Chapter 302: Lu Yibei, the Explosion Maniac

It was another moonlit night, and the distant wastelands echoed with the sounds of explosions.

Today in Hua City, it was yet another peaceful day.

As Lu Yibei took advantage of the darkness to drop two spell formations at haunting sites around Hua City, like a terrorist fleeing the scene, a certain transportation company’s warehouse in Hua City welcomed a visitor.

A man dressed flamboyantly, with a devilish smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

It was Bai Kai.

In Hua City, excluding the female psychics within the Midnight Watchers Society, there were over a hundred female psychic operators, ninety-two of whom were adults. More than half of these adults had intricate connections with Bai Kai.

With so many psychics uniting, it was indeed a formidable network of influence. Starting with Bai Kai leveraging their power to investigate the Black Cloak Men who were attempting to organize the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts, it took less than a week to find a critical lead.

A girl who ran a beauty and wellness salon had once entertained a psychic, suspected to be a foreign psychic.

Bai Kai followed this lead, quickly arriving at the door of this warehouse.

…

“You say you work as a male escort?”

“I’m not just any male escort; I also hold a part-time position as the head of the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau and a main operator for the Midnight Watchers Society…”

Inside the security room at the gatehouse, Bai Kai earnestly introduced himself and placed a meticulously crafted black card with golden lettering on the table.

[Underworld Public Relations Department, Royal Quality, Noble Experience, Choose from 180 Fresh Models…

Contact: Mr. Bai from Hua City Contact Number: 180xxxx7777]

“…”

After reading the card, the security guard looked up, his expression one of utter bewilderment, still unclear about the intentions of this random visitor.

Middle of the night, a few drinks, and this is what happens?

“What’s the reason for your visit?”

The guard asked sternly, “You come here in the middle of the night, there must be a reason, right? Who are you looking for? I’ll call them out for you.”

Although there weren’t many people in the warehouse at this hour, and they were all men, the likelihood of calling for a gigolo was low, but before sending him away, it was best to clear things up for everyone’s sake.

“Would be great if you could call them out.” Bai Kai smiled amiably, “I am here to find a woman known as Embroidered Shoes and her accomplices.”

“They have violated the solitary psychic management regulations by entering Hua City illegally and are formally approved for arrest by the main operators of the Midnight Watchers Society, which includes me.”

The guard, still not quite grasping Bai Kai’s purpose, was further confused by his barrage of mysterious words. As he was processing, he saw Bai Kai somehow produce a gleaming long sword and slap it onto the table.

The guard frowned.

What’s this? Pulling out a knife now?

He looked at the sharp, obviously sharpened long sword on the table, and his expression immediately became uneasy.

This flamboyantly dressed gigolo seemed to be looking for trouble.

If things weren’t handled well, it could spell trouble!

Muttering under his breath, the guard’s expression darkened as he rolled up his sleeves to reveal a wolf head tattoo on his arm, “I’ll tell you, don’t mess around! I’ve also…been around…on the streets…”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when he noticed the laser dots, like those from infrared scopes in movies, though not just one, but a whole cluster of them.

Under the lock of the laser sights, he stiffly looked up, only to see faint movements outside the warehouse in the wilderness and the slight glint of long guns under the moonlight.

“May I ask which gang you are affiliated with? The well-known gangs in Hua City…” Bai Kai’s lips curled into a mischievously wild smile, “Unfortunately, in any extermination operation, I have either directly or indirectly participated.”

“Don’t kill me! I know nothing! I’m just a temporary worker!” The guard, terrified, raised his hands above his head, crying out.

“Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person. If you really have nothing to do with the people I’m looking for, I won’t harm you, but now…”

As Bai Kai spoke, he pulled out a tube of Durex lubricant from his jacket pocket.

The guard, “???”

Seeing the guard’s frightened, puzzled, and somewhat bashful eyes, Bai Kai paused, looked down, and put away the lubricant.

“Sorry, wrong item. This is what I meant.”

While speaking, he took out a palm-sized silver spray bottle engraved with the Death Owl Emblem from his jacket pocket and lightly sprayed it.

“Hiss-!”

With a faint sound, the spray, shimmering with a light silver glow, misted over the guard’s face, immediately causing him to feel dizzy and disoriented.

“What… what is this…” he widened his eyes, pointing at Bai Kai, trying to say something, but found his tongue numb, unresponsive to his commands.

Bai Kai looked at the spray in his hand, then at the guard, and explained with a smile, “What is this, you ask? As you can see, it’s the Memory Loss Water used in those restroom ads to harm ignorant girls!”

“But, you see, my version is just a tad bit stronger. Rest assured, when you wake up, you’ll remember nothing.”

A gigolo… not quite right in the head… Memory Loss Water that makes you forget everything when you wake up…

All these elements combined in the guard’s mind, and as he realized something, his face paled, and he collapsed to the ground.

Watching the guard fall, Bai Kai quietly dropped a rope that had a spell formation solidified into it, skillfully tying the guard up with impressive rope skills and then tossing him into a corner of the security room.

Although he had just performed a triple blame shift, who knew if what he said was true? After dealing with those hidden in the warehouse, he could investigate further.

“Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh-!”

After Bai Kai signaled the special task force members lurking outside, they immediately sprang into action, vaulting over the wall and sneaking into the warehouse courtyard, finding suitable hiding spots.

At that moment, Bai Kai, carrying a long sword single-handedly, leisurely walked to the warehouse door. Just then, his chest’s Death Owl Emblem gently vibrated, and he heard the voice of the special task force surrounding the warehouse in the shadows.

“Mr. Bai, we are in position. When do we start?”

“On my signal.”

After Bai Kai spoke, his gaze hardened, and with a kick, he sent the heavy iron door flying open, shouting into the pitch-dark warehouse.

“Underworld male escort delivery! Who’s coming out to check?”

In the darkness, a pair of eyes watched the warehouse door, a man draped in a pristine white suit, standing with a sword, his body surrounded by a silver glow and psychic energy almost condensing into a mist.

The person gritted his teeth along with his accomplices, silently moving back into the darkness, preparing to escape when they heard the crisp sound of glass shattering overhead.

The windows on all four sides of the warehouse were knocked out almost simultaneously, and hefty figures followed the trajectory of the falling glass shards, landing firmly.

“Click-click-!”

With the soft sound of firearms being cocked, under the bright moonlight, the shiny barrels were almost simultaneously aimed at several people hidden in the corners.

“Big sister, we can’t escape! Should we fight them?”

“That’s right! At this point, we can only fight to the death. Don’t think about surrendering for leniency. Do you think we can deceive the Midnight Watchers Society?”

“Yeah, we’ve done enough to die several times over. If we’re caught alive, we won’t be able to beg for death!”

“…” After a brief silence, a slightly husky voice of a woman replied from the darkness, “Alright, then let’s fight!”

As soon as she finished speaking, five psychics and several hauntings transformed into swift shadows, rushing toward the special task force members surrounding them.

“Broken clock hands, flowers blooming from books, shattered and dead skies, desolation, silence, engulfment, spell formation ninety-one, the Silent Realm!”

As the illegal psychics and hauntings moved, Bai Kai quickly completed the spell chant. Ominous purple pillars of light appeared around them, crashing down instantly.

The pillars, like walls enclosing a city, trapped all the illegal psychics and hauntings inside, leaving only a manhole-sized gap at the top.

Starting with a forbidden spell formation, those trapped inside immediately had their psychic energy suppressed to an extremely low level, becoming cumbersome as if filled with lead.

As for attacking, that really wasn’t Bai Kai’s job; after all, they needed to keep some alive.

His hands were heavy, and once his sword was drawn, it did not sheathe without drawing blood.

It was different with the special task force guys and their alchemically modified weapons.

After all, if a barrage of bullets wasn’t enough, then add more, and if that still wasn’t enough, throw in some alchemy grenades. Firepower was relatively easier to control.

Make sure to cripple, not kill!

The moment they spotted the gap overhead, almost all the psychics and hauntings trapped inside the spell formation tried to escape first.

However, as the first one peeked out, they heard Bai Kai, maintaining the spell formation, shout, “Brothers, take action! Except for those few psychics, don’t leave any hauntings alive!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a barrage of gunfire followed, and the first figure to leap out was riddled with silver bullets engraved with incantations.

“It’s a trap!”

“It’s a trick, don’t go out!”

“Damn it, the Midnight Watchers Society, these mad dogs!”

Seeing a companion’s body fall back like a lump of mud, those trapped inside the spell formation hesitated to move, cursing and scrambling in chaos.

Just then, dozens of fist-sized objects suddenly flew in from the gap overhead, hitting the walls of light pillars erected around them. The gap above them also closed at that moment, plunging everything into dead silence and darkness.

“It’s alchemy grenades!”

Someone shouted in the dark, followed by an alchemy grenade landing at their feet. The shell cracked open, and a blinding burst of light erupted from the darkness, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

The powerful explosion, carrying psychic energy fluctuations, reverberated within the spell formation circle. Accompanied by countless cracks forming on the ground and debris falling from the ceiling, the effects of the spell ensured that the explosion’s loud noise, fire, and even smoke did not escape an iota.

For a long while.

Sensing that the psychic energy fluctuations inside the spell formation had all weakened, Bai Kai finally lifted the spell.

“Ding-!” With a light sound, the purple pillars of light cracked into tiny crystal shards, then turned into dust and dispersed into nothingness. Several charred, barely alive figures appeared in view.

Seeing this, Bai Kai slightly furrowed his brows, pulled out a rope solidified with a spell formation from his inner jacket, and under the watchful eyes of the special task force guys, displayed astonishing rope skills to tie them up one by one. He then turned to Qi Dong, who had come up behind him.

“Qi Dong, tell the brothers, we can wrap up.” Bai Kai said, “Send the hauntings to An Qing, and take the psychics back for interrogation!”

1:30 AM, Hua City, Bai Niu Town, Hongqi Reservoir.

On the long-abandoned, overgrown dam, a flashy new electric scooter was parked under a tree, secured with three locks.

By the water, a girl in a loose tactical jacket was vigorously stirring the steaming surface with a ten-meter-long bamboo pole, carefully pushing the bodies of water monkeys towards the shore.

As she fished out the bodies, she muttered incessantly to herself.

“Hit the jackpot this time! Not bad, not bad at all. Blowing up fish in the pond really pays off!”

Lu Yibei counted seriously. After unleashing her power at Hongqi Reservoir with the help of a potion, she had at least blown up over twenty water monkey hauntings hiding beneath the surface, along with an aberrant type haunting that wasn’t even listed in the haunting directory, possessing a trace of water demon power.

Though they were all low-tier hauntings with psychic energy fluctuations ranging from D+ to C-, the core entities of these hauntings didn’t fetch much money, but the sheer quantity made up for it!

Lu Yibei calculated that once she sent this batch to Fat Master for processing, she could recover a good portion of her potion-making expenses.

She could already imagine Fat Master’s horrified expression, suspecting her of smuggling disaster water, and now, smuggling haunting core entities again.

Thus, she genuinely started to enjoy the feeling of unlimited power and no cooldowns when her potion-induced power surge allowed her to unleash spell formations in rapid succession.

Even the pain of feeling like her bones were being disassembled when taking the potion was overshadowed by the joy of a bountiful harvest.

In her normal state, the first spell formation might take out two or three hauntings, and the rest would have fled long ago. How could it be this satisfying otherwise!?

Unfortunately, the potion, which could be taken a maximum of nine times to fill in the gaps, had already been used five times. With more than half consumed, she had shrunk by half a head in height, and it seemed this process wouldn’t last much longer.

With limited potion use, cherish it while it lasts.

Squatting on the long-deserted dam, Lu Yibei, wielding the Pure Lotus Sword, repeated the process of cutting open haunting bodies, extracting the core entities, and packing them into her guitar case. Just then, her phone rang. It was Bai Kai calling.

“Yibei, what are you up to? If you’re free, come over to Mudan Street.” Bai Kai said urgently.

Caught seven or eight psychics in one night,

“Why go to Mudan Street in the middle of the night? It’s not my shift tonight.” Lu Yibei grumbled.

“…”

Hearing the soft voice of a girl on the other end, Bai Kai paused for a few seconds, cleared his throat.

“Ahem, Bei’er, it seems like you’re busy. Maybe tomorrow morning, no, when you’re feeling better…”

Lu Yibei interrupted angrily, “What is this ‘Bei’er’ nonsense? Speak properly! Don’t use your club tricks on me.”

“Uh, okay. Anyway, if you have time, come over. We’ve caught a bunch of people, and I can’t interrogate them all by myself. That’s it for now!”

Hearing Bai Kai say this, Lu Yibei was about to hang up when he added, “Oh, Yibei, if a girl goes out at night, make sure to protect yourself!” He hung up before she could explode.

“…”

After a few seconds of silence, Lu Yibei raised her sword and, with a “thud,” pierced the corpse in front of her with a fierce stab.

It turned out that those mysterious black-robed individuals varied in skill, and the one Bai Kai caught wasn’t particularly tough or stubborn.

The two of them, alone in an interrogation room.

Before Bai Kai could even use The Midnight Watchers Society’s usual tactics of persuasion and coercion, or fully employ the interrogation spell formations and Alchemical potions, Embroidered Shoes confessed.

In this regard, Eclipse Society members were much more professional. It was said that an Eclipse Society member once withstood various “truth serum” potions and spell formations during interrogation and even managed to brainwash a Midnight Watchers Society operator-a “feat” indeed.

Embroidered Shoes spilled a mix of truths and attempts to clear her name, but at least she provided some useful information.

In summary, there were four main points.

She and her accomplices were hired and traveled through Hua City’s barrier on a mysterious train.

After arriving in Hua City, they did participate in organizing the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.

The black-robed group had chosen Dusk Maiden as the guide for the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.

And, there were three gathering places for those people; she only knew one was in the warehouse of the Hua City Ceramics Factory.

Bai Kai negotiated with Embroidered Shoes for a long time, and after the Midnight Watchers Society database comparison results came out, he had the special task force guys escort her to Yunkang Psychiatric Hospital.

From the database comparison, she was indeed a solitary psychic frequently hired by others, indirectly involved in several heinous incidents, and participated in numerous psychic artifact smuggling activities, with at least dozens of lives on her hands.

She was a notorious criminal.

However, regarding this Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts incident, she was just a fringe player.

But thinking about it, it made sense. The core members of the villains daring to organize the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts wouldn’t be so easily captured. The investigation road is long and arduous.

…

After submitting Embroidered Shoes’ statement, Bai Kai sat on a bench in the small garden of the Hua City Folk Culture Administration Bureau, cigarette in mouth, gazing thoughtfully at the sky.

At this moment, An Qing, hands stained with blood from dealing with hauntings, approached and sat beside him.

“Give me one too. It’s been a hectic time lately; I’m almost getting a nervous breakdown.”

Bai Kai fumbled for a cigarette to hand to An Qing, teasing, “Can Jiangshi even get nervous breakdowns?”

An Qing took the cigarette, rolled her eyes, and ignored him.

Seeing this, Bai Kai continued to ask, “Speaking of which, you mentioned a hectic time? Did you also find any clues related to the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts? Care to share?”

“I’d love to share, but unfortunately, my issue isn’t related to the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts.” An Qing said, lighting her cigarette. “Yesterday, I got news that a madman appeared in Hua City.”

“Madman?” Bai Kai frowned.

“Yes, a madman carrying out explosive attacks everywhere.” An Qing nodded, taking a drag from her cigarette. “They’ve already attacked five haunting locations, using a few spell formations and then fleeing, extremely ruthless.”

“And there’s no apparent connection between the attack sites, as if chosen randomly.”

“Do you know what my subordinates call this person? Explosion Maniac!”

“Isn’t it good to have an environmentalist cleaning up the city for us?” Bai Kai said indifferently.

“It would be if that were all, but I’m afraid…” An Qing narrowed her eyes, “I’m afraid that kind of illogical behavior might not stop at attacking hauntings.”

“…”

That does seem a bit concerning…

Seriously, what’s going on in Hua City lately?

It’s almost as chaotic as when that wicked woman was still around. Bai Kai mused.