A Good-for-Nothing

277. Zhou Qi

Translator: Dragon Rider

In a villa.

Zhou Congzhi, who supposedly had gone abroad on a tour of investigation, was now sitting in repose in a room, his eyes closed. Suddenly, a commotion came from outside the door.

“Mr. Zhou, something happened!”

Zhou Congzhi opened his eyes, the black gas he was wreathed in quickly retreating into his body. Outside the door stood the old butler of the Zhou family. Zhou Congzhi asked blandly, “What’s wrong? Has Yize come back?”

The old man with a weather-beaten face shook his head. “Just now a couple of juniors called and said that some SMB agents searched the residence.”

“How’s that possible?” Zhou Congzhi furrowed his brows, looking displeased. “Hasn’t Yize been handling it?”

“Young Master still hasn’t come back … We don’t know what happened either. The only thing we know is that SMB sent a lot of men to that residence. Fortunately you had us leave that place ahead of schedule. Otherwise we would no doubt have been … ”

Zhou Congzhi vaguely felt that there was something fishy going on. Along the corridor a man slowly walked over, a smile on his face.

Zhou Congzhi’s and the old butler’s faces both changed at the sight of the man. They quickly bowed their heads and greeted him reverently. “Master.”

The man, without even raising his eyes, said, “Zhou Congzhi, I’ve thought of a new name for myself.”

“May I have the honor of knowing what it is, Master?”

“Xiangshan,” the man smiled, tilting his head to one side. “What do you think of it? That year they fought me on Mount Xiangshan, where I was defeated and then reborn.”

“It’s a very good name, Master.” Zhou Congzhi’s countenance remained unemotional.

Xiangshan smiled a watery smile. “It strikes me as a good name as well.”

He looked up into the sky, where the sun was high and bathing everything in warm light, but the air in the vicinity of Xiangshan was so cold it made the two men felt as though they were in an ice house.

Xiangshan’s mouth curved slightly. “Zhou Qi did something very interesting. He extracted a soul from someone named He Zheng and kept it somewhere safe. How far do you think Li Zong would go to get it back for He Zheng?”

Zhou Congzhi, naturally, could tell that Xiangshan was very interested in Li Zong. In fact Zhou Congzhi did not care about it. “That man named He Zheng is Zhu Ning’s son, but the Demonic Seed doesn’t seem to be inside his body.”

“You need to find the Seed as soon as possible.” Xiangshan’s lips curled in a smile. “Because, your eldest son, Zhou Yize, is now dead.”

Zhou Congzhi, who had been composed all along, jerked his head up. Lips quivering, he asked in a deep voice, “What do you mean, Master?”

Xiangshan casually pointed at a room. “Go in there and see for yourself.”

Zhou Congzhi had invested a lot in knocking Zhou Yize into shape. The last thing Zhou Congzhi wanted to see happen was for Zhou Yize to die.

He hurried to the door of that room, pushed it open and saw that the jade Cong (a long hollow piece of jade with rectangular sides) placed on a table inside now bore a long crack in the middle. It was almost beyond repair.

“Mr. Zhou … ” The butler was horrified.

In that year, Zhou Congzhi had used the remaining sentience in the jade Cong to reshape the soul of Zhou Yize, who had died of misuse of dark powers. With Zhou Congzhi’s dark powers, the two had merged into each other, and Zhou Yize, in a sense, had been “resurrected”.

The only thing that had struck Zhou Congzhi as unsatisfactory had been that the sentience contained in the jade Cong was very powerful and thus difficult to put under control. Therefore, he had taken some precautions by casting a Constraint Spell on Zhou Yize who had been brought back from the dead. If Zhou Yize did something he was not supposed to do, the spell would force him to self-destruct.

On the bright side, if Zhou Yize was wounded or even got killed, Zhou Congzhi would be able to cure him or resurrect him, as long as the jade Cong was intact.

That was the very reason why Zhou Congzhi had assigned Zhou Yize to deal with SMB single-handedly. If Zhou Yize “died”, he could always secretly retrieve Zhou Yize’s soul and create a new Zhou Yize.

Given what had happened, the second possibility was the only plausible explanation – Zhou Yize had betrayed him, betrayed his family! His son had chosen to perish for good instead of serving his father, believing he was a selfless valentine! How touching!

“You useless bastard!” For the first time Zhou Congzhi lost his cool. He smacked his fist on to the table from which the jade Cong then fell. Staring apathetically at the jade that had broken in half, Zhou Congzhi said resentfully, “Since he’s so eager to die, I shall grant his wish! Smash this thing and make sure it will never develop a human shape again!”

The old butler bobbed his head nervously, saying “Yes, Mr. Zhou” repeatedly, then took the broken jade ware and left.

After walking out of the room, the butler recalled how good Zhou Yize had always been to him. Unable to bring himself to smash it, he dug a hole in the ground and buried the jade Cong that had broken in half.

Zhou Congzhi was unaware of the butler’s action.

In a room.

Zhou Congzhi’s sinister eyes swept around the empty room.

From outside the door came a fit of laughter. “You seem to be very unhappy, Father.”

Zhou Congzhi stared at the door like a ferocious venomous snake at its quarry, his hands behind him, black gas issuing from his palms. Zhou Congzhi’s voice was so cold it could have sent a chill down someone’s spine. “Zhou Qi, look what you did!”

“Alas. It’s not my fault. I didn’t bargained on my big brother doing something that stupid either,” beamed Zhou Qi, sweeping inside.

Zhou Congzhi’s eyes became even colder. Zhou Qi continued, “Father, there’s no need to concern yourself. We don’t have to hide in the shadows any more. Master has regained much of his former strength. Even if those guys of SMB find us, what could they possibly do? We have nothing to fear from them whatsoever.”

“You know nothing!”

Zhou Qi gave a shrug. “Li Zong is the only one in SMB who might be Master’s match, isn’t he?”

“That’s sheer ignorance! You think Chen Sanquan and Zong Xian are milksops? Why do you think Master, having built himself a human body, is still hiding here? We must not drop our guard until the Demonic Seed is recovered.

Master has been turning a blind eye to your little games, and I have no intention to punish you for trying to get Zhou Yize and Zhou Yihao killed.” Zhou Congzhi tossed Zhou Qi a casual glance and then said flintily, “But you must remember this, Zhou Qi – I gave you your life, and Master gave you your powers, so don’t you ever even think of doing anything without Master’s consent.

You’re nothing but a frog at the bottom of a well. You’ve seen nothing but a tiny spot of the big picture!”

With that, Zhou Congzhi stormed off in a swish of his sleeve. The smile on Zhou Qi’s face gradually faded away. Eventually, Zhou Qi’s countenance became glacial as well. His lips slightly curved, his fingers twitching.

“Well said. ‘A frog at the bottom of a well … A tiny spot of the big picture’ … ” Zhou Qi, unconvinced, was filled with indignation. He gave a sneer, deciding to have Zhou Congzhi know what he, a frog at the bottom of a well, was capable of.

In SMB.

What Zhou Yize had disclosed before death shocked the whole SMB. The Zhou family, the Demon King, the Demonic Seed and that mysterious man named Zhou Qi – all these were clues indicating which direction the investigation should be going next.

Because of the information provided by Zhou Yize, Zong Xian and the leaders of the three action groups were now all in the conference room for an emergency meeting.

Xiang Hailou had an intention to groom Wei Cheng, so he brought Wei Cheng with him to the meeting.

In the conference room.

All three group leaders except for Li Zong had arrived and were sitting in the room waiting.

“Wei Cheng, why do you look so listless?” asked Xiang Hailou as he observed Wei Cheng’s bloodshot eyes and the weariness etched on his face.

Wei Cheng shook his head. After a moment’s silence, he replied, “Nothing. I’m sorry.”

Xiang Hailou was silent for a few moments and then suddenly caught on. “They … still haven’t found Qi Ming?” he asked.

“No.” A glum look flitted across Wei Cheng’s eyes so quick it was barely perceptible. “I searched that area several times in the past few days, but there’s no trace of Qi Ming whatsoever.”

Xiang Hailou and Wei Cheng were both quite taciturn, but Xiang Hailou could not bear to see Wei Cheng so dejected, so he consoled him, “Prepare for the worst but don’t lose hope. Their target is He Zheng. Maybe Qi Ming is safe and sound.”

“I hope so.” Wei Cheng shook his head again.

“Where’s Li Zong?” After a while, Zong Xian walked inside, still wearing a suit. It was only then that the others recalled that this was the day for the annual meeting which all high-ranking officials were supposed to attend. It would seem Zong Xian had just returned from that meeting.

Han Zhuo, deputy group leader of the first action group, said, “Supt. Li took the day off. He’s probably set off to the Tigers and Dragons Mountain by now.”

“Unbelievable!” Zong Xian smacked his hand on to the desk. “He left without even doing me the courtesy of giving me a call. This is sheer disregard for discipline. He’s a vice-superintendent. How could he be so negligent and wilful?! Does he still want his job or not?!”

“Director General Zong, He Zheng’s in a dire situation. If anything happens to He Zheng, I’m afraid we might not be able to have Li Zong stay on our side,” said Zhen Daoyuan blandly, sounding rather resigned.

Naturally, Zong Xian was also aware of the risks involved. He snorted, “After the meeting, tell Li Zong to give me a call and explain himself!”

“Yes, Sir,” answered Han Zhuo.

“Let’s get started. Where’s Zhao Fei?”

Han Zhuo said, “Zhao Fei … is not in a fit state for a meeting. He’s in the common room.”

“Never mind.” Zong Xian rubbed his forehead. Zhao Fei was not his subordinate, so it was inappropriate for him to point his finger at Zhao Fei. Moreover, Zhao Fei had indeed suffered a lot during that matter …

“Play the video and fill the others in.”

Zhen Daoyuan inclined his head. Before long the video began to play on a screen in front of the attendees.

Zhou Yize’s voice, though jerky, was very distinct, and his account was coherent too.

“Old Master Zhu is deciphering the latter half of the divinatory symbols with Director Tan. Right now our first priority is to bring the other members of the Zhou family into custody. They know the whereabouts of the Demon King.”

“That’s true.”

“In addition, the matter of the Demonic Seed must be taken seriously! You’ve all heard Zhou Yize’s words. Though we can’t trust the whole story completely, we must locate the Demonic Seed and protect the rest of the Seals, lest anything else go awry.”

All the others looked grave and ready to act. Zong Xian said, “If there’s nothing else, break it up. Zhen Daoyuan, Zhao Yidi, you two stay here.”

The others filed out of the conference room.

After those juniors left, Zong Xian loosened his tie a little and looked at the other two. “What do you guys think of it?”

Zhao Yidi, who had not uttered a word during the meeting, replied, “I think Zhou Yize was probably telling the truth. Zhu Ning was just a woman, and now even her ashes are gone. There’s no way we could find the Seed in any of her belongings. What’s certain is that Zhu Ning had something to do with this matter, which is why I’m still positive there’s some kind of connection between the Seed and He Zheng, Zhu Ning’s only child.”

This was exactly what Zong Xian was thinking about.

After saying this, Zhao Yidi tossed Zhen Daoyuan a casual glance.

Zhen Daoyuan did not speak. It would seem these two people were waiting to hear his opinions.

…

Xiang Hailou was assigning tasks to Wei Cheng and his deputy when suddenly Wei Cheng’s cellphone rang. At the sight of the number on the phone screen, the look in Wei Cheng’s eyes flickered and with that he looked up at Xiang Hailou and said, “I have to take this, Group Leader.”

“Okay.”

Wei Cheng, holding his cellphone, hastened to a deserted spot and answered the call.

“Chichi, where are you?”