Chapter 989: Life and Death Hide and Seek
“Is Doctor Wei around?” Chen Ge had the phone spirit Tong Tong summon the doctors from the underground morgue. “I need you guys to examine this person. He is not doing so well.”
Flipping through the comic, Chen Ge released the man and the red high heels.
“Xiao Chen, the knowledge that we have accumulated is to help cure the living’s illnesses. Even though in the spirit of research, we have started to inquire into ways of curing ghosts, the process of that is going very slowly.” Doctor Wei looked at the man that was about to dissipate. “The core that maintains the existence of a spirit is their fixation. Once that disappears, the ghost will cease to exist. This gentleman possesses a very strong fixation to this world, but there is something else that has corrupted that fixation, causing him to waver in his conviction. This is a very rare situation indeed.”
“What’s corrupting his fixation is the curse that was left behind by the ghost fetus.” Chen Ge knelt down next to the man. “Have some faith in yourself, okay? I will help you remove the curse so that you will be able to guard Fang Yu again, and you will never be separated from her anymore.”
The man’s body was wavering. He chuckled faithlessly. “I am really appreciative of your help, letting me see Fang Yu one last time, but you saw what happened earlier. As long as I am alive, I will harm Fang Yu. Furthermore, even if you manage to remove the curse, the ghost fetus will still come get me. Is it really worth it for you to anger the ghost fetus just for me?”
“I am not going to lie to you. Between myself and the ghost fetus, one of us will eventually have to die. Now, do you understand what I’m saying? Without you, he will want to kill me, and helping you is essentially me helping myself.” Chen Ge was not lying. He was exuding sincerity with his every word. “Cooperate well with this Red Specter to deal with your curse. After the curse has been removed, we will work together to deal with the ghost fetus.”
“Actually, you can just toss me away now. I have the ghost fetus’ curse on me. He will come after me the moment he is able to do…”
“Please don’t worry about things that are beyond you. Focus on removing the curse from your body. When we face off against the ghost fetus, I am afraid no one will even have any time to pay attention to you.”
After saying that, Chen Ge stood up and prepared to leave.
“Wait a minute!” The man collapsed on the ground. He hesitated for a long time before he decided to tell Chen Ge something. “We do not have much time left. The ghost fetus has spent ten years looking for the perfect candidate. He is going to come soon.”
“The ghost fetus has found the perfect candidate?” Chen Ge stopped moving. “What do you mean?”
“The shadow’s fixation is to become a living person. He wants to have a family, to possess happiness, to enjoy everything a normal person could, but at the same time, he hates everything that is good in the world. To complete his own desire, he has already parted from the ghost fetus and kept burying the fetus’ seed into many children. But most of the children were unable to suffer the pain that was brought upon them by the ghost fetus. Only those who were born in a family of nightmares, children who had already gotten used to the nightmare, had a trace of opportunity to assimilate the ghost fetus.”
“Shadow, children, seeds?” Chen Ge was reminded of the events that he had encountered in Eastern Jiujiang before he started the mission in Li Wan City. The memories were now being joined together to form a more logical timeline.
“The ghost fetus spent ten years in his search before finding nine children who could sustain his pain. The nine children correspond to the nine mud statuettes inside the nine altars.” The man’s voice was very weak, as if revealing these things would cause him great damage. The curse inside his heart was eating him up. “This project took ten years to complete. The nine children are from different age groups, they have different personalities and appearances, and the ghost fetus is currently growing in one of them!”
When the man said that last sentence, black threads crawled out from his eyes and mouth. If not for the red high heels, who was an expert at dealing with curses, the man would have crumbled and disappeared already. Not long after the man said that, the black phone in Chen Ge’s pocket started to vibrate. Taking out the phone and clicking on the app, Chen Ge clicked open the new message.
“Congratulations, Red Specter’s Favored, for obtained a new special Specter, Zhang Yi!
“Zhang Yi (Cursed): A strong fixation gifted him with an extremely rare power. He can deprive living humans and ghosts of their memories. He is brimming with potential.”
The black phone rarely praised the ghosts that Chen Ge had befriended, but for Zhang Yi, the black phone had stated quite clearly that he had a lot of potential.
“Looks like I need to spend more time in the future to try to upgrade Zhang Yi and Yan Danian into Red Specters. Both of them have immensely scary powers, but one is being tortured alive by curses, and the other has such low confidence in himself that the only thing he wants to do in life is draw.”
Chen Ge was about to put the phone away when he saw that there was an unread message on the black phone.
“The new employee tab for Zhang Yi has already been unlocked. Why is there another unread message?”
Chen Ge clicked on the message. He had just read the first few lines of it, and his expression dropped.
“When the curse inside the altar was broken, the ghost fetus became aware of your arrival! Four-star Trial Mission ‘Ghost Fetus’ has been forcibly triggered!
“With the whole city as the stage, this is a life or death version of hide and seek!
“The nine altars represent nine children, and the ghost fetus is hiding inside one of them! You need to find him within nine nights, or you will definitely die once he turns into a ghost!”
“Mission hint: Lucky Red Specters’ Favored, you are just one step away from finding out the whole truth!”
Reading the messages on the black phone, Chen Ge was frozen in place for a very long time.