Chapter 47 Too Smooth
It was a little past nine in the evening.
Using Da Liu Ren divination, I calculated the exact location of the sorcerer. To my surprise, the fellow was hiding within fifty meters of the Yaodu District People's Government building! I hadn't expected him to be so cunning; if discovered, he could easily flee into the government offices, leaving us powerless to deal with him for the time being.
We walked to the destination, having already put on bulletproof vests inscribed with protective runes capable of stopping both bullets and ghostly possessions. I carried a specialized firearm, An Mingshan held her blade, and Liu Shan and Wu Siling each wielded a submachine gun. With her sharp eyes, An Mingshan spotted the man sitting cross-legged right at the entrance of the government building, completely ignored by the passing pedestrians as if he were invisible.
I motioned to An Mingshan, and we quietly stepped forward to lift his physical body. Along the way, I inspected the man closely and was stunned to discover it was Xu Qiuming! Yet, his face was lined with deep wrinkles, his hair had turned mostly white, his body felt unnaturally light, his pupils were constricted, and between his eyebrows was a mark resembling a mole. I also noticed numerous needle tracks on his arms. I knew immediately that this was premature aging caused by the cultivation of evil arts, and the mark between his eyebrows was the signature left by a driven "golden thread." To my further astonishment, he was a drug addict; I could faintly detect the scent of white powder on him.
As we walked back, I overheard a passing pedestrian casually remark that the two of us were carrying thin air! The moment the four of us reached the entrance of our rented apartment, a sudden bolt of lightning out of a clear sky struck the man's physical body, reducing it to charcoal in an instant! Sensing danger, I tossed him to the ground, and together with An Mingshan and the others, we dashed into the safety of the rooms.
Once inside, we learned that the zombie had indeed been captured and the sorcerer's soul reined in, but three more people had lost their lives. In total, five innocent lives were tragically claimed during this entire incident. My master and the bureau chief decided to hold a Taoist ritual to guide their souls to peace. After exchanging a few words with the chief and my master, the rest of us returned to our respective quarters.
The next day, February sixteenth.
Su Wei and the others had already departed. My master, the bureau chief, Liu Shan, and Wu Siling set about preparing for the ritual and figuring out how to break Xu Qiuming's silence. Only An Mingshan and I had nothing on our hands. I proposed that the entire team gather at a hotel for a celebratory banquet, but they showed little enthusiasm. At my insistence, the bureau chief decided that the ritual must take precedence over celebration, reminding us that the dead deserved our utmost respect. Realizing the logic in his words, I compromised.
The bureau chief informed us that he and my master needed to observe three days of ritual purification through fasting before they could perform the soul-releasing ceremony. During this period, they would shut themselves away in the rented apartment and forbade us from causing any trouble. Furthermore, we were strictly ordered not to leave the local area.
Three days later.
We spent the morning preparing the ritual supplies, and the ceremony finally commenced at one o'clock inpatial afternoon. My master and the bureau chief officiated the ritual personally, while I brought An Mingshan, Liu Shan, Lü Donghua, and Wu Siling along to observe and learn. To be honest, having served in the Paranormal Bureau for so long, I had never witnessed a Taoist soul-releasing ritual firsthand, having only ever seen high-ranking Buddhist monks perform similar rites, so I watched with utmost attention. Because we chose an open space directly in front of the government building, it attracted a large crowd of onlookers, some of whom eagerly filmed the entire ceremony! I could guarantee that they would upload the footage online, and before long, we would find ourselves trending.
I observed that their method of guiding the departed souls was quite similar to Buddhist chanting, except their voices were exceptionally low and the recitation so rapid that it was impossible to make out the exact words.
Glancing inadvertently toward the government gates, I suddenly recalled the sequence of events from the previous night and felt a creeping sense of unease. The entire operation had gone far too smoothly, proceeding without the slightest obstacle! Although five innocent souls had perished, we had successfully captured both the sorcerer and the zombie. Yet, this very smoothness was precisely the most suspicious aspect of the entire ordeal. There had been no fierce resistance, no intense gunfights, no secondary traps of dark magic, and not even a trace of a second member from the Divine Image Cult.
Everything had simply gone too smoothly—so smoothly that one could not help but doubt its authenticity.
Reader Q&A.
Q: Dear author, what are your thoughts on the subject you study (the predictive science of Zhouyi)?
A: It is a discipline I have been self-studying since childhood. It has allowed me to discover how the culture of the Zhouyi aligns with many everyday fields of study. For instance, the binary code in modern computing originates from the arrangement of the yin and yang lines in the Zhouyi hexagrams; the twelve zodiac animals used for recording years correspond to the traditional Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches calendar system; and renowned classical literary phrases such as "As heaven maintains its vigor through movement, a gentleman should unremittingly strive for self-improvement; as the earth's terrain exhibits devotion, a gentleman should sustain all things with deep virtue" likewise stem from the Zhouyi, and so on. Therefore, I find what I study immensely meaningful, and I will continue to pursue it until I reach the caliber of the renowned masters of Yi studies.