Chapter 19: Not For Sale! Neither Cheap Nor Expensive, Not Selling!
The summer wind is forever remembered because it was truly too scorching.
Although the sun in the sky wasn’t that intense and some wind had picked up, that humidity gave an even stronger feeling like a sweat steam, hot and sticky.
On the street, a teenager carrying a broom and a garbage bin walked along, crossing two streets to reach a pedestrian street, where at one street corner there was a clump on the ground of leaves and scattered trash aggregating, moving slightly as if blown by the wind.
He picked up the broom he carried with him, swept the clump of trash into the garbage bin, dumped it into the nearby trash can, then took out his mobile phone, opened an app, and sent a message.
[Clear ‘Dust Treading Wind’.]
Then he leaned the broom and garbage bin against the trash can, shook his head, and sighed: “No wonder the office is in Sanitation; it really is about cleaning up trash.”
This was the seventh day of summer vacation, and the second day he had started his dispatched part-time job, walking the streets to eliminate demonic creatures.
The app on his mobile phone was the internal app of the Disinfection Bureau, available only within Ningjiang City; it would show where demonic creatures were and provide a plan.
What Li Ye was now resolving was a demonic creature shown at that location in the app.
Dust Treading Wind, earliest mentioned in the Qing Dynasty’s Records of Filthy Paths from the Ministry of Works, which records ‘dust vortices linking into chains, locking human ankles’.
Its true form was just like what he had encountered: in some place it would stir up a slight breeze, and once someone approached, it would cling on, then trip the person when walking.
The way to identify it was also very simple: on dirty soil roads, it blew clean breezes; on clean city streets, it blew breezes carrying yellow mud and dust.
That clump of trash just now, when slightly blowing, had very obvious yellow mud and dust.
Say it’s not powerful? It could really cause someone to fall to death if unlucky.
Say it’s powerful? There are two ways to kill it: either shatter it with sound, or sweep it with a broom.
If it were on another road with vehicles, a casual car horn would shatter it, but this was a pedestrian street, and it was summer with few pedestrians on the road, especially at a street corner with hardly anyone passing by, so the demonic creature had appeared until the afternoon.
Even if undiscovered, it would be swept away the next day by real sanitation workers and automatically dispelled.
Equally famous to it was another demonic creature called ‘Standing Shadow Phantom’.
It often appeared in puddles after rainy days, reflecting pedestrians’ shadows; once reflected and then stepped on, it would make people lose their sense of direction, become sluggish and unable to recognize the road.
The way to identify it was also very simple: the reflection of Standing Shadow Phantom was extremely shaky, normal puddles couldn’t do that; the solution was also to sweep it, or wait for it to dry in the sun.
Although both were lesser demons, once discovered they couldn’t be ignored; no matter the size of demonic creatures, all had to be dealt with.
The daily work of the Disinfection Bureau was basically handling these things. Li Ye wasn’t in a hurry; with enough quantity encountered, he would eventually meet ones like the Five Plagues Ghost, so-called ‘gods’.
As for which good Martial Arts University or inferior one to get into, he already had authority; did he still care about that?
There wasn’t anything urgent anyway.
Li Ye put away his mobile phone, saw it was mealtime, prepared to return to the Disinfection Bureau for a meal in the canteen, when suddenly his mobile phone rang, and an unfamiliar number appeared on the screen.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Li Ye?” The voice was very young, a male.
“Who is this?”
“I’m very interested in the Five Flavors Chopsticks you have; interested in chatting? Two million, to buy your magic treasure.”
Hearing this, Li Ye frowned, “How did you know about mine?”
“Don’t worry about that; this price, I—”
“Not for sale! No matter the price!”
Without waiting for the other side to finish, Li Ye pressed the hang-up button and blocked the number.
The matter of the Five Flavors Chopsticks being known was probably exposed from eating in the canteen these past few days.
But no big problem; he hadn’t planned to hide it anyway. Apart from the really impressive rise in qi and blood in the canteen food, and the significant enhancement from using Five Flavors Chopsticks, he was never afraid of this.
Magic treasures were rare, but his authority was one of a kind.
An ordinary man with a precious jade incurs guilt; there was truth to that, but the premise was that this ‘ordinary man’ truly had no background at all.
This magic treasure was given to him by Pan Zhengyang, and this Director Pan had astonishingly great power.
Because just these past few days, all industries in the city related to martial arts had undergone a collective strict inspection.
Even Deng Hao messaged him complaining that the master craftsman he hired had been taken away for some unknown reason, only released the next day.
Besides that, the food service industry was also under strict inspection; though not all, those affected had major issues leading to arrests, minor ones to heavy fines, and even trivial ones resulting in three-day closures.
Just because Sun Shun had angrily said one sentence back then, it affected half of Ningjiang.
He was just an Information Section Chief; Li Ye couldn’t even imagine how much power the bureau chief above him had.
So he wasn’t afraid at all; anyone able to find his mobile phone number and know he had a magic treasure should be clear who was backing him.
Those without the ability couldn’t track him down here.
Li Ye had just thought this when his mobile phone rang again.
Another unfamiliar number.
Hang up, block.
Then, Pan Zhengyang called.
Li Ye was stunned, answered the call: “You also advising me to sell?”
“Sell what?”
A puzzled tone came from the other end, then: “The master I found for you called you, and you hung up and blocked him; what’s going on?”
Seemed like a misunderstanding.
Li Ye recounted what had just happened.
“Sell if you want to, don’t if you don’t; such things aren’t important. Hurry over to No. 3 Shengtang Road; we’re waiting here for you.” The other side hung up.
Li Ye walked out of the pedestrian street, got on the electric scooter parked nearby, and followed the navigation.
Ningjiang City’s downtown area wasn’t big; an electric scooter could reach anywhere. North City District was mostly factories; further north approached Dragon Mountain.
East City District was the new center constantly shifting over the past twenty years; West District was the former old center; South City District… there was no South City District; south was the Yangtze River.
Shengtang Road was in West District, about twenty minutes from the Disinfection Bureau. Though an old urban area, most buildings were in the style from ten to twenty years ago, but there were also more ancient large courtyard houses.
This was where Li Ye was heading; he parked the electric scooter at the main entrance, glanced at the surrounding environment, and couldn’t help feeling envious.
There were no tall buildings around the large courtyard house; trees were planted nearby, their lush canopies shading the adjacent walls. With no tall buildings nearby, one could see the blue sky upon looking up, and ahead was a large lake, the most famous scenic lake park in the area.
This place was Li Ye’s ideal residence; he didn’t like high-rises, preferring this kind of secluded courtyard house in the bustling city, occupying a large plot.
Li Ye pushed open the red-lacquered wooden gate left slightly ajar, and what met his eyes was a large courtyard; beside the courtyard also stood a tree with a pavilion-like canopy, its shade blocking the sweltering sun. Even from afar, one could sense a coolness.
Under the tree shade was a large stone table, covered with food and several bottles of wine. Four stone stools, two of which were occupied: one by Pan Zhengyang, and another with his back to Li Ye, face unseen.
But from the back, it was an extremely gaunt person; though having flesh, from afar he looked more like a skeleton draped in skin, very strange.
Pan Zhengyang beckoned, “Li Ye, come.”
At this moment, the gaunt man turned his head; his body only slightly shifted, but his head turned nearly half a circle, staring straight at Li Ye.
Eagle gaze, wolf glance!
This man was also middle-aged, looking a bit older than Pan Zhengyang, with thick eyebrows and big eyes that should seem righteous, but his raised brows gave a very fiendish air. Especially those eyes, more like a fierce tiger than a wolf; with one glance, Li Ye felt as if seeing a great lord of the dark altar, roaring dominance over the mountains and forests.
But strangely, though the aura was strong, the spirit, energy, and vitality didn’t match.
To Li Ye’s perception, it was like his former classmate at the martial arts school who trained together.
Qi and blood not condensed into substance.
An ordinary person?
