CH 66

Kong Wanqing looked at the information in his hand blankly.

This was already his 20th year of joining Sunken Society—as a member of the Kong family, he entered Sunken Society at 19. Nowadays, he didn’t need to get involved in too many troublesome cases.

Truthfully speaking, Kong Wanqing’s talent wasn’t top-notch, but he acted cautiously. The Kong family was old and held many unique ghost-fighting spells, which made Kong Wanqing even more famous.

He mostly served as auxiliary support for live human experiments with Evil Force. Compared to other easily exposed positions, this job was quite easy.

Or so it should be.

Who would have thought that he first failed to recruit a newcomer surnamed Yin, and then was overturned in the Feng Qi case? There were very few high-quality ghosts on hand, and he urgently needed to replenish.

Now, Sunken Society had given him the opportunity to “pick” a ghost himself but also given him corresponding requirements.

“Just the day before yesterday, Shian transferred Guo Laifu to the municipal hospital. Yesterday, I sensed the opening of the Archive,” the person sitting in the office chair said. “Guo Laifu isn’t an important person, so most likely they’ll send Unit 9 from the Special Investigation team to investigate.”

After all, Shian, like them, was particularly interested in the two newcomers. There was no place that exposed human nature more easily than the “Archive”. This arrangement was easy to guess.

Unfortunately, Fu Xingchuan believed too much in the security of the “Archive”—no, rather, someone deliberately gave Shian such an illusion.

“This is information about the targets in Unit 9. One of them is the biological son of Wei Huaxian and Kong Miao, and the other is one of the people involved in the breaking of the Evil Spirit seal. Your task is simple. Persuade them or get rid of them.”

On the profile were two young and handsome faces.

“Wei Huaxian and Auntie Kong’s son?” Isn’t that your…” Kong Wanqing sat on the sofa, frowning.

Opposite of him, the head of  Sunken Society of the Haigu branch— was Wei Huaqian.

Wei Huaqian and Wei Huaxian were brothers. They weren’t born into an aristocratic family but had extremely high talents as spirit smiths. Compared with Wei Huaxian, the elder brother who was crazy about human products, Wei Huaqian was more cruel and calm.

28 years ago, Wei Huaxian and Kong Miao were both arrested and executed soon after, while Wei Huaqian slowly climbed up Sunken Society. Now that he was in his early fifties, he controlled Sunken Society in Haigu, which rivaled that of Shian.

It was no secret that Wei Huaxian and Kong Miao had a son. The baby back then was adopted by a pair of police officers. As he slowly grew up, he became Kong Wanqing’s target on paper.

Unfortunately, though both of Zhong Chengshuo’s parents were crazy metaphysical geniuses, he himself had no talent. Wei Huaqian had taken an interest in Zhong Chengshuo when he was young but had quickly lost it.

Now this person had entered Shian and had repeatedly appeared in front of Sunken Society as a science post, encountering incidents related to Evil Force time and time again.

There weren’t so many coincidences in the world of the metaphysics.

“My nephew, your cousin,” Wei Huaqian said lightly. “Is there any problem?”

“It’s okay to persuade, but getting rid of is a bit—” Kong Wanqing hesitated.

In the metaphysical world, “flesh and blood of blood relatives” had various mystical uses. If Zhong Chengshuo were to die in the Archive, there would be no bones left, so they wouldn’t have the chance to recycle his body.

“He chose to be loyal to Shian. Sooner or later, he’ll become a problem to us.” Wei Huaqian nodded. “There’s also Yin Ren. A month has passed, and Shian hasn’t given him any special treatment. That guy is either a dumbass or a hidden master.”

Kong Wanqing: “I see… Uh, one more thing. According to Shian’s rules, it’s impossible for only the two of them to enter the ‘Archive’. What about the rest?”

“Kill. Can’t you do it?” Wei Huaqian replied naturally. “Keep your hands clean, and don’t leave too many clues.”

Kong Wanqing’s facial muscles twitched. In the end, he remained silent and just nodded as he lifted the bag by the sofa—Wei Huaqian didn’t like procrastinating and waiting. When he knew the content of the task, Kong Wanqing had already packed his luggage in advance.

Wei Huaqian opened the drawer and threw him a 5-meter-long red rope and let him wrap it around his wrist.

The red rope was full of Evil Force. Kong Wanqing’s brain began to buzz after only a brief contact. He did his best to endure without saying a word.

After Kong Wanqing wrapped the red rope around, Wei Huaqian ordered him to take seven sheets of A4 printing paper, overlap them on the wooden floor, and then step on them.

By this time, Kong Wanqing was already dizzy. He didn’t dare open his mouth for fear that he would puke.

Ignoring his blue face, Wei Huaqian opened the refrigerator, cruised around in the cold air, and took out a tube of cold blood.

Guo Laifu’s blood sample.

Seeing the pus and blood flowing from Kong Wanqing’s nostrils, Wei Huaqian snorted and took out a glass dipping pen engraved with runes. He leaned down, dipped it in Guo Laifu’s blood, traced around Kong Wanqing’s feet, and drew countless obscure patterns on the printing paper.

The moment the nib of the pen left the paper, the printing paper turned into a smooth white swamp.

The blood-drawn patterns gradually distorted. Kong Wanqing dizzily sank down with dilating pupils.

The paper gradually submerged his waist, chin, and the top of his head. Within half a minute, Kong Wanqing and his luggage disappeared from the room without a trace.

Wei Huaqian didn’t remain idle. He took out four nails and nailed them to the place where Kong Wanqing disappeared. He then pulled out a few meters of long red rope of Evil Force and wrapped it around the nails a few times, creating a square “rope circle”.

Finally, Wei Huaqian poured Guo Laifu’s remaining blood on the rope circle. As the blood spread, the rope quickly changed from bright red to dark red.

The special ability of the Charon branch—”Activity Archive”.

Wei Huaqian couldn’t send living things directly to the “other side”, but he could send people to a place close to the Archive after specifying the target’s brain. If Shian’s door happened to be open and the target’s brain was the same, he could create a “back door”.

What a pity he couldn’t snatch Bai Yongji and make good use of him. His abilities still had room for improvement, Wei Huaqian thought coldly. Anyway, Bai Yongji had no loyalty to them, so he didn’t particularly feel distressed about it.

However, it was regrettable that he failed to seize that opportunity.

To some extent, the accident in the Bai Yongji case also involved Unit 9’s intervention.

Wei Huaqian sighed.

“Is this a good or an evil fate?” He took out Zhong Chengshuo’s information and casually looked at it with his dull, black eyes.

……

At this moment, those similar eyes in Zhong Chengshuo were lifeless.

He and Yin Ren were pushing a shopping cart and standing in the largest shopping market in Haigu.

Yin Ren was extremely dissatisfied with eating compressed food for 7 consecutive days. He immediately said that he would bring more luggage and get some other food—Lu Xiaohe couldn’t argue with him, so she had to relent.

“Personal belongings in up to one suitcase,” she warned them with a half-smile. “If you lose your things, Shian won’t reimburse you!”

So on the last weekend before entering the Archive, Yin Ren rushed to the largest supermarket in Haigu for a shopping trip. This was a dangerous mission, yet this person was making it look like travel preparation.

The goals of the two were too far apart. They separated as soon as they entered the supermarket.

Zhong Chengshuo picked out a simple pajama set and a set of disposable toiletries, some refreshing coffee, and chewing gum. They were so poorly spread out at the bottom of the shopping cart that they wouldn’t even fill a small bag. As for tools such as a Swiss army knife, he had two at home and didn’t need to buy them specially.

Great King Yama ended the battle in ten minutes and began to wander aimlessly around while pushing the shopping cart.

He made an appointment with Yin Ren to meet him at the exit after an hour, and he still had 50 minutes left. Zhong Chengshuo pushed the cart and slowly passed through the colorful cargo of shelves. If color had sound, it would be extremely noisy in his ear right now.

…Speaking of which, this was the first time he had come to such a lively supermarket to shop.

When Yin Ren didn’t live with him, Zhong Chengshuo would only shop for some necessities online and at most go to the supermarket near the community to buy emergency supplies.

What was life like at that time? It was only a little over a month ago, but he seemed to have trouble remembering.

Zhong Chengshuo stopped in front of the candy shelf. He stared at the exaggerated smiling faces on the chocolate chip packaging.

He looked at it solemnly for a long time, then stretched out his hand and threw two bags into the shopping cart. Realizing that the dazzling smile was transferred into his shopping cart, Zhong Chengshuo woke up like from a dream and wanted to remove them.

He just needed to “like” Yin Ren and didn’t need to do such superfluous things.

As a result, looking at those two extraordinarily bright smiles, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

‘Forget it,’ he thought. It was just feeding chocolate chips to some unknown evil being. The world probably wouldn’t be destroyed as a result… Everything was still under his control. Nothing had changed.

Zhong Chengshuo covered the chocolate chips with his pajamas as he solemnly concluded.

More than a dozen shelves away.

Yin Ren’s shopping cart was packed to the brim.

In order to ensure maximum space utilization, he didn’t buy any puffed food and only bought “dry goods” such as dried meat, preserved fruits, chicken feet, and duck necks. He was planning to sweep the candy section, but he was drawn away by a daily necessities shelf.

[Waterless cleansing wipes, specially for business trips, to give you a refreshing and clean day!]

This thing looked like a new product, as the supermarket had specially prepared shelves and signs for it. The packaging of the cleansing wipes was upright, and the design was fresh and clean, exuding a very soft and pleasant scent.

Lord Ghost King could clean himself, so naturally he didn’t need this, but…

Yin Ren looked at the mint flavor on the left and then at the aloe flavor on the right. He couldn’t help taking two steps forward and sniffing them carefully.

It smelled really good and was especially suitable for someone.

For Zhong Chengshuo, not taking a shower for a few days was probably worse than killing him. If this thing was really useful, maybe Zhong Chengshuo could use it to wipe his body…

Thinking of the scar examination that night, Yin Ren’s fingertips shrank.

He was inexplicably sad because he didn’t like to imagine the pup being injured.

Zhong Chengshuo was very healthy now, and there seemed to be no sequelae. “King Yama” of the Nightwalkers was at his peak, no longer a fragile child, so there wouldn’t be any more problems.

He decided to care for this person openly and honestly, and emotions were a by-product of “caring”.

Yin Ren shook his head solemnly and continued reading the advertisement on the stand, trying to figure out a specific someone’s preference.

He didn’t know which smell Zhong Chengshuo would prefer.

He personally preferred the refreshing smell of aloe vera, but mint seemed more in line with that guy’s temperament… When Zhong Chengshuo became distressed because he couldn’t bathe, he would bring this thing out. Thinking of such a scene, he would look like a man full of confidence and in control.

Yin Ren raised the corner of his mouth. He reluctantly pulled out a few packs of pickled pork rinds and put four packs of waterless cleansing wipes into the shopping cart.

Very good. All was according to plan.

Lord Ghost King curled his hair in satisfaction as he pushed away the shopping cart with his head held high.

……

On Monday, Guo Laifu’s “Archive” officially opened.

A total of four people from Unit 9: Yin Ren and Zhong Chengshuo, as well as temporary members Ge Tingting and Huang Jin—entered the Archive and were expected to leave at 18:00 on Friday. Lu Xiaohe, as the rear commander, was responsible for the whole process of communication. If they fail to leave the Archive before 12:00 on Sunday, a Class A Investigation Team would go in and rescue them.

This was supposed to be a serious operation, but as soon as Lu Xiaohe greeted her four colleagues in the office, her head started to hurt.

“What are you doing?” she asked in confusion.

Although there was no dress code and there was a luggage “consignment” quota, of these four people, only Ge Tingting was normal.

The girl was wearing a Shian cultural shirt with knee-length trousers that were easy to move in. Her shoulder-length hair was tied in a small braid at the back of her head, and she carried a simple and sturdy backpack with basic daily necessities neatly packed in it. She was holding a phone for communication in her arms with a serious expression and some eagerness.

The remaining three men had their own… peculiarities.

Huang Jin carried the equipment of a spirit smith. If he wasn’t carrying the guitar, he would look quite normal.

Zhong Chengshuo smelled like he was marinated in shower gel, and his skin still had a pink color from excessive washing. He was dressed like he was going on a wild adventure into the wilderness. He had a short knife, flashlight, and compass hanging from his waist. In addition to the neatly packed mountaineering backpack, he also carried two neatly arranged duffel bags.

In one of the duffle bags, the outline of disinfectant was clearly protruding, and there was a plush ball from a nightcap exposed from the little mouth of the bag.

Unlike the suspected camper, Yin Ren was equally opposite, as he looked completely unprepared.

This guy was the most excessive. He only brought a change of clothes and very little cleaning supplies. The rest of his luggage space was given to various foods and his tablet. He was wearing a t-shirt that had the words “Most Troublesome”. She didn’t know where he picked this up from.

Lu Xiaohe subconsciously crossed her arms and blocked the writing on her shirt.

“Huang Jin, leave your guitar for me. Zhong Chengshuo, your compass is useless in people’s minds, and there’s no need to bring disinfectant… Yin Ren, are you sure you want to bring so much food? In case things change, they will not come in handy.”

Yin Ren replied solemnly, “I’m sure.”

Ge Tingting stared at the subtitles on the phone screen. Seeing as she hadn’t been named, the reliable young girl raised her head proudly.

Lu Xiaohe looked at her team members with melancholy and silently gave Ge Tingting a hug.

“Inside the Archive, people’s metabolisms are much slower than outside. In theory, you can survive for a long time without eating or drinking, but in order to ensure you have plenty of energy, Shian has prepared a suitable amount of food, water, and water-collection equipment,” Lu Xiaohe numbly explained.

“When you enter the Archive, you must never act separately for more than an hour. Do not eat or drink anything inside. The most important thing is that you should try to get enough sleep and make sure you’re clear-headed.”

“There may be some terrifying scenes in Guo Laifu’s Archive, and even monsters will appear, but remember, those are all things in his mind, not real evil things or people. In theory, you won’t be in danger. I’ll follow up and contact you throughout the process, so there’s no need to worry.”

“This girl is too young.” Huang Jin reluctantly put down the guitar and pointed to Ge Tingting. “It’s not good to take her in.”

Suddenly, in his vision, Ge Tingting’s body flew over showing the text: [In terms of qualification, I’m your senior and I will be 16 soon.]

“You see. She’s not even 16 yet.” Huang Jin continued faintly. “Give up. I’m not calling you senior.”

Ge Tingting: “?!”

She pointed to Huang Jin in shock and then to the text translated on the screen. She then looked at Lu Xiaohe helplessly with her eyes.

Lu Xiaohe rubbed her temples. “Ge Tingting and Huang Jin both have special abilities and are naturally resistant to human influence… As for personal safety, there’s no need to worry.”

She took out four wristbands and narrowed her eyes at Zhong Chengshuo and Yin Ren.

“You have to wear this.”

Zhong Chengshuo frowned. “What’s this?”

“It’s used for tracking and to monitor your physical condition.” Lu Xiaohe clapped her hands without explaining much. “Okay, ready to go?”

Five minutes later, the elevator stopped on the familiar medical examination floor.

Sure enough, it was the black door during the entry exam. It was moved to the opposite side of the elevator door, but it was still closed tightly.

As on the day of the entry examination, the black door exuded a strong attraction, pulling Yin Ren’s attention like a whirlpool. Zhong Chengshuo and Ge Tingting looked confused. Only Huang Jin looked in the direction of the black door, not knowing what he was seeing.

Who would have thought that Shian was so unethical that they would use a Class A level anomaly as a test for newcomers? If he had opened the black door on the day of the entry exam… according to the information of the “Archive”, he would probably crash into a dark, one-square-meter room and get a bad review for “dying”.

Now too, it was better to pretend that he didn’t see anything.

Yin Ren turned his gaze away speechlessly and looked at the staff not far away. Lu Xiaohe was already on standby in front of the equipment, so it was Fang Yuanyuan who came to send them off.

The woman smiled sweetly as she held a syringe in her hand. The syringe contained half a tube of light-yellow liquid; most likely Guo Laifu’s cerebrospinal fluid.

“Not bad. Not long after you joined, you have such results.” She glanced at Ge Tingting and Huang Jin meaningfully. “Unit 9 sure is efficient, managing to grab new teammates when you go out and solve cases.”

As she spoke, she quickly walked to the front of the black door.

Fang Yuanyuan didn’t seem to be able to see the black door clearly—she fumbled on the door for a while and finally found the position of the keyhole. She inserted the syringe into the keyhole and quickly injected the cerebrospinal fluid into it.

There was a strange twisting sound from behind the black door, like someone was desperately squeezing something into a pulp. The sticky, distorted sound became clearer, and the color of the black door became deeper, almost turning into a rectangle-shaped black hole.

Yin Ren had to exert a lot of self-control in order to not look at it.

“Click.”

The author has something to say:

I feel that everyone may have forgotten Kong Wanqing. Let’s review the past—this is the unlucky guy who tried to poach Yin Ren in Feng Qi’s case and had his 10 ghosts killed by King Yama. (?

——————

Xiao Zhong: I like him, but everything is under control……

Xiao Yin: I care about him very, very much (even feeling a bit distressed), but this is all part of my wise plan!

……Perhaps this is the self-confidence of a fool in love!