Chapter 184: The Old Man’s Persistence
Mist surged.
The crackling sound was dry firewood jumping in the flames.
Ye Zhen tore into the roasted meat with big bites.
At his feet were two curled-up wolf cubs.
Across from the campfire.
An old man smoking dried tobacco looked at Ye Zhen with a complicated expression.
“I say, can’t you stop eating? You’ve already eaten five wolves.”
“Is wolf meat that delicious?”
The old man watched Ye Zhen eating heartily.
Bones piled up on the ground.
This guy really could eat; after eating so much, his belly didn’t even bulge.
“If you want to eat, roast it yourself. What does it have to do with me?”
The old man fell somewhat silent.
This young person’s head must have some issues.
Fair enough; who with a normal head would think of feeding wolves wolf meat?
“When you left earlier, it probably wasn’t because you couldn’t beat me.”
The old man looked at the corpses on the ground; he checked, all killed bare-handed.
Bare-handed wolf killing, one is fine, but over a dozen.
This was no longer something an ordinary person could do.
Even if he had a gun, he couldn’t do such a thing.
This kid was fiercely impressive.
“Nonsense; if you hadn’t taken that shovel, I could’ve hung you up and whipped you right then.”
Ye Zhen rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, you’re in danger now; you didn’t bring the shovel out.”
The old man was silent for a moment, then silently took down the bundle from his back.
Then he unwrapped it.
Ye Zhen’s whole body stiffened.
After a long silence, he gave a thumbs up. “Old man, you’re the man!”
The old man put the thing back on his back and took a puff of dried tobacco.
“You’re not an ordinary person, are you?”
The old man asked.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“If I were ordinary, would I be here?”
Ye Zhen rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, fair enough. You even dare to follow a ghost; that courage alone isn’t something an ordinary person has.”
“Earlier I thought you were one of those reporters from the village.”
“Here to film some supernatural event.”
“Now it seems I was jumping to conclusions.”
“That shovel, that fan, and those scissors probably aren’t normal items either.”
The old man’s aged face looked at Ye Zhen through the flames.
Under the firelight, the young person’s face was pale, his eyes extremely dull.
There was also a faint chill on his body.
Even sitting by the campfire, the old man could feel it.
This young person’s body was cold, his blood was cold.
No vitality of a living person, more like a corpse.
“Definitely not normal items.”
The old man reached out and took off his gloves.
Ye Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly.
The old man’s hands under the gloves were bluish-black and somewhat rotten.
Clearly eroded by the supernatural.
“What did you touch?”
“Scissors, those scissors.”
The old man put the gloves back on.
“I touched the fan and the shovel with no issue, but only after touching the scissors did my hands become like this.”
Ye Zhen swallowed the meat in his mouth.
He thought for a moment and quickly understood the situation.
“Earlier I thought you could handle the shovel because my teammate did some protection upstairs.”
“But now it seems it’s more than that.”
“You touched the fan fine, but touching the scissors caused problems.”
Ye Zhen wiped the grease from his mouth. “The shovel and fan should be dormant, but the scissors aren’t.”
“What is this thing?”
The old man patted the shovel wrapped on his back.
“Ghost.”
Ye Zhen said calmly.
The old man’s pupils suddenly contracted.
“In our circle, this stuff is called a supernatural item, but essentially it’s a ghost.”
“You know about ghosts, so you understand what they are; no need for me to explain more.”
Ye Zhen finished the meat in his hand in a few bites.
He wiped his hands.
“What are you people?”
The old man stared at Ye Zhen. “I know this world has people who specialize in handling terrifying things like ghosts.”
“But since I learned of their existence, I haven’t encountered any until now.”
“I always thought ghosts couldn’t be dealt with, only lured to a place and detained.”
“These years, that’s how I’ve been doing it.”
Ye Zhen touched his chin and sized up the old man; hearing that he had been detaining fierce ghosts all these years.
He felt deep respect.
An ordinary person; any slight mistake meant instant death.
Just like the old man touching Fang Shiming’s Ghost Scissors.
Just one touch, and his hands became like this.
In the current situation, he wouldn’t live much longer.
If he were a ghost controller, Ye Zhen wouldn’t think much of it.
Just detaining a fierce ghost.
But he was an ordinary person.
That alone was worthy of respect.
“In our circle, people like us are called ghost controllers.”
“As the name implies, people who control fierce ghosts.”
“Ghosts can’t be killed; only ghosts can deal with ghosts.”
“You’ve lived this long; you’re lucky.”
Ye Zhen said very seriously.
“Ghosts can’t be killed, only ghosts can deal with them… ghost controllers?”
The old man felt despair just from hearing this.
Undying ghosts could only be detained.
For ordinary people to control such terrifying ghosts was extremely dangerous.
Death was easy.
“It’s not luck; I follow the method my father passed to me to handle fierce ghosts.”
The old man shook his head. “My father was an ordinary person like me.”
“But my grandfather wasn’t.”
“The method my father passed to me was passed to him by my grandfather.”
Speaking of this, the old man sighed.
“I knew my grandfather wasn’t ordinary, but I didn’t know how; now I do.”
“My grandfather was probably a ghost controller too.”
Ye Zhen nodded. “That’s normal. If not, the person who passed the method to your grandfather was definitely a ghost controller.”
“Where there are ghosts, there are usually ghost controllers.”
Especially in places like this.
With someone handling the ghosts.
“Perhaps.”
“Your teammate…”
The old man said this with some apology in his eyes. “Though it’s harsh, I have to remind you: people attracted by that lantern are generally dead people or ghosts.”
“Your teammate is probably already dead.”
Ye Zhen waved his hand. “You don’t understand the tenacity of a ghost controller’s life.”
“Ordinary ghost controllers only die from the revival of the fierce ghost in their body, not from normal death.”
“Even falling from ten thousand meters and turning into meat paste, as long as the fierce ghost in the body hasn’t revived.”
“The supernatural will repair all injuries.”
“That’s how ordinary ghost controllers are; let alone us?”
Ye Zhen glanced at the two little wolf cubs curled up at his feet.
“We just look like people; actually, we’re far from human.”
“We’re different from ordinary ghost controllers; as long as the ghost in our body is in a state of revival, we won’t die.”
“You can think of it this way: as long as the ghost isn’t completely suppressed, we’ll live.”
Anomalies were much harder to kill than ordinary ghost controllers.
Lin Qian was an anomaly.
Fang Shiming was an anomaly.
And he, Ye Zhen, was an anomaly among anomalies.
“So… your teammate is actually still alive, but why were they attracted?”
The old man couldn’t calm down after hearing this, but his biggest confusion was why they were attracted.
That lantern only attracted corpses and ghosts.
“Simple: at the time, their condition was very bad, their consciousness suppressed.”
“They couldn’t control their bodies.”
“With a ghost in the body and no consciousness controlling it, that’s just a ghost.”
“So the lantern could attract them.”
“But I wasn’t attracted.”
Ye Zhen said calmly.
Hearing this, though the old man still didn’t fully understand, he realized this young person’s teammate might really still be alive.
“I’ve told you all this, and Ye’s meaning is simple: hurry and take Ye to find them. Though they’re hard to kill.”
“Their current state isn’t good; something might go wrong.”
Ye Zhen stared at the old man.
Hearing this, the old man fell silent.
Seeing this, Ye Zhen gradually had a bad premonition.
After a long time, the old man sighed and spoke.
