Chapter Sixty: Who Is the True Hero?

Xiao Zi watched everything in the distance in silence.

He wasn’t truly surprised by Yi Long’s arrival; after all, his own actions had been far too conspicuous, making it expected that the Bureau for the Investigation of Eerie Creatures would take notice. What did catch him off guard, however, was Yi Long’s strength.

After all, the ones he’d encountered back in Qianyou Town were all D-class, with even a C-class among them. Why, then, was the one sent to capture him in this city an E-class? Could it be that this ghost-wielder’s target wasn’t really him? Was he just here for fun?

He could never have guessed that those D and C-class agents had gone to Qianyou Town specifically to hunt him.

Shaking his head, Xiao Zi still didn’t know what this ghost-wielder really intended. There was one thing he was sure of, though: ghost-wielders were his enemies. Killing them would solve the problem.

But as for this haunted house—this was as far as it went.

He had no intention of being surrounded by ghost-wielders of unknown strength and losing his life in the process.

Yi Long arrived at the haunted house by taxi. He had his own car, of course, but he was too embarrassed to flee in a ghost-wielder’s private vehicle if things went south.

Seeing the growing line of people, Yi Long shook his head in resignation. If there really was an eerie creature inside, just imagine the kind of terror these people would feed it. The thought alone was chilling.

Instead of joining the queue, he walked straight over to Wang Hui.

“Hello, are you Wang Hui?” he asked.

Wang Hui nodded, sizing up the man before him. This must be the ghost-wielder his boss had mentioned.

He nodded again. “Yeah, what do you want?”

Yi Long glanced around, then pulled Wang Hui aside, his expression mysterious. “Listen, just be honest with me. Is something threatening you?”

“Threatening me?” Wang Hui looked puzzled.

“Something like a monster…” Yi Long hesitated, not quite finishing the sentence.

At those words, Wang Hui’s eyes changed. He began glancing around nervously. “Who are you?”

“I’m a hero who specializes in fighting those monsters!”

Yi Long saw Wang Hui’s reaction and felt reassured. This kid must really have been kidnapped by an eerie creature.

“Oh, great hero, please save me! That guy, he—”

“Say no more, come with me quickly!”

Now that he knew the truth, Yi Long abandoned his plan to collect the eerie creature’s aura. He grabbed Wang Hui and tried to leave.

But Wang Hui stood his ground. “Huh? Aren’t you supposed to be a hero who fights monsters? Go in there and kill him!”

“I… Now’s not the time. Just come with me, quickly.”

Yi Long felt a bit awkward—how could he admit that he was weak and might not be able to win?

He dragged Wang Hui into the taxi. What he didn’t notice was the faint look of disdain on Wang Hui’s face, and the slow transformation of his pupils into a deep red.

“So, where to?” the driver asked.

“28 Beilong Road, and step on it!” Yi Long urged.

That was Wang Xinnian’s address. Yi Long intended to take Wang Hui to Wang Xinnian, so Wang Xinnian would know he was telling the truth. Then they could hunt down the eerie creature together.

But after ten minutes of driving, Yi Long sensed something was wrong.

“Driver, why don’t I recognize this road?”

He’d lived here for more than a decade, yet this route was unfamiliar.

Even the driver was baffled. “I’m just as confused! I’ve driven this route for ten years and somehow got lost. Where are we? Is this even Tianjing City anymore?”

Yi Long glanced back at Wang Hui, who was still smiling—an unnaturally eerie smile.

“Wang Hui, do you… know something?”

Wang Hui turned his head slowly. “Know what?”

Yi Long instinctively readied his energy, preparing for battle. “Something’s off about you.”

“Oh? This is ‘off’?” Wang Hui said, twisting his neck in a full circle. “Don’t you think this is a bit more off?”

In the next instant, battle erupted.

Yi Long was a coward, yes, but that didn’t mean he would surrender so easily when faced with an eerie creature. He was, after all, an experienced ghost-wielder; he wouldn’t freeze up at a time like this.

But it was all in vain.

The entire taxi was enveloped in black energy. The driver, terrified, slammed on the brakes. But when he looked back, he was petrified with fear.

A huge crimson figure had appeared in the back seat, holding a severed head. The expression on the head was twisted in agony, as if it had suffered immense terror before death. Blood gushed like a fountain, and the driver’s eyes lost their final glimmer of life.

“No… Please, no!!!”

Afterward, the creature moved forward with its plan. First, it made Wang Hui stir up rumors online, then set out to eliminate everyone who had visited the haunted house, spreading panic as widely and noisily as possible.

The aftermath was immediate and explosive.

First, the taxi driver’s corpse was discovered. Then witnesses claimed Wang Hui had gotten into the cab before the driver died.

But now Wang Hui was missing, and the driver was dead. The situation grew even more frightening.

Then, another revelation: there was no record of any Wang Hui in the city.

The horror didn’t stop there. The body of the haunted house owner was found, and an autopsy revealed he’d died around the time the haunted house had transformed.

So many terrifying events—any fool could sense something was amiss.

Finally, a crowd of people who didn’t know the whole story rushed to the haunted house—and were stunned by what they found.

Inside was a body. A body without its head.

The incident caused an uproar, and the Bureau for the Investigation of Eerie Creatures was immediately alerted. They contacted Wang Xinnian.

“Didn’t we tell you to investigate that haunted house? Why didn’t you react, even though Yi Long has been dead for so long?”

“Yi Long… Yi Long is dead?”

Wang Xinnian was dumbstruck, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“You’re finished! Completely finished! Negligence in your duties, and you let your comrade die for nothing! You’re done for!”

A torrent of fury poured through the phone, leaving Wang Xinnian stunned.

He recalled what Yi Long had told him before, and suddenly felt a jolt of clarity.

Could it be that Yi Long had been right all along? That someone really had been coerced by an eerie creature? And that they were using fear to feed on human terror?

If that was true, then how was he any different from a fool that day?

With that thought, he quickly dressed and hurried to the haunted house.

There, he saw Yi Long’s body. The scene was already cordoned off, but flashing his credentials got him inside.

Seeing Yi Long, lifeless, Wang Xinnian nearly broke down.

Guilt crashed over him, making him wish for death. But then he noticed something gripped tightly in Yi Long’s hand.

Stepping forward, he pried it open—it was a device used specifically for collecting the aura of eerie creatures.

It was easy to imagine: Yi Long, usually so timid, had, at the very end, used his last moments to collect the eerie creature’s aura…

Who could have foreseen it? The one who most wanted to be a hero turned out to be a failure, derelict in his duty, while the most cowardly, Yi Long, had become the hero.