Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 146 The Distortion of Human Nature and the Deterioration of Morality
The next day. In the company.

Liu Shuai grabbed an “empty” bottle, checking it from left to right, up and down. Qili at the opposite looked at Liu Shuai, the weirdo. He dared not to ask, so he pretended to be busy at work.

“What’s this?” Five minutes later, Liu Shuai finally could not hold himself back. He looked at Hao Ning and asked.

“You couldn’t see again?” Hao Ning replied. He sat next to Liu Shuai. He thought for a second and whispered, “Oh, the borrowed power in my body could be kept for several days already, but the power Zhou Yuan injected into your body two days ago couldn’t be kept by you. Every dog has its day…” Hao Ning laughed, looking at Liu Shuai.

“You really shouldn’t be so happy.” Liu Shuai said disapprovingly. “Your power is useless. Can you exchange money with your power? Can you exchange food with your power? Can you establish a Kung Fu center and have followers with your power? You can’t get a penny with your power. You have to work every day. And you even grudged to pay your Porsche’s insurance.”

“That’s because I don’t want to pay!” The saying was true that every dog had its day. The fact Hao Ning had sighed with mixed feelings last night was mentioned again. The hurts doubled. Hao Ning felt a little unhappy in his heart but he didn’t want to admit it. He said, “With my Kung Fu, I can be a bodyguard or something like that. I will be No. 1 in the world…”

“Ha, ha, ha, upon the borrowed power that could defeat Hong Hai’er, you just wanted to be a bodyguard?” Liu Shuai looked at Hao Ning disdainfully. He continued to say, “You don’t focus on your work in this early morning but show me this thing. What do you mean? And, can you tell me what happened on earth to Long Fei at your place last night?”

“Well,” In a sudden, Hao Ning didn’t know how to explain the relationships among ring, small ball, Life and Death Charms, Long Fei and Yufei. As he was thinking about how to start, Zhou Yuan’s low-pitched voice came to his ears:

“Are you out of your mind? Why did you take this kind of thing to the company?”

“What happened?” Liu Shuai and Hao Ning turned their heads at the same time, asking. Liu Shuai did not know what it was in the bottle while Hao Ning was wondering why this thing could not be taken to the company.

“Come with me.” Zhou Yuan grabbed the bottle into her pocket, pulling them into the meeting room hurriedly.

“Where did it come from? Who did this disgusting thing?” Zhou Yuan put the bottle on the table as he was sitting down, questioning the two.

Liu Shuai did not know what it was in the bottle. When he heard the word “disgusting”, he pointed to Hao Ning with justice in his heart and said, “Him. Yes. It was he who did all of the things!”

“Go away!” Hao Ning stared at Liu Shuai, saying without any hesitation. Then he turned to Zhou Yuan and said, “What’s the matter?”

“What’s the matter?” Zhou Yuan looked at Hao Ning, disappointedly. “I thought you are a good man, but actually, you are not so good. It is the distortion of human nature and the deterioration of morality.”

“What do you mean? A good man or a bad man?” Hao Ning did not know what to say in a sudden. He looked at Zhou Yuan, saying word by word, “Are you pretending to be a moral model? If you have something to say, just say it. If not, go away! Don’t pretend to be the host of Approaching Science.”

“How dare you to blame me like that? I want to ask you…” Zhou Yuan still spoke in the same tone. “Whose soul did you tear apart and put into this bottle?”

“What?” After hearing what Zhou Yuan said, Liu Shuai sat a little further from the bottle, hiding behind Zhou Yuan. He said, “Zhou Yuan, has Hao Ning been blackened? He had been a little abnormal since he passed out that night. He wanted to blackmail a Porsche from Zhe yesterday. Can you tell me what’s wrong with today’s people?”

“You shut up. ” Hao Ning knew that the two misunderstood him. It was himself to be blamed because he did not explain clearly. He said with a sigh, “The broken soul in the bottle…” Hao Ning also did not know how to describe the broken soul as the liquid in the bottle. So, he said, “I did break it.”

“Oh, my God. ” Liu Shuai thought it was a joke at first place, so he pretended to hide behind Zhou Yuan. His face turned pale after hearing what Hao Ning said. He said, “Hao Ning, what did you do?”

“Listen to me. It did not look like what you saw.” Hao Ning posed a gesture to calm down Liu Shuai. He continued to say, “About the soul, how can I start? Let me start from the ring. Last night, Long Fei and I studied the ring for a long time and finally, I could use it…”

Then Hao Ning described briefly to them how he had used the ring throng Kung Fu “Life and Death Charms”.

“Later, when we made the stool into powder through the Soul Cutter, we heard somebody’s voice in the house. The person only said “Err?” and then made no more sounds.” Said Hao Ning seriously. “It was that time Long Fei and I realized that we might have been spied.”

“Spied? Why?” Zhou Yuan lost himself for a moment.

“Are you fool? An innocent and talented person may be convicted of guilt due to his treasure!” Liu Shuai patted his head and became serious, saying, “There were so many magic weapons in Hao Ning’s house. Hao Ning didn’t know how to use them. But they were treasures to those who could use them.”

“No, you are wrong. “Zhou Yuan shook his head. He thought deeply and said, “I already have wrapped up them with seals through the Virtualised reality. Nobody can find them except us. How could you be spied? — Liu Shuai, do you think I am too silly to notice these details?”

“Well…” Liu Shuai never expected Zhou Yuan to think things so thoroughly. “Was there something wrong with your seals… OK, OK, I believe your power. Was it possible the things leaked?”

“Improbable. Those persons had become ashes. ” Zhou Yuan analyzed and shook his head.

“Was it possible that it had been done by Nezha?” Hao Ning heard somebody said so.

“Also improbable. At that night, Nezha was very pious to you.” Liu Shuai vetoed Hao Ning’s guess directly.

“What happened then?” Zhou Yuan continued to ask as he saw nobody got the answer. “You just said what happened to Long Fei?”

“Long Fei…” Hao Ning thought for a minute, sighing. “After I tore apart the unknown imp through the Life and Death Charms to ignite the Soul Cutter…” Hao Ning pointed at the flashing lights in the bottle. “I went into the room again. The room was as cold as an ice house.”

“Of course, it was. After all, you played your power in a reverse way.” Liu Shuai nodded, adding, “What you did had any connection with Long Fei?”

“Long Fei recalled seeing Yufei for the first time in Yufei’s dormitory. When Long Fei distinguished Yufei’s Spirit Disintegrates, he also found the room cold like that one.” Hao Ning said it finally. Seeing Liu Shuai and Zhou Yuan getting clear from confusion to clarity and then to shock in their eyes, Hao Ning nodded. “Yes, we all ignored the sentence Long Fei said — “the whole dormitory was as cold as an ice house”. We thought he was describing his mood, actually, he was describing the actual temperature in the room.”

“You mean, Yufei was torn apart by the Soul Cutter?” Liu Shuai had the answer in his mind actually, but he still asked.

“Long Fei had left last night. I thought he had gone to Qingbei University. I thought it for a whole night. It was highly possible that I was right. “Hao Ning frowned and explained. “The imps played the Soul Cutter to tear apart Yufei’s body. Then they used those strange gloves to draw out Yufei’s soul… In this way, they didn’t need to make a wish, nor to bewitch him. They even didn’t need to appear in front of him…” Hao Ning recalled the details of that night. Long Fei and he stood on the balcony with all doors and windows closed that night. Those two small things flew into the living room smoothly. It seemed that they could fly through walls.

“Oh… How can I say? Why was Long Fei so persistent about a dead mortal?” Zhou Yuan sighed. “I used to think that the Immortals are high-spirit, emotionless and lustless.”

“I think it was the reverse shell-breaking complex.” Liu Shuai looked at the empty bottle and fell into thinking. “After shells are broken, chickens and ducklings identify the first creature they see as their mother. This is the forward shell-breaking complex. According to this, Long Fei might have a reverse shell-breaking complex to his first life he empowered. Also, because Yufei came from a poor family and his parents had passed away long ago, he had a deeper such complex.”

“I remembered that you had asked me a question.” Hao Ning looked at Zhou Yuan. “Why do people live. As a matter of fact, we can think about this. Why does Long Fei live? His incense was few over the past years, but he was still alive. He had no strong desire for money. His desire for a spell only demonstrated that he envied it. Or maybe in the past, Yufei was his pillar in his heart. I couldn’t understand how an Immortal thought of the lives born from them. Or maybe, Avalokitesvara had sent out many children to others, and she sees through everything. As Long Fei is a not-much-reliable Immortal, his emotion to Yufei was just like that of parents to their children in the secular world.”

“Long Fei was an exception. There were many Immortals who treated their kids…” Liu Shuai lowered his head and said, “not that reliable.”

“Liu Shuai, as for what you thought, maybe there was something else in it…” Hao Ning looked at Liu Shuai. He knew Liu Shuai was missing Zhang Quan at that time. He had wanted to say something to comfort Liu Shuai, but when it was on the tip of his tongue, he changed, “Forget it. Even an upright official finds it hard to settle a family quarrel. So, leave it to themselves.”

“So, was that Long Fei’s trip to Qingbei University not just for studying the Soul Cutter?” Zhou Yuan continued to say.

“Well, yes. I almost forgot the most important thing due to your interruption.” Hao Ning patted his thigh and said nervously. “After Long Fei knew the whole thing, he was sure that somebody else killed Yufei. He wanted to revenge.”

“Somebody else?” Liu Shuai made himself clear from his memory. He thought the whole thing carefully, then suddenly realized, “Yes, Chen Busheng only poisoned Yufei. And the poison had been dissolved by Long Fei. Yufei’s death was actually caused by the dissipation of his soul. The whole thing had nothing to do with the Soul Cutter or the mortal Chen Busheng. It should be done by somebody else. If the guess was right, Long Fei would be in trouble. If he went back to investigate the whole thing, he might not be powerful enough to defeat the “somebody else”.”

Liu Shuai spoke out the thing Hao Ning concerned the most finally. Hao Ning had hoped that Liu Shuai could have said something like “Long Fei was powerful enough to defeat them” or “They couldn’t hurt him”. It seemed that he was deceiving himself at that time. Hao Ning sighed and said, “Will Long Fei be in a grave challenge this time?”