Before I could move, I heard the loud roar of a car engine behind me. I turned and saw Chief Liu driving toward me.

After the car had pulled to a full stop, Chief Liu and Li Mazi got off.

I swiftly smeared two drops of ox tears on my eyelids and focused. Two out of three Yang flames on Chief Liu’s body were extinguished, and a headless shadow was attached to his shoulders. Apparently, that was the ghost of Wang Zhuangzhuang.

Chief Liu pulled Li Mazi and strode toward me.

“Did Wang Zhuangzhuang want to take us to see Cao Cao?” I mumbled to myself. I quickly moved and hid behind a rock, waiting and observing quietly.

Indeed, after they had walked past me, they started to climb the steps I had considered taking before they arrived.

While walking, Li Mazi looked around. He was worried that I hadn’t gotten there yet. I knew Li Mazi’s life would be over if I didn’t follow them, and Chief Liu would soon follow in his footsteps. I immediately picked up some frozen mud under my feet and shoved it into my mouth.

After people died, their souls would return to the earth. That was why mud and soil had Yin properties, and frozen mud happened to have very strong Yin energy. I held the mud in my mouth to conceal my Yang energy as I didn’t want Wang Zhuangzhuang and Cao Cao to notice me.

I followed Chief Liu and Li Mazi to the top of the Bronze Bird Terrace. Eventually, I saw Cao Cao.

At this time, he didn’t look like a vague shadow anymore. His features were clear as though he were a living man. He was wearing the formal attire for a Chancellor in the Han Dynasty and held the Seven Star Sword. He lifted his head and thrust his chest forward. Then, he looked at Li Mazi, his eyes cold and disdainful.

Chief Liu suddenly convulsed. I turned to look at his head. Wang Zhuangzhuang had left Chief Liu’s body. He respectfully gave three kowtows to Cao Cao and turned around, hurriedly leaving.

I didn’t let that chance slip away. I moved fast to stand behind Wang Zhuangzhuang, directly sucking him into my Hundred Ghost Pouch.

Cao Cao seemed to sense the power of the Hundred Ghost Pouch. He carefully turned to see me, slowly approaching.

Although he saw me, he was certainly thinking that I was also a dead man. I wasn’t really worried. I quickly sent Li Mazi a text message, asking for them to take that chance to leave. When Cao Cao was in front of me, I abruptly bit the tip of my tongue and spat the blood on my leg, kicking his groin right after.

It wasn’t that I was being disrespectful, but it was the only way to provoke the spirit and temporarily reduce its battle prowess.

Cao Cao gasped, his facial features twisting due to the pain. He crouched on the floor and rubbed his crotch.

I seized the chance to take Li Mazi and Chief Liu away from the Bronze Bird Terrace. Not saying a word, I stepped on the accelerator as soon as we got into the car and headed directly to the Police Bureau.

Once we had arrived, I asked Chief Liu to gather all the mirrors in the station and take them to my room. I arranged the mirrors in the Eight Diagrams formation, to later cover them with a raincoat.

Chief Liu asked, “Why do we have to do this?”

I smiled. “I kicked Cao Cao’s jewels. Given his personality, I’m sure he’ll come to take revenge. We’ll wait for him here.”

When I arranged the mirrors, I made sure none pointed at the door that led to the room, which happened to be the Death gate of the Eight Diagrams.

If Cao Cao dared to come, he’d enter the formation. By then, he would have to beg me for mercy or leave through the Death gate. However, when Cao Cao was still alive, he would try everything to avoid death and flee, which made me believe that he would never exit through the Death direction.

While Chief Liu and I were preparing, Li Mazi sat next to us without saying a word, his face pale.

At first, I thought that he hadn’t recovered from the fright, so I didn’t really pay attention to him. However, his condition didn’t improve even after Chief Liu and I had done all the preparations.

“Li Mazi, are you all right?”

I waved my hand in front of his eyes and gently pushed him. Unexpectedly, Li Mazi directly fell on his back, his eyes slowly closing.

Chief Liu paled. He supported Li Mazi and placed his finger under his nose to check. He screamed, “H-He’s not breathing…”

“What?!”

My face changed drastically as I went to check Li Mazi’s breathing. Indeed, it was like Chief Liu had said; he wasn’t breathing.

My mind went blank. I remembered everything we had experienced together, and I remembered Ru Xue, who was waiting for him at home.

He can’t die! I don’t believe he’ll die like this!

As soon as I smeared ox tears on my eyelids, I saw that Li Mazi’s three Yang flames had been extinguished. A wisp of dark mist was swirling above his head, sucking his last bit of Yang energy.

“Damn it!”

My eyes turned red. I cursed and took out a talisman, sticking it onto Li Mazi’s forehead and smashing the dark mist. I then gently laid Li Mazi on the bed.

He had been attacked by the soul of the other victim that hadn’t shown up tonight. Li Mazi was still fine when we were on our way back from the Bronze Bird Terrace. I was certain that the attack had happened in this Police Bureau.

Around thirty minutes had passed, so I was sure that Li Mazi’s soul couldn’t have gone far away.

I hurried to change the arrangement of my Eight Diagrams formation, shifting the Life direction to the entrance. I then took Li Mazi’s clothes off, giving them to Chief Liu and asking him to wear them. He would need to wear Li Mazi’s clothes and go out of the station, calling Li Mazi’s name loudly.

Chief Liu was bewildered. However, he did as I asked him. After he left, I burned three joss sticks and sat in the middle of the formation. I closed my eyes, quietly chanting the soul beckoning spell.

As Chief Liu was shouting outside, I also picked up my chanting speed. Gradually, the light in front of my eyes began to blur. I squinted and saw the smoke of the joss stick being pulled toward the Northwest direction.

It seemed that Li Mazi’s soul had heard our call. He was coming toward us!

I cheered up and read the spell faster and faster.

In a normal situation, Li Mazi’s soul would have returned immediately. The joss sticks would burn harder for a while, and once Li Mazi returned to his body, they would go back to normal.

However, I had been chanting for quite a long time, and Li Mazi’s soul had yet to return. In the meantime, the joss sticks had quickly burned to the end without any other indication.

“Not good!”

The fourth victim of this decapitation case—the ghost of Zhang Yang—was preventing Li Mazi from returning! I could only pound my fist on the ground with seething anger. I went out and asked Chief Liu to return to the room and take care of Li Mazi’s body. I then headed Northwest to chase after them.

The suburban area was located Northwest of Linzhang’s Police Bureau. There was a small river and a market by the bridge. Since peddlers and people at the market would often throw garbage into the river, the small river had soon become a stinky canal. People caught the stench from afar.

Previously, when we crossed the river, Chief Liu told me that the government had been trying to solve the problem. They had an engineering and cleaning team attempt to clear this river many times, but they encountered problems every time due to people getting hurt or machines breaking. In the end, the problem wasn’t fixed.

I had decided to see if something was wrong with that small river once we were done with this decapitation case. Yet, I had never expected that Li Mazi’s soul had been taken to this place.

For some reason, I felt that Li Mazi’s soul being lost had something to do with the small river. When I reached the river, I heard the water splashing, just as if someone were taking a bath there.

However, the surface of the river had been covered with all kinds of trash, and the water underneath was frozen, so how was I able to hear water splashing?

I was afraid there was something foul in the river. I used the same trick as before. I placed some frozen soil in my mouth, then hurriedly walked to the bridge and looked down.

At first glance, I couldn’t help but scream.

The frozen water I had seen in the morning was gone together with the floating trash. They had been replaced with dead bodies!

Those corpses had swollen limbs that looked like white winter melons. I couldn’t even see their facial features. The moment I screamed, they all turned to look at me, their cold eyes wickedly staring at me.

At this moment, Li Mazi’s voice came from behind me. “Little Brother Zhang, is that you?”

I turned to see as soon as I heard him. Li Mazi was standing behind me. Since he was just a soul, his figure was transparent. However, he seemed to be soaking wet as though he had just crawled out of the water.

Seeing me, he sighed. “Little Brother Zhang, you should go back! It’s very dangerous here.”

Then, he turned and ran away. I wanted to run after him, but after I had taken two steps, someone held onto my legs. I looked down and saw that the ghost I had invited to carry me a few hours ago was now grabbing my feet.

When I saw him, my first thought was that he wanted to trouble me. Instinctively, I took out a talisman and prepared to hit him.

But before I could do that, the ghost disappeared.

I didn’t mind him as I had to find Li Mazi. However, I soon realized that I was on the other side of the bridge's handrail. Just one more step, and I would have thrown myself into the frozen river, which would result in my death.

Facing the sneering, floating corpses in the river, I suddenly understood that I had not seen Li Mazi’s soul. One of the ghosts had tricked me.

If the guiding ghost hadn’t pulled me my legs, I would have fallen in the river and those ghosts down there would have killed me!

Not daring to linger, I crossed the bridge and reached a small path.

While running, someone suddenly patted my shoulder. My heart sank. Is a ghost chasing after me?

After hesitating for a while, I decided to ignore it. Saving Li Mazi was more important, so I continued to run.

After a few meters, someone touched my shoulder again. At the same time, I heard a mouse squeaking.

My mood changed from surprised to thrilled. I turned my head and saw a giant mouse with two round, sparkling eyes looking at me.

It was the rat that Senior Shu had been raising!

If it was here, Senior Shu had to be close by.

I asked, “Hey, do you know where Li Mazi’s soul is?”