Volume 2, Chapter 53: The Ghost Hunters
「Lakan's POV」
My coffee was cold. And it tasted exactly like wet dirt.
I don't know why the military insists on buying the absolute cheapest beans in the Federation, but they do. You would think the people in charge of protecting the world could afford a decent cup of coffee. I put the ceramic mug down on the edge of the glowing map table. General Ma shot me a dirty look for leaving a water ring on the glass. I ignored him.
My feet were killing me. These brown leather shoes were a size too small, but they were the only ones that matched my "Professor Lakas" disguise properly. I wiggled my toes inside the tight leather, trying to ignore the dull, persistent ache. Ten thousand years alive, and a bad pair of shoes can still ruin my night.
I shifted my weight to my left leg. The map room in the High Proctor's Office was huge, built to look impressive rather than functional. It had high stone ceilings and heavy velvet drapes that blocked out the real sky. It was a room designed for old men to play games with young lives. The map on the table was a massive projection of light, detailing every valley and river of the Federation.
But right now, the entire northern border was flashing with jagged red patches. Expansion zones. The Abyssal rot was eating the map.
The heavy oak doors of the war room finally pushed open. The shouting generals shut their mouths and turned around.
Yuhao walked in first. He looked terrible. His clothes were covered in a fine layer of gray ash that smelled like an open grave and burnt copper. The right side of his face was bruised a deep purple, right over his closed Gaze of Openings. Behind him, Bei Bei, Xiaotao, and Tang Ya followed.
Tang Ya was leaning heavily on Bei Bei's shoulder. She looked totally drained. The bright emerald energy that usually hummed around her was completely gone, leaving her looking small and fragile. Xiaotao wasn't doing much better. Her fiery red hair was dull, matted with sweat and dirt. They didn't salute. They didn't stand at attention. They just walked straight up to the map table, leaving dirty footprints on the expensive rugs.
General Ma crossed his thick arms. "Well? Did you secure the mining town?"
Yuhao didn't even look at the general. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a jagged chunk of black glass, and dropped it onto the glowing map. It hit the surface with a heavy, dead sound.
"We broke the tether," Yuhao said. His voice was hoarse. He sounded much older than his actual age.
General Ma leaned forward, staring at the black glass. "The Abyssal smog in sector four is receding. Our scouts confirmed it a few minutes ago. Good work, son. How many soldiers were guarding the anchor?"
"There were no soldiers," Yuhao replied flatly. "Just the people who used to live there."
The room went completely quiet.
"Explain," I said. I dropped the lazy teacher act entirely. I wasn't Professor Lakas right now.
Yuhao looked at me. His blue eyes were exhausted, but the gold ring of his Spirit Eyes flickered. "It was a battery, Professor. A giant heart made of compressed souls. The miners, the border guards, the civilians. Chen Feng isn't just opening doors. He is using their trapped spirits as fuel to keep the doors propped open."
One of the High Arbitrators turned pale, grabbing the edge of the table. "He is using our own people to power the invasion?"
"Yes," Yuhao said. "And the hushed… the ones walking around in the gray fog? They are empty. There is nothing left to save inside them. They are just meat puppets held up by strings of Abyssal energy."
Tang Ya flinched when he said that. She looked away, staring hard at the floor. I knew that look perfectly. It was the look of someone who just realized that being a hero often means making a terrible, ugly choice. I felt a sharp pang of sympathy for her, but I kept my face blank.
The generals started shouting again. It was predictable. Fear always makes loud noises.
"We need to firebomb the red zones!" General Ma yelled, pointing a thick finger at the map. "If the civilians are already dead, then we burn the towns to ash. We destroy the batteries from the sky before they can expand further."
"And what happens when the bombs hit the Abyssal energy?" I asked. I picked up my cold coffee again. "Do you know? Because I do. The thermal shock will trigger a massive release of the draining force. You won't destroy the door. You will just blow the hinges off and let the smog spread ten times faster. You will drown the entire northern ridge in rot."
General Ma glared at me. His face turned a deep, angry purple. "Then what do you suggest, teacher?" He spat the word 'teacher' like it was a curse word. "You stand there in a cheap suit and tell us our weapons are useless. We are the military. We fight."
"You fight wars," I corrected him. "This isn't a war. It is an infection. You don't cure an infection by shooting it with a cannon."
I took a step toward him. I didn't raise my voice. I just let a tiny fraction of my true pressure leak into the room. It wasn't my full Immortal Emperor weight, but it was enough.
Yeah, you read that right. Immortal Emperor. In this vast and infinite multiverse, there are other worlds where the strongest beings reach the realm of Immortal Emperor — a level of power roughly equal to a God King here. I've walked those paths too. It's quite fitting that I can call myself that from time to time.
The air instantly felt like deep water. The glass cups on the side tables rattled against their saucers. General Ma stopped breathing for a second, his eyes going wide as his instincts finally kicked in. He slowly sat down in his heavy wooden chair. The rest of the room suddenly found the floor very interesting.
I walked over to the map. I traced my finger over the red patches blooming along the border.
"Chen Feng is smart," I said. "He is not putting all his power in one place. He is building a network. If we just run around breaking batteries one by one, we will run out of time and people. The hushed will grind us down through pure numbers."
I glanced at Yuhao. I could feel the residual cold of the Eight-Cornered Mysterious Ice Grass radiating from his right leg. Ba Jiao. It reminded me of three years ago, when I dragged him to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang well. The Dugu family descendants threw poison darts at him just to test his worth. I remember Dugu Yan from ten thousand years ago. She was a fierce woman, especially after her grandfather joined the Martial Soul Hall back in my earlier days. This kid, Yuhao, he passed their brutal test just like he passed this one.
"If there are multiple batteries, they have to be wired together," I continued, looking back at the map. "They need a central point to direct the energy. A hub. We don't need to break every single anchor on the border. We just need to find the hub and cut the main line."
"How do we find something hidden in the smog?" the High Arbitrator asked quietly. "Our mechas rust in minutes. Our scouts don't come back."
"You don't send the army," I said, tracing a line from the red zones toward the deep north. "You send a scalpel. A team that can slip through the cracks, ignore the hushed, and sever the main line."
I looked at the four kids standing around the table. They were bruised, battered, and covered in the ashes of dead people. They were exactly what we needed.
"Effective immediately, I am forming a new, independent division," I announced. My voice was calm, but it left absolutely no room for debate. "They do not report to the generals. They do not wait for committee approval from the High Arbitrators. They answer only to me."
"A division of four teenagers?" a general in the back muttered, though he kept his head firmly down.
"Four experts," I corrected him sharply. "They just killed a Gatekeeper and broke an anchor in ten minutes. Your entire Third Mecha division couldn't do that if they had a month and a blank check."
"And what do we call this… division?" General Ma grumbled. He was rubbing his chest where my pressure had squeezed his lungs.
"The Ghost Hunters," I said.
It was a plain name. No grand, flowery titles like the 'Divine Shield' or the 'Radiant Vanguard'. Just a description of a dirty, thankless job. Do you think a wall cares if a ghost walks through it? No. You need someone willing to walk into the dark and grab the ghost by the throat.
Because if there's somethings strange, in the neighborhood, who you gonna call?! GHOST HUNTERS–
Oh wait, that's different.
Moving on.
"Their mission is to track the energy lines, bypass the hushed, and find Chen Feng's hub. Commander Huo is in charge."
Yuhao looked up at me. He didn't smile at the promotion. He just gave a small, heavy nod.
"I understand, Professor," Yuhao said quietly.
It felt incredibly wrong. I am the ancient one here. I am Lakan. I am the guy who survived the old wars, the one who watched the gods rise and fall over millennia. But I can't just snap my fingers and punch this problem away. The rules of reality are bending. Chen Feng's strange ability is a cheat code, and it requires a specific kind of virus to break it. Yuhao's Gaze of Openings makes him the only one who can actually see the hidden strings of this new way of fighting.
I am sending a kid to do a god's work. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, much worse than the cold military coffee.
But that is the cynical truth of survival. You use the tools you have, not the tools you want. You don't get points for fighting fair against a man who burns souls for fuel.
"Get out of here," I told the four of them, softening my tone just a fraction. "Go to the infirmary. Eat something warm. Sleep for twelve hours. Because tomorrow, the Ghost Hunters go back into the dark."
They turned and walked out of the heavy doors. Bei Bei practically had to carry Tang Ya out. I watched them go until the doors clicked shut.
The generals started muttering again behind my back, trying to regain their shattered pride, but I stopped listening to them. I looked down at the glowing red map on the table. The first strike was done. But the board was huge, and Chen Feng was already making his next move.
The real hunt was just beginning.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 53