Ch13 - Can this thunder really strike us to death?!

“Ssss — — I forgot to ask. You keep insisting on finding your son, where is your son’s skeleton?” The car had already gone quite a few kilometers and Long Ya only now spat this out like he had a toothache.

Qi Chen: “……” You don’t even have a destination, where the hell did you get the confidence to drive like you were rushing to a funeral? 

But upon further thought, he felt that there was likely no difference between Long Ya asking or not. 

Long Ya obviously had the same thoughts as him, shaking his head immediately after he asked: “Nevermind, pretend I didn’t ask. If you knew, you wouldn’t go so far as to — —” 

He hadn’t finished speaking when the curled up old lady in the backseat interrupted: “Yao Zhou Mansion. Yao Zhou Mansion in Qian Yang County…..”

“…….” Long Ya seemed to be momentarily speechless. Then his foot slammed on the brakes, turning around to face the old lady full of annoyance: “You knew where the skeleton was?! You knew and still spent more than four hundred years not hitting the right place? Are you fucking kidding me?! Even a soft-shelled turtle would’ve been able to plow through Qian Yang County once in four hundred years. You actually couldn’t find a single skeleton?!” 

Qi Chen was thrown forward from the force of the braking and then reined in by the seat belt. He was fiercely slammed into the back of his seat, almost vomiting his guts out over the knife child. 

The knife child was thrown onto the car windshield with a pa and rebounded off the glass. Its head planted back into Qi Chen’s lap, seeming to have been given a concussion, laying out like a corpse on Qi Chen’s knee motionlessly. 

The old lady in the back seat seemed to grow weaker and weaker. Ever since getting in the car, she became increasingly dim. Right now, because of the sudden braking, half her body had sunk through the car seat, already losing her corporeal form. 

She pulled herself out of the seat in a fluster. After seeing Long Ya’s expression, she pressed her lips together and silently shrunk towards the corner again: “This old one can’t sustain herself for long. Using the jade bracelet to survive for tens of years, I only managed to gain some skills with difficulty. However, I found it before. I found my son’s skeleton, but I couldn’t grab it. He’d shattered into so many pieces, I couldn’t grab it…….” As she spoke, her turbid eyes became tearful once again. 

Long Ya’s lips pulled, his tone softening slightly: “…… Just speak, why are you crying?! If you don’t have the physical form to grab it, just find someone to help you! I see that you’ve controlled someone with weak Eight Characters. If nothing else, they should have no problem helping you carry something. Tsk, why are you trembling?!” 

“I tried, but it didn’t work. Every time this old one awakens from within the jade bracelet, the first thing this old one does is find Qian Yang County. But every time I cannot find it. The mortal world changes too quickly. A foolish woman like me can’t keep up. After finally finding it, I wanted to borrow the hands of a living person to help me gather the bones and summon the spirit. But I don’t know why, nothing worked. Regardless of whether they were living or dead, I even tried finding a Taoist before and narrowly escaped from having my soul scattered. No one could gather the bones and return them home.” 

Long Ya frowned as he listened, seeming lost in thought. 

“There’s still this kind of thing?” Qi Chen leaned on the seat and relaxed for a moment before that forcing down the feeling of carsickness. He leaned his head and looked at Long Ya: “What? You’ve seen it before?”  

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“P uefrr. Pa kjr wjcs sfjgr jub. Ktlr xlcv bo atlcu lr gjgf. Djmx atfc atfgf kfgf qfbqif ab rqfmljiis wjcjuf la. Pa vlvc’a tjnf wemt ab vb klat er rb P vlvc’a jrx wemt.” Obcu Tj atbeuta obg j wbwfca yfobgf jcrkfglcu ijhlis. 

Hl Jtfc ofia atja atlr gfjiis kjr tlr qfgrbcjilas: “Djmx atfc atfgf kfgf qfbqif ab rqfmljiis wjcjuf la, sbe wfjc atfgf lrc’a cbk?” 

Long Ya made a sound of agreement and said neither miserable nor indifferent: “Long gone.” 

After speaking, whether it was because he didn’t want to mention those old matters or he was too lazy to explain more, he once again spat out bad-tempered: “Wasted so many words…..”  

He adjusted the rear view mirror then fished out his phone and tapped the screen a few times, dialing a number. He put it on speaker and threw it to the side.

Qi Chen only heard the phone ring twice before being picked up. Director Dong’s smiling face appeared on the screen: “What’s wrong?” 

Long Ya stepped on the gas. The car once again bounded forwards as if rushing to a funeral. He held the steering wheel and drove while speaking to Director Dong: “The case of the stolen jade bracelet in the museum can be transferred over. I have one troublemaker here. I don’t know where the other one fled to. Make Hong Ming stop messing with her face and move her body. Just eating without moving will make her fat ——–” 

“Long Ya you son of a bitch, it’s none of your Goddamn business!” Hong Ming’s voice suddenly came through. After cursing at him, she walked away with a click of her heels.  

“She hadn’t even left my office and you summoned her…… you continue, I’ll listen.” Amid exploding tempers, Director Dong’s mild temperament was like a small white lotus above the waters. 

Long Ya completely ignored Hong Ming’s regards and continued with extreme calmness: “Also, give me the authority to leave the province and let the special department check the road heading to Yun City. I’ll be in Long Huai County in a bit. Then I’m hanging up — —” 

“What?! Hold on!” The white lotus director was bombarded with various requests and couldn’t react for a moment: “How far are you from Long Hai County?!”

Qi Chen felt confused as he listened from the passenger seat. He’d stayed in Jiang City for many years and hadn’t heard of a place called Long Hai County before. He had no idea where Long Ya was driving to.  

While listening to the conversation on the phone, he turned his head to look out the window. As a result, the instant Director Dong finished asking, the car seemed to jolt violently, giving Qi Chen a fright. He subconsciously drew a breath and didn’t even have time to ask Long Ya what was happening before he was stunned by the scene outside the car. 

He saw the originally normal road suddenly transform. The street lamps on either side disappeared and were replaced by multiple jagged Chinese scholar trees. In front of each tree stood a featureless human figure. They bowed and nodded, carrying a paper lantern in their hands. On such a cold night, they stood there motionlessly as if unable to feel the wind. The only thing that moved was the flickering of the dim yellow candlelight in the lanterns. 

“This is…..” 

Just as Qi Chen was about to speak, he heard Long Ya speak to Director Dong extremely confidently: “Oh, my car just drove onto Long Huai ghost road. I estimate that heavenly thunder will catch up to us in less than a minute. Before we are smitten to ashes you might want to expand the limits of my authority.” 

White lotus Director Dong: “….. How am I supposed to expand your authority in a few seconds? Don’t you know the phone lines of the special department are always very busy?!” 

Qi Chen felt that Director Dong must’ve expended a lot of effort to swallow curses like ‘Long Ya, you fucker’ back down his stomach.

Director Dong hung up without hesitation, probably not wishing to speak to such an annoying subordinate any longer. 

Under the dim lights of the paper lanterns on either side, Qi Chen could vaguely see that the road was about to end not far ahead. There was an inn-styled three-storied building at the end. The inside of the building was lit with the same flickering yellow candlelight as the paper lanterns. Under the eaves outside was a flag. On the flag was a word written in the same style as the words on the request token — — Crossing. 

The building was like a boundary. Beyond it was a gloomy darkness that even the candlelight couldn’t illuminate. 

Seeing that the car was about to reach the end, the faint rumble of thunder rolled in from afar, like a huge wheel. Purple lightning split like leaf veins, creeping towards them. 

The old lady in the back seat all but shook like a sieve, passing through the car window while trembling and looking at the sky. 

It was his first time experiencing thunder chasing after his heels. Qi Chen’s scalp tingled and he finally couldn’t bear it and turned to Long Ya: “You weren’t joking?! Can this thunder really strike us to death?!”  

Long Ya glanced at him from the rearview mirror and said very calmly: “The thunder will retreat once the Director expands authority.” 

As his voice fell, the car had just barely passed that three-storied building when, with a rumble, an earth-shattering crack of thunder struck behind the car. 

Qi Chen gave a start, his heart hanging in his throat. Then, he saw the thick fog-like darkness ahead rise like a curtain, revealing the road ahead lit by lights on either side. 

The car flew forward like it had wings, the black curtain behind them closing again with a whoosh. The purple lightning and heavenly thunder pursuing them had been blocked.  

Simultaneously, the phone by Long Ya’s hand rang. Long Ya stretched out his hand and swiped the screen. Director Dong’s extremely weak voice came through: “Opened, you crossed right? But….. Long Ya, Long Ya-daye! Can you report ten minutes in advance next time? You’re going to give me a brain hemorrhage.” 

Long Ya: “I didn’t know I was going to be here ten minutes ago.” 

Director Dong was silent for a few seconds, then hung up without hesitation again. 

Qi Chen glanced at the rearview mirror with lingering fear. He had just recovered from fright when he felt the car give a violent jolt once more. Then the scholar trees and paper lanterns on either side of the road reverted back to normal streetlamps again.  

With the light of the street lamps, you could see the street sign a short distance away. It indicated to Qi Chen that they had already entered Yun City, two provinces away. 

“We….. arrived?” Qi Chen said, astonished. 

Long Ya lifted his chin towards the sign up ahead: “Isn’t it written there? 13km to Qian Yang.” 

The old lady in the back seat always had her heart in her throat, looking so scared she may burst. Right now, she immediately revived after hearing ‘Qian Yang’ these two words.  

She shrank towards the car window, lips trembling, anxiously watching the road she no longer recognised outside the window. Under the reflection of the lights, her messy greyish white hair revealed a layer of warm yellow light. She wiped at the tears pouring out of her eyes and gave a low sigh. Then she spoke to Qi Chen in the passenger seat: “After a while the effect of the drug will wear off…… this old one is sorry. If you can retrieve my son, this old one is willing work to the bone for you.” 

Long Ya glanced at her in the rearview mirror as if he wanted to throw something at her. But seemed to have thought of something and retracted his gaze. 

Translator’s Corner: 

Fisho says: Director Dong has been added to Long Ya’s list of victims let us light a candle for all his future headaches  

Lazy Panda says: But worry not Director Dong our Qi Chen will curse him for you…… just not aloud