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Translator's note: Well… I understand that to drain the middle of the river, you need to block the upper parts, but why the lower parts too?...
ED Note: There will still be water flowing into the middle if the bottom part isn't blocked. Won't it? The water will drain faster if both parts are blocked. Anyway, my bet on the whole village being controlled by the Specter.
"Did you really pass out?" Shen Lingxue simply couldn't believe it. "You fainted from a lack of oxygen, and you woke up from a single slap without needing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?"
Zhao Hao watched them and couldn't help but add, "Wow, Shuai, trying to scam my first kiss, are you?"
Liu Shuai felt utterly wronged; nobody believed him, no matter what he said.
Only Fang Xiu knew the truth—Liu Shuai really did faint. He woke up from a slap because Fang Xiu channeled a bit of his pain-inducing ability. The intense pain effectively shocked him awake.
After a few rounds of bickering, Shen Lingxue had had enough and put a stop to it. "Enough, Liu Shuai. We can talk about this later. Right now, we need to focus on how to deal with the water Specter in Blackwater River! Fang Xiu, what exactly happened when you went underwater? Why did you say that the Specter is actually the hair?"
"I saw a female corpse underwater," Fang Xiu began. "The thing that attacked us earlier was the hair of that corpse. After I dealt with the corpse, the hair seemed to come alive and detached itself. It ran away. So, my guess is that the hair is the real form of the Specter, and the corpse is just a puppet it controls."
Shen Lingxue thought it over. "Dealt with the corpse? Even if the corpse isn't the real Specter, it's being controlled by one. This Specter can control Blackwater River, so it must be powerful. How did you manage to handle the corpse?"
"I have my ways," Fang Xiu replied, offering no further explanation.
Shen Lingxue gave Fang Xiu a doubtful look. She wondered if perhaps this water Specter simply had a unique ability but was weak in direct combat. Yet, something felt off.
Noticing Fang Xiu didn't want to elaborate, she dropped the subject. "Let's head back for now. Once my Spiritual Energy recovers, we'll come back to Blackwater River once it's daylight and deal with the water Specter."
Fang Xiu remained unmoved and asked, "So, what's your plan for handling the Specter tomorrow?"
Shen Lingxue thought for a moment and said, "If even a rookie psychic like you can repel it, it's clear that the Specter isn't strong in fighting directly. The issue is its advantage in Blackwater River, which makes it hard for my fire abilities to work. The best approach is to lure the water Specter onto land. Once someone manages to lure it out, I can easily take care of it with fire."
After she spoke, she found Fang Xiu looking at her as if she were an idiot.
It infuriated her. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have a better idea?"
"It’s hard for me to believe that you're an experienced psychic from what you just said," Fang Xiu replied calmly. Although his tone wasn't mocking, his words were.
He took out an encrypted phone issued by the Investigation Bureau and started dialing.
"Who are you calling? Let me guess, you're reaching out to the Bureau for backup, asking other psychics to help?" Shen Lingxue said mockingly. "I'd put the phone down if I were you. The Bureau is already short-staffed, and they won't send psychics for a Specter that hasn't shown direct harm."
However, Fang Xiu ignored her.
Soon, the call connected.
Su Kexin's sleepy and soft voice came from the other end of the line, "Mr. Fang? Why are you calling so late—"
Fang Xiu cut her off, "Inform the higher-ups to send me a special ops team. Make sure they bring the highest-powered water pumps they have, as many as possible. To Blackwater."
Special ops teams consist of professionally trained soldiers. They are ordinary people but highly capable. Although they don't possess Spiritual Energy, they are generally used to assist psychics in tasks such as crowd control, reconnaissance, and rescue operations.
"Huh?" Su Kexin, who was still half-asleep, didn't catch on right away. "Mr. Fang, what are you saying? Water pumps? Weren't you on a mission? What do you need water pumps for?"
"You don't need to know why; just do as I say. If there are any questions, go talk to Wang Dehai. Tell him I said to do it."
With that, Fang Xiu hung up.
He turned back to Shen Lingxue and the others, only to find them staring at him, mouths agape.
"Xiu, you're not planning on draining Blackwater River, are you?" Zhao Hao asked in shock.
Fang Xiu nodded, saying, "From what we've seen, this Specter is smart and cunning. It avoids direct confrontation. So, luring it out would require someone to serve as bait. Otherwise, it won't fall for it. In that case, the best course of action is to drain Blackwater River, leaving it with nowhere to hide. We have the backing of the Investigation Bureau and can mobilize huge resources. Why not take advantage of that? Why go for the dangerous underwater fight? Besides, although Blackwater River is long, it's only deep in the middle. The rest is too shallow for hiding. We just need to block the upper and lower parts of the river and drain the middle."
At this point, Shen Lingxue felt too embarrassed to meet Fang Xiu's calm gaze. She looked away, speechless.
She thought Fang Xiu was calling for backup from other psychics. She didn't think he'd use modern technology to deal with the water Specter, an approach she had never considered. Yet she couldn't deny it made perfect sense.
Mobilizing a special ops team and some water pumps would certainly be resource-intensive, but it's far less risky and far more effective than sending psychics to risk their lives. After all, the life of a psychic is far more valuable.
Shen Lingxue had fallen into a mindset common among psychics. Although they might not openly say it, almost all psychics subconsciously considered themselves superior to ordinary people.
In the same vein, they firmly believed that the only ones capable of dealing with Specters were psychics. Therefore, when faced with a Specter, their first instinct was always to solve it using psychic abilities, rather than involving regular people.
Fang Xiu was different. He didn't have the arrogance common among psychics. Or, to put it another way, he simply didn't care for such matters; he only cared about the Specter. As long as he could make the Specter suffer, he would use all means necessary.
"Also, we can't return to the village chief's house tonight," he added.
"Why not?" Liu Shuai asked, shivering. At this point, everyone was drenched, and the mountain was quite chilly at night.
Fang Xiu explained, "Didn't you notice something off about the villagers' hair? The village chief should be around 70 to 80 years old, yet his hair is as black and shiny as a young man's. His grandson and daughter-in-law also have the same crazy good hair."
"Xiu, the chief could've just dyed his hair, right?" Liu Shuai started calling Fang Xiu by his first name since learning he singlehandedly fended off the Specter.
Fang Xiu calmly looked at him and said, "The hair of the village chief and his family is identical to the hair of the corpse I saw at the river bottom. If you want to risk death, you can go back."
Hearing this, Liu Shuai couldn't tell if he was more scared or cold, and involuntarily shivered. He chuckled nervously, "Well, camping doesn't sound so bad then."
Faced with Fang Xiu's arrangements, everyone chose to comply; even Shen Lingxue didn't object. She was supposed to be the team leader, but now the one giving orders was Fang Xiu. The power dynamics had quietly shifted.
So, they all found a spot far from Blackwater River, built a fire, and spent the night around it.