Chapter 47: Disciples of the Ghost Worship Cult

"Chu Tian, owner of a haunted house. You run the haunted house by day and hunt ghosts by night. I never expected you to keep a little ghost yourself."

A rather shrill woman's voice sounded somewhat grating in the empty underground parking garage.

"I really don't know whether you abhor ghosts... or if you love them?"

The parking garage lights flashed, and amidst the flickering illumination, a woman wearing a Lolita dress and a red wig materialized behind Chu Tian. Her right hand formed a knife-hand strike, thrusting directly at Chu Tian.

Chu Tian tilted his head slightly as her hand grazed past his neck. With one hand, he grabbed her wrist, bent forward, and directly hurled her through the air.

"She's actually a living human?" Upon physical contact, feeling the warmth of her body, Chu Tian realized something was amiss with his assailant.

"Not bad moves," the woman said, looking at Chu Tian as two daggers suddenly appeared in her hands.

Holding the daggers in a reverse grip, the woman charged at Chu Tian once more.

Her attacks fell like raindrops—ferocious and dense. While retreating and dodging, Chu Tian looked at the woman constantly pressing the attack and asked, "Miss, this should be our first time meeting, right? Why do you want to kill me?"

"As for the answer, I'll tell you after you're dead." A sickly, yandere-like smile played on the woman's face as her attacks grew even fiercer.

"If you're going to put it that way, then I'm going to have to counterattack!" Chu Tian said. As she swung the two daggers, whistling through the air and continuously slashing toward his neck, Chu Tian raised his long leg and kicked her straight in the stomach.

*Whoosh—*

The girl's body flew backward like a cannonball, slamming heavily into a Wuling mini-van.

*Puff—*

A mouthful of fresh blood directly sprayed from the girl's lips.

"Such a shameless sneak attack!" The girl glared at Chu Tian and said, "You actually pretended to be weak at first, making me lower my guard before you kicked."

"Uh... Is there any possibility that it's just because your legs aren't as long as mine?" Chu Tian looked at her and said.

"Ghost Shadow! Kill him!" the girl commanded. At that moment, the shadow beneath her feet scattered in all directions, causing Chu Tian's gaze to narrow.

A ghost!

This ghost was actually hiding within the girl's shadow.

No! Could it be that this girl was symbiotically linked with a ghost?

Having hunted ghosts for so long, Chu Tian had seen instances of ghost possession and ghost soul-seizure, but this was the first time he had ever witnessed someone in a symbiotic relationship with a ghost while maintaining the dominant position using the ghost's abilities.

Suddenly, from within the shadow at Chu Tian's feet, a pitch-black ghostly figure abruptly emerged, lunging like a blade toward his ankles.

"Ha!" Chu Tian leaped backward, and the soul-locking chain on his wrist instantly manifested, lashing out toward the ghostly shadow.

The shadow was instantly whipped apart like a splash of water.

Then, it reappeared right behind Chu Tian.

"The ghost shadow can merge into any shadow, and shadows cannot be killed," the Lolita girl declared. "Chu Tian, you're dead for sure today."

"Shadows indeed cannot be killed, but ghosts certainly can." Looking at the clinging shadow, Chu Tian watched as the soul-locking chain in his hand directly transformed into a ghost-slaying blade.

Before his promotion to Underworld Commander, dealing with this ghost shadow might genuinely have caused him some trouble.

After all, to deal with this shadow, one normally had to bind it with the soul-locking chain first.

But now...

Chu Tian gave a cold smile, violently thrusting the ghost-slaying blade down into the black shadow at his feet.

A shrill, piercing scream instantly echoed throughout the entire underground parking garage.

A look of utter shock immediately surfaced on the Lolita girl's face, and disbelief saturated her tone as she cried out, "How is this possible? How could you injure the ghost shadow? Even the people from the Shangshi Orthodox Qi Dao Alliance don't have the power to harm the ghost shadow."

"So noisy. Disperse!" Chu Tian shook the hand holding the ghost-slaying blade, and the screaming stopped abruptly. A strand of pure, black ghostly energy drifted up from the ground and was absorbed into Chu Tian's body.

"Such pure ghost power." Chu Tian's eyes lit up. This human-ghost symbiosis had actually purified the ghost's power countless times over. To Chu Tian, this thing was a supreme tonic.

Simultaneously, the Lolita girl coughed up another mouthful of blood. She suddenly sprang to her feet and turned to bolt toward the exit.

Seeing her movement, Chu Tian quickly gave chase. The ghost-slaying blade transformed back into the soul-locking chain, binding the girl securely.

"So, young lady, can you tell me your origins now?" Chu Tian asked leisurely, looking down at the girl lying at his feet.

"Don't think you've escaped disaster just because you caught me," the girl said viciously, glaring at Chu Tian. "Once a Ghost Hunting Order is issued, even if I fail today, others will come to kill you. You've been targeted by our Ghost Worshipping Sect. You're dead meat!"

"The Ghost Worshipping Sect?" Chu Tian raised an eyebrow. "What kind of chuunibyou cult is this?"

"You're the cult! Your whole family is a cult!" The girl grew anxious and snapped, "We are the Holy Sect!"

"Ah, right, cults always love calling themselves the Holy Sect or the Divine Sect," Chu Tian nodded, grabbing the soul-locking chain in one hand and dragging the girl upstairs.

Upon entering the apartment, he saw Chen Meng and Chu Meng'er lying on the sofa watching television.

"Yo, you're all home?" Chu Tian said as he pushed the girl into the room and closed the door, acting as natural as if he hadn't just been targeted in an assassination attempt downstairs.

"What's going on here?" Chen Meng asked curiously, looking at the girl. "Little Hua came upstairs earlier and said something was happening with you downstairs. Is this 'something'?"

"Knowing something was happening with me downstairs, you could still sit there watching TV?" Chu Tian asked.

"If even you couldn't handle it, me going down wouldn't have helped anyway," Chen Meng replied, standing up from the sofa, walking over to inspect the girl, and asking, "What's the deal with her?"

"No idea. She claims she's from the Ghost Worshipping Sect. Do you know this organization?" Chu Tian asked.

"The Ghost Worshipping Sect?" Hearing this, Chen Meng's tone rose slightly.

"You know it?" Chu Tian asked.

"Yeah, I've heard of it," Chen Meng nodded. "This organization is an officially recognized evil cult."

"Nonsense, we are the Holy Sect!" the girl argued defensively.

"Matters concerning ghosts and spirits are kept hidden from the ordinary populace, but there's no wall in the world that doesn't leak," Chen Meng explained. "So, there are always some people who discover the existence of ghosts, and the Ghost Worshipping Sect was founded by this group of people."

"Originally, founding a sect wouldn't be a big deal, and the state permits the existence of multiple religious beliefs. But this sect is called the Ghost Worshipping Sect, and they revere ghosts. Their doctrine states that since everyone must eventually die, it means the living will all eventually turn into ghosts. Therefore, rather than enduring the suffering of flesh and blood, it's better to become a ghost directly and achieve eternal life," Chen Meng elaborated.

"If that's the case, why do members of this cult still exist? Shouldn't they commit mass suicide and thus dissolve the sect?" Chu Tian asked, then cast a bizarre look at the girl. "Miss, it seems you aren't devout enough to your religious beliefs."

"Ahhh, you bastard, I'll bite you to death!" Upon hearing this, the girl completely broke down. Bound by the soul-locking chain like a caterpillar, she wriggled forward, trying to bite Chu Tian.