Chapter 113: Underworld Law Enforcement (Part I)

(Page 1 of 3)

Ten minutes later, the two of them were seated in a late-night food shop.

Naturally, they had ordered the spicy crayfish that had swept across the entire nation.

The shop was not far from Tianxi Fourth Street, directly across from it. The two places were separated by only a single street: on one side stood a dim, lightless neighborhood; on the other, music and dancing filled the air beneath a blaze of splendid neon.

The spicy-crayfish restaurant Sun Kangliang had chosen was well situated and tastefully decorated. Though it was already past one in the morning, every table was still occupied. The walls were plastered with opera masks from Sichuan. Before Qin Ye and Sun Kangliang sat a basin piled high with spicy crayfish. Their crimson shells were scattered with emerald-green scallions, while assorted spices floated in the bright red chili oil. The sight alone was enough to awaken anyone’s appetite.

They were in a private room, with only the two of them inside, yet neither spoke.

Qin Ye had no appetite. The matter concerning the Li family lodged in his throat like a bone. Unless he delivered the dead to the afterlife, his thoughts would never be at peace.

He did not speak. He merely toyed with his teacup. Sun Kangliang, meanwhile, had clearly forgotten all about drinking. For as long as Qin Ye had been lost in thought, Sun Kangliang had been observing him.

The man across from him was not yet twenty.

And yet he possessed remarkable patience. For some reason, Sun Kangliang even found himself thinking that the gaze of this young man—who had not yet turned twenty—was… profound?

The word that had suddenly surfaced startled him, but he immediately affirmed it.

Yes. Profound.

There was none of the recklessness or volatility of youth. Instead, he possessed the mature outer shell of one who had seen through the world’s illusions, with all pretense shed away. His laughter, anger, curses, and smiles all came straight from the heart, yet never made others feel awkward or uncomfortable. It was almost as though he had…

Returned to simplicity?

Amid the silence, Sun Kangliang formed several ways to begin the conversation, only to reject them one by one. In the end, he chose the simplest, most blunt—and most sincere—method.

“We have been monitoring the footage from the surveillance cameras at Café Four the entire time.” He put away his smile and earnestly pushed a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes across the table. He did not smoke, but he always carried them with him. It was a habit.

Qin Ye responded with an indifferent hum.

“I knew the moment you arrived this afternoon. After hearing your conversation with Li Jiankang, I hurried over and waited outside the street. But forgive me—I truly didn’t dare set foot inside that street…” He hesitated. “How should I address you?”

“Qin,” Qin Ye said flatly. “But before you ask me any questions, I have a few of my own.”

“Please.”

Qin Ye toyed with his teacup. “How did you learn about the Investigation Office? How much do you know? Who told you?”

Sun Kangliang smiled gently. “Mr. Qin, there is no wall in this world through which not even a breeze can pass. There will always be people qualified to know things others do not.”

“As for Tenglong Properties, its chairman ranks three hundred and forty-ninth among the five hundred richest people in Hua Nation. At one board meeting, he issued a stern warning: whenever we encounter anyone from the Investigation Office, regardless of sex or age—even if it is only a ten-year-old child—we must yield the way.”

Qin Ye lowered his head and gazed at the tea, where his blurred reflection floated.

An unexpected gain.

His greatest purpose in coming to Dai City had never been the position of outstanding instructor. It was to establish a connection with a property-development company.

His questions had not been asked at random, either. He had been probing Sun Kangliang’s position. A department manager could be either important or insignificant. At a property company, however, the manager of a department handling major projects might very well have been appointed personally by the chairman. Sun Kangliang had given him a satisfactory answer.

The man before him was a shareholder of Tenglong Properties.

Not powerful enough to be overwhelming, yet far from insignificant. For Qin Ye, it was just enough.

Someone too important would attract attention—especially the attention of competitors, something he did not wish to involve himself in. Someone too minor would lack sufficient authority. This was the art of listening, honed through years of experience. Many crucial details revealed themselves in seemingly unimportant conversations.

Still… he would have to see how deeply Tianxi Fourth Street was entangled with the other party.

“You intend to demolish Tianxi Fourth Street.” Even though he was in no mood for pleasantries, Qin Ye forced himself to continue. “I’ve seen the plans. The total area is roughly twenty-five square kilometers. It’s a massive project. Is Li Jiankang the only one left now?”

Sun Kangliang had already prepared himself to tell the truth. His instincts told him not to beat around the bush with this man. Perhaps under normal circumstances he could have done so, but Qin Ye was clearly in a poor mood.

Even so, he paused before answering the direct question.

“Yes… Mr. Qin, there’s a reason for this. We must wait until Li Jiankang moves away before we can begin demolition.”

“You may not know this, but every time we carry out a demolition, we must first resettle the residents. It’s centralized resettlement—all in the same place. But… after what happened, who would dare live next door to the Li family?”

“Ordinary residents are afraid. They fear that the missing Li Cheng may return, and they have no desire to live beside the father of a murderer. The rest are residents from around the Li family’s home. According to the plan, they would have to live alongside him again, so every one of them made the same demand: they absolutely refused to live in the same housing complex as the Li family.”

Qin Ye nodded slightly in understanding and continued his thought. “So they’re all waiting for the Li family to move first. Only then will they dare to settle elsewhere?”

“Yes…” Sun Kangliang gave a bitter smile. “If Li Jiankang doesn’t move, none of the others will. And the condition he gave our property company was this: as long as we resolve the matter concerning his family, he will accept only the basic resettlement compensation. But if we don’t resolve it, then unless he dies inside that house, he will never leave.”

Qin Ye frowned slightly.

Something was wrong.

During that brief exchange, a flash of insight had seemed to strike his mind, as though he had grasped something—only for it to vanish in an instant.

Sun Kangliang continued, “We’ve demolished many places before. I know people like him very well. It isn’t about money. But I truly have no other options!”

“The monks and Taoists we hired before, along with various so-called masters, were frauds in eight cases out of ten! I don’t know what Li Jiankang was thinking. Some people were obviously impossible after only a few questions, yet he still welcomed anyone who came without—Mr. Qin?”

Qin Ye rose to his feet.

He had found it.

The flash of insight from moments ago had finally been recovered.

“Say that again.” He braced both hands against the table and stared fiercely into Sun Kangliang’s eyes. “Repeat what you just said.”

Sun Kangliang blinked. Seeing Qin Ye’s attitude, a sudden hope rose in his heart.

Could it be…

Could this impossibly young man truly resolve the matter?

He gathered his thoughts and said solemnly, “We’ve invited many people. Some were locals, others were so-called masters from Funeral Street—spirit mediums, ritual specialists, all sorts of people. Every time we began work on a construction site, we invited quite a few of them to pray for the project’s success. I’ve seen enough of them that, after asking just a few questions, I can tell whether someone is reliable.”

“But Li Jiankang refused no one. Whoever went, he welcomed them. He rarely spoke. Aside from telling his own story, he never said anything unnecessary… Wait. There was one exception. We heard that people from the Investigation Office had come. That day, for the first time ever, I entered Tianxi Fourth Street. But Li Jiankang refused them.”

Qin Ye abruptly raised his eyes. “Why?”

Sun Kangliang thought for a moment. “I believe he said… their credentials were incomplete, and he couldn’t trust them.”

That was it.

Countless fragments came together in Qin Ye’s mind. He turned and walked toward the door.

“Prepare the payment. Tomorrow, this matter will be over.”

“Really?” Sun Kangliang sprang to his feet and drew a deep breath. His gaze burned with excitement. “If you can truly bring this to an end… we will certainly offer you a satisfactory sum!”

Thud.

The door closed.

Outside the room, Qin Ye buried both hands in his black hair and raked them through it. A rare trace of killing intent appeared in his eyes.

“So that’s how it is… So that’s what happened…”

“You truly are… challenging the limits of my authority as an Underworld Officer…”

“In that case… don’t blame this officer for shackling your souls!”

(Page 2 of 3)

Without concealing himself, Qin Ye appeared once more before Li Jiankang’s building a little over ten minutes later.

He quietly opened the door and closed it behind him. After surveying the profound darkness surrounding him, he suddenly spoke.

“I know you may be watching me from somewhere.”

“You have five seconds to come out. Turning yourself in and being captured by this officer personally will lead to entirely different consequences once you descend below.”

There was no answer.

“Five… four, three, two, one… Very well.”

The instant his voice fell, Qin Ye transformed with a thunderous roar into his Underworld Officer form. He was like the most terrifying fiend in the depths of the netherworld. White hair streamed behind him, black robes billowed, and a ghastly white bone blade nearly half a man’s height was drawn in one swift motion. With a boom, he drove it into the ground.

In an instant, countless spiderweb cracks spread outward.

Pure black nether energy erupted from his sleeves and the seven apertures of his face, winding through the air like serpents. When an Underworld Officer traveled, all ghosts retreated.

A cry of utter terror rang out from the darkness, then vanished without a sound.

“Xiao A, why can’t an Underworld Officer’s eyes see spirits, and only see people?” Qin Ye calmly asked as he looked around.

“Simple.”

The paper crane flew up and spun once before him.

“There.”

The next instant, Qin Ye’s pupils transformed from pale white to blood-red. He glanced around, then threw back his head and laughed.

“Just as I thought…”

“You truly refuse to shed tears until you see the coffin.”

Qin Ye tightened his grip on the blade, then swung it down toward the ground with all his strength.

“Li Jiankang!”

Boom!

A section of the floor was smashed away, revealing solid foundations beneath.

At the same time, the two men left behind by the Dai City Special Investigation Office to maintain surveillance opened their eyes in unison.

“What powerful vital energy…” One investigator sucked in a breath, his gaze blazing. “It’s there… He’s made his move! He’s finally made his move!”

Only they could see it. A hundred meters away, vital energy surged like a tide. Power at the Soul-Binding level streaked across the night sky, and the surrounding trees shook violently.

“What… did he encounter? Or has he already unraveled the secret of this hunting ground?” The other investigator stared fixedly at the Li family’s old residence and spoke in a low voice.

“That can’t be… Even the elite forces of our own Dai City haven’t been able to solve it…”

Qin Ye answered their doubts with action.

The long blade flashed like snow, carrying nether energy disguised as vital energy as it battered the ground. The spiderweb cracks in the floor expanded into enormous fissures. The foundation below rumbled as the earth sank deeper and deeper.

One meter. Three meters. Five meters…

Ten meters!

Crack, crack, crack—

Countless fractures widened from tiny fissures into scars cleaving through the earth below. With a tremendous boom, Qin Ye forcibly smashed the entire ground down twelve meters.

At that very moment—

Boom!

Twelve meters beneath the surface, he brought the blade down again. This time, it did not strike solid foundation.

Instead, it broke through into a vast, pitch-black cavern more than twenty square meters in size.

Countless fragments of rubble, earth, timber, and gravel tumbled into the foul-smelling pit beneath the moonlight. At its center stood a figure wearing a black velvet overcoat and a hat, leaning on a cane and staring up in stunned disbelief.

Directly above his head, countless beams of moonlight poured down. A creature clad in ancient black robes, with long white hair, blood-red pupils, black eyes, and nether energy writhing around its body like ten thousand mad serpents, was staring down at him with crimson eyes.

The Impermanence had returned to the world!

“Ah… The whole family is here…” Qin Ye licked his lips. Against the pale moonlight, he angled his long blade downward with a sharp hiss, provoking the wails of countless ghosts, as though a vengeful spirit had come to bind a soul.

“An Underworld Officer is taking someone into custody. All uninvolved parties, stand aside!”

(End of Chapter)

(Page 3 of 3)