Chapter 167
Chapter 167
Now that I knew how Zhou Min had died and who the killer behind it all was, resolving the nether covenant would be much simpler.
But from Zeng Qingfeng’s description, that mysterious rogue occultist had to be extremely powerful. The fact that he had forcibly transformed Zhou Min into such a formidable vicious corpse was proof enough.
He would not be easy to deal with!
“By the way, did that rogue occultist ever ask you to find some unusual plant for him?”
I tossed out the question as though it had just occurred to me.
Zeng Qingfeng thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Actually, yes! A few years ago, he gave me a drawing and told me to search for a certain plant in the plateau region out west. I hired dozens of people, and it took us ages to finally find one…”
“That flower was truly beautiful! The blossom was as big as a bowl, with three petals, all deep crimson and shaped like burning flames. I asked him what it was called, but he only told me to mind my own business.”
The Crimsonfire Nightbloom!
There could be no mistake!
Another surge of delight rose in my heart.
“Looks like my earlier guess was right. The person who used a Crimsonfire Nightbloom to cultivate the Golden-Thread Netherbloom on the grave-covered hill north of Lianghe Bridge was the very same rogue occultist who killed Zhou Min.”
“He made Zeng Qingfeng go to all that trouble to obtain the Crimsonfire Nightbloom, then gathered the qi of a hundred graves to cultivate a Golden-Thread Netherbloom. In the end, I was the one who benefited… Uh, more precisely, that stupid fat bird Roundy did!”
Zeng Qingfeng started pleading again, claiming he had never been this evil to begin with, and that the rogue occultist’s threats had gradually led him astray. He begged me to give him a chance to turn over a new leaf, and on and on.
I neither agreed nor refused. I simply continued questioning him about the mysterious rogue occultist. Most importantly, where did the two of them usually meet?
“There’s a small wooden cabin beside the stone bridge on River Street, right by the water. It originally belonged to a fisherman, but I bought it. That’s where I usually meet him.”
I immediately asked, “Has he arranged to meet you anytime soon?”
“Five days from now–next Wednesday at eleven at night. We’ll meet in that cabin beside the stone bridge on River Street. He said he had something to discuss with me, but really, he just wants to order me to do something for him again.”
Zeng Qingfeng had clearly surrendered completely. He answered every question without concealing a thing.
After more than an hour of painstaking interrogation, I had finally squeezed him dry!
Whew…
I let out a long breath of turbid qi and gently rubbed my temples.
“What a fruitful trip this has been! So many questions that had been bothering me are finally answered.”
Come to think of it, the rogue occultist behind Zeng Qingfeng and I truly shared a strange sort of “fate.”
The supernatural misfortunes that had befallen my two best friends at school could both be traced back to him.
But when I thought about it carefully, wasn’t this rogue occultist almost like the head of my logistics department?
The first time, Wang Dachun’s affair led me to the Golden-Thread Netherbloom.
The second time, he killed Zhou Min, but indirectly allowed me to obtain a corpse core filled with tremendous power, greatly increasing my cultivation.
Uh… Viewed that way, wasn’t the guy remarkably “helpful”?
“Uncle Yao, Dachun, see if you can find any useful tools in this office. Gag this guy first, then tie his hands with rope.”
I spoke with a smile.
“Of course, Young Mr. Wu.”
“You got it, Boss!”
They promptly answered, and soon enough, they actually found some rope and a few rags.
Zeng Qingfeng shouted in alarm.
“No! If you’re an upright practitioner, you should keep your word! I’ve already told you everything. Are you going back on your promise?”
I chuckled and winked at him.
“Didn’t you understand me? I said I wouldn’t personally do anything to you. I never said no one else would.”
With that, I ignored the astonished look on Zeng Qingfeng’s face and had Yao Tianlin and Wang Dachun tie his hands and stuff a rag into his mouth.
He struggled desperately, but it did him no good.
I turned to Yao Tianlin.
“Uncle Yao, this man nearly killed you and almost destroyed your entire family. I’m handing him over to you, and you can decide what to do with him. He’s a villain with blood all over his hands anyway. Whether you deal with him privately or hand him over to the mortal authorities is up to you.”
“Still, I recommend handing him over. If you deal with him yourself, it would count as revenge, so you wouldn’t incur any troublesome karmic debt. But you’d still run the risk of breaking secular law, and that could turn into a time bomb someday.”
I felt I should warn him.
After all his years navigating society, he was certainly more mature and levelheaded than I was.
But when faced with the person who had nearly destroyed his family, even the most rational man might make a bad choice…
Yao Tianlin nodded.
“Don’t worry, Young Mr. Wu. Whether for my wife’s career or Nannan’s future, I would never dare do anything illegal. I’ll just teach this bastard a lesson and vent my anger, then hand him over to the pol–mortal authorities.”
I had to admit, Yao Nan’s father was a shrewd man.
Whenever he was around me, he even adjusted his wording and forms of address to suit my habits and preferences. It made him extremely comfortable to deal with. No wonder his business had grown so large.
His success probably didn’t depend entirely on his wife being a government official…
The three of us escorted Zeng Qingfeng out of the brick factory.
Wang Dachun opened the trunk, and together, he and Yao Tianlin stuffed Zeng Qingfeng inside like a piece of cargo.
A trace of viciousness surfaced on Yao Tianlin’s face.
“We have a recording of Zeng Qingfeng confessing in his own words, and he has so many lives on his hands that even the mortal courts will sentence him to death. There shouldn’t be any problem if I vent my rage a little before calling the police, right?”
I nodded.
“That’s fine. Just be careful not to cripple him. Otherwise, when you turn him over to the police, you may have trouble explaining yourself.”
“Understood. Thank you, Young Mr. Wu.”
“No need to thank me, Uncle Yao. Your daughter and I are desk mates and good friends. It’s only right that I help.”
I could tell that Yao Tianlin was genuinely grateful to me.
He never once acted as though helping him was something I owed him–which was exactly right. Helping someone was a kindness, while refusing was my prerogative.
What I hated most were people who took others’ help for granted!
Whenever I met someone like that, I taught them a lesson.
After hesitating for a moment, Yao Tianlin asked tentatively,
“Young Mr. Wu, from what I heard in your conversation with this bastard, it seems you have a grievance with the rogue… rogue occultist behind him?”
“That’s right!”
There was no need for me to deny it.
Both Yao Tianlin and Wang Dachun had heard my conversation with Zeng Qingfeng perfectly clearly.
“Young Mr. Wu, you also asked where the rogue occultist meets Zeng Qingfeng, so I assume you plan to lie in ambush for him. Would you like me to call in some of my brothers from the streets to help?”
After saying that, he hurried to add an explanation.
“Don’t worry. These men may live on the other side of the law, but none of them have ever crossed any unforgivable lines. They would never bully ordinary people, either. Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare associate with them. It would only cause trouble for Ajiao.”
Yao Tianlin had already figured out my personality. I wasn’t one of those self-righteous moral guardians obsessed with keeping their hands spotless. I hated wicked people, but my own methods could be rather unorthodox.
In this era, anyone doing business needed connections among government officials, and most also befriended a few people from the underworld.
As for having those men help us deal with the rogue occultist?
It wasn’t necessarily a bad idea.
This was the real world, after all, not some television drama or novel about immortal cultivators. A practitioner’s abilities were nowhere near that absurd…
Take someone as formidable as Old Cao. If a dozen strong young men armed with weapons ambushed him, surrounded him, and fought without losing their nerve, even he would probably be finished!
No matter how powerful that rogue occultist was, surely he couldn’t have reached Master’s level.
So when Yao Tianlin volunteered to help, I was tempted.
Then again, too many people would create problems of its own.
Those young thugs might be brave in a fight, but they would certainly lack discipline and know nothing about coordinating with one another. The more people we had, the harder it would be to keep the operation secret. We might expose ourselves before the ambush even began.
After weighing it for a while, I gave Yao Tianlin my answer.
He could choose five men who were skilled fighters, decent people, and had no family burdens to come help me.
Probably delighted by the chance to repay his debt to me, Yao Tianlin thumped his chest confidently.
“Don’t worry, Young Mr. Wu. Every one of them is a great fighter, and none is afraid of trouble!”
“All right. Have them wait at the end of Lianghe Bridge after school next Monday evening. I’ll talk to them first.”
Once we finished discussing everything, I had Yao Tianlin drive Wang Dachun and me home separately.
As for Zeng Qingfeng, who had been crammed into the trunk like a shipment of goods, I left him entirely in Yao Tianlin’s hands…
When I returned to the coffin shop, Old Cao was still working on that magnificent yellow rosewood coffin. He had been at it for months by now. Just how demanding was that important client in the county seat?
When he saw me return, he set down his work and smilingly asked how things had gone.
I told him about capturing Zeng Qingfeng and everything I had pried out of him. Even Old Cao clicked his tongue in amazement as he listened.
“What a remarkable coincidence! This should allow you to bring your nether covenant with that female corpse to a satisfactory end. But that rogue occultist certainly isn’t weak. Even with the initiative on your side, you must be extremely careful when you try to capture him.”
I could hear the concern in Old Cao’s voice and assured him I would think everything through carefully.
Then he asked,
“Are you sure you don’t need me to bring Yuan Fei along to help?”
I shook my head.
“No, that won’t be necessary. This is entirely my personal affair, and I’m the only one who stands to benefit. There’s just one final step left! There’s no need to drag you and Uncle Yuan Fei into it too. I did pay Li Miao, though, so I can have him come along to make up the numbers. Ha ha.”
I laughed twice at the end.
After we chatted casually for a little longer, I packed my schoolbag and prepared to go home.
It was Friday. Time to spend the weekend at home with my parents and Master!
It would also be a good chance to ask Master a few more questions about magical arts and cultivation and squeeze in whatever improvement I could. Even growing the tiniest bit stronger would give me a little more chance against that rogue occultist next week.
…
My two days at home passed peacefully, without any disturbances.
After I returned to school, I found five young men waiting at the end of Lianghe Bridge on Monday evening, just as expected.
They were all in their early twenties, strong and sturdy, and clearly trained fighters.
Yao Tianlin had probably given them special instructions beforehand. Their attitude was excellent, and communicating with them went very smoothly.
After I explained the dangers we might encounter, not one of them was afraid. Instead, they all became extremely excited and declared that this would be a great chance to broaden their horizons.
Once we reached an agreement, I made another trip to the woods north of town and discussed the plan with Li Miao…
Everything was ready. All that remained was to wait for Wednesday.
We would set an ambush and capture that rogue occultist!