"Wait!" Ares suddenly interrupted Hu Jiu.
"What's wrong now?" Hu Jiu asked.
Ares stammered.
Hu Jiu lashed out with the small leather whip.
Ares shuddered and said cautiously, "You can ask me questions, but I suggest you try not to ask about the leader of the Evernight."
"Our leader possesses a special ability: no matter where you are, if you mention him, he might sense it!"
"Then, he'll notice you regardless of the distance! Maybe his gaze is already fixed on this place right now!"
Hearing this, Hu Jiu frowned slightly; Han Yang had mentioned this before.
He then unleashed his Ghost Domain, enveloping Ares within it.
Ares shook his head. "The Ghost Domain cannot isolate that kind of perception ability, otherwise the high-ranking officials of Evernight and I wouldn't be so wary of that person."
Hu Jiu lowered his head and pondered for a moment. From what Han Yang and Ares said, he could infer that the leader of the Evernight was indeed very powerful.
However, he wasn't afraid.
The next second, Ares was horrified to find that his body was covered in text.
It is Chinese characters.
Given Ares's limited understanding of Chinese characters, he could only guess that the general meaning was a statement like "keeping secrets" or "refusing to disclose information."
He didn't understand what these words meant, and Hu Jiu wouldn't bother to explain them to him.
After Ares's body was completely covered by the words, Hu Jiu activated the Nightmare's Supernatural, dragging Ares's consciousness into the dream world.
Ares was only momentarily dazed. When he came to his senses, the scene around him had not changed at all; he was still pinned to the ground by the longsword.
But his intuition told him that something was amiss.
Hu Jiu didn't give him time to think, and said bluntly, "Now you can answer my question. Answer whatever you want, don't be afraid of any hidden dangers."
Ares was shocked. Although he had been shocked many times since meeting Hu Jiu, he was still shocked again!
Could it be... that Hu Jiu really has a way to block the leader's all-pervasive sensory abilities?
Wow, thinking about it that way is absolutely terrifying!
Either the Fierce Ghost controlled by Hu Jiu is too special, possessing expertise in information security;
Or perhaps Hu Jiu's strength is no less than the leader's, or even surpasses the leader's!
Ares was reluctant to believe the latter, after all, Hu Jiu hadn't been Ghost Tamer for very long.
He preferred to believe that Hu Jiu was just exaggerating and bragging!
Thinking of this, Ares's eyes darted around, and it seemed not difficult to verify whether what Hu Jiu said was true or false.
He would deliberately mention the leader of Evernight later. If the leader noticed this place, there was a chance he would rescue him, or there was a chance he would kill him outright.
If the leader doesn't realize that Hu Jiu is truly beyond measure, then Ares wouldn't mind switching allegiances.
It's all a gamble anyway—gambling on the leader's attitude towards him, and on whether Hu Jiu will accept his surrender.
Hu Jiu asked, "My first question is, what is the pattern of the ghost that was released from the statue and how does it kill people?"
"To look at it is to die; to even see it is to perish. It is extremely terrifying, and most people wouldn't dare to look at it." Ares said this with a hint of shock still on his face.
He didn't dare look at the ghost in the statue, but Hu Jiu looked at it and acted as if nothing had happened.
Hu Jiu then asked, "The ghost's killing rule is instant death upon sight, so why does it keep spraying mist when it's in statue form? Instant death upon sight and spraying mist seem to have no connection between these two abilities."
"They have no connection whatsoever. A statue is a statue, and a ghost is a ghost." Ares lowered his voice, his eyes darting around, his face tense, as if he were plotting something bad.
"The leader of the Evernight possesses the ability to trap ghosts within the statues he creates. The mist emitted from these statues carries a form of mental pollution."
Hu Jiu frowned slightly. "Such a powerful ghost, trapped inside a statue instead of being used, what's the purpose?"
Ares bit his lip, hesitated for a few seconds, and said, "The leader of Evernight proposed a God Completion Plan. He believes that the source of the Fierce Ghost is God."
"He traveled the world collecting Fierce Ghost with primal attributes, and then stuffed Fierce Ghost into statues."
"This statue is magical; it possesses purifying abilities, capable of washing away the original murderous patterns of Fierce Ghost and causing them to revert to a certain primal state."
"This kind of primordial ghost is like a universal puzzle piece. Ordinary people can't rewrite the rules for it; they can only use it as an amplifier. After absorbing it into their bodies, it can increase the strength of the Fierce Ghosts they originally controlled."
"However, in the hands of the leader, there are countless ways to play with this kind of ghost in its primitive state."
Hu Jiu was both shocked and somewhat enlightened by these words. It was normal for the leader of a large organization to possess strange and special abilities.
After a brief pause, Hu Jiu continued, "What's going on with this city? Why are all the local residents looking so strange?"
Ares hesitated for a moment, but still answered honestly:
"This city is one of the main strongholds of Evernight, and most of its residents are relatives of low-ranking members of Evernight."
"Putting these people together makes management easier and can also effectively guarantee the loyalty of the Evernight members to a certain extent."
Hu Jiu's pupils trembled slightly. "Always being polite and always behaving in a proper manner, turning people into work machines—are you sure this will control the members of Evernight, or will it just incite them to rebel?"
Ares nodded matter-of-factly. "Is there a problem with that?"
"A significant number of people have parents or relatives who do not meet their expectations. These parents or relatives either constantly interfere in their private lives and try to control everything they do; or they engage in psychological manipulation, attacking them on a psychological level; or they use various forms of emotional or physical abuse; and some even fail to fulfill their parental responsibilities at all."
"What's wrong with transforming these people into gentle and polite individuals, eliminating their human flaws? Who wouldn't want perfect parents who are emotionally stable and well-mannered?"
Hu Jiu's face showed a complicated expression. "And what about you? Do your parents also live in this city?"
"Of course not," Ares immediately denied. "My parents are very good people, and besides, these are benefits for lower-level members. As a high-ranking member of the organization, how could I possibly take advantage of them for such a small thing and encroach on their interests?"
Hu Jiu rolled her eyes. "Then where did you arrange for your relatives to stay?"
Ares sighed, "They're all in Washington. I'm so busy, I haven't seen them in ages. I can only send them large sums of money regularly."
"I don't know how much suffering they endure in this dull and monotonous life, where all they have is wealth and they lack the company of their children. I'm such an unfilial son!"