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 ha

d

 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

, h

e 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 bei

ng 

disrespectful

, but

i

t 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 a

s 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, 

w

hen 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 p

ay 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

-H

e

’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 eye

lids

, I saw that Li Mazi’s three Yang 

flames had

 bee

n 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

 smash

ing

 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.

A

round 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 o

nce 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, 

t

he 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 hea

ded

 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. 

P

eople caught the stench f

rom 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 be

en

 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 h

ow 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 

B

rother 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 

B

rother 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 b

efore 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 unde

rstood

 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. 

I

s a ghost chasing after m

e? 

After h

esitating 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?”