Mysterious Resurgence: Starting with the Strange Bus

Chapter 158 Zhao Jianguo: Is Li Hui dead?

An unknown, haunted place.

With a screech of brakes, the old bus came to a stop at the intersection of the forest path and the asphalt road.

A dilapidated bus route sign still stands in the field next to this intersection. Its style looks very old and is very similar to the bus route signs that used to be found on rural roads.

next moment.

The bus's back door opened directly, and Zhang Xianguang and Nie Yingping, who were prepared, got off the bus through the open back door.

"This place is really eerie. It feels as if every tree in the forest is a vengeful ghost. It is more special and dangerous than any other eerie place I have been to when I delivered messages before. If this place is like this, then the old house deep in the forest is even more so."

After examining him closely, Nie Yingping spoke with a grave expression.

“Let’s go. Although this supernatural place looks dangerous, it’s not dangerous for us on this trip, at least not now. As for the future, that’s uncertain…” Zhang Xianguang said with a complicated expression.

Nie Yingping, who was standing to the side, immediately noticed Zhang Xianguang's complicated emotions, but the clever man did not choose to ask him directly. Instead, he secretly guessed what was going on in his mind.

Then, led by Zhang Xianguang, the two of them followed the winding forest path to the open space in front of the old house.

At this moment, the gate of the old house was half-open and not completely closed. At Zhang Xianguang's signal, Nie Yingping stepped forward and gently pushed it open. The gate of the old house creaked open.

"go!"

Seeing this, Zhang Xianguang did not stop at all and stepped inside. He seemed to be very familiar with the place and had no worries. He looked as if he was sure there was no danger here, or perhaps he was confident enough in his own strength.

After passing the upright screen wall, the two of them arrived at the courtyard, and further ahead were the main hall and other buildings of the old house.

But at this time.

The two stopped in their tracks.

There was a grand chair in the main hall of the old house, and an old man dressed in a black Zhongshan suit was lying on it.

"Zhang Xianguang, what do you mean? Should we try to bypass the old man in the main hall and search for the vengeful ghost you're looking for in the side halls, or should we just deal with the old man first?" Nie Yingping asked Zhang Xianguang.

In this eerie place, Nie Yingping did not consider the old man to be a living person, but rather regarded him as a vengeful ghost. In Nie Yingping's view, Zhang Xianguang and his strength were enough to deal with any vengeful ghost.

However, what happened next was completely unexpected by Nie Yingping.

The old man, reclining in the armchair, slowly turned his head to look at them and said, "You didn't come here specifically to see me, did you? Is it for that wedding dress? In the end, you still intend to carry out your plan?"

The old man's voice wasn't loud, but it was very authoritative, and his seemingly indifferent eyes gave Nie Yingping an indescribable pressure when he looked over.

However, Zhang Xianguang's expression did not change at all when faced with Zhang Dong's gaze. He then said, "Everyone has the right to choose their own path. This is what you taught me. The predecessors have failed, but that does not mean that my plan is wrong, because your vision is limited to the path that you have already failed on."

As the words fell.

Zhang Xianguang also entered the main hall of the old house, came to Zhang Dong, looked at Zhang Dong quietly, and said with a complicated expression: "You said before that my plan was destined to fail and that I chose the wrong path, but I don't think so."

.........

.........

at the same time.

Dajing City.

The Ghost Riders Headquarters.

"What did you say? A paranormal event has occurred at the Ping An Hotel? A ghostly realm has even appeared, enveloping the entire Ping An Hotel and the street where it is located?"

When Zhao Jianguo, the head of the switchboard department, heard Liu Xiaoyu's report as she ran into his office, his expression changed. He pressed her for details, asking, "Explain clearly, what exactly happened?"

"I don't know the specifics, but I do know that a paranormal event has apparently occurred at the Ping An Hotel. Yang Jian and the others are currently trapped inside the hotel and cannot escape from that ghostly realm," Liu Xiaoyu said quickly.

"Yang Jian is trapped inside too? But how is that possible? Li Hui should be at the Ping An Hotel right now. With him there, even if a supernatural event really breaks out, there shouldn't be any other ghost realm that could seal off the hotel. After all, he wields the power of Ghost Painting!"

Zhao Jianguo frowned: "Since it was Yang Jian who called to inform you, it means the satellite phone signal hasn't been blocked yet..."

Thinking.

Zhao Jianguo picked up the satellite-guided phone on the table, found Yang Jian's phone number, and dialed it directly.

He didn't call Li Hui immediately, but instead called Yang Jian. Since the hotel could be blocked by other ghost domains, Zhao Jianguo thought that Li Hui was probably not in the hotel at the moment. That's why he chose to call Yang Jian to find out the situation in the hotel as soon as possible.

soon.

The call was answered.

Seeing this, Zhao Jianguo didn't waste any more words and went straight to the point, asking, "Yang Jian, this is Zhao Jianguo. What's the situation on your end?"

While speaking, Zhao Jianguo gestured to Liu Xiaoyu, who was standing next to him, to bring paper and pen, preparing to write down everything Yang Jian said.

"Zhao Jianguo?"

Yang Jian's voice came from the other end of the phone:

"It's like this, about ten minutes ago, the entire Ping An Hotel was covered by a gray ghost domain. At first, I thought it was Li Hui's ghost domain, so I didn't pay too much attention to it, but soon the environment inside the ghost domain began to change."

"Besides the floating ashes of paper, some black mist appeared in the Ghost Realm. Then the environment in the Ghost Realm quickly darkened, eventually turning into a blackish-gray color. In addition, there was a faint trace of blue mixed in, and the overall visibility was extremely low!"

"If it were just that, it wouldn't be a big deal. But just as I was about to leave, I discovered a coffin in the hallway that looked exactly like the ghost coffin, and there was a vengeful ghost inside. It was that starving ghost, but not entirely..."

At this point, Yang Jian paused for a moment, seemingly considering how to describe it, and after a pause of about two or three seconds, continued:

"It's like... a combination of the starving ghost and the vengeful ghost from the training base. Yes, that's the feeling I get!"

"That vengeful ghost has the appearance and abilities of a starving ghost, and also possesses the characteristics of the terrifying vengeful ghost that escaped from the coffin. This combination is terrifying, and I even suspect that Li Hui is already in trouble at this point."

At last.

Yang Jian even shared his own guess.

The reason for this speculation is that Yang Jian knows that both the starving ghosts in Dachang City and the vengeful ghosts at the training base were dealt with by Li Hui, and both vengeful ghosts are in Li Hui's hands.

Now that such strange situations have been discovered at the Ping An Hotel, and even a 'combination' of the starving ghost and the vengeful ghost from the training base has appeared, it is highly likely that there is a problem with Li Hui's detention.

Faced with such a terrifying ghost, Yang Jian felt that even Li Hui, who controlled the supernatural ghost painting, would not be able to withstand it.

It should be noted that both the starving ghost and the terrifying vengeful spirit in the coffin have the ability to increase their own terror by devouring other vengeful spirits.

The hungry ghost alone devoured about a dozen or twenty vengeful spirits in Dachang City, and another vengeful spirit devoured about the same number of vengeful spirits at the training base. Together, they devoured at least thirty or forty vengeful spirits.

Considering that the vengeful ghost in the coffin has the ability to increase the number of other vengeful ghosts it can suppress by devouring them, it means that the vengeful ghost in the Ping An Hotel can suppress at least thirty or forty other vengeful ghosts. Under these circumstances, it is normal for Li Hui to run into trouble.

Think of this.

Yang Jian continued, "This situation is extremely dangerous. The entire Dajing City could fall, and even the whole world could be severely affected. If it is as I suspect, then no one will be able to restrain this vengeful ghost again, not even the captains that headquarters just appointed!"

Hear the words.

Zhao Jianguo, who was in the office, tensed up, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He understood the subtext of Yang Jian's words: Li Hui was likely already dead.

If that's the case, then no one will be able to clean up this mess, not even Elder Qin from headquarters!

The starving ghost that is the source of the S-level paranormal event, plus the vengeful ghost in the ghost coffin, those vengeful ghosts that were devoured by them, and... after Li Hui's death, the ghost painting paranormal event in his body will most likely also be devoured by the starving ghost.

In this situation, let alone S-class, even SS-class or SSS-class would probably be unable to define the danger of this incident!
However, Zhao Jianguo quickly realized something else and thought of another crucial piece of information.

If Li Hui were truly dead, then the ghost realm of that vengeful spirit couldn't possibly have only covered such a small area. Even disregarding the ghost painting supernatural being controlled by Li Hui, the ghost realm of the starving ghost alone would be enough to cover the entire city. Therefore, it's highly likely that Li Hui is still alive, and things haven't reached a truly unmanageable point yet.

"Should I call Li Hui to confirm?" Zhao Jianguo had this thought, but he ultimately rejected it.

"Let's inform Vice Minister Cao about this first and let him make the decision. If Li Hui is at a critical moment or something really happens, this phone call could very well cause the current situation to spiral out of control!"

Think of this.

Zhao Jianguo said to Liu Xiaoyu, who was standing to the side, "Go back to your post first. You need to keep in touch with Yang Jian. I'm going to the vice minister's office."

Without waiting for Liu Xiaoyu's response, he hurriedly left his office.

Inside the deputy minister's office.

After listening to Zhao Jianguo's account, Cao Yanhua's expression changed as well, realizing the seriousness of the matter. He immediately issued an order to convene an emergency meeting, strongly demanding that all the top ghost tamers currently in Dajing City attend, even if they couldn't come in person, they should participate via video call.

"This situation is urgent. Go and inform Professor Wang. He's an expert in the paranormal. He will be in charge of the rest of the operation. Also, I'll personally go and invite Elder Qin over. Then, have the staff in the hotline contact the ghost handler who's still at the Ping An Hotel to keep a close eye on the situation inside!"

"..."

Cao Yanhua quickly issued various orders.

Soon, all departments of the Ghost Tamer headquarters were up and running, and a headquarters meeting was quickly convened in response to the incident.

"What's going on? A meeting just ended, and now there's another headquarters meeting, and it's so urgent. Anyone who can't get to headquarters within five minutes has to participate via video call, and all those who control two or more ghosts are required to attend. Looks like something's happened at headquarters again..."

On a street in Dajing City, Liu San, codenamed "Paper Man," had a slight change in expression when he saw the message sent by headquarters on his phone, and he secretly wondered what had happened.

In his office on the top floor of the Ping An Building, Jiang Shangbai stared at the information on his phone, lost in thought, before preparing to participate in the headquarters meeting via video.

Besides them, most of the other Ghost Tamers who also received the information planned to participate in the meeting via video call, such as Li Leping, Cao Yang, Zhong Shan, Guo Fan, etc.

The reason is simple: headquarters only gave five minutes to prepare. In that short time, unless one uses supernatural abilities to travel, such as ghost realm abilities, it is impossible to get to headquarters to attend this meeting.

However, if they were to use ghost realm or other supernatural abilities to travel to the headquarters just to attend this headquarters meeting, it would be a huge waste of their time. Did they really think that the resurrection of vengeful ghosts was just for show?
Most importantly, participating in a meeting via video call is not significantly different from attending in person.

After all, this meeting was so urgent, and it was mostly based on orders from headquarters, rather than them discussing anything themselves. I suppose that headquarters set the meeting time for five minutes later for this reason as well.

Just as the Ghost Tamer headquarters and all the Ghost Tamers were getting busy, on the top floor of the Ping An Hotel, the battle between Li Hui and the vengeful ghost reached a stalemate.

At this moment, the entire top floor corridor and even the emergency exit were filled with strange coffins, all of which were exactly the same shape as the ghost coffin that Li Hui brought back from headquarters!
obviously.

These coffins were all left behind by vengeful ghosts after endless restarts. It was a truly unsolvable restart, very similar to the infinite derivation of ghost paintings. It could restart other vengeful ghosts, and those vengeful ghosts were all real.

At this moment, the coffins were empty, and all the vengeful ghosts had entered the presidential suite where Li Hui was and launched an attack on him.

Compared to the corridor outside the suite, the scene inside the presidential suite was far more eerie and terrifying.

Because of the ghost realm, it doesn't look like anything from the outside, but in reality, the interior space of the entire suite seems to have been infinitely expanded.

The room was extremely dark, and rows of red coffins were placed on the floor. There were at least dozens or even hundreds of them, which meant that there were no fewer than these vengeful ghosts.

This is indeed the case.

Dozens, even hundreds, of terrifying ghosts dressed in old, eerie burial shrouds, with dark skin, stiff bodies, and glowing red light, were walking towards Li Hui's location.

However, Li Hui didn't even glance at these vengeful spirits that appeared because of his ability to restart. His eyes were fixed on the terrifying figure lying on the ground, whom he had just punched away.

Those were real ghost messengers, the vengeful spirits that caused all of this!

Yes.

After several confrontations, Li Hui was certain that although the vengeful ghost in front of him had the appearance of a starving ghost, it was actually a ghost messenger, and the appearance of a starving ghost was just a facade.

Li Hui was not surprised by this.

He knew very well that the ghost messenger had no physical form. Just like in the original story, it would change its identity every time it restarted. So it was normal for the ghost messenger to exist in the form of the hungry ghost after devouring it.

Tap tap, tap tap tap!

While thinking.

A series of hurried, stiff footsteps sounded.

In the darkness, the ghost messengers moved with stiff steps toward Li Hui, but their advance was soon blocked, and they had to stop.

Dozens, even hundreds, of 'Li Hui's' suddenly appeared out of thin air, blocking the way of these ghost messengers. Each 'Li Hui' held an old woodcutter's knife in his hand.

next moment.

It represents the most primal collision between the supernatural and the supernatural.

it has started.

Just to clarify, the code name 'Ghost Messenger' was decided upon during a meeting at headquarters when Yang Jian was trapped at the training base in the original novel. Now that the Ghost Messenger incident has been directly handled by Li Hui, in the eyes of others, the 'Ghost Messenger' incident at the training base is a supernatural event without a code name!

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(End of this chapter)