I have a ghost diary

Before the ghost bride could grab it, she stretched out her pale hand and slapped it! The yellowish-brown mummified corpse was slapped directly into the blood-red river.

The ghost wedding sank almost without any suspense, or rather, something at the bottom of the river dragged it down.

Only a few bubbling waves rose from the river's surface, then fell silent again; it was unclear whether this was the ghost's final protest...

Once the master left, the wedding procession followed in a numb and rigid manner.

The ceremonial guard, band, sedan chair bearers, lantern-bearing maids, porters, matchmakers, and so on, all sank into the river. They were even snatched away by some beings in the river as soon as they got close.

Just then, the small sampan without a boatman began to slowly move. The ghosts on board remained unharmed, standing quietly within the boat, drifting further and further away on the turbulent, blood-red river...

As for the ghost bride, it stood still for a while, then began to wander around again, as if searching for someone.

The tears of blood have stopped falling, but it appears all the more desolate.

Chu Jiang observed from a distance with his Ghostly Eyes, and a line of poetry inexplicably came to mind: "The peacock flies southeast, lingering every five miles."

Even if the peacock that should fly away now is himself.

In short, the ghost bride did not leave. She stubbornly lingered on Qingyun Mountain, searching for someone who had disappeared there.

......

On the other side, as the ship full of ghosts sailed away, the blood-red River Naihe gradually became transparent until it disappeared completely.

Chu Jiang and Jing Ruoxue witnessed the whole scene, but they were powerless to stop it. There was no chance of winning if they went up to fight them head-on, so for the time being they could only watch the ghosts leave.

Hopefully they won't just barge into some big city like that, Chu Jiang thought, and reminded Chen Yuting to keep an eye on things at the research institute.

This way, even if the worst-case scenario occurs, headquarters will be mentally prepared.

Speaking of that river, it doesn't seem like it was created by the ghost bride. She summoned all the ghosts with wedding invitations, so they must have been gathered from all directions, not transported by boat.

Moreover, that river was terrifying; Chu Jiang suspected it was from another world—the world he had been taken to after mistakenly boarding the ghost taxi last time.

Whether it's the castle, the river, or that world, they are all likely related to the deeper reasons behind the resurgence of the supernatural.

......

Seeing that the ghost bride had no plans to come down the mountain for the time being, Chu Jiang decided to deal with another matter first.

He never reverted to his original appearance, lest he attract the ghost bride to descend the mountain.

Jing Ruoxue followed closely behind Chu Jiang, though she didn't know what he was going to do.

Through secret contact with Zhou Hongyu, Chu Jiang quickly located the positions of those ghost masters; seeing that Jing Ruoxue intended to follow, Chu Jiang took her with him as they traveled through the darkness.

......

"Mr. Xu, what should we do? Retreat or..." It has to be said that the situation on Qingyun Mountain far exceeded the expectations of the ghost masters.

They didn't have Chu Jiang's extraordinary vision; they could only see the ghostly mist dissipate and the surging river of blood that suddenly appeared on the mountain.

This was something dangerous they had never seen before; just looking at it made their scalp tingle.

Not to mention that they had previously sensed an unidentified creature descending the mountain, and if that thing was still roaming nearby, they would be in great danger.

The old man with the mustache hesitated for a moment, "Let me call Zhang Dafu first and ask him what happened."

"No need to fight anymore." A cold male voice suddenly rang out in front of them, and then they saw a bizarre scene.

From the shadows on the ground emerged a tall, thin, black ghostly figure, and a woman in white stepped out from behind it.

The aura of this ghostly figure was terrifying; just sensing it instilled a sense of despair. Several ghost masters couldn't help but show expressions of shock and retreat repeatedly.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, a cold voice rang out from behind them, "Don't be in such a hurry to leave, everyone. Since you've come to the vicinity of my Langchao City, I'm practically a local, so I should treat you well."

The old man and the man and woman turned around and saw a gloomy man in a suit pluck a black leaf from his left eye.

Chapter 284 Ancestral Secret Manual

Surrounded by people from all sides, the old man with the mustache still managed a forced, amiable smile. "This person seems to be the person in charge of Langchao City? I'm sorry, you may have misunderstood."

"We just happened to be passing by Qingyun Mountain when we discovered that a supernatural event had occurred there, so we went closer to investigate."

Zhou Hongyu didn't speak, but just looked towards Chu Jiang. Although he didn't know why this Captain Chu would appear in such a frightening manner.

"Stop talking nonsense. Zhang Dafu has told me everything, and Zhou Hongyu has been following you for a long time."

"Tell me everything you know, or I'll kill you all right now."

After speaking emotionlessly, Chu Jiang added, "Oh, by the way, my name is Chu Jiang, the person in charge of Luohe City, and the current captain of Research Institute No. 21."

The man carrying the cross was startled. "Bloody Hand Chu Jiang?"

Chu Jiang did not deny it, but looked at the other party with a cold gaze.

The woman with the makeup of a dead person on her face sneered, "Even if you are from the research institute, you still need evidence, right? This paranormal event has absolutely nothing to do with us."

Chu Jiang sighed softly, "It seems you still don't understand, or rather, haven't adapted to the changes in this world. In the face of the strong, verbal denials are of absolutely no use."

As he spoke, he raised his left hand and made a choking motion.

At the same time, the female ghost master's left hand also involuntarily rose up and gripped her own throat! No matter how hard her right hand tried to stop her, it was to no avail.

"Wait!" the old man with the mustache immediately called out.

But Chu Jiang showed no mercy.

What's rather bizarre is that although the female ghost master's throat was choked, her complexion didn't change much; she still looked like a dead person, and there wasn't even much pain in her eyes.

Clearly, she was not dead, or rather, the ghost on her was very special.

Although Chu Jiang was somewhat surprised, he did not launch any further attacks. He simply looked at the old man and asked, "This is your last chance. Will you speak or not?"

Chu Jiang didn't say what would happen if he didn't, which was obviously something he didn't need to repeat himself.

The old man's face was a bit grim. He was a difficult person to deal with, giving you almost no room for pretense or stalling.

However, the old man had lived a long time and quickly recognized the situation. He nodded and said, "I said, let her go. I will explain the whole story clearly."

Chu Jiang then released his grip, "Wouldn't it have been resolved if we had done this earlier?"

After releasing her grip and regaining control, the woman's expression was not good, but she dared not provoke Chu Jiang again.

Because she knew very well that this world-renowned captain-level figure could not possibly only have these kinds of methods.

Zhou Hongyu remained calm as he watched the scene unfold. Any person in charge of the research institute had the right to kill a ghost master who was suspected of causing a major paranormal event on the spot, and then submit a report afterward.

So to some extent, the human rights of a demon master are not even as good as those of an ordinary person, but that is the rule of the research institute.

The old man organized his thoughts and introduced himself first: "My name is Xu Jinglun, and I am an ordinary folk ghost master."

"If there's anything that makes me different from other ghost masters, it's probably that my family, to some extent, has a tradition of ghost masters."

“Our Xu family had a ghost master in our ancestors. He also copied down a family secret book, which recorded a lot of knowledge and secrets related to the revival of the supernatural and ghosts.”

"However, since the resurgence of supernatural phenomena in later generations has temporarily subsided, my grandfather and great-grandfather's generation did not take this book seriously. They all regarded this ancestral book as a novel of gods and ghosts, like 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio'."

“Our Xu family is quite fortunate to have an ancestral trade, which is to tell people about feng shui. Moreover, our family has escaped natural disasters and man-made calamities, and every generation has produced scholars, so this book has been passed down to the present day and into my hands.”

"I originally inherited the family business. Although fewer and fewer people believe in feng shui and metaphysics now, I can still barely make a living."

"Until the ghost stories broke out again in the world, I noticed this situation keenly because I had more relevant knowledge than the average person, and I began to secretly collect relevant information."

"After learning that the resurgence of supernatural phenomena was real and that it was making a comeback, I resolved that I could no longer continue to live such a mediocre life. Otherwise, one day in the future, I might not even know how I died."

"In short, in the early days of the paranormal revival, I tried every means to become a ghost master."

"As for the two people beside me, they are companions I found after I became a Ghost Master. They need some ways to prolong their lives, and I can help them."

"In return, they have to help me with my work; it's a mutually beneficial partnership."

Chu Jiang listened thoughtfully. Sure enough, the ghost masters of the past had not left no trace.

Even though most records have been lost to history, some precious materials have been preserved by chance and luck.

Even Old Master Lin Daosheng once obtained an ancient scroll left over from an earlier period of supernatural resurgence from a Confucian scholar he had rescued.

"And then? After you became a ghost master, how did you make a living, and why did you instigate the Zhang family to come and dig out this ghost?"

Xu Jinglun coughed weakly. "We mainly search for all kinds of ghosts and then sell them to others on the underground black market. Sometimes we also deal with people from some large organizations, and we've even sold ghosts to the 21st Research Institute before."

"As for the origin of ghosts, we rarely deal with sudden paranormal events in various places ourselves. The risk of doing so is too high; one wrong move and you could die. Moreover, if you use paranormal power for too long, the condition of being corrupted by ghosts will worsen faster."

"So for the past year or so, I have mainly been relying on the ancestral book to search for some less dangerous ghosts and try to seal them away."

"Captain Chu must also know very well that the reason why ghosts are so dangerous is that we can only use human lives to test their killing patterns."

"But if we can know some key information beforehand, the success rate of sealing the ghost will be greatly increased."

"And then..." Xu Jinglun hesitated for a moment, "Since we've already found almost all the easy-to-deal-with ghosts, if we continue like this, we'll soon run out of work."

"So I tried to find some places recorded in secret books where people sealed away ghosts. If we could dig out these sealed ghosts and sell them to others, that would be one way."

Upon hearing this, both Chu Jiang and Zhou Hongyu's expressions darkened.

Chapter 285 The Path of the Ghost Master: No Turning Back

Zhou Hongyu questioned Xu Jinglun in a blunt tone, "Your profits from selling ghosts must have been in the hundreds of millions, right? Are you short of money? Even at great risk, you still want to do such a despicable thing."

Zhou Hongyu's words also puzzled Chu Jiang. You know, the profits from selling ghosts are extremely high for ordinary people. Often, one successful job can provide for them for the rest of their lives.

Of course, these people were not "ordinary people," so Chu Jiang had some suspicions.

Xu Jinglun gave a wry smile. "Both of you are from large organizations and powerful forces, so you probably don't understand the situation of us low-level ghost masters very well."

"As for money, I only chose to exchange it for money when I sold the first ghost."

"In subsequent transactions, we exchanged supernatural resources, methods to continue surviving, and even another ghost. It was essentially an equivalent exchange."

"You've probably noticed the recent global situation; the paranormal is experiencing a resurgence. What's the use of money? Is it more precious than life?"

“We need to find a suitable ghost to transplant into our bodies so that we can embark on the path of ‘balance’ and avoid dying within a few years, or even a few months.”

"In short, if we want to continue on the path of ghost masters, we folk ghost masters can only move forward, not backward."

"If selling a few ghosts really could allow you to retire at home, play with your children and grandchildren, and enjoy your old age in peace, who wouldn't want to do that?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Jiang looked at the three people. The man and the woman each had two ghosts on them. As for Xu Jinglun, his aura was very obscure. Even with his super-sensory abilities, Chu Jiang couldn't tell whether he was a ghost master or not.