Hu Jiu spent a sleepless night.
Early the next morning, he pulled open the curtains and looked outside. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and several sparrows flew past. If he ignored their deformities, it was a beautiful sight.
Chirp, chirp—
A lump of mud covered in bird feathers let out a clear chirp. As far as they knew, they were probably still ordinary sparrows.
If monsters were merely ugly but harmless to humans, there was no need to fear them. The deep sea was full of bizarre-looking creatures.
But these creatures carried supernatural contamination. In particular, if the birdlike ones flew out of the city, would they cause the contamination to spread on a massive scale?
Hu Jiu had not the slightest concern for the country or its people. Instead, he wondered how he could profit from this.
Later, he would look into the lunatics in the city who spouted nonsense all day.
The supernatural incident in Yuzhou City was extremely troublesome. One wrong move could destroy the entire city. With the situation having deteriorated to this point and the residents transformed into monsters that were neither human nor ghost, the place should have descended into complete chaos long ago.
Yet the truth was exactly the opposite. The city continued to operate in an orderly fashion, and the humans who had become monsters still believed they were normal, living their lives just as they always had.
There were, however, exceptions: people who had not been affected and could see the truth. Everyone in Yuzhou City had become a monster, and these people had seen through it all. But to the other "people," those who had discovered the truth were simply going crazy for no apparent reason.
The fellow Hu Jiu had encountered on the road yesterday had shouted plenty of nonsense before his car accident.
If someone suddenly saw that he and everyone around him had mutated, while everyone else remained oblivious and he alone noticed the change, his mind and psyche would surely suffer. It would be perfectly normal for him to go mad.
Hu Jiu wanted to find such a madman and learn what was going on.
When he left the hotel, the receptionist had already become a pile of abstract matter. White teeth scraped against mud, while two eyeballs swiveled around, scanning the "people" coming and going.
Today was the cultural festival. As Hu Jiu passed the central square, he felt as though he were watching a night parade of a hundred ghosts. Monsters dressed in their finest seemed to dance gracefully; it was probably a cosplay celebration. The eerie scenes overlapped and intertwined like a feast in hell, and with the giant puppet floating in the sky, nothing could have been more unsettling.
Standing among a crowd of monsters, Hu Jiu looked like the odd one out.
He tried to find a normal person, or at least someone relatively normal.
But there was no one.
Those taking photos, watching, cheering, and striking poses were all monsters. Flecks of mud fell from their bodies, leaving the entire square filthy.
Hu Jiu could not appreciate such underworld art and walked away. He wanted to take a look at the psychiatric hospital. Perhaps, when the supernatural phenomenon first broke out, someone who had seen the truth had been taken for a madman and sent there?
He easily forced his way into the psychiatric hospital, but he did not find the person he was looking for.
On his way back, Hu Jiu saw that the cultural festival in the central square had reached its climax. Countless humanoid monsters wrapped in mud had gathered in a circle, and standing in the middle was... a normal person.
Only on the surface, though.
He was a man of around thirty, dressed in a neat formal suit and surrounded by a conspicuous pink mist. Mud had gathered from all directions to form a raised platform beneath his feet. His limbs moved in ways Hu Jiu had never seen or heard of, flowing smoothly yet brimming with eerie charm.
The monsters below the platform waved their arms and danced along. In the midst of endless filth was a touch of delicate pink, the two forming a stark contrast.
Hu Jiu suddenly felt an urge to dance along with them. Something was very wrong. He lowered his head and stopped looking at the man.
Out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the mist spreading slowly, engulfing the monsters.
Monsters close to one another fused together, as though becoming human centipedes. The "centipedes," large and small, connected with one another and melted. The ground became a mire, and hideous faces surfaced one after another, seemingly wailing, yet seemingly enjoying themselves.
That man might be the culprit behind the transformation of Yuzhou City!
Today's cultural festival seemed to be some kind of ritual. Yesterday, Hu Jiu could still encounter relatively normal people in restaurants; now, he probably would not find a single one.
As for the purpose of the ritual, Hu Jiu could not guess.
The pink mist blotted out the sky and spread at a tremendous speed. Despite the Ghost Book's protection, Hu Jiu still used the White Sash to wrap himself into an airtight zongzi, reducing the strain on the Ghost Book.
To avoid the mire on the ground, he quickly entered an unoccupied high-rise apartment. After sealing the doors and windows, he watched from afar through the glass.
Layer upon layer of mud soon submerged the entire central square. The people who had gathered for the cultural festival became sacrifices, while an endless stream of residents converged on the square from farther away.
Gashes split open across their bodies. Beneath the cracks was no flesh or blood, only dark mud. More and more people entered the mire, their forms dissolving as they became part of it.
He could vaguely hear utterly chaotic whispers at his ears. They seemed to be some form of mental contamination.
Gradually, the mire began to draw inward toward the center. Its surface developed the texture of wood fibers, gradually forming an object resembling a cocoon.
The enormous cocoon twitched, as though it were gestating some demon capable of destroying heaven and earth.
The surrounding pink mist grew denser and denser, seemingly protecting it. The giant cocoon slowly condensed, eventually shrinking to a little over a person's height. Its terrifying aura surged, leaving even Hu Jiu, watching from afar, somewhat shaken.
The entire process happened too quickly, like a volcano erupting suddenly after building up to a certain point.
Crack—
Something struck violently from within. A fissure soon appeared in the cocoon, and a pair of slender hands reached through it and pulled hard to either side.
With a crisp series of cracks, the cocoon broke apart.
A naked, lean young man walked out.
The distance was too great for Hu Jiu to make out his face, but he glimpsed a familiar, bewitchingly brilliant blue. It was the fire refracted in the sunlight by the gemstone necklace the man wore.
"Yue Renchun, is that you?"
The young man seemed to sense Hu Jiu watching him and turned toward him. Pink light flashed, and he vanished, teleporting into the high-rise apartment where Hu Jiu was.
It was indeed Yue Renchun.
A smile hung on his pretty face, but it soon disappeared, because... Hu Jiu was not there.
The room was empty. Yue Renchun's expression grew grave. He could not believe that, powerful as he had become, someone could still slip away silently right under his nose.
"Old Hu? I know you're here. We've been through life and death together, after all. Come on out and see me, won't you?"
Yue Renchun waited quietly. He did not know whether Hu Jiu had already left; he was merely trying to draw him out.
"Cut the familiar act. I don't know you that well."
Hu Jiu's voice came from the left. Yue Renchun looked around but saw no one.
"Did you orchestrate the supernatural incident in Yuzhou City?" Hu Jiu asked, his voice sounding distant one moment and close the next.
"Don't go making things up." Yue Renchun flatly denied it, releasing a pink supernatural mist around himself, beautiful and eerie.
"Found you!"
He lunged toward the window. Though he could not see anyone, he could sense the presence of a living person. He reached out and grabbed viciously forward...
A beam of dim purple light shot out, freezing Yue Renchun in an instant.
Hu Jiu appeared with a cold expression, holding up a flashlight.
Yue Renchun's pupils contracted sharply. He strained to activate the various supernatural powers within him, but could only manage to move like a snail. It was better than nothing.
Hu Jiu looked perfectly composed, but inwardly he was stunned. He had thought Yue Renchun was long dead, yet not only was he standing alive before him, he could even resist the Eerie Flashlight's beam.
The ghost Yue Renchun had mastered was incredibly powerful!
Hu Jiu watched Yue Renchun struggle coldly. Only when his composure began to crumble and a hint of despair appeared on his face did Hu Jiu calmly switch off the flashlight, looking entirely confident and at ease. In particular, when he saw Yue Renchun retreat in panic, that false confidence instantly became real.
"It's a shame we had to meet again under these circumstances. Would you like to put some clothes on first?"
Hearing Hu Jiu's teasing words, Yue Renchun tore off a piece of curtain and wrapped it around himself, wary and uncertain.
"I thought you died in Longevity Village. Looks like... surviving a great calamity brings good fortune." Hu Jiu spoke evenly, his feelings complicated.
Seeing someone else profit was even more fucking painful than taking a loss himself!
Yue Renchun quickly regained his composure and smiled cheerfully, as though the embarrassment just now had never happened. "I was just lucky. It's nothing worth mentioning."
"Nothing worth mentioning? You've caused a tremendous commotion in Yuzhou City. Everyone in the city is probably dead, aren't they?" Hu Jiu felt that the incident could already be classified as S-rank.
"Headquarters won't find out." That was all Yue Renchun said.
"???" Hu Jiu raised an eyebrow. "How are you planning to bribe me?"
Bribe him? Yue Renchun smiled bitterly to himself. That option had not existed before. He had narrowly escaped death at the Peng Family Mansion and had been lucky enough to master several powerful fierce ghosts at once. Unfortunately, his condition was extremely unstable, and he could lose control at any moment.
He had secretly returned to his own base, only to discover that Headquarters had been so impatient to take over everything he owned that it had already sent someone. How could he put up with that?
As it happened, he needed to use some special methods to stabilize the fierce ghosts within him, so he took control of that little bitch Su Jinghang on the spot.
At first, he had not expected things to get so out of hand either. The Ghost Dance, Ghost Marsh, Chang Ghost, Peach Blossom Sha, and assorted other curses had tangled with one another inside him, searching for a point of balance. It was like kneading dough: too much water, add flour; too much flour, add water. One slip, and it overflowed.
The mud beneath the lake, along with the city's water supply and air, had all been contaminated by supernatural forces. The perceptions of residents who came into contact with them were distorted. They would never think of leaving the city and ignored every abnormality, maintaining a facade of harmony and peace until they finally became monsters that were neither human nor ghost.
Although many innocents had been sacrificed, that did not matter. Even if he destroyed a city while trying to master fierce ghosts, Headquarters would forgive him as long as he succeeded. Besides, Su Jinghang would take the blame for him. He had been manipulating Su Jinghang to jump around like a clown precisely to draw everyone's ire.
Yue Renchun had known Hu Jiu was coming while he was still on the lake, before his boat entered Yuzhou City. He had originally intended to gradually infiltrate and control him, just as he had done to Ye Songlan and Su Jinghang.
Unfortunately, he had never succeeded.
After successfully resolving the hidden danger posed by the fierce ghosts within him, Yue Renchun had thought he had reached the pinnacle of the country's supernatural circles. He had wanted to subdue Hu Jiu by force, only to be slapped in the face instead.
His inflated confidence was immediately knocked back down. Now Yue Renchun did not dare act rashly. Back in Longevity Village, he had already seen how mysterious Hu Jiu was, with one hidden trump card after another.
He had worked so hard to reach his current heights. Was there any need to fight someone whose capabilities he did not know to the death?
Yue Renchun quickly comforted himself and suppressed his feelings of shame and embarrassment. Smiling, he said to Hu Jiu, "Let's work together."
Hu Jiu thought for a moment and accepted the way out. He was not confident he could kill Yue Renchun; otherwise, he would already have struck hard and silenced him. "What kind of cooperation did you have in mind?"
"Now that Yuzhou City has become such a mess, someone has to take responsibility. The new person in charge, Su Jinghang, was eager for grand achievements and built a cult of personality around himself. He frequently showed off his power in public, but one moment of carelessness led to the revival of a fierce ghost, harming countless people. It was I, the former person in charge, who returned just in time, and together with Mr. Hu, turned the tide and resolved the crisis!" Yue Renchun spun his story meaningfully.
Hu Jiu smiled. "Very good, but I don't think Su Jinghang alone could necessarily have caused such a severe supernatural disaster. I suspect he colluded with Beifeng Commune and the Rose Security Company. These people had sinister designs and, to further their illegal activities, secretly tried to carve out a local stronghold, divide the country, and undermine national unity..."
Yue Renchun was startled and gave Hu Jiu a deeply meaningful look.
"If you embellish it too much, people will easily see that we're framing them."
Hu Jiu waved a hand. "That's up to you. After all, you can make an entire city's people act out a performance. You even had me running in circles. Don't worry. Headquarters sent me to investigate this time, and I'll cooperate with you fully on the investigation report afterward."
Yue Renchun rolled his eyes. He did not have enough energy to manipulate such a vast crowd; it was too difficult, at least for him as he was now. He had gathered the crowds using the cultural festival precisely to reduce the strain. Once the number of people under his control surged, the strength of that control would decline. He could only give simple commands and suggestions, allowing those "Chang Ghosts" to act on their own. The residents of Yuzhou City followed Yue Renchun's commands—they could not leave, ignored abnormalities, and continued to maintain normal social order—but otherwise retained a certain capacity to think. During this process, they might even break free of his control and regain awareness.
Yue Renchun would not reveal his weaknesses to Hu Jiu, though. Most of his energy was spent balancing the fierce ghosts and controlling Su Jinghang and the police officers to deceive both his superiors and the people below. When his attention was divided, oversights were inevitable.
For example, Ye Songlan, that ambitious little follower of his, had regained awareness and noticed something was wrong. Unfortunately, she had overestimated herself and gone in the wrong direction, drawing Yue Renchun's special attention once again.
Several of the ghosts within Yue Renchun targeted consciousness, and he had been trying to influence Hu Jiu ever since Hu Jiu arrived in the city. The water was contaminated, and eating food would expose him, but Hu Jiu had simply stood Sun Miao up at the meal he had arranged and had not even drunk a sip of water. The pink mist carrying supernatural contamination in the air had not worked either. All of this had already made Yue Renchun extremely wary, and after Hu Jiu's purple beam taught him another lesson, Hu Jiu's effortless manner had sent Yue Renchun's imagination into overdrive.
As the saying went, to go far, one had to travel with a group. Yue Renchun was more than willing to cooperate with a powerful person for mutual benefit.
Wasn't it just framing someone?
A small matter!
The two continued plotting carefully for a while. Yue Renchun did not ask why Hu Jiu wanted to target Beifeng Commune and the Rose Security Company, and Hu Jiu did not probe into Yue Yunchun's secrets either.
In the end, the two reached an agreement they were satisfied with.
Hu Jiu did not stay long. He turned and left, taking Wang Xianhui with him. She was a key "witness," and her statement might prove more useful than Hu Jiu's mission report.
Only after he had completely left Yuzhou City did he breathe a sigh of relief. Facing Yue Renchun, he had not actually been very confident. He had relied entirely on his air of mystery to project the presence of an "expert" and bluff the other man.
He did not know whether the supernatural contamination would spread through Wang Xianhui, nor whether Yue Renchun had some other scheme. Hu Jiu suspected that he had mastered the Chang Ghost, but he probably did not yet understand how much importance Headquarters placed on it.
To fly high, one had to fly alone. Though Hu Jiu was cooperating with Yue Renchun for the time being, he did not mind selling him out.
Once Headquarters learned that Yue Renchun was still alive, it would surely keep a close watch on him. For Hu Jiu, that barely counted as good news.
An extremely bizarre transformation was taking place in Yuzhou City's central square.
Yue Renchun stood before it as the mud beneath his feet churned and turned back into a marsh. Lumps of woody growth rose from the ground and became twisted, deformed "trees." Their branches grew and spread, bearing plump fruits. Facial features gradually emerged on the fruits' surfaces, turning them into human heads that laughed, scowled, and cursed!
The fruits ripened and the heads fell to the ground. Mud formed bodies, piecing together complete humans who walked out of the marsh. They were all residents of Yuzhou City. The dead city had come back to life!
A woman with graying hair stood behind Yue Renchun, her expression stiff as she respectfully held a set of men's clothes.
Yue Renchun gently stroked her face. "You wanted to be my sasaeng fan, so I'll grant your wish."
He changed out of the rag he wore as though no one else were present. A thoughtful look flashed through his lowered eyes. His ability to sense fortune and misfortune was warning him again...