Chapter 37: The Ghost That Cannot Be Found!

Not ten minutes after hanging up the phone, a small off-road vehicle pulled up in front of Chu Tian’s shop. Wang Dali stepped out, dressed in a trench coat and styled so much like Nick Fury from the Avengers that he looked like a hard-boiled egg.

"Nice look today!" Chu Tian remarked, eyeing him. "Where’d you get the leather coat? Is that the Nick Fury special?"

"Brother, I’m really not in the mood for jokes," Wang Dali said with a bitter smile. "I came to ask for your help. The alarm at the Righteous Dao Alliance has been ringing since midnight last night—it’s practically screaming. We didn't sleep a wink, conducting searches all night, and by three or four in the morning, we were already reaching out to people like you for help."

"It’s that serious?" Chu Tian raised an eyebrow, his playful mood vanishing. He climbed into the vehicle. Behind the wheel sat a beautiful young woman dressed exactly like Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow—short hair, a tight leather suit, red lipstick, and a cold, detached demeanor.

One "Nick Fury," one "Black Widow"? Su Yang glanced at Wang Dali and thought, *Well, you guys certainly know how to have fun!*

"Give me the specifics," Chu Tian said to Wang Dali.

"The situation is far from optimistic," Wang Dali sighed.

"Are there that many ghosts running loose?" Su Yang asked.

"The number isn't the problem," Wang Dali replied, his eyes bloodshot and his face weary. "The problem is, we can’t find them!"

"Are they hiding that well?" Chu Tian was surprised. As the head of the Shang City Righteous Dao Alliance, Wang Dali commanded significant influence; the city’s supernatural community would all give him some face. If even he couldn't track them down, were they all powerful Ghost Kings?

"If they were Ghost Kings, it would be easier. I could just request reinforcements from the higher-ups to send in experts," Wang Dali explained. "But the issue is that these are just ordinary spirits. It’s just that... there are simply too many of them."

"How many?" Chu Tian asked.

"A conservative estimate? No fewer than three hundred!"

"Three hundred?" Chu Tian’s eyes widened.

"We aren't entirely empty-handed," Wang Dali said, rubbing his temples. "We do have one or two key targets, but... never mind. I’ll explain once we get there. It’s too complex to summarize in a few words."

"Alright." Chu Tian nodded, feeling his curiosity piqued by Wang Dali’s secrecy.

***

Soon, the trio arrived at an internet café. Wang Dali and his secretary led Chu Tian inside. Chu Tian’s memories of internet cafés were from years ago—dim, dilapidated rooms reeking of instant noodles, beer, sweat, and foot odor. This place, however, was clean, tidy, and even had a touch of high-tech flair.

"This is your office?" Chu Tian asked in surprise.

"A private property; the real base is downstairs," Wang Dali explained. "While our organization is official, we can't let the public know about our work, so we have to use a front to cover up anything that shouldn't be seen."

Wang Dali led Chu Tian into the basement of the café and unlocked a door leading further underground. Beyond it lay a silver corridor with an interrogation room off to the side. Inside sat a young man in a brown hoodie who had been taken into custody.

"He’s in there," Wang Dali said.

Chu Tian looked through the window at the man and asked, "Give me the details."

"There’s a ghost in him," Wang Dali said.

"A ghost?" Chu Tian was puzzled. He hadn't sensed anything amiss. As a Ghost Messenger, he would certainly have noticed if someone were possessed.

Chu Tian closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they glowed with a faint, ghostly blue light. *Ghost Messenger’s Sight!*

Under the intensity of his gaze, Chu Tian’s pupils contracted. Inside the young man, who appeared perfectly normal on the surface, was a bizarre phenomenon—a "soul within a soul." It was like a nut where someone had extracted the kernel without damaging the shell, only to replace it with a new one.

***

In Taoism, this is known as "soul replacement" or *duoshe*. But such a sophisticated technique usually required an ancient, long-cultivated spirit. The ghost inside this man was clearly just an ordinary wandering spirit; it lacked the power to perform such a feat.

Wang Dali continued his explanation. "After the alarms went off last night, we mobilized immediately. He was the first one we caught. He had an incredibly thick aura of ghostly energy, and he was acting dazed, almost like he had schizophrenia. At first, we thought it was simple possession, but standard exorcism methods were useless. We even brought in Daoist Priest Lin from the Shang City Maoshan sect, but that didn't work either. The sensors kept detecting a ghost, yet his emotional state became increasingly stable. Then, just as he looked like he’d been fully overtaken, the alarm on him suddenly... disappeared."

"Disappeared?" Chu Tian raised an eyebrow.

"And it wasn't just him," Wang Dali added. "The alarms at the other hundreds of locations in the city vanished at the same time."

"Are you suspecting that hundreds of people in Shang City have been silently... replaced?" Chu Tian asked.

"Isn't he the perfect example?" Wang Dali retorted. "I don't know what these ghosts are planning, but if they succeed in pulling this off, that’s hundreds of lives lost. If we hadn't known, that would be one thing, but now that the Righteous Dao Alliance knows, how can we just sit by and watch?"

"So, what do you want me to do?" Chu Tian asked.

"I want you to see if there’s a way to resolve this and drive these spirits out of their hosts," Wang Dali said.

"And then what?" Chu Tian sighed, looking at the young man. "Do you think the person will survive if we drive the ghost out? This man’s own soul is no longer in his body."

"What do you mean?" Wang Dali asked, disbelieving. When it came to matters of the soul, even he couldn't see as clearly as Chu Tian.

"This isn't simple possession. Perhaps 'usurpation' is a better term," Chu Tian said as he pushed open the door to the interrogation room. "And even 'usurpation' isn't quite right. Usually, that involves the host soul being consumed or merged. These ghosts have simply occupied the shells without devouring the original souls! This is quite interesting. Brother Wang, I’m going to have a chat with him."

With that, Chu Tian strode into the interrogation room.