Chapter 568

Nikaido Kiri hurriedly called over, but the voice from the other end of the receiver was the prompt tone: "The number you dialed is not in the service area or is turned off, please try again later."

"No good, Director, Huangquan Miss and Sakuraba's phones can't be reached at all; they've definitely entered the Ghost House Villa together, and that place is the center of the spiritual power field, so communications should be being disturbed."

"Can't be helped, everyone move out, rush over there as fast as possible, hope we make it in time!"

Shen Gongji Shobu's complexion was heavy; she issued instructions to the other Countermeasures Bureau Exorcism Handling Team members.

"Yes, Director Shinguuji!"

Iwahara Kōji stood up, rapidly went downstairs; Nabu brothers and Iinaga Noriyuki followed behind.

Very quickly, a modified Humvee drove out of the Countermeasures Bureau headquarters' underground parking lot.

On the road, heading in the direction of Arakawa Ward, speeding over.

"Huangquan Miss, don't you feel the temperature around here is getting lower and lower? I have a bad premonition."

Sakurai Ikki hugged his arms and rubbed them; his spiritual power wasn't much, and he had already been affected by the spiritual power field here.

"We have to raise our vigilance."

Jianshan Huangquan nodded; she also felt something was off.

Left hand still holding Broly, but right hand already resting on the sword hilt at her waist.

"Speaking of which, how about we retreat first?"

Body getting colder and colder, Sakurai Ikki proposed.

Just as he finished speaking, he felt his neck seemed to be wrapped by something with an icy cool touch.

Sakurai Ikki lowered his head to look; the next moment...

With a *whoosh*, he was hoisted up to the ceiling.

And the talisman papers pasted on the walls rapidly turned to ash.

Jianshan Huangquan directly drew her sword and slashed, severing the hemp rope lasso that had unknowingly approached her and Broly's surroundings.

"He-help..."

Sakurai Ikki dangled in mid-air; his weapon briefcase had already fallen on the floor, but if not for his both hands infused with spiritual power grabbing the lasso on his neck in time, the moment he was hoisted up, his neck would have been strangled and broken by the lasso on his neck.

Jianshan Huangquan saw this, let go of Broly's hand, jumped up and severed the spiritual hemp rope connecting the lasso above the other's head, emerging from inside the ceiling, letting the other fall down.

"Ah, thanks, I almost died..."

Sakurai Ikki tore off the lasso in his hands, thanked with lingering fear.

"Debt collection... death..."

A hoarse voice sounded; a pitch-black evil spirit abruptly appeared in the living room center, its body suspended from the ceiling swaying left and right, malicious bloody red gaze looking at the three living people who invaded the home.

"It-it can speak, this..."

Sakurai Ikki widened his eyes; Jianshan Huangquan's complexion was incomparably heavy.

Spiritual bodies able to maintain consciousness are none that would be weak.

Generally only Type A upper-grade spirits would have this kind of manifestation.

The situation here has clearly exceeded their expectations; originally speculated possible Type C or Type D spiritual bodies, now directly turned into suspected Type A upper-grade spirit, the gap between them isn't just a little bit, but the distance between life and death for ordinary exorcists encountering it.

"Broly..."

Just at this time, Jianshan Huangquan still had the cultivation of a demon hunter family descendant; the girl maintained calm, prepared to take the boy and withdraw.

But before this, Broly, because of her action of jumping up to slash the lasso to save a colleague, had his held hand let go by her.

Broly couldn't distinguish the difference between Type C and suspected Type A spiritual bodies; he only treated the hanging evil spirit before him as the kind of spirit Jianshan Huangquan spoke of, that with his current strength he could deal with.

So, after the evil spirit appeared, he directly ran up, jumped onto the tea table in the living room, raised his fist and punched at the hanging evil spirit's abdomen.

Perhaps Broly's child appearance was very deceptive, making the hanging evil spirit somewhat careless; this evil spirit just looked at the rushing boy with malicious scarlet eyes, and didn't make any dodge.

But the next moment, when Broly's fist contacted its abdomen, this evil spirit experienced the feeling of "surprise."

Eyes instantly widened, as if about to jump out of the eye sockets; the hanging rope on its neck directly snapped, body stiffly smashed onto the dusty floor.

After knocking the evil spirit down, Broly jumped down from the tea table; he plopped onto the evil spirit's body, swung his fists and used the Soul-Settling Art, raining blows left and right on the face of the evil spirit under his butt.

All this happened in the blink of an eye; after hearing the girl call his name, Broly didn't even turn his head and retorted: "Sister Huangquan, what is it?"

"Uh, nothing, just now I just wanted to say be careful, this evil spirit might be slightly more powerful than expected, but it seems I misunderstood..."

Watching the boy now violently beating the evil spirit, Jianshan Huangquan said somewhat against her true feelings.

Beside, Sakurai Ikki's mouth corner twitched, glanced over; complex gaze seemed to say: Huangquan Miss, you really can tell lies with your eyes open, this is just slightly more powerful than expected?

However, looking at that side where the evil spirit was pressed on the ground by the boy, unable to fight back while being beaten, it seems for that boy, it really is a not-worth-looking-at situation.

"If I didn't see wrong, this is the Soul-Settling Art your demon hunter family commonly uses, right?"

Sakurai Ikki asked in a small voice.

"Mm."

Jianshan Huangquan nodded.

"Is Soul-Settling Art this strong?"

The subtext was asking: able to pin down a suspected upper-grade existence, beating it with zero resistance.

"Is there a possibility it's not that Soul-Settling Art is strong, but that my family's younger brother is uncommon?!"

Jianshan Huangquan glared at him.

The scene before her eyes, obviously Broly's spiritual power completely suppressed the evil spirit under his butt, only then could he press it on the ground and beat it.

The hanging evil spirit was beaten dazed; its spiritual body gradually showed signs of dissipating; Broly looked at its condition, thinking of the spirit-contracting steps the girl taught him today, switched from Soul-Settling Art to Spirit-Calling Art.

Besides being able to awaken sleeping spirits, Spirit-Calling Art can actually also awaken the human nature portion of spiritual bodies formed from dead humans.

Mm, if humanity still remains.

Of course, the premise of calling a spirit is to first beat the other until they lose their senses.

And now is precisely the time to lightly knock on the evil spirit's forehead, to call forth the other party's humanity!

"Mikiko, Sana..."

The fist imbued with Spirit Summoning slammed into the hanged evil spirit's face, and the humanity of the evil spirit, which was in a weakened state on the verge of being beaten apart, was knocked out; the evil spirit recited two names from its mouth, likely the people who sustained its obsession and whom it cared for most in life.

"Mm, the humanity has been called forth; next is Contracting the Spirit!"

Broly switched to the Spirit Contracting Technique again, pressing his fingertip, clad in spiritual power, against the forehead of the evil spirit where the light of humanity had emerged.

The next moment, a segment of memory belonging to the hanged evil spirit transmitted into his consciousness; the other party had once had a happy family — Mikiko was his wife, Sana his daughter.

Choosing bankruptcy and hanging was because he was too ashamed to face his family's weakness, but the deceased other party, because of his attachment to his wife and daughter, had his dead soul stranded in the mortal world.

And during that period, upon seeing his family cornered at their door by people from a lending company, those tattooed gangster burly men threatening to seize his wife and daughter to sell their bodies to repay the debt, the mere ghost underwent a mutation.

Immediately following were some scenes of debt collectors being hanged to death in the house, until an Exorcist came to the door to dialogue.

"Right now you are protecting your family, but if you continue, it's not certain what will happen; you might harm your own wife and daughter.

Mm, your debt will be resolved by our Countermeasures Bureau; we promise you we won't let debt collectors disturb your wife and daughter again, but correspondingly, you need to stay in this house and accept isolation and transcendence; how about it?"

The evil spirit agreed; it stayed in the room plastered with talisman paper; originally it should have gradually disappeared, but because a wanderer who had suddenly intruded into the Ghost House Villa many years ago, also facing a terrible life situation, hanged himself to death in this house, declaring bankruptcy.

This evil spirit revived, and from time to time attracted failures on life's path into the Ghost House Villa, making them commit suicide by hanging.

This made it stronger and stronger, but still holding the obsession that it might harm its family if it went out, so it never went out.

No one discovered its existence, until the girl and he and the lackey driver intruded, awakening the evil spirit from its half-slumbering state.

【I so want to see Mikiko and Sana again, to see their current situation...】

This is the wish that surfaced in Broly's consciousness after the hanged evil spirit's humanity was awakened by the Spirit Summoning Technique.

【Good, I promise you; I'll take you to see your wife and daughter, to confirm their current situation!】

Broly transmitted this message across.

The next moment, his spiritual power, without any lag, imprinted into the evil spirit's forehead.

And the evil spirit's cold breath also spread from his fingertip, wanting to imprint into his soul to form a contract.

But the power was too weak; Broly's soul, which couldn't even be casually shaken by the Sheep Talisman, how could it be shaken by a weak ghost (Advanced Rank Spirit) of this world; the power belonging to the evil spirit quickly dissipated.

"Eh, the Spirit Contracting succeeded this fast?"

After Broly completed the Spirit Contracting with the suspected Type A (Advanced Rank Spirit), Sakurai Ikki behind him exclaimed.

"Broly, you didn't promise this evil spirit some excessive demands, did you?"

Jianshan Huangquan hurriedly asked; if the boy promised the evil spirit excessive demands, things would be terrible.

Not fulfilling the contract, that would suffer backlash... hmm, backlash?

【Can this thing really backlash, against Broly who presses it to the ground and beats it?】

Jianshan Huangquan looked at the hanged evil spirit obediently floating behind the boy, his train of thought pausing for a moment.

The price of Spirit Contracting, sometimes also depends on strength.

If the Exorcist is weak, naturally they need to fulfill the price to drive the contracted spirit.

But if the Exorcist is strong...

"The price, you want me to pay; is it that you have no more attachment to this world, and want to go to the Blissful Pure Land early to reincarnate?"

Situations like this, where they don't pay the price and plan to freeload, are also possible to appear.

Of course, ordinary Exorcists, even if their spiritual power can suppress their own contracted spirit, wouldn't do this.

After all, compared to expending more spiritual power to force the contracted spirit to work unwillingly, paying a not-difficult-to-fulfill price to drive the other party to work can make oneself much more relaxed.

"The other party wants to see his wife and daughter from when he was alive again, wants to confirm their current situation; does this count as an excessive demand?"

Broly asked doubtfully, and he felt this kind of thing should not count as excessive.

"Uh, not excessive..."

Compared to contracting an Advanced Rank Spirit, this demand — not to mention excessive — is simply too easy.

You know, some Advanced Rank Spirits demand the contractor kill living people and take living souls to feed themselves.

If conditions aren't met, they'll eat their own contractor.

In comparison, just going to see the other party's wife and daughter from when he was alive — what kind of divine contract target is this?

Sakurai Ikki and Jianshan Huangquan's expressions at this moment were quite subtle.

But they also knew, this is probably the generous contract condition Broly could only get after overpowering the other party and flipping them over.

After all, having been pinned to the ground and hammered, a wise Advanced Rank Spirit sometimes also knows to assess the situation and tailor its demands to the person.

The three people left the Ghost House Villa; on the way down, Iwahara Kōji and the others, driving at excessive speed, also just happened to arrive at this side.

"Are you all okay?"

The group who got out of the car looked at the three people walking out from the Ghost House Villa; Iwahara Kōji, walking in front, asked Jianshan Huangquan.

"Haha, how could we have anything happen to us; it's merely a mere Type C spirit body, long since successfully Spirit Contracted by this child Broly!"

Jianshan Huangquan saw the puzzled look gradually emerging on the boy's face beside him, and immediately went forward to loudly say to the group coming over.

Iwahara Kōji wanted to say something, then saw the girl making eyes at him, and immediately reacted to what this meant.

"Cough cough, we were just passing by here on a mission, conveniently coming over to see if you all had any problems; since everything went smoothly, let's go back together.

Oh, right, Iinaga, didn't you say you had an appointment with someone else? It's not on the way with us going back; why not just get off here."

"Ah..."

Iinaga Noriyuki was first stunned, but quickly also reacted.

"That's right, I still have some matters; I'll get off here."

He took over the nonsensical lead; after a group of people all got in the car and left here, he then summoned out the spirit beast herd he raised.

"Pipe Foxes, go check the situation of that house!"

A group of pipe foxes nodded and ran toward the Ghost House Villa; these little things quickly figured out the situation inside the Ghost House Villa.

There was indeed a strong residual Spirit Power Field inside that Ghost House Villa, and the owner who emitted the Spirit Power Field should not yet have been exorcised.

"Director Shinguuji..."

After learning the situation, Iinaga Noriyuki took out his phone and dialed the Countermeasures Bureau headquarters.

"How is the situation over there, Iinaga?"

"Everything has been solved."

"Was it Xiao Huangquan who handled it?"

"No, from the other party's words, it was that boy named Broly who successfully Contracting Spirited the suspected Type A Spirit Evil Spirit."

"Ah, how was that done?"

Shen Gongji Shobu asked in great surprise.

"I don't know about that; we are all avoiding letting that boy know the matter of his own talent being overly powerful."

Pausing a moment, Iinaga Noriyuki then said in a somewhat complex voice: "Perhaps, this is a true genius.

The other party's Alpha is an Omega that we Mortals can hardly catch up to even after a lifetime."

"Alright, I understand."

On the other end of the receiver, Shen Gongji Shobu fell silent for a while, replied with one sentence, then hung up this phone call.

"Nikai-do, what do you think is more important for an Exorcist, talent or effort?"

"Talent should be more important, right? For example, compared to Ordinary People, we have the difference of being able to see Spirit Bodies and not being able to see Spirit Bodies."

"That's true too; hmm, find an opportunity to pull that kid Broly into our Countermeasures Bureau!"

"Eh?"

(Chapter End)