Chapter 38: Interrogating the Specter

In the interrogation room, the young man slowly opened his eyes only after noticing someone had entered. His expression remained remarkably calm, as if he felt no anxiety whatsoever about what was to come.

Chu Tian walked in, pulled over a chair, set it down across from the man, and sat down with a thud. He looked at the man and said, "Let me introduce myself. My name is Chu Tian! I’m a haunted house owner. In my spare time, I enjoy catching ghosts, raising ghosts, and working part-time as a ghost messenger."

"Are you spouting nonsense?" The man looked at Chu Tian with a helpless expression. "I don't know who you people are, but this isn't a police station. Keeping me here is illegal detention. Today is Monday; if I don't go to work, my boss will call me soon! You should know that if they can't find me, they'll call the police! Besides, my friend, aren't you a bit too deep into your 'chuunibyou' fantasy? Ghosts don't exist in this world."

"If there are no ghosts, then what exactly are you?" Chu Tian asked, his gaze calm as he looked at the man. His eyes, shimmering with a faint blue light, made the man’s heart skip a beat.

"I advise you not to talk nonsense. Be careful, or I'll sue you for defamation! Help! Someone help, he's slandering me!" The man craned his neck and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"You won't shed tears until you see the coffin," Chu Tian said. The silver bracelet on his right wrist elongated and thickened, transforming into an exquisite chain like a silver spirit-serpent, which Chu Tian gripped firmly in his hand.

*Swish!*

Chu Tian swung hard, and the chain lashed out toward the man.

"Old Chu, no violent law enforcement!" Wang Dali, who had been watching from the doorway, quickly pushed the door open and hurried in.

However, the chain struck the man's physical form and passed straight through, as if it had latched onto something hidden deep within his body. The man’s attempt to raise his hands in defense froze, his expression turning rigid.

"This..."

Before the man could react, Chu Tian yanked the soul-locking chain back with a sharp tug. A weak soul, dressed in the coarse cloth garments of an ancient peasant, was ripped directly out of the man’s body.

"Now, tell me, if you aren't a ghost, what are you?" Chu Tian asked, looking at the apparition that had emerged.

"Holy crap, Old Chu, how did you do that?" Wang Dali stood there, dumbfounded. He knew that even the Taoist Priest Lin from the Maoshan sect had nearly exhausted his entire repertoire of secret techniques without success.

"Soul-snatching art," Chu Tian replied. "Do you want to learn it?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Wang Dali nodded vigorously, looking at Chu Tian with wide, expectant eyes.

"I'll teach you once you're dead," Chu Tian said seriously.

"Damn you!" Wang Dali’s eyes widened. What did he mean, teach him once he was dead? If he were dead, why would he need to learn this? To snatch his own soul? He wasn't that crazy.

"It can't be helped. An average person really can't learn this without dying once," Chu Tian shrugged.

"Then how did you learn it?" Wang Dali asked.

"And how do you know I haven't died once?" Chu Tian said in a low, eerie tone. Wang Dali felt the air suddenly grow much colder. He let out a nervous laugh and said, "Alright, since you've pulled this ghost out, Brother Chu, I'll have my men contain it, and then we'll go catch the others! I've already had my team tag all the other suspects."

"I'm afraid that won't work," Chu Tian said, glancing at the man whose soul had been extracted, who was now slumped over the table as if asleep. "If we destroy this ghost, what happens to this person?"

"This person... what's wrong with him?" Wang Dali walked over, checked the man's nose, and turned to Chu Tian with a look of shock. "He's dead? You killed him?"

"Since his soul was snatched out, his body is naturally dead," Chu Tian explained. "But as long as we put the soul back before the body suffers irreversible damage, he'll be fine. The problem is, Old Wang, I’ve pulled this ghost's soul out, but where is this man’s own soul? It's easy to destroy a ghost, but if we can't find his soul and put it back in time, his body will rot."

Upon hearing this, Wang Dali frantically raked his hands through his hair and looked at the ghost bound by the chain. "Speak! Where did you hide his soul?"

"I don't know." The ghost, now bound by the soul-locking chain, looked like a weak and helpless little rabbit. Weak, pathetic, but stubborn.

"Do you think the person in charge of the righteous Qi Alliance believes your ghost stories? Do you want to see if I'll blow you away with a shot?" Wang Dali said, pulling a wooden handgun from his jacket.

"Friendly reminder: guns can't kill ghosts. Especially wooden ones," Chu Tian said quietly.

"The wood used for this pistol is thirty-year-old lightning-struck peach wood. The pistol itself was blessed at the Great Buddha Temple. The bullets were hand-carved by a fifty-year-old virgin, and after they were made, they were soaked in black dog blood for three days!" Wang Dali pressed the gun against the ghost’s head and growled, "Tell me, do you think this shot will kill you or not?"

"It’s useless even if you kill me! He swapped with me willingly!" the ghost shrieked.

"Bullshit!" Wang Dali retorted. "You're an old ghost; what could you possibly have that would make him willing to give up his life to trade bodies with you? Tell me where you hid his soul!"

"It’s useless to tell you!" the ghost looked at Wang Dali and said, "Do you even dare to go to that place?"

"Speak!" Wang Dali demanded.

"I... I don't know either. We just escaped from inside it," the ghost whispered, lowering its head.

"Damn it... are you playing with me?" Wang Dali snapped.

"I really don't know. The gates to the Ghost Realm suddenly opened last night, and we were able to come out," the ghost said. "We saw many people who looked just like ghosts. We wanted to swap with them, they agreed, and so we stayed."

"So those people went into the Ghost Realm where you were staying?" Chu Tian asked.

"Yes." The ghost nodded. "We didn't force them; they did it of their own free will!"

"Are you still spewing ghost stories? Who would give up a good life to become a wandering soul?" Wang Dali scoffed.

"What exactly is that Ghost Realm?" Chu Tian asked.

"I don't know." The ghost shook its head. "We were all raised in the Ghost Realm by the Ancestors. We only know that every few hundred years, the gates open, and we get a chance to come out."

"Who are these Ancestors? And what kind of Ghost Realm is it?" Chu Tian pressed.

"I don't know. I really don't know anything else," the ghost shook its head. "I'm just an ordinary peasant. You should ask the scholar—yes, go ask the scholar! Mr. Liu knows a lot!"

"Mr. Liu?" Chu Tian looked at the ghost. "There was a Mr. Liu who escaped with you?"

"That's right!" the ghost said. "Go ask Mr. Liu! He knows everything!"