The next day, Old Xi Zhang came down from Fuyu Mountain, carrying a box half as tall as a person on his back.
In front of Fuyu’s Taoist Temple, the snow-haired Grand Uncle Master gazed into the mist where Old Xi Zhang disappeared, and fished an old-fashioned cell phone from his pocket.
"Hello, Kun’er, where are you now?"
"Why are you meddling in other people’s business? They have their own people there—if you interfere, those foreigners won’t like it."
"What? The Scorching Sun Department is working with them? It’s over? Then get back quick."
"It’s nothing. I dreamed of the Thirteenth Ancestor last night. I’ve been feeling too uneasy to sleep."
"Just thinking about last year, and how, back then, those superstitious types who hurt the Thirteenth Ancestor—and seventy years ago, they messed up one of my peers—these people actually dared to set foot in the Divine Land, and even go to Thirteenth Ancestor’s old hometown, Nanwu County. How am I supposed to sleep?"
"I’m just a crotchety old man, I don’t know a thing about investments or whatever. Probably not many days left for me—I just want to see you again before I go."
"Aiyo, listen to yourself. Why did you go charging off to their headquarters? Their headquarters isn’t even in the Divine Land now. If you go wipe them out, you’ll trigger a diplomatic incident. That’s not done anymore these days."
"No need, no need. Just a friendly spar—if you accidentally break the legs of those folks poking around Nanwu County and send them packing, that’ll do."
"Mm, feeling a bit better, that does put my mind at ease. Fine then—Kun’er, enjoy yourself over there a few more days, no rush."
The old man hung up, hands clasped behind his back, humming opera with a splayed gait, in the best of moods.
As for Old Xi Zhang—he knew that kid all too well. He’d had his eye on Old Xi ever since he was running around buck naked as a toddler. This junior had always been level-headed, but this time he’d been restless, brow furrowed up—after just a few probing questions, the old man had a pretty good guess.
In the end, he saw Old Xi Zhang poring seriously over the pretty useless Scorching Sun boxing technique, ignoring the much better and stronger manual right next to it.
That pretty much confirmed it for the old man.
Especially now, with the appearance of the Big Executor Corpse.
The old man could hardly resist blurting out: had a Descendant of the Scorching Sun really showed up?
After all, back then the Thirteenth Ancestor’s home had been in Nanwu County—it was only natural to make that connection.
He really hadn’t slept well last night, because something occurred to him. The sect that harmed Thirteenth Ancestor back then—some of their remnants escaped from the Divine Land. All these years, the sect had risen and fallen, but hadn’t died out.
Decades ago, they’d shown up in the northwest of the Divine Land and even assassinated a peer of the old man’s generation.
In recent years, members of that sect had come back to the Divine Land under the guise of foreign investment.
At the time, the old man wasn’t pleased, but he hadn’t said anything—after all, times had changed.
But now, with the very real possibility of a Descendant of the Scorching Sun turning up, he just couldn’t hold back.
If that sect found out a Descendant of the Scorching Sun existed—if, by any chance, they’d left some records—with the trauma they took from getting their brains bashed in all those years ago, there’s an eighty percent chance they’d be unable to resist doing something.
So now, the old man simply didn’t ask—if he didn’t know, this was just him being ornery, the old boy being cranky, and then his disciples being filial enough to bully a few foreigners on his behalf, smoothing his temper. Other than the Scorching Sun Department, no one would say a word of reproach.
In Wen Yan’s new house, he was clutching an ancient book, brows deeply furrowed. He could read the classical Chinese, but so many references were completely beyond him.
Things like "Dragon-Tiger" and "Lead-Mercury" had a dozen meanings depending on context, making his head throb.
On the floor mat, Sparrow Cat was sprawled like a broody hen, a phone set in front of it, playing Tom and Jerry. Watching its own kind get pranked, it was cackling like a hen about to lay an egg.
"Can you keep it down?"
Sparrow Cat got up, grabbed the phone with its claws, flapped its wings, and flew up to the second floor by itself.
Wen Yan went back to studying, his head buzzing. No wonder Feng Yao said that so-called ancient manuals are all over the internet these days. Some of the content is useful, true, but honestly, most people learn nothing from them.
To self-teach from these, you’d need extraordinary talent and a huge depth of cultural knowledge.
He was mulling this over when Feng Yao’s car stopped outside the front yard.
Feng Yao walked in carrying his ever-present laptop in one hand, a folder in the other.
"You done for the day?"
"Not even close. My brain’s fried. It just keeps getting messier."
Wen Yan didn’t respond, just made Feng Yao a cup of tea while listening to him gripe.
"The follow-up for the hospital department’s domain still isn’t finished. Why Feng Dongmei showed up in Virtue City is still unknown.
There’s a lead on Mo Zhicheng, and it ties in a bit with the Scorching Sun Department’s case at the Duanzhou Chemical Plant, but the connection is a bit thin.
With the info from Sparrow Cat, we did a fresh sweep—now we actually have a few possible targets.
We’re also investigating where Licking Spirit came from.
And before we’re even done with that, today there’s news that a big boss who’s been studying and exchanging in the Southern Hemisphere is coming back to the Divine Land.
On the record, he says he’s coming to Nanwu County, planning to break a few foreign investors’ legs, and wants our help to send out a challenge.
And just our luck—we’re short on hands. Especially experts.
Seeing Feng Yao’s look like "Why aren’t you saying anything?", Wen Yan reluctantly asked,
"Which big boss is that, with a temper like that?"
"His name’s Qin Kun. Actually his temper’s pretty good, and his skills aren’t shabby. He’s just doing this because of old disputes from the mountain sect.
He’s from Fuyu Mountain—the oldest elder there has an old grudge with the powers behind those foreign investors.
He says this time the old gent—whoever told him—found out they’d come to Nanwu County to invest, and got so mad he couldn’t sleep all night.
So now he’s coming back, issuing a challenge, to help this elder get it off his chest.
Don’t ask me what old grudge, or why the news about Nanwu County sets him off—I haven’t figured it out yet."
"You can just do that? Scorching Sun Department won’t intervene?" Wen Yan was momentarily stunned.
"How can they? Posting a challenge for a friendly spar is a way to resolve conflict—that’s tradition. All the Three Mountains and Five Ridges people in the department are just sitting with their arms folded, waiting for the show. Anyone who tries to stop it just looks like they want to escalate things. Even the Minister wants to use this as an excuse to knock those outsiders down a peg, so everyone’s acting like they don’t know a thing. Oh, and this one’s actually from the same place as Old Xi Zhang."
"Dang, didn’t Old Xi Zhang say he was a lone wolf?"
"He left the Mountain Sect, went out into the world on his own, so of course he doesn’t dare use the sect’s name lightly. But this guy’s still with Fuyu Mountain—future candidate for Mountain Master, even."
"But with all that on your plate, what are you doing here?"
"Just take a look at this." Feng Yao suddenly perked up, and set the folder in front of Wen Yan.
"So what’s the issue?" Wen Yan didn’t hurry to look it over.
"It’s confirmed over at the Duanzhou Chemical Plant—there’s definitely a domain there. And it covers dozens of miles—not just one domain. Inside the plant, there’s a Class Two domain; elsewhere, there are others."
"Why would they send a weakling like me for that? Isn’t that a job for real experts?"
"The Class Two domain in the plant will indeed have experts assigned—specifically the one I mentioned earlier, the Fuyu Mountain expert.
But there are other domains nearby. One’s a Class Three domain—we can confirm only that, and its energy level isn’t high.
But, for some reason, nothing we’ve tried gets us in. We haven’t even figured out the rules for entering.
That’s why we want your help—to run a field operation and see what you can find.
You’ll be working as a field agent, not in Virtue City; there’s extra travel compensation.
All we need is some intelligence gathered."
"Just that simple?" Wen Yan sounded doubtful.
"Fine, I’ll tell the curator—oh, by the way, did you find out who lives in that building on the east side of this community?"
"Found it. It’s the owner here. That guy’s scared stiff, but he’s still obsessed with the unsold villas here, insists on living here just to figure out what’s really going on, thinking that’s the only way to resolve it."
"No one can fix that. I asked about the building behind me—harmless little spooks keep showing up for no reason, nobody knows why."
"Forget it. Let’s just focus on the Duanzhou case first." Feng Yao rubbed his forehead with a sigh.