Zhao puts off the cigarette, and quickly takes out his phone, "it"s almost dark outside, I only sent the idiot after her, I have gotta go take a look myself.
Zhu asks, "you mean the trainee who pa.s.sed out?"
Zhao looks at her with a grumpy face, "give me the letter from the Ghost Slayer."
Zhu signals the corner of the desk, but doesn"t dare touch it.
It"s a black envelope with red words written in cinnabar powder: "To the Guardian, please open personally". In the letter, the incident of the hungry ghost escaping is summarised, and finally, it reads, "I shall come by midnight; my apologies in advance for so troubling you."
As Zhao turns over the letter, Zhu frantically moves aside.
The Ghost Slayer is not a G.o.d, but not a ghost either, and to call him a spirit or angel wouldn"t be appropriate as well. Legend says that he was born in the depths of h.e.l.l, and he has a ghost-slaying blade with the ability to "know good from evil", which earned him his name.
The blade has immense power, whether human, ghost, spirit or G.o.d, none can survive this weapon.
Because of this, everyone is terrified of him; but Zhao is an exception, he seems to think that the Ghost Slayer is a rather nice person... the only bad thing about him is the way he talks: too old-fashioned and too much babbling.
Zhao quickly glances through the letter, puts it in his pocket, and says to the uneasy Zhu, "you can go now, leave the night work for w.a.n.g Zheng; these days you don"t have legs, so you better stay home... right, call Lin Jing, tell him to come back if there is nothing special down in h.e.l.l."
Zhu is relieved that she can leave before that someone comes, and nods.
"I"m going." Zhao rushes outside, and calls Guo.
When Guo realises the Chief is calling, he can"t help but stand upright and freeze.
"What took you so long to pick up?" Zhao is worried, "did something happen?"
Guo stutters... it"s really strange, Guo has already gotten used to speaking with Zhao in person, but as for talking on the phone, perhaps he needs another period to get used to it.
Is it because the Chief sounds less friendly over the phone?
Guo begins breathing heavily, he struggles to say a word but nothing comes out; Zhao sighs, "it"s there anyone else? If not hand the phone to Da Qing."
Guo is relieved, and hands the phone to Professor Shen.
Luckily, the Professor is the reliable type: he efficiently summarises what happened to Li and how they got her to the hospital, then asks, "what"s wrong, what is it about Li that..."
A loud but indiscernible noise can be heard from the phone.
Zhao seems to be saying something, but the signal is unstable; Shen walks towards the window, and looks to be trying to get a better signal, but he opens the curtain without Guo noticing, and looks outside, "h.e.l.lo? What did you say? Can you hear me?"
Zhao"s voice finally becomes clear, "d.a.m.n it, get out of there, now!!"
A black shadow dashes across in front of Shen"s eyes, he blinks, and the lights go out in the room. Gla.s.s breaks, the cat screeches, and Shen smells a decaying, b.l.o.o.d.y odour.
In the darkness, n.o.body sees Shen grabbing a blood red worm out of thin air, and crushing it to death. He takes a deep breath, and carefully conceals his spirit energy, reverting to the gentle professor.
The room is in utter chaos, and the phone loses signal; the cat screams, which mixes with some other noise, and something knocks down the chair. Shen stumbles backwards.
He turns on the flashlight on his phone.
An unfamiliar male voice shouts, "be careful!"
It"s Da Qing"s voice, who just knocked down the chair, which knocked down the miserable Guo as well.
Shen grabs a wooden mob from the corner of the room, and attacks; a deafening crashing sound explodes, and a black shadow rapidly flies over his head.
The wooden mob breaks in two, and the shadow dashes towards Li on the bed at lightning speed.
Li is sedated, so she lies unconscious on the bed.
Their eyes are getting used to the darkness by now, and in the dim light of Shen"s phone, they can see a dark shadow... it opens its mouth more than ninety degrees, its head looking like a sliced watermelon.
Guo"s heart almost stops, his mind goes blank and he quivers uncontrollable in utter terror.
What is that thing? What the heck is it!?
The black shadow takes the shape of a human, skinny and slender, like a skeleton, but its stomach is ridiculously gigantic. Its hands turn into scythes, and viciously slashes towards Li"s stomach.
Shen leaps forward, but someone else beats him to it, and gets between Li and the ghost.
It"s an old lady who came out of nowhere, short and stubby; she uses her plump body as a shield to protect the girl on the bed.
Shen retracts the leap with great agility, but n.o.body notices the professor"s abnormal physique; then he grabs the steel chair, and hurls it at the black shadow.
The chair precisely crashes into the shadow"s "body", splitting it in half; the thing shrieks like an angry gorilla, the two halves of its body only have a small segment intact.
Shortly, its body bubbles as if boiling, and vigorously thrashes about; the two halves slowly merge back together.
"It grew back! It grew back!" Guo shouts, not being of any help.
Shen pounces forward, picks up the steel chair once again, and starts battering at the ghost.
Shen appears gentle, but his attacks are precise and vicious, and the monster soon shatters into several pieces; he tosses the chair aside without difficulty.
Silence.
Then, Da Qing jumps on to the bed and says, "don"t just stand there, let"s go! This is a hungry ghost, you can"t kill it with a steel chair; if it really gets angry then we"re screwed!"
Shen stares at the black cat.
"Yes, yes," Da Qing sombrely says, "I"m talking, now let"s go!"
Shen must have a strong mind, a hungry ghost and talking cat did not startle him whatsoever; he swiftly reaches for Li, and carries her away, "what about the old lady?"
The cat replies, "don"t worry about her, she is a new ghost."
"Oh," Shen abandons materialism, and says to Guo, "come now, Officer Guo, let"s go!"
Guo"s mouth gapes in terror, and his neck freezes into a bizarre look.
Shen carries Li on his back, and raises his voice, "Officer Guo!!"
Guo wakes up from a dream, and struggles on the floor like an octopus; he hurriedly gets up, "I... I... I..."
"Stop stuttering and open the door!"
Guo mindlessly follows, and scrambles over to the door.
The corridor is pitch black, and the entire hospital is dead and empty; not a single nurse or doctor.
The black cat runs ahead incredibly fast for its size, as Shen follows with Li on his back, and Guo stumbling forward at the back.
Their footsteps echo through the empty hallway; a chilling breeze tails them, and Guo shivers.
Their seems to be something behind him.