Chapter 146: White Hair, No Sorrow

My heart skipped a beat, and before I could even process what was happening—who those two people were, or why they had subdued that vicious ghost with such effortless ease—it was clear we had run into some true masters.

With just that single palm strike, the previously ferocious old Yang was instantly stripped of any ability to resist. Right in the center of his chest appeared a gaping hand-shaped hole; that single blow had practically blasted straight through the ghost's torso. What an exquisite and terrifying level of power one must possess to achieve such a feat.

Recovering my wits, I immediately drew a talisman from my pocket and slapped it onto old Yang's forehead. I turned around intending to thank those two figures, but when I looked toward where they had been, they were already gone.

"They left just like that?"

I scratched my head in confusion, not dwelling on it too much. Just then, Dadi and the fat man came running out. Seeing old Yang with the yellow talisman stuck to him, Dadi gave me a thumbs-up and praised me for doing a great job.

Originally, I intended to use the Rebirth Mantra to help this evil spirit cross over. After all, it had suffered a grave injustice in death, and prior to this, it hadn't committed any heinous acts here at the funeral home, meaning it should still be eligible for reincarnation.

To my surprise, before I could even begin chanting the mantra, the fat man suddenly pulled a small black bottle out from inside his greasy Taoist robe. After muttering a string of incantations, he sucked old Yang directly into the vessel.

Once the ghost was secured, the fat man pulled out his phone and called Peng Li. Patting his chest, he announced, "Team Leader Peng, you can come over to the funeral home to clean up the scene now. Yes, that evil ghost has already been captured by me. Mhm, don't worry, it won't cause any more trouble. In three days, it will naturally have its soul scattered to the winds inside my soul-absorbing bottle."

"Not at all, not at all. Team Leader Peng, you're too kind. Subduing demons and eliminating devils is simply what we practitioners of the Tao are supposed to do!"

Standing nearby, Dadi was fuming with rage. He pointed straight at the fat man and cursed loudly, "You shameless fraud! That ghost was clearly captured by my Dao, so how on earth are you suddenly trying to take all the credit?"

The fat man glanced sideways at Dadi and said, "Why are you talking utter nonsense with your eyes wide open? Isn't this ghost right here inside my soul-absorbing bottle? And you, big guy, is that any way to speak to your instructor?"

Dadi looked ready to charge forward and beat the fat man to a pulp, but I grabbed him and held him back. I sized the guy up again and asked, "Are you really Zhang Wushang from Mount Longhu?"

"What? Authentic and genuine!"

I pursed my lips and said, "You need to let this ghost out and help it cross over. While Mount Longhu's Taoist priests do subdue demons and devils, they don't advocate beating people's souls to smithereens without distinguishing between good and evil. Doing that accumulates too much bad karma."

The fat man's expression darkened immediately. "Kid," he snapped, "when I, Zhang Wushang of Mount Longhu, do things, since when do I need you to lecture me? If Mount Longhu doesn't advocate scattering souls, that's their business. What I, Zhang Wushang, advocate is precisely scattering souls."

With that, the fat man looked at me with an indifferent expression, his attitude clearly saying: *What can you possibly do to me?*

Recalling how the fat man had been scared to the point of kneeling and begging for mercy earlier, contrasted with his current arrogant posture, I suddenly found him immensely comical.

Just as I was trying to figure out how to expose this fat man as an imposter, a figure suddenly darted out from the evening shadows. Then I heard a sharp smack, and the fat man was sent flying backward several meters through the air.

"Who told you that Zhang Wushang of Mount Longhu advocates scattering souls?"

The voice was gloomy and hoarse, sounding as though it had come straight from a demon in the netherworld. The fat man let out a miserable scream in mid-air and landed squarely at the feet of Dadi and me.

"Who—who the hell hit me?"

Clutching his face—which now bore five distinct, bright red finger marks—and rubbing his backside, the fat man scrambled up in a rage. "You've got a lot of nerve! How dare you hit Taoist Master Zhang Wushang!"

It was precisely at this moment that the two figures I had seen earlier reappeared before my eyes. Upon seeing their true appearance, I froze in place.

Standing about five meters in front of me were two expressionless men.

One of them was around one hundred and ninety centimeters tall, very slender, and dressed in a long black robe. At the back of his head, he wore a queue resembling the hairstyle of the Qing Dynasty, giving him the exact appearance of a down-and-out Qing Dynasty scholar.

As for the other person, he was around my age. He wore a white casual outfit, and his face looked strikingly cold and handsome. Especially his shock of white hair made him look like a protagonist who had stepped right out of a comic book.

"The... the real one has appeared."

I blurted out instinctively. The fat man let out a yelp and immediately turned to flee forward.

The white-haired youth glanced at the man with the queue, who instantly flicked his figure. In the blink of an eye, he covered seven or eight meters, darting toward us and grabbing the fat man by the shoulder with a single claw.

Although the queue-wearing youth looked quite frail, his strength was astonishingly large. With a gentle lift of his hand, the fat man—who weighed nearly one hundred and eighty pounds—was hoisted straight up into the air. Like a helpless chick, the fat man was tossed directly down to the feet of the white-haired youth.

"You must have been the one who stole our dispatch order!"

The white-haired youth slowly crouched down, studying the wailing and groaning fat man with a look of intense curiosity. He continued slowly, "I really am curious what method you used to steal the dispatch order from the Ghost Servant. You're the very first person who has ever managed to take something from him."

"B-Big brother, I didn't mean to!" The fat man was clearly terrified out of his wits, his speech stuttering badly.

"The true number one genius of Mount Longhu, White-Haired Wushang!"

Everything happened so suddenly. Dadi and I stood rooted to the spot, completely dumbfounded, still unable to comprehend what was going on or why the real White-Haired Wushang had suddenly shown up.

"Ghost Servant!"

At Zhang Wushang's call, the Ghost Servant instantly shifted from his spot right in front of him. The very second the Ghost Servant brushed past me, a piercing, bone-chilling cold swept through my entire body.

"Kill him!"

Following Zhang Wushang's casual words, the Ghost Servant clamped a hand around the fat man's neck and slowly lifted him into mid-air.

Though the Ghost Servant's face remained entirely expressionless, I could feel an overwhelmingly dense murderous intent emanating from him. Meanwhile, the fat man's face turned beet red, and his eyes began to roll back.

I had no doubt that the Ghost Servant would snap the fat man's neck in the next second. Without overthinking it, I walked straight over toward them.

"He merely stole your dispatch order; surely you don't need to take his life!"

Zhang Wushang turned his head to look at me, his brow furrowing slightly. "You are Wu Dao?"

I was startled, wondering how this guy knew my name, but I didn't dwell on it and instinctively nodded. "That's me. If I'm not mistaken, you must be the legendary number one genius of Mount Longhu, Zhang Wushang. And this older brother with the queue next to you is Ghost Servant, your personal bodyguard!"

Zhang Wushang didn't answer, instead eyeing me a few more times before asking, "You want to save this fat man's life?"

I let out an affirmative grunt. "His crimes don't warrant death. Besides, this is a society governed by the rule of law. If you just kill someone casually like this, you'll undoubtedly face legal sanctions. Since he dared to impersonate a member of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, he has already committed a serious offense. Once the police arrive, they will naturally arrest him. Therefore, there's no need for you to resort to vigilante justice."

"The law?"

A faint smile surfaced on Zhang Wushang's handsome face. "As an official member of the Paranormal Investigation Bureau, I now have reason to suspect he is a spy sent by the number one demonic cult in the Yin-Yang realm—the Sacred Assembly—to impersonate a Paranormal Investigation Bureau member. Therefore, I have the right to execute this person on the spot!"

"I—I'm not from the Sacred Assembly!"

"The Sacred Assembly?" I asked, completely baffled. "What kind of organization is that?"

"You don't even know about the Sacred Assembly?" A hint of surprise crossed Zhang Wushang's face, but he didn't offer any further explanation. Instead, he glanced at the Ghost Servant, who understood the signal and immediately set the fat man down.

"I'm sparing him not because I'm afraid of breaking the law, but because I'm curious about you, so I'll grant you this favor." With that, Zhang Wushang patted his pocket and tossed an envelope directly into my hands. "Since you are Wu Dao, it means I haven't looked for the wrong person. Take this. Read it, and if you have no objections, sign your name on it!"

"What is this?" I asked, looking at Zhang Wushang with a suspicious frown.

"A challenge to a duel!"