Chapter 410 - Chapter 410: Chapter 409: Soul Bottle

Chapter 410: Chapter 409: Soul Bottle

“Is this the source?”

At that moment, on the tarmac, a quarantine zone had been set up in the distance. Yang Jian, Shen Liang, Guo Fan, and several other staff members surrounded the suitcase beside them.

It was hard to imagine that the initial site of the paranormal event was inside a suitcase.

Moreover, this suitcase was damaged, with strange gaps on its surface, as if something had previously broken free from inside.

“So you’re telling me a ghost was brought onto the plane in a suitcase by a passenger? Who did it? Drag that passenger out here and ask him how he wants to die. Daring to bring a ghost to J City, is he looking for trouble with me?”

One person spoke with a stern face, his tone exuding a dangerous aura that sent shivers down one’s spine like a madman.

Yang Jian gave him a glance.

The man who was speaking, named Chen Yi, was one of the international ghost-handlers in J City. He was not the only one responsible for J City’s safety; there were several, and Chen Yi was simply one of them.

Chen Yi appeared relatively normal at a glance but a closer look revealed a faint stench of decay emanating from him, his fingers slightly stiff. Livor mortis had already appeared on the back of his hands. Although he spoke loudly, he wore a thick mask, as if intentionally covering his mouth.

If such a person stood at the corner of a street at night, he would definitely scare many people.

“Another dangerous individual. His body is nearly as corrupted as a fierce ghost’s. He’s likely gone beyond controlling just a couple of ghosts. However, he’s in worse shape than I am. I wonder how long he can hold on,” Yang Jian thought to himself while being slightly more wary of Chen Yi.

The closer a ghost-handler came to a ghost’s resurgence, the more terrifying they became.

ℕ○νG○.ϲ○

Because at that point, they had almost fully transformed into a ghost, and nobody knew if they were human now or would turn into a ghost the next moment.

“Chen Yi, don’t rush. There is a record on the suitcase; the person who checked in this luggage can be found quickly. The urgent matter now is to determine exactly what is inside,” Shen Liang consoled him in a very polite tone.

“I’ll open the suitcase.” Guo Fan, with a face as grim as that of a cadaver, made people unconsciously give way.

Although inspecting the suitcase was risky, Yang Jian had already succeeded in containing the ghost, so the risk was limited. Moreover, with so many people gathered, including some of the country’s top ghost-handlers, any issue that might arise could be dealt with.

“Be careful,” Shen Liang cautioned as he stepped back a bit.

What scene had Guo Fan not seen? Hadn’t he come out alive from the incident in Z City?

A mere suitcase wouldn’t scare him, but still, necessary vigilance was maintained.

Soon enough.

The damaged suitcase was opened. Inside, there were none of the eerie objects or grotesque things one might have imagined.

Just some very ordinary items.

There were cups, plates, ceramic pots, and such, all of which seemed to have some history.

“These are antiques. There are appraisal certificates and purchase contracts here; the paperwork is all regular,” a staff member observed and immediately reported.

“What a joke,” Chen Yi said with a fierce expression. “All this fuss for a pile of junk? I’m here for the source of the paranormal, for a result.”

His emotions seemed somewhat out of control, which made him appear even more dangerous.

Yang Jian frowned slightly at the man’s silence.

This person’s emotions were so out of control, even more so than his own, yet this was one of the people in charge of J City.

Could he be a nepotism hire?

Of course, this thought was quickly dismissed by Yang Jian.

If Chen Yi had been transferred to J City, it meant his mental state was definitely not an issue, and he couldn’t possibly be a ticking time bomb. The only explanation was that this guy was naturally hot-tempered, and after becoming a ghost-handler, the influence of the ghosts had intensified his viciousness, making it increasingly difficult to control his temper.

“It’s not all junk. I can sense that the source of this flight’s paranormal incident is this,” Guo Fan, with a deathly face, pointed at a dull ceramic piece.

The design of the ceramic was very ordinary, narrow on top and wide at the bottom, neither exquisite nor rustic, yet it exuded an eerily strange feeling.

Gazing through the opening, one saw only pitch-black darkness, like a bottomless abyss.

“Let me take a look,” a staff member volunteered, coming forward.

“I am a student of Professor Bai, and I have done some research on historical objects; maybe I can help everyone here a bit.”

“Go ahead and check it out,” Shen Liang nodded, approving his action.

The accompanying personnel this time were still quite adequate, with people from all fields present.

Because the paranormal event this time had great research value.

The staff member looked at that bottle and said, “This is not an ordinary bottle, it’s a soul bottle.”

“What is a soul bottle?” Guo Fan asked from the side.

“In some ancient tombs, there would be two bottles placed beside the coffin. Those bottles were used to house the deceased’s soul, hence the name soul bottle. However, soul bottles are no longer used in modern burial culture. Additionally, this soul bottle is a modern product, not one fired by a renowned kiln but by a rural kiln. Judging from the material, its history is at most a hundred years old.”

At this point, the staff member expressed his doubt, “It’s strange, this soul bottle doesn’t seem to be from a tomb because it lacks the smell of earth and does not have a putrid stench. I wonder what the owner had in mind when making this thing.”

A hundred years ago?

Yang Jian’s gaze slightly darkened, he caught onto this key piece of information.

Another artifact from the Republic of China Period?

The basement of Hongfa Temple was also built in the Republic of China Period, the old house at Guanjiang Residential Complex was from that era too, and even the dish that held the fried rice with egg, unearthed from the Ghost Cabinet, turned out to be porcelain from the Republic of China Period.

All the bizarre sources of information pointed to the same period.

“So you’re saying that before this, this bottle was used to contain ghosts?” Zong Shan also looked at the bottle. He wasn’t interested in antiques, only their provenance.

“We can’t rule out that possibility. The lid of the bottle is still here.” The staff member picked up the lid of the bottle from nearby.

Zong Shan smiled, “No need for doubt—I never work with uncertainties. Let’s take advantage of the crowd and clear this up today.”

With that, he walked over, took the soul bottle, and smashed it to the ground.

The soul bottle shattered, and the pieces of the porcelain scattered.

A golden bottle emerged from within the broken porcelain.

Upon seeing this, Yang Jian’s eyelids twitched.

Gold?

Not just him, everyone else was also taken aback.

“The porcelain was a disguise, merely to conceal this gold bottle. Now that it’s revealed to be made of gold, there’s no question about it,” Zong Shan said with a light smile.

To ordinary people, gold meant money, but to ghost-containment practitioners, it was material for ghost-containment vessels.

Every ghost-containment practitioner had quite a few gold containers.

Boxes, pouches, gold foil paper, chests… they came in all shapes and sizes. Whatever the practitioner found convenient, even if in the form of a bottle, it wasn’t unusual.

“A relic left by a ghost-containment practitioner from a hundred years ago? Merely by chance, it ended up in the hands of the public and was purchased as an antique. Then, due to turbulence on the plane, the lid fell off, thus releasing the ghost inside.” At this moment, Yang Jian had pieced together the entire incident in his mind.

It was purely accidental.

There was no source, and if there had been one, it would be necessary to ask someone from a hundred years ago.

“So does this mean it was all a wild-goose chase?” Guo Fan, who already had a face like a dead man, seemed to look even worse, “A bunch of people fussing over a bottle that holds absolutely no research value.”

The ghost that was in the bottle was now in Yang Jian’s possession; the bottle was empty, only the gold had some monetary value.

But was anyone present in need of money?

At that moment, another investigation had yielded results—the owner of the suitcase had been found.

Two special operatives escorted a middle-aged man with a plump stature over like they would a prisoner.

“Wan Delu?” Yang Jian was momentarily startled when he saw the middle-aged man.

He had chatted with this Wan Delu for a few sentences in the first-class cabin of the plane earlier. They weren’t exactly acquaintances, but they had met once before.

At this moment, Wan Delu, the CEO of a listed company, was shaking like a frightened bird, trembling all over, seemingly even more panicked than when he encountered the paranormal event.

Perhaps, he had a vague premonition that he had gotten himself into some serious trouble.

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