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Familiar words were like a small copper hammer, beating at Chi Yan’s heart word by word.
Chi Yan’s heart suddenly tightened as he felt a bad premonition pressed against his throat. His throat was a little dry, but he spoke softly, “Da Song, this case is not quite right. Can you find an excuse first to not participate? Take a few days off to take care of Juan Juan at home.” He wouldn’t care more about the other people, but he hoped that his relatives and friends would stay safe.
Song Jin did not answer his question but responded, “Chi Zi, you mean that kind of thing is causing trouble? Um
 I will talk to my supervisor and others, and tell them to pay more attention. Don’t worry.”
Chi Yan sighed, knowing that Song Jin would definitely not let go of this case easily. Moreover, he was not sure that the current situation was exactly what he thought it was, so he couldn’t persuade him any further. He chatted briefly with Song Jin, asked about Tao Juan Juan and the baby in her womb before he left.
Grandpa walked out of his bedroom, walked to the balcony of the living room with his hands behind his back, looked at the sky outside, and muttered, “Looks like it’s going to rain.”
It was the rainy season in R City. Chi Yan washed the teacup that was used by Song Jin and responded casually, “It’s okay, Da Song has a car.”
Grandpa was right, the heavy rain fell on R City that night. There were almost no pedestrians on the streets and even fewer cars than usual. Lying on the bed, he could hear the pitter patter of the heavy rain, the occasional rattling of cars wading through the flooded street, and the rustling of tree branches as they swayed in the wind and rain.
In this noisy yet exceptionally silent natural chord, there were bursts of light and rhythmic knocks on the door.
It was one o’clock in the wee hours of the morning. Chi Yan couldn’t fall asleep thinking about Song Jin’s words. He was playing with his mobile phone when he heard the sound. He stopped his hand movements, and listened carefully for a while — Someone was indeed knocking on his door.
Chi Yan sat up, rolled over and got out of the bed. He walked towards the dark living room feeling a little uneasy and expectantly. He walked towards the wooden door and looked through the cat’s eye. There was a tall and upright figure dressed in black standing outside.
He raised the corners of his mouth and opened the anti-theft door.
The cool air and water vapour rushed in with the man. The man closed the door with the back of his hand and hugged him immediately into his arms at the entrance.
Chi Yan hugged the man back and clung onto him tightly, “Yingzhi ge ge, why are you back so late again?”
Ye Yingzhi responded with an “um” but didn’t answer him, instead he asked, “It’s so late, why aren’t you sleeping yet?”
Grandpa was still resting in the room. Logically, the elderly man no longer needed to sleep now, but just like his morning exercises, Grandpa still maintained his habit of resting at night. Chi Yan led Ye Yingzhi into his room as he was afraid to make noise and disturb Grandpa.
The bedroom light was not lit, only the lamp on the desk was turned on. Ye Yingzhi took off his coat and hung it in Chi Yan’s closet. He sat on the bed and began to unbutton his shirt. Chi Yan sat next to him to help him unbutton and said, “I just can’t sleep.”
“Can’t sleep
” Ye Yingzhi repeated his words. He leaned back slightly, hummed a sound from his nose, stretched out his hands and pressed Chi Yan’s back towards himself, “Well, then serve your ge ge properly tonight and you will be able to sleep.”
Chi Yan was angry that he learnt to be so improper, yet he felt distressed about his illness. He kept thinking that his body was not very healthy and had to give in to him. In the end, he gave up being angry with Ye Yingzhi. Whatever Ye Yingzhi wanted, he would give and coax him until he was satisfied and happy. After making out in bed for a long time together, he finally fell asleep very soundly and deeply.
But Chi Yan was worried about Grandpa and didn’t dare to sleep too long. He got up at 8:30 in the morning after three hours of sleep. He introduced Ye Yingzhi to his Grandpa and told the elderly man that this was the very powerful friend he had mentioned, and that he would be able to send his Grandpa away smoothly within these two days.
Grandpa looked at Ye Yingzhi and nodded with a smile, but did not say anything.
After breakfast, Chi Yan was washing the dishes in the kitchen alone. Grandpa quietly came to the kitchen, stood behind him and whispered, “Xiao Yan, can you tell Grandpa about your friend?”
Chi Yan thought for a while and replied, “His family is like the Chi family. He is also a heavenly master. But he is much better than a three-legged cat like me. He is also very nice. He grew up with me. Grandpa, don’t worry.”
The elderly man’s murky eyes reflected an unswerving worry, “But Xiao Yan, when Grandpa sees you, Lao Li and Xiao Song, you all look like human beings, that is what you all normally look like; but I can’t see your friend’s appearance. What I see is a dark black mass, full of ghost and yin energy
 Grandpa is a little scared. It is okay if Grandpa doesn’t leave, and doesn’t get reborn, but Xiao Yan, you mustn’t provoke anything that shouldn’t be provoked for my sake.
Chi Yan quickly calmed him down and said, “It’s okay, Grandpa, don’t worry about it. Yingzhi ge ge and his family cultivated the Ghost Dao. It may seem a little different, but it won’t be a problem.” Besides, if he had provoked anything, even if it was not for Grandpa, he probably had already provoked Ye Yingzhi long ago.
Seeing that Chi Yan was very close and trusted Ye Yingzhi, and having listened to his explanation, the worries in the elderly man’s eyes faded a bit, but still another unspeakable worry in his heart got even heavier — it was just the elderly man’s intuition. He just intuitively thought that that person was not a good thing. Yet his grandson was so close to that thing, he was afraid Chi Yan would get eaten up by that thing until nothing would be left.
But just as Chi Yan was unable to persuade Song Jin not to take up that case because of his bad premonition, Grandpa was also unable to persuade Chi Yan to leave Ye Yingzhi based on his instinct alone, so he could only remind him to be careful and don’t trust others too much.
Sending Grandpa away to be reborn cannot be delayed, Ye Yingzhi and Chi Yan discussed sending Grandpa away at the hour of ‘Zi’ (2300hrs – 1 00hr) at night. Chi Yan asked for Grandpa’s opinion, and the elderly man agreed, but he was still worried about Chi Yan and repeatedly urged him to be careful and take care of himself.
Chi Yan’s home lacked some materials needed for the arrangement of the magic circle. Ye Yingzhi had someone to send them over. But he didn’t seem to want his subordinates to come to Chi Yan’s house, so he had to go and fetch them personally. Chi Yan said that he would go and fetch them for him but was turned down.
After Ye Yingzhi left the house for a minute, someone knocked on the door again. The knocks on the door were fast and urgent, not like Ye Yingzhi had gone and returned. Chi Yan wondered who it could be, so he went to open the door. As it was evening time when all his neighbours were at home, ordinary criminals usually wouldn’t attack at this time, so he was not so vigilant.
There was a young man standing outside the door. His hair was messy, his clothes were wrinkled and there were two obvious shades of cyanosis under his eyes. Chi Yan glanced carefully before confirming that the person in front of him turned out to be Xu Rui.
Xu Rui seemed very excited when he saw Chi Yan. He quickly rushed into the house, as if afraid of something. Then he quickly closed the security door and let out a long sigh of relief. The eyes looking at Chi Yan were a little red but he managed a smile, “Young Master Chi, I finally managed to escape.”
Chi Yan poured him a cup of hot water and let him sit on a chair, “What’s wrong? Speak slowly, what happened?”
Xu Rui’s lips trembled as he looked at the hot water vapour above the cup, his eyes were a little empty, “They are all dead
Everyone in the Xu family, except Xiao Xin who came out earlier and I who barely escaped, the rest are all dead.”
He suddenly grabbed Chi Yan’s hands which were placed on the table and shook them, “Young Master Chi, you have to be careful! Ye Yingzhi is no longer a human being! The reason Mt. Yin became like this is all because of him.”
The place where the three families of Chi, Ye, and Xu lived in seclusion was called Mt. Yin by them.
Chi Yan froze all of a sudden. Xu Rui’s hands were very cold, and he felt like he was being held by a block of ice. His palms started sweating but he had no time to think about it. Instead, he grabbed Xu Rui’s hand, stared at him firmly and asked, “What did you say?”
“Ye Yingzhi is dead. The reason Mt. Yin has such a thick ghost energy causing an Yin Yang topsy turvy is all because of him. Ah Yan, you believe me, we found Ye Yingzhi’s own tomb in Ye’s ancestral graveyard. Ye Yingzhi came back when we were about to dig his grave to examine the coffin, and then the Ye family members arrested us. With the help of my parents and eldest uncle, I ran out. Only I managed to escape
 Chi Yan, I saw it with my own eyes, Ye Yingzhi is really not a human being.” His hands kept trembling and his words were incoherent.
Chi Yan patted him lightly, “Xu Rui, calm down and speak slowly. What do you mean? Why did you say that the ghost energy at Mt. Yin was caused by Yingzhi ge ge? What about opening up the coffin?” Xu Rui’s appearance was obviously not normal and his words didn’t sound that credible. Chi Yan naturally did not believe that Ye Yingzhi was dead. There should be some misunderstandings and he waited for Xu Rui to clarify.
“That’s
 I told my father about your conjecture at that time. He and eldest uncle used our family’s magical tools to check and discovered that Mt. Yin was indeed being shrouded with a thick layer of ghost energy. They finally found that the source of the ghost energy was the Ye’s house, from Ye Yingzhi’s body.”
Listening to Xu Rui’s words, Chi Yan suddenly remembered that the thing that had possessed Chi Lin Sheng’s body had also said that Yingzhi ge ge and the ghost energy there were connected. But that thing said that Ye Yingzhi depended on inhaling the ghost energy to prolong his life, and that Ye Yingzhi depended on it; and Xu Rui’s words meant that Ye Yingzhi was already dead, and he was the source of ghost energy. The ghost energy was caused by him. These two claims were contradictory, so one of their judgements must be wrong, or both were wrong. What he was certain was that there should be some connection between Yingzhi ge ge and that ghost energy. He had to ask him when he got back.
Xu Rui continued, “But how could an ordinary ghost have that kind of influence and ability? Pretending to be a heavenly master without being noticed for so many years, and even changed the luck of a spiritual place, turning it into an Yin Yang reversed hellish scene. My uncle and father suspected that Ye Yingzhi had turned into the most evil and most powerful Ghost Emperor after death. In order to verify this and increase our bargaining chips against him, we secretly searched for Ye Yingzhi’s tomb.”
Xu Rui was a lot calmer at this time, and his words became more coherent. Chi Yan frowned and listened quietly. Suddenly, he saw Grandpa peeping out of the bedroom and quietly beckoning him to go over.
Xu Rui had his back in front of Grandpa and so he didn’t see it.
Chi Yan stood up and stuffed the hot tea cup into Xu Rui’s hand, “You warm up with this first, I have to go to the bathroom.”
Xu Rui nodded and did not speak. He held onto the tea cup in a daze and looked tired.
Chi Yan walked to Grandpa’s side as the old man pulled Chi Yan into the room and whispered, “Xiao Yan, be careful. Grandpa can see that your friend is just like me, he’s no longer human.”