With Peng Ye fooling around and cracking jokes, the time in the car passed fairly pleasantly, and before long, the group arrived at the police station in the old urban district.
After Jiang Fang found the person in charge of the police station and showed him their relevant credentials, a police officer led them to the surveillance room. Since they didn’t know where those four people had gone afterward, they simply started by looking at the time and place where the four had initially gathered.
They had gotten out of the car on Chunhua Road in the old urban district. After that, the six people split into three groups and went their separate ways.
Their movements matched what was recorded in their WeChat chat history. Each group carried instruments with them, walking around and stopping from time to time to observe the surrounding area. There had been nothing unusual about their behavior.
Even after four in the afternoon, although they had stopped replying to messages in the group chat about their investigation progress, judging solely from the surveillance footage, there didn’t seem to be anything wrong.
Five people crowded around the tiny surveillance monitor. Xu Muchan watched the people on the screen looking around from side to side and suddenly said, “Go back a little. Let’s see what they were doing around four.”
The police officer rewound both surveillance feeds to four in the afternoon as Xu Muchan requested, then continued watching.
After the footage advanced another fifteen minutes, Xu Muchan pointed at the screen.
“Right here.”
Around 4:15, the four people successively took out their phones and stared at their screens for quite a long time. However, because the surveillance footage had been set to its fastest playback speed, when they first watched it, everyone assumed they had merely taken out their phones to glance at them.
Once the playback speed was returned to normal, they realized that the amount of time they spent staring at their phones was unusually long. Yet during this period, they hadn’t actually replied to any of the messages in the group chat.
“Their expressions are a little strange too,” Pei Rong said. “Look at him. For a moment, there was an expression of ecstatic joy on his face, but he quickly suppressed it. He even glanced warily at his companion beside him, as though he was afraid the other person would notice.”
His companion, however, was also focused on his own phone and didn’t notice anything unusual about him.
Afterward, the two put their phones away and continued their investigation as though nothing had happened. But once they had this discovery in mind, it became obvious that compared with earlier, they were clearly somewhat distracted while investigating.
“Can you zoom in on the surveillance footage? See if we can make out what was on their phones?” Jiang Fang asked.
The police officer operating the surveillance system shook his head. “This is as far as we can zoom. The surveillance cameras in the old urban district are relatively old and aren’t high-definition enough. And during the day, there’s glare on the phone screens, so you can’t see that level of detail.”
Hearing this, there was nothing they could do but continue watching.
According to the surveillance footage, the four people had split into pairs and wandered around distractedly for a while. Then one of them said something to the other before hurriedly leaving. After the first person left, the other lingered there for a moment before also choosing to leave.
Yan He asked, “Can we continue tracking where they went?”
The police officer said, “We can only track their movements through the surveillance cameras along the route. But if there are any blind spots, it may be difficult to continue tracking them.”
As he spoke, he pulled up the surveillance cameras along the route and began tracking their movements one by one.
The process was extremely time-consuming. An entire morning passed before the police officer finally sorted everything out. He brought up the surveillance footage for them to see and said, “We couldn’t track where these two went. They’re a little strange. They didn’t enter any surveillance blind spots, but after leaving Qiuhua Road, they simply disappeared.”
The police officer frowned, clearly finding the scene rather bizarre. He looked inquisitively at these young people who had all the proper paperwork but whose origins were unclear.
“The surveillance cameras weren’t broken either. They just suddenly disappeared like that.”
“These two are the outside reinforcements, right?” Xu Muchan asked discreetly.
Yan He nodded. “I know these two. They’re from Yinshan. People from Yinshan have some rather strange methods, so they actually aren’t very well regarded by the orthodox sects. In the past, they could even have been called unorthodox practitioners. But it’s a new era now. Everyone has registered with the Religious Association, and the association manages them collectively. Besides, they haven’t done anything harmful or illegal, so when we happen to run into them, we’ll still exchange greetings. They rarely interact with outsiders, though, so we don’t know much about them. If they disappeared from the surveillance footage out of thin air, they probably used some kind of method to deliberately conceal their movements because they didn’t want anyone to discover them.”
Under these circumstances, tracking their movements would be rather difficult.
“What about the other two?” Peng Ye asked.
Those two were technical personnel sent by the research institute. Like them, they were ordinary people and shouldn’t have any ability to disappear out of thin air.
The police officer said, “After the two split up, one went to the high-speed rail station, and the other went to the airport.”
Whether it was the airport or the high-speed rail station, as long as they had the person’s identity information, it would be relatively easy to trace their movements.
After thanking the police officer, the group left the police station. Jiang Fang said, “I’ll make a call and have someone check where they bought their tickets to.”
He walked off to the side to make the call. A moment later, he returned and said, “We found them. One went to Chunxi, and the other went to Liaohe. According to their employment information, those are their hometowns.”
“Sister He has already dispatched people nearby to go look for them. If they can find their whereabouts, we should be able to figure out what happened at the time.”
Peng Ye slowly let out a breath. “At least watching surveillance footage all morning wasn’t for nothing. My eyes are practically going blind. We finally got something out of it.”
He checked the time and said, “Why don’t we go have lunch first and wait for the search results from the others? We’ve also got two new colleagues coming this afternoon.”
Pei Rong, however, said, “Why don’t we take a trip through the old urban district first, then eat there?”
Peng Ye thought about it and decided that was fine. The group headed back toward the old urban district.
They deliberately followed the surveillance footage to find the exact spot where the four people had looked at their phones, then examined the surrounding area to see if there was anything unusual.
But after checking it again, there was still nothing strange.
Pei Rong even took out his phone and stood in the same spot, but there was still nothing unusual. He put his phone away and shook his head.
“Let’s go eat first.”
The group found a small local restaurant nearby. After having lunch, they drove back to the hotel.
Although they hadn’t done anything physically strenuous that morning, staring at surveillance footage was mentally exhausting as well. The moment Peng Ye arrived at the hotel, he announced that he was going back to his room to catch up on sleep and told them to wake him when the others arrived that afternoon.
Xu Muchan wasn’t tired. He planned to return to his room and work on his worksheets. He had been given quite a few during the New Year’s holiday and hadn’t gotten around to doing them yet.
He opened the door and was just about to go in when Yan He followed him like a tail.
“Xu Muchan, you’re not going to sleep, right?”
Xu Muchan shook his head, and Yan He immediately pulled Pei Rong along and followed him inside.
“Then let’s chat for a while. It’s too boring just sitting around in the room.”
Xu Muchan closed the door and let them sit wherever they wanted. He took the worksheets out of his suitcase and said while working on them, “Daoist Yan, what do you want to talk about?”
Yan He smiled and rubbed his hands together. He edged closer to Xu Muchan and leaned over to glance at his worksheet. He sucked in a breath and said, “Why did you bring your worksheets with you on a business trip?”
Xu Muchan said, “We have to go over them after the holiday.”
Most of these worksheets consisted of basic questions, mainly meant to reinforce what they had learned. They didn’t need to be turned in for grading, but the teacher would select some of the question types to explain in class. Whether they did them or not was entirely up to their own initiative.
Xu Muchan merely swept his eyes over them once, and his hand had already marked the answers.
Yan He sighed, “Senior year really is tough.”
Seeing Xu Muchan working seriously on his questions with his face turned slightly to the side, Yan He suddenly found himself unsure whether he should voice the question he had been keeping in his heart.
Instead, Xu Muchan noticed that he had been silent for a long time and turned his head toward him in confusion.
“What does Daoist Yan want to ask?”
Yan He gave a little “ah” and, seeing the clear, limpid look in his eyes, decided to be more honest.
“Actually, I just wanted to ask—was that evil ghost we saw in the 101 Ghost Domain actually you?”
Back in the 101 Ghost Domain, the group had encountered an evil ghost who looked exactly like Xu Muchan. That evil ghost had been incredibly powerful, to the point that Yan He even suspected that he might have been the one who killed the Red-Robed Judge.
Although that person had a face exactly like Xu Muchan’s, at the time, none of them had thought in that direction.
It wasn’t until they heard this time that the Ghost King had emerged—and that the Ghost King was actually Xu Muchan—that Yan He remembered the matter again.
“It was me, but I wasn’t very clear-headed at the time.”
Xu Muchan picked out the parts he could talk about and gave Yan He a rough explanation of his situation.
Yan He said, “Actually, the last time I went to your school to find you, I deliberately looked at your palm lines too. I just couldn’t see anything. There wasn’t the slightest trace of yin energy or ghost energy on you. Just like now—if I hadn’t known beforehand, I would have thought you were an ordinary person.”
Of course, this was because of the Mountain God Tablet. But if he brought up the Mountain God Tablet, it would inevitably lead to the matter of his older brother. Although Yan He and his senior brother were both good people and had never done anything to harm Xu Muchan so far, he still instinctively did not want to expose his brother’s existence.
He lowered his eyes and shook his head.
“I don’t know either. Actually, it wasn’t until I saw my own corpse in Leigong Village that I realized I had actually been dead for a long time.”
Xu Muchan put down his pen and stopped working on the questions. With his eyelashes lowered, he looked somewhat melancholy.
Yan He immediately felt embarrassed about continuing to ask.
He knew quite a bit about Xu Muchan’s circumstances. The boy had had a difficult life. He had been born into a wealthy family but was sold to a remote mountain village. Supposedly, his adoptive parents had not treated him well either. Otherwise, he would not have died at such a young age.
If not for his unusual fate, none of what he was now would have been possible.
When an ordinary person died, that was the end. Their soul dispersed with their death, and no matter how much injustice or resentment they had carried, it could only fade away.
But for someone like Xu Muchan, becoming a vengeful ghost was not necessarily a good thing either.
Humans had always believed that those who were not of their own kind could not be trusted. No matter how innocent Xu Muchan had been before, and no matter how harmless he appeared now, there would still be people who were wary and guarded against him.
Yan He sighed softly and stopped probing further. Instead, he comforted him.
“It’s all in the past now. Black River Research Institute is pretty good. The benefits and treatment are good, and I heard their director is quite protective of his people. If you join them, you should be able to live pretty well.”
Xu Muchan pressed his lips together and softly responded, “Mm.”
The atmosphere fell silent.
Yan He also felt awkward continuing to disturb him while he studied, so he could only take Pei Rong and say goodbye.
After leaving the room, he let out a long breath and glared at Pei Rong.
“Next time something like this comes up, you do it. I’m not doing it anymore.”
The Ghost King had been born, and all four directions had been shaken.
More or less, everyone was curious about this young Ghost King and wanted to find out what he was really like. The Laoshan Sect and the Religious Association were naturally no exception.
It was just that Black River Research Institute had gotten to him first and recruited him. No matter how curious they were, they could not overstep their authority.
And the only reason Yan He had been able to shamelessly come over and ask around was because he already knew Xu Muchan.
“I think those old guys are just overthinking things. I’ve dealt with Xu Muchan several times already. This kid is actually pretty nice. He looks a little cold and doesn’t talk much, but he treats the friends he accepts very well.”
As he spoke, he remembered the exam papers Xu Muchan had been doing.
“And seriously, weren’t we nowhere near this diligent when we were studying? The moment we went on vacation, we’d go crazy and have fun. He comes out to handle official business and still doesn’t forget to do his homework. His whole heart is focused on studying. So what if he’s the Ghost King? What bad intentions could he possibly have?”
Pei Rong looked completely innocent.
“It wasn’t me who told you to come investigate. You don’t have to take your anger out on me, do you?”
Yan He said indignantly, “Those old guys are always pushing me around.”
Pei Rong reassured him, “You asked what you needed to ask. That should be enough to satisfy them.”
The two were still talking when there was suddenly a knock on the door.
Yan He had no choice but to stop and go open it.
It was Peng Ye and Jiang Fang.
Peng Ye was holding his phone, his face filled with terror.
“Daoist! Something happened!”
“What happened?” Yan He hurriedly let them inside.
Peng Ye put his phone solemnly on the coffee table, opened the text-message interface, and said, “One million yuan suddenly appeared in my salary-card account.”
Yan He: “????”
“I know you people at the research institute have high salaries, but isn’t this a little too high?”
And besides, if it was one million, it was one million. Why did he have to come all the way over here just to flaunt it? Was he bullying Yan He for not having a million?
Yan He took a deep breath and transformed his resentment toward the rich into a fake smile.
“Mm. One million was deposited into your salary account. And then?”
The moment Peng Ye saw his expression, he knew Yan He had misunderstood. He became so anxious that he could barely speak coherently.
“Ah, that’s not what I mean! This isn’t even my money!”
Yan He was even more confused.
“Then where did the one million come from? Did you win the lottery?”
He had only asked casually.
But Peng Ye actually fell silent.
Yan He immediately let out a jealous, “Holy shit.”
“You really won the lottery?”
Jiang Fang could not stand listening to this anymore.
“Start from the beginning.”
Peng Ye finally lowered his head dejectedly.
“It’s kind of like winning the lottery, I guess. I won it through a lucky draw.”
Yan He sensed that something might be wrong and suppressed his intense resentment toward the rich so he could continue listening.
Peng Ye said, “I went back to my room because I was planning to sleep, but I couldn’t fall asleep at first. So I figured I’d play on my phone for a while and get myself sleepy. Then, when I opened my phone, I saw a lucky-draw pop-up. It was like those lucky-draw promotions on shopping apps. There was a big spinning wheel, and you got a prize just by clicking.”
“At the time, I thought it was obviously just another advertisement. I was about to close it, but somehow I ended up clicking the lucky draw.”
Peng Ye found it difficult to accurately describe what his state of mind had been at the time. He frowned hard as he tried to reconstruct his thoughts.
“I remember thinking, ‘What kind of crappy lucky draw is this? If you’ve got the guts, actually let me make a fortune.’”
“Then guess what happened. The wheel stopped, and it said congratulations, I’d won one million.”
Peng Ye became somewhat excited as he spoke.
“I obviously thought it was fake. I casually closed the lucky draw and started scrolling through short videos. Then, maybe ten-something minutes later, my phone suddenly received a text message saying one million had been deposited into my salary account.”
At the time, Peng Ye thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He checked several times and discovered that there really was an extra zero at the end of his salary-account balance.
He immediately jumped up in fright.
“I showed it to Jiang Fang, but Jiang Fang couldn’t find that lucky draw at all. And the account that transferred the money to me was an overseas account.”
Although Peng Ye was an ordinary person and was usually a little scatterbrained, he had worked at the research institute for many years. Now that several people had already met with accidents, he was quite sensitive to these things.
He immediately suspected that something was wrong and hurriedly came to find Yan He next door with Jiang Fang, phone in hand.
Pei Rong took the phone and looked at it.
“At this point, it really is a little strange. Do you remember how those four people suddenly stared at their phones for quite a while before something happened to them?”
That was exactly what Peng Ye was worried about.
He trembled.
“We were all acting together. Why am I the only one who got targeted? Is my desire to get rich just too strong? Did any of you receive anything on your phones?”
The three of them took out their phones and checked.
They shook their heads.
Xu Muchan, who had been doing his homework in the room, was also called out. He glanced at his phone and shook his head as well.
“I didn’t receive anything either.”
Thinking of those people who had inexplicably met with accidents and died horribly, Peng Ye looked like a wilted little cabbage.
“This is basically some rogue app forcing a sale! One million yuan just to buy my life? Am I really going to end up like those other people…”
Yan He comforted him.
“Don’t assume the worst yet. But you really do need to be careful from now on. It would be best if you don’t leave the hotel and don’t act alone. That way, we can keep an eye on you too.”
Since his life was at stake, Peng Ye obediently nodded.
Because of the sudden incident, the atmosphere became somewhat heavy.
In the afternoon, the two backup members from the research institute also arrived at the hotel. Seeing the gloomy atmosphere, they were a little confused.
“Something happened again?”
She quickly scanned the room and, after seeing that no one was missing, finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.
The two people sent this time were one man and one woman. The man was named Chai Ming, and the woman was named Jin Qingqing.
Neither of them was an ordinary person. They were frontline combat personnel trained by the research institute and were proficient in the methods of various sects and schools.
Jiang Fang briefly explained what had happened to Peng Ye before asking about the investigation results concerning the other two missing researchers.
“Have those two been found?”
Jin Qingqing was just about to talk about that.
She shook her head.
“We sent people to look for them, but no one was at either of their homes. They also checked the surveillance footage nearby and confirmed that they really did return home. After that, they never left again, yet somehow they simply disappeared. There were no signs of a struggle in either home either.”
“The people who stayed behind are still investigating through their social connections, but my instinct tells me we probably won’t find anything.”
Jiang Fang frowned.
“Looks like we won’t be able to find any clues from those two.”
Everyone immediately turned toward Peng Ye.
At present, he was the only breakthrough point left.
Peng Ye hunched his shoulders.
“Can you guys stop looking at me like that? You’re scaring me.”
As he spoke, he opened the notes app on his phone.
“Maybe I should write my will first. And I need to divide up my assets. I should also write down my bank-card passwords… And clear my browsing history…”
As he muttered to himself, Jiang Fang suddenly said, “How about we go to the old city again? I have a theory I want to test.”
Everyone moved quickly.
Xu Muchan said, “I’ll go with you.”
Yan He said, “Just in case, two people need to stay behind with Peng Ye.”
Jin Qingqing said, “Chai Ming and I haven’t been there yet. Let the two of us go this time. Maybe we’ll discover something new.”
In the end, they decided that Yan He and Pei Rong would stay behind with Peng Ye to prevent any accidents, while the other four would drive back to the old city.
When they arrived in the old city, the group went straight to Chunhua Road, already familiar with the route.
Jiang Fang said, “My guess is that there might be something here that can sense intense desires in people’s hearts. Once it detects one, that lucky-draw interface appears on the person’s phone.”
As he spoke, he stood still for several minutes.
Then he took his phone out of his pocket.
Sure enough, the familiar lucky-draw screen appeared.
Jiang Fang showed the phone to the others and said solemnly, “It should be this.”
Jin Qingqing glanced at it.
“You’re using one of the institute’s phones? Don’t touch anything yet. I’ll have the technicians track it from the backend and see if we can find the source.”
Just as she finished speaking, Xu Muchan said,
“It’s on my phone too. Jiang Fang’s theory should be correct.”
Jin Qingqing was contacting the technicians at the institute, while Chai Ming also gave it a try. Sure enough, the same lucky-draw interface appeared on his phone.
He stared at the flashy spinning wheel and asked in confusion, “What kind of trick is this? I’ve seen all kinds of strange things at the institute, but this is definitely a first.”
Jiang Fang shrugged. “It’s not just us who are developing new technology. Looks like those things are keeping up with the times too.”
Chai Feng clicked his tongue and went over to Jin Qingqing. “Can you track it?”
Jin Qingqing said, “The technician says the IP address they tracked overlaps with our current location.”
“So that means whatever it is, it’s right here?” Chai Ming took out a special device and scanned the area, then frowned. “Nothing unusual.”
Jiang Fang said, “We already scanned this place several times when we came before. All the data was normal. The fluctuations in yin energy were within the normal range, and we didn’t detect any ghost domain either.”
Chai Ming put away the device. “Now that’s strange.”
Jin Qingqing said, “Let’s go back to the hotel first and discuss how we’re going to deal with this thing.”
She shook her phone, and the lucky-draw wheel was clearly displayed on the screen.
The group had no choice but to put away their equipment and return to the hotel.
At the hotel, Peng Ye looked at the four phones in front of him. They all displayed identical lucky-draw screens. He nodded vigorously. “That’s the thing. Whatever you do, don’t click it. This thing is seriously sinister. There are so many lucky draws nowadays—who could possibly guard against them all?”
“This lucky draw should be the key. Perhaps only those who participate in the draw can come into contact with those strange incidents,” Jiang Fang said.
Pei Rong, however, asked curiously, “What would happen if you made a wish that couldn’t possibly be fulfilled?”
Yan He had extensive experience watching horror movies. “Then your wish would probably get altered or twisted?”
Pei Rong shook his head. “I mean making a wish that directly conflicts with the thing itself.”
Xu Muchan said, “We’ll know if we try.”
Yan He thought that was far too reckless. “What if something really happens…”
Peng Ye also nodded vigorously beside him. “What’s the difference between that and asking to die?”
Xu Muchan, however, had his own reasons for wanting to try. Just now, when they had been in the old city, the moment the lucky-draw screen had appeared on his phone, the dog-faced mask hanging from his bag had reacted.
“I want to try.”
As he spoke, Xu Muchan closed his eyes, made his wish seriously, and then pressed the lucky-draw button in the center.