Strange Investigations Team

For humans who were accustomed to a bright and s.p.a.cious environment, the dark and cramped sewers were full of unknown disasters. What we had to face weren’t things like rats and c.o.c.kroaches, but rather a terrifying monster that could kill three people in an instant.

The slight hissing signaled to us that the snake demon was nearby. Although snake-like creatures didn’t have true noses, but with their tongues and olfactory organ, their sense of smell was comparable to a dog’s. I suspected that the snake demon would be the same. The hissing became clear and crisp, and it was obvious that the sulfur on my body had already attracted its attention. And rather than running away from the smell, it was coming after us. Perhaps the smell had angered it. This wasn’t a laughing matter!

Xueqing pointed her gun forward, ready to shoot at any moment. An idea suddenly appeared in my head– Methane! I immediately checked my air quality device. Just as I though, the methane levels here were extremely high. A spark and this place would explode!

“Don’t shoot! It’ll cause an explosion!” I shouted at Xueqing through my oxygen mask.

Xueqing was startled, and it was obvious that she hadn’t thought of this earlier. The hissing grew louder, and the snake demon could very well appear before us in a second. But since we weren’t able to shoot, how would we fight it?

“Let me!” Zhenzhen wanted to push me out of the way, but it was impossible with how tight the tunnel was.

“Retreat! Lets go back to more open s.p.a.ce to discuss.” Under the circ.u.mstances, even if Zhenzhen could hack apart the snake demon with her ax, it would be hard to save Xueqing and me. With no other options, it was best to escape and ensure the safety of our lives first.

Thankfully, even though the tunnel was tight, I was still able to turn around. Just as I started turning, a white creature appeared! Its upper body was white as snow, but its eyes were an alluring red, like two blood-red rubies in the darkness. Its lower body looked like a serpent’s tail covered in sludge. Its upper body looked like a human’s body with a snake’s head, with a long neck and flickering, blood-red tongue. This was the killer that took three firemen’s lives and triggered a chain of events– The snake demon!

“Don’t go straight, make a turn!” I pushed Zhenzen from behind. Under ordinary circ.u.mstances, it would have been strange if she didn’t kill me. Snakes moved linearly with great speed, so bent over and walking with our a.s.ses up, we definitely wouldn’t be able to outrun it. We could only take lots of turns to put a distance between us. Fortunately, the sewers had tunnels in all directions. There would be a new tunnel to turn into after a short distance no matter which way you went. But if you panicked when choosing your path, it was very easy to lose your way.

Sure enough, after turning through tunnels, we put some distance between ourselves and the snake demon. Of course, with Zhenzhen leading the way like a headless fly, we weren’t able find a larger s.p.a.ce to battle it out with the snake demon. At this junction, my useless right leg started cramping again. I lost my balance, and my whole body fell into the sewage.

When Zhenzhen helped pull me up, the snake demon had caught up and was only ten meters behind us. Xueqing pointed her gun at it. If it attacked us now, whether or not Xueqing fired her gun, we’d end up dead all the same. The only difference was that if she fired, it would be buried down here with us, and if she didn’t, it was going to have a nice meal.

In the midst of panicking, I suddenly realized something strange. The snake demon seemed to be staring at the gun in Xueqing’s hands, but its eyes didn’t carry a murderous intent. Instead, they looked like the curious eyes of a child. Normally, snakes and such creatures had quite poor vision and could only see roughly a meter ahead. Considering the distance between us and it, it shouldn’t be able to see us. It should just be able to smell us and estimate our position.

The snake demon’s eyesight hadn’t completely degenerated, perhaps because it was partially human. After all, part of its genes came from Ye Xiaolou. Since it had human genes, of course it would also have some human traits. Maybe it was just like a ten year old child, curious about a gun.

In this moment, a dangerous thought popped into my head, but it was also our only chance. I immediately told Xueqing, “Throw your gun to it!”

Xueqing was taken aback, but without pressing for further explanation, she tossed out her gun. Just as I’d suspected, the snake demon was very curious about the gun. It picked up the gun and started playing with it. The snake demon even pointed the barrel at its own eye.

“What’s it doing?” Zhenzhen didn’t understand.

“Who cares? Run!” Relying on the map in my memory, I directed Zhenzhen through the sewer tunnels. Probably because it had already feasted on the three firemen earlier, the snake demon wasn’t much interested in more ‘food.’ It was concentrated on playing with what was likely its first and only toy to date– A Type 54 pistol.

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When we got closer to where the storm drain was located, the tunnel grew more s.p.a.cious and we were able to stand up straight. It gave me a bit of comfort. And it seemed like the snake demon didn’t chase after us.

“We’re just going to leave the snake demon?” Zhenzhen asked.

“We’ll talk after we get out of here.” I turned back to look at the tunnel we’d just crawled out from, and at the same time, I pushed Zhenzhen, intending to rush her out. However, my hand touched something soft. Although we were in protective gear, I was still able to feel it– My hand was on her chest!

Even with the layers of protective gear, clothing, and bra between us, my palm was still able to conclude– C cup! Although the size was inferior to Xueqing’s, they weren’t small either, so I concluded that she was a C cup. I was positive.

However, reaching this conclusion meant that there was a price to pay. Zhenzhen cried out in surprise, and then she shouted angrily, “Are you looking to die?! You dare to feel me up?!” Then came a slap, but fortunately, she hit my helmet. Still, she knocked me over. Golden stars were circling in front of my eyes, and the floor seemed to be shaking as well. But then the thundering sound of an explosion caused me to realize that the ground was indeed shaking, very strongly at that.

Xueqing was the first to notice something odd, and she threw herself and Zhenzhen to the ground. Almost at the same time, a large amount of sewage flowed out from all the tunnels. It felt warm. In the midst of all the sewage, we finally pulled ourselves up. The place seemed like it was going to collapse at any time, so we didn’t stay any longer and rushed out.

When we got out, the moon was already hanging high in the sky. Although it wasn’t very round, I felt that that evening’s moon was especially beautiful. Even the unlikeable Wei ge seemed more pleasant to the eye under that moonlight. I couldn’t help but move in for a warm hug, but this guy didn’t accept my good intentions. Instead, he pinched his nose and ran far away.

“Ah Mu ge, take off your protective suit!” Miao Miao brought me a towel. I just remembered I was covered in disgusting sewer grime.

After we removed our protective suits and wiped the grime from our faces, Zhenzhen asked again about what just happened.

I laughed. “The demon blew up the sewer. If it was playing with the gun, it would eventually pull the trigger. Once it pulled the trigger, the methane would ignite and the place would explode. Whether it’s a snake demon or a snake immortal, with such a powerful explosion, if it didn’t fry him, that would be strange.”

“What?! The snake immortal is dead?” Uncle Liu suddenly slipped out from behind a camphor tree.

“Uncle Liu, how did you end up patrolling all the way here?” Zhenzhen asked foolishly. Even an idiot would have realized that Uncle Liu wouldn’t be here to patrol.

Sure enough, Uncle Liu ran at me and grabbed me. He opened his mouth to bite my neck. Because of how suddenly he’d attacked, I wasn’t able to move out of the way. To avoid being bitten in the neck, I instinctively raised my left arm to block. Fortunately, my jacket was thick and he wasn’t able to bite through it, but from the searing pain in my arm, he was probably going to bite through in a few more seconds. In such a short amount of time, even the strong Zhenzhen wouldn’t be able to pull him off. Moreover, Xueqing no longer had her gun. Miao Miao and Wei ge were even more helpless in this situation. If I wanted to live, I could only rely on myself. The moment his teeth pierced my skin was likely the moment that my soul would ascent to heaven, because it was very likely that he was the mastermind behind everything!

I reached my right hand to my waist, intending to pull out the bag of sulfur. But the sulfur was in my tool belt, and I’d put that on the outside of the now sewage-covered protective gear. My life was hanging by a thread. Where did I have time to run to my tool belt? Fortunately, the heavens didn’t want my life yet. There was another piece of life-saving equipment in my pocket– Pepper spray.

I pulled out the pepper spray and sprayed it at Uncle Liu. He cried out in pain as he raised his hands to his eyes and staggered backwards. Zhenzhen and Xueqing quickly charged at him and threw him to the ground, handcuffing him.

“You’re the mastermind! Before her death, Xia Yulan wasn’t saying President Lu, but rather you– Liu!” Even though I felt that my speculation wasn’t quite right, I couldn’t think of any other reason for Uncle Liu to have attacked me– Unless he was getting revenge for his child.

Because of the stinging in his eyes, Uncle Liu was still moaning in pain. He didn’t respond to me. I had Miao Miao hand me a colorless drink and I helped Uncle Liu wash out his eyes. Then I helped him sit up to answer my question.

“It’s over, it’s over, it’s all over. The immortal is dead, it’s all over…” Tears flowed down Uncle Liu’s wrinkled face. Suddenly, he seemed to age a lot. As if in a dream, he started to recounting everything. When he reached a certain point in his tale, sometimes he would laugh as if intoxicated and sometimes would cry tears of despair—

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Thirty years ago. Everything that’s happened started thirty years ago, when An ge and the rest discovered the white snake immortal’s burial ground…

Actually, when An ge slaughtered the white snake back then, I also ate with them. And he didn’t only pull out one gallbladder from the snake. There were two, one large and one small. He and his team treated me as a guest and offered me the larger gallbladder. Unable to refuse their hospitality, I ate it. If I hadn’t eaten that ‘snake gallbladder’ back then, then all that followed wouldn’t have happened either. Because that wasn’t a gallbladder. It was the white snake immortal’s ‘neidan’ (internal alchemy).”

What An ge and his team discovered wasn’t a human’s tomb, but rather a white snake immortal’s cultivation place. It had already cultivated for the last thousand years. If they hadn’t discovered it, it would have reached immortality eventually. Unfortunately, in the end, it couldn’t escape death.

After I ate a part of the white snake immortal’s corporeal body, I should have ended up like An ge and his team, poisoned and eventually dying of some gastrointestinal disease. But out of luck, I ate the immortal’s neidan which cures the body of toxins and allowed me to live to this day.

After An ge and his team all pa.s.sed away, I would often dream of the white snake immortal that we’d eaten. It told me everything in my dreams. It said that An ge brought disaster to himself. It told me that if I disobeyed its orders, when it reincarnated, it wouldn’t forgive me. What it wanted of me was very simple. That was, to remain at the medical university until a girl named Ye Xiaolou appeared.

And like that, I continued staying at the medical university for nearly twenty years, and then Xiaolou finally appeared. When I first saw her, my heart grew restless. In the twenty years before, after I’d eaten the neidan, I hadn’t been interested in any women. I knew that I was already deeply in love with her.

After I met Xiaolou, the white snake immortal appeared in my dreams once again. It wanted me to have a relationship with Xiaolou, to produce another body for it. This caused great distress to me. Xiaolou was just a young girl. She was beautiful and had many suitors. And I, I was an old man, nearly 50 years old already. I had no power or money, so how was I to gain her favor?

But the white snake immortal told me, “Her father ate my immortal gallbladder. She was born from intercourse that he’d had with his wife while his body contained my spirit. You fell in love with her at first sight because your spirits are attracted to each other. Just like you, the first time that she saw you, she fell in love with you.”

As the white snake immortal had said, Xiaolou had really fallen in love with me at first sight, although I couldn’t believe it. A beautiful, young girl actually fell in love with an old, ugly security guard. It was really something ridiculous. Others would laugh if they knew, so I told her to keep our relationship a secret. But in the end, she was unable to keep it from her roommates. Then the white snake immortal told me in my dreams that these three girls would be of use in the future, so I let Xiaolou take my blood and secretly drip it into her roommate’s water bottles.

The white snake immortal’s neidan turned my blood into something mystical. Although it could enhance the human body, it could also act like an addictive poison. I used this to control the girls. When Prof Xiao accidentally came across our relationship, I continued my blunders and used my blood to control him as well. I didn’t realize at the time how much help he would end up being.

After ten months of pregnancy, the white snake immortal was finally reborn. But that was also when this tragedy began…

In order to speed up the recovery of his powers, the white snake immortal started feeding on Xiaolou and her roommates’ blood. Three months later, it asked for a human finger to help it shed. Six months later, it even wanted to eat a human heart!

In order to fulfill its desires, I lied to Xiaolou’s roommates time and time again. I even deceived Xiaolou. I told them that once the white snake immortal grew up, it would bring us all sorts of greatness. It could let us live forever, and bring us riches and splendor. They were all convinced by my words. Not only were they willing to kill, they were even willing to give up their own lives.

I didn’t care about anyone else’s lives. I only cared about Xiaolou’s, so I arranged for her to leave the university. I never expected that I would put her into harm’s way instead…

After Xiaolou’s death, the white snake immortal was my life’s everything. In name, he was my and Xiaolou’s child after all. For it, I remained as a security guard at the university, living ten more years of loneliness. I only found a bit of delight again when you showed up.

I was very thankful that you would sit to play chess with me. Although you only did so because of your work, I was still thankful! But as your investigation got deeper, you’d created a threat to the immortal son. That’s why, when we were playing chess last night, I excused myself to the restroom and called Prof Xiao. I ordered him to have Supervisor Yu attract your partner away and have Yingqing and Yulan ambush you in the woods. I knew that when you couldn’t contact your partner, you would search for her in the woods. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect another of your partners to show up, and with a gun at that.

Since you two weren’t taken care of in the camphor woods, Supervisor Yu would definitely become a prime suspect. From her cowardly character, it was inevitable that she would rat out Prof Xiao, so I had Yingqing kill him. Not only did I plan to kill Prof Xiao, I planned to kill everyone involved, but if they all died, I would become a general without soldiers. So I decided to let Yingqing live. I had her go into hiding in the sewers, but my plans were foiled again. I hadn’t expected for her to be caught by you guys…

Uncle Liu’s explanation cleared all my doubt. This case started out thirty years ago. Ye Ping’an and his team intruded upon the white snake demon immortal’s cultivation tomb, which initiated the abnormal love between his daughter, Ye Xiaolou, and Uncle Liu. Following, she gave birth to the culprit of these serial murders.

Although Uncle Liu was the mastermind behind this case, from another perspective, wasn’t he also a victim in this ordeal? And there was no one more pitiful that Ye Xiaolou. She was originally just an innocent and shining girl, but because of the white snake demon immortal, she fell deeply in love with the unattractive Uncle Liu. Under Uncle Liu’s deception, she thought she was like the Virgin Mary, giving birth to a son. Then after being on the receiving end of her doctor, Xiao Ou’s, foul deeds, she came to an unfortunate death. In this case, she was the most innocent person involved, and she was also the one who’d been hurt the most.