TN –
This is the 4th out of 10 extra chapters. Thanks to “Pls ignore me”
“Wait—”
Lin De’an stretched out his hand, watching helplessly as the red taillights of the bus vanished into the dark night, leaving behind a trail of faintly foul exhaust fumes. For a healthy, sunny, and even virgin young man like him, there was no lingering attachment to such an experience.
Darn it! Was his perfect disguise really exposed?!
Lin De’an scratched his head of dyed blonde hair, dyed using temporary hair dye. He picked himself up from the ground, brushed off the dirt on his legs, and looked at the significant tear on his jeans. He didn’t particularly care about the scraped leg but felt a pang of regret for his pants.
He had arranged this outfit by trading a meal with the most experienced undercover officer in the bureau. He even attended a crash course for half an hour on how to look more like a street punk. With his hair dyed and a gold-plated chain around his neck, his casual swagger would have been the subject of interest during patrols.
So why was he recognized?!
Lin De’an was puzzled, but he had to proceed with his backup plan: riding out on his hidden electric scooter into the depths of the Old Graveyard, heading straight for the crooked willow tree planted on the roadside for unknown years.
This willow tree was tall, its long branches almost touching the ground. The entire tree seemed to lean from its roots, deviating against the direction of the road as if there was a fork on the other side, hence the rumors about an underworld path beneath this crooked willow tree.
Previously, when the roads lacked streetlights at night, some people, in a haze or confusion, walked the wrong path and were never seen again.
The crooked willow tree was a distance away from the bus stop for Route 000. Lin De’an revved his scooter forward and, in the darkness, saw the eerie silhouette of the crooked willow tree, resembling a hunched old lady standing at a crossroad, pointing towards the path ahead.
Sighing deeply, Lin De’an suddenly spotted several figures about tens of meters ahead, also heading towards the crooked willow tree. The visibility wasn’t great in the dead of night, and the figures were blurry, impossible to discern as human or ghost.
But regardless, whether human or ghost, they were the civilians that he, as a police officer, was meant to protect!
Alarmed, Lin De’an shouted loudly, “Stop! Everyone ahead!! Don’t move!!”
“Don’t proceed ahead!!! Stop! Stop right there!!!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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They appeared like enchanting spirits in those tales.
Whispering to himself, Lin De’an, slightly alarmed, realized one of the young men was looking at him with a half-smile, and he spoke first, “A cop?”
“Cough cough cough—” Lin De’an choked, “How did you know?!”
“You smell like a cop. Who wouldn’t recognize that?” The young man chuckled at his reaction, then turned to the others and said, “He’s probably here to investigate the ghostly stuff like us.”
“I know him,” another young man said, also eyeing him. The dark eyes staring at Lin De’an made his spine tingle. The second half of the sentence made him almost jump in shock.
“I teamed up with him in the game.”
In the game!
But Lin De’an couldn’t recall encountering this teammate in any of the game’s scenarios. Since he began playing, he’d had no more than twenty teammates, all with clear faces and remembered nicknames. There wasn’t a single person he had missed.
“Wait—”
“It’s you!”
Lin De’an’s mind suddenly lit up with understanding. He recalled his first dungeon run guided by an unknown expert. Though he lost control somewhat embarrassingly and didn’t quite know how he survived it, the hidden ending rewards had given him a significant boost in starting points, benefitting him ever since.
“Yeah, it’s me. Had a bit of an accident back then, didn’t get the chance to properly introduce myself.” Xu Yintang raised a tentacle, glancing at Lin De’an, then gestured towards Second Treasure, who was eagerly perched on his shoulder, demanding attention.
In fact, it wasn’t Xu Yintang who recognized Lin De’an; it was Second Treasure. This little critter had a vivid memory of the delicious flavors it sampled while still in its mother’s womb. It recognized Lin De’an from afar, but after eating quite a lot of good stuff lately, Lin De’an’s scent wasn’t as appealing as it used to be. This left Second Treasure a bit disappointed.
With a howl, Second Treasure greeted Lin De’an, and suddenly, Lin De’an felt something viscous and icy brush against his consciousness—a sensation he’d experienced in that particular dungeon, though not as pronounced as now. Coupled with the situation back then, he could guess what had happened to Xu Yintang at that time.
“No worries, no worries. Now that we’ve met, it’s all good. This is my first time meeting a player in real life. It’s really a coincidence,” Lin De’an laughed heartily, extending a friendly hand to the big shot(s).
“I’m Lin De’an, as this gentleman said, a policeman. The cases around Old Graveyard seemed off, so I came off-duty to take a look. Compared to my colleagues, I have some experience.”
“Nice to meet you, Officer Lin. You can call me Xiao Qing. I’m… well, half a civil servant, so in a way, we’re colleagues,” Xiao Qing smiled warmly. “And these two are Sugar and Little Yu. We found this case a bit strange, so we came to see if we could help. Since we’re all here for the same reason, why not team up and work together? It’ll be easier to watch out for each other in case something happens.”
His proposal met no objections. The investigation team of three humans and a spirit smoothly expanded to three humans and a spirit, although Yu Kongyou glanced meaningfully at Xu Yintang, a glance that roughly meant, “I’ll dig up all your secrets when I get back.”
Yu Kongyou knew Xu Yintang must have some experiences; otherwise, someone who’d been locked up in a hospital for over twenty years wouldn’t suddenly rise to power. Initially, he didn’t feel close enough to ask, but given the circumstances, if things developed further, they’d need to get more acquainted. For the safety of Xu ZhongPing, he’d have to investigate further.
Yu Kongyou’s look was too explicit, even Xu Yintang understood it at a glance. However, Xu Yintang didn’t have many secrets that he couldn’t share and murmured softly to Yu Kongyou, “You never asked me, though.”
“…” Yu Kongyou resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Xu Yintang, turning his head away to avoid talking to him.
While Xiao Qing updated Lin De’an on their progress, “There’s something beneath that willow tree, but it’s deeply hidden, making it hard to dig out. We’re planning to lure it out to serve as a midnight snack for Second Treasure.”
Second Treasure cooperatively howled, revealing its sharp teeth in a menacing gesture.
Lin De’an inexplicably felt like he was seeing his own chubby cat. In the darkness, Second Treasure’s five big, black eyeballs added an eerie touch to its frightening appearance, yet Lin De’an found this ferocious look strangely cute.
Yu Kongyou added, “Whatever is under that willow tree is more elusive than a turtle. They’ve been circling around here several times without any luck, so they called me out as bait.”
“Making me sacrifice my sleep in the dead of night, and during the day, forcing me to do farm work and take care of chickens, just to become bait for your kids. It’s worse than exploitation,” he complained to Lin De’an.
Lin De’an took a look at Yu Kongyou’s slim arms and legs. He knew Yu Kongyou was a ghost and couldn’t be measured by human standards in terms of combat power. However, he couldn’t help but offer, “Actually, I can—”
“No, you can’t,” Yu Kongyou cut him off, his form floating and suddenly giving Lin De’an a chilling glare, “Your cop aura could even scare off ghosts. Haven’t you noticed how the negative energy is swirling around you?”
Lin De’an was momentarily taken aback by the ghastly expression on Yu Kongyou’s face, coughing a few times before humbly seeking clarification, “Um, what does ‘cop aura’ mean?”
“Let me explain!” Xiao Qing eagerly raised a hand to speak. Since Lin De’an wasn’t quite scared enough, Yu Kongyou, wanting to spook the ghosts haunting the willow tree, took Second Treasure along to assess the quality of the midnight snack. Before leaving, with a howl, Second Treasure reminded its elder brother in the pocket to protect their mother.
A tentacle poked out from Xu Yintang’s pocket, waving at Second Treasure with a red and blue glint akin to a glow stick. Lin De’an couldn’t help but take a few more glances.
“The so-called ‘cop aura’ refers to the righteousness of police officers and the protective shield of the national law enforcement system. To entities in the shadows, it’s like a mouse encountering a cat, intimidating. Recall your experiences in dungeons; weren’t evil spirits less likely to attack you? Did the eerie atmosphere affect your emotions less?” Xu Yintang explained.
“Actually, I haven’t encountered evil spirits or ghosts in dungeons. Just monsters and cultists. But it’s true, I don’t easily sense changes in atmospheres or feel frightened by eerie winds… I’ve never been afraid of these things since I was a kid. I even bet with friends and slept in graveyards for days. My teammates said I was a bit off,” Lin De’an confessed.
“That’s a natural gift,” Xiao Qing said somewhat enviously. “You’ll find out when you encounter those kinds of dungeons. In places with wandering spirits, especially haunted dungeons, professions like police or soldiers naturally repel evil forces. You can even carry a set of your usual police uniform in your backpack and change into it inside the dungeon. It’s more effective than many exorcism talismans.”
These were small tricks the veterans had learned from their experiences, and Lin De’an made sure to take notes. Xu Yintang added, “But in special cases where you need to act as bait, you can smear some impure substances on your chest and forehead, then think of something that scares or unsettles you to momentarily weaken your righteousness.”
Huang Shiping had used this trick to deal with many policemen who had come to investigate missing persons at the sanatorium. He turned them all into patients who could never leave the hospital.
Meanwhile, Yu Kongyou had floated over to the willow tree. The streetlights along this stretch, about a couple hundred meters in total, were all broken. On moonless nights like this, an ordinary person here would be blind, barely able to see the ground by the faint glimmers of the few working lights, and the large, twisted willow tree in front that acted like a roadside signpost.
However, darkness didn’t impair a ghost’s vision like Yu Kongyou’s. Yet, whatever was under the willow tree seemed keenly aware of the dense aura around him. Despite Yu Kongyou’s size and tempting fragrance, which could lure several steps at a time, the entity remained steadfast, buried underground like a shrinking turtle.
Sigh. Scaring ghosts as a ghost wasn’t really interesting.
Yu Kongyou gazed up at the tree silently, not uttering a word. Droplets began falling from the corners of his robe, dripping onto the ground, resembling fresh blood, warm, slick, emanating a rusty smell. The drops collected into a pool of blood, emitting a black smoke that seemed to engulf the entire willow tree, nearly submerging it.
In the encompassing darkness, even Xiao Qing, with the best eyesight, couldn’t make out the changes in Yu Kongyou’s form. All they could discern was a grotesque and terrifyingly large shadow emerging from the muddy bloodstains, dwarfing the willow tree.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped as if winter had arrived, accompanied by sharp winds carrying intermittent, eerie wails and moans, sending an inexplicable chill through everyone’s hearts. In that moment, it felt like life itself had lost its meaning, replaced by endless pain and despair.
The soil beneath the willow tree quivered strangely. A serpent as thick as a water barrel burst out of the ground with a piercing and abnormal screech.
Oh, for crying out loud, what in the world is this!!
Scaring snakes, ahhhhhh!!!
Author’s Note –
Yu Kongyou: The lighting was dark enough; no one saw me removing my makeup, it was perfect.
Yu Kongyou: Reconciling with a bare face is impossible.
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Thank you for the chapters! ❤️❤️❤️
Poor Yu Kongyou having to do all the dirty work lol
Thank you for the chapter.
Thanks for the chapters!!
You Kongyou deserves a pay rise (٥↼_↼)
😂🥰🎉extra chapters🎉🎉🎉
Thank you!
Happiness is extra chapters 🤣🤣🤣❤️❤️❤️
Who is Lil Yu!?
Screaming snake is kinda scary
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
I don’t know why Yu Kongyou is complaining about having to take care of the farm and raise the chickens when he’s the one that wanted them. No one else. Even going out of his way to order the proper supplies.