Chapter 8: So What’s the Fierce Ghost’s Name?

The wind was very, very gentle. Li Yao sat quietly on a bench in the street-side green space.

She didn’t want to go back to that place. The place where everyone was so kind, yet the atmosphere had grown heavy simply because of her presence.

She stared at the lawn nearby, watching the grass get pressed down by the wind again and again, then push itself back up.

For some inexplicable reason, she remembered what that Fierce Ghost had said to her.

That Fierce Ghost said she should vent; she should pour out all her negative emotions.

“I’ve vented before, you know,” Li Yao murmured quietly.

She had vented hysterically. She had also pushed everyone away like a madwoman.

Last year, her grandmother’s health was failing. Grandmother wanted her mother to take her away, and then Grandmother would go to a nursing home.

That day, Li Yao cursed everyone out like she was possessed. She ran out of the house, went to her father’s grave and stayed until midnight, and was finally found by her tear-streaked mother.

She had said horrible things to her mother that day too.

She almost wanted to tear everything around her to shreds.

But it was useless.

The person who was meant to leave still left.

Li Yao closed her eyes. The temperature right now was truly comfortable—neither cold nor hot, with wind and the scent of fresh grass.

Was the weather back in her hometown just as nice?

Occasionally, she would imagine it. Imagine herself also lying in a coffin, squeezed in next to her grandmother or her father.

The fishy-sweet smell of rot, the suffocating safety of no oxygen. Just dying like that, rotting into the earth.

Hiding underground through the winter, and then one spring, the plants nourished by her corpse would crawl out of the soil and feel the wind’s touch.

She didn’t envy anyone. She was just thinking: if she could never walk out of this, could she just stop on that day forever?

She could stop right there in her tracks, send her blessings to those who continue forward, and then raise her head to look at the sky that seemed like it would never change, until time stopped flowing.

At that moment, she would surely be able to love everyone in the world, because she would no longer need to struggle forward.

Li Yao tapped the ground lightly with her heel and toe, the click-clack sound like some kind of cheerful melody.

【Death is very quiet.】 A distorted voice rang out in Li Yao’s mind.

Li Yao, who should have been on alert, had fallen into a chaotic state. She just vaguely felt that this male voice was unfamiliar.

Her instincts told her this was dangerous, but under the influence of the ghostly aura, her condition was poor. The words “danger” and “death” held an incomparable allure for her at this moment.

Just like a weary person finding a pillow, she awaited death’s arrival almost without resistance.

She felt herself lying in a patch of warm light, wrapped in radiance, as something was peeled away inch by inch, and her body began to grow cold, inch by inch.

Just as Li Yao was about to close her eyes, a bell sound suddenly rang beside her ear.

Her three Hun souls and seven Po spirits were all jolted awake, and her eardrums throbbed with pain.

Li Yao opened her eyes wide. Now she finally realized something was wrong with her situation. She looked at Tao Fangyi beside her, holding a gong in one hand and a mallet in the other.

Oh, something really was being banged right next to her ear.

“Awake?” Tao Fangyi asked urgently. Seeing no response from Li Yao, he started banging the gong again: Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Ah!! I’m awake! I’m awake!!!” Li Yao felt like her ears were about to go deaf.

“Why did you come over here? Aren’t you afraid of being seen…” Li Yao looked up and realized the surroundings had all turned black and white, and the strolling pedestrians had vanished.

“It’s a barrier,” Wang, sitting on her other side, explained.

Li Yao didn’t even glance back at Wang; she didn’t seem to have registered that Wang was beside her.

Wang clicked his tongue. He suddenly reached out and grabbed Li Yao’s shoulder, making her jump in fright.

Wang twisted her around and roared, “IT’S A BARRIER!!!”

Finally hearing him, Li Yao nodded and let out an “Oh.” “Is it the Yin Realm? Can I see my family here?”

“Are you sure you didn’t break her eardrums?” Wang shoved Li Yao aside and stared murderously at Tao Fangyi, the gong-holder.

Tao Fangyi blinked. He raised the gong and mallet: “This is a Magical Artifact; it doesn’t hurt people.”

“I’m reserving judgment on that,” Wang said, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Low roars came from all directions. Wang pressed against his own ear: “When did he start roaring?” Now he suspected his own eardrums might be damaged too.

Tao Fangyi shook his head—he didn’t know.

Tao Fangyi hid the gong and mallet behind his back.

“TAO!! FANG!! YI!!!” the Fierce Ghost roared.

Tao Fangyi froze for a moment. He looked at Wang.

He was far too familiar with that hoarse Fierce Ghost tone. Tao Fangyi thought Wang had gotten inexplicably angry again.

“It’s not me!” Wang gnashed his teeth.

Tao Fangyi then looked toward the mass of black mist gathering in the distance.

He lowered his voice and asked Wang, “Is he calling for me?”

Li Yao, sitting between them, strained to listen for a while, then relayed, “He’s the Cult Leader?”

“Well, what else? Is there a second person named Tao Fangyi here?” Wang felt something was off.

Tao Fangyi had betrayed this Fierce Ghost; shouldn’t he have a deep impression of him?

Li Yao was about to relay more, but Wang made a shushing gesture at her.

Li Yao silently shut her mouth.

What a pain in the neck. One was spacey, the other scatterbrained. Wang had never felt so stifled.

Tao Fangyi looked left, then right. He then cleared his throat: “Hello?”

Wang felt the gathering mass of black mist pause.

Tao Fangyi was rather polite: “May I ask who you are?”

“Tao Fangyi!!” That voice flared with rage again. The black mist churned and finally condensed into a human face.

A hooked nose, high brow bones, long and slanted upward-slanting eyes, and a scar slashing diagonally across the entire face. It was a very distinctive face.

“Oh!!!” A sudden realization dawned on Tao Fangyi. “It’s you!”

He recognized him? Wang crossed his arms over his chest, quietly waiting for their argument to expose their past experiences. Best-case scenario, they’d get into a fight, and he could figure out what the deal with this weird doll really was.

Li Yao felt her tinnitus gradually fading. She shrank back, nervously observing the confrontation before her.

“How have you been lately?” Tao Fangyi asked him.

“What do you think? Looking at me like this, do you think I’ve been well?” The man’s back was hunched. The majority of his body was shrouded in black mist, like he wore a long cloak. As he moved, his arms were occasionally revealed, his wrists as thin as dead branches.

Tao Fangyi fell silent.

“You, on the other hand, seem to be doing quite well. Living in such a ridiculous state.” The man laughed a few times. “Sucking up to little kids, earning yourself a few bites to eat.”

“Heh heh.” Tao Fangyi scratched his head.

Wang turned his head degree by degree to look at Tao Fangyi.

What the hell are you “heh heh”-ing for?

“Indeed, not doing too well, heh heh.” Tao Fangyi’s laugh was still surprisingly hearty.

Wang: ?

Wang suddenly realized something was very wrong. Why did Tao Fangyi’s responses feel so formulaic? It didn’t sound like there was any emotional entanglement between them: “Do you actually know that Fierce Ghost across from you?”

The Fierce Ghost erupted in a burst of sharp, mocking laughter: “HAHAHAHA! I am his nightmare! How could he possibly forget me?!”

Tao Fangyi’s speech sped up too: “Right, right! Completely unforgettable!”

Fierce Ghost: “All these years, his biggest fear has been me finding him!”

Tao Fangyi: “Heave-ho, and here you are, having found me after all!”

Fierce Ghost: “I am the deepest fear in his heart!”

Tao Fangyi: “Correct! I chant your name every day. Those characters are practically branded onto my soul. Your name is—” He drew out a long syllable.

Fierce Ghost: “Zhang…”

Tao Fangyi: “Zhang!”

The Fierce Ghost suddenly stopped.

Tao Fangyi’s round little hand gently circled in front of his chest, encouraging the Fierce Ghost to push the words stuck in his throat out through his mouth.

The Fierce Ghost narrowed his eyes: “My name is Zhang what?”

Tao Fangyi: “Hello, Mr. Zhang. Long time no see.”

The Fierce Ghost’s face went cold, his fanaticism gone: “My surname is Zhang. What is my given name?”

Tao Fangyi glanced at Wang.

Wang leaned back.

How the hell was he supposed to know the guy’s name?

Tao Fangyi squeezed out the given name most commonly paired with the surname Zhang in a whisper: “Wei?”

Both Wang and Li Yao simultaneously inhaled a sharp breath.

Li Yao muttered quietly, “He really doesn’t know him.”

Wang also muttered, “My point exactly. Doesn’t even know his name.”

The ghostly aura around the Zhang Fierce Ghost surged violently. He was clearly furious: “You forgot me?! Your memories were tampered with by the Special Administration?! What did they do to you?!”

Wang continued to mutter quietly, “The Special Administration doesn’t do that kind of immoral stuff.”

Li Yao nodded in agreement: “Uncle Tao told me all about his past.”

Wang was astonished: “He told you?! Why?”

Li Yao thought for a moment: “Probably to comfort me.” Given how unstable her emotions had been back then.

The Zhang Fierce Ghost could hear their conversation, his wraith form trembling.

Tao Fangyi had no other options. He could only clasp his hands together and bow his head in apology: “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.”

“How is that possible?!” the Fierce Ghost roared in interrogation. “We were like-minded brothers! Have you forgotten?!”

“Brothers?” The word felt somewhat distant to Tao Fangyi. He lifted his head to size the other up again, then suddenly slapped his own head. “Oh! I remember now! You’re that ghost I became sworn brothers with when I was little!”

The Zhang Fierce Ghost: “…Little?”

Tao Fangyi continued asking, “Right, what was your name again?”

Without waiting for an answer, Tao Fangyi put his hands on his hips and started reminiscing: “Such youthful days, truly.”

The Zhang Fierce Ghost fell into silence. He looked at the human who hadn’t managed to die beside Tao Fangyi, and the inexplicably obnoxious Fierce Ghost next to that human.

“So it’s a one-sided obsession. He thought he was the most important one,” Wang clicked his tongue twice.

Li Yao could actually understand quite well: “I’ve had situations like this before. It’s actually quite pitiful.”

“Up late at night, not sleeping, howling Tao Fangyi’s name over there. I thought they had some blood-deep feud.” Wang was very disappointed by this. “Is he a heavy-weight?”

“Heavy-weight? You mean like a yandere?” Li Yao asked.

“More or less.” Wang generally didn’t like chatting with kids, but at this moment, he felt he had to educate the child next to him. “You can’t learn from him. People like this are quite pathetic.”

“Back in the day, I was a Ghost King!! GHOST KING!!!” The Zhang Fierce Ghost’s composure shattered. “In those years, I held the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and commanded the world’s evil ghosts! If it weren’t for his betrayal, Tao Fangyi! Your Special Administration would have ceased to exist long ago!”

“Actually, not necessarily.” Tao Fangyi raised a hand. “According to the laws of development, chaos is only temporary. A new order would have definitely been established after the chaos. Therefore, the Special Administration would definitely still exist; it just might not be called by this name.”

Black mist surged toward Tao Fangyi. The Zhang Fierce Ghost had lost any desire to reminisce with him.

But his black mist was scattered by a white bandage before it could even touch Tao Fangyi.

“Ghost King, huh~” Wang stood up. The bandages above his head floated and drifted, as if submerged in water.

Countless more bandages emerged from all around his body, like a multitude of white snakes.

His opponent’s ghostly aura was turbid and foul; the lives he’d taken with his own hands were certainly not few.

Nobody would care if a monster like that disappeared.

And he himself had been hungry for a very long time.

“I’m his new partner?” The Zhang Fierce Ghost laughed as he looked at Wang. “You trust him like I did back then.”

“I don’t trust him at all.” The corners of Wang’s mouth split wider and wider.

Tao Fangyi tried to placate Wang. They couldn’t take the law into their own hands; this matter should be handed over to the colleagues in the Combat Department.

“If you don’t trust him, why stand up for him? You still don’t know his true strength yet.” The Zhang Fierce Ghost sneered.

“I just want to feed; I don’t want to stand up for anyone, you know~” Wang tore the clinging Tao Fangyi off him and tossed him into Li Yao’s arms.

The Zhang Fierce Ghost continued: “If he hadn’t insisted on betraying us back then, with just Wenren Huaishu and Wang Qiang’s strength, there was no way they could have caught me.”

Wang stopped.

Tao Fangyi ran back over.

However, before he could even open his mouth this time, Wang grabbed him and pulled him close.

Wang’s hand was trembling.

“Ha, you’ve indeed heard of those two Demon Patrollers’ titles.” The Zhang Fierce Ghost thought this little ghost was finally grasping a certain concept of Tao Fangyi’s strength.

Wang, indeed, was grasping a certain concept.

He vaguely remembered his parents mentioning that they had always been in contact with an arrested Non-Human.

【The pressure the other party exerted back then was really too great. Your dad and I were both geniuses at the time, neither yielding to the other. Under extreme pressure, we had to cooperate, and then the sparks of love flew.】

【The other party has a very interesting personality. Your mom and I didn’t win in a fight, so later we convinced him through reasoning.】

【He’s a bit slow and wooden. Lately, he’s been troubled about work matters. He’s right there at the Special Administration. Once he settles down, we’ll take you to meet him.】

Wang’s hand trembled more violently, and he gripped the doll tighter.

Tao Fangyi’s smiling face was squeezed out of shape: ?

【That uncle of yours recently sent us a photo of the department slogan. He said you’re a positive and sunny child.】

【If you pass the psychological evaluation this time, you’ll be directly given a permanent position in the Combat Department.】

“Hello,” Wang said to him.

“Hah?” Tao Fangyi didn’t quite understand what Wang meant, but he still replied, “Hello.”

【But if we find that your condition hasn’t improved, or has gotten worse and worse, you’ll just have to keep training in your current post for another hundred years.】

“Can you hug me?” Wang gently set Tao Fangyi down.

“Sure, but why?” Tao Fangyi straightened the cotton stuffing in his body, then wrapped his arms around Wang’s leg.

Wang crouched on the ground. He was now completely in no mood to deal with the Zhang Fierce Ghost. “My life seems to be over. Haha.”