Chapter 295: Do Hauntings drop ‘gold coins’ when killed?

Upon hearing the gunfire below, Lu Yibei did not rush to leave. Instead, he approached the corpse from which he had severed the head. Grasping it by the chest with both hands, he stabbed it several times to ensure there was no possibility of revival before descending the stairs.

As he reached the ground floor, he saw from a distance the members of the special task force, resembling actors straight out of an action movie, wielding automatic rifles and laying down a barrage of fire on a figure cloaked in black.

Their imposing presence seemed to say, “If you won’t come back with us to eat prison food, then let’s feed the whole village instead!” They looked utterly reliable.

Lu Yibei even thought that if it weren’t for their proximity to the urban area, which made large-scale weapons impractical, they might have brought in mortars or even tanks.

Even the ancestors would sustain severe injuries under such a barrage of gunfire, let alone the Black-Cloaked Haunting whose psychic energy fluctuation was far inferior to theirs.

Although this special task force was much smaller than the army that had once surrounded Qing Ji, their weapons, specifically designed for hauntings and psychics, were far more sophisticated than those of last century’s warlords.

Thus, seeing such a scene, Lu Yibei felt no need to assist; instead, he began to cheer them on energetically.

“Power enough to uproot mountains, a spirit that covers the world, though the time is against us, our resolve does not fade…”

“Venturing into the tiger’s den into the serpent’s lair, looking up to the sky and exhaling to form a white rainbow…”

“Comrades, push on, the enemy may be formidable, but they have no escape; behind us lies the capital…”

Approaching him, Du Sixian listened more and more and finally couldn’t help interrupting, “Operator Lu, are you cheering them on or cursing them?”

Lu Yibei frowned at Du Sixian, puzzled, “How so? Aren’t these classic motivational lines?”

“But…” Du Sixian eyed Lu Yibei strangely and said, “Everyone who’s been motivated by these lines has died.”

Lu Yibei pondered for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully, “Now that I think about it, that does seem to be the case… But…”

He paused, then said earnestly, “I can’t think of any other lines right now; surely I can’t wish the brothers a happy new year in advance, right?”

Du Sixian, “…”

“Ratatat-Ratatat!”

Following a series of gunshots, the Black-Cloaked Haunting was quickly cornered.

Despite its ability to hide its psychic energy fluctuations and blind people, it seemed unable to affect multiple targets simultaneously.

At such times, the tacit understanding and training of the special task force members were fully displayed.

Whenever a member was affected by the psychic ability and lost their sight, they would immediately cease fire, while the others quickly filled their gap and protected them in the middle.

The entire process was smooth and seamless, like a well-oiled machine.

It wasn’t long before the defiant figure was riddled with bullets, collapsing on the ground like a torn rag.

Seeing this, Qi Dong raised a fist to signal the members to cease fire. The gunfire stopped instantly, and he turned to Lu Yibei, smiling as if to say, “Operator Lu, your turn.”

Hearing this, Lu Yibei, who had been in high spirits, suddenly became serious.

According to The Midnight Watchers Society’s rules, if a haunting or psychic’s energy fluctuation exceeded a certain level, confirming whether they were dead was a task for the main operators.

Entities with strong psychic fluctuations often had unpredictable and bizarre abilities, and incidents like harmful substance dispersal or sudden resurrection weren’t unheard of.

Although the special task force, working in groups with powerful equipment and excellent coordination, could handle some hauntings and psychics, they were mostly non-graded psychics or merely physically strong individuals. If they suffered psychic injuries, the mortality rate was extremely high.

Now, with no main operators on site and only proxy operators, the task of confirming death naturally fell to Lu Yibei.

Triple pay and additional subsidies really weren’t so easy to earn!

Muttering to himself, Lu Yibei approached Qi Dong and said earnestly, “Brother, I can check the body, but… I’m not sure I can keep it intact. That’s okay, right?”

“No, no problem,” Qi Dong responded, not quite grasping Lu Yibei’s meaning at first.

The Midnight Watchers Society had no explicit rule about preserving the corpse.

But, wasn’t it already dead? Qi Dong wondered.

The next moment, he caught a glimpse of a basin-sized Crimson fireball appearing in Lu Yibei’s hand, hurling towards the body on the ground.

“Boom-!” As the fireball exploded on the body, the flames had not yet dissipated when a blue and a red streak followed closely behind.

Du Sixian and the members of the special task force twitched their lips, watching as Lu Yibei, showing off his skills, cast seven or eight spell formations until the body on the ground was completely unrecognizable. Only then did he approach and squat down.

After a thorough examination, Lu Yibei turned to the others and declared seriously, “It’s confirmed, completely dead!”

The members of the special task force looked at Lu Yibei’s expressionless face, then at the charred remains on the ground, and were momentarily at a loss for words.

Operator Lu, appearing refined and gentle, turned out to be so ruthless.

Qi Dong, “…”

So when you said you weren’t sure you could keep it intact, you actually meant you had no intention of doing so?

Given the situation, confirming whether it was dead was probably unnecessary.

Du Sixian, “…”

The spell formations he used, why do some of them seem so familiar, like the ones I learned from that dream?

Did he also enter that dream?

Should I ask him about it?

As the silence lingered, Lu Yibei, squatting before the scorched remains, held a steel rod he had picked up from the ground, poking around like a kid poking an anthill, until he found the haunting’s core entity. He then unconsciously furrowed his brow.

It was an oval-shaped object, dark green and black, resembling an insect’s carapace. The steel rod tapped against it, producing a sound similar to crystal glass.

Combining this with the Black-Cloaked Haunting’s special abilities, Lu Yibei thought for a moment and immediately identified its Spirit Pattern as related to the Night Demon.

This Night Demon was not the same as others.

Night Demons are typically considered descendants of Lilith, Adam’s wife, in folklore. However, this haunting was a local product.

Indeed, due to translation issues, it was common for two hauntings with the same or similar names to emerge.

Over time, with confusion mounting and even the possibility of the powers of two different hauntings merging, the identities could become blurred.

According to the memories of the Great Serpent God, such Night Demons were ancient people’s personified representations of natural disasters like sandstorms or earthquakes that obscured the daylight.

“The Book of Han states: ‘A Night Demon arises when clouds and winds rise together, darkening the sky, hence resembling the usual winds.'”

“The Book of Sui on the Five Elements mentions: ‘Great winds darken the day; the sky and earth turn dim, akin to the Night Demon.'”

However, as modern technology has explained many natural disasters and the dilution of their powers by the descendants of Lilith, belief in their existence has waned, significantly reducing their numbers and strength.

Based on fragments of memory from the Great Serpent God, the Night Demons he encountered were capable of more than just blinding one or two people. With some effort, they could turn half of Hua City from day to night, almost reaching the power level of a natural disaster.

Yet, the one before him was comparatively weak.

The appearance of such a rare haunting in Hua City was already concerning, but what intrigued Lu Yibei even more was that this type of haunting was not listed in Jiang Li’s catalog of hauntings.

Was it awakened by someone, newly born, or from another place?

Lu Yibei pondered as he continued to fiddle with the charred remains. Suddenly, after a series of faint rustling sounds, two pure white spherical objects rolled out from the corpse and landed at his feet.

“These are…”

Staring at the familiar-looking spheres, Lu Yibei paused for a moment, then picked them up and examined them carefully, soon furrowing his brow.

“Aren’t these…”

The tokens in his hand were almost identical to those he had found on Qin Dalin, except for the number “1” and their white color.

And Jiang Li had warned him that these tokens were dangerous!

What the hell was going on?

How could these tokens not be destroyed after being bombarded with so many spell formations? What material were they made from?

Could it be that some high-dimensional mysterious being has added a “kill hauntings to drop ‘gold coins'” setting to this world without my knowledge? Lu Yibei thought.

He had always found the RPG trope of monsters carrying intact currency to be unreasonable.

Be it gold, silver, or any other metal currency, how could it remain intact after being subjected to a barrage of character abilities? That’s just absurd!

After a few complaints, he weighed the tokens in his hand and slipped them into his pocket.

I’ll just drop them off at Jiang Li’s office later. Since she knows the origin of these tokens, let her deal with them when she returns, Lu Yibei thought.

Minutes later.

Lu Yibei, Du Sixian, and the members of the special task force arrived at the unfinished building filled with dolls, surveying the scene.

The area, strewn with doll limbs and parts, still emitted a chilling aura even under the flashlight’s beam.

Unexpectedly, the individual Lu Yibei had decapitated was not a haunting but a psychic with the Tree Spirit Pattern.

The Tree Spirit Pattern, a common Class C+ Spirit Pattern, didn’t have the intelligence-reducing side effects of the zombie Spirit Pattern, but it significantly affected one’s appearance.

From his gaunt, tall figure and skin rough as tree bark, it was easy to determine that these characteristics, stemming from his incomplete Spirit Pattern, were unlikely to disappear until he advanced his Spirit Pattern.

However…

There was no mention of this type of psychic in the catalog of hauntings.

So, was this psychic also from out of town?

The Night Demon’s ability to blind people, combined with the Tree Spirit Pattern psychic’s silent attacks in the dark using limb proliferation, seemed to be a well-coordinated effort. Fortunately, during the ambush in the darkness, Lu Yibei managed to avoid getting wounded, as the psychic’s hands appeared to be toxic.

Grumbling internally, Lu Yibei patiently searched the Tree Spirit Pattern psychic’s corpse and soon discovered an unknown core entity along with those peculiar chips. A yellow chip with a value of “5” and two white chips with a value of “1”-three chips in total.

Really? And more than the haunting earlier… Lu Yibei mused while fiddling with the chips. Just then, Du Sixian’s voice rang out from afar.

“Come over here! I found the haunting that killed He Liang!”

“But…”

But what? Lu Yibei frowned and followed the direction of Du Sixian’s voice, only to be met with an unexpected sight.

The Boy Haunting was dead, his chest hollowed out with a gruesome cavity, the edges tinged with green, and even sprouting small buds-classic symptoms of poisoning by Tree Spirit toxins. It seemed he was killed by the combined efforts of the haunting and the psychic.

According to The Midnight Tome, targets affected by such toxins, if not treated promptly, would soon transform into twisted trees. The Boy Haunting’s corpse was already heading in that direction.

When Lu Yibei had first read about the Tree Spirit, he had asked Jiang Li why such a useful ability wasn’t used for environmental purposes. With so many death row inmates each year, why not send them to the desert or gobi, give them a dose of Tree Spirit toxin, and contribute to humanity?

Jiang Li had replied, “You think no one tried? Two years ago, The Midnight Watchers Society had a project like that.”

“But it was halted due to high costs, the trees born from the toxins easily turning into hauntings, and ethical concerns.”

…

What truly surprised Lu Yibei was the discovery of a dried-up adult male corpse less than a meter from the Boy Haunting. Judging by his attire, he seemed to be a homeless man.

Such a corpse lying quietly among numerous dolls would be impossible to find without thorough searches by people like the special task force and Du Sixian. Besides, would anyone really come to such a creepy place? Lu Yibei wondered.

Ten minutes later.

Upon receiving Qi Dong’s notification, another special task force responsible for cleanup arrived promptly. After a thorough sweep of the doll-filled floor, they uncovered seven human corpses beneath the dolls, all minors. Judging by their bone age, the oldest was around thirteen or fourteen, and the youngest only about five.

Watching the bodies being zipped into bags and carried away, Du Sixian, standing beside Lu Yibei, frowned and said, “Do you think these people, like He Liang and Yang Yi, played that solo hide-and-seek game?”

Lu Yibei imagined the Boy Haunting initially collecting dolls for hide-and-seek, then capturing live humans for the game, and finally using the haunting game to directly target victims. He nodded, “Probably.”

“Oh!” Du Sixian responded thoughtfully, sneaking a glance at Lu Yibei’s profile, her eyes mischievously darting around before asking, “By the way, have you had any strange dreams lately?”

“…”

Trying to trick me?

Lu Yibei paused momentarily, glanced at Du Sixian, and replied casually, “Yes, I’ve dreamt of you, often.”

I’m not lying… Lu Yibei thought.

Hearing this, Du Sixian’s cheeks flushed slightly, she pursed her lips, and ran off.

Lu Yibei returned to his temporary office after four in the morning, but the night shift would continue until dawn when the next main operator arrived for handover.

During this time, he retrieved the haunting incident directory Jiang Li had left him and began flipping through it carefully.

Soon, he confirmed his memory was correct-Hua City indeed had no Night Demon hauntings or Tree Spirit Pattern psychics. Then, upon seeing a case overview, he realized he had misunderstood something.

[Haunting Incident Case Number 3101

Haunting Alias: The Unfound Child, Psychic Energy Fluctuation Level: Unknown

First Incident Date: Around New Year’s Eve this year

Case Overview: A left-behind child on Fuchun Road mysteriously disappeared while playing with classmates, three days later a haunting incident occurred, and the attacked all received an invitation to a hide-and-seek game.

…]

Jiang Li had once asked Lu Yibei to investigate this haunting incident, and he had some impression of it.

Upon reaching this point, he suddenly noticed that the photo of the missing left-behind child bore a striking resemblance to the Boy Haunting encountered tonight.

“Disappeared around New Year’s Eve, but those remains were mostly from before last New Year’s Eve, some dating back almost two years. How could…”

Lu Yibei murmured, his words trailing off as his pupils slightly trembled, his voice cutting off abruptly.

He suddenly realized that among those remains, only the homeless man had died after New Year’s Eve.

Then, a bold conjecture painted a vivid picture in his mind.

He saw, on a cold evening, on the old street of Fuchun Road.

A boy with a tigerish face was playing hide-and-seek with his buddies.

In that round, he was the seeker, and all his buddies hid well. He searched for a long time but couldn’t find them, unknowingly arriving near the unfinished building.

At that moment, he saw the homeless man standing inside the building.

The homeless man held enticing snacks or intriguing toys, or something else that piqued his interest, smiling kindly at him.

Then, the homeless man beckoned to the boy, who ran into the dark hallway of the unfinished building and never came out.

…

As Lu Yibei reached this point, as if affirming his conjecture, warmth spread through his eyes, then faded away…

After sitting in a daze for a while, Lu Yibei shrugged and muttered to himself, “Well, they’re all dead anyway. Who knows what really happened? It’s all just guesswork.”