When the shadow reached the intersection, I was still hesitating whether to follow it or not.

Suddenly, I heard some noises coming from Zhu Fengchun’s house. I turned and saw the candle had bee

n relit 

in the room. Moreover, there was another shadow.

What’s going on? Why 

are there

 two

shadows?

Soon after, I noticed that the shadow in the room was fake. There was no wisp of Yin energy around it. It see

med that 

Zhu Fengchun had deliberately impersonated the shadow.

I was curious

, so 

I went there and 

straight off 

kicked the door open. At first glance, I spotted Zhu Fengchun pretending to be a ghost.

I turned the light on and glared at him

.

Just as I had 

thought, the man had 

faked

 his death. 

He should have been frightened s

ince I had 

exposed 

him

, but

 he acted as though he had already known 

I would go

 there.

He smiled, but his eyes 

were serious 

as he 

looked

 at me. “If 

everything went according to the plan

, your two friends 

must be 

dead by now. Hahaha…”

“What do you mean?” As I 

looked

at 

Zhu Fengchun

’s face

, I was deeply

worried about Li Mazi and Chief Liu.

But the shadow had just left

, so i

t couldn’t catch up with the other two so quickly. I turned and yelled at Zhu Fengchun, “Who are you tryin

g to

 scare?”

“Haha, yesterday, while you were digging up Li 

Tians

heng’s coffin, I to

ok

 the souls of the two

 other

 victims there. They saw what you did,” Zhu Fengchun laughed and continued,

“Do you think your friends can survive tonight if they guard the two graves?”

I was completely 

dumbfounded

. It turned out he had deliberately 

shown

 us that scene last night. He wanted to make us dig the three graves

 so that

 the souls of the victims would think that we were trying to harm them

!

They were ghosts that had been killed before their time. With this grudge, their resentful energy would help them become evil souls soon. Li Mazi and the others 

were

 in grave danger!

I 

hurried

 to 

call

 Li Mazi

, but

 Zhu Fengchun tried to stop me.

“

Damn

 you!”

I punched him right in the face as I 

clenched

 my 

teeth

.

The situation was now clear. Zhu Fengchun had joined hands with that spirit. He had made a scene to trick me into 

going to

 his house, giving the spirit a chance to run away.

I had no idea where the 

s

pirit had 

escaped

 to.

Anyway, calling Li Mazi and Chief Liu was more urgent. Zhu Fengchun seemed to be unafraid of pain. He clung onto me

 to prevent me from making 

the call.

I didn’t know how many times I had punched him already

, but m

y hand

 ached, and 

his face 

looked like that of a pig

. Still, he didn’t let go of me. He stuck onto me like a sticker. In the end, I had no choice but hit his nape to knock him 

out

.

I then called Li Mazi

. T

he line went

through right awa

y

.

“How is it going?” asked Li Mazi.

“Li Mazi, listen up. 

C

ancel the plan for tonight, right now! You and Chief Liu should return to the Police Bureau and wait for me there,” I replied with a stern voice.

“Hold on,” Li Mazi lowered his voice as if he were afraid that people could hear him. “Little 

B

rother Zhang, I think something’s wrong with Chief Liu. Just a moment ago, he resolutely asked me to go to the Bronze Bird Terrace. I asked him why, but he didn’t answer. Do you think he…”

Li Mazi’s voice shivered. It seemed

he had re

alized

 something.

“Are you sure?”

Li Mazi almost cried, “I’m sure!”

The 

Bronze Bird Terrace was the place Wang Zhuangzhuang

—

the second victim

—

had visited to take some photos before he 

was

 killed.

Chief Liu was certainly possessed by Wang Zhuangzhuang’s ghost. If it wanted to guide Chief Liu and Li Mazi to the Bronze Bird Terrace, there should be some clue in that place.

I gulped my saliva, making my tone firm and calm. “

In that case

, you 

should follow him

. You have to

pretend that you know nothing. I’

ll also 

head

 to the

 Bronze Bird Terrace.”

“All right, hurry up!”

After talking, Li Mazi hung up.

I took a look at the fainted Zhu Fengchun, then searched 

for the Bronze

 Bird Terrace using the map application 

on my

 phone. The Bronze Bird Terrace site was on the North side of the Zhang River, 

less than

five

 kilometers away from Wang Zhuangzhuang’s grave. I, on the other end, was close to twenty kilometers away from there.

As they were driving, despite the rough road, it would take them fifteen minutes at most to get there. I 

had no way to 

catch up with 

them.

I found some candles and joss sticks in Zhu Fengchun’s drawer

 and had

 an idea.

I opened the door and all the windows. Then, I lit up a candle on the floor and burned some joss sticks. I bit my finger till it bled and used my blood to draw a simple Eight Diagrams s

ketch

 around the candle. I the

n 

used a strip of red cloth with my blood 

smeared

 on it to tie my legs. After preparing everything, I closed my eyes and read 

a

 spell to beckon 

a

 spirit.

It was a spell grandpa had taught me. I could use my blood as an 

offering

 and use 

an ancient divination skill

 to control the wandering wild ghosts nearby for a short time. I could make them guide me to the place I wanted to go.

In 

‘

Water Margin,

’

 Dai Zong—the Magic Traveler—could travel five hundred miles away us

ing

 this magic technique.

However, this spell 

was dangerous

. If the caster didn’t have a strong cultivation base, the wandering ghosts he invited could wound him or even kill him. That

 was

 why I had never used it before. But as 

the situation was urgent, 

I decided to use it despite my hesita

tion

.

As soon as I read the spell, the air began to circulate around me. Instantly, the place where I was standing became a vacuum. A 

cold

 wind rushed in from the outside, swirling around me.

Everything had happened in 

the blink of an eye

. Before I could react, my legs felt quite

light as

they began to run without my control.

While running, I opened my eyes

 wide, looking at the scenery 

in front of me quickly 

moving

 past me. I stopped worrying when I had finally adapted to the situation. I was curious at the moment. What kind of spirit did I 

invite

?

I really wanted to know, so I lowered my head a little bit to see

.

 I was riding on a red shadow, which was moving at a 

tremendous speed

.

The red shadow seemed to have 

sensed

 me looking at him. He turned and looked back at me.

It was a face full of maggots with a nose turned up high. His eyes were uneven in size. The bigger one was shimmering with green light, bulging like a ball. Although both eyes looked human, they were oozing blood.

The spirit eyed me

, smiling

 at me. I tried 

not to

 vomit

,

 gritt

ing

 my teeth and 

nodding

 at him. Then, I closed my eyes, not daring to look at him a second time. After around five minutes, I felt that my body was slowly sinking. Then, both of my feet

 firmly

 landed on the ground.

When I opened my eyes, the spirit I had invited was gone

, and t

he blood on the fabric stripe I had used to tie my legs had bee

n

 sucked dry.

He seemed to be a nice spirit that had only enjoyed the blood and joss sticks I had offered. He meant no harm to me.

I didn’t have time to care much about that spirit. I turned and 

checked

 the place. Soon, I saw a majestic structure in front of me. The terrace was a

n

 imposing con

struction that faced

 the famous Zhang River.

Rumors said that Cao Cao had collected beauties in the country and kept them in the Bronze Bird Terrace. Moreover, he liked to gather with groups of literati to drink and make poems there. There was a famous verse that said: If

 the 

East wind didn’t favor General Zhou

, the 

Bronze Bird Terrace would have kept the Qiao sisters locked.

Although the Bronze Bird Terrace in front of me had been rebuilt by later generations and the water of the Zhang River was frozen, I could still 

feel 

Cao Cao

’s extravagance

 from those

years.

I looked around and saw no 

cars

. It seemed that

Chief Liu and Li Mazi would get there

 i

n a few minutes. I stood up and 

attempted

 to run across the frozen Zhang River to reach the Bronze Bird Terrace.

However, right when I was about to step on the Bronze Bird Terrace, I heard a sigh 

come 

from the 

top

.

The 

deep 

voice lingered in the 

cold

 night. Although it was just a sigh, I could feel the endless grief it carried.

Before I could move, the voice 

echoed

 again from the top of the terrace. “How 

could

 I, Cao Cao, be a traitor? Without my help, how could 

there be

 kings? How could 

there be

 emperors? Why does no one understand me

?!

”

The sigh grew until it be

came a

 yell.

I 

was shocked.

 It turned out that the person up there wasn’t a living person. He was the most controversial, historical figure in the era of the Three Kingdoms: Cao Cao—

the 

Emperor Wu of Wei!

As I recalled that all of 

the victims 

were murdered next to

 the Bronze Bird Terrace, I fi

nally understood

. The spirit I had to deal with this time was Cao Cao.

No wonder the spirit looked so dark. In history, Cao Cao was famous for his dark skin color.

I remembered that the spirit had a sword,

 and

 he fled whenever he 

saw a mirror

. With those details

,

 I could confirm that this was indeed Cao Cao!

The sword in his hand was the Seven Star Sword. In the legend, the Seven Star Sword 

was forged

 from the mysterious iron left 

behind by

 Gan Jiang and Mo Ye

, two legendary swordsmiths

. It was a precious sword that could cut iron as 

if it was mud

.

Cao Cao had 

tried

 to assassinate Dong Zhuo with this sword. However, when he reached Dong Zhuo’s bed, Dong Zhuo saw Cao Cao drawing the sword 

through

 the mirror by his bed. Cao Cao 

had a sudden idea and

said

 that he wanted to offer Dong Zhuo the sword. Then, he 

hurried to flee the scene

.

That moment of fright had haunted Cao Cao for the rest of his life. That

 was 

why his

spirit was afraid of mirrors. And, as for why he 

w

ould only kill people while they were 

asleep

, I 

thought it was

 related to the poems where Cao 

Cao

killed

 people in his dreams.

In the legend,

 after Cao Cao had become the Chancellor, in order to prevent assass

ination attempts on his person

, he had deliberately lied 

and said that

 his sleep wasn’t too good. When someone came near him, he would kill that person. He had purposely killed a eunuch that had 

gone to

 tuck his blanket. From th

en on

, no assassin was sent to murder Cao Cao at night

.

After I 

organized my thoughts

, I felt much at ease.

Cao Cao wasn’t a

 good

 person, but he was 

no villain, either

. I thought his spirit wouldn’t just go 

on a rampage

 and kill people 

for no

 reason.

Th

e

 deceased must have done something bad.

Cao Cao was the type of man who would defeat the entire world 

rather than

letting

 the world take him down. That was why he had chased after us all the way to the Police Bureau.

He was 

someone

 who could 

kidnap

 the emperor and control

 his

 vassals

, keeping the 

nation under his control for half of his life. Why 

could 

the righteous aura of the Police Bureau stop him?

After I had cleared up my thoughts, I decided to go there and meet Cao Cao to ask him about his 

obsession

. Then, I would try my best to help him solve it.

Cao Cao had always been a hero in my heart. I didn’t want to see 

his soul destroyed.