ACIFITFDB – Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Path of Communicating with Ghosts

“Hey, I heard a relative of yours was in that building? How are they?”

“They were a distance away and weren’t seriously injured. But their neighbor on the second floor was miserable. I heard they were blown into pieces and they still haven’t found them all.”

“Holy hell… that’s terrifying. How did it even explode like that? The news said it was a natural gas explosion?”

“It was indeed natural gas. But, someone ignited it intentionally. One liquefied gas canister wouldn’t cause an explosion that powerful. Someone put several canisters in their home and ignited them all at once. Someone heard maniacal laughter before the explosion.”

“What??? A lunatic seeking revenge on society? If they catch them, they won’t even be able to sentence them, right?”

“I hope they get the death penalty, preferably a thousand cuts. Hey, don’t you think things have been a bit unstable lately?”

Qin Xian meticulously picked out and ate the stir-fried green beans from his meal tray, chewing very slowly.

From his perspective, this seemed like an incident caused by a lunatic seeking revenge on society. Eldritch entities rarely used such methods of killing; they preferred to torment people, savoring their fear and despair.

But it wasn’t entirely impossible. This horrific accident had plunged the entire city into panic. If more similar incidents occurred, the entire city would be shrouded in gloom, and the influence of the eldritch would grow.

The atmosphere in this area was clearly making people uncomfortable.

Qin Xian put down his utensils, paid, and headed straight for a nearby dark, secluded corner. After weaving through various alleys, he arrived by the Longyuan River.

There was a stretch of muddy shore here, very close to the affected residential building, but it was sparsely populated, dark, and damp. In some places, the weeds were taller than a person, and the ground was littered with illegally dumped construction debris. It was a perfect spot for disposing of bodies… or attracting something unsavory.

Qin Xian pushed aside the overgrown grass and stood on a few concrete slabs, gazing at the damaged building. As night fell, the dark things began to appear. He heard movement in the grass; something slimy was wriggling towards him on the ground.

It had crawled out of the river, leaving a long, mucus-covered trail on the ground. It silently approached the unsuspecting human and condensed into a vague human shape, reaching out to grab the human’s neck.

But the human suddenly turned their head, their eyes showing no trace of panic.

Qin Xian saw a face that was clearly that of someone who had drowned—pale, bloated, and emitting a disgusting, fishy odor.

He frowned, tightened his grip on the whip that had suddenly appeared in his hand, and lashed out. The whip’s impact felt incredibly sticky and slippery, easily slicing through the eldritch’s entire body and cutting it in half. But this thing was unfazed by being cut; its body, now in two pieces, quickly enveloped the whip and began crawling towards Qin Xian along it.

The whip suddenly vanished. The eldritch, now without support, “glugged” as it fell to the ground and relentlessly crawled after Qin Xian.

Qin Xian retreated a couple of steps in exasperation. He wasn’t in a hurry to attack. This thing was too slow to pose a threat; it was better to find its weakness first. Generally, these types of creatures were afraid of dry environments…

He looked up and spotted a pile of construction waste not far away. In the middle, there seemed to be a patch of sandy ground. On the sand, there were a few torn woven bags, with a lot of white powder sprinkled out – lime. This chemical product was highly effective against these water-logged, low-level eldritch.

Qin Xian immediately prepared to jump off the concrete slab, but he suddenly smelled another scent besides the fishy odor: the smell of liquefied gas.

In the dim light, several—no, many—scorched black hands suddenly emerged from the grass. A humanoid shape, entirely black, was crouched in the grass. Seeing Qin Xian discover them, they also lifted their heads. Their scorched faces revealed grotesque smiles.

These were the people who had died in the explosion! Their skin was mostly burned, and they had terrifying wounds from the blast.

Qin Xian swung his whip again, wrapping it directly around the neck of one of the eldritch and flinging it towards the water ghost behind him.

When the two eldritch collided, the scorched monster let out a strange cry, and its body violently exploded from within. Flames, charred flesh, and slime splattered everywhere. Qin Xian jumped off the concrete slab at maximum speed, hiding beneath it, but still inevitably got a bit of his sleeve splashed.

“Tch.”

Qin Xian pursed his lips, not caring if it was dirty. He picked up a stone from the ground, stood up, and hurled it at the scorched corpses.

These were newly spawned eldritch. Although the explosion had caused great damage, triggering the explosion was simple.

A slightly larger stone thrown at them could make them explode, like playing Minesweeper. After a few stones, the dark grass erupted with brilliant sparks, and the grass quickly caught fire, illuminating the entire area. What was amusing was that these scorched corpses and the water ghosts were not allied; the flames clearly restrained the water ghosts, forcing several heads that had surfaced on the river to submerge.

Qin Xian used his whip from a distance to eliminate several scorched corpses. As he fought, he suddenly laughed and exclaimed, “Who told you to do things this way? Stupid and hilarious.”

The grass not far away rustled, and the sound of arguing humans could be heard.

“Are they over there? Let me see who you people are.” Qin Xian headed directly towards the grass.

But after taking just two steps, a flash of light suddenly appeared in the grass, followed by a loud “bang.”

In a moment of urgency, Qin Xian tilted his head in mid-air. A bullet grazed his face, leaving a linear wound on his right cheek. Blood gushed from the cut, flowing down his face and into his mask.

But it wasn’t over. Just as Qin Xian was about to retreat, “bang,” “bang,” “bang”! Three shots rang out in succession.

Guns!? Who could obtain a gun in a society with such strict gun control!? Qin Xian had encountered these things so rarely, even in the Infinite Flow World.

He quickly found cover and hid. Bullets struck the stones at his feet, sending fragments flying.

The enemies on the other side, likely believing they had the advantage with their weapons, giggled and stood up, approaching Qin Xian’s position.

“Heh, a weakling with a gun is still a weakling,” Qin Xian sneered, wrapping his whip around the neck of a scorched corpse.

Two thugs about two meters away, holding guns, were smugly walking towards Qin Xian’s hiding spot when they suddenly saw a snarling, scorched corpse flying towards them. They froze. One of them instinctively fired. The bullet hit the eldritch’s body, and flames suddenly erupted from the corpse, making it explode with a “bang.”

Qin Xian only heard the two men cry out in pain. They seemed to have scrambled back into the grass in disarray.

“You idiot! Shooting that thing makes it explode, are you trying to die!?”

“Woc, who knew he’d use these scorched corpses too… Damn, low-level things are useless. If they can’t help, they just cause trouble.”

“Hurry up and drive those scorched corpses away, it’s better than using a gun…”

Qin Xian’s eyes darkened. Someone was indeed behind this explosion, and judging by their words… they could control these low-level eldritch?

“Got rid of them, got rid of them. Huh? Where did that kid go?”

“Let’s finish this quickly, I hear the police!”

The two quickly stood up, guns in hand, searching for Qin Xian’s whereabouts. But under the cover of night and the dense grass, they completely missed their target, who was standing just a meter behind them.

Qin Xian coldly observed them.

Two young men, wearing simple, cheap T-shirts and casual pants, with dyed hair, tattoos, and cigarette packs in their pockets. They looked like ordinary thugs. Ordinary thugs with guns?

Seeing the two men pointing their guns forward, Qin Xian lost his patience and whipped at their necks.

“What was that noise?!”

“What, yue!!”

The whip tightly wrapped around their necks, making them roll their eyes. The two frantically reached for the whip on their necks, but it had barbs. Touching it painfully scraped their fingers, and their neck skin was already torn, leaving their hands covered in blood.

Qin Xian stomped on one of their chests, leaning down to ask, “Who are you people? Why did you attack me?”

Their faces and necks turned red from being choked. One of them gritted his teeth, “We won’t tell you… urgh!!”

Qin Xian increased the pressure of his foot, feeling the ribs beneath him sink slightly.

“If I press any harder, your ribs will break and pierce your lungs. The police are coming soon. If you don’t want to die, answer my question.”

He stood with the moonlight behind him, his face completely in shadow. Only his emotionless eyes and the bloodstain on his right cheek were vaguely visible, making the two thugs tremble.

“No… we can’t say, we’ll die.”

Qin Xian observed their expressions. One was fat, the other thin. The thin one had his eyes closed, gritting his teeth and remaining silent. Without hesitation, Qin Xian raised his hand and slapped the thin man’s face with such force that the thin man’s head snapped sideways, and he immediately fell unconscious.

The fat one trembled even more violently, and immediately began to beg, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please let us go!”

Qin Xian sneered, “Then answer my question, or I’ll kill you right now.”

With that, he hooked his finger towards the guns they had dropped on the ground and pressed the muzzle directly against the fat man’s temple.

The fat man’s tears and snot streamed down his face. He stammered, “Someone hired us to kill you!”

Qin Xian asked, “Who?”

The fat man opened his mouth but no sound came out. He paused, then began to struggle frantically.

Qin Xian frowned, “Are you part of an organization? Did you do the liquefied gas explosion?”

The fat man struggled and squeezed out two words: “Yes, yes… Tongguidao…”

“What is Tongguidao?”

“It’s a new sect. They are descendants of Celestial Masters. If you join, you can learn the Ghost-taming Art and control demons and ghosts! This world is about to be devoured by monsters. Only by mastering ghost-taming abilities can you survive!”