I Can Take It from Here-Leave It to Me!

I Can Take It from Here—Leave It to Me!

Jiang City, Seventh Satellite City.

Faint sobbing echoed through a secluded little building in the suburbs. The sky had already grown dim, and the surrounding trees cast the place in an especially eerie gloom.

With a sputter, a white electric scooter pulled up outside the building and parked neatly in an empty space. The young man swung off, removed his little helmet, and shook out his hair.

His short, choppy hair was about an inch long, and his bangs fell between a pair of sharp brows. They did nothing to conceal his high brow ridge, which accentuated his deep-set, star-bright eyes. With a straight nose and smooth features, his face was flawless.

If handsomeness had levels, this man had at least reached the Great Perfection of the Yanzu Realm.

The young man looked up and saw a middle-aged man in a suit waiting below. He raised a hand in greeting. "Good evening, boss. I'm Yue Wen, head of Yue's Cultivation Firm."

"M-Master Yue."

The middle-aged man was short, with a buzz cut and a bald spot on top. His suit was wrinkled inside and out, and his face bore the worn, weathered look common to overworked wage slaves.

After greeting the young man, he asked, a little doubtfully, "Can you really handle the evil spirit all by yourself?"

"Just call me Xiao Yue." Yue Wen smiled. "Our firm charges very little, but we're absolutely reliable. Leave it to me, and you can relax."

"That's good." The middle-aged man nodded, though he still seemed uneasy.

It wasn't hard to understand his concerns. After all, Yue's Cultivation Firm charged far less than the other Qi Refiner outfits. He'd only called after seeing one of their little ads on a utility pole.

And the person they'd sent was an absurdly handsome young man—not exactly the sort of person a client would instinctively trust.

Yue Wen, however, looked confident enough. He strolled casually toward the building. "You didn't explain everything over the phone. Give me the full story."

"Uh, sure." The middle-aged man followed him, glancing warily upstairs before explaining, "My surname's Chen. I'm a property manager at Six Nine Same City."

"This building is a new property our company just acquired. Usually, companies don't buy properties on their own, since it's risky. But the previous owner was desperate to sell, and the price was low, so I suggested the company buy it. We figured we could renovate it and sell it off gradually for a much better profit."

"Then, when the renovations started, we found out something was wrong. Evil spirits haunt this building at night! I'd only ever come to see it during the day, so I never noticed." Manager Chen wore a pained expression. "My boss is breathing down my neck. If we don't sort this out within a week, I'll be fired."

Yue Wen nodded. No wonder he'd called him.

Apparently, his boss hadn't given him much of a budget.

Yue's Cultivation Firm was unknown in Jiang City, but it was cheap—just the thing for a wage slave on a budget.

"The workers never got a good look at the spirit. They only know it appears and disappears without a trace, and that it attacks people out of nowhere. If there hadn't been so many people around, someone might've gotten hurt. But since there haven't been any casualties, our case is stuck in the Supervision Bureau's queue. It could take them a month to get to it..."

"This place is almost on the edge of the Wasteland Zone, and it's not considered a major supernatural incident. The Supervision Bureau has its hands full, so it's bound to be near the bottom of the list." Yue Wen nodded, then asked, "Have you talked to the neighbors?"

Manager Chen pointed into the distance. "Before buying a property, we usually ask the neighbors if they've noticed anything unusual. But the houses here are far apart, so they don't know much. And afterward, we learned the previous owner had given the nearby neighbors some fruit ahead of time and asked them not to say anything bad."

"So the old fruit-basket trick?" Yue Wen chuckled.

"But if the neighbors don't know anything, it means the spirit's been pretty comfortable inside the building. It doesn't sound much like a demon. Could be a nightmare spirit." He turned around. "We'll have to go inside and take a look."

"I have to go in too?" Manager Chen jolted.

"I'll need to shut all the doors and windows in a bit. If you stay outside, I won't be able to keep an eye on you," Yue Wen said.

"Then..." Manager Chen stood stiffly for a moment before mumbling, "I'd better come in with you."

It was already dark. Standing alone outside the building was creepy enough.

Who knew if the evil spirit might come outside?

He unlocked the door, then immediately slipped behind Yue Wen.

Yue Wen, on the other hand, strode right in without a care and looked around. The place was furnished with solid wood furniture and elaborate carvings, giving it the unmistakable feel of a nouveau riche family's home from twenty years ago.

"Close the door. Don't turn on the lights. We don't want to spook it," Yue Wen said.

Manager Chen pressed himself against the wall and whispered, "How are we supposed to find the evil spirit in the dark?"

His human instincts told him that a brightly lit room would feel much safer.

"Relax." As he spoke, Yue Wen pulled a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on.

Manager Chen stared. It was already dark in there, and the guy had put on sunglasses?

Was he a rapper or something?

"These might look like sunglasses, but they're actually a Demon-Slaying Mirror," Yue Wen explained. "They let me perceive an evil spirit's aura in the dark and see through its origins, so it can't hide."

When Manager Chen heard it was a magical artifact, his expression immediately turned reverent.

The windows in the building all had heavy curtains. Once the door was closed, not a single trace of daylight remained. The room was pitch-black and silent.

After Yue Wen put on the Demon-Slaying Mirror, mist began to rise throughout the first-floor hall in his vision. He slowly walked deeper inside. Wherever he looked, the air was filled with gray fog.

Manager Chen stood by the door, too afraid to move forward. Unable to see the gray mist, he could only ask anxiously, "Where's the evil spirit?"

"I don't know yet." Yue Wen shook his head. "This nightmare spirit has quite a strong mental force. Its yin energy is everywhere."

"What do we do?" Manager Chen panicked.

"Relax." Yue Wen raised his left hand, revealing the watch on his wrist. "This may look like a watch, but it's actually a Spirit-Tracking Needle. It can track fluctuations in spiritual energy. As long as that nightmare spirit moves around inside, I can pinpoint its location!"

As he spoke, he seemed to activate the watch. A faint light appeared on its face, and amid the shimmering glow, the needle began spinning rapidly.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

After spinning around a few times, it pointed toward the staircase, then quickly shifted toward the front door.

"Did you find out where it is?" Manager Chen asked, his voice trembling.

"I did." Yue Wen glanced at him. "It's behind you."

"Huh?" Manager Chen froze.

In the next instant, a mass of black shadow suddenly emerged beside him. Several tentacle-like appendages shot out, wrapping around his body and throat.

Thud!

His throat was abruptly seized, and his whole body lifted into the air. As he began to suffocate, his limbs flailed wildly. He waved his right hand toward Yue Wen. "H-Help me..."

"Heh, relax." Yue Wen gave a wicked grin and showed off the silver bracelet on his right hand. "This may look like a bracelet, but it's actually a Flying Sword. It cuts down demons and evil spirits as easily as slicing vegetables. Now that this thing's revealed its true form, it won't get away."

"You..." Manager Chen's veins bulged. He forced a few words out through his throat. "Hurry... the hell... up."

"Let my sword-heart guide me; command the spirit across the nine heavens!"

Yue Wen pointed forward with his right hand. The bracelet really did transform into a streak of silver light and shot through the air!

Swish—

The hall was spacious, but to a sword moving at such speed, it was no more than a fleeting distance. The black shadow holding Manager Chen had no time to react before the sharp light pierced through it.

"Aaaah!" it shrieked. Black radiance burst around it like ink, briefly revealing the shadow of a tree, with a hundred or so vines spread wide.

Its true form appeared for a moment, then exploded.

Boom!

"So it was a hundred-year-old tree. It must've been cut down just as it was about to take human form, when construction started here. No wonder its resentment was so strong. Its lingering mental force was powerful enough to become such a strong nightmare spirit."

Having seen through the evil spirit's origins, Yue Wen spoke in an unhurried voice.

Manager Chen, meanwhile, dropped to the floor with a thud, landing face down. He reached out one limp hand. "Help me... call... an ambulance."

"Relax." Yue Wen went over, picked him up, and carried him outside to his little electric scooter.

"This may look like an electric scooter, but it was made from the bones of a spirit beast, a White Dragon Colt. At full speed, it can move like the wind. I'll get you to the nearest hospital in less than five minutes."

"And even if we don't make it in time, you can still relax."

"I know a good funeral-supply shop. Great quality, low prices. I guarantee they'll give you the full-service package."

A new book is here!

In the blink of an eye, another six-month vacation has passed. Looking back on those days, it feels as though half a year went by.

Every time I start a new book, I get nervous, just like I'm writing one for the first time. I never know what kind of journey lies ahead.

If you like this story, you're my brothers and sisters. If you spend a penny on it, you're the parents who put food on my table. And if you can come by every day and help with my follow count, you're practically my grandparents.

(Those three groups aren't related to one another. We each have our own way of counting.)

(Strictly speaking.)

Heh heh.

I'm bowing to you all!

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!