Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Engraving Three

The middle-aged female ghost, seeing that it was the girl who had previously refused to loosen her bindings speaking out to stop her, maintained her smile. She twisted her neck 180 degrees and said, "Little student, your group leader has already spoken."

"Look, we really haven’t done anything wrong, right?"

"Help us out, let’s set up a plaque."

As she spoke, the female ghost sighed wistfully, "It’s been decades since I died, and I can’t even leave a name behind. It’s quite painful, you know... why are you pulling my hand?"

Ming Yue swiftly tore off the golden light charm from the female ghost’s hand and examined her palm.

She noticed that her fingers had unusually long nails. She also brushed off some rabbit fur stuck to her body and smiled, saying, "Teacher, life must have been tough, huh? You haven’t even trimmed your nails."

"Personal hygiene should be maintained, so that both humans and rabbits can stay healthy and plump, don’t you think?"

The female ghost: "......."

The female ghost stared at Ming Yue. "Student, what do you mean by that?"

Without waiting for the female ghost’s hand to turn into claws, Ming Yue quickly took a photo to preserve evidence, slapped the golden light charm back on, and stepped back two paces, saying:

"Everyone, take a look."

"Our Jin Da Medical College teachers have pretty decent salaries, right?"

"Ghosts generally retain their appearance and posture from when they were alive."

"But look at this teacher’s nails, they look like my second aunt who works in the countryside."

The others stepped forward to crowd around and look at the photo.

It was unclear what method Ming Yue had used, but she managed to capture an image of a ghost on her phone—

In the photo, the female ghost’s hand appeared semi-transparent and gray-black. Her nails were long, sharp, and black as ink, filled with filth, making anyone who looked at it feel a chill run down their spine.

The female ghost: "......"

Damn, how are these little brats so hard to deceive?The group crowded around the photo, muttering:

"That's so ugly."

"Yeah, what’s up with those nails? Does she dig in the dirt with the rabbits every day?"

"That’s nonsense. Do you think digging in dirt would make your nails black? You’re so sharp."

Ming Yue squinted, positioning herself in front of the senior students, her small frame exuding immense power. "Auntie, you’re not a teacher, are you?"

The female ghost's smile remained unchanged. "Little student, you sure know how to joke."

"If I weren’t a teacher, why would I bother setting up a plaque for the remains?"

"If I weren’t a teacher, why would I go to the live animal lab to look at rabbits?"

"Do you think I have nothing better to do?"

Her words were hard to counter.

Ming Yue shrugged nonchalantly, her thick skin showing as she responded, "Maybe you really are just bored."

The female ghost: "......"

The female ghost’s smile froze on her face.

Ming Yue continued her questioning. God knows why so many doubts were flooding her mind, but she stared intensely at the female ghost. "Also, how do we know you were really a teacher who raised rabbits in the lab?"

"If you’re not a teacher, then everything you just said to us was deceitful—tricking the living into serving irrelevant dead people, binding us with karmic chains. Your intentions are sinister and deserve to be punished."

The last sentence was spoken with no expression, cold and detached, her words sharp like ice.

The other students: "......"

That was smooth, like she had experience dealing with enemies.The group stared at Ming Yue in surprise.

The female ghost said, "I can provide my experimental ID from when I was alive."

Ming Yue sneered, "That’s already written on the live animal lab door. If you can remember one, I can recite ten."

The female ghost: "I have rabbit fur on me."

Ming Yue shrugged, "I have rabbit fur too, and more than you."

The female ghost: "......"

The female ghost: "You were the one who asked if the rabbits were my doing."

Ming Yue confidently replied, "Slapping my own face has always been my signature move."

The female ghost: "......"

You’re really sharp.

"Speaking of rabbits," Ming Yue tapped her chin, unstrapping her backpack. It fell to the ground with a loud thud. She then took out the trident she had just put in, removed its cover, and the metallic steel trident gleamed with a chilling light, appearing before everyone’s eyes.

As the closest object to Ming Yue, the female ghost was hit by the trident's overwhelming yang energy and let out a heart-wrenching scream.

"Take it away! Please take it away!"

The female ghost screamed in agony.

Hmph, Ming Yue was very pleased with the outcome, slipping the cover back onto the trident.

The students: "......"

Guo Tianyang twitched his mouth: "Is that... a manure fork?"

Ming Yue replied without a hint of patience, "Senior, it’s called a trident."

Then, she reached into her bag and pulled out a lump of gray dumplings, soft and still moving, wrapped in yellow paper covered with runes.Yan Jun felt something stirring in his heart. "Could this be...?"

"That's right," Ming Yue quickly removed the dark energy talisman from the gray dumpling, revealing a rabbit ghost with one red eye. "I arrived early at the medical school tonight, went to the lab first—looks like there were still some that slipped through."

"Now, it’s time to witness a miracle."

Ming Yue gently rubbed the soft belly of the rabbit, aligning its little eye toward the female ghost.

The two ghosts stared at each other.

Female Ghost: "......"

Rabbit: "......"

Rabbit: "Aaaahhh!!"

The rabbit was frantic, its fur standing on end, desperately trying to back away, unwilling to even get close to the female ghost.

The female ghost glared at the rabbit with a dark, grim expression.

The atmosphere became dead silent.

Guo Tianyang sneered, pulling out the knife he had hidden in his sleeve, and wiping it across his palm, staining it with fresh blood. "Senior, this rabbit doesn’t seem to be very close to you."

"Everything has its nurturing instincts. If you truly raised it for so many years, how could it behave like this?"

The female ghost's body was surrounded by dark energy, and the Golden Light Divine Curse emitted waves of golden light, clashing and merging with the black mist. She smiled lightly and explained, "There were millions of live rabbits in the lab; this doesn’t necessarily mean I raised them."

Guo Tianyang pressed on: "Then why did my junior touch the rabbit without any resistance, but when she looked at you, it was like a pig being slaughtered?"

Ming Yue raised her hand. "Senior, this is a rabbit, not a pig."

Guo Tianyang: "...... Shut up."

Ming Yue: "Oh."

The female ghost remained silent. Ming Yue’s gaze landed on the red causal chain around her, swaying like a delicate flower in the wind, fluttering and shimmering."Rabbit fur on your body—if this counts as maintaining the appearance before death."

"Well, it could mean you raised rabbits, or it could mean you killed rabbits. Aunt, what do you think?" The spirits devour each other; it's also a shortcut to satisfy hunger and increase power.

"But you really do know a lot about the live animal lab, unlike me, who fell into the medical school and can’t even tell the difference between the north, south, east, and west."

"Also, your body was indeed used as a teaching tool." Otherwise, it wouldn’t have appeared in the cold storage room.

Ming Yue quickly spoke, her thoughts clear. "There’s a paradox here."

The female ghost chuckled coldly, wrapped in the Golden Light Divine Curse but still maintaining an elegant and graceful posture.

"I’ll see how you explain it."

"As you said, apart from being a staff member of the institute, I have no other explanation."

"We’re all doing our best for the school. You are students, indebted to the teachers of the school, rejecting the reasonable request of a teacher would be ungrateful."

"You’ll also carry the causal chain."

"Think it over carefully."

Such an adult still deceiving students.

Shameless, Ming Yue replied slyly, "I never said you ate live rabbits."

"Spirits eating spirits is a taboo in the underworld. After we Ghost Exterminators handle it, the underworld will definitely know."

"You’re neither a ghost king nor an official of the underworld. If a spirit dies because of you, do you want to end up in the boiling cauldron?"

The female ghost: "......"

The female ghost continued with a cold laugh, "Say whatever you want."

"If you have the ability, never release me from the Golden Light Divine Curse."

Ming Yue mocked, "A lifetime? Aunt, you died long ago."While joking, Ming Yue's phone rang. She swiped to unlock the screen and saw that Guo Tianyang had just created a small group and added a few people:

【@Xu Miaomiao: Fixing a memorial tablet isn't a big deal, just do it.】

【@Guo Tianyang: Once we start, we need to take responsibility, otherwise, we’ll bear the karma, the karma of the dead. It’s better to avoid it. Xu Miaomiao, you should go back and brush up on Yin-Yang ethics.】

【@Yan Jun: It’s no problem, senior. This is the medical school’s oversight, and the donation memorial tablet is something that should be done.】

【@Ming Yue: I think there’s a trap here.】

【@Yan Jun: Where’s the trap?】

【@Ming Yue: Senior, your family does real estate. Do you know when the medical school was established?】

【@Yan Jun: … What does that have to do with real estate?】

【@Guo Tianyang: The medical school is old, it was probably founded the same year.】

【@Ming Yue: So, it was in the late Qing Dynasty. How many people would donate their bodies back then? Would there be enough teaching materials? Could there be other gray-market methods?】

【@Ming Yue: Hey, do you guys think this old aunt's hair, all covered in gold paint, looks like a flagpole head?】

【@Guo Tianyang: … Not really, and it's called a "qi head."】

【@Yan Jun: … What are you thinking, Ming Yue?】

【@Xu Miaomiao: I got it, digging up old graves!】

【@Ming Yue: Maybe there’s also the executioner’s head chopping trade at the market, body-snatching at the funeral home, and after-sales service for death row inmates, the more the better, with lots of discounts~】

【@Guo Tianyang: Senior sister, you really know your stuff.】

【@Ming Yue: My family does funerals, of course I know.】

【@Yan Jun: You mean, this female ghost’s background isn’t clean.】【@Ming Yue: Anyway, I don’t believe she’s a teacher.】

【@Ming Yue: But I also think the situation is especially strange—historically, the academy’s formation was dismantled a few times. Even if people were deceived each time, the medical school should have at least been aware of a ghost’s request once. But the memorial tablet for the bodies has never been erected—what does that prove?】

【@Yan Jun: It proves that the medical school can’t clarify the full list of body donors.】

【@Yan Jun: It’s really shameful.】

At this point, the few students from the Spiritual Academy understood most of it.

When people die and their spirits don’t return to the underworld, it’s because the underworld has limited space for reincarnation and can’t accommodate the massive population explosion, which causes many souls to wander the world.

Another reason is the unwillingness to rest. The souls harbor resentment, lingering around their remains for a long time.

If these old ghosts, represented by the female ghost, are truly from an old dynasty…

According to the old thinking of that time, ‘entering the earth for peace,’ the bodies of the dead, after a hundred years, would be dismembered countless times. Men’s genitals would be severed for study of the reproductive system, and women’s breasts/mammary glands would be cut for study of the secretion system.

And the soul would watch it all, just watching.

This… this… this…

It’s even more torturous than the most vicious hell.

This kind of humiliation, from the inside out, would utterly destroy the spirit of a soul, driving it to madness and obsession.

The resentment is like a knife, carrying a fear deeper than death, thoroughly suppressing the soul’s rationality.

After a hundred years of accumulated resentment, it’s impossible to count how many evil spirits and vengeful ghosts will be born.

And this female ghost...

Damn.

Upon realizing this, all the students couldn’t help but exhale in unison.

—If I were in her place, I’d probably go mad.In the refrigerated room, the blue light was dim, casting an eerie glow that made the faces of the students appear even more ghostly than the ghosts themselves. The ghosts didn't breathe, and the living were silent.

A voice suddenly emerged from the group:

【@Guo Tianyang: I regret only bringing the Golden Light Spell.】

The report on the haunted incident at Tian Jingxuan’s property was placed on the table.

It removed the part about the first-year student using the situation for an exam opportunity and simply detailed the events: ghostly wall-hitting, ghostly elevators, etc. At the same time, it deeply analyzed the problem of good Feng Shui products turning into evil spirits, and recommended that the underworld strengthen patrols in regional areas and increase training for ghost officials to prevent issues before they arise.

Li Xianzhou finished the report, and it was nearly 11 PM. He walked out of the dormitory and dropped the report into a mailbox. The mailbox glimmered with a flash of dark light, and the letter was immediately sent to the underworld.

His phone suddenly rang. Li Xianzhou opened it and saw a voice message. He clicked it open, and a woman’s scream came through:

“Ahhhhh! Teacher Li, the medical school has dug up an old Qing dynasty relic!”

“Come quickly to witness this glorious moment!”

Li Xianzhou pulled the phone away from his ear by a meter: “...”

He suddenly couldn’t tell if this was a distress message or an attempt to show off and get a beating.