Chapter 415: Chapter 379: Midnight Terror
Zheng Wujun is undergoing treatment, and Jia Liang also needs to have a series of physical examinations. Qin Zhixian and his researchers surrounded Sang Que, asking numerous questions, especially about how she placed a ghost inside a person.
Sang Que attributed all of it to the inherited skills of the Wushi branch. She is currently researching how to enable others, apart from herself, to master this skill.
Qin Zhixian and his team couldn’t get anything useful from Sang Que for the time being, so they let her rest while they tried to understand Jia Liang’s changes and collect relevant data.
Jia Liang’s Heart Lamp was strong, and there shouldn’t be any problems handling the Second Layer delivery ghost.
Upon leaving the laboratory, Zheng Xuan was waiting outside to drive Sang Que to the camp down the mountain to rest.
"How is Wu Jun?" Zheng Xuan was aware of Zheng Wujun’s selection and asked out of concern.
Sang Que sat in the passenger seat, checking the time to find it was already midnight.
"He failed the control."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Xuan sighed and did not ask further, instead changing the topic. "The next batch of recruits for the mobile unit will be arriving here soon, and official training starts on the first of next month. The training content will be similar to that of the army, with no gender distinctions, all training together for three arduous months. Are you ready?"
Having practiced martial arts since childhood, this kind of hardship posed no problem for Sang Que. Her curiosity lay with the structure of the mobile unit.
"To which department does the mobile unit belong? Where do you recruit the newcomers?"
Zheng Xuan glanced at Sang Que and laughed, "Don’t be fooled by my carefree demeanor. I’m a proper military academy graduate. The Taoist skills I know were learned at home from a young age. The mobile unit recruits are all selected from major military academies and various military forces. It’s similar to special units, directly under the military department, but more specialized and secret."
Sang Que’s eyes brightened, "Does that mean joining the mobile unit is equivalent to enlisting?"
"Yes, didn’t Professor Ye tell you?"
Sang Que shook her head, "Maybe he forgot. This is great, my mom won’t have to worry about me not finding a job and going hungry in the future."
Looks like she doesn’t need to participate in the Olympics.
Zheng Xuan took Sang Que to the camp prepared for the recruits of the mobile unit. Not many had reported in yet, so she had a four-person room to herself. Her luggage had been sent there beforehand.
Sang Que settled in briefly, intending to send a message to her mother to say she was safe but found there was no signal. So she washed her face and went to bed early.
She didn’t know how long she slept before hearing a rustling sound. Her body felt paralyzed like being pinned down by a ghost, cold, heavy, yet she could clearly perceive everything around her.
She seemed to ’see’ a monkey-like ghost shadow crouched on the opposite bed, tearing apart a chicken with force, blood splattering everywhere.
This scene immediately reminded Sang Que of that night in Black Mountain Village. She had gone out to summon He Shou’an’s soul at midnight and had seen a similar shadow eating chickens at the Li Family Widow’s chicken coop upon her return.
Sang Que struggled against the force pinning her down and sat up abruptly. Her neck was cool, and she looked at the opposite bed, finding no ghost shadow but a bed strewn with chicken feathers and blood.
The clock at the room door showed it was only four-thirty in the morning. The cold breeze from outside sent goosebumps all over Sang Que.
She was not afraid of Earth Ghosts, and even if confronted directly, she dared to go head-to-head with them.
But this particular Earth Ghost could be seen but not touched. If it exerted such mental pressure every night, it would indeed be troublesome.
Unable to sleep, Sang Que got up, rolled up the sheets on the opposite bed, took a shower in the bathroom, changed into her tracksuit and sneakers, and went for a run.
The camp was strictly managed, not allowing free access outside of designated times. Fortunately, the camp was large enough, with the dormitory buildings surrounding the central field, allowing Sang Que to exercise there.
After running a few laps and practicing some sets of martial arts, Sang Que went to the canteen for breakfast. The mobile unit members also ate there in the morning.
When Sang Que arrived, she overheard two chefs discussing a missing chicken from the backyard. The surveillance system had mysteriously cut off at the time, leading them to suspect something unclean in the camp and debating whether to notify the mobile unit.
Sang Que felt apologetic for this but was helpless. The Earth Ghost issue needed resolving for the missing chicken problems to be addressed; otherwise, they might worsen.
With nothing particular happening in the morning, Sang Que reported to Qin Zhixian’s lab as usual. Qin Zhixian handed her an ID card.
The moment Sang Que entered the lab, she smelled strong coffee mixed with ointment scents. Everyone had dark circles, either downing coffee or inhaling ointment to stay alert, not having slept all night.
Zheng Wujun had turned the corner, while Jia Liang cooperated with Qin Zhixian and the others in conducting research and gathering data, wires attached all over his body as he sat there, yawning from fatigue. Despite this, the ghost inside him remained well-behaved.
Seeing Sang Que, Qin Zhixian excitedly approached, "Sang Que, this is unbelievable. Jia Liang’s brainwaves can now operate at the same frequency as those ghosts without any instruments. He can see and even directly touch them."
"From our overnight tests, we discovered Jia Liang now possesses the ability to quickly calculate the shortest path on a map, bypassing obstacles to reach his destination—a sort of physical wall traversal that only high voltage could potentially stop."
"Moreover, he can give away any food he has to ghosts or people. If the ghost doesn’t accept, it becomes infected with a virus-like condition, quickly wilting. If accepted, a fifteen-word thank-you message is required within a minute; otherwise, they still become ill. It’s truly fascinating."
Sang Que rubbed her temple; wasn’t this just a delivery man finding his way to deliver food? Except, this delivery man had a large resentment, making the delivery cause illness.
After receiving the food, a fifteen-word positive review is mandatory within a minute?
Most ghosts couldn’t speak, making this impossible, so Jia Liang could weaken other ghosts using food.
If it were a human, not knowing about the fifteen-word review rule, regardless of accepting Jia Liang’s food or not, they’d also be weakened.
It truly is an interesting ability.
"Professor Qin, I have something to ask you. Can we talk aside?"
Sang Que invited Qin Zhixian outside.
"Did Professor Ye ever mention the story relay group? I’m curious if the institute has tracked the source yet? And how is the development of the firewall software going?"
Sang Que hoped to solve the Earth Ghost issue before mobile unit training commenced.
Qin Zhixian nodded. "This isn’t a major secret. The source remains elusive. It’s unlike other ghosts I’ve encountered, which exist based on electronic devices. This one can use the network to escape. I even tried capturing it with a local network trap, all in vain."
"Presently, we’re intensively monitoring domestic writers, proving effective, as related supernatural incidents rarely occur domestically now. Instead, foreign occurrences have spiked, suggesting the source could be within foreign networks."
"The firewall software development has been successful, though. The Imperial Capital Research Institute has a ghost residing in a computer; connecting that computer to others turns the ghost into a game. Installing the new software successfully defended against the game ghost. The software is currently in testing, likely to go live in a month or two."
The software’s success is worth celebrating, but in the short term, especially while at Lishi Mountain Base, the story relay group might not trouble her.
So there’s one option left, to find Black Tai Sui!
