Conflict

Day broke, yet rain fell strangely, drizzling without end and filling the air with indescribable oppression.

Han Shanshan gave me a "special agent" badge and hung it around my neck with great solemnity. I guessed the Wang Household had tight security.

"Xia Yitian, take a look at this."

Han Shanshan nudged me inside the van. I followed her gesture and looked toward her waist and hips. It was a gun. It seemed Comrade Han Shanshan had been issued one too.

"If anything happens later, Sis will cover you first thing." Han Shanshan gave me a suggestive little giggle.

"Han Shanshan, your imagination is running wild again?" I sneered at her. Just don't make me protect you later. Look at how pale your captain is right now.

Huo Dadong had long since grown used to Han Shanshan's personality. Awkwardly, he said from the front, "Xiao Han, your Brother Xia is genuinely capable. Don't disbelieve him."

"Of course. He just knows how to mutter nonsense and extort people's money."

What kind of person was Han Shanshan? There was a hole in her forehead where her brains had been opened up. She had long since forgotten about being hanged by the neck in the bedroom last time and, even if she remembered, she would have decided she had merely gotten tangled in an electric wire.

She had not forgotten that I saved her, though. That showed she still remembered that I had accepted her thousand-yuan red packet.

I ignored her and glanced at the old man sitting steady as Mount Tai in the back. I felt a chill in my heart. The yin energy around that old man was truly no joke. I had no idea how he had lived to this age—he was even a forensic examiner. I could not help sweating for him.

Anyone who needed an autopsy had usually died an unjust death. For this old man to survive until now with such heavy yin energy was practically a miracle.

"This is Old Lin, our county's veteran forensic examiner. Old Lin, this is the Xia Yitian I told you about, Brother Xia. Why don't you exchange a few words?" Huo Dadong introduced us.

"Young man, your yin energy is awfully heavy." Lin Feiyu's first sentence left me stunned.

I smiled. I had been exposed to yin energy since childhood, so I was particularly sensitive to it. For him to see the yin energy on me at a glance meant he was an expert too. "Hehe, Senior, yours is pretty heavy as well."

Ever since the Ninth Princess had concealed herself and vanished, my yin energy had been exposed.

"Haha, you don't look like someone who makes a living at this, either. You didn't bring any equipment. Could it be that you practice some other unorthodox craft?" Lin Feiyu asked probing questions.

"Senior, it is an unorthodox craft." I thought about it. I was rather unorthodox myself, so I answered honestly.

"Mm, no wonder. What's your relationship with that Zhao Family boy?"

"Friends."

"Do you know what sort of people the Wang Household are? Do you know Wang Heng?"

"They sell coffins. Wang Heng is the head of the Wang Household, right?" I said after thinking it over. Zhao Qian had told me that the Wang Household sold coffins and was also highly skilled in the art of exorcising ghosts.

"You know that and you're still going?" Lin Feiyu found it interesting. The more capable someone was, the less likely they were to be possessed. What sort of person was Wang Heng? Someone who specialized in laying the dead to rest—and the head of the Wang Household at that. How could he let a ghost possess him?

I knew about the Wang Household's affairs and still dared to go. Wasn't that like a sheep walking into a tiger's den?

"I have to go." I forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"Oh? If you don't have anything protecting you, stay closer to me later. Your yin energy is even heavier than mine, so you'll easily attract that sort of thing." Lin Feiyu was surprisingly easygoing.

I nodded in agreement. When someone with greater status took care of you, that was simply a good thing.

"Old Lin, what sort of thing are you talking about? A ghost?" Han Shanshan asked curiously.

"Girl, it has nothing to do with you. Asking fewer questions will do you good." Lin Feiyu spoke with a solemn expression.

"Fine, I won't ask." Han Shanshan immediately pouted, looking as if she did not care to listen anyway.

The vehicle quickly turned into the hospital's rear morgue. Before it had even stopped, the scene before me startled me badly!

A huge crowd stood bustling in front of the morgue, as though they were holding a market fair. Quite a few of the younger generation were tattooed, and none of them looked like good people.

"A gang of thugs, is it? Just look at the sort of people the Wang Household's coffin business has raised." Huo Dadong spat and glared at the few young men blocking the way.

No wonder they had been issued guns. So the Wang Household had this sort of background too.

"Make way!" Han Shanshan shouted fiercely, her brows knitted.

The young men all looked unwilling to move, but soon a burly middle-aged man shoved through the crowd and came over, cursing. "Damn it, move aside! Can't you see Brother Huo is here?"

"Wang Dong, you've grown bold, haven't you? You dare have people block the hospital's rear entrance?" Huo Dadong frowned, opened the car door, and got out immediately.

"How could I dare, Brother Huo? Once my elder brother left, these boys stopped listening. Don't take offense." Wang Dong looked apologetic, but there was not the slightest trace of apology in his eyes.

Wang Dong was Wang Heng's younger brother. His elder brother was the bona fide heir to the Wang Household's coffin shop in the Arcane Sect, while Wang Dong managed a gang of idlers from society's forgotten corners and engaged in shady dealings. He was quite the oddball.

The female relatives and family members were crying at the morgue entrance. A pitch-black coffin had been placed across the doorway, blocking the path, and ghost money was scattered all over it. The scene was extremely eerie. Wreaths stretched for more than ten meters, creating quite a spectacle.

"Brother Huo, you can see it yourself. My elder brother kindly went to lay the Zhao Family's dead to rest and even picked out the finest coffin. In the end, that Zhao Family boy came home drunk and beat my brother to death. If you won't uphold justice for me, I'll uphold it myself." Wang Dong spoke with proper manners, but his words carried a veiled threat.

Huo Dadong immediately glared at Wang Dong. "You'll uphold justice? Go ahead! I'll sweep you all in with one burst! Do you think I'm not annoyed enough already?"

"How could I dare? Well, Brother Huo, why don't you go take a look first? My father said this matter might be difficult to handle. Even if my brother is put in the coffin, he still can't move on. He said something has blocked him completely." Wang Dong's expression had been fairly normal, but it changed as soon as he finished speaking.

"What do you mean, difficult to handle? Stop giving me the runaround." Captain Huo's brows drew tightly together. He was getting exactly what he had feared.

"A-Dong, why are you arguing with Little Huo? Let your Uncle Lin come in!"

Just as the two were trading blows with their words, an aged voice came from behind the crowd.

Dong did not dare delay. He waved his hand and had his brothers open a path.

At the morgue entrance, an old man from the Wang Household sat in a grand armchair, his arms folded and his brows wrinkled like tiger hide. I guessed he was at least eighty, yet he was built like a young ox.

"Little Lin?" The old man from the Wang Household looked toward the police vehicle.

"Brother Wang, I'm here." Lin Feiyu squeezed his slightly thin body out and got down from the vehicle carrying a metal briefcase. He was quite respectful toward the old man from the Wang Household.

"I knew you'd be the one coming. Aside from you, no one else at the bureau is up to it." The old man from the Wang Household pursed his lips toward the morgue door.

We went around the crowd and all looked toward the entrance. The instant we saw it, we were shocked.

The door was covered with dog teeth and pasted all over with talismans. A thick layer of blood stained the ground, and when I swept my gaze to the side, I saw two dead black dogs whose teeth had been pulled out.

The black dogs were one large and one small. The larger one had only had its teeth pulled, while the smaller one had merely been bled. The teeth hanging above the door were probably from the old black dog, while the blood was that of a black dog that had kept its virgin purity—used to suppress evil and shake off baleful intent.

"Brother Wang, you're too kind." Lin Feiyu looked at the situation before him, and cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.

"I don't have much to say. We've known each other for a long time. I only wanted to tell you to be careful." The old man from the Wang Household gave a cold laugh.

"Brother Wang, is there something you'd like to tell your younger brother?" Lin Feiyu's expression remained as still as an ancient well, but his heart could not help pounding.

"Tell you something? You and I both know what sort of goods the Zhao Family are. They arrange feng shui and help people avert disasters. Although a little Zhao girl who understood feng shui and could drive away evil appeared in the past two years, hehe, they still couldn't cast curses or play with ghosts." The old man from the Wang Household spoke as though he knew the Zhao Family inside out.

The little Zhao girl he mentioned should have been Zhao Qian. Aside from her knowing a little about exorcising evil and feng shui, no one else in the Zhao Family knew anything.

"That's true. Then, Brother Wang, what do you mean?" Lin Feiyu asked tentatively.

"What do I mean? Since the Zhao Family doesn't understand exorcism, they should get the hell out of here and let someone who does come! They let some grandson ruin my son's life! What the hell is that supposed to mean? Are the four families trying to become three? And they even brought someone here to casually take over my turf? Can he suppress it?" The old man from the Wang Household's face instantly flushed red, and he shot to his feet!

The dozen or so young men nearby immediately reached for the steel rods and blunt weapons at their sides, their expressions turning hostile.

When Huo Dadong and the other criminal police officers saw the old man's display, they all backed away a step. Even Han Shanshan could not help placing a hand on her hip.

Lin Feiyu's face turned slightly pale. He sighed. "Brother Wang, how could we consider so many things while saving someone? The Zhao girl was facing a life-or-death crisis at the time. Wouldn't the Zhao Family boy have had to strike hard? He didn't know Ah Heng had borrowed someone's body. If you want to blame someone, blame the person who cast the curse. Besides, what are you angry with me for? Back in the old days, I was only a coroner. What sort of situation could I suppress? I'm just here to clean up afterward."

"Haha... hahaha, Little Lin, you're right. Well said. But don't underestimate your Brother Wang, either. Your elder brother isn't muddled enough to ruin our relationship."

The old man from the Wang Household had been staring fixedly at Lin Feiyu, but his eyes slowly shifted toward me instead. His knotted brows twisted together. "You came on behalf of that little Zhao girl, didn't you? I'll see what you're capable of! Whether you can withstand my Wang Household's fury! Whether you can withstand her Zhao Family!"

The surrounding thugs followed the old man's gaze and swished their eyes toward me. I furrowed my brows, feeling a chill run down my spine. It seemed this old man already knew about my relationship with Zhao Qian. That made sense, though. I had spent all of yesterday wandering around the Zhao Family estate with Zhao Qian. With that girl's reputation, it would have been difficult for me not to become known.

In an instant, he had exposed me under the broad daylight, even though a misty rain was still falling. Old man Wang was comfortable enough, but I certainly was not.

"Old Wang, I don't understand the affairs between your two families, nor do I want to get involved. Since this matter has gotten off to a bad start and can't be reconciled, the two of you can fight it out however you like. Even if the four great Arcane Sect families fight until only three remain, it has nothing to do with me. However, Zhao He and Zhao Qian of the Zhao Family are both my good friends in private. If anything happens to them, I feel that I may have to protect them. Old Wang, don't you think that's only reasonable?" I stared lazily at the old man from the Wang Household, my face expressionless.