PD -Chapter 163 Choosing a Test Subject for the Gun

I placed the gun and its bullets into the wooden box and carried it into the trunk of the car.

Having something like this with me made me a little uneasy, so I buried the box beneath a pile of miscellaneous items. I couldn’t help thinking that if I got stopped at a DUI checkpoint and they found it, explaining it would be a real nightmare.

Everyone got into the car. The headlights illuminated the dilapidated factory building, making the scene seem strangely lonely.

I thought again of Old Que, who had seemed to age decades in an instant. The idea that he might one day leave this world alone in that desolate place stirred something in my heart.

“Don’t worry about him,” Shen Tu said, apparently seeing right through my thoughts. She shook her head and added, “That old man isn’t going to die some miserable death. His fate may have run its course, but the life force he has left—and the money he’s made over the years forging things for people—is enough to keep him drinking the finest liquor for years to come.”

“I wonder what happened to Shen Fang’s soul…” I sighed, though I knew it wasn’t something I could do anything about.

Pushing those thoughts aside, I started the car and sped all the way back to the studio.

The moment I parked downstairs, Shen Tu suddenly frowned.

“Someone broke in.”

I froze and shut off the engine. I knew she was talking about the office. I couldn’t help marveling once again at how experienced she was. She had sensed something wrong upstairs instantly, as though her spiritual awareness was constantly spread out and probing the surroundings.

Still seated in the car, I extended my own spiritual perception.

Sure enough, I detected two sources of extremely dense yin energy inside the studio.

After thinking for a moment, I glanced back at the others, an idea forming in my mind.

At that moment, Shen Tu smiled slightly.

“Perfect chance to test the gun.”

I nodded, got out of the car, retrieved the Black Jade Gun from the trunk, and loaded all six chambers of the cylinder.

“We’ll stay down here and wait for you,” Shen Tu said, crossing his arms in the car and propping his long legs up on the front seat.

I shook my head and looked at Liu Xiaopeng.

Liu Xiaopeng wore an innocent expression and clearly seemed eager to watch the show unfold.

With no other choice, I took the gun and headed into the stairwell.

My footsteps were light, trying not to trigger the motion-activated lights. Soon, I arrived outside the studio on the second floor.

The door was standing open.

The handle had clearly been twisted off by some immense force and was now bent out of shape.

Peering through the crack in the door, I saw the office in complete disarray, as though burglars had ransacked the place. From my room came the unmistakable sounds of drawers being pulled open and cabinets being searched.

I tightened my grip on the gun and cocked the hammer with a click, ready to fire at any moment.

After a burst of commotion inside, two figures emerged from my room.

To my surprise, they were two middle-aged women.

I frowned.

Then something felt wrong.

Their eyes were entirely white, without any pupils. My mind immediately flashed back to the people I had encountered before who had been possessed by Rakshasas.

But after another look, I realized this wasn’t quite the same.

The two women looked bizarre. Their faces were deathly pale beneath thick layers of makeup, and their arms were unnaturally white as well.

The realization struck me instantly.

This wasn’t possession.

It was corpse occupation.

These women were already dead. Their bodies were simply being controlled by Rakshasas.

“Where could they have hidden the Black Jade?” one of the women moved her lips and spoke in the rough, weathered voice of an old man.

The other shook her head.

“We need to prepare for the worst. It’s possible… they’ve already refined the Black Jade into something else.”

“That was a divine stone left behind when Nüwa mended the heavens. Can mere mortals truly refine it?”

“Think about it. Why would they steal the Black Jade from Ghost Gate Pass unless they had a plan? If they didn’t have some backup measure, how could they dare do such a thing?”

Listening to their conversation, I immediately understood.

These two were Rakshasa agents from the Underworld, sent to investigate the whereabouts of the Black Jade.

What surprised me was that we had never revealed our identities in the Underworld, yet they had managed to trace the matter back to me so quickly.

“Who’s there?!”

One of the women suddenly turned toward the doorway and shouted.

My heart skipped a beat.

I knew there was no hiding anymore.

The two women blurred forward like phantoms and appeared at the entrance almost instantly.

One of them shot out a hand toward my throat.

My reactions weren’t slow either. I immediately ducked low and darted backward into the office while raising the gun.

“Souls burdened by the sins of the Nine Netherworlds,
Follow the incense-cloud banner.
Infinite Radiance of the Sacred Treasure,
Ascend and find eternal peace!”

I silently recited the Hell-Breaking Incantation.

Spiritual energy surged into the revolver in my hand.

My finger pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The thunderous gunshot echoed through the room.

I instantly saw a bullet wrapped in the glowing runes of the Hell-Breaking Incantation shoot from the barrel. In the blink of an eye, it pierced straight through the charging woman’s body.

I didn’t stop there.

Aiming at the second woman, I fired another Hell-Breaking bullet.

It tore through her body as well.

Those two shots alone consumed nearly thirty percent of my spiritual power.

The moment the bullets penetrated the corpses, both women toppled backward onto the floor.

Their mouths suddenly fell open.

From deep within their throats came a horrifying sound, like drunkards endlessly retching.

Two streams of black smoke immediately poured from the corpses and spread across the ceiling of the room.

Gradually, the smoke condensed into two black humanoid figures.

They roared at me:

“So you’re the thief who stole the Black Jade!”

Their voices were so hoarse that they made my scalp crawl.

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I cocked the revolver again with another click and aimed at the smoky figures hovering in the air.

“This… was forged from Black Jade?”

One of the figures stared at the gun and suddenly froze.

The other immediately flew into a rage and lunged toward me.

I cursed under my breath and began another incantation.

“Crimson Heavenly Fire Clouds,
Your might shakes heaven and earth.
Seize the demonic qi above,
And cut down the evil miasma below.”

The gun roared once more.

The bullet shot out of the barrel—

But this time, it had completely transformed into a sphere of blue lightning.

This shot was empowered by the Flying Lightning Talisman.

The bullet streaked through the air like a miniature ball lightning, dragging visible arcs of electricity behind it. It plunged directly into the charging mass of black smoke and exploded instantly.

Boom!

A tremendous wave of heat and electrical force erupted at the same time.

The current made all the hair on my head and every strand of body hair stand straight up.