When Hu Jiu came out of the hotel dragging two body bags, the police officers waiting outside were stunned.
"That fast?"
Hu Jiu ignored them and hurried straight back to the school to deal with the source ghost.
When he arrived, Hu Jiu sent the officers stationed there away. "I'm going to contain that ghost. It might get dangerous here soon, so you should all leave first."
The officers had wanted to stay and provide support, but Hu Jiu told them bluntly that he was afraid they would get in the way and cause trouble rather than help.
One officer asked, "Should we move the people in quarantine too?"
Hu Jiu shook his head. "There's no need. They've all been cursed. If I can successfully contain the Fierce Ghost, they can still be saved. If I fail, all they can do is wait to die. It makes no difference where they wait to die."
"Well..." The officer hesitated.
"Your captain, Qian Ying, ordered them quarantined in place instead of moving them somewhere safer. Didn't he tell you why?" Hu Jiu said more firmly.
Only then did the officers leave reluctantly.
The source ghost was in a storage room on the third floor of the teaching building. Like the people it had affected, it stayed in a small, enclosed space.
The ghost's ability was mental contamination, which acted on human consciousness. But its killing pattern did not involve instantaneous death. It was somewhat like a virus: its infectiousness and fatality rate were inversely proportional.
Even Liu Tiancheng's Drunkard could resist mental contamination of this degree in some unknown way. It had even less effect on Hu Jiu.
The Fierce Ghost itself was a young man, dressed in very fashionable clothes, with scars all over his exposed skin.
Hu Jiu randomly selected a few Lucky Ones from the quarantined group to further pin down the Fierce Ghost's mechanism.
Test subject No. 1 was deaf and blind and barely reacted to external stimuli. Only his trembling body and somewhat unsteady breathing proved he was still alive.
After the test subject was thrown into the storage room with the Fierce Ghost, nothing happened;
Test subject No. 2 had milder symptoms and had not yet reached the stage of self-harm. But when he came within ten meters of the storage room, his condition deteriorated sharply. In just a few seconds, he was hysterically trying to gouge out his own eyes;
After repeating the tests several times, Hu Jiu recorded the rough data. Unfortunately, he had no normal humans or Ghost Tamers to cooperate with the tests.
The ghost was like a source of contamination constantly emitting radiation. Anyone exposed within a certain range of it would be affected, and the closer they were, the more severe the effect.
Moreover, judging by the behavior of Liu Tiancheng and the other stranger who had encountered a ghost, this ghost could suppress other Fierce Ghosts.
He stuffed the Fierce Ghost itself into a sack as quickly as possible, bringing the matter to a temporary close.
But the ghost's characteristics were somewhat complicated, and Hu Jiu had yet to think of a suitable code name for it.
He called Qian Ying with the good news. When he walked out of the school gates, Qian Ying was waiting outside, his brow still furrowed.
"Mr. Hu, thank you for your immense contribution to Linjiang City!" After that initial courtesy, he could not wait to ask, "Since the source ghost has been contained, why haven't the cursed people returned to normal?"
Hu Jiu pondered. "I'm not sure either. Perhaps it's a residual supernatural effect, or perhaps the damage already done can't be undone. When a ghost kills someone, the dead don't come back to life after it's contained. You should accept that sooner rather than later."
Qian Ying lowered his head in disappointment. "I understand. I'm just a little worried about Xiao Zhang..."
Hu Jiu expressed his deep regret and left with the three ghosts. He paid no further attention to what happened afterward. But Qian Ying took the initiative to update him: the people who had developed persecutory delusions showed no improvement and were still getting worse. After the source ghost was contained, however, their deterioration had slowed considerably.
After returning home, Hu Jiu called his operator, Xiao Mei. It was time for the familiar routine of making things up again. First was the ghost he had brought back from Longevity Village. Its true identity was Zou Cong's Ghost-Covered Eyes, but Hu Jiu said, "That ghost's terror level was very low. I contained it before I had time to observe its killing pattern."
Xiao Mei did not ask a single unnecessary question and simply recorded what Hu Jiu described.
Next came the ghost he had just contained. This time, Hu Jiu did not falsify or embellish anything, since the information about it had all been observed and compiled by Qian Ying and the officers he led.
But at this point, things suddenly took a turn. The person on the other end of the phone was replaced by Fu Youhua.
"What's going on? It actually got the attention of a big leader like you." Hu Jiu was somewhat puzzled.
Fu Youhua was concise. "You must hand over the ghost in Linjiang City that causes humans to develop persecutory delusions. The patients will also be taken away. Headquarters has already sent people to collect them. If any new patients with similar symptoms are found in Linjiang City in the future, be sure to quarantine them and notify Headquarters promptly!"
Hu Jiu was taken aback. Something fucking serious is going on!
"May I ask why?"
Fu Youhua was silent for a moment. "That information is classified. All I can tell you is that this isn't the first time the ghost has appeared. Its original code name was [Unwarranted Calamity]. It has no true source. What you contained is only a derivative Fierce Ghost. Every patient has a chance of becoming a new derivative Fierce Ghost and continuing to spread the mental illness."
Hu Jiu narrowed his eyes. Shocked, he quickly weighed the gains and losses. Headquarters was taking a hard line, so it seemed he could not keep the ghost. How can I take advantage of the confusion?
Hu Jiu cleared his throat. "Understood. I'll cooperate fully with Headquarters. But I suspect someone deliberately released the Fierce Ghost, causing this supernatural incident to break out in Linjiang City. There were two unfamiliar Ghost Tamers near the scene. It's been confirmed that they came from the Beifeng Commune. One of them was Liu Tiancheng, code-named Drunkard."
"Something like that actually happened!" Fu Youhua's tone was angry.
Hu Jiu could not tell how much of that anger was genuine, so he offered a very responsible reminder. "This isn't the first time the Beifeng Commune has caused trouble. It's nothing short of a cancer on social order. I hope Headquarters will give it due attention."
Fu Youhua grunted in acknowledgment, and Xiao Mei came back on the line. "Is there anything else, Mr. Hu?"
Hu Jiu said, "Headquarters should have a compiled record of supernatural incidents across the country. I'd like to take a look."
Xiao Mei replied, "All right, but with your clearance, you can only access public information. Viewing classified information requires approval from a superior."
"Public information will do for now. I'll contact you again if I need anything later." After making his request, Hu Jiu hung up.
Xiao Mei was highly efficient. Only a few minutes later, she sent him a file.
Hu Jiu read through it very carefully, searching for clues related to things like "pens."
In its abnormal state, the Ghost Book had once touched on the concept of the "Ghost Pen." At the mention of a pen, the first thing Hu Jiu thought of was his previous life, when Headquarters had a powerful Ghost Tamer code-named [Pen Fairy]...