A Good-for-Nothing

296. Flashpoint

Translator: Dragon Rider

In the living room He Zheng and Zhang Jingqiu were sitting in their seats, exchanging glances from time to time, feeling bored stiff. But actually Zhang Jingqiu was not in the mood for talking with He Zheng, for he was still dwelling on the story told by Zhou Yang a few moments ago, which was quite poignant.

Suddenly, a tremendous bang came from the direction that Li Zong and Zhou Yang had just gone. The two of them twisted their heads aside at the same time and saw Li Zong hurrying out of the room, in which Elder Zhou was lying on the ground spreadeagle, blood flowing from his mouth continuously, cutting a piteous figure.

The two of them sprang to their feet simultaneously. “What’s going on?!”

Li Zong’s pupils had become golden, which struck the two of them as strange. He Zheng was just about to walk up to Li Zong when he noticed this and stopped, but the latter was still hastening up to him without pause.

“What’s with your eyes?” asked He Zheng in spite of himself, looking at Li Zong with an inscrutable expression in his eyes.

“Let’s get to the car first.” Li Zong took He Zheng’s hand, his voice apathetic and distant. “We need to go back to SMB!”

Zhang Jingqiu, having worked with Li Zong for many years, immediately sensed the anger in Li Zong’s tone. He subconsciously glanced in Zhou Yang’s direction. The old man had scrambled to his feet and was coughing badly, holding his chest, making quite a sight.

Li Zong, having no time to expound, drew He Zheng out of the house right away.

Zhang Jingqiu was momentarily astonished and then, with tons of questions in his head, hastily followed in their wake.

Zhou Yang was now holding his face which was weather-beaten and looked like withered orange rind. At this time, his face wore a mirthless smile which was uncharacteristic of a man of his age. Zhou Yang coughed up another mouthful of blood. The blow from Li Zong had been very hard. He would have wound up dead were it not for his powerful internal energy.

He had got his just deserts. Zhou Yang closed his eyes in distress. The servants were too terrified to get close. Zhou Yang waved at them and said hoarsely, “Take me to SMB. By the way, give Elder Chen and the others a call. Tell them that some Demon’s Attendants have already infiltrated into SMB.”

Zhou Yang was right about what had happened. He did have a lot of contacts in SMB. After all, it had been him and another couple of geriatrics who created the barrier of enchantment shielding the bureau. With his full support, Zhou Congzhi’s men had successfully gained entry into SMB without being found out.

Zhou Yang was an old fool, but like his contemporaries, he set great store by his credibility. Previously Zhou Congzhi had got Zhou Yang out of trouble, and Zhou Yang did not like the feeling of owing people favors. At first he had been unaware of Zhou Congzhi’s identity and disclosed a lot of information to him. Afterward he had come to know that the Zhou family was the largest family of Demon’s Attendants, but he had not been able to distance himself from them and thus become the biggest mole planted in SMB by Zhou Congzhi.

He might have been in less trouble if he had remained a complete traitor. He had betrayed his principles and broken his faith, but due to his guilty conscience, he had ratted out Zhou Congzhi at the last moment. People of advanced years who became two-faced were something of a rarity. It could be said that Elder Zhou had ruined his good reputation which he had maintained almost all his life.

Even Zhou Yang himself felt like a fool when sitting in a car heading for SMB. He could barely forebear from slapping his own face.

Sometimes a single decision is enough for you to earn yourself everlasting shame.

Unfortunately for him, what was done was done. No matter how regretful he was, there was nothing he could do to make a difference.

In the car Li Zong gave Zhang Jingqiu a simple account of what Zhou Yang and Zhou Congzhi had done. Whatever Zhang Jingqiu had expected, it was not this. He wanted to curse loudly but knew that it was inappropriate to do so. Several times his mouth opened and closed again, but eventually he said nothing, undisguised coldness written all over his face.

On this day the Rosefinch Lane was not as quiet as it usually was. The old man who normally would be selling sweet potatoes at the entrance to the lane at this hour of the day was nowhere to be seen. They walked through the barrier of enchantment only to find that the place was a total mess. Apart from exorcists like them, there were also some staff members of SMB who were common people. Currently the whole bureau was in disarray, and there was fighting everywhere.

This time around Zhou Yang had gone the whole hog. He had not only stalled Li Zong and some others but also lured away all top-ranking officials except for Xiang Hailou and Zhen Daoyuan.

If Zhen Daoyuan had not decisively locked down the Ministry of Supervision, those detained in there might have already been released by the Demon King’s underlings, but what with the lockdown of the Ministry, SMB staff members had not had the time to take out any of the powerful magic treasures kept in the cabinets.

The headquarters of SMB had been attacked by the Demon King before. Only twenty years or so ago, the Demon King on a whim had massed his minions outside the headquarters of SMB and launched an attack, which was the very reason why the director general had decided to bring the Demon King down.

At the sight of the chaos in SMB, the two group leaders were consumed with anger.

Before Li Zong entered, Crimson Lotus Karma Flames rose from the soles of his feet, emitting a faint, golden glow. The clouds of black gas floating in mid-air started screaming and were instantly burnt to nothingness.

He Zheng and Zhang Jingqiu drew their weapons at the same time and downed all the Demon’s Attendants in the vicinity.

“He Zheng, follow me,” said Li Zong, his eyes searching the crowds. Finally, they spotted the floor where the situation was the severest. All the windows on the eighth floor of the United Front Work Department had been shattered. Han Zhuo and Xiang Hailou flew backwards, heavily bumped against the wall behind them and both spat blood.

As though there was some kind of connection between him and something, He Zheng suddenly had a very odd sensation and started progressing in a particular direction, as if something was summoning him …

Li Zong’s heart sank as he noticed He Zheng’s uncharacteristic behavior, but He Zheng was completely bewitched and seemed unable to hear him.

Eyes unfocused and fixed ahead, He Zheng was slowly moving forward. An eerie-looking man was standing beside a window, looking down in He Zheng’s direction, a shadow of a smile on his face.

The enchantment now had a firmer control of He Zheng, who strode towards where the man was. His raised foot was just about to land on the ground when a phoenix squawk was heard in his mind. He Zheng suddenly felt his mind clear up completely. He shook his groggy head and then was surprised that Dan Zhu had flown out of his forehead, twittering beside him anxiously.

“I’ve been meaning to see you for quite some time.” The man’s voice was very soft. There was such a long distance between them that He Zheng could not even see the man’s lips moving, but he heard the words distinctly as though the speaker were in his head.

He Zheng came to know whom the man standing beside Zhou Congzhi on that day was. It was the Demon King.

Someone gave his hand a pull. Li Zong, holding He Zheng’s hand, drew him up the staircase of the United Front Work Department at a gentle pace.

The situation was worse than they had thought. They chanced upon Chen Kai and some others on the third floor. Chen Kai’s hand was on his bowstring. He had pulled the bowstring so frequently that the callus on his finger pulps was about to crack, the bowstring blood-stained.

Carnotte and Tao Wujiu were no better. Carnotte’s fur had been dyed red, and there was no telling whether it was his own blood or the enemies’. The wolf looked exhausted and was panting heavily, but he was still hanging in there, trying hard not to transform back into a human.

“Supt. Li! He Zheng!” Chen Kai, Tao Wujiu and Carnotte had almost eliminated all the intruders on the third floor. The trickiest part was that Demon’s Attendants were capable of using demonic Qi to control non-cultivator staff members, which was why exorcists did not dare go all out, but they could not stand by either. Dealing with this situation was more tiring than a fierce fight.

Li Zong’s karma flame was demonic Qi’s bane. The patches of black gas floating in mid-air had all been burnt. They could finally heave a long sigh of relief now.

As expected, the fighting on the eighth floor was the most intense.

They had just set foot on the eighth floor when He Zheng caught sight of a man lying on the ground, covered in blood. His pupils contracted drastically and with that he called out, “Chen Qianlin!”

Chen Qianlin’s right arm was broken. He was holding Sharpness with his left hand, cutting a sorry figure.

“There you are, goo–goo–good-for-nothing.” Chen Qianlin said to him feebly. “We had a hard job to dispose of Zhou Qi … I don’t want to admit that you’re stronger than us, but I think I’ll have to let you handle these guys.”

Eyes stinging from tears, He Zheng nodded vigorously. Zhou Qi was lying on the ground, a big hole in the top of his skull, another one in his chest. He could not be more dead.

Wei Cheng, also grievously wounded, was leaning against the wall in a corner, blood dripping from his lips.

They could tell from the mess on the ground how fierce the fighting had been.

He Zheng wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and then settled Chen Qianlin and Wei Cheng in a spot. On the other side, Han Zhuo and Xiang Hailou were dueling with the Demon King and Zhou Congzhi … No, they were just getting their asses kicked.

“Demon King.” Li Zong’s lips parted slightly as he uttered these two words, his golden-pupiled eyes staring at the otherworldly-looking man.

“I’m Xiangshan. Do you like my name?” said the man, relaxedly tilting his head to one side, a black sphere of light suspended in mid-air inches above his hand. Then he lightly raised his hand and with that Xiang Hailou and Han Zhuo were lifted off their feet again and slammed into the opposite wall with a muffled groan.

“Faugh! It sounds horrible!” He Zheng cursed loudly.

Surprisingly, the man was not angered and looked in He Zheng and Li Zong’s direction, a spurious smile on his face.

“I like both of you. Which one should I fight first?”

Zhou Congzhi came out of hiding and said, “Master, please let me handle He Zheng.”

“You seem a little too old for this … ” Xiangshan glanced at him with a half smile and then added, “All right. Take care of him. But on no account should you kill him. If he dies, you die. Understand?”

“I understand, Master.” Zhou Congzhi inclined his head.

“He Zheng, be careful,” cautioned Xiang Hailou after he spitting out a mouthful of blood, clutching his chest.

He Zheng knew that Zhou Congzhi was by no means a milksop, for the latter was the patriarch of the largest family of Demon’s Attendants, had served the Demon King for such a long time and was also the one who had knocked Zhou Yize, Zhou Yihao and Zhou Qi into shape. How could a man like this be a sitting duck?

Though all his opponents looked much the worse for wear, Zhou Congzhi still appeared to be the visionary, resourceful chairman of the Zhou family’s conglomerate. There was not even a spot of blood on his clothes.

“He Zheng, you’re many years my junior. There’s no glory in fighting you.”

Smiling, He Zheng removed his peaked cap and combed his hair backwards with a casual elegance, revealing the weird pattern of an eye on his forehead. Predictably, at the sight of the pattern, the distant look in Zhou Congzhi’s eyes changed somewhat.

“It seems your identity as the vessel is now unmistakable.”

“You’ll have to pay for what Zhao Fei has suffered as well,” He Zheng smiled, holding Shadow. Knowing that he must not take Zhou Congzhi lightly, He Zheng directly performed a Quintuple Lightning Enchantment. Thick thunderclouds massed in the sky overhead as expected. When he had finished the incantation, electric sparks began flashing in the air with menacing sounds.

Xiangshan, with a forced smile, glanced at Zhou Congzhi and He Zheng whom had started dueling, and then languidly shifted his gaze back to Li Zong. “I’ve been waiting for this for many years.”

Li Zong cast He Zheng a look and then vanished into thin air. Xiangshan understood what he meant and followed suit.

It had been on Mount Xiangshan that the Demon King was defeated over twenty years ago, and now Li Zong was faced with the Demon King on Mount Xiangshan once again.

A great battle was imminent.