Chapter 260

Chapter 260

While battle raged at Two Realms Mountain, something strange was happening at Huimu Mountain Ski Resort.

For no apparent reason, its owner, Li Lanxi, was suddenly beset by unease. He tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

“I hope nothing bad happens.”

He personally attended to every detail of the business. Though it was already deep into the night, he dressed and went out to inspect the resort.

The mountain wind was bitter enough to freeze dripping water. Every breath of frigid air made his throat ache.

The night security guard had been nodding off, but the sight of his boss brought him abruptly awake.

“Good evening, Mr. Li!”

Li Lanxi was decent, hardworking, and considerate toward his employees, without the slightest arrogance. He patted the guard’s shoulder and smiled.

“Thank you for your hard work. Nights in the mountains are far too cold. Besides the down jackets, we should issue everyone a windbreaker as well. I’ll have someone arrange it after daybreak.”

The young guard watched him walk away, deeply moved. Where could anyone find another boss this good? From now on, he would work hard and never sleep on duty… at least not during the first half of the night.

Li Lanxi completed his round without finding any safety hazards. After visiting the restroom, he prepared to return to his room and sleep.

Just as he was leaving, he realized something was wrong.

When he had lowered his head to wash his hands, a hurried glance at the mirror showed a strangely distorted reflection. His face looked dark and blue, and faint corpse spots had even appeared in places.

How could that be?

Li Lanxi quickly looked up and examined the mirror. To his horror, his reflection bared its teeth in a sinister smile while continuously vomiting clots of black blood.

“A ghost!”

The next day, the sun was already high when the resort staff realized Li Lanxi had never come to his office. He did not answer his phone either.

That was completely unlike their diligent employer. Worried, several employees called at the door of his room, but received no response. With no other choice, they called the police.

When the officers arrived, they broke down the door with the resort staff. Inside, they found the honest businessman hanging dead in the restroom.

His tongue protruded far from his mouth, yet a strange smile remained on his face.

Eight glaring characters had been scrawled crookedly in blood across the mirror: “Calamity rises in the south; yin and yang are overturned!”

Everyone drew a sharp breath at the horrifying scene. The more timid among them went weak at the knees and had to be held upright.

A meticulous investigation found no trace that anyone else had entered the room and no sign of a struggle. The police could only rule the death a suicide.

The incident caused a local sensation. Everyone who knew Li Lanxi lamented that such a good man, with no apparent burdens in life, could somehow have chosen to kill himself.

Someone who claimed to understand such matters quietly warned his family that the death was far too strange. Li Lanxi had likely encountered filthy things, and they needed an expert to examine the matter.

Just then, an elderly wandering Fangshi came to their door of his own accord.

His hair and beard were white, but he was hale and vigorous. His eyes were especially frightening, black enough to seem capable of drawing out the soul of anyone who stared too long.

The only blemish on his appearance was a large hooked nose, which made him look profoundly sinister.

Had Old Sixth Hui seen him, he would have been astonished. This was the very man who, several centuries ago, had traded hundreds upon hundreds of Gray Family lives for merely half a Daoist book.

No one knew what the old Fangshi told Li Lanxi’s family. Whatever it was, they chose a night of extreme yin and placed Li Lanxi upside down, head first, in a locust-wood coffin. They buried him in Eagle’s Dread Gorge, the place of heaviest yin energy on Huimu Mountain.