Mysterious Resurrection: What If

Chapter 151 The Museum of Souls (Part Fourteen)

Zhou Deng stepped forward and organized his thoughts: "Captain Yang, this might be a trap. This knife is clearly abnormal. Perhaps we should first figure out the pattern of this tree before looking for other ways to restart it."

Wen Zhong also moved closer, his pupils slightly opening. He said, "I once encountered a ghost that could mimic the shape of objects. Perhaps this wood-chopping knife is a vengeful ghost with similar characteristics. It will kill us when we make contact with it. Captain Yang, we should handle paranormal events with caution in this museum."

Yang Jian nodded. It seemed these two were quite clever; at least they could be of help here. His decision to rescue them was the right one.

Pointing to the machete on the disc, he said, "The person who put this machete here clearly intended to kill everyone who enters."

He held up three fingers, saying, "There are at least three traps in this."

"Three?" Everyone was surprised.

Yang Jian continued.

“First, this tree is fake,” Yang Jian said, making a startling statement.

"At least I can't see any signs of anything supernatural. If we activate the disc carelessly, the supernatural force that was originally opposing the tree will attack us instead."

As he spoke, Yang Jian walked directly to the bronze tree, pulled hard, and easily tore off a branch. The broken part revealed a hollow interior, which was empty.

A look of horror flashed in Wen Zhong's eyes. He had been using the pupils on his forehead to help him observe his surroundings, but he hadn't noticed anything unusual about the bronze tree, and hadn't even considered the possibility that it was fake.

“Second,” Yang Jian continued, his gaze returning to the wood-chopping knife.

"This machete is real... not a copy, nor a fake, but a real, supernatural object exactly like the one in my hand."

Zhou Deng was shocked. "How is that possible?!"

"Anything can happen in paranormal events. Your understanding is too shallow to comprehend this level of paranormal activity."

Yang Jian glanced at Zhao Lei and Zhang Han, both of whom had curious eyes.

He patiently explained, "Supernatural superposition is a technique that requires a deep understanding of one's own vengeful spirit."

Zhou Deng pondered for a moment, still unable to understand, and asked, "I know this, but what does it have to do with a woodcutter's knife...?"

Yang Jian suddenly opened his second ghost eye and stared straight at Zhou Deng.

“Every ghost tamer has a different experience in controlling vengeful spirits, so their methods of layering vengeful spirits are also different. For example, the layering method that Wen Zhong just used was created by overlapping the gazes of several pupils, like this.”

As he spoke, the two ghostly eyes slowly overlapped, and the surrounding space immediately glowed with a rich red light.

"It is similar to the external manifestation of the superimposed ghost eyes, but there are still slight differences. If my ghost eyes are like two pieces of paper overlapping, then Wen Zhong's superimposed method is more like the eye contact. Through the collision of the gazes of the two pupils, a deeper ghost realm is superimposed."

Everyone listened silently, especially Zhou Deng and Wen Zhong. The two wished they could engrave Yang Jian's words into their minds. They had deduced Wen Zhong's superposition method just by observing him, and they even taught everyone by example through practice.

This ability to observe paranormal events is simply exaggerated, almost monstrous.

"However, this method of superimposition is often limited by the sheer terror of the vengeful spirit itself. But if we use a different method..."

While on the moon, Yang Jian pondered that if his future self somehow pulled his past self to this point in time, and that past self then pulled another version of himself in the same way, and so on, it might be possible to achieve an almost infinite number of supernatural superimpositions.

He continued, "If you restart yourself and pull your past self to this point in time, two identical supernatural phenomena will appear. This does not violate the laws of vengeful ghosts; the misalignment of time points creates the fact that multiple vengeful ghosts appear in the same space."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Deng immediately realized: "You mean, someone used a reboot to bring this woodcutter's axe from some point in the past to the present?!"

"Yes."

The scarlet ghost eyes darted around uneasily.

“But we’ve been here for over ten minutes. I don’t think anyone can maintain this level of eerie superimposition while fighting against the museum’s time reversal…”

Wen Zhong suddenly realized something and exclaimed in surprise, "Captain Yang, you mean that person is nearby?! And is still maintaining the existence of this machete through some means?!"

Yang Jian nodded silently. The red light around him grew even stronger. His Ghost Eye swept across the hall, but he couldn't detect anything unusual. Everyone fell silent, tacitly waiting for Yang Jian's next move.

The faint stench of decay in the air became pungent. Even though there was nothing around, a sense of oppression gradually crept in, as if something terrifying was about to arrive.

"Leg Bro..."

This feeling of unease grew stronger, and even Zhao Lei's expression became serious.

It was a strange feeling. Everything seemed normal, but the overwhelming sense of oppression came over me like a tidal wave.

The ghost eye spun uneasily as Yang Jian's mind raced. He realized he had missed a crucial clue, but he couldn't pinpoint the problem.

"Bronze Tree Wheel Wood Cleaver"

My gaze suddenly locked onto that wood-chopping knife! If we eliminate all the impossibilities...
The biggest anomaly was precisely the wood-chopping knife that they had never touched out of fear!

The dark, ghostly figure suddenly stood upright and lunged towards the woodcutter's knife.

"Crack..."

The machete fell to the ground, and where it had been placed, a piece of paper was now clearly visible. Because the machete had obscured it, no one had noticed its existence.

This is an extremely eerie page, as if it had just been torn from an old diary.

The entire sheet of paper looked as if it had been completely soaked in corpse oil, and under the light it had a gloomy, greasy, pale sheen.

Inside the hall, the invisible pressure grew heavier and heavier, and the silence struck everyone's hearts like a drumbeat.

Yang Jian had only one thought at that moment: something terrifying was about to arrive.

They were very close, close enough that they could kill Yang Jian with a mere gesture.

The red light surged wildly, filling the entire hall as if out of control.

The ghost's eyes looked at the paper, which seemed to have a date written on it. However, due to the reflection of the corpse oil, only the latter half could be barely made out.

"April 14, 20XX".

Yang Jian instantly realized something, and he turned around sharply, asking in a stern voice, "Zhang Han! What's the date today!"

"April 14th! Captain, what's wrong?" Zhang Han answered immediately.

Zhang Han's answer sent a chill down Yang Jian's spine, making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

It was too late. The medium that the Republic of China had buried here was clearly designed so that people entering this place would not dare to move the machete at will. Coincidentally, Yang Jian himself possessed another machete, which made him even more hesitant to touch it.

If he had taken the machete the moment he entered, he would have had enough time to think of a solution.

But now it's all too late.

A sense of oppression, almost tangible, came from above.

Heavy, unavoidable.

There were no warning signs; the attack was so fast that there was no time to react.

Before Yang Jian's horrified eyes, his body, along with the ghostly figure behind him, was violently ripped apart from his shoulder blade by a woodcutter's knife, almost splitting him in two!

It was a tall figure dressed in Republic-era clothing, standing under the bronze tree, holding a piece of paper with today's date written on it.

(End of this chapter)