Chapter 589

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

Taking out the token Mei Yi had given her, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen made their way to a place called the Investigation Bureau of Anomalies.

From the outside, there was nothing special about it — pure white exterior walls, a few tall, lush trees, and innermost of all, a dilapidated two-story building.

Hmph, if they didn't say this was an official agency specifically responsible for these strange, bizarre matters, Shen Yao would have thought it was some abandoned building.

Thump thump thump

Raising her hand to knock on the door, Shen Yao looked up, meeting the gaze of the woman who opened it.

The woman had long known they were coming; smiling, she nodded in greeting and introduced herself, "Yu Yan."

"Shen Yao." "Xu Ningchen."

"Come in. Recently the Investigation Bureau has been researching the Ping'an Community situation — there's been another incident there."

Yu Yan spoke with certainty; after all, as a Focus Object, the slightest stir at Ping'an Community would draw the Investigation Bureau's reaction.

If the whole city weren't so unsafe lately, the Investigation Bureau's people would already have moved into Ping'an Community.

"The two of us are here precisely for the Community's matter. If it isn't stopped soon, more and more people will die."

Even if they weather this wave of malevolent qi, the next outbreak will take even more lives on top of this foundation.

Yu Yan knew this, and so did the others at the Investigation Bureau — but their cultivation was shallow; they had tried before and failed in the end.

For now, Yu Yan led the two up to a studio on the second floor, where other people were already present — all colleagues of Yu Yan at the Investigation Bureau.

The two sides met and introduced themselves, then sat down to discuss how to handle the trouble stirred up by Ping'an Community — they all understood the principle that the longer it dragged, the worse it would grow.

"Perhaps we can start with the Taiji Diagram and Bagua Array on the top floor."

Shen Yao concisely related the situation they had encountered earlier to Yu Yan and the others, then explained that there must be a problem inside the Taiji Diagram and Bagua Array, and it would be best to rearrange them.

"If I recall correctly, the Daoren Chengli who set up this array has already passed away. As for Chengli Daochang's three disciples, their Dao arts are not as profound as Chengli Daochang's; any array they set up would likely be useless."

The bespectacled youth lowered his head to flip through the materials in his hand, and incidentally read out the relevant content.

"Although the three Daoren are no match for Chengli Daochang, right now we can't afford to be so picky.

It's been twenty years since Ping'an Community first had an incident; we can't delay any longer."

The whole world is changing, and the Investigation Bureau, as the official organization in direct contact with it, understands this better than anyone.

In many places, problems that originally weren't so severe have become uncontrollable; Ping'an Community is developing in that direction.

So when Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen came knocking, Yu Yan thought to give it a try — she knew the effectiveness of the talisman papers in their hands.

There aren't many people in the whole meeting who can make the final call, and Yu Yan happens to be in charge of this matter.

Therefore, when Yu Yan stood beside Shen Yao and the other, the others would not refute her.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen temporarily joined the team on the grounds of providing information, responsible for verifying whether certain intelligence was accurate.

Yu Yan and the other few were officials, grasping the overall situation and coordinating cooperation, striving to pull the team together at the fastest speed — including Chengli Daochang's three disciples, useful or not, all bundled and sent over.

"This is the tenant roster for Ping'an Community; those marked in red need special attention.

Going by the Community's pattern of casualties each time, they are extremely likely to be this round's victims."

Yu Yan did not have Shen Yao rescue them, because these red-marked people are not innocent — the crimes on them are enough to pay a life for a life.

By the time Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen returned to Ping'an Community holding the roster, the sky had already darkened; they didn't need to go up to the top floor tonight, but the malevolent qi between floors still needed them to eliminate it with talisman papers.

Fortunately, these talisman papers had already been reimbursed at market price; the Investigation Bureau lacked many things, but money was not one of them.

Moreover, the Investigation Bureau itself wanted to build a good relationship with them to purchase talisman papers — things that can deal with strange malevolent entities are never too few.

Shen Yao smiled amiably, even promising to teach the Investigation Bureau's people how to draw talismans when she had time.

Back then, the Old Taoist passed on the art of talisman drawing to the two of them without any restrictions, and after the two mastered the complete ten types of talismans, passing them on to others was also not improper.

Besides, the Investigation Bureau belongs to the Instance's official side; they count as indirectly saving people — even if the Infinite World finds out, nine times out of ten it will award them extra points.

"Take advantage of the Instance to earn more points; when we return to the Infinite World we can also improve our strength."

Personal strength is tied to points; on the premise of not affecting herself, Shen Yao absolutely doesn't mind lending a hand — she's not a lone-wolf character type.

Time reached eight o'clock; night fell.

No sound came from the corridor; the tenants living in Ping'an Community were all obediently hiding in their rooms at this hour.

Click

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen opened their door, taking the fourth floor as the starting point for clearing — one up, one down — striving to wipe out this surge of malevolent qi that had emerged.

Of course, tonight isn't just this one batch; they'll still need to get up in the early hours to work.

That time is when malevolent qi is at its densest; considering tenant safety, they have to handle it according to the personnel distribution on the roster.

"Good thing we made contact in time," otherwise a few more people would die one after another, increasing their clearance difficulty.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen just slept a bit, worked a bit, busy like this, and quickly got through the night.

The other tenants woke from a night's sleep, surprised to discover no one had died today.

Eh?

Could it be over?

"Impossible, it's only just begun — definitely hasn't had time yet."

Some old tenants swore by it; as parties who had stayed in Ping'an Community and witnessed all kinds of jumping deaths, they were rich in experience.

Every time Ping'an Community has an incident, at least ten or eight people die.

If it weren't for the Community's many tenants, and the fact that each of them has more or less some problem on them, the police station would have sealed off Ping'an Community long ago.

"Sigh, when will this ever end?"

"Just wait. We people just take it one day at a time."

"......"

Such gloomy words came easily to his mouth, but no one took them to heart.

She had this premonition when she moved in, but she still clung to a stroke of luck, hoping she could live long.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen went out, hearing the conversation beside them, thinking that even the undead would be shortchanged by them, but the evil energy grew heavier and heavier, and the two of them were hard-pressed against four hands; Ping'an Community surely wouldn't have only one death, and it would probably break out directly at some critical node.

Before leaving, they had agreed on a meeting place with Yu Yan to exchange information; when Shen Yao and the other returned, they carried a black plastic bag in hand.

Inside were blank talisman papers, of better quality than those bought at the store before, belonging to the Investigation Bureau's special talisman paper, giving them full face for their cooperation, after all, some things couldn't be loudly proclaimed, only tacitly understood.

"The Investigation Bureau still needs a few days," they both tried their best to protect these tenants.

Shen Yao shook the black plastic bag in her hand, touched her chin, and fixed a sharp gaze on a middle-aged bald man.

This was a person on the red-list, said to have caused a fundraising bubble burst, spending the money cleanly, and the victims who sued him in court couldn't get their money back.

This person lived on the eighth floor, one above and one below the previous jumper who died; when the incident happened, he was among those emotionally unstable.

Turning to watch the other walk out of the community, Shen Yao withdrew her gaze, and with a calm expression, she and Xu Ningchen entered the stairwell one after the other.

On the surface, the stairwell was clean and tidy; actually, gray mist settled in every corner.

These evil energies seemed to have life; as long as someone passed by, they would silently attach themselves to people, absorbing their vital energy to grow and become evil entities.

The gray mist twisted into a long rope, slipping out from the corner and climbing onto Shen Yao's calf.

Pfft, an exorcism talisman fell and burned it; as the talisman paper burned out, gray smoke disappeared before their eyes.

The original gray mist vanished, but after the two left, it poked its head out again in the original place.

That evening, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen used more talisman papers than before to clear the evil energy of the entire building.

However, no matter how diligent they were, they couldn't guard the corridors all the time; before solving the source on the top floor, there would always be fish that slipped through the net.

"Ah!!!"

"Dead person! Dead person!"

"Another jumper!"

"......"

The middle-aged bald man seen yesterday became an immobile corpse this morning.

Bright red blood spread beneath the man, and the bloody smell rushing toward them made people nauseous.

Soon, police cars and ambulances came to take the person away, and the scene was sealed off.

After all, it was a death in Ping'an Community; everyone lucky enough to participate had all grown accustomed to it.

"Hey, dying is good, dying is clean; he isn't innocent at all."

"My relative spent money on him, back then......"

Shen Yao listened to a earful of grudges and gossip, and met Yu Yan coming in at the entrance of the Baoxian.

Yu Yan brought a piece of good news and a piece of bad news.

The good news was that Chengli Daoren's three disciples had all been contacted, and they all agreed to come handle the matter of Ping'an Community.

It was just that "they have matters delaying them, and the fastest they can arrive is three days later."

Yu Yan frowned, looking worriedly at the old building before her.

She knew that delaying one more day would mean someone would die an unnatural death.

And it wasn't fair to Shen Yao and the other either; the Investigation Bureau people couldn't help for now, and all the pressure fell on Shen Yao and the other living here.

"Three days"

Shen Yao pondered in her heart, indicating the timing was just right; seven days one cycle, even if they couldn't solve the trouble on the top floor, they could deal a heavy blow.

She also briefly chatted with Yu Yan about some plan arrangements, including the matter of drawing talismans afterward.

Shen Yao would set aside some time to teach the Investigation Bureau personnel; as for what level they could learn to, it depended entirely on their own comprehension.

Back then, the Old Taoist said their comprehension was insufficient; as for these instance NPCs like Yu Yan, as long as they could get started, relying on the huge population advantage, they would surely discover a few geniuses with extraordinary comprehension.

Talisman papers could deal with evil energy, and who knew, they might even rewrite the course of the entire instance world.

"Little Shen"

"Auntie Mei"

Shen Yao opened the door and saw Auntie Mei rubbing her palms with a smile on her face.

She hurriedly made space and invited her in; Xu Ningchen put the drawn talisman papers into his pocket and completed another round of transaction with Auntie Mei.

The previous talisman papers were really good, so Auntie Mei, being generous with money, bought another batch.

For this, after getting the two's consent, Auntie Mei also helped introduce new customers.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen thus lived a life of drawing talismans to make money during the day and cleaning up at night (?).

Fortunately, their bodies had been strengthened with added points; resting a few hours was enough to refresh their spirits, otherwise, with such effort of fighting by day and staying up by night, even the strongest body would wear down.

Ding ding dang dang

The phone sounded with the notification of money coming into the bank card; indeed, making money through metaphysics.

It was just a pity that they couldn't take this wealth with them when they left; they could only make the best use of everything and spend it as much as possible, rather than letting it automatically become waste paper after they left.

Gula gula

Shen Yao rubbed her crackling neck and arms, lifted her head from the tea table, gazed into the distance, and relieved the exhaustion from drawing talismans before.

A touch of gold was sprinkled across the horizon, and the dim light enveloped Ping'an Community.

Gray mist visible to the naked eye kept rising around Ping'an Community.

Unlike before, these evil energies didn't even pretend anymore; they were just blatantly exposed, as if showing off their might.

Shen Yao:......

Shen Yao watched with calm composure; it was not yet time for them to act.

Besides, the number of deaths in Ping'an Community had recently dropped noticeably; they were doing well enough.

Her phone rang right on cue; Shen Yao answered and found it was Yu Yan calling.

On the phone, Yu Yan emphasized that Chengli Daochang's three disciples had already arrived at the Investigation Bureau; early tomorrow morning, they would head straight for Ping'an Community to resolve this Ping'an Community issue at the fastest speed.

Shen Yao:...

Hanging up the phone, she told Xu Ningchen the Investigation Bureau's latest progress; Shen Yao shook her arm, not feeling that tomorrow's operation would go smoothly in every respect.

"Come to think of it, we've been in this instance for so long, yet we haven't run into any Infinite World taskers."

Could it be that when the last instance ended, only the two of them seamlessly connected?

"This instance is a General Difficulty Ghost Instance," Xu Ningchen explained, "Ghost Instances differ from Regular Instances; Ghost Instances of General Difficulty are all small-scale instances, many are even solo instances."

Unlike Regular Instances, where the Infinite World deploys many taskers, Ghost Instances rely entirely on quality to win, and also preserve taskers' lives as much as possible.

"Put that way, the Ghost Instance we're in is very likely a small-scale instance," only the two of them; although this avoided the trouble of taskers contending with each other to a certain extent, it also reduced information exchange channels; everything could only be relied on themselves.

"Hope it doesn't drag on too long," Shen Yao raised her hand and patted her belly, flat and smooth, yet she could sense a rhythm of life.

Truly miraculous!

No matter how many times she felt it, she would still be surprised; far more than the system's intelligence.

System:...

When night fell, Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen walked out the front door; like the previous few days, they calmly traversed the entire building's corridors.

Oh, not just the corridors, but also the cement stairs and the corners around the community.

Xie Chong Zhi Qi permeated everywhere; their clearing methods also advanced with the times.

High-quality Talisman Paper allowed the Exorcism Talisman and Zhen Chong Fu to unleash better effects, improving the two's clearing speed to a certain extent.

With the work at hand all finished, Shen Yao patted her hands and was about to go downstairs, only to hear an air-splitting sound by her ear, followed by a louder noise appearing downstairs.

Shen Yao's gaze turned cold and solemn; someone had jumped off the building!