Chapter 9: A Weakness in the Unexpected

  The meal was finished and the conversation had also come to an end. Several people returned to the hall and sat down, with the director speaking first.

  "Oh? Tell me...". Yang took over the tea water that was handed over, and his face suddenly became serious.

  "So you suspect it's not humanly possible?"

  "At first I also denied it, but Ah Hao seems to have discovered something too, which further confirmed my judgment"

  The director finished speaking, and everyone present turned their eyes to Yang Hao.

  "Yes... I can confirm that these 2 cases are not humanly possible. In the case of Lijiao Bay, there was a car with its rear deeply buried in the sand and its front pointing towards the sky, standing upright... The body of the car did not have any damage at all, even if you use a crane, there would be scratches left on the rope, so how did this car get stood up like that?"

  Yang Hao looked at Officer Yang and continued speaking without waiting for a rebuttal.

  Later I carefully examined the car body again and found a person's handprint on the transmission shaft of the chassis. It was a residual image that disappeared soon after.

  "Can you see the aura?" Yang Hao asked in a slightly surprised tone.

  "Hmm... previously, it was necessary to calm the breath and mind before being able to see. But now, it seems that as long as one is not in an excited or agitated state, they can see. Uncle Yang, the purple energy on your body also reveals some things."

  "Let's not talk about this for now, you continue..." The face of Officer Yang grew increasingly solemn.

  "Hmm... This morning I arrived at the scene of XH Park, just like the previous case, there was no valuable discovery, but on the two deceased, I saw a black fog surrounding the seven orifices. However, it also disappeared instantly. I didn't dare to tell anyone, so I've been keeping it in my heart."

  Yang Hao finished speaking, and the director and Han Yunxue stared at him with surprised eyes, which made him feel quite uncomfortable. "This kid Yang Hao is indeed different from others, it seems I've found the right person," the director thought to himself, feeling somewhat pleased, seemingly very satisfied with his judgment on personnel arrangement.

  Officer One Yang listened to Yang Hao's description and was filled with curiosity about this young man who was different from the others, but his mind was constantly analyzing the case, after a while, Officer One Yang spoke up.

  "It seems your judgment is correct, these 2 cases are indeed not caused by human..."

  "Even you...? How could..." The director and his daughter widened their eyes in surprise, although they had already guessed the outcome, but couldn't help asking in shock.

  "It seems that it was indeed him who did it, but I didn't expect that in just one year's time, he would have such abilities... Director Han, let these two cases be handed over to me for processing. You can't handle them, and Yang Hao has temporarily assigned him to follow me, is there any difficulty?"

  "No no... I should thank you instead. These two cases are almost driving me crazy... By the way, who was it that you mentioned just now?"

  "It's better if you don't ask about this, the less you know, the safer you are... Alright, no need to drag things out, Yang Hao, take this." After finishing speaking, Yang Hao received a white lump of something sticky and soft, resembling solid alcohol or cooked grains.

  "What is this? How does it work?"

  "Don't ask too much for now, when you arrive at the place, dip it in the dead person's blood and then ignite it with fire... burn it into whatever shape and bring it to the church to show me." After finishing speaking, Uncle Yang stood up and walked out, and Director Han and his daughter didn't dare to ask more questions. They sent him off at the door and bid farewell. Uncle Yang disappeared into the vast darkness of the night. Yang Hao got back in the car, and Han Yuxue walked to the front of the car and knocked on the window.

  "Be careful... if anything happens, call me... no, call my dad."

  "Uh-huh, got it... I'm leaving... Help me thank your dad"

  She nodded and Yang Hao started the car, heading towards the forensic department of the police station.

  Yang Hao sat in the car, his mind recalling everything at the director's house earlier, as if trying to find a way to resolve the doubts in his mind. The Japanese ghost in the church, the scene at Lijiao Bay, the scene at XH Park, the overturned car, and the so-called "One Yang" expert all appeared one after another in his mind, but he couldn't think of anything.

  Before long, the car drove to the last turn before the destination, and Yang Hao suddenly saw a black shadow hitting the windshield. The speed was too fast, and there was no time to brake at all. With a "bang", his vision was completely blocked. After Yang Hao's car dragged out a long scratch on the ground, it finally stopped. He opened the door, came to the front of the car, and what he saw almost made him breathless. On the windshield, there was actually... a cat stuck on it. The cat was very large, much larger than ordinary domesticated dogs, with a long tail standing upright behind its body, and its entire body was jet black without any miscellaneous hair. At this time, it had its four limbs stretched out, sticking to the windshield in the shape of a big "glue", right in front of the driver's seat. Yang Hao felt helpless...

  "Where did this smelly cat come from... You can't blame me for this, kitty. It's your own fault for running into me. I don't want to take a life," just as he was about to grab the cat's tail, who would have thought that the cat suddenly turned around, rubbed its face with its front paws just like a human, and pounded its head, looking like someone trying to clear their mind after being stunned, and it looked extremely comical.

  "Oh no, didn't die huh... Hey, look at you, still know how to feel pain?"

  "Nonsense... you stupid pig... can't you drive a bit slower? Are you trying to kill me?"

  Yang Hao was suddenly startled and looked around left and right, but there was no one there. Who spoke?

  "Hey, look over here! I'm right here!" The speaker was surprisingly the cat, who had gotten angry at being ignored by Yang Hao and stood up on its hind legs, one front paw on its waist and the other pointing at itself.

  "You... cat.... Can cats speak human language? I didn't hear wrong, did I? I'm shocked, what breed are you?"

  "You damned pig, I'm just like you, a servant of the underworld. Look at your stupid face, I really don't know why King Yan let you be an envoy."

  "Cats... can cats also be spies??? I'm shocked, then dogs can also become the president of a country? Am I dreaming?"

  "Who told you that cats can't be in charge? Let me tell you the truth, this whole police station is under my control, so be careful when you come and go from now on. If you offend me, Lord Cat, I won't care if you're a special envoy or not, I'll still take care of you." After saying that, the cat struck a very cool pose, leaving Yang Hao speechless and unsure of what to say next.

  "By the way, this is what King Yan asked me to give you. Inside is a list of some officials from DL City. You'd better take care of it yourself, and don't forget to call out if anything happens, or else I won't be responsible when something goes wrong." The cat said as it surprisingly pulled out an envelope the size of its own body from its fur, and Yang Hao looked at everything in a daze, stupidly taking it over.

  "Don't be foolish... Let me tell you, humans are formidable, and animals aren't bad either. In this DL city, there are many animal spirits who run errands for the underworld, not just you. Since we're in the same line of work, if anything comes up, just give us a shout, and we'll take care of you. Got it? If not, I'm off."

  "Hey... wait a minute... cat... brother, hehe... how did I end up looking for you?!" Yang Hao didn't know what to call him and ended up shouting out "cat brother", the words felt awkward as soon as they left his mouth, like something out of a cartoon, it even made himself laugh.

  "What's with the cat brother? I'm over 300 years old and I have a name, my name is 'Tiger Head' Yang. Hao Yi was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing, animals are just animals, even if they become immortals, their thinking remains simple. Tiger Head, could it be that you really want to turn into a tiger? "I was wrong, I was wrong... Brother Tiger Head... is this okay now?? How am I supposed to get in touch with you guys?"

  "Hmm...this is about right, you have the Tongyu token, don't you? Just infuse your intention and the name of the Earth Immortal you're looking for into it in a gaseous form, and we'll know you're looking for us...You young man, there's still much to learn...Alright, nothing else, I'm off." With that, the cat disappeared with an extraordinary movement, stepping on the smooth surface of the nearby building a few times before vanishing. Yang Hao returned to the car, opened the envelope, and saw a list of personnel names inside. He thought to himself, "The Lord of the Underworld is indeed a man of his word...These Earth Immortals might come in handy at some point." Thinking this, Yang Hao smiled with satisfaction, feeling like he had found a powerful backer. But more than that, it made him feel less lonely, knowing there were so many fellow practitioners accompanying him, even if they weren't human.

  Yang Hao arrived at the morgue's autopsy room and opened the freezer drawers one by one. Before long, he found the deceased father and daughter. "What a joke, where's the blood? The bodies are frozen solid," he muttered to himself, wondering if he had to resort to something else. Just as he was at a loss, his gaze fell on the bloodstains frozen on the surface of the corpses. Although it made him feel queasy, Yang Hao carefully pried off the frozen blood clots with his fingernails, hoping that a little blood would be enough. After collecting the blood clots, he wrapped them in a sticky substance and pulled out a lighter... With a whoosh, the flame flared up and then went out. The sticky substance had turned into a hard black lump.

  "I'm dizzy, what kind of chemical reaction is this? It was soft and mushy just now, but now it's as hard as a rock, it's really strange" Yang Hao muttered to himself before walking out of the forensic lab and driving his car back to the church where he had the accident.

  "Uncle Yang... Uncle Yang... I'm back!" Yang Hao shouted as he walked through the gate.

  "Hmm... how did it turn out?"

  "Take a look at this~~~" Yang Hao took out the black crystal.

  "Hmph, as expected, Ah Hao, go close the door." Yang Hao nodded and closed the large door. The dark hall was filled with scattered tables and chairs, thick spider webs, and the flickering flames that cast an eerie atmosphere. Yang Hao stared motionlessly at Yi Yang Shu, watching his every move. Yi Yang Shu held a black crystal in one hand and three incense sticks appeared in the other hand at some point. He muttered to himself for a while in a language that was unclear, then clapped his hands together, and the three incense sticks merged into the crystal. Afterwards, Yi Yang Shu placed it on the table and shouted "Appear!" The three incense sticks ignited, emitting green smoke. In an instant, an image appeared above the table. Only cultivators could see it; outsiders would only see the incense smoke, unable to perceive anything else.

  "Little girl, are you tired?" An elderly-looking person was walking in the middle of an amusement park with a little girl.

  "Dad, I'm not tired... Dad, look at that one, it's so tall! Can we sit on that one?"

  "Hehe... aren't you afraid?"

  "I promise I won't be afraid"

  "Alright... let's go!" After saying that, Father hugged his daughter and quickly ran towards the last stop of their life journey - the Ferris wheel.

  No mistake, the image is indeed the father and daughter who died tragically in the morning. The two people got on the Ferris wheel, chatting and laughing. The father was kind, the daughter was well-behaved, giving a sense of happiness. As the machine rotated, the gondola carrying the father and daughter rose higher and higher. The two people looked excitedly at everything outside getting smaller. Just as they reached the highest point, there was a sudden loud bang, and the entire Ferris wheel stopped in mid-air, followed by various screams and curses.

  "Dad...what's going on?!" The daughter also seemed to sense that something was off, blinking her big eyes as she stared at her father and asked.

  "It's okay, it's okay... good baby... look, we're at the highest point now, and the whole city is under our feet"

  The daughter glanced out the window and immediately pulled her head back in. At this moment they were a hundred meters high, not to mention children, even adults would be scared stiff, but how could the father show fear in front of his child? So the father tried hard to suppress his fear and continued speaking.

  "Baby, try to see if you can find where our home is?" The daughter heard her father's seemingly casual words and her tense expression also calmed down a lot, so she curiously looked around in all directions without stopping.

  "Dad, Dad... is our house over there?" The father looked at his daughter with a kind face, but in his heart, he was calculating what to do next. Ferris wheels are the safest amusement facilities, how could this happen? Just as they reached the highest point, it stopped! He looked down and saw that the operating room of the Ferris wheel was surrounded by anxious crowds. A sense of unease rose up inside him at this moment.

  "Ah….Dad, look at that...what is it~~~Don't come over...go away...go away..." The daughter suddenly went crazy and wildly waved her hands, burying her head in her father's chest. Her father's expression immediately became tense to the extreme, nervously looking around everywhere. Yang Hao and Yi Yang Shu both saw it, at this time on the highest point of the Ferris wheel's hanging basket, standing was a ghost wearing a Japanese military uniform, his big head facing downwards with a ferocious expression, suspended in mid-air in front of the window of the father-daughter's hanging basket.

  "What's wrong?? Little girl... what's wrong?? What did you see??" The father was frantically looking around with a tense face, but he couldn't see anything, so he could only hold his precious daughter tightly in his arms and pat her back to comfort her, hoping they would land soon. Just as the father was trying his best to calm down his daughter, the ghost transformed into gas and vanished instantly, at the same time, the girl stopped moving completely, it seemed like she even stopped trembling. The father suddenly felt that something was wrong with his daughter in his arms, just as he was wondering what it was, he suddenly felt a chill on his chest, and a warm flow slowly appeared on his thigh, when he looked down, his daughter's face was pale, the corner of her mouth slightly raised, with an eerie smile. She slowly stood up, pulled back, and the father immediately felt an indescribable pain, then he found out that his daughter was actually... actually holding a still-beating bloody heart in her hand.

  "Ah..." The father seemed to realize everything, his hands covering the bloody hole in his chest, staring at his daughter with an incredulous expression. Her other hand, with long fingernails, slowly ripped open her own belly, pulling out a piece of intestine with two fingers. Red blood and foul-smelling viscera splattered everywhere, but the daughter seemed to feel no pain, slowly wrapping the intestine around her father's neck, tightening it... A strange smile appeared on her face before she lost strength and hung her head down.

  At this time, the daughter suddenly woke up and found everything in front of her, holding a heart in her hand, and a severe pain came from her abdomen. She looked down and saw blood all over, with one end of her intestine still inside her belly and the other end on her father's neck. She stared blankly at everything in front of her, her loving father seemed not to be dead, his eyes had blood flowing out, his face was as pale as paper, and his mouth... her father's mouth was smiling... an evil smile... She watched as her father's neck slowly turned back, and then there were cracking sounds coming from the nape of his neck, each sound making the smaller-bodied daughter tremble violently, until the moment when the back of his head rested on his chest. The daughter finally stopped trembling. Her eyes were dull, her expression was zero, she stood there blankly... just at this time, the back of her head was facing her father, and she used both hands to grasp her own neck, her fingers slowly sinking into her skin, 10 fingers deeply inserted, using force to pull upwards, the daughter's head was ripped off alive, the skin and flesh were like rubber bands being stretched to their limits, with blood vessels bursting and being torn apart, in an instant, the daughter's entire head was firmly held in her father's hands. They died, two people died just like that... But things didn't end there, after the two people died, a Japanese oni appeared above the gallows, holding a bottle, seemingly waiting for something. Before long, a male and female red ghost floated out of the bodies of the father and daughter, baring their teeth and brandishing their claws as they charged towards the Japanese oni, seemingly seeking revenge. The Japanese oni didn't dodge or evade, it simply opened the lid of the bottle in its hand, and the two vengeful ghosts were sucked inside. At first glance, it looked a bit like the scene from Journey to the West where the monk uses his magic weapon to capture demons. This left Yang Hao and the others watching with their eyes wide open and their mouths agape.

  "It seems that the truth has finally surfaced. I was wondering how this ghost could become so powerful in just one year, and it turns out that it had obtained a magical artifact." Yiyang Shu said slowly with his hands clasped together in front of his chest.

  "A ghost is just a ghost, how can it become fierce?" Yang Hao spoke out his doubts in his heart.

  "Hmm... Generally speaking, a ghost is an energy body that cannot affect physical objects. In other words, a ghost killing someone is just a way of confusing and scaring them through nerve stimulation. It's not possible for ghosts to cause substantial harm. Every ordinary person has three lanterns of oil on their body, which are innate treasures that can ward off evil spirits. This makes it even more impossible for ghosts to get close to humans. That's why there's the saying 'humans fear ghosts by 30%, ghosts fear humans by 70%'. If a ghost were to be bumped into by a healthy and robust person on the street, it might just have its soul scattered by that person's yang energy."

  "Are oni really that weak? What's with this Japanese oni?"

  "Everything has an exception, and ghosts are no different. When a ghost absorbs other ghosts under the influence of external forces, its own power grows stronger, and the distance and intensity of its influence also increase. The Japanese revere strength but do not value virtue. They believe that the power of resentment, hatred, and anger is supreme. Even Japan's gods are the same - they are evil incarnate, pseudo-gods that have absorbed a certain amount of vengeful spirits and strengthened their abilities. This Japanese ghost must have obtained some kind of powerful artifact and, with external forces at its disposal, has been constantly slaughtering us Chinese people, absorbing their hatred to grow stronger. It's not too strong yet, but if we let it continue to develop, the hypothetical scenario where ghosts can directly harm physical bodies may become a reality."

  "What's to be done then, Uncle Yang? Hurry up and find out where it is, hurry up and destroy it, isn't that the solution?"

  "How are you going to find him? You little brat, do you think I'm a god or something? It's hard enough for one person to hide and not be found, let alone a ghost?"

  "So you've already figured out how these 2 people died? There must be a way, right?"

  "No way, the magic just now was using human memory to cast. Human memories are not all in the brain. Blood also contains human memories, but this magic can only find out some things that the deceased experienced before death, very limited."

  "Alas... The previous case was also like that? I went to the underworld and couldn't find out the cause of death for two people."

  "Hmm... it should be its doing. Are you a Yang master now? Looking at the meridians on your body and the Qi you're using, they're not something ordinary people can attain."

  "Hehe...this can't be hidden from Uncle Yang, but this isn't what I said, it's what you figured out, and it has nothing to do with me, I promised XX person that I would keep it a secret"

  "Hmm... This thing is called a memory of the deceased's past life. You already know how to use it, take these with you, they might come in handy later. But remember, don't use them for ordinary cases. It's too much trouble to make."

  "Good... hehe... thanks Uncle Yang" Yang Hao took over a bottle of white sticky stuff and carefully tucked it away like a treasure.

  "What should we do next, Uncle Yang?"

  "Alas... it's like the blind men feeling an elephant. I'll dispatch some of my subordinates and apprentices to blend in with the crowds at gathering places, lying in wait for now, that's all we can do for the time being."

  "Hmm... Uncle Yang, then I'll go find some 'fellow practitioners' to see if there's a way," Yang Hao said, and Uncle Yang nodded in understanding. "Go ahead"... Yang Hao walked out of the church that held many unpleasant memories for him. He arrived at the car, took out the mysterious token from his neck, thought to himself: "Tiger Head, Tiger Head, I am Yang Hao", then used his fingers to infuse energy into the magical token...