It was obvious Huang Ran was truly anxious, even losing his basic judgment. His bulky body was no match for Yang Xiao or Meng Qiqi. With a loud "boom," Huang Ran's big belly got stuck on the floor, half of his body exposed and looking ridiculously awkward.
At that moment, wisps of mist seeped out from the floorboards around Huang Ran. Moments later, the mist condensed into the shape of the Arcanobeast. The formed Arcanobeast slowly moved behind Huang Ran. Because his body was stuck in the floor, Huang Ran's movements were restricted. Although he still held the bronze sword, the angle prevented him from harming the Arcanobeast even slightly. I was about to shoot the Arcanobeast with a crossbow bolt but was stopped by Sun Fatty, who had a strange smile and said, "Lazi, wait a bit—let's see what happens first. Maybe this is something their Religious Affairs Commission's business."
Just as the Arcanobeast was about to reach Huang Ran, he suddenly dropped the bronze sword and pulled out a piece of leather from his bosom, then forcefully threw it toward me and Sun Fatty. As he threw it, he shouted, "Go ask them!" The Arcanobeast abruptly changed direction and dashed toward us.
Huang Ran had aimed at Sun Fatty when throwing the leather. Sun Fatty caught it and, without even looking, tucked it into Li Qimu's arms. The Arcanobeast ignored me and Sun Fatty, heading straight for Li Qimu. At this point, Li Qimu had woken and watched helplessly as the Arcanobeast approached, nearly face to face.
"Grandpa…" Li Qimu suddenly burst into tears upon seeing the Arcanobeast. He stretched out his arms to hug it, but the mist-formed body left him grasping at air. The Arcanobeast stared at Li Qimu for a moment, then stepped back, and once again dissolved into mist and vanished.
After the Arcanobeast disappeared, Meng Qiqi walked over and asked Li Qimu, "What's going on? The Arcanobeast is your grandpa? No… wait, how could you see him?" Li Qimu choked up and was speechless. Sun Fatty patted his shoulder, then pulled the leather piece out of Li Qimu's arms along with the Hidden Atlas of Heaven that he had been secretly carrying. I saw clearly—both leather pieces were identical, even the texture in hand was indistinguishable.
Sun Fatty glanced at Huang Ran, still stuck in the floor, and joked, "Old Huang, I'm not kidding, your skills are pretty good! If Li Jianghe hadn't been charging at you the whole time, I wouldn't have noticed you swapped the Hidden Atlas of Heaven. No wonder you gave up so quickly."
Huang Ran forced a laugh and said, "It's like this now—can you pull me up first before talking?"
Sun Fatty pulled me and Li Qimu together, and the three of us helped Huang Ran out of the hole. Once up, Huang Ran immediately looked around the church, and seeing no sign of the Arcanobeast returning, he crouched to catch his breath. Sun Fatty smiled and said, "Old Huang, say something. It's not right for you to keep quiet in a situation like this."
Huang Ran looked at Sun Fatty, then at Li Qimu. After a pause, he said quietly, "You probably guessed most of it already. The Arcanobeast is Li Jianghe. He was ruthless—before he died, he almost completely demonized his soul. After death, he turned into an Arcanobeast guarding the Hidden Atlas of Heaven. I only recognized him when he showed up just now. It's a pity—for such a high-ranking committee member to end up as an Arcanobeast…"
Hearing this, Li Qimu was filled with sorrow. After calming down, he asked Huang Ran, "What about me? Why could I suddenly see my grandpa's spirit? Is this what you call the Heavenly Eye?" Huang Ran nodded and said, "You already have the Heavenly Eye. I guess when you were a child, Li Jianghe used some special method to block this ability. I don't know the details, but I can guess—it was probably to prevent our committee from tracking Li Jianghe through you. But under those circumstances just now, Li Jianghe's Arcanobeast lifted the Heavenly Eye's restriction on you—he must have wanted to see you one last time."
After Huang Ran finished speaking, tears welled up in Li Qimu's eyes again. Sun Fatty patted his shoulder, comforting him a bit. But Huang Ran was surprised by something too. He looked at Li Qimu and said, "Originally, Li Jianghe had the chance to keep us occupied so you could escape with the Hidden Atlas of Heaven. I don't know why he didn't…" Before he could finish, a voice suddenly came from the direction of the church entrance: "That's because he sensed I was back."
The church's main door was pushed open, and Yang Xiao finally appeared after chasing the shadowy figure but losing it. He had returned alone, clearly having lost the trail. Yang Xiao looked battered—his clothes were gone somewhere, and even his pants were full of holes. Blood seeped from the torn fabric along the pant legs, as if corroded by some acidic substance. Sun Fatty and I were both startled. When I tried to move closer to help, he stopped me from a distance: "Don't come near, this is corrosive magic. If you get close, you'll be in trouble too."
Sun Fatty, seeing Yang Xiao came back empty-handed, quickly asked, "What happened? Where's that bastard?" Yang Xiao said nothing. He pulled out a chair and sat down carefully, slowly removing his outer pants. His thigh muscles and skin underneath were bloodied and torn, with dozens of bloody holes—at least forty or fifty across both legs—making one's skin crawl just to look.
When Meng Qiqi saw Yang Xiao start to take off his pants, she blushed deeply and spat out some saliva in embarrassment. But now, peeking through her fingers, she was stunned: "Whoever you are, you've been hit by the 'Erosion Soul Technique'? That's a soul-corroding spell—if you get hit, even your soul will be eaten away… and you're still taking off?" Halfway through her sentence, she turned red-faced and looked away. Yang Xiao had already removed his underwear and was sitting naked on the chair.
Meng Qiqi couldn't bear to watch anymore, but the rest of us men could see clearly. Yang Xiao's lower body was covered in bloodstains, and except for his genitals, almost no skin was intact. After stripping completely, Yang Xiao slowly stood up. As he rose, the chair creaked and broke into several pieces scattered on the floor.
"Yang Xiao, don't you want us to help?" I asked involuntarily. "Just tell us what to do."
Yang Xiao didn't answer, only waved me off and walked over to a shadowed corner where sunlight didn't reach, lying down completely naked on the floor.
Watching Yang Xiao lie still, neither Sun Fatty nor I nor even Huang Ran understood what was going on. Huang Ran seemed like he wanted to get a closer look but was wary of the soul-eroding spell Meng Qiqi mentioned, so he only glanced from afar. Sun Fatty took out his phone during this time and started texting rapidly. I glanced over but couldn't catch the recipient's name because he typed too fast.
After some time, Yang Xiao finally changed. Black wisps began to emanate from his lower body, but the black smoke seemed incompatible with the air—appearing and dissipating instantly. After a while, Yang Xiao stood up, and during that short time, the bleeding in his lower limbs had stopped. Some of the lighter wounds had begun to scab over, and the larger wounds showed signs of shrinking.
Yang Xiao looked down at his wounds, deciding they were about healed enough, then called out, "Whose pants can I borrow?"
At those words, everyone's eyes turned to me. Sun Fatty and Huang Ran had unusual body shapes—Yang Xiao could slip into one of their pant legs like a skirt. Li Qimu was too skinny; his pants might not fit Yang Xiao. Only I had a similar build, so the pants naturally fell to me to lend.
As I was about to come up with an excuse to let Yang Xiao settle for some scraps of cloth instead, Li Qimu saved me: "Why don't you try the clergy's clothes?" He pointed to a room nearby and said, "That's the changing room. Including the priest, there are six clergy members in this church. You should be able to find something to fit you there."
While Yang Xiao went to find some clothes, Huang Ran blinked and grabbed the bronze sword from the ground, slowly approaching where Yang Xiao had been lying. After Huang Ran moved there without incident, Sun Fatty glanced at me, and we moved left and right behind him. On the floor appeared a human-shaped mark, noticeably different in color from the rest of the floorboards. Huang Ran studied it for a moment, then lightly tapped the floor inside the mark with the bronze sword. The wooden floor made a metallic ringing sound: "clang clang."
Huang Ran's eyes suddenly sharpened. He crouched and gently touched the mark with his hand. Sun Fatty tugged at him and said, "Wasn't this the soul-eroding spell? Old Huang, are you crazy?"
Huang Ran looked back at him and smiled wryly: "It's fine. The soul-eroding substance has been neutralized; there's no danger now." Then he tapped the floor again, "Wood turning into metal—Yang Xiao's got some real skill."
Sun Fatty was confused and frowned at Huang Ran: "What do you mean, turning wood into metal? Old Huang, explain clearly."
Huang Ran looked at him, took a deep breath, and with some effort stood up again: "When Yang Xiao expelled the soul-eroding substance, he also altered the floor's wooden nature. It's not really metal but something between metal and wood. This requires enormous external force and a long time to achieve. I've heard of people doing it with magic, but it takes multiple people working together. Yang Xiao made it look way too easy."
Just as Huang Ran finished speaking, the changing room door opened again. Yang Xiao came out wearing a short priest's robe. He glanced at Sun Fatty and me first. Before Sun Fatty could ask what had happened, Yang Xiao fixed his gaze on Huang Ran: "You still owe me some answers from Mudanjiang."
Huang Ran clearly felt intimidated. He hesitated, then forced a smile and said, "Still about Tao Heru? I only heard a few words from the elders in the committee. He was with the committee for a few days but left shortly after. You've been at the Bureau for so long; if you wanted to know, you could've checked yourself. Actually..." Huang Ran paused, glanced at Sun Fatty and me, then continued, "You can find it at the Bureau with a quick search. Why bother asking me?"
Yang Xiao snorted. I understood his meaning—there had been a gag order on the 1975 incident inside the Bureau. Most investigators had never heard of it. To access those files required a director-level clearance. Yang Xiao probably didn't want to trouble Director Wu to look it up for him.
Sun Fatty squinted at Huang Ran for a long time without speaking. After Huang Ran finished, Sun Fatty suddenly turned to Yang Xiao and asked, "Yang Xiao, seriously, why did you bring up Tao Heru again?"
Yang Xiao was silent for a moment, then looked at Sun Fatty and said, "That shadow just now used Tao Heru's technique, but he made a slight change at the end. That's how I got caught."