Mysterious Awakening

Ultimately, no duel took place between Miles and Ouyang Tian.

Make no mistake, Ouyang Tian wasn’t a saint. The hard truth was that a conflict would have yielded no gain for either party.

Being a novice, Miles had some time to pass before the vengeful ghost would rise again, while he simply lacked the resources to keep up the fight.

It was a bitter pill to swallow to bide his fury, but it would spell his own doom if he couldn’t endure it.

“Shall we cease this quarrel here, then?” Miles, once stern-faced, abruptly burst into laughter.

Ouyang Tian’s countenance grew even more somber, “Laugh once more, I dare you.”

Miles responded, “I apologize, I didn’t mean to mock you. A past memory just sparked a moment of joy.”

Naturally, Ouyang Tian dismissed his seemingly insincere justification.

“I not only apologized for the previous incident but also gave you a chance to take a shot at me.”

The smile on Miles’s face waned, his eyes narrowing, “You could have blown my brains out, but chose not to. That’s not on me. Given the circumstances, firing at the first sign of movement was only logical with the vengeful ghost lurking nearby. I wasn’t specifically aiming at you.”

“Perhaps you were too at ease or hesitant to use your ghost power, which resulted in you getting shot. How else could a novice like me have managed to hit you?”

From the sidelines, Zhang Han chimed in, “Miles does make a point. The situation was indeed perilous. I was also tailing the ghost, but as we reached the alley’s bend, the ghost’s steps vanished. Your unexpected footfall almost led us into a confrontation.”

“Under such conditions, any sane individual would have acted preemptively. There’s no point waiting for the vengeful ghost to strike first.”

“Zhang Han, Ouyang Tian, Miles, all of you were tracking the ghost’s movement. Yet you all ended up colliding at a crossroads and nearly fought. Could the ghost have been intentionally attempting to create discord amongst us?”

Suddenly, Ye Jun, who had been standing off to the side, broke his silence, his face grim.

Although he bore a grudge against Miles, he understood that this was not the moment to lose composure.

A single misstep could give the vengeful ghost the upper hand, a mistake that could prove lethal.

“That could be the case,” Zhang Han conceded, nodding.

Miles, however, countered with composure, “I disagree. I believe the ghost’s true objective isn’t our deaths, at least not directly. Its ultimate aim is to liberate the spirits tethered within us. As ghost tamers, we are inextricably linked with our spirits, and there’s only one means of freeing the ghost within.”

“To kill us.”

“It’s plausible that this is the objective of the ghost haunting Huanggang Village.”

“Do you have any proof to support this?” inquired Ye Jun.

“No,” Miles admitted, “it’s purely conjecture.”

That said, he did have some reasons for his hypothesis. While he lay ill in bed, the ghost had infiltrated his room, not to kill him, but to open his golden box that held the headless ghost captive. His evidence was more than a little compelling.

“This is no trivial matter. Avoid making unfounded statements. Negligence can prove fatal,” Ouyang Tian warned sternly.

In truth, the physical harm Miles had inflicted was not the primary concern. It was the blow to his ego that stung more.

“Feel free to propose alternate theories. But before we proceed, I’d like to know, how many ghost tamers from your Cockroach Club have arrived here?” Miles asked.

“A total of six, five of them ghost tamers. Why do you ask?” Zhang Han answered.

Miles explained, “No particular reason. I was merely curious. There are only three of you here. Where are the other two ghost tamers? Didn’t they hear the gunfire in the village? Or did they hear but couldn’t reach us in time?”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Han, Ye Jun, and Ouyang Tian’s faces turned ashen.

“Damn, He Sheng and Zhang Yiming!” Zhang Han rose abruptly.

“We need to check on them.”

Without any further delay, they all bolted, rushing towards the location of He Sheng and Zhang Yiming.

Earlier, in order to expedite their investigation of the supernatural occurrences in Huanggang Village, they had decided to split into pairs, a tactic aimed at saving time.

However, they hadn’t foreseen the ferocity of the ghost and its willingness to make a appearance on their first night of arrival.

“It’s here.”

Shortly thereafter, they reached a rented dwelling.

The house lights were on, and they could hear the hysterical crying of a woman nearing her breaking point.

“Why is there a woman? I’ve never seen any female ghost tamers in the club,” Miles questioned, slowly approaching with a furrowed brow.

“That’s He Sheng’s mistress,” Zhang Han disclosed, “one of many, in fact. She happens to be the one he’s most fond of. He shelled out five million for her divorce. Assuming this paranormal event to be a non-issue, he brought her along.”

“Treating it like a vacation and bringing along a woman,” Miles shook his head, disappointed.

This ghost tamer called He Sheng, however, was exceedingly callous.

Typically, involving civilians in such affairs has a predictable outcome – death.

To him, the woman was nothing more than an instrument, her welfare of no consequence.

As they climbed the stairs, a body, or more precisely, a body-shaped outline, lay in the upstairs living room.

Completely encased in gold foil, the form resembled a cocoon. Standing nearby, a man in his thirties quietly smoked, his face grave.

“Zhang Yiming, where’s He Sheng?” Ye Jun inquired, approaching him.

In a subdued tone, Zhang Yiming answered, “He’s dead. The body on the floor is his.”

What?

At this revelation, their faces went through a rapid transformation.

Dead?

A ghost tamer, just… gone like that?

That was inconceivable. Even a frog would flail before dying.

Surely, He Sheng was superior to a frog.

He perished on the first day in Huanggang Village?

Without even a hint of struggle?

“What caused his death?” Ye Jun continued his interrogation.

Zhang Yiming took a long pull from his cigarette and replied, “I can’t say. By the time I got here, he was already dead. To ensure safety, I encased his body in gold foil, fearing that his ghost might escape. However, that’s just a hopeful conjecture. I suspect the ghost may no longer be inside.”

“Here are some photos I took post-mortem, to preclude any misinterpretation,” he added, passing over his phone.

The screen displayed a series of images capturing He Sheng post-death.

In the pictures, He Sheng was sprawled on the ground, his body stiff. His mouth was agape, nearly torn apart, and his chest was ripped open in a gruesome fashion. Blood spatter painted a chilling tableau.

“Before the incident, He Sheng was upstairs with the woman while I kept watch at night. I heard footsteps nearby and stepped out to investigate. I later realized those were a diversion to draw me away. Not long after, I heard a scream from within the house. It was his woman.”

Zhang Yiming gestured towards the woman huddled in a corner. She was unkempt, her attire disordered and torn.

Despite her disheveled appearance, the woman’s beauty was undeniably striking. Yet, pure terror now marred her visage, and her psyche seemed irreparably shattered. One could only speculate what horrifying spectacle she had witnessed.

“What did you uncover?” Zhang Han asked, drawing closer.

“Don’t bother. She’s petrified beyond coherence. We won’t extract any useful information from her,” Zhang Yiming advised, inhaling deeply from his cigarette, his face creased with concern.

“The ghost haunting Huanggang Village is not merely targeting people, but ghost tamers. Or to be more accurate, it’s seeking out the ghosts inside us. This mission feels quite peculiar. It’s not a typical paranormal event. I propose… we abort the mission.”

“We should leave Huanggang Village.”