"I will not let him off the hook, I definitely won't."

Judy, clad in a high-collared purple nightgown with traces of wine at the corners of her lips, looked into her empty wine glass.

Li stood beside her, mouth agape, wanting to speak but unsure of what to say. To a man like him, who flourished at midnight but perished by dawn, there was no reason not to cling desperately to Judy.

However, this was by no means a bad thing for Judy.

"Madam, your phone," said the braided maid as she approached.

Judy took the receiver, her voice low and magnetic.

"Hello? Mr. Charles, what's the matter at this late hour? The case? Hasn't the case been closed?"

Judy listened quietly to the lawyer on the other end.

"Alright, Charles, I'll consider it. I'm a bit tired, let's connect another day."

After hanging up, Judy's brows furrowed deeply.

"What's wrong, Judy?" Li asked, noticing Judy's troubled expression.

"The auction house that was robbed wants a private meeting with that Whole Family Be Bulldozed guy. They want to clarify the antiques that were recovered; a few pages from a rare book, a collection of Republic Era masterpieces, are missing. If it was him who took them, they're willing to pay a high price to buy them back."

Li knew she was talking about Li Yan.

"That kind of person having an interest in stealing antiques?"

Li couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity.

"No..." Judy shook her head, as if recalling something, "Once, while changing clothes, I saw it on him."

"Did you watch him change, or was it you changing clothes?" Li widened her eyes in surprise.

Judy glared at her, then after a moment of deep thought, looked up.

"Li, contact the auction house later and find out the provenance of this item. Also, help me look into where such items might have been sold recently, and do it quickly."

...

On the thirtieth day of the sixth month of the Year of the Tiger, Suitable Peaceful Burial, Lifespan-Matching Wood...

The sky was dim.

The man held a long, cloth-wrapped item in his hands, his head bowed as he avoided the puddles underfoot and pushed open the door of Apartment No.22 on Su Temple Street. The Fragmented Manuscript over his heart grew hotter, as if yearning for something.

The apartment's walls were covered in chalk graffiti and large patches of peeling paint. Number plates passed before Li Yan's eyes; some rooms were lit, others deserted.

When he faced the door marked 411, Li Yan clenched his fist and gently pushed; to his surprise, the door opened.

A pungent stench could not mask the overwhelming odor of blood that assaulted the nostrils!

Li Yan's pupils contracted sharply as he instinctively stepped back twice.

A dim, cold light spilled down, saving the room from total darkness.

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The woman sat motionless in the chair, facing Li Yan, her features indistinct.

"Heh, Auntie, still not asleep at this late hour?"

Li Yan's gaze was as sharp as a hawk's as he strode forward.

He walked up to the woman without ceremony and pulled over a chair to sit down.

"..."

"Auntie?"

Li Yan cocked his head; the woman on the opposite chair remained still. Gritting his teeth and enduring the foul smell, he approached her, and with the help of the faint light of dawn, he finally saw her face clearly.

Large, black corpse spots were a ghastly sight; several green-headed flies settled on her already decomposing face, and in some places, corpse fluid began to seep out.

Li Yan involuntarily held his breath.

Suddenly, the woman's tightly shut eyelids snapped open, and her withered, foul-smelling claw struck at Li Yan's neck!

A sword light, swift as a shooting star, flashed, severing a withered, pitch-black arm that flew high into the air, scattering dark, putrid blood all around.

Li Yan's eyes widened as his gleaming blade danced through the air, tracing a swift arc as he slashed at the ghastly, terrifying head of the corpse ghost.

The small, emaciated body shrank back without warning, and the blade barely grazed its neck, leaving a trail of dark, sticky blood on the sword's tip.

"Die!"

Li Yan showed no sign of retreat, closing in on the corpse ghost with a movement swift as a tiger leaping a gorge. His sword thrust fiercely into its chest, piercing straight through. With a forceful twist of his wrist, foul-smelling black blood gushed out, staining his chest.

Li Yan attempted to withdraw his Han sword but found the force he applied disappearing as if into a void.

Confronted with a situation of unprecedented strangeness and danger, his decisiveness and ferocity were laid bare. Without hesitation, he released the sword hilt, kicked backward with his left leg, and delivered a powerful kick to the hilt, driving the Han sword completely through the corpse ghost's body, leaving only the hilt exposed. Without a moment's pause, he snatched up a folding stool and slammed it onto the corpse ghost's head!

The stool shattered instantly, splinters flying everywhere, leaving only a jagged piece of wood in Li Yan's hand.

Perhaps Li Yan had used too much force, or perhaps the stool was of poor quality. Either way, an unfortunate accident occurred: a sharp splinter, as if guided by fate, shot towards Li Yan's eye. With his quick reflexes, he managed to close his eyelids before the splinter could penetrate, but this also caused him to lose sight of the corpse ghost.

Wood shavings tore through Li Yan's eyelid, and when he opened his eyes again, his right eyelid was stained red with blood. The Corpse Ghost that had been before him had vanished into thin air!

Without a second thought, Li Yan twisted his body, his spine undulating like a Flood Dragon, and his knuckle-backs, hard as steel whips, hammered at the space behind him.

There was nothing there...

"Ha... ha..."

Li Yan gasped for air, scanning the room. He saw no sign of any moving thing. After steadying his breath, he called out loudly:

"Ah Xiu! Are you there? Ah..."

Suddenly, Li Yan felt a piercing pain at his waist—a Bone-Picking Dagger had found its mark, stabbing into his lumbar point!

The swiftness of a man can be terrifying. At the very moment the blade's tip touched his clothes, he had instinctively reached back to grab the assailant's shoulder, only to clutch at empty air. Shaken and chilled, he could only tighten his grip on the dagger handle, only to find the blade writhing like a living thing, burrowing viciously into his flesh!

Li Yan had no choice but to pull out the sharp dagger, his left hand pressing against the bleeding wound at his waist, his body pressed into the corner against the wall, cautiously surveying everything before him.

These exchanges did not resemble the overwhelming suppression of a Ferocious Ghost over a mortal, but rather an evenly matched struggle between a keen, ferocious beast and a Terrifying Eerie Ghost.

"Heh heh, dear auntie, you're even fiercer than I am."

Even in such a moment, Li Yan could still muster a laugh, though a cold, icy fierceness almost burst forth from his eyes.

"If I were to die like this, I'd surely be fiercer than you. What do you say, shall we clash again in the underworld?"

"Clang, clang, clang..."

The pots and pans in the room rattled. Li Yan, with the dagger in his right hand, did not blink, allowing the blood from his eyelid to dye everything in front of him a bloody red.

The room fell silent, as if the Corpse Ghost had departed.

Ten seconds, thirty seconds, one minute, two minutes...

Li Yan's eyes were unbearably sore, but he dared not blink. Sweat trickled from his forehead to the tip of his nose, then dropped onto his lips, soaking into his mouth with a salty, metallic taste.

Finally, Li Yan could not help but blink, and in less than half a second of darkness, a hideous face oozing black blood and rot loomed close to his nose!

"Ptui!"

Li Yan spat out a mouthful of bright red blood from the tip of his tongue, spraying it all over the Corpse Ghost's face and head!

**********

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