Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 347 The Rainstorm Arrives
【Hong Kong Ghost Chronicles】Instance, Kowloon Walled City.

Blood Lord frowned, forcibly enduring the musty smell that seemed to never dissipate.

Ah Le, the unfortunate photographer caught up in the paranormal events, was trembling as he followed behind him.

In Ah Le's eyes, Blood Lord was someone he encountered in his desperate situation who seemed to know something about all these mysterious events. Ah Le didn't know who he was or why he was helping him, but with Jia Hui transformed into that terrifying form and the village turning into a ghost town, Blood Lord was his only lifeline.

"Stay close, don't look around." The Blood Lord's voice carried an unquestionable tone of command. His steps moved steadily across the garbage-strewn and waterlogged ground, as if he were fully aware of the dangers in this area.

Their destination was a long-abandoned dental clinic deep within the walled city.

According to the information obtained by Blood Lord from the dungeon, there may be key clues there about the "Jia Hui" mutation and how to deal with it.

Pushing open the half-closed, rusty iron gate, a stench of years-old blood wafted out, making one want to vomit.

The clinic was small and dark, with an abandoned dental chair standing in the center and rusty tweezers and probes scattered on the instrument table.

Blood Owl walked straight to a dusty filing cabinet in the corner, roughly pulled open the drawer, and began rummaging through it.

Ah Le nervously looked around, feeling as if something was watching him from the shadowy corners.

He was especially afraid of seeing Jia Hui, or rather, the ghost of the one who used to be Jia Hui suddenly appearing.

"Mr. Blood... what are we looking for?" Ah Le's voice trembled uncontrollably.

Blood Lord didn't turn around, but his men kept moving, pulling out a yellowed medical record from a folder.

Some information was written in messy handwriting on it, and a blurry black and white photo was also pasted on it.

"Find the reason why she became like this, and... the possible 'weaknesses'." The Blood Lord's voice remained calm. "Every anomaly has its root and its rules. Once we find them, we can deal with them."

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Ah Le caught a glimpse of a stiff, ashen-faced figure walking slowly and limping past the glass window of the clinic, which was blocked by iron bars.

"Ah! There's... there's a ghost!" Ah Le was so frightened that he almost collapsed to the ground.

Blood Lord quickly went to the window and locked his gaze on the moving figure.

He observed carefully for a few seconds, his brows furrowing slightly, then he snorted coldly: "Not a ghost. It's a corpse, a controlled corpse."

"A... a corpse?" Ah Le's teeth chattered. "Controlled by... by what?"

Blood Lord's gaze turned serious. He lowered his voice, his tone revealing a clear sense of disgust and vigilance: "Corpse Puppet Worms... It seems the Insect Nest team has arrived."

"The Insect Nest Team?" Ah Le didn't understand at all, but just hearing the name sent chills down his spine.

Blood Lord ignored the zombies outside the window, quickly put away the medical records, and said to Ah Le, "We can't stay here any longer, let's go."

Looking at the Blood Lord's cold profile, Ah Le felt an even deeper fear in his heart.

Meanwhile, inside the [Midnight Bell] instance.

Yang Jian successfully mastered the five Ghost Eyes, greatly increasing his strength, which undoubtedly injected a strong boost into the team that was shrouded in despair.

At this moment, Jiang Jin sat cross-legged in the corner of Lingzi's living room, carefully sensing the slow but steady changes taking place within his body.

I'm truly only one step away from reaching the level of a LV3 Forbidden Zone Hunter.

He could even clearly "see" that the ashes of resentment within his body were undergoing a qualitative transformation. They were no longer disordered dust, but began to swirl and condense along some mysterious trajectory, vaguely outlining the rudimentary form of a "domain" that existed between reality and illusion!
This is the hallmark of the hunters in the restricted area.

What surprised him even more was that he sensed that once he successfully advanced, with his unique domain foundation built by altering and absorbing the corruption of Sadako's rules through the ability of the "Deceptive Lawyer," he would not just be a beginner at LV3, but would directly leap to the peak of LV3, and even touch the legendary threshold of quasi-LV4!

What an incredible speed of advancement!

In less than half a year, he went from a newbie to the peak of LV3. If this news were to reach Muxu City, it would be enough to cause a sensation throughout the country and even the world.

His name will no longer be confined to the inner sphere of Muxu City, but will appear on the desks of the highest decision-makers in the White House, the Pentagon, the Kremlin, 10 Downing Street, and even the Yanjing Imperial Court. The court will undoubtedly be the first to bestow titles and court him, and he will truly enter the purview of great power rivalry, becoming a figure capable of influencing the balance of power among regional and even global reincarnators!

He will surely become the second Zhuge Yu!
However, all of this promising prospect is contingent on leaving the [Midnight Ring] instance alive.

Jiang Jin was more clear-headed than anyone else. Even though he had reached near-LV4, he still had no certainty of victory against Yamamura Sadako, who was entrenched in the Annihilation Layer, connected to the Death Ferry, and whose abilities were unpredictable. Even saving his life was still uncertain.

Sadako's terror lies in the root and regularity of her curse; only a true Level 4 can rival her.

Currently, the team's hope for survival rests on several key points: Yang Jian, whose strength has greatly increased, and his Ghost Domain; the coffin nail from the plane of terror resurgence that is specifically designed to counter all kinds of strange beings; Li Shangna's secret black magic as the ultimate trump card; and his own Russian nesting doll, which he only has six layers left.

"It still needs time..." Jiang Jin thought to himself. He could feel that the qualitative change within his body needed two to three days of accumulation and sedimentation before it could be completed and break through the barrier in one fell swoop.

Before that, they cannot sit idly by and wait for their doom; they must take the initiative to find clues, weaken the curse, or... find another way to survive.

After discussion, the team decided to travel to Izu Oshima again.

Yu Tianlun proposed that this time, he would personally accompany the local fishermen out to sea. He believes that the ocean is the core area where the Sadako curse and the legend of the death ferry intertwine, and that the deep ocean, far from the land, may hold clues closer to the truth.

This decision made Yui Takamiya turn pale. He stared at the distant horizon outside the window, and the stern warnings his parents had given him in his childhood seemed to echo in his ears again: "Yui, remember, don't stare at the sea for too long! There are terrifying things in the deep sea! If you see any strange messages in bottles in the sea, be sure to tell your mom and dad immediately!"

In the era when meme contamination was just beginning, "claiming to see a message in a bottle in the ocean" was considered one of the typical symptoms requiring immediate isolation and observation. The fear of the ocean was an indelible mark on the bones of his generation of Japanese.

Initially, they hoped to escape the Edo Special District through Musashi's group and seek a glimmer of hope. However, they were utterly untrustworthy and only cared about exploiting them and then abandoning them.

Despite her aversion to the sea, Yui Takamiya once again boarded the ferry to Izu Oshima with the team.

However, this voyage was fraught with misfortune from the very beginning.

Shortly after the ship left the port, Takamiya Yui was horrified to discover that an unusually large number of Abomination bottles were floating on the sea!
Those old, even dilapidated glass bottles reflected an eerie luster in the sunlight, densely packed, undulating with the waves.

They completely disregarded the normal effects of gravity and buoyancy, wind and ocean currents, and just floated there quietly and stubbornly!
“Too much…this is so abnormal…” Takamiya Yui’s voice was dry, and cold sweat seeped from her palms.

The appearance of such a dense cluster of Abomination Bottles often foreshadows an extremely dangerous memetic event or a powerful source of a curse nearby.

This ominous premonition quickly became a reality after the ferry arrived at Izu Oshima.

They had barely set foot on the island when the previously clear sky quickly darkened, with low-hanging gray clouds pressing down on the sea. Cold rain began to fall in a drizzle, and it seemed to be getting heavier.

Even worse news came from the fishermen. Looking at the sky, the old fisherman told Yu Tianlun with concern, "Guest, judging from the cloud formations and wind direction, a typhoon is very likely to pass through the nearby waters tonight. Today... is really not a good time to go out to sea."

A typhoon? Everyone's hearts sank. Already threatened by the Sadako curse and the death ferry, this natural disaster was adding insult to injury.

However, in this oppressive moment when a storm was brewing, Takamiya Yui, who was observing the sea from a high vantage point, suddenly pointed to the distant horizon, her voice trembling with extreme fear and excitement: "That, over there! It's...it's the Death Ferry!"

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, but they couldn't see anything.

But Yui Takamiya could see, through the rain, a huge, ancient steel ship covered in rust, silently moored on the distant sea!
“The Death Ferry…it really has appeared!” Yui Takamiya gasped. “If we can get close to it…perhaps we can uncover the truth about the meme contamination and find the key to combating Sadako’s curse!”

However, with a typhoon approaching, no fisherman with any sense was willing to sail towards the legendary cursed ship in such weather.

“We have no choice but to resort to drastic measures.” Li Shang looked at Yu Tianlun and Jiang Jin. After receiving their tacit approval, he cast a curse on one of the most experienced old fishermen.

Under the influence of the black magic, the old fisherman's eyes became cloudy and dull, and the fear on his face was replaced by a numb obedience. He nodded stiffly, his voice flat and emotionless: "Okay... I'll take you... to..."

And so, amidst the ever-increasing downpour, a small cruise ship, carrying the reincarnators of the Nirvana team and the old fisherman controlled by the curse, resolutely sailed towards the Death Ferry, cutting through the waves.

There seemed to be more abominations in the drifting bottles on the sea, restlessly floating around the fishing boats, foreshadowing immeasurable dangers ahead.

The wind and rain howled, visibility was extremely low, and the small fishing boat was violently rocked in the waves, as if it would be swallowed by the sea at any moment...

(End of this chapter)