Another coarse, gravelly voice cursed darkly:
"Idiot! How can mortal flesh-and-blood eyes peer through yin and yang and see our true forms? Unless his fate has run out and he is about to die..."
"But..." The lanky "constable" from before pointed at Mo Hua. "Big Brother, look. Isn't that brat staring right at us?"
The constable addressed as Big Brother had a human-shaped body but a head like an ox's—though it seemed not to have fully evolved. It had two bovine eyes, yet only one horn. Towering in stature, its eyes brimmed with viciousness.
It turned to look at Mo Hua and indeed saw that Mo Hua's clear eyes were calmly fixed upon them. Its pupils widened.
Then Mo Hua actually opened his mouth and asked, "What kind of ghosts are you? Are you local to Kun Province?"
The four constables were instantly shocked and enraged.
"He really can see us!"
"A mere mortal child, so rude and arrogant!"
"Only Underworld Constables question the living. Never has anyone dared open their mouth and question an Underworld Constable! He truly doesn't know whether he lives or dies..."
"Big Brother..." Of the four constables, the skinniest one turned to the ox-headed Underworld Constable and asked, "How about..."
It gave him a savage look.
The malformed eyes of the ox-headed Underworld Constable shifted as it considered, "We couldn't find that wild ghost. We won't be able to account for it when we return, and we'll surely be punished. We need to find a Substitute Ghost... This brat can see us Underworld Constables. His lifespan must be nearly exhausted, and his day of death is close at hand—that must be why his yin-yang eyes have opened. He is meant to be this Substitute Ghost."
The skinny Underworld Constable drooled. "This brat is rather plump.