Chapter Ninety-Seven: The Intimidation Order

Chapter Ninety-Seven

“Can the Soul Life Registry not bind you anymore?” Fan Bisi asked dazedly.

He could hardly believe it and asked again, “You actually broke free from the control of the Soul Life Registry?”

“Mm,” Zhao Fusheng nodded slightly.

Fan Bisi stared at her in disbelief, his mind a chaotic jumble. For a moment, he couldn’t find the words to express his countless questions.

He wanted to ask how Zhao Fusheng had escaped the control of the Ghost Servant, but this question was as elusive as how she had evaded the ghost carriage’s pursuit. Perhaps it was a secret only she knew; even if he asked, he wouldn’t get an answer.

“Even the Soul Life Registry can’t bind you… How did you manage that?” Fan Bisi muttered, utterly stunned.

He couldn’t help but reflect: What kind of monster had he picked up from Jiumen Village that could completely transform within just over a month after resurrection, as if she were a different person?

“Well, congratulations, sir. You’re free from the shackles now, no longer under the control of the Demon Suppression Office,” Fan Bisi said with firm resolve. After his brief initial shock, he quickly recognized Zhao Fusheng’s extraordinary nature and immediately congratulated her on breaking free.

“It’s not entirely a complete escape,” Zhao Fusheng shook her head.

“Last night, after boarding the ghost carriage, my name disappeared from the Soul Life Registry. The Ghost Servant must have sensed my absence,” she explained.

The Ghost Servant itself was undoubtedly powerful, but the Soul Life Registry only borrowed a fragment of the ghost’s power and could not compare to the ghost carriage’s level.

Once she boarded the ghost carriage, she essentially entered the carriage’s ghostly realm, severing her connection to the Soul Life Registry. That was why Zhang Chuanshi noticed her name was missing—it was as if the registry assumed she was dead.

Then she escaped using a substitute ghost, who took her place and was bound by the ghost carriage, inheriting the registry’s causal connection.

However, although Zhao Fusheng had completely relied on the vengeful ghost’s power, she could not entirely deceive the ghostly beings.

So her name remained on the registry, not erased, but because the substitute ghost assumed the causal link, the registry temporarily lost its hold on her.

Zhao Fusheng did not elaborate on the substitute ghost part, but Fan Bisi understood:

“So after surviving a life-and-death ordeal, you can ‘trick’ the vengeful ghost?” His eyes gleamed with interest.

But moments later, he sobered up.

What Zhao Fusheng did was not something to imitate. The ghost carriage was too perilous. If one tried to use it to escape the Soul Life Registry, it was very likely to be a one-way trip.

“Even so, why risk it?” Fan Bisi asked with a complicated expression.

“Dealing with ghosts is too dangerous. Now that you are no longer under the court’s control and have power in hand, you could leave Wan’an County. The world is vast; there must be places you can go.”

Where fish leap freely in the sea and birds soar high in the sky! With her calm caution and strength, she could live well anywhere.

“I have said before, as people of Wan’an County’s Demon Suppression Office, we should protect the local people, exorcise ghosts, solve ghost cases, and maintain peace,” Zhao Fusheng responded firmly.

“...” Fan Bisi’s brow twitched.

When Zhao Fusheng was resurrected, she had indeed spoken those words, but Fan Bisi thought it was delirium after her ordeal.

Now, seeing her insist on those words after escaping, Fan Bisi doubted his own understanding of life.

“Are you serious?” he asked, perplexed.

Fan Bisi had encountered good people before. Zhao Duan, who had once taken them in, and later Zhao Qiming, were considered good people before their minds were fully corrupted by vengeful ghosts.

But he had never met anyone like Zhao Fusheng.

Chaos breeds disorder, disorder causes poverty, and poverty hardly nurtures nobility.

How could a country girl from Jiumen Village suddenly want to protect the peace of the people?

“Of course I’m serious!” Zhao Fusheng did not want to say more and gestured for him to put away the completed case files.

Fan Bisi obeyed, carefully putting away the drying inked files, but he couldn’t resist asking once more:

“Sir, if you go to Baoshi County, what if Deputy Commander Zheng gives you trouble? After all, he is experienced—”

“He’s not worth worrying about,” Zhao Fusheng shook her head and did not hide anything from him on this matter.

“In fact, I secretly looked at the ghost carriage roster. The next target of the carriage is him,” she smirked.

“If I were Zheng He, instead of causing trouble for others, I’d think about how to avoid the ghost carriage first.”

“...” Fan Bisi was speechless.

He didn’t ask how Zhao Fusheng had sneakily seen the ghost carriage roster or why Zheng was the next target, but his heart felt some pity for the Baoshi County magistrate’s deputy commander—this man was truly fated to suffer this calamity upon meeting Zhao Fusheng.

After Fan Bisi put away the files, Fan Wujiu soon brought in a burly man.

This man looked about forty, with thick eyebrows and large eyes, his beard like steel needles, giving him a fierce appearance.

Following Fan Wujiu into the file room, the man’s eyes quickly scanned the rows of cabinets and the long table where Zhao Fusheng sat at the head, holding a teacup and gazing out the window opposite the table.

After the files were put away, Fan Bisi stood beside her. Their positions clearly showed who was in charge.

But the Baoshi County official pretended to be ignorant, shouting loudly:

“Who is the Wan’an County commander? Come see me at once—”

Hearing this, Fan Bisi behind Zhao Fusheng was instantly angry.

This Baoshi County official was clearly used to bullying others under Zheng’s name and now dared to behave arrogantly in Wan’an County.

He was about to lose his temper but thought of Zhao Fusheng’s usually good temper and feared she might think he was too rash. So before speaking, he glanced at her.

Zhao Fusheng nodded to Fan Wujiu and said:

“Grab him.”

Though Fan Wujiu was less clever than his elder brother, his brute strength and respect for Zhao Fusheng’s power made him act immediately.

He shoved the burly man forward.

The man staggered a few steps and stood beside Zhao Fusheng, turning to angrily resist.

But Zhao Fusheng stood, grabbed his collar, and slammed him hard onto the table!

She controlled ghosts, and her body temperature was slightly lower than normal, with tremendous strength.

The man, panicked, instinctively tried to struggle, but the hand pressing his chest did not move, as if a mountain weighed down on him.

Zhao Fusheng leaned over slowly and asked:

“You’re from Baoshi County?”

She spoke deliberately as her arm trembled, revealing a ghostly arm hidden in her sleeve, which she clenched in her hand.

Since grabbing the ghost carriage’s bell, the begging ghost’s arm had suffered backlash, its ghostly aura weakened, but it was still enough to deal with a brazen official.

“Let me go—” the man tried to keep calm, shouting.

Before he finished, Zhao Fusheng raised the begging ghost’s arm and struck his head twice.

Thud, thud — the dull sounds left the man dazed.

It wasn’t very painful, but the blows carried a chilling cold.

Though he had not handled ghost cases himself in the Demon Suppression Office, he had heard many ghost-related stories.

“What are you hitting me with—” he was unsettled, but the two blows activated the begging ghost’s power.

The ghostly arm gradually revived, its shriveled skin pulled taut and stretched. The grayish-brown hand opened silently, grabbing the man’s cheek.

“Ghost—ghost hand—” the man hadn’t taken the blows seriously until the ghost hand’s cold breath touched his face, and he realized something was terribly wrong.

Frightened, his soul almost fled; before he could scream, he heard cracking sounds.

The ghost’s power was too strong; an ordinary person had no chance to resist under the ghost hand.

Crack, crack, crack—

The ghost hand sliced through his skin like a sharp blade through tofu.

His cheek split open, his face bursting like a watermelon, blood splattered everywhere, revealing pale bones and tender muscles beneath. He screamed in unbearable agony.

Fan Bisi and Fan Wujiu watched the ghost arm’s revival and swift shredding of the man’s face, trembling in unison.

“Please spare me, sir! I won’t dare again!” the man, a seasoned Demon Suppression Office official, though terrified, instantly begged for mercy.

Zhao Fusheng had no intention of killing him, so upon hearing this, she lifted the ghost arm.

The ghost hand slowly clenched, fingers like crushed mud, tearing his face skin but unwillingly being lifted by Zhao Fusheng. Blood flowed between the grayish fingers, mixed with shredded flesh falling drop by drop.

A prompt from her Divine Sealing List appeared in her spiritual sea: The ghost arm has revived; use 1 merit point to suppress it?

Yes!

Without hesitation, Zhao Fusheng confirmed.

The Divine Sealing List activated, and the relentless ghost hand was subdued again. The ghost arm shrank, the palm tightened into a fist about the size of a palm, held in her hand.

“...” The Fan brothers dared not breathe.

The injured man, realizing his luck, struggled to stand and knelt, kowtowing:

“Thank you, sir, for your mercy.”

His words hurt his wounds, but he dared not cry out, grateful to be alive.

Most commanders in the Demon Suppression Office were known for their volatile tempers, but few, like Zhao Fusheng, would immediately use a ghost to harm someone over a disagreement.

Ghosts were a double-edged sword.

Using them could protect lives in ghost cases, but the more one borrowed the vengeful ghost’s power, the faster the user’s own life would shorten.

Most commanders who controlled ghosts relied on power and violence, rarely daring to wield ghost hands directly like Zhao Fusheng.

The two Fans trembled.

Zhao Fusheng was usually mild-tempered, but only now, after dealing with the Baoshi official, did Fan Bisi realize she truly controlled life and death through ghost mastery.

She held a ghost arm—but where had it come from?

He recalled when Zhao Fusheng had handled the begging ghost case in Beggar’s Alley, she said she had dismantled the begging ghost.

At the time, nobody asked for details.

They didn’t know how she dismantled the ghost, nor what became of the vengeful ghost’s remains until now, when she produced the ghost arm.

Fan Bisi finally understood the truth!

Zhao Fusheng had severed the begging ghost’s arm and kept it with her.

In other words, besides controlling a vengeful ghost, she also carried the arm of a powerful ghost.

Moreover, she used some unknown method to suppress the ghost arm immediately after its revival—a feat Fan Bisi found incredible.

To suppress the ghost arm so quickly, one must borrow the vengeful ghost’s power.

Zhao Fusheng used ghost power so frequently—

Fan Bisi’s eyes flickered, then he saw Zhao Fusheng raise her head to stare at him.

She still held the now-calm ghost arm, but having nearly used ghost power to kill moments ago, her gaze chilled Fan Bisi to the bone.

He instinctively spread his arms protectively over his younger brother and tried to retreat.

Worried she might lose control, he was uneasy, but then Zhao Fusheng slowly slipped the ghost arm back into her sleeve. She glanced at him and said:

“Have someone find a doctor to treat his wounds and stop the bleeding.”

Her tone was gentle, with no trace of the fury she had shown moments before.

The man relaxed instantly.

Relieved, he let go of the tension and collapsed to the floor, repeatedly thanking her:

“Thank you, sir, thank you...”

Zhao Fusheng pulled out a chair and sat back down, sighing:

“You see, I talk to you nicely, but you don’t listen. You have to get beaten before you understand. Do you think you’re really that stupid?”

“...” Fan Bisi shivered, feeling she was indirectly scolding him.

Yet, for some reason, his fear and resistance vanished instantly upon hearing her words.

This was it!

Serious nonsense, mixing threats and incentives, with a touch of roguishness—this was Zhao Fusheng’s ‘normal’ self, untouched by the vengeful ghost’s influence.

“Yes, yes, I’m really stupid. I shouldn’t be disrespectful to you, sir,” the man whimpered, utterly frightened.

“Before the doctor arrives, tell me about the issues in Baoshi County,” Zhao Fusheng said.

“Yes,” the man forced himself to respond despite the pain, “Deputy Zheng said—”

“I don’t care what he said. Start with the case!” Zhao Fusheng interrupted sharply.

At her voice, the man trembled, afraid of angering her further.

“Half a month ago, someone reported a case in Changgui Lane under Baoshi County’s jurisdiction…”

He quickly recounted the case without unnecessary words.

While he spoke of the ghost case, Fan Bisi quietly retreated from the file room.

His steps lightened, and his face relaxed.

Though Zhao Fusheng had solved several ghost cases, escaped the ghost carriage, and freed herself from the Soul Life Registry, he had never been directly involved, only hearing her tell others to record.

But hearing her recount and witnessing her control over vengeful ghost power to subdue the man was completely different.

Especially since Zhao Fusheng handled it so brilliantly!

After the ghost hand revived in her grasp, she suppressed it at incredible speed. Other than the Baoshi official’s injury, the Demon Suppression Office remained stable.

The Fan brothers had barely processed the danger when it vanished, leaving Fan Bisi deeply shaken.

He recalled Zhao Qiming’s fear and anxiety when controlling ghosts, and the chaos that followed.

Compared to that, Zhao Fusheng seemed so effortless, as if the ghost arm were merely a toy.

This gave him newfound hope for the future of Wan’an County’s Demon Suppression Office.

“Maybe Wan’an County’s fate isn’t doomed,” he thought as he left.

“Zhang Chuanshi is sly and never tells the truth, but perhaps he was right about one thing: Zhao Fusheng could be the protector and savior of Wan’an County.”

“With such a powerful commander, maybe we brothers won’t have to wander anymore. Following Zhao Fusheng, there might still be hope to survive!”

With that, he glanced once more at the file room, then without turning back, went to find someone to call a doctor.