Holy Bone

Chapter 2007 Dying in the Underworld, Unable to Escape Reincarnation
Jin An stepped forward a few steps.

He finally saw it clearly.

Those five people.

They were all dressed in the uniforms of the Criminal Investigation Department.

He is a member of the Criminal Investigation Department.

Without a doubt, these five people must be Captain Chen Zhiyun, Vice Captain Guo Zihao, Liangzi, Aqing, and Su Wei.

"Chen Zhiyun?"

"Guo Zihao?"

Jin An tried calling out a few times, but the five people did not respond and remained standing motionless in front of the cliff.

When Jin An arrived in front of the five people and examined them, his heart sank. The five people had an abnormally pale complexion and were sitting stiffly, looking down at the cliff below.

As a martial arts immortal and a late-stage master of the fourth realm, Jin An possessed extremely keen divine sense. He could tell at a glance that the five people were already dead, and what was standing in front of him now were just five souls without any awareness.

"Chen Zhiyun?"

"Guo Zihao?"

Jin An called out again and tried several methods, but he still couldn't wake the five people, which made his already heavy heart even heavier.

Seventy-two transformations!

Ninth Transformation: Soul-Seizing Technique!

As Jin An used his soul-capturing technique on the five people, their previously stiff and numb souls finally began to react.

"Huh, what's wrong with me?"

Is this Linya Street?

"Why haven't I finished my official duties and gone home yet?"

“I remember now, I came to pee with Aqing. That bastard Aqing’s pee is really long.”

"Second Boss, my...pee...I've already finished..."

The five of them quickly took a few steps back, and then started talking to each other.

As they were talking, they all noticed a headless figure beside them and were startled. Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
……

The men drew their knives, and Captain Chen Zhiyun boldly shouted, "You, who are you!"

"We are from the Capital Criminal Investigation Department. We've seen it all. No, don't think you can scare us with a headless body!"

"Our Criminal Investigation Department also has, we do have, highly skilled individuals who specialize in dealing with people like you!"

Jin An sighed inwardly, then spoke through his belly: "Chen Zhiyun, I am Jin An, your commander. I have come to take you home. Your families say they miss you."

"what!"

"Commander!"

The group was stunned. They looked at each other, finding it hard to believe.

Jin An then added, "As you all know, I am a master of the primordial spirit realm. The headless technique is one of my methods, which can conceal my living aura and is more suitable for traveling to the underworld."

“You are still in the underworld and have not yet returned to the world of the living.”

He then revealed many secrets of the Criminal Investigation Department, and also mentioned some private matters concerning Chan Chi-kwan and Kwok Tsz-ho, in order to prove his identity.

"Commander... is it really you?"

"What's this 'underworld' you were talking about?"

The group remained vigilant and did not fully trust Jin An.

Jin An sighed. He didn't tell them directly that they were dead and lingering in the underworld instead of being reincarnated. Instead, he told a lie, saying that they had been lingering in the underworld for more than three days without returning home to reunite with their families. So the Criminal Investigation Department found him and asked him to find them.

The group still didn't believe it, and it took Jin An quite a while to finally get them to accept the fact.

Seeing that the others were starting to believe him, Jin An said, "Tell me, what did you see on your last day in the mortal realm, and why did you keep looking at the bottom of the abyss? Was there something down there that was attracting your attention?"

"Tell me the truth, and I will handle this for you to the fullest extent."

“I will definitely find the mastermind behind this and avenge you personally. Anyone who dares to offend my Criminal Investigation Department must have a death wish. I will make him pay the price he deserves.”

The group looked at each other, then began to recall...

"Did you see something? I think I heard footsteps behind me..."

"That's right, I heard footsteps too..."

Team leader Chen Zhiyun and the others made a gesture of trying hard to recall.

"It seems like someone is always talking down in this abyss..."

"I remember when I was peeing..."

"I heard voices from the bottom of this abyss..."

"I told the vice-captain to mute so I could listen carefully to what that sound was and what it was saying..."

Vice Captain Guo Zihao then said, "Yes, I heard the sound later too, I think I heard it..."

"Someone is calling my name..."

"So Ah Qing and I looked down into the abyss, trying to see who was down there and how they knew my name..."

Vice Captain Guo Zihao and A Qing shared their experiences one after the other.

Jin An's heart sank, and he spoke through his navel, "Are there any other abnormalities?"

At this moment, Captain Chen Zhiyun said that they had also heard strange noises from the bottom of the abyss, so they all turned to look down into the abyss, trying to see what it was...

They just couldn't see it clearly...

The more unclear something is, the more you want to see it clearly...

They had no idea when they arrived in the underworld...

How long did I stay in the underworld...?

"Commander, how long have we been in the underworld...?"

"Could it be that he hasn't been home for a long time...?"

The group looked fearful and uneasy, and they nervously asked Jin An.

Jin An said in a deep voice, "One day on earth is equivalent to one month in the underworld. You have indeed been in the underworld for a long time, but only three days have passed in the mortal world."

Upon hearing that only three days had passed in the mortal realm, the tense expressions on their faces immediately relaxed, replaced by ease. They all said that three days was not too long. Then they asked Jin An when they could go home, as they missed their families and wanted to reunite with them as soon as possible.

Jin An sighed inwardly, but didn't show it on his face. He deliberately pretended to be relaxed and said, "Wait until I catch the real culprit in this case and give you justice, then I'll send you home."

"Don't worry, you are all my brothers in the Criminal Investigation Department, I will definitely protect you."

“Since someone has sown the seeds of karma in you, I will take back the fruits that belong to you. I only believe in the cycle of cause and effect, and that cause and effect are orderly.”

Upon hearing that Jin An was going to arrest the real culprit who framed them, the group immediately adopted a united front of indignation and said, "Commander, you go ahead and do your work. You must catch the real culprit and establish the authority of our Criminal Investigation Department!"

"Yes, we must establish our authority to ensure the success of this ancestral worship ceremony. This is a ceremony hosted by the Holy Emperor, and we cannot afford the slightest mishap!"

"Commander, please go and capture the real culprit. We'll find a safe place to hide ourselves!"

Jin An took out several talismans drawn by the old Taoist priest from his bosom, and after sealing them one by one, he looked at the group and said, "This is the underworld after all. I am not at ease leaving you here alone. I am worried that something might happen."

"This is a Bagua amulet. I may need to temporarily house you in the amulet to protect you. I will release you when I return to the mortal realm."

The group had already accepted Jin An's identity and had no objections. They immediately flew into the talisman paper one by one, where the Bagua talisman protected them.

“I have not blocked your senses. Even inside the talisman, you can still perceive everything outside.”

"Chen Zhiyun, Guo Zihao, Liangzi, Aqing, Su Wei, just watch how I avenge you, find the real culprit, and avenge you."

After Jin An finished speaking, he took out the compass and jade plate, then followed the plank road along the cliff to descend into the precipice and investigate the truth of the case.

As he stood beside the five people, he heard whispers coming from the bottom of the cliff. The whispers sounded like two or three people talking softly, or like many people talking together. The sounds were quite complicated.

As he walked down, the sound remained muffled and ethereal; the sense of remoteness and indistinctness neither improved nor worsened.

It always maintains a single audio channel.

However, he didn't encounter the three spirit mediums—Zhang Weishan, Jiao Liang, and Jiang Jun—along the way up the mountain. He guessed that the three of them must have also gone down the cliff to investigate the source of the sound.

The souls of Chen Zhiyun and the other four were immobilized in place by magic, and even he had some trouble resolving the situation. In the end, he had to use the Seventy-Two Transformations to free them. So, if it were Zhang Weishan and the other two, they certainly wouldn't have been able to free the souls of Chen Zhiyun and the other four.

In that situation, their only option was to descend the cliff and investigate the source of the sound in order to find a way to rescue the five people.

His journey to the underworld is not just to save Chen Zhiyun and the other four.

They also need to save Zhang Weishan and the other two.

The cliffside street in the underworld is different from that in the mortal world. The wooden plank walkway on the cliffside street in the underworld is not damaged, but it looks very old. It is stacked layer upon layer, and people walk on it and hear strange noises. It makes people worry that one layer of the stacked planks might become unstable and collapse.

As Jin An descended into the wooden plank walkway and went deeper into it, the soft rustling of people's voices could be heard behind him.

At this moment, he had already descended to a depth of about twenty feet on the wooden plank walkway. The vague and distant, indistinct voices came from all directions, in front of him, behind him, and even from the cliff edge beside him.

Jin An only glanced at it a few times before continuing to walk along the wooden plank walkway, torch in hand, deeper and deeper into the cliff.

The wooden boardwalk is lined with buildings, but these buildings are really unsettling. They are all dark and have a very absurd feel to them. They are either dilapidated, covered with cobwebs, or covered with a thick layer of dust. These buildings look like they have been abandoned for many years and no one has lived there.

During this time, Jin An carried a torch and entered several buildings to search for the source of the sound, but found nothing unusual.

After doing this several times, he stopped searching inside those buildings and instead focused on walking deeper into the cliff.

With a torch in one hand and a compass in the other, he followed the compass's guidance to search for the whereabouts of Zhang Weishan and the other two.

He had already obtained Zhang Weishan and the other two's personal belongings before he even left the underworld, so that he could use the Luo Geng Jade Plate to find them if he couldn't.

Just like the scene right now.

He has searched for so long but has not found Zhang Weishan and the other two, so he has resorted to using the Luo Geng Jade Plate.

The Luo Geng Jade Plate was indeed powerful. When he placed one of Zhang Weishan's green jade rings on it, the Luo Geng Jade Plate immediately reacted, pointing downwards into the abyss.

Jin'an descended about fifty or sixty zhang further when suddenly, a light mist rose from the dark and gloomy underworld.

The light fog didn't significantly interfere with visibility. Jin An saw that he could still see with a torch, so he didn't pay much attention to the fog and entered it.

Strangely enough, as he entered the light mist, the faint, distant rustling of human voices became clearer.

It was as if he was closer to the source of the sound.

Jin An simply glanced around at his surroundings, gave a cold snort in his heart, and continued walking without stopping.

As he descended deeper into the abyss, the sounds he could hear became clearer and clearer... until he could finally make out some of the conversation...

"Count to ten."

"No peeking."

"Run! Hahaha!"

Jin'an heard the noise and looked carefully towards the source of the sound. A gentle breeze blew by, and the wooden plank walkway in the light mist gradually became blurred, revealing a small town-like building.

The town was sparsely populated, with only about a hundred households. The town walls were made of rocks and mud, only reaching about chest height for an adult, making them look dilapidated and rudimentary.

Outside the town, there was a vast expanse of fertile farmland.

Many withered flowers, grasses, and plant leaves were piled up haphazardly in the fertile fields. Some piles were as tall as a person, while others were only half a person tall. Some of the fertile fields also showed signs of burning, and were covered with a thick layer of black ash.

Jin An paused, not immediately moving forward, but turning around to look behind him. He saw that the environment behind him had also changed drastically. It was no longer the wooden plank road he had come from, but had all been transformed into fertile fields covered with black ash.

Even the dark, towering cliffs next to it have been transformed into fertile fields.

The moonlight was cool and clear, and in the distance, the mountains rose and fell in a hazy, indistinct way.

Even moonlight...?

Jin An stood there for a moment, pondering. Then he noticed several small black figures running out of the fertile fields ahead and heading into the distance. They seemed to be children from the town.
Jin An watched the few small black figures trotting around, his eyes narrowing slightly. Just then, the small black figures suddenly scattered and ran away.

"Run! It's that little jinx!"

"We must never let this little jinx get close to us. My mother says she's a bad thing, and anyone who touches her will be unlucky for life!"

"Yeah, yeah, who would date a jinx like that? If people found out, they'd be looked down upon for life!"

Jin An heard the voices of several small dark figures and looked in the direction of the sound.

"I heard that the little jinx's mother does *that* kind of work, which is why she was able to raise the little jinx even after her whole family died!"

"Yes, I've also heard that the little jinx's mother is unclean, and that the little jinx is unclean too, because men often go to their house!"

"Hahaha, little jinx, they're unclean, no wonder their family is cursed for life, may their whole family die!"

Several small dark figures ran further and further away, their voices gradually fading into the distance...

"I also heard that the little jinx's mother has been dead for two years. I wonder how this little jinx survived..."

"That's obvious, she's definitely being kept by those shady men who've been going to her house these past few years..."

"Even the little jinx isn't clean anymore, hahaha..."

Jin An watched as the group of children quickly ran into the town and disappeared without a trace. He then turned to look at the little jinx.