Chapter 50 The Truth Behind the Second-Floor Blood Corridor: The Five Ghosts and the God of Wealth, Finding the End...

During his pursuit of the shadowy figure, Hong Zhong discovered that its source seemed to be outside, not inside the villa.

Moreover, unlike its sluggish movements indoors, the shadowy figure became faster and faster as it moved further out, like a rubber band stretched to its limit rapidly retracting.

Hong Zhong didn't have time to say much. He only told the other team members to stay put before getting on his motorcycle and continuing the chase.

Whether it was due to adrenaline or something else, Hong Zhong felt that his vision, hearing, and perception were much stronger than before, and he could even seem to smell the ash from the dark figure.

Therefore, although the shadowy figure fled very quickly, Hong Zhong did not lose it. He managed to follow it to a warehouse not far from the villa area based on the remaining information.

This is also a residential building. This warehouse is probably a converted garage in the community. The roller shutter door on top is still not down.

Hong Zhong touched the apartment key that was still burning hot to his chest, and then without any hesitation, he stepped on the gas pedal hard and drove into the warehouse in a very reckless manner.

The motorcycle sped into the warehouse, knocking away the three paper figures guarding the entrance. What came into view was a huge altar covered with a yellow cloth.

Various paper offerings were placed on the altar, and runes written in blood were on the yellow cloth covering the altar.

But the most eye-catching thing was the huge brass incense burner on the table. The ash inside the burner had piled up into a small mountain, and on top of it, besides four unburnt incense sticks, there was a small figure made of half-burnt black paper.

A bald old man stood behind the altar, holding a small figure cut from black paper in his hand.

He was muttering to himself when Hong Zhong suddenly rushed in on a motorcycle, interrupting him. He stared dumbfounded at the surreal scene before him.

The dark figure that had just attacked Hong Zhong vanished into thin air after the old man stopped chanting the incantation—this dark figure was not some naturally occurring ghost or monster, but seemed to be some kind of evil magic.

The disappearance of the dark figure brought the old man back to his senses. As if struck by a backlash, he first vomited a mouthful of blood, then pointed at Hong Zhong in disbelief: "How could you have found this place? How could you have gotten in?! The paper figures and the confusion array at the door—"

'Bang!'

Before the bald old man could finish speaking, a bloody hole appeared on his forehead.

Hong Zhong held his gun and watched indifferently as the bald old man slowly fell to the ground.

To avoid being harmed by the evil magic of the Bone Inheritance Society cultists, killing them directly is the most efficient way to deal with them.

There was no need for any questioning; the bloody lessons taught the investigators of the Extremist Division that they would only conduct a search after all the cultists at the scene were dead.

Only half a minute has passed since Hong Zhong rushed in on his motorcycle.

Although the old man appeared to be dead, and Hong Zhong could no longer hear his heartbeat, he still did not search the warehouse, but instead pushed his motorcycle out of the warehouse.

Hong Zhong looked carefully at the warehouse entrance and finally found several inconspicuous runes on the walls on both sides of the roller shutter door.

This must be something like the confusion formation that the old man mentioned.

Hong Zhong took a small metal can that looked like graffiti paint from his waist and sprayed it on the runes a few times. After confirming that the runes were destroyed, he used his communication device to call two teams of investigators who were stationed in the villa area to come over.

The two groups quickly arrived near the warehouse and hastily set up an emergency cordon. During the setup, they also apprehended five bald men nearby who appeared to be cult members.

After confirming that the warehouse had been successfully sealed off, Hong Zhong went back inside to search it again... still alone.

The old man lying behind the altar with a bloody hole in his head showed no signs of recovery. He remained in shock, having lost all vital signs.

To prevent the old man from turning into a zombie or a vengeful ghost, Hong Zhong took out a metal piece about the length of an index finger and stuffed it into his mouth.

This is a miniature metal talisman jointly developed by the Logistics Department and the Scientific Research Department. It has the effect of dispelling evil spirits and sealing away malevolent forces. After being recharged by the Celestial Master of the Supervision Bureau, it can be used repeatedly. Only people at the captain level can receive it.

Hong Zhong felt around on the old man's body and found a piece of paper that he had been carrying with him.

This piece of paper looks like it was torn from an ancient book; it's part of an ancient summoning ritual.

The above describes how offering the internal organs of an adult male with a suitable birth chart to an evil god can yield the seeds of a flesh-shaped Ganoderma lucidum.

The seed cultivation process requires the blood from the necks of forty-nine young boys or girls. After forty-nine days, a flesh-regenerating Ganoderma lucidum can be cultivated, capable of bringing the dead back to life and healing bones.

Upon seeing the last part, Hong Zhong's gaze sharpened.

At the bottom are a few lines of annotations, some in new handwriting and some in old.

The annotation, written in a style similar to the handwriting used to record the ceremony, stated that the ceremony had been successfully performed once, and that the original ceremony had taken place at the Liwan Apartments.

Hong Zhong recalled the landlord's sharing with him the locations where the cult members of the Bone Inheritance Society frequently went to, and even asked him to bring back a few cult members—he seemed to understand what the landlord wanted to do.

It is very likely that the rituals performed by these cultists in the apartment have damaged the apartment environment, so the landlord wants to find clues from the cultists to resolve the problem.

Remembering the apartment key that had just saved him, Hong Zhong paused for a moment, then decided to compile all the information he had found and bring it to the landlord... Compared to living cult members, the landlord would probably be more interested in this information.

Hong Zhong continued reading.

The bottom line of annotations looks like it was written recently. It says that they are preparing to recreate the ritual, cultivate the flesh Ganoderma, and bless the believers.

Thinking of the children who had gone missing recently, and looking at the ritual that required the blood of forty-nine young boys and girls, Hong Zhong felt his blood rush to his head and the veins on his forehead bulged out.

Although I had expected it, seeing the actions of these damned cultists in person still made me furious.

Those damned Bone-Binding Society, those damned cultists, what do they take humanity for? Just playthings for their amusement?

Fortunately, the rescue was timely and all the missing children were safe and sound.

Hong Zhongping suppressed his anger and continued searching the corpse.

He found another plaque identifying the elderly man. In modern society, these cult members have also kept up with the times, as if they are afraid that their followers will not recognize their identities.

The plaque states that the old man was a high-ranking member of the Embalmer Society's Medicine Charity Hall, who performed the work of praying to evil spirits for medicine, blessing believers, and granting them healthy bodies.

Aside from this piece of paper and the nameplate, no other clues could be found on the body; the person was not carrying any communication devices.

Hong Zhong searched the altar carefully again and found a small booklet in the incense ash of the huge incense burner.

The booklet contains records of supernatural items and descriptions of evil arts collected by the Bone Descendants Society, such as human skin hats, blessing potions, rituals for making blood shadow sachets, and methods for making the Five Ghosts God of Wealth...

All of these methods are extremely bloody and cruel, and the cost of using them is very high. I can't believe how many casualties this thing will cause if it gets out.

And could the blessed medicine jar recorded on this be the same one we just found in the villa?

Hong Zhong frowned as he looked at the instructions on the medicine jar.

The text says there are two medicine jars: one that can bring the dead back to life, and the other that can cure all diseases.

Such treatments cannot be without cost. Hong Zhong decided that regardless of whether the medicine pot found in the villa was a cure-all or a panacea, it should be sealed and stored in the Supervision Bureau. Ordinary people must never come into contact with this evil object.

I walked around the warehouse again.

Hong Zhong discovered that when he came into contact with something dangerous or was in a dangerous situation, the key on his chest would get hot and would even help to dispel the curse.

When he first entered the warehouse, the cultists must have set up other protective measures besides the confusion array, but none of them worked, which is why they were so surprised when they saw him come in.

After learning the purpose of the apartment room key, Hong Zhong simply turned himself into a human detector, searching the warehouse and finding a number of dangerous cursed items.

Only after confirming that everything had been thoroughly checked did he allow his team members to come in and deal with the remaining issues.

After the key stopped getting hot, Hong Zhong discovered that the extraordinary sensory abilities that had just appeared on him had also disappeared.

He suspected that becoming a tenant of the Liwan Apartments would not only grant him the apartment's protection, but also allow him to harness the power of the ghosts in the apartment rooms.

Thinking of this, Hong Zhong suddenly felt a little guilty.

Because he had to go to Jinxi Square to pick up the missing child last night, Hong Zhong did not return to Liwan Apartment all night, and did not prick his finger to bleed at four o'clock in the morning.

However, he did not live in the room, so it shouldn't be considered a violation of the rental rules... The rental rules should only be followed when the tenant lives in the room.

Moreover, this apartment key has helped him quite a few times today, so he shouldn't have lost his tenant status because of it.

However, just to be on the safe side, let's confirm with the landlord again after we get back to the apartment.

Seeing his team members busy in the warehouse, Hong Zhong decided to go back to the villa first to ensure that the medicine jar was completely sealed.

Just as he got on his motorcycle, he received a message from Duan Wenyu on his phone.

The message was actually asking if the Investigation Department needed staff dormitories, as the landlord was planning to rent out a room on the second floor.

Hong Zhong glanced down at the gleaming key hanging around his neck, remained silent for a moment, then sent a message to Duan Wenyu, submitting a list of all twenty of his team members.

Yes, all of his teammates were poor people without dormitories.

Having the status of a tenant at Liwan Apartment is equivalent to having an extra means of survival in paranormal events. For this reason, Hong Zhong can kick all his team members out of the Supervisory Bureau's dormitory.

Leaving aside the potential consequences of the paranormal forces at Liwan Apartments.

No matter how dangerous the apartment may seem, the landlord not only helped deal with the supernatural events created by the God, but also proactively provided the location information of the cultists and helped deal with them... So far, everything the apartment has done has been on the side of humanity.

Most importantly, despite his deep involvement with the apartment, Hong Zhong hasn't encountered any major problems. The apartment key even helped him resolve several crises just now.

The only price for accepting the apartment's shelter was the inability to return to the supervisory bureau's office.

To prevent the influence of Liwan Apartments from spreading within the Supervisory Bureau, at worst, all 21 members of their team will simply not return and will work remotely from outside; that will be just as effective.

After replying to Duan Wenyu, Hong Zhong thought for a moment, then briefly described what had just happened, and attached photos of the paper recording the ritual, as well as the booklets recording the cursed items of the Bone Inheritance Society, and sent them to Duan Wenyu, asking him to pass them on to the landlord.

They use the supervisory bureau's secure communication system and are not worried about their information being intercepted by others.

It was unexpected that Duan Wenyu had the landlord's contact information while he didn't... But it was also expected, it's normal that the landlord doesn't trust him now.

After replying to the message, Hong Zhong started his motorcycle and headed towards the villa.

Once he relaxed, he realized that he had just sweated a lot, and his neck felt a little itchy when the wind blew on it.

Hong Zhong scratched his neck.

Where he couldn't see, a mark slowly appeared on the skin of the back of his neck—a black cat head, about the size of a thumb, resembling a tattoo.

*

While Zhou Fangdong was browsing the system shop in room 201 looking for items, he received a text message from Duan Wenyu.

After receiving the message from Hong Zhong, Duan Wenyu immediately packaged and forwarded all of these things to Zhou Fangdong.

After glancing at the messages and information forwarded by Duan Wenyu, Zhou Fangdong, who hadn't paid much attention to them before, was shocked.

In just half a day, Hong Zhong actually found out so much information related to the Bone Inheritance Society. He's incredibly capable.

As expected of a professional.

Furthermore, Hong Zhong also found a medicine jar at that cult stronghold. If it really is a pair with the medicine jar in Room 201, then this room is truly destined to be connected with the Department of Extraordinary Investigations. It would be very safe to keep the main medicine jar sealed inside the Bureau of Supervision.

However, the number of tenants who will be moving in...

After a moment of silence, Zhou Fangdong called out to the system in his mind: "It's like this, System. This room 201 can be rented to a family, right? Do you think it's possible that, in the unlikely event that this family has eighteen children, the idea of ​​parents raising eighteen children... well, it's a bit of an exaggeration... but..."

In the end, Zhou Fangdong also felt that it was really absurd.

The system's cold, electronic voice sounded:

Room 201 can only accommodate a maximum of four people.

Okay, four people will do. That's enough for taking turns keeping watch.

The remaining sixteen team members without dormitories can be considered his future tenants. If they need to rent out the house again in the future, they can just tell Hong Zhong. There's no need to worry about not being able to find a place to rent.

Now that the tenant issue is resolved, if the medicine jar Hong Zhong found is a pair with the one in room 201, then the medicine jar issue is also resolved.

Hong Zhong also captured five cult members alive. Five cult members are worth 1,500 ghost coins, which should be enough to buy furniture. He can take these cult members to the ghost market at night.

With that in mind, Zhou Fangdong opened the rental preview interface.

The pixelated character in room 103 had calmed down considerably... because the VCR was broken, and the tearjerker DVDs were scattered all over the floor. Mu Yuechan was now listening calmly to the touching stories on the tape recorder, with the occasional "mood value +1 +1 +1" appearing above her head.

Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.

It looks like I can successfully use the Stand function to go to the Ghost Market tonight.

First, sell the cult members to the funeral shop owner, then check if there are any other supernatural furniture items for sale in the ghost market besides toilets. If all goes well, room 201 can be rented out tomorrow.

After settling the rental matter, Zhou Fangdong began to carefully review the information that Hong Zhong had sent him.

The first picture is the paper that Hong Zhong photographed, which records the summoning ritual.

Zhou Fangdong frowned more and more as he looked at it.

This thing looks more and more familiar the more I look at it.

By offering the internal organs of an adult male whose birth chart is auspicious, one can obtain the seeds of the flesh-shaped Ganoderma lucidum...

The ghost who died in room 105 of the Liwan Apartment activity room was found with its abdomen ripped open, its internal organs nowhere to be found. On the floor of the reading area, there were many photos of it before its death, like ritual offerings.

The flesh-shaped Ganoderma lucidum is nourished with the blood from the necks of forty-nine young boys and girls...

Those headless little devils with blood spurting from their necks who often played in the apartment activity room and hallways were probably also victims of this ritual.

And this picture of the meat-shaped Ganoderma lucidum...

Tsk, aren't those constantly growing flesh and blood in the second-floor corridor just like a huge number of fleshy Ganoderma lucidum gathered together?

Is the activity room at Liwan Apartment the location for the sacrificial ceremonies of this bone-setting association's medicine charity hall? Is the second floor of the apartment their Ganoderma lucidum cultivation base?

After all that, it turns out the whole thing on the second floor was caused by the Bone Inheritance Society.

I'm speechless. Could it be that the apartment became the source of paranormal events because these cultists were causing trouble there?

Why is it that these materials only contain methods for creating meat-shaped Ganoderma lucidum, and not methods for resolving it?

Zhou Fangdong quickly reviewed all the materials Hong Zhong had sent, including the paper recording the ritual and the booklet recording supernatural items. None of them explained how to thoroughly cleanse the fleshy Ganoderma.

After putting down his phone, Zhou Fangdong pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something.

Oh, and those three janitors with afros!

They can clean up the flesh and blood in the corridor. Although it is only a temporary solution, they must have been related to the ritual of summoning the flesh spirit mushroom in their previous lives. Therefore, the ghosts they become after death can clean up the flesh spirit mushroom!

By examining their life stories, we might be able to find a way to completely eliminate these fleshy Ganoderma lucidum.

Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong quickly walked out of room 201 and into the corridor.

The three cleaners in the corridor had already cleaned up to the door of room 205.

Zhou Fangdong looked at the three ghosts, who were exactly the same in shape and appearance, and couldn't tell them apart. So he randomly picked one and used the [Soul Absorption] skill on it.

After receiving 200 ghost coins, Zhou Fangdong read about its past life.

...That's too cruel.

Only after witnessing it firsthand can one truly realize how bloody and cruel the methods of the Bone Inheritance Cult are.

The cleaner who was just selected by Zhou Fangdong to use his skills is Qian Duolai.

Judging from his life experiences, the five of them were captured by the Bone Descendants Society to become the Five Ghosts and Gods of Wealth because of their special birth charts.

The method used by the Sigu Society to create the Five Ghosts God of Wealth is derived from the 'Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth Technique'.

Although the Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth technique can move money and lifespans of others to replenish the user, it is an unorthodox art, and its costs and backlashes are extremely terrifying.

As the saying goes, "It is better to remain poor for generations than to invite evil spirits into the house."

The Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth depletes the user's blessings in the next life and the fortune of their descendants.

Those who use the Five Ghosts to transport wealth will ultimately meet a terrible end, their lineage will inevitably end within three generations, and some will even be so badly harmed by the Five Ghosts that they will not even have the chance to be reborn as humans, and will only be able to endlessly reincarnate in the animal realm.

The members of the Bone Descendants Society wanted the benefits of the Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth, but were unwilling to bear the consequences of using evil magic, so they came up with a wicked plan.

—The Five Ghosts God of Wealth were created to help them use the Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth technique, and the backlash from the evil magic was borne by the 'Gods of Wealth'.

These five ghost gods of wealth are a method of creating ghost slaves. These five people are tortured in every way before they die, so that the ghost slaves created after death will become numb and obedient out of fear, and willingly bear the backlash of evil magic for their masters.

Zhou Fangdong couldn't bear to look closely at the cruel tortures these five people had suffered. These were tortures that no human could have conceived; calling them hell wouldn't be an exaggeration.

Judging from Qian Duolai's life experiences, there should also be a hidden room in the corridor on the second floor that Zhou Fangdong did not find, and that is where the five of them were tortured.

Because their mouths were sewn shut, they could not communicate and did not know each other's names, only the code names the cultists used to address them.

The first to rebel were two people codenamed 'Powerless' and 'Lifeless', who are also the cleaners that Zhou Fangdong has yet to find.

During one of the torture sessions with cult members, the two men broke their own thumbs in the struggle, forcibly pulled their hands out of their handcuffs, and before the cult members could react, they grabbed the torturers tightly and used the blade that was stuck in their collarbones to slit the cult members' throats.

Before escaping, the two used the key found on the cult members to unlock the restraints on Qian Duolai and his two companions.

Unlike the two men, Qian Duolai and his two companions lacked physical strength and willpower. They lay in the room for a while to recover from the pain before finally getting used to it and helping each other out of the room.

When Qian Duolai and the other two left the room, they realized why no cultists had come in to deal with them during their escape.

No one knows what Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian did, but the second-floor corridor was in complete chaos, filled with the screams of tenants, the roars of cultists, and flesh and blood growing from the ground like mushrooms.

The two people who left the room before them were rushing towards the stairwell. The stitches on their mouths had been forcibly ripped off, their cheeks were bulging, and they were chewing something as if they were eating.

The two men wore maniacal smiles, and dripping blood oozing from the corners of their mouths made them look as if they had just eaten someone.

Their wounds were disappearing at a visible rate, but as the wounds disappeared, clusters of fleshy mushrooms similar to those on the ground began to sprout from their bodies.

Although they were running towards the stairwell, they didn't seem to have any intention of escaping at all; their eyes were filled with hatred that wanted to take the cultists down with them.

Since the blood and flesh began to emerge from the corridor, not only are the tenants fleeing, but the cult members are also fleeing, and this corridor is precisely where the cult members are the most numerous.

Every time Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian caught a cultist, they would slam them into the fleshy Ganoderma that grew on the ground.

Those bright red chunks of flesh rapidly corroded and devoured the bodies of the cultists, quickly turning them into a mass of minced meat.

As more and more fleshy mushrooms grew on Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian's bodies, they gradually lost their human bodies, but their desire to take revenge on the cultists did not disappear.

The two people, transformed into two blobs of flesh, were like feeding slime monsters, indiscriminately devouring everyone in the corridor, including not only cultists but also innocent tenants who had fled.

As it devoured more and more people, the flesh-sludge monster grew larger and larger.

Just as they were about to block the stairwell, a middle-aged man wearing a melon-shaped hat rushed over.

Qian Duolai and his two companions, who were running down the stairs, bumped into the middle-aged man on the stairs.

The middle-aged man in the melon-shaped hat used his sword to sever the heads of the three men, then fused the three talismans and three darker-colored Ganoderma lucidum together and placed them around their necks.

Dark red fleshy heads sprouted from the cross-sections of Qian Duolai and the other two's necks, but compared to the scarlet chunks of flesh in the corridor, the fleshy heads on their necks appeared much darker, more like the flesh and blood of corpses that had been dead for a long time.

The middle-aged man in the melon-shaped hat activated the incomplete ghost slave runes on their bodies, controlling the three to clean up the flesh and blood in the corridor, creating an escape space for the other cultists. After that, he left the second floor with the cultists.

After the Liwan Apartments were sealed off, the three of them continued to clean up the blood and flesh that kept emerging from the second-floor corridor until today.

With a complicated expression, Zhou Fangdong walked up to Qian Duolai and gently touched his arm.

...It has a physical form.

After the three people's heads were severed, their souls, before leaving their bodies, were manipulated by the middle-aged man in the melon-shaped hat to merge with the headless corpses, transforming them into their current form, neither human nor ghost.

Zhou Fangdong sighed heavily, his face grave as he looked at the remaining blood and flesh in front of him.

The pile of flesh and blood on the second floor represents the remaining two cleaners he's looking for. He needs to find a way to awaken their sanity and restore them to human form so that the flesh and blood can stop growing, and Qian Duolai and the other two won't have to repeat this mechanical cleaning work anymore.

However... is it really possible for these two people, who have already merged with the flesh spirit mushroom, to regain their rationality?