Two hours later, at the Descent Cult’s temporary base.
Members of the Descent Cult, their bodies painted with strange markings, lay scattered across the floor. Luo Jiuyin gripped the collar of the last one, then let go with a flick of his hand. The unconscious Descent Cult member slid limply to the ground.
Luo Jiuyin took out his phone, sent the locations of other Descent Cult strongholds in Jinnan City—extracted through interrogation—to his subordinates, then sent an anonymous tip via an encrypted channel to the Paranormal Affairs Bureau.
The Paranormal Affairs Bureau was very good at cleaning up afterward.
Western Suburbs Villa.
“The Descent Cult doesn’t have many bases in Jinnan City. They’ve only recently started expanding into this area, but their strongholds are all very well-hidden and hard to find. Right now only one temporary minor stronghold has been exposed…”
Xiao Liu was marking things on a map. A group of Seven Parts Association staff sat around, preparing to settle on a plan to deal with the Descent Cult.
The Descent Cult members in Jinnan City all seemed to be minor players—dealing with them wouldn’t take much effort. Even if they sent someone important, there was still Puppet Master Zhao and Ghost Shadow Xie to hold things down.
Halfway through the discussion, Puppet Master Zhao’s and Ghost Shadow Xie’s phones suddenly buzzed.
Puppet Master Zhao made a gesture, and everyone else fell silent. She took out her phone to check the message.
“No need to plan or search for the stronghold anymore. The Chairman has already sent the location.” Puppet Master Zhao said.
The others’ faces showed astonishment. The Chairman had only been out for less than half a day…
Such efficiency!
Worthy of being the Chairman!
…
It was already deep night. Aside from 24-hour convenience stores and McDonald’s, most places had their lights off and doors shut. Yet here, there was still a shop with its lights on.
The front door was closed, a sliver of dim yellow light leaking through the crack, occasionally blocked by shifting shadows, showing that someone was still moving around inside.
Xiang Yang stood outside the shop, looking up at the sign above the door. Of the five-character light-up sign, one and a half characters were broken, leaving only half of the remaining radicals, which now read as “Owes Mahjong Parlor.”
As a place of entertainment, it was normal enough for a mahjong parlor to stay open all night. Xiang Yang had seen this kind of mahjong parlor before—the kind that could stay open a full day, lights on from dusk until dawn, accompanied by secondhand smoke, beer bottles, crude jokes, international news, foul language, and the clatter of mahjong tiles.
But this mahjong parlor was very quiet. No sound of bottles being opened, no one laughing or shouting or cursing loudly, no clacking of mahjong tiles, no scraping of chairs—only the occasional passing shadow proving that someone inside was moving about.
This wasn’t normal.
Xiang Yang currently had a fake mustache stuck on, was wearing thick-framed glasses, a plaid shirt, and had his back hunched—the very picture of a middle-aged corporate drone who’d just gotten off overtime work.
He’d traced a lead here—this was one of the Descent Cult’s strongholds.
The Bureau hadn’t brought him, the newbie, along to investigate the Descent Cult, so he’d come to check it out himself.
Xiang Yang pretended to adjust his glasses, pressing a spot on the side of the frame.
A blue line swept across his field of vision from top to bottom, and wherever it passed, things took on a different appearance.
These glasses were high-tech gear from the Paranormal Affairs Bureau, capable of detecting abnormal energy fluctuations, including yin-baleful qi, spiritual power, and so on, and could help avoid most traps.
Xiang Yang looked around and found nothing wrong. Pretending to walk naturally, he made his way around toward the back window of the mahjong parlor, quietly approaching.
Then, someone knocked him out with a club.
The Descent Cult hadn’t set up any paranormal traps, but they had posted a lookout.
When Xiang Yang woke up, he felt a throbbing pain at the back of his head and couldn’t help sucking in a breath. These people really didn’t hold back! Good thing he’d prepared in advance, or he probably wouldn’t have woken up yet.
He felt himself lying on the ground, hands bound behind his back, a black cloth hood over his head, unable to see anything. He heard movement nearby and didn’t dare move.
It was the Descent Cult. They weren’t speaking loudly, as if there were a door between them. Xiang Yang strained to listen, only faintly catching a few key words here and there: Paranormal Affairs Bureau, exposed, get rid of…
Casually planning to kill someone. Well, this was the Descent Cult, after all—not surprising. They’d done far too many heinous things already.
A chill ran through Xiang Yang’s heart. He shifted his hands—the rope was tied tight, not easy to slip out of. Xiang Yang had come prepared; carrying the Extreme Yang Fate, combined with secret techniques, escaping with his life from paranormal entities wouldn’t be a problem. But faced with these ordinary humans’ brute-force methods, it was actually harder for him to act.
But it was fine—he still had a backup plan!
Xiang Yang silently recited a spell, and his pitch-black field of vision shifted, revealing a giant table leg.
This was Xiaobao, the Qi-Eating Mouse’s field of vision. Xiaobao had gotten in too, cleverly hiding in a corner, undiscovered.
With the shared vision, Xiang Yang finally got a grasp of his surroundings.
This was an inner room with only one door and no windows. Perhaps thinking he couldn’t escape, they’d left only a single guard in the room, who was currently playing a game on his phone—judging by his constantly shifting expression, it seemed he’d been wiped out by the other team again.
Xiaobao looked at the guard’s qi and saw the spirit-light on his body. This person was an exorcist, but didn’t seem very powerful.
The truly formidable characters were all outside the door, discussing how to kill him and dispose of the body without exposing the stronghold.
Xiang Yang watched the guard’s eyebrows suddenly shoot up, his fingers flying across the screen—clearly he’d just lost a round and was now furiously typing to curse out his teammates.
Good opportunity! Xiaobao seized the chance to slip behind Xiang Yang.
Xiaobao scurried into Xiang Yang’s palm, its two small claws gripping the rope, opened its mouth, ground its teeth once, and bit down!
Xiang Yang lay on the ground, waiting patiently.
As the name Qi-Eating Mouse suggested, this little creature fed on qi, so its small front teeth weren’t all that sharp. Gnawing through a nylon rope as thick as a pinky finger would take a while.
Since he was lying there anyway, Xiang Yang tried hard to prick up his ears.
“…sacrifice to… Wang Mountain… the guidance of the Lord of Wang Mountain…”
Their voices were too low; Xiang Yang could only catch scattered fragments. And among these fragments, “Wang Mountain” kept coming up over and over, at high frequency.
Wang Mountain, Wang Mountain, Wang Mountain again. What exactly was Wang Mountain? Why had they come to Jinnan City looking for Wang Mountain?
Ever since joining the Paranormal Affairs Bureau, Xiang Yang had wanted to look into information about Wang Mountain, but he didn’t have high enough clearance. Information on Wang Mountain was kept under extremely tight classification even within the Bureau. Although, because of the Descent Cult’s slogans—those lunatics—everyone knew the name Wang Mountain, no one knew where it actually was.
The voices outside the door suddenly rose in pitch; they seemed to have received some news. “We’ve been discovered?!”
“Get ready to evacuate!”
“Deal with that Paranormal Affairs Bureau agent first.”
Footsteps quickly approached the door.
Xiang Yang’s heart tightened.
Xiaobao was still working hard gnawing at the rope, but its little front teeth weren’t very effective—it had only gotten through about two-thirds so far. Xiang Yang set Xiaobao down on the ground and whispered urgently, “Hide well!”
He hooked a finger around the nearly-severed rope and yanked with force!
Just as the rope snapped, a loud crash suddenly came from outside the door.
“Who’s there?!” a Descent Cult member shouted angrily.
But immediately after, it went abruptly silent outside—not a single sound.
The guard, drawn by the commotion outside, stood up tensely, facing the door.
Good opportunity!
Xiang Yang seized the moment to burst into action, tore off the hood, and with a Spirit-Shaking Talisman clenched in his palm, slammed it from behind onto the back of the guard’s head.
The guard’s soul was jolted, and he instantly lost consciousness, collapsing to the ground.
Xiaobao climbed up Xiang Yang’s pant leg and all the way into his pocket.
Xiang Yang stared at the door.
Still not a sound from outside.
Had someone from the Paranormal Affairs Bureau arrived? Or was some other force intervening?
Footsteps sounded again outside the door—this time the crisp, distinct clack of high heels on the floor. The door was pushed open, and Xiang Yang’s whole body tensed.
A beauty with red lips and big wavy curls stepped in on high heels, while behind the door, Descent Cult members lay scattered across the floor.
“Oh my, there’s one more here.” The beauty swept a glance over the room, smiling in a way that could charm the life out of someone. “Little brother, were you kidnapped by them?”
Xiang Yang had never heard of anyone like this in the Paranormal Affairs Bureau, and quickly switched to cover mode, saying bashfully:
“Yes, thank you for saving me. Um, and you are…?”
Puppet Master Zhao’s long eyelashes fluttered as she walked over and cupped his face with her hand. “Why ask so much? Little one from the Paranormal Affairs Bureau, big sister’s going to hand you a great achievement—but in return, you’ll need to help big sister keep a little secre—”
Xiang Yang tried to pull away, only to find he was already frozen in place, unable to move. The Qi-Eating Mouse poked its head out of his pocket, baring its claws and teeth, tearing at the empty air.
Before the door had even opened, puppet strings had already slipped in through the crack, forming a formation within the room. Xiang Yang’s joints had long since been bound by the puppet strings—he simply couldn’t see them.
Puppet Master Zhao ranked thirteenth on the Paranormal Affairs Bureau’s most-wanted list, and she was far from someone who could only create and control ghost puppets. Invisible puppet strings extended from the tips of her fingernails, reaching into Xiang Yang’s skull. She intended to perform a short-term psychological manipulation on this kid, so he wouldn’t go around saying things he shouldn’t.
The moment the puppet strings touched Xiang Yang’s skin, they were instantly scorched to ash.
Puppet Master Zhao let out an “Oh?”. “Extreme Yang Fate?”
A thin layer of light enveloped Xiang Yang’s body; he leaped up and ran, scorching countless puppet strings to nothing as he went.
This “big sister” was terrifying! She’d taken down every single Descent Cult member all by herself.
Xiang Yang wasn’t entirely sure what this “big sister” had just done to him, but thankfully his Extreme Yang Fate had come through.
Run for it—whether he could actually get away… that was up to fate.
Xiang Yang ran straight out the front door. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Puppet Master Zhao still standing in place inside, her face turned to watch him go, red lips curved slightly upward. She hadn’t given chase.
There wasn’t time to think about it further—Xiang Yang had already run off.
Puppet Master Zhao’s phone rang. She picked up, and Ghost Shadow Xie asked from the other end, “I’m done on my end. How about you?”
“A little guy from the Paranormal Affairs Bureau got away.”
“Does the Paranormal Affairs Bureau have anyone formidable in Jinnan City?” Ghost Shadow Xie had gotten the wrong idea, assuming that anyone who could escape from Puppet Master Zhao must be someone formidable.
“He’s got an Extreme Yang Fate, but not much skill to speak of. Too much trouble to deal with, so I just let him go.” Puppet Master Zhao said.
Those with Extreme Yang Fate were naturally incompatible with yin-type forces, and therefore couldn’t be controlled by yin techniques. Puppet Master Zhao could kill him, but she had no way to influence him with yin techniques.
Either way, the Paranormal Affairs Bureau would have to clean this up—so why bother?
Ghost Shadow Xie was still asking about the situation on the other end of the line.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be able to find me.” Puppet Master Zhao raised her right arm straight above her head, gripped her right elbow with her left hand, stretching out a lovely curve, the corners of her bright red lips curling upward.
This gorgeous body suddenly broke apart at the joints, scattering into a pile of fragments on the ground—no blood.
A new puppet stepped out from the shadows, with a head of soft, alluring French curls, wearing small two-to-three-centimeter wedge heels. It crouched down, picked up the smiling head with the big wavy curls and red lips, and its mouth curved into the exact same smile as the big-waved red lips.
“Just need to switch to a different puppet body.”
…
The Plush Toy Shop.
Xiang Yang hadn’t been by in a few days, but there was another regular customer here now.
“I want to order five thousand of these little plushies. And these too—five thousand of these as well.” Tang Jing was holding a koi fish keychain charm, then picked up a colorful zongzi keychain charm too.
Chen Shi’s eyes lit up. A huge order!
“…Why are you buying so many?” He Yu asked.
“Isn’t Dragon Boat Festival coming up soon? These are for employee gifts.” Tang Jing said as if it were obvious.
“If you’re ordering that much volume, you should go straight to the factory—it’d be cheaper that way.” He Yu offered sincerely.
“I trust you, though. A little more expensive is fine.” Tang Jing was even more sincere.
“I can introduce you to the factory I source from.” He Yu wasn’t short on money, and didn’t want to take advantage like that.
“No need, I’ll just order from you. Whatever the price is, it’s fine.”
He Yu took a deep breath.
So he’s decided to latch onto me, huh? Every single one of them just latches on!
“Let me be blunt. I’m not your lucky benefactor. No matter how much you buy from me, I can’t bless you into getting rich!”
Chen Shi looked at He Yu with pleading eyes. Sales, boss! Such a huge order! Why was the boss pushing money away?
“Aiyah, what lucky benefactor, not lucky benefactor. We’ve run into each other twice now, and each time you helped me out—I just wanted to be friends.” Tang Jing was still smiling brightly.
Being friends means using retail prices to order from me and playing the fool for it?
He Yu pulled out his phone and found some recent local news. The police had caught a group of fraudsters—exactly the kind of crooked schemes the Descent Cult ran.
“That fake master of yours got caught.”
“I know.” Tang Jing nodded, looking at him earnestly. “That’s exactly why I’m grateful, and why I want to be friends. If you’re not comfortable with it this way, we can do it some other way instead.”
In the end, He Yu didn’t take his order, and instead gave Tang Jing the manufacturer’s contact information. Tang Jing noted it down, then took the few keychain charms he’d picked out in the shop to the counter to pay. The employee gifts could be ordered from the factory, but the charms for himself and his family had to be bought from this shop!
A mosquito’s leg is still meat. Chen Shi happily jotted this sale down in his little notebook too.
After finishing his purchase, Tang Jing walked out of the plush toy shop.
Maybe a lucky benefactor doesn’t care about money—maybe it’s just his upright character, not wanting to take advantage of others. He’d have to think of another way to repay his benefactor, to become good friends with him.
Tang Jing had already seen that news article, and he knew perfectly well that the so-called “benefactor” business had been a scam from start to finish. But, what did that have to do with He Yu being his benefactor?
Because of He Yu, he’d avoided that problematic orchid plant; because of He Yu, he’d escaped robbers on the train; because of He Yu, he hadn’t fallen victim to an actual con artist…
He Yu had to be his true benefactor of fate!