Mysterious resurrection, something's wrong with this guy.

Chapter 16: Shipai Village

Half an hour later, the six men arrived outside Shipai Village. By then, it was already daylight. Police tape had been put up outside the village, and the entire village was under strict lockdown. A large number of armed personnel in camouflage uniforms were patrolling the area around the village.

They look like military personnel; they probably deployed a whole regiment, even with heavy weaponry. Anyone who didn't know better would think it was a war.

After undergoing strict identity verification, Su Qin and his group entered the restricted area and met the military leader, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. He seemed to be an acquaintance of Zhang Zhen, but judging from Zhang Zhen's respectful and polite demeanor, and the middle-aged man's military rank, he was probably Zhang Zhen's former superior, possibly the commander of a regiment.

The two were talking, and Su Qin listened from the side. At first, he didn't pay much attention, but when he heard the regimental commander say that an hour ago, he had sent a heavy artillery platoon into Shipai Village, but they lost contact as soon as they entered.

Hearing this, Su Qin's lips twitched. Sure enough, they were all the same. Even with ghosts around, they couldn't change their preconceived notions. No amount of firepower could produce a miracle in the face of such a situation.

Knowing full well that the officers sent in earlier had all gone missing, why send people in anyway? Isn't that just being stubborn?

Su Qin wasn't sure either. This village might be haunted, and ghosts from haunted places weren't so easy to deal with.

I don't know if the supernatural forces within me can fight off such a terrifying ghost.

Su Qin did not blindly try to explore his own supernatural abilities during this period, and tried to avoid using them as much as possible. However, based on his previous experience in the laboratory, he made a rough estimate of his own supernatural abilities.

He can suppress ghosts of lower terror levels, such as the one under the bed, which is a C-level restricted ghost. It's not very terrifying and doesn't have a sure-kill attack. Once he grabs it, it stops moving. I wonder if it would be effective against ghosts with ghostly abilities.

After Zhang Zhen finished his conversation with the regimental commander, his group changed into one or two large military vehicles and drove into the village.

Shipai Village is a village where people make a living by stone carving. There are more than 100 households in the village, all of whom are engaged in stone carving work. They are well-known in Tianjin and even throughout the country.

Upon entering the village, the six of them felt a sudden blur before their eyes, as if they had suddenly entered another world.

"It really is a ghost realm!"

Su Qin immediately became alert and dared not relax for a moment. From the moment they stepped into the village, they had entered a ghostly realm.

The village is still the same village, but what was once sunny is now shrouded in darkness, as if night has fallen.

The entire village was eerily quiet. Although every household had its lights on, not a sound was made. Occasionally, there were some stone statues lying askew on the streets, like abandoned, discarded handicrafts.

"Is this what they call the ghost realm? It doesn't seem as mysterious as they say. It just affects vision and causes hallucinations. Proceed according to the original plan and check them one by one. If any trace of a vengeful ghost is found, detain it immediately."

Zhang Zhen glanced at the dark sky and then at the brightly lit streets, calmly issuing instructions. Then, as if remembering something, he turned to ask Su Qin for advice.

"The information says you are a new ghost tamer, but there is no information about the vengeful spirits you control. Tell me the details of your vengeful spirits. I don't want any accidents to happen in the following operations."

Generally, information about each ghost tamer is written in their records. Even if there is any concealment, it wouldn't be like Su Qin, who has absolutely no information related to vengeful ghosts.

"I'm a new Ghost Slayer. I've only used my supernatural powers once, so I'm not very familiar with them yet. My abilities can suppress vengeful ghosts that aren't too terrifying. I've had cases of suppressing C-level vengeful ghosts before, but the prerequisite was that I had to touch the ghost's body. As for whether I can suppress vengeful ghosts with demonic possession, I don't know, but I can give it a try."

Su Qin was not telling the truth. According to his estimation, it might not be necessary to get close to the vengeful ghost, and his ability was not simply to suppress it, but more like to dismember or seize it.

While in the lab, he disassembled half of the ghost's phantom head, but he doesn't understand it well enough yet and needs to try further.

Hearing Su Qin's answer, Zhang Zhen did not suspect anything. After all, only this ghost tamer could have direct contact with the vengeful ghost. Regardless of whether he was hiding anything, when he came into contact with the vengeful ghost, he would inevitably use his own supernatural abilities. If he tried to play tricks, he would only die.

After making a plan, the six people parked their car on the side of the road, got out, and prepared to conduct door-to-door checks.

Zhang Zhen originally planned for the six of them to split up, but after thinking about it, he gave up the idea. To be on the safe side, they would act together. Although this would be much slower, they could work together to imprison the ghost if they found it.

Su Qin watched as the five men took out all sorts of equipment from the car and carried it with them, feeling utterly speechless. He only took a gold pistol, a dozen bullets, and two gold woven bags, and didn't touch anything else.

Only these two items are truly useful. As for other things like the golden woven net, the golden rope gun, or the golden spray, they are utterly useless. Carrying them around is just asking for trouble.

Zhang Zhen and the others were fully armed, but seeing Su Qin traveling light, they didn't say anything. After all, he was a ghost controller and could use supernatural powers, so it didn't matter whether he was armed or not.

Following Zhang Zhen's order, the six men began searching the nearest house, which was just an ordinary two-story brick building. The light at the entrance was on, but all the doors and windows were tightly closed.

bang bang bang

One of the team members stepped forward and banged on the roller shutter door while shouting into the room.

"Is anyone home? We're from the Investigation Bureau..."

I knocked on the door for a while, but no one answered. The house was quiet and there was no response at all.

In Su Qin's view, it was normal for no one to respond. If there were any noises inside, it might not be a good thing. Anything strange could happen in this ghostly place, and such reckless behavior was basically courting death.

But Su Qin would not stop them from doing so; on the contrary, he would be happy for them to make a fuss, because the more reckless they were, the more likely they were to be targeted by ghosts and the more likely they were to trigger the murderous patterns of vengeful ghosts.

Su Qin's task was to carefully observe the surroundings and remember the details of their actions. Once one of them triggered the vengeful ghost's killing pattern, he would notice immediately.

"Captain, there seems to be no one inside. Should we break down the door and check?"

The team member asked Zhang Zhen for his opinion. Zhang Zhen thought for a moment, then shook his head and gave up the idea of ​​breaking down the door to investigate.

Their primary objective was to imprison the evil spirit. As for the villagers, they needed to successfully imprison the evil spirit while searching. This was the first house they entered in the village, and the probability of encountering the evil spirit was not high, so there was no need to waste time.

They then knocked on the door of a second house, but there was no response, just like before. They went to several more houses in succession, and the result was the same.

"Is no one home? Or are they hiding inside, too afraid to make a sound? Could they all have been murdered?"

Zhang Zhen was puzzled. Several households had not made a sound. He originally wanted to find a villager to find out what was going on in the village, but there was no movement at all. He had no choice but to break down the door. He wanted to see if there was anyone inside and what was going on in the village.

Boom!

Just as he was about to force his way in, he suddenly heard a deafening explosion in the distance. He immediately stopped and focused all his attention on the direction from which the sound came.

"Get in! 800 meters southeast, full speed ahead immediately!"

He was a veteran of many years and was very familiar with this kind of sound. It was impossible for him to make a mistake. It was the sound of a howitzer exploding. There was no mistake. It must have been the heavy artillery platoon that had lost contact with the outside world before.

The group immediately got into the vehicle and headed in the direction Zhang Zhen had predicted. The military vehicle was powerful and sped along the village road. At their speed, they would arrive in no more than two minutes.

However, five minutes passed, and they were still on the road, not yet at the designated location. The road ahead seemed to be getting longer and longer.

"This is the Ghost Realm! Distances are distorted in the Ghost Realm, so judging them according to common sense is inaccurate."

Su Qin gave a reminder while keeping an eye on the surrounding movements.

Zhang Zhen was also somewhat startled by the strangeness of this ghostly realm, but he did not stop the car. Instead, he stepped on the gas pedal to the floor. He refused to believe that he couldn't get through such a short distance. You should know that he did not rely on his sight to judge, but on his hearing. Sound waves and the sense of air vibration are not affected by sight.

Gradually, Zhang Zhen smelled a strong odor of gunpowder.

Almost there, we'll be there soon. Once we regroup, we should be able to find out what's going on in the village. With so many professional soldiers and heavy firepower, what can't we handle?

They could smell the gunpowder, but they couldn't find any trace of exploding shells around them until they saw an armored vehicle parked under a streetlamp not far away.

The armored vehicle's hatch was open, and there was no living person inside, only a stone statue.

Upon seeing the stone statue, Su Qin suddenly remembered that he had seen a similar statue before.

There are many of these stone statues in the village, and you can see them on the streets from time to time. He used to think they were abandoned or handicrafts that hadn't been cleaned up yet.

But now he finally understood. He was really careless. Defective handicrafts should only be left in the studio to gather dust or be repaired. How could they be left lying around on the street?

The only explanation is that those stone statues were once people, living people, the villagers of this village, which is why the village is so quiet.

The stone statue inside the armored vehicle is the best proof of this, after all, who would put a stone statue, especially one in the shape of a soldier, into the driver's cab of an armored vehicle?

Turning people into stone statues—is this how that ghost kills? Then what are the ghost's killing patterns? And in what form does it exist?

The others, seeing Su Qin staring blankly at the stone statue in the cockpit, seemed to realize something as well.

"What did you find? Is there something wrong with this stone statue?"

Zhang Zhen looked at the stone statue in the cockpit with a wary expression. Having served in the army, he naturally understood the importance of this kind of armored vehicle and knew that no one would put a stone statue in such a place. However, he couldn't understand what this strange phenomenon meant.

Could this stone statue be a ghost?

"This is just an ordinary stone statue, but it may have had another identity before: a soldier who fired artillery shells."

Su Qin voiced his conjecture, and immediately the expressions of his teammates turned grim, their eyes filled with disbelief.

A teammate immediately retorted:

"Impossible? How could a person turn into a stone statue? Even if killed by a ghost, they should only become a corpse. The composition of a human body and stone is completely different. How is this possible!"

Upon hearing this seemingly reasonable statement, Su Qin immediately found it laughable.

"Heh! Ingredients? Then why don't you explain what a vengeful ghost is made of? This place is haunted, what use are scientific theories? Vengeful ghosts have all sorts of strange abilities, and anything can happen."

Viewing the paranormal through outdated, preconceived notions can be deadly.

The team member who had argued back fell silent. He had indeed fallen into a cognitive trap. In the face of the supernatural, past scientific theories were indeed inapplicable and could not explain such phenomena.

They also noticed the anomaly of the stone statue. They had all served in the military and recognized the familiar figure at a glance, but they were unwilling to believe such an absurd thing.