Chapter Thirty-Two: The Strange Old Man

  Fukawa's strength was no match for it, he fell to the ground and took a long time to get up, with blood still flowing from the corner of his mouth. "What are you?"

  "He said: 'Don't you all know already?'"

  Xing Chengtian's guess was correct, it was the great witch who controlled this village and its villagers, but Fu Chuan also saw that it had not fully recovered its power.

  Just then a villager carried a withered corpse onto the altar and said, "Thank you very much for coming here. If it weren't for your arrival, I wouldn't have revived my loved one."

  Fu Chuan shouted loudly, "Let her go!"

  It smiled gloomily and said: "How is it possible?"

  At this moment, Xing Chengtian jumped out from somewhere, holding a black, strangely carved staff in his hand. He looked at Fu Chuan, and it turned out that Xing Chengtian had taken the opportunity to grab the staff while Fu Chuan was talking to him, and the staff was placed on the altar.

  At this time, Fu Chuan took advantage of Li Baobao's unpreparedness and took him down from the cross.

  Fu Chuan knew that he couldn't let it regain its power, and even more so, he couldn't let it revive the other people who had already died. Fu Chuan carefully walked up to Xing Chengtian's side and took a look at him.

  Just as the two of them withdrew their gaze, Fu Chuan released the Qilin, and they also jumped into the sky well, a white light enveloping the entire forest...

  This matter is now settled, back to the foot of the mountain, Ping'er saw that Li Baobao was fine, and cried so hard she couldn't breathe. Originally they were going to leave the mountain as master and apprentice, but Li Baobao decided to rest at a hotel in the town below for a day before heading to the airport. However, just that night, Li Baobao was kidnapped by those zombies.

  Back in City C, Fu Chuan stayed indoors to recuperate for a long time before recovering. This time, using the power of the Qilin left Fu Chuan feeling exhausted, so he rested for a very long time.

  When Fu Chuan was about to leave the customs, a guest arrived at Bao Fa Tang. He was an old friend of Fu Chuan's, named Xiao Liu, who was a policeman. Although Xiao Liu was a policeman, there were many things that he couldn't investigate clearly during the case, so he had no choice but to come and ask for help from Fu Chuan.

  Xiao Liu smiled as he watched Fu Chuan walk out of the house, "How was it? I called a few days ago and San Yang said you were still in seclusion."

  Although his body still felt a bit uncomfortable, Fu Chuan replied: "Hmm, what's up? I heard you were looking for me."

  Xiao Liu nodded, "Yes, a very tricky matter."

  Fu Chuan shook his head, intending to open his mouth to refuse, but Xiao Liu placed a file in front of Fu Chuan: "Look at it and decide later, I think you'll definitely be interested, and the bonus is also very tempting."

  Xiao Liu left after chatting with Fu Chuan for a while. After the person left, Fu Chuan opened the case file, which recorded several years of homicide cases. The deceased died miserably, but also suspiciously. On the case file, there was a bright red seal: Unknown.

  The unknown is what Fu Chuan should be responsible for, but Fu Chuan doesn't want to take it because his body hasn't fully recovered yet and he wants to rest a bit longer. However, looking at the reward amount on the case file, he was tempted.

  At this time, Miss Hu Lijing walked in. She saw that Fu Chuan had come out and also started to complain, "The dishes have gone up again, they are more expensive than meat."

  Fu Chuan smiled and said, "You just buy it at a lower price."

  Huli Jing gave him a sideways glance, but didn't say anything, and carried the full load of dishes into the kitchen. Tonight she should make some soup for Fu Chuan to nourish himself. Fu Chuan let out a sigh, thinking that there wasn't anyone worth billions living as miserably as he was. Every month, the money Fu Chuan received from the foundation was only enough to cover the expenses of Baofa Hall, and it really put Huli Jing in a difficult position, with barely enough income to make ends meet.

  While waiting for dinner, Fu Chuan opened the case file and began to study it seriously. This case involved a family of three being murdered, with all three dying tragically. Preliminary findings indicated that the male head of household had first killed his wife, then killed their sleeping son, stabbing him over twenty times. The forensic examination revealed that certain parts of the female victim's body were missing, and police found those internal organs in the juicer in the kitchen.

  But what's most puzzling is that in the apartment behind, there were three identical cases, and among the case files, there are five photos of the crime scene. On each of the five photos, there is a girl wearing white clothes, about 7 or 8 years old, standing at the crime scene. The girl's face is very blurry in the photos. If it was just one photo, maybe it could be attributed to camera glare, but on all five photos, this girl with braids appears, and she seems to be smiling slyly at the lens, as if she's very pleased.

  Intuition told Fu Chuan that this case was what he should be in charge of, and it seemed like a ghost was haunting, something Fu Chuan had encountered before, but he had never seen such a vicious ghost.

  Fuhe remembered that there was a case of vengeful ghost killing people before, and it took some twists and turns to catch the evil spirit.

  Fujiang still thought that tomorrow he would go take a look at the building first, if the ghost hadn't left the building yet, it was very likely to continue harming people.

  Just then, Miss Hu Lijing walked out of the kitchen. The doorbell rang and she opened the door to find a white-haired old man standing outside.

  The old man smiled and asked Hu Lijin: "Excuse me, is Mr. Fu in?"

  Hu Lijing thought the old man was strange, walking with a tilted body. Why didn't anyone from the village come to help? Hu Lijing quickly went to support the old man, "Old grandpa, are you here alone?"

  The old man smiled and replied: "Yes."

  "Please come in, old man." Hu Lijin invited the old man in.

  Fuhe suddenly felt a gust of cold wind blowing in from outside, making all the hairs on his body stand up. The old man walked over with a smile, looking kind but carrying a hint of yin energy. As people age, their yang energy gradually disappears, just like the sun setting in the west. However, this old man's yin energy was too strong. But anyone who could enter this room couldn't be a ghost, because no evil spirits or monsters could pass through the doorway with that mirror that repelled evil spirits.

  The old man came to pay Qian for a job, which was to help him find a box. Qian asked: "Old sir, what's so important about this box? This isn't a lost and found service."

  The old man seemed to have understood something after hearing Fu Chuan's words. He took out two stacks of cash from his black briefcase, which looked like around 200,000 yuan. He said: "This is your reward."

  The old man told Fu Chuan that the box was very important to him, it was left by his granddaughter. The old man also told him that he used to do business in China, from south to north, all the way to C City, and only his granddaughter accompanied him on the road. However, his granddaughter fell ill and died during their move to C City, which became a nightmare for the old man. The box was a music box with crystals, it was his granddaughter's favorite thing when she was alive. At that time, they lived in a dilapidated high-rise building in C City, where his granddaughter passed away, and the box got lost when he was cleaning up her belongings. For decades, he had been wanting to find it, but the high-rise building has already been demolished.

  The old man gave Fu Chuan the original address of that building, and when Fu Chuan took a look, it turned out to be the same as the address where the murder case occurred in the file. This means that this matter is related to the death of the old man's granddaughter.

  Fu Xiang asked somewhat hesitantly: "Sir, you are Japanese, aren't you?"

  The old man nodded and said: "Yes, I am Japanese, but I have been living in China for 50 years."

  The old man told Fu Chuan that he had witnessed the ups and downs of this country over the past fifty years, wars, disasters, depressions, and prosperity. In the past, he came here from Japan for a living because it was easy to make money here, but now he stayed behind because of his feelings.

  Fu Chuan would never have believed such nonsense, at that time there were only a few good Japanese who could come to China, and it was just one person with his granddaughter. However, this old man was still very long-lived, his granddaughters had been gone for decades, but he was still alive. Fu Chuan wanted to ask him, "Sir, when did your granddaughter pass away?"

  The old man said: "I died of the plague at the age of seven." Fu Chuan nodded and stopped talking. After a long time, he asked: "May I ask your current age?"

  The old man said bluntly, "I'm 110 years old. During the war, my wife and son-in-law all died, leaving only one granddaughter behind. So I must find that heirloom of my granddaughter's, it's very important to me."

  Fu Chuan was very interested in the case on the volume, but he hadn't decided whether to accept it or not. However, the arrival of this old man made Fu Chuan decide to accept the search mission.

  Fu Chuan took the money from the table and handed it to Hu Lijin, saying: "Alright, I promise you, I will do my best to find your granddaughter's belongings as soon as possible."

  The old man thanked him profusely before leaving. Three minutes later, Fu Chuan walked to the window and saw the old man standing by the side of the road.

  Many ghosts surrounded him, with a fierce appearance, some wearing white clothes, some red clothes, and middle-aged men wearing cotton-padded jackets. These ghosts seemed to have been following him for some time, no wonder there was such a heavy yin energy on the body of this living person. What puzzled Fu Chuan was why there were so many ghosts around this ordinary old man, their eyes glowing red as if they wanted to take his life, yet they seemed to dare not approach the old man.

  Fuhe wiped his eyes with a yuzu leaf, and when the old man slowly walked across the road, he found that there were two balls of fire on the old man's shoulders, and behind him stood two small ghosts, ferociously baring their teeth at the surrounding evil spirits. Fuhe finally understood that people can indeed be more terrifying than ghosts, and this old fellow was absolutely not simple.

  A person has ghostly fire on both shoulders, because this person has done many bad things, so there are many vengeful spirits following him. However, because this person's evil energy is too strong, even malevolent ghosts cannot get close to him.

  Fuhe recalls a past case, in a certain city, there was a taxi driver who would go out to hunt for prey every time it rained. His prey were mostly single women walking alone on the road and hailing taxis. He would abduct these women, take them home, torture and kill them, then dismember their bodies before discarding them. When the case was cracked, police found many body parts in his house, with several confirmed victims identified by name. However, during the two years he committed crimes, it rained frequently, and on rainy nights, he would go out to hunt, always successfully, so the actual number of victims far exceeded this count.

  Fuhe remembered that he had seen the prisoner in prison, and the police asked him to watch a video of the prisoner. In the video, the police found that there were two fires on the prisoner's body, and many people's shadows were floating around him, those shadows seemed to be afraid of him.

  Those vengeful spirits surrounding the person who killed them are, on one hand, afraid of the person who killed them, and on the other hand, they fear the evil energy on that person's body. When a person has lost their humanity, they are no longer human but a demon. Ghosts are the lowest level of spiritual beings; although they are terrifying, they are even afraid of the sunlight in broad daylight.

  Fu Chuan thought this case was quite interesting, so he called Xing Chengtian. Xing Chengtian should have rested enough by now. His voice on the phone sounded a bit strange. Fu Chuan asked if he hadn't rested enough yet. Xing Chengtian told him to stop messing around and get straight to the point. Fu Chuan became serious too, telling him about today's events and asking if he was interested. Xing Chengtian said of course he was.

  Fu Chuan was eating while looking at the case files, he found some things quite strange. At this moment, San Yang returned from the opposite side. Fu Chuan glanced at San Yang, who looked a bit embarrassed and said that he had come back late.

  "Master, did you know that the man found out Master Shu was injured and bought 999 roses to send to Furong Temple?" Three sheep, which pot doesn't open, mention which pot.

  Fuhe didn't say anything, but his face had already turned black.

  "Master, Master Shu said you owe him money."

  "It's still me saying you have no money."

  Fu Xiang remained silent, his face changing colors like a palette, sometimes green, sometimes black, and sometimes white. He forced a smile and asked San Yang: "What else did your Shu uncle say?"

  The three sheep were completely unaware of the danger, and he said: "Master Shu said that you are no longer allowed to enter the Furong Temple from now on."

  Huli Jing was kicking San Yang under the table, telling him to shut up. But San Yang turned to Huli Jing and said: "Why are you kicking me? It hurts."

  Fuhe put down his bowl and chopsticks at this time, then left the table, muttering in his mouth: "Who wants to go to her place."

  Three sheep were completely unclear about what had happened, did he say something? Anyway, he thought he was not wrong, he was avenging his master's uncle, who let the master treat his good master's uncle like that.

  Fuhe didn't finish his dinner before going into the house. Hu Lijin brought him a bowl of bone soup and sat beside him on the bed: "What's wrong with you? You obviously like her, but you always provoke her to anger. She came all the way from afar to find you, and I heard from San Yang that you even scolded her away. When she was kidnapped, you didn't fear death and went to rescue her. How can you be so stubborn? You're already a grown man."

  Huli Jing is considered an elder of Fu Chuan, being the granddaughter of a paternal aunt of the Fu family. She is roughly the same age as Fu Chuan but her cultivation base is much higher than his.