Just as Sun Fatty and Xiong Wanyi were about to enter, I walked over and gave a quick reminder. "Dasheng, Old Xiong, stay sharp. Let's meet up when we get out."
"No guarantee we'll get out at all," Sun Fatty started spouting nonsense again. "Lazi, as long as you stick with Director Wu Rendi, there's nothing to worry about. Me? I'm stuck with—"
"Don't make me start," Xiong Wanyi interrupted, clearly fed up. "I'm the unlucky one here, stuck with a lump like you. If anything goes wrong, I won't even be able to run. What the hell did I do to deserve this?"
I glanced at the two of them. "How about this… we switch? I'll give up my spot. One of you team up with Wu Rendi, and the other comes with me. Sound good?"
Like they were telepathic, they both answered at once, "Nah, this works. No need to bother Director Wu."
"I knew you two were loyal," I chuckled and took out my handgun and magazine from behind my back, handing them back to Sun Fatty. To my surprise, the guy actually turned them down for once. When I started getting impatient, he finally pulled out a handgun from his waistband—it was the custom-issue Type 92 from the Bureau that I'd lost.
Both Xiong Wanyi and I stared in shock. Sun Fatty grinned shamelessly. "I saw your gun stashed in the locker and figured you might need it. Thought I'd keep it safe for you. Looks like I was right, huh?"
Before I could say anything, Xiong Wanyi chimed in, "And what about our guns?"
"You think I've got time to babysit you two?" Sun Fatty curled his lip. "Whoever swiped them, go ask them for it."
With that, Sun Fatty and Xiong Wanyi bickered their way into the third fork. I took out my lighter, ready to light the incense stick before entering mine, when Wu Rendi—who had been silent this whole time—suddenly spoke.
"Hold on."
"Hm?" I looked up at him, waiting for what he had to say.
"Shao Yiyi," Director Wu finally mentioned the name I'd been curious about. "Once we're out of the Path of the Dead, if anything happens to her, do everything you can to protect her."
"Me? Shao Yiyi?" I didn't get what he meant. "Director Wu, you're here, Yang Xiao's here, and if all else fails, even Mi Rongheng is better than me. Why would it fall on me?"
Wu Rendi didn't answer immediately. He just ran both hands through his hair a few times. Oddly enough, doing that seemed to darken his hair dramatically—covering up what had previously been visible black roots. In that moment, I suddenly remembered how he'd looked in Qilin City. It was because of his black hair that Yang Xiao didn't recognize him as Wu Rendi.
"I'm barely hanging on. Yang Xiao might've been an ace, but this place clashes with his very being—he's lucky just to stay alive here," Wu said calmly. His tone hadn't changed much from usual, except he'd lost that trademark superiority. And he was talking a lot more than usual.
"Then why did we even come down here?" I felt my scalp prickling. I had thought that with Wu Rendi and Yang Xiao around, we'd be safe. But now it seemed like this was more of a suicide mission.
"There are some things you don't get to choose," Wu Rendi said, firm and final—his imperious air snapping back in full force.
It was hard to believe those words came from him. I'd always assumed he'd say something more like: "Whether I do it or not is my call—none of your business."
After a short silence, Wu pulled out a small porcelain vial. Without warning, he unscrewed the cap and shoved it under my nose. "Smell this."
Caught off guard, I breathed in instinctively—only to be hit with a stench that could melt paint. It shot straight to my brain and made my skull throb like it was about to crack open.
I'd smelled some foul stuff in my time, but nothing even remotely close to this. Imagine locking a hundred dead rats in a jar, letting them rot and ferment for a year—that might come close.
"Ugh—" I doubled over and started vomiting, bracing against the wall. Strangely enough, after retching for a while, it felt like the foul energy inside me was being expelled. My vision, which had been murky and dark, slowly started to clear. Is my Heavenly Eye back? I squinted into the darkness ahead, only to be disappointed—it was still mostly just the immediate surroundings I could see.
Wiping my mouth, I turned to Wu Rendi and asked, "What was that reeking crap?"
"Reeking crap? You'll be calling it perfume in a minute."
I knew better than to push for more—if Wu Rendi didn't want to explain, no amount of asking would make him. Since it looked like he had nothing more to say, I stopped bothering him and lit the incense before following him into the last fork.
The path inside was completely different from the passageways before. The ground looked like it had just snowed—covered in a thick layer of white ash. It felt like walking on cotton.
I stepped carefully, eyes scanning the surroundings with growing wariness.
"Relax, this is the Good Path," Wu said beside me. Maybe noticing I wasn't convinced, he added, "That stuff underfoot is called Yang Ash—a mix of asbestos and lime. It absorbs yin energy. According to the Ghost Path Sect's theory, if you draw out just the right amount of yin energy from a person, evil forces won't be able to anchor onto them."
Suddenly, I had a strange realization—Wu Rendi, now with black hair, was being unusually chatty. Normally, he'd never bother explaining this kind of thing to me.
While he was in the mood, I asked, "What about the Evil Path? What's that like?"
"The Ghost Path Sect's Evil Path is water-based," he replied. "Water rules yin, so the Evil Path is essentially a big, concentrated pool of negative energy. When we're out, check everyone's pant legs. If they're wet, they walked the Evil Path."
About a hundred meters farther in, the ground started turning red. By the end, the entire surface was bright crimson.
"Cinnabar?" I recognized it immediately.
Wu nodded. "Yeah, but not the good stuff. This is just for show."
We turned a corner—and the scenery changed completely. The cinnabar and Yang Ash were gone. Ahead lay a damp cement floor, walls thick with moss, and dozens of unknown bugs crawling around. The whole place gave off a chill.
Wu Rendi's face immediately darkened. "Evil Path. Half good, half evil. Keeps things interesting."
"Director Wu, are you saying this next section is the Evil Path?" I looked at the damp concrete ahead.
"I've never heard of the Ghost Path Sect using roads like this," he muttered, his voice low.
"So… what do we do now?"
"No turning back. Keep going." As he said it, Wu had already stepped onto the wet floor.
Even without the Spirit Eye, I could feel the danger thickening ahead. I had the safety off on my gun, but hesitated. In the end, I holstered it and drew my baton instead, following closely behind Wu Rendi.
That putrid scent from the vial was still rattling around in my skull, leaving me with a splitting headache. The moment I stepped onto the Evil Path, a wave of dizziness hit me—and everything went black. I was about to faceplant when I jolted awake. Thankfully, muscle memory from my special ops days kicked in. I braced both hands against the floor and pushed off hard enough to stop my fall.
I didn't fall, but the incense stick Yang Xiao had given me had slipped from my hand. When I picked it up, it was already soaked through and snapped into several pieces.
Grasping at straws, I called out, "Director Wu! Yang Xiao is from your Sixth Division—you must have one of these too, right?" I held up the broken incense pieces.
"That was Yang Xiao's personal stash. I don't have any." Wu walked over and studied me from head to toe. His gaze made my skin crawl.
"Director Wu, is there something on me?" I asked nervously.
Wu Rendi looked at me and said, "There's something…"
I knew it! Gritting my teeth, I already had the baton raised behind my head, ready to smash it against my back.
Just as I was about to knock myself out, Director Wu followed up with the rest of his sentence: "I can't see it either."
I quickly pulled the baton back. "You can't see it? What do you mean?"
Wu Rendi suddenly let out a small laugh, one laced with a trace of helpless bitterness. "I'm just like you now. My Heavenly Eye has closed."
"Your Heavenly Eye can close too?" I knew his body had undergone some kind of change, but I didn't expect even his Heavenly Eye to shut. That meant Wu Rendi was no different from me now. This wasn't just a crisis for the girls' school anymore—it had become the greatest crisis for the entire Bureau of Paranormal Investigation.
I asked, "Who did this?"
Wu Rendi sighed. "I did. I did it myself."
I had no idea what to say. I could only stare at him, waiting for him to continue.
Sure enough, Wu Rendi spoke again, this time much slower, as if afraid I wouldn't catch every word. "Now, I'll tell you my greatest secret." He paused, then said, "Every three years, I lose all of my abilities for thirteen days. It takes another ten days after that before they start to return."
Judging by Wu Rendi's expression, he didn't look like he was lying. My disbelief began to soften a little. "Let's put off talking about the Child Granny for now. Director Wu, if that's the case, why don't you just hide somewhere for those thirteen days? Keep your head down until it blows over, and come out when things are back to normal?"
Wu Rendi didn't answer me directly. Instead, he said a name: "Shao Yiyi."
Truth be told, I had already guessed it about seventy percent, but hearing it from Wu Rendi himself still caught me off guard. I had no idea what kind of charm that sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl possessed to make Director Wu throw even his life away just to stay by her side.
Wu Rendi continued, "Shao Yiyi's fate is highly unusual. Every two years, she faces a calamity. I helped her survive the last seven. I didn't expect this year's calamity to coincide so precisely with my thirteen-day window."
"Hold on a second!" I interrupted him, having caught something strange. "Director Wu, you said you helped her through the last seven calamities. That means you've known her since she was a child? You're Shao Yiyi's…" The last two words were on the tip of my tongue, but I deliberately didn't say them out loud.
"Shao Yiyi is my descendant. What about it?" Wu Rendi gave me an annoyed glance, then added, "Back when I asked you and Sun Desheng to deliver money to her and her mother, didn't you know?"
How were we supposed to know if you didn't say anything? Besides, the two of you don't look that far apart in age, and you don't look alike. One's surname is Shao, the other Wu—how could we have guessed she's your descendant?
Wait a minute…
Descendant. Wu Rendi just said "descendant." He didn't say daughter.
Now I was starting to lose my composure. Wu Rendi didn't say daughter, granddaughter, or great-granddaughter. He said descendant. Was that just a linguistic quirk, or did I hear it right?
I coughed once and cautiously tested the waters. "We really didn't think in that direction. We assumed Shao Yiyi was your daughter."
"Didn't you hear me just now?" Wu Rendi said. "Shao Yiyi is my descendant, not my daughter."
Judging by his expression, he wasn't joking. Thinking back to our first encounter in the Water Curtain Cave in Yunnan, I remembered how he hinted, while fighting those dried corpses, that he'd known them back when they were still alive. The Water Curtain Cave was an altar of the Dian Kingdom. The Dian Kingdom existed during the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty(Note: The Western Han Dynasty lasted from 202 BCE to 9 CE.) was… quite a long time ago.
I composed myself and asked, "Just out of curiosity—how old are you, exactly, Director Wu?"
"What does my age have to do with you?" Wu Rendi replied with his usual hint of sarcasm. He glanced at me, then softened slightly. "Anyway, just remember this: if anything happens to Shao Yiyi, you must protect her with your life."
His descendant gets into trouble, and I'm the one who has to risk my life? The nerve. He said it like it was perfectly reasonable—like someone else dying for his descendant was only natural.
"You flatter me," I sighed. "But why does it have to be me who puts his life on the line? What about Sun Dasheng, Xiong Wanyi, or Ximen Lian?"
Wu Rendi didn't respond right away. He stared at me, making me too nervous to maintain eye contact. My eyes darted all over the place.
At last, Wu Rendi spoke. His words caught me completely off guard and sent a chill down my spine.
"Because you and I… might be the same kind of person."