I Am Your Natural Enemy

Chapter 464: Chapter 191: Ghost Professional, Returning the Name (5k)

The number of people who know Wen Yan fell into the Netherworld isn’t particularly large, but if you count it up, it’s actually not that few either.

Most of the people handling things inside the Scorching Sun Department only know there’s some operation targeting the Netherworld. As for the specifics, very few people are aware.

According to internal rules in the Scorching Sun Department, a lot of things are split up and carried out piecemeal.

It’s like building a piece of equipment—each person is only handed a single part, with no context, just a set of required parameters. Even those making it by hand have no idea what it’s for, and, frankly, anyone with half a brain doesn’t want to know either.

As for whether giving the required specs could lead someone to reverse engineer the whole picture, it’s not just individuals—even the factory itself may not really know what their parts are used for.

Take the classic carrier arresting wire. The Officials of Divine Land thought they couldn’t make it themselves, so they called for bids and sent out the specs. Only then did they discover some factory had already piled up a huge stock in its warehouse, and the factory itself had no idea this stuff could be used for carrier arresting wires...

The gear that the Scorching Sun Department provided for Wen Yan—even some of its parts had to be custom ordered from downstream manufacturers.

Unfortunately, nobody paid any attention to this, because the tech content was way too low. The factories just received orders under the pretense of personal customization by individual players.

Even fewer know that the so-called agent the Scorching Sun Department sent into the Netherworld was, in fact, a living person.

Wen Yan made his return by the Rakshasa Ghost Market route, and, truth be told, nobody paid much mind to that either.

Just a few dozen Soul Warhorses—far stranger things have shown up in the Rakshasa Ghost Market.

Over at Lord Zhu’s private residence within the Ghost Market, he was waiting. Before long, Lord Zhu himself appeared.

He strode in with the bearing of a dragon or tiger. On entering the courtyard, the first thing he saw were those dozens of Soul Warhorses. His steps faltered, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Involuntarily, his mouth split in a grin. Seeing those warhorses, a fondness shone in his eyes.

Despite the fact that cars are the norm now, having experienced all the modern conveniences, he still preferred warhorses.

After all, these things are a hell of a lot rarer than any luxury car.

It’s already incredibly rare for a person to turn into a Ghost; warhorses becoming Soul Warhorses is even less likely. For as long as he’s been awake, he’s never managed to get his hands on a single one.

Regular horse lost souls and Soul Warhorses—those are two completely different things.

Lord Zhu strode into the main hall. When he saw Wen Yan, he broke into a wide grin before he could say a thing. Two loud laughs, then he slapped Wen Yan heartily on the arm.

”Good, good, good, as long as you’re back safe.”

”Shame we couldn’t bring back most of the stuff.”

Wen Yan took out a spirit tablet wrapped in red silk and handed it to Lord Zhu.

Lord Zhu knew what it was as soon as it touched his hands.

”Ah, you’re thoughtful. If we’ve lost the rest, then so be it—just build a new place, plant again. As long as this is back, that’s all that matters. This is the only one preserved from those we worshipped in the Imperial City back then. If we’d lost it, it’d truly be gone.”

Lord Zhu didn’t unwrap the red cloth, but put it away with great care.

”There were also a fair number of matured herbs—I figured they were ready so I picked all of them. There might be some damage.

And some books too, all ancient texts. Leaving them behind would’ve been a shame, so I brought them all back.”

Lord Zhu didn’t even look, just responded casually.

”I’ll take the herbs—you wouldn’t know how to process them anyway, no use keeping them. As for the books, you can have them, take the lot with you.”

Lord Zhu didn’t have to think much about it. Last time Wen Yan visited the estate, he’d clearly shown little interest in those books. Now he’d gone out of his way to bring them, knowing exactly what they were—ancient texts.

Obviously, he must’ve been bored out of his skull down there, with nothing better to do but read.

Apart from Old Zhu’s spirit tablet and Wen Yan himself, Lord Zhu truly couldn’t care less about the rest. If it’s lost, it’s lost—takes it all in stride.

So long as Wen Yan’s back, Lord Zhu’s happy. That Wen Yan managed to bring Old Zhu’s tablet back, well, that’s a bonus.

Once the joy settled, Lord Zhu dragged Wen Yan off to throw a little welcome-back party, insisting they have a few drinks to steady their nerves.

Hearing this, Wen Yan’s face turned green. He waved his hands rapidly—no way is he ever getting that drunk again.

The one time he did, he almost didn’t make it back at all.

After the pleasantries, Wen Yan went with Lord Zhu to the back hall for a private chat.

”You vanished all of a sudden—things got chaotic on my end. A lot’s happened lately.”

”Something elsewhere besides Virtue City?”

”Virtue City’s actually the safest right now—safer even than Guanzhong County. I went over there once; only dared to watch through binoculars from a distance. All I can say is, it’s a hell of a sight.

Elsewhere, Ghosts have been on the rise lately—definitely not as peaceful as before.

A lot of Ghosts, deep obsessions—reasoning or deterrence, neither really works with them.

There have been a fair number of deaths lately, a lot of murderers dying—lots of colorful ways to go.

But the Scorching Sun Department’s been suppressing all of it. As soon as something happens, they settle it straight away.

There’s actually been very little collateral damage to innocents—way less than regular homicide cases.

With all these Ghosts around, it’s getting pretty hard to keep a lid on things. Rumors have already started to spread lately.

Going by experience, the ones dying right now are basically all brutal killers.

Call it karma, I’d say it’s pretty satisfying—but the Scorching Sun Department keeps harping about rules and having to step in.”

Here, Lord Zhu lowered his voice and said,