BPIFC -Volume 1 – Chapter 25 Almost Demonically Clever

Sun Desheng was famous for playing tricks, but anyone he personally brought along was unlikely to be an ordinary person.

After hesitating for a moment, the man in black said calmly to the old man:

“Go fetch his Book of Life and Death. After hearing Chief Sun speak of him, I’m becoming curious. Just who could cause the Underworld to turn upside down?”

The old man bowed to the man in black, then crouched beside Che Qianzi and took an imprint of his palm print.

After obtaining the print, he turned around and disappeared into the darkness.

At this moment, Che Qianzi’s body was still numb. He lay motionless on the ground.

Fearing that the young man might still have enough strength left to attack the man in black, more than a dozen guards positioned themselves between Che Qianzi and their master.

Sun Desheng tried several times to go over and check on Che Qianzi’s injuries, but the guards blocked him every time.

After failing repeatedly, he could only return to his seat angrily.

Looking at the man in black, he said:

“I’m really not trying to scare you. You’ll find out soon enough. Not that I’m saying anything, but you’ve gotten yourself into a huge mess.”

“Then I’ll bear the consequences.”

The man in black spoke calmly as he picked up the stone sword that Sun had refused.

Gently running a hand across the blade, he continued:

“Chief Sun, you should already know who I am. If you were in my position today, how would you handle this?”

“What else is there to do? Apologize, of course.”

Sun grinned.

“If I were you, I’d immediately help my brother to his feet. Then I’d offer a whole lot of New Year’s greetings and even more compensation. The heavenly treasures can’t be lacking, and in the mortal world we’d also need at least one or two hundred tons of gold. If Chief Sun Desheng happened to be in a good mood, he might not hold a grudge.”

“There are heavenly treasures and gold.”

The man in black smiled faintly.

“As long as you hand over Yang Xiao. One million taels of gold and ten top-grade heavenly treasures…”

“You’re spending way too much.”

Sun laughed and lit a cigarette.

“No matter how you calculate it, that deal isn’t worth it.

But there’s something else I don’t understand.

The lifespan of Yang Xiao’s wife in this incarnation was personally determined by Director Wu.

The Underworld knew that.

So how did someone dare cut sixty years off her life?

Then, one after another, they kept sending underworld officers to their deaths.

Eleven underworld officers.

Things have become this huge.

If you tell me there isn’t something fishy going on behind the scenes, who’d believe it?

What I don’t understand is this:

What makes Yang Xiao so special that you’re willing to spend this much to get him?”

The man in black fell silent for a moment after hearing Sun’s words.

Finally, he said:

“It was simply incompetence among my subordinates that caused all of this. Now the situation has escalated beyond control. Only by handing over Yang Xiao and reducing him to complete annihilation can the anger of so many underworld officers be appeased. He can only blame his bad luck.”

Just as the man in black finished speaking, the old man emerged from the darkness.

In both hands he carried an ornate brocade box.

Walking up to the man in black, he said:

“This was found in the Repository of Unopened Fates. It’s one of the three billion unopened Books of Life and Death. Only you have the authority to order its seal removed.”

Once a Book of Life and Death was completed in the Underworld, it would be sealed with black wax.

If the person’s life was destined to be ordinary and uneventful, the book would remain sealed forever.

After the person died and returned to the Underworld, the book would be destroyed and reforged before reincarnation.

On the other hand, if the person was destined for an extraordinary life, the seal would be broken early so that underworld officers could monitor and control them more easily.

The Underworld was governed by countless rules.

Even inspecting a Book of Life and Death required sufficient rank.

Only a superior officer could authorize the removal of the seal.

Since the man in black held the highest authority present, only he could issue such an order.

The man in black glanced at the brocade box before looking at Sun Desheng.

“It seems Chief Sun was bluffing. This is the most ordinary kind of Book of Life and Death. It isn’t even important enough to qualify for unsealing. How could someone so ordinary possibly have a powerful backer?”

“Break the seal and read what’s written.”

The corners of Sun Desheng’s mouth lifted into a sly, fox-like smile.

“Then everything will become clear. But let me give you one piece of advice. If you really open it and see what’s written inside, it’ll be too late to regret it.”

The man in black was convinced that Sun was bluffing.

Smiling faintly, he replied:

“A person always does a few things they’ll regret in life. Humans are like that. Why should I be any different? Go. Remove the seal.”

The old man acknowledged the order.

He took a scroll wrapped in black sealing wax from the box and walked over to the still-motionless Che Qianzi.

With a crooked finger, he beckoned.

To everyone’s surprise, the one-hundred-and-forty-pound Taoist floated effortlessly into the air.

When Che Qianzi rose to chest height, the old man traced a line across his face with a finger.

Blood immediately flowed from the cut.

The old man caught the blood in his palm and smeared it onto the sealed scroll.

The moment the black wax touched the blood, it began melting rapidly.

Within moments, a rusty old scroll appeared in the old man’s hands.

Just as he was about to hand it to the man in black, footsteps suddenly echoed from the upper entrance of the Ghost Market.

Everyone turned toward the sound.

A voice called out:

“I’m not too late, am I? Great Sage, sorry about that. I had to settle my Third Uncle in first, so I got here late.”

The speaker was none other than the white-haired Shen La, who had appeared earlier that afternoon.

Spotting Sun Desheng, he quickly walked over while greeting him from afar.

“Great Sage! They didn’t do anything to you, did they?”

The moment the old man saw a white-haired man appear, he hurriedly hid the scroll behind his back.

Leaning close to the man in black, he whispered:

“Shen La. Deputy Director of the Sixth Office. It’s said he received personal guidance from Wu Rendi. He’s also had dealings with the Underworld several times before…”

“I know who Shen La is.”

The man in black interrupted him.

He clearly didn’t regard Shen La as much of a threat.

His priority was discovering Che Qianzi’s true backing.

Casually pulling the Book of Life and Death from behind the old man’s back, he opened the scroll directly in front of Sun Desheng and began reading aloud:

“Che Qianzi…”

The instant those three words left his lips, flames suddenly erupted from the scroll.

Before the man in black could even read the names of Che Qianzi’s parents or master, the entire book had burned itself into ashes.

“Fake!”

The man in black instantly realized what had happened.

He spun around toward the old man.

“You tampered with it! No… you’re not He Si! How dare you—you’re Yang Xiao!”

The moment realization struck, he lunged toward the old man’s face.

The guards rushed forward as well, intending to help capture him.

At the very same time, the supposedly paralyzed Che Qianzi suddenly sprang up from the ground.

Like a tiger released from its cage, he charged directly at the guards from behind.

Che Qianzi had always fought with reckless abandon.

The guards instantly descended into chaos.

They couldn’t decide whether to stop the young Taoist first or protect their master.

Meanwhile, the man in black tore the mask from the old man’s face.

But what he saw stunned him.

Beneath the mask was not Yang Xiao, as he had expected.

It was Shen La.

The real Shen La.

If this was Shen La…

Then who was the “Shen La” who had just arrived?

The answer struck him immediately.

Abandoning the white-haired man before him, the man in black vanished from where he stood.

In the next instant, he reappeared at the location where the earlier “Shen La” had first appeared.

He was searching for that white-haired man.

As expected, the figure was already gone without a trace.

He had been fooled.

The “Shen La” who appeared moments ago had been Yang Xiao in disguise.

His sole purpose had been to divert attention, giving the real Shen La enough time to tamper with the scroll.

But then another thought occurred to him.

Who had orchestrated all of this?

Slowly, the man in black turned his head and looked toward Sun Desheng, who was smiling at him.

The man in black stood there in stunned silence before finally saying:

“You planned all of this? You even predicted that I would send someone to retrieve the Book of Life and Death…”