Four hours later, in Jiangxi.
The hotel door was thrown open with a bang. Deputy Chief Yu strode out of the room and headed straight for the elevator.
The two special agents outside immediately followed him. “Think carefully, Deputy Director Yu! The higher-ups sent you to Jiangxi for a meeting with the intention of temporarily removing you from the eye of the storm. If you run back to Beijing without a word, and this matter is investigated further…”
Yu Jingzhong pressed the elevator button and turned back to ask, “Who leaked Yan Lanyu’s address?”
The subordinate was suddenly at a loss for words.
“There was a mole in the higher-ups when Team Five defected. If I don’t go back to coordinate, my men will be killed. What’s the damn use of investigating further!”
The subordinate stammered, not daring to speak. At that moment, the elevator dinged open, and Yu Jingzhong walked in without looking back.
·
Tokyo Airport.
A black, bulletproof Bentley slowly stopped at the airport entrance. The window rolled down slightly, revealing a pair of cold, captivating eyes.
Maha was wrapped in a black trench coat, his long silver hair tied in a ponytail, falling from the side of his neck, which was so pale it was almost like an ice sculpture.
He sat on the spacious leather back seat with his long legs crossed. His phone kept making crackling explosion sounds. A moment later, the game interface of Candy Crush once again displayed GAME FAILED.
The pressure inside the car dropped suddenly.
Crash! With a loud bang, Maha’s thumb pierced through the phone. Sparks flew everywhere.
Everyone in the car, from the driver to the bodyguards, was silent as a cicada in winter. The Peacock Great Wisdom King casually tossed the phone to Aida Yoshihide and said arrogantly, “Get another one.”
Aida Yoshihide’s face was ashen. His hands trembled slightly as he took the top one from a large pile of brand-new iPhones next to him, unwrapped it, and offered it up.
At that moment, a large wave of people poured out of the airport exit. Yan Lanyu, his face as pale as paper, walked out amidst the crowd, his thin shirt particularly conspicuous. The Esoteric School disciples waiting outside the car immediately spotted him. Several of them silently surrounded him, enclosing him in the middle of the crowd, and escorted him tightly into the car.
Aida immediately let out a sigh of relief. “Your Highness, the demon has returned. Shall we go to the shrine’s altar immediately?”
The demon respectfully bowed its head to the Peacock Wisdom King. Everyone else in the car was silent, staring at Maha’s focused face.
Crack! Pop!
Game Failed.
With a crash of electric current, the iPhone in the Wisdom King’s fair hand turned into a piece of scrap metal and was then casually tossed to the ashen-faced Aida.
Maha let out a “hmph” from his nose.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Aida immediately gave the driver a desperate look, and the black Bentley shot off with a screech.
·
A streak of brilliant light flashed across the clouds. The phoenix spread its wings, and a fierce wind carrying fire streaked across the sky like a meteor.
“So Yu Jingzhong went to Japan on official business back then to steal the Yata-no-Kagami?” Chu He asked amidst the howling wind.
“Steal is too ugly a word!” Zhou Hui shouted. “Yu Jingzhong said it was a legal extradition—!”
Chu He: “…”
Chu He said, “The art of human language is too profound. I don’t quite understand. You continue.”
Zhou Hui nodded in understanding.
“The main body of the Yata-no-Kagami is enshrined in the Ise Grand Shrine, while its heart has been passed down among the headmasters of the Esoteric School for hundreds of years. When it was passed down to the previous headmaster, it had been for several hundred years. At that time, the person actually responsible for guarding the mirror’s heart was Yan Lanyu. That piece of the mirror was always hung around his neck. It was said to have the effect of warding off evil gods and all poisons. On his deathbed, the previous headmaster summoned his two disciples, Amano Kishishi and Aida Yoshihide, to his bedside and had Yan Lanyu choose one of them to serve. Yan Lanyu chose Amano Kishishi.”
“Why have Yan Lanyu choose?” Chu He asked in surprise.
“It’s said that the guardian of the mirror’s heart has a sharper sense of the so-called ‘Mandate of Heaven’. Do you know why a treasure like the Yata-no-Kagami is guarded by an outsider?”
Chu He shook his head.
“The Esoteric School is a very sinister place,” Zhou Hui explained. “They firmly believe that a living person entering demonhood can master heaven-defying power, so for generations, they have been researching how to make a living person enter demonhood. For this, they even once affected the balance of Onmyodo in Japan. The phenomenon of humans and demons coexisting in the Heian period is not unrelated to this.”
“And the Yata-no-Kagami, as the substitute for the great goddess Amaterasu, has a very strong and yang attribute. Only a person with a very strong, pure soul, and whose ‘eight characters’ also meet the requirements, can unleash its strongest power. If one wants to use it for a long time, one must, on the basis of having a yang world soul, also have a matching yin world soul, which is what the four evil paths call a ‘yin-yang soul’…”
Chu He interrupted him. “That’s equivalent to the dead returning to life. Isn’t that something that only exists in theory?”
“Perhaps the headmaster of the Esoteric School has researched a method to artificially refine a yin-yang soul.” Zhou Hui paused and said, “—In short, the person who wears the Yata-no-Kagami has both a yang world soul and a yin world soul. It’s not something just anyone can wear. The fact that little brother Yan can survive in the Esoteric School is thanks to this. The Amano Kishishi he chose later became the headmaster of the Esoteric School. Aida Yoshihide hates him for this, as you saw in H-City.”
The phoenix dove into the churning sea of clouds. The clouds beneath them gradually thinned, and ahead of the shimmering sea, the outline of the Japanese islands gradually appeared.
“Darling, are you tired—?” Zhou Hui asked solicitously.
The phoenix seemed to be pondering something and shook his head perfunctorily. He suddenly asked, “Wait, since the Yata-no-Kagami is so important to the Esoteric School, why did Amano Kishishi let Yan Lanyu come to China so easily back then?”
“The heart of a cannon fodder is as deep as the ocean. How would I know?” Zhou Hui shrugged. “I have no sympathy for cannon fodder. They’re not my kind. I couldn’t care less.”
Chu He: “………………”
The noble corners of the Phoenix Wisdom King’s mouth twitched slightly.
“But not long after Yan Lanyu left, Amano Kishishi entered demonhood. After entering demonhood, his mind couldn’t control the heaven-defying power, and he killed over a hundred people in the Esoteric School in one night… After killing them, he went to the four evil paths. The Esoteric School’s vitality was greatly damaged overnight, so they went to great lengths to trade Aida Yoshihide back from China, hoping he could find a way to lead the disciples to take the Yata-no-Kagami back to Japan.” Zhou Hui said with great interest, “I guess he must have performed a ritual to summon Maha from the sea of blood and promised him something good to persuade Maha to act—damn it, I wonder what kind of treasure it is. I might as well beat up Maha and snatch it for myself.”
The phoenix was simply exasperated. “His father, can you not be like this?!”
The clouds suddenly cleared. The phoenix descended rapidly, the wind howling past the edges of its magnificent wings, creating a dazzling light like millions of lightning flashes.
Zhou Hui’s hairstyle was completely ruined. In the fierce wind, he looked more like a real hell demon than his demonic form. He covered his ears and roared in the wind, “Darling—! I accepted those two kids because I love you! Otherwise, they would have been a dish on my table—!”
With a deafening boom, the phoenix returned to human form in a bright light. Chu He grabbed Zhou Hui’s ear hard and fell rapidly from the high sky.
—Bang!
A large pit appeared out of nowhere in the wilderness beside the highway. At the bottom of the pit, Zhou Hui clutched his ears and yelped in pain, with the almost fainted Chu He pressed on top of him.
“Darling, what’s wrong?” Zhou Hui quickly picked up Chu He and struggled to sit up. “Are you alright?”
“…” Chu He was dizzy, and the bones in his back ached sharply. It took him a long time to regain his senses from the spinning world. For a few seconds, he thought he had become Zhou Hui’s cushion. Then he looked down at their position and realized he was on top, and an even deeper resentment welled up inside him.
“Why are you okay?”
“Huh?” Zhou Hui was baffled. “It’s just a drop of one or two thousand meters. What’s the big deal?”
They looked at each other. Zhou Hui’s face was full of innocence. After a moment, he cutely made a V-sign.
“…” Chu He covered his face and said, “Forget it.”
·
They helped each other out of the pit. Zhou Hui huffed and puffed as he filled the pit with soil to cover the traces, while Chu He sat cross-legged on the lawn not far away, drawing a circle of flickering fire with his bare hands. The void instantly displayed a crisscrossing network of lines like a mirror.
These lines were like the main and secondary roads on a map. A point of light flickered in a corner, moving rapidly in a certain direction.
And at the end of this direction, the light outlined a temple-like building.
“What is this?” Zhou Hui finished filling the pit and walked behind Chu He, asking in surprise, “A tracking route map?”
“When I fought with the demon at the airport, I grabbed Yan Lanyu’s neck. My blood flowed into his wound through the gaps between my fingers. This is the sensing effect of phoenix blood. This building should be… the Ise Grand Shrine. The demon is taking Yan Lanyu’s body to the Ise Grand Shrine.”
Chu He retracted the mirror image in the void and patted Zhou Hui’s shoulder. “We have to get there as soon as possible. Tycoon! It’s up to you!”
Five minutes later, Zhou Hui stood by the side of the road and waved down a speeding motorcycle.
The young man with dyed yellow hair on the motorcycle looked baffled. Zhou Hui didn’t waste any words and just pointed to the motorcycle in English. “Mine!” Then, from his flat jeans pocket, he pulled out a wallet out of thin air, and from the wallet, he pulled out a thick stack of banknotes. “Yours!”
The young man: “………………”
The young man had a “are you kidding me” expression on his face.
Zhou Hui pulled out another equally thick stack of banknotes from his wallet. “OK? Is this okay now? No problem?”
The young man stared at the banknotes, his expression dazed. Three seconds later, Zhou Hui got impatient, let him go, and walked to the other side of the road, preparing to wave down the next passing motorcycle.
“—Hey, hey! Chotto matte!” The young man, who had finally come to his senses, immediately grabbed Zhou Hui, slid off the motorcycle with a screech, and with a fawning smile, pushed the handlebars into Zhou Hui’s hands. He then hugged the banknotes and quickly ran away.
Chu He was amazed and clapped his hands from the side.
Zhou Hui proudly gave a thumbs-up, got on the motorcycle, and struck a very cool pose. “Wife, get on! I’ll take you for a ride! Watch this handsome guy flatten that broken shrine!”
