Night Roaming God and Hundred Night Miasma

"The Zhang Family is rotten to the core!

You think they really built their fortune selling candied fruit?

If selling candied fruit could make enough money to get rich, build houses, and marry wives, everyone under heaven would be selling candied fruit!

Puxi City has only had a little money these past two years. Most of its residents are refugees fleeing the war—where would they get the money to buy candied fruit?

The Zhang Family, from top to bottom, young and old alike, uses the candied fruit business as a cover while secretly trafficking opium. That is how they can afford such a huge compound and feed so many people!

For the sake of selling opium and fighting over opium, who knows how many people they have poisoned and ruined!"

Xu Yi frowned.

Puxi City of the Great Yan Dynasty in this era was extremely similar to old Shanghai during the warlord era in his previous life.

Hearing Red-Eyed Brother's words now, combined with what he knew, Xu Yi felt that they were probably true.

Xu Yi needed proof.

When Red-Eyed Brother saw that Xu Yi remained silent, he understood what was going on.

With a cold sneer, he pointed at the Zhang Family compound.

"Go take a look! Their rear courtyard cellar is piled full of opium!"

By then, Xu Yi had already made up his mind.

He turned to Old Lady Zhang, who was clutching his arm.

"Granny, the filthy thing your family has provoked is far too powerful. It cannot be driven away so easily."

Old Lady Zhang had been tormented for days by those three people afflicted with madness. Exhausted to the bone, she had believed in such matters with all her heart. Hearing Xu Yi say this, her vision went black, and she nearly fainted.

Xu Yi hurriedly caught her.

Gripping Xu Yi's shoulders, she steadied herself and trembled as she said:

"Young sir! You have to save us!"

Xu Yi said:

"This concerns the Zhang Family line. You must tell the truth.

When Mr. Zhang joined that gambling game, did he stake his son and daughter as well?"

The moment Xu Yi spoke, everyone around him in the Zhang Family looked at him with newfound respect.

This young master from the Green Gang was so formidable that he had uncovered such a secret with only a single glance?!

People of this age were already superstitious, and Xu Yi's words were far too intimidating. The Zhang Family could not tell truth from falsehood—they had been scared witless long ago and never doubted whether Xu Yi was genuine!

Old Lady Zhang let out a long sigh, as though every bit of strength had been drained from her body.

"My Zhang Family produced such a bastard! What a sin!"

That was an admission.

Xu Yi nodded.

"I can handle your family's matter.

It's just that my mouth feels tasteless right now, and my hands have no strength.

I need a couple of strong pulls first to wake myself up, before I can exert my power and slay the evil ghost."

The instant Old Lady Zhang heard that, she understood.

"Young sir, please wait!"

Old Lady Zhang grew somewhat excited.

Money—we cannot produce much of it right away.

But opium? We have plenty!

Old Lady Zhang immediately moved to call someone over to fetch opium for Xu Yi from inside the compound.

Xu Yi raised a hand to stop her.

He sighed.

"Your family's business truly has not been easy."

Hearing this, Old Lady Zhang immediately felt understood. Thinking back on all the fighting and killing involved in trafficking opium these past years, she sighed with emotion.

"It truly has not been easy! If not for our entire family, old and young, dozens of mouths all united as one, daring to fight, daring to struggle, daring to sacrifice, working hard day and night, we could never have made this business succeed!"

Fucking inspirational.

Xu Yi said:

"I suddenly have strength again."

He picked up the jar and faced Red-Eyed Brother.

"Evil ghost! Come over here!"

The Zhang Family members hurriedly moved aside, clearing a path.

Red-Eyed Brother had no idea what Xu Yi intended to do. His ghostly body was constrained by the clay jar in Xu Yi's hand, so he had no choice but to obey.

Only after the man and ghost had moved far away from the crowd did Xu Yi lower his voice.

"I can leave this matter alone.

But you have to kill his whole family."

The logic of those words was deeply strange, and Red-Eyed Brother did not understand at first.

Wasn't this gang enforcer here to support the Zhang Family?

Could it be that he had truly been reasoned around, had a pang of conscience, and changed his mind?

Could a mere gang enforcer—a piece of trash only a tiny bit better than street thugs and hooligans—possibly possess such awareness?

Red-Eyed Brother cautiously bargained.

"Fine.

But let me make this clear: I must take Candied Zhang's living soul with me."

That was why he had come in the first place.

Xu Yi nodded.

"No problem."

And so, over the next hour, the evil ghost killed people while Xu Yi set fires, burning the Zhang Family compound clean inside and out.

The sounds of fleeing and wailing were swallowed by the clamor of 38th Shop District. As the next steam train pulled into the station and its whistle sounded, the Zhang Family's noisy cries were completely drowned out, scattered into the night wind with a gust.

Thick smoke from the burning opium rose slowly from the Zhang Family's rear courtyard. Before long, it became a towering spectacle, merging into Puxi City's southeastern quarter beneath the cover of night and the evening breeze, drifting toward the city's busiest market streets.

Xu Yi watched the smoke, vaguely feeling that something was wrong. Yet limited by his life experience and perspective, he did not realize exactly what he had done.

In moments, the dark clouds and smoke were swept away together by the fierce wind.

The moonlight shone bright and cold. The nightlife of 38th Shop District had only just entered its second half. Even from far away from the streets and alleys, Xu Yi could still hear the ceaseless uproar of revelry.

With the matter settled, they should by rights have parted on good terms and gone their separate ways.

Yet Xu Yi did not put down the jar.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, he made his tone especially warm.

"Big Brother! What school does your technique come from? You can control ghosts! That is truly incredible!"

Red-Eyed Brother stared at him in disbelief.

"You aren't a Night Roaming God?"

Xu Yi's gaze was clear.

"A Night Roaming God... what is that?"

The disbelief in Red-Eyed Brother's eyes deepened.

"You aren't a Night Roaming God, yet you can see me... That means your spirituality is very strong."

This kid seemed to be a talent.

Realizing that Xu Yi was talented, Red-Eyed Brother thought about how they had gone through something unspeakable to outsiders together and felt inclined to befriend him.

"Let me put it this way."

Red-Eyed Brother calculated inwardly. Even if they could not become friends, giving Xu Yi some guidance would count as leaving behind a good connection.

They both made their living in the jianghu, and 38th Shop District was only so big. Who knew when such a good connection might come in handy?

"People with strong spirituality can occasionally see things that others cannot—

Demons, devils, ghosts, monsters, spirits, immortals.

We collectively call such things [Hundred Night Miasma]—

They breed from the miasmic, turbid qi between heaven and earth, wander through countless nights, mingle within every nook and cranny of city life, and are abnormal entities harmful to humans."

"Ordinary people with strong spirituality, if left unguided, may be able to see Hundred Night Miasma, but only under very accidental circumstances.

They might not see one even once in their entire lives."

"But once they receive guidance and learn to control their own spirituality, people can see the world hidden beneath the mundane world.

The world where Hundred Night Miasma exists."

Guidance?

Xu Yi understood inwardly.

I accidentally caught Ye Miao's scent. That was my guidance to myself.

In other words, the thing parasitizing Lord Guan's statue in the incense hall of Golden Orchid Nunnery was a kind of "Hundred Night Miasma."