Wen Yan was secretly shocked. He had only blessed it a little, but the effect far exceeded his expectations. By his estimate, he’d have had to bless it with ten times more yang energy to reach this level of effect.
"So the legend is true?"
"It used to be true. It really could command the zombie horde, but the one who had that ability was the person using the weapon back then, not the weapon itself. It just got distorted over time, totally drifting from what it was at first."
Wen Yan withdrew his yang energy and put the Chunjun Mace back in its box. The originally rusted Chunjun Mace now lost its luster, and the rust was gone too. Its surface wasn’t so glossy as to reflect light, the whole thing was simple and imposing, covered all over with densely engraved mysterious talismans.
He took out another box—the phoenix hairpin inside looked just like an ordinary piece of jewelry.
"Why do you want this thing anyway? This isn’t something you wanted me to get for you, right?"
The little zombie spoke in her whimpering language, with Sparrow Cat acting as a merciless interpreter.
"She says, she’s just heard of this thing. Actually, there are two of these, they’re a pair, tokens to enter the Ba Yun Lands. Only if you find both can you go to the Ba Yun Lands."
"Is that place any good for you?"
"She says she doesn’t know, just that it’s very important."
"Alright then, since it’s important, we’ll hang on to it, and later try to find the other one."
The little zombie hugged Wen Yan around the neck, whimpering sweetly. Sparrow Cat suddenly made a retching sound.
The little zombie whipped around, glaring at Sparrow Cat, whining who knows what.
Sparrow Cat instantly caved.
"Alright, alright, she says you’re the best big brother ever, she likes you most of all... ugh..."
The little zombie immediately jumped down and started chasing Sparrow Cat, floating after him up to the second floor. Wen Yan watched their antics and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
Upstairs, Sparrow Cat perched on top of the wardrobe, warily watching the little zombie.
"You can talk all you want from now on, but you’re not allowed to smash my phone," Sparrow Cat said. Then, after a second of thought, he added quickly, "Wen Yan definitely doesn’t want you breaking my phone."
The little zombie considered, and then nodded firmly, promising Sparrow Cat she’d never wreck his phone again.
Sparrow Cat grabbed a phone and glided down.
"Here, remember—you help me translate, and you find me the second season of Tom & Jerry. Don’t you trick me, I had no idea there was a second season!"
"What? There’s also a dialect dub? Whoa, you find that for me, and I’ll help you... I’ll translate three gross sentences for you! Four! Not one more! Fine, fine, five, alright?"
Not long after, the little zombie lay on the bed, Sparrow Cat beside her. In front of the pair sat a phone, playing episodes Sparrow Cat hadn’t seen yet, the two of them giggling away together.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Wen Yan was back to practicing his forms.
Qin Kun had said his style was good, but still a little stiff. There was only one solution—keep training, repeat until it became second nature, then new insight would come naturally.
After running through the forms a few more times, dawn had truly broken.
Zhang Laoxi came back from outside, carrying breakfast.
They ate breakfast together, chatting about last night’s events. Listening to Wen Yan talk, how Qin Kun was so warm and reliable, Zhang Laoxi was thoroughly confused, itching to say, "Did you really meet Senior Brother?"
If Senior Brother was this enthusiastic and meddlesome, how would he have time to train?
Zhang Laoxi grumbled to himself, but didn’t dare say it out loud, just nodded along a few times.
One thing was true though, Senior Brother really couldn’t be bothered with minor stuff, but if something huge and life-or-death came up, just find him and he’d step up. That much was accurate.
That’s why all of them respected Senior Brother so much, and since they had nothing big going on, they never dared trouble him.
Once it was bright, the little zombie and Sparrow Cat went to sleep. Wen Yan picked up the business card Lady Lie had given him and dialed Zhuge Wanjun’s number.
Zhuge Wanjun, already on the highway, saw a call popping up from Virtue City, and answered right away.
"Hello, I’m Zhuge Wanjun. May I ask what case you have? If it’s not convenient, we can meet in person. Give me an address and I’ll get there as soon as possible."
Listening to the voice on the other end, Wen Yan’s expression was a little odd—such a strong Feng Yao ’mystery-riddle style’ vibe.
He’d seen Feng Yao make a few calls before—always sounding normal at first, but never actually saying anything concrete.
"Ms. Zhuge, I do have a few things I’d like to consult you about."
"Alright, you pick a place and I’ll get there as soon as possible."
"There’s a neighborhood tea house on Qingyun Road, Virtue City."
"Okay, I’ll be there in twenty minutes."
Wen Yan hung up, suddenly realizing something.
Zhuge Wanjun was deliberately telling him about the twenty minutes, hinting at something she couldn’t say over the phone.
Zhuge Wanjun worked at the Yu State South Wall Law Office, so she must live in Yu State too.
Now, in twenty minutes, she’d arrive at Virtue City. Which meant she must have left at least three hours ago, and was almost at Virtue City.
So, Zhuge Wanjun must have already known he was in Virtue City beforehand, and most likely also knew his identity.
The last time, when Fake Mo Zhicheng investigated Su Yue’s identity using insider info, it had to have been Zhuge Wanjun who’d asked Fake Mo Zhicheng to check.
Which raises another question—if Zhuge Wanjun already knew Su Yue was Wen Yan, why had she sent gifts and come to meet him directly?
Wen Yan closed his eyes, trying to consider the issue from her perspective.
Thinking it over, someone who’s not human, can control corpses, working under heavy Scorching Sun Department secrecy with a different name, lying low in the sensitive Virtue City Funeral Home—any outsider would assume there’s some really complicated story there.
But if that’s all, that still shouldn’t be enough for Zhuge Wanjun to act this friendly, this decisively.
The way he saw it, there had to be more to it—like the relationship between Zhuge Wanjun and Fake Mo Zhicheng was pretty complicated too.
Forget it, better to just meet her and take it one step at a time.
If I want to find Fake Mo Zhicheng, Zhuge Wanjun now seems like the best possible lead.
Find Fake Mo Zhicheng, find the Soul Devouring Beast. These two things have basically merged into one now. If nothing unexpected happens, once I’ve met with Zhuge Wanjun, I should have an answer.