“Ah? This…”
Huo Wei looked at the Spirit Supervision Bureau identification almost shoved into her face, then at the stern-faced man. She was completely bewildered and only managed to find her voice after a while:
“You’ve got the wrong people, right…?”
They were indeed in the wrong regarding the matter of concealing a high-rank underworld spirit, but what the hell were the latter two charges? Were they really going to make them take those black pots too???
“This is the notification we received. If there’s some misunderstanding, you can explain it slowly after returning to the bureau. For now, please come with us.”
As he spoke, the man raised his hand and gestured to his companions behind him. Then he asked:
“Where is Zhuge Fusang?”
“Um, this…”
Everything else could be explained. White couldn’t become black, and if they hadn’t done something, no one could wrong them for it. After all, there were three living witnesses in their room. Anyone they pulled out could prove their innocence.
But there was no way to wash away the charge of concealing a high-rank underworld spirit, and the one in Fu Sang’s possession wasn’t even an ordinary underworld spirit.
It was the one-of-a-kind seventh-rank Crimson Evil that was enough to scare any Nether Path practitioner to death just by mentioning it.
If the Spirit Supervision Bureau and the Zhuge family discovered this, the reaction could be imagined.
Everything else didn’t matter. Fu Sang could handle it himself, but if something happened to Qi Changying, this person would definitely go crazy.
Huo Wei silently swallowed and quickly made a decision in half a second…
She slammed the door shut.
“San You, run!!!”
The man outside reacted quickly, immediately reaching out to brace the doorframe. The remaining three companions immediately came over to help.
Huo Wei’s strength as a woman naturally couldn’t compare with that of three tall men. She gritted her teeth and pushed against the door with all her strength. The ring on her left little finger responded to her thoughts and rapidly extended, transforming into an arm guard that completely wrapped around her arm and gave her several times the strength.
This was also one of the little things Fu Sang had made for her.
She had little strength. When she was around ten, if a bottle cap was even slightly tight, she couldn’t unscrew it. Every time, she had to get Fu Sang to help.
Fu Sang found it troublesome, so he made her an artifact that increased her strength while being extremely portable. He had maxed out its strength in one step. Leave alone unscrewing bottle caps, even crushing a skull would be no problem.
Huo Wei felt that this thing was very helpful to her goal of becoming an independent and clear-headed female protagonist, so she always carried it with her. Who would have thought that besides unscrewing bottle caps and moving heavy objects, this thing could now also come in handy in a situation like this, buying Fu Sang time to save his ghost life.
But even so, she couldn’t delay them for very long. After all, the members of the special task force of the Spirit Supervision Bureau were constantly out and about. What kind of troublesome people hadn’t they encountered? They definitely had more strange and bizarre artifacts on them than she did. When dealing with someone resisting arrest, they would certainly have their own methods.
Just as she had guessed, before long, Huo Wei noticed something light and airy wrap itself around her neck. Before she could react, the thing suddenly tightened and violently pulled her backward.
Huo Wei was yanked backward by that thing and fell heavily onto the floor, causing the room door to immediately burst open.
The artifact around her neck seemed capable of spreading and growing. After knocking Huo Wei over, it quickly bound her hands and feet as well, leaving her completely unable to move.
Actually, Huo Wei wasn’t panicking at all.
After all, the ghost wasn’t hers. As long as she stubbornly insisted that she didn’t know anything, and then explained what needed explaining later, no one could do anything to her.
As for Fu Sang’s own affairs, he could figure out a way himself. She had already done everything she could.
“You brat, I thought you had some great ability.”
The door slammed into the wall with a “bang” and bounced back open. The man in the lead stepped inside and looked down at Huo Wei from above, not forgetting to mock her first.
As he spoke, the man reached out toward her.
The hand was like an iron clamp, making Huo Wei instinctively turn her head slightly.
Huo Wei’s field of vision was limited, so she couldn’t see what was happening inside the room. But hearing no movement behind her, she figured Fu Sang should have already escaped.
Fu Sang had all sorts of strange and unpredictable methods. Although she hadn’t held out for long, she had more or less bought him some time. For Fu Sang, it should be enough. Presumably, that person was already running in the night and the wind of freedom.
‘…That heartless bastard. He slipped away without making a sound.’
‘Sister carried the weight for you this once. You better remember to thank me…!’
Huo Wei was originally engrossed in her brave sacrifice, but who would have thought that in the very next moment, her inner shouting would abruptly come to a halt.
All the fragmented thoughts and ideas in her mind seemed to be cleared with one click. She stared blankly, her eyes wide.
Because just before the man was about to grab her collar, she saw a pale, slender hand seize the man’s wrist, preventing him from coming any closer.
Huo Wei stared blankly and followed the arm upward with her eyes.
She saw the side of Fu Sang’s face, covered in a faint shadow.
“…You, why didn’t you leave?!”
Although she thought it was rather heartless of Fu Sang to quietly slip away, and she really was a little moved to see him appear and intervene now, at this moment, Huo Wei still preferred the former possibility.
“No need.” Fu Sang said calmly.
The man in the lead had his wrist grabbed by Fu Sang. Seeing how thin and frail he was, he assumed he didn’t have much strength, so he struggled forcefully. Unexpectedly, he couldn’t break free.
Before he could say or do anything else, Fu Sang swung a fist into the corner of his lips, knocking him back two steps. It was his companions that caught him so that he didn’t fall.
“Fuck…” The man steadied himself with his companions supporting him and immediately cursed:
“Zhuge Fusang, are you resisting arrest too?! Assaulting a public official…you think you don’t have enough charges against you already?!”
“No. I’m not resisting. I’m letting you arrest me.”
After throwing the punch, Fu Sang casually shook his hand.
“This punch is to repay you for your violent law enforcement.”
“???” The man thought this person was simply unreasonable.
“If she hadn’t tried to resist and help you escape, would we have touched her? I didn’t even touch a single strand of her hair the entire time. Where did this violent law enforcement come from?!”
“If closing the door counts as resistance, then how does letting her fall like that not count as violent law enforcement?”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly as he looked at him.
“Who knows what you intended to do when you reached out just now if I hadn’t stopped you? You can take measures against an escape that hasn’t happened, so I can demand an explanation for violence that hasn’t happened.”
“…”
The man almost laughed in anger.
He nodded.
“Fine.”
Then, wisely giving up on arguing with him, he gestured directly to his companions:
“Bind them and take them away.”
“…Hey, wait!”
With Fu Sang supporting her, Huo Wei got to her feet. Seeing that Fu Sang didn’t seem to want to run, she could only use the last bit of her energy to win him some room:
“You can’t just detain us because you say so, can you? Why are you saying we were the ones who let a ghost frighten ordinary people? Why are you saying we kidnapped Qianyi? The ordinary people who were frightened and Zhuge Qianyi are right here. At least give us a chance to explain, okay? And where did you even get the conclusion that we were concealing a high-rank underworld spirit? Is there an underworld spirit here? Is there any yin energy in this room? I’m telling you, if there’s no evidence, we’re not admitting to any of it! You can’t make us take this black pot!”
“Oh?” The man looked her up and down as though he were looking at a child throwing a tantrum and refusing to give in.
“Our Spirit Supervision Bureau definitely operates according to evidence and procedure. Naturally, our standard for arresting someone can’t be based merely on subjective suspicion. Since you say you have witnesses… Fine. Where are they?”
“They’re in the fourth room from the right across the hall. Go look.”
Huo Wei couldn’t move her hands or feet, so she could only desperately point with her chin.
The man looked toward where she was indicating with half-belief and half-doubt, then gave one of his companions a look, signaling him to go over and check.
Huo Wei’s back was still straight.
She felt that these people from the Spirit Supervision Bureau were simply inexplicable.
She wanted to find some common ground with Fu Sang, so she looked at him, only to see that his face was expressionless. He merely said:
“Actually, there’s no need.”
“Why?” Huo Wei asked strangely.
“Why do they get to say that we did those bad things? We definitely have to prove our innocence!”
“There is no innocence anymore. Since this black pot could be placed on us, it means the logic behind it has already been artificially smoothed out.”
“…?”
Huo Wei didn’t really understand what Fu Sang meant.
Until…
“So these two people used your child to threaten you, right?”
“Yes… It was these two who had a ghost haunt my child, threatening me and forcing me to tell them where my ex-wife’s father was. But I really don’t know… My ex-wife has already been dead for more than twenty years. I’ve never had much contact with her father. I told them this, but they didn’t believe me. They thought I didn’t want to compromise, so they began torturing my child even more severely. I had no choice but to run. I fled from Jinguan to Ganlan, and they followed me relentlessly all the way here.”
“No… Hey, Uncle! How can you do this?!”
Huo Wei’s eyes widened, her face full of disbelief.
“Wasn’t it your son who came running out, shouting and screaming because he was scared? We heard the commotion and came over to help after asking what happened. You need to have some integrity, okay?!”
“Wasn’t it you who had the ghost frighten him into that state, making other people think that our father-and-son pair was crazy and afraid to come to our aid? And then, taking advantage of the fact that we didn’t dare resist, you forcibly locked us in this room?”
“Huh?!”
Huo Wei couldn’t describe the shock in her heart.
“You’ve really opened my eyes!”
“…”
Zhao Yong’an lowered his eyes, avoiding her gaze and remaining silent.
Huo Wei stopped paying attention to him and continued struggling on her own:
“No… Where’s Qianyi? Where is Qianyi? She definitely wouldn’t lie!”
“What Qianyi?” The man folded his arms and leaned to one side.
“When our colleague entered the room, he only saw Zhao Yong’an and Zhao Xiaobei. Where was this Zhuge Qianyi? On the contrary, you two need to explain to us where Zhuge Qianyi is right now and why you kidnapped her.”
“I…!”
Huo Wei was about to argue again, but Fu Sang calmly interrupted her and said to the man:
“Enough. Don’t say anything more. No one will believe it anyway. Where are you taking me? Hurry up. I’m tired. I want to sleep.”
“?”
After working for many years, this was definitely the most arrogant suspect the man had ever seen. Bar none.
Huo Wei didn’t know whether she should be happy or worried now.
The happy part was that her wish had come true. They didn’t have to go to Jinguan, and she no longer had to worry about Fu Sang suddenly going after the old man’s life.
The worrying part was that the old man had played them, and the black pot on their backs was so heavy that they could barely straighten up. It looked like they were about to go sit in prison.
So how had things suddenly become like this?
Huo Wei sat in the Spirit Supervision Bureau’s vehicle and secretly glanced at Fu Sang.
Fu Sang was sitting beside her with his eyes closed, resting. Both his hands were bound by an artifact, and he was lightly tapping his fingers as though deep in thought.
“You’d better be thinking about how to clear our names,” Huo Wei said coldly.
“Unfortunately, I’m not.”
Fu Sang gently shattered her hope.
He was actually thinking about what Zhuge Lin wanted to do.
So far, there still wasn’t anything that had surprised him in the development of events.
Zhuge Lin had Zhao Yong’an’s family’s peaceful life in his grasp. It was completely normal for Zhao Yong’an to turn against them. Even their encounter tonight might have been a carefully planned stage play.
It was also easy to guess why Zhuge Qianyi had disappeared, because Fu Sang didn’t think Zhuge Lin was the kind of person who would hold an umbrella for someone else’s daughter just because his own daughter had been caught in the rain. If he had informed Zhuge Qianyi beforehand that it would rain outside and told her to bring an umbrella, then there was doubt that he just wanted to take the opportunity to snatch her umbrella and tear it to pieces.
Fu Sang simply didn’t understand the purpose behind all this.
If tormenting Zhao Yong’an was to vent his anger, and getting Zhuge Qianyi out of the Xuangu Mountain Range was because she was difficult to deal with while hiding within the Zhuge family, then why had he dragged him (Fu Sang) into the game now?
—- ‘…Now, the chess game has reached its end. Only the final move remains, and I need you to help me one more time, Zhuge Fusang.’
Zhuge Lin’s voice and tone surfaced in his mind again.
So what exactly did those words mean? What did he think he could help him with?
Divert attention for him? Interfere with the target’s judgment? To muddy the waters?
…No.
It wasn’t that simple.
Fu Sang frowned slightly.
He also remembered that the man had casually asked Zhao Yong’an what kind of ghost had frightened his son.
And Zhao Yong’an answered that it was a male ghost with black hair and red clothes, with a rune on its face.
Zhao Xiaobei had never seen Qi Changying and couldn’t possibly know what he looked like. Zhao Yong’an was even more impossible…he was a clueless ordinary person and couldn’t see anything at all.
This version of the story could only have been prepared for him in advance by someone.
Then that meant Zhuge Lin had always known of Qi Changying’s existence. He was laying the groundwork for something, deliberately directing the spearhead toward him.
Fu Sang’s eyes gradually turned cold.
Someone else was coveting his ghost again.
“What are these artifacts you carry with you for?”
After entering the Spirit Supervision Bureau, Fu Sang still didn’t get his wish to sleep peacefully.
As soon as he came in, he was handcuffed to a chair in the interrogation room, his eyes stinging so badly from the cold white light that he could barely open them.
The person responsible for interrogating him was named Liu Dongfeng. He held the snake-bone nail and human-bone artifact confiscated from Fu Sang and asked.
“Just some very ordinary things,” Fu Sang replied.
“For example?”
“For example, the nail is used to catch ghosts.”
“Mm.”
“I toss a coin when I can’t make up my mind, to ask Heaven for guidance.”
“Mm.”
“I use the ruler to measure lengths when I have nothing better to do.”
“Mm.”
“The doll only accompanies me when I sleep. I left in a hurry today and didn’t put any little clothes or skirts on it… That’s not strange, is it? After all, no one says a twenty-four-year-old man can’t have a girlish heart.”
“…Do I really look like an idiot to you, Zhuge Fusang?”
Liu Dongfeng listened quietly to his nonsense:
“Let’s put everything else aside for now. As far as I know, you used to be a disciple of the Zhuge family’s main branch. Later, because you were born unable to see ghosts, you were stripped of your status as a main-branch disciple. In other words, you couldn’t see ghosts before. So what use do you have for these artifacts? You can’t see ghosts, so how are you going to catch them?”
“Oh, that… Half a year ago, I met a wandering divine physician. He thought I was fated to meet him, so he casually cured me. Is there any problem with that?”
“You’d better straighten out your attitude, Zhuge Fusang.”
Liu Dongfeng’s patience was almost exhausted:
“What I can tell you is that the evidence we currently have is very unfavorable to you. Right now, I’m giving you a chance to make up for your mistakes as much as possible before you’re judged. If you cooperate, you might even be able to save your life.”
“Oh?” Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, leaned back against the chair, and closed his eyes for a moment. He was truly exhausted.
He lightly tapped his fingertips against the small tabletop in a steady rhythm, sparing a sliver of his attention to talk to Liu Dongfeng:
“Go ahead and tell me. What leverage do you think you have over me?”
Liu Dongfeng frowned and lowered his voice:
“At the end of October, you and Huo Wei went to the Black Mountain Pass in Qinxi. You destroyed an important formation there, very likely releasing an extremely vicious underworld spirit, and took away an artifact that had been suppressing it there.”
“In November, in the Jingda student serial murder case, you clearly participated in it but deliberately concealed your name. Later, you made a blood-oath curse with Zhuge Buhuo of the Zhuge family, forcing him to file the case under his name for you. We also learned from the roommate of the person involved in your case that you personally followed the entire case from the initial suspicion to catching the culprit. Before the case was closed, the murderer Wei Luyuan also gave you something. It was this coin, right?
“In December, you went to Yongfu Mitou Village and forced Zhuge Buyi of the Zhuge family to make a blood-oath curse, making him conceal your secret together with his older brother. After the case ended, you released a ghost to kill a middle-aged man named Chen Binglong and obtained this ruler from that ghost.”
“In January, you investigated a Gu demon with Spirit Path Chen Wuyue in the Miao village of Qianzhou. You once again made Chen Wuyue and her junior brother Yu Du swear a blood oath, then chased the Gu demon all the way from Qianzhou to Buquan Town in Subei, obtaining this doll from the Gu demon, and afterward continued making Zhuge Buhuo take the case under his name and act as your scapegoat.”
“That very night, the entire Nether Path underwent violent upheaval. The ancestor weeping coins in the ancestral hall of Xuangu Mountain Range rang for a full day and night. The Shaosi clearly announced that a seventh-rank Crimson Evil had appeared in the world. That was also because of you, right?”
“Speaking of which, you seem to really like making people swear blood-oath curses, Zhuge Fusang?
“You really are very capable. We can’t undo the curses you placed, so until now, we haven’t been able to obtain any useful information from those people you harmed. They fear you, and they fear your blood oaths. Until now, they haven’t even dared to imply a single bad word about you. They’ve even desperately tried to explain things for you, attempting to clear you of the evil deeds you committed and conceal the truth.”
“?”
Fu Sang laughed when he heard this.
He nodded.
“How clever of you. You actually know so many things. Then what do you think my purpose was in doing all these bad things?”
“When you were twelve, your master drove you out of the main branch. You must have hated them very much at that time, right?”
Liu Dongfeng narrowed his eyes, trying to see through his disguise and clearly see the vicious appearance of a fierce ghost beneath his human skin:
“Your personality is strange and obsessive. When you were five, you used an extremely vicious curse to harm a fellow senior brother. Later, your master locked you up for seven years, making your personality even more extreme and obsessive.”
“So you hated the people of the Zhuge family to the extreme. You wanted to use the ghost in your hands and these artifacts to set up a scheme, using a more complete curse or formation to slaughter the entire Nether Path, didn’t you?”
“Mm, more or less.”
Fu Sang opened his eyes and looked at him with a faint smile:
“You’re right about everything. That was indeed what I planned to do. Not only that, besides the people of their family, I also intended to kill everyone who had anything to do with the Zhuge family, including you, one by one, all of them.”
“…Obstinate and incorrigible.”
Liu Dongfeng sighed and shook his head:
“You’ve already been arrested, Zhuge Fusang. I advise you to quickly tell us the whole truth and tell us the whereabouts of the missing Zhuge Qianyi. If Qianyi can return safely, and the people above see that you have a good attitude toward admitting your mistakes, there might still be room for things to turn around.”
“I don’t need things to turn around, Officer.”
Fu Sang rejected his good-natured proposal:
“I think that while you’re being led around in circles by certain people, you may have overlooked one thing.”
Fu Sang’s dark circles looked even deeper beneath the cold light and shadows, making his aura even colder and more gloomy.
He leaned back lazily in the chair, raised his chin slightly, and gently curved his lips at Liu Dongfeng, revealing one of his sharp tiger tooth:
“My attitude is already very good. Otherwise, do you really think that if I hadn’t sat here voluntarily, you would actually have any way to deal with me?
“Or to put it another way, if I wanted to, do you really think that at this moment, you would still have the chance to be alive and talking to me…?”
