Chapter 22: We Must Request Reinforcements from Headquarters

"No!" the Taoist in the green robe cried out in alarm.

He cast a spell with lightning speed. "Offered by incense, protect me and keep me safe!"

A mournful sigh echoed beside him. The dissipated, green-faced, fanged monkey spirit reappeared, shielded by a dense shroud of incense smoke.

"You demons and monsters, how dare you act so presumptuously before me!"

Chen Fan chuckled softly. "A wild mountain god dares to call himself a god? Before you were fed with incense, how were you any different from my ghost spirits?" He paused, looking at the apparition with interest. "Though I must say, I am impressed that you dared to manifest your true soul."

A wild mountain god typically manifests through the incense they collect. If the supply is insufficient, they must descend using their true soul. If that soul were destroyed, as it nearly was just moments ago, the mountain god would truly perish.

"Hmph!" The monkey spirit remained silent, reaching out to claw at the ghosts.

The moment the incense touched the ghosts, a searing steam hissed into the air. The monkey spirit grimaced in agony, as if it were clutching red-hot iron rods rather than spirits.

"Kill," Chen Fan said, his voice indifferent.

The other ghosts abandoned their pursuit of the green-robed Taoist and lunged at the monkey spirit. Under the relentless assault, the spirit let out a howl of pain. Chen Fan ignored the mountain god and turned his gaze to the back of the green-robed Taoist.

They came to kill him, yet they thought they could simply leave? Was his temper really that gentle?

Chen Fan pinched a seal with one hand, aiming the hollow space between his fingers at the Taoist’s back. "With heaven and earth as the guide, purge the sins of the world, and enter the eternal bliss of paradise."

The green-robed Taoist suddenly froze. He stared at the empty corridor before him, his eyes filled with a fanatical glint. He grinned, "Treasures! All treasures! They’re mine! They’re all mine!"

He lunged forward, embracing the thin air and rolling on the ground. His face flushed an ever-deepening shade of red; even from a distance, the frantic thumping of his heart could be heard. As his pulse peaked, a dull thud sounded from within his chest.

"No!"

The monkey spirit’s green face twisted in a hideous display of rage, but restrained by the ghosts, it could not move. It could not even return its soul to its body to escape.

"Who sent you to kill me?" Chen Fan asked coldly.

"Die! Die! Die!" The monkey spirit roared in grief and fury. Disregarding its remaining incense, its soul body began to swell and rupture.

Chen Fan frowned, immediately recalling his ghosts as a wave of righteous energy swirled around him. The monkey spirit exploded in an instant, its soul energy sweeping through the surroundings. A soul—especially that of a cultivator—is not as fragile as rumors suggest. A soul explosion can directly impact the spiritual bodies of others, causing anything from temporary stupor to permanent shattering of the soul, leaving the victims as mindless husks.

As the spiritual tremors subsided, Chen Fan withdrew his righteous energy. The monkey spirit had vanished, and he shook his head slightly. "What a pity. The mountain god is dead. If you had told me who wanted me dead, I might have kept you as one of my ghosts."

Ever since arriving at the hotel, he had sensed that there were two distinct factions at play—one trying to deal with him, and another trying to use him. He looked at Zhao Kai and Fu Yinghui, who were cowering in the corner. Their expressions were frozen, their features twisted in extreme terror.

"Scared to death?" Chen Fan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. "No, their souls have been scattered."

He crouched down to examine them closely. To a forensic expert, the dead speak; to a master of geomancy, the dead never lie. "The time of death was after I destroyed the Bodhisattva of Seeking. They weren't scared to death; they were murdered..."

Chen Fan frowned. It was true that the Zhao family intended to harm the Fu family, but how could a bankrupt family recruit so many evil cultivators? And the moment the Bodhisattva of Seeking died, these two were silenced. It seemed this matter was far from simple.

Chen Fan glanced at the window; several patrol cars were already arriving below. "Time to go."

He formed a simple hand seal and walked toward the exit. He brushed past the officers rushing upstairs, but they looked straight through him, as if he were invisible.

***

In a Taoist temple deep in the mountains, Jiang Yueshan waited anxiously. Seeing the incense before the mountain god's stone statue burn out, he quickly lit new sticks. The moment they were placed, a strange sound emanated from the statue.

"Mountain God, forgive me! Mountain God, forgive..." Jiang Yueshan dropped to his knees, but as he looked up, he saw the stone statue crack. Then, before his eyes, it crumbled.

"How... how is this possible?!"

***

At the hotel, the bodies lay in pools of blood, yet they bore no visible wounds.

"The Special Investigation Unit is taking over from here." A man and a woman ducked under the police tape and walked inside. The woman wore a professional suit, looking sharp and capable. Behind her followed a young man in a white T-shirt and jeans, carrying an old peach-wood sword on his back.

She flashed her credentials. "Special Investigation Unit, Yu Yu."

The Qingcheng police captain sighed helplessly. "Yu Yu, is this another supernatural incident?"

"Regrettably, yes," Yu Yu replied coolly. "Qingcheng has been chaotic lately. Yesterday, a basement that shouldn't have existed was discovered at the First Hospital, along with a corpse. Within the hour, there was a death and a fall at the newly completed tower."

"The scene is yours," the captain said.

Yu Yu nodded and walked into the hotel with the young man. The heavy scent of blood made her frown.

"An evil cultivator's technique—the Four-Direction Blood Prison," the man with the peach-wood sword murmured. "Anyone who enters this place is trapped by thick blood, unable to escape."

"These two... they were scared to death, and their souls were scattered afterward," the man added. "And this one... his face is purple. He died of a ruptured heart. Internal injuries?"

Yu Yu frowned. "Can you identify which sect did this?"

The man with the sword shook his head slightly. "I can't be sure, but... Yu Yu, we need to request reinforcements from headquarters."