Nine Netherworld Demon Subduing Record

"You mean, you saw that dark figure clinging to someone's back? Walking backwards?"

Fu Qing nodded.

The two burly men in front of him stroked their chins; they were none other than the two government officials he had encountered in the restaurant.

Fu Qing didn't dare to rush to find the two immediately, but waited for a while.

He was afraid of encountering that strange creature again, and since he felt that the ghostly figure had been gone for a while, he insisted on dragging the guard to report to the authorities.

The two men were drinking heartily when they heard what Fu Qing said, and they quickly put down their teacups.

"Let's go!" said the burly man with a thick beard. The two of them went out together and headed straight for the place Fu Qing had pointed out earlier.

"Don't go! Oh, Your Excellency, you haven't paid yet!" the servant shouted as he chased after him at the door.

Seeing the two men disappear in a flash, he looked at Fu Qing with frustration. Fu Qing, seeing his expression, scratched his head sheepishly. Although he was the one who came to find the officials, he hadn't expected the two men to run away without even paying for their meal.

"You...you should go to the government office again..." he stammered.

Seeing that Fu Qing and his companion had no intention of paying, the servant had no choice but to leave.

Only after reporting to the authorities did he feel a little better, and even the fear he had felt when he saw the dark figure earlier subsided considerably. Besides, he wasn't alone.

"What exactly is that thing? A ghost? A demon? But aren't these things only found in the Nine Netherworlds? Why would they appear in Cloud Boat City?"

"And what about the two cases the officer mentioned earlier? Are they related to this shadowy figure? If so, why did the shadowy figure act that way? Shouldn't it kill people on sight? Does it possess some kind of sentience?"

"And he's seen what I look like, and he even smiled at me, though I'm not sure if it was a real smile. Does that mean he's threatening me?"

Fu Qing felt her mind was in a mess, but the only thing she was sure of was that she had to have the ability to protect herself.

The guard accompanied Fu Qing back to the mansion, only bidding her farewell at the gate, leaving Fu Qing alone to return to her room.

Having gone through this ordeal, Fu Qing returned to her room and locked the small door tightly, becoming very careful in her movements.

He was now afraid that something might happen again, so he lay in bed, constantly watching for any sounds outside the door.

But throughout the night, Fu Qing did not hear any strange noises.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it..."

-

The next day, just as Fu Qing was placing the newly copied classics on the bookshelf, there was a knocking sound on the door.

Fu Qing saw that the person standing at the door was Chen Xing'an, dressed in a black outfit. He quickly put down the book in his hand.

"Brother Chen!"

"Come with me."

Chen Xing'an waved to him, and seeing his mysterious expression, Fu Qing was also curious about what it was all about.

Chen Xing'an led him outside and said, "Have you encountered anything strange lately?"

Fu Qing nodded and recounted what had happened the previous night.

"That's it, come this way." Chen Xing'an led him out the door.

"Brother Chen, what happened?"

"Was the young man in black robes you saw last night about this tall?"

Chen Xing'an gestured with his hand, and Fu Qing immediately realized that this was the person she had met last night.

"Yes, what happened to him?"

Fu Qing was a little nervous. Connecting the case to the previous Yi family blacksmith case and the dockworker case, he naturally assumed that the young man might have been murdered.

Chen Xing'an did not answer him, but led him to the carriage outside the gate. Fu Qing lifted the carriage curtain and saw a woman sitting inside. Her head was wrapped in a veil, covering her whole body, including her mouth. There was a vertical eye in the middle of her forehead, and both her normal eyes below it were dark gold with strange lotus-shaped pupils.

"Let's go up first."

Upon hearing this, Fu Qing went up and sat opposite the woman. Seeing that all three of her eyes were staring at him, Fu Qing felt uncomfortable all over, as if no matter how he sat, he was not satisfied.

"Alright, Mr. Zhuang, please."

After saying that, Chen Xing'an said to Fu Qing, "You'd better close your eyes from now on."

"Can I not close it?"

Fu Qing's eyes were filled with terror; the fear from the last pulse test was still vivid in her mind.

Unexpectedly, Chen Xing'an thought for a while and nodded: "Okay, but you need to be prepared."

Upon hearing Chen Xing'an's words, Fu Qing suddenly felt that something strange was about to happen again.

The woman then said, "Give me your hand."

Fu Qing reached out his hand, and the woman placed her long-fingered hand on Fu Qing's wrist. Fu Qing felt that the woman's hand was extremely cold. Except in the dead of winter, he had never felt such body temperature on a person.

Fu Qing only saw a thread running along his veins. Strangely, apart from feeling a little cold, he felt no other discomfort.

The woman's eye on her forehead closed, then shrank into her skull and disappeared in an instant.

Just as he was wondering, he suddenly saw that along the veins on his body, cracks appeared, and eyes opened along the cracks, their bodies dark gold with lotus-shaped pupils.

Their eyes matched those of the woman.

Fu Qing felt incredibly regretful for opening her eyes and witnessing this bizarre scene.

The eyes on his body slowly opened and closed, and in the blink of an eye, the black lines receded rapidly, and those eyes disappeared.

Then, the woman shook her head at Chen Xing'an.

Seeing her like this, Chen Xing'an said to Fu Qing, "Alright, Brother Fu Qing, you can go back now, but remember to try not to go out tonight."

"It's always 'don't go out at night,' could it be that there really are some ghosts or monsters at night?" he worried.

"Brother Chen, what exactly happened?"

"It's nothing serious, just a quick check-up."

"And what exactly is that dark shadow?"

Chen Xing'an pondered for a moment before speaking, "It's nothing more than someone pretending to be a ghost to scare people. You know, some people who come from Nanling like to dress up as some kind of inhuman or ghostly creatures and then sell their soul-suppressing medicine. We're just investigating the case as usual."

The Nanling Mountains mentioned by Chen Xing'an are located in the southwestern part of Xizhao Kingdom. Fu Qing had seen them in a map book before, and there were indeed some refugees from Nanling in the city. It is said that the culture of shamanism is popular there, and Fu Qing could occasionally see people dressed in shaman robes in the streets and alleys.

Fu Qing was still puzzled, but seeing that Chen Xing'an had said so, he didn't pursue the matter any further.

But then he suddenly remembered the two cases the official had mentioned, and told Chen Xing'an about them in detail. Unexpectedly, Chen Xing'an seemed to already know about them.

He smiled and said, "They were all minor cases, like murders caused by conflicts of interest. We handled them quickly."

Seeing that everything Chen Xing'an said seemed to have nothing to do with ghosts or Taoist priests, Fu Qing knew that these were mostly words to comfort him, so he nodded, got off the carriage, bid farewell to Chen Xing'an, and entered the mansion alone.

Chen Xing'an jumped onto the carriage, which started running on its own without anyone driving it.

The woman said, "I didn't see any trace of 'qi' on him."

"That's for the best. It seems he just encountered it, but that thing didn't mark him."

The woman nodded, then, as if remembering something, said, "This young man has quite a good spiritual vein."

Chen Xing'an glanced at the woman with surprise and doubt, but quickly turned his head away.

"It's probably just another lie told by those people from the Dao Asking Pavilion to control the number of Dao Masters. Don't worry about it."

Upon hearing this, the woman sat down quietly, closed all three eyes, and silently rested.

Chen Xing'an looked out the window and pondered.