Mysterious Revival

Everyone seemed familiar with the name Li Leping, but upon closer consideration, they couldn't quite place who it was.

Without a concrete image forming in their minds, they were unable to recognize his identity, so when he spoke up, they were initially puzzled, but a chill went through them when they saw the nameplate in front of his desk.

Was he that occult investigator with the forgettable appearance, Li Leping?

Upon closer inspection, the man was indeed unremarkable, the kind that, even if he wasn't an occult investigator, would be the easiest to forget on a busy street.

And yet, Li Leping's analysis was incredibly accurate.

His conclusion from the data was correct, the Ghost Envoy was not a single ghost, but a Ghost Domain, which took the form of a coffin, hence also called the Ghost Coffin.

This was the true nature of this supernatural incident.

The proposal he offered, which only suggested containment from the outside, was remarkably consistent with the conclusions drawn by Yang Jian and Wang Xiaoming.

It was clear that not everyone sitting here was slacking; there were a few cunning individuals hidden among them. Regardless of whether the ghost under Li Leping's control was terrifying or not, his analytical skills were sufficient for him to survive in most supernatural events.

"Impressive analytical skills, has he been focusing on the data on the screen all this time?" Yang Jian had not paid much attention to the person sitting by his side.

This was an occult investigator with very little presence.

"A good conclusion."

At this moment, Wang Xiaoming praised emotionlessly, "I discovered the source of the Ghost Envoy after I encountered this supernatural event, but by that time it's often too late, because people have already entered the Ghost Domain and cannot get out, only to be exhausted to death there by the endlessly resetting Ghost Envoy. Currently, only a certain brawling kid can enter and exit this Ghost Domain."

A certain brawling kid?

Is he talking about me?

Yang Jian then glanced at Wang Xiaoming; it seemed he was quite displeased with his own reckless behavior to the point of mocking himself now.

"So, what's your plan, Professor Wang?" Li Leping didn't continue to express his opinion but asked seriously.

Cao Yanhua breathed a sigh of relief when the meeting's focus returned to the main topic.

It seemed that Old Qin could still maintain control of the situation; otherwise, it would be very easy to have a clash that could spiral out of control. Previously, Gao Zhiqiang had been killed by Yang Jian in just a few minutes; such incidents absolutely could not happen again.

Wang Xiaoming slowly began to speak, "Because the source of the Ghost Envoy is the Ghost Domain, to imprison the Ghost Envoy, the Ghost Domain must also be contained. By the current situation, it's impossible for headquarters—or even the whole world—to imprison an area spanning several kilometers."

"However, I've researched the Ghost Coffin and noticed a peculiar issue; why can such a small coffin contain such a large Ghost Domain?"

"It's suppression; domains suppress each other."

The one who spoke was Li Jun, his face stern; "If two ghosts with their own domains appear together and both form domains, one of the ghost's domains will definitely be suppressed. If the gap is substantial, the other ghost may not even be able to form a domain. I've encountered such a situation before."

His code name is Ghost Flame.

He is also able to form a domain and hence has the right to speak on this matter.

"So, the success rate of using the Coffin Nail is not high, because no one can ensure that it can secure a domain," Wang Xiaoming said.

Jang Shangbai's face darkened, Professor Wang's statement virtually condemned his plan to irrelevance, making it almost impossible to use again.

And the Coffin Nail would no longer be within reach.

"So, Professor Wang, is your plan to use another domain to suppress the domain of the Ghost Envoy, thereby limiting its activity to the smallest possible area, small enough to fit into a box?" Li Leping immediately caught on to what Wang Xiaoming was about to say.

Wang Xiaoming followed, "That is the only viable plan. The question now is where do we find something that can suppress the Ghost Envoy's domain?"

"Almost impossible to find."

Li Leping mused for a moment, "The Ghost Envoy itself has the ability to suppress other ghosts. This is an unsolvable deadlock."

"To deal with the ghost of the Ghost Envoy, there is no need to approach; just passing by on the road would do, and if it fails, the impact isn't significant. At least, that thing would be resolved by the Ghost Envoy. If successful, then the Ghost Envoy could be dealt with. The killing pattern of that ghost should have already been limited, and while still very dangerous, is at least easier to deal with than the Ghost Envoy," Wang Xiaoming said slowly.

"The collision of two S-class supernatural incidents is highly likely to resolve one."

Hearing this, Cao Yang was slightly surprised and said, "No way, you want to lure that ghost to J City?"

He understood Wang Xiaoming's intention.

To lure the ghost from that previous S-Class supernatural incident to J City, use its Ghost Domain to suppress the Ghost Envoy, and then deal with the Ghost Envoy.

If they failed.

At the very least, the S-Class ghost would take out the Ghost Envoy, which would be tantamount to resolving a major event.

"Professor Wang, your idea is too crazy. It's better to try taking out the Coffin Nail than risking it. If things go south, the consequences are unimaginable," Jang Shangbai said seriously.

"I know, but if we have to release a ghost anyway, it might as well be the one from outside to give it a try. At least it hasn't been contained, whereas the Hungry Ghost, if contained, the consequences of failure could be withstood," Wang Xiaoming said.

Although Yang Jian understood this, he was somewhat confused.

Since he had not been part of the headquarters for long, he was not very familiar with past major events and hadn't reviewed the relevant files, as some of them were highly confidential at headquarters and not accessible to ordinary ghost handlers. Only when one reached a certain level would they begin to reveal the files bit by bit.

"Wang Xiaoming wants to lure the ghost from that S-Class supernatural event?" he asked Feng Quan next to him.

Feng Quan was somewhat surprised and said, "Brother Tui, you don't know?"

"What are you saying? I haven't been on the job for long. Naturally, I don't know much about the major events from before, and my level has only recently been raised. I haven't had time to look at the newly decrypted files. Is it strange that I don't know?" Yang Jian said.

"That's true; I overlooked that."

Feng Quan smiled and said, "It was an S-Class supernatural event that occurred abroad, referred to in the files as the Art Gallery Incident, but that's the translated name from the foreign files. You know, foreigners always have such low standards when naming things. If you didn't know any better, you'd think it was some art gallery murder case, completely unrelated to anything supernatural. Headquarters here calls it more directly—the Haunted Painting Incident."

The Haunted Painting Incident?

Yang Jian's expression changed, "Can you tell me more about it?"

"There's not much to tell, just that a ghost emerged from a painting and went on an indiscriminate killing spree. It seems like everyone who saw the painting ended up being targeted by the ghost, although this is just conjecture. But indeed, those who died had all visited that gallery," Feng Quan said, shaking his head.

"But the trouble started when we realized that a lot of foreigners had visited that art gallery. By the time we reacted, the ghost had killed far too many people."

Yang Jian asked, "How many people died?"

"More than in Dachang City."

Feng Quan grinned, "Because the deaths were so widespread, it was difficult to keep track, but no one dares to hang paintings at home anymore since then. It seems that ghost might appear in any given painting, although this is inferred after the fact and not entirely certain. Even if it is true, that ghost can't enter paintings anymore."

"Why?" Yang Jian asked.

Feng Quan replied, "At the cost of completely annihilating a team of ghost handlers, someone left a candlestick made of gold on the ghost's body. Although they couldn't contain the ghost, if it has something like gold on it, it's unlikely that it can enter paintings to kill anymore."
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"That's about all I know, the rest is unclear to me, as it's from the foreign files and there's a high probability that they've hidden key information. So just have a look at them, but don't take that file too seriously. However, I still don't quite understand the headquarters' decision at that time. That thing was killing abroad, and yet the headquarters inexplicably supported it with a Ghost Candle. We're not even able to handle our own issues here."

As he continued, Feng Quan seemed once again puzzled.

It was that thing...

Yang Jian didn't listen too carefully to Feng Quan's following words but fell into deep thought when he heard about the gold candlestick.

Because Yang Jian remembered what that ghost they spoke of really was.

Back when he was in Dachang City, staying at Jiang Yan's apartment, he had seen a ghost wandering through Dachang City, hidden within a Ghost Domain.

He had been lucky at that time and wasn't drawn into that Ghost Domain.

Otherwise, he figured he would have been dead for sure.

"So that thing is the source of the S-Class supernatural incident, codenamed Haunted Painting?" Yang Jian pondered.

Wang Xiaoming's plan was to lure that ghost over, using the one in the Haunted Painting to suppress the Ghost Envoy, and if that failed, to use the Ghost Envoy to take care of the Haunted Painting.

Considering carefully, this was indeed playing with fire.