The Imperial Qi Weird Box

Picking up a cup of the so-called wine pool wine, Xu Chunliang took a small sip.

It was mellow and fragrant on the tongue, with a sweet aftertaste and the faintest hints of citrus and blood.

Xu Chunliang frowned and put the cup down.

Many wines in this world carried a faint bloody taste, which Xu Chunliang disliked. Only the rough but mellow apricot blossom wine suited his palate better.

So Xu Chunliang stopped drinking and turned to look around.

The place was bustling, with people exchanging toasts. There was nothing out of the ordinary, nor a single weird entity.

At the very least, Xu Chunliang could not detect a single weird entity with his senses.

Everyone was eating and drinking in earnest, savoring the food. All was peaceful and quiet.

Looking at the building's distinctly imperial style and its grand, elegant furnishings, Xu Chunliang could not help wondering, Could it be because of the imperial fortune? Is that why weird entities can't get in?

Having heard Li Baiyi speak about fortune, Xu Chunliang knew that such mysterious things could affect weird entities.

Finding no weird entities, Xu Chunliang stood, left an ingot of silver, and turned to leave.

He had come to kill weird entities, not to eat. Without any weird entities around, even the finest food and wine held little interest for him.

Some time after Xu Chunliang left, Blood Pagoda, wearing a red bridal veil over his head, came to Human Cook's side on the second floor of the Wine Pool and Meat Forest. Casting a disgusted glance at the layers of fat on Human Cook's body, Blood Pagoda said, "That blind man escaped. I couldn't find him. The Night-Wandering Gods' methods really are strange."

Human Cook burst out laughing, the fat all over his body trembling. He reached down, lifted the fat on his belly, and pulled a cow's head out from beneath it. After tearing off a bite and swallowing it whole, he said indifferently, "Let him run. The formation is complete. Once the Blood-Boiling Grand Array is activated, even a divine figure of the Vajra Realm couldn't change the overall situation, let alone a blind man with strange tricks."

"Here's what we'll do. In one hour, I'll activate the Blood-Boiling Grand Array and cover all of Fan City with the Blood-Boiling Cauldron. In the meantime, open the Imperial Qi Weird Box and release the Weird Madness Qi. I think it's time to start triggering weird entities in large numbers, to sacrifice the lives of the people in this city. After all, I can't have a distinguished Directorate of Ceremonial writing eunuch like you helping me kill those mortals one by one, can I..."

Blood Pagoda, his face covered by the red veil, snorted coldly and turned to leave, leaving Human Cook laughing behind him.

On his way home, Xu Chunliang deliberately avoided the road he had taken earlier, lest he be unlucky enough to run into the Yin Immortals passing through again. At the same time, he pondered the "danger" Blind Chen had mentioned.

After thinking it over, he decided to stay.

After all, he was immortal to begin with, and he had long since encountered all manner of horrors beyond human power.

A danger mentioned by a blind man would only excite him.

"Hopefully it's a vicious weird entity with a weakness," Xu Chunliang prayed as he headed home.

When he returned, Xu Chunliang's keen senses picked up the sound of the little girl turning over. He went over and knocked on the door. "Still awake? Are you all right?"

The little girl Yuhu murmured an acknowledgment.

"Get some sleep. The more you sleep, the faster you'll recover." Yu Chunliang gave her the advice and turned to leave, then stopped as though he had suddenly remembered something.

He knocked on the door again. "Um... I wanted to ask you something."

"Please come in and ask, young master..." The little girl's voice was timid, but unusually resolute. So Xu Chunliang pushed the door open and entered.

Ignoring the bloody stench in the room, Xu Chunliang went to the bedside and looked at the little girl's face. Seeing that her complexion had improved a little, he nodded in satisfaction and asked, "You were in a brothel before, weren't you?"

A flash of panic appeared in Yuhu's wet, woeful eyes, like those of a fawn. She gritted her teeth and said tearfully, "I was a girl at the Jade Splendor Pavilion before, young master, but I didn't choose to debase myself..."

"All right, I didn't say you did. You don't need to explain yourself to me." Xu Chunliang cut her off and continued, "What I wanted to ask was, did you ever hear about anything bad when you were at the brothel?

"For example, hauntings..."

At the mention of hauntings, Yuhu shuddered, and an expression of utter terror flickered across her face.

Xu Chunliang was delighted. He grabbed Yuhu's grimy little hand and said, "You've heard of them, haven't you? Quick, tell me, where did you hear about a haunting?"

According to Yuhu, there had always been tales of hauntings at the brothel her father had sold her to.

There were many versions, all sorts of frightening and extraordinary ghost stories.

They gave Xu Chunliang enough to make a judgment.

Many versions meant many ghosts. Xu Chunliang even thought the Jade Splendor Pavilion was practically a ghost nest!

"All right, I understand. Go to sleep. If you stay up any longer, your illness will get worse." Seeing the little girl's pale face and trembling body after she had finished telling the ghost stories,

Xu Chunliang decided to do a good deed and help her fall asleep quickly.

He held his hand like a blade and lightly chopped the back of her neck.

The little girl's eyes rolled back, and sure enough, she quickly fell asleep, looking remarkably lifelike.

Xu Chunliang smiled smugly, gently adjusted the little girl's blanket, and left the room, heading for the Jade Splendor Pavilion.

Under the pitch-black night sky, the writing eunuch Wei Fang, a red bridal veil over his head and a dark golden box in his hands, quietly arrived at the gate of the government office in the city center.

Seeing his strange appearance, the two soldiers on duty outside the office tightened their grips on the hilts of the sabers at their waists.

"Who goes there? Get back!" one soldier shouted sternly.

Wei Fang stopped in the middle of the road and chuckled. "The Fan City government office has good feng shui. This will do."

With that, he opened the box.

A cloud of green smoke drifted out of the box and slowly dispersed into the air...

Blind Chen hopped back and forth in the darkness, but he could not find Xu Chunliang. Before long, he was sweating with anxiety.

He felt his sweat-soaked paper-man head and said in sudden realization, "Hey! Losing your head really has made you stupid. Have you forgotten your own trade? You're a fortune-teller!"

He flipped his right wrist, and two rusty copper coins appeared in his hand. He picked up the coins and cut his arm with them. The skin split, blood flowed, and the ghastly white bone beneath was exposed.

He reached into his arm, gripped his own bone, and snapped it hard.

The ghastly white, jagged end of the bone protruded from his arm.

Blind Chen brought his paper-man head close and saw a blurry pattern. The pattern faintly formed two characters: 玉华, Yuhua...

He pushed the broken bone back into place and set it, then pulled another talisman from his robes.

With a tap of his finger, the talisman spontaneously burned to ash. Blind Chen mixed the ashes with the blood on his arm into a paste and smeared it over the wound, then leaped into a nearby courtyard.

Inside the room, a fat man had his hands on the waist of his slender concubine.

Suddenly, he felt someone tap him. Turning around, he saw a paper man.

"Aaah!" The fat man let out a howl and passed out.