Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

"Our operation started getting complicated from the moment you saw that fan, what was it called?"

They were doing well in the sea city, with basically no mistakes. Just when it seemed like the final step was about to be completed, an unexpected obstacle appeared out of nowhere. They failed to kill the Third Prince of the East Sea and were even forced to flee by a counterattack.

And before I could even figure out what was happening with the snowflakes, there was this flute sound. Who's playing the flute near the cliff? It's like they're crazy.

"The group behind us will probably catch up soon. Which way should we go?"

The flute music was melodious, but it sounded strangely unsettling to them. This departure was a sudden event, and compared to the flute player's leisurely and elegant demeanor, the two of them, while not exactly running in a sorry state, were not exactly at ease either.

To put it bluntly, it's because a series of setbacks have made me angry, but I have nowhere to vent, so I can only feel frustrated by myself.

No matter how angry they were, they couldn't go back to find the Third Prince. The shrimp soldiers and crab generals were easy to deal with, and the Third Prince, who was still recovering from serious injuries, was also easy to deal with. However, the Dragon Palace and the Dragon King of the East Sea behind the Third Prince were not easy to deal with, and there was also a legitimate host who was completely opposed to them.

"...Who on earth is playing the flute?!"

The closer they got to the cliff, the clearer the flute music became. This direction was the farthest from the sea city. They had planned to find a place on the cliff to avoid the people of the Dragon Palace and leave the sea city, but the melodious flute music kept accompanying them, as if someone was following them like a ghost and they couldn't shake it off.

Before they could speculate any further, the two arrived at the top of the cliff and found someone already there. A figure in a tall white hat stood in front of them, his back to the newcomers, facing the sea below, playing a flute.

The flute music that echoed through the mountains came from here.

"Who came to block my way..."

Although they were facing away from each other, the person opposite them was also dressed very uniquely, with a magnificent white robe adorned with countless gold accents, silver hair, a semi-transparent high crown, and flying shoulders and shoulder armor. The splendor of this outfit was comparable to that of the group in the sky.

According to most people's common sense, this person's attire is not only complicated, but also has layers of clothing and particularly large sleeves, which should make it difficult for him to move around. However, the fact that he is carrying a sword bag of the same color as his clothes suggests that he is a master swordsman.

With such a person blocking their way, they really didn't dare to go over. The main reason was that there were pursuers behind them, which didn't allow them to slow down and negotiate.

Moreover, they were puzzled because they clearly took detours while running, so how come the people chasing them seemed to have a GPS tracker? The distance between them kept fluctuating, but they just couldn't shake them off.

Third Prince: Yes, it has a location. (Begins sensing the dragon scales)

Sword Not the Way: It does indeed have a role. (System activated)

"We're going to... what's wrong with you again?"

He wanted to ask his companion if they should turn around, since the person playing the flute on the other side looked intimidating and was completely different from the guys in the city. But when he turned his head, he saw his companion staring intently at the person on the other side, as if he had gone crazy.

This is really strange. Did this guy's head get damaged, or was he struck by lightning by the Third Prince of the East Sea and made stupid? He's been acting strangely ever since the dragon-slaying plan failed.

"You must have had your brain slammed in a door before. Quickly think of a solution. Which way should we go?"

"Impossible, how can there still be..."

Unfortunately, the person being questioned could no longer hear his companion's voice. Although the person in front of him was only a silhouette, he could tell at a glance that he was a Xiantian person from the start, given his distinctive attire.

But this isn't the Heavenly Fan. He had guessed that a system had retrieved a Heavenly Fan from some Bitter Realm to serve as its host. Legitimate systems typically operate on a one-host-one-world basis, with tasks assigned accordingly. So what's going on with this one?

One innate human can split mountains and shatter the earth, and now there's another one. What's going on? No, he has to run!

Thinking of this, he finally turned around and glanced at his impatient companion, but still did not answer the other's question.

“…I’m sorry.”

There wasn't much friendship between them; they just happened to come to this world, where the system itself was very complete, and forming an alliance temporarily would help them complete their mission of destroying the world.

"What did you say? Hey!"

Before anyone could react, one of them vanished in an instant. With such a swift escape, even without Tian Shanzi pointing him out, Jian Feidao knew which one was the one who had ambushed the Third Prince of the East Sea and then fled after seeing Tian Shanzi again.

This movement technique is not only fast, but it is also clearly aided by some special abilities. No wonder it can run so fast that Dao Feng Tian Shan's wind waves almost missed.

"I see, invisibility."

Jian Feidao put down his flute and turned around. There was only one person left there, but his gaze was not on the person opposite him. Instead, it moved slightly in one direction, as if he was watching something leave the cliff and fly into the distance.

If you look into his eyes at this moment, you will find that Jian Feidao's eyes are shining brightly.

"I never imagined there would be so many visitors who were not permitted by the Heavenly Dao."

Now that they are face to face, they can be completely certain that the other is an illegal time traveler, and the other side probably knows their own origins as well.

When the other side revealed themselves, Jian Feidao didn't expect there to be two of them. He thought that if both of them had very special abilities, he would have to be careful. But the team was so fragile that one of them escaped before he could even make a move.

Thinking of the incredulous look on that person's face, it seems that he really knew them, these innate people. He ran away so decisively, so he was probably also very familiar with their strength.

"This gentleman, please come with Jian Feidao."

"Go with you? Do you think I'm too old to live?"

He hadn't expected his comrade to run so cleanly and efficiently. Although it was indeed a case of puppet troops versus regular troops, there was only one enemy. Couldn't the two of them just coordinate? He ran way too fast!

That said, who exactly is that guy on the other side? He's so afraid of us that he won't even fight.

As he spoke, Jian Feidao watched as his opponent drew a large, flaming sword and revealed his weapon, indicating that the other party intended to confront him head-on.

"Flaming Blade?"

The knife was rather peculiar; the handle was made of bone, though it was unclear what kind of animal's bone it was.

"Since you refuse to cooperate, please forgive Jian Feidao for his rudeness."

I didn't come here for a friendly spar. If we were to actually spar, the opponent's fighting strength wouldn't be enough. I'd rather finish this quickly and capture him.

"What on earth is going on? There can't possibly be two legitimate systems in one world... Uh!"

On the other side, the escapee used special invisibility techniques and speed-enhancing methods to flee the city. From the moment he signed the contract, he had been choosing abilities that facilitated escape and assassination. These were his life-saving measures, allowing him to survive until now and continuously increase his strength.

Taking this insidious route wasn't because he was cowardly, but because he knew the difference between legitimate and illegitimate practices. Since he couldn't be a good person, he absolutely couldn't fall into the hands of those "good people." Only by running away in time could he have a chance to make a comeback.

But this time, he was genuinely afraid. Why were there two? And both were innate individuals from puppet shows? And both were legitimate hosts?

Completely bewildered, he intended to find a place to hide to evade the enemy's pursuit, but a wave came crashing in his face, making it impossible for him to remain invisible.

"Waves? No, it's the wind..."

In an instant, the sea surface surged with wind and clouds, the familiar Qing Sheng wind and waves swept in, along with a familiar touch of blue, and that huge treasure fan.

On the open sea, amidst the wind and waves, there's no way to escape, no matter how many methods you have. There's no shelter here, and Tian Shanzi won't give him another chance to run.

……

"Senior, everyone is here."

In the sudden enlightenment, Jian Feidao placed the two tightly bound people on the ground, binding their hands and feet and gagging their mouths as well.

These illegal transmigrators are no match for innate beings in terms of physical strength. Their biggest problem is their ability to hide, like insects that bore into crops. They can be easily killed if you pick them out and squeeze them, but before you find them, you don’t know how long they have been causing trouble in the shadows.

They were all outsiders. After venting his anger, the Third Prince of the East Sea handed the people over to them to deal with. Helping this world deal with illegal transmigrators was one of Jian Feidao's tasks.

"Thank you for your hard work. Oh right, I still don't know what the Third Prince was investigating in the first place?"

The reason Tian Shanzi encountered the enemy was that the Third Prince of the East Sea became suspicious of the things in the sea market. He investigated and found the enemy, but was tricked by them. Liu Qingyuan was curious about what these two guys did in the sea market that could lead a proper deity into the fray.

"They were selling bone products in the market, causing chaos in the market's trade."

"Bone products? What kind of bones?"

"All the bones."

Feeling that this explanation was not specific enough, Jian Feidao recalled the words of the Third Prince of the East Sea and repeated them.

"Bones from animals, humans, demons, and mythical beasts—anything that comes from a living creature—are made into various magical artifacts and sold in the maritime market. Some are bought by people, while others are still circulating in the market. Relatives and friends of the murdered have followed the clues and come up to them, leading to conflicts with the owners."

"I didn't realize you two were playing for such high stakes?"

Liu Qingyuan walked up to the two bound men. Considering that they still needed to fly across the East China Sea back to the mainland, Jian Feidao and Tian Shanzi were a bit conservative in their attacks, letting them experience the speed of light.

One of them, dressed in a black robe and cloak, acted strangely when he saw Liu Qingyuan and Zhao Shimingdeng. His eyes kept darting back and forth between the three innate beings, showing shock and disbelief.

Another person also showed shock, but his expression was more innocent, his face clearly saying, "How can there be so many people here?"

"The reason why the Third Prince intervened is because someone discovered bone artifacts of the Pig Dragon and the Qilin in the sea market. Not long ago, it was already known in the East Sea that someone was hunting down a branch of the Dragon Clan, but it hadn't reached the Dragon King's attention yet."

As he spoke, Jian Feidao took out the ice jade flute he had bought in Haishi and placed it on the stone table next to him.

"Although this flute has been specially treated to resemble jade, after my internal energy examination, it should be the bone of some kind of ice-attribute divine beast."

At first, Jian Feidao was attracted by the cold aura emanating from the flute. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the flute was not made of polar jade at all, but rather the bone of some kind of ice-attribute divine beast.

Using various methods, the bloody skeletons were transformed into various objects. Most merchants in the market were unable to distinguish them, but the relatives and friends of the deceased, who belonged to the same race, could tell. When they finally found out that their family and friends had not only died a violent death, but their remains had also been dismembered and processed into objects for people to play with, they were naturally furious.

At this point, they won't consider whether the holder is aware of the situation or not. In their eyes, you are a murderer, and there is absolutely no chance to explain.

This method of operation is ingenious. Putting aside the humans for the moment, let's talk about those monsters and divine beasts. They may not have actually killed many of them by illegally crossing over, but killing one would allow them to make multiple bone artifacts from the corpses and sell them to buyers from all directions who don't know each other. When the seekers of revenge start fighting with the buyers, and things get bigger and bigger, the real culprit will have already hidden behind the scenes, watching this exciting game and continuing to plot against the next victim.

The city is home to all races, and this situation will only exacerbate existing conflicts between them, leading to increasing chaos and ultimately achieving their goal.

Liu Qingyuan picked up the flute on the table and had the system scan it to see whose bones they were.

"...Ice-type Qilin."

Good heavens, using a qilin's bones to make a flute, that's really daring.

"Luckily, the Heavenly Fan arrived in time, otherwise the Third Prince would probably have been treated the same way... Hey, where is the Heavenly Fan?"

Liu Qingyuan suddenly realized that only Jian Feidao had returned with his men; where was Tian Shanzi?

"Tian Shanzi feels that it is a rare opportunity to come to the East China Sea, but he has not yet had time to explore the delicacies of the sea. He plans to stay in the East China Sea for a while. Let me tell you, senior."

In short, Tian Shanzi stayed in the East China Sea to fish for seafood.

"Ha, that's good too. If Tian Shanzi went back so early, Little Treasure would cause trouble for me and Long Su."

"The child sleeping inside the blue glass seashell?"

"Yes, Tian Shanzi wanted to ask Little Treasure where there were more Azure Glass Scallops, but Little Treasure doesn't seem to like Tian Shanzi very much, so there's no answer to that question."

While sighing, Liu Qingyuan didn't stop what she was doing. She put her hands on the shoulders of the two illegal transmigrators and sent them into the system space to await their fate.

"Little Treasure is also like this. How old is she? She still throws tantrums at Tian Shanzi."

"Uh... senior, what you said..."

Something doesn't sound right. Is it said backwards?

"Xiao Wu, come out for a moment."

With no outsiders around, Liu Qingyuan could finally ask the questions she wanted to ask.

[Host, please speak. 】

The system is used to the saying "one doesn't visit a temple without a reason." The host only calls it when there's something wrong or a problem, without needing to ask anything; the system simply tells the user to start talking.

"Are all hosts responsible for one world at a time?"

Two people were caught this time. One seemed to have watched puppet shows, so he was shocked by how many innate people there were here. The other was surprised that there were several legitimate hosts at the same time, as if he didn't know about the disguise system.

[Indeed, having multiple hosts entering a world would burden that world, and smooth cooperation couldn't be guaranteed, so it's always been one person, one world. But these illegal entities don't care about that; one against multiple is easy to be countered and killed, so they developed a large category of systems involving impersonation.]

"Newly developed? No wonder there are so many vulnerabilities and bugs."

Because one system can't defeat the other, it causes the host to split into multiple entities? Isn't that like one person doing multiple jobs but only getting paid for one? These systems are talented; they'd be perfect for hanging on streetlights.

[But hosts like you enjoy high benefits; other categories can't cut through everything like you do.]

"Isn't the reason why they can cut through everything like this because the innate human's martial arts strength is heaven-defying?"

[...that's part of the reason.]

Having cleared up her doubts, Liu Qingyuan turned to look at Jian Feidao.

"What happened to Haishi after that?"

"The Third Prince, in conjunction with other forces, is collecting bone products in the sea city in an effort to find the families of the deceased and give them a proper burial."

Mythical beasts and monsters are alright, but those from mortals will probably never find their home again.

"With so many people arrested and killed, there must be some who harbor resentment, yet there's not a word from the underworld."

There is no such thing as "death is death" here. After death, the soul enters the underworld, and they have every opportunity to complain to King Yama. The relatives of the divine beast and the dragon have all suffered. If these two have grievances, it is impossible for him to ignore them.

“I have inquired about this matter, and the Third Prince does not understand it either. He suspects that someone has bribed people in the underworld and plans to go to the underworld to ask after the matter is resolved.”

"Bribing connections..."

I almost forgot, the underworld depicted in Liaozhai is incredibly dark. If they really colluded with a few people, they might actually manage to deceive everyone.