I Am Your Natural Enemy

Chapter 499: Chapter 202: Annual Fortune Approaches, Nothing Seems Right (5k)_3

This guy was just an ordinary person before, no criminal record, no bad history, nothing unusual in his bank records or spending habits.

Even if there are some records of him going to certain entertainment venues, just over a hundred or so—probably just got a foot massage, nothing big.

Wen Yan was going through the files on this end, while Qing Xuzi held the horsetail whisk in one hand, took out a black wooden box with the other, and walked to the spiritual vehicle.

”Hermit, stop hiding. I know you mean no harm, it’s just that you’re burdened with the jinxed fate of concurrent bad luck—you can’t control it yourself.

Come with me, I’ll find a way to suppress the star-crossed luck on you, at least keeping you from hurting others again.

One day, if you accumulate enough Yin De, you may finally be free.”

If you keep running now, you’ll only sink deeper and deeper, and soon there’ll be no way back.”

In the spiritual vehicle, drenched in resentment, with a wailing face full of misery and barely any energy, Hao Mingyang slowly floated out from the car.

Even though it was sunrise by now, he wasn’t affected at all. He just stood there hunched over, like all the energy had drained out of him.

Qing Xuzi let out a slight breath of relief, holding up the black wooden box with one hand, pinching a talisman in the other, softly chanting something under his breath.

Hao Mingyang turned into several translucent shadows that sank into the black wooden box.

After closing the box, Qing Xuzi immediately slapped a talisman on it, sealing it shut.

”Taoist priest, what do we do with this now?”

”Take it back to Qingcheng, place it beneath the statue, and let him be bathed in chanting every day, to dissolve the resentment and his string of bad luck.”

As soon as Qing Xuzi finished, a wisp of black smoke appeared atop the once-peaceful box, and the talisman stuck to it suddenly cracked open a bit.

”Of course he’s angry. I saw in the records, he suffered all these years, finally paid his debts and saved up a little money, and then a disaster struck him out of nowhere. Anyone would be resentful in his shoes.”

”Eh, you found his file? Can I take a look?”

Wen Yan handed his phone to Qing Xuzi, who looked over the data and began to pinch his fingers, calculating.

Wen Yan was a bit curious—did Qing Xuzi have this skill too?

In most people’s eyes, fortune-telling is actually a really advanced skill with a huge learning curve.

Qing Xuzi glanced over at Wen Yan, who looked like he wanted to say something.

”Don’t get your hopes up, I can’t tell fortunes.”

”Then what are you calculating, Taoist priest?”

”Just checking his date of birth, the time, cause of death, and why he ended up like this.”

”Oh, so you’re telling a ghost’s fortune.”

As Qing Xuzi continued calculating, his brow wrinkled up.

”That can’t be right. He wasn’t filthy rich before, but he wasn’t so poor he had to beg. He had a lot of debt, but he paid it all back, even managed to save some money—by all accounts, his luck shouldn’t be bad.

Even if he died suddenly in an accident, became resentful and turned into a ghost, that still doesn’t add up to being marked by a ’jinxed fate of concurrent bad luck.’

That’s still ten thousand miles off.

Even when he was alive, his fate had nothing to do with this so-called concurrent streak of misfortune.”

”Can you say something I might actually understand?” Wen Yan was only half-following.

”What I mean is, something’s off—really off.”

”He died the wrong way, you mean?”

”Even I can’t say exactly. Something’s just way off.”

”Should I find someone else to double-check?”

”I’d appreciate that.”

Wen Yan gave Feng Yao a call. Since this involved someone from Luoyue County, Feng Yao was more reliable than going straight to Minister Cai Qidong. Feng Yao dealt with the Scorching Sun Department over in Luoyue County pretty often.

Of course, more importantly, he couldn’t keep bothering Cai Qidong for everything—especially since he’d just pissed Cai Qidong off not long ago.

”Here’s the thing: I need your help checking something. There’s a ghost at the funeral home gate.”

”He’s from Luoyue County. I just found it in the search, I’ll send you a photo—see what you can dig up.”

”See if anything’s different from what’s recorded in the files.”

”We’ve got Daoist Master Qing Xuzi here from Qingcheng, came in person to take him away, says something’s really wrong with this case.”

”Did you find it? Yeah, the one I found, that’s him, Hao Mingyang.”

Just as Wen Yan was saying this, the not-so-long-ago cracked talisman suddenly burst, and the resentment inside the wooden box exploded.

The hatred was several times stronger than before, and kept climbing higher.

A dark wraith shot out, exploded the wooden box, and Hao Mingyang fell to the ground out of it, the resentment on him so thick it became physical—like tendrils spreading in all directions.

The wind picked up.

The trees outside the funeral home swayed in the wind, a branch fell onto a high-voltage wire, making a sizzling sound as some twigs caught fire and dropped to the ground.

In just a few seconds, the wind fanned the flame, which dropped into a corner of the parking lot onto a car. Somehow, that car just suddenly caught fire.

Far-off pedestrians, startled, turned around and tripped on the curb.

One car, with its windshield covered by a sudden shower of falling leaves, careened onto the sidewalk.

The funeral home gate creaked, the wind swinging a sign back and forth, and the already rusted, corroded fastener snapped with a crack.

In less than ten seconds, chaos broke out everywhere.

And as Hao Mingyang hit the ground, his look of misery twisted to fury, and darkness surged in his eyes.

Qing Xuzi was shocked.

He had no idea how Hao Mingyang, who’d just been willing to go with him, could suddenly become like this.

Qing Xuzi’s face was grim as he tried to think of a way to suppress someone bearing such jinxed fate, but Wen Yan had already charged in.

Wen Yan stretched out his right hand, and with a single move, pinned Hao Mingyang to the ground.

The Calamity Protector Water Official Talisman on the back of his hand glowed, pushing back a force even Wen Yan himself couldn’t see.

”Behave, don’t make me go all out.”

Hao Mingyang was pinned to the ground, Wen Yan’s yang energy bursting forth, pressing down on him like a scorching sun, making him completely unable to move.

The resentment on Hao Mingyang kept building, but after being pinned, he regained a bit of clarity.

He looked miserable, eyes glittering as if with tears, and stammered out, deeply wronged:

”I don’t want to be suppressed under that statue.”

”And I’m not Hao Mingyang.”