Gu Yan thought for a moment, then with his back turned, he patted Su Kun who was standing behind him, and said, "Contact the landlord, he should have the numbers of the police chiefs in charge of Li City and its surrounding areas, and he should also have H City's. Let him know and tell the police not to interfere in this matter anymore, to avoid more casualties. Also, if the landlord is available these days, you can buy a ticket to return to Li City first and stay with him for a while."

He only intended to do it casually, and didn't pay attention to which part of Su Kun he patted. After giving the instructions, he began to clean the entire room with a solemn face.

Only Su Kun was left behind, his ear tips flushed red, twitching the corner of his mouth. While taking out his cell phone from his jeans pocket, he silently complained in his heart: General, where are you patting your paw... Touching someone's butt in broad daylight is indecent, General Gu! Where is your integrity as an ancient person?!

He originally wanted to protest against Gu Yan's instructions - he was an adult, and had the protection of the jade, why did he have to run to the landlord to seek shelter?! However, when he thought of his timid courage, and his fighting power like dregs in the face of ghosts and monsters, he immediately wilted.

In order not to become a dragging main force, Su Kun found the landlord's number in his phone address book and dialed out without a word. After all, the landlord's combat effectiveness was said to be the strongest among the special departments in this area. Staying with him, Gu Yan could deal with things here with peace of mind.

However, after holding the phone and waiting for a few seconds, a mechanical female voice came from inside: "Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable, please try again later! Sorry, the-"

"Damn it! Always failing at critical moments!"

Before the female voice could finish, Su Kun hung up and said to Gu Yan in the room, "Can't get through! The landlord has probably gone to some remote mountain to meet his lover again. Didn't we hear a few days ago that several lightning bolts struck that mountain? He's probably worried again."

Gu Yan, who was originally half-squatting in the corner with his fingers pressed against the wall, turned his head back, frowned slightly, and said, "Try the other two numbers."

The black energy lingering in that corner of the wall, following his movements, surged into his body through his fingertips that were in contact with the wall, just like how he usually absorbed the remnant souls attached to Su Kun's jade pendant.

Under his gradual cleansing, the unbearable smell in the room also became fainter and fainter along with the diminishing black energy.

Of course, this black energy was invisible to Su Kun and the others, and only Su Kun could smell that strange odor. Therefore, except for the experienced Su Kun who knew what Gu Yan was doing, Geng Zimo and Xiang Ge were quite puzzled by his actions of walking around the room and tapping and pressing his fingers on the walls.

However, puzzled as they were, they could roughly guess that it was related to exorcism or something similar. So they didn't ask questions or urge him, but just stood outside the room and watched quietly.

Su Kun found the number of the old Granny Camphor Tree and dialed it.

Unlike the landlord, this time the call not only got through quickly, but was also answered after only two rings. Granny Camphor Tree's voice came from the other end, "Hello? Little Su, Little Pretty Face and I are a bit busy right now. I'll call you back after we're done."

Su Kun: "..." This wording is particularly prone to misunderstanding, Camphor Tree Comrade!

Although he knew that Little Pretty Face was Granny Camphor Tree's nickname for Comrade Mo Bao, and it was a purely descriptive nickname without any exaggeration because Mo Bao Comrade's face was too white*. But hearing this out of the blue, even the morally corrupt Su Kun couldn't help feeling his standards and integrity plummeting.

*T/N: Little Pretty Face can be literally translated as Little White Face in the original text. This may sometimes refer to a kept boytoy.

"What are you two doing?" Before Granny Camphor Tree hung up, Su Kun couldn't help asking. Because the old lady's voice was trembling so enchantingly and she was panting.

"Fighting!" The old lady said, then shouted at someone, "Just formed for less than a hundred years and already so arrogant, simply courting death!"

Unfortunately, when she shouted at the person, she forgot to take the phone away, so the direct victim became Su Kun.

Therefore, Su Kun, whose ears were buzzing from the shock, silently hung up the phone, picked up his integrity along the way, and said to Gu Yan, "Those two are also busy. Maybe some little ghost is causing trouble in Li City or the surrounding area today."

Xiang Ge and Geng Zimo, who had been standing beside them and listening to their conversation, couldn't help twitching the corners of their mouths.

Geng Zimo was better off. After all, before he was transferred to H City, he could occasionally hear this type of conversation at home.

But Boss Xiang was different. Although he had encountered some problems at home before and had contact with masters, and it wasn't the first time he heard about these supernatural things, hearing others talk about this world-view-subverting content in a tone as if saying "it rained in Li City or the surrounding area today" felt quite surreal.

It made him feel like he had inexplicably rushed out of the Earth and entered the great universe where anything is possible.

Gu Yan from the great universe finished clearing the last bit of black energy, straightened up, flexed his fingers, and walked towards the door with a blank expression.

He stepped out of the room, pointed at it, and said to Xiang Ge, "The remnant souls inside have been dealt with, but this room can't be inhabited for now. Let the sun shine on it for forty-nine days before it can be used again."

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Gu." Xiang Ge thanked him sincerely, locked the room door again, and then led everyone into the elevator and went downstairs.

After exiting the elevator, as soon as the cell phone signal returned to normal, without Gu Yan having to say anything, Su Kun automatically and conscientiously looked up the master's number. Just as he was about to press the dial button, another unfamiliar ringtone suddenly rang out, shattering the silence of the lobby.

The ringtone was a piano piece. The tinkling sounds would probably feel elegant and beautiful on normal days, but at this moment, it made the atmosphere inexplicably tense.

Su Kun paused his finger, looked at Xiang Ge who had just returned the key to the chubby aunt, gestured to indicate that he should answer first, and that it was okay to make the call here a little later.

Xiang Ge said "sorry", glanced at the caller ID, then frowned, walked a few steps towards the corner of the wall, pressed the answer button, and said in a deep voice, "What's the matter?"

The person on the other end must have said something, because Xiang Ge's face changed and he suddenly raised his voice, "What? Another one? Where?"

At the same time, Gu Yan, who had just stepped out of the dormitory building's main entrance, suddenly stopped and looked straight at another building a dozen meters away with a sharp gaze.

When they first entered this compound and walked towards this building following the faint smell, Gu Yan felt that something was off, but at the time he didn't realize exactly what was wrong.

But now, after he cleaned up the remnant souls in this building, causing the strange smell in this area to fade to the point of being almost undetectable, he finally found the reason for the oddity without any interference--

There wasn't just one source of the strange smell in the yard!

Earlier, when Xiang Ge asked him where the strange smell was coming from, the reason he hesitated for a while and didn't dare to be a hundred percent sure was because the strange smell extended in two directions, left and right, from where they were standing at the time.

It's just that there was wind direction influence at the time, and this building was where Zhao Tianqi used to live, which created a psychological hint for everyone.

Under the guidance of these two factors, Gu Yan subconsciously determined that the source of the strange smell was here. But now, with the interference from this building gone, he could be certain that another source that was no less than this one was in the dormitory building ahead.

"Room D on the fifth floor?" Behind him, Xiang Ge hurriedly descended the few steps in front of the dormitory building while saying to the phone, "Tell them not to move around. I'm coming right over."

He hung up the phone, seemingly muttering a curse under his breath, then hurried to the others with a deeply furrowed brow. "In the building ahead, the employee living in unit D on the fifth floor was just found collapsed inside. Someone has already called an ambulance, but... they say he passed out on the floor. His condition was similar to Zhao Tianqi's before. It seems we'll have to trouble you two to come with me to that building again. Mr. Gu, what do you--Mr. Gu?"

Xiang Ge noticed that Gu Yan's eyes were fixed on the building, his gaze slowly moving as if searching for something. "Mr. Gu, have you discovered something?"

"From what you just said, that person suddenly fainted just now?" Gu Yan asked while continuing to search the building for something.

"Yes, because they said they still heard movement inside when they were banging on the door." Xiang Ge's face was very grim, appearing less approachable compared to his earlier smiling demeanor. Standing beside him even gave a sense of oppression. "They were breaking down the door while calling me, and had only just broken through the door halfway through the call."

However, Gu Yan clearly matched his aura and felt no pressure at all. He continued staring at the building. "When you answered the phone, I had walked out. I've been watching the activity in that building... If it's as you described, then the evil spirit should have just left the employee's body, causing him to lose consciousness and faint..."

"So you're looking for that evil spirit?"

Gu Yan gave an "mm" of assent. "It just failed to possess someone, so it will emerge after taking a moment to recover."

"What if it doesn't come out and tries to possess someone else?" Su Kun couldn't help asking.

Gu Yan shook his head slightly. "It won't. Possession is also very taxing on the spirit itself, otherwise it wouldn't leave behind so many remnant souls after a single possession. And a soul that has just left a body is very fragile. With so many people suddenly gathered in that room, the yang energy is a bit heavy for it right now. It can only leave the building--it's here!"

Before he finished explaining, Gu Yan's eyes suddenly changed and he vanished in a flash.

Standing beside him, Su Kun didn't even have time to react before realizing his boyfriend had disappeared, leaving only a lingering sentence in his ears.

“You and Geng Zimo must stay with Xiang Ge and don't leave his side. His yang energy is much stronger than ordinary people's, so the evil spirit won't be able to approach him for now.”