Ghost Compendium

"Hey, have you heard? Things in the Capital City seem a bit unsettled recently?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know about the twenty-five forbidden areas, right?"

"Of course I do! What Awakened in the Capital City doesn't know about those long-standing supernatural incidents? They are divided into twenty-five areas, practically like a death sentence if you go in!"

"Let me tell you quietly, there are only ten forbidden areas left now!"

"Huh? Where did the other fifteen go? Have the anomalies disappeared? Surely they weren't just cleansed away!"

"..."

In these few days, similar conversations began to spread widely at the official headquarters.

Every Awakened who knew even a bit of reliable information or had investigated showed a look of disbelief, all wanting to seek confirmation from others.

In the end, they all came to one conclusion—the long-standing supernatural incidents have indeed disappeared one after another!

At this moment, Zodiac Rabbit was sitting in a meeting room on a certain floor at headquarters, looking up at the ten empty seats and reporting the matter.

Sitting next to her was a woman with dazed eyes, her big wavy hairstyle covering everything but her eyes under a black trench coat.

In addition, there were six figures projected virtually into the empty seats, among them was Minister Long's familiar image playing with a magic cube while wearing an eye patch, and Sister Yang sitting arrogantly with a murderous look, legs crossed.

"What's the use of these monthly meetings, huh? Brother Long and Little Ms. Yang are in Chengyang City, Rabbit and Sister She are in the Capital City, the three of us are abroad, and we can't help each other!"

A man wearing a Hawaiian-style casual short-sleeve and beach shorts said helplessly via virtual projection.

The other two dressed similarly to him nodded in agreement.

Zodiac Rabbit couldn't hold it in, she slammed the table and stood up angrily, "Wild Bull! Fifteen forbidden areas have disappeared, give me some reaction! Help me figure out what's going on!"

"We are abroad right now, how could this be related to us..."

"Don't say that, really, don't say it, it's quite related." Minister Long suddenly interrupted, "The expert who cleansed the forbidden areas was the one I recommended to replace you guys, feeling a bit tense now?"

With these words, the entire meeting room fell eerily silent.

A moment later, even though Zodiac Ox was sitting by the seaside, he straightened up.

The two others abroad with him, Zodiac Chicken and Zodiac Horse, couldn't help but say:

"Brother Long... don't scare us, could it be that we go on a business trip and our positions disappear?"

"Not necessarily, the expert's Zodiac application has been submitted, probably next month you'll get a reply, think about it." Minister Long said with a grin.

Then he turned off his virtual projection, after all, he only wanted to know what Wu Ming was doing in the Capital City, now it seems his target is clearly busy working, so he felt relieved.

Seeing Minister Long exit the meeting, the three Zodiacs abroad quickly started winking and trying to dig information from Zodiac Rabbit.

They wanted to learn who the expert mentioned by Minister Long was.

They also had contact with those long-standing supernatural events, but at most, they rescued most of the survivors and couldn't truly cleanse the Fierce Ghosts within.

Moreover, from what Minister Long seemed to imply, all fifteen forbidden areas were cleansed by the same person?

But before Zodiac Rabbit could even start, Sister She lifted her tablet hidden in her clothes.

On it was a single line of text—"Among the Zodiacs, only Dragon can defeat him right now."

This sentence completely unsettled the three people outside.

"What the heck? Seriously!"

"Damn, another monster! How are we supposed to live?"

"Wait, Sister She, you're not referring to Shadow, are you?" Zodiac Rabbit said dumbfounded.

Initially, she thought it was some special situation that caused the forbidden areas to disappear, but it seemed like both Sister She's and Dragon's words were pointing to someone who left a strong impression on her.

After all, from two days ago, Zodiac Rabbit noticed that the highest-level Spiritual Power limitation she placed on Shadow had disappeared again.

Understanding his formidable power, she considered it as Shadow becoming stronger again.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't just that, this guy actually went and cleansed the forbidden areas one by one!?

"Rabbit, you should avoid contacting him temporarily, he has a strong aura of death, you'll be unlucky if you keep it up."

Sister She rapidly typed a message on her tablet, then turned it to show Zodiac Rabbit.

Everyone's expressions grew more serious, even the previously joking trio abroad.

They all knew Sister She's abilities; her eyes could always see many intangible things.

And the "aura of death" she mentioned would usually only appear on someone close to death, at least in past predictions; anyone Sister She ever said had an aura of death, none survived more than a month.

"No way... Shadow is that strong, wasn't it said only Brother Long could beat him? Why does he have an aura of death?" Zodiac Rabbit was utterly puzzled.

And to this, Sister She could only shake her head, indicating her uncertainty.

Normally, her premonitions were fragmented; she could only see a corner of the future, not the whole picture.

The previous prediction of Chengyang City's City Destruction catastrophe had been the clearest in recent years.

The only thing that puzzled both Zodiac Rabbit and Sister She was—why was Shadow so fixated on cleansing the Fierce Ghosts from the forbidden areas?!

......

While the Zodiacs were having their heated discussion, elsewhere outside a certain forbidden area—

"Achoo! Is someone secretly cursing me behind my back?" Wu Liang stepped out of a graveyard, sneezing and muttering to himself.

Thinking about how all the corpses in the graveyard earlier got up and seemed to want to have a life-or-death romance with him, Wu Liang couldn't help but shiver.

Could the Fierce Ghosts be cleansed, and these corpses still have him in mind?

Dusting off the bones still hanging on him and burying them back into the ground, he clasped his hands earnestly, "No offense intended, if you want to find love, go find the Black and White Impermanence, I'm at my limit here."

Walking out of the forbidden area's bounds, he circled around to the main road and saw the taxi parked not far away, he approached, opened the door, and got in.

As soon as he got in, the taxi ghost inexplicably asked, "Boss, how much longer are we going to be busy?"

"Hmm? Do you have any urgent matters?" Wu Liang asked curiously.

Unexpectedly, this guy scratched his head awkwardly, "Not really, just haven't been working much these days, not earning any money feels a bit off."

Bang—

Wu Liang smacked this guy on the head, speechless, "You've really started thinking of yourself as a human, huh?"

But then he retrieved the Tower Ghost's body from the Ghost Compendium and carefully examined its ability description, nodding in silent satisfaction.

{"Time Shift House: Any object without life signs placed inside the Tower Ghost can return to a previous state of itself"}

{"Currently can restore: 30 days ago"}

This way, he could find Zodiac Pig's whereabouts!

All his hard work these past days paid off, feeding this Tower Ghost twelve Fierce Ghost Fragments, and even three Red Robe Fragments!

He'd head back for a good night's sleep and set off at night to find Zodiac Pig and that bastard in the Promised Land!