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Wei Yuechi entered the shop.
She carried a chainsaw that didn’t match her small figure. It continued to roar loudly, the sound particularly deafening in the dark night.
Ye Jia subconsciously took a step back, but his back hit the other man’s chest. As soon as he stopped, he turned and glanced back at Ji Xuan.
The other man looked down at him. His scarlet eyes that gleamed in the dark carried a trace of amusement.
He raised his hand and placed his index finger on his lips, silently making a ‘shush’ gesture.
Ye Jia: “………”
Aren’t you being immature?
Wei Yuechu looked around the chaotic storefront, her gaze passing them as if she couldn’t see them, before stopping at the giant puppet in the depths of the shop.
The lifeless body which had lost the threads controlling it laid silently on the ground, forming a small mountain.
The air was filled with a thick bloody scent. It made the scene before her look like one that came out from a nightmare.
The young woman stepped forward without a change to her expression. She lowered her head and examined the corpse before her.
She reached out and traced the large wound on that ran through the corpse — It seemed to have been cut by something sharp. It had managed to cut through the monster’s sturdy body without much trouble.
The roar of car engines could be heard outside.
Wei Yuechu stood up and turned to walk back out.
Wu Su hurriedly got out of the car, “How was it?”
“The battle is already over.” Wei Yuechu sighed and turned off the chainsaw in her hand.
Wu Su: “……” Why do you sound disappointed?
Wei Yuechu turned and glanced back at the dark shop, “It’s Ace.”
“Ace?” Wu Su was taken aback.
Wei Yuechu asked sternly, “Did you really contact Ace?”
Wu Su: “Of course I have!” When Maid showed up, the first thing he did was to contact Ace about it, but the other party hadn’t responded even after a whole day had passed.
Wei Yuechu lowered her head and kicked away a stone beside her feet. She grumbled, “Then why does he have time to deal with this but not see us?”
Wu Su had a gloating expression, “Maybe the relationship between you and Ace isn’t really as good as you think it is.”
Wei Yuechu narrowed her eyes and looked up at Wu Su murderously, “What?!”
Wu Su glanced at the chainsaw in her hand and immediately changed his attitude, “Of course, it’s probably because he’s too busy.”
One should know when to back down.
Wei Yuechu let out a cold snort and decided to let him off this time.
She pointed at the shop behind her and said, “The thing inside has already been dealt with by Ace so there is no threat, but there may be a lot of fierce ghosts and players appearing for the time being, so I suggest you pay more attention and send some people out to patrol the area or something.”
Wu Su: “Okay……”
Several members of the Bureau had already begun to do their jobs behind them. They put up yellow tape and then entered the shop while fully armed to clean out the place.
At this moment, Wei Yuechu seemed to have felt something. She immediately turned to look towards the end of this street.
A rare solemn look flashed across her eyes, “It can’t be…….”
.
A scarlet crack suddenly appeared inside the empty hotel room.
Immediately afterwards, two figures appeared in the centre of the room.
Both were tall adult men. In an instant, the small hotel room became a lot more cramped.
As soon as he landed, Ye Jia immediately moved to create some distance between himself and Ji Xuan.
He pinched the bridge of his nose in exhaustion.
In fact, thinking about it now, there were actually many ways of avoiding Wei Yuechu at the shop just now, but after Ji Xuan interrupted his thoughts, his mind seemed to have stopped working and he actually followed him to a corner of the room, held his breath and waited for the other party to leave the shop before activating the ghost domain to leave the scene.
How stupid of him.
Ye Jia couldn’t even bear to think back to it.
It seems that every time Ji Xuan is around, his mood and ability to think seemed to be more or less affected. This feeling made him uncomfortable.
As expected, everything will be fine as long as he stayed away from him—–You will be fine, I will be fine, everyone will be fine.
Using a business-like tone, Ye Jia tried to subtly make the other party leave, “So, do you have any other business to attend to?”
Ji Xuan didn’t answer.
He stood in the centre of the room with his scarlet eyes half narrowed. Invisible threads of energy spread out, probing every nook and cranny of this small hotel room.
Ji Xuan slowly looked around the room and frowned, “You’re staying here?”
The surprise in his tone was evident.
Ye Jia: “…….”
He took in a deep breath and slowly spoke up, “If you could fix my apartment earlier, I wouldn’t need to stay here.”
Ji Xuan didn’t seem to hear the irony in the other person’s words. He pulled out a chair, and, as if he was the owner of this place, sat down and crossed his legs, “How are you going to interrogate that Puppet Master?”
Ye Jia: “I believe you should know of more ways than me.”
Ji Xuan raised a brow, “That may not necessarily be the case….”
He raised his finger slightly and a small child tied up securely appeared before them.
Pure anger poured out from those glaring eyes of his as his short legs struggled about. The viciousness in his eyes couldn’t be concealed, “Mmmmm!”
Ji Xuan tapped the table with his finger at a regular rhythm.
He continued, “All S-Level fierce ghosts have a strong tolerance for torture. Even if you peel off their skins and pull out their bones, you won’t be able to get anything out from them.”
Ji Xuan narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling onto Puppet Master before him, and asked slowly, “Isn’t that right?”
Puppet Master: “Mmmm!”
Ye Jia frowned slightly.
That was indeed quite true.
Whether it was a player or a ghost, as long as they have spent some time in the game, their threshold for pain and torture would’ve improved significantly. If they used the normal methods of torture, it would be almost impossible for them to get anything out from him.
He thought for a while and asked, “Where are his puppets?”
Ji Xuan understood Ye Jia’s intentions.
He hooked up his lips, “Give me some time….”
Puppet Master seemed to have realised something. His eyes immediately widened, and he glared viciously at Ye Jia. It was as if he wanted to kill Ye Jia with just his eyes, “Mmmmm!”
Suddenly, Ye Jia remembered something. He turned to look at Ji Xuan, “What about the blood gu fish?”
Ji Xuan, “……….”
Ah, I forgot.
His expression however didn’t show any changes. He just lightly cleared his throat and looked at the night sky in the distance, “It will be here soon……”
.
At the entrance to the street.
The dark night was like black ink. The blood gu fish emerged from the ground with its goat skull raised slightly as it used its dark, hollow eyes to take in the tiny humans before it. Along with the terrible sight of blood swirling around inside its body, the terrifying oppressiveness it gave off was something any ordinary human would be unable to withstand.
Wei Yuechu gripped tightly onto her chainsaw. Her slender palms were a little sweaty.
She held her breath and got ready to fight, but for some reason the giant blood gu fish before her didn’t seem to show any intentions to attack.
It just tilted its head, as if pondering over something.
Suddenly, that blood gu fish seemed to have sensed something. It raised its head and sniffed the night air.
The next second, it turned around and sank back into the ground. The originally hard ground turned into something that resembled scarlet mud, instantly swallowing up blood gu fish’s figure.
That dangerous oppressiveness disappeared in an instant.
There was still a faint smell of blood in the air.
Wei Yuechu slowly breathed out. Feeling the breeze brushing past her back that was covered in cold sweat, she felt a chill run through her.
Although she could be considered to have had extensive experience in the game, but when facing something like a blood gu fish, she couldn’t be confident that she would win.
After all, as long as that thing appears, it would bring along with it death and disaster. Very few players could escape from a blood gu fish unscathed.
Upon seeing that the blood gu fish had left, the people standing behind her hurried over.
Wu Su asked, “How was it?”
Wei Yuechu rested her chainsaw on the ground and used it to support herself before answering with a solemn expression, “That’s the Ghost King Ji Xuan’s blood gu fish.”
Her expression was still a little poor, “Why would it appear here?”
—–The Ghost King Ji Xuan’s blood gu fish appearing near the body of a monster that is a least A-level in strength. It made this entire situation more complicated.
Wu Su was surprised, “That was a blood gu fish?”
Wei Yuechu nodded, “Of course…..”
The blood gu fish was a mutated species made up of various monster parts. Although they can be very different in appearance, but as long as you have encountered one, you would never mistaken it for anything else after that —- That cold hostility and that extremely powerful and terrifying presence was undoubtedly a blood gu fish.
Wu Su’s expression was a little strange, “That’s the Ghost King Ji Xuan’s blood gu fish?”
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It was now Wei Yuechu’s turn to be confused, “Yeah, what’s wrong?”
“Are you sure?”
Wei Yuechu frowned. She was a little angry, “I have been in the game for so many years and have only encountered one blood gu fish that could think for itself. How could I be mistaken?”
Wu Su took a deep breath and slowly spoke, “Um….Do you remember the incident before where the monsters went on a rampage in M City?”
Wei Yuechu nodded.
“I saw it……”
Wei Yuechu frowned. She didn’t seem to understand what the other party was trying to say.
Wu Su continued, “It was following Ace and helped us clean up almost half of the ghosts and monsters attacking the city.”
Wei Yuechu, “Oh……Huh?”
Wu Su nodded and sighed, “I am certain that it’s the same one.”
The other team members behind him also nodded to express that they also saw it that day.
Her eyes shook. She stammered, “B-but…..”
Wu Su’s expression became even more complicated.
He waved his hand to get the others to leave and then asked, “Have….have you heard about the rumours?”
It was said that Ace cleared the game after playing with and then throwing the Ghost King away and that was why Ji Xuan had issued a reward in return for any information about Ace. He wanted revenge.
Wei Yuechu, “That’s just a rumour!”
Wu Su sighed, “I originally thought that too.”
Wei Yuechu, “Originally?”
Wu Su, “After capturing several ghosts a while ago, I discovered from them that even despite the game crashing, that hatred leaderboard still exists. Ace was originally still at the top of that leaderboard, but it was suddenly taken down. It seems that the Ghost King took it down himself.”
Wei Yuechu: “……….”
Wu Su patted Wei Yuechu on the shoulder and sighed, “Regarding the matter about confessing, why don’t you forget about it?”
Wei Yuechu: “……”
.
Ye Jia didn’t expect that Ji Xuan’s so-called ‘give me some time’ actually referred to the next day.
The phone by his pillow buzzed twice.
He opened his eyes and checked the screen.
Ji Xuan’s message arrived, “Found it…..”
He sent over an address, and it was then followed by a cheerful emoticon of a person jumping.
Ye Jia, “………”
His finger hovered over the screen for several seconds before finally landing on the screen. He only briefly replied with a single word: Understood.
Ji Xuan stared at that single word on his phone for a while. The corners of his lips couldn’t help but rise.
He took a screenshot and saved it.
Ji Xuan then turned and looked at the small doll sitting next to him. He reached out and gently poked its soft check, his scarlet eyes that carried a smile narrowing.
—-Gege, this is your first time sending me a message.
How nice….
On the other end….
Seeing Ye Jia reply, the small black hand placed down the other phone and slowly inched over.
After seeing the message on the other person’s phone, its mood instantly fell, “Ah…..You’re going to see King again?”
Ye Jia raised a brow, “Why?”
He suddenly realised that every time Ji Xuan appeared, the small black hand would quietly hide itself in his pocket, not daring to breathe, and would only dare come out after Ji Xuan was gone.
Ye Jia, “Are you afraid of him?”
The small black hand’s voice turned small, “W-who wouldn’t be afraid of King?”
Ye Jia narrowed his eyes, “He threatened you?”
Small black hand: “!”
Its eyes were filled with tears. It really wanted to nod its head like crazy —– Yes! He threatened me! As long as he smells my scent on you, he will kill me!
But the small black hand was bound to Ye Jia and couldn’t move too far away from him, so the only thing it could do…..was to hide whenever Ji Xuan was around. As long as the other party doesn’t see it, that threat doesn’t exist!
And so, the small black hand could only live in fear every day, as if it was walking on thin ice, but it also didn’t dare complain about it to Ye Jia and could only say pitifully, “N….No….”
Ye Jia nodded, “I’ll speak to him.”
The small black hand’s eyes welled up.
——Wahhhhh Mum is the best!
Ye Jia suddenly thought of something and asked, “By the way, I haven’t seen you playing games lately?”
In the past, whenever it was free, the small black hand would be preoccupied playing games on the phone but perhaps it was because he had been too busy lately, he only now noticed that those sounds coming from the games had at some point in time disappeared, but the time the other party spend on the phone wasn’t any less than before.
And he would also sometimes see it giggling to itself.
Something didn’t seem right.
The small black hand immediately hid its phone behind its back and said with a guilty conscience, “Haha….Nothing much, just surfing around….”
Behind it, the phone screen was still lit up.
The screen displayed: “Ghost Marriage: The Overbearing Ghost King Fell in Love with Me” Reading progress: 52%.
Next chapter preview: Pregnant with a ghost baby.
Ye Jia narrowed his eyes and looked at it with some distrust.
Forget it. As long as it didn’t spend as much money as it did before, it should be fine.
Ye Jia looked away and then put on his clothes and got ready to leave.
Before leaving, he paused and looked back at the small black hand, “You should know the human world very well by now, no?”
Having managed to narrowly escape the matter with the phone, the small black hand let out a small sigh of relief before proudly puffing up its chest, “Of course!”
Ye Jia asked, “Do you know what kids these days are most afraid of?”
“How old is the child?”
Ye Jia thought for a moment and slowly spoke up, “Probably the age that likes to play with transforming toys…..”
.
At the Bureau.
Wu Su slowly let out a yawn.
Ever since Cheng Cezhi was attacked, he didn’t dare let the employees with little combat experience to take up the position of an interviewer and would often sit in the office to watch over the situation.
He had happened to stop by on a whim today to see if there were any good candidates.
But…..although there were many people being interviewed, very few were suitable.
Wu Su wiped away the tears from the corner of his eyes, a small part of himself regretting this impulsive decision of his.
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It was too boring. It might’ve been better if he had gone to deal with Wei Yuechu that young madam instead.
Just as he got ready to leave, a man in a suit entered the office.
His features were ordinary, and his expression restrained. The suit he wore didn’t fit him and he wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
That man very well-manneredly placed his resume on the table, pushed it over and then turned around and sat properly in the chair on the other end of the table.
Wu Su flipped through the resume.
Hmm, graduated from a prestigious university….hmm, used to be a designer…..and have won many awards…..
Everything seemed to be quite normal.
Wu Su scanned through the contents roughly before stopping on the last line.
The question of whether or not they have encountered a paranormal event had the ‘yes’ box ticked.
Wu Su was a little surprised. He raised his head with interest and asked, “What kind of paranormal experience have you had?”
The man appeared rigid and restrained. He moved his chair closer and whispered, “I once entered a game.”
Wu Su: “!”
The man continued, “My name is Red.”
Wu Su: “!”
Holy shit.
Tenth in ranking, Red?
The man before him pushed up his black-rimmed glasses and asked cautiously, “Excuse me, is Ace here?”
Wu Su’s expression was blank. He slowly asked, “What…..are you looking for him for?”
Red pursed his lips and revealed a shy smile, “Revenge….”
.
Not long after receiving the news, Ye Jia arrived at the location sent to him by Ji Xuan.
It was a villa area near the outskirts of the city with large plots of land and very few people.
As soon as he stepped out of his ghost domain, he smelt a familiar yin energy in the air.
Ji Xuan was waiting for him not far away.
He brought Ye Jia over to a certain villa—–
The inside had been completely transformed by yin energy and the space inside that was twice as large as how it appeared from the outside was densely packed with shelf after shelf of various dolls large and small with various contorted expressions of pain and fear, as if they were frozen at their very final moment in life.
There was a single chair placed in the centre of the room.
Puppet Master was tied to that chair. His small face was twisted with viciousness and his dark eyes were filled with hatred that didn’t match his young appearance.
Ji Xuan snapped his fingers.
“I’m going to peel off your…..” Puppet Master cursed with his childish voice.
Ji Xuan narrowed his eyes coldly.
The next second, Puppet Master’s mouth was immediately blocked by something invisible, making him only able to let out muffled sounds.
Ye Jia smiled, “Can you speak properly?”
Puppet Master glared at the two of them darkly but seeing that he was in a disadvantageous situation, he could only restrain his anger and nod.
Finally, the restraints blocking his mouth were gone.
Puppet Master coughed a few times before slowly recovering and speaking darkly with his childish voice, “I know what you want to do. Aren’t you just going to threaten me with my collection? I admit, I do treasure my collection, but I will never betray Mother. Even if you smash them all in front of me, it’s useless!”
Although he said that, his eyes didn’t look at the shelves surrounding him, as if by doing so, it would minimise his heartache.
Ye Jia’s amber eyes rippled a gentle light, “We won’t touch your collection.”
Puppet Master, “?”
Ye Jia’s expression was kind, “Only you will decide whether or not your collection will be destroyed.”
Puppet Master, “?”
He then saw the young man in front of him hook his finger.
A small black hand huffed and puffed over with a large pile of things and threw it all in front of Puppet Master, sending dust scattering in the air.
Puppet Master looked down in confusion at the items before him. His small face that was contorted with various emotions looked a little funny.
This….what is this?
“Linear Algebra: From the Basics to the Complex Concepts”, “Advanced Mathematics”, “Integrating Complex Functions”……
He clearly recognised the individual words but why was it that…..he didn’t understand it at all when they’re strung together?!
“Let’s play a little game. I’ll give you a chance to save your treasured collection.” Ye Jia chuckled lightly, “The rule of the game is to take an exam every twenty-four hours. With every wrong answer, a doll is broken and with every correct answer, a doll is saved.”
Puppet Master looked down at the pile of textbooks and then looked at the two people standing before him. He seemed to be a little excited and a little puzzled. He asked carefully, “So you’re really not going to touch my collection?”
Ye Jia nodded and continued slowly, “Just like what I said just now —- Only you will decide whether or not your collection will be destroyed.”
Puppet Master’s eyes lit up.
But he still suppressed his excitement and tried to keep calm.
He originally thought that the other party would smash his treasured collections one by one in front of him after finding them.
Although Puppet Master was confident in his loyalty to Mother, he couldn’t say that he wouldn’t pass out from the heartache of seeing his treasures being destroyed in front of him.
He didn’t expect these two to actually be so stupid and would choose to punish him using books instead.
“Heeheehee…..” Puppet Master snickered, “You two have made the wrong choice this time but that’s fine. Since you have agreed not to touch my collection, I’ll agree to play this game with you.”
The small black hand picked out two copies of “Five Years of College Entrance Examination, Three Years of Mock Exams” and placed it on the desk in front of Puppet Master. It chuckled twice and said, “You can start with these for now.”
Ye Jia turned to look at Ji Xuan, “If you incorporate this space into your ghost domain, you should be able to control its time flow, right?”
Ji Xuan hooked up the corners of his lips, “Yes…..”
Ye Jia continued benevolently, “Then let’s start with half a year first.”