Mi Ke let out a helpless laugh and added, “It’s more than just misdirection.”
“The Foetal Feeder was raised for that malevolent spirit. I can lock onto the location where that Republican Era malevolent spirit is hidden by tracing the residual yin energy and spirituality of the Foetal Feeder.”
“Otherwise, even if we have a mountain of evidence, without finding the key witness—the malevolent spirit—everything is just empty talk.”
Now Ou Li completely understood. She nodded repeatedly. “Got it, got it! Let’s get to work!”
The group quickly finalized their subsequent actions and began systematically executing their plan.
Over the next few days, the entire city could faintly sense the impact of their noisy, large-scale investigation.
Wu Daoqing immediately contacted his seniors at the Heavenly Master Association, reporting the truth that the Foetal Feeder was being artificially bred to nourish an evil spirit.
The members of the association were deeply shaken by the news.
In past years, the association had always assumed the Foetal Feeder was a self-limiting evil. Though it harmed people, it would eventually dissipate on its own, meaning it wasn't worth dedicating massive manpower and resources to eliminate.
But now they learned that these seemingly scattered urban anomalies were actually a reserve of nourishment prepared by a malevolent spirit for itself. If that malevolent spirit actually succeeded in cultivating itself, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Since the matter was of grave importance, the Heavenly Master Association immediately mobilized personnel to assist the group in checking for residual Foetal Feeders and cleansing the yin energy throughout the city.
For a time, the operation was massive and high-profile.
Of course, “the group” here referred to Wu Daoqing, Wu Suowei, Mi Ke, and Ou Li, plus Ming Yi acting as their bodyguard.
Bai Ci and Zheng Gang, the two “weak” individuals, were not among them.
The latter was because he needed to organize the evidence alone, while the former...
It seemed the previous trap had left a deep impression on everyone—whether it was the players, Wu Daoqing, or Ming Yi.
They had all tacitly held Bai Ci back, firmly refusing to let her participate in any high-risk activities that required direct combat or cleansing of evil.
Bai Ci simply accepted the arrangement with grace. She spent most of her time staying behind at the Zhao family estate, keeping an eye on Zheng Gang's safety as he sorted through the historical documents.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
It was early morning at the Zhao family estate. The morning light was warm and gentle. Bai Ci sat alone in the dining room, quietly pretending to eat her breakfast.
The Zhao family had always been late risers. After all, when people knew exactly when they were going to die, they naturally wanted to enjoy life as much as possible. Sleeping in was a regular occurrence.
Thus, most of the time, only the outsiders and a certain Ms. Zhao, who was accustomed to waking up early, would show up on time for this properly scheduled breakfast.
Zheng Gang had stayed up late researching documents and had only fallen asleep as dawn broke, so he was still in bed.
The others had simply taken up residence at the Heavenly Master Association.
Therefore, only Bai Ci was seated here at the moment.
Before long, the only other person to come for breakfast, Zhao Cunqiong, walked hurriedly into the dining room.
She had been exhausted both physically and mentally from managing Li Yunqi's funeral over the past few days, and a trace of suppressed irritation hung between her brows.
Upon entering, she caught sight of Bai Ci sitting there peacefully. Thinking of what the group had been doing lately, her accumulated frustration flared into resentful anger. She couldn't help but complain loudly.
“I really don't know what we hired this group of people for. They take our Zhao family's generous payment, yet they don't do any real work. They just run around the city all day.”
“They claim to be exorcising spirits and investigating the case, but in the end, there's not a single result. They look no different from charlatans and frauds.”
“And some people just hide in their rooms all day flipping through books, putting on a show of doing real work. They take our Zhao family's genealogy book and flip through it everywhere. Do they really think they can find anything?”
“If you ask me, they're just freeloading and wasting time.”
She said this deliberately for Bai Ci to hear, making her dissatisfaction with the hired help crystal clear.
The suppressed anxiety of the past few days, the fear of her relatives and herself dying young, and the exhaustion from the funeral had completely drained her patience. She chose to vent all her frustration through these verbal complaints.
Hearing this, Bai Ci wasn't particularly angry. Instead, she realized something.
The others had played their parts too well, and perhaps because they were progressing too quickly in gathering information, they had forgotten to manage the NPC's emotions.
To investigate, they had deliberately made a high-profile scene and wandered around seemingly aimlessly. Furthermore, because they had to keep their plans secret, they couldn't explain anything to their employer.
To an outsider—especially a highly anxious member of the Zhao family—acting this way indeed looked like slacking off and fraud.
Bai Ci set down her utensils and looked at Zhao Cunqiong, her tone gentle. “Ms. Zhao, do you believe that ghosts exist, or do you not?”
Suddenly asked this, Zhao Cunqiong froze, her anger instantly choking in her throat.
“I... I never believed in those illusory things to begin with...”
“Our family's short lifespans might just be a genetic defect, a hereditary issue, or something...”
Because she had been complaining just moments ago, she subconsciously didn't want to back down. Holding onto a modern person's scientific understanding, she stammered defensively.
Bai Ci smiled. “So you do believe.”
“If you truly didn't believe at all, you wouldn't have even a shred of doubt in your heart, let alone feel this anxious.”
“At the end of the day, you noticed something was wrong long ago, didn't you? You're just afraid and unwilling to admit it.”
“A genetic defect? A family hereditary disease? Those can't precisely kill people at exactly thirty-five years old, and in all kinds of different ways.”
Zhao Cunqiong pursed her lips tightly. She couldn't immediately formulate a rebuttal to Bai Ci's words.
In fact, it might not just be “immediately.”
Seeing that Zhao Cunqiong's emotions had gradually settled, Bai Ci prepared to move on to the next step of reassuring the NPC.
Verbal explanations were too hollow. It was better to provide a direct demonstration. Letting her see it with her own eyes would completely dispel her doubts.
Beneath her draped sleeve, Bai Ci quietly took out Gluttony.
Then, she looked around at the neatly arranged furniture and asked, “Which piece of furniture here is on the cheaper side?”
Confused and dazed, Zhao Cunqiong subconsciously pointed to a heavy marble table nearby. “It should be that table. It's a standard home style, not very expensive.”
The moment she finished speaking, Bai Ci immediately locked onto the table as her target.
Crack—
A sharp, ear-piercing sound of shattering suddenly rang out.
The solid, heavy marble tabletop, something normally difficult to damage with ordinary physical force, collapsed and shattered completely the very next instant. Fragments of stone rained down onto the floor.
Zhao Cunqiong swore with her perfectly normal vision that she had faintly seen something emerge from Bai Ci's hand. In the next second, the marble dining table had been shattered into pieces.
In any case, any scientific method she currently knew of could not explain the scene before her.
“You... you...”
Zhao Cunqiong stood frozen in place, her eyes wide as she stared at the shattered marble debris on the floor, then snapped her gaze to the calm Bai Ci. Her lips parted, but she couldn't squeeze out another word for a long time.
Shock, bewilderment, and utter disbelief instantly washed away all of her dissatisfaction and resentment.
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