Su Fan recalled the scene from earlier. The androgynous child had no scent of sulfur about them.
After the demon-related knowledge sharing, Sam relayed the information he had gathered about the asylum.
Over sixty years ago, a riot had occurred at the asylum. For some unknown reason, the patients undergoing treatment there had become violently agitated, slaughtered many of the medical staff, and burned the place down.
“So, it’s another case of ghosts causing trouble en masse,” Dean’s voice carried a hint of gravity.
Ghosts, the spirits of the deceased, possessed special powers. Dealing with them individually was troublesome enough, let alone confronting a whole group at once.
“Let’s hope it is a collective haunting.”
The calm tone of Su Fan’s statement gave Dean pause. He and Sam quickly grasped Su Fan’s meaning. If it were a collective haunting, Su Fan could just deal with them all at once like last time. It seemed their guess was right.
Su Fan was indeed using these souls to feed the ghost bound within the tarot card. When they had applied the holy water-infused leaves to their eyes, they had clearly witnessed the female ghost devouring the spirits. The brothers naturally felt no sympathy for the evil spirits. They even thought Su Fan’s act of giving the evil spirits time to flee back then was a bit too gentle. If they had the same ability, they’d just go in guns blazing.
What truly concerned the brothers was Su Fan’s purpose in cultivating the Seer ghost. His interest in demons was likely connected to that goal.
“If you ever need help with anything in the future, Su, feel free to contact us anytime,” Sam spoke up first, handing a slip of paper with contact details to Su Fan behind him.
Su Fan accepted the note without hesitation. It seemed they had made some connections. Good deductive skills. They certainly had the makings of monster hunters.
“How do you plan to handle this asylum incident?” Su Fan asked casually.
“The usual routine,” Sam explained honestly. “Question the deceased officer’s partner for intel, then investigate the town for specific information about the asylum. Finally, take ghost detection equipment and go in for on-site investigation. You know, knowing all the details helps us pinpoint the remains of the haunting spirit and burn them. But ghosts usually appear at night; seeing them during the day is unlikely.”
“No need for all that trouble. We’ll head straight to the asylum,” Su Fan stated directly. “As you said, you’ve been following your father’s trail. The sooner we resolve this, the sooner you find him.”
Dean and Sam had no objections. They hadn’t received any news about their father recently. Phone calls to contacts from his journal yielded nothing. Sam had even begun to wonder if their father was still alive. This anxiety made Sam increasingly desperate to find their father, even considering putting their hunting tasks on hold more than once. But Dean wouldn’t hear of it. For some reason, Dean followed their father’s instructions to the letter, meticulously executing his orders. Occasionally, small frictions arose between them. Family didn’t hold grudges, but in the end, Sam always gave in to his older brother.
Now, with Su Fan’s assistance, they could both complete the hunt and not delay their search for their father. Both brothers were quite pleased with this arrangement.
The three soon drove to the town where the incident occurred. After some inquiries, they learned the asylum’s exact location. The person providing the information wasn’t surprised by the three young men seeking the asylum. It had become a notorious local exploration spot, always attracting small groups of thrill-seeking youths.
“If you’re going, you’d better hurry. You might even run into others,” the person said.
“Others asked about the asylum’s location tonight besides us?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, a couple.”
After the informant left, Sam turned to Dean with a look of exasperation. Dean, leaning against the car door with a coffee in hand, shrugged. “Looks like we need to discuss a hostage rescue plan.”
“The desire for thrills is human nature, but to hit the exact asylum with actual ghost activity… these idiots have terrible luck.”
Their gazes simultaneously fell on Su Fan.
“I only handle killing ghosts. Rescue plans are for you two to figure out,” Su Fan said, fiddling with his tarot card, seemingly indifferent to the couple’s fate.
The Winchester brothers weren’t professional hostage rescuers and couldn’t devise much of a plan. Speed was crucial; regardless, they needed to get to the asylum first.
The small town at night was far less lively than the city. Once night fell, aside from streetlights, only scattered houses remained lit. The closer they got to the asylum, the fewer light sources there were. Within a few dozen meters, only the cold moonlight remained.
“Locked, as expected.” Perhaps the dead officer had instilled fear, as a new padlock now secured the asylum’s iron gate. Dean and Sam rolled up their sleeves, ready to climb the fence, when they heard a sharp metallic snap.
Looking back, they saw Su Fan pull the gate open and walk right in. They stared at the broken chain on the ground in stunned silence.
“He didn’t seem to have any tools, right?”
“Nope.”
A man who could casually snap an iron chain bare-handed, with the ability to see and touch ghosts… The brothers had previously wondered how Su Fan had subdued the tarot card ghost. They hadn’t expected the answer to be presented so clearly. They didn’t dwell on it long, quickly catching up.
Soon, they saw Su Fan standing still ahead. “This way.”
“Wait… how do you know which way to go?”
A one-hundred-meter spiritual sense range indeed couldn’t cover the entire asylum. But Su Fan also had his Premonition and Spirit Communion abilities. Finding a haunted spot wasn’t difficult. He wasn’t fond of lengthy explanations, so a simple “instinct” sufficed as an answer.
He has sensory abilities too? Dean and Sam felt their worldviews being refreshed. Strength to snap chains, high perception, the ability to touch ghosts, commanding an incredibly powerful evil spirit… “If this guy adds precise long-range attacks and area-of-effect abilities to the mix, wouldn’t he be invincible?” Sam whispered to Dean as they hurried to keep up.
“He might already have them,” Dean replied, giving his brother a meaningful look. “So far, he’s never personally dealt with a ghost.”
“Being that all-rounded feels… unrealistic,” Sam couldn’t help but muse. “You don’t even see characters that overpowered in games or movies.”
“This is the real world, kid. The most messed-up thing about reality is that it often doesn’t follow logic.”
They chatted as they followed Su Fan through the charred, dust-covered corridors. Finally, Su Fan stopped.
“It’s not a collective haunting of ghosts.” After carefully sensing the surroundings, Su Fan’s voice held a hint of disappointment. Most of the spirits wandering here carried no bloodlust aura. They were merely victims caught in the fire, aimlessly drifting through the place. Su Fan had no interest in persecuting such honest ghosts. Bullying them yielded little benefit. The real gains came from preying on the wicked.
Just then, a cabinet not far away suddenly creaked open on its own. The eerie movement, the dark interior, seemed to beckon someone to approach… On top of Su Fan’s disappointment, the malevolent spirit’s theatrics at this moment irritated him.
“Daring to play ghostly tricks? Go! Give him a couple of slaps!” Su Fan ordered, pointing at a corner. As soon as he spoke, the Seer ghost shot out from the tarot card, yanked a gray spectral figure from the shadows beside the cabinet, and delivered two resounding slaps.
The spirit was dazed. He had made the noise at the cabinet… How did they know he was here? Wait, wasn’t this thing hitting him also an evil spirit? The gray ghost immediately realized something was wrong, tore off a part of itself, and tried to flee swiftly.
Trying to escape? Su Fan casually raised a hand. The ghost, about to leave the building, froze mid-air, then flew back towards Su Fan at even greater speed! Beside it, the waiting Seer ghost’s lower body erupted in black mist, instantly engulfing and devouring the spirit.
Dean and Sam had just arrived in time to see Su Fan, with a wave of his hand, drag an ugly-faced evil spirit through the air, only for it to be devoured by the female ghost. The entire process took less than a minute.
“There’s an unconscious young couple in a room up ahead. If you want to rescue them, be quick,” Su Fan informed them. “We’re done here. We’ll move to the next location soon.”
The Winchester brothers didn’t say much, happily going off to rescue the people. Was hunting always this easy? They were experiencing the joy of being carried for the first time. Thinking back to their encounter with the White Lady ghost on the highway, which almost killed them… they didn’t know how they’d endured those hard days before.
“Ms. Elise really didn’t lie to us…” Sam muttered, carrying the unconscious young man, unable to help but marvel.
“Su is really… too strong.”
“Strong doesn’t even cover it. If he ever decided to tour America on a whim, probably half the mediums and exorcists would be out of a job…” Dean quipped, carrying the young woman. “I really wonder where he got all these abilities from.”
With the matter resolved, the brothers felt considerably lighter. But just as they stepped out of the asylum, they found a group of people waiting at the entrance, having seemingly been there for some time. Their gaze was fixed on Su Fan and the others.
“If you’re here to explore, forget it. There’s nothing inside,” Dean said, seeing their somewhat “edgy,” nonconformist attire and taking them for more thrill-seeking youths. But as he and his brother prepared to leave, the group suddenly bared sharp fangs and lunged forward!
Dean, still holding the unconscious woman, dodged hastily. In the moonlight, he could now clearly see their contracted pupils and pale complexions. “Dammit! Vampires!”
Dean set the woman down, drew his pistol, released the safety, and fired! Unlike the vampires of legend, according to their father’s journal, these creatures feared neither crosses nor garlic. They were agile, immensely strong, and difficult to kill under normal circumstances. Only dead man’s blood could weaken them. His guns were loaded with rock salt rounds, which, while not ideal, were better than nothing! Why would vampires suddenly appear here?!
Dean had no time to ponder further, immediately moving to regroup with Sam, who was doing the same. Just then, a voice came from Dean’s side.
“Vampires? Do they have souls?”
They turned to see Su Fan staring at the assembled vampires, his tone laced with curiosity. In mere seconds, the creatures had surrounded them from various directions. Their eyes glinted in the darkness, filled with cruel amusement at what they thought was easy prey.
Sam, adrenaline surging, heart pounding, took a deep breath and answered. “Not sure…” Even in this emergency, he wouldn’t state something uncertain as fact.
Su Fan activated Spirit Communion. He saw a turbid, human-shaped mass swirling within their bodies. They had souls!!
Su Fan’s expression towards the vampires changed instantly. His eyes practically lit up. Delivered feed!
“Excellent, excellent,” Su Fan suddenly broke into a bright smile. “I feel an instant connection with all of you. Since you’ve come, please stay. Let us entertain you properly.”
The vampires exchanged glances, then burst into collective laughter. “What is this fool babbling about? Hahaha!” “Does he think begging will save him? Stupid Asian.” “You can have him; I never drink from idiots.”
They simply assumed their prey was scared out of his mind, babbling nonsense, and found it highly amusing. But Dean and Sam, who knew better, remained silent, merely taking a couple of steps back.
After a good round of mockery, a female vampire stepped forward from the group and lunged at Su Fan! Rows of needle-like teeth, reminiscent of a lamprey, were horrifying to behold.
Faced with such a terrifying sight, Su Fan stood his ground, unmoving. Seeing this, the female vampire grew even more convinced of her “scared stiff” theory, a flash of contempt in her fierce eyes. The other vampires watched with gleeful smiles, waiting for the show.
However, the leaping vampire seemed to freeze mid-air. Wisps of black energy materialized between Su Fan and the vampire, coalescing into the form of a floating, dark-clad woman. A hand with jet-black nails clamped around the vampire’s neck like iron pliers, halting her advance.
The female vampire snarled ferociously, baring her sharp fangs, her hands clawing futilely at the Seer ghost’s neck, passing right through it. Before she could comprehend what was happening, her head separated from her body. The Hermit emerged from the shadows, using his lantern to ignite her still-twitching corpse.
As flames engulfed the body, a soul invisible to ordinary eyes drifted out, only to be immediately swallowed by the roiling black mist!
Opposite them, the male and female vampires suddenly felt a chill wind pass through. Uncontrollable fear surged in their hearts!
