Chapter 21: A Section of Finger Bone

Chapter 21: A Section of Finger Bone

Pei Ye interrupted the boy’s lifelike imitation.

“A ghost that just died can’t even effectively scare the living. Where did she get the ability to kill so many people?”

When she had chatted with Zhu Chun’an yesterday, from the way he spoke, it seemed that the Celestial Masters in the Celestial Masters Alliance Special Investigation Department were not few in number, and his strength ranked fairly high within the department.

Even Zhu Chun’an had been unable to subdue Lan Ying. There had to be something fishy going on.

The boy said, “I had the same doubt, so I caught several more wandering wild ghosts around the hair salon and questioned them.”

Lan Ying’s resentment had been intense while she was alive, but after becoming a fierce ghost, her strength was not particularly great. She did not even possess the ability to let living people see her.

For the first two days after her death, she followed the salon owner around every day, but it was useless.

One wild ghost, namely the next witness ghost E, advised Lan Ying to save her effort and stop wasting her energy.

Witness Ghost E trembled as he said, “I don’t know what that girl ate, but when she saw people she ate people, and when she saw ghosts she ate ghosts!”

Pei Ye frowned tightly. She had already guessed what kind of people Witness Ghost E meant when he said Lan Ying ate people.

The hair salon was a black establishment used by a human trafficking ring as a temporary holding site to avoid attention. No one knew how many “goods” had been stockpiled there on the day of the incident.

Those goods might have been trafficked from various regions, naturally meaning they would not belong to the city’s missing persons records.

“What exactly did Lan Ying eat? Whatever it was, if it gave her the ability to kill people, it definitely wasn’t ordinary.” Pei Ye could not figure it out. “There’s another strange point. If Lan Ying only gained the ability to eat people after consuming some mysterious object, why didn’t she simply eat the people who harmed her? Why did she instead cause trouble at the Wudaokou intersection?”

Zhu Chun’an, who was hurrying to the department, also had this same doubt.

A colleague responsible for this case wore special gloves and carried a transparent self-sealing plastic bag containing a section of finger bone.

“It’s a provocation. Someone is deliberately provoking the Celestial Masters of the Special Public Security Investigation and Management Department.”

Deliberately choosing the intersection near 233X University where Zhu Chun’an was stationed, wasn’t that a provocation?

The object Lan Ying had eaten had also been identified.

“What Lan Ying ate was this. Last night the underworld messengers questioned her about clues concerning this thing, but she doesn’t remember. Even using a soul-searching technique revealed no memory of this segment.”

When the underworld messengers extracted the object from her body, Lan Ying’s yin energy instantly dropped by a huge margin.

Previously, it had been comparable to that of a Ghost King. Now it had returned to the level of an ordinary little ghost.

Zhu Chun’an stared at the finger bone for a long time.

“What dense baleful energy.”

Although it was baleful energy, it did not give off a filthy feeling.

“Take a look at this as well.”

His colleague pulled up several photographs and turned the laptop screen toward Zhu Chun’an.

“What is this?”

“Photographs taken when a cultural relic was unearthed twenty-two years ago.”

Zhu Chun’an was puzzled. “What connection does that have with this?”

Twenty-two years ago, he had only just been born, hadn’t he?

His colleague was named Chai Sitian. Her name sounded cute and adorable, but in reality she was a glamorous mature beauty who wore bright crimson lipstick all year round, one of the few female Celestial Masters in the department.

“Twenty-two years ago, an ancient imperial tomb complex was discovered at Ma Mountain. The tomb complex was remarkably well preserved. When the news spread, the archaeological world was shaken, and many experts and scholars rushed there. But that tomb was extremely sinister. Only a few days into the excavation, a series of murders occurred. The person overseeing the case at the time was your master, Realman Qingxuan. The arm in these photographs was the culprit behind those murders. It is said that the matter even alarmed the Great Emperor of Fengdu, who personally came, and over a hundred powerful Celestial Masters were gathered before it was barely suppressed.”

After hearing this, Zhu Chun’an drew in a sharp breath.

An arm, and it was that sinister?

Then what sort of terrifying figure had the owner of that arm been while alive?

“Senior Sister Sitian, do you mean this finger bone came from that arm?”

Chai Sitian nodded, her expression grave. “This thing is not suitable for remaining in the human world. After that arm was suppressed, it was placed under the custody of the Great Emperor of Fengdu. Logically speaking, there should have been nothing to worry about. However, a rebellion broke out in Fengdu that year. Fierce ghosts from the eighteen levels of hell were incited by traitors and caused chaos. They rushed through the Ghost Gate and harmed the human world. The sealed arm was stolen during that period as well. The human world and Fengdu spent a long time capturing the escaped fierce ghosts and locking them back into the eighteen levels of hell. Even now, many old ghosts are still hiding somewhere unknown. Because of that, the matter of the arm was delayed. Everything had remained peaceful all these years. I never expected a section of that arm’s finger bone to reappear at a time like this...”

Zhu Chun’an felt a chill run down the back of his neck.

He suddenly realized that his luck last night had truly been extraordinary.

An entire arm had required the Great Emperor of Fengdu and a hundred powerful Celestial Masters to suppress it. Just how much power would a single finger bone from that arm possess?

Zhu Chun’an had talent, but he did not dare compare himself to the powerful Celestial Masters of the previous generation.

“The fact that I’m still alive after last night really must be thanks to the Patriarchs’ blessing!”

Chai Sitian said, “Indeed. Realman Qingxuan asked me to tell you that when you go back, remember to buy some fresh fruit for the Patriarchs.”

“According to the laws of novels, I have a feeling the other parts of that arm will gradually reappear and stir up a bloody storm across the Divine Land.”

No sooner had Zhu Chun’an finished speaking than he was smacked by a fluffy tail.

“Senior Sister Sitian, why did you hit me!”

Chai Sitian gritted her teeth and said, “I’m hitting you for your cursed mouth!”

The events of twenty-two years ago had not only thrown mortals and the underworld into turmoil, they had also brought disaster upon spirit creatures.

When tens of thousands of fierce ghosts escaped from the eighteen levels of hell, Chai Sitian’s parents, although fox spirits who had cultivated six tails, could not withstand being besieged by so many fierce ghosts.

Chai Sitian had lost her parents during that time. After wandering from place to place, she left the secluded mountain where she had lived in hiding and later met Realman Qingxuan.

With such a heavy matter at hand, Zhu Chun’an still had the nerve to joke about it?

“This matter has not only attracted the attention of higher authorities, it has also alarmed Fengdu. This time you’ve rendered a great service, and I’ve applied for quite a lot of good rewards for you.”

The rewards were generous, but Zhu Chun’an could not smile. This matter was simply too troubling.

As the previous generation of Celestial Masters either retired or entered secluded cultivation, and as the world’s spiritual energy had thinned several times over during the past twenty-plus years, cultivation had become increasingly difficult for the new generation of Celestial Masters.

Under such awkward circumstances, where one generation had not yet fully replaced the previous one, there were faint signs that a storm was approaching. Naturally, Zhu Chun’an was worried.

“Senior Sister Sitian, those items can wait. Help your junior brother apply for a bit more bonus money, and a new mobile phone too.”

Taking advantage of his good looks, Zhu Chun’an attempted to use his handsomeness to bribe Chai Sitian.

“You’re short of money?”

Although Celestial Masters were generally quite poor, Zhu Chun’an had excellent talent, completed many missions, and occasionally took side jobs. His finances should not have been tight.

Zhu Chun’an said, “The reason I survived by luck last night was entirely thanks to Senior Pei Ye.”

He had no intention of keeping all of this bonus money for himself, nor did he have the nerve to do so.

Chai Sitian asked, “Senior Pei Ye? The expert you mentioned before, the one who left Lan Ying completely helpless with a single cigarette?”

Zhu Chun’an nodded.

Chai Sitian flipped through the Celestial Master registration records. The records contained the rosters of various Celestial Master lineages, as well as some people who were not Celestial Masters but had connections to them.

There was no one named Pei Ye.

That meant the Senior Pei Ye Zhu Chun’an spoke of was an unaffiliated practitioner who had never officially registered.