Chapter 467 - 237: The Wutong God

Chapter 467: Chapter 237: The Wutong God

Zheng Xiu turned to Feng Bei, who wore a complex expression. "Have you seen him?"

Feng bei was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head.

"So, no one has ever seen Zhu. Or perhaps, having lived for a thousand years and reached the very peak of what a Mystic can be, he’s mastered all sorts of strange and sinister abilities, making him impossible to fathom. He could be anyone—the Great Emperor, some high-ranking official, an inconspicuous tenant farmer, a woman from a brothel, a babbling child. He could even be you. Or me."

Wei Chen let out a long breath, his expression shifting several times before he finally calmed. "Your words, Prince... are astounding. I am truly amazed."

He suddenly adopted a more formal way of referring to himself. Just as She Kui was about to react, Ye Kui grabbed his hand.

Zheng Xiu noticed this and shook his head with a smile. ’It seems Wei Chen doesn’t know that Chu Susu accidentally let it slip.’

Having laid his cards on the table, Zheng Xiu’s gaze returned to the map.

"What I’m saying is, none of us have ever seen Zhu. Finding him... will be difficult. But it’s not entirely impossible."

"Zhu used to have the ’Thousand Miles in an Instant’ ability, but that belonged to the Crow Fosterer. Now that the Crow Fosterer is dead, Zhu’s movements are restricted. There’s no way he can be as elusive as he once was."

"Since he was able to single-handedly found Ye Weiyang all these years, he must have other allies. After all, what he’s doing is not something that can be accomplished by one person alone."

"He’s not just running for his life. If he truly wanted to escape, he could just charter a boat, hide on a deserted island, and no one would ever find him. But if he did that, he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his so-called grand ambition."

Wei Chen understood. He frowned and said, "Prince, are you saying that Zhu has been hiding in plain sight this whole time?"

"It’s *after* the Crow Fosterer’s death that he’s been forced to hide in plain sight. Otherwise, he’d have no way of keeping up with worldly affairs or the movements of other Mystics."

Ye Kui then took the initiative to refill Zheng Xiu’s cup. Her beautiful eyes glistening, she praised him in a soft voice, "The Prince’s words make sense."

Zheng Xiu pointed to the Western Regions on the map. "You’ve all spent years in the Great Desert. If Zhu were hiding in one of the countries there, there’s no way you’d be completely unaware, and no way he wouldn’t have left a single trace. The Disaster Prevention Bureau’s influence is expanding rapidly now. Wherever there’s a paranormal case, Zhu could be involved. He starts the fires, and we put them out. That much I’m not worried about."

"The Southern Wilderness Wetlands are teeming with venomous creatures and the climate is scorching. It’s unlivable for ordinary people."

"Next, I plan to extend the Disaster Prevention Bureau’s reach to the East Sea Shore of Daqian and the Northern Barbarian Countries. The Northern Barbarian Countries will be straightforward—they’re all foreigners, so we don’t have to be delicate. The only issue is Daqian’s eastern coast. That’s the Iron River Chamber of Commerce’s territory. The Zheng Clan and the Iron River Chamber of Commerce have always kept out of each other’s affairs, so it will be tricky to make a move there."

As the Disaster Prevention Bureau expanded and dealt with paranormal cases, Zheng Xiu had his people sift through every case for any possible hidden clues. It always gave him a massive headache. Trying to find one person in a vast sea of humanity was harder than ascending to Heaven.

In fact, ascending to Heaven was far easier—you could just grow a pair of wings and fly.

Finding a person was hard. Impossibly hard.

The meal lasted nearly two hours. Seeing how much they were enjoying themselves, Chef He would occasionally bring out small side dishes to go with the wine.

As the conversation opened up, they began discussing which provinces Zhu might have appeared in. They analyzed the unusual details from nearly a hundred paranormal cases from the past month, trying to unravel the mystery and predict Zhu’s next move by thinking like the perpetrator.

By the end of the meal, Wei Chen and Zheng Xiu had grown much closer, the previous distance between them gone.

Finally, feeling a bit tipsy, Zheng Xiu prepared to leave.

The Orange Cat, which had been quiet all night, suddenly wobbled onto the table, reeking of alcohol. Zheng Xiu stared, then broke into a laugh. It turned out the foolish cat had secretly knocked over a wine jug and lapped some up.

The Orange Cat squinted at the map on the table, then suddenly slapped a paw down.

The paw landed just off the edge of the map.

’This stupid cat is drunk.’

Zheng Xiu had thought the Orange Cat was about to reveal something brilliant, but it was just drunk. He’d gotten his hopes up for nothing. He took the opportunity to silently curse the cat while it was intoxicated.

At the end of the meal, Zheng Xiu simply feigned drunkenness and slumped onto the table. Feng Bei patted him a few times but couldn’t rouse him. Left with no choice, he slung Zheng Xiu over one shoulder and leaped across the rooftops, returning to the Red King Mansion in a few bounds.

「Late in the seventh month.」

With the Disaster Prevention Bureau opening more and more branches, the headquarters’ staff had almost all been dispatched and were scattered across the land.

Two incidents of note occurred in the seventh month.

The first was that the Monk finally returned to General Town, ascended the mountain, and went back to his temple.

One day, Zheng Xiu saw the icon for the Flower Post Station show a crying face on his Game Table. Puzzled, he activated Divine Travel using his Zheng Shan Incarnation and sent it forth. In an instant, he crossed a thousand miles to arrive at Yunliu Temple.

Zheng Xiu arrived at midnight to find over a hundred monks sitting in silent grief.

The Monk was sitting silently before the main hall, which had once belonged to Master Dengdeng. The doors were shut tight, and a length of White Silk hung from a rafter inside.

When Zheng Xiu asked, he learned that Master Dengdeng had passed away peacefully of old age.

In the end, the Monk had failed to learn what he wanted to know from Master Dengdeng—or rather, Xie Yunliu.

Zheng Xiu stayed for a while at Yunliu Temple and inspected the scene, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. Master Dengdeng’s remains looked peaceful and bore no wounds, so foul play was not suspected. With his doubts allayed, Zheng Xiu remained at the temple and helped the Monk cremate Master Dengdeng.

The flames lit up the sky, burning through the night. When Zheng Xiu and the Monk went to collect the ashes, they were shocked to discover that Master Dengdeng’s head had not burned. All that remained was a rock-hard skull. The two men stared at each other in bewilderment. Looking closer by the light of a candle, they saw that the skull, as if purified of all impurities, faintly glowed with a crystalline, jade-like luster.

Zheng Xiu mulled it over but couldn’t make sense of it. In the end, he could only conclude that Xie Yunliu was quite literally ’hard-headed.’ ’No wonder his hair never grew back. It wasn’t just because he was a monk—there was something seriously wrong with Xie Yunliu’s head to begin with.’

Zheng Xiu and the Monk dismantled the statue of the general in the temple, revealing the cenotaph for the joint burial of Gongsun Mo and Xie Luohe within. They buried the skull there and raised a new burial mound. With a smile, Zheng Xiu took up a brush and wrote with a flourish: "Tomb of Xie Yunliu, General of Pingxi," bringing this strange Chapter of fate to a close.

The Monk told Zheng Xiu he had decided to stay at the temple for a while to sort through Master Dengdeng’s Relics, hoping he might find something. Zheng Xiu understood. He dismissed his Incarnation, and in the blink of an eye, his Will returned to his Main Body.

The death of Master Dengdeng was the first major event of the seventh month.

The second...

...occurred on the night of the twenty-eighth. Zheng Xiu was drinking alone under the moon, lying tipsily on his side beneath the eaves, when a red glow suddenly flared from his waist, instantly dispelling some of his intoxication.

It was the Eternal World Painting.

Blood-red lines swirled across its mirror surface, forming a small line of text.

["Gold Medal Middleman Xi’er" is calling. Accept?]

Xi’er, who was away on a mission, hesitantly reported a bizarre and difficult paranormal case to Zheng Xiu, successfully piquing his interest.

The case involved a strange temple whose patrons were all women.

The temple enshrined a strange deity called the "Wutong God" and received a great many worshippers.

Xi’er then stammered out the reason she found the case so difficult: whoever prayed at that temple got pregnant.