Chapter 16
“ASSHOLE!” Zhu Hong bent down and picked up a rock, hurling it after the car. As a female snake yao, she had impressive strength, and when it came to smashing things, she was particularly gifted—accurate, steady, and merciless. There was a clang as the rock struck the trunk of Zhao Yunlan’s official SID car, chipping off some paint.
But—maybe because it wasn’t his own car—Zhao Yunlan didn’t care at all.
Zhu Hong’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She checked it and found a text from Chu Shuzhi, which read, “Director Zhao told me to tell you that the fine for vandalism will come out of your monthly bonus. Keep throwing rocks if you want, but once you run through your bonus, your pay will get docked. Take it easy unless you want to leave without a penny.”
Her new phone’s life was cut short. It died in her hand with a crunch as she roared, “Zhao Yunlan, you fucking asshole!”
Panicked, Guo Changcheng only stared at his treasonous, insubordinate coworker. He was too afraid to breathe a word.
Zhu Hong turned and glared at him with red-rimmed eyes. “What are you looking at?! Let’s go!”
Guo Changcheng obediently trotted after her, only to meet the full force of her rage again as she took it out on him. “What kind of man are you?! Get in the driver’s seat! Have you ever seen a man make a woman drive?!”
Driving a car wasn’t like entering a public restroom. He’d never heard of any gender-related rules about it. Since she was clearly being unreasonable, he responded with honesty. “Zhu-jie, technically, you’re not a wom—”
Zhu Hong’s expression was dark and threatening, like a king cobra darting its forked tongue out before landing a deadly strike. Guo Changcheng instinctively sensed the danger he was in and crawled into the car, too scared to let out so much as a fart.
But then Zhu Hong hesitated. Instead of getting in, she slammed the passenger door shut and dismissed him. “Fuck off by yourself. I’m going to go find Zhao Yunlan.”
It all happened without Guo Changcheng ever having a chance to voice a single full-fledged opinion. Swift as the wind, Zhu Hong was already gone.
Daqing and Chu Shuzhi, riding along in Zhao Yunlan’s car, weren’t having a good time either, due to the presence of the esteemed deity in the passenger seat. Now that they knew Shen Wei was the Soul-Executing Emissary, neither the Corpse King nor the old cat could take their usual innocent joy in teasing anyone they could get their hands on.
Thanks to the bizarre atmosphere, they drove all the way to the main entrance of the resort in complete silence. Upon arriving, they saw the grandiose words “Spring Harbor Resort” carved in marble relief on a sign in the beautifully designed flowerbeds. Somehow those carved words seemed impossibly bleak because of either the material itself or the overcast skies.
There were two security booths and two entrances at the gate with the roads blocked on either side to keep cars from entering. Off to the side was a card reader that allowed residents to come and go on foot, but its light was off. Evidently, the power had been cut.
Zhao Yunlan parked at the entrance and then glanced at his phone just in time to see the final flicker of signal disappear completely.
The security booth’s window was open for some reason. A small package sat on the window ledge next to a notebook and an uncapped pen. There was a peculiar layer of dust covering both the ledge and the things on it. Zhao Yunlan put on some gloves and picked the notebook up to take a careful look. It turned out to be a record of packages that the guards had accepted on behalf of the residents. Each one was recorded before they were passed on to their recipients, who had to sign for them.
The most recent entry was dated just the day before. It read, “Unit 10A, Mr. Li, pack—” cutting off mid-word. The person writing had been interrupted too abruptly to even finish.
Closing his eyes, Zhao Yunlan could practically see the scene playing out. The courier handed the package through the window and then accepted the notebook, meticulously recording the package’s information. Halfway through the word “package,” something had happened.
But what?
If the stuff was still here, where had the people gone?
Walking over, Shen Wei swiped a finger through the dust on the ledge. He rubbed it between his fingers and then said, “It hasn’t been here long.”
“The dust?” Zhao Yunlan asked. “You can tell from just that? How?”
Shen Wei dusted his hands off. “With most types I wouldn’t be able to tell, but this is human ash that collected here within the last two or three days. It’s still very fresh.”
Zhao Yunlan had no response.
Shen Wei had delivered the information with the same offhand tone he might use to say, “This milk is fresh from the cow.”
Looking a little shocked, Zhao Yunlan closed the notebook and packed it securely in an evidence bag. Thank goodness he’d already sent Guo Changcheng away—if this sight had scared the poor boy half to death, they all would’ve suffered ten thousand volts…
“You’re sure this is bone ash? It doesn’t look like it to me.”
“It’s not the kind from a crematorium,” Shen Wei explained. “You know the saying ‘grind someone’s bones to dust and scatter their ashes’? This individual might’ve been standing right here when their body disintegrated instantaneously. Their bones were shattered into this fine powder and landed here.”
Chu Shuzhi had also made his way over to them and asked, incredulously, “Then where’s the rest of them?”
“Incinerated.” Shen Wei adjusted his glasses. “Flesh and blood can’t withstand as much pressure as bones, so they rarely leave any traces.”
Chu Shuzhi chose his next words carefully. “It sounds as though my lord knows how these people died…?”
Shen Wei gave a polite nod. Humbly, he said, “I’m not terribly knowledgeable, but I do happen to know a little in regard to this. In the ancient past, after Gonggong knocked down Buzhou Mountain, the sky burst and the earth split. The gui surfaced in the Mortal Realm for the first time, dripping with the ruthlessness of their birthplace thousands of zhang below the Huangquan. When that happened, every human and beast within a ten-li radius turned to dust in a heartbeat, just like this, and within one hundred li, not a single blade of grass grew.”
As he spoke, he pointed at the landscaped flowerbeds beneath the entrance sign, still lush even in the depths of winter. “Those ornamental flowers are unaffected. They’re probably artificial.”
“But this place is less than ten li across,” Zhao Yunlan pointed out. “There are two large pine trees right there by the entrance—way closer than a hundred li away.”
“Because of that, I think,” said Shen Wei, pointing. The other two looked in the direction he was indicating.
At the resort’s entrance was a little garden surrounded by reception areas. Rather than a single building, reception was divided between several small buildings of different heights. They were arranged in a purposeful circle around the garden, like an excellent privacy screen.
“Look,” Shen Wei continued. “The central pond is shaped like petals, and the waterway extends outward and just so happens to connect all the small buildings around it.”
Chu Shuzhi usually liked to play the big shot, but at this moment, his attitude was considerably grounded and humble. “If I may say so, my lord—that’s the Five-by-Five Plum Blossom Array, isn’t it?”
“It is indeed. Chu-xiong is well-versed in these matters.” Shen Wei nodded. “The Plum Blossom Array is commonly used to protect the home and ward off evil. Thanks to its presence, the yin energy was trapped inside by the array. As it was unable to get out, it would’ve only affected this little path by the entrance at most. If a crudely constructed Plum Blossom Array was enough to hold it off, that suggests to me that the Great Houtu Seal remains intact for the time being. This is most likely just a small leak here. Once it’s fixed, it’ll be fine.”