Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Neon lights flickered and shifted throughout the city night. Xie Qingling glanced behind them and saw only darkness pressing down, with no trace of the moon overhead. It was as if a pair of enormous, prying eyes hung high above.
The motorcycle continued forward, approaching the intersection Dai Xingyu had mentioned.
Xie Qingling asked quietly, “What’s following us?”
“I don’t know,” Dai Xingyu said. “Either they’re an expert at concealing their presence, or… they’re human. Either way, they won’t be easy to deal with.”
A Groom’s talents were useful against ghosts and monsters. Against humans, however, they were not as effective as electronic surveillance cameras.
That was why humans were what Dai Xingyu truly feared most.
And the person following them might very well be human, which made the situation difficult.
Xie Qingling said nothing.
Human or otherwise, they first had to rule out one possibility.
Ghosts and monsters were the easiest to eliminate from consideration.
Xie Qingling said softly to Dai Xingyu, “Deploy the Killing Field first.”
If an unseen ghost or monster was following them, deploying the Killing Field would force it to reveal itself inside. As long as they did not start fighting, the passersby they had not had time to evacuate would not be endangered.
Dai Xingyu nodded.
He took out his Ksitigarbha Statue and chanted softly, “Through your eyes, see what I see.”
At the same time, Xie Qingling pulled the motorcycle over.
At that very moment, everything around them – including the oblivious crowd – had been caught within the Killing Field without realizing it.
…No ghost or monster appeared.
It seemed the one following them truly was human.
Xie Qingling looked back and quietly surveyed the surroundings and the people nearby.
She saw a man smoking while talking on the phone. His pace gradually slowed until he stopped at the intersection.
A young couple holding hands glanced around before ducking into the shadows, where they nestled together like a pair of mandarin ducks and whispered sweet nothings.
Two taxis were parked by the road. A passenger got out of one, after which its “Available” sign lit up, but the cab remained where it was.
The situation in the other taxi was unclear. It had remained stationary the entire time.
Its windows were shut and its interior dim, making it impossible to tell whether anyone was inside.
As expected, Dai Xingyu’s expression turned ugly. “Looks like it might be an ordinary human.”
But why would a human follow them?
“Find them,” Xie Qingling said.
She walked over to the motionless taxi with closed windows and knocked on the glass.
The window quickly rolled down, revealing the driver’s plump, round face. With a simple, good-natured smile, he asked, “Need a ride, pretty lady?”
The passenger seats were empty.
Xie Qingling examined the interior without betraying herself, then withdrew her gaze and shook her head. “No.”
The round-faced driver said nothing.
Xie Qingling repeated the process, knocking on the window of the taxi whose “Available” sign was lit. That window also rolled down quickly, revealing a thin, dark-faced driver. He looked at Xie Qingling and said, “Base fare is fifteen yuan. Metered rate. No bargaining.”
Apart from the driver, that taxi was empty as well.
Slightly disappointed, Xie Qingling replied, “I don’t need a ride.”
At those words, the dark-faced driver’s expression grew even darker. He rolled the window straight back up, his curses drifting through the glass. “Then why the hell did you knock? Are you sick in the head? Wasting my time!”
Meanwhile, Dai Xingyu had checked the other three suspicious people.
The young couple flirting in the shadows and the man who had crouched down while talking on the phone, anguish and worry covering his face.
Dai Xingyu shook his head. “None of them seem right.”
“Actually, I have an idea,” Xie Qingling said.
“What idea?”
“I’m only afraid you won’t agree to do it once I tell you.”
Dai Xingyu had an ominous feeling.
Xie Qingling murmured, “Forget it. It might work, but if the Director found out, he’d tear us apart.”
“Let’s try another way. Something safer and more reliable.” Xie Qingling suddenly drew Bloodsworn and walked toward the first taxi she had questioned.
She knocked on the window again, this time standing beside the driver.
The moment he lowered the window, Bloodsworn came to rest against his throat.
Cool night mist curled around Xie Qingling, carrying a chilling murderous intent.
With the icy blade pressed to the round-faced driver’s neck, Xie Qingling stared at him coldly. “Surrender. Your fox tail is showing.”
Dai Xingyu, who had been waiting to see what brilliant move she had in mind, instantly went pale. Cold sweat poured from his forehead.
She had put a knife to someone’s throat and threatened him. This was her safer, more reliable plan?
He truly did not want to know what had crossed Xie Qingling’s mind before this.
At that moment, Dai Xingyu decided he was better off not asking about the other plan. Xie Qingling was far too reckless.
Fortunately, she had not made him do it. Otherwise, the Director really would have torn them both apart.
Was she trying to bluff their stalker into revealing himself?
If she had guessed right, all would be well. But if she had guessed wrong, someone would definitely file a complaint against the department…
Why did going on a mission with Xie Qingling feel so dangerous?
Now he understood. Xie Qingling was danger itself.
As Dai Xingyu’s thoughts ran wild, the good-natured smile vanished from the round-faced driver’s face beneath Xie Qingling’s blade. His expression shifted, turning dark in an instant.
Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “How did you discover me?”
Dai Xingyu was speechless. That actually worked?
If Xie Qingling had only been bluffing, her luck was incredible.
Or had she already spotted a clue?
Whatever the truth might be, Dai Xingyu knew he only had to cooperate when Xie Qingling was involved.
Thinking was not his job. Better to leave this headache of a woman to the Director.
Dai Xingyu withdrew the Killing Field, then walked over to help Xie Qingling keep the round-faced driver under control. He might have a baby face, but he was still a man. Hopefully the driver knew better than to test them.
“Get out. You’re coming with us,” Xie Qingling said quietly.
The driver’s body went rigid. He climbed out and followed Xie Qingling and Dai Xingyu into a deserted side street.
It was open and empty there, which made conversation much easier – whether they used words or fists.
Xie Qingling had never seen the round-faced man before. His face was completely unfamiliar.
He was so unremarkable that he could disappear into a crowd and never be found again, an utterly ordinary taxi driver. Anyone who saw him only once would soon forget his face.
If Xie Qingling had not sensed that his behavior differed from the second driver, who was intent on making money, she would never have grown suspicious of him so quickly.
To a taxi driver, time was money. They rarely let a chance to pick up a fare pass with such composure.
As it turned out, Xie Qingling’s mixture of suspicion and conviction had been correct.
Without wasting much time, she had exposed the stalker disguised as a driver.
Xie Qingling dealt with ghosts and monsters all the time. Though this was the first time she had held a blade to a human’s throat, her hand did not tremble in the slightest.
Her knife never left the round-faced driver’s neck. She asked softly, “Who told you to follow us? Was it Xia Ke’er? What do you want?”
The round-faced driver looked blank for a moment. Then grief appeared in his eyes. “It wasn’t her. I came on my own.”
“On your own? Then explain how this started and why you’re here. Don’t make me use force.” Xie Qingling kicked a tree beside the roadside landscaping. Its leaves came showering down with a loud rustle, testament to the force of the blow and the ruthlessness of her resolve.
She looked vicious and malevolent, her gaze savage, her heart merciless, and her methods brutal.
Both Dai Xingyu and the round-faced man fell silent.
After a moment, the round-faced man sighed deeply, looking torn between laughter and tears.
When he spoke again, his voice had changed.
The warm, honest voice of a middle-aged man had become a young man’s voice.
His tone was refined and elegant, with an ethereal quality.
“To tell you the truth, I came specifically to find you, Xie Qingling,” he said.
“It’s an illusion!” Dai Xingyu’s expression changed. He immediately warned her, “He isn’t human. It’s… it’s nothing good!”
With a sharp swish, Xie Qingling drew her other blade. Gripping both hilts, she readied herself to attack.
She stood very close to the man. If “he” tried anything, Bloodsworn could pierce his heart instantly, leaving him almost no chance to resist. Murderous intent was already plain in Xie Qingling’s eyes.
Yet “he” showed no desire to attack.
After Dai Xingyu’s warning, the stranger instead raised both hands in the human gesture of surrender. At the same time, his round face transformed into another.
It was a face alive with an otherworldly aura.
It was not the lively charm that merely made someone attractive, but an immortal grace that made anyone who saw him think: this is an Immortal, someone who should not exist in the mortal realm.
His skin was pale and lustrous as jade. His features were not peerlessly handsome, but his bearing was exceptional. He seemed like a dewdrop untouched by dust, crystal clear and gleaming like a pearl.
He was exquisitely ethereal.
The most unusual feature of his face was his eyes.
The pupils within them were vertical slits.
They were the eyes of a beast.
[After passing the Child Trial, enduring the Wheel-Rut Tribulation, and withstanding storms of thunder and rain, the fox cultivating in the mountains has finally attained human form and can walk the mortal realm in human shape. Having weathered a thousand years of wind and rain, it burned away its tail. Adept at concealment, it cultivated Wild-Fox Zen[^wild-fox-zen] in the mortal realm, learned human nature, and refined a human presence. Its appearance is now indistinguishable from an ordinary human’s.]
[The fox worships the moon; success lies in the Title-Seeking Rite. If it can meet a person bound to it by fate, the fox that has passed the three trials and burned away its tail can cast off its mortal bones and ascend to godhood.]
“So you’re a fox spirit.” Xie Qingling murmured. In the next instant, she demanded fiercely, “What are you trying to do while hiding in human society?”
“I mean no harm.” The fox spirit looked at Xie Qingling. “You said that if anything happened, I could come to you.”
“And so I came,” he said.
She had indeed said that.
But she had said it to Xia Ke’er.
At the time, Xie Qingling had thought Xia Ke’er had provoked some monster, so she had left the woman a way out.
She never imagined that Xia Ke’er would not come, but a fox spirit would seek her out instead.
Xie Qingling frowned, unable to guess what he wanted.
“I want to ask you to save her,” the fox spirit said. “Xia Ke’er… she’s about to die, and there’s nothing I can do.”
[^wild-fox-zen]: Wild-Fox Zen is a Buddhist-derived term for heterodox or self-taught practice outside orthodox transmission; here it also carries a literal fox pun.