secret dice.

Chapter 566 Laughing Wildly
As he spoke, Zhuge Huang began to draw a simple diagram on the blackboard.

“[Supernatural] ghosts can be roughly divided into four types.”

"The first type is called Shunling, which is generally referred to as Ling for short. It is usually because of regrets in life or because of the influence of some abnormal power, which leads to the soul that fails to dissipate after death. Strictly speaking, this type cannot be considered as ghosts, because they still retain the personality and appearance of their previous life, and their spiritual power is generally low, which can only cause a very limited impact on reality. Generally speaking, spirits are considered harmless. As long as they fulfill their previous obsessions in life, they will dissipate. Even if they are left alone, they will become weaker and weaker over time and finally disappear."

"As for the second type, it is a ghost in the conventional sense. This kind of spirit is generally the incarnation of a dead person who holds grudges. Because of negative emotions, they have become somewhat distorted. Although they still maintain their basic form before death, their personality has been destroyed. Apart from strong grudges, they have almost no memory of their previous life, lack rationality, and look even more terrifying. Ghosts are full of resentment towards humans. Their spiritual power is stronger than that of ordinary spirits, and they can have a considerable impact on the real world. As long as conditions permit, they will try to harm people. Even if they have no subjective intention to harm, just wandering around someone can cause physical discomfort."

"The third type is called a fierce ghost. This is a variant of a ghost. Generally speaking, it is formed by a person with great resentment after death, or by ordinary ghosts devouring each other. It is a ghost with stronger power and greater resentment, and its appearance is more twisted and terrifying. The reason why it is distinguished from ordinary ghosts is that ordinary ghosts are mostly like wild beasts, acting only on resentment and instinct. However, fierce ghosts are not only more powerful, but also have intelligence that is not inferior to humans. They can even retain most of their memories before they died. They are more cunning and their behavior is more difficult to predict."

Having said that, Zhuge Huang drew a big circle on the blackboard, framing all three types of ghosts together.

"The above three types are all spirit-like ghosts. No matter how strong or weak they are or what form they take, they are normally invisible. And these spirits also have one common characteristic, which is that they cannot actively harm people who have not observed them."

"Why is this?" a student asked on the spot.

"There is no definitive conclusion on this yet." Zhuge Huang shook his head. "The more likely guess is that if the spirits in the [supernatural] world want to have a direct impact on living things, they need to establish some kind of connection, and the key to the connection is for the living thing to be aware of the spirit's existence."

"Using this rule, the simplest and most effective way to deal with the three types of ghosts mentioned above is to ignore them." Zhuge Huang said: "Unless it is necessary, no matter how scary the ghost is, you should pretend not to see it..."

"Then wouldn't it be better to just turn off the energy vision?" another student asked.

"I suggest you don't try this." Zhuge Huang shook his head. "First, because the body's functions are strengthened in the Solid Foundation Realm, the perception of the cultivator is much stronger than that of ordinary people. Even if the Qi Vision is turned off, the existence of ghosts can be detected to a certain extent. If a connection is established in this unclear state, it will meet the conditions for the ghost to attack, which will be more dangerous."

"Secondly, turning off the Vision Energy can help you hide for a while, but not forever. If you don't see ghosts normally, you might get frightened and reveal your flaws when you suddenly turn on the Vision Energy because you're not used to it. If you happen to be surrounded by many ghosts, you'll be attacked by them all..."

"Also, there are not only spirit-like ghosts in the [supernatural], but also polluters. If you don't open your energy vision, you may be attacked by polluters."

"In addition, in addition to the above three types, there is a fourth type of ghost in the [supernatural] world. To deal with them, you still need the energy vision to distinguish them."

As he spoke, Zhuge Huang wrote the words soul and body on the blackboard, and then drew a circle to frame them.

"A normal life must be composed of two parts: the body and the soul." Zhuge Huang said: "A body without a soul is just a corpse, and without a body, the soul cannot even exist on its own."

"Even under the special rules of the [Supernatural] world, ghosts transformed from souls and resentment cannot exert their full power due to the lack of physical support. Therefore, although the first three types of spiritual ghosts are troublesome, they are not a big threat to experienced explorers. The real threat is precisely the fourth type!"

As he spoke, Zhuge Huang wrote the word "entity" on the blackboard.

"Some ghosts, for various reasons, have acquired a physical body as a carrier." Zhuge Huang introduced: "Some are possessed, some are fused, and some even use dead objects as a carrier... Regardless of the reason, ghosts that have acquired a physical body have lost their ability to be intangible, but their influence on reality has been qualitatively improved. This kind of monster is collectively referred to as an 'entity' by us."

"In addition, only a strong enough spirit can forcibly occupy a physical body, so the power of a 'physical' monster is far greater than that of an ordinary ghost, and it poses the greatest threat to us! Moreover, their methods are extremely cruel, and the explorers who died in their hands all had a miserable end..."

After hearing what he said, all the students who had never been to [Spiritual] couldn't help but swallow their saliva. Some people looked at the students from Puhua Mountain. These local top students had basically been to [Spiritual] for internships, so they should have more experience.

"Don't look at us!" Zhuge Lan admitted generously: "The entity is indeed very ferocious, and we don't have any good way to deal with it, but there are very few of these monsters, so we shouldn't encounter them."

"Should?" Ouyang Yu frowned and said, "This is too vague, what if we run into it?"

"Why, would you pee your pants if you were to encounter one?" Zhuge Lan didn't give him any face at all: "We are determined to be explorers. Risking our lives to face monsters from other worlds, isn't this a common occurrence? Master Ouyang, don't you think that you can complete your work just by sitting in the office like doing an ordinary job?"

Ouyang Yu's face flushed red after being scolded by her, but he didn't know how to refute. He could only open and close his mouth but couldn't make a sound. He looked like a goldfish that jumped out of the fish tank...

"Xiao Lan, watch your attitude!" Zhuge Huang scolded, and Zhuge Lan restrained herself: "I know, Third Brother..."

"How many times have I told you not to call me Third Brother at work!"

"Okay... I understand, Professor Zhuge..."

Zhuge Huang's expression eased a little, and he looked at the others: "Don't worry too much. Although physical monsters are powerful, they can be seen by ordinary people, so they usually cause quite a commotion before we find them. When we face physical monsters, we are prepared in advance, so the casualties are not that great..."

"Compared to this rare monster, I think everyone should pay more attention to those evil spirits." Zhuge Huang said with a smile: "Although we call them ghosts, these spiritual monsters are not exactly the same as the ghosts we usually understand."

"Most of them are indeed quite common, just scary spirit monsters, but there are also some that are extremely hidden, and even have the ability to escape detection by Qi Vision, appearing in the form of some strange phenomena, making it difficult to guard against. This is the kind of thorny problem we often encounter in our daily work."

As he spoke, Zhuge Huang picked up a document: "For example, the test questions for the final stage of this exchange meeting."

"Laughter!" "Our Puhua University is located in the western suburbs of Huangquan City in the [Phantom] world. 'Laughter' is a strange phenomenon that suddenly appeared not long ago and is currently only spreading in Huangquan City."

"The specific manifestation is that someone will suddenly burst into laughter. Due to the intense laughter, the corners of the mouth will be cracked, the lungs and trachea will be damaged, the spine will be broken, the ribs will be broken, and other serious injuries will occur. Eventually, the person will die in pain while laughing."

"Most people who have witnessed this phenomenon will suddenly die of laughter within seven days. According to our current investigation, those who have witnessed the phenomenon of maniacal laughter but have not yet had an attack will subconsciously believe that if they laugh, they will definitely die of uncontrollable laughter, and they will develop a strong fear of this and dare not laugh again."

"But no matter how they are controlled, these people's laughter points will become lower and lower within seven days, and they will eventually laugh for some inexplicable reason. Just as they worry, once they laugh, they will trigger a state of laughter frenzy, and eventually die in pain."

"Professor Zhuge, you just said most of them..." Old Miaomiao raised her hand and asked, "What about the rest?"

"The rest, unable to bear the fear of the laughter, committed suicide early," said Zhuge Huang.

"So what is the attitude of the world's government and police towards this unusual event?" a student raised his hand and asked.

"After all, this is a world where supernatural forces exist. The government here is also aware of the existence of spirits and ghosts. The government has set up special organizations and trains practitioners to investigate and deal with related incidents." Zhuge Huang explained: "But just like 99% of the practitioners in [Wulin] are fighting sects, the practitioners of [Spiritual] are almost all illusionists and spellcasters, who specialize in dealing with spirits."

"Of course, the official agencies are not able to cope with the endless paranormal events, so the government often seeks help from some non-governmental organizations to help solve them." Zhuge Huang explained: "Our Puhua University has a special spirit research center, which is also an officially registered non-governmental supernatural phenomenon research organization. We often receive commissions from the government. The rewards for solving commissions are also one of the sources of funds for the Yuanxiu Association to operate here."

"For this crazy laughter incident, we were commissioned to assist the official agencies in solving the incident. After research, we did not observe any abnormal spirit reactions in the witnesses of the crazy laughter phenomenon. As for when the crazy laughter phenomenon occurred, in order to ensure the safety of the explorers, we did not arrange for people to observe it directly, but observed it through instruments. As a result, no abnormal reactions were detected. It is speculated that it was caused by a special ghost with extremely strong concealment."

"What if we isolate all the people who may have been infected with the laughter phenomenon?" Luo Jun proposed a plan: "Let them die of laughter in solitude. In this way, without witnesses, the phenomenon will not be able to spread further, right?"

Zhuge Huang nodded and said, "We are also implementing this plan. So far, the laughter phenomenon has only spread in a small atmosphere, with no more than five witnesses, so the scope of transmission is not wide. According to statistics, there are less than 200 infected people. We quickly cooperated with the authorities to control all the infected people. The effect is not bad at present. As the infected people died of laughter in isolation, there are indeed no new witnesses."

"But the laughter has been going on for more than a month, and it is highly concealed, so I am sure there are more witnesses hiding in the city. Therefore, the ultimate goal of this exchange meeting is to find the hidden laughter witnesses and capture them and bring them back to Pricewaterhouse University."

"The assessment period is seven days, because the Spiritual Gate is only open for seven days each time. The assessment ends one hour before the Spiritual Gate closes. Counting from now, there should be only six days and seventeen hours. The final assessment results will be determined by the number of witnesses brought back by each team. We will send the information to each team later, which includes the information of all the infected people, so that everyone can easily screen for possible infections."

"Does anyone have any questions? Feel free to ask now."

A student raised his hand and asked, "You just said that laughter is very hidden. How can we find the infected people hiding in the city?"

Zhuge Huang nodded. "At present, we really can't detect the fluctuations of the spirit body of the laughing mania phenomenon, but the infected people will have obvious abnormal mental states due to subconscious fear. After research, we have found the unique emotional fluctuations of the laughing mania infected. We can detect this fluctuation through instruments to distinguish the infected from ordinary people."

"Also, we will install monitoring equipment on the instruments to record the entire process of your mission. If we find that anyone deliberately causes the crazy laughter to increase the number of infected people in order to cheat their scores, their scores will be directly cancelled."

Another student asked: "If we accidentally witness a laughing incident during the investigation and are infected, is there any remedial measure?"

"So far, there has been no precedent of explorers being infected." Zhuge Huang shook his head: "But as far as I know, a practitioner from an official organization in the [Supernatural] world was infected while performing a mission, and eventually died of laughter."

Hearing him say this, the students all looked worried.

"Of course, this infected cultivator's realm and strength are not strong. He is only a mid-level agent in the organization. If he had a stronger cultivation, he might be able to withstand the curse of laughter."

According to common sense, as long as the cultivation is deep enough, it is indeed possible to ignore all monsters and demons. But the question is how deep? At least for now, there are precedents of practitioners being infected and dying. Which student dares to risk his life to try to challenge it?
"I have another question!" Luo Jun raised his hand: "If someone triggers the laughter, can we kill him before he dies from the laughter and prevent the laughter from spreading?"

"We have tried this before." Zhuge Huang shook his head. "It turns out that the moment the laughter is triggered, the spread has already begun. Even if we kill him in advance, people who have witnessed it will still be infected. But this can indeed shorten the process of laughter and reduce the number of witnesses."

"What is the standard for eyewitnesses?" Luo Jun continued to ask, "Does it have to be seen with one's own eyes? Does it count if it is seen through surveillance, live broadcast, or video recording?"

"The standard for witnessing is seeing it with your own eyes at the scene. Seeing it through video or live broadcast will not cause infection. Even if you are at the scene, if you only hear laughter but don't see it with your own eyes, you will be fine."

Luo Jun nodded after hearing this: "This way, at least we can ensure that it won't spread on a large scale through electronic devices..."

Just as he finished speaking, Zhuge Huang's phone rang. After he picked it up, he was suddenly shocked: "How could this happen? What's the situation now...Okay...I know..."

After hanging up the phone, he frowned and looked at the students in the audience:

"I just got the news that a person who was under official control and quarantined accidentally escaped and was found in a busy downtown area. Under the gaze of thousands of people, he died of laughter..."

(End of this chapter)