Perhaps it was the lack of a head, but the ghost’s reactions were sluggish. After each question, several seconds passed while it mulled over an answer.
After a few seconds, the headless ghost replied slowly, "I don’t remember when I was born. You could say I’m a local... Belfast didn’t even exist when I died."
"How old are you?"
A few seconds later, a pensive voice replied, "If I were still alive, I’d be over four hundred years old."
"How did you die?"
"The natives chopped off my head."
Lu Li’s brow furrowed. "Must you wait for a direct question to offer an answer?"
The headless ghost’s body flinched, and its words came a little faster. "I died because I thought it would be funny to dress up like a native. But they mistook me for an enemy from another tribe, captured me, and..."
Anna couldn't suppress a smug look. "And that’s why you’re still here, scaring people?"
Lu Li turned his gaze to the last ghost—a portly man who looked like the manager.
The buttons on the man’s shirt strained at their threads. He was drenched in sweat, a pathetic, pleading smile plastered on his face. "My name is Mark, and I... I’m not actually a ghost. I’m human! Please, Exorcist, spare me!"
Seven pairs of eyes—five belonging to ghosts and two to humans—stared at him in unison.
Lu Li regarded the man in silence.
Anna, too, was silent, her gaze tinged with skepticism.
"I have a mask! It makes my aura feel like a ghost’s!" Mark cried, pulling a stone mask from behind his back and thrusting it forward in a desperate plea.
Anna gestured, and the mask—to Mark’s profound dismay—floated over to her and Lu Li.
The mask was crudely made, rough in both its texture and its carving.
"I don’t sense anything special..." Anna murmured doubtfully. Yet, the moment the mask had left Mark’s possession, his ghostly aura had begun to fade.
"Maybe it only works if you wear it?" JoJo suggested.
"Don’t touch it," Lu Li said, wary as always of items with unknown origins. He asked Anna to give the mask back to Mark.
"There's no need... Exorcist, please, you keep it," Mark said deferentially.
Lu Li hesitated for a moment, but then took the mask.
It was cool to the touch, and as he held it, the faint auras of the surrounding ghosts suddenly became clearer, more distinct.
Lu Li fell into thought. Could this mask be the same type of object as the Spirit Gun?
Stowing the Anomaly Mask, Lu Li refocused his attention on the man. "Tell me exactly why you did all of this."
"I can..." Mark said, his head hung in shame, not daring to look at his spectral employees. "When I got the mask, I gained a ghostly aura and the ability to see them... My Haunted House was on the verge of bankruptcy. I was desperate, so I started wandering the streets every night, pretending to be a ghost myself. I’d strike up conversations with actual spirits, and if we hit it off, I’d ask if they were looking for work. Then I’d bring them back to the Haunted House and train them..."
To save his business, he had hired actual ghosts to work in his Haunted House. In a sense, he was just as reckless as Lu Li.
Or perhaps, he simply valued money and his career more than his own life.
With the situation clear, Lu Li got back to business. "Your time is over. You have all lingered far too long in the world of the living—a hundred years apiece, on average."
All eyes turned to the headless ghost, who was significantly skewing the average.
"I am an exorcist, and you know what my work entails," Lu Li said, his gaze sweeping over them. "Is there anyone here who does not wish to be banished?"
The ghosts, who had been plunged into sorrow by his first sentence, were now utterly stunned.
The ghost in the white dress asked timidly, "We... we have a choice?"
Lu Li nodded. "Most of you have done nothing wrong."
The four ghosts exchanged glances, weighing their decision.
The young man and the headless ghost decided to move on.
Not every ghost wants to exist in such a state.
Stepping forward, the young man turned to Mark, bowed respectfully, and said with sincerity, "We may not have gotten paid, boss, but you were good to us in every other way. I don’t blame you for tricking us. I’ll miss our time here."
"I don’t blame you, either."
"None of us blame you."
A surprisingly touching, spectral scene unfolded before them.
Mark’s eyes reddened. He nodded vigorously, biting his lip to hold back tears.
After a brief farewell, the headless ghost and the young man approached Lu Li. The headless ghost held its own head high and declared firmly, "Do it, Exorcist."
"Very well," Lu Li said. He took out the Spirit Gun, swiftly flipped it around, gripped it by the barrel, and putting all his strength behind the heavy wooden handle, brought it down with a powerful blow!
Where the Spirit Gun made contact, bubbles erupted and spread across the soul, boiling it away. Fearing it might not be enough, Lu Li emotionlessly continued to hammer the ghost with the pistol’s grip!
The headless ghost crumpled to the floor in agony. "How... can this..."
His soul frothed like boiling water, and within seconds, it dissolved into thin air. Its aura and form vanished completely.
Silence descended upon the hall of mirrors.
After dealing with the headless ghost, Lu Li took a few deep breaths and turned to the young man.
His eyes, tainted by the negative emotions resonating from the Spirit Gun, had grown cold and fathomless.
Trembling with a chilling fear, the young man stumbled backward and cried out, "Wait, can’t you just shoot me?! Aren’t you supposed to pull the trigger and the ghost just disappears, painlessly? This isn’t anything like the kind of exorcism I imagined! It looked like you were trying to murder a ghost!"
"I can’t," Lu Li said, approaching the youth, whose face was a mask of despair. He raised the pistol’s grip. "Just bear with it. This might be a little painful."
His hand fell, and the grip struck the young man’s forehead. He froze for an instant, then the bubbles erupted across his entire form, boiling and incinerating his soul completely.
Stowing the Spirit Gun, Lu Li’s gaze lifted almost imperceptibly, staring into empty space.
He had just sensed the approach of a hostile entity.
The two remaining ghosts and Mark flinched in unison, stumbling back.
"We don’t want to be banished!" they cried in unison. Then they saw Lu Li’s brow furrow slightly, and their hearts sank.
But Lu Li’s frown had nothing to do with them—or very little, at any rate. He was simply thinking that if he had any money, he wouldn’t have to resort to banishing ghosts in such a brutal fashion.
Then again, if he had money, he wouldn’t need to be taking these supernatural cases in the first place.
Using the pistol’s grip certainly saved ammunition, but it came with drawbacks. It increased his contact time with the Spirit Gun, and as this very moment proved, such brutal methods of banishment instilled fear in the ghosts, which was bad for his reputation.
He put the Spirit Gun away, deciding to worry about his reputation later. He looked at the two remaining ghosts. "As for you two..."