“Your phone!” Mr.
Hei’s voice was cold.
“What?”
“Your phone.
Is it off?”
“Sorry, I forgot.” Xin Huohuo fumbled for her phone and hurriedly shut it down.
They had warned her before.
The Soul Hooking Plate was now inside her phone, and it had a natural tendency to attract souls.
If she went on a mission with her phone on, most of the souls would end up following her.
‘Good heavens, the last thing I need is a long trail of ghosts tagging along behind me!’
‘This phone already terrified me.
The thought of the slumbering souls hidden inside it made me afraid to even carry it on my person.
No matter how kind those souls were in life, they were terrifying now.
But I promised to help them.
And besides the tempting promise of a wish, I’m one of the few people in this dishonest world who actually keeps their word.
I wasn’t going to bail on them halfway through.’
“There.” As soon as the phone was off, the soul of the middle-aged woman froze.
It was as if she’d lost her target.
After a moment’s hesitation, she turned and resumed walking.
After Mr.
Hei’s warning, Bai Qi and Xin Huohuo didn’t dare make another sound and simply followed in silence.
Along the way, Xin Huohuo saw many souls coming from all directions, all heading the same way.
The procession gradually grew.
Watching the ghosts drift past them in a quiet, orderly line, Xin Huohuo felt like one of the corpse herders of Xiangxi.
‘Does this mean they’re all gathering to enter a new Road to the Underworld?’
‘She stole a glance at the two deities’ expressions.
Mr.
Hei was still stone-faced, but Bai Qi looked a little excited.
They hadn’t been able to find the lost Road to the Underworld before.
It probably wasn’t that they hadn’t thought of following the dead souls.
It was just that back then, they had no access to their Mana or Magic Artifacts, so they couldn’t act rashly.
Now, even though they still hadn’t found their Magic Artifacts, they could at least make use of the Soul Hooking Plate.’
The souls moved at a steady, unhurried pace, never pausing or hesitating.
Xin Huohuo, being purely human, had to pretend she couldn’t see them while also trying not to draw any attention.
It was a struggle to keep up, and she deeply regretted not bringing some form of transportation, like a bicycle or even an all-terrain electric unicycle.
‘In my mind, the entrance to the Netherworld’s Road to the Underworld should be somewhere remote.
But the hospital we were staking out isn’t far from the city center, which means a long walk.
Thank god I wore sneakers.
If I were in high heels, my legs would’ve snapped and my feet would be ruined by now.’
However, she was completely wrong.
They trailed them on and on, and surprisingly, an hour later, they reached the city center.
There, in front of the public garden at a five-way intersection, the souls suddenly vanished right before their eyes, as if they had evaporated into thin air.
The Black and White Impermanence exchanged a look, both of their brows furrowing in unison.
“Why a five-way intersection again?” Xin Huohuo said, surprised.
The building where she’d first encountered a ghost had also been on a five-way intersection.
“The problem isn’t the intersection itself, but the building in the center.
It blocks the flow of feng shui,” Bai Qi explained, taking a few steps forward.
“To be specific about the geomancy, this is a place that gathers yin energy.
But this garden doesn’t look strange at all.”
“We’ll go in and take a look.
You stay here,” Mr.
Hei said, directing the last part at Xin Huohuo.
With that, the two of them drifted away.
Xin Huohuo stood alone on the deserted street.
She remained frozen there for a long time, not even daring to turn on her phone to check the time.
She guessed it had to be past three in the morning.
A clear night in the city at this time of year should have been pleasant.
It was cool and quiet.
But because ghosts kept appearing around her only to vanish into thin air, Xin Huohuo was thoroughly spooked.
A cold sweat began to form on her back.
Just then, a strange night breeze blew past, sending a chill through her entire body.
She turned and nearly bumped into one of them, which made her jump.
‘I know many of them don’t bother walking around things; they just pass right through any obstacles.
It’s one thing when you can’t see them, but since I can, there’s no way I can just act like nothing’s there.’
So she edged closer to a streetlight, since fewer ghosts seemed to pass through well-lit areas.
But just then, a car appeared in the distance, approaching at an incredible speed.
She had barely registered the roar of the engine when it was upon her in the blink of an eye.
Xin Huohuo broke into a run.
‘Lots of spoiled rich kids modify imported luxury cars and go street racing in the dead of night.
They don’t follow traffic laws and just assume the streets are empty.
I’m not about to bet my life on them having an ounce of intelligence or conscience, so I’d better just run as fast as I can.’
Even so, she only barely managed to dodge the oncoming car.
The gust of wind from its passage knocked her off her feet.
She fell hard, her knee scraping painfully against the decorative paving stones at the side of the road.
“Damn it!
You trying to fly that thing?!” Xin Huohuo yelled furiously.
SKREEECH!
The speeding car slammed to a halt as if it had heard her curse.
A thin wisp of smoke rose from the friction between the tires and the asphalt, carrying the smell of hot rubber.
Then, the car began to slowly reverse.
Xin Huohuo’s bravado vanished instantly.
‘Even if the last vestiges of Bai Qi and Mr.
Hei’s Mana were more than enough to deal with humans, they were still in the park.
What if I’ve run into some thugs or a pervert who just shoves me into the car?
I’d be utterly helpless.
And once dawn breaks, those two will transform.
What can I expect a kitten and a puppy to do?
Act cute until the bad guys are overwhelmed?’
At that thought, she ignored the pain in her knee and bolted toward the public garden.
Even if it was dangerous, it was better to be near Bai Qi and Mr.
Hei.
At least she wouldn’t be alone.
She managed to get away just before the car finished backing up, skirting around its rear.
In the brief moment she was level with the car, she instinctively glanced over her shoulder…
‘I don’t know much about cars, but I’ve seen enough to know this bright red sports car cost a fortune, probably more than a small house in the suburbs.
Whoever owned it had to be rich or powerful.’
But when she saw the “people” sitting inside, her legs went so weak with fright that she almost collapsed again.
It was a five-seater, and every seat was taken.
All five passengers looked identical, were dressed identically, and sat bolt upright.
Each of their five faces was frozen in a different expression: joy, melancholy, grief, fear, and surprise.
They were perfectly still.
In the instant she froze, the car changed direction and began driving toward her again.
“Bai Qi!
Mr.
Hei!
Help!” she cried out, but her voice was barely a whisper.
The eerie atmosphere seemed to press down on her, stifling her voice and rooting her feet to the spot.
But the red car kept approaching, slowly, steadily.
Closer and closer.
The closer it got, the clearer those rigid faces and frozen expressions became.
‘I can’t tell if it’s a ghost car or a real one!
Will it pass right through me, or will it crush me to death?!’
Just as the front of the car was about to touch her, a piercing shriek echoed from the sky.
It sounded like a bird, but no bird on earth could produce a cry so shrill, so savage, so utterly horrifying.
Her eardrums didn’t register it, but her heart felt as if it had been punctured by a sharp beak.
Xin Huohuo clutched her chest in pain, instinctively doubling over.
When she looked up, the car was turning away as if on command.
It sped off, vanishing in the blink of an eye, as if the whole encounter had been nothing but a hallucination.
“What happened?” Bai Qi asked with concern, finally rushing to her side.
Xin Huohuo opened her mouth, but no words came out.
For a moment, she had no idea what to say.
Mr.
Hei, however, was looking up at the sky.
After a long moment, he said three words: “The Blood Bone Bird.”
“Oh, gods.
Why would that appear here?” Bai Qi’s face went pale.
“Let’s hope I misheard its call and mistook its shadow,” Mr.
Hei said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“What kind of bird?” Xin Huohuo couldn’t help but ask.
“And what’s the situation in the park?”
“We’ll talk about it when we get back,” Mr.
Hei said with a wave of his hand.