Chapter Ninety-One: Hartbrian

Time slipped quietly by. In the blink of an eye, four days had passed.

During these four days, Li Changqing remained at home, practicing the art of drawing talismans. In the process, he gradually mastered some patterns and rules for the Evil-Capturing Talisman. He even managed to produce a few successfully, though his success rate was still rather low.

He also spent much time reading the books brought by Hu Xiong. These volumes recorded countless fascinating stories about demons and monsters. For example, the strength of a monster could be distinguished by the color of its demonic aura. Most monsters possessed black aura, but when their power reached a certain threshold, it would slowly turn green.

Black-aura monsters were graded from A to E by the Thirty-Six Bureau. If the aura was green, they were classified as S-level, also known as Demon Kings. If corpses or ghosts reached such power, they would be called Corpse Kings or Ghost Kings, respectively. Zombies themselves were divided into five levels: white, yellow, blue, green, and red. At present, he was merely a White-Eyed Zombie.

Li Changqing found these books both entertaining and enlightening, and attempted to deduce what kind of ghost Tang Xiaoyu truly was. Ghosts were said to be unable to withstand sunlight, yet Tang Xiaoyu could sunbathe if she wished. But the books made no mention of ghosts immune to sunlight.

There seemed to be three possibilities. First, Tang Xiaoyu was not a ghost at all, but some other malevolent entity. Second, she was a Ghost King, able to ignore the sun. Third, her type of ghost had simply not been documented in these books.

Upon careful reflection, the Ghost King theory was unlikely—could such a timid creature ever be a Ghost King? Besides, he’d known Tang Xiaoyu for quite some time and was well acquainted with her nature.

Of course, while Li Changqing had no intention of leaving the house these days, Tang Xiaoyu had taken to experimenting in the kitchen. She watched cooking shows daily and produced an array of extravagant dishes. Though the flavors were not bad, Li Changqing was happy to serve as her guinea pig.

On the fourth day, at noon, Li Changqing was just eating when the phone rang.

It was Hu Xiong’s voice on the line. “Hey, how’s your investigation coming along?”

Li Changqing replied as he ate, “I’m working on it. This isn’t exactly a dinner invitation—leads take time.”

“You’ve been cooped up at home for days. Investigating in your dreams?” Hu Xiong teased.

Li Changqing paused, strode quickly to the window, and glanced at the building across the street. He saw no sign of Hu Xiong, so he drew the curtains and asked, “Are you spying on me?”

Hu Xiong snorted, “I don’t have the time to spy on you. Just a guess—and apparently a good one.”

“You may not have found any clues, but I have—and you’ll find this interesting.”

“You have a detective friend from the Lamella Empire, right? He’s working at your detective agency. Someone from Morro Gate has their eye on him.”

Kelly?

Li Changqing’s heart sank, and his brows furrowed. Someone from Morro Gate was watching Kelly? What was happening?

“All right, I’ll come over shortly.”

After hanging up, Li Changqing scratched his head in frustration. If Kelly was getting entangled with Morro Gate because of the earlier capture of Xia Ping, Li Changqing wouldn’t be able to avoid it.

Once he’d finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen and dishes, Hu Xiong called again to say he was already downstairs.

Li Changqing changed his clothes and said to Tang Xiaoyu, “Xiaoyu, go to the bun shop later and don’t come home tonight. If anything happens, call me immediately.”

If Kelly was being targeted because of the incident with Xia Ping, then his sister might also be in danger.

“Got it!” Tang Xiaoyu replied, and Li Changqing hurried downstairs.

A sedan was parked by the roadside. Hu Xiong stood outside, smoking; on closer look, Bai Chuan was seated inside.

Hu Xiong waved him over. “Let’s talk in the car.”

Li Changqing opened the door and took a seat in the back, immediately asking, “What’s going on?”

“Morro Gate has sent quite a few people to Nanlin City, though we don’t know the exact number—Xia Ping doesn’t either. But we managed to extract the whereabouts of one of their guardians from him.”

“His name is Hart Brian, from the Lamella Empire. He lives on Empire Street in Nanlin City.”

Empire Street was akin to the Chinatown of Li Changqing’s previous life. Lamella Empire expatriates tended to congregate in this district when they moved to the Federation.

“Hart Brian is a guardian of Morro Gate. Recently, he’s been lurking around the residence of your detective friend.”

Upon learning of Hart Brian’s presence, the Thirty-Six Bureau began a covert investigation and soon identified their target.

“Since you’ve already found him, why not just arrest him?” Li Changqing asked, puzzled. Did this sort of thing really require notifying him?

Hu Xiong shook his head. “If we act directly, we risk alarming the others. We don’t know how many Morro Gate agents are here, nor their intentions.”

“So you want...?” Li Changqing narrowed his eyes.

“We want your friend to act as bait,” Hu Xiong said slowly. “Brian’s repeated visits to your friend’s neighborhood must have a purpose. But that street is busy—maybe that’s why he hasn’t made a move. So we need Kelly to lure him out.”

To use Kelly as bait?

Li Changqing immediately refused. “That’s far too dangerous. Kelly is just an ordinary person; he stands no chance against such sinister forces.”

Hu Xiong tried to reassure him. “Don’t worry, we’ll protect him from the shadows. He’ll be safe. Besides, since Brian has already targeted Kelly, it’s only a matter of time before he strikes. If Kelly cooperates, we can capture him quietly. That’s the best option.”

It was hard to argue with Hu Xiong’s reasoning. If Brian had set his sights on Kelly, the only way to keep Kelly safe was to apprehend Brian.

Seeing Li Changqing nod, Hu Xiong started the car and headed toward Empire Street.

Empire Street was distinctively Western, unlike any other part of Nanlin City. Most pedestrians were from the Lamella Empire—fair skin, blue eyes, golden hair.

The car rolled to a stop in front of an apartment building.

“Call Kelly and ask him to go to North City Park—it’s mostly deserted. We’ll follow him.”

Li Changqing nodded, picked up his phone, and dialed Kelly.

“Hello?” Kelly’s cheerful voice came through. “My friend, is there something you need?”

“Kelly, are you free? Come to North City Park—I have a commission for you.”

Kelly perked up at the mention of a commission. “My friend, at last! I was bored out of my mind. I’ll be there right away.”

After hanging up, Hu Xiong pointed out a direction from inside the car. “That’s Hart Brian!”

Hart Brian was standing beneath the apartment, holding a newspaper, occasionally glancing up at the building.