novelraw Chapter 356: Raising Ghosts
Chapter 356: Raising Ghosts
The secret door hidden behind the massive oil painting slid open inward, revealing a long, narrow corridor paved with a dark red carpet.
This corridor extended underground via a gentle slope.
"You are sure to love this place."
The Pharmacist walked ahead, like a hospitable host leading a guest on a tour of a private wine cellar.
"Many people think I'm just a merchant peddling happiness. They see me as a speculator who exploits human weaknesses for exorbitant profits, but they simply don't understand."
The Pharmacist stopped, turned around in front of a brass door, his eyes gleaming with pride.
"I am a gardener."
"What I cultivate here is not some contraband, but the most fundamental form of life itself."
With a series of clicking sounds of gears meshing, the heavy brass door slowly swung open to both sides.
A biting chill, carrying a thick red mist, surged out from behind the door, instantly engulfing the figures of both men.Lin Jie narrowed his eyes slightly, seeing through the rolling red mist to discern the true appearance of the place called the "factory."
What unfolded before Lin Jie's eyes was a dome-shaped space reaching ten meters high. The walls and ceiling of the entire space were covered with lead plates used to isolate sound and spiritual fluctuations. Pipes of varying thickness crisscrossed in the air.
In the center of the hall, two rows of cultivation tanks filled with a pale yellow preservative fluid were arranged.
The bottoms of these cultivation tanks were connected to complex brass mechanical devices, while their tops connected to those suction pipes leading to the ceiling of the upper-level club.
And inside those massive glass jars, suspended were clumps of dark red flesh that were slowly writhing, expanding and contracting, as if possessing independent life...
Those flesh clumps looked like tumor tissue cut from some larger creature, their surfaces covered with countless tiny pores and suckers, greedily filtering the red smoke pumped into the cultivation tanks, recycled from the upper-level club.
"Welcome to my feeding room."
The Pharmacist spread his arms, making a gesture as if embracing this hell.
"Allow me to introduce you. This is our greatest discovery in the South Seas, and also the bridge connecting the material and spiritual worlds."
He walked to the nearest cultivation tank, extending a slender finger to gently tap the thick glass wall.
Stimulated by the vibration, the flesh suspended in the liquid suddenly contracted violently, its dark red skin instantly turning into a vivid, dripping blood-red. Several tendrils as fine as gossamer extended from its surface, as if searching for the source of disturbance.
"The local natives call it 'Jelot,' or 'Yang Gui' (Ghost Rearing)."
"In those ignorant legends, it's an evil spirit nourished by sacrificing the blood of infants or virgins, capable of bringing wealth to its master or cursing enemies."
"But that's just ignorant superstition."
"After five years of research and cultivation, I have finally uncovered the true nature of this creature."
"I discovered the original mother body deep in the peat swamps of Sumatra where even sunlight couldn't penetrate. At the time, it was parasitizing on the spine of a dying local witch doctor, sucking the old man's life essence through nerve bundles piercing the bone marrow."
The Pharmacist walked to the nearby dissection table, picked up a slender glass rod, and gently stirred the bottle of preservative fluid soaking a tissue slice, allowing Lin Jie to see the complex white network inside the tumor, resembling plant roots.
"This is an extremely rare, primitive mimicry biological community capable of freely switching life forms between fungus and coelenterate."
"The natives' belief that it requires blood is actually a misunderstanding. What it truly craves are the high-frequency bioelectric signals produced by organisms during intense emotional fluctuations, and the pure etheric energy released alongside the burning of life force."
He pointed at the brass pipes connected to the floor above, a mixed expression of cruelty and admiration appearing on his face.
"That's why I must keep the guests upstairs in that state of 'bliss.' Because only when the cerebral cortex is in a state of extreme excitation from dopamine secretion overload is the spiritual smoke exhaled by the host sweet, pure, and easily absorbed and transformed by the mother body."
"If the host feels pain or fear, this creature secretes toxins to kill the host. They are the world's most picky gourmets, only eating those sugar-coated... souls."
The Pharmacist turned, looking at the expressionless Lin Jie, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes, as if waiting for the other's amazement.
Lin Jie looked at those flesh clumps.
In his perception, although these things were only palm-sized, they contained extremely dense, extremely evil spiritual aggregates inside.
They were feeding.
That red smoke collected from the upper suction vents, containing the life essence of countless addicts, was precisely their most desired nourishment.
"So, this is the raw material for your red pills?"
Lin Jie asked coldly.
"Raw material?" The Pharmacist shook his head, seeming somewhat dissatisfied with the term. "No, the red pills are just their... seeds."
He picked up a silver scalpel from the nearby operating table and walked to a smaller workbench used for sample processing.
There lay a tumor slice just taken from a cultivation tank, only the size of a fingernail.
"This creature possesses an astonishing reproductive mechanism."
"Ordinary organisms reproduce through mating or division, but this creature reproduces through parasitism and transformation."
"I cut off the active tissue of this creature, process it specially to enter a spore-like state of suspended animation. This is the 'Bliss Red Pill' you saw upstairs."
The Pharmacist held the slice up to the light; the thing presented a translucent ruby-like texture under the illumination.
"When guests inhale the red pills, these tissues enter their warm, moist lungs along with the smoke."
"That place is simply the most perfect, most luxurious incubator."
"The spores quickly awaken, take root on the alveolar walls, and begin their brief yet glorious life cycle."
"They will frantically absorb the host's body moisture, proteins, and that most elusive... essence, energy, and spirit."
"That is, life force."
An almost intoxicated expression appeared on the Pharmacist's face.
Lin Jie felt a churning wave of nausea in his stomach.
He understood why that corpse appeared drained.
While those guests were inhaling red pills, they were actually actively swallowing a group of greedy vampires.
"And then?" Lin Jie forcibly suppressed the killing intent in his heart and continued asking.
"Then comes the harvest season."
The Pharmacist pointed at the complex piping system overhead.
"After the spores absorb enough life force, they rapidly mature, disintegrate, and transform into a higher-dimensional energy form, which is that exhaled red smoke."
"That is the purest life crystal, refined through the human body."
"I recycle the smoke through this circulation system and reinject it into these mother bodies."
He patted the massive glass jar beside him.
"After absorbing these essences, the mother body secretes a liquid called 'Blood Resin.'"
"That is the true elixir of immortality."
"Just one drop can make a dying old man regain his youth, make withered organs function again."
"Of course, this is only temporary."
The Pharmacist shrugged, his tone as casual as if discussing the weather.
"So they need to keep buying, keep inhaling, keep contributing their own lives."
"This is simply a perfect commercial closed loop, isn't it?"
"Using their own lives to buy the longevity they desire."
"Satisfying their desires while achieving my great work."
"You're truly a genius."
Lin Jie's voice held not a trace of warmth. "And also a madman."
"Thank you for the compliment."
The Pharmacist bowed elegantly in thanks, seemingly not catching the sarcasm in Lin Jie's words.
"I know this method might seem somewhat... cruel in the eyes of certain moralists."
"But scientific progress is always accompanied by sacrifice."
"These wealthy merchants, high-ranking officials, they've spent their lives plundering others' wealth and lives. Now they're just being made to regurgitate what they've swallowed, in another way."
The Pharmacist walked back to stand before Lin Jie. He took off his glasses; those gray-blue eyes now gleamed with dangerous light.
"Moreover, I think you should be able to understand me."
"From the moment you entered, I smelled the scent on you."
The Pharmacist leaned closer, his nostrils flaring slightly.
"That's not the smell of money, nor the smell of power."
"That's... the smell of blood."
"And a nobler, more ancient scent... the scent of a kindred spirit."
Lin Jie did not retreat.
At this distance, if the other made any suspicious move, the knife in his hand could slice this madman's throat within a second.
But he did not act.
Because the surroundings had changed.
The flesh clumps quietly suspended in the cultivation tanks had somehow become restless.
As if sensing some immense threat or irresistible temptation, they began to violently roll and crash against the glass walls within the nutrient fluid.
The pipes connected to them emitted creaking sounds.
The thin red mist permeating the air also began to undergo some strange gathering phenomenon.
Defying the laws of airflow, they slowly converged towards Lin Jie's location.
Like a swarm of bees that had smelled honey.
"What's going on?"
The Pharmacist keenly detected this abnormality. He frowned, turning to look at those out-of-control experimental subjects.
"Quiet! All of you, be quiet!"
He walked to the control console, attempting to adjust the sedative injection dosage.
But those monsters completely ignored his operations.
They even began emitting a series of sharp, piercing whines that could penetrate the glass.
That sound was familiar to Lin Jie.
It was the sound he heard in the morgue through [Reverberation Touch], the sound the deceased heard before death.
This was UMA resonance.
And the source triggering this resonance was on the back of Lin Jie's left hand.
There, the [White Vulture's Mark] that usually lay hidden and inactive was now becoming scalding hot due to stimulation from the surrounding high concentration of homologous spiritual nature.
A spiritual ripple invisible to the naked eye, belonging to the guardian deity and sky overlord of Upper Egypt, was spreading outward from Lin Jie as the center.
For these low-level, parasitic-type UMA that relied on consuming life force to survive, this high-level spiritual nature originating from ancient mythological creatures was simply an irresistible instinctual summons.
It was the scent from the top of the food chain.
The oppressive might of a ruler.
"You..."
The Pharmacist whirled around, staring fixedly at Lin Jie.
Lin Jie was no longer concealing himself now.
He took off that cumbersome top hat and casually tossed it on the ground.
He unbuttoned the expensive tailcoat, revealing the [Black Mercury] trench coat worn underneath, emanating a chilling killing intent.
"Your little pets seem to like me quite a bit."
Lin Jie said faintly. On the back of his left hand, the black vulture pattern was emitting a faint white glow through his skin.
"Or perhaps, they fear me."
The Pharmacist's expression froze.
His face, which had maintained an elegant smile, twisted with anger in this moment.
"You're not a buyer."
His voice turned gloomy.
"You're a... hunter."
"And a hunter carrying a high-level spiritual mark at that."
The Pharmacist slowly took a step back, his hand reaching towards a red lever beside the control console.
"I don't care who sent you, nor what that mark on you is."
"You've ruined my gathering, disturbed my treasures."
"This is my sanctuary. No heretics are allowed here."
He violently pulled down that lever.
"Clack!"
The heavy brass door slammed shut with a boom, turning this place completely into a sealed arena.
Immediately after.
The red mist suspended in the air, as if receiving some command, suddenly began to churn and coalesce.
They began to materialize.
Red particles combined and reassembled in the air, constructing clear outlines of muscle fibers and skeletal structures.
In just a few seconds.
Three massive beasts, their entire bodies composed of translucent red mist, appeared before Lin Jie.
They looked somewhat like tigers, yet also like giant hounds. They had no fur, only those constantly flowing, shifting red clouds of smoke.
Their eyes were two bottomless black voids, their mouths filled with fangs made of crystallized "Blood Resin."
Blood Mist Hounds.
This was a symbiotic species developed by the Pharmacist utilizing this UMA's characteristics, existing only within this red mist-filled environment.
"Since you like this smoke so much."
The Pharmacist tore off his gentlemanly mask, revealing a ferocious smile mixed with perversion and cruelty on his face.
He raised both hands, making a grasping motion towards Lin Jie in the air.
"Then let them... devour you until not even bones remain."
"Roar——!!!"
The three mist-constructed beasts pushed off with their limbs, charging towards Lin Jie with a nauseating bloody stench.
The battle erupted.
Lin Jie flicked his right wrist, [Silencer] silently sliding into his palm.
His left hand pressed against [Serene Heart] at his waist.
"So this is your trump card?"
Facing the red monsters pouncing towards him, a flicker of disdain flashed in Lin Jie's eyes.
"Mist-made dogs might scare those addicts."
"Want to bite me to death?"
"Even if you were a real god, you'd still lose a few teeth."
His trench coat trembled, an indigo-blue force field covering his entire body.
The next second.
His figure vanished from the spot.
Leaving only a black afterimage torn by high-speed movement.