Chapter 4837

Easterners who see ghosts might think of going to a temple or Taoist shrine to pray, asking the gods and buddhas for protection. Otherwise, they might believe in folk remedies and start exorcising ghosts. This seems unreliable, but many people don't realize that this approach actually embodies a strong spirit of resistance.

This reflects the revolutionary nature of Easterners. When faced with something threatening, they seek ways to deal with it—either kill it or drive it away. Right or wrong doesn't matter; I'll deal with you first.

But Western logic is different. Their logic is: I see a ghost, but I don't deal with the ghost; I deal with people.

This brings us to the question: what exactly is "divine-right thinking"? Some might think it's worshiping God, others think it's original sin, but the true underlying logic of divine-right thinking is actually "fatalism."

Simply put, whether a person lives well or poorly is not determined by their own effort, but by God's decree.

If you are among the elect, you live well; if you are among the reprobate, you live poorly. Conversely, if you live well, it proves God has chosen you; if you live poorly, it proves God has abandoned you.

At first glance, this seems like mere worship of God, but it's actually completely different. This fatalistic mindset has been used by Western ruling classes for thousands of years, leveraging the church to utterly dismantle the lower classes' spirit of resistance and revolutionary drive. Because it destroys the innate empathy between humans.

When people see their own kind suffering from hunger, bullying, and struggling to survive, they feel a natural, instinctive sympathy.

This sympathy has nothing to do with blood relation, identity, occupation, or circumstance—it's simply that seeing another person in pain makes one feel awful. This is an innate trait of the human species from the moment of its birth, natural and irresistible.

Meanwhile, the mindset that "you suffer because God doesn't love you" teaches people to suppress this innate sympathy. Those long immersed in this mindset, when seeing others' suffering, feel not pity, but fear.

They think: this person must have done something God dislikes, which is why they suffer so badly. If I offend God, I'll end up like that too, so I must serve God devoutly and absolutely avoid becoming like them.

Thus, the moment this innate sympathy arises, it is immediately suppressed by fear of God. Since God is omnipotent, whatever He does must be reasonable. Therefore, He must have made this person suffer so terribly because the person did something bad. If I sympathize with him, I too will become wretched.

That innate sympathy toward one's fellow humans, and the motivation it provides to help them, are both dismantled. Without this empathetic drive, the foundation for unity vanishes, making collective resistance absolutely impossible.

On the contrary, seeing someone living miserably makes them view that person as an enemy. Even if both are poor, one poor person will think the other, more miserable poor person "has been abandoned by God" and is an enemy of Jesus Christ. They won't help him; instead, they'll bully him even more fiercely, because this is "the Lord's will," and they are merely carrying out divine punishment on a reprobate.

After over a thousand years of evolution, this mindset has become deeply entrenched. Many people no longer openly speak of the elect and reprobate, and may even superficially oppose religion, claiming they are not conservative believers. But in reality, the underlying logic of divine-right thinking has already been etched into their brains. This is why methods of vertically dividing society can succeed so easily on this land—because they have long since been fragmented into individuals without realizing it.

As for these wealthy people who "see ghosts," when they first see a ghost, they don't think about how to deal with it. Instead, they wonder: "Have I been abandoned by God?"

Because ghosts are naturally associated with demons and Satan. If God weren't abandoning me, how could I see these filthy things?

They feel guilty and fearful, lacking security, and thus strive desperately to prove they haven't been abandoned, to prove they are still worthy of God's love. So what do they do?

Exactly: they bully and kill those deemed reprobate. Because as long as they can still harm these "enemies of God," they can prove they are superior to these people, and thus prove they haven't been abandoned by God—this is merely God's temporary trial for them.

To gain security and a sense of control, they impose even stricter control over the vulnerable people around them—not necessarily servants or workers, but possibly even their own relatives, even their biological children. This way, they can prove they remain superior and that they will never be abandoned.

Initially, Hampton would not have had so many ghosts; it was likely just some paranormal phenomena, such as poltergeists. But this caused great pressure on the residents, and their deeply ingrained mindset led them to vent this pressure on the weak, resulting in even more deaths.

It's not hard to see that some of the deceased were not poor. Take, for example, the child composer in the manor. Poor families couldn't afford to let their children study composition or record albums. Therefore, it's highly likely this was a child of the manor's residents.

If pressure has already been vented onto one's own biological children, it proves that the hired poor people they could afford, and the reprobate they most desired, have already been exhausted, so they must now select someone from among those nearby to persecute. This shows the situation has become dire to a certain extent.

Thus, a vicious cycle forms. The more pressure is vented on those around them, the more murder cases are created, leading to more ghosts. After over a century of snowballing, it has become what we see today.

What greed and arrogance want to clarify is not the cause of Hampton's paranormal phenomena, but what measures they took after discovering this, and how they dragged it out to the present.

After arrogance pointed out that they had been abandoned by God, this group finally gave up completely. Because, if God still had even a bit of concern for them, He would absolutely not let them see that monster in the sea. The impact is truly overwhelming—Satan's true form couldn't be worse than this?

Finally, an old man trembled to his feet. He hung his head, spiritless, and said to Natasha: "What do you want to know?"

Natasha glanced at Greed, who whispered a few words to her. Natasha sighed and said: "What's going on with that manor halfway up the mountain? What deal did you make with Dracula?"

"That was a long time ago." The old man pursed his lips and said: "Decades ago, some people living in this area would occasionally see ghostly shadows, and there were unusual movements in the houses, but nothing too serious. Some shouted about it, but were dismissed as mad, and most people didn't believe them."

"But once, a resort—seems to be called Violet Resort—had its drinking water tested and found to contain an unknown flesh-eating bacterium. Many people who drank that water developed severe symptoms. The flesh-eating bacteria consumed their bodies from within, causing irreversible harm and killing many."

"At that time, Hampton's tourism was booming, and all the bosses didn't want this to blow up and affect their income. The local government took their bribes and also wanted to suppress the matter, so in the end, it came to nothing."

"No one expected that these dozens of deaths would become the final straw that broke Hampton's back. After that, many people could see ghosts—real ghosts, not just poltergeists."

"Originally, everyone was just covering it up, you know, because showing weakness would make them seem like soft persimmons. But not long after, more people died, and the cause of death was exactly the same as those attacked by the flesh-eating bacteria back then—skin and organs rotting away."

"At that time, everyone thought the bacteria had made a comeback. They spent large sums on disinfection and sterilization, even turned over all the soil in Hampton, but deaths didn't stop—they only intensified."

"Then more ways of dying appeared: some were hanged, some slit their wrists, others suddenly twisted their ankles in the forest and fell to their deaths. These people didn't seem prone to suicide, and everyone realized something was wrong."

"Until the first time, ghosts revealed their power before everyone's eyes, grabbing a person and lifting them high into the air before dropping them to their death. We had to admit this place was cursed."

"Many wanted to flee, but running was useless. Ghosts followed like shadows, even prioritizing attacks on those who had left Hampton. So, those tormented by ghosts united, seeking a solution."

"Did you find Dracula?"

The old man shook his head and said: "No, he came later. We found a powerful witch named Harkness. She came from Massachusetts, where there's a vast witch family, which we call the 'Salem Hidden Ones.' She provided us with a workable solution."

"For example?"

"After conducting many experiments, she discovered that ghosts exist not only in the real world but also in our minds. After uncovering the sins here, she nearly left, but for some reason, she stayed and built this manor to suppress the ghosts."

"I asked how this manor suppresses them." Greed said, "What's the principle? Magic? Or some other force?"

"No, it's a thought-detection device." The old man paused, then said: "You can think of it as a magic array that reads minds. Once someone experiences hallucinations they can't control, the device triggers an alarm and then takes that person away early to be dealt with."

"Dracula isn't the creator of the array; he's just the executioner we hired. Because he can destroy both human bodies and entangled ghosts, whereas ordinary human killers cannot. They often shatter the body but cannot kill the accompanying hallucination. Only Dracula, by sucking blood to turn humans into sunlight-fearing vampires, can simultaneously let sunlight destroy their flesh and souls."

"Where is the detection device?" Greed pressed.

"It's the house itself." The old man replied, "That witch wove the spell patterns into the manor itself—the manor is the detection device."

"How does it sound the alarm?" Greed asked, somewhat puzzled.

"The manor creates disturbances in the ears of its contracted owner." The old man frowned and said, "It should be quite easy to notice."

Greed was utterly speechless.