The more the ghost baby's target is in love, the easier it is to activate its abilities. The lines it can say, and the actions it can take, also become more abundant.
But if the target is an enemy, it takes a lot of energy to act, and the lines become stiff and limited.
The ghost baby had just discovered this new skill and looked very pleased with itself. Its ghostly little eyes sparkled as it snorted in delight.
After signing the contract, the ghost can only use its skills when commanded by Jiangxia Tongzhi.
Which was honestly a relief—otherwise, Jiangxia wouldn't be surprised if the thing snuck off to Yoko Kinoshita one day and forcibly shipped her with some hot actor.
Jiangxia stared at the new skill in silence for ten full seconds.
In the end, he decided to suppress his shock by giving it a name.
Let's keep it simple: Forced Confession.
At first glance, this skill seemed pretty useless.
But if he could find the right materials to level up the ghost in the future, its abilities would improve too.
Right now, all it could do was make someone move their lips and confess—though even that required burning some serious murderous energy. But if upgraded, who knows? Maybe it could evolve into "forced hand-holding," "forced hug," "forced kiss," "forced @*$%&" and so on… all from just a whiff of murderous intent.
As long as it could cause an enemy to lose control of their actions, it had value.
So, not a total waste. Could be weirdly useful.
And now that he had a ghost, he could start building a puppet.
Granted, with the shape of a ghost baby, the puppet would be a child's body… but with proper use, even that could be handy.
Jiangxia gave himself a half-hearted pep talk, then left the basement with his newly contracted ghost baby.
Once you form a contract, you get a lot of control over your ghost.
But with great power comes great responsibility—meals, upgrades, general maintenance… basically everything.
It was like adopting a very obedient serf: you still had to feed them, clothe them, and send them to school.
Usually, ghost babies could be stored inside the tattoo over the heart. There was some kind of nonsense space in there—very unscientific.
That's also where Jiangxia stored most of his murderous aura.
But at the moment, he didn't have many ghosts in his arsenal. Actually, just one.
So he didn't bother storing this one away.
Besides, it was small and portable. Better to just keep it out. Easier access.
After the contract, the ghost baby's attitude toward Jiangxia drastically improved. Now, whenever it saw him, it felt this strong sense of attachment.
It crawled up Jiangxia's arm to his shoulder and nuzzled against his face—honestly not too different from the way it treated Yoko Kinoshita before.
But with great affection comes great… stomach growling.
As Jiangxia was thinking, the ghost baby poked his cheek, then patted its stomach meaningfully.
It was hungry.
Jiangxia: "…"
Keeping ghosts was such a hassle.
Still, it needed to be fed.
Contracted ghosts naturally develop a strong affection for their psychic.
Even if the psychic is kind of a jerk, the ghost will forgive them with teary eyes and wagging tail.
But if the psychic becomes a full-blown tyrant—especially while juggling multiple ghosts—it's very easy for things to go south.
Once a ghost really loses control from being mistreated, the ending is never pretty. Like textbook tragedy. The kind of story that gets printed in red ink and passed down for generations.
So most psychics are fairly nice to their ghosts. It's just basic professionalism.
Jiangxia sighed and mumbled to himself. He reached under his clothes and reluctantly pulled out a thin black thread.
This was a strand of murderous aura—stolen from Gin.
He'd been hoarding it this whole time, too stingy to use it. Even compared to his past life where resources were more abundant, this was top-tier stuff.
Jiangxia had pulled out an entire strand.
But after glancing at the ghost baby's tiny body and thinking of his limited stockpile, he split the strand in half and put one piece back.
Then he stared at the remaining half, hesitated a moment, and split that in half too—storing one quarter and keeping the last bit for feeding.
The ghost baby silently watched its dinner go from "hefty portion" to "snack" to "is this even food?": "…"
Maybe… maybe it shouldn't have agreed to the contract so quickly.
But too late now.
There was a binding contract. Instead of getting mad, the ghost baby became even more understanding.
With tears in its eyes, it patted Jiangxia's shoulder, promising to work hard and collect lots of murderous aura in the future—so its master wouldn't have to ration so painfully.
Jiangxia was very touched. He finally committed to feeding the little guy and picked up the precious fragment of murderous aura.
Of course, you couldn't just shove it straight into a ghost's mouth. It needed to be processed a bit.
He went upstairs, found his jacket, and pulled out a cigarette case. From it, he tapped out a "cigarette."
Though cigarette-shaped, it wasn't filled with tobacco, but a blend of dried plant foams.
In the psychic world, this thing was officially called ghostmint.
Jiangxia always suspected the inventor had a pet cat. And he had evidence.
The name sounded suspiciously like "catnip," but ghostmint didn't actually attract ghosts.
What it did do was absorb the negative energy psychics collected—like the murderous aura currently in Jiangxia's hand.
Gin's stuff, high quality.
And it even had a hint of alcohol in it—another sign of its premium grade.
Jiangxia pressed the aura fragment into the ghostmint, and it quickly absorbed the energy.
Then he lit the cigarette.
Smoke curled up. The ghost baby climbed onto the back of Jiangxia's hand, grabbed the butt, and took a deep, satisfied inhale.
Murderous aura could also be consumed by Jiangxia himself.
Not for hunger, but to recharge.
But his energy levels were fine at the moment—he hadn't been using skills, and his sleep schedule was pretty decent.
So even though he was a little tempted, he didn't snatch it away from the ghost baby.
Still, he couldn't tell whether the ghost was just very hungry or the aura was very weak.
After a few seconds of puffing, most of the cigarette had burned down.
Jiangxia flicked some ash into the tray.
Just as the last bit of ghostmint-and-aura mix burned away.
Jiangxia: "…"
This ghost had a stomach.
He tossed the cigarette butt into the ashtray.
The ghost baby patted its belly, looking hopeful—like it wanted another.
Jiangxia checked its status. Sure enough, it had recovered from the trauma of its broken dream and was now healthy again.
So he pretended not to see the pleading eyes, turned on his heel, and speed-walked to the bathroom—with the ashtray.
Glossary
Ghostmint: A made-up plant in the psychic world, named like "catnip," used to absorb murderous aura for ghosts to consume.
Murderous aura: A psychic energy source in this story, produced by killers or dangerous people, and used to power ghost-related abilities.