CHAPTER 51: CHAPTER 51 THE OLD AND THE YOUNG

In Wen Yan’s villa, Zhang Laoxi didn’t dare go up to the second floor, and by now, Feng Yao had also arrived.

Zhang Laoxi had caught Wen Yan’s last words.

The video is the entrance to the domain.

When they were all ready on their end, Zhang Laoxi fully armed himself, even strapping a gun to his waist, and picked up the phone that had been left on the floor.

What he saw was just a completely ordinary, low-quality short video, nothing more.

Not even the faintest sign of entry into a domain.

Feng Yao tried as well; he gripped the phone, watched the video, and nothing happened either.

But Wen Yan and Sparrow Cat had truly vanished.

And looking at the background in the video, Feng Yao could recognize it—it was the place where he had gone to ask Wen Yan for help.

"What the hell is this? You ever seen anything like it?" Zhang Laoxi looked completely baffled.

"Don’t look at me, I’ve never run into anything like this, I don’t even know who I’d ask for help."

The two were still talking when Zhang Laoxi’s face suddenly changed.

He immediately opened the wooden chest strapped to his back—it was completely empty inside.

"I didn’t go in, but the little one I brought with me did."

"You brought it out from Fuyu Mountain?"

"Yeah, I just got Grand Uncle Master’s permission, managed to talk one into coming with me."

On hearing that, Feng Yao’s expression shifted too.

They couldn’t get in, but the zombie from Fuyu Mountain could.

Zhang Laoxi was getting more and more anxious—he’d barely managed to talk a little zombie into coming out of Fuyu Mountain, hadn’t even gotten to raise it for two days, and poof, now it’s missing inside a domain.

It’s like a benefactor fell from the sky, someone who even knows the Scorching Sun arts.

He felt like he’d spent his life carefully working hard, doing rituals for people and making a living without ever scamming the poor, even taking in a few orphans as little apprentices. He never even found a wife, wasted away till forty, finally scraped together enough good karma.

The biggest opportunity of his whole life was right in front of him.

He didn’t expect that, now, Wen Yan could just disappear like that.

The worst part was Wen Yan had only just started learning Scorching Sun Fist, and was basically still an ordinary guy.

He knew too—there’s no way the Scorching Sun Department had any experts to spare, and they probably hadn’t even found a way into the domain themselves.

Zhang Laoxi thought of the little zombie he’d brought out, and ground his teeth.

"I’ll go get... I’ll find Wen Yan’s Uncle!"

"Which uncle are you talking about? How come I didn’t know Wen Yan had a... uh..." Feng Yao trailed off, suddenly realizing who Zhang Laoxi meant.

He stood where he was, watching Zhang Laoxi’s figure grow distant, hesitated a bit, but said nothing in the end.

He knew, too, that this probably wasn’t just some harmless little domain—at the very least, not an ordinary one.

The entrance being a short video, and that it’s selective about who can enter—neither are simple things.

He glanced at the sky, pulled out his phone, and called Director He Jian of Virtue City Funeral House.

"Hello, Director He? You haven’t left work yet, right? Zhang Laoxi’s coming to your place—probably asking for hazard pay and reimbursement. Please take care of him so he doesn’t break any taboos. He doesn’t work for Scorching Sun Department, making money isn’t easy for him, so please cut him some slack."

...

He Jian’s car was almost at his house when he got the call; he immediately turned around and headed back to the funeral home.

The less detail Feng Yao gave, the more the director realized this was not something to talk about over the phone.

That business where Scorching Sun Department found four moles in one action couldn’t be kept secret—Feng Yao himself was starting to act more cautiously.

The director actually didn’t care much about the missing Wooden Armor Mask, because once it was taken out, even if they managed to snatch it back, it’d just get locked up by Scorching Sun Department—nothing to do with the funeral home anymore.

The director had just arrived at the funeral home entrance when Zhang Laoxi’s pickup truck pulled up right after, parking by the door.

The director narrowed his eyes a bit, saw how obviously anxious Zhang Laoxi was, and immediately waved him over, pointing inside.

"Everyone’s off work, let’s talk inside my office."

The director went ahead, and as they reached the office, Zhang Laoxi couldn’t hold back any longer and spilled everything.

"...That’s about it. I can’t get in, but that Uncle can, I’m sure of it."

The director’s face stayed calm; he nodded and glanced at the time.

"You’d better hurry. Any later and nothing will leave this place. Just as well—Wen Yan’s Uncle isn’t even a client of ours, so it’s really not proper to keep him here. You’d better take him away."

The director went downstairs, flicked on the switchboard, and cut the power. The lights went out at once, and the monitors in the gatehouse all went black.

He led Zhang Laoxi all the way to the back, opened the old office building’s doors, and glanced at the staff rules posted inside, feeling a little spacey for a second.

In the mirror, Old Wang dropped the act, leaned against the wall with his arms folded, watching the director and chuckling, just waiting to see if the director would follow the rules or not.

The director smiled, waved to Old Zhang behind him.

"Wen Yan’s Uncle is staying in the second office—he’s old, might be a bit senile, so look after him and don’t let anything go wrong. When you leave later, remember to close the door."

Zhang Laoxi brought in a little rolling bed and headed inside.

The director stayed in the doorway. In the mirror, Old Wang pointed at the staff rules.

"Old He, what’s the third rule? My eyes aren’t so good now."

The director laughed, utterly unbothered, and just naturally recited the third rule.

"No one without a key is allowed into the old office building. Offenders will be dismissed."

"And then?"

"What do you mean ’and then’? I’ll just fire him when this is done!"

"He’s not even funeral home staff! I was asking you!"

"I have the key, I’m not breaking any staff rules."

"Old He, when you’re shameless, you’re even worse than back when you were young!" Old Wang said with awe, completely convinced.

Inside the office, Zhang Laoxi looked at the hopping corpse standing behind the cabinet, heart pounding out of control.

He took out a small incense burner, pinched incense using the ritual finger position, then knelt down, offered the incense over his head, kowtowed three times, and placed the incense in the burner.

"Uncle, Wen Yan’s in danger. I can’t enter the domain, so I have to ask you to go. I’m here to bring you there now, please cooperate with me."

The incense smoke rose, swirling around the hopping corpse. After a while, the hopping corpse still had its eyes tight shut, but the incense smoke started to seep into its nose.

Zhang Laoxi secretly let out a sigh of relief, then hurried to push the rolling bed over, wrapped up the hopping corpse, and took it outside.

Meanwhile, inside the domain—

It was almost completely dark now; high above, the Silver Moon hung, casting a ghastly white glow over everything.

Wen Yan’s face was just as pale.

Sparrow Cat’s fur was all on end, as if someone had stolen its can of food and doused it in water for good measure.

Wen Yan was standing motionless, face pale as moonlit earth, because on his back clung a little girl in a dark red ancient gown, hair pinned in a lily knot.

The little girl wore a sweet, innocent smile—but unfortunately, her fangs stuck out, her face faintly greenish-white, pupils just pinpricks.

Her greenish arms were cold as iron hoops, locked tightly around Wen Yan’s neck.

Wen Yan could feel it clearly—if she used even a little force, this so-called little girl could pop his head off and go kick it around like a ball.

Now he truly understood how dangerous these domains were. If he made it out alive this time, if he ever got back, he was going to work himself into the ground training martial arts.

He’d noticed something wrong a moment ago—his senses kept up, his mind kept up, but his body just wouldn’t move.

In the blink of an eye, that little zombie was suddenly clinging to his back.