Chapter Two: The Handsome Yet Frail Man
[The novel wasn't lying; there really was someone dressed like a ragged old man yet still incredibly handsome! This guy must have stepped right out of a painting!]
[Help! The way he frowned made my heart tremble; I felt so sorry for him!]
[A gentleman as beautiful as jade, unparalleled in the world. Today I've witnessed the true face described in ancient poems.]
The man leaning against the earthen wall parted his thin lips slightly, "Father, who is this young lady...?"
Old Man Bai rushed forward and tucked the man's tattered blanket around his body.
"Hen Sheng, she's a goddess. If it weren't for her today, who knows how much more those people would have mocked us."
"A deity?" The young man frowned, clearly not believing it.
Su Zhenzhen had already sat down on the ground and started to regulate her breathing. There was a very mysterious power in this place, which was not spiritual energy, but was even more mellow than spiritual energy, and it would help her cultivate.
Neither the old man nor his son dared to make a sound to disturb Su Zhenzhen until she got up.
"immortal?"
Su Zhenzhen glanced at the man lying on the bed. He was handsome, but quite weak. Considering this mysterious power, she could return the favor.
Open the main menu and find the medicine option.
10 Rejuvenation Pills, 10 Mighty Strength Pills, and 10 Thunderbolt Pills.
This was the stipend given to interns when they first joined the Underworld Partners, in case something unexpected happened during the soul-summoning and soul-crossing process.
Su Zhenzhen has been working here for 8 months and hasn't used a single penny of it. Now, it has become her wealth in this strange world.
Su Zhenzhen took out a Rejuvenation Pill. "Here, eat this. It will make your body much stronger."
The young man looked at the pills being offered to his lips, then pursed his lips and remained silent.
Su Zhenzhen, however, was a woman of action and hated procrastination. She grabbed the young man's chin and stuffed the pill into his mouth.
The man was caught off guard and swallowed it, causing him to cough lightly twice.
How are you feeling?
The young man took a deep breath and felt much lighter; his chest no longer felt so heavy.
Old Bai looked at him with concern, "Hensheng, how are you feeling?"
He dared not doubt the gods, but since it was indeed a divine elixir, he feared the child's weak constitution might not be able to withstand it.
Hensheng shook his head, got off the bed, and stretched his limbs.
Then, looking at the old man with a delighted expression, she said, "Dad, I feel full of energy, and my chest doesn't feel tight at all anymore."
Old Bai was about to kneel down and kowtow to Su Zhenzhen again, but luckily she caught him in time.
"No need for formalities, let's pack our things and get out of here."
Old Man Bai, who had been about to express his deepest gratitude, stopped in his tracks at those words. "Immortal, what do you mean by this?"
Su Zhenzhen hit the nail on the head, "I only ask you, do you think those people will let this go so easily?"
Old Bai wore a bitter expression. "Immortal, you have no idea. They believed that bullshit Taoist priest's nonsense, saying that disturbing the coffin rashly would generate vengeful spirits, and that someone close to the deceased needed to have their blood drawn. If I didn't go, they would take my son away. That's when I thought about taking the child and running away."
Su Zhenzhen asked curiously, "Then why didn't you run away?"
The old man seemed to have something to say, his eyes darting around.
Su Zhenzhen understood immediately, "Because of this place?"
This mysterious power in the place is a blessing to those who are physically weak.
Judging from Zhao Hensheng's frail appearance, his health will probably be even worse once he leaves this place.
Hensheng saw his father's predicament and gritted his teeth, saying, "I cannot leave this room."
Su Zhenzhen didn't care. "It's okay. You can leave now. That pill has already made your body like a normal person's."
He hesitated, wanting to say that he was different, that he was different from normal people.
But he couldn't say it, so he gritted his teeth and walked out. He thought that once he was bounced back, the gods would understand.
Just when he thought he was going to be beaten back as usual, he found himself standing firmly in the sun.
The sun was scorching, and the burning heat on his skin seared his limbs and bones.
Hensheng opened his eyes wide in disbelief.
Old Man Bai quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Su Zhenzhen. This time, Su Zhenzhen couldn't stop him. "Thank you, Immortal! Thank you, Immortal!"
Su Zhenzhen was helpless. "I told you I'm a ghost messenger."
"Thank you, Lord Underworld Messenger. Thank you, Lord Underworld Messenger."
"Forget it, let's just pack our things and run away."
It wasn't that Su Zhenzhen was a coward; she just summoned a ghost general in this place, which caused her to vomit blood.
If those villagers go crazy again and offer human sacrifices, she won't be able to handle it.
This underworld official sounds impressive, but all she can do is summon a ghost to scare people; she has no offensive power whatsoever.
Old Bai and his son Hensheng were immediately energized and began packing, taking almost everything they could from the house.
Despite his seemingly weak and frail appearance, Hen Shengwen carries the majority of the family's wealth on his shoulders.
After packing up, we were ready to leave.
Old Man Bai suggested, "Let's take the mountain road to the south, to the capital. Even if the border is breached, the barbarians won't be able to get there so quickly."
Su Zhenzhen wanted to go with them, which made Old Man Bai feel extremely uneasy. He kept muttering that the gods were so kind as to escort them.
Su Zhenzhen was speechless; she simply didn't know the way.
The three of them did not rest for a moment, and only stopped when the sun was setting.
Having found a sheltered spot, the old man quickly settled down to cook and live a simple life.
Hensheng thoughtfully offered to gather firewood, but Old Man Bai was worried and dared not trouble Su Zhenzhen.
"You watch the fire, I'll go pick it up. In this desolate wilderness, we might be possessed by some evil spirit. I feel safe leaving it with the underworld official."
Hensheng shook his head. "Father, I'm not that fragile."
Su Zhenzhen, who was meditating nearby, opened her eyes. "Don't worry, there isn't a trace of wandering spirits around here."
Old Bai said nothing more and let Hensheng go to gather firewood.
"Lord of the Underworld, I don't know what you've been eating. Could you tell me if any of this food is even edible?"
Su Zhenzhen glanced at it; it was all coarse grains, which she wasn't used to eating.
"It's okay, I'm not hungry, you guys eat."
In those chaotic times of war, it was obvious even to a fool that rice and wheat flour were nowhere to be found.
Old Man Bai felt very bad. His own food was indeed meager, how could he let the underworld official eat such a thing? He secretly resolved that once he arrived in the capital, he would definitely work so that the underworld official could eat rice!
Su Zhenzhen wasn't truly not hungry; it was just that, as a human from the 906th century on Earth, her body had undergone genetic optimization, making her far more resistant to hunger than the average person.
Old Man Bai hadn't gathered much firewood along the way, and the fire was about to go out when Hensheng still hadn't returned.
"Lord of the Underworld, could something have happened?"
Just as Su Zhenzhen was about to get up and go check, she saw Hensheng running back in a panic, carrying a few tree branches in his hands.
"What's wrong?"
Old Man Bai quickly took the things from his hands and patted him on the back twice.
Although Hensheng was panicked, he managed to speak in a coherent manner.
"There wasn't much firewood around, so I thought I'd climb higher to break off a few branches. Then I saw a piece of cloth next to a clump of low bushes. At first, I just thought it was someone who had fainted from hunger on the road, like us, but I never expected..."
Su Zhenzhen immediately understood the unspoken message and asked Hensheng to take her there.
Old Man Bai wanted to come along, but insisted on staying behind to watch the luggage.
When they reached the clump of shrubs, Su Zhenzhen finally understood why Hensheng had refused to tell her the whole story.
[Does this organizer have any sense of public morality? First, there was a scary ghost general, and now there's a headless corpse! Did the organizer even consider my mental capacity? Couldn't they have given me a heads-up beforehand?]
Su Zhenzhen ignored the comments and carefully observed the headless corpse. The cuts on the body were very clean, and although the fabric of the clothes was not silk, it was fine cotton cloth, and there was not a single wrinkle in the inner shirt.
Most importantly, the jade pendant on the man's waist and the jade thumb ring on his thumb were both intact.
Everything seemed a little eerie.
Amidst the chaos of war on the border, a man from a well-off family suddenly died on the road.
The head is still missing.
If it wasn't murder for money, what kind of deep-seated hatred could there be in these farmers?
Hensheng looked at Su Zhenzhen somewhat helplessly, "Lord of the Underworld, it's not good to leave the body in the wilderness like this. Let's give him a proper burial. But before that, should we call my father? He knows everyone in the surrounding villages."
Su Zhenzhen glanced at the porcelain-like man in front of her with some surprise. Despite wearing a simple brown robe, he always exuded a scholarly air in his every move.
"What about his jade pendant and thumb ring?"
Hensheng was a little confused. "Huh?"
She immediately realized what was happening and her face turned bright red.
“Ill-gotten gains should not be taken. He has already suffered this misfortune, and there is no need for him to be disgraced after his death.”
Su Zhenzhen nodded; that was indeed a rare quality.
"Don't call him 'father' anymore. His head is gone, how can he recognize you? Just call out the victim directly."
He immediately performed a hand seal and incantation, chanting, "Use myself to guide the soul, may the soul return!"
The already gloomy sky grew even darker, and Hensheng felt a chill. But then, a phantom appeared before his eyes.
He opened his eyes wide in shock. Could this be a ghost?
Is he really a ghost messenger?
Su Zhenzhen didn't care about his thoughts. The ghost's consciousness was still somewhat confused after death. She snapped her fingers in front of the ghost's face.
"Hey, look at me!"
Xu Hua opened his eyes wide in a daze, looked at his own corpse on the ground, and let out a scream.
Su Zhenzhen didn't start asking questions until he finished shouting, "Do you remember how you died?"
Xu Hua's ghost first shook its head, then nodded its head hard.
"It must be my cousin! My mother favors her own family, so he assumed all of the Xu family's assets belonged to him. I repeatedly refused to give him any of the family property, and he must have been so enraged that he tried to kill me!"
Su Zhenzhen did not express her opinion, but said, "You died a violent death, so you cannot be reincarnated as usual. I can extradite you and help you clear your name. In return, all the property on your body must be given to me."
It wasn't that Su Zhenzhen necessarily wanted these things, but rather that she was paying people to help them avoid trouble. Only if the wronged soul gave her his belongings from his previous life could she help him seek justice and be extradited.
After all, she was a messenger from the underworld, not a righteous official.
Xu Hua readily agreed, "Okay! As long as you bring the person who killed me to justice, not to mention these things, I can give you all my family property!"
With the agreement reached, Su Zhenzhen put Xu Hua's ghost along with his body into her storage compartment, and then took Hensheng to meet up with Old Man Bai.
The two casually picked a few clumps of weeds along the way.
When I saw the old man, it was already completely dark. The thin moonlight shone on the ground, which was enough to barely see anything.
Su Zhenzhen added some weeds to the fire, making it burn brighter and allowing them to see each other's faces more clearly.
Before taking Xu Hua in, Su Zhenzhen had already ascertained his identity. Now, without beating around the bush, she directly asked Old Man Bai.
Do you know where Xu Hua lives?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
