Chapter 368: The Opportunity to Leave the Fudi

"Regarding the 'Nieren' (Sin-People), here are a few case files for your reference."

Han Xiaoying handed Wu Xian several documents. Wu Xian took them and looked through them one by one; the records of strange cases in the real world were far more interesting than supernatural novels.

Among all the cases, what caught Wu Xian's eye most were the bounties on the Nieren.

Every Nieren had a base bounty of 500,000. Any Awakened who participated in the process of exterminating a Nieren could receive a share based on their contribution.

Although the reward was split among everyone, it was still far more lucrative than the ordinary extermination missions for common Awakened.

Among these cases,

there were two that Wu Xian paid special attention to.

The first one, with a bounty of 500,000, had already been resolved.

This Nieren had disguised himself as the owner of a small auto repair shop.

By day, the shop repaired cars normally, but its true business was receiving and selling stolen goods, specializing in modifying stolen vehicles for car thieves.

During the operation of the shop, the Nieren used some dark art to collect the evil thoughts of car thieves in Fuyuan City, creating a bizarre flesh-and-blood engine, which he gifted to a car thief.

Once the thief received the engine, his personality changed drastically. To provide a shell for the engine, he stole a high-end motorcycle, and even he himself began to undergo 'Sui' (malevolent entity) transformation, becoming a human-motorcycle hybrid, with his family tied to the bike waiting for death.

It wasn't until the victim of the stolen motorcycle tracked them down that the incident was exposed, preventing a greater tragedy.

Afterward, the car thief was killed by Awakened.

The flesh-and-blood engine was also sealed.

For ordinary Awakened, the matter ended there.

But for the Chenghuang Office, there was a follow-up.

The Chenghuang Office and the Creed Organization continued to investigate along the clues, eventually tracking down the Nieren disguised as the repair shop owner.

Surrounded by local Lotus-rank Awakened, the Nieren was hacked to pieces and ground into dust.

The reason Wu Xian paid attention to this case

was because... he was that unlucky victim whose motorcycle had been stolen! If he had been a Lotus-rank Awakened back then, not only would the loss of his motorcycle have been reimbursed, but he would have also received a handsome bonus! The Nieren in the second case was codenamed "The Gardener."

The reason Wu Xian paid attention to this case was that the bounty for The Gardener was too high—a staggering 50 million reward that made Wu Xian's eyes water with greed.

The Gardener was different from other Nieren.

He wasn't keen on cultivating or manufacturing malevolent entities.

He preferred using various means to cultivate humans with broken personalities.

Some became addicted to gambling, some were consumed by greed, and others were paranoid or homicidal maniacs!

Once these people entered the Fudi and became Awakened, they would easily lose control upon returning to reality, becoming ticking time bombs that dealt heavy blows to the Chenghuang Office.

Compared to confronting Awakened, The Gardener preferred corrupting them.

But the high bounty also meant high danger; the Chenghuang Office did not allow Awakened below the Three-Lotus rank to participate in the investigation of The Gardener, so Wu Xian just looked at it.

After finishing the cases,

Han Xiaoying said solemnly to Wu Xian:

"There is one more thing that is very important to you."

"Once you become a Three-Lotus Awakened, if you wish to escape the Fudi, you can come to the Chenghuang Office to have your 'Three Flowers' shaved off, erase your memories, and return to being an ordinary person."

Wu Xian was stunned upon hearing this.

He hadn't expected that there would be an opportunity to leave the Fudi after entering.

However, Wu Xian's adventures in the Fudi were somewhat proactive, so this opportunity wasn't very important to him.

But for most Awakened, having such an opportunity might be what allowed them to persist through their despair.

The meeting drew to a close. Wu Xian took the bank card and thanked Han Xiaoying, preparing to leave the Chenghuang Office and head home. But just as he reached the door, Han Xiaoying called out to him. Wu Xian turned back.

He saw Han Xiaoying ask hesitantly: "Um... during our conversation, the way you looked at me was always very strange. May I ask why?"

Wu Xian was silent for a moment: "Do you really want me to say it?"

Han Xiaoying nodded.

Wu Xian pointed to her head: "I wanted to ask where you bought that eye mask. It looks like it might be helpful for insomnia."

Indeed.

On Han Xiaoying's head, she was wearing a large, green, frog-eyed mask.

The more serious she looked while chatting with Wu Xian, the more comical the mask appeared, which was why Wu Xian's gaze kept drifting.

The female assistant's face turned as red as a boiled shrimp.

"Hello, is this the order for the one ending in 8848?"

Wu Xian had just arrived home.

He saw a delivery rider in red standing at the door, placing a bag of vegetables and meat on the ground. After the doorbell rang, Hei Gu ran out wagging its tail, happily carrying the bag of groceries into the house.

When Wu Xian didn't buy groceries, this was how they got their food.

The rider smiled when he saw Wu Xian: "Your dog is really smart, being able to help you bring groceries home. Unlike my dog, which only poops and tears the house apart every day."

"That's nothing, my dog even knows how to flush the toilet after using it!"

Wu Xian boasted about his dog quite naturally. The rider didn't know that even the order he was delivering had been placed by Wu Xian's dog.

Since there were no orders for the moment, the rider wasn't in a hurry, and the two chatted at the door about their experiences in raising dogs.

As they chatted,

a small truck drove out from nearby, loaded with various furniture and miscellaneous items.

"What a coincidence, someone else is moving."

Wu Xian smiled.

When he went out in the morning, the shop next door was moving out, and Wu Xian had complained about the poor economy. Now, in the afternoon, he ran into another household moving.

"Yeah," the rider agreed, "A lot of people are moving out of this area lately. In just the last little while, I've seen over a dozen households leave."

"Often?"

Wu Xian sensed something was wrong.

If it was happening often, then it had nothing to do with coincidences or the poor economy.

He bid farewell to the rider and walked into the residential complex.

Wu Xian's two-story house was a small storefront independent of the complex, but it was still part of the street-side neighborhood.

As soon as he entered the complex, Wu Xian noticed that the atmosphere wasn't as lively as before.

And besides the truck that had just left, another household was in the middle of moving. Wu Xian ran over to ask for the reason.

Wu Xian had no intention of moving.

But with so many households moving, something must have happened. If it affected property values, wouldn't his assets shrink? "Uncle, you've been living here so well, why do you want to leave?"

This was a man in his sixties who often played chess with other old men in the complex, so Wu Xian recognized him.

The old man's hair was messy, his dark circles were heavier than Wu Xian's, and he looked furious, scratching his arms incessantly: "What else can I do? It's just uncomfortable living here. If I keep living here, I'm afraid I'll be angered to death!"

(End of Chapter)