Chapter 103 – My Disciple Dragged Me, Zhong Fabai, Into a High-Ranked Match?
"That guy died just like that?"
"But the people who were possessed are still fine, aren't they?"
"A Taoist stepped in, so why aren't those people dead yet?"
In a lavish, golden hotel, a group of people were gathered in a room, discussing something.
"So he's dead—well, that just proves he was never fit to be in here in the first place. I even thought of letting him take charge of the Miscellaneous Department, but he turned out to be such trash."
A fat man took a vicious bite of the meat in front of him, muttering in dissatisfaction.
At first, the Miscellaneous Department wasn't important to them, but if they could put a ghost in charge, it would naturally benefit them as well.
But unexpectedly, that serial killer was dealt with so quickly.
"Indeed, let's not touch the Miscellaneous Department for now. It's not that necessary for us anyway. But what about that Taoist? Lately, these Taoists have been getting restless. The formation we set up in that building was also destroyed."
A gray-robed old man spoke, his face flashing with gloom.
He had just absorbed a few souls, and those souls—full of grievance and now harming others—were incredibly tempting to him. For so many years, because they blocked the news, no Taoist ever discovered what was going on here.
But a few days ago, the formation was broken, and all the ghosts were wiped out.
It had frustrated him for days.
"It was the same Taoist. Look at this surveillance footage."
With their identities, it was nothing for them to obtain surveillance.
Renji appeared in the girls' school footage, but as for how he dealt with Chen Fulai, that was unknown.
"The two people from the Miscellaneous Department teamed up with him?"
The Miscellaneous Department had some intel on ghosts, and they also hoped to use it to get rid of some spirits.
After all, if Hong Kong Island ended up full of people possessed by ghosts, how could they enjoy everything they had now?
"How about we revoke the Miscellaneous Department's privileges?"
"Are you brainless? Wouldn't that just tell the Taoist there are people above us?"
As ghosts, they only had the power to possess. Though the possessed looked no different from ordinary people, there was nothing they could do against a Taoist.
If that Taoist started investigating, he could easily wipe them out.
"So what do we do? We can't just watch this happen, right?"
If they didn't delete the files, were they supposed to keep serving them up?
"Actually, we can let this Taoist go after the other ghosts. Those ghosts have some real power. Give him the intel and have him deal with the ones we can't. As for that Taoist, isn't it easy to deal with him? No matter how powerful he is, isn't he still afraid of guns and cannons?
When he's no longer useful, we'll just have our people clean up Renji. Just pin some criminal charges on him—easy as pie for us, right?"
Dealing with Renji was simple. But dealing with the other ghosts was not.
Renji was a Taoist, not Superman—could he be immune to bullets?
"You make a good point. Let him and those ghosts fight each other. If he wins, he gets rid of the threat for us; if he dies, we don't need to worry. So let's not interfere with the Miscellaneous Department for now, just leave it to the humans. We'll provide them with some ghost intel!"
Thinking it through, they suddenly realized their earlier plan had been somewhat misguided.
Just use Renji to get rid of the other ghosts, and in the end, send him to the underworld with a few bursts of gunfire.
"Boss, here's the latest info I found. I've sent it over, check if there's anything you need to ask me about."
"I got it. Take care of the talismans I gave you."
Renji received all the information from Four Eyes.
It was fine if he hadn't looked, but after reading it, he realized there really was a lot of strange stuff in this world.
Huangshan Village, Curse Park, Ghost King, Execution Powder—there were all kinds of haunted happenings in Hong Kong.
Renji was familiar with the Ghost King, after all, it was the "high-rank match downfall" of Zhong Fabai.
As he sorted through the info, Renji glanced at the dim light outside, stretched, and stepped out of his office. Outside, Ah Pan immediately stood up and approached, asking, "Boss, the late-night snack you just ordered—isn't it ready? Want some?"
After things were sorted out at the company, Ah Pan was immediately hired. Although the salary wasn't as high as before, the front desk job was much less work, and it felt much safer.
"Maybe a little. By the way, you can leave after work, you know. Aren't you afraid, staying this late?"
She'd almost been used as a scapegoat by a ghost before—wasn't she scared?
"Boss, don't laugh at me. Compared to leaving early, I actually feel safer here!"
A hint of a bitter smile flashed on Ah Pan's face. She did want to go home early, but after what happened before, she felt being by Renji's side was best.
Who knew if there'd be ghosts waiting if she went home?
She was also planning to move closer when her lease was up.
"Alright, I'll skip the late-night snack. I've got things to do. You and Ah Yi go ahead and eat."
Renji glanced at the paper crane in his hand, then looked at the calendar nearby, feeling something in his heart.
Hearing Renji refuse, Ah Pan's eyes dimmed. She partly wanted to have a snack, but more so to get closer to Renji. But seeing him like this, it was clear he didn't care about that. So, she finally gave up her last hope.
She knew Renji probably didn't want a relationship, or maybe she just wasn't his type. Either way, she chose to respect his decision and move on.
"Master, maybe we should run—"
Elsewhere, Jin Maiji was dragging Zhong Fabai, ready to bolt.
He was truly furious. He didn't expect Meng Chao, that useless guy, wouldn't even dare kill a chicken, making things so awkward now.
Although it looked like Zhong Fabai could hold his own against the Ghost King for a bit, Jin Maiji wasn't an idiot. He could tell that if this went on, Zhong Fabai would definitely get beaten to death.
4.1
Here's the revised translation with all instances of "Miyake Issei" replaced by the neutral title "Ghost King." No nationalistic or xenophobic elements are present. Let me know if you want a different name!
He raised the gun with trembling hands and fired a few shots at the Ghost King, but guns were nearly useless against him.
Still, it did manage to interrupt his attack for a moment.
"You guys go, I'll hold him off!"
"Master!!"
A flash of emotion passed through Jin Maiji's eyes. Although he usually acted carelessly, he knew exactly why Zhong Fabai was doing this.
He was going to sacrifice himself, which made Jin Maiji hate himself even more. If it weren't for them, Zhong Fabai wouldn't have to do this. If only Meng Chao had been willing to kill the chicken earlier—now, because of his hesitation, their master was in danger.
Inspector He on the side was at a loss too, looking back and forth between the three. She wanted to run out of fear, but also knew she couldn't abandon Zhong Fabai at a time like this.
They were the ones who had caused the trouble.
"Take this phone and call the first number in the contacts. Tell him that if I die, he must not act recklessly for revenge!"
A phone?
Meng Chao reflexively took the phone, looking blankly at it, while Jin Maiji reacted quickly and snatched it away, saying, "Hurry up, call the first person—go invite the Buddha from the West!!"
From Zhong Fabai's words, he understood that the first person was probably his fellow disciple.
Time to call for reinforcements!
At this moment, the Ghost King lost interest in playing around. He rushed straight at Zhong Fabai. As long as Zhong Fabai was taken out, the rest could be killed at any time.
Jin Maiji was panicking, reaching for the phone, when a gust of wind roared past his ear. In a flash, someone appeared above the charging Ghost King—a figure holding something like a ninja kunai and a giant blue orb. With a 180-degree spin, he smashed the orb into the Ghost King's back.
Boom!!
Dust and smoke erupted, and the shockwave blasted everyone nearby off their feet.
As the smoke cleared, Renji stood on the Ghost King's head, grinning at Zhong Fabai and teasing, "Hey, old man, looks like I made it just in time. I'm not late, am I?"
After the paper crane signaled something was wrong, Renji had immediately rushed back to Zhong Fabai's side.
He hadn't forgotten that his cheap master had died at the hands of the Ghost King.
He wasn't sure which Ghost Festival it was, so he left the paper crane behind. If anything strange happened, he would rush over.
Renji looked Zhong Fabai up and down. Seeing he wasn't hurt, Renji felt relieved inside.
Back then, Zhong Fabai had saved him and even accepted him as a disciple, teaching him skills.
If, even knowing the plot, he still let Zhong Fabai lose an arm or even die, that would be unacceptable.
"Renji, it's you?!" Zhong Fabai's eyes lit up with delight as he recognized Renji. Seeing the Ghost King still struggling to get up, he quickly warned, "Renji, that guy's a Ghost King! We'll need to work together to finish him!"
Right now, the Ghost King seemed subdued by Renji.
They had to take the chance to finish him off.
"No need to bother, old man—watch carefully, I'll only show you once!"
Renji said, and a flame shot from his hand onto the Ghost King. The burning pain was far worse than the previous Rasengan.
Fire and lightning both restrain evil, and Renji was a Fire Spirit Body.
In no time at all, the Ghost King's corpse was completely incinerated by Renji.
The sight left Zhong Fabai dumbfounded. 'Did I just get carried through a high-level battle by my disciple?'
Suddenly, he seemed to think of something. He rushed up, touched Renji, and then burst out laughing: "A Fire Spirit Body!! My disciple is a Fire Spirit Body! No wonder he's a genius!"
Now he finally understood why Renji could easily handle the Ghost King.
He possessed the Fire Spirit Body, which could restrain all evil just like the Thunder Spirit Body! Zhong Fabai could deal with the Ghost King, too—if it hadn't been for Meng Chao screwing up, even if he lost, he wouldn't have died.
But his disciple was able to easily defeat the Ghost King. This gave Zhong Fabai hope for the revival of Taoism.
In this era, a Spirit Body was almost impossible to come by.
"Disciple!?"
The three—Jin Maiji and the others—looked at each other. They'd thought the one coming would be Zhong Fabai's senior or master, but it was his disciple—and this disciple seemed ridiculously strong.
"Yes, this is my disciple, Renji. As his master, I'm naturally even stronger—just had some unreliable teammates, that's all!"
Now that the ghost was gone, Zhong Fabai could finally relax. He just wanted to be a little sarcastic; if it weren't for Meng Chao dragging him down, things wouldn't have turned out this way.
Meng Chao hung his head in shame, not daring to meet Zhong Fabai's eyes.
It really was his fault, but at least things ended well.
"Old man, it's not as simple as you think. There's a fierce ghost club under their police station. If it's not dealt with, there'll still be trouble later."
"You've grown."
"After this is settled, there's something I want to discuss with you."
Renji planned to invite Zhong Fabai to join his ghost-hunting company once everything here was resolved.
He'd realized just how many ghosts there were in this world. He alone wouldn't be enough. In the future, he wouldn't just invite Zhong Fabai—he'd bring in all the Taoists he could.
The two joined forces to wipe out the fierce ghost club under the police station and also politely declined Chief Ah Xin's invitation. At Renji's ear, a system prompt sounded—he had earned another lottery chance.
Renji ignored it for now and found a quiet place with Zhong Fabai, sharing some intel and warning him seriously: "Old man, don't we have a lot of Taoists here? But there's never any news about them. I suspect that a lot of those in power are dealing with evil paths—or maybe there are even ghosts among them.
I've encountered a type of ghost that's almost indistinguishable from normal people.
As long as they don't slip up, not even Taoists can spot them. Only after I went out did I realize how many ghosts there really are in this world.
All that information is hidden. Ordinary people, even Taoists, can't get access to ghost-related news. Old man, I need your help!!!"
(End of chapter)
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