Evil Spirit

Everyone present, except for Yu Jing, had their own thoughts after a day of investigation.

Yu Jing had a habit of pulling his hood over his head when deep in thought. This narrowed his field of vision and muffled some of his hearing, allowing him to focus better.

After dragging the old woman's rapidly decaying corpse into the bathroom and sealing it, everyone gathered in the room to discuss. Yu Jing had also used vines to block the broken window, ensuring that any intrusion by foreign objects could be detected immediately.

"Yu Jing, just tell us what you think."

Jiang Pengyu looked at Yu Xiaoxiao, the strongest fighter in their team, whose abilities had been lost during this physical training. Zhang Xingyue, also on his team, was still unconscious and he didn't know when she would wake up. Adding to that, the death of soldier Hu Zhi, the situation was becoming increasingly dire. If they continued to flounder aimlessly like this, they wouldn't stand a chance of winning.

"I've basically determined that the female ghost here won't attack us for now. After our discussion tonight, everyone should get a full night's rest to adjust their condition, and we'll act first thing tomorrow morning... First, I'll lay out the current situation."

"From the start of the physical training, this is currently the second night. This three-story building is quite conspicuous in this mountainous area. Eight hundred disciples have been active in the mountains, and after a full day, not a single one has entered this area. In my opinion, we've been completely isolated here. No disciples will enter this area during the physical training."

"Yeah, we can only rely on ourselves." Jiang Pengyu nodded.

"We need to analyze our combat effectiveness. Facing the true monster hidden in the Deep Mountain Inn just now, our naked eyes couldn't track it, and our bodies couldn't easily touch it. I'm not clear on this point. Can anyone here who knows the situation explain it in detail?"

"Since we're not in a hurry, I'll explain in detail."

Men Qian, a newcomer from the Medical School, voluntarily offered and began to explain:

"These real monsters are born from deceased humans, and this is the very reason the Dihua Ability Institute, which we are studying at, was established. The two biggest mysteries in modern science are the universe and humanity. Humans are creatures capable of performing numerous functions and possessing independent thought. There are many unknowns in the global scientific community regarding their own research.

The 'Soul Hypothesis' proposed by our renowned scientist Mr. Xu Zeqian twenty years ago has been confirmed. There exists a spiritual form within the human body, with ultra-low frequency bands that can be received by instruments. However, some psychiatric patients or individuals with intense emotional fluctuations can detect strong electromagnetic induction.

Current experiments also prove that changes in brainwaves driven by human emotional fluctuations can strengthen the soul. Therefore, a small portion of humans who retained strong obsessions in life, or who suffered immense mental torment causing their soul's energy to reach a certain limit before death, will form the monsters we are currently encountering upon death."

"Initially formed monsters typically fall into two forms: Flesh Ghost type and Spirit Ghost type."

"Flesh Ghost type, as the name suggests, is a powerful soul attached to a completely deceased body, continuing to act. Transcending the human form, they can manipulate their bodies in various ways according to the soul's control, making them very difficult to kill.

Spirit Ghost type, upon death, their soul is powerful enough to choose to abandon the physical body, relying on strong energy to form a stable spiritual shell and exist independently in the world. Although these spiritual form monsters are not as powerful as Flesh Ghost types, they are generally invisible to the naked eye, act strangely, and ordinary objects find it difficult to harm the soul. For us rookies in the 'Rook Stage,' they are difficult to deal with.

As monsters grow, there will be more types of variations later on. As long as we survive this physical training, the specialists at the Ability Institute will definitely explain them in detail in class. We don't need them here, so I won't elaborate further."

During Men Qian's explanation of monsters, Yu Jing learned many terms he had never encountered before. 'Rook Stage' was something Yu Jing paid particular attention to, but he didn't ask for more details here.

"Are there any ways to deal with this Spirit Ghost type of monster?" Yu Jing asked.

Men Qian replied, "There are many ways, as long as you can touch the soul. But here, from my observation, only the dagger engraved with secret texts in Miss Yu's hand can harm such monsters."

This could be confirmed earlier when Yu Xiaoxiao's dagger was bitten by the teeth of the woman in white.

"Actually, I also have a method. The body-training techniques passed down in my Jiang family involve the field of Qigong. I learned from my elders that this Qigong can touch spiritual matter. My current body can barely condense a little bit of Qi onto my fists, so I should be able to touch them... Also, Yu Jing, the vines in your body should also work, right?"

As Jiang Pengyu asked, Yu Jing nodded.

This was because when the woman in white left earlier, she had torn open the vines hidden within the floor. If her body could pass through the vines, there would be no need for such an unnecessary tearing action, indicating that the vines in Yu Jing's arm could capture spiritual matter.

Yu Jing then added, "Even if the three of us here can touch the monsters, our naked eyes cannot see them. This will be a very fatal point. Before thinking of a solution, I'll first make a deduction about the entire inn incident."

"First, let's start before the physical training. To be honest, Special Agent Lu Chuan gave me private tutoring before the physical training, telling me that the most difficult part of this physical training would be the monsters in the 'Deep Mountain Inn' that we are currently facing. I've also been thinking about why each monster is of the lowest level, yet there are still differences in difficulty. With the information I have now, I think I understand a little."

"This is just my speculation, but the monsters in other areas of the mountains should be formed from humans with some obsessions in life, as Men Qian mentioned. However, the monsters we are facing belong to a certain type with malicious personalities, who were extremely cruel in life, fundamentally different from other monsters... This female ability disciple probably killed dozens, or even hundreds, of people in her life."

"'Evil spirit...' Men Qian frowned, uttering two novel words.

"On the surface, it seems like the women here often 'solicit customers' and eventually died here for some reason. But if you look closely, you'll find many problems.

Based on all the events so far, this female ability disciple used the method of 'soliciting customers' to bring men into her own inn and then kill them in some way. The names of the men crossed out on the ledger we found at the counter were her targets."

"As for the murder location, it wasn't in the normal rooms of the inn, but rather in..."

Yu Jing pointed towards the ground below.

"The basement!?"