A Good-for-Nothing

292. Daily Bad Luck

Translator: Dragon Rider

As mentioned before, the Zhou family was the largest family of Demon’s Attendants in Coastal City. Apart from the Zhou family, there were also some smaller groups of followers of the Demon King, but they were not influential enough to make public appearances and could only covertly play some dirty tricks. Under no circumstances would any of them dare launch a frontal attack on SMB staff members, not to mention Li Zong or Zhang Jingqiu.

However, the worm will turn. These Demon’s Attendants, after hearing that the Demon King had made his move, believed that their boss had made a comeback, so they were emboldened and straightened their backs. Due to the vast territory and huge population of the Republic of Hua, there were quite some Demon’s Attendants in this country. In Jiangxi Province alone there was a small family of Demon’s Attendants.

Zhang Jingqiu was their only target, but they got more than they had bargained for – Li Zong, He Zheng and Zhang Shi were all present.

The four of them left the Tigers and Dragons Mountain, He Zheng wearing a hat. He had asked Li Zong where he had got the weird mark, and Li Zong had honestly told him that the reason why this thing had appeared was because the Demonic Seed had been growing stronger. He Zheng was depressed, but he understood the undertone contained in Li Zong’s words – the only way to destroy the Seed was his death.

He Zheng, naturally, did not want to die, which was why he was wearing a hat, covering the pattern on his forehead. Out of sight, out of mind.

Zhang Shi had kept bragging to them about his new go-anywhere vehicle during their downhill trip, saying that its performance was amazing. Zhang Jingqiu had had an urge to tell his little brother that the two men beside him were both super-rich, that Li Zong’s salaries alone were enough to buy several limited-edition sports car, not to mention the income from the businesses of the Li family.

And He Zheng, widely known to be a playboy in Coastal City, certainly would never be short of money.

While speaking, Zhang Shi subconsciously glanced backwards. Li Zong and He Zheng had some time ago noticed that they were being tailed.

Zhang Shi, swaggering along with his fingers interlocked behind his head, said impliedly, “Do you know what the most populous species in the world is? Ant. Ants need to be on the alert all the time, because they could get trampled to death at any moment.”

His voice was very loud. Unsurprisingly, the stalkers paused. Zhang Shi’s lips curved in a smile. Soon the four of them reached the parking lot at the foot of the hill. Zhang Shi pulled the car door open to let the others in. Then he skillfully drove out of the parking lot, heading for the main road.

Shortly after they left, another vehicle drove out as well.

Someone in the car asked uncertainly, “Should we follow them?”

“Of course! It’s not every day we get an opportunity like this,” said another man through gritted teeth. “I’ve brought the most treasured heirloom of my family. If this time we still fail to get what we want, we’ll have to kiss our future goodbye.”

“Do you think we should contact the Zhou family first?”

“Are you brainless? If we contact the Zhou family, they’ll take all the credit!” reprimanded the second speaker. “Follow that car. Hurry. If we grab him … Even if we merely trap him and then inform Master, we’d be handsomely rewarded!”

The others’ eyes lit up at the words “handsomely rewarded” and with that the car put on a spurt and followed the target.

It was almost dusk. Rumor had it that Yōkai tended to run wild on the borderland between day and night, which was dusk, otherwise known as “Demon Hour”. It was the time of the day when various demons came out of hiding.

Therefore, aside from midnight, the time that demons liked the most was when sun set and moon rose.

The sky gradually darkened. They had to merge onto an expressway before they could get to the airport. When they had left a viaduct, the busy traffic seemed to have vanished into thin air. Zhang Shi was humming a tune. The windshield was covered in a thin layer of mist, so Zhang Shi turned on the windshield wiper, somewhat bemused, believing that it was going to rain, not connecting it with those ants he had mentioned a little while ago.

Afterward, when recalling the whole thing, Zhang Shi was quite resigned – who could have given any more thought to a bunch of creatures as weak as that?

Zhang Shi was humming a song, his fingers tapping, Zhang Jingqiu beside him having forty winks. Zhang Shi did not sneak any backward glances to see what He Zheng and Li Zong were doing in the back seat. The four of them were doing their respective things and none of them noticed that theirs was the only vehicle on the empty expressway.

The fog was thickening. The music coming out of the loudspeaker became jerky and harsh. Zhang Shi furrowed his brows and poked the touch screen with his finger to switch to another song. However, someone had downloaded The Yellow River Cantata for him. The moment the song played, all four people in the car jumped.

Zhang Jingqiu, without opening his eyes, flared, “What the hell are you doing?!”

Zhang Shi was distracted and lowered his head to change the music, a hurt look on his face.

He Zheng’s head, which had been on Li Zong’s shoulder all along, instantly jerked up, his eyes widening. He opened his mouth and was just about to curse when he noticed the surroundings, furrowed his brows and asked in a serious tone, “What’s going on? Why are we in mist?”

After hearing He Zheng’s words, the others looked out of the car windows and found that He Zheng was right. The vehicle was shrouded in dense fog like a moth in a cocoon. Originally it had been a little hot in the vehicle, but now the temperature was decreasing.

“Why is this happening? Do you think those little ants are behind this?” said Zhang Shi, vexation written all over his face.

“WATCH OUT!!!” shouted He Zheng. Zhang Shi quickly looked forward and saw a straggly-haired woman rapidly approaching the windshield! He promptly pressed down hard on the brake pedal, but it was still too late.

A loud muffled thud was heard and with that cracks like a cobweb appeared in the upper left corner of the windshield, along with a winding trail of blood. And then something fell off the front of the car.

The car stopped.

Zhang Shi’s heart skipped a beat, his back numb, his composure gone. “Did I just … hit someone?”

Zhang Jingqiu was panting heavily, his lips pressed tightly together.

Zhang Shi buckled at the knees and took two deep breaths, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. It was a few moments before he collected himself and said, “I’ll go and take a look.”

Zhang Jingqiu was taken aback as well, but not because someone had a car accident in front of him. It was because Zhang Shi had just run someone over. Even if he were the director general of SMB, his little brother would still be held legally responsible, not to mention he was merely the leader of the second action group!

Neither He Zheng nor Li Zong could have foreseen that there would be such an accident. He Zheng, whose face was deathly white and looked faintly scary, subconsciously grabbed Li Zong’s arm.

Zhang Shi unbuckled his safety belt, opened the car door, got out and checked the vicinity. Suddenly, he gave an “Eek” of confusion. There was no body of a woman or an animal beneath the car or on the road ahead. Zhang Shi was thrown into perplexity. What on earth had he just hit?

The fog was still thickening. Zhang Shi pulled the car door open, got in, turned his head aside and said to the one in the front passenger seat, “It strikes me that there’s something fishy going on. Why isn’t there a body?”

“Oh? Really?” The one beside him was not Zhang Jingqiu but a woman with tousled hair! And Zhang Shi abruptly found that it was no longer his favorite ORV but a paper hearse that he was sitting in!

A short way off someone let out a smug chuckle.

“See? One of them has fallen prey. I doubt any of the others in the car could escape from my Necromancy Streamer. This is the most powerful magic artifact handed down in my family. I’ve never flaunted it before.”

Another man paid him a compliment. “It’s really badass, bro, but the three guys in the car are no sitting ducks. I heard that Li Zong’s in there as well.”

“Relax. This baby of mine can do a lot of things. Watch this!” said the first speaker, smirking as the Necromancy Streamer flew out of his hand. Soon a man bearing Zhang Shi’s appearance started stiffly trudging along in the fog.

In the car, Zhang Jingqiu and the other two had waited for seven or eight minutes before they observed that the mist was getting thicker and thicker, and they could see nothing outside the car window. He Zheng glanced at his cellphone and asked, “It’s been several minutes. Why is he still not back? Did Zhang Shi take flight to escape punishment?”

On hearing this, Zhang Jingqiu snorted, “Where could he possibly flee to? We’re on an expressway!”

While he was speaking, someone pulled the car door open. It was none other than Zhang Shi.

Zhang Shi soppily threw Zhang Jingqiu a glowing look. The latter, mistakenly believing that his brother’s eyelids convulsed, reprimand, “If there’s something wrong with your eyes, go and see a doctor. Now stop wasting our time and drive!”

Zhang Shi cast him a plaintive glance, silently sit into the driver’s seat and, holding the seat belt with his thumb and middle finger, slowly buckled in, preparing to drive.

Zhang Shi met Li Zong’s inscrutable eyes in the rear-view mirror and was taken aback. When he was about to press down on the gas pedal to accelerate, a voice was heard.

“Wait.”

On hearing Li Zong’s voice, Zhang Jingqiu, smoldering with anger, asked gruffly, “What now?”

“Couldn’t you tell someone else is in Zhang Shi’s shell?” said Li Zong, tossing Zhang Jingqiu a casual glance. Zhang Jingqiu was instantly on the alert, cocked an eye at Zhang Shi and found that the latter was not his little brother but that straggly-haired female ghost who had possessed him!

As he saw that Zhang Jingqiu had found out, Zhang Shi’s lips curved into an unearthly smile.

The next second a jingle issued from the mist outside, and a giant flag materialized in mid-air, which kept enlarging until it enwrapped the whole car.

“Necromancy Streamer and Soul-Summoning Bell. They’re from the Huang family in Jiangxi. It never occurred to me they were Demon’s Attendants as well. They’ve been hiding themselves so well.”

Zhang Jingqiu had drawn his weapon. No matter how powerful that female ghost was, she did not stand a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating Zhang Jingqiu in a duel. Zhang Jingqiu soon overpowered her. After hearing Li Zong’s words, Zhang Jingqiu asked perplexedly, “How do you know they’re Demon’s Attendants?”

He Zheng found this unbelievable. Had it been by the back door that this Zhang Jingqiu guy got into SMB? Why was he so dumb?

“Who else could have attacked us at this point in time, if not Demon’s Attendants?”

Zhang Jingqiu was momentarily surprised but soon caught on. Indeed, even in SMB, there were four people at the most who knew about Li Zong’s and He Zheng’s survival. Even if SMB had taken action to capture them, they would not have resorted to such methods, which meant that these attackers were no doubt Demon’s Attendants.

“How did they come to know our whereabouts?”

“Maybe they didn’t. I think you’re their target, and the rest of us just happen to be in their way,” said Li Zong.

Zhang Jingqiu, after restraining the female ghost, pushed the car door open and got out, looking at Zhang Shi’s shell, vexed. “Now I have to get this moron his soul back.”

He Zheng, gloating about it, remarked, “That’d be a big moron looking for a smaller one.”

Zhang Jingqiu, ” … ”

Suddenly the jingle became louder and He Zheng found it somewhat grating. Zhang Jingqiu was standing next to the female ghost. He Zheng’s pupils contracted. “It’s coming again!”