Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 1 Chapter 24

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Surprisingly, the wrist had a body temperature and even had pulses!
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　　"Opened whose coffin?" Xuan Ji didn't understand, "There was originally someone inside this coffin?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan suddenly looked up, his eyes dangerously red. Xuan Ji followed his line of sight but didn't see anyone. But then, he heard a splas.h.i.+ng sound and was surprised to see the goatee guy lying next to the coffin was no longer there!

　　It turned out when one of them was stuck in the coffin and couldn't get up and the other was in a daze, the goatee guy, didn't know whether he had just woken up or only pretended to faint, used this opportunity to jump into the lake and swam quickly in one direction.   

　　Xuan Ji followed the splas.h.i.+ng sound only to see there was a s.p.a.ce big enough for one person to enter underneath the rocky hill. Before, when the water level was still high, this cave was submerged and couldn't be seen.

　　It was as if that goatee guy already knew that there was an exit, his dog-style swimming posture was really quite up to standards!

　　Xuan Ji first looked at him, then looked at the copper coffin, and finally looked at the ground that had sacrificial writing written in dye: "Don't tell me this brat is actually a grave robber… the f.u.c.k?"

　　As his voice tapered off, Sheng Lingyuan's hand which hadn't been able to even grip on his clothes before, suddenly motioned at the empty air. The veins on his hand moved and the goatee guy in the water was thrown up into the air, his head was heading straight to the rocky ground next to the black copper coffin.

　　Xuan Ji's wings unfurled and he flew over to the direction of the goatee guy whose head was about to become a smashed watermelon. He caught him by the ankle and let him dangle: "Hot guy, calm down, this is a human's head, not a shot ball… Oi!"

　　He had yet to finish his sentence when he felt a force "sucked" the goatee guy in his hand. The goatee guy had his feet in Xuan Ji's hand, yet the upper half of his body was drawn to the coffin, and from the coffin, a scary-looking white hand came out and choked his neck.

　　Sheng Lingyuan suppressed down his voice: "Who, opened, the, coffin?"

　　The goatee guy's hands twitched as if to struggle. His face was filled with blood and his neck made dangerous "cracking" sounds. Xuan Ji suspected that the devil planned to break his neck with his bare hands and thus, he quickly approached and grabbed Sheng Lingyuan's wrist: "What are you doing!"

　　Surprisingly, the wrist had a body temperature and even had pulses!

　　Xuan Ji couldn't help but blank out for a moment. Right then, his phone suddenly rang, its ear-piercing voice reverberated in the cave and created a thundering effect. It seemed that Sheng Lingyuan had finally ran out of energy. As soon as his hand was let go, he fell back down on the coffin as soft as cotton. Xuan Ji caught the goatee guy with one hand while rustling through his body to find the phone with the other.

　　Ever since he arrived in this who-knows-where, his phone had always been in a "dead corpse" state, otherwise, he would've already been blown away by all the phone calls. But, after being dead for half a day, the connection went through for some reason, and there were even two signal bars.

　　At the Deviant Control Office, Xiao Zheng, after hearing the death notice from Luo Cuicui, nearly had a heart attack. He wondered what kind of pig fat had been covering his vision back then that made him trust that Xuan guy and think he was reliable!

　　Yang Chao, with the help of Ping Qianru, was able to break free from the ropes. He limped toward Luo Cuicui, who was crying about how he had to put his life on the line while going out to work, and took the electronic cigarette that Xuan Ji had dropped behind.

　　This enthusiast in taking graduate program entrance exams examined the cigarette for a while, then used a finger to poke at one of Luo Cuicui's green radish sprouts: "Don't cry, he's not dead yet."

　　According to the definition of "Special Ability" by the Deviant Control Office, the so-called "Special Ability" must have stable, some degree of control, and different-from-ordinary-people energy conversion mechanism. Yang Chao didn't meet this condition, but he wasn't the same as normal people either —— for example, he could faintly sense something when he touched an object.

　　Sometimes it was strong and sometimes it was weak, sometimes it worked and sometimes didn't, there was no way to guess.

　　Like when he was on the airplane, he had gooseb.u.mps all over his body and instinctively wanted to run away when he was around Xuan Ji's sword, it was impossible for him to even read books. At this moment, when he touched the electronic cigarette, he got a very strong feeling, making him unconsciously speak up: "I think they are underground."

　　Xuan Ji's group was in Lord Yue De's territory right now. If this were a normal day, Xiao Zheng would shamelessly go and ask Lord Yue De to a.s.sist them in finding people.

　　However, at this moment, Lord Yue De had led the people to fight for independence in the Penglai Conference that was as noisy as a flowers and birds' market. If he went and asked for his help, not only he wouldn't help, that would also mean offering them a big weakness in a silver platter.

　　Since there was nothing he could do, Xiao Zheng was forced to leave the headquarters himself. He appointed a group of skilled field workers as his backups, and at the same time, he delegated the good-for-nothing staff in the Reparations Department  —— letting Yang Chao follow his "sixth sense" to look for Xuan Ji.

　　Both the inside and outside were a mess, and Director Xiao had to handle them all by himself. There wasn't any reliable person next to him to consult, and his mind and body were both exhausted. To reduce his anxiety, every once in a while, he would call Xuan Ji.

　　He didn't expect that the phone would connect after the eighth or ninth calls.

　　The one calling and the one answering were both surprised. As soon as they got connected, the two said in unison.

　　Xuan Ji: "What's the situation?"

　　Xiao Zheng: "What happened?"

　　"I should be the one asking what's the situation!" Xiao Zheng immediately reacted, took in a deep breath, then shouted angrily, "Did you want to anger me to death? What the h.e.l.l are you doing? Where did your a.s.s land? Where are you right now?"

　　Xuan Ji thought about it for a moment and felt like it was difficult to explain everything he had been through, so he shortly summarized: "Ah… right now, I'm probably in a grave."

　　Xiao Zheng listened to this "ghost story" and got even angrier: "Then keep lying in there, don't come out again!"

　　"Not that, listen, this grave is different," Xuan Ji glanced over Sheng Lingyuan who was still lying in the coffin. His breathing was shallow and his long hair was intertwined with seaweed and vines. He struggled several times but still didn't have enough energy to stand up…

　　As if he was a devil who had just stolen the body and hadn't gotten used to the new body yet.

　　"Ah… I feel this is a bit complicated. The grave has sacrificial writings, and judging from the color, it seemed to be newly-painted using some dye. There is a cave next to it, but it was submerged earlier. But as soon as it surfaced, my phone immediately had connection…" Xuan Ji forcefully pulled his eyes away from Sheng Lingyuan and carefully walked between the devil and the goatee guy to separate them. To make sure he would be able to catch the devil by the moment he did something shady, he was facing Sheng Lingyuan all the way. Then, he put Xiao Zheng on speaker, and with his feet on the top of the goatee guy's "crucial part", he said: "Let me see if you dare to pretend to be unconscious with me again!"

　　The goatee guy's eyes rolled for a while before focusing back. Facing Xuan Ji, this gigantic bird man, he was so scared that he cried.

　　"What are you crying about! Did I, your grandfather*, looked like a ferocious-looking corpse to you?" Xuan Ji said angrily, "You dared to rob graves, even robbing a thousand people graves, I'm so f.u.c.king impressed."

*Chinese swear words usually have something to do with family. If they refer to themselves as one of the ancestors or any family members just like this, it is in order to give a sense of superiority and basically insulting the recipient.

　　The goatee's voice was trembling like a wavy line, "It, it, it, it's not me, I have never done immoral things such as robbing and digging graves. The, the, the old Lang, it's the old Lang and his group of people…"

　　"Who is this old Lang?"

　　"It's Ji Qingchen! Old Lang's real name is Ji Qingchen!" The goatee guy twisted his b.u.t.tocks on the ground, attempting to escape from Xuan Ji's feet, "It's all him! I know nothing! It's him who made the small black vases. He said, said, said it would generate money. I told him not to do it, it's too immoral, but he wouldn't listen…"

　　Xiao Zheng heard it over the phone and immediately followed: "What are the small black vases?"

　　"The small black vases are their treasures, there are all kinds of 'good stuff' inside. They dug it out of the ground, one vase contained 'spell' and the other 'antidote'. First, they put a spell on those people with more money than sense, making them fall under the spell, then giving them the antidote. It's really really good! You get as much money as you want."

　　Even though the goatee guy's talk was incoherent, Xiao Zheng and Xuan Ji understood clearly —— Ji Qingchen had something in hand that could make people catch serious 'spell', as well as their corresponding 'antidote'.

　　They put people under the spell deliberately and then cured them, fooling the victims to all around.

　　Xuan Ji: "Where did that thing come from?"

　　"From the night market, they all use it…"

　　Xiao Zheng had one hand on the office phone and was ready to make an urgent call to the Penglai Conference. He asked: "Who are they?"

　　The goatee guy almost howled: "The Master! It's Master Yue De and them!"

　　Xiao Zheng put down the office phone he was holding up: "Who? Repeat that again?"

　　The goatee guy was scared out of his wits, his whole person had become crazy, shaking on one side and shouting on the other side: "Master Yue De's group did this, he had eight hundred disciples, every year they need to report what kind of 'good deeds' they have done. If it's not enough, he would say they wouldn't need to cultivate anymore and would, would, would expel them!"

　　Xuan Ji couldn't imagine: "What? They're in this line of work and can't even avoid 'KPI'*?"

*Internet slang used by younger people, it stands for Key Performance Indicator and means something about keeping up with the quota at work.

　　Xiao Zheng: "Can you shut up!"

　　The goatee guy's teeth were shaking and clamoring onto each other.

　　Xiao Zheng's voice became dangerous: "So if everything went well, all the ghosts and demons would live together in harmony. But if they don't satisfy their demon-fighting quota that their master set annually, they will cause some trouble themselves?"

　　No wonder that old immortal was risking his life jumping up and down. He must've known for sure that this goatee guy, Ji Qingchen, and himself who were helping the disciples wouldn't be able to escape the responsibilities. This was clearly using the Deviant Control Office's disorganized fallout as a basket to cover his dirty b.u.t.t!

- End of Volume 1 -