Chapter 78           Life-Buying 3

“Look! Look at me! This is how I looked when I died! My body completely rotted! It took 23 days for someone to find my body! Fatty Chen, didn’t you like my face? Look at me; look at me!” The spirit raised her voice higher and higher in anger as she spoke. Fatty Chen could not take it anymore. His eyes rolled up, and white foam came out of his mouth. He collapsed on the floor and stopped moving.

“Arghhhh!” a shriek came from the direction of the balcony. It was Xie Yuqing. She could not stand the scene and had screamed in fear. The spirit turned around, but it could not see anyone. It stood up and furiously yelled, “Who is it? Who is out there?”

Ye Shaoyang tore off the talisman paper of invisibility and walked in. He ignored the spirit and directly headed to Fatty Chen to check his pulse. Luckily enough for Fatty Chen, he had only fainted and was still alive.

“Who are you? What did you do?” The spirit pointed at Ye Shaoyang’s back and clawed at him with its hand.

Ye Shaoyang did not even look back. He calmly formed a hand seal. Then, he turned to throw his palm out and met the spirit’s hand that came from behind. Ye Shaoyang felt nothing, but his move had flung away the spirit. It fell on the floor, startled, “You are a sorcerer, aren’t you?”

“Change this ugly face. It’s disgusting to see, even for me,” Ye Shaoyang said as he helped Fatty Chen up. As he turned around, the spirit had already reverted to its original appearance. It was a young girl with a delicate face, but it was glaring at Ye Shaoyang with hatred, “Did he pay you to stop me?”

“I’m a Heavenly Master from Maoshan Sect.” Instead of providing an explanation, Ye Shaoyang replied with a simple sentence.

These words stunned the spirit, but she quickly became a little relieved. A Heavenly Master of Maoshan Sect was an Arbiter. This meant that he would not do anything against his princ.i.p.als for money. Every Tom, d.i.c.k, and Harry of spirits knew this.

“Master, I’ve already paid for his life. You shouldn’t stop me.”

Ye Shaoyang sighed, “I didn’t want to stop you either. But this thing that you are doing, the life-buying, won’t bring you any good. Although they won’t punish you, you would still need to serve the Underworld as a laborer after this. On the other hand, his soul would receive less punishment in the Underworld because of this. Don’t you think that it’s not worth doing this?”

Tears immediately rolled down from the spirit’s eyes. She cried, “You don’t know what he did to me!”

“Tell me.”

The spirit went silent for a while. Then, she started to recount her story:

“I was an average working girl, living in this city alone for work. I didn’t even go back to my hometown during festive seasons because I couldn’t afford to. I was renting one of his houses when I was still alive. It was during a Mid-Autumn Festival, and his wife had returned to her hometown. He lured me to his house and drugged my drink. I fell unconscious and…” she sobbed and continued, “After what he did to me, he even wanted to make me his secret lover. I rejected him, and he hit me…I tried to escape through the window, so he choked me to death and threw my body under a bridge. Someone only discovered my body after 23 days. It had rotted to the point that the police couldn’t determine my ident.i.ty. So, he slipped through the net of law. That’s not fair! That’s why I came back on my death anniversary. I want to buy his life, even if I’ve to serve as a laborer after this. I beg you, Master. Please let me do this….”

Ye Shaoyang let out a silent sigh and shook his head. He turned to Xie Yuqing, “You can show yourself now.”

Xie Yuqing carefully moved a little closer to Ye Shaoyang. The spirit did not look as horrifying as before, so Xie Yuqing did not feel as scared anymore. She took off her talisman paper of invisibility and awkwardly walked to Ye Shaoyang’s side.

“She is a police officer. She can send this murderer to jail; he might even get executed according to mortal laws. And after he dies, he would still get his punishment in the Underworld. By doing this, you don’t have to serve as a laborer in the Underworld. Isn’t it better this way?”

The female spirit looked at Xie Yuqing. Just before it opened its mouth, a silhouette suddenly appeared through the window. It was a dark-faced man who wore an ancient Chinese robe. After he entered the room, he saluted Ye Shaoyang. Ye Shaoyang nodded and said, “Let’s put this to an end. I’ll hand this murderer to the police, and you’ll take this spirit back to the Underworld. Forget about the life-buying arrangement.”

The man nodded, and he reached out his hand to the spirit. The spirit was immediately sucked into his palm. Then, he turned around and flew out of the window without hesitation.

Xie Yuqing stared at Ye Shaoyang in disbelief, “What was that?“

”Spirit commissioner.”

“A spirit commissioner? How did you summon it?” Xie Yuqing was still in a state of awe.

“What’s so great about it? It’s just a spirit commissioner. Not like it’s a very high-ranked official in the Underworld. If I die someday, I’d be automatically awarded the t.i.tle of General in the Underworld,” Ye Shaoyang said.

Ye Shaoyang bent down and pinched the Fatty Chen’s Ren Zhong. Then, Ye Shaoyang slapped the back of Fatty Chen’s head. He immediately woke up and stared at Xie Yuqing with a blank face.

[TL note: Ren Zhong - an acupoint at the philtrum area]

“He is all yours.” Ye Shaoyang took a few steps back to allow Xie Yuqing to do her work.

Xie Yuqing thought for a while and took out her phone and started recording. She wanted Fatty Chen to confess all the matters about the murder he had committed. She warned him that if he refused, the spirit would take him away instead. The spirit’s appearance before him still horrified Fatty Chen. He did not dare to test his chances. So, he confessed. Xie Yuqing immediately requested for her colleagues to come. A police car arrived within ten minutes, and they took him away under Xie Yuqing’s orders. Before she left, she took Ye Shaoyang to aside and told him, “Thank you for helping me bring this man to justice. But a recording is not enough as evidence. I’ll have to interrogate him further. I’ll see you soon.”

Ye Shaoyang nodded, “I’ll give you a call tomorrow at noon. We still have a case to follow-up on.”

Xie Yuqing silently looked at him. She suddenly asked, “Little trickster, do you really think it’s better for him to be brought to justice rather than letting the spirit kill him?”

Ye Shaoyang shrugged, but he kept his silence.

Xie Yuqing walked back to her police car, but she suddenly turned around and asked Ye Shaoyang one last question, “Hey, so the spirit commissioner. It should be quite powerful, right? Why don’t you ask for his help and fight together against Feng Xinyu?”

Ye Shaoyang gave her a helpless smile, “It’s just an ordinary spirit commissioner. It is not really that powerful. Besides, it has its own duty. Fighting Feng Xinyu is not its duty, so it can’t help us with that. Plus, I’m an Arbiter. If I have to rely on spirit commissioners all the time, I would be quite a useless sorcerer, right?”

“Yeah, right.” Xie Yuqing rolled her eyes at him. Then, she went back to her car and left.

Ye Shaoyang returned to the porch and met up with Xiao Ma. After that, they took a cab back to the apartment.

Xiao Ma could not help but sigh when he heard the story of the spirit.

On the other hand, this case did not really bother Ye Shaoyang. He had seen too many similar cases, even before he descended the mountain.

The inevitable and looming fight lingered on his mind. He knew it would be a big fight between him and Feng Xinyu tomorrow. Moreover, it was not going to be an easy one either. Compared to this, what took place just now was not even an issue for him. Ye Shaoyang set an alarm on his phone and went to bed. He planned the day ahead in his mind. Then, he chanted a mantra and slept.

It was a dreamless night, so he managed to rest well. He woke up the next day at seven in the morning, even before the alarm went off.

The first thing that came to his mind was that he needed to unseal the spirit nest and possibly fight Feng Xinyu and all the spirits in the nest. He needed to be in his best form. After he washed his face, he sat on his bed with his legs crossed and regulated his Qi for one cycle using his Maoshan Sect Qi Cultivation Technique. Upon the completion of the cycle, he felt recharged and more energetic. So, he went downstairs to buy breakfast for Xiao Ma and himself.

Soon, it was a little past eight in the morning. Ye Shaoyang woke Xiao Ma up for breakfast. Then, they took a cab to the bar and called Xie Yuqing and Li Duo to meet them there too.

“I can understand if you need Xie Yuqing there, but what about Li Duo?” Xiao Ma asked out of curiosity.

“Later, I will need to set up the Formation of Eight Paths. I’ll need help, as many hands as we can get.”

“But he’s not a sorcerer. What can he help you with?”

“You’ll see when the time comes.” Ye Shaoyang did not want to explain any further as he would need to converse at length with Rui Lengyu later.

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