Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 163: His Invitation

Looking at the “Fang Xiu” lying silently in the hospital bed, A’Shou suddenly realized she had completely misjudged the situation.

Fang Xiu was an E.

To be precise, Fang Xiu’s body was an E.

No wonder his knocking had no trace of magic yet could suppress other E’s. That was simply his own taboo.

A’Shou bit her thumbnail.

It all made sense now.

Fang Xiu wasn’t dead. Even if his living soul couldn’t return to his body, it was still karmically connected to it. Every time he killed a criminal in the Underworld or destroyed an E, the karma generated fed back into his flesh.

Using a damaged human body to form an E… since the founding of the Underworld, this was utterly unprecedented.

A’Shou had long known that the human world had cases of “deep comas” or “vegetative states”.

In her time, such people wouldn’t have lived a day. Even now, they could only survive with life support machines and meticulous care, costing enormous sums.

Theoretically, these soulless bodies could indeed be considered “objects”.

But no sane person would connect them with “E’s”. Typically, the deeply resentful dead became vengeful ghosts, and at most their corpses were used as materials in dark rituals.

And so, Fang Xiu’s soul was summoned to the Underworld, and no one noticed anything was wrong.

A’Shou had carefully reviewed the ghost envoy’s report afterward. It simply stated Fang Xiu was in a coma in a hospital and required no escort from the Underworld. That alone showed that although his soul had left, he still maintained some control over his body. He had hidden his condition extraordinarily well.

In the end, that kid had precisely exploited a loophole in the Heavenly Law, creating an E that had self-awareness and could consciously grow stronger.

No matter how she looked at it, the words “meticulously premeditated” were written all over this.

If anyone told her that Fang Xiu entering the Disaster Relief Tower was a coincidence, she wouldn’t believe it for a second.

But how had Fang Xiu known he would be chosen by the Tower?

“You understand why my karmic chains were breaking.” Bai Shuangying’s sudden statement shook A’Shou from her thoughts.

He poked the lifeless Fang Xiu in the bed again. “Humans become immortals through merit. Ghosts become immortals by cultivating an E. I am half-divine, half-demonic, so I guess I walk the ghost-immortal path.”

“The chains broke simply because I was unconsciously refining an E, growing stronger.”

Like a beast once restrained by chains. The immortals had struggled to seal him, the karmic chains barely held. But his power had shifted—even a slight increase was enough to loosen the seal.

Bai Shuangying was amazed to find the world far more interesting than he’d imagined. Even he didn’t know what would happen if he refined Fang Xiu into a full-fledged Immortal E.

Fang Xiu scratched his head awkwardly, glancing around as if searching for the hidden A’Shou.

“Honestly, my original goal was to become the most powerful seal in the Disaster Relief Tower,” he said, surprisingly frank.

“If I succeeded, I could have… Never mind, talking about it is meaningless now. I’ll never seal you.”

As expected of his human. Bai Shuangying nodded in approval.

…Was this really a casual conversation topic?!

In the shadows, A’Shou almost spat blood.

It was already nearly impossible to restrain a Corner of Heaven’s Will. The only reason they hadn’t turned the world upside down was because they were usually simple-minded and distant from humanity. But now, the Guishan Sect had forced out a Bai Shuangying who could think.

Not only had he returned at full strength, but he was now refining an E into immortality.

And the E he was refining was full of wild ideas.

A’Shou swallowed two more heart-calming pills and reached out to contact Dian’er. However, as her hand extended halfway, it stopped.

…No. Stay calm. The situation was abnormal, but not urgent.

Fang Xiu had only completed about one full ritual cycle.

True, he had killed a fair number of heinous criminals, collecting eight trigrams. A’Shou could roughly estimate how much karma he’d built.

The “Fang Xiu E” was powerful, but not enough to threaten the Underworld.

Bai Shuangying hadn’t fully broken his seal. Even if he was refining this kind of E, his power hadn’t grown explosively. And they were still within a screened realm. No innocent mortals could be harmed.

After wrestling with herself, A’Shou’s instincts as a battlefield veteran won out. She lowered her hand and kept watching.

……

Inside the ward, Cheng Songyun and Guan He were speechless.

Real? Tragic? Bizarre? They didn’t know how to describe what lay before them.

Fang Xiu’s condition was far worse than they had imagined, by countless degrees. Anyone looking at the hospital bed could see there was no hope of recovery.

“The E for this ritual is here. You can treat this room as your base,” Fang Xiu said brightly, as if the person in the bed were a stranger.

“You don’t have to worry about taboo restrictions. Do as you like. I only have one request—”

“You two, survive.” He waved his hand, summoning the little black dog.

The dog sniffed the unfamiliar world in shock, sending the surrounding vengeful spirits scuttling to the ceiling in a panic.

Thankfully, the dog had no interest in them. It settled by the bedside, black-bean eyes shifting between Fang Xiu and the body on the bed.

“Go follow Cheng Jie and Xiao Guan. Don’t mind me,” Fang Xiu said softly.

“Woof!” The black dog wagged its tail vigorously, nudging the body in the bed with its nose.

Guan He pressed his lips together, a realization slowly forming. “Fang Ge, you said there’s no need to worry about taboos… Does that mean…”

“Yeah, I’m the E here,” Fang Xiu replied conversationally, like he was just talking about a part-time job.

“My case is a little unusual. You can just think of it as me as if I’m a spirit.”

Cheng Songyun and Guan He: “…”

Guan He slowly closed his mouth and swallowed the ten thousand questions in his throat.

It all sounded insane, but since it came from Fang Xiu, maybe believing it was fine.

Still, if Fang Xiu was the E, didn’t that make this area completely safe for them? …Then why did he insist they survive?

As Guan He looked at him in confusion, Fang Xiu’s smile slowly faded. He raised his right hand.

He knocked three times into the air, gently.

A short while earlier, in the hospital lobby.

“Eh? A hospital? Such a classic setting?”

One of the mushroom trio, Xiao Tian, was amazed. “We’ve never had a hospital before, have we? Wow, this place looks so modern. Is there really an E here?”

She looked much better than before. Her hair was pinned up with an eye-catching coral hairpin.

Xiao Li muttered, “It’s definitely creepy. There’s not a soul in sight.”

“Alright, enough chatter. This one won’t be easy,” Song Zheng warned his two young teammates.

He cautiously activated his “Murder-Intent Seismoscope”. After several checks, he still couldn’t detect any murderous intent nearby—the place was too clean, which made it all the more eerie.

“There’s a familiar smell…”

Elsewhere, Yan Yan shuffled carefully along the floor like it was scalding hot. “So strange. I know I’ve smelled this before… But where?”

He sniffed again, but the disinfectant smell was too overpowering. Reluctant to take beast form, he gave up.

Beside him, Jiao Jiao was quietly observing their surroundings.

This ritual was unusual. The paper figure hadn’t given them any background, but just a dry list of participants.

Song Zheng, Xiao Tian, Xiao Li. A trio she didn’t know well, likely newly promoted Disaster Resolvers. They seemed decent, not like members of some cult.

In a corner crouched a college student, cloaked in a filthy dark robe, faintly reeking of corpses. Unfortunately, that sinister attire couldn’t hide his youthful face.

A young loner, Lu Yang.

Jiao Jiao had never heard of him among the Disaster Resolvers.

Near Lu Yang stood a thin, scholarly man in a suit.

He looked older than the others, with a natural smile and a glass prosthetic eye. His large earlobes were hard to miss.

This one Jiao Jiao recognized: “Uncle Hou”, a survivor of the Huanxi E ritual. He was famous for having tons of gear and doing business with many.

Currently, Uncle Hou was eyeing the student with keen interest, clearly sizing up a new customer.

And the final participant…

Cen Ling entered the hospital with a smile, also alone. Xiao Tian turned hopefully toward the new arrival, only to see a stranger’s face.

“I thought Fang Xiu was in this one?” she frowned.

Xiao Li: “That guy’s pretty handsome though.”

Xiao Tian rolled her eyes. “So what? I don’t just go by looks. That guy…”

Her brow twitched. She lowered her voice. “That guy gives me a really bad feeling. Stay away from him later.”

Hearing this from their luck-boosted teammate, Xiao Li instantly sobered up and nodded seriously.

An awkward silence fell over the lobby. Everyone glanced around, searching for a red figure, but after several minutes, no one else arrived.

“Looks like the ritual already started,” Uncle Hou said, lighting a cigarette and blowing a smoke ring. “Brother Fang Xiu jumped the gun.”

As soon as he said that, Lu Yang deflated like a balloon. He tugged his hood down lower and sighed quietly.

Yan Yan: “You’re all looking for him too? Ow, Jiao Jiao, why’d you step on me?”

Song Zheng said nothing. He stepped forward slightly, shielding Xiao Tian and Xiao Li behind him.

“How convenient. Seems everyone knows ‘Fang Xiu’.”

Cen Ling gave his signature bright smile. “Must be karma at work.”

He walked past the mushroom trio and the Jiao-Yan duo, heading straight for Lu Yang.

“Want to go find Fang Xiu together? He helped me out too.”

Lu Yang’s eyes lit up. “You said too? You know me?”

“Yeah, I heard you’re good at controlling corpses.”

Cen Ling patted him on the shoulder, acting just like another college student. “Neither of us has a team, and we’re the same age. Want to team up?”

“We could…”

Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.

A knocking sound drowned out Cen Ling’s words. Everyone turned their heads, trying to locate the source.

Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.

They realized that every door in the hospital—grand double doors, isolated metal doors, even small supply closets—was knocking in perfect unison, as if countless invisible hands were rapping from within.

Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.

Creak.

Every door within sight… opened.

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