Chapter 212: Monk An Que
“Three days, and not a single lead?”
An Que slouched comfortably in his office chair, pressing back into the supple leather like a pancake on a hot griddle. He casually pressed a button on the armrest, activating the chair’s massage feature, and sighed in bliss.
He didn’t look that old, just a bit over fifty. With no hair atop his head, it shone like a freshly polished bowling ball. Clad in loose white attire that screamed “I’ve just come from a yoga class,” he looked suspiciously like a monk, except this fabric cost more than some people’s entire wardrobes—like five digits more.
The room exuded a subtle haze, reeking of sandalwood. Behind him, on the wall, a modest-sized statue of Buddha glimmered in solid gold, encrusted with rubies. It was only half a meter tall but weighed about as much as an overly ambitious weightlifter.
In front of the statue sat a low altar with incense that had been burning for around twenty-five years. Not a single break—the incense guy was committed!
There were no fancy offerings on the altar, just the incense burner. Below it lay a small mat, a relic of his past life as a monk. Even though An Que had long since ditched the vows and rituals, some habits d*e hard—like avoiding all meat for decades.
From the outside, his life seemed incredibly mundane, especially for the board chairman of a publicly listed conglomerate. Meanwhile, some disgruntled folks whispered that he only held these daily rituals and hosted pointless fish liberation events because of the massive guilt weighing him down from his past.
It turns out, An Que’s company still clung to its Buddhist roots. Outsiders assumed it was a monk-run operation, which left everyone scratching their heads as they dipped into real estate deals.
“Why are monks suddenly switching their spiritual curriculums for brick and mortar? Do they need more incense money?”
Truthfully, An Que didn’t think he had been excommunicated. His master had died, and no one could march up to him, point a finger, and say, “You there! No longer a monk!”
Sigh—sometimes life doesn’t give you a choice, and now he found himself in a different kind of body, with a hefty side of past regrets.
“Sorry, Chairman.” The bald gatekeeper with a sandy-colored coat stared at his feet. “The gatekeeper in Tianchang City went missing four days ago for no reason, and the area lead, Li Tianan, isn’t cooperating with our investigation—he even decked our guys who went to ask questions.”
“Go on,” An Que said, still with his eyes closed, gesturing with a hand like a sleep-deprived conductor.
“Li Tianan is the disciple of Li Bansxian, very powerful, and, as you’ve said, it’s best not to poke the bear. So we didn’t disturb him and focused on others, particularly those of the Lu family.”
“Three nights ago, it was Lu Liangting, the only son of the Lu family, who went to the factory with just one companion—a person named Zhao Mingyue.”
“We looked into Zhao Mingyue’s background. Just your average high school student, but…”
“Spit it out,” An Que said, his expression unchanging.
“She’s from Eternal Life Village. Lived in the back village until she was ten.”
At this, An Que’s eyes shot open. “Are you certain?”
“Abso-lutely,” the bald gatekeeper rushed, pulling out a bag of documents and tossing them onto the desk. “We thoroughly investigated Zhao Mingyue’s recent activities. For years, she’s been your typical student, but in the last two months? Major changes!”
“We haven’t nailed all the details yet, but here’s a kicker. On June 20th, Zhao Mingyue, Lu Liangting, and a group of others had a significant conflict with believers back in Eternal Life Village.”
An Que bolted upright from his chair, eyebrows knit together. “Keep talking.”
“We’re still investigating how many were involved in total, but for now, we know there were definitely at least seven who went in, and all came out alive. However, many believers died—conservatively, over one hundred and twenty.”
The bald gatekeeper kept his gaze down, sensing An Que’s growing fury.
“Anything else?” An Que asked, trying to suppress the flames of rage licking at his insides.
“Oh, and three days ago, Chairman Chen’s son and all of his subordinates disappeared without a trace, completely cut off. According to Chairman Chen, given their strength, not a whisper was heard back.”
“Lu Changlin was rescued and is applying heavy pressure on us, while Chairman Chen is trying to find a solution.”
“Not a single scrap of information?” An Que gritted his teeth, frustration boiling over. “Chen Gaoyuan brought at least six red-clad warriors and over twenty evil ghosts with him, not to mention high-level fighters like Lao Sun!”
“He took six, all top-tier gatekeepers. How in the world could there be not a single word coming back?”
At that moment, An Que suspected Chen was playing a bigger game—keeping him out of the loop and trying to hoard all the glory for himself. Because this made zero sense.
With so many elite gatekeepers, red-clad forces, and evil spirits, how could a mystery opponent take them all down without leaving even a whisper in the wind?
The fact that they couldn’t relay any messages suggested a significant power difference. Only absolute dominance could silence them.
But who could possibly summon such overwhelming strength?
Tianchang City, even when excluding Eternal Life Village and counting the Ghost Domain, had no apparent contenders.
Wait a second… Eternal Life Village.
“Are you suggesting that Chen Gaoyuan and his crew were likely attacked by an evil god?”
“Correct!” The bald gatekeeper nodded vigorously, pulling out a jade pendant. “This was found at the scene—Chen Gaoyuan’s protective token, marked by the curse’s residue.”
Crunch!
An Que crushed the chair’s armrest. The sound squeaked like exasperated rubber. “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
“My bad! I panicked and couldn’t think straight. I wanted to take it step by step!” The bald gatekeeper bowed and hastily apologized.
“Continue.” An Que examined the blackened token closely, knowing the source of its energy was undoubtedly from an evil god’s curse.
“We suspect one of the four major evil gods from Eternal Life Village has escaped, at least one of them, possibly targeting Zhao Mingyue and Lu Liangting.”
“We don’t yet know their objective.”
An Que sat back in his chair, hands covering his face, staring blankly at the tabletop through his fingers as if he were trying to read a fortune.
An evil god had resurfaced from Eternal Life Village.
But which one?
Was it Burning Heart? Qian Mu? Fanyin? Or A Zhe?
Burning Heart was out of the question; they claimed she was already dead. Therefore, we’re left with three candidates who could escape and seek vengeance against the gatekeepers, or rather, against An Que himself.
Fanyin and A Zhe could be suspects, but it felt unlikely.
If they were involved, they’d be busy amassing followers and consolidating power, laying low—not aggressively attacking the gatekeepers so soon after their release.
Plus, Fanyin and A Zhe lacked the solo strength to pull this off without teaming up.
But Qian Mu? Now that was different.
He’d bet he was the one person who understood Qian Mu better than anyone else. Given Qian Mu’s abilities, pulling off something like this was absolutely achievable.
“We tried to investigate the others who went to Eternal Life Village with Zhao Mingyue on that day. Sadly, our entire team is now dead.”
“Seems a group of highly skilled people has emerged in Tianchang City, striking with an eerie style. We still can’t figure out their motives.”
“Notably, they’re all women: unpredictable, psychologically indifferent to m*rder. Whoever they capture either goes missing or ends up dead, almost certainly interrogated brutally.”
“Bad news—the group already knows we exist and has been investigating us. They’ve taken control of twelve ghost gates. Despite multiple attempts, Chairman Chen hasn’t been able to reclaim them.”
“The kicker? Nearly nine out of ten of them have an obsessive crush on Lu Liangting, constantly trying to interact with him or find ways to connect with him.”
“Now they’re aware we kidnapped Lu Changlin. They’re gearing up to retaliate.”
The bald gatekeeper sighed in defeat. It was clear these women were determined to nab them to curry favor with the Lu family, all in the name of trying to woo Lu Liangting.
What was it about him that warranted this level of obsession?
Surely, they weren’t just after the Lu family’s fortune, right?
They’d tried bribing these women before, which only incited furious outrage, as if such offers were the ultimate insult.
They couldn’t outfight them, and attempts to entrap them were laughably futile. These so-called ‘women’ were masters of assassination, ambush, and stalking. It was like trying to catch a feather in a tornado.
One had to wonder—were these people really just lounging around, with no serious work to do?
“And in other news, Xia Feihang and Lin Zhou have been located.”
“They won’t say a word about that night, but they did mention Zhao Mingyue and an evil ghost named Gluttony.”
“They both insisted we absolutely shouldn’t provoke Gluttony.”
“Gluttony seems to be simply a red-clad spirit.”
Still more to come this afternoon! Please vote! Whimper whimper~
