I have a ghost diary

Chapter 369 Mechanical Ascension

After Jade was rescued, the blasphemous black text returned to Belfast's right hand.

As soon as Jade appeared, she knelt on the ground, panting heavily, her face filled with terror.

At the same time, the pale hand holding the music box disappeared, leaving only the music box still suspended in the air, emitting a requiem that could calm both humans and ghosts.

The next instant, a hand suddenly appeared and pierced Belfast's chest! It seemed to be trying to rip her heart out alive.

Unfortunately, the parts it pierced all turned into words, as if Bayonetta had no physical body at all, but was a monster made entirely of words.

Moreover, once the palm sank in, it was instead eroded and devoured by countless characters, quickly disappearing into them.

On the other side, Chu Jiang reached out and grabbed the music box in mid-air, but he was not taken into the music box and became a little doll inside.

The music box must suppress Chu Ji's power during the supernatural confrontation in order to completely contain him.

Chu Jiang first lit the music box with black flames, but then was surprised to find that the memetic infection was ineffective against the ghost. Instead, the black sun was more severely affected by the requiem.

"Don't try to take this from me, okay?" Belfast very ladylike extended her hand. She didn't attack Chu Jiang, but simply held her palm up, seemingly hoping that Chu Jiang would be "sensible" and hand the music box to her on his own initiative.

Chu Jiang then reached out and took her hand, saying, "Please give me that hand, thank you."

As the man and woman each lost in their own thoughts, the music from the music box grew even more melodious, and, seemingly out of nowhere, snow began to fall...

Amidst the snowflakes, Snow White's expression grows even more sorrowful, her features becoming increasingly vivid, as if she is about to truly step out of the music box and into this world.

Chu Jiang and Belfast exchanged a glance, then neither spoke, tacitly allowing the pale hand to continue piecing the music box back together.

Clearly, the ghost was still undergoing some unknown changes, so the two clever people chose to work together to seal the ghost first, and then discuss the ownership of the ghost later.

Although they pieced the two parts of the ghost together, neither of them let go, neither the left nor the right hand.

And so, the two of them held hands with their left hands and gripped the music box demon with their right hands, and began to try to seal it in their own way.

Two blood-red ribbons flowed from Belfast's body, tying a beautiful bow on the music box's surface like a gift wrapping.

As the bow took shape, the sound of the requiem weakened considerably, and the surrounding snow stopped.

On Chu Jiang's side, he combined the power of the Black Sun and the Blood Hand Ghost, causing a blood-red flame to burn on the surface of the music box.

This time, the goal isn't to infect the other party, but simply to use the Blood Hand Ghost's power to suppress the supernatural. As for the addition of Black Flame, it's to help the Blood Hand Ghost, whose level isn't high enough, resist the music box's corruption.

If that doesn't work, Chu Jiang will use the power of Chu Zombies to violently crush it.

Fortunately, this approach was indeed effective, although it was very slow and required time to work its magic.

In any case, under the combined restraint of Sister Bei and Chu Jiang, the restless hand gradually stopped struggling, and the Snow White in the music box began to spin at a slower pace...

Taking advantage of the free time, Chu Jiang looked into Belfast's deep blue eyes. He didn't ask when the other party had arrived or what their purpose was, but simply asked, "You just said it was incredible. What was it that was incredible?"

“Of course it’s a false god. It chose a path that none of us anticipated,” Bayonetta said, her eyes still filled with amazement.

"Of course, you may not understand, or even be clear, why there are two false gods."

"To put it simply, if I had to find an adjective that would be easy for you to understand, I'd probably have to use 'mechanical ascension' to describe it."

Chu Jiang's eyes also revealed a look of astonishment that he could hardly contain. He could roughly guess what the false god had done.

But is this even possible? Isn't that a bit too crazy?

The term "mechanical ascension" comes from a technology in Paradox Interactive's game Stellaris, which refers to digitizing the consciousness of a living being and abandoning the frail flesh and blood body in favor of a mechanical one.

When consciousness is digitized and the body stops aging, it is equivalent to achieving immortality in disguise.

But Chu Jiang didn't understand. Aren't ghosts themselves immortal? Why would a false god do this?

"The false god is a conscious being, and I believe you have also realized this. Moreover, the birth of this consciousness should not be too long ago; it most likely occurred after its resurgence in the modern world."

"Then this ghost is particularly bizarre. After it gained consciousness, for some reason, it showed a strong obsession with electronic data and the Internet."

“At first, my lord and I both thought that the false god did not want to become the absolute ruler of the sealing realm, but wanted to embark on a completely new path.”

"But it turned out that we were all wrong. The false gods were so extreme that they did not want to exist in this world in the form of ghosts."

"It just wants to be a string of data, a line of code."

"As you can see, it separates its consciousness from its body as a ghost and uploads its consciousness into the electronic world."

Belfast's expression turned very serious when he said the last sentence.

"In other words, the ghost you sealed was indeed a false god, but only a part of it, a discarded remnant. It even completely stripped away the power of its own sealing domain."

"Its consciousness has long since wandered to some unknown node on the global network."

"Moreover, that part of consciousness has become a kind of electronic ghost."

"I don't know if it can still be considered a ghost, but at least it has gotten rid of the ghost's instinct to kill, otherwise the remaining citizens of El Paso would not have survived."

Chu Jiang paused for a moment after hearing this, then said, "A ghost that didn't want to be a ghost? And it succeeded?"

"What will happen next? What exactly does the false god want to do?"

Sister Bei shook her head. "I don't know. Perhaps you could try to have faith in our Lord and listen to His predictions."

"In short, the El Paso incident has come to an end, and the 'false god' has ceased to exist. Perhaps in the future, we can call it an electronic god."

"And we must be vigilant about it at all times. I have no doubt that this data from the electronic god can control the global network, or even paralyze it, it just depends on whether it wants to do so."

"Of course, you may think I'm exaggerating, but I must remind you that the sentence you just saw on the main control panel, namely, 'A new god is born,' has been synchronized to electronic screens in every corner of the world."

"It truly succeeded, announcing its evolution to all life on Earth..."

Chapter 370 The Promised Land

Chu Jiang did not disbelieve it, because he had previously predicted that it might develop to this point.

The only good news is that this electronic god is no longer a false god. Whether it can be considered a ghost or not is unknown, so it may not necessarily oppose humanity.

Going forward, we can only strengthen monitoring, since Chu Jiang can't possibly crawl into a computer or internet cable to fight the false god.

As the two talked, the music box's resistance grew weaker and weaker, until Chu Jiang and Belfast successfully suppressed it to the point where it had no ability to resist.

"Just as we agreed before, that page of the diary will be given to you first, since we won't have much use for it anyway."

"And our Holy Word Cult has been a great help to you this time, hasn't it? How about we take this ghost?"

Belfast discussed the matter with Chu Jiang in a very serious manner.

Chu Jiang didn't really care about the ghost's ownership; what he cared about was that this ghost not only possessed a rare power to soothe the soul, but also seemed to be able to restrain delirium to some extent.

This made Chu Jiang, who had set his sights on the delirium as his next target, unwilling to give up no matter what.

So he thought for a moment and said, "The fragment is yours, the ghost is mine."

In any case, even if Chu Jiang gets his hands on this page of the diary, he won't be able to return it to Ghost Diary anytime soon; he'll just keep it for the time being.

It would be better to hand it over to the Holy Word Church. After bringing the delirious speech down from its pedestal, he can then take back the two pages of the diary.

Belfast paused for a moment, then immediately shook her head. "No, I want the ghost."

By this time, Jade had gradually recovered. She watched the two of them fighting over the ownership of a ghost, not knowing what to say or why they were still holding hands.

Of course, Jade is definitely on the side of her own people, or rather, she stands on the side of her own beliefs.

Just as Chu Jiang was about to say something, his expression suddenly changed, his face turned even paler, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead, but it was immediately evaporated by some invisible heat.

"Wait a minute," Chu Jiang said, taking the little girl out of the space in his left hand to check on her condition.

Fortunately, the child remained frozen in time, with a gruesome head wound and congealed blood.

With the Black Sun no longer under the hypnotic influence of the music box, Chu Jiang's condition was already precarious; now that he continues to use the power of time, his physical condition is deteriorating further.

Sister Bei glanced at the child, seemingly fully aware of what had happened. "You want her to live? Simple, just have her believe in Our Lord."

"No thanks," Chu Jiang refused without ceremony.

Although he couldn't save the little girl on the spot given his current level of control over Chu Zhan, he could send her back to someone else to save her, since the battle was already over.

While current human medical technology cannot save people from this level of severe injury, it does not mean that a Ghost Master cannot.

As far as Chu Jiang knew, both Research Institute No. 21 and BRPD had such special talents who could "save lives and heal the wounded".

Putting aside other things, the last time policewoman Michiko turned into a baby girl, and was controlled by the ghost bride who then wreaked havoc on her body, it was a very dangerous situation.

Finally, she was sent to headquarters, where they still had ways to prolong Michiko's life.

Not to mention the little girl's condition was much simpler; she didn't have any ghosts inside her, just simple weakness and serious injuries.

Seeing that the little girl's condition was relatively stable, Chu Jiang took her back.

"I don't have time to delay anymore, make a decision." Chu Jiang looked at Belfast with a resolute gaze; he didn't mind fighting with the other party.

Sister Bei first bit her lip, looking somewhat aggrieved; then suddenly smiled, as if everything was within her expectations, switching effortlessly between a girlish expression and a noble and dignified demeanor.

"Alright, then I'll take the loss. Give me the diary, and you can have this ghost."

As he spoke, Belfast released his hand. "But you have to promise me one thing: come to the island nation. I need your help."

"Go to the island nation?" Chu Jiang frowned slightly. "Why? Are you still cooperating with the Seireitei?"

"No, no, no, I don't want you to go and deal with the [Ghost Abyss]. I just discovered a clue related to the [Promised Land]."

"The Promised Land?" Chu Jiang asked, puzzled.

Belfast said with longing, "There is a story in the Bible that Abraham was so devout to God that God made a covenant with him, promising his descendants a land flowing with milk and honey."

"This is the Promised Land, Canaan."

"Similarly, God has promised us a perfect world where humans and demons live in peace and do not interfere with each other, and where humans can be saved and demons can also be saved."

“This is what Jade told you, that our Lord will save all of this.”

Chu Jiang was somewhat surprised. Did Yiyu really have such lofty ideals? No, no, no, he would never believe it even if he were beaten to death. It was probably just another trick to deceive believers.

Moreover, Sister Bei's description reminded Chu Jiang of what experts Chen and Ning had mentioned about the "real world."

To reach the real world, one must first find clues about the Bell of Two Realms.

Just then, Sister Bei continued, "To get to the Promised Land, we need to find a bell first. Our Church of the Divine Word has recently discovered a clue that the bell may be in the island nation."