When Ling Feijie saw the Skull Crusher Chen Ge pulled from his backpack, he started crying even harder—his whole body convulsing between sobs.
To prevent any further physical damage, Chen Ge had no choice but to let Foul Breath knock him unconscious.
"Take him to the underground morgue to find Zhang Yi. Everyone else, come with me to find that woman."
After leaving the boys' dormitory, Chen Ge used Ghost Tongtong on his phone to contact most of the haunted house staff, mobilizing everyone to search for Shen Bingjie.
The tourists still touring the underground sets had the misfortune of becoming collateral damage as well. Fierce ghosts and Obsessions roamed freely everywhere—normally it was the tourists hunting for ghosts, but now it was ghosts in droves hunting for tourists.
The only iron door leading to the surface had been sealed shut, with Red High Heels standing guard outside, so Chen Ge wasn't worried about Shen Bingjie escaping. Catching her was simply a matter of time.
About ten minutes later, Chen Ge received a notification from Ghost Tongtong: Old Bai and the students from the Spirit Medium Ghost School had cornered Shen Bingjie in a classroom at the entrance to the ghost school.
"So many places to hide, and she ducks straight into a four-star scenario. She's got a pretty sharp nose for danger, I'll give her that."
Dragging the Skull Crusher behind him, with two Red Dress ghosts trailing in his wake, Chen Ge appeared before Shen Bingjie without bothering to conceal himself in the slightest.
"What do you want?" Shen Bingjie, who looked so delicate and fragile, was huddled in the last row of the classroom—she had nowhere left to run.
The front door, the back door, the windows—shadows flickered everywhere.
"Why is it always the guilty party who cries foul first? You know perfectly well what I want." Chen Ge summoned Xu Yin, bringing the number of Red Dress ghosts in the classroom to five. "Should I call you Shen Bingjie, or should I call you Jia Ming?"
The moment Shen Bingjie heard the name Jia Ming leave Chen Ge's lips, her hands slowly lowered from her chest, and the terror and tension on her face gradually drained away.
She leaned back against the cold wall and slowly raised both hands above her head. "How did you figure me out?"
Further denial would serve no purpose. Shen Bingjie made the wisest choice available to her.
"Is that any of your concern?" Chen Ge let the four Red Dress ghosts close in around Shen Bingjie—a level of treatment very few had ever experienced. "Are you going to come out on your own, or shall I invite you out?"
"We can talk about this. There's no conflict of interest between you and me—we're both pitiful people victimized by the Netherfetus." Shen Bingjie's voice was still soft, but her tone had shifted entirely from before.
"That sounds awfully familiar." Chen Ge thought for a moment—it seemed he said things like that all the time. "Looks like you'd rather not cooperate. Everyone, go up and help him out."
Several Red Dress ghosts advanced, and the pressure was indescribable.
Beads of cold sweat rolled down Shen Bingjie's cheeks, her eyes filled with a deep sense of helplessness. A person with multiple Red Dress ghosts at their command chose to run a haunted house? Were Red Dress ghosts meant to be used like this?
"If someone gave me just a few Red Dress ghosts—no, even just one—I'd never be this cornered…" Shen Bingjie clenched her fists, and in the end chose to submit. "I can tell you something very important! In exchange, I hope you'll let me go."
"Seems like you still haven't grasped the situation. I don't need you to volunteer a single thing. In a moment, I'll have the Red Dress ghosts drag you out of that woman's body, then they'll layer curses upon you, and finally I'll let the hundreds of Obsessions in my haunted house slowly devour you, piece by piece—so you can watch yourself being eaten alive. Don't worry, I won't let your soul dissipate. I'll wait for you to recover, and then we'll repeat the whole process." Chen Ge wore a smile on his face, a glint flashing in his eyes.
"Are you a devil wearing human skin?" Shen Bingjie's face and neck had turned deathly pale, completely drained of color.
"My haunted house is brimming with talent—some specialize in curses, others can manipulate memories. I'll be doing all kinds of experiments on you at my leisure." Chen Ge waved his hand dismissively. "Back when you were torturing others, you probably never thought this day would come, did you?"
"The Netherfetus is about to be resurrected, and you're the key. One of the necessary conditions for his birth is your death. I know many of the Netherfetus's secrets—I can help you!" Shen Bingjie changed her tune, her attitude suddenly cooperative.
"I don't believe a single word coming out of your mouth right now—unless you leave that woman's body this instant."
"No problem, but once I leave the body, it will dissipate quickly." Shen Bingjie looked troubled.
"Don't worry. With me here, dying won't be that easy for you."
Hearing Chen Ge's words, Shen Bingjie's expression somehow grew even worse.
She slowly sat down on the floor and closed her eyes. A cold wind swept through the classroom, and the woman's shadow gradually rose to its feet.
Using his Yin Eyes, Chen Ge saw clearly—within the woman's shadow was a mass of sticky, blood-red threads.
Those threads held curses and malice, slowly coalescing into the silhouette of a man.
This silhouette was different from Jia Ming's—it was considerably taller.
"Latching onto a shadow, gradually consuming the entire person—this is something I learned from the Netherfetus. He started out as someone's shadow." The man was a special type of fierce ghost, his body consumed by curses and blood-red threads—roughly a half-Red Dress ghost at best. "My name is Jiang Long. I was a victim too. The Netherfetus drove my family insane and forced me to work for him. When the job was done, he turned me into this. I dream of killing him every single night."
"What a coincidence—I dream of killing him too." Chen Ge pulled out his comic book. "Enough talk. Why did you come to my haunted house? Don't lie. Tell the truth honestly—it'll be better for everyone."
"The Netherfetus wants to be resurrected. He took something vitally important from each of nine children. Right now he's hiding inside one of them, dormant. Once he awakens—whether he succeeds or not—we're all dead." The man's voice trembled. Just the mention of the Netherfetus filled him with fear, a terror branded into the very depths of his soul, never to be erased.
"Don't tell me things I already know." Chen Ge dragged the Skull Crusher one step closer. "Do you know the specific details about those nine children?"
Chen Ge had long suspected as much. Jia Ming and the others had no outside help, yet while being pursued by the police, they'd still managed to locate the shrine entirely on their own—that was simply too incredible.
"Nobody knows the details about those children except the Netherfetus himself. But I do know a method to identify them." The man didn't dare hold anything back. "I brought a child out of Liwan Town named Zhen Zhen. He's a failed product shaped by the shadow, carrying a trace of the same aura as the Netherfetus—making him of the same origin. That's why he occasionally has strange dreams, dreams in which the fates of all nine children are intertwined and connected."