New Arc: Sloth
Chapters 33-53
“Good morning, Brother Buhuo!”
“Morning!”
Zhuge Buhuo had a cigarette dangling from his lips, smiling as he greeted passersby.
He had been in a great mood lately.
He had done basically nothing at home and still got credit for a major case worth one zhuan and three points…who wouldn’t be happy after that?
The sensational case of the female graduate student from Jingda was nearly wrapped up. That girl was ruthless; she had four large freezers hidden in her home, all packed with chopped-up body parts. The forensic examiners pieced together six young male corpses, and each could be matched to missing persons cases over the past four years.
Since the case involved supernatural elements like spirits and ghosts, it was secretly transferred to the Spirit Supervision Bureau. However, the only known witness…the killer, was already dead, leaving vast gaps in the case’s process and details. This left the Spirit Supervision Bureau at a loss and unable to close the case smoothly.
In that darkest hour when all hope seemed lost, Zhuge Buhuo made a dazzling appearance. He provided a PDF document that was a full 5MB, which solved the Spirit Supervision Bureau’s immediate crisis. It detailed everyone involved, the motives, the entire process, and all the causes and effects, even including thorough annotations on the forbidden techniques used. The Spirit Supervision Bureau treasured it like a rare gem and no longer had to struggle to fill in the blanks.
Due to the case’s special nature, involving many lives, spanning a long timeline, and involving forbidden techniques, it was recorded as a major achievement under Zhuge Buhuo’s name, making him quite the star within the family.
Zhuge Buhuo was very satisfied with this, so he unilaterally decided to wipe clean all unpleasant memories with Fu Sang and let bygones be bygones.
Now, even the wind felt sweet when walking around home.
After centuries of expansion, the main Zhuge family compound had grown enormously, like a large village hidden in the mountains, isolated from the world.
After all, they were raising generations of spirit masters. Anyone could do a reading, so even the stones here were carefully positioned for feng shui. With mountains, water, wind, and trees, it was a delight to the senses.
Of course, the good mood helped a lot too.
“Hey, Brother Buhuo! I haven’t seen Buyi around lately?”
A distant cousin of Zhuge Buhuo’s, from who knows how many branches away, saw him and called out.
“Oh, Buyi’s studying outside! He’s been busy this year and hasn’t come back much.” Zhuge Buhuo was a man of leisure and could chat with just about anyone.
As he spoke, he noticed his cousin coming from the direction of Yunling Mountain Residence, where things seemed lively, so he asked out of curiosity:
“What’s going on today? Why are there so many people at the Mountain Residence?”
Yunling Mountain Residence sat at the very center of the Zhuge family’s mountain estate, and only the most core members could live there, like the clan head, the heir, the senior masters and grandmasters, and the young masters for each generation.
Normally, the Mountain Residence was quite peaceful. There was only one thing that could make it lively: when mission postings were issued directly from there.
As a powerful family that practically monopolized the nether path affairs, the Zhuge family had long-standing cooperation with the Spirit Supervision Bureau. Most cases received by the Bureau were directly posted within the Zhuge family for junior members to pick up. The Mountain Residence usually didn’t handle these, unless a senior took on a case reported through personal connections and couldn’t be bothered to go out and deal with it themselves, so they’d hang it out as a small test to sharpen the younger generation’s skills.
Compared to tasks issued by the Spirit Supervision Bureau, the ones posted by the Mountain Residence were definitely more difficult, but the rewards were correspondingly more generous.
Just as expected, his cousin explained with a smile.
“This morning, the Mountain Residence put up a new posting. They’ve put up very few this year, and this is only the fifth, even though it’s already the end of the year…so of course everyone’s coming to see the excitement.”
“Oh? It’s been up since morning and no one’s claimed it yet?”
“Yeah, the location’s far…over in Yongfu. It’s probably difficult too.”
Zhuge Buhuo nodded.
He thought it over. He’d been idle for months now; it was about time to get out and stretch his legs. He could take a trip to Yongfu, see the sea, and earn a nice bounty and some merit points. It sounded like a good deal.
While he was still hesitating, his cousin gave him a nudge at just the right time:
“Why don’t you go take a look? That Jingda case you did last time was great—, you got a whole one zhuan three points of merit! If I remember right, this Mountain Residence posting is offering a hundred thousand plus one zhuan. With that extra turn, you’d be pretty close to a promotion, right? Do you have any thoughts?”
He definitely had thoughts, and he was genuinely tempted.
So Zhuge Buhuo shoved his hands in his pockets, walked over to the grey-white stone wall of the Mountain Residence, looked at the yellow-backed red-lettered mission posting, sized it up for a moment, decided it was doable, and without hesitation, tore it down.
…
“Ding-aling!”
The wind chime by the door rang, signaling a visitor.
Fu Sang lay on a bamboo lounge chair behind the counter, playing the Klotski game on his phone. Hearing the sound, he lazily called out:
“Welcome to OneShop. Funeral supplies are self-service; for other services, state your request and we’ll quote accordingly. What do you need?”
“I, I came to…”
The guest stammered for a long time without finishing his sentence. The voice sounded familiar, so Fu Sang glanced up from his game.
What a coincidence…it was a returning customer.
But the customer didn’t seem to be doing too well.
Yu Pingfeng stood in one of the few open spaces in the shop. His head was wrapped in gauze, his left leg was in a cast, and he was leaning on a cane. His back was hunched, looking a little awkward.
“What happened to you?”
Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly, making a rare show of concern.
“Oh, I had a little car accident a couple days ago. It’s nothing serious.”
The last time this person came to the shop, he paid money but didn’t get the answer he wanted from Fu Sang. He kept going on and on about how Fu Sang was a scammer and wished he could smash the whole place.
It seemed like life had taught him a lesson. He appeared much more humble when he stood here again after half a month.
“Oh. So what service are you looking for this time? Feel free to look around.”
Fu Sang stood up from the chair, stretched, and casually pointed at the huge menu on the wall.
“This time, I mainly wanted to ask the master to check if my malevolent energy has been fully cleared. And if not, if there’s any way to save me…”
Yu Pingfeng looked a little sheepish.
Last time he’d come to this shabby little shop at the end of the alley, the owner told him his younger brother was dead, and told him he’d face a bloody disaster. He didn’t want to hear it, called the person a fraud, and stormed off without a kind word.
But before even a week passed, he was proved dead wrong…
The police called him in to identify a body. When he asked for details, he learned his brother had been murdered by some girl he used to know, and the body had been stuffed in a freezer and hidden all this time.
It matched exactly what the shop owner had told him, down to the location.
At the time, Yu Pingfeng didn’t have time to dwell on it. He was consumed by grief over losing his only brother. As the only remaining child, he also had to comfort their parents and arrange his brother’s funeral.
This kept him busy for over half a month. Just a few days ago, he’d finally wrapped up the remaining trivial matters and was finally going to get some rest when he got into a car accident on his way home and ended up in the hospital.
He did get some good rest…just not very comfortably, lying in a hospital bed with a cast and his leg hoisted up.
While lying in the hospital recovering, Yu Pingfeng had a lot of empty time to think, and that’s when he finally had the chance to reflect on that inconspicuous little shop at the end of Blind Cat Alley.
What the shop owner said about his brother Yu Pingchuan was right.
And the “bloody disaster” the owner mentioned before he left had also come true.
Yu Pingfeng was terrified that the “malevolent energy” on him hadn’t fully dissipated and he’d run into more misfortune, so as soon as he was discharged, he came hobbling back on his cane.
Only after arriving did he realize it might be awkward.
He’d left on bad terms last time, so coming back empty-handed felt wrong…he should’ve at least brought a fruit basket or something.
Yu Pingfeng’s mind was in turmoil.
Fu Sang couldn’t hear any of his internal monologue. He just glanced up at him briefly and said flatly:
“Karma is a one-time deal; it doesn’t come in installments. This car accident of yours already settled whatever lingering karma your brother left behind. As for the rest…”
He paused mid-sentence.
As if sensing something, he stepped around the counter, moved closer, pulled a string of pendants from his waist and slipped them over his hand, counting on his fingers.
Soon, he lowered his hand and asked an abrupt, seemingly unrelated question:
“Do you have plans to get married and have kids?”
“Uh… yes.” Yu Pingfeng tensed up inexplicably.
“Twins are better than a single child, and a daughter is better than a son.” Then Fu Sang’s words jumped to something completely unrelated, “Was it you who reported the case to the Spirit Supervision Bureau?”
“Wh—what? Spirit Supervision Bureau?” Yu Pingfeng was taken aback.
“Oh… yes. I have a relative who’s also into this stuff. After you read my fortune last time, I mentioned it to him, and he said he could ask around through some professional channels to see if they could actually find anything, so that’s…”
“Never mind then.” Fu Sang nodded.
His original intention in handing this case over to Zhuge Buhuo was to pass it along and dissolve the karmic ties, since he’d been too involved in the matter. This way he could extract himself. Who knew that before Zhuge Buhuo could report it, the Spirit Supervision Bureau had already stepped in. The karma had never belonged to him. It circled back and returned to the very source of everything.
How was that not a form of fate?
“Boss, what you just said about the children…?”
Yu Pingfeng couldn’t care less about the Spirit Supervision Bureau; clearly, he only cared about the children.
“It means if you ever plan to have kids, an even number is better than an odd number, and a girl is better than a boy. Of course, you can’t control that, so if the worst happens…if your future child turns out to be an only son, then it’s best to have another, otherwise the child is likely to be frail, sickly, and prone to dying young.”
With that, Fu Sang picked up the payment QR code from the counter and held it up to Yu Pingfeng:
“Disaster prevention and life advice: three hundred for one session.”
This time, Yu Pingfeng didn’t question a thing and obediently paid. But after finishing, he still seemed reluctant to leave. He stood there hesitating for a long while before speaking again, “Master, I’d also like to ask if there are any services for guidance on wealth, health, and longevity?”
Fu Sang seemed to have heard a joke, so he told one of his own:
“If that kind of business could be done so easily, why would my shop still be at Blind Cat Alley instead of Tiananmen Square?”
“Oh, oh, got it, got it…”
Yu Pingfeng laughed a little awkwardly, and without saying anything else, walked away, leaning on his cane.
The shop fell quiet. Fu Sang lay back in his recliner, rubbing the bone coin in his hand, spinning it between his fingers as he played with it.
He looked down at the bone coin, lost in thought for a moment, then raised his eyes and let his gaze fall on another figure in the corner of the shop.
Qi Changying was organizing the shelves for him. This ghost probably had some kind of strange obsessive-compulsive disorder…he had to arrange everything by category, neatly aligned and perfectly straight. He had been working on it all morning and didn’t seem to find it boring either.
After staring at the busy Crimson Evil’s back for a while, Fu Sang closed his hand around the bone coin, looked away, got up, and pulled open the drawer beside him, grabbing a handful of yellowed paper pages from it.
The ancestors’ handwriting wasn’t very legible. He had been studying these few pages for nearly a month and still hadn’t fully made them out or understood them completely, let alone figured out the locations of the remaining five seals.
But one thing he could be certain of…
“The ‘Seven Watch Blood Crying Prison’ had one main formation and seven auxiliary formations. Since they came from the same source, there was bound to be an intricate connection between the main and auxiliary formations. Now that the main formation was broken, the seals on two auxiliary formations were broken, and the artifacts had been obtained by him, it was unlikely the remaining five seals would stay intact where they were.
Those seals must have loosened, or even all been broken open entirely. In the worst-case scenario, the ritual tools/artifacts suppressed within had all been scattered out into the world just like the bone coin.
Wei Luyuan, who had obtained the bone coin, had already caused quite a stir by learning forbidden arts and dismembering bodies.
He needed to find these things before they caused even bigger trouble. Whether he kept them himself or destroyed them, he absolutely could not let them fall into the Zhuge family’s hands.
Otherwise, those old foxes in the Yunling Mountain Residence would follow one thread of clues all the way back and eventually trace it to him.
Fu Sang casually picked up an apple and took a bite, continuing to flip through the tattered papers he had nearly memorized, trying to find some new lead from them.
Before he had even finished the apple, the phone by his leg suddenly rang.
Fu Sang picked it up and glanced at it, seeing a video call from Huo Wei.
She had recently gone to Yongfu on a whim and hadn’t shown up for several days.
Fu Sang casually swiped to answer.
“San You! Guess who I ran into in Yongfu!”
As soon as the call connected, Huo Wei’s voice burst out, and she turned the camera around with a grin.
“Ta-da!”
Fu Sang saw Zhuge Buhuo’s big face appear on the screen.
“It’s your nephew!” Huo Wei revealed the secret with a grand announcement.
“Get lost, who’s his nephew?!”
Zhuge Buhuo retorted in anger.
Huo Wei thought running into an acquaintance in a strange place was a surprise worth sharing, but clearly Fu Sang didn’t agree:
“Next time you go to the zoo and see a monkey’s red ass, are you going to video call me to show me that too?”
“?” The comparison was too brutal, and Zhuge Buhuo’s expression froze.
Huo Wei burst into wild laughter.
Fu Sang’s mouth could rival a restricted weapon, but as long as the blade wasn’t stabbing her, he could stab whoever he wanted, she was just here to watch the show!
Once she had laughed enough, Huo Wei changed the subject, “Alright, enough messing around. Do you want to know why I ran into him in Yongfu?”
“No.”
“Because he picked up a case posted by the Mountain Residence! The Mountain Residence only put up four cases this whole year, and this is the fifth one in his hand.”
“What’s it to me?”
“Hey, just keep listening. The key thing is, this time the case wasn’t signed off by the family head or those other old fogeys. This one went through the Shaosi’s channel!”
Hearing this, Fu Sang raised an eyebrow slightly and finally showed a tiny bit of seriousness: “The Shaosi?”
At that same moment, a cool sensation pressed up against him from behind, and Qi Changying asked, “What is the Shaosi?”
As he asked, he wrapped his arms around Fu Sang’s shoulders from behind and buried his face in the crook of his neck, taking a deep sniff.
“Holy shit…”
After a brief silence, Huo Wei let out a curse and instinctively reached covered the screen, but clearly it was too late.
“HOLY SHIT!!!”
An even louder curse exploded from the other end.
On the screen, Zhuge Buhuo looked like he was about to jump onto his chair.
“W-w-what the fuck is that thing?!”
