IBGSW Chapter 5
The Ghost-Controller
"It seems she's realized she's in danger and knows to guard against us," Fan Bisi said with a frown.
"How is that possible?"
Hearing his brother say that, Fan Wujiu was surprised.
"Brother, that country girl has no experience and you know that. She's timid and cowardly. Tell her to go east and she wouldn't dare go west. She's spent every day in the bureau tiptoeing around. How would she dare lie to our faces?"
"After going through life and death, why couldn't a person get smarter?"
Fan Bisi hesitated at his brother's words, then shook his head, as if trying to convince Wujiu or himself.
"She died to a malignant ghost's attack. It's only natural she sensed something was wrong before she died."
"So what?"
Fan Wujiu didn't understand why his brother cared so much about the change in Zhao Fusheng, and said carelessly, "Even if she's smarter, it won't help her. She's just a country girl who couldn't tie up a chicken. Her parents are dead and she's in our hands. What storm could she possibly stir up—"
"Fool!"
Fan Bisi barked the word under his breath.
Fan Wujiu froze at the rebuke, then said sullenly, "Brother, you're just too cautious."
"What was our original plan?" Fan Bisi could tell his brother was displeased, but he drew a deep breath, calmed himself, and asked.
Fan Wujiu answered, "We meant to leave Wan'an County and go to Deputy Commander Zheng in Baozhi County."
"Right." Fan Bisi nodded, forcing down his anxiety.
"But when we entered the yamen as order envoys, we lit our names in the Wan'an County bureau's Soul-Life Register."
When the court established the Demon-Suppression Bureaus, it generally gave its order envoys generous rewards. But to keep these commanding officers and order envoys from growing too powerful and defying control later, it also placed restraints on them.
That restraint was the so-called Soul-Life Register. Once a person entered the bureau, they first lit their personal entry in the register. Once lit, that person was bound to the local bureau for life, and nothing but death could free them.
Chief commanding officers and order envoys could move freely only within their assigned territory and could not abandon their posts for long. The limit was generally three days. Anyone who violated this triggered the register's restraint.
Under restraint, the lightest result was severe injury. The heaviest was backlash against the soul, scattering it entirely and leaving a walking corpse.
But the court, in employing people, was not so rigid. The register could not be dissolved, but it could be transferred or lent out by other means.
Under court law, if a chief commanding officer achieved merit in ghost suppression during their tenure, or was exceptionally strong, they might be summoned by the court and promoted further.
And a higher-ranking person held restraining authority over a lower one, and could shift the register by lending or transferring it.
The Wan'an County bureau was already finished.
The Fan brothers had originally planned to find another puppet chief commanding officer and use that person's hands to have both their registers lent away.
That way the two of them could leave Wan'an County openly and legitimately.
But now that Zhao Fusheng had died and come back, things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.
"That girl died at a malignant ghost's hands. Our earlier story was full of holes, and having died once, she'd naturally guess there was something fishy about us buying her into the bureau."
Fan Bisi's gaze was dark, "If she hears what we said earlier—"
At this, Fan Wujiu grasped the gravity of the situation.
"She's the bureau's chief commanding officer now. You mean she may make trouble for us over lending the register and refuse to let us move away?"
"Not 'may.' Definitely!" Fan Bisi said with certainty.
Because in her place, he would never swallow this either, and would certainly take his revenge.
Fan Wujiu turned and craned his head toward Zhao Fusheng. She was standing before the main hall with her back to the brothers.
A glint passed through his eyes and a vicious look crossed his face. He pressed his fingers together and drew them sharply downward.
"Then in for a penny, in for a pound. We'll finish her..." His words carried killing intent, plainly meaning to strike first.
"..." Fan Bisi said nothing, but there was no approval in his eyes.
The two were twins who had grown up together and could read each other's minds. His reaction told Wujiu something was off, and he said anxiously:
"Brother, you've not gone soft, have you—"
"What nonsense!" Fan Bisi snapped.
Then, after a moment's hesitation, he said uncertainly, "I suspect there's something strange about her coming back to life..."
"What's strange?" Fan Wujiu was impatient by nature and disliked using his head.
After listening to his brother speak in riddles for so long, he couldn't wait any longer and pressed, "Quit keeping me in suspense. Out with it."
"You know why the Wan'an County bureau fell." Fan Bisi glanced at his brother, and Fan Wujiu nodded without thinking.
"Because a malignant ghost went out of control."
"Yes." Fan Bisi nodded and asked again:
"Where did that ghost come from?"
"Isn't it because Brother Qiming couldn't control the ghost entity he commanded—" Fan Wujiu got that far and suddenly understood his brother's meaning. His eyes went wide.
"Brother, you mean Fusheng came back to life because she brought that ghost entity under control and became a ghost-controller?"
After going on at such length, Fan Bisi finally saw his brother understand. He let out a long sigh and nodded.
"But—but how could that be?" Fan Wujiu's face changed at once.
Controlling a ghost entity meant borrowing its power, so that an ordinary, unremarkable person instantly gained the supernatural abilities of a malignant ghost, and could use that power to resist malignant ghosts' attacks and protect the people of a region.
This was an open secret within the bureau.
The chief commanding officers of the bureaus everywhere were generally skilled in the art of ghost control. But dealing with ghosts was extremely dangerous and hard to manage.
The longer one lived alongside a ghost, the weaker one's humanity became. The longer someone had commanded a ghost, the harder it was for them to keep their reason and restraint, and most turned cruel, violent, and unruly.
The court had suffered heavily at first. And these people could not be killed lightly, because as they commanded ghosts, their soul and reason were gradually replaced by the ghost's nature. If such a person were killed, they would very likely evolve into an even more terrifying ghost entity and bring calamity to the region, and things would spiral out of control.
Later the court devised the Soul-Life Register, which restrained these extraordinary ghost-controlling commanding officers to a degree. When one of them had their reason and soul wholly swallowed by a ghost entity, anyone one rank higher could take up the register and kill them in advance, strangling the crisis in the cradle.
Of course, this method was not without hidden risks.
The ghost-controlling commanding officer might die, but the ghost attached to them did not, and could still cause trouble. That trouble, however, would be cleaned up by a higher-ranking, stronger general.
The runaway ghost entity would be driven off or brought under control by a new commander. In any case, the court would have a headache over it.
And in a case that couldn't be cleaned up, the court might simply abandon the place and let the local people fend for themselves.
"..."
Fan Wujiu was speechless for a moment, still unwilling to believe it.
"How could that be? How could that be!"
Fan Bisi was much calmer.
"Anything is possible. Otherwise I can't think what could bring her back from the dead. Nothing but a ghost's power can resurrect a person."
"Then what do we do now?" The thought that Zhao Fusheng might have a malignant ghost hidden in her body made Fan Wujiu's scalp prickle.
"If she can truly command a malignant ghost, we can't beat her."
He pulled a long face.
"We can't use force. And if she overheard us and knows what we did, she might turn on us instead—"
Only now did he understand what Fan Bisi was worried about. Restless, he paced a few steps on the spot.
"Brother, did she hear what we said at the start or not?"
Fan Bisi had been anxious about this at first, but seeing his brother panic made him steadier, and he smiled.
"No need to worry too much."
A cold light flickered in his eyes. "People who command ghost entities gain a burst of power at first, but dealing with ghosts never ends well. If she thinks having a ghost entity at her back lets her do as she pleases, she's wrong."
The more one used a ghost's power, the sooner one died.
"The ghost she commands is a monster that gives first and takes later. Once she exhausts her own vitality, she becomes its nourishment."
At this, Fan Bisi smiled: "I'd actually hope she's clever. Things being what they are, she shouldn't dwell on old grudges, but should work with us on how to break the deadlock."
Fan Wujiu couldn't follow his brother's thinking. He craned his head toward Zhao Fusheng again and saw she was still staring into the hall.
At first he hadn't taken her behavior to heart, but now, seeing her stare inside, where her parents' two corpses lay in state, his scalp prickled again, and he said, "Brother, she's staring at the yamen hall, and her parents' bodies are laid out inside..."
"It's fine." Fan Bisi's expression shifted back and forth. After a long hesitation he gritted his teeth and said ruthlessly:
"Come on. Let's have a good talk with her and see what she wants."
"If she's smart, fine. If she's really not, we're not to be trifled with either..."
The brothers had lived in the bureau for a long time and had some means of protecting themselves. Zhao Fusheng might have subdued that ghost entity for the moment, but she had no experience before this, and a ghost's power wasn't something one could simply borrow at will.
"If it really comes to a fight..." Fan Bisi said, his cheek twitching slightly.
"If we can't win, can't we just run? As long as we don't leave Wan'an County."
Hearing his brother say this, Fan Wujiu's anxious heart settled back in place, and he nodded.
"I'll follow you."
