Chapter 50

During his pursuit of the dark shadow, Hong Zhong discovered that its source did not seem to be inside the villa, but outside.

Furthermore, unlike its sluggish movements indoors, the further the shadow moved outside, the faster it became, like a rubber band stretched to its limit snapping back into place.

Hong Zhong had no time for explanations. He left a single order for the other team members to stand by at their positions, then mounted his motorcycle and continued the chase.

Whether it was due to adrenaline or some other factor, Hong Zhong felt that his vision, hearing, and perception were far sharper than usual. He could even smell the scent of paper ash drifting off the dark shadow.

Thus, although the shadow fled at high speeds, Hong Zhong did not lose its trail. Relying on various lingering traces, he tracked it to a warehouse not far from the villa district.

This was also a residential area. The warehouse appeared to be a converted garage, and its rolling shutter door had not yet been lowered.

Hong Zhong felt the apartment key against his chest, which was radiating heat. Without a moment’s hesitation, he kicked the throttle hard and charged into the warehouse with reckless momentum.

The motorcycle roared into the warehouse, knocking aside three paper effigies¹ guarding the entrance. What met his eyes was a massive sacrificial altar covered in yellow cloth.

The altar was laden with various offerings made of paper crafts, and the yellow cloth was inscribed with runes written in blood.

However, the most eye-catching object was the massive brass incense burner on the table. The incense ash inside was piled high like a small mountain. Aside from four partially burnt incense sticks, there was a half-burned paper figure cut from black paper.

A bald old man stood behind the altar, holding another black paper figure in his hand.

He had been chanting under his breath, but was interrupted by Hong Zhong’s sudden intrusion on the motorcycle. He stared at the surreal scene before him, dumbfounded.

The dark shadow that had attacked Hong Zhong earlier dissipated into thin air the moment the old man stopped his incantation—the shadow was not a naturally occurring ghost or monster, but a form of sorcery.

The disappearance of the shadow brought the old man back to his senses. As if suffering from a magical backlash, he first vomited a large mouthful of blood, then pointed at Hong Zhong in disbelief: “How could you possibly find this place? How could you get in?! The paper effigies and the Confusion Array at the door—”

Bang!

Before the bald old man could finish his sentence, a bloody hole appeared in his forehead.

Holding his gun, Hong Zhong watched coldly as the old man slowly collapsed.

To prevent being harmed by the sorcery of Sigu Society cultists, immediate execution was the most efficient method of handling them.

There was no need for interrogation. Lessons learned in blood had taught the investigators of the Paranormal Affairs Department that they should only conduct a search after every cultist on the scene was dead.

Only thirty seconds had passed since Hong Zhong charged in on his motorcycle.

Although the old man appeared dead and Hong Zhong could no longer hear a heartbeat, he still did not begin his search. Instead, he pushed his motorcycle back out of the warehouse.

Hong Zhong looked carefully at the warehouse entrance and eventually found several inconspicuous runes on the walls flanking the rolling door.

This was likely the “Confusion Array” the old man had mentioned.

Hong Zhong took a small metal canister that looked like spray paint from his waist and sprayed it over the runes. Once he confirmed the runes were destroyed, he used his communication device to call over the two teams of investigators remaining at the villa district.

The two teams arrived near the warehouse quickly and set up a temporary emergency lockdown zone. During the setup, they also apprehended five bald men nearby suspected of being cultists.

Once the lockdown was confirmed, Hong Zhong re-entered the warehouse to search… still alone.

The old man lying behind the altar with a hole in his head showed no signs of resurrection. He remained frozen in his expression of shock, all vital signs gone.

To prevent the corpse from reanimating or turning into a vengeful spirit, Hong Zhong took out a metal strip the length of an index finger and stuffed it into the man’s mouth.

This was a miniature metal talisman co-developed by the Logistics and Research Departments. It served to disperse malevolent energy and seal evil entities. Once charged by a Celestial Master from the Bureau, it could be reused. Only those at the captain level were eligible to receive them.

Hong Zhong searched the old man’s body and found a piece of paper he carried with him.

The paper looked as if it had been torn from an ancient tome; it described an archaic summoning ritual.

It detailed sacrificing the internal organs of an adult male with a compatible horoscope to an Evil God in exchange for Flesh Ganoderma² seeds.

During the cultivation process, the seeds required the cervical blood of forty-nine young boys or girls. After forty-nine days, a Flesh Ganoderma could be grown that was capable of raising the dead and regrowing flesh on bone³.

As he reached the end, Hong Zhong’s gaze narrowed.

At the very bottom were several lines of annotations, some in fresh ink and some old.

An annotation in handwriting similar to the ritual description stated that the ritual had been successfully performed once before. The location of that initial ritual was, surprisingly, Liwan Apartments.

Hong Zhong remembered the high-frequency activity sites of the Sigu Society cultists that the landlord had shared with him, along with the request to catch a few cultists—he seemed to understand what the landlord wanted now.

It was highly likely that the rituals these cultists performed at the apartment had damaged the environment there, so the landlord wanted to find clues from the cultists to resolve the issue.

Thinking of the apartment key that had just saved his life, Hong Zhong fell silent for a moment. He decided to compile a copy of all the materials found today for the landlord… Compared to live cultists, the landlord would surely be more interested in this information.

Hong Zhong continued reading.

The bottommost line of annotations seemed to have been written recently. it stated that they were preparing to recreate the ritual to cultivate a Flesh Ganoderma and bestow blessings upon the believers.

Recalling the children who had gone missing recently and looking at the ritual’s requirement for the blood of forty-nine boys and girls, Hong Zhong felt his blood boil. The veins on his temples throbbed.

Though he had expected as much, seeing the deeds of these damned cultists with his own eyes still made it impossible to suppress his rage.

Damn the Sigu Society, damn these cultists. What exactly did they think humans were? Disposable game materials for their amusement??

Fortunately, because of the timely rescue, the missing children were all safe and sound.

Hong Zhong calmed his anger and continued searching the body.

He found an identification tag representing the old man’s status. In modern society, even these cultists had kept up with the times, seemingly afraid that their followers wouldn’t recognize their rank.

The tag stated that the old man was a high-ranking member of the Yaoshan Hall of the Sigu Society. His job was to pray to the Evil God for medicine to bless the believers and grant them healthy bodies.

Aside from the paper and the tag, no other clues were found on the body; the man carried no communication devices.

Hong Zhong then searched the altar thoroughly and unearthed a small booklet from the ash of the massive incense burner.

The booklet recorded various supernatural items collected by the Sigu Society and introductions to dark arts, such as the Human Skin Hat, the Blessed Medicine Pot, the ritual for creating a Blood Shadow Sac, and the method for crafting Five Ghost Fortune Gods⁴…

Every single one involved extremely bloody and cruel methods with heavy costs for use. It was hard to imagine the casualties that would occur if these things were leaked to the public.

Furthermore, the Blessed Medicine Pot recorded here—could it be the same medicine pot they just found in the villa?

Hong Zhong frowned deeply as he read the description for the medicine pot.

It stated there were two such pots: one could bring the dead back to life, while the other could cure all illnesses.

Such healing methods could not possibly come without a price. Hong Zhong decided that regardless of whether the pot found in the villa was for resurrection or for curing illnesses, it had to be sealed within the Bureau. Ordinary people must never be allowed to come into contact with such an evil object.

He took another lap around the warehouse.

Hong Zhong discovered that whenever he came into contact with something relatively dangerous or found himself in a perilous situation, the key on his chest would grow hot and actively help neutralize curse effects.

For instance, when he first entered the warehouse, the cultist had likely set up other protective measures besides the confusion array, but none of them had triggered. This explained why the man had looked so shocked to see him walk in.

Now that he understood the purpose of the apartment room key, Hong Zhong essentially turned himself into a human detector. He swept the warehouse once more and identified several dangerous cursed props.

Only after confirming that the area was clear did he allow his team members in to handle the cleanup.

Once the key stopped glowing hot, Hong Zhong noticed that the heightened sensory abilities he had just experienced also vanished.

He suspected that becoming a tenant of Liwan Apartments didn’t just grant the apartment’s protection; it also allowed one to borrow the power of the ghosts within the rooms.

At this thought, Hong Zhong suddenly felt a bit guilty.

Because he had gone to Jinxi Plaza last night to pick up the missing children, he hadn’t returned to Liwan Apartments all night, nor had he pricked his finger to offer blood at four in the morning.

However, since he hadn’t actually stayed in the room, it shouldn’t count as a violation of the residency rules… The rules should only apply when a tenant is actually living in the room.

Besides, the apartment key had helped him several times today, so he likely hadn’t lost his tenant status.

Just to be safe, he decided to confirm with the landlord once he returned to the apartment.

Watching his team members busy themselves in the warehouse, Hong Zhong decided to head back to the villa first to ensure that the medicine pot was thoroughly sealed.

Just as he swung his leg over his motorcycle, his phone buzzed with a message from Duan Wenyu.

The message actually asked if the Paranormal Affairs Department needed staff dormitories, as the landlord was preparing to rent out the rooms on the second floor.

Hong Zhong looked down at the faintly shimmering key hanging from his chest. After a moment of silence, he replied to Duan Wenyu, submitting a list of all twenty of his team members.

Yes, his team members were all poor souls without a place to stay.

Possessing the status of a Liwan Apartments tenant was equivalent to having an extra life-saving measure in supernatural incidents. For that, Hong Zhong was willing to kick every single one of his team members out of the Bureau of Investigation’s dorms.

Setting aside whatever consequences the supernatural power of Liwan Apartments might cause for now.

No matter how dangerous the apartment appeared, the landlord had not only helped deal with supernatural incidents created by the Main God but had also proactively provided the location of cultists and helped deal with them… So far, the apartment’s actions had all been on the side of humanity.

Most importantly, Hong Zhong himself was deeply involved with the apartment and hadn’t encountered anything bad; the room key had even saved him from several crises just now.

The price for accepting the apartment’s protection was merely being unable to return to the Bureau of Investigation to work.

To prevent the power of Liwan Apartments from spreading within the Bureau, the twenty-one of them simply wouldn’t go back. Working remotely was the same anyway.

After replying to Duan Wenyu, Hong Zhong thought for a moment and briefly described the events he had just encountered. He attached photos of the paper recording the ritual, as well as the pamphlets detailing the Sigu Society’s cursed props, and sent them all to Duan Wenyu, asking him to forward them to the landlord.

They were using the Bureau’s encrypted communication, so he wasn’t worried about the information being intercepted.

He just hadn’t expected Duan Wenyu to have the landlord’s contact information while he didn’t… Though it was to be expected; it was only natural that the landlord wouldn’t trust him yet.

After finishing the messages, Hong Zhong started his motorcycle and sped toward the villa.

Now that he had relaxed, he realized he had broken quite a sweat. As the wind blew against him, his neck felt a bit itchy.

Hong Zhong scratched his neck.

In a place he couldn’t see, a mark slowly emerged on the skin of his nape—a thumb-sized black cat head that looked like a tattoo.

Zhou Fangdong was browsing the System Mall for items in Room 201 when he received a text from Duan Wenyu.

Upon receiving the information sent back by Hong Zhong, Duan Wenyu had packaged everything and forwarded it directly to Zhou Fangdong.

Scanning the messages and data forwarded by Duan Wenyu, Zhou Fangdong, who hadn’t been particularly concerned, was shocked.

In just half a day, Hong Zhong had actually uncovered so much information regarding the Sigu Society. This guy was far too capable.

As expected of a professional.

Furthermore, Hong Zhong had found a medicine pot at the cultist’s base. If it really was a pair with the medicine pot in Room 201, then this room truly had a fated connection with the Paranormal Affairs Department. The main body of the medicine pot would be very safe sealed within the Bureau of Investigation.

It was just the number of prospective tenants…

After a moment of silence, Zhou Fangdong called out to the system in his mind: “System, here’s the thing. Room 201 can be rented to a family, right? Tell me, is it possible that a family might have eighteen children? A pair of parents raising eighteen kids… I mean, it’s a bit of a stretch, but…”

By the end, even Zhou Fangdong felt it was a bit ridiculous.

The system’s cold electronic voice rang out:

[Room 201 can accommodate a maximum of four people.]

Fine, four people worked. It was enough for a rotating night watch.

The remaining sixteen team members without dorms could be considered future tenants. If the need arose later, he could just tell Hong Zhong; he wouldn’t have to worry about being unable to rent out his rooms.

Now that the tenant issue was resolved, if the medicine pot Hong Zhong found was indeed a pair with the one in Room 201, that problem was solved too.

Hong Zhong had also captured five cultists alive. Five cultists equaled fifteen hundred Ghost Coins, which should be enough to buy furniture. He could take these cultists to the Ghost Market tonight.

With that in mind, Zhou Fangdong opened the rental preview interface.

The pixelated opera singer in Room 103 had calmed down significantly… because the video recorder was broken, and the tragic drama discs were shattered all over the floor. Mu Yuechan was currently listening peacefully to the touching stories from the radio, with small “+1 +1 +1” mood value numbers occasionally popping up over his head.

Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.

It looked like he could successfully use the Avatar Feature to go to the Ghost Market tonight.

He would sell the cultists to the Shrouded Shop Owner first, then see if there was any other Spiritual Furniture for sale in the Ghost Market besides toilets. If all went well, he could rent out Room 201 tomorrow.

Once the rental matters were settled, Zhou Fangdong began to carefully examine the materials Hong Zhong had sent over.

The first image was the paper Hong Zhong had photographed recording the summoning ritual.

The more Zhou Fangdong looked, the tighter his brow furrowed.

Why did this thing look more and more familiar?

Sacrifice the internal organs of an adult male with a compatible horoscope to obtain a Flesh Ganoderma seed…

The ghost in Room 105 who died in the Liwan Apartments activity room had been found disemboweled, his abdominal cavity empty and his organs missing. On the floor of the Reading Area, there were many photos of him before his death, arranged like ritual offerings.

Nourish the Flesh Ganoderma with the neck blood of forty-nine young boys and girls…

The headless little ghosts with blood spurting from their necks who often played in the apartment activity room and hallways were likely victims of this ritual as well.

And the image of this Flesh Ganoderma…

Tsk. The flesh and blood constantly growing in the second-floor corridor—wasn’t that exactly what a massive cluster of Flesh Ganoderma looked like?

Was the Liwan Apartments activity room a sacrificial ritual site for the Sigu Society’s Yaoshan Hall? Was the second floor of the apartment their Flesh Ganoderma cultivation base?

After all that, it turned out everything on the second floor was the work of the Sigu Society.

Unbelievable. Could the reason this apartment became the source of supernatural outbreaks be because these cultists were messing around inside?

Wait, why does this data only contain the method for creating Flesh Ganoderma? Where is the neutralization method?

Zhou Fangdong quickly scanned through all the information Hong Zhong had sent. Whether it was the papers recording the rituals or the booklets documenting supernatural items, none of them mentioned how to completely clear away the Flesh Ganoderma.

Putting down his phone, Zhou Fangdong pondered for a moment before a thought suddenly struck him.

Right, those three afro-headed Cleaners!

They could clean the flesh from the hallways. Although it only treated the symptoms and not the root cause, they must have been connected to the ritual that summoned the Flesh Ganoderma when they were alive. That was why they could clean it after turning into ghosts!

By checking their past lives, he might find a way to eradicate this Flesh Ganoderma once and for all.

With this thought, Zhou Fangdong strode out of Room 201 and into the hallway.

The three Cleaners in the corridor had already reached the door of Room 205.

Looking at these three ghosts with identical builds and appearances, Zhou Fangdong truly couldn’t tell them apart. He picked one at random and used his [Soul Siphon] skill.

After gaining 200 Ghost Coins, Zhou Fangdong saw the ghost’s past experiences.

…It was too cruel.

Only after witnessing it firsthand could one truly realize how bloody and ruthless the methods of the Sigu Society cult were.

The Cleaner Zhou Fangdong had just selected was Qian Duolai.

According to his past life, the five of them had been kidnapped by the Sigu Society to be turned into Five Ghost Fortune Gods because of their unique horoscopes.

The Sigu Society’s method for creating Five Ghost Fortune Gods was derived from the “Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth⁵” technique.

While that technique could move wealth or even transfer someone else’s lifespan to supplement the user, it was a heterodox art. The price and backlash were terrifying.

As the saying goes: “Better to endure poverty for generations than to invite the Five Ghosts through your door.”

The Five Ghosts technique consumed the user’s future blessings and the fortune of their descendants.

Those who used it always met a miserable end; their family line would inevitably be severed within three generations. In extreme cases, the backlash from the Five Ghosts was so severe that the user wouldn’t even get a chance to reincarnate as a human, forced instead into the endless cycle of the Animal Realm⁶.

The people of the Sigu Society wanted the benefits of the wealth-transporting technique but were unwilling to bear the consequences of using such dark arts. So, they came up with a sinister scheme.

They would create Five Ghost Fortune Gods to use the technique for them, forcing these “Fortune Gods” to bear all the supernatural backlash.

The Five Ghost Fortune Gods were a type of ghost slave. The five victims had to be subjected to all manner of torture while alive so that the resulting ghost slaves would be so numb and fearful that they would be obedient, willingly absorbing the backlash for their masters.

Zhou Fangdong couldn’t bear to look closely at the various cruel tortures these five had suffered. These weren’t punishments a human could devise; calling it hell would not be an exaggeration.

From Qian Duolai’s memories, there should be a hidden room in the second-floor hallway that Zhou Fangdong hadn’t found yet. That room was where the five of them had been tortured.

Because their mouths were sewn shut, they couldn’t communicate and didn’t know each other’s names. They only knew the code names the cultists used for them.

The first to resist were the two codenamed “Quan Wuming” and “Ming Wuqian.” These were also the two Cleaners Zhou Fangdong had yet to find.

During a session where the cultists were torturing them with implements, these two had struggled so violently they snapped their own thumbs, forcibly pulling their hands out of the cuffs. Before the cultists could react, they lunged at their executioners, using the blades embedded in their own collarbones to slit the cultists’ throats.

Before escaping, the two used the keys taken from the cultists to unlock the restraints on Qian Duolai and the other two.

Qian Duolai and his companions lacked the physical strength and iron will of the first two. They lay in the room for a long time, barely adjusting to the pain before they could support each other and limp out of the room.

Only when they stepped out did Qian Duolai and the others realize why no cultists had come back to deal with them during their escape.

Whatever Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian had done, the second-floor hallway was in total chaos. Screams of tenants, roars of cultists, and flesh growing from the ground like mushrooms were everywhere.

The two who had left the room ahead of them were rushing toward the stairwell. The stitches on their mouths had been forcibly ripped away, their cheeks were bulging, and their mouths were constantly chewing something, as if they were eating.

The two wore expressions of manic laughter, with blood dripping from the corners of their mouths, making them look like they had just devoured a person.

The wounds on their bodies were vanishing at a visible rate, but as the wounds disappeared, clusters of flesh mushrooms—identical to those on the floor—began to sprout all over them.

Though they were running toward the stairs, they didn’t seem to have any intention of escaping. Their eyes were filled with nothing but a hateful desire to drag the cultists down to hell with them.

Ever since the flesh began sprouting in the hallway, not only were the tenants fleeing, but the cultists were as well. This stairwell was where the cultists were most concentrated.

Every time Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian caught a cultist, they slammed them into the Flesh Ganoderma growing from the ground.

Those bright red chunks of flesh rapidly corroded and devoured the cultists’ bodies, quickly melting them into a mass of gore.

As more and more flesh mushrooms grew on Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian, they gradually lost their human forms. However, their desire for revenge against the cultists never faded.

The two masses of gore they had become acted like predatory slime monsters, indiscriminately devouring everyone in the stairwell—not just the cultists, but the innocent tenants trying to escape as well.

As they consumed more people, the gore monsters grew larger and larger.

Just as they were about to block the stairwell completely, a middle-aged man in a skullcap arrived in a hurry.

Qian Duolai and the other two, who were running down, happened to run right into this man on the stairs.

The middle-aged man in the skullcap used the sword in his hand to decapitate the three of them instantly. He then fused three talismans with three clumps of slightly darker Flesh Ganoderma and placed them on their necks.

Dark red gore-heads grew from the cross-sections of their necks. However, compared to the crimson flesh in the hallway, the gore on their necks appeared much duller, looking more like the flesh of a long-dead corpse.

The man in the skullcap activated the incomplete ghost slave runes on their bodies, controlling the three of them to clear the flesh in the stairwell to create an escape path for the other cultists. Afterward, he and the cultists fled the second floor.

After Liwan Apartments was sealed off, these three had been repeating the task of cleaning the flesh that constantly sprouted in the second-floor hallway, continuing until this very day.

Zhou Fangdong walked up to Qian Duolai with a complicated expression and lightly touched his arm.

…He was solid.

After their heads were severed, their souls had not left their bodies. Under the manipulation of the man in the skullcap, they had fused with their headless corpses, becoming the neither-human-nor-ghost entities they were now.

Zhou Fangdong let out a heavy sigh and looked solemnly at the uncleared flesh ahead.

The mass of flesh on the second floor was exactly what remained of the other two Cleaners he was looking for. He had to find a way to awaken their sanity and return them to human form. Only then would the flesh stop growing, and Qian Duolai and his companions would finally be free from this mechanical cleaning labor.

But… was there truly any possibility of restoring the sanity of these two, now that they had completely merged with the Flesh Ganoderma?

Translator’s Notes