wrong?" Jiang Han turned around.

Lin Yue stared intently at Jiang Han and quickly walked behind him.

"What are you looking at? Is there something behind me?"

Lin Yue was stunned.

"Did I see wrong? Oh well, I'll go to sleep first."

Lin Yue touched her head, feeling something was very strange.

Just now, in the instant she turned around, she vaguely saw... behind Jiang Han, there seemed to be a scarecrow standing there!

The night was deep, and the villa at Yihai Camp was completely silent.

Jiang Jin sat cross-legged in the center of the cultivation room, the walls of which were covered with soul-suppressing talismans posted by Yu Tianlun to prevent the resentment and ashes from leaking out.

His palms faced upwards, each holding a crystal of resentment. Through the hunter's vision, one could see wisps of ash seeping from the crystals' surfaces, wrapping around his arms like living things.

"here we go……"

Jiang Jin took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to guide the resentful ash into his body, constantly transforming his flesh and soul!

The moment the ash entered his body, a bone-chilling cold spread from his fingertips throughout his entire body, as if countless tiny ice needles were coursing through his veins. Jiang Jin's muscles involuntarily tensed, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, but he did not stop.

"Hiss..." He gritted his teeth, enduring the corrosive effects of the resentful ashes on his body.

These ashes are not ordinary matter, but rather the manifestation of memetic contamination. The process of consuming them is essentially using one's own will to fight against and digest these distorted fragments of rules.

This battle against the two major bloody factions made Jiang Jin realize how weak he truly was. Although he was already quite powerful compared to a typical LV1 Bloody Tracker, it was still far from enough!

Among those who reincarnate, it's a world of survival of the fittest, a fight to the death!
When facing ghosts and memes, the slightest carelessness can lead to certain death!

He must become stronger as soon as possible, and become a Level 2 Ghost Hunter like Han Wei!

As the ashes continued to pour in, Jiang Jin's skin began to glow with a faint dark red sheen.

"This is... a sign of becoming a ghost?"

Jiang Jin could feel that his body was undergoing some kind of qualitative change.

The LV1 Blood Tracker of the Hunter class primarily enhances tracking abilities, trap setting, and combat intuition, while the LV2 Ghost Hunter grants the body the "Ghost Transformation" property—allowing the user to briefly become invisible when injured, avoiding fatal attacks, and even transforming their eyeballs into "Ghost Eye Bullets," greatly increasing shooting accuracy and allowing the bullets themselves to unleash karmic fire attacks.

However, the process of advancement is not easy. With the intake of resentful ashes, the pain will become increasingly intense, not only on a physical level but also on a mental level, and the potential for a decrease in SAN value will also increase. Many reincarnators have had to go into dungeons for trials to suppress the decreasing potential because their SAN value dropped during cultivation.

As time went on, beads of sweat continued to appear on Jiang Jin's forehead, and the ashes of resentment began to cause him increasing pain. This pain would continue to rise over time, and there were no shortcuts in this process; it could only be endured through sheer willpower!

The path of cultivation for reincarnators is this difficult! This is only the advancement to LV2; the difficulty of future advancements will become increasingly abnormal, enough to drive the vast majority of reincarnators into despair!
The Hunter class can gain amazing defense and attack power at LV2, but correspondingly, the difficulty of advancement is much higher than that of other classes.

More than an hour later, Jiang Jin could no longer bear it and finally stopped absorbing the resentment ashes.

At this moment, he was soaked in sweat and panting heavily.

It's unclear whether absorbing this resentful ash will help the Lawyer advance. But for the Hunter class, he's still far from reaching the pinnacle of LV1, let alone truly stepping into LV2.

The mark of becoming a Ghost Hunter is that the entire body becomes ghostly and can transform the eyes into ghostly pupils, giving the hunter a stronger vision.

If you can't achieve full-body ghost transformation, you can't be considered LV2.

Jiang Jin attempted to transform his right arm into a ghost.

He focused his mind, guiding the ashes of resentment to gather in his right arm. The muscles began to become translucent, and the blood vessels and bones under the skin became faintly visible. The entire arm seemed to be enveloped in a layer of transparent mist.

"Success?"

However, it only lasted for about thirty seconds before the arm returned to its original shape.

“Tsk…” Jiang Jin frowned, “It’s still not stable enough.”

The key to ghosthood lies in "control." The physical body must adapt to the rules of the ash of resentment, otherwise the ethereal state will collapse rapidly.

The source of the Reincarnators' power lies in the corruption of the rules. All supernatural phenomena that are impossible on the material level can be achieved through the corruption of the rules.

He tried again, this time narrowing his target to the palm of his hand.

The five fingers slowly became transparent, and the fingertips could even penetrate the floor, as if they did not exist in the real world.

"Fifty seconds...one minute..."

At the seventy-fourth second, the palm solidified again.

"It's a little better than before, but still not enough."

Jiang Jin sighed.

In fact, considering the time he's been a reincarnator, the fact that he can already achieve partial ghostification of his body is quite remarkable. Many hunters at Jiang Jin's age would find it difficult to even ghostify a single finger.

Just as Jiang Jin was about to continue trying, the door to the training room was gently pushed open.

Yu Tianlun leaned against the doorframe, tossing a few crystals of resentment in his hand, and laughed, "How's it going? Any progress on the ghost transformation?"

Jiang Jin shook his head: "It's barely possible to achieve partial blurring, but it can't be maintained for long."

“Normal.” Yu Tianlun walked in and sat down cross-legged opposite him. “LV1 to LV2 is the easiest stage, but that’s only relatively speaking. Once you reach LV3 or above, the pain of absorbing the resentment ashes will double, and it may even directly cause your SAN value to plummet.”

"Yes, I was prepared."

“That’s right.” Yu Tianlun nodded. “But the advantage is that your body will become more and more adapted to the resentment ashes, and you can survive for a long time in the contaminated layer.”

Jiang Jin pondered: "So... the essence of cultivation is actually to make the body adapt to memetic contamination?"

“That’s one way to understand it,” Yu Tianlun smiled. “The essence of meme contamination is the distortion of rules, and when we absorb the ashes of resentment, we are using our physical bodies to adapt to these distorted rules. No one can understand the contamination of rules, but this contamination of rules can shatter all the physical laws of the material world. In fact, what we all fear most is that one day the material world will be completely contaminated, and at that time, physics will cease to exist.”

Jiang Jin hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What about the Resentment Shard Crystal? Many people say it can aid in cultivation, but they can't explain why."

Yu Tianlun's expression turned serious: "The resentment crystal... at this stage, it's better for you to use it for external enhancement. If you want to assist your own cultivation, it's best not to touch it now."

"why?"

"Because its essence is 'rule understanding'."

Jiang Jin was taken aback: "Comprehension of the rules?"

Yu Tianlun nodded: "Resentment crystals are just a carrier of meme contamination, while resentment fragments are fragments of the rules themselves. Taking them means that you have to directly face the rule contamination of the meme itself, and ultimately strengthen yourself through the rule contamination. This process requires a solid foundation. Right now, your physical body's ability to take in resentment ash is still in a half-baked state, so it is not suitable to strengthen yourself by taking in resentment fragments."

He paused, then continued, "For example, there's a reincarnator named Li Ming. He's one of the core members of the Old Core Organization and a wanted criminal by the imperial court. His nickname is 'Immortal,' because no one, no ghost, can kill him."

"Why?" Jiang Jin was taken aback. "You can't even kill ghosts? Any ghost?"

"Because through the shattered crystal of resentment, he comprehended a rule—'As long as his SAN value is above 10%, he is absolutely immortal.'"

Jiang Jin's pupils contracted: "What do you mean?"

"It means that as long as his SAN value remains above 10%, no attack can kill him. Even if he is shot in the head or cut in half, he can recover instantly. But conversely, once his SAN value drops below 10% and he enters the Interdimensional Realm, even if he is healthy and his strength advances to LV5, he will die immediately."

"How can this be?"

“That’s the terrifying thing about rule-based skills,” Yu Tianlun said in a deep voice. “Li Ming had actually died in the less than 10% of the Infinite Layer, but he is immortal in the more than 10% of the Polluted Layer and even the Materialist Layer.”

Jiang Jin felt a chill run down his spine, immediately recalling Teacher Park's basement in the "Happy Birthday, Teacher" instance world.

"So, the shattered crystals of resentment... can allow one to master the rules?"

“Yes, but the price is extremely high.” Yu Tianlun shook his head. “The vast majority of reincarnators who are eager for quick success and try to comprehend the rules before laying a solid foundation end up with a plummeting SAN value, and even become carriers of meme contamination. Although Li Ming succeeded, it also means that even if he advances to LV5, he will never be able to step into the Infinite Layer for the rest of his life, otherwise he will surely die. Only the Old Core Organization can produce such a madman.”

"So, you understand now, right?" Yu Tianlun stood up and patted Jiang Jin on the shoulder. "The resentment crystal fragments are not something you should touch right now. Focus on refining the ghostly essence first."

Jiang Jin nodded: "I understand."

Yu Tianlun walked to the door, then turned back and added, "By the way, be careful lately. Although I warned the Bloodthirsty Team, we still can't let our guard down."

“I understand. Let’s not go to the horror dungeon for now. They wouldn’t dare to attack the Reincarnation Camp. There are cleaners here to maintain order.”

Yu Tianlun smiled, said nothing more, and closed the door.

Inside the training room, Jiang Jin gripped the crystal of resentment once more and continued his ghost-transformation training.

"I must prolong the ghostly transformation... I must become stronger!"

(End of this chapter)