Chapter 16: Evil Rituals

The rain had stopped, and the early morning twilight sprinkled through the gaps upon the rain-washed clouds, coating the city a brilliant golden red.

A girl wearing a red scarf sat on top of a glass tower. Her legs were wrapped in white silk, which was left exposed underneath her short, lacy skirt. She swayed her khaki boots on the ledge as her clear eyes stared into the rising sun.

“System?”

“I am here.”

“Won’t you get sick after eating all of those… strange things?”

“No, mistress. It is my responsibility to clean up the world’s filth.”

“Do you eat anything else? Food?”

“No, mistress.”

“Thank goodness,” she breathed a sigh of relief as she produced a box of strawberry vanilla Pocky from her breasts. She put a stick between her pink lips as she stared into the distance.

“However, my snacks seem to disappear on their own, as if somebody is stealing them!” she exclaimed.

“Mistress, I think you are the one who’s eating them a bit too fast.”

“Oh.”

“Name?”

Lu Yibei was startled awake and found himself in a familiar place, being asked this familiar question by a familiar face.

‘I almost walked through the Gates of Hell, and here you are, not even the slightest bit of worry for me.’

“Can’t you come up with something else?” Lu Yibei asked. “We literally just met here a few hours ago.”

The maid sighed as she put her hands on her hips and said, “You think I want to do this? I’ll have you know…”

“Okay, okay! My name is Lu Yibei, and I’m guessing that your next question is about my age.”

“No,” the maid rolled her eyes. “I just wanted to ask: Do you remember anything that happened last night?”

“Hmm…” he recalled for a moment before frowning. “After I got home, I couldn’t sleep. After a while… something… knocked on the door, and he let himself in, and then…”

Speaking of this, Lu Yibei could recall using Acala, the Immovable, to strike Mr Rabbit down! He vividly remembered that Mr Rabbit twitched before lying motionless on the ground, and the putrid stench of blood seemed to waft into Yibei’s nose once again.

Lu Yibei turned pale, turning his face away to retch.

The maid expected his reaction, handing over a box of tissues and a glass of warm water.

After he had calmed down, the maid continued, “If I tell you that you didn’t kill anyone, will you feel better?”

“Is that true?”

“Yes.”

Her answer quelled his discomfort immediately.

“Thank god…” Yibei sighed before his eyes darted open once again.

“Wait! You guys were using me as bait, weren’t you?! Why did you leave me alone to die? I see how it is; you have no qualms about me dying! Do you have any sympathy left in you?!”

Lu Yibei couldn’t help but vent his anger at the maid, and she ducked away in shame.

“My apologies. I was the one tasked to protect you,” she apologized. “You merely killed a pawn of Mr Rabbit; the real Mr Rabbit is still out there.”

“Am I going to get any compensation, though? Or am I able to send out a pennant? I heard that my social credit would…”

As Lu Yibei trailed off, the maid’s face contorted into confusion: ‘The duality of man…’

Meanwhile, in the basement of the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Administration

In a pristine, white room, the smell of disinfectant mixed with blood filled the air, along with musical bursts of heavy metal and rock that echoed through the corridors.

A corpse with a blunt wound on its forehead lay on the silver dissecting table, and wounds covered its maroon body.

Standing by the dissection table was a woman in her mid-twenties, her tall and plump body swaying to the rhythm of the music.

She donned black professional attire with a white coat, and the neckline of her coat was slightly open, revealing her breasts. It was as if she were making a statement for people to keep their eyes on her.

Her thick, black, long hair was neatly coiled up, and she took a puff of her cigarette between her bloodied, red lips. She looked as if she were entranced by the music, but her fingers moved swiftly and accurately to dissect the body bit by bit with eerie precision.

Her name is An Qing, and she is the main cadre of Huacheng’s Night Division.

Her nimble fingers stopped, and she narrowed her eyes on the corpse before frowning. She glanced at her watch and pressed on her recording pen.

“August 29th, 8:37. Record of Individual No. 1574. A Non-Level threat, rotten organs beyond recognition, and there are…”

The sudden sound of footsteps could be heard behind her.

“Clack! Clink! Clack! Clink!”

The door of the surgery room was open, and Jiangli walked in.

She glanced at the corpse on the dissecting table and turned to An Qing: “Knew you would be here as soon as a new corpse appears.”

An Qing put her recording pen down and flicked her cigarette away. Putting on her high-heeled shoes, she looked up at Jiangli and smiled, “I guess I do have a strange hobby.”

“Find anything?” Jiangli asked, glancing at the numerous cigarette butts on the ground.

“Of course. During my autopsy, I found that the exact time of death was three to five days ago. There are ghost mushrooms, bovine lacrimal glands, and cooked saltpetre in his body, as well as…”

“You’re telling me that this person was… man-made?”

Jiangli glanced at the corpse once again. Ghost mushrooms, lacrimal glands, cooked saltpetre… those materials were used in evil rituals.

“Exactly,” An Qing nodded and smiled. “I’m not done yet. Come have a look.”

An Qing lifted the corpse and turned it around with ease, exposing its mangled back to Jiangli.

“I know it’s abnormal for this… person to be man-made,” Jiangli asked doubtfully. “What’s so important about this anyways?”

“Look carefully,” An Qing pointed at the corpse.

Jiangli frowned, covering her nose and mouth, and observed the corpse carefully.

The corpse’s back was littered with wounds, and all of them showed regularities. Every few wounds appeared parallel to each other, as if they were scratched out by the sharp claws of a creature.

Among the wounds was one that was much deeper than the others, revealing bone.

Jiangli’s eyes widened as a faint blue light sparked in her eyes. Tossing aside the interference of the other wounds from her vision, she reconstructed the scene before her.

‘Some kind of facial makeup… Extremely distorted… Very deformed, and its eyes are of irregular size… Eerily uncanny…’

“I got it. It’s an isolation spell.”

“See? You got it!” An Qing smiled. “That damned rabbit found a way to access a powerful spell. He must be clinging onto somebody powerful.”

This particular isolation spell was very powerful; it can be used on low-levelled threats or other creatures to control them as well as completely cut contact and isolate a target.

‘Mr. Rabbit must have sensed that he was targeted, so he sent a pawn to test the waters,’ Jiangli concluded. ‘If that were true, then Mr Rabbit must be working together with somebody very powerful.’

The plan of using Yibei as bait could no longer be used, but he couldn’t be left alone either. It was too risky.

‘Should I let him stay in the Night Division temporarily?’

Knock, knock, knock!

“Helloooo?! Open up! I know both of you are in there! If you have the balls to use my godson as bait, why won’t you open the door? Hey!”

Silence.

“Fine! Don’t open the door! I’ll just sleep outside here and wait!”

Hearing Bai Kai curse them outside the door, Jiangli and An Qing couldn’t help but sigh.

“Open up!”