Jiangcheng City, Seventh Satellite City.
Inside a quiet little building in the suburbs, faint sobs echoed. By now the sky had already grown dim, and with the surrounding woods casting their shadows, the atmosphere was particularly eerie.
With a puttering sound, a small white electric scooter rode up beneath the building and parked neatly in an empty parking space. The young man on it swung himself down, took off his little helmet, and shook out his hair.
He had tousled hair about a finger’s length long, his bangs falling between a pair of sharp, sword-like brows, unable to conceal his high brow bones, which made his eye sockets look deep and his eyes bright as stars. Add to that a straight nose bridge, smooth contours, and facial features without the slightest flaw to be found.
If handsomeness had cultivation realms, then this man was at least at Great Perfection of the Yanzu Realm.
The young man raised his head and saw that a middle-aged man in a suit was already waiting downstairs. He lifted a hand in greeting. “Hello, boss. I’m the principal of Yue’s Cultivation Affairs Office, Yue Wen.”
“Master… Master Yue.”
The middle-aged man was not tall. He had a buzz cut paired with a Mediterranean bald patch, his suit wrinkled both inside and out, and his face carried the weathered look common to beasts of burden in the workplace.
After greeting the young man, he asked with some suspicion, “Can you handle the evil spirit by yourself?”
“You can just call me Xiao Yue,” the young man named Yue Wen said with a smile. “Although our office charges low fees, we’re absolutely reliable in our work. Leave it to me, and you can rest easy.”
“That’s good.” The middle-aged man nodded, though he was still muttering inwardly.
He could not really be blamed for worrying. After all, the fees charged by this “Yue’s Cultivation Affairs Office” were much lower than those of other qi refiner agencies—he had only tried calling after seeing a little advertisement pasted on a utility pole.
And the person they had sent was an excessively handsome young man—his looks were not the sort that would make an employer trust him at first sight.
Yue Wen, however, appeared very confident. He casually walked up to the little building. “You didn’t explain things clearly over the phone. Tell me the details again.”
“Uh, all right.” The middle-aged man followed behind him, cautiously glancing upstairs as he explained, “My surname is Chen. I’m a property manager at 69 Tongcheng.”
“This building is a new property our company acquired. Generally speaking, companies don’t really make independent acquisitions like this, since there are risks. But the previous owner was eager to sell, and the price was very low, so I suggested the company buy it… I figured we could renovate it and sell it slowly afterward, which would bring in much higher profit.”
“Who would have thought that once renovations began, we’d discover something was wrong? This building gets haunted after nightfall! When I came to inspect the place before, it was always during the day, so I actually didn’t notice this.” Manager Chen wore a bitter expression. “My superiors have put pressure on me. If I can’t solve it within a week, I’m going to be fired.”
Yue Wen nodded. No wonder he had come looking for him.
It seemed his superiors had not given him much of a budget.
“Yue’s Cultivation Affairs Office” had no reputation in Jiangcheng City, but its advantage lay in being cheap—precisely the first choice for working stiffs.
“The workers didn’t see what the evil spirit looked like. They only know that it comes and goes without a trace, and suddenly appears to attack people. If there hadn’t been so many of them at the time, something serious might have happened. But precisely because there have been no casualties yet, our case has to get in line at the Supernatural Management Bureau. By the time they handle it, it might take a month…”
“After all, this place is almost near the wasteland zone, and it doesn’t count as a major supernatural case. The Supernatural Management Bureau has all kinds of complicated affairs, so it would definitely be ranked relatively far back.” Yue Wen nodded, then asked, “Did you visit the surrounding neighbors?”
Manager Chen pointed into the distance. “Before buying the property, we did visit the neighbors as per standard procedure to confirm whether there were any abnormalities. But on one hand, the residents here are all very far apart, so the neighbors didn’t know much. On the other hand, we later learned that the original owner had given the nearby neighbors some fruit in advance and told them not to say anything bad.”
“So it was the great fruit-gifting method?” Yue Wen smiled.
“But since even the neighbors don’t know much, that means this evil spirit has been staying very steadily inside the house. It doesn’t seem much like a fiend or demon. It might be a mare.” He turned his head. “We’ll have to go in and take a look.”
“I have to go in too?” Manager Chen shuddered.
…
“I’ll need to shut the doors and windows tightly later. If you stay outside, I won’t be able to look after you,” Yue Wen said.
“Then…” Manager Chen stood at attention for a moment, then said weakly, “I’d better go in with you.”
The sky was already dark. Standing downstairs alone was also quite terrifying.
Who knew whether the evil spirit might run outside?
He stepped forward and opened the door with the key, then immediately slipped behind Yue Wen.
Yue Wen, on the other hand, strode right in with complete nonchalance. He glanced over the furnishings inside the house: solid wood furniture and relief carvings everywhere, exuding the flavor of a nouveau riche family from twenty years ago.
“Close the door. Don’t turn on the lights. It’ll easily startle it,” Yue Wen said.
Manager Chen leaned against the wall and whispered, “How are we supposed to find the evil spirit in the dark?”
Out of human instinct, he felt that having all the lights on would give him more of a sense of security.
“Don’t worry.” As Yue Wen spoke, he pulled a pair of sunglasses from his pants pocket and put them on.
Manager Chen stared blankly. The house was already dark, yet this kid was putting on sunglasses?
What are you, a rapper?
“This pair may look like sunglasses, but in truth, it is a demon-revealing mirror,” Yue Wen explained. “In the darkness, it can perceive the aura of evil spirits, see through their origins, and leave them with nowhere to hide.”
When Manager Chen heard that it was a magical artifact, his gaze immediately turned reverent.
The windows in the house all had thick curtains. Once the door was closed, not the slightest trace of daylight remained. It was pitch-black and silent.
After Yue Wen put on the “demon-revealing mirror,” the entire first-floor hall in his vision began to rise with mist. He slowly walked deeper inside. Everywhere his gaze reached, gray vapor like dense fog permeated the air.
Manager Chen stood by the entrance, not daring to move forward. He could not see the gray mist around them, and only asked in alarm, “Where is the evil spirit?”
“I don’t know yet.” Yue Wen shook his head. “This is a mare with rather strong spiritual power. Its yin energy is everywhere.”
“Then what do we do?” Manager Chen panicked.
“Don’t worry.” Yue Wen raised his left hand, revealing the watch on his wrist. “This may look like a watch, but in truth, it is a spirit-pointing needle. It can track fluctuations of spirituality. As long as that mare moves inside the house, I can lock onto its position!”
As he spoke, he seemed to activate the watch. A thin layer of light rose over its face. Amid the hazy glow, the needle began spinning rapidly.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
After spinning several times, the needle pointed toward the stairway, then swiftly moved again, turning toward the direction of the front door.
“You know where the evil spirit is?” Manager Chen asked in a trembling voice.
“I do.” Yue Wen glanced at him and replied, “Behind you.”
“Huh?” Manager Chen froze.
Immediately afterward, a mass of black shadow suddenly drilled out beside him. In an instant, it extended several tentacle-like things that clamped around Manager Chen’s body and neck.
Bang!
His throat was suddenly locked, and his entire body was lifted into the air. As he suffocated, his limbs began flailing wildly, his right hand waving frantically toward Yue Wen. “Save… save me…”
“Heh, don’t worry.” Yue Wen smiled wickedly and revealed the silver bracelet on his right hand. “This may look like a bracelet, but in truth, it is a flying sword. Slaying demons and exterminating devils with it is as easy as chopping melons and vegetables. Since this evil spirit has revealed its true form, it won’t be able to escape.”
“You…” Manager Chen’s veins bulged, and a few words squeezed out of his throat. “Hurry… the hell… up.”
“With the sword heart as guide, the spirit commands the nine heavens!”
Yue Wen pointed his right hand forward, and the bracelet indeed transformed into a streak of silver light, whistling through the air!
Chi—
Although the hall was spacious, to a sword beam moving at extreme speed, it was only an instant’s distance. The black shadow controlling Manager Chen had no time to react before it was pierced through by the sharp light.
“Ah—” It let out a miserable shriek. The ink-black radiance around it burst apart, faintly revealing the shadow of a tree, spreading open hundreds of vines.
After its true body appeared briefly, it exploded.
Boom!
“So it was a century-old tree. It must have been chopped down just as it was about to take form, because this area started construction. No wonder its resentment was so heavy. Its lingering spiritual power was able to turn into such a powerful mare.”
Having seen through the evil spirit’s origins, Yue Wen spoke leisurely.
As for Manager Chen, he fell to the floor with a thud, landing face-first. Limply, he stretched out one hand. “Help me… call… an ambulance.”
“Don’t worry.” Yue Wen stepped forward, picked him up, and walked outside, arriving beside his little electric scooter.
“This may look like an electric scooter, but in truth, it was refined from the remains of a spiritual beast, the White Dragon Colt. At full speed, it moves like wind and lightning. It won’t take even five minutes to send you to the nearest hospital.”
“Even if we don’t make it in time, you can still rest easy.”
“I know a pretty good funeral supplies shop. Quality goods at fair prices. I guarantee they can provide you with a full one-stop service.”
The new book is here!
In the blink of an eye, another little six-month vacation has passed. Looking back on this period, it feels as though half a year has gone by.
Every time I start a new book, I feel very nervous, just like the first time I ever wrote one. I don’t know what kind of journey it will turn out to be in the end.
As long as everyone likes this story, you’re my brothers and sisters; if you spend even a single cent, you’re the parents who feed and clothe me; and if you can also contribute to the daily follow-reading data, then you’re practically my grandpas and grandmas.
(The three do not constitute subordinate relationships. We’ll count each separately.)
(Precision.)
Hehe.
I kowtow to everyone.
Bang bang bang bang bang!