Chapter 347: Exorcism Bureau, Ghost Control Technique, Human-Ghost Symbiosis

"A Grade C sealed object has fractured. All personnel from the Exorcism Bureau’s Sealing Hall, report immediately to reinforce it. Prevent the revival of the Grade C ghost, the Hanged Ghost."

The urgent announcement echoed through the Exorcism Bureau, and personnel began to mobilize en masse.

The Exorcism Bureau was a vital department established by the Ziyue Dynasty, tasked with overseeing all matters related to ghosts.

Ghosts were unique, beings born innately alongside humans. Every person was born with a ghost dwelling inside them.

With each passing year of age, the risk of it reviving grew. That person’s birthday was known as the "Living Sacrifice."

Humans were but clothing for ghosts.

Until later, someone, through constant observation, summary, and deduction, finally developed the Ghost Control Technique.

By implanting a second ghost at birth, one could balance the innate Companion Ghost within the body. This equilibrium drastically reduced the chances of a ghost’s revival.

And this person was none other than the founding emperor of the Ziyue Dynasty. It was because of him that a prosperous age for humanity was ushered in.

Without the Ghost Control Technique, the average person wouldn’t live past the age of ten.

What? How could they procreate at ten years old?

They didn’t procreate at all. Everyone was born out of thin air, appearing as fully formed adults.

Thus, it didn’t matter how many people died.

However, precisely because of this terrifying death rate, the mortal world was plagued by countless wandering ghosts.

When a ghost revived, its human host would die, but the ghost itself wouldn’t disappear. Instead, it would roam the human world, killing.

After the advent of the Ghost Control Technique, people used the balance between two ghosts to lower the rates of revival and death. Then, they would implant a third ghost to gain control over its corresponding special power.

From then on, humanity gained the ability to seal ghosts and control their numbers.

The cost, however, was also clear: overusing a ghost’s power would further accelerate the fusion of the ghosts within one’s own body.

Once they fully fused, one either had to implant three more ghosts to re-establish the balance, or simply wait for the ghost to revive.

Thus, the further one went down this path, the more ghost-like and less human they became.

This act of drinking poison to quench a thirst was a desperate, last resort.

After all, no one knew how long it had taken for humanity to transition from being "ghost-clothes" to true humans. Even now, after the Ziyue Dynasty had stood for a thousand years, they had yet to seal away all the ghosts.

The territory of the human dynasty was but a drop in the ocean compared to the true vastness of the world.

The Ghostly Realm was vast and unfathomable.

In their continuous struggle against the ghosts, the Ziyue Dynasty had divided them into four grades: A, B, C, and D.

Of course, these were just the grades for ghosts that could be sealed and contained; in reality, even higher levels existed.

A Grade D ghost was powerful enough to wipe out a city, while Grades C, B, and A corresponded to mansions, provinces, and commanderies, respectively.

By themselves, they weren’t actually that formidable, but the problem was that every single person had a Companion Ghost within them.

Especially now, with the widespread use of the Ghost Control Technique, even an ordinary person possessed two ghosts.

Once a ghost killed a single person, the situation would quickly snowball.

At that point, it wouldn’t just be one area that was annihilated; it would be the unleashing of a hundred ghosts.

It was a good thing these ghosts had no self-awareness; otherwise, it would surely spell apocalyptic disaster for humanity.

Therefore, for the Exorcism Bureau, a problem suddenly appearing in a container sealing a ghost most likely meant the ghost within had undergone some kind of unknown transformation.

Their ability to seal ghosts relied not only on the powers gained from the Ghost Control Technique, but also on understanding the principles behind the ghosts’ abilities.

Relying solely on ghostly powers was not a long-term solution; after all, these powers didn’t belong to them but came from the ghosts themselves.

They avoided using them whenever possible. Otherwise, if a new ghost implantation became necessary, the success rate was a mere thirty percent.

The Ghost Control Technique’s implantation of a second ghost had a 99% success rate, but from the third ghost onward, it dropped to just eighty percent. Many people died from the procedure every year.

Subsequently, implanting three ghosts at once to create a balance, rather than one by one, caused the difficulty to skyrocket.

Even if the implantation succeeded, there would be severe side effects, such as the body beginning to show signs of ghostification.

Of course, continued use of powers would lead to the further fusion of the six ghosts. To survive, one would then have to implant another six.

But generally, no one would let it get to that stage; they would choose euthanasia instead.

Even if successful, twelve ghosts fusing into one, should it revive, would require the entire Ziyue Dynasty to mobilize its full strength just for a chance to seal it. And even if they succeeded, the dynasty would be severely weakened.

Unfortunately, the Ziyue Dynasty and all of humanity were too deeply entangled with the ghosts. There was simply no way to break free.

Even if they wanted to, the ghosts wouldn’t allow it. The symbiotic relationship between human and ghost could not be resolved.

The Ziyue Dynasty was also searching for the truth. They suspected that it was because they were born from thin air that they were accompanied by ghosts.

The problem was, they had no other means of procreation. Moreover, whether people were born from thin air was not something they could decide; it was a natural law of the world.

There was no way to change it. The innate problem couldn’t be solved, so they could only do their best to mitigate the effects after birth.

But there was a silver lining. Due to the internal and external pressures, everyone was exceptionally united, and cases of infighting were rare.

After all, everyone’s lives were on the line.

As the Grand Director of the Shengshi Mansion’s Exorcism Bureau, Yan Jingxing was the first to arrive at the Sealing Vault. With a grave expression, he asked, "What’s going on?"

The Grade C ghost, the Hanged Ghost. Its ability was simple: to hang people to death.

Never mind a Grade C; even if it were just a Grade D, he would have had to personally come and oversee the situation.

This was the Sealing Vault, where all of Shengshi Mansion’s processed ghosts were sealed. To put it bluntly, not even the Eastern Palace of the current Crown Prince was as heavily guarded as this place.

If a problem were to occur here, it wouldn’t just be their mansion that suffered; the provinces and commanderies above it would also be annihilated in the fallout.

It could even become a national catastrophe.

This was no exaggeration.

The four grades—A, B, C, and D—only represented the Ziyue Dynasty’s difficulty rating for containing the ghosts, not their actual power level.

Even the lowest-grade D ghost could undergo a terrifying transformation due to some unforeseen incident.

"It’s still under investigation. It seems to be an internal issue," the Hall Master of the Exorcism Bureau’s Sealing Hall replied to Yan Jingxing at once.

"Meaning, the Hanged Ghost itself has changed?" A cold glint flashed in Yan Jingxing’s eyes. "The inside of a seal is fixed and constant. How could there be a variable?"

His words were an accusation.

Once a ghost is sealed, there should be no internal changes.

It’s equivalent to shutting down the ghost’s operational logic. As long as there’s no external stimulus, the ghost can never reactivate that logic.

In this way, there’s no possibility of a ghost reviving and breaking its seal.

The probability of a ghost massacring a city was greater than the probability of one breaking out of a seal.

And this matter was even more serious. Since the founding of the Ziyue Dynasty, the number of incidents involving a problem *inside* a seal was less than ten.

Once this incident got out, their Shengshi Mansion Exorcism Bureau would undoubtedly be subjected to investigations—and not just one, but rounds of them from both local and central authorities.

Yan Jingxing himself would likely be dismissed from his post for questioning, and the entire Exorcism Bureau would undergo a major shake-up.

"It might be related to the other ghost used in the Balancing Method by the Hanged Ghost’s original host, Wang Qin. Her other ghost was a Waning Ghost."

"And Wang Qin died from a ghost revival after aging, ultimately being hanged by the Hanged Ghost."

"Because it happened so suddenly, the Exorcism Bureau was a step too late. By the time we arrived, both ghosts had already revived."

"However, there were no casualties. Both ghosts were sealed. A later investigation revealed that the Waning Ghost’s power had leaked before her Living Sacrifice, causing her appearance to age."

"Wang Qin’s Spirit fluctuated too violently that day, causing an incident during a Living Sacrifice that should have passed peacefully."

The Hall Master of the Sealing Hall relayed the contents of the file on the Hanged Ghost’s containment.

"That’s not right either," Yan Jingxing said, his expression unchanging. "The Waning Ghost and the Hanged Ghost were sealed separately. It’s impossible for them to influence each other. There must be another problem here."

He had also clawed his way up from the very bottom of the Exorcism Bureau. When it came to sealing and containment, if he wasn’t number one in all of Shengshi Mansion, he was solidly in the top ten.

His work experience, to say the least, was extensive.

So he didn’t believe the Sealing Hall Master’s explanation for a second.

"They were sealed separately, but because Wang Qin’s cause of death was inextricably linked to the Waning Ghost, the Hanged Ghost underwent some kind of unknown change during the Living Sacrifice."

"So it was the Hanged Ghost that changed. The fixed and constant nature of the seal couldn’t stop this process," the Hall Master offered as his explanation.

"Don’t worry, Grand Director. No accidents will happen."

The Hall Master tried to reassure Yan Jingxing, telling him not to worry.

Naturally, Yan Jingxing wasn’t about to let his guard down. He opened his mouth, ready to say, ’It’s best if there’s no problem.’

But before he could even get the words out, a shout came from within the Sealing Vault.

"The fracture is widening and expanding uncontrollably!!!"

The moment those words were spoken, the Hall Master’s face changed. He spun around and sprinted into the Sealing Vault, completely ignoring Yan Jingxing.

At a time like this, if they couldn’t control the fracturing seal, the consequences would be dire.

A storm of shock and horror raged in Yan Jingxing’s heart as well.

’Don’t tell me it’s evolved from a Grade C sealing difficulty to a Grade A.’ Yan Jingxing thought. He couldn’t afford to hesitate and followed him toward the Sealing Vault.

It wasn’t just him; everyone in the Exorcism Bureau, from top to bottom, was rushing to the Sealing Vault.

If they managed to secure the seal, the worst that could happen was they’d be fired. But if they failed, every single one of them, from top to bottom, would die.

And it wouldn’t be the Ziyue Dynasty who killed them, but the ghost.

A ghost that could break its seal was in no way inferior to one born from the fusion of three ghosts.

Never mind the Exorcism Bureau; even if they threw the entire Shengshi Mansion into the effort, the success rate of sealing it again would be pitifully low.

When Yan Jingxing reached the Sealing Vault, he saw a large number of Sealing Hall personnel reinforcing the seal with their own ghostly powers, regardless of the cost.

Seeing this, he hurriedly joined in. He knew how to perform a sealing, of course; as the Grand Director, he had certainly done this kind of work before.

But even with his addition, the fracture wasn’t brought under control. On the contrary, it continued to widen, bit by bit.

This caused Yan Jingxing’s heart to sink completely.

’It seems the entire Shengshi Mansion Exorcism Bureau is going to die here today.’