The rat heard me. It jumped a few times on my shoulder, then dashed forward like a lightning bolt.

I ran after 

it

. Soon, I 

noticed

 a wisp of Yin energy that was quite

similar to the Yin energy that had swirled above Li Mazi’s head.

After around ten minutes, I saw a shadow pulling Li Mazi’s ghost ahead of me. Li Mazi didn’t want to go with it, and was trying to 

resist

 at every step.

I exhaled in relief once I saw

 Li Mazi’s complete soul. I strode forward, shouting at the shadow, “How dare you! You stole a living man’s soul!”

The shadow was startled a

nd 

shivered. He took a few steps back, talking in a dark and glum voice, “He unearthed my body. I’m taking revenge…”

The shadow pestering Li Mazi was undoubtedly Zhang Yang’s ghost. Although he had

strong resentful energy, he was a new ghost. He was still afraid of me. I made good use of this 

point

, yelling, “You fool! You’ve been deceived! We were there to help investigate your death. We wanted to find the real murderer!”

“Is it true?” 

Z

hang Yang’s expression froze

, his face puzzled

.

I took the chance and used the Hundred Ghost Pouch to collect his and Li Mazi’s souls. Then, I turned to find the rat. I wanted to ask it to take me to 

Senior Shu

. 

However,

 it had already

 left

.

It seemed 

Senior Shu

 didn’t want to show up. Otherwise, he would have saved Li Mazi already. I sighed and 

returned

 to the Police Bureau.

While crossing the small bridge, I heard the water splashing underneath. A

s I was reminded 

about th

e

 scene from before, my scalp became numb. I closed my eyes and 

sprint

ed

 away.

Along the way, I became increasingly worried that Cao Cao would wreak havoc and kill more people while I wasn’t in the Police Bureau. 

I rushed to the guest room a

s soon as I entered the building.

The arrangement in the room remained the same. Li Mazi was lying on the bed

 while

 Chief Liu was sitting on the edge, looking at the Eight Diagram with a stern face. When I entered, he heaved a sigh of relief. “How 

did it go

?”

“

Everything should be fine now

…” I answered him

,

asking

 him to leave right a

fter

. 

When I was alone in the room, I released Li Mazi’s soul and chanted the spell to make his soul return to his body.

Li Mazi started to breathe a

s soon as his soul returned. His three Yang flames were burning again. However, as his soul had been affected by Zhang Yang’s Yin energy, his Yang flames were still weak. That 

was

 why he had yet to 

wake up.

 I placed 

his body

 a

t

 the center of the formation.

I could protect him there, and I could even use him to 

lure

 Cao Cao.

Afterward, I invited Chief Liu to the room to wait with me. 

At this

 moment, the wind had subsided outside and snow started to fall.

At first, the snowflakes were as big as rice grains. However, they grew bigger with time,

 reaching the size of a 

feather. Snow fell and stacked on the tree branches in the courtyard, eventually breaking the

m

.

It was the first time I had seen

such a strong snow

fall. 

I couldn’t help but 

go

 out to watch. The entire world seemed to have only one color, with the gray sky connected to the white 

earth

. This was the most beautiful natural

scenery I had ever seen.

Chief Liu followed me. He brushed the snow off his shirt, asking, 

“The snowfall is getting heavier. Would that thing still come?”

“It certainly will!” I sounded resolute.

We were talking about

 Cao Cao

.

 He wouldn’t 

let a storm

 or snow hinder him from what he wanted to do.

As soon as I said that, I heard the wind howling

 and rushing toward

 the Police Bureau.

My spirit was boosted.

“Here he comes!” 

I 

pulled Chief Liu to hide behind a trash bin. After all, 

t

he wind was so fast that we couldn’t get into the house before it.

A

s soon as we hid away, Cao Cao entered the gate of the Police Bureau. His figure flashed and reappeared in the dormitory.

He went to Chief Liu’s room first. Seeing no one there, he went to Li Mazi’s room.

Seeing that, Chief Liu sweated in fright. His voice shivered as he spoke,

“

That was incredible

!”

Then, he gave me a thumb-up.

I shook my head with a smile a

nd

 turned to look at Cao Cao.

A

fter seeing no one in Li Mazi’s room, Cao Cao eventually went to my room. My door was left open so that he could see Li Mazi lying inside at first glance. However, he didn’t get in, and only paced back and forth in the

 same

 spot.

“Young master, what’s he doing?”

Chief Liu 

was puzzled

.

I 

put on a serious 

face and 

asked

 Chief Liu not to talk. I fixed my eyes on Cao Cao, my heart 

racing

.

I just realized I had underestimated Cao Cao’s mistrustful nature. 

H

e would have entered the room i

f I had closed the door

. But 

a

s 

the 

door was wide open, he wouldn’t take the initiative to get in.

If 

this continued

, all of my preparations would have been

in vain

. And, i

t would be even more difficult to subdue him later.

What you feared the most 

would eventually come true

!

Cao Cao lingered at the door for a while, then he turned to leave.

I couldn’t be subtle anymore. 

When he passed by our hideout, I 

jumped 

out from behind the trash bin, yelling, “Blacky Cao!”

Cao Cao was the second son of his family

,

 and he had a dark skin tone. When he was young, people had always made fun of his dark skin. Blacky was the nickname people had given him, which he hated 

a lot

. That 

was

 why

 he turned around right away

 when I yelled his nickname; his eyes turned red as he gazed at me.

My plan was to

 provoke him and 

quickly run

 to my room. However, I tripped when I jumped out, landing on my face like a

n idiot

.

Cao Cao stormed after me. Although he couldn’t behead me now, he would still be able to hurt me!

The 

s

word’s cold light was reflected on the white snow, 

blinding

 my eyes.

I wanted to run, but it was too late. 

So 

I directly rolled on the ground. At the same time, I grabbed a handful of peanuts and 

threw

 them at the Seven Star Sword.

Chief Liu had prepared the peanuts while we were waiting for Cao Cao. He wanted to drink some liquor with peanuts to warm up. However, they beca

me quite handy for 

me at the moment.

Cao Cao changed his expression when he saw the peanuts. He was frightened

 and

backed

 off, which was out of my expectation. The peanuts could only damage his Yin energy a little bit

. He didn’t need to react in such an exaggerated way

.

However, it didn’t end here

. Cao Cao took a few steps back to avoid the peanuts

, b

ut his Seven Star Sword got hit, sending sparks everywhere. Then, it disappeared. 

“What the heck…

?

” 

I dropped my jaw, not 

believing

 what I saw

.

 I couldn’t understand why a divine weapon was so easily broken.

However, before I could pull myself together, Cao Cao laughed

 and threw himself

i

n the snow. Then, something even more surprising happened

—

the broken Seven Star Sword 

recovered

. When Cao Cao got up, the sword was radiating cold light in his hand one more time.

“Why are you still standing there? Hurry, get in!”

I didn’t have time to think much. Before Cao Cao came, I pulled Chief Liu 

and rushed

 into the room. Then, I banged the door shut.

I realized that t

he Seven Star Sword had 

recovered

 thanks to the Yin energy Cao Cao absorbed from the snow.

W

ater had Yin

 properties

. That 

was 

why 

spirits and ghosts 

often liked to 

live

 in rivers or wells. Snow was a 

s

ort of frozen water 

with highly-concentrated

 Yin energy!

Moreover, while falling from the sky, 

the

 snowflakes had absorbed the dirt in the air. When 

the snow

 piled up on the ground, it looked white and clean, but it was actually filthy underneath.

Chief Liu patted his chest and 

looked

 at the door. He asked me cautiously, “Did he leave?”

I closed my eyes, although still ‘looking’ at the door. I saw Cao Cao lingering there.

I then explained to Chief Liu.

“No, he’s hesitating, deciding whether to enter the room or not.”

But I still hadn’t figured out how the peanuts could smash the Seven Star Sword.

The peanuts I used were fried ones

, which

 had thin Yang energy. But if they were enough to hit and break the Seven Star Sword, it could only mean one thing

—t

he sword was fake!

Actually, after Cao Cao was forced to offer the sword to Dong Zhuo, the Seven Star Sword had disappeared from history. Luo Guanzhong

, the author of ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms,’

 didn’t mention the sword in his book. I was certain that the sword wasn’t returned to Cao Cao later. If so, the sword in Cao Cao’s hand 

w

as just a counterfeit. It could have been made of wood or mud. That 

was 

why it couldn’t even withstand a light attack.

I was afraid of 

him

 because of 

the sword

. But now, Cao Cao didn’t seem so dangerous.

“Chief Liu, don’t worry. We should just wait.”

Around ten minutes later, the closed door was blown open. Cao Cao 

charged in 

with bloodshot eyes.

Seeing the three of us sitting at the center of the room,

 h

e hesitated, carefully watching the Eight Diagrams underneath 

our feet

.

“Hahaha, it’s the formation that peasant Zhuge 

Liang

 used to play with. 

Are you trying

 to make yourself look like a joke?

Cao Cao recognized the Eight Diagrams. However, he ignored it and 

dashed

 forward.

“

Success

!”

I couldn’t control the joy in my heart. Chief Liu and I removed Li Mazi from the Eight Diagrams. Then, we pulled the rope.

As the rope was pulled, the raincoats and fabric

s

 we used to cover the mirrors were all lifted. Except for the direction towards the door, the other seven 

directions

 began to reflect light.

A white halo burst from the center of the formation, directly imprisoning Cao Cao.

Actually, when Chief Liu and I were taking those steps, Cao Cao could have 

seized

 the time to leave the Eight Diagrams formation. However, 

he

 missed the chance due to his initial hesitation.

His face changed when he saw the white halo. He knew he had been trapped and that it 

wouldn't be 

easy to escape. He 

used his hands to hit his head and fell to the ground.

At this time, h

e was facing the most perilous gate of the formation: The Death Gate! I

t didn’t look special t

o the naked eye

,

 but to people in this business, the Death Gate had mountains of skeletons that fumed green smoke. In the distance, I could still feel the strong breath of Death. I

 backed off out of reflex

.

“What are you looking at? I see nothing over there.”

Chief Liu studied the door, not 

getting what was happening

.

I smiled, then dripped two drops of ox 

tears

 from a small bottle on my palm. I used my finger to smear the ox tears on Chief Liu’s eyelids. “

T

ake a look

 now

!”

Chief Liu turned and looked. His face instantly changed. “Can we escape this place?”

“Don’t worry. After I deactivate the formation, the Death gate will disappear.”

Then, I slowly stepped forward, respectfully bowing to Cao Cao. “Chancellor Cao, please receive my greeting.”

Cao Cao knew he was imprisoned; his face paled. Under the light from seven mirrors, he was like Sun Wukong after ha

ving been 

confined by the Band-tightening Spell. He kept hitting his own head, his face twisting 

due to the pain

.

He had attempted to escape from the Death gate 

several

times

. Ultimately, he failed.