“Slow?
I’m already trying to walk as fast as I can, alright?
What do you even know?
Buying a car is easy.
A cheaper one costs twenty or thirty thousand at most, and I even know how to drive.
But do you know what the real problem is?
The license plate!
And the driving restrictions!
What’s the point of buying a car if I can’t get a plate for it?
What good is it if I can’t drive it during certain hours?”
“You won’t need a license plate.
We just need to make sure you can move quickly,” Mr.
Hei said calmly, having clearly thought it all through.
“I’ll cast a Spell to make the car invisible and to make other vehicles and pedestrians avoid it.
If the mortal world’s traffic police can’t catch you, is a license plate really necessary?
And what meaning would driving restrictions have then?”
“So you’re telling me to buy a car and use it as a hearse!” Xin Huohuo realized.
“Whoa, whoa, let’s not fight.
Let’s talk this out nicely,” Bai Qi said, extending an arm to stop Xin Huohuo, who looked like she was about to jump to her feet.
But to his surprise, Xin Huohuo froze.
The terrifying scene from the previous night had suddenly flashed into her mind.
“What is it?” Mr.
Hei frowned, having keenly noticed her odd behavior.
“Speaking of hearses…” She took a deep breath.
“I saw a car yesterday.
I don’t know if it belonged to the human world or the spirit world.
But the car wasn’t the issue.
The issue was the…
people…
inside it.”
She recounted in great detail everything she had seen the previous night.
“You’re saying the people in the car all looked identical, were dressed identically, yet had five different expressions?
And those expressions never changed?” Mr.
Hei asked with a frown after she finished.
“What I mean is…” Xin Huohuo sucked in another breath, as if to prove she was still alive.
“They weren’t people.
They were motionless, their expressions and actions stiff, because they were puppets.
Life-sized puppets.”
The thought of puppets in suits and leather shoes, driving a luxury car in the dead of night, was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.
“Did you see where they ended up going?” Mr.
Hei asked.
“Perhaps their appearance is related to the Yellow Springs Road and the disappearance of those souls.”
“They were too fast.
I couldn’t tell which direction they went, but they seemed to vanish after going around that central park.” Xin Huohuo thought hard for a moment.
“It looked like they were trying to kill me, but they fled after hearing a bird cry.
Speaking of which, what was with that bird?
And what did you two run into at the park?”
Mr.
Hei glanced at Bai Qi.
Bai Qi’s expression turned serious.
“There’s an illusionary formation in that park, laid by some powerful expert.
We went in but couldn’t find our way through; we just kept ending up back at the entrance.
It was as if you couldn’t pass unless you were a dead soul.
Of course, we didn’t see anything else.
But it can’t be a coincidence that the souls are vanishing in that area.
In the end, the bird’s cry startled us too, and we hurried out, worried something might have happened to you.”
“What kind of person could set up a formation capable of trapping you?
You’re gods, for crying out loud,” Xin Huohuo said in astonishment.
“One-tenth of a god,” Bai Qi said, looking uncharacteristically dejected.
“We have to find a way to get our Mana back.
Otherwise, even if we find out why the Yellow Springs Road vanished, we won’t have the power to restore it.
We’ve lost contact with the Underworld, so neither side knows what the other is facing.
Whoever is behind all this must have grand ambitions.”
“What about that bird…?”
“The Blood Bone Bird,” Bai Qi explained.
“It’s a creature of the Underworld; it should never appear in the mortal realm!
It’s a spirit of conquest, born from brutal warfare, forged from the fury, resentment, blood, and bone of soldiers who died in battle.
Huo’er, did you get a look at it?”
Huo’er was a nickname Bai Qi had recently started using for Xin Huohuo.
It always sounded awkward to her, making her feel like she shared a name with the Little Bi Fang Divine Bird from some web novel.
But she couldn’t stop Bai Qi and Mr.
Hei from calling her that, so she had resigned herself to it.
‘And now another ominous bird shows up,’ she thought.
‘What’s going on, a convention for flying fiends?’
“I was scared to death by the car-driving puppets!
How could I have had the nerve to look at some bird?” she said in frustration.
“Besides, it was flying so fast, all I saw was a fleeting shadow on the ground.
At least…
it must have had wings.”
“If it really is the Blood Bone Bird, does that mean the one who sealed the Yellow Springs Road is actually from the Underworld?
But who could it be?” Mr.
Hei mused, frowning.
“Now this is a huge problem.”
“Not necessarily,” Bai Qi, ever the optimist, countered.
“The Blood Bone Bird is heartless, formed from condensed bone.
It has a human head on a bird’s body, with wings of nether fire and a wingspan of five li.
It’s enormous and radiates a heaven-piercingly malevolent aura.
It was locked away many years ago.”
“No matter who’s behind this or what we’re up against, we have a duty to fulfill.
We can’t back down,” Mr.
Hei said resolutely.
“Tonight, we’ll split up.
I’ll continue the stakeout at that hospital.
You two…
Huo’er, take Bai Qi to the maternity hospital.
Where there’s death, there’s life.
Investigate where those reincarnating souls are coming from.”
“Of course!
The Yellow Springs Road is gone, so the other passages should be closed too.
When babies are born full-term, where do the pure souls that merge with them come from?” It dawned on Bai Qi, and he looked at his partner with an expression of pure admiration.
And so, the three of them reached an agreement…
Well, two of them did.
Xin Huohuo was just an accessory—a mere gofer, a “foolish human who wouldn’t lift a finger without a reward.” But since she was indispensable, they all went their separate ways after a quick dinner.
Xin Huohuo took Bai Qi to the city’s maternity hospital.
Just as before, Bai Qi cast a spell, drawing a sigil on her forehead to open her Heavenly Eye.
And then, she could see everything.
Childbirth was no longer the trip through the Ghost Gate it had been in ancient times.
The mortality rate for mothers and infants was very low, so few dead souls were departing.
However, a steady stream of even more dazed and ignorant living souls were filing in.
Just as Bai Qi had said, each life was encoded, so no one needed to guide them.
They all moved in a specific direction before entering a body to be born.
The entire process was truly magical.
Bai Qi caught several of the souls that were about to be born.
Since he couldn’t communicate with them, he cast a spell to investigate them directly.
He spent a long time at it, but the results were deeply disappointing.
“Normally, souls coming to be born have forgotten all their past lives.
They’re meant to start a new life completely clean, with no lingering attachments.
That is the mercy and grace of the heavens.
But with the Yellow Springs Road gone, dead souls can’t cross over, which means living souls shouldn’t be able to come back.
And yet, not only are they here, but they’re just as blank and unaware, carrying that life code, and with no memory of their pasts.” He raked his fingers through his hair in frustration.
“It’s as if the cycle of life and death, the wheel of fate—all the laws of heaven and earth—have been restarted somewhere else, under someone else’s control, but in the exact same way.
What in the world is going on?
What happened?
Where has the original Heavenly Dao gone?”
“Don’t panic,” Xin Huohuo reasoned.
“If this is such a massive undertaking, it’s not going to be solved easily.
You have to prepare yourself for that mentally.
Besides, whoever the mastermind is, for them to lay out a chessboard this large, they must have spent a long time preparing and planning.
Right now, you two are isolated in the mortal world.
That doesn’t mean the Underworld isn’t taking action; it just means you can’t exchange information.
You’re always lecturing me about balance.
Well, if your opponent went to all this trouble, it stands to reason that you’ll have to expend just as much time and effort.
Give yourselves some time.
If you rush, you’re guaranteed to lose.”