Chapter 89: Five Days

What about the address for tonight?

Li Changqing sat on the sofa and spoke the words slowly.

He had considered many things. Aligning himself with a force like the Thirty-Six Bureau was not necessarily a bad thing.

Besides, so long as he was careful and did not reveal his zombie form, they should not be able to detect the corpse aura within him.

On that point, Li Changqing was quite confident. If Hu Xiong and the others had already sensed it, they would likely have stopped being polite with him long ago.

Not to mention...

With Hu Xiong’s style, even if he refused now, the moment the Thirty-Six Bureau needed him for something later, they would still come looking for him.

In that case...

The reserve members received no salary and still had to work for them. Letting them freeload like this—what sort of nonsense was that?

“Black Sand Tower. Call me when you get there, haha.”

Hu Xiong was in a good mood. After greeting him, he left.

Li Changqing remained on the sofa and rubbed his temples.

Tang Xiaoyu had not expected him to agree. “Li Changqing, didn’t you say joining the Thirty-Six Bureau would be dangerous? Why did you still agree?”

Li Changqing touched his nose and did not explain much. Instead, he said, “Don’t worry. It won’t affect our detective office’s business.”

Then he began rummaging through the cardboard box Hu Xiong had brought.

Very soon, he found a book called the Corpse Scripture.

He opened it and found records of all manner of corpse-fiends.

Zombies, golden-armored corpses, corpse ghosts...

A dazzling array of corpse monsters, nearly a hundred kinds in all.

He flipped to the page introducing zombies.

“Zombies are aberrations beyond the three realms and outside the five elements. In their early stage, they cultivate corpse resentment by feeding on human blood. Once they have reached a certain level, they seek an extremely yin location and absorb the essence of the moon...”

The section on zombies ran for seven or eight pages. Li Changqing scanned it rapidly.

Soon he found a description of the corpse-evil tribulation.

“The corpse-evil tribulation is the first hurdle of the three tribulations of a zombie. It is a backlash caused by the resentment and baleful energy accumulated within the body day after day and month after month.”

“The only way to resolve it is, before the corpse-evil tribulation arrives, to find a Devouring-Evil Insect and have it absorb the baleful energy away.”

A Devouring-Evil Insect?

He flipped through the book again, but there was no description of what this insect actually was.

He quickly searched the other books in the box, but still found nothing about the corpse-evil insect.

He searched all day long without any result, and by then evening had slowly arrived.

Putting down the book in his hands, Li Changqing glanced out the window and thought to himself that choosing to join the Thirty-Six Bureau might, after all, count as a correct decision.

At the very least, he needed to obtain information about the Devouring-Evil Insect from them.

He changed clothes and went to the living room. “Xiaoyu, let’s go. Time to eat.”

Tang Xiaoyu knew Li Changqing was busy with serious matters and had not come in to disturb him. Seeing him emerge, she nodded happily. “Okay!”

Black Sand Tower was very famous. It stood in the Silver Lin commercial district and housed a five-star hotel, restaurant, karaoke, and more all in one place.

Though slightly less renowned than Jintian Hotel, it was still among the top establishments in South Lin City.

When they arrived outside Black Sand Tower, a young male attendant in a suit and white gloves stepped forward with a smile. “Excuse me, sir, do you have a reservation?”

Li Changqing had already called Hu Xiong. Just then, Hu Xiong happened to walk out of the tower.

Under his lead, Tang Xiaoyu and Li Changqing went to the basement level. The basement had been decorated in the style of a classical hotel.

Descending the spiral staircase brought them into a lobby, where a beautiful woman in a qipao was playing a zither-like instrument.

The pleasant music lent the place a touch of elegance and antiquity.

The private rooms here were not large. When Li Changqing pushed open the wooden door, he saw an old man in his seventies with a head full of white hair seated inside.

The old man wore a black brocade suit, something akin to a Zhongshan jacket from his previous life, and was brewing tea. “Come in and sit.”

“This is our bureau chief at the Thirty-Six Bureau, Zhang Guichuan,” Hu Xiong introduced after bringing them in to sit.

“Hello, Bureau Chief Zhang. My name is Li Changqing, and this is my business partner, Tang Xiaoyu.”

Zhang Guichuan had kind eyes and a benevolent face. He looked up at Tang Xiaoyu.

Tang Xiaoyu was a little nervous. She was a ghost, after all.

What did the Thirty-Six Bureau do? Wasn’t it supposed to eliminate ghosts?

And the person before her was the head of that very bureau.

“I-I-I’m a good ghost.”

After struggling for a long while, that was the sentence Tang Xiaoyu managed to blurt out.

“Of course. Otherwise, you would not be sitting here safe and sound,” Zhang Guichuan said with a nod. He poured a cup of tea for both Li Changqing and Tang Xiaoyu. “I have already received your formal application to join the Thirty-Six Bureau.”

“Your character and qualifications, Hu Xiong has already told me about. As long as you pass the General Bureau assessment in half a month, you can officially become one of us.”

Li Changqing was somewhat puzzled. There was an assessment from the General Bureau as well?

Hu Xiong explained from the side, “In recent years, all kinds of sinister and unruly people have tried every possible means to join the Thirty-Six Bureau. People from the General Bureau will bring detection equipment for evil spirits and perform a special test.”

“This is also to prevent demons and ghosts from infiltrating our ranks.”

Li Changqing: ...

Why hadn’t anyone mentioned such a test sooner?

Damn it!

Li Changqing said gravely, “Bureau Chief Zhang, actually that application has nothing to do with me. Hu Xiong took it upon himself to fill it out. The reason I came today was to explain this to you. I do not want to join the Thirty-Six Bureau yet.”

Hu Xiong was stunned. What was Li Changqing doing?

Hadn’t he already agreed earlier?

Yet Zhang Guichuan’s face kept its faint smile. “I have already submitted the application to the General Bureau. The process has already begun. It is not something that can be undone just because you say you do not wish to join now.”

Li Changqing cursed inwardly. Damn it, was Hu Xiong going to get him killed this time?

He had never expected such a move.

“It should not be a problem, then?”

Though Zhang Guichuan looked like nothing more than a kindly old man, his eyes at this moment were as sharp as an eagle’s, seeming able to pierce through Li Changqing’s thoughts.

“No problem...”

At this point, Li Changqing could only say so.

“All right, let us speak of the matter at hand.” Zhang Guichuan sat a little straighter. “Within five days, I hope the three of you—Hu Xiong, Bai Chuan, and you—can determine what the people of the Mora Sect have come to South Lin City to do in secret.”

“Five days? Isn’t that a little too short?”

With such a brief span of time, it would already be difficult to find the others from the Mora Sect in such a vast city, let alone uncover their purpose.

“That is precisely why I came to you.” Zhang Guichuan pointed at Hu Xiong. “This fellow is too rough in his methods, while Bai Chuan is far too direct. Neither of them is suited to investigation.”

“You are the ideal choice.”

Zhang Guichuan was very appreciative of Li Changqing’s identity as a detective.

In his view, Li Changqing possessed the professionalism of a detective, making him the most suitable person to investigate this matter.