He Ming's personality has changed a lot. He has truly received meticulous training and resource support from Headquarters. Moreover, he used to be a high school student who had not yet entered society and was still undetermined, with strong potential for growth. His growth during this period is clearly visible.
"I heard you're the team leader in charge of this exploration mission. Congratulations! Headquarters has given you such an important responsibility," Hu Jiu said.
"There's no other way, my identity is the most suitable. On the surface, I'm the Ghost Tamer solved the first S-class Supernatural case in the country, so I have more authority." He Ming frowned slightly as he said this, looking away.
"Just say what you want to say. There's no need to beat around the bush with me," Hu Jiu said with an understanding expression.
He Ming sighed, "Let me be frank. As the captain of this exploration mission, I'm actually a little unsure of myself. Headquarters has been praising me a lot, but I know my own limitations. This mission is very important, and many Ghost Tamers from all over the country have come. I have no confidence that I can command those veteran Ghost Tamers."
Saying he can't be commanded is an understatement. Ghost Tamer might provoke him or even trip him up for various reasons, such as being jealous of his fame in the Supernatural community, testing his strength and weaknesses, or simply disliking him. He also knows that he is relatively inexperienced, but his status is above everyone else, so it's normal for people to be unhappy with him.
"So, what do you want from me?" Hu Jiu asked seriously.
"Let's cooperate," He Ming stated his intentions directly.
Although he had joined the Research Department, He Ming used special means to bypass the constraints of the Ghost Contract. He would never obey orders when necessary. For example, if he encountered a good treasure, he would rather keep it to himself than hand it over. Therefore, he did not trust any of the Ghost Tamers sent by the Research Department to participate in the mission. He even had to find a way to separate himself from them in the ancient tomb to avoid being exposed.
However, He Ming has only been Ghost Tamer for a short time, and most of the time he operates under the nose of the Headquarters. He has no opportunity to establish friendly relations with other Ghost Tamers. Counting them up, Hu Jiu is the only person in the circle he is somewhat familiar with.
He Ming had reviewed Hu Jiu's information; her resume was clean with no bad records. Therefore, both emotionally and rationally, he was inclined to cooperate with Hu Jiu.
"I agree." Hu Jiu thought for a moment and then gave a clear answer.
"Very good." He Ming grinned broadly. "Let me be frank, this exploration mission is more dangerous than we imagined. The higher the rewards, the greater the risks. There are indeed many good things in the Ghostly Ancient Tomb, but one wrong move and you could lose your life. Exploring in a team is safer than going solo. Do you have any other trustworthy Ghost Tamers you can bring into our team?"
Nominally, all the Ghost Tamers who responded to the Headquarters' call to participate in this mission were teammates, but in reality, they all did their own thing, were not very familiar with each other, and were even wary of each other to avoid being betrayed.
Hu Jiu thought for a moment, "No."
He had no trustworthy friends; his teammates who had fought alongside him were all dead. There was no time to cultivate friendships, nor did he need them.
Upon hearing this, He Ming had no choice but to give up. "Don't forget the meeting at 2 PM this afternoon, don't be late."
"Knew."
The call ended.
Hu Jiu tidied up his equipment and rested in his room.
Time passed slowly, and five minutes before 2 p. m., Hu Jiu arrived at the temporary meeting room.
Even before approaching the room, a chilling and ominous aura could be sensed from afar. A uniformed agent, upon seeing Hu Jiu, quickly stepped forward and politely said, "Mr. Hu, this way please."
These guides must have excellent memories; they can recognize everyone present at a glance. It would be embarrassing, or even dangerous, to call someone by the wrong name in such a situation.
Upon entering, one sees a large conference table with several people already seated. As soon as Hu Jiu walks in, several people glance up at him before immediately lowering their heads and going about their business.
Hu Jiu was truly unremarkable and failed to attract much attention.
He quietly walked to the spot where his nameplate was placed, glanced at everyone present. Most of them were still in normal human form, but due to the influence of the Fierce Ghost, their faces did not look like those of living people, and they had strange smells on their bodies.
However, a small number have become completely inhuman, such as a mummy wrapped entirely in bandages, with even its eyes not showing, or a terracotta warrior whose body has been extensively ceramicized and covered with tiny cracks...
Some people were fiddling with their phones, some were resting with their eyes closed, and others were chatting quietly together; the scene was relatively harmonious.
Suddenly, Hu Jiu's intuition told her that a faint gaze was always on her, probing and unfriendly. Turning her head, she saw a thin man in his thirties with a bluish complexion, slightly bulging and bloodshot eyes, and a scarf around his neck. When he saw Hu Jiu looking over, he immediately looked away, pretending that he was just looking around casually.
Hu Jiu made a note of this person.
"Hi~, long time no see." A greeting voice rang in my ears.
Hu Jiu turned towards the direction of the voice. "Oh, it's you guys. How have you been lately?"
The tall man nodded. He was sitting very close to Hu Jiu, and the female Ghost Tamer had come in with him sat down next to him. Hu Jiu quickly glanced at the names on the nameplate with his 2.0 vision— Fang Qingjiao, Zheng Ling.
Hu Jiu suddenly remembered who it was. He had been with Hu Jiu during the raid on Beifeng Commune, but back then Fang Qingjiao had two female teammates, and now only one remained. He didn't know where the other one had gone.
Hu Jiu wasn't very familiar with them, so after a brief exchange of pleasantries, Fang Qingjiao went to talk to others. It was clear that he was a social butterfly; many people in the conference room could chat with him for a while. Perhaps it was because he possessed a certain unique charisma; despite his ordinary appearance, he could still make people feel good about him.
Two o'clock arrived quickly. The conference room wasn't full; some people were absent. At exactly two o'clock, He Ming entered and sat at the head of the conference table, solemnly saying, "Hello everyone, I am He Ming, the team leader for this ancient tomb exploration mission."
"To make a long story short, as you all know, the requirements for this mission are: explore freely, gather information within the ancient tomb, and all spoils will belong to the explorers who participated in the mission."
"Here, I want to mention a few points to note. First, the Ghostly Ancient Tomb is mobile; its stay in Lanqiong Mountain is uncertain. In the past, when the tomb appeared, the shortest stay in the same location was only 14 days."
"We'll prepare for the worst and set off to explore the tomb tomorrow. We only have one week. After one week, Headquarters will terminate the group exploration mission and decide whether to continue small-scale exploration based on the situation."
"If anyone is still inside the tomb when you leave, they're on their own. Ghostly Ancient Tombs mostly don't exist in reality; they only occasionally overlap with large tombs in the real world. If you're accidentally trapped inside, try your best to survive; maybe you'll get a chance to return to reality."
He Ming paused, glanced at the expressions of everyone present, and continued, "When Ghostly Ancient Tomb appears, in addition to the tomb itself, numerous anomalies may also occur in the surrounding area. The closer you are to the tomb, the more anomalies you will encounter. Therefore, the danger is not limited to the tomb itself; everyone, please be cautious."
"I'll send you some information later, some observations and experiences from previous tomb explorations. There aren't many explorations of Ghostly Ancient Tombs in China. When the last tomb was discovered, it was already almost gone. More detailed information comes from the pyramids in Egypt."
"That's about the main points of this meeting. Please feel free to ask any further questions, and I will try my best to answer them. After the exploration mission officially begins tomorrow, although I am the team leader, I will not restrict everyone's actions unless there are special circumstances."
As soon as he finished speaking, someone asked, "Captain He, what level is this mission classified at?"
He Ming replied, "Tentatively rated X, this is an undetermined special mission. Due to the unknown situation inside the ancient tomb, the specific rating will need to be discussed after the exploration is completed and all intelligence data is thoroughly compiled and analyzed by Headquarters."
Another person asked, "Is there an approximate drop rate for Supernatural Items in the Ghostly Ancient Tomb?"
He Ming shook his head. "No, this isn't like playing a game dungeon. But there are rumors that Egypt's official Supernatural agency once retrieved more than twenty Supernatural Items at once when Ghostly Ancient Tomb overlapped with a pyramid, and they were all extremely terrifying."
That's incredible!
Hearing He Ming's words, everyone in the conference room was taken aback. Retrieving twenty Supernatural Items at once was indeed astonishing. Many people were eager to try it themselves, but forgot to ask about the price to pay for retrieving these Supernatural Items.
Perhaps they were aware of the heavy casualties, but... most of the Ghost Tamer were sitting here attending the meeting were somewhat confident that they would be the Lucky Ones to survive.
When He Ming announced the adjournment of the meeting, the attendees left one after another. The door opened, and Ghost Tamer with a livid face stood at the door, but no one paid him any attention.
He clenched his fists and rushed over to He Ming, demanding, "Why won't you let me in!"
"You're late," He Ming said coldly. "Headquarters specifically notified every Ghost Tamer in advance, yet you still arrived late. There are only three possible reasons for this: one, you were genuinely careless; two, you encountered an unexpected situation; three, you did it on purpose, trying to show off by arriving just in time. Regardless of the reason, I have no reason to let you disrupt the meeting and waste everyone's time."
A crowd of onlookers had gathered at the meeting room door. Several people had been late for the meeting before, but this one oddball had been standing there the whole time, demanding an explanation.
It was only then that everyone realized that the security level of this temporary conference room was extremely high, and even a late-arriving Ghost Tamer couldn't force his way through the door.
He Ming's persuasive words were very effective, and the late Ghost Tamer eventually slunk away, his eyes filled with undisguised resentment.
What a rare idiot!
"I thought we were going to fight," someone chuckled softly.
"With the mission imminent, making a move now would definitely lower my condition, which would be detrimental to exploring the ancient tomb."
Hu Jiu returned to the hotel and waited patiently for tomorrow. During this free time, he took out his phone, logged into the Ghost Tamer Forum, and paid a little attention to the Supernatural situation at home and abroad.
There were a few discussion threads about the Supernatural events that occurred in the Capital, but they all downplayed the incidents and made them disappear. Not a single word was leaked about the Headquarters being hacked.
They keep their mouths shut.
Many Ghost Tamers have posted that something bad has happened in South Korea, a country rife with cults. It is said that during a prayer ceremony, a certain sect actually summoned their "god," and then many inexplicable things happened.
Buzz--
A call came in from an unknown number.
Hu Jiu ignored it; it was his habit. Even before he became Ghost Tamer, he hated answering the phone, especially from unknown numbers. He hadn't changed this habit even after becoming Ghost Tamer.
I don't want to answer the phone, but I don't want to hang up, so I just ignore it and pretend my phone isn't with me...
At this moment, Hu Jiu actually felt a sliver of humanity still remaining in his heart?
This is absurd. It's just a call from a stranger, how could it evoke such complex emotions in me?
In the end, he didn't answer.
The same number dialed twice more, finally switching to a text message: "Hu Jiu, I want to make a deal with you. Can we meet?"
Hu Jiu remained unmoved. The most important thing right now was to wait for the exploration of the Ghostly Ancient Tomb. This strange guy was frequently trying to communicate with him, which meant that the other party needed his help. There was really no need to pay attention to him.
The sun gradually sank in the west, and night crept into the sky.
After dinner, I had only rested for a short while when there was a continuous knocking on the door.
Outside stood a thin man in his thirties, with a bluish complexion, bloodshot and bulging eyes, and a scarf around his neck. He was the same man who had been sneaking glances at Hu Jiu during the meeting earlier. It seemed he wouldn't give up until he saw Hu Jiu, and the unfamiliar phone call and text message from earlier were probably from him.
Hu Jiu pondered for a moment, then opened the door.
"At this hour, why are you banging on the door so frantically? Are you here to cause trouble?" His voice was icy, taking the initiative.
The other person's expression wasn't good either, and their tone was slightly impatient. "Let me introduce myself first. I'm Gao Qiuhai, Ghost Tamer from Headquarters. I know you're Hu Jiu. You really are a very busy person; you don't answer my calls or reply to my messages. I really have something urgent to discuss with you!"
"That's your urgent matter, not mine. I don't even know you, why should I answer your call?" Hu Jiu said expressionlessly. "Once you've finished your nonsense, you can leave. I have no interest in doing business with you."
After saying that, he was about to close the door.
"Wait!" Gao Qiuhai stepped forward, blocking the doorway, and raised his chin arrogantly and irritably. "Don't go too far..."