Chapter 146: Preparing to Clean Room 306 to Resolve the Curse of the Vengeful Ghost...

Upon hearing Zhou Fangdong's question, the ghost bus driver pondered for a moment and replied, "Actually, I don't know the specifics very well. After leaving the ghost market, I've been driving a bus around the apartment area to pick up and drop off the dead."

"Because I came into being through your power, my consciousness fell into slumber after you went to save the world, and was only recently awakened again."

"However, I heard you mention that you packed everything up and gave it to a partner to help arrange things. You also told that partner the locations of some immovable or temporarily unavailable equipment, as well as some important resources... Lord Zhou, didn't you encounter that partner after you woke up?"

Zhou Fangdong paused for a moment, then mentally invoked the system.

"Hey, is this 'partner' you? If that's the case, then stop bothering me with any tasks. Just give me back everything now and let me level up to max level. Let's go and kill the main god and the evil god together."

The system cannot understand what the host is saying.

Well, now I can't understand it anymore.

Seeing that Zhou Fangdong remained silent, the ghost bus driver assumed something had happened that caused Zhou Fangdong to lose contact with his partner. So the ghost tenant frowned and began to seriously recall if there were any other resource points.

After a moment's hesitation, the ghost driver spoke up: "Before I went to work at the apartment, I lived in the Ghost Market and knew some of the things you left there. Shortly after the Underworld closed, you... asked other colleagues to sponsor the Soul-Binding Lock, and took a cleaver from the Hell of Knives, fused them together into a cleaver with chains, and left it with the butcher in the Ghost Market."

"The coffin shop has the coffin you used to sleep in. The funeral clothing shop doesn't seem to have any connection with you. I heard that the funeral clothing shop owner used to live in the mortal world, and only moved to the ghost market after the underworld was closed."

"That's all I know. I don't know much about the other shops. I was a ghost at the time, and I was afraid of being sold. I basically didn't leave the coffin shop while I was in the ghost market. I learned all this information from your conversation with the coffin shop owner."

Zhou Fangdong nodded: "Thanks, this is enough. What you said was very helpful to me."

The butcher had already obtained the large cleaver while cleaning the meat Ganoderma.

The coffin shop owner is a key figure; he should know a lot of information. I'll talk to him when I have time to go to the ghost market.

Zhou Fangdong stood up and said to the ghost driver, "I have nothing more to ask. You can go back to your work." With that, he got off the ghost bus.

The ghost bus driver nodded to him, then gripped the steering wheel and stepped on the gas.

The bus disappeared into the lobby on the first floor and then reappeared in the apartment parking lot.

Just as Zhou Fangdong was thinking about whether to take advantage of the time Hou San was inspecting the sealing point of the evil spirits to go upstairs and prepare a room, he suddenly realized that Hou San was using shadow puppets.

Hou San is really efficient; he found the problematic seal point so quickly.

When Zhou Fangdong appeared beside Hou San through the shadow puppet, he found himself standing on a dry riverbed. Directly above was a stone bridge, and he and Hou San were positioned under its shadow.

As can be seen from the [Ghost Track Map], this sealing point is very close to Liwan Apartments, located between the New Star Resort and the apartments to the east.

It was already noon, and the riverbed, under the scorching summer sun, was riddled with cracks. The soil was lumpy and unusually dry, with remnants of several yellow warning tapes lying on the mud. Following the broken tapes, one could see the other ends of these strips of cloth tied to a bridge pier not far away.

Hou San stood beside the bridge pier, observing the marks on it.

Zhou Fangdong also went closer to take a look. He found several faded watermarks on the bridge pier, about half a person's height. Above the watermarks on the bridge pier, there were many talisman marks that extended along the bridge pier into the riverbed, but they had all been deliberately destroyed.

Whether it's the warning tape or the talismans on the bridge piers, the signs of damage are very fresh, and they were probably done by members of the Bone Inheritance Society.

Zhou Fangdong used his [Heavenly Eye] skill to carefully observe the residual supernatural energy fluctuations at this sealing point.

The curse fluctuations emanating from Li Ou were exactly the same, indicating that the one who had escaped here was the vengeful ghost that had cursed Li Ou.

Based on the cause-and-effect relationship, Zhou Fangdong searched for the ghost's current location.

Sensing its current location and the aura of curse emanating from it, Zhou Fangdong fell silent.

In those brief twenty minutes, the ghost traveled from Liwan Apartment, located in the eastern suburbs of Linjiang City, to the vicinity of Guijia Furniture Store in the west.

Moreover, it didn't cross the city directly; it went in a big circle, running along the edge of the city, from the eastern suburbs to the southern suburbs, and then to the western suburbs.

It traveled this far in less than half an hour, faster than a ghost bus! And not only was it fast, it also cursed hundreds of people during its escape... The harm it caused was immense. Fortunately, its curse didn't take effect immediately.

This ghost's actions left Zhou Fangdong momentarily unsure whether it was rational or not.

The vengeful spirits that escaped from the cracks in the top floor of the apartment building were all irrational, corrupted by the power of the void, and turned into pure killing machines.

The Guigu Society released this ghost, presumably to let it enter the apartment. But it was completely unaffected by the ghost-attracting artifact; it merely provoked the apartment entrance for a moment before running this far in the opposite direction from the apartment.

This is just like a petty thug who carelessly smashes a house window, only to suddenly realize it belongs to the local gang leader. Realizing he can't afford to mess with them, he carries a train and flees the city overnight.

Such bullying of the weak and fear of the strong makes one wonder if it is indeed a vengeful ghost that has escaped from the cracks.

What puzzled Zhou Fangdong even more was the choice of whom the ghost cursed—besides Li Ou, it cursed women.

Knowing the ghost's location, Zhou Fangdong dispelled the shadow puppet and teleported directly to the Guijia Furniture Store.

Seeing Zhou Fangdong suddenly barge in, the mannequins sitting on the furniture on the first floor silently turned their faces away, pretending they hadn't seen anything.

The manager of the Guijia Furniture Store is away for further training, so the store is closed today and the doors are locked, but that's not a big problem for Zhou Fangdong.

He stood in front of the locked glass door, looked out of the furniture store, sensed the location of the vengeful ghost, and then sent out more than a dozen nightmare clones.

The nightmare clones passed through the walls and quickly spotted the vengeful spirit wandering near the furniture store.

Zhou Fangdong used the [Shadow Soul Contract] to control the ghost by manipulating the Nightmare clone.

Out of curiosity about the conditions of the ghost's curse, Zhou Fangdong did not immediately use [Dead Domain Invasion], but instead used the [Judgment - Verdict] skill on it first.

Unexpectedly, this ghost was extremely fragile. It was just a nightmare clone that used the [Judgment·Decision] skill. This clone, which only had 10% of the main body's devouring power, tore it apart.

...But there's nothing to regret, since it's just an irrational, vengeful ghost anyway.

The Nightmare clone was unable to obtain Ghost Coins by using [Judgment·Decision]. After tearing the vengeful ghost apart, Zhou Fangdong only obtained a bunch of chaotic and fragmented memory fragments.

After confirming that the curse of the vengeful ghost had also disappeared along with the ghost, Zhou Fangdong began to carefully sort through these chaotic fragments of memory.

After reading the ghost's memories of its previous life, Zhou Fangdong finally understood the conditions of its curse.

This ghost was an involuntary celibate person who was impotent and enraged in his previous life, and he believed from the bottom of his heart that all the suffering he had endured was because of women.

He never had a romantic relationship during his lifetime, but instead of reflecting on his own shortcomings, he would rant online about how modern women are materialistic, unwilling to split expenses, and demanding high dowries. When female colleagues were more capable than him and got promotions and raises, he would spread rumors behind their backs that they had slept their way into those positions. When people pointed out his own lack of work ability, he would blame it on his family background, saying that his mother's overly controlling nature made him weak-willed and unmotivated at work.

Ultimately, his obsequious behavior towards male superiors, his disdain for female superiors, and his spreading of rumors angered a senior company executive, leading to his dismissal.

After being dismissed, unable to bear the ridicule and sarcasm from others, he took a knife and went out into the street to randomly stab people. After seriously injuring two women, he even attempted to kill a little girl. He refused to drop his weapon when law enforcement officers shouted at him and was ultimately shot dead.

It harbored deep resentment after its death, believing the world to be unjust.

Therefore, even though it was corrupted by the void power overflowing from the cracks and lost all its rationality, it still retained its instinct to hate women and generated a killing mechanism that only cursed women.

Its high speed of movement is due to its ability to use human resentment and negative emotions as springboards to move around, so its movement trajectory has always been along the edge of the city—people who still live in the suburbs have the most negative emotions and the greatest pressure due to various survival pressures.

After cursing Li Ou, the ghost did not enter the apartment again because its instinct to bully the weak and fear the strong overcame the ghost-attracting effect of the supernatural prop. After escaping, it couldn't wait to curse and kill more women.

After reading the ghost's memory fragments, Zhou Fangdong frowned: "It only curses women... Is this ghost confused about gender? Li Ou is a man."

At this point, Zhou Fangdong suddenly remembered something, "Right, Li Ou has a special constitution. His body also contains the living souls of his parents and wife. Including his own soul, it's equivalent to having two male souls and two female souls in one body. Given this half-and-half situation, it's normal for this ghost to mistake Li Ou for a woman."

Having successfully dealt with the vengeful ghost, Zhou Fangdong dispelled his nightmare clone and teleported back to his apartment.

As soon as he returned to his apartment, the system's electronic voice began to play:

[Congratulations, host, you have unlocked a Ghostly Encyclopedia entry for the Escape Rift]

[Illustrated Reward: [Rank A Sealed Artifact - Longevity Pot (Main Body)]]

Zhou Fangdong felt that this item sounded familiar, so he opened the encyclopedia, retrieved the medicine jar, and checked its effects.

Looking at the familiar instructions, Zhou Fangdong remembered.

—This medicine jar and the medicine jar of the sick ghost in Room 201 are a pair. They were found by Hong Zhong when he led a team on a mission at a stronghold of the Bone Inheritance Society, and then sealed in the warehouse of the Supervision Bureau.

Unexpectedly, it came right back to me after all the twists and turns.

【Host, may I give this [Longevity Elixir Jar] to the system? Once the system obtains this item, it can accelerate the repair of the host's body.】

“Okay, take it.” Zhou Fangdong readily agreed.

When the system obtained the Longevity Stone from Fengrao Village, it said the same thing. The Longevity Stone greatly improved the body's repair progress, and after the system finishes consuming this potion, its 90.1% body repair progress should increase even further.

Moreover, after the medicine bottle was swallowed by the system, there was no longer any need to worry about the tenants in room 201 facing fatal danger.

After obtaining Zhou Fangdong's consent, the longevity jar, which he hadn't even had a chance to warm up, instantly disappeared from his hands.

The system probably realized that its behavior of transferring money from one hand to the other was a bit excessive, so it generated another reward.

Congratulations, host, you have obtained [Apartment Renovation Discount Coupon x2]

Zhou Fangdong checked and found that both of them offered a discount of 5,000 for purchases over 30,000 Ghost Coins.

Although it doesn't offer the permanent 50% discount like garden renovations, it's still a good deal.

Zhou Fangdong put the discount coupon into his inventory and then teleported to the third floor.

He plans to clear out one room before considering renovations.

There are still 4 rooms left to clean on the third floor. We need to finish them as soon as possible to trigger the task on the fourth floor.

If the main quest on the fourth floor is not triggered, the side quests will not appear either.

Zhou Fangdong hasn't found a tenant for the pregnant ghost in room 401 yet because the side quest for room 401 hasn't been triggered. Renting it out wouldn't earn him the quest reward, which would be a huge loss.

Upon arriving at the door of room 306, Zhou Fangdong pushed the door open directly.