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Chapter 42
The light wasn’t turned on in the room. The blood gu fish’s skull reflected a dim, pale light in the dark.
Ye Jia knelt down and gently scratched its chin.
The small black hand stuck its head out from behind his shoulder and let out a long sigh of relief. It was still recovering from the scare, “My god……”
Those past few hours felt like a rollercoaster ride.
Ye Jia originally wanted to put it down before reaching the battlefield, but in order to prove its faithfulness and resolution, the small black hand would rather die than be torn off Ye Jia’s shoulder.
Fortunately, the two didn’t really end up fighting, or the small black hand would’ve probably been scared to death before they could even start exchanging blows.
The blood gu fish raised its head and looked at the small black hand on Ye Jia’s shoulder. It seemed to be wanting to do something.
The small black hand shuddered and slowly hid under Ye Jia’s hood.
“Thank goodness…..” It’s muffled voice travelled out from under the hood, “But boss…. why did you suddenly change your mind?”
Although it was very satisfied with the final result, the small black hand couldn’t help but be a little curious.
After all, the other party had seemed like nothing would make him change his mind a moment ago.
But he suddenly gave up on that thought at the very last moment. The small black hand couldn’t get its head around it.
Ye Jia’s act of petting the blood gu fish froze for a moment but he didn’t give it a response.
But the small black hand didn’t mind it. Seeing that Ye Jia wasn’t answering, it didn’t pursue it any further and just quietly sneaked off the other party’s shoulder and hid itself in a corner of the room as far away from the blood gu fish as possible—–
In any case, its life was most important.
And that fish was too scary!
The small black hand wanted to cry without tears —- It didn’t want to be fish fooodddddddd wuwuwu.
Ye Jia lowered his eyes. His thoughts were a little erratic.
——The strong killing intent from earlier had cooled off and rational thinking had taken its place.
One thing was clear.
Ji Xuan cannot die.
Ye Jia still couldn’t determine what Ji Xuan’s position was, but if his subordinates hadn’t suppressed the rebellion in the West District last night, it would’ve probably been difficult for the humans to be able to put up a fight against the army of ghosts and monsters. And that prohibition of humans being harmed…that was enough for him to reconsider his decision.
More importantly, the current place where Ji Xuan was fighting wasn’t far from M City.
If Ji Xuan died, Ye Jia didn’t know if ‘Mother’ would continue with her plans from last night and directly order another attack on M City.
With M City’s current state, they most certainly wouldn’t be able to bear with another wave of attacks.
No matter what grievances he and Ji Xuan may have, at least for now, both their existences were necessary.
Ye Jia slowly took in a deep breath. Dark energy surged in the depths of his light-coloured eyes.
The accounts he needed to settle with Ji Xuan could wait until another time.
Now wasn’t the time for that.
The blood gu fish was happily being petted by him. It turned over and waved its tail even more intensely.
Immediately afterwards, without any warning——–
“Clack” “Crack”
Something seemed to have been knocked over in the distance. The commotion it made was quite loud in the darkness.
One human and one fish stiffened.
Ye Jia suddenly had a bad feeling.
He slowly raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound.
Then, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes, Ye Jia squeezed his eyes shut and then reached out to turn on the lights in the living room.
As soon as the lights turned on, the mess in the room was revealed.
It was as if a tornado had passed through. Everything that could be broken were broken. A table that was missing a leg rested crookedly on the ground and there were clear tooth marks on its edges. The living room that was originally neat and orderly now looked like it had just been looted. It was almost impossible for one to see what it used to look like.
Ye Jia slowly lowered his head and looked at the blood gu fish next to his feet.
One human and one fish, a pair of big eyes looked at a pair of small eyes.
The blood gu fish raised its head and looked at Ye Jia using its dark and hollow eye sockets. It carefully waved its tail.
“Clang…….”
Its tail hit something else, and a vase fell, shattering into a million pieces as soon as it fell onto the ground.
Ye Jia: “……..”
Despite his young age, he experienced what it was like to have a heart attack.
——– “Turn smaller!” “Turn yourself smaller!”
Cheng Cezhi who was coming up the stairs paused. He raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound. Clanging sounds could faintly be heard through the closed security door.
Cheng Cezhi: “???”
He and Zhao Guangcheng behind him exchanged a confused look. They then cautiously approached the door and knocked.
There were a few more clattering sounds inside.
Soon afterwards, the door opened.
Ye Jia’s face appeared in the small door opening. When he saw who had come, he forced a small smile on his face and asked:
“……What is it?”
For some reason, Cheng Cezhi sensed some anger in his voice.
Cheng Cezhi stammered:
“U-um, we weren’t able to contact you all morning, so we came to see if anything happened.”
He sniffed, his voice a little hoarse, “Although the casualties in our department weren’t as serious as those in the Combat Division, there are still several colleagues sent to the hospital and are under intensive care.”
Cheng Cezhi looked at Ye Jia and his eyes welled up in tears, “I’m glad you’re still okay!”
Seeing that Cheng Cezhi was still rambling on and not reaching the main point, Zhao Guangcheng stepped forward and interrupted him, “…..Apart from that, there was also something else. The superiors have assigned the three of us with a task. We’re responsible for cleaning up the three nearby districts.”
Ye Jia nodded, “Okay.”
After saying that, without waiting for the two outside to say anything, he hurriedly added, “I’ll get changed.”
Then, he slammed the door shut, shutting the two outside.
Cheng Cezhi and Zhao Guangcheng: “………”
That was too ruthless!
After closing the door, Ye Jia turned back around.
He watched the blood gu fish who was still in its original size quietly swim to his side and pinched his brows in frustration.
Before leaving the blood gu fish at his place, Ye Jia had never considered the possibility of it destroying it.
In fact, he should have expected this.
After all, his place was indeed very small compared to Ji Xuan’s place.
But……
This situation here was just too terrible.
Ye Jia raised his head and looked around at the chaotic room. He almost didn’t dare look at the mess directly.
—-The fact that he originally wasn’t very wealthy made the situation worse.
Ye Jia bent down and started to negotiate with it, “Why don’t you go back to your master?”
It might be needed in the West District.
The blood gu fish wagged its tail and placed its head on Ye Jia’s knee. It seemed to be expressing its reluctance to leave.
But Ye Jia couldn’t go and find Ji Xuan in the middle of the battlefield just to give him the blood gu fish and say: Here, take your fish.
Ye Jia was very troubled.
The two people outside were still waiting for him. Changing his clothes shouldn’t take a long time.
But Ye Jia no longer dared to leave the blood gu fish alone at his place. Just a few hours had left all his furniture like this, if he left it here for an entire day, the entire place would probably be destroyed—-This was a rental place after all, he still wanted to get his deposit back.
However, taking it with him also didn’t seem appropriate.
When the ghost doors opened last night and yin energy gathered, it was unknown how many people had acquired some degree of spiritual vision.
Ye Jia suddenly had an idea.
He tried to discuss with the blood gu fish, “If you can turn smaller, I will be able to take you out with me.”
The blood gu fish raised its head. It seemed to be very interested in this proposal.
“Are you hungry?” Ye Jia revealed a smile and coaxed, “I can take you to eat delicious food.”
The blood gu fish began to frantically wave its tail.
It hesitated for a moment and then seemed to have made up its mind —- Who cares about the dignity of a blood gu fish who was always by the Ghost King’s side?! That was nothing compared to the temptation of being able to go out and eat good food!
Please read this from kk translates
Ye Jia watched the blood gu fish slowly shrink before his eyes. When it finally reached the size that could fit in his pocket, he raised his lips in satisfaction.
“Good child.”
He placed the blood gu fish in his pocket and then pulled out a new shirt from the closet and quickly changed.
As soon as Cheng Cezhi and Zhao Guangcheng heard him come out, they all looked over at him.
Ye Jia smiled, “Let’s go.”
.
Cleaning up the aftermath was very complicated.
Moreover, although most of the ghosts and monsters had retreated, some could still be left behind and they had to be careful in case they suddenly run into one of them.
Cheng Cezhi and Zhao Guangcheng walked at the front while Ye Jia deliberately walked a little behind.
The way they dealt with the bodies of the ghosts and monsters was to collect the yin energy and store it inside a special container.
Ye Jia’s method was much more environmentally friendly.
He fed the blood gu fish most of the yin energy and then placed the remaining small amount of yin energy into the special container so as not to blow his cover.
The blood gu fish rolled about happily in his pocket, pleased with the food.
The two at the front were chatting as they walked.
Ye Jia on the other hand fed the fish as he listened to their exchange.
They were speculating over the reason for the chaos last night and what measures the Bureau might take afterwards as well as what the public’s response would be towards such shocking news.
Finally, the two finally went on to talk about…….
“Did you see it last night? That mysterious person?” Cheng Cezhi asked excitedly.
“Of course, of course!” Zhao Guangcheng also became very excited, “At that time, my team and I were on the streets cleaning up a few low-level monsters when a huge, completely black fierce ghost with a pale face suddenly appeared from a side alley. Our detectors immediately started to go off. At that time, I really thought we were all going to die then and there…..”
He recounted his experience very vividly.
Cheng Cezhi swallowed nervously and asked, “A-and then?”
Zhao Guangcheng revealed a look of admiration.
“And then….that mysterious person appeared. No one saw where he came from, it was as if he appeared from thin air.
At that time, my mind was frozen with fear. Whenever I think back to that moment, all I could remember was the white light that appeared with him. There clearly wasn’t a moon last night, but that blade seemed to glow very brightly. As soon as he appeared, that fierce ghost was taken down.
I swear, I have never seen someone take down such a high-level fierce ghost so easily before. It was amazing….”
Cheng Cezhi listened in fascination, “…….Wow.”
Zhao Guangcheng took a deep breath, turned and looked around him to ensure that no one else around them was listening and lowered his voice:
“Do you still remember how I was attacked in that school?”
“I remember.” Cheng Cezhi nodded quickly.
Zhao Guangcheng spoke mysteriously, “I think that the person who saved me back then was the same mysterious person from last night. I heard the fierce ghost call him Ace, like it’s an alias or something. I think he’s probably from a certain mysterious organisation that works to maintain world order but despised the internal conflicts in the organisation, so he left and is now working on maintaining world peace alone.”
Cheng Cezhi immediately understood, “That sounds possible!”
The two looked at each other and reached the same consensus: “So cool!!”
Ye Jia: “………”
Their imaginations were very good.
At this moment, Cheng Cezhi suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Ye Jia, “Ah, speaking of which, Brother Ye, didn’t you also go to that school? Did you see anything back then?”
Ye Jia: “……….”
See something my ass.
He took in a deep breath, “No.”
“Ahh.” Cheng Cezhi sighed, “Too bad I didn’t see him in the district I was assigned to last night.”
Zhao Guangcheng patted his shoulder comfortingly, “Hey, the other colleagues in the Bureau were talking about this today too. That big boss was mainly dealing with high levelled fierce ghosts so it’s actually a good thing that you didn’t encounter him. It meant that there wasn’t much danger in your district.”
Cheng Cezhi looked at Ye Jia, “What about Brother Ye? Did you see him last night?”
Ye Jia: “…………………No.”
Last night, not all the members of the Bureau were present.
Probably only about 40% of the employees arrived at the scene. This was very normal. After all, this was the first time something like this happened and some of them may have even encountered attacks in their own homes or weren’t able to receive the notice to gather. Even if it wasn’t because of the previous two reasons and they were just too afraid to come, that was understandable. After all, non-combatants still accounted for the majority of the employees in the Bureau. It would be too much of an ask to require them to be able to cope with an emergency like this.
If it wasn’t because he had picked up a communicator last night, Ye Jia even wanted to say that he didn’t go as a support.
Cheng Cezhi and Zhao Guangcheng sighed regretfully at the same time, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m sure there will be opportunities in the future.”
Ye Jia: “……….”
Thanks.
While the three chatted, suddenly, the detectors they had let out a loud alarm.
Cheng Cezhi took out the detector and turned around in place before stopping in a certain direction: “This way!”
They turned a few corners and finally arrived at a residential area.
The guard’s room at the entrance was empty and the boom gate was broken off with dried blood stains left at the place where it was broken.
The detector pointed towards one of the residential buildings.
The door to the residential building was open but the corridor inside was dark. Almost nothing could be seen from where they stood.
Zhao Guangcheng took out a gun and said to the two people behind him, “Be careful and stay behind me.”
After saying that, he walked towards the building.
The broken light above them buzzed and flickered intermittently. Cold air carrying a faint putrid smell of blood travelled out from the darkness.
The detector didn’t show any reaction on the first floor, but as soon as it was aimed at the staircase that led upstairs, the numbers began to rise.
As soon as they reached the second floor, that smell grew stronger to the point that it was almost suffocating.
One of the doors there was half open.
A slightly indistinct sound travelled out from the opening in the door —- ‘Thud’, ‘Thud’, ‘Thud’—-It was dull and regular, but they couldn’t tell what the sound was.
Please read this from kk translates
They exchanged a look and nodded.
With the gun in one hand, Zhao Guangcheng used his other hand to carefully push the door open—–
The door let out a low creak, instantly breaking the silence in the building.
When they saw the scene behind the door, everyone was stunned speechless.
There were large patches of blood stains on the walls and even the ceiling was stained with blood. Torn off flesh and internal organs that were still dripping blood hung from the ceiling light.
The place was a complete mess.
In the middle of the living room, a woman with pale and ashen skin was lying in a large pool of blood with her lifeless eyes staring fixatedly towards the door and her expression frozen with despair and horror. The lower half of her stomach had already been completely mutilated such that its original appearance could no longer be seen.
And beside her knelt a man covered in blood with a kitchen knife in his hand. Even now, he continued to from time-to-time stab it into the woman’s mutilated body. The knife had already chipped but he still continued to mechanically stab at the woman, letting out regular ‘thud, thud’ sounds.
It was unknown when it had started, but the detector in Cheng Cezhi’s hand no longer sounded.
The man seemed to have noticed their presence. He slowly raised his head, revealing a terrifying face that was covered in blood. His lips were twisted into something that resembled a smile.
Holding the kitchen knife, he awkwardly stood up and then immediately proceeded to charge towards Zhao Guangcheng who was standing at the front.
At this moment, Ye Jia’s pupils constricted.
The man’s face was reflected in the depths of his eyes.
—–That twisted and terrible look coincided with another face in his memory.
In the middle of the night, it was raining heavily outside.
The door was half open.
The young man reached out and gingerly pushed open the door.
A lightning flash outside temporarily lit up the room. A woman laid in a pool of blood in the centre of the room with her pale and ashen face and lifeless eyes staring in the direction of the door. Her lips were half open, as if she had wanted to say something before she died.
The hair that was usually tied up was loosely scattered and stained with blood.
Her favourite pearl necklace had already snapped, and the individual pearls were now scattered across the ground, coated in a layer of blood.
The man he called his father was kneeling beside that body, stabbing a kitchen knife into the woman’s already mutilated body again and again.
The young man stood stiffly at the door in shock. His breathing seemed to have stopped.
The next moment, the man seemed to have noticed the young man standing at the door.
He slowly stood up. With the kitchen knife still in his hand, he approached the young man standing at the door step by step, the blood under his feet squelching with each step.
Another flash of lightning lit up the room. It also finally revealed the man’s face.
His pale face was stained with blood, and he stared at the young man with a crazed look. Even his lips were twisted into a terrible smile. On a rainy night like this, it was a particularly shocking sight.
—– “Boom!”
The belated thunder sounded.
“Bang—–Bang——-”
Two gunshots broke through the silence, pulling Ye Jia back from his distant memory.
In front of him, the man crumpled onto the ground. Blood spread out from under him.
Zhao Guangcheng panted heavily, his face still revealing some shock, “What happened to him?”
“Did you kill him?” Cheng Cezhi’s voice was a little sharp from the tension.
Zhao Guangcheng hastily shook his head, “N-no, I avoided his vitals….”
Ye Jia stepped forward and bent down to check.
Indeed, the two shots had hit his shoulder and arm. They weren’t fatal wounds.
His eyes were bulging out as he continued to stare at the ceiling with a twisted smile on his lips.
Ye Jia reached out and placed his hand on the man’s neck.
—–No pulse.
Ye Jia took in a deep breath and then proceeded to turn and look at Zhao Guangcheng and Cheng Cezhi behind him, “Call the police.”
He wiped off the blood on his hand and then stood up and walked out.
From the beginning to the end, he didn’t look at the woman whose abdomen was completely mutilated. It was as if he didn’t want to cast his eyes that way.
.
Night was approaching.
Ye Jia and the other two reported back to the Logistics Department.
With the current state of the city and a shortage of manpower, there were too many things that needed to be dealt with. All the remaining employees who were uninjured were all currently working in the office.
“Hey.” Cheng Cezhi elbowed Ye Jia, “The collector.”
Ye Jia seemed to finally return to his senses, “……Oh.”
He passed over the collector to Liu Zhaocheng and then lowered his eyes again.
Cheng Cezhi asked anxiously, “Brother Ye, what’s wrong? Why have you been so listless ever since we called the police?”
Ye Jia raised the corner of his lips slightly and answered with his usual, calm expression, “It’s nothing, just a little tired.”
He parted from the other two and walked away.
The smile on his face melted like snow in the sun. It completely disappeared without a trace.
Ye Jia approached his desk in the office expressionlessly and sat down.
There were thick piles of official documents waiting to be dealt with on the desk. Ye Jia’s eyes fell on those documents, but what he saw were black spots all over the paper instead of individual words. He seemed to be lost in thought.
There seemed to be a commotion at the entrance.
But Ye Jia didn’t seem to hear it.
He was too immersed in his messy thoughts, like a drowning man struggling to remain afloat among the fierce ocean currents. None of the sounds from the outside world reached his ears. It was difficult for him to pull himself out from his thoughts.
This was until the blood gu fish began to squirm around restlessly in Ye Jia’s pocket.
Ye Jia frowned.
He lowered his head, looked down at the blood gu fish and gently patted the outside of his pocket in attempt to comfort it. It however didn’t seem to do anything. The blood gu fish began to squirm about even more intensely.
At this moment, Ye Jia heard the commotion outside.
—-As well as the sound of steady footsteps coming closer.
It stopped at his desk.
Ye Jia saw a pair of high-class, dark leather shoes that were still stained with blood and flesh remnants appear in his lowered gaze.
He looked up in astonishment.
A tall man stood before him with his eyes lowered. His features were deep, and a faint red light flashed across his dark eyes.
That man slowly raised the corners of his lips and then proceeded to stretch his hand out towards Ye Jia, his sleeves slipping back, revealing his pale wrist.
His voice was low and magnetic, almost like a lover’s whisper:
“I’m here to turn myself in.”