Chapter 65: The Dark Willows and Flowery Nooks Lead to Yet Another Village

The girl appearing in the photograph was so familiar—it was none other than Mazao, the one who haunted my dreams!

The photograph must have been taken at night, against a backdrop of a black sky. Mazao was walking down a desolate street with no passersby in sight; the shops on both sides were already closed for the night. I recognized this street—it was the pedestrian zone in the neighboring district. Normally a bustling place, it was so deserted in the photo, suggesting it must have been the early hours of the morning.

Mazao's face, partially hidden by a face mask, betrayed no particular expression, while her gaze seemed to be searching for something around her, her posture subtly exuding a sense of vigilance and tension. Strangely enough, she didn't seem to notice the person taking the picture.

Why would Zhushi give me a photograph containing Mazao? Weren't we just talking about fallen demon hunters?

Luo Shan was searching for Mazao, so did Zhushi have a similar assignment? Was I being tested here?

However, Agent Kong had said that Zhushi and the faction searching for Mazao were not on the same side... No, Zhushi was simply not with the "faction using extreme methods to search for Mazao." There might be more than one faction looking for her. Besides, Agent Kong was dead; perhaps the mission that originally belonged to Agent Kong had now fallen onto Zhushi...

Or perhaps my train of thought had gone off track. The fallen demon hunter incident and Mazao were not entirely unrelated. Before leaving, Mazao had taken Agent Kong's charred finger from my house, and Agent Kong was the previous fallen demon hunter...

"Zhuang Cheng, what's wrong?" Zhushi's voice rang out abruptly. "Is there something wrong with this photo?"

I gave a start. Before my mind could recover from the shock, my mouth naturally blurted out a lie: "Nothing, it's just that this photo looks a bit different from the others. Who is the girl in this picture? Is she connected to the fallen demon hunter?"

"Didn't you ask me before who the girl disguised as a police officer by Agent Kong was? Although she's wearing a mask, according to the analysis of our people, she should be that very girl." She didn't seem to realize I was acting.

"I see, so she's that apathy-syndrome girl. Agent Kong mentioned her to me when he was alive..." I wasn't lying about this; Agent Kong really had told me.

"Since you know, I won't need to explain further," Zhushi nodded. "This girl suddenly appeared while we were searching for clues about the new fallen demon hunter. That said, none of our people actually witnessed her directly."

"Not witnessed directly?" I asked, puzzled. "Weren't photographs taken of her?"

"Zhuang Cheng, doesn't the photo in your hand look like a street surveillance camera screenshot? But actually, there are no cameras at that location on this pedestrian street," she explained. "This was obtained by someone in our Luo Shan who excels at divination and reconnaissance. They read the memories of the land along the route the fallen demon hunter likely traversed, and combined that with psychography to produce this image.

"He originally intended to divine clues about the fallen demon hunter, but didn't expect this girl to appear in the composite image formed by divination and psychography."

No wonder Mazao in the photo hadn't noticed the photographer; it turned out to be a "historical projection."

I asked with concern, "Does Luo Shan believe this girl is the fallen demon hunter?"

"Although she spent most of the time when the fallen demon hunter was wreaking havoc lying in a hospital in a vegetative state, nevertheless... yes, we cannot rule out the possibility you mentioned," Zhushi surprisingly said. "Because there are clearly multiple fallen demon hunters, and the source of their power and motives are both unknown. And this apathy-syndrome girl also possesses 'power of unknown origin,' with similarly mysterious motives for escaping the hospital and stealing firearms and ammunition..."

As she spoke, she lowered her head, seemingly beginning to ponder seriously.

Oh no, did I just provide her with some inexplicable train of thought?

I could understand why divination targeting the fallen demon hunter would bring up Mazao. Although I didn't know the exact principles behind Luo Shan's divination, Mazao indeed possessed the fallen demon hunter's charred finger.

What brought me the most relief right now, without a doubt, was the fact that "Mazao was still in Saltwater City."

No matter how I looked for her over the past two days, my biggest worry had been that Mazao might have spatially teleported to another city. I had even considered whether I should enlist Luo Shan's help to find her, but I wasn't a member of Luo Shan yet, nor did I have a plausible reason to ask. I never expected that I would end up getting a lead on Mazao through Zhushi after all.

From my perspective, perhaps Mazao was also searching for the fallen demon hunter.

Her motive remained unclear, but in such a massive city, her figure had appeared on the "route suspected of being traversed by the fallen demon hunter," and she was even carrying the fallen demon hunter's charred finger. It was hard to imagine that her current objective had nothing to do with the fallen demon hunter.

Of course, there was another possibility: her jinx-like constitution was simply attracting the "fallen demon hunter incident."

Whichever truth it was didn't matter. The most important thing now was that the two tasks—"finding the fallen demon hunter endangering Changan" and "finding Mazao"—had merged into one.

As long as the former was found, it might draw out the latter.

真是山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村！

Suddenly, a sense of incongruity struck me, and I asked, "Zhushi, are you showing me these photos because you want me to act alongside you next?"

"Yes," Zhushi nodded readily.

"Has my application to become an unorthodox *wuchang* of Luo Shan been approved?" I asked.

"Not yet," she shook her head.

That was strange. Although I really wanted to participate in investigating this incident, given Zhushi's exceptionally cautious attitude toward weird occurrences, she shouldn't have involved an outsider like me. Just because I was an "adept" didn't mean she would automatically think I should shoulder "extra labor"—that wasn't how her mind worked.

"Actually, the reason I came to get you involved in this incident is because it's related to your upcoming status as an unorthodox *wuchang*..." Zhushi seemed to be struggling to find an angle to broach the subject. "I don't know if Agent Kong ever mentioned this to you, but he was the agent in charge of the area surrounding Saltwater University. Now that he's dead, this area naturally needs someone new to take over."

I caught the subtext in her words: "My becoming an unorthodox *wuchang* is also related to that new agent?"

"Right, except that the one taking over our area now isn't an agent, but a 'patrol emissary,'" she said.

"A patrol emissary?" I immediately made a connection. "Is that the same kind of patrol emissary synonymous with wandering deities?"

"Precisely," she nodded.

In our country's folk beliefs, there existed deities known as day wandering gods and night wandering gods, who served under underworld authorities like King Yama and the City Gods.

They were also referred to as day patrol emissaries and night patrol emissaries, bearing the responsibility of monitoring good and evil in the mortal realm.

"In Luo Shan, demon hunters responsible for handling weirdness are called *wuchang*, while demon hunters responsible for reconnoitering weirdness are called patrol emissaries," Zhushi said.

"Then what about 'probes'?" I asked. "Aren't agents' responsibilities also reconnoitering weirdness?"

She thought for a moment, then posed a question to me first: "Zhuang Cheng, do you feel that compared to *wuchang* and patrol emissaries, designations like probes and agents sound far too modern?"

"I do have that feeling," I admitted.

"In ancient times, agents were called underworld runners or ghost soldiers. Because they were actually just ordinary people, Luo Shan didn't consider them part of its own ranks, but rather viewed them as the private forces of the patrol emissaries," she said. "In ancient times, patrol emissaries were scarce, and it was extremely difficult for them to keep track of weird activities within their jurisdiction. Therefore, they had to cultivate their own forces among the common people. This was the predecessor to the agents.

"It wasn't until modern times that agents were formally accepted by Luo Shan. And because agents are the component of Luo Shan closest to the common people, it wouldn't do to refer to themselves as underworld runners or ghost soldiers when dealing with outsiders, so they adopted names fitting a modern style."

"I see..."

I wasn't entirely convinced by this explanation. Because it didn't sound good to tell outsiders they were underworld runners and ghost soldiers, they gave them an overtly objectified name like "probes"? I had a feeling Luo Shan likely harbored a hidden prejudice against ordinary people.

"You mean the patrol emissary is the direct superior of the agents?" At this point, a connection suddenly formed in my mind.

Agent Kong had said that the reason he disguised himself as a police officer to look for Mazao was due to orders from his superiors.

Could it be...

"Is the patrol emissary taking over our university's district now Agent Kong's superior?" I asked.

"Yes," Zhushi affirmed. "At the same time, patrol emissaries have another duty, which is to monitor the activities of folk demon hunters. And if an unorthodox *wuchang* emerges among folk demon hunters, the patrol emissary also has the authority to examine them.

"Originally, I had hoped to use my family connections to help you bypass those procedures, but that patrol emissary, upon learning that you defeated Agent Kong, demanded that this fallen demon hunter incident be used as the examination content to test your power level."

After pondering for a moment, I asked, "Were that patrol emissary and Agent Kong on very good terms?"

"Extremely good," she said. "That patrol emissary only transferred to the position of patrol emissary last year; he used to be a highly skilled *wuchang*.

"I heard that twenty years ago, before Agent Kong joined Luo Shan, he got caught up in a weird incident and almost starved to death in an evil spirit's ghost maze. The one who rescued him back then was that patrol emissary, who was a *wuchang* at the time.

"I have a feeling he might have some opinions about you right now and wants to trip you up..."

Before she could finish her sentence, I heard a voice chime in from nearby: "It's not very nice to badmouth me behind my back like that, Zhushi."

"Lu Chan?" Zhushi furrowed her brow.

I looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man walking over from across the street. He was dressed in deep blue attire that blended modern styles with subtle traditional elements.

"Seeing you suddenly bolt during the case analysis and stay away for so long, I came looking for you myself," the man said first to Zhushi, then turned his gaze toward me, breaking into a genial smile. "You must be Zhuang Cheng. Nice to meet you, I am Lu Chan, a Luo Shan patrol emissary."

He extended a hand toward me while I quietly observed him.

He was the very person who had ordered Agent Kong to search for Mazao.