“Anyway, you’ve already quit the business recently, haven’t you? Relax, if I wanted to hand you over to the police, I wouldn’t have bothered to clean up so many messes for you. If I really wanted you dead, you’d be long gone by now. I saved you only so you could work for me.”

“If I refuse?”

Mr. Cat didn’t answer this question, instead picking up the “Demon Subjugation Chapter” on the table and changing the subject on his own: “This Demon Subjugation Chapter by Guiguzi records many long-lost secret techniques, as well as a lot of knowledge that’s very useful in the ghost-hunting world. Since you’re the owner of this thing, only you should be able to learn what’s written in it. Even if others translate the text, they absolutely won’t be able to grasp its true meaning.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.” This remark from William Carter was once again completely ignored by Mr. Cat.

“You’re now an employee of my detective agency. Over the next week, I’ll teach you some basic knowledge. For example, last time you used a technique meant for attacking spirits against a corporeal phantom beast—that was just too amateurish.”

“Hey, there’s got to be a limit to ignoring people…”

“In a week, you’ll have your first assignment. I hope you study well, so you don’t end up dying in the line of duty on your very first outing. Oh, by the way, you’ve been asleep for over thirty hours. Come down to the bar and get something to eat.” With that, Mr. Cat walked out the door.

William Carter was already on the verge of losing his temper—not only was he being completely ignored, but the other party was also issuing orders to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Still, considering he was now homeless and penniless, he decided to put up with it for now and see if he could find a chance to slip away in a few days.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye. During these days, William Carter’s opinion of Mr. Cat changed greatly. It turned out this person wasn’t as bad as he seemed. While William Carter was unconscious, Mr. Cat was hardly ever at the agency, always running around on his behalf, only returning that morning. His injuries were also treated by Mr. Cat. After that day, Mr. Cat arranged a place for William Carter to stay at the Black Cat Bar. The tall man William Carter had met before was called Henry Mason, the bar’s bouncer and handyman. The bar owner was a spirited old man named Gregory Warren, whose slicked-back hair was always perfectly neat, always dressed in a bartender’s suit vest and bow tie. Most of the people who came to the bar looked fierce, but there were never any incidents of bullies ganging up on the weak. It seemed they’d outgrown the petty tastes of street thugs and entered the realm of “chivalrous outlaws”… It’s worth mentioning that no matter how tough someone looked—including Mr. Cat—they all respectfully called the owner “Uncle Warren”.

William Carter also discovered that both Uncle Warren and Henry Mason called Mr. Cat “Edward Grant”. When he asked Mr. Cat himself, he learned that Mr. Cat was just a title, representing the highest rank among ghost hunters in this city. Every city had such a person; basically, whenever something big happened, this person would be dragged out and put on the spot…

In the ghost-hunting profession, no one uses their real name, for fear that their ancestors might be implicated in the underworld. So most people abandon their real names and use nicknames instead—an unwritten rule. In fact, even ghost hunters don’t really know what goes on in the underworld; their job is simply to let innocent mortals live blissfully ignorant lives as much as possible.

To become a ghost hunter, you generally need a recommendation from a senior. As long as that senior deems you virtuous, capable, and willing to sacrifice, congratulations—you’ve entered this one-way profession.

Over the past few days, William Carter found that the Demon Subjugation Chapter he could once fully understand now seemed like a book of heavenly script. Let alone using any “Heaven and Earth Infinite, Borrowing the Power of the Universe” techniques—he was still just the ordinary mortal William Carter. He concluded that during his somewhat withdrawn childhood, he possessed astonishing power, and only by returning to that state could he unlock his full potential. This only strengthened his resolve to escape this profession.

A week passed quickly. William Carter did learn a lot of basic knowledge, but what he was really thinking about was running away. Still, people always like to get involved in things—for example, he even gave himself the nickname “Take Your Life Three Thousand.” This was immediately vetoed by Mr. Cat, whose reason was simple: “It would be an embarrassment to me.”

And on the day William Carter received his ghost hunter nickname “Guiguzi,” he also learned about his first assignment from Mr. Cat. It had to be said, this was a perfect trap—a trap set specifically for William Carter, one he couldn’t help but fall into…

Chapter 8: The Night Visitor

Mr. Cat’s first assignment for William Carter was to investigate a murder case at a school from twenty years ago. At the time, the headless case was left unresolved, and precisely because of this, a series of new bloody cases have erupted twenty years later…

“What! You want me to study at Xiangyi?” When William Carter exclaimed this question, Mr. Cat knew he had taken the bait.