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Ai Ning heard the heavy iron doors slowly being pushed open ahead of her.

She couldn’t see anything, and her hearing was severely restricted. She could only feel the two ghost hunters supporting her as she took slow, measured steps into a massive room.

”Minister Xie, head of the Shanghai City Supernatural Disaster Bureau and the highest authority in this city, is standing right in front of you.

”Minister Xie has a very tight schedule ahead. He can only spare five minutes.

”If you have anything to say, speak now.”

The cold voice of a female ghost hunter rang out beside her.

Ai Ning opened her mouth, facing the empty darkness ahead. Just as she was about to speak, a deep, resonant male voice cut in. ”Remove the blindfold and the shackles. Take them all off.”

So this is Minister Xie’s voice?

Ai Ning wondered to herself.

The female ghost hunter sounded hesitant. ”Minister, this violates protocol—””My word is protocol,” Minister Xie insisted.

A moment later, Ai Ning felt the weight lift from her body. With a few crisp clicks, all the shackles and talismans were stripped away. Then, a pair of cold, gentle hands brushed the tips of her ears and pulled off her blindfold.

Having walked in the dark for so long, she found the sudden harsh lighting blinding. Tears welled up in Ai Ning’s eyes, stinging so fiercely she could barely open them.

She was standing in a windowless Study. The furnishings were sparse—a single wall lined with bookshelves and a dark wooden desk were enough to fill the entire space.

A middle-aged man sat behind the desk. He wore a sharply ironed shirt, its cuffs meticulously buttoned to expose clean, bare wrists. He slowly raised his head, his calm gaze settling on Ai Ning’s face with intense focus.

”You two are dismissed. Don’t forget to close the door on your way out.

”I want to speak with... Miss Ai Ning, in private.”

Ai Ning was taken aback, though a seed of doubt quickly took root in her mind. She couldn’t understand why Minister Xie would strip away her restraints and send his guards away. Had he also realized that the upper echelons of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau were already crawling with moles?

”Sir, I’m afraid that—”

The two ghost hunters who had escorted Ai Ning into the Study hesitated once more.

It was the same old excuse—a violation of protocol.

”Rules are made by men. And I am the man who makes them.”

Minister Xie’s tone was gentle, yet it carried the undeniable weight of absolute authority. ”Please leave this room. I only have five minutes left. After that, someone much more important will be waiting for me, and I won’t have another chance to meet with Miss Ai Ning.”

The two ghost hunters said nothing more. They turned and left the Study, pulling the heavy door shut behind them.

Now, sealed off from the outside world by the heavy security door, only Ai Ning and Minister Xie remained in the stifling Study.

Ai Ning opened her mouth, scrambling to organize her thoughts.

She had so much to say, so much vital intelligence to deliver to the man sitting before her. On the long march here, she had rehearsed this pitch in her head a thousand times. She had to use these precious five minutes to lay out the entire situation as clearly as possible, ensuring the minister understood the sheer gravity of what they were facing.

But now that she was actually inside the Study, standing before this man whose mere presence commanded absolute authority, she froze. Under the crushing weight of her own nerves, all of her carefully prepared speeches withered on her tongue.

”Don’t be nervous. The fact that you’ve made it this far means everything will be over soon,”

Minister Xie said, offering a comforting smile.

She didn’t know if it was just her imagination, but for a split second, Ai Ning thought she caught a flicker of profound sorrow hidden within that smile, mingled with a strange sense of relief. It looked like the absolute liberation of a man who had finally finished his life’s work. ”You came all this way to tell me that the reason those ghosts possess intelligence is because a massive Supernatural Item in the Inner World—the Divine Tree—granted them the ability to retain their sanity after death.

”Is that the vital intelligence you wanted to deliver?”

Ai Ning felt as though the very air had punched her in the face.

Minister Xie... the highest brass of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, had known this from the very beginning?

All at once, her endless worrying, her gnawing anxiety, her desperate urgency to demand an audience with the minister—it all felt like a sick joke.

”Why...”

Ai Ning stammered, instantly forgetting the vast majority of what she had planned to say. ”Minister, if you already knew, why did you still agree to see me...?”

”My entire journey here... It was completely meaningless.

”When did you find out?”

Minister Xie shook his head slightly, rejecting her conclusion. ”It was not meaningless.

”Miss Ai Ning, you managed to descend into this secret bunker a hundred meters underground. This facility was built to withstand a nuclear blast—the true Shadow Headquarters of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau. Your mission has already been accomplished.

”I have spent this entire day waiting for you. Waiting for these final five minutes.

”The moment you walked through those doors, I knew my work was finally done.”

Listening to Minister Xie’s calm explanation, Ai Ning only grew more confused.

She understood every individual word he was saying, but strung together, they made absolutely no sense.

What did he mean, he had spent the entire day waiting for her? Ai Ning was nothing more than a newly minted junior ghost hunter. A lowly cannon fodder operative like her was utterly insignificant. Why on earth would the highest authority in the bureau spend his entire day waiting for her?

”I... I don’t understand what you’re talking about,”

Ai Ning said.

Minister Xie slowly reached up and tapped a finger against his temple. ”Miss Ai Ning, your memories have been altered by the enemy.

”The truths you hold so dear, your desperate obsession with finding me—all of it was orchestrated by those ghosts. They needed to use you to pinpoint the exact location of the Shadow Headquarters.

”That is why I told you that the moment you stepped into this office, your glorious mission was complete.

”What happens next is no longer in our hands.”

Gao Tian and Ye Jiu were waiting outside a bar.

After the war erupted across Shanghai City, this place had become one of the very few surviving oases. Because it served as the base camp for the Abyss Echo Unit, the Fierce Ghosts roaming outside couldn’t breach its perimeter for now.

The power and entertainment facilities here were mostly functioning as normal. Neon lights flashed and pulsed, casting vibrant colors over the nightlife.

If not for the distant, intermittent rumble of artillery fire, one would never guess that the vast majority of Shanghai had already been reduced to a wasteland.

Ring, ring, ring.

Gao Tian’s default mobile phone ringtone began to chime.

He glanced at the screen. An unknown number.

His heart skipped a beat, but Gao Tian answered the call anyway.

A man’s deep voice echoed from the other end. ”Congratulations, Memory Ghost.”

It was Xu Yuan. ”Ai Ning has breached the Shadow Headquarters. The heart and core of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau are fully exposed.

”I can sense them. There are exactly five hundred and seven people hiding in that underground building. That includes every middle and high-ranking officer in the Supernatural Disaster Bureau, along with their elite ghost hunters. It’s the absolute last of their forces.

”I will be there in five minutes to slaughter every last cockroach hiding underground.

”We’ve won this war.

”You are the greatest contributor tonight. I won’t forget my promise. There will be a place for you in the future Ghost Nation.”

Beep, beep, beep.

The mobile phone line went dead.

Xu Yuan had hung up his mobile phone. It seemed he was already on his way to start the slaughter.

The plan was a success.

The Supernatural Disaster Bureau’s final sanctuary had been found.

Yet, Gao Tian felt a hollow sense of bewilderment in his heart.

Sitting across from him, leisurely swirling a beer can in his hand, Ye Jiu remained completely oblivious to the impending doom. He looked over at Gao Tian with a grin. ”Who was on the mobile phone?

”A friend?”

”Something like that,” Gao Tian replied absentmindedly.

”Just a friend.”

Ye Jiu shrugged, took a swig of his beer, and let out a long, drawn-out ”Ohhh...”

Gao Tian couldn’t be bothered to respond.

It didn’t matter anymore. The war in Shanghai City would be over very soon.

Ring, ring, ring.

Right at that moment, the mobile phone in Gao Tian’s pocket started ringing again. Another unknown number was calling in.

Why is there another one?

He stared at the mobile phone screen for a long moment before finally answering.

”Congratulations, kid. Still breathing, huh?”

That grating, broken-gong of a voice belonged to Old Man Sun. He was just as loud and boisterous as ever. ”You did a great job! Way better than I expected!”

Truth be told, hearing Old Man Sun’s voice made Gao Tian feel a pang of guilt.

He had just gotten off the phone with Xu Yuan, and Xu Yuan was already on his way. The complete annihilation of the Supernatural Disaster Bureau had already entered its countdown.

And as the person who had brought all of this about, Gao Tian had absolutely no idea what Old Man Sun was talking about, or what there was to congratulate.

What had he ever done for him?

Hearing the dead silence over the mobile phone, Old Man Sun seemed to suddenly remember something. He let out a loud smack, like a hand slapping a forehead, before saying, ”Ah, I forgot. You brainwashed yourself with your own Memory Ghost. You completely wiped your memories of everything that happened back in the Living Apartment.”

Gao Tian froze. ”I don’t understand.

”What are you talking about?”

”The master plan,” Old Man Sun announced.

”I told you from the very beginning that a guy like Xu Yuan would never be able to resist a temptation like this.

”He wanted to unleash the Woman in the Rain upon Shanghai City, so we let him. He wanted to destroy the entire Supernatural Disaster Bureau, so we let him. We threw all those chips onto the table just to gamble on this one move—that he would show himself.

”And then—

”The exact moment Xu Yuan shows his face, I solve him with one swing of my stick, and the entire war for Shanghai City is over. Simple, right?

”That was the strategy you and I worked out back in the Living Apartment.”

Gao Tian’s breathing hitched.

He was absolutely certain that in his memories, he had never discussed such a plan with Old Man Sun.

What was going on? Hadn’t he chosen to side with the Galan Society?

Wait. Was it the Memory Ghost?

Had Gao Tian actually used the Memory Ghost on himself?

Old Man Sun continued his explanation at a slow, deliberate pace. ”Xu Yuan is paranoid by nature. He wanted to find the Shadow Headquarters, but we couldn’t just tell him. If we did, he would have instantly smelled a trap and never shown his face.

”We needed a fitting reason, mixed with a few setbacks. That was the only way to make the deception truly convincing.

”For example, the Galan Society hatching a plan: Having you alter a certain ghost hunter’s memories and escort her right to the military’s base camp, so the Galan Society could smoothly track the Shadow Headquarters’ location and wipe them all out.

”The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole waiting behind. The exact moment Xu Yuan locked onto the coordinates for the Shadow Headquarters, it never crossed his mind that I had locked onto his coordinates too.”

Old Man Sun took a slow drag of his cigarette and sighed. ”And the key to executing this entire plan... was you.

”I told you, Xu Yuan’s paranoia borders on pathological.

”The moment our conversation ended and you stepped out of the Living Apartment, you used the Memory Ghost’s ability to alter your own memory.

”You heard me right. The Memory Ghost can also be used to tamper with your own memories.

”From your perspective, you came to the Liberation Building to help the Galan Society. You believed all of this came from your own genuine intent.

”You had to deceive your own mind. You did it to prevent any of the ghosts in the Galan Society from using some mind-reading ability to see your true subconscious thoughts.

”A successful disguise requires deceiving even yourself.

”You believed this entire time that you were working for Xu Yuan. But the truth is... the one you were truly working for was the Supernatural Disaster Bureau.”