I Am Your Natural Enemy

Wen Yan’s interest was piqued by what Huang Zhiji said; it was actually pretty normal that Huang Zhiji couldn’t judge.

It’s also normal that the ghost didn’t know how it died. A lot of ghosts don’t even know they’re dead after they die.

Wen Yan could see the cases each person handled in this group, and among them, there was a case about a harmless ghost.

The ghost was a night shift security guard, unaware of its own death; every night when it got dark, it would come out to work, and only go back at dawn.

The funny part was, the new tenant would return from working overtime just as the security guard ghost started its shift.

In the morning, when the new tenant left for the subway, the security guard ghost hadn’t gone back yet.

The security guard ghost had no concept of rest; the new tenant was also busy with a project, hoping for a commission, so having a weekend off wasn’t on their mind either.

Living under the same roof, this person and this ghost just never ran into each other, not even once.

In the end, it was the security guard ghost who noticed that things in the house seemed to be moved, as if someone had been there, and after this happened a few times, feeling something was off, it ended up calling the police itself.

Then the case landed in the Scorching Sun Department’s hands, and after being told the truth of its death, the ghost just dissipated.

Wen Yan wasn’t surprised that the ghost didn’t know it was dead, or didn’t know how it died.

It’s just that, considering Huang Zhiji was a disciple of the Mount Mao Sect Master, and yet both he and the ghost couldn’t tell, that was a pretty rare situation.

With Spiritual Qi Resurgence at its current stage, the strong contenders these days should be Qingcheng and Mount Mao.

Qingcheng acts as envoy to ghosts and gods, and they even set up a specialist clinic for ghosts.

Whereas Mount Mao forbids raising ghosts, but they actually have tons of methods to deal with them.

Even the Sect Master, who practices both Taoist and martial arts, came up with Lightning Thunder Punch—extremely lethal, and when dealing with ghosts, it often means complete annihilation.

The two schools might not walk the same path, but both definitely count as dominant sects these days.

So in this case, when Huang Zhiji couldn’t even figure out what type of ghost it was, Wen Yan’s curiosity was thoroughly aroused.

Coincidentally, he was also looking for someone to ask about the Calamity Protector Goddess Talisman’s usage.

He checked the simple file Huang Zhiji uploaded, got a rough idea of the location, added Huang Zhiji as a friend, asked for some details, and once he’d confirmed it wasn’t far, decided to drive over himself.

It was only a little over a hundred kilometers from Virtue City; taking the highway, it only took him a bit over an hour to get there.

When Huang Zhiji saw Wen Yan, he was a bit surprised; he’d thought that the person who suggested coming here was some other Taoist from Mount Luofu.

After all, the Calamity Protector Goddess Talisman is quite a hot topic in Nanwu County.

”Are there a lot of people choosing the Calamity Protector Goddess Talisman these days?” Wen Yan asked out of curiosity.

”There are quite a few. But picking this talisman, the requirements are actually pretty high—it’s not just people choosing the talisman, but the talisman also choosing the person.

The hard requirements for imparting the talisman aren’t high, but in other aspects, the bar’s set rather high.

Fuyu Mountain and Dragon Tiger Mountain have slightly different requirements too.

Fuyu Mountain focuses more on character, while Dragon Tiger Mountain cares more about fundamentals.

The southern water system is vast, so if you choose this, you’re definitely not worried about finding opportunities.

The Scorching Sun Department still has a pretty big demand for Taoists who have received or can impart the Calamity Protector Goddess Talisman.”

”With both choices and suitable people, that’s pretty good. What’s your situation over here?” Wen Yan felt reassured. The Calamity Protector Goddess Talisman is especially suitable—given the size and population of Divine Land, the demand must be huge.

”Come with me. Honestly, I can’t really explain it.”

Huang Zhiji led Wen Yan along the village road for a few minutes, and they could already catch a faint scent of wine in the air.

There was a cluster of buildings off in the distance, looking like they’d been around for quite a few years.

”This small distillery has apparently been around for decades, but has kept closing and reopening over time.

In recent years, with the popularity of short videos, things like ’ancient brewing methods’ have gotten trendy too.

The current successor of this distillery relied on that trend to keep running the place, which was supposed to shut down.

But this time, it might really have to close for good.”

”So you can’t solve the ghost problem?”

”It’s not that I can’t solve it, but I can’t just blast the ghost’s soul to pieces before figuring anything out, can I?”

Wen Yan shot a slightly surprised look at Huang Zhiji.

The Mount Mao Sect Master has such a fearsome reputation—yet his disciple, when facing a ghost, actually wants to follow reason?

Wen Yan had heard that the Mount Mao Sect Master would annihilate any ghost he encountered—total destruction as the standard result.

Huang Zhiji instantly knew what Wen Yan’s look meant.

He was a bit embarrassed, but couldn’t explain it away, since his master really is notorious—around Mount Mao, you genuinely won’t find a single ghost.

But in Yu State, even with Tuoba Martial God occasionally wreaking havoc indiscriminately, there are still some law-abiding different races, even some ghosts living their life.

But around Mount Mao, there really are none at all.

Tuoba Martial God at most accidentally crushes you by mistake—if you get squashed, he might not even know.

But around Mount Mao, they’re honestly out to grind you into dust on purpose.

The nature is totally different.

Wen Yan had thought maybe Huang Zhiji simply couldn’t handle it and came to check, but it turned out Huang Zhiji just didn’t want to use force right away.

He figured he was maybe being led by stereotypes, assuming Mount Mao guys were all pretty domineering.

Now it seemed it was more an issue of approach in certain situations.

”Let’s check it out first,” he said.

Wen Yan followed Huang Zhiji into the distillery. Except for some obviously new pipes and such, there were also some massive barrels inside—calling them ’pools’ wouldn’t be wrong either.

Huang Zhiji led Wen Yan up some steps to one of the big wine pools, pointed inside, and said: