A Good-for-Nothing

299. Something Was Wrong

Translator: Dragon Rider

In the conference room.

All seven chairpersons, including Zhang Yixing, were present at this meeting. This meeting was about the post-battle summary, so the top-ranking officials naturally had to attend it.

This time around SMB had paid a heavy price, cast a wide net and finally managed to defeat the Demon King and his Demon’s Attendants at one fell swoop. Though the situation was now under their complete control, those demons had brought the headquarters of SMB endless troubles. Almost the whole United Front Work Department had been reduced to rubble. Zong Xian and Zhang Jingqiu almost jumped to their deaths – they did not know how to explain it to the Department of Homeland Security, and they were unable to ask for superior departments for money to repair the damage, which meant that they would have to pay most of the costs of the repairs themselves.

Li Zong acted very tactfully during the handling of this matter. He Zheng’s identity was now rather sensitive. Also, He Zheng was the biggest beneficiary during this situation, so Li Zong covertly paid the bills, covering the deficits. Thus, the restoration of the headquarters began immediately.

Most things in the final analysis seemed to have something to do with money. After this matter was handled, the remainder became much easier to attend to.

Li Zong had set the trap himself and carried out every part of his plan with great caution. Zhou Yang did not know how he had been tricked and used as a pawn, but as the saying goes, “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.” Maybe SMB had long since got their eyes on him, and he had just failed to find out sooner.

Not many wrongdoers could become aware of their errors and turn back from their wrong paths, but since Elder Zhou had taken the wrong path and done the wrong thing, he had to pay the price. SMB dealt with the matter privately. Elder Zhou resigned from the Counter-demon Committee because of his malpractice and returned home to live out his life in retirement, and he donated quite some money to the bureau before leaving. Elder Zhou’s name was now on a Dishonest List, and SMB had designated someone to keep watch on him. Many people found it poignant that an old man at this age had ended up like this.

With these two important matters handled, the next pressing task was to track down the remainder of the Demon’s Attendants. As expected, with the Demon King restrained, all the demons were in panic. Those Demon’s Attendants and demons who previously had been making trouble constantly had now all disappeared without a trace. But Zong Xian had been pissed off by Xiangshan and his brainless demon underlings, and the office building of the United Front Work Department had been destroyed, so he sent out all agents to do field work!

Surprisingly, because of this, all staff members’ power to perform field tasks was boosted.

Everything was handled, and life seemed to be returning to normal.

However, He Zheng did not have such good luck. He was faced with another troublesome issue.

In the residential district called Century Town.

He Zheng and Li Zong had long since moved into a larger department. Right now, there were three people sitting in it: He Zheng, Li Zong and a man wearing ancient costume, who could easily be taken for an actor shooting a scene of a TV drama.

Fengren’s soppy gaze sent goosebumps erupting up He Zheng’s skin again and again. He rubbed his forearms and chuckled dryly, “Hey, dude, gazing at me won’t get you anywhere. If there’s anything you’d like to say, just say it. We’ll see what we can do to help.”

After hearing these words, Fengren was in surprised silence for a long moment before he replied with a faint, mirthless smile, “What do you want me to say? I don’t know what to say. You forgot me. It’s that simple.”

Alarm started going off in He Zheng’s head. He had a hunch that some kind of hackneyed love story was waiting for him. He subconsciously looked up at Li Zong, but powerful as Li Zong was, he could not say for sure what was going on either. After a few moments’ silence, Li Zong said, “Go and get some rest. You may sleep in the guest room in the next few days. I’ll pay a visit to Abbot Huiming and borrow his Nietai Mirror to see if I can find something out.”

With a distant expression on his face, Fengren nodded, threw He Zheng another glowing look and then retreated into Shadow again. A red light emanated from Shadow, flashed for a moment and then disappeared.

He Zheng and Li Zong exchanged apprehensive glances. For quite a while He Zheng did not know what to say and just stared at Shadow, which had always been his good buddy. Anybody would find it unnerving if a man emerged out of their weapon and kept saying things like “I found you at last.”

He Zheng forced a smile and cast Li Zong another glance. The sight of Li Zong’s golden-pupiled eyes still made his heart flutter. He did not know how to describe the feeling.

He Zheng raised his hands and asserted, “I really didn’t know Fengren, and I’ve never seen–”

He Zheng suddenly broke off in mid-sentence and gave an “Eek” of surprise. Then his eyes lit up and he looked at Li Zong and exclaimed, “I remember now! I’ve seen Fengren before!”

“Where?”

“Do you still remember Xiang Hailou once taught us how to contact with the spirits of our weapons? He said all weapons had spirits, and afterward I seemed to see the spirit of my sword.”

He Zheng made these remarks happily and failed to notice that Li Zong slightly frowned after hearing his words.

Previously Li Zong had indeed asked Zhao Yidi to help He Zheng find the spirit of his sword, but afterward, as He Zheng had failed, those memories of his had been erased. He Zheng should have forgotten the whole thing. How come he remembered it now?

Li Zong gently placed a hand on He Zheng’s head and, rubbing it affectionately, said, “There’s no hurry about the matter of Fengren. We’ll find out the truth together.”

He Zheng bobbed his head. He looked at Li Zong’s face and noticed that there were two round, light scars on Li Zong’s smooth forehead. He had no idea when or why they had appeared. He Zheng stroked them. Li Zong’s golden pupils would never return to normal again. He could only use a spell to change their color temporarily when necessary. Although he looked more charming and handsome this way, the golden pupils also made him seem slightly unapproachable.

“Li Zong, what should I do with this eye-shaped pattern of mine?”

He felt that both he himself and Li Zong had a problem with eyes. The eerie eye-shaped pattern was still on his forehead and he had no way to get rid of it. It was quite spooky.

“It’s okay.” The corners of Li Zong’s mouth curved in a smile. He and He Zheng, because of the exceptional circumstances, had been given some days off. Not in the mood for saying anything else about it, He Zheng shrugged.

The two of them had a bath and then lay down on their new bed, which was very large. He Zheng’s sleeping position was terrible. He was usually spreadeagle. Quite often he wrapped himself around Li Zong during sleep. There had been several occasions when Li Zong found himself having difficulty breathing.

With a new bed in the room, Li Zong was finally rid of the sweet vexation.

He Zheng kissed Li Zong’s thin lips. They cuddled for a while, both feeling tired. He rested his chin on Li Zong’s heart and, hearing Li Zong’s robust heartbeat, gave a watery smile and drifted off, his shoulder on Li Zong’s arm.

The moment he got to sleep, he found himself in an unnerving dream. It seemed that there was always something unpleasant in his dream.

Li Zong, seeing that He Zheng had fallen asleep, softly ran his fingers through He Zheng’s forelock, combed it back, then got out of bed, pulled the door open and went to the guest room.

Fengren was sitting bolt upright on the bed and did not even glance at Li Zong as the latter entered. “He forgot me,” Fengren said lightly.

Li Zong furrowed his brows, looked up at the wall clock and saw that it was nine o’clock. There was an hour and a half from the time when Li Zong usually went to sleep, so he walked up, sat himself in a chair opposite Fengren and, with a faintly distant expression in his eyes, asked, “Would you like to share your story with me?”

For a moment Fengren’s face registered confusion. Story? His story?

In another room, He Zheng was having an inexplicable dream.

A millennium. It was just a millennium, but it was enough for seas to change into mulberry fields and mulberry fields into seas.

That had been both the best and the worst age. At that time unnaturally powerful swords had presented themselves one after another: Shadow, Hanguang, Xiaolian, to name but three. The emergence of every one of them had been accompanied by unusual astronomical phenomena, and their origins were cloaked in a shroud of mystery. Naturally, such previous swords were filled with spiritual energy. In addition, they had met master swordsmen, who never resorted to killing. This had further benefited the swords. As a result, the spirit of Shadow had come into being very early. He had developed his own sentience after merely a couple of centuries.

“He got me out of an abyss and used to clean my body every day. He would murmur to me while stroking me. He said, ‘Shadow, I heard all famous swords have spirits. When will you develop sentience?’ I wouldn’t have been here were it not for him.”

“He?” Li Zong lifted his eyebrows.

“He was … a previous incarnation of the He Zheng you know. He Zheng looks exactly the same as him.”

Fengren’s eyes moved out of the door, the gaze from them full of affection. After that man’s death, Fengren had shut himself down. Without spiritual energy, Shadow was just a lifeless shell, which was why Shadow, after being transferred from one owner to the other, had gradually been forgotten. Eventually it had been regarded as a high-quality replica.

Things had changed on the day when Fengren sensed his original master’s Qi on the rooftop. When He Zheng had gently held the hilt of the sword, Fengren had opened his eyes and seen that man.

He had hummed, but that person had not heard it. After a brief moment’s disappointment, Fengren had, for the first time ever, resorted to a little trick, which had caused He Zheng’s blood to drop onto the blade, to have He Zheng forge a bond between them again.

“The spiritual energy in this world is much thinner than before. I had a hard job getting out of the sword,” said Fengren, glancing at Li Zong. He wouldn’t have waited for such a long time if it weren’t for that reason.

Li Zong made no reply. It was ten o’clock already. Li Zong said, “Tomorrow I’ll bring you to the Nietai Mirror. Look into it and you’ll know everything you want to know.”

“I’m sure I didn’t have the wrong person.” Fengren’s voice came from behind.

Li Zong paused and, his face cold and unfeeling, slightly twisted his head aside and said glacially, “I know, which is why I have to remind you this – no matter whether he’s the one you look for or not, he’s mine.

So, even if he were the one you met a millennium ago, Fengren, there’s nothing you could do to make a difference.”

Fengren stiffened. The room was so quiet as though it were deserted.

Li Zong returned to the bedroom and dropped his pretense. Looking at He Zheng snoring in bed, he felt a minor pain in his temples. He gave a chuckle, stroked He Zheng’s cheek and was just about to tease him when a faintly cold look appeared on his face.

He Zheng’s cheek was burning badly.

But he didn’t seem to be having a fever. His face was ghastly white, which was definitely not a symptom of fever.

In fact, He Zheng was not feeling well. The turmoil of thoughts was causing him headache. Miscellaneous images were whirling around in his mind. If He Zheng could look into a mirror at this time, he would see that the ugly eye-shaped pattern on his smooth, white-skinned forehead was cracking tremulously. The pitch-black eye was staring unblinkingly at Li Zong’s approaching face, emanating an evil, menacing air.