Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Two Tigers Clash (Part 2)
“Can we stop fighting already?”
She pouted as she tugged his sleeve, then leaned in to whisper by his ear. “Mo Ting Feng helped me hide my suspect status and let me redeem myself by proving my innocence. I’m the Dust Warden Office’s new White Robe now—a real high-ranking official!”
“If you keep this up, I won’t just lose my job. I’ll end up in prison. And when that happens, you won’t even have a reason to save me.”
“You’re the new White Robe of the Dust Warden Office?” Gu Cang Yue stared. “Really?”
Song Wei Chen spun in place, showing herself off. “As real as it gets!”
Gu Cang Yue thought of how the Three Bureaus chose their people. Grievance-breakers had never included women—no wonder Mo Ting Feng had imposed an illusion-veil restriction on her. It really did look like he meant to help. With that in mind, Gu Cang Yue’s dissatisfaction with Mo Ting Feng and the Dust Warden Office eased a little.
“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll listen to you. I won’t make trouble.”
“Then hurry back. We’re still in a meeting.”
She tried to push him out, but it was like an ant trying to move a boulder. Gu Cang Yue didn’t budge.
“I can’t. My Case Supervisor status is real.”
“To save you, I accepted the task of solving this case in front of the Heavenly Venerable.”
Wild and unruly as he was, he kept his word. If he said he would protect her, he would.
He reached for her hand. To anyone watching, it was plainly improper—but Gu Cang Yue didn’t care. He drew her along and strode straight up to Mo Ting Feng.
“It’s settled. Keep working. I’ll sit in.”
Then, as if deliberately smoothing over his earlier provocation, he added, “Since I now hold the Case Supervisor title, I’ll be coming around often until the White Robe case is solved. I hope the Dust Warden Official can understand.”
Mo Ting Feng’s gaze dropped to their joined hands. For no clear reason, hot, sharp anger surged up his throat.
“Let go of her.”
“She’s White Robe from my office,” Mo Ting Feng said, voice clipped. “Pulling and tugging like that—have you no decorum?”
Song Wei Chen’s face went hot. She yanked her hand back at once. Gu Cang Yue only smiled, as if it were nothing. In his view, since Mo Ting Feng had kept his word and hadn’t harmed “his woman,” he ought to give him a little face in return.
“We aren’t discussing the White Robe case,” Mo Ting Feng said coolly. “Case Supervisor Lord, please leave first. When it’s time to deliberate an official matter, we’ll invite you.”
He didn’t even want to look at Gu Cang Yue, much less reconcile with him.
“The White Robe case reaches far,” Gu Cang Yue replied, tone light, eyes sharp. “I’ve heard that on the day he vanished, a chaos wraith escaped—something especially troublesome. If I’m not mistaken, that’s exactly what you’re discussing now. Dust Warden Official, do you dare swear it has nothing to do with the White Robe case?”
His half-smile made it worse. Mo Ting Feng’s face went iron-gray.
Song Wei Chen could only exhale like someone watching two blades spark again and again. Here they went—two walking arguments, sharpening each other until she could hear the edge. She didn’t even have the energy to complain.
“In any case,” Gu Cang Yue continued, “until the White Robe case is solved, I’ll come to this Dust Warden Office whenever I please. Lord, you’d best get used to it.”
He twisted the knife one more time.
Mo Ting Feng’s fist tightened. Song Wei Chen hurried forward and planted herself between them like a sandbag.
“Alright, alright, alright! You two Lords—since we all want to solve the case, can we put everything else aside for now and talk business?”
To everyone else, White Robe looked tiny between two tall, imposing Lords. Yet somehow, both of them listened to her. It was novel—and more than that, baffling.
Ding He Ran was the most stunned of all. He’d been wondering why the Dust Warden Official treated such an ordinary person differently. Seeing this now was beyond belief. Even Gu Cang Yue treated her as special—intimate, indulgent, as if spoiling her. Did White Robe have connections in the Upper Realm?
But why would the Upper Realm care about a mortal?
Or was it…?
Ding He Ran’s eyes flicked from Mo Ting Feng to Gu Cang Yue. One had carried her like a princess; the other had held her hand. Did these Lords all have… ahem, unusual tastes?
The thought horrified him.
Something’s wrong with me, he told himself fiercely. I’m not hurt lightly—I’m hurt badly. I’ve injured my brain.
When the two men only continued to glare without answering, Song Wei Chen didn’t waste words. She grabbed one on each side and hauled them back toward the discussion table.
Gu Cang Yue might be the Case Supervisor, but Mo Ting Feng was still the master of the Dust Warden Office. So Song Wei Chen considerately gave up her own seat of honor to Gu Cang Yue, just to keep the two of them from fighting over position again. She slid down to the seat beside him instead.
To Mo Ting Feng, it looked like she was deliberately keeping her distance because Gu Cang Yue was here. That only made him more irritated, and he forced the fire down deeper.
Everyone returned to the table, yet after the commotion—and with guards from Cang Yue’s residence now standing in the hall—the atmosphere stayed strange. Ding He Ran, who had been hosting the meeting, was injured, and for a moment no one spoke. They stared at each other, trapped in an awkward silence so heavy Song Wei Chen felt like she could dig a three-bedroom apartment with her toes.
“Should I sing a song?” Song Wei Chen laughed awkwardly. “Nothing’s scarier than the air suddenly going quiet… Ancestors, can we please talk about the case?”
“I’ll lay it all out, alright? I’m actually more anxious to solve this than any of you. I’m begging you.”
“He Ran,” Mo Ting Feng finally said, “how’s your injury?”
“Thank you for your concern, Lord. It’s minor.”
Ding He Ran looked pale, but he truly didn’t seem in serious trouble.
Gu Cang Yue pulled a tiny bottle from his sleeve and tossed it over. Ding He Ran caught it on reflex.
“Three sinew-changing pills,” Gu Cang Yue said. “One will raise your cultivation by half a level. You’re a tough man. I respect that.”
“Thank you, Lord Cang Yue.”
Whether Ding He Ran wanted it or not, he had to accept it. Rejecting it would be opening a new front in an already ridiculous war. Besides, sinew-changing pills were immortal medicine from the Upper Realm—rare enough to be a legend.
He glanced at Mo Ting Feng. “Lord, shall I continue?”
Mo Ting Feng nodded.
Ding He Ran rose, walked around the table, and stopped across from Song Wei Chen. His expression turned solemn.
“Brother Wei, do you still remember what I explained yesterday—what a chaos wraith is?”
Song Wei Chen hesitated. Yesterday’s lecture had been enough to make anyone’s head swell, but she forced herself to dredge it back up.
He’d said a person had three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls. The ethereal souls—Embryonic Radiance, Bright Spirit, and Hidden Essence—governed mind and emotion. The corporeal souls—Corpse Dog, Hidden Arrow, Sparrow Shade, Harbor Thief, Noxious Bane, Filth-Clearing, and Stinking Lung—governed movement and behavior.
When someone died, the three ethereal souls left first. The seven corporeal souls followed later.
Before the corporeal souls fully departed, the dead weren’t a ghost yet, but something called a gui.
A gui lingered temporarily in the Dream Realm. Normally, once the corporeal souls were gone and it became a true ghost, it would be taken under the Yellow Springs Bureau of the Three Realms.
But there was another possibility. Even after losing “soul awareness,” a gui could still carry “corporeal obsession”—the things people couldn’t let go of even in death: longing, regret, resentment, jealousy, hate. Without the ethereal souls to restrain it, that obsession would corrode the corporeal souls.
Corporeal souls had no judgment, only the ability to act. Once corroded by obsession, they became mindless, repetitive behavior—an endless drive to fulfill one fixation. That made the gui dangerous. Worse, they would unconsciously devour and merge with other gui that carried the same obsession. The more they absorbed, the more dangerous they became.
Those were called chaos wraiths.
“I remember,” Song Wei Chen said slowly. “You said a chaos wraith is an uncanny fiend that only exists in the Dream Realm, born from a person’s corporeal souls. And as grievance-breakers, eliminating chaos wraiths in the Dream Realm is our mission.”
She felt like she’d just sat for an oral exam.
Ding He Ran nodded in satisfaction. “Good. You remember clearly.”
“Then, New Venerable—help clear something up for me. What exactly happened that night of the new moon?”
“The previous White Robe’s final signal, before he vanished, said he had restrained the chaos wraith at the River of Oblivion. And when the Dust Warden Official found you, you were on that same soul-bearing boat.”
Ding He Ran’s gaze stayed fixed on her, steady and grave. “If my judgment is correct, then the last person to see that chaos wraith… was you.”