Chapter 134: Do you think I’m beautiful?

Chapter 134: Do you think I'm beautiful?

Bai Wan hastily pressed down the girl in red's head, looking left and right. Seeing no one, she sighed with relief, "No need for that. My brother left something on Ji. We just need to follow that."

The girl in red adjusted her head with both hands, tilting it slightly. She seemed confused but obediently followed Bai Wan into the restaurant.

"Ji's presence was initially here."

Bai Wan approached the restaurant slowly. Stopping at the door, she hesitated, "Should we go in?"

The woman in red looked around intently, suddenly exclaiming, "Red! It smells so good... it's blood!"

Bai Wan turned her attention immediately.

Behind the lush evergreen in the restaurant, a long streak of blood lay fresh. Crouching down to inspect, Bai Wan found the scent irresistibly enticing.

Ghosts have an innate ability to discern such things, just as humans can judge the freshness of familiar food. So, she instantly recognized it as fresh.

Nearby, branches were broken, and the lawn bore signs of trampling with chaotic footprints.

The scene resembled a crime scene. The woman in red widened her eyes, looking at Bai Wan and gesturing, "Ji Xing Chen... He's not dead, is he?"

"Stop talking nonsense." Bai Wan covered the woman in red's mouth and pulled her towards where the trail of blood led, saying, "Let's follow it. I feel Ji Xing Chen's aura that way."

The trail of blood was erratic; some even reached the restaurant entrance, forming bloody footprints that appeared halted by the restaurant's door.

The woman in red tiptoed to peer inside, turning back to report, "He's not inside."

"Let's go." Bai Wan didn't feel Ji Xing Chen's presence in the restaurant, and from the traces left on Ji Xing Chen by Chi Shen, he wasn’t there either.

Sniffing the air, the woman in red pointed excitedly, "Over there!"

Bai Wan glanced in the same direction, where the blood trail vanished. She voiced her concern, "I hope we aren't too late."

The woman in red, unconcerned, gleefully bounded in that direction, chanting, "So fragrant! Ji Xing Chen! Ji Xing Chen! So fragrant!"

Bai Wan quickly followed, wondering, "This scent... why does it make me feel hungry? What did my brother put on him?"

As the two ghosts moved along, the woman in red, seemingly ecstatic about having a whole body, hopped a few times, even taking off her leg to flaunt to Bai Wan, "Look at my leg, it's slimmer and prettier than yours!"

Bai Wan quickly put it back, appeasing her, "Yes, yes, it's beautiful."

At the restaurant entrance.

From behind the archway made of intertwined vines, a man in chef's attire emerged, carrying a knife with fresh blood stains on his white uniform.

He watched the departing figures, noting the girl who detached her leg. A slow smile crept onto his face, and with his knife in hand, he began to follow.

——

The storeroom.

Faced with a phone as dense as a brick, Zhong Yi chose to give up.

Since his primary school days, he had learned how to capture ghosts, not how to hack phones. Still, he pondered and believed he could approach the problem from another angle.

From a professional perspective.

The talismanic paper he carried was now useless. No worries, though; he could sketch one on the spot.

He cleared an area and, using cinnabar ink, drew a talisman to find lost objects.

Typically, this kind of talisman would be used in conjunction with summoning ghosts, specifically the "Five Ghosts," to help locate what was lost.

As Zhong Yi completed the drawing, a thought struck him: In this place, where even the slightest hint of the underworld was absent and every ghost transformed into a human, would summoning the Five Ghosts even work?

He paused in reflection but eventually finished the talisman, relying on his training. In theory, under normal circumstances, one should be able to call upon the Five Ghosts.

The moment he completed the last stroke, a gust of wind filled with humidity surged through the sealed room, blowing across the freshly drawn talisman.

Zhong Yi's eyes sparkled, his theory seemed to be—

The wind whirled around the talisman, almost forming a miniature tornado before halting abruptly.

If the wind had a voice, it'd probably sound like: "The number you dialed is out of service. Please try again later."

Zhong Yi understood the message. He tried to summon the Five Ghosts, but they didn't respond. The talisman had done its best!

The term "Five Ghosts" doesn't refer to five literal ghosts but is a moniker for five deities of pestilence, also known as the Five Protectors. In the principles he was taught, anywhere that bridged the mortal and the spirit realms could summon these Five Ghosts.

Being unable to summon them here, where the talisman was ineffective, Zhong Yi instinctively pondered the potential reasons.

The spellcaster's character is flawed, causing the Five Ghosts to decline.

The realms of yin and yang are disconnected, preventing the Five Ghosts from coming forth.

The first reason could be dismissed, as he had successfully summoned them multiple times before.

As for the other reasons...

The Five Ghosts simply couldn't receive the summons. Was this place truly still part of the living world?

Hailing from a renowned family of exorcists, Zhong Yi didn’t give in so easily. Swiftly refocusing his scattered thoughts, he modified a few of his incantations. Instead of summoning the Five Spirits as before, he now sought to identify the items with the strongest lingering obsessions.

Initially, he had planned to detect the yin energy directly, which would be the most straightforward method. But as he picked up his brush, he realized that this place wouldn’t allow the summoning of the Five Spirits. Ghosts entering would turn human and lose their yin energy. Thus, he wouldn't be able to detect any yin energy. Therefore, he had to take a slightly more tedious route and discern the obsessions.

In the past, they solely relied on detecting yin energy. The study of recognizing obsessions was a recent development. Fortunately, he had learned it and could apply the technique now.

Soon, various objects in the cluttered room began to react, illuminating in different colors, akin to an infrared display.

Zhong Yi paused, feeling the glow was a tad too modern. But such a thought was fleeting, and he quickly pinpointed the object he was seeking among the various colored glows.

It was Officer Li's bag.

However, the glow wasn’t emanating from the entire bag but rather from a palm-sized rectangular section inside. He carefully felt the area, opened a compartment, and inside,

There was a thin notebook, meticulously wrapped in plastic. Despite the bag having been soaked for God knows how long, the notebook remained dry. Clearly, the person who kept it there knew the importance and what the notebook would endure, ensuring its protection.

Zhong Yi delicately unwrapped the plastic and opened the notebook.

The initial pages contained unfamiliar phrases and symbols. But as he flipped through, he soon found sections he could understand.

They were Officer Li's notes.

On the first page, it read:

“Phone password: 133382.”