Chapter 474: Masked Beast

Not long after the tough girl named Han Duo left, Pangzi burst out laughing and walked over to me.

"Go to hell, you heartless bastard! Just now you watched me get beaten and didn't even help!" I shoved away the hand that was helping me up and cursed.

Pangzi spread his hands, shrugged, and replied in five words: "I don't hit women!"

I looked down on Pangzi's chauvinistic display with contempt. It's a bad habit… but I don't need to change it.

"By the way, what's that girl's background? I feel afraid of her for some reason, and I don't know what kind of thing that long whip of hers is—just looking at it makes my heart race."

Although we had only been sparring with martial force earlier, without using any magic, for some reason Han Duo gives me a feeling of fear, as if her body possesses an innate suppression of my aura. Even if I were to use my magic, I might not gain an advantage over her.

Pangzi pondered for a moment, then said: "Her body carries the aura of witchcraft! And it's very pure witchcraft!"

Daoist Sect members are never strangers to the term "witchcraft"; any Daoist teaching is inseparable from it. Yet Pangzi says the witchcraft aura on Han Duo's body is very pure—could she be from the Plowshare Witch Sect?

Pangzi laughed: "Never mind which sect she's from—bottom line, this girl is no ordinary character, and she's got a pretty lovable personality!"

"Holy shit, you can actually say something so against conscience! I think you're trying to say this girl is as money‑crazy as you are." I gave him a sideways glance.

Unlike Pangzi's view, I can't help but wonder what's really going on in Han Duo's mind. She's clearly strong in both martial arts and mountain arts, matching us in skill, so why does she love money so much? It's as if she'd never seen money in a past life, and in this life she can't take her eyes off it.

"Sigh, I think you shouldn't get hung up on Han Duo's identity and personality; let's just figure out what to do about this matter!" Pangzi tilted his head back, gazed at the empty, ruined temple, and sighed: "Do you think we should still investigate?"

"No point investigating—we can't find anything now, let's head back." In this empty ruined temple there's nothing obvious except a broken Buddha statue; there's no sign of any monster, not even a snake, insect, rat, or ant.

"Well, that's all we can do," Pangzi said as he led the way out of the ruined temple.

……………………

On the way back, both Pangzi and I felt somewhat heavy‑hearted. The heaviness wasn't because the monster was strange, but because we didn't know how to face Old Lady Huang—how could an elderly person bear the cruel reality of a white‑haired person sending a black‑haired one to their death?

"You two little masters, are you back? Did you find my son Chen Biao?" As soon as we stepped inside, Old Lady Huang leaned on her cane and hurried over to us anxiously.

"Uh… we didn't find him; Chen Biao must have wandered off!" After stammering out that excuse, Pangzi and I rushed into the room to find a pretext.

But secrets can't stay hidden forever. Even if we didn't say anything, someone would still tell Old Lady Huang. Chen Biao's corpse lay beneath the big banyan tree at the village entrance—how could the villagers possibly not know about such a serious crime?

The next morning, villagers going to market discovered Chen Biao's body and recognized him. Early that day, the bustling villagers knocked on the door of Old Lady Huang's house.

Finally, the elderly woman could not bear the grief of losing her son, she fainted from tears, and the villagers eventually sent her to the town hospital.

Watching this scene made Pangzi and I feel even worse! If everything is predestined, then aren't we the source of this disaster? If Pangzi hadn't placed the watch‑grass on the windowsill, and if Chen Biao hadn't been called back last night, would none of this have happened?

"If you know everything is fated, why beat yourself up? Even if I hadn't called Chen Biao back last night, he would have died just the same. He's accumulated too much wickedness and made too many mistakes; even on his deathbed he shows no remorse—death for him is merely inevitable. The outcome was already decided." Although Pangzi was the initiator of the whole affair, he is clearly more able to let it go than I am.

"I suspect the monster is hidden in the gold and silver Chen Biao brought back!" Before I could even process that, Pangzi threw another bombshell at me.

"What are you saying? The monster is hidden in the gold and silver? How come we didn't notice it last night?"

Pangzi didn't answer me; instead, he sat in his chair with his head lowered, deep in thought.

"Actually, when I did divination yesterday, I discovered that the Gate of Death had entered the palace, indicating Chen Biao's days were numbered. But matters of life and death are heavenly secrets, and I also didn't want Old Lady Huang to be so heartbroken. That's why I kept it to myself."

"You called Chen Biao back last night to see if there was a chance to spare him from calamity?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes," Pangzi said, nodding heavily, then slowly shaking his head. The meaning was ambiguous.

"If that's the case, why didn't you drag him back? Instead you helped me beat him and just watched him run away?" I asked, even more puzzled.

"Sigh..." Pangzi rubbed his temples, weary: "It turns out I did have that idea, but as soon as I saw Chen Biao, I began to hesitate..."

"Why hesitate?"

"Because Chen Biao isn't a good person. His hands are stained with the lives of many innocent girls; I see resentful spirits lingering around him and hear voices full of hatred swirling nearby." Pangzi loudly interrupted me, then slowly rose, walked over to me, and patted my shoulder.

"Actually, I wasn't deliberately keeping it from you. This kind of divine ability is something I only came to understand later—my father never even told me about it." Pangzi patted my shoulder with an apologetic smile.

"No need to say more, I understand." I replied with a smile.

The divine ability Pangzi spoke of is likely related to Huaguang Ancestral Master's Third Dharma Eye. Perhaps the reason he stood by and watched was because he saw something in Chen Biao.

Perhaps all of this can only be explained by the saying that everything is predestined in the dark.

"Let's get back to the matter at hand." I lit a cigarette, scratched my forehead, and said: "You say the monster is hidden in Chen Biao's gold, silver, and jewelry? How did you come up with that idea?"

I looked at Pangzi doubtfully.

Pangzi said: "Actually, the reason I can be so certain is that after I returned, I thought carefully about the words of that red‑clad beauty… namely, Han Duo."

"What did she say?" I scratched my head, utterly confused. My impression of Han Duo is just three words—tomboy. To put it more deeply, it's seven words—tomboy who steals my money. Thinking of her makes my heart feel like it's being cut by a knife.

"Still feeling sorry for your money? Give it a rest!" Pangzi looked at me, who was agonizing over my loss, and rolled his eyes.

He took a cigarette from my pack, lit it, took two puffs, then asked me: "Do you still remember what Han Duo said the moment she walked in?"

"I remember, I'll never forget." I recalled in a deep tone: "She said, 'Auntie, I'm your mother,' then kicked me in the stomach with her boot."

Thinking of her, besides my heart feeling like it's being cut by a knife, my stomach hurts too!

"Damn, can you be serious?" Pangzi smacked my head and said sternly: "I'm asking, do you still remember what Han Duo said she had been chasing for several days after she came in?"

"What thing? The Masked Beast, of course!" I blurted out without thinking.

At that moment, the atmosphere in the room suddenly turned eerily silent. After a stretch of quiet, Pangzi finally replied slowly: "Perhaps the mastermind behind all this is the Masked Beast."

"What exactly is this Masked Beast? Is it related to Thailand's masked Buddha amulets?" I probed my curiosity, staring intently at Pangzi.

"No," Pangzi shook his head: "The masked Buddha is the masked Buddha; the Masked Beast is the Masked Beast."

"What exactly is it, then?" Seeing Pangzi's expression, I felt the origin of the Masked Beast was anything but simple.

"Ahem," Pangzi straightened his posture and said: "First, you can understand the relationship of the three words 'Masked Beast' literally. The premise of a Masked Beast is that there must be a beast. Yet the act of masking the face is something only a person can do. From this you can infer that the origins of the Masked Beast must be something that shuns the light. You can also imagine why a Masked Beast would have to wear a mask from birth." Pangzi leaned toward me, his eyebrows lifting on both sides, revealing a meaningful smile.

I hardly had to think before four large red characters appeared in my mind.

"Human‑beast xx"

By the time I reacted, all I saw was Pangzi's lecherous grin—damn, I felt like beating him to death.

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