Otherworldly Merchant

It turned out that their police department had received an order from above, which notified them about a trainee coming to the department. The trainee arrived soon after the order was issued. The Chief didn’t carefully check his profile because he thought that no one would dare to impersonate a police trainee.

However, a few days later, the trainee submitted his resignation letter.

He resigned in the morning. In the afternoon, the Chief was notified by his superiors that the trainee had gone missing, so no one would be coming to the department in the near future.

The Chief finally recognized that someone had impersonated the trainee. However, since that man hadn’t done any harm to the department, he didn’t disclose the matter. He kept it hidden to avoid punishment.

After I listened to his story, I had a headache. There were two victims already, three if the missing trainee was also counted, and I felt that the number was bound to increase.

I advised the Chief, “You must hurry to find the missing trainee. Otherwise, he might not survive.”

The Chief nodded repeatedly, but I knew he was just pretending to care. The trainee went missing before reporting to the department, so he wanted to avoid the case at all costs. There was no way he would take the initiative to get his hands dirty.

Li Mazi was the most suitable to talk to these old officials. We had dealt with many officials in the past, and no matter how high their position was, we had managed to win them over with some flattering.

However, we had strong backing this time, and it was the officials that wanted to flatter us. Still, this didn’t make me happy. If possible, I would rather be the one pretending to be servile. The more power you had, the bigger the target on your back. Anyway, even if I was worried, I couldn’t act rashly. It was better to suffer a bit now and keep my head attached to my body.

While I was feeling sentimental, the Chief’s phone rang. After he received the call, he lowered his head and frowned.

He hung up and walked towards Senior Shu. “Senior, something has happened at the police department.”

We were all anxious. “What happened?”

The Chief took a deep breath and said, “There was a commotion in the morgue in broad daylight. It’s a long story, and I can’t explain it in just a few sentences…”

“Let’s not waste time then.” I made a quick decision and said, “Hurry, we need to go there and see.”

When we arrived at the police station, we saw a lot of people surrounding the morgue. Most of them were policemen, and some were the people coming to report stuff. They were discussing boisterously.

When the Chief saw the crowd, he was enraged; he stormed forward to shoo those people away. At the same time, he warned them not to disclose what happened today. Otherwise, they would be arrested for disrupting the public order.

After he had dismissed the crowd, the Chief looked for the manager of the morgue and asked for more details.

Uncle Liu, the morgue manager, also happened to be there. When he saw us, he fumed, “I trusted you and let you to take care of the morgue. Is this how you ‘took care’ of it?!”

When the Chief saw that Uncle Liu wanted to trouble us, he was furious. He rushed forward and started scolding Uncle Liu. Uncle Liu was speechless because he couldn’t figure out why the Chief wanted to protect outsiders like us.

I stopped the Chief and said, “It’s not the time to throw the blame around. We need to know what happened.”

Since I had just helped Uncle Liu, he appreciated that. He changed his tone and told us what happened.

Around half an hour ago, five people raided the police station.

They were all old men around seventy or even eighty years old. They had wrinkled faces and wore shrouds.

They moved very quickly, held a black umbrella, and carried a black lacquered coffin. There was also an old man playing funeral music. They stormed so quickly into the police station that the guards didn’t even have the time to stop them.

At first, everybody thought that they were the family of a deceased victim and that they wanted to trouble the police station. However, the group rushed directly to the morgue and kicked the door open.

After they went in, they threw the coffin onto the ground and mumbled something before leaving. Everything happened in less than three minutes. Before the policemen could even react, the five old men had already disappeared.

Old Liu felt embarrassed that such a strange event had happened under his watch. He locked the door again and tried to disperse the crowd around the morgue. However, the curious onlookers refused to leave. Feeling helpless, he called the Chief.

My heart skipped a beat. Those guys had actually taken the initiative to look for us. If I wasn’t mistaken, those guys wearing shrouds and holding umbrellas weren’t human.

I didn’t know their intentions, so I looked at Senior Shu, who had a face filled with worry. From his countenance, I could tell that the situation was really serious.

Senior Shu asked Uncle Liu to open the morgue. We all went in.

Before I could step into the room, I felt a wave of heat blow in my face. I was flustered. This place was a morgue, so where did the heat come from?

I knew it wasn’t normal and that it was related to what Senior Shu had told me earlier. He had warned that the ghost mark on my body would turn me into an easy target for ghosts. I got a hold of myself and gripped the Peach Soul Flower tighter.

The wave of heat disappeared in just an instant, getting replaced by bitter cold that chilled me to the bone. I had experienced this chill in Zhang Ai’s apartment before.

As soon as the lights were turned on, I gasped in shock.

A black lacquered coffin calmly lay in the middle of the morgue. The lid was thrown aside, and two corpses were squeezed in the coffin. Those were the bodies of the two victims of the Wordless Heavenly Book.

The corpses were still charred, and since they had been forcefully moved, they were broken in many places. The frost and ice on their bodies also melted, starting to drip down in the form of water.

“Five ghosts moved the coffin and captured their souls.” Senior Shu sighed. “It seems we don’t need to do anything. The Longquan Villa has already taken the two victims’ souls away.”

“Why did they take their souls?” I was startled and looked at Senior Shu.

Senior Shu answered, “I’m not sure, but I think they will use them to deal with us. Perhaps the two souls knew the weakness of the Wordless Heavenly Book, and the Longquan Villa was worried that we would interrogate them and learn something useful. That might be the reason they decided to take the souls beforehand.”

I nodded and thought aloud, “People from the Longquan Villa really are bold. They dare to send ghosts to the police station in broad daylight...”

Zhang Ai gaped and worriedly looked at me. “You mean… Those five were actually ghosts?”

I noticed that I had talked too much. I hurried to correct myself. “I’m not sure. It was just a guess. Don’t mind my words.”

Zhang Ai didn’t buy it. She turned to exchange looks with the Chief. They both looked terrified.

Senior Shu suddenly thought of something and hurried to check the freezer cabinets where he had stored the Wordless Heavenly Book. He was worried that the five ghosts had taken the Wordless Heavenly Book away.

It was good that the book was still in the fridge. However, in such a cold environment, it had shrunk a lot.

Senior Shu picked up the Wordless Heavenly Book and gently flipped through the pages, finding a black feather.

The feather was completely black and as thick as a finger. It exuded an ice-cold, black glow and didn’t look like the feather of an ordinary bird.

I looked at Senior Shu in hopes that he could give us an explanation.

Senior Shu held the feather in his hand and carefully checked it. He brought it to his ear and gently flicked it. The feather produced a rustling sound, just as if the wind had just blown through it.

He listened for a while, and his face suddenly turned ugly.

After he put the feather down, I asked, “Senior Shu, what did you discover?”

Senior Shu sighed. “It’s the Five Spirit’s Written War Challenge. Those bastards came to give us this written war challenge. We can’t afford to lose this battle as our souls would vanish. But if we win, this case related to the Wordlels Heavenly Book will be over. It seems that the people from the Longquan Villa couldn’t wait anymore…”

I was very worried. “Senior Shu, is it okay if we don’t accept this challenge? We just got here, and we don’t know the enemy’s capacity yet.”

Senior Shu shook his head and fell deep in thought. “The Five Spirit’s Written War Challenge isn’t like other challenges. The person who receives the challenge has only two options. First option, reject the challenge. In that case, they’ll be labeled as a coward, and it would be the same as if they’d lost. Second option, accept the challenge and use their abilities to overpower the enemy.”

Li Mazi was mad. “Damn, who created these stupid rules? It means we can’t even reject the challenge. How is this a fair competition?! Chief, you should arrest those people!”

The Chief gave an awkward smile and said nothing.

Since we were at a dead end, hiding wouldn’t help us. I turned and asked Senior Shu, “What are our chances to win?”

Senior Shu pondered for a while. “If I’m on my own, I would probably lose. However, if the two of us join hands, perhaps we have a chance.”

“All right,” I said. “The Longquan Villa has already backed us into a corner already. If we don’t counterattack, they will keep bullying us. I can’t let them have their way!”

“We should get ready,” Senior Shu said. “We still have some time.”

Then, he turned to talk to the Chief. “Chief, do you have the authority to carry out death sentences here?”

The Chief was puzzled, unsure what Senior Shu meant. However, he still nodded.

Senior Shu continued, “Where do you bury those criminals whose bodies are not claimed?”

The Chief thought then answered, “In a public cemetery not far from here.”