Chapter 376

"Hey, hey—why is there no signal?"

The boss, who had his back to them while on the phone, suddenly felt the other end go silent and oddly said "hello" twice.

He put the phone in front of him to check, and not only was the call disconnected, but the signal was gone too.

"Such weak yin energy—I thought it was just a petty vengeful spirit, but it's actually quite interesting, Master," Ao Yulie said, turning his head.

"Damn, what a smell, so foul… why does it feel so cold?" the boss belatedly realized.

No one answered his question.

The boss turned around and instantly his face went pale with fright; he stumbled back several steps and slammed into the door opposite.

In the instant he turned his head, he seemed to see a flood of paper money gushing out from within the door.

Seeing money fly through the air is usually a good thing, but these bills weren't the ordinary cash people use daily—they were a heap of spirit money, still burning with faint blue-green ghost flames.

These spirit notes floated in midair, accompanied by large amounts of ash from their burning, swirling and drifting.

As the ash swirled, it faintly formed several faces that lunged toward the boss.

The boss didn't scream aloud; his mouth hung open, his voice trapped in his throat, unable to make a sound.

Fortunately, at the moment he hit the door and felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, the spirit money and ash-faced apparitions vanished simultaneously.

All he felt was a wave of cold air pouring out from the now-gaping door, along with a stench of rot.

The boss's wife and the security guard were also both pale with terror—one sat on the steps, the other leaned against the stair railing.

Their hearts felt hollow, desperate to find something to lean on right then and there, to fill the void and fear within.

"The yin energy inside is too heavy; the three benefactors would be better off waiting outside," Tang Luo said.

The three nodded repeatedly—no need for Tang Luo to say it; only someone addled in the head would go inside.

Having reached the turning platform of the downstairs staircase, they stood there; the boss glanced at his phone, saw the signal had returned, and began reporting the incident again.

Tang Luo and Ao Yulie entered the house; as for the Heavenly Hound, it had already split off to search for "prey."

Inside the house, the "temperature" was very low—not only that, but the air felt sticky and heavy, making even breathing difficult.

In the house's fairly spacious living room, an automatic mahjong table stood behind the sofa.

Four people sat upright around the table.

The mahjong tiles were neatly arranged before them, their hands resting on the table, still holding tiles, as if they had just drawn and were about to play.

But the tiles in their hands would never get a chance to be played.

The four people's faces were bluish-black, eyes tightly shut, lips purple, completely devoid of breath, frozen in their seated postures.

The cause of death was obvious at a glance.

Each of their chests had a hollow where the heart should be—gone without a trace—but neither their clothes, the chairs, nor anywhere else showed a single speck of blood.

Several of them still had their phones placed nearby.

Tang Luo walked over, pressed one, glanced at it—the battery was quite full, and all four phones were like that.

Beneath their feet lay considerable ash, the residue from burned paper money.

"Money can make ghosts push mills," Ao Yulie remarked.

Seeing this scene, he basically understood who had placed the call.

It wasn't anyone else—it was one of these four corpses; someone had burned spirit money for them, so they kept calling to order takeout.

But Ao Yulie didn't quite grasp the purpose of doing this.

Burning spirit money for the dead, making them call for takeout, even eat it.

Could it be some kind of performance art by ghosts?

"Any findings?" Tang Luo asked.

"Seems I can't find the source—why not bring the dog over to sniff?" Ao Yulie said.

"Good." Tang Luo nodded.

Neither of us is a famous detective; solving cases can only rely on the dog.

Before long, the Heavenly Hound appeared on the balcony, pushed the door open itself, walked in, circled the living room once, then jumped back out.

Tang Luo employed the Merit Jade Lotus to dispel the yin energy permeating the room.

The four cold, stiff corpses immediately collapsed, and the room's temperature rose somewhat.

Stepping out of the house, the boss's wife, the boss, and the security guard immediately came forward, carrying a hint of panic as they asked: "Master, what's the situation inside?"

"Four people are dead," Tang Luo said. "The calls you've received these past few days were made by the corpses; the money you got was spirit money—though at first, 'ghosts veiling the eyes' prevented you from noticing."

"……" The boss nearly threw his phone away.

He decided to buy a new phone that very night—could one that received "ghost calls" still be wanted?

"The humble monk has already dispelled the yin energy inside the house; the benefactors will not be affected, so please rest easy," Tang Luo said.

"Thank you, Master."

The three thanked him repeatedly; those two before them were certainly no jianghu swindlers.

The scene just now was vivid in their minds—these two stood as steady as Mount Tai, clearly not ordinary people.

"Then the humble monk will take his leave," Tang Luo said, preparing to depart.

"Master, why not leave a contact method?" the boss said.

"Fate will bring us together when it's time," Tang Luo, a truly enlightened high monk, said, then paused briefly, "But really, it's better not to meet again—for the benefactors' sake."

The three men's faces changed.

What did that mean?

After a moment's thought, they suddenly understood: this monk only appears when something happens; meeting again would mean another incident.

Just as they left the residential complex, Tang Luo and company heard alarm bells ringing from another entrance.

The Heavenly Hound trotted ahead with light steps, leading the way, while Tang Luo and the others followed behind.

……

Late at night.

On the balcony of a certain residence, Ao Yulie spoke: "Master, this is already the fourth one."

Xiaotian Dog walked and stopped along the way, leading Tang Luo and the others in their search.

After several hours, they still hadn't found the culprit, but they had found more "crime scenes."

The same strangeness: the method of death where the heart vanished, maintaining their posture from life, the burnt-to-ashes joss paper beneath their feet.

"Could someone be cultivating some demonic art, heretical art, or refining a magic treasure?" Tang Luo asked.

In the matter of miscellaneous cultivation studies, he had always been profoundly ignorant.

"Never heard of it." Ao Yulie shook his head; in truth, he was only a little better than Tang Luo — the two were evenly matched.

When it came down to it, the main reason was still that both of their starting points were a bit too high.

Tang Luo was the imperially appointed scripture-fetcher, and Ao Yulie was the Third Prince of the West Sea; basically neither would ever come into contact with those sinister and bizarre techniques or divine abilities.

Even if they did, it was only when confronting or battling enemies — they just had to strike to kill.

Why would they bother to understand the characteristics and flaws of the enemy's techniques?

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles" is true, but it's not as if knowing yourself and your enemy is the only way to achieve victory.

"Let's go, we'll find it." Tang Luo said; the places they passed through had yin qi each denser than the last.

Proving that the prime culprit behind all this was already not far away.

Xiaotian Dog also indicated that compared to the scent faded to the extreme at the very beginning, the current scent was already much easier to track.

……

The door was opened without a sound, and a stream of yin qi far denser than the first time — enough to numb a person, to stiffen them until they could not move — emanated from within.

Fortunately, it was now the early hours of the morning.

The entire residential complex was extremely quiet, and the corridor was even more devoid of people.

No impact was caused.

The inside of the house was not pitch dark; blue-green flames leaped, and beside the flames stood a person with their back to the doorway, tossing spirit money into the fire.

"Burn joss paper, burn joss paper, burn the joss paper and eat a full meal."

The person did not notice Tang Luo and the others' arrival, muttering in a low voice.

The voice could not be distinguished as male or female, carrying some strange rhythm and cadence that made one's hair stand on end.

Tang Luo walked over and also squatted down, casually picking up the joss paper beside him and tossing it into the flames.

The leaping flames instantly surged upward, the blaze swelled, then fell back down again.

This action drew the attention of the paper-burner; he turned his head, a pair of hollow eyes looking at Tang Luo: "You've come to burn joss paper too?"

"No, I intend to burn you." Tang Luo said, grabbing his head and pressing it down.

Directly pressing his face onto the flames.

There was no scream of agony; the man's head instantly caught fire and began to burn.

But this did not affect his movements; the man's right hand flicked out strangely, and in the dim, wavering firelight, he pressed it against Tang Luo's chest.

Right at the position of the heart.

"Seizing the heart in this manner?" Tang Luo uttered a sentence.

A bizarre suction force transmitted from the man's hand; if it were an ordinary person, in an instant the flesh and blood here including the heart inside, even the whole body's blood, would be sucked dry.

For Tang Luo, it couldn't even break the most basic defense of the Glazed Pure Garment.

Seemingly realizing this suction force was useless against Tang Luo, the man — his head still burning, emitting "crackling" sounds — suddenly emitted red light from his body.

From inside out, his whole body became transparent.

"What the hell is this..." Ao Yulie couldn't help but say; he, the dignified Eight-Part Heavenly Dragon Horse, the sole designated mount for the Journey to the West, following Master and Senior Brother, what scene hadn't he seen?

But this scene, he truly had never seen before.

Through the man's now-transparent body, one could see inside him a full thirty-plus hearts.

Beating frantically, simply like a car engine running at its limit.

The bizarre red light was emerging from these hearts.

Those vanished hearts were all inside the man's body.

"Sizzle—"

On the man's back, two full rows split open, twelve small holes, blood-red "yin qi" spraying out from within.

Full throttle!

"Not human, not ghost, not demon."

Tang Luo's hair and clothes stirred; the palm pressing the man's head clenched, and that burning head instantly burst apart.

Strange to say, after losing his head, the man's body stiffened and directly collapsed.

One could see the beating hearts rapidly cease, the red light dim, and he died on the spot.

During the mission, the original 1 turned into 2.

Proving this series of events was the work of this man.

Tang Luo's brows remained slightly furrowed; although he had resolved this incident and gained some merit power, he always felt that behind the matter there still lurked a heavy shadow.

If one were to be stricter, this man couldn't even be considered the source of this bizarre incident.

The reason for not questioning this man was simple.

In the brief contact just now, Tang Luo had already determined this one was not an object with whom one could communicate.

This person could only count as a "beast" acting on some instinct or some command.

"Another one!"

When the mission information changed, Wen Hanfei and the others almost jumped up.

Nima, this mission completion efficiency is too high!