Investment

Three in the afternoon.

Yang Jian leaned against the headboard, tossing the ugly gold box in his hand. It was heavy, with tiny fingerprints still marking its surface.

The countdown on the system panel ticked away across his retina.

71 hours, 58 minutes.

"System," Yang Jian said. "Can I trade this thing for points?"

The panel's text refreshed.

[Detected an imprisoned ghost: Nameless White Ghost (Class C).]

[Recycle for points? Upon recycling, the system will extract and erase this supernatural entity. Estimated payout: 1,000 points.]

Yang Jian glanced at the shop listings.

Basic Ghost Eye (beginner discount), priced at exactly 1,000 points.

He did not hesitate.

"Exchange it. Buy the Ghost Eye."

The gold box in his hand did not change, but Yang Jian sensed that the faint resistance inside had vanished. It was empty.

[Recycling successful. Points +1,000.]

[Purchase successful. Mysterious Revival-Ghost Eye (early stage) loading.]

There were no visual effects.

Yang Jian closed his eyes. A faint sensation of something foreign stirred beneath the skin of his forehead. Something new lay under it, round and cold. It turned beneath the eyelid, surveying the outside world.

When he opened his eyes, his vision had changed. A faint red glow shrouded the world. Particles invisible to ordinary people floated in the air.

This was no longer a trial card.

He had truly harnessed it. The Ghost Eye's three eyes were dormant, allowing him to use three layers of Ghost Domain without paying a price and see certain hidden things.

"I finally have what it takes to stay alive," Yang Jian murmured.

[Supernatural Land instance invasion coordinates confirmed: Tokyo Metropolitan Third Hospital.]

[Objective: Survive and imprison the invading ghost.]

Yang Jian studied the words. The Third Hospital. The place where he had first arrived in this world. It seemed there was more than a supernatural invasion there; it also held clues about people deliberately feeding Cursed Spirits.

The next morning.

The Jujutsu High infirmary.

Satoru Gojo sat on the examination bed with his shirt collar open. Shoko Ieiri held a thermal imager, its screen displaying a normal body temperature distribution.

"It's gone." Shoko set down the device and tapped the test report. "That handprint from yesterday-the cold zone has completely disappeared. It didn't even leave any traces of cellular necrosis."

Satoru Gojo looked down at his chest. The patch where the pale, deathly handprint had been was now a normal skin tone.

"It disappeared around midnight." Satoru Gojo pulled his shirt closed. "That cold kept burrowing into my bones, then suddenly stopped. Gone at the root."

The door opened.

Yang Jian walked in, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

"Looks like you've recovered pretty well." Yang Jian glanced at Satoru Gojo's chest.

"Your doing?" Satoru Gojo tilted his head toward him. His Six Eyes were fully active as he tried to analyze Yang Jian's current state.

He still could not see through him.

But Satoru Gojo caught a tiny bulge beneath the skin of Yang Jian's forehead. That spot was colder than the surrounding skin.

"I disposed of that ghost." Yang Jian leaned back in his chair.

"How?" Suguru Geto came through the door carrying two cans of soda and handed Yang Jian a cola.

"Not telling." Yang Jian accepted the cola and pulled the tab. "All you need to know is that once the source is gone, the effects of its attacks disappear too."

Suguru Geto pulled over a chair and sat down. Yesterday's brief clash had shattered everything he had once taken for granted.

"What happens next?" Suguru Geto asked. "How many more of those things are there?"

"A lot. And new ones will appear soon." Yang Jian took a sip of cola. "Three days from now. Tokyo Metropolitan Third Hospital."

Satoru Gojo raised an eyebrow. "You can even predict the location?"

"It's called intelligence." Yang Jian set the coffee can on the table. "I need you to get a few things ready."

"What things?"

"Gold. Pure gold." Yang Jian looked at Satoru Gojo. "Yesterday's gold box was too small. I need bigger containers. Gold foil, gold bags, gold boxes. The more, the better."

Satoru Gojo leaned back, lacing his hands behind his head. "Why the hell should I get you all that?"

"Because I'm the only one who can deal with ghosts," Yang Jian said evenly. "And your family is rich."

A very straightforward reason.

Satoru Gojo laughed. He stood, walked over to Yang Jian, and looked down at him.

"The Gojo Clan certainly has money. But how will you prove you're worth investing in?"

Yang Jian said nothing.

A slit opened in the skin of his forehead.

A scarlet eye squeezed out through the slit and fixed its gaze on Satoru Gojo.

The Ghost Domain unfolded. Red light spread outward from Yang Jian in a hemisphere, covering the entire infirmary.

Yang Jian deliberately kept it that size.

The colors in Satoru Gojo's vision were forcibly stripped away, leaving only glaring red. The information his Six Eyes fed back was a complete blank.

Suguru Geto sprang to his feet, Cursed Spirits churning behind him.

The pen in Shoko's hand fell to the floor.

The red light vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

The slit in his forehead closed, leaving smooth skin. Yang Jian remained seated, without even changing his posture.

"There's your proof," Yang Jian said.

Satoru Gojo removed his sunglasses, his sky-blue eyes brimming with interest. For that brief instant, the spatial perception he took such pride in had been completely blocked.

"Deal." Satoru Gojo put his sunglasses back on. "I'll get you a hundred kilograms of pure gold this afternoon. Enough?"

"Get it here first." Yang Jian stood and headed out.

Suguru Geto watched Yang Jian leave the infirmary, then turned to Satoru Gojo.

"Satoru, are you really going to help him?"

"Why not?" Satoru Gojo walked to the window and looked down. "Geto, don't you think it's interesting? A guy who has nothing to do with our system, using a power even the Six Eyes can't understand."

"But he's dangerous." Suguru Geto's voice grew heavy.

"So are we." Satoru Gojo patted Suguru Geto's shoulder. "Come on. Let's shake down the old men back home. We'll need a good excuse for a hundred kilograms of gold."

That afternoon.

A black minivan pulled up outside the dormitory.

Sweat covered the assistant supervisor's forehead as he directed workers unloading wooden crates.

Yang Jian stood downstairs, checking the delivery.

Ten wooden crates, all filled with standard gold bars.

"Young Master Gojo ordered these delivered." The assistant supervisor handed him a receipt to sign.

Yang Jian signed it.

This gold would be enough to make several practical containment vessels.

After carrying the gold bars into his new dorm room, Yang Jian locked the door.

He needed to turn these bars into body bags and gold boxes. Without Cursed Energy to help, he could only use physical methods.

For the next two days, Yang Jian did not leave his room.

Occasionally, dull hammering echoed through Jujutsu High's corridors.

On the evening of the third day.

Yang Jian pushed open his dorm room door.

He carried a long object wrapped in black cloth, with several folded golden body bags tucked at his waist.

Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto waited downstairs.

"All finished?" Satoru Gojo looked at the long package.

"Let's go." Yang Jian wasted no words. "To the Third Hospital."