The huge, old full-length mirror stood silently in the center of the room, covered by a thick layer of black cloth.
Yang Jian’s gaze swept over it without lingering. He picked up the coffin nail set to the side, along with the body bag containing that ghost, and left the room.
As for these ghosts he had “collected,” Yang Jian planned to find someone to custom-make several gold coffins. The gold body bags issued by headquarters were convenient to carry,
but when it came to imprisoning ghosts, the most reliable method was still to seal them completely inside heavy gold containers.
Yang Jian arrived at the safe room Zhang Wei’s father had previously built. It had now been emptied out and thoroughly divided by Yang Jian with gold into several narrow compartments. Some supernatural items he did not often use were all stored here. It could be considered Yang Jian’s little treasury.
For example, Wang Xiaoqiang’s ghost was currently kept inside a gold box about half a person tall.
It was not as if Yang Jian had never considered using these things to strengthen the supernatural abilities of his team members before, but the supernatural was always uncontrollable. He understood that better than anyone. Even with the same ghost handler and the same ghost, there was no guarantee that the process of controlling it from back then could be replicated. Once it failed, the result was death.
Unless there was absolutely no other choice, Yang Jian would never take the initiative to have his team members control a ghost, even if that ghost’s danger level was very low.
“Something like the coffin nail is more suitable to keep on me. As for this ghost released from the mirror, I’ll leave it here for now.”
After sealing the door of the safe room, he raised his head and glanced upward. The sunlight was bright and warm, yet when it fell on his face, there was only a hollow coldness. No emotion could be seen on his sinister, icy face; it was lifeless, as though he were a corpse.
When he returned to the villa, Jiang Yan had already gone to work after coming downstairs and not seeing Yang Jian. Zhang Wei had gone who knew where. In the entire villa, only he remained.
He went up to the second floor and entered his room, then took out a thick black notebook. Recorded inside were all the supernatural incidents he had experienced along the way.
Turning to a new page, Yang Jian began writing.
“Cousin Yang Yuan’s origins”
“The man in a Republic-era warlord’s uniform encountered within the black fire…”
“The figure within the golden light”
“The abnormality of the human-skin paper…”
He marked out several key points, making it easier to sort through them.
Regarding his cousin, the farthest point in time Yang Jian could trace her back to was the Republic era. Any earlier than that, and there were no records to verify. A person suspected to have lived from the Republic era until now was simply inconceivable. Even a ghost handler on Old Qin’s level faced aging and death. Just what sort of supernatural means had someone relied on to cross such a long span of time?
If someone truly could survive for so long, then their depth of understanding of the supernatural was probably far beyond the imagination of all contemporary ghost handlers. And yet his cousin looked no different from an ordinary person. She could even be considered somewhat neurotic.
Yang Jian absolutely did not believe in an immortality without cost. Otherwise, such a method would have long since been widely used by those people from the Republic era, rather than forcing them now to hide themselves because of the limitations of their lifespans.
As for his encounter within the black fire and the abnormality of the human-skin paper, this series of anomalies could be seen as a chain reaction caused by the same supernatural incident.
Yang Jian narrowed his eyes slightly. The tip of his pen tapped lightly on the words “Republic era.” “That man in a military uniform from the Republic period…”
An existence suspected to be capable of stepping into other timelines. Facing him, Yang Jian could even be said to have had no ability to fight back at all. The ghosts within his body had been suppressed completely, to the point that he could not even sense them.
All the clues pointed toward one era: the Republic era.
If he wanted to investigate the secrets hidden within, then Yang Jian would have to delve into certain supernatural places that had existed since the Republic era in search of clues.
“Caesar Hotel and that Ghost Post Office.”
Yang Jian had learned about the Ghost Post Office in Dahai City from a woman named Liu Qingqing. He did not know how to enter that place, and he also had no intention of rashly breaking into a supernatural location he had no intelligence on whatsoever.
The only place he understood relatively well was Caesar Hotel. The last time Yang Jian had entered it was when he and Zhang Han went in together to take away the hatchet.
That terrifying tall male corpse still left even the current Yang Jian with lingering fear. He simply did not know how its killing pattern would change now that it had lost the hatchet.
Closing the notebook, Yang Jian stood up.
A meal had to be eaten one bite at a time, and a road had to be walked one step at a time. Yang Jian planned to rest for a while. In any case, troublesome matters had already piled up like a mountain. As the saying went, when one had too many debts, one stopped worrying. Yang Jian was not in a hurry at this particular moment.
He picked up his phone and dialed Jiang Yan’s number.
“I’m coming to work.”
“Work? Ah?!…”
Before Jiang Yan could finish speaking, Yang Jian hung up.
The car drove along the empty roads of Dachang City. The shadow of the Hungry Ghost had yet to completely dissipate, and a small portion of the citizens had already moved away. The entire city looked somewhat desolate.
A faint red glow lingered around the car. Yang Jian planned to first take a look at the situation in Dachang City. Ever since returning from Dajing City, he had never truly stopped. Even during the New Year, he had been busy dealing with supernatural incidents.
Yang Jian drove the car, patrolling the city for abnormalities.
In truth, this was also one of the duties of a person in charge: to patrol the area under one’s jurisdiction and search for possible supernatural incidents. Not to mention that he was now already a captain.
Although headquarters had yet to issue the official documents, no one dared to compete with Yang Jian for the position of captain. Whether headquarters or the other captains, they had all tacitly acknowledged Yang Jian’s status.
This was a position Yang Jian had fought his way into step by step. No one dared to question him.
Looking at the city outside the car window, Yang Jian’s eyes shifted slightly.
“While ensuring observation… can I do it in one minute…”
The red light around the car grew increasingly dense. In the next instant, the car shot forward like an arrow released from a fully drawn bow.
A strange red line rushed out at a speed almost impossible for the naked eye to capture, so fast it was inconceivable.
Looking down from high above, that scarlet trajectory swept across the entirety of Dachang City. Between tall buildings, through dark alleys, across blind spots no one paid attention to—the red light surged past like a tide, missing nothing.
A taxi driver was waiting at a traffic light in boredom when his vision suddenly blurred. It seemed as if a streak of red light and a vague car shadow had flashed by. He had not even been able to see any trace of its taillights.
“Holy shit? Since when did a person like that appear in Dachang City? Even I, the God of Qiu Yue Mountain, couldn’t see his taillights!”
One minute passed very quickly. Yang Jian drove the car steadily to a stop in front of the main entrance of Shangtong Tower.
Very soon, a doorman ran over to open the car door for him.
“Good day, President Yang.”
“You know me?” Yang Jian tossed the keys to the doorman.
The doorman replied politely, “President Yang, the company has a rule. We must know who the boss here is.”
“The boss?”
Yang Jian walked into the company suspiciously. This was definitely Zhang Wei’s doing again.
Inside Shangtong Tower, people bustled about, creating a busy scene. Jiang Yan and the others had managed the place in perfect order, and everywhere carried an efficient, professional atmosphere.
Just as he stepped into the lobby, Yang Jian saw a rather arrogant figure from far away, directing a group of people as they moved things.