The Underworld Officer Fled

At the young woman's shout, the nearby residents came rushing over and surrounded them, their gazes hostile.

The middle-aged man they had met that morning stepped out of the crowd. "Why did you three officials come to our ancestral hall without notifying us?"

Xu Da snapped angrily, "The Heaven-Listening Bureau answers directly to the emperor. Any news we have goes to His Majesty. Who are you to demand we report to you?"

"Or do you want to be the emperor?"

The three men's short brocade robes gleamed ink-black in the flickering firelight, as though coated in ink or covered in a layer of cold yin energy.

But his final words were colder than that yin energy.

The Zhong family members around them all shuddered.

The middle-aged man immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed repeatedly. "This commoner wouldn't dare! I wouldn't dare!"

Just then, the crowd parted, and a little old man limped over with a youth supporting him. He was Zhong Youshou, the Zhong family's current clan head.

But no one paid him any mind. Several people wanted to speak to Du Cao.

The youth supporting Zhong Youshou stepped forward with a grim face. "The clan head is here. Is it your place to speak?"

Du Cao said coldly, "Clan Head Zhong, we spoke during the day, so I'll get straight to the point. Your Zhong clan has ghosts. I've come to catch them. It's my duty. You understand, don't you?"

Zhong Youshou grinned. "You're too serious, Officer Du. Of course I understand."

"Good," Du Cao said. "Then I have some things to investigate. Earlier, when I was coming up the mountain, I heard someone saying a family's child had encountered a ghost. What happened?"

Zhong Youshou blinked, about to play dumb, but Wang Qilin pulled Zhong Erniu forward.

Seeing this, he said, "Sorry for the trouble, sir. Some ignorant woman was making a fuss over nothing. The child was only having nightmares."

Du Cao tossed the haunting coin onto the ground. "At one command from me, every child in your upper settlement might be having nightmares tomorrow!"

At the sight of that haunting coin, Zhong Youshou's expression changed drastically.

He hesitated several times before finally cupping his hands. "Sir, this child of our Zhong family really hasn't encountered a ghost!"

He instructed those around him, "Those of the Wen generation, stay. Everyone else, go home and get some rest early. There's still work in the fields tomorrow at noon."

The crowd dawdled, unwilling to leave.

Nights in the countryside were truly boring. Having finally found something exciting, how could they bear to miss it?

Zhong Youshou's grandson stepped forward and said sternly, "Clan Head Youfu's body is barely cold, and the ancestral hall where our ancestors reside is right before you. Are you going to defy the clan head's orders in front of them?"

Wang Qilin said coldly, "Exactly. Think about it. How many days has it been since your clan head, Zhong Youfu, died of a sudden illness at home? Have you forgotten? His coffin is still inside the ancestral hall. He's watching you right now!"

The group exchanged looks and finally left reluctantly.

Zhong Youshou turned a blind eye to this and continued smiling foolishly. "Wenying, go bring Little Stone here."

A man answered, then vanished into the darkness.

Before long, he returned carrying a child-the very child whose haunting coin Wang Qilin had exchanged for a copper coin during the day.

But the child had none of his earlier liveliness. His face was expressionless and his entire body rigid. His open eyes showed only whites, with no pupils. Holding him was like holding a wooden figure.

Stranger still, once the child was set down, he headed into the ancestral hall. His little legs moved swiftly, and in a few quick steps he climbed onto the Bridge to Heaven.

The Bridge to Heaven was made of straw, wood, and paper, and was extremely flimsy. It should not even have supported a chicken, yet it did not budge when the child stepped onto it, as though it were a stone bridge!

Du Cao went up and scooped the child off it. Wang Qilin moved to help and was startled when he touched the child's body. "Why is he so cold?"

The child seemed carved from ice, hard and freezing to the touch.

Du Cao said gravely, "Because he encountered an underworld officer. He's possessed by one right now!"

Xu Da said, "That's right. Only an underworld officer can walk on the Bridge to Heaven."

Zhong Youshou said timidly, "See, sir? An underworld officer isn't a ghost. Didn't I say the child hadn't encountered a ghost?"

Du Cao frowned in thought for a while, then asked, "How many days has Zhong Youfu been dead?"

"Five days," Zhong Youshou replied.

"Impossible!" Du Cao barked. "If he's been dead for five days, why would an underworld officer still come? Under the rules of yin and yang, the officer should have taken his soul away on the day he died and never returned!"

Wang Qilin thought quickly. "Perhaps their clan head's soul never went to the underworld, so the officer came again tonight. And if my guess is right, his appearance tonight wasn't a coincidence. He's come every night for the past four days! You knew about this, so you made the children wear haunting coins, didn't you?"

Zhong Youshou exchanged looks with the sturdy men who had stayed behind, their faces full of confusion.

Seeing that their confusion did not seem feigned, Wang Qilin asked again, "Then why make the children wear haunting coins? Was it recorded in your ancestral instructions?"

"No, the clan head told us to," Zhong Youshou said.

Hearing this, Wang Qilin began thinking again. He was starting to see the outline of it.

Zhong Youfu really had devoted himself to his duties as clan head until his dying breath.

Du Cao circled the coffin, then stopped before the soul-summoning bell. "No, no. I misjudged it. This isn't a soul-summoning bell. It's a vajra bell!"

A soul-summoning bell was used to guide spirits and recall souls, while a vajra bell was used to suppress evil and subdue souls.

He tapped the ancient bronze bell with his scabbard, then suddenly asked the young woman, "Did Zhong Youfu also tell you to shake the soul-summoning bell on the night his soul returns, to summon it back?"

His gaze swept toward her like thunder and lightning. She trembled all over in fright and lowered her head, not daring to answer.

Du Cao said, "Are you wearing a haunting coin too? And have you worn it ever since you became pregnant? Zhong Youfu told you to wear it, and said you could only take it off when you rang the bell in two days?"

The young woman did not answer. She merely covered her chest instinctively and shook her head in panic.

Xu Da said solemnly, "Let me check."

The Zhong family members glared at him.

Du Cao waved a hand, understanding appearing on his face.

He told Wang Qilin and Xu Da, "I know what happened. Heh, who knows where Zhong Youfu learned this evil art, but he actually wanted to control his own reincarnation!"

He pointed at the young woman. "The child in your belly is about to be switched."

Then he pointed at Zhong Youshou. "No wonder your clan head chose a fool like you to succeed him. He was paving the way to take back the position himself in a few years!"

Wang Qilin caught on. Pointing at the vajra bell, he asked, "Zhong Youfu's soul wasn't taken away by the underworld officer, but hid inside this?"

Du Cao nodded. "Exactly. Unable to find his target, the underworld officer could only come to the ancestral hall every night to search. He probably noticed something strange about this bell too, but as a yin being, he couldn't lift it. That's why, after possessing this child and coming to the ancestral hall, the first thing he wanted to do was cross the bridge and lift the vajra bell!"

The Zhong family members inside the ancestral hall were stunned. Someone said, "That's nonsense!"

Du Cao barked, "Do you still not understand? Under the rules of yin and yang, if an underworld officer can't find someone's soul within seven days of their death, he stops looking. That's how wandering ghosts come about. But Zhong Youfu wasn't going to become a wandering ghost. He found a pregnant woman carrying an empty fetus. When the time came, his soul would enter it, usurp its place, and be reborn!"

After a woman became pregnant, a little ghost would come from the underworld to be reincarnated.

But Zhong Youfu had made this woman wear a haunting coin. Unable to find her and with nowhere to go, the little ghost became an infant spirit, while the fetus became an empty fetus.

The people in the upper settlement were either adults with vigorous yang energy or children whose yang energy was weak but who wore haunting coins. Neither the underworld officer nor the infant spirit could entangle them.

But Zhong Erniu's wife had a weak constitution and weak yang energy. When she came to the upper settlement to collect embroidery thread, the infant spirit had latched onto her.

Zhong Youfu had guessed this might happen, so before dying, he arranged everything: if ghosts troubled the clan after his death, they were not to notify the Heaven-Listening Bureau.

Zhong Erniu had gone to report it to the authorities, and upon returning, he was seized and confined in an earthen jail.

This was also why the Zhong clan had refused to cooperate when the Heaven-Listening Bureau came to investigate.

He laid out the truth, but the Zhong family members were unconvinced and shook their heads.

Zhong Wenying said, "Please judge wisely, sir. Our family's rule against dealings with the Heaven-Listening Bureau wasn't established by the clan head. It's recorded in our ancestral instructions. It's been this way for generations."

Zhong Youshou's grandson also said, "Grandpa Youfu didn't choose my grandpa as clan head on a whim, either. What you said about paving the way to become clan head again-that's also in our ancestral instructions..."

"Gua'er, don't speak." Zhong Youshou abruptly clapped a hand over his grandson's mouth.

Someone continued, "That's right. Our ancestral instructions say, 'All things have flaws; the height of prosperity brings decline. The Heavenly Dao has flaws; that which is flawless must be destroyed.' Our Zhong family comes from an auspicious land that produces outstanding people, with talents emerging in every generation. To keep Heaven from envying our talents, talented men and fools take turns as clan head. This rule has been passed down for several generations!"

Xu Da looked skeptical. "You call this producing outstanding talents?"

Then he grinned at Wang Qilin. "Then I'm an outstanding talent too! I'm stronger than them, and cleverer!"

"Strongman Xu, you're not clever. You're wise."

"Thank you."

Du Cao frowned. "That shouldn't be. But your clan head's soul is definitely hiding in this vajra bell. See for yourselves if you don't believe me."

He released the underworld officer, who immediately walked across the Bridge to Heaven toward the vajra bell and reached out to lift it.

The vajra bell rose, revealing a large mass of indistinct black shadow.

Du Cao said smugly, "Well? What did I tell you? That's Zhong Youfu's soul. Underworld officer, seize him!"

Commanding an underworld officer-how imposing!

His imposing air lasted less than three seconds!

Once the black mist appeared, it scattered, turning into little clumps of black fog like piglets.

The clumps landed and swirled into the shapes of infants. Their features gradually became distinct, then twisted. They turned their strange, sinister faces toward the crowd and suddenly began scrambling rapidly around the ancestral hall.

"That's not Zhong Youfu's soul? They're infant spirits!" Du Cao was stunned. "How-how are there so many infant spirits?"

Clang!

With a sharp clatter, the vajra bell fell to the ground, and the child possessed by the underworld officer abruptly fainted.

Xu Da instantly flew into a rage. "The underworld officer fled!"