Ghost King 023

The fierce ghost turned back to glance at her, its face full of impatience. “Scram!”

Li Chenxue was stunned.

“I’m trying to help you. Don’t you want to see your family or something?”

The ghost couldn’t be bothered with her. It turned its head to stare at the staircase beside it. Before long, a dazed spirit drifted slowly down, and the ghost grabbed it and ran off.

“Why are you catching it? Do you have some secret trouble you can’t tell? You can always…”

The ghost lost its temper, spun around, and slapped her across the face.

“Are you crazy? Can’t you see I’m busy? It’s the peak season, and I’m swamped. Who has time for you? What a lousy job this is,” it grumbled as it scurried away.

“It… hit me?” Li Chenxue stood there, dumbfounded.

After a long while, she finally decided to call her senior fellow apprentice. He had always looked out for her.

The phone rang for ages before someone picked up, a cold voice saying, “Hello?”

“Hey, senior brother, it’s me… You’re not still mad at me, are you? Let me tell you, it was Tang Nuanyu who said bad things about you…”

“If there’s nothing important, I’m hanging up. I’m busy.”

Li Chenxue was bewildered.

“Oh, and don’t call me senior brother anymore. Master said you’ve been expelled. Don’t contact us unless it’s necessary.” The line cut off abruptly, but before it did, she heard someone calling out “Senior brother” in the background.

“Fine. You’ve gone and found yourself a new junior sister, have you? And you’re using Master to pressure me? Fine, fine, fine. Just you wait—all of you!” Li Chenxue felt as if the whole world had abandoned her. Not only her senior brother, but even her best friend had left her, and even the ghosts she used to talk to were gone.

She looked at the empty street, feeling lost.

“Senior brother, who was that?” Liu Xiaohua asked while sorting through some documents.

Qin Shaoqing smiled faintly. “No one I know.”

“Oh.”

“Where’s your brother?”

“I don’t know. He was in that room just now, talking to himself.”

Qin Shaoqing frowned. “He sure knows how to dodge work.”

Fang Zhiyi sat in his pitch-black room, his face dark. A black thing hovered before his eyes, something like a vengeful spirit.

That spirit had just tried to attack him, but he dodged it in time.

“What exactly are you?” Fang Zhiyi narrowed his eyes. “Not many dare to fight me. I’ve been watching you for a while. Couldn’t hold back anymore, could you?”

The black orb slowly transformed into a human shape, staring wide-eyed at Fang Zhiyi but muttering to itself: “No wonder it felt strange… as a ghost, you resisted for a while but ended up losing your memory. That’s not good.”

“What kind of ghost are you?” Fang Zhiyi sneered. “Congratulations. You’ve picked the worst opponent possible.”

Little Black was panicking. Fang Zhiyi’s attacks were hard to dodge.

“I’ve already devoured that time traveler’s system! If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late! Don’t you want to save Yue Anyao?”

Fang Zhiyi paused, staring suspiciously at the dark lump. “System? Time traveler? Yue Anyao? Another crazy ghost.”

“Damn it! If I could kill you, I would’ve done it already!” Little Black blurted out a useless threat, then retreated at top speed, slipping straight through the wall and disappearing.

“Running away, huh? How would I save face if I let you get away!” Fang Zhiyi was taken aback. “Hey! Send out everyone in the company, both idle people and ghosts! What the hell have you been doing? Someone comes right up to me to pick a fight!”

In no time, ghosts and Taoist exorcists (masters of the supernatural arts) all over City A stirred into action. Even ghost messengers were dispatched by Ah Da, searching everywhere for the dark, ferocious ghost their boss had mentioned.

But that thing vanished without a trace. So much so that everyone started wondering if Fang Zhiyi had imagined it.

Of course, they couldn’t see Little Black. Even as it swaggered down a passage leading to the underworld and sneaked into the realm of the dead, no one noticed.

“This is the real trouble,” Little Black muttered. Its instincts warned it that something had already taken notice of it.

Maybe it should just ditch Fang Zhiyi and slip away. After all, Fang Zhiyi was now tied to the male lead and might enjoy some protection from the laws of heaven.

Little Black was lost in thought when a majestic figure nearby caught its attention.

“What’s all the fuss about?”

“Sir, we’ve received orders from the Judge to search for an escaped vengeful spirit…”

“Hmph, that Fang Zhiyi again, is it?” Inspector Hu snorted. Teaming up with humans to take down a thousand-year-old corpse king was Fang Zhiyi’s way of climbing the ranks. Inspector Hu had no intention of letting this nobody like Ah Da rise to his level, so he had quietly meddled behind the scenes.

“Threatening my position? He thinks too highly of himself! And now he’s sticking his nose into the underworld!” Inspector Hu shook his sleeves and strode off in a certain direction. He was going to the Netherworld Sovereign (Hell’s Overlord) to file a serious complaint.

Little Black fixed its eyes on the figure, a faint, eerie green glow seeping from its body.

“Since I’ve already been exposed, one more act won’t hurt. Fang Zhiyi, you owe me this one.” It charged straight at Inspector Hu.

The Netherworld Sovereign, who rarely left his abode, merely nodded when he saw Inspector Hu enter.

“What is it?”

Inspector Hu was mulling over his words, a flattering smile already plastered on his face. “My Lord, about this Fang Zhiyi…” His smile froze mid-sentence, as if he had been frozen in time.

“Fang Zhiyi? Ah, I remember. That little ghost the other soul-summoners keep talking about, right? Hmph. He’s even brought those bizarre human contraptions into the underworld—cars, telephones… Speaking of which, I should ask you.” The Sovereign paused, his brush hovering in his hand. “With so many ghost messengers and soul-summoners on staff, do we really need to let a little ghost meddle in ferrying souls? Isn’t that a little…”

Before he could finish, Inspector Hu, who had been bowing respectfully, suddenly struck.

The Sovereign was caught off guard. He couldn’t understand why his own subordinate would attack him, and the blow was aimed at an odd angle. He couldn’t even dodge and was forced to take the hit.

But as rage swelled inside him, he was slapped across the face.

“I learned that from him. My apologies, my apologies,” Inspector Hu muttered. Taking advantage of the Sovereign’s stunned confusion, he snatched a talisman (magical device) hanging from the Sovereign’s waist.

“You bastard! Put down the Severing Heart Bell!”

The Sovereign roared, but once Inspector Hu had the item, he fled without hesitation. Just as he was about to step out, a tremendous force blasted into his back, yet he used that force to propel himself even farther away.

The human world, already chaotic, grew more disorderly. News spread that an underworld inspector had suddenly attacked the Sovereign and stolen a magical artifact.

The underworld staff, who had been helping Fang Zhiyi search for ghosts, switched their efforts to hunting down Inspector Hu.

Qin Shaoqing wanted to ask Fang Zhiyi what to do, whether they should coordinate with the underworld to catch that man. But Fang Zhiyi never showed his face; he locked himself in his room. A crowd of fierce ghosts crouched by the door, not daring to disturb their boss.