Chapter 260: Fallen into my hands
“Junior Sister, the cadaverous aura coming from your school is getting increasingly dense.”
Under the curtain of the night, Fa Xiang pointed his staff at the ground as he stood beside an abandoned school building.
There was a golden-colored Buddhist seal on the ground surface, drawn by Fa Xiang with the staff in his hand.
In his another hand, he was holding prayer beads enchanted with Buddhist power, making him seem to be performing some magical art.
“How come this is possible?” Standing before him, was a beautiful woman in fiery red windbreaker. Su Ji knit her brows, “Why would a Zombie King choose our school for resurrection?! It’s nothing more than annoyance to others. Last time, it was people from Yama Sect coming over here to cause trouble and even injured me in the process. If not for the Recovery Pill given by Qin Chao, I’d be still lying on the bed!”
“This poor monk has somehow set up a seal here, but quite unfortunately the magical power of this poor monk is too weak for the purpose. As such, it won’t hold out for much longer if the cadaverous aura continues to grow even stronger. ”
“Then what are we supposed to do?” Su Ji was at her wits’ end, “The experts from other sects have yet to arrive, and it’s just our Song mountain’s Baotai Temple guarding over this place. Some residents around this area have already died in an inexplicable way, and there’s no doubt that this cadaverous aura is the cause behind those deaths! Senior Brother, are these sects trying to make a mockery of us or what?!”
“Junior Sister, you shouldn’t make such irresponsible remarks.” Said Fa Xiang, shaking his head. “Once the Zombie King comes into the world, it’ll certainly give rise to a reign of terror. This is an issue related with the foundation of the Immortality Practicing World, and no sect would look on idly as something like this happens. Therefore, within next three days, all of those experts will surely gather together at this place.”
While speaking, the staff in Fa Xiang’s hand heavily struck the ground. A golden Buddhist light flowed down the staff and swept away in all directions, quickly covering this entire vacant area.
“Furthermore, the magical power of this poor monk won’t last for long; it would only last for three days at most, and could even get exhausted within a day. The moment it ceases to exist, that would mean the revival of Zombie King.”
“By all means, Qin Chao should avoid coming back at this time…” Su Ji put her palms together saying her prayer to Buddha. “Qin Chao has done nothing wrong. If Buddha really wants to punish him, then I should be punished too…”
“Junior Sister, could it be that you’ve still not drawn a clear line of demarcation between you and that devilish sinner?” Said Fa Xiang, helplessly looking at his Junior Sister. “Both of you have your own different paths, and so it’s impossible for you to walk together with him.”
“Senior Brother, I don’t need your advice.” Su Ji shook her head, “I’m not going to change my decision no matter what others say. In this life, I’ve chosen to always be his woman; whether he lives or dies, is a devil or an immortal.”
“Amitabha Buddha…” Fa Xiang couldn’t help but chant Buddha’s name. “Every person in the world is troubled by such sentiments. Junior Sister, if you don’t set them aside, it’d be quite difficult for you to have some achievement on the way of Buddha.”
“Senior Brother” But Su Ji smiled in response, “Back then when I started practicing Buddhist doctrine, it was for the sake of maintaining my beautiful looks. As long as Qin Chao can become powerful, I’ll similarly attain more power, because he’ll be there to protect me.”
“Amitabha Buddha…” Fa Xiang continued to chant, “Oh, Sariputra, Form does not differ from the Void, and the Void does not differ from Form. Form is Void and Void is Form; The same is true for Feelings, Perceptions, Volitions and Consciousness…”
Su JI was in no mood to listen to Fa Xiang’s recitation of the Heart Sutra, and instead looked at the big school with concern.
“Guangyuan, can you survive through this calamity?!”
“Qin Chao, will you be truly able to earn five million…?”
Su Ji felt very anxious, but someone was even more anxious than her at this time.
Ai Xiaoxue was on the verge of going crazy and out of control. Recently, several inhabitants near the Guangyuan School died inexplicably, which threw the residents of the neighborhood into a panicked state, and the police had been sickly busy due to it.
On the scene of the incidents, they found nothing except for the bodies of the deceased.
The forensic detectives didn’t find anything strange about the corpses either; like poisoning, strangling, cerebral damage, etc. The sole clue they discovered was a particular characteristic the deceased shared in common, they clearly hadn’t been dead for that long, and yet the postmortem reports mentioned the signs of them dead for a very long period of time.
Such an odd phenomenon rendered the criminal investigation team unable to break out of the stalemate.
Xie Jun’s hair had turned white from all the thinking, but despite his intense research, he still didn’t discover the cause of the deaths.
“Captain Xie, I feel that some supernatural things are involved in this case.” A young newbie said, dumping a pile of documents related to the deceased on his desk. With an aching head, he added, “How else would you explain these deaths?”
“Nonsense!” Xie Jun rebuked him, “We, the police, must only believe in science! With a head full of stuff about monsters and demons, just how did you get admission in the Police academy?!”
“Captain Xie, I’m just saying whatever’s in my mind. You don’t have to care about it.” The young guy shut his mouth after being admonished by his senior. He shrugged his shoulders before immersing himself into going through the documents.
“Captain Xie, I’d like to request you to deploy surveillance at the area of the incidents.” said Ai Xiaoxue, suddenly standing up from her seat. She proposed, “If everyone stays shut in here, then how exactly are we going to investigate the reason behind the deaths?”
Surprised looks appeared on the faces of the police officers around her. To speak the truth, it wasn’t a bad idea at all, but… everyone had some apprehension in their hearts.
They weren’t afraid of criminals pointing their guns at them, but such supernatural things are what humans feared the most… the ‘unknown’.
“Okay, approved!” Xie Jun couldn’t think of anything else either, so he gave his approval to the method proposed by Ai Xiaoxue. “Have Yao Ge and Li Ranhao tag along with you.”
“Oww, Captain Xie, my stomach has started hurting a lot for some reason!” Sitting at the side of the room, Yao Ge went pale upon hearing his words. She covered her stomach and stood up, shouting, “I, I want to ask for leave!”
“Yao Ge, you’re having stomach troubles again, huh?” Xie Jun was absorbed in reading the documents, and didn’t think of pursuing the matter. “All right, I grant you a one-day leave. Go back home and take care of yourself to get better.”
“Thank you, thank you very much, Captain Xie!” Hearing his reply, her face returned to normal as she took to her heels.
“Oww, Captain Xie, I also want to ask for leave!” Seeing Yao Ge successfully finding an excuse to run away, Li Ranhao’s eyes rotated as he tried to come up with a decent reason.
“Oh? Even you want to ask for leave?” Xie Jun finally sensed something wrong. He shifted his attention to Li Ranhao, smilingly looking at him.
Everyone else in the room also looked over in his direction.
“Eh, I mean, I…” Li Ranhao’s eyes continued to move in circles before he blurted out, “I started that time of the month today.”
“Pfff!” A female coworker, who was having some soy milk at the moment, couldn’t hold herself back from spurting out the whole thing from her mouth.
Several other coworkers were also lying paralyzed on their desks from too much laughing. At this time, Li Ranhao just realized the idiocy of the reason he mentioned.
“Captain Xie, forget it.” Ai Xiaoxue couldn’t help but speak out looking at the disappointing policeman. “I’ll go by myself. I alone am enough to carry out surveillance.”
With that, she turned around and walked out of the criminal police office.
Xie Jun glanced at her back before looking back at Li Hanrao and heaved a sigh. He didn’t say anything else to him.
Walking with her head held high and chest stuck out, Ai Xiaoxue smiled coldly in her heart, “Humph, suit yourself if you don’t wanna believe in this gal. The heck you mean by ‘supernatural things’?! I’ll certainly catch the criminal this time. The quicker I render some meritorious service, the earlier I’ll get the chance to return to the organization!”
“It’s so dull working here as a police officer!”
Ai Xiaoxue’s mind was completely occupied by the thoughts of returning to the organization. After spending a certain period of time receiving training, she would then get the chance to execute the tasks handed over by the organization. Her dream was to become an everlasting legend like Liu Aiguo.
Moreover, once she left this place, she would be able to get away from that damn Qin Chao. She was simply dying to leave here as soon as possible.
However, as if being played around by her fate, the area where the strange incidents were happening this time, was actually around that freaking Guangyuan School of all places. That was one place she really didn’t want to go ever again.
But now that she needed to do her work, Ai Xiaoxue had no intention to shrink back. “So what if I run into Qin Chao?! It’s not like I’m going to be eaten by him.”
“However, the case at hand is indeed quite difficult to solve. Who knows which house’s resident is going to be the next target of the criminal?”
Ai Xiaoxue was indulged in flights of fancy when the phone in her pocket started to ring.
“Not many people know about my phone number. Could it be from Captain Xie, wanting to talk about something important to me?”
She flipped open her phone and took a look at the display, but it was an unknown number.
It made Ai Xiaoxue very excited, “Don’t tell me it’s from the organization to hand over a new task? Wow, it’s been so long since the organization contacted me last time.”
Thinking about the delightful possibility, she immediately picked up the phone. A sweet female voice came from the other end.
“Hello. Am I talking to Police Officer Ai?”
“Yes, you are. May I ask your identity?” Ai Xiaoxue scowled, “I haven’t met anyone with such a voice in the organization.”
The strongest ability of Ai Xiaoxue was her memory power. She still remembered every person she had seen in the organization, including their voices.
“Hehe, there’s no need to know my identity.” Said the person on the other end of the phone, “You only need to know that I can help you in solving the case you’re investigating.”
“Case?” Ai Xiaoxue’s brows jumped in surprise, “Who are you?”
“Like I said, you don’t need to know about me. Just know one thing, that I can help you out.”
The female voice sounded very gentle, and remained calm all along.
Ai Xiaoxue was a bit puzzled hearing her answer, “How come you know about this case?”
“I naturally have my own connections. You’re unable to solve this case, so I’m volunteering to lend you guys a hand.”
“Thanks but no thanks. We, the police, can solve this case by ourselves.” Said Ai Xiaoxue, feeling very unpleasant in her heart, as she moved her finger to hang up the phone.
“Don’t act so stuck-up when you haven’t even heard everything I have to say.” The woman on the phone lightly laughed, as if ridiculing Ai Xiaoxue’s ignorance. “If you guys were truly capable to solve this case, so many people wouldn’t have to die in the first place.”
“If there’s something you want to say, then hurry up and say.” Ai Xiaoxue knit her brows. “This clearly isn’t some random person, as she seems to know quite a lot about this case. Perhaps, she’s the one committing the crime.”
“Hehe, actually, I want to recommend a person to you.” The woman let out a light laughter again, “If you guys can’t handle it, then how about finding a specialist of such cases? Have them help you out, and the truth of this case will eventually come to light.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in knowing about the person you so want to recommend.” Ai Xiaoxue’s self-esteem wanted to make her hang up, but her curiosity didn’t let her finger move any further; still hovering over the cancel button even after exchanging so many words.
“In fact, you also know about this person.” The woman slowly spoke out a name which made Ai Xiaoxue stand dumbfounded on the spot.
The call ended after the woman told the name of the person she wanted to recommend.
It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Ai Xiaoxue’s body. She really couldn’t understand why did it had to be him.
“‘Qin Chao’…”
“Could it be that he’s somehow related with this case?”
“Maybe, he’s the one behind these incidents?”
Ai Xiaoxue suddenly felt everything before her eyes darkening for a short moment. She seemed to be recalling the scene that day, when Qin Chao, lifting her up by the leg, had pushed her against the wall.
It was impossible for her to ever forget the shame she experienced that time.
“Qin Chao, you’ve at last fallen into my hands?!”