Chapter Fifty-Five: Mountain Rain about to Fall

The复苏 of a vengeful ghost is always the most urgent matter for a ghost-controller. Bargaining with ghosts means bearing the risk of being swallowed up by them at any moment, which is entirely reasonable.

Returning to the villa, Shen Lin sealed away the ghost staircase in his hand, then walked back to the living room to take a short nap.

Days of consecutive incidents and running about had left him with a sense of exhaustion. It was not a physical fatigue, but one emanating from deep within his psyche, a weariness from the inside out.

Resolving incidents required intense mental concentration, and playing chess against vengeful ghosts meant a single misstep would result in total defeat. Accompanied by the awakening of the ghost-phase, Shen Lin's body had reached a certain peak, and he could no longer afford any further depletion.

With his eyes closed in deep contemplation, Shen Lin pondered everything.

Vengeful ghosts varied from person to person; different ghosts possessed different methods of utilization in the hands of different individuals.

In this world of ghostly awakening, various people used various methods to delay their awakening or become anomalous beings.

The most typical example was Yang Jian. He had employed extreme methods, using partial information obtained from a deal with the Parchment as his bargaining chip. He bound a second ghost and achieved the state of a "dead machine" through several means, ultimately becoming an anomalous entity.

Then there was Ye Zhen, nominally the number one ghost controller in Asia. He had once almost crushed Yang Jian in a head-on clash when Yang was holding a ghost-cutting saber and had achieved the dead-machine state; if not for the overwhelming power of the coffin nail, Ye Zhen would not have lost.

The individual case of this chuni young man was extremely special and irreproducible.

Ye Zhen's core vengeful ghost was the Scapegoat, a very special entity capable of transferring Ye Zhen's injuries, awakening progress, and everything else to someone else, forcing them to die in his stead.

Thus, Ye Zhen became an anomalous entity devoid of any fear of ghostly awakening, truly deserving of the title of Asia's premier ghost controller.

Not everyone was fortunate enough to encounter a Scapegoat; at least, Shen Lin did not possess such good luck.

The limitations of the ghost-phase itself were immense. The foundation of forming a phase was a ghost that had already awakened; it had no means of dealing with unawakened ghosts bound by controllers.

The most extraordinary case was Old Qin, the guardian of the headquarters.

A remnant from the tail end of the Republic era, he had caught its very final moments. He was a natural anomaly, someone whose bound ghost was already in a dead-machine state from his mother's womb, fearing no awakening—a method that could not be replicated.

There were simply too many powerhouses in this world of ghostly awakening, and everyone's methods for becoming anomalies or delaying awakening varied.

Everyone had their own path, one that others could not copy.

Shen Lin was deeply aware of this, and he needed to forge his own path.

There were several ways to achieve this. One was to deal with Wang Xiaoming to secure a quota from headquarters for binding a second ghost.

This matter should still be considered confidential within headquarters. Ever since the first fellow who, by a twist of fate, managed to bind a second ghost appeared, Wang Xiaoming had tirelessly pursued research in this direction.

Currently, the success rate should be around forty percent. This success rate was not low, one might even call it quite high, and it was still undergoing secret experimentation.

Shen Lin had no opportunity to touch this experiment; he could not openly negotiate this with headquarters, which required long-term planning.

Another option was that eerie bus. The ghost bus possessed the ability to suppress ghostly awakening; the longer one stayed on it, and the longer the ghost remained dormant, the more sufficient time it would grant him to plot all of this.

Alternatively, he could trade with the Ghost Cabinet or the Parchment. Shen Lin directly dismissed this idea. He had no intention of coming into conflict with Yang Jian—putting aside whether he could win or not, the secrets behind Yang Jian alone were enough to crush him.

No one knew whether that old father of his, whose life or death remained unknown, was lurking in the shadows.

He had originally thought the world finally had a grassroots self-made man, only to find out that you, big-eyed Yang Jian, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, were also a second-generation ghost scion.

Shen Lin ultimately chose the first path: trading with headquarters.

This was understandable. When it came to binding a second ghost and how to do it, he had absolutely no clue at all.

Even a favored son of heaven like little Yang needed the help of a transaction with the Parchment to bind the Headless Ghost Shadow. Shen Lin did not believe he could pull it off single-handedly; that was unrealistic.

Forty percent was far better than zero percent.

Trading with headquarters had to be done gradually. He needed to subtly hint at certain things to them, such as his impending ghostly awakening, and let headquarters proactively propose the experimental plan for binding a second ghost.

These matters needed to be completed within half a month. He only had half a month.

The arrival of night allowed Shen Lin's spirits to slowly recover. His current physique was better suited to dim environments, which was by no means a good omen—every aspect signaled that he was looking less and less like a living human.

The surging of the ghost-phase temporarily subsided, and Shen Lin could feel the bloodthirsty desire hidden beneath that calm surface.

This was the calm before the storm.

For the next half month, barring any accidents, he would no longer use any ghostly abilities. He needed to buy time for his plan.

The night fell into deep silence. In places where even the moonlight could not reach, the curtains slowly pulled back on a turbulent undercurrent.

The usually peaceful and serene Shanshui Residential Area welcomed two uninvited guests as night approached. Both were around thirty-some years old; one was sloppy and looked indolent all over, while the other was different from ordinary people. In this early spring season, he wrapped himself tightly, leaving only a slit for his eyes to find his way.

These were clearly no kindly folk, and coming here near nightfall was certainly not with the intention of visiting relatives and friends.

"Is this the place?" A hoarse voice sounded, very low and carrying a strange echo of its own, not resembling a sound a normal human could make.

The sloppy middle-aged man beside him seemed long used to it. He casually pulled out a cigarette, lit it, took two puffs, and nodded.

"This is it. The residential community where they originally lived was sealed off due to the Class-A Mother Ghost incident and hasn't been unsealed yet. This Shen Lin has a rich-second-generation friend who settled all of them right here," Qian Bojun replied.

The information was naturally confirmed. Whether through the data of the Circle or their own investigations, there would be no mistakes. This Shen Lin lived right here; if they really wanted to dissect it, they could even map out his house number and daily routine with absolute clarity.

Where there were people, there were naturally cliques, just as countless factions were strictly stratified; ghost controllers likewise had cliques.

These cliques were simply divided into two categories: civilian and official.

The official one was straightforward: the ghost controller headquarters bearing the title of international police, an organization established by several top countries across the globe with branches in every continent.

The civilian side was more complex, mostly consisting of novitiate ghost controllers in groups of three or five—mere child's play that amounted to nothing substantial.

There were two relatively famous civilian ghost controller organizations.

One was the Lingyi Forum, administered by Asia's premier ghost controller, Ye Zhen. It was primarily loose, and the chuni youth mostly just wanted to experience the feeling of being a boss. The Lingyi Forum itself governed only a single city, and its ambitions weren't that grand.

The other was a ghost controller organization called the Circle, whose president was Asia's second-ranked ghost controller, Fang Shiming.

The factions within the Circle were relatively complex. Aside from several core figures, it also included quite a few ghost controllers from headquarters. Or rather, the Circle's ambitions were huge; Fang Shiming was using his own influence to gradually sway headquarters bit by bit.

This was the fundamental difference between Fang Shiming and Ye Zhen.

Fang Shiming's ambition was immense, shockingly so. From his continuous co-opting of headquarters ghost controllers to pushing Jiang Shangbai to become the Circle's spokesperson at headquarters, and daring to threaten headquarters several times, it was not hard to perceive what Fang Shiming was plotting.

Because he controlled power, he wanted to be the biggest one; this was entirely reasonable.

Regarding the Shen Lin incident, the Circle practiced their consistent, hardline style: if you can't control it, eliminate it. They had dared to finish off Yang Jian when he was at the very zenith of his power; what did a mere Shen Lin amount to?

Now that Jiang Shangbai had come into conflict with Shen Lin and they had fought to the death, attempting to recruit Shen Lin had become impossible.

Unless they were willing to abandon Jiang Shangbai, which was obviously even more impossible.

To the Circle, Shen Lin was a potential enemy who had yet to grow up.

Since they would be adversaries sooner or later, they would eliminate him before he grew up.

"Heh, a figure of such rising prominence at headquarters... Aren't you afraid headquarters will flip out if you take him down?" Zhao Ziliang's hoarse voice seemed to contain a hint of laughter, which, paired with his bundled-up attire, made people feel somewhat creeped out.

Qian Bojun spread his hands, appearing rather unconcerned, as if this matter was merely a trivial affair to them.

"On the issue of supplies, headquarters has repeatedly made things difficult for us in the Circle. President Fang's meaning is that this time we need to do it with a big bang. We don't mind making a huge commotion for headquarters to see, just to let them know our attitude."

"Killing a chicken to scare the monkeys?" Zhao Ziliang stated bluntly.

"Startle the snake by beating the grass!" Qian Bojun sneered.

In Qian Bojun's view, this Shen Lin was merely an unlucky fellow pushed to the forefront. The Circle needed someone who barely received attention at headquarters and had no backing forces behind him. The conflict between Shen Lin and Jiang Shangbai had timely delivered him right to the Circle's doorstep.

To the Circle, this was just a minor character they could pinch to death at will, yet they wanted to put on a grand show for headquarters to witness.

"The Dongchuan City incident just concluded. The moles we planted inside headquarters managed to obtain a portion of the operational records. This Shen Lin seemed to have suffered quite a heavy blow during the incident, and right now is precisely his weakest moment."

"Should I say your Circle is resourceful, or terrifying? You can even get your hands on such operational records?" Zhao Ziliang remarked.

"Either is fine. We never mind hearing praise, and furthermore, we are never stingy when it comes to friends." Qian Bojun laughed wildly, resembling a fox whose plot was about to succeed.

"Captain Jiang once crossed paths with this Shen Lin. One thing that can be made clear is that he masters a certain type of very special ghost domain. It's been roughly half a month since then; in such a short time, he most likely hasn't mastered the ability of a second ghost. Do you have confidence in settling this?"

"The ability of a ghost domain is extremely tricky, after all, it's one of the abilities explicitly marked in the ghost files. If it isn't restricted, I won't be able to do a thing to him."

Zhao Ziliang was very frank, neither overly exaggerating nor overly modest. The ability of a ghost domain was notorious for being troublesome; such an ability caused far more trouble for ghost controllers than vengeful ghosts themselves.

"Since we discovered it early on, naturally we couldn't possibly make no preparations."