Night Investigation of the Yamen

Four days later, at midnight.

The main gate of the yamen was wide open, with no constables on guard. Inside, the candlelight was dim, with only one or two figures occasionally disappearing into it.

The figures were all ordinary citizens. Their consciousness was clear, but their perception was influenced by the tiger ghost, so they didn't think there was anything wrong with the yamen.

"Thirteen people in total."

Yang He stood in the alley, secretly counting the number of people inside the yamen.

Before long, some citizens emerged from the yamen in a daze. Because they were not recognized by the yamen, they could not accommodate the Chāng ghost.

After a few days of observation, Yang He had a general understanding of the yamen's rules.

As long as one entered the yamen at Zi Shi and lasted until the second day when the rooster crowed three times, they could successfully accommodate a Chāng ghost and become a constable of Peibai City.

If they were not recognized by the yamen, their relevant memories would be erased.

Although it wouldn't be fatal, damage to their yang energy was unavoidable.

"The number of constables the yamen is recruiting is getting smaller and smaller, and even some constables' Chāng ghosts have been inexplicably destroyed."

Once the Chāng ghost died, they would return to their original lives as if nothing had happened.

"However, judging from the surface, Head Constable Sun is indeed stationed in Peibai City and has not taken any actions that harm ordinary mortals..."

As Yang He pondered, he saw the Black Cat nimbly leap out of the yamen's courtyard wall.

"Heizi, how is it?"

The Black Cat was becoming increasingly intelligent, using the characteristics of the cat ghost to move through the yamen as if it were entering and exiting an empty realm.

Meow~~

Yang He heard the Black Cat's short meow and couldn't help but frown slightly. Heizi's meaning was that it hadn't found any ghosts inside the yamen.

"Let's go. It's not long until the next Lore World."

[Ghost Lotus: 1/3 (81%)]

Yang He looked back at the entrance to the marketplace. He could still see the lights inside, and the massive body of the century-old Treasure Fish lay on the ground.

Its partially exposed flesh was the color of white jade, its bones were like gold, and its organs vaguely resembled various gemstones.

In at most five days, the century-old Treasure Fish would be completely dismembered.

What kind of disaster would occur then was unknown.

Yang He suppressed his thoughts and walked out of the alley. The Black Cat quietly slipped into the shadow at his feet.

It was only a dozen meters from the yamen, and in a moment, he had crossed the threshold.

The moment Yang He stepped into the yamen, a bone-chilling coldness surged into his heart. Immediately, his heart began to pound like a drum.

"Ugh."

He let out a muffled groan. All the strangeness originated from the pupil ghost's fear.

The yin qi in his meridians was extremely chaotic, causing fluctuations in his three yang fires.

Yang He remained calm. Fortunately, the refining qi method taught by Grandmaster Taiyi was extremely exquisite, allowing him to control the pupil ghost to gradually restrain its aura.

In his Spiritual Vision.

The yamen had no ghostly shadows haunting it, but there were spots of various sizes on the surface of the building.

"Tiger stripes?"

Not only that, but even the plants were covered in tiger stripes.

Yang He frowned and subconsciously spread his palm.

He saw tiger stripes appear on his palm, moving between his skin and flesh. He could vaguely feel that the Chāng ghost and the tiger stripes were related.

"Hiss, didn't they say Head Constable Sun was already seriously injured?"

Yang He quickly withdrew from the yamen's area, and the tiger stripes naturally disappeared.

"I seem to have made a mistake."

"Since ghosts are already rampant, how can I understand this with conventional thinking? The cultivators in this world likely become more terrifying the closer they are to death."

No wonder the two cultivators didn't come to deal with Head Constable Sun. At full strength, they could only fight evenly, but when near death, they might be able to take on two.

"As long as the tiger stripes don't cover the entire body, the Chāng ghost shouldn't be born."

Yang He entered the yamen again, his peripheral vision constantly monitoring the tiger stripes.

In the pitch darkness, he couldn't see any ghostly shadows at all. This situation, however, brought him an indescribable terror.

Occasionally, he could see citizens standing there blankly.

As the tiger stripes spread across their bodies, their yang fire became unstable, and soon, they left the yamen with vacant eyes, returning the way they came.

"The pupil ghost leans towards support, tempering the physical body with yin qi, thereby deriving yin meridians. Therefore, I am more adapted to the birth of Chāng ghosts."

Yang He only felt a slight stinging pain in his head, which was not a problem.

Suddenly.

He stopped, breaking into a cold sweat, as he stepped through the corridor.

He saw that the training ground, where he usually practiced, was covered in strange figures.

Yang He gripped the copper coin sword at his waist and then realized the figures were wooden dummies, with traces of sword strikes everywhere.

However, due to their lifelike joints, it was difficult to distinguish them by silhouette alone.

"It's a bit unsettling not seeing any spirits and monsters at the yamen. Heh, I really want to slap myself for being so jumpy."

Yang He glanced at the tiger stripes spreading up his forearm and continued walking past the storeroom and kitchen.

Although he didn't know the layout of the yamen, places where official duties were performed were usually in the center, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

Not long after.

Several tightly clustered houses appeared before him.

Yang He's expression brightened, and he quickly pushed open the doors one by one.

The result was just rooms filled with case files from Peibai City's past years, with thick dust on the ground indicating they hadn't been cleaned in ages.

The tiger stripes had reached his shoulders, with a faint mark on his neck.

"If I really can't find it, I'll just come back tomorrow night."

Creeeak.

He opened the last door at the end, and a familiar stench filled the air.

Yang He's face fell with disappointment; what greeted him was the morgue, where ancient forensic examiners, the coroners, would typically examine corpses.

"Huh?"

He was about to leave when he noticed a corpse hanging in the corner of the morgue.

A century-old Treasure Fish's corpse.

The corpse was shriveled and withered, and the attached Hungry Ghost was nowhere to be seen, but he could see human-like limbs dangling from its abdomen to the ground.

Yang He's guess was correct; the Treasure Fish's origin was suspicious, perhaps even...

"Beast-making?"

A thought he couldn't suppress surfaced: could the Treasure Fish have been living people before? Were the two Hungry Ghosts in Peibai City here for the same reason?

While lost in thought, his left eye itched, and then the tiger stripes appeared.

"En?"

Yang He felt the tiger stripes on his eye, heard the whimpering of a cub, and turned to find that dozens of wooden dummies had appeared in the hallway outside the house at some point.

The wooden dummies were in various poses, their hollow eyes staring at Yang He.

"What the hell?!"

The wooden dummies had no yin qi; in Spiritual Vision, they were just ordinary objects.

Yang He's scalp tingled. In the blink of an eye, the wooden dummies seemed to teleport half a meter forward, and the cub's whimpering grew louder.

"These dummies are..."

Yang He tried to shift his gaze. When he looked back, the wooden dummies were already within ten meters, and fine tiger fur was growing all over them.

"Chāng ghosts!!"

"No wonder. How could Chāng ghosts appear out of thin air within a living body?"

"Head Constable Sun kept the Chāng ghosts on the training ground, disguised as wooden dummies. Once touched by a Chāng ghost, they would enter the body using the tiger stripes."

"How bizarre."

"Heizi."

The Black Cat leaped onto Yang He's shoulder, staring intently at the wooden dummies.

Although Yang He had countermeasures, and the tiger stripes were currently spread out, the yamen would undoubtedly become more bizarre as time went on.

He returned the way he came, but after only a few steps, he noticed a candlelight.

The storeroom, which had been piled with miscellaneous items, had transformed into a study, with the candlelight always lit. He could see a row of bookshelves against the wall.

The cultivation methods were likely inside.