Chapter 112: A Night of Terror (Part II)

I apologize, it was difficult to find an internet cafe in my hometown, but I have finally managed to get online. I am posting the chapters covering 12:00 to 3:00 now, and I will post the rest one by one every hour.

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Pale moonlight shone into the dark house, but instead of bringing a sense of light, it only made the darkness feel more oppressive.

Curses, the sound of a kitchen knife slicing into flesh, the soft splat of blood hitting the walls, and agonizing screams—the bloody and inhumane scene from years ago seemed to be playing out around Qin Ye once again. Any person with a normal psyche would likely find this scene unbearable.

Even Qin Ye frowned deeply. The desperate, disbelieving screams and the frenzied, ignorant roars of a youth rushed into his eardrums like a tide, making the entire room seem to tremble.

Oppressive, insane, and bloody—the empty room was reliving a past tragedy.

"Stop cutting... it hurts so much... please, take Mom to the hospital... I won't bother you ever again... sob..."

"Take you to hell! I'll hack you to death!"

*Thwack*... That was the sound of a blade hitting bone.

"Bother me? As if I need you to bother with my business! Damn you!"

*Thwack*... *Thwack*... Intermingled with the soft rustling of blood splashing against the walls, the woman's cries shifted from shock and rage to screams, then to wails, and finally... to absolute silence.

The boy's voice, however, spiraled from anger to madness, then to a hoarse, desperate screech.

After a full ten minutes, the room finally fell silent.

Qin Ye’s face was pale—not from fear, but from the vivid images his mind had reconstructed, which filled him with a sickening disgust.

The impact of this case had been so great that it had dominated the headlines for years. Was the murder of a mother by her twelve-year-old son a result of a lack of parental affection, or was the child simply too deranged?

It was a bit of both, yet neither fully explained it.

Regardless of the reason, one should never raise a blade against their own parents. If you cannot communicate, you could at least treat them like strangers. Li Cheng... he had crossed the line of humanity.

For the first time, even without seeing a spirit, he felt nauseated.

"Heh..." A low, ragged wheezing echoed in the room. It was Li Cheng's voice. However, the wheezing soon shifted into a faint smirk, and finally, into a peal of manic laughter!

"Hehehe... Hahahaha!!!" He sounded like a demon freed from oppression, laughing wildly: "No one to control me anymore... finally, no one to control me!"

"Control? Control my ass! You never cared about me for all these years, and the moment you come back you start pointing fingers? Who the hell do you think you are?!"

"Ptooey!"

At that final sound, all traces of a smile vanished from Qin Ye’s face.

He knew that was the sound of Li Cheng spitting a cigarette butt onto his mother's corpse.

Everything faded away as abruptly as it had appeared. Qin Ye remained silent for a long time before suddenly speaking: "I will harvest his soul."

"Oh," Arsaces replied indifferently.

Qin Ye did not stop there: "I believe that no matter what, a human being must have a bottom line."

"Once that line is crossed, they are no longer human."

He said coolly: "Since he is no longer human, why should he remain in the world of the living?"

He smoothed his clothes: "What the living world cannot manage, I, the Underworld, shall judge!"

He walked toward the kitchen.

***

The Li family’s home seemed to have been designed without a clear plan; despite the large floor space, many areas were cramped. The kitchen, for instance, had a sink for washing vegetables, but right next to it sat a dusty toothbrush and toothpaste. In front of it was a dull, grey-looking mirror.

It was empty, as if nothing had happened just moments ago.

However... just as he stepped up to the faucet, the rusted tap... suddenly and silently turned on, and bright red liquid poured out in a rush!

Qin Ye lowered his head, touched it with his hand, and sniffed: "It's blood."

As he looked up, he suddenly saw... a figure standing right behind him!

It was a mass of mangled flesh.

The head was hacked to pieces, the face covered in knife wounds, blood dripping down. In this dark room, it was staring straight at him!

He whipped around, but there was nothing there. He looked back at the mirror; it was as if what he had just seen was merely a hallucination.

He searched the entire room, even entering Li Cheng's bedroom. He picked up a photo frame from the bedside table.

It was a picture of a happy family.

Li Jiankang, Li Cheng, and Song Jiafang—all three were smiling, though the smiles were covered in a layer of dust.

The first floor was the bedroom, the second was a storage area for seafood. He checked every corner, but found nothing.

Only an empty, massive freezer remained.

"Let's go," Arsaces finally spoke. "You won't find it this way, and it won't come out regardless."

"You are an Underworld official, and a soul-catcher at that. No matter how bizarre it is, it is only a grudge-spirit at the level of a ghost-servant. With the dual suppression of rank and bloodline, as long as you are here, it will absolutely not—and dare not—appear."

Qin Ye felt a bit unwilling: "Is there any other way?"

"Of course. You are right; one should not fight a battle unprepared. For a grudge-spirit with such deep-seated resentment, you need special preparations—it will take a month or so. And..." The paper crane circled his shoulder: "I have a premonition that this matter is not that simple..."

Qin Ye nodded, took one last long look at the pitch-black house, and walked away without looking back.

Just as he left, inside a derelict building in the distance, a pair of binoculars was slowly retracted.

The room was unlit. Two young men in plain clothes lowered their gaze. One of them opened his phone, which showed a messaging app.

He went to his contacts, clicked on the "Dai City Special Investigation Division" group, and sent a message to an administrator.

"S9527 failed. Duration inside: one hour and five minutes. No sounds of a struggle. I suspect, like us, he is unable to track the target's movements."

The contact with the ID "Lin Hai Xue Yuan" replied quickly: "Are you sure there were no signs of combat? That shouldn't be the case. That spirit is extremely bloodthirsty and never lets any fresh prey that enters its territory leave."

"I am sure," the young man typed. "I suspect that S9527's strength might be far above its own, so it didn't dare to appear. After all... he is a soul-catching expert who has cleared nine major hunting zones."

Lin Hai Xue Yuan did not reply again.

Qin Ye was naturally unaware of all this. He walked down Tianxi Fourth Street with a slight frown, then suddenly sighed: "I understand now."

"Hmm?"

"On the car ride to Dai City, Principal Li mentioned one word the most, yet we didn't realize it at the time."

"That is... 'proactive.'"

"We are not to proactively interfere in local governance. We are intervening now, yet we haven't been punished. That means we cannot initiate interference, but we can do so if invited. For example, we were invited by Li Jiankang. And do you remember the old man said that the SRC has a project in Dai City that we must not 'proactively' disturb?"

Arsaces caught his drift: "You mean, this project is the grudge-spirit from the matricide case?"

"No," Qin Ye shook his head, surprising the crane. "There should be several projects. I suspect their program might be something like 'On the Mutation of Spirits.' My task is C-rank difficulty, codenamed 'Lost Tracks.' The other first-place task is also C-rank, codenamed 'Dangerous Building.' This means they have one main program with two or three branch projects."

"These two or three branches are the extra-credit assessments the school gave us. And because they are SRC projects, the government hasn't sent an expert of the Impermanence level to completely wipe out this hunting zone."

The paper crane nodded, then asked: "But... what is the point of understanding all this?"

Qin Ye sighed, opened his phone, and looked at the mentor group chat, which was as stagnant as a pool of dead water. Zhou Xianlong had not updated any scores tonight, and everyone’s faculty points remained at their previous levels.

Tonight, everyone was likely busy chasing their own leads.

"There's no point..." He closed his phone and brushed his bangs: "I'm just feeling uncomfortable and pent up. Just talking to pass the time."

"Xiao A, this is the first time I've wanted to exorcise a soul so badly. He doesn't want to be human, so I won't let him. What the living world cannot manage, I will manage. What the living world cannot judge, I will judge. I don't care about humanitarianism; I believe he is guilty, so he is guilty!"

His voice was unusually firm and low: "I think... the first Yama King who founded the Underworld must have seen similar scenes. That is why he created the Underworld, because in the human world, there are too many cases where the good have no burial, while the wicked possess gold and silver... and he must have seen far more than I have..."

He looked up at the night sky, where a few stars twinkled. The paper crane looked up as well: "Perhaps..."

"Good and evil will eventually meet their reckoning; the way of Heaven has always favored reincarnation. The first Yama... that was thousands of years ago... Life back then was much harder than it is now. People trading children to eat, bones scattered across the plains—that was no joke. I, too, have wondered if the first Yama King was born into poverty. Yet, it was this man from the slums who founded the Fengdu Underworld, which has stood proudly in the Middle Kingdom for thousands of years..."

"Ahem..." Qin Ye coughed lightly: "Well... I'm also from the slums..."

The paper crane immediately turned its head toward him. If it had eyes, they would surely be devouring Qin Ye: "Are you suggesting you and the first Yama King are cut from the same cloth? If you'll forgive my bluntness, that is apples and oranges."

"...Don't you think we have some similar traits..." Qin Ye argued weakly: "For instance... the same handsomeness... or something like that?"

Arsaces sneered: "With all the energy you spend on this, you'd be better off considering how to inherit the legacy of the first Yama King! Hurry up and build the Underworld! Someone like Li Cheng should experience the eighteen levels of hell, then pass through the beast path, and reincarnate ten times before he could ever pay for his sins."

"Where are the eighteen levels of hell? Huh?"

"Where is the cycle of reincarnation? Huh!"

"...Alright, alright, I get it. Bread will come... let's start by getting the Outstanding Mentor qualification first, okay?"

"Ahem..." Just as Qin Ye reached the entrance of Tianxi Fourth Street, a black sedan pulled up. A plump, middle-aged man stepped out. He cast a fearful glance at the pitch-black street, then smiled and handed over a business card: "Sir, hello. May I ask if you are with the Investigation Division?"

"Who are you?" Qin Ye did not recognize the man and asked with suspicion.

The fat man’s smile became even more amiable: "Allow me to introduce myself. I am with Tenglong Real Estate, the largest developer in Anhui Province, and we have some reputation in the five surrounding provinces as well. I am Sun Kangliang, the project manager in charge of..." He pointed to the street behind him: "The comprehensive redevelopment of Tianxi Fourth Street."

"This is a government project, but we've been forced to halt for certain reasons. You know how it is—if we don't start within six months, it's considered a breach of contract. I'm so anxious I'm losing hair. The construction teams have been delayed for months, and I can't hold on much longer... Just now, our people heard someone entering that ghost... that house, so I came over immediately. Tell me... if you have time, would you mind if I treat you to a late-night snack?"

Qin Ye did not answer, but looked at him intently: "Just because of this?"

Sun Kangliang coughed awkwardly and whispered: "Not entirely..."

"In fact... you are the only person who has entered that place and come out alive."

"For that alone, I should be the one paying for this meal."

(End of chapter)