Chapter 127 City God Page Unlocked and Activated Community Guardian Temple, Providing Protection...

Upon seeing the man who suddenly appeared in the yard, the caregiver's face turned extremely pale. If it weren't for Hou San's shadow, she would have thought this guy was some kind of manifested ghost.

"How did you get in? I clearly locked the front door..."

Suddenly, a key appeared in Hou San's other hand: "We came in openly and honestly, and we even locked the door again for you after we came in."

Upon seeing the key, the caregiver was even more shocked. She instinctively reached into her apron pocket, but found nothing.

She murmured, "My key...when did it get to you? How did you do that?"

Hou San smiled without saying a word, simply tossing the key in his hand.

After tossing and catching it a few times, the key suddenly turned into a piece of yellow paper.

He threw the yellow paper into the air, and it spontaneously combusted without any wind.

As the ashes of the paper fell gently, two small figures suddenly appeared—two little paper figures with a frustrated expression, huffing and puffing as they carried a mahogany sofa into the courtyard.

Their bodies weren't even as tall as the sofa, and they were teetering precariously under the weight of the mahogany sofa. Fortunately, four more adult paper figures soon appeared and took over the task of lifting the sofa.

The little paper doll in the green dress glared at Hou San, then took out paper money from her bosom and scattered it into the air. The round paper money with square holes replaced the ashes and fell like snowflakes.

The little paper boy in red sighed, took his head off, and made it into a lantern, which he carried in his hand. The faint candlelight shone through his two round, red cheeks, casting a soft red glow in front of the mahogany sofa.

Seeing such a bizarre scene, the caregiver was speechless for a moment, just staring in disbelief.

Although there are ghosts in nursing homes, everyone who has seen them has died. This is the first time she has witnessed such a bizarre scene... At this moment, she is no longer sure whether the man who suddenly appeared is a human or a ghost.

Hou San nodded in satisfaction when he saw that everything was ready, and then tossed the small black paper in human shape onto the mahogany sofa.

After Zhou Fangdong realized he could control the shadow puppets, he immediately took control of them... and then he found himself sitting on a carved mahogany sofa.

Four adult paper figures carried the sofa like a sedan chair. On the left was a headless little paper figure carrying a lantern with human heads, and on the right was a little paper figure of a girl scattering paper money.

He leaned back on the sofa like a villainous boss, becoming the focus of everyone's attention in the yard.

Zhou Fangdong paused for a moment, feeling inexplicably awkward.

...Despite arriving at the nursing home under such tight time constraints, Hou San still managed to prepare paper figures and furniture, and gave him a grand entrance CG.

To be fair, Hou San is a very successful businessman; he maximizes the emotional value for his customers.

In the future, these paper figures could be bundled with furniture store products, with the furniture store giving away small paper figures to add atmosphere when selling furniture. This might boost sales for both stores simultaneously...

No, this isn't the time to think about that. The tenants' death countdown is down to one day.

Zhou Fangdong jumped off the mahogany sofa, waved at the paper figures, and signaled them to stop being the atmosphere-setters and go back to the paper shop.

The paper figures nodded in unison, their forms slowly fading until they disappeared completely from the courtyard as if they had never existed.

Only the paper money scattered on the ground, soaked with water, can prove that those paper figures really existed.

Zhou Fangdong looked at the wet ground.

Large patches of water have appeared on the ground in the courtyard of the nursing home.

To prevent elderly people from falling, the entire courtyard was paved with white cement. This type of surface darkens when wet, making water stains very noticeable.

It's a sunny day, but if you only look at how fast the water is spreading on the ground, it looks like a downpour is happening.

The unusual appearance on the ground in the yard brought the caregiver back to her senses from the shock of "yet another strange person appearing out of nowhere".

She suddenly burst into laughter, her expression somewhat deranged: "I don't care if you're human or ghost, now that you're here, you're not leaving! The water ghost curse has completely ensnared you, so die with us old folks!"

Lu Mingbian couldn't understand what this aunt was thinking at all: "Auntie, your parents and children were all killed by ghosts, why do you still act as a ghost's accomplice to harm people?"

"What do you know! Only when you all die here can the water ghost curse be completely eliminated!" The caregiver screamed with all her might, no longer putting on an act, tearing off her mask of gentleness. "Those young people are willing to die for us, we old bones can't let them sacrifice themselves too! Only when we all die, and the water ghosts have killed enough people, will the water ghost curse on those young caregivers who left disappear!"

Lu Mingbian frowned. Because of her profession, her brain habitually and automatically unraveled the complexities of the situation, piecing together the logic of the whole affair from the events that had just occurred and the caregiver's incoherent words.

She hesitated before saying, "After Grandpa Chen died, strange things started happening at the nursing home. It must be the water ghost he suppressed that has resurfaced and started killing the elderly residents. The caregivers couldn't bear to see the elderly people they cared for killed by the ghost, so they secretly performed a ritual to send away the water ghost, following the notes left by Grandpa Chen. But they were probably unskilled and violated taboos, causing the ritual to go wrong. Not only did they fail to send away the water ghost, but the caregivers also transferred the water ghost's curse onto themselves..."

"The elderly residents of the facility couldn't bear to see the young people killed by the water ghost, so they decided to sacrifice their lives to become substitutes for the water ghost, dying in place of the young caregivers. Because they were still a few people short, Auntie, you sent a report to a charity organization, hoping to bring in some outsiders..."

No wonder when they first entered the nursing home, the elderly people they saw all had blank, numb expressions; they clearly had the look of someone who had already decided to face death!

After understanding the cause and effect of the nursing home water ghost incident, Lu Mingbian still couldn't understand why the caregivers and elderly people in the nursing home would do such a thing.

—These are all completely unnecessary actions. Have all the people in this nursing home been bewitched? What on earth are they doing?

Lu Mingbian asked directly, "After Grandpa Chen died, the nursing home lost its protection and was haunted by water ghosts. But why didn't the caregivers seek help from the Supervision Bureau? Instead, they held their own water-sending ritual. Isn't it common sense to contact the Supervision Bureau for supernatural events?"

Hearing her question, the caregiver's expression grew even angrier: "Those people from the Inspection Bureau are demanding that we close the temple and stop worshipping the ancestors and deities we've believed in for generations. Why should we trust them anymore?!"

"We've been worshipping for so many years, and we've performed the sacrificial rites for so many years, and now they're forbidding us from worshipping because they're afraid we'll make mistakes or break taboos! With Grandpa in charge, the offerings of food and fruit are arranged more neatly than when officials hold a meeting, so what taboos could we possibly break?! King Chen has protected us for over a hundred years, and we've never had any problems praying for blessings, wealth, or exorcising evil spirits. The Supervision Bureau has done nothing, but they just open their mouths and say things like the gods are now blind and the statues are ineffective, and that if we continue to worship them, wild ghosts will possess the statues and steal the incense and cause trouble. Bah!"

"The gods are no longer effective. How could Grandpa Chen have the ability to protect our nursing home for so many years? Since the supernatural events started, our nursing home hasn't taken a single penny from the inspection bureau. It's all thanks to Grandpa Chen's presence that nothing strange has happened. It's clear that those guys are just talking nonsense!"

The aunt became increasingly angry as she spoke, her eyes red: "After Grandpa Chen died, we tried to trust them. But yesterday, I reported the situation at the nursing home, thinking those guys would come to help—they agreed to come, but then they made excuses and broke their promise, which led to the deaths of two more caregiver children and even the director's collapse. How can you expect me to trust those officials to care about us again?"

"What can we do? We can only solve this water ghost problem by our own means! Anyway, we old bones don't have many years left to live. It's worth it to trade our old lives for the lives of young people!"

The emotional caregiver gasped, "It was wrong of me to drag you outsiders into this. I'll apologize to you after we die... We don't have any substitutes, so we'll probably become water ghosts and stay in the nursing home forever."

Lu Mingbian didn't know what to say, so he just sighed.

In the early stages of the paranormal incident, due to the urgency of the situation and the lack of experience in handling paranormal events, the supervisory bureau took a rather harsh approach, cutting off the root cause and causing the nursing home staff to lose trust in them. Furthermore, yesterday's sudden incident at the hospital, which prompted investigators to urgently deal with, inadvertently exacerbated the crisis of trust, leading to the current state of the nursing home's water ghost incident.

Because the law firm and the supervisory bureau had always maintained contact, Lu Mingbian knew some inside information.

After all, it's better to be safe than sorry. The supervisory bureau prohibits all private worship ceremonies in order to prevent even greater accidents.

In addition to the rituals of worshipping the gods, temples also have rituals to send away evil spirits, such as sending away water evil spirits and sending away mourning guests. Although each temple has an experienced shaman in charge, during the rituals, someone may be negligent or careless and break the taboo, which may attract vengeful ghosts or evil spirits to possess them.

There are real ghosts now, and if something goes wrong, it could cause serious casualties of hundreds of people. The supervisory bureau doesn't dare to gamble with the lives of ordinary people, so it simply banned all folk worship rituals.

As for the Bureau of Supervision's claims that "the gods are blind" and "the statues are ineffective," there should be some basis for those claims. Lu Mingbian heard from her teacher that the Bureau of Supervision also has its own team of Taoist masters, whose methods have certainly been verified.

During Lu Mingbian's conversation with the caregiver, the strange phenomena in the hospital became increasingly apparent.

The water vapor was almost visible to the naked eye, forming a thick fog.

The water was no longer simply flowing and spreading on the ground, but rather pooling together to form small puddles. More than a dozen transparent figures rose from the ground—the caregivers and elderly people who had been killed by the water ghosts had all turned into water ghosts and returned to the nursing home.

Zhou Fangdong, who had been silent since he appeared, looking around as if searching for something, finally spoke:

"Auntie, please don't get upset. It's all a misunderstanding. It'll be fine once we talk it out..."

"Moreover, finding a substitute for the water ghost cannot eliminate the water ghost's curse. The water ghost in your nursing home has a problem; it's not a normal ghost, so the ritual to send away the water evil was ineffective."

Upon arriving at the nursing home, Zhou Fangdong immediately activated his [Heavenly Eye] skill.

Although the skill effect was somewhat weakened by using shadow puppetry, he still found the key after careful screening.

The water ghost in the nursing home is very strange. Unlike ordinary water ghosts that disappear after catching a substitute, it is like a killing machine that kills people according to a fixed program, continuously slaughtering all the humans it can reach.

Those killed by it also become water ghosts, extending its power to help it continue to slaughter others.

The causal chain of the curse extends upwards from the source demon, like an inverted pyramid.

Just as the caregiver was about to say something, she was suddenly horrified to discover that the shadow of the young man, which had been transformed from a small black piece of paper, was spreading rapidly.

It was as if a basin of ink had been poured directly into the water; all the water on the ground was stained black at an extremely fast speed... including those transparent, human-shaped water ghosts.

Even the water vapor that formed the fog was eroded, and the entire sky above the nursing home darkened, the sky changing instantly from dawn to night.

“Found it.” Zhou Fangdong directly manipulated the shadow to drag the source ghost out from underground.

When possessing a shadow puppet, the effects of other skills will be halved, but using [Shadow Soul Pact] will result in a bonus.

The cursed water demon was entirely blood red, as if it had been skinned alive. Although it had a human body, its face was that of a ferocious ape, and it had sharp fangs in its mouth.

Zhou Fangdong didn't waste any time. After finding the ghost, he immediately used [Dead Zone Invasion].

A scarlet crack tore through the pitch-black space, and layers upon layers of ghostly hands of yin energy surged out of the crack like a black torrent, dragging the water ghost into it.

As the water ghost disappeared into the crevice, the system's electronic voice sounded:

The escaped [Pollution Water Ghost] has been recovered.

[A powerful ghost capable of becoming a haunted tenant has been detected in this area...]

[The Ghost Tenant, Grandpa Chen, has been created and automatically signed a rental agreement with a tenant. He has been placed in room 304. [Linjiang Nursing Home] was once Grandpa Chen's shelter and has been automatically included in the apartment's surrounding facilities.]

[Detected that the host has retrieved an escaped rift ghost; detected that [Ghost Tenant Chen Agong] related to the Jingmiao Temple has been unlocked; detected that the Bureau of Supervision has become an absolutely friendly force.]

[City God's Temple Page Unlocked]

The host can choose a region to build a City God Temple from scratch, or choose to directly modify the exterior of the Surveillance Bureau building to build a City God Temple.

Once the City God Temple is successfully built, the original community-exclusive guardian deity temple will be activated.

[If a community does not have a temple, or if the temple has been demolished, the facilities around the apartment can be upgraded to become the temple in that area.]

Before upgrading the apartment's surrounding facilities to a temple, you need to first upgrade the ghost tenant to the main deity of the temple.

[The ghost tenant currently eligible to be upgraded to a Realm Lord: Zombie Taoist Priest Zhang Zhiwu. Upgraded ghost tenants can receive incense offerings, are active both day and night, and retain sanity at all times.]

[Warning: Your current apartment reputation is too low. There are only 2 temples available for activation/upgrading on the City God page. Please increase your apartment reputation as soon as possible.]