Chapter 42: Terror at the Construction Site

According to the Fat Guy’s uncle, the reason this construction site was shut down was due to the bizarre death of an excavator operator and the haunting of a dilapidated little shack. That was why no one dared to work here anymore.

The deceased excavator operator was named Zhu Zhiyong. When construction began and the excavators were assigned their zones, Zhu Zhiyong was designated to the area with the solitary grave. Zhu Zhiyong first drove his excavator over to the lonely grave, intending to dig it up before demolishing the rundown shack. Although Zhu Zhiyong was not particularly superstitious, he believed that there are deities three feet above one’s head—one might not believe in them, but one must still show respect and avoid offending them.

Therefore, Zhu Zhiyong planned to go buy some cigarettes and alcohol to make an offering. However, the site supervisor grew impatient, loudly demanding to know why Zhu Zhiyong hadn’t started working yet, and asking if he wanted his pay docked. With no other choice, Zhu Zhiyong had to bow his head under the low eaves. There was no time to buy offerings; he climbed into the excavator and began operating it.

Strange as it might seem, the excavator had been running perfectly fine when driven over, yet the moment it was started up, it broke down and refused to budge. This made Zhu Zhiyong murmur doubts in his heart—was there something wrong with this grave? But with the supervisor constantly urging him on, he had no choice but to hurry up and fix the machine. After about half an hour, the excavator was finally repaired.

Zhu Zhiyong climbed back into the cab and started the machine. With a single scoop of the bucket, he dug up half of the lonely grave. Just as he was preparing to make the second scoop, the excavator stopped working again.

Zhu Zhiyong was utterly baffled. A machine that normally wouldn't break down in half a year had broken down twice in less than an hour. He jumped down from the excavator to inspect it. As he strolled around to the front of the machine's tracks, the excavator suddenly started up on its own and drove straight toward him. Zhu Zhiyong tried to run, but found his feet glued firmly to the ground as if by a pool of superglue; no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move an inch.

Cold sweat poured from him in panic, yet still he could not move. In the end, the excavator's tracks rolled right over his body, crushing him into a bloody pulp. Strangely enough, after crushing Zhu Zhiyong to death, the excavator stopped completely on its own, with no one operating it. The site supervisor was scared out of his mind on the spot.

After the police and forensic doctors arrived, they investigated and cleared the scene. They discovered that Zhu Zhiyong’s death was extraordinarily bizarre. The excavator had no mechanical faults, and there was no one in the driver's seat—so how had it suddenly started? Furthermore, with the engine roaring so loudly upon startup, why hadn't Zhu Zhiyong run away?

No useful conclusions could be reached. After all, this matter had far exceeded the scope of their duties.

Once the police and forensic doctors withdrew from the scene, the Fat Guy’s uncle wanted to have the excavator moved first. Yet no matter who climbed aboard, nobody could drive the machine. The gearshift and all controls were in working order, but the excavator simply remained locked in place. Later, the drivers grew terrified, and not a single person dared to climb up and operate it. With no other option, the Fat Guy’s uncle had to call in two heavy-duty cranes to lift the excavator away.

None of the workers dared to touch the lonely grave ever again, and could only work much farther away from it. Around ten o'clock at night, while the construction site was still bustling with activity, the sorrowful and desolate crying of a man suddenly echoed through the air.

The workers searched in all directions, and finally discovered that the sound was actually coming from that dilapidated little shack. Terror and dread gripped the workers—no one lived in that shack; it was definitely haunted.

Consequently, work across the entire construction site ground to a halt, and no one dared to approach. With no alternative, the Fat Guy’s uncle hired a Taoist priest to perform a ritual. The priest put on a grand and flashy ceremony, but ended up losing his mind, frantically slashing about with a peach-wood sword.

Later, they hired another master at a high price, but as soon as this master arrived and took one look, he immediately refunded the money to the Fat Guy’s uncle, blurting out, "You people have walked into a catastrophic mess! This ghost is extremely powerful, I am no match for it, and I cannot handle this."

***

That was when the Fat Guy’s uncle found Liu Jun and the others, holding onto a sliver of hope, though he never truly expected them to resolve the situation.

Suddenly, a white shadow drifted past the window of the dilapidated shack. Liu Jun remained entirely calm, turned around, and told the Fat Guy’s uncle to leave first, promising to inform him once the matter was handled. His uncle had already spotted that white shadow and was scared out of his wits; hearing Liu Jun’s words, he wished he had four legs to run away directly, without even bothering to be polite.

Liu Jun produced a bottle of bull's-tears eye drops, and several of them applied it to their eyes. First, they spotted a ghostly figure near the excavator, a spirit shaped roughly like a pile of minced meat. Naturally, this must be the soul of the excavator operator, Zhu Zhiyong. Liu Jun picked up his Token of Virtue and Vice and successfully performed a rite of passage to release the spirit. A mechanical voice chimed in: *Released one ordinary ghost, accumulated three merit points.*

Liu Jun glanced toward the lonely grave and stepped forward. Ignoring the white shadow in the rundown shack, he carefully examined the solitary tomb. Just like an ordinary grave, the raised mound of earth had a chunk gouged out by the excavator, and the tombstone at the front appeared somewhat antiquated, indicating it had some age to it. The inscription on the tombstone was slightly blurred, but still barely legible, reading: *Tomb of my beloved wife, Cai'er.* The name inscribed beside it was Li Zicheng, dated the twelfth month of the fourth year of the Daoguang era.

Liu Jun swallowed hard, feeling a trace of cowardice. If this ghost happened to be the owner of the tomb or from that era, the fourth year of Daoguang corresponded to the year 1804—nearly two hundred years ago up to the present day. A vengeful spirit with two hundred years of cultivation; to say he wasn't afraid would be a lie.

"Brother Liu, what's wrong with you? Why has your complexion turned so terrible?" The Fat Guy asked, noticing Liu Jun's unusual expression.

"Fat Guy, do you think we can defeat a vengeful spirit with two hundred years of cultivation?"

"Stop joking around. We struggle even against vengeful spirits that have only been dead for a few days, let alone one that's centuries old. We'd be lucky not to be beaten into dust."

"Then there is a very real possibility that we are about to be beaten into dust right now." Liu Jun furrowed his brow. Defeating it head-on was completely out of the question. Given his and the Fat Guy's level of cultivation, they could only outwit the opponent; brute force was suicidal.

"Crap, Brother Liu, you don't mean to say that the ghost this time has two hundred years of cultivation, do you?" The Fat Guy panicked as well. Counting back through Liu Jun and his own past ghost-hunting encounters, virtually every single one had been heart-stopping and fraught with hair-raising danger.

"Li Xin, you should leave first. The entity this time is no ordinary ghost. I won't be able to protect you." Liu Jun said to Li Xin with a grave expression.

He originally thought this young woman would make a fuss for a bit, but to his surprise, she turned and left with absolute decisiveness, without the slightest hesitation or reluctance.

He then pulled out his cell phone and called Chu Feng from the Ninth Division, telling him to come over and prepare. In truth, Liu Jun could easily have asked Dog Brother for assistance, but even with his backside he could guess that Dog Brother could not intervene casually in the mortal realm.

He glanced at the ghostly aura emanating from the dilapidated shack, which had already begun to spread—this was the exact reason Liu Jun could not afford to wait. Once the ghostly aura truly spilled outward, the casualties in the surrounding area wouldn't just be one or two people.

***

"Fat Guy, go back and get Dog Brother to rescue us, I'll hold the line here."

"Brother Liu, are you looking down on me? I may be fat, but I'm not stupid. Dog Brother can save both of us without even needing to be called. Where you are, I am; if you run, I run. Stop talking that BS about making me leave first; your daddy isn't listening."

Damn it, this dead fatty was actually showing some backbone. Liu Jun didn't press him to leave again. To be honest, his own source of confidence was precisely the existence of Dog Brother. While Dog Brother might face certain restrictions when acting in the mortal realm, saving the two of them would definitely not be a problem.

"God of Heavenly Fire and Thunder, Thunder Deity of the Five Directions. God of Earthly Fire and Thunder, vanquish demons and eliminate monsters. Evil spirits retreat, heed the decree of my Emperor. Execute swiftly as commanded by the law. Summon the thunder!"

Without further hesitation, he unleashed his current strongest ultimate technique, aiming it straight at the dilapidated shack. Marching into the house to catch a ghost was out of the question; he wasn't an idiot. Even outside, he wasn't guaranteed to win.

Lightning flashed and thunder roared. The majesty of this divine thunder was somewhat greater than previous instances. Perhaps due to the dense ghostly aura, the divine thunder's power increased correspondingly.

Unfortunately, after this barrage of divine thunder, although the dilapidated shack was blasted into an even more dilapidated state, the black miasma did not stop and continued to spread relentlessly. Screw it, desperate times called for desperate measures—being despicable was better than being dead.

Liu Jun pulled out another Five-Thunder Talisman while grasping a Leaving-Fire Talisman in his other hand, and shouted toward the rundown shack:

"Listen up, you ghost inside, stop the spread of this ghostly aura immediately! Otherwise, don't blame me for blowing up your wife's grave!"

Instantly, the surrounding ghostly aura stopped spreading. A white ghostly figure wrapped entirely in black miasma appeared at the doorway of the dilapidated shack, quietly gazing at Liu Jun.

Damn it, it was fortunate that Liu Jun was an unorthodox Taoist priest who dared to employ such despicable tactics, otherwise how else could that ghostly aura have been halted?