I raised the evil spirit and became an evil investigator

"Investigator Chi Yan!?"

Chapter 108: Pursuit and Forbidden Zone

"Inspector Chi Yan? Why is it you?"

Hanayu Kaori had an impression of this private investigator who could perfectly conceal his psychic fluctuations and turn evil spirits into loyal guard dogs.

After all, it had only been three days since the two of them parted ways, and her memory had not yet degenerated to the level of a fish.

But now she is facing pursuit, and the other party happens to stand in front of her at this moment, with an unknown, terrifying and cold woman beside her. In an instant, in her mind, Investigator Chi Yan was equated with the assassins who came to hunt her down.

"I didn't expect...those guys were so sharp-witted that they came straight to you. How much money did they offer you to take my life?"

"Ok?"

Aicheng Hualian wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, but she didn't expect the other party to say such words.

Is the other party being hunted? Aicheng Hualian's thoughts turned, and he had a rough guess in his mind.

It was probably a vendetta between business rivals. After all, the most unpretentious form of business warfare was to physically destroy the opponent. Now, Hua Liu Xiangzi mistook her for one of those paid assassins.

"Inspector Chi Yan, after spending the past few days with you, I've learned that you're a smart person." Even facing what she considered a hopeless situation, Hua Liu Xiangzi didn't give up hope. She spoke out, "To incur the hatred of the Hua Liu family for a sum of blood-stained stolen money is not a good deal."

"I underestimated how determined those people were to kill me. They actually came after you. How about this: I'll pay you three times their offer. If I get home safely, I can raise that figure to ten."

He was really rich, but what made Aicheng Hualian sigh was the bright red silk thread floating from the other person.

Those threads tangled and intertwined in the air, being drawn into her body, replenishing her psychic energy. It was psychic energy derived from the will to survive, of extremely high quality, worthy of the desire to survive from a D-rank psychic.

"Hmm..." The mask obscured her expression, so she thought she was waiting for a good price. Glancing at the unconscious Ishido Futaba beside her, Hanayu Kaori gritted her teeth and was about to increase her reward when she saw Inspector Akagi raise his hand and cut her off.

A voice spoke from beneath the mask: "Inspector Hua Liu, perhaps you've misunderstood something. We're not assassins, we just happened to be passing through here. The person next to you is my partner. She has a rather blunt temper, so please forgive her."

Just happened to be passing by? Just happened to be passing by this carefully selected escape location? Just happened to enter this evil gathering place?

She knew that there had been no commissioned missions in the area around Yelan River recently. In other words, as a private investigator, Chi Yan had absolutely no reason to come to this remote place. The other party's claim that he just happened to be passing by was too unreliable.

Oh... she understood, this was a secret code!

The other party agreed to his transaction request and now said that he happened to be passing by and was just asking for a "toll".

"So you're just passing through." With an "I understand" expression on her face, Hua Liu Xiangzi forced a smile. "Investigator Chi Yan must be exhausted from the journey. I'll cover the travel expenses. Do you think twenty million is enough?"

WTF?

Aicheng Hualian was stunned for a moment, then reacted and put his hand on his forehead.

……

After some explanation, Aicheng Hualian successfully corrected Hua Liu Xiangzi's business thinking and resolved the misunderstanding between the three.

As for the remaining girl named Ishido Futaba, she was still wrapped in a thick layer of stone, lying on the ground like a statue, not knowing whether she was dead or alive.

"She's not dead." Hanagi Kaori declared confidently, as if she had seen this happen many times before. "Futaba's physique is quite special. Her psychic energy has a strong self-protection ability. When she is hurt, she will become like this."

【She was right, that guy is not dead. 】

The evil god testified to Hua Liu Xiangzi's words through telepathic communication.

As if wanting to prove his own strength, the evil god added: [It will take less than three seconds to break through this shell.]

【Ah, that’s still not necessary. 】

"So what is the so-called pursuit?"

"Who else could it be?" After learning that Aicheng Hualian wasn't the killer, Hua Liu Xiangzi visibly relaxed. She pulled up a chair and sat down, complaining helplessly, "A business competitor, or someone in the group who's unhappy with me. Where there are people, there are cliques. I couldn't stand the atmosphere there, so I took advantage of this mission to escape. I didn't expect those guys to become even more aggressive!"

It is indeed a physical business war, and it also involves family infighting.

"As for why I'm here, it's simple. It's because of her." He pointed to the statue of Ishido Futaba next to him. "She was my childhood playmate. Later, for various reasons, she left the family, but she has always kept in touch with me. This place is also the safe house she chose. When she knew I was in trouble, she took me here."

"Oh, I see. Ishido Futaba knows this place very well?" Aishiro Karen looked at the stone sculpture on the ground and found that many cracks were gradually appearing on it, and the girl inside was about to break out of the shell.

"I guess so. She's lived here for nearly six years and knows it inside and out. It's precisely because of this place's uniqueness that I'm so sure those killers won't chase us here."

"Speciality?"

Glancing doubtfully at Aijo Karen, Hanayu Xiangzi said, "Yes, every evil gathering place has its own peculiarities. It is precisely these peculiarities that make it an insurmountable forbidden zone in the eyes of humans."

"For example, here, the gathering place of D-rank evil spirits, the Black Water Depression, is that valley. Its special feature is that [anyone who drinks the water of the Yelan River will be unable to leave this river for the rest of their lives. Only by drinking the water of the Yelan River can they replenish their body's water, otherwise they will die from lack of water.]"

Is there such a thing? If you drink a sip of river water, you can only drink from this river for the rest of your life?

"It is precisely because of this special feature that the killers would never have thought that I had escaped to such a place."

No one would have guessed that the eldest daughter of the Hualiu family would come to this restricted area. After all, in the eyes of those killers, settling down by the Yelan River was like locking oneself in a cage that could never be opened, and never being able to leave the Yelan River again.

Right in front of Aicheng Hualian, Hua Liu Xiangzi picked up the water cup on the table and drank the black river water in it.

Her pretty face wrinkled up because of the bitter water. After swallowing it down desperately, Hanayu Kaori raised her cup and looked at Aijo Karen. "How about it, Inspector Chiyan, would you like a sip?"

"Sorry, I'm not thirsty yet." Aicheng Hualian smiled and shook his head.

Just kidding, she doesn't want to be trapped here for the rest of her life.

Chapter 109 I am here to end this restricted area

The stone sculpture shattered, and Shidong Shuangye stood up from the rubble and swept away the rubble powder on his body.

She had heard every word that Aicheng Hualian and the others said inside the stone sculpture, so she resolved the misunderstanding and stood up to apologize to the two of them.

"I acted impulsively without thinking and thought that you were killers who wanted to harm Xiangzi..." Scratching her cherry-red hair embarrassedly, Ishido Futaba lowered her tone and apologized for her recklessness.

She glanced at the two people in front of her and sighed in her heart. Fortunately, the other party did not kill her, otherwise she would have been an ice sculpture by now.

She really didn't want to experience that kind of pain that penetrated into her bone marrow again.

No one knew what kind of spiritual power the black-robed girl used, but it was able to penetrate her layers of defense and attack her internal organs directly, forcing her to use the petrification spiritual skill to defend herself in the first place. If the opponent's attack lasted a little longer, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"There's no need for an apology," Aijo Karen said. The evil god behind her was as cold as an iceberg, and didn't react to Ishido Futaba's apology.

Kagura Hikaru refused to say a single word to any human other than Aijo Karen.

It's not that I think it's a waste of words, but I simply think that other humans are not worth communicating with.

Even the act of leaving Aijo Karen's body and transforming into a black-haired girl was considered a serious demotion for Kagura Hikaru. If it weren't for her keepers, she wouldn't want to become a human.

That massive, sticky mass, resembling a jellyfish-octopus fusion, was her favorite form. She could freely stretch out her vast body, rather than being confined to her five-foot frame.

But who could blame her current breeder for being so weak? If she maintained her original form, Aijo Karen's body would collapse and she would become her own slave, which was not what she wanted to see.

Dependents are not qualified to shoulder the responsibility of spreading the bloodline of the evil god.

"This chance encounter was merely an accident. Now that the misunderstanding has been resolved, the matter has come to an end. My partner and I have other matters to attend to. Farewell," Aicheng Hualian suggested a separation at the right moment. The two before them were being hunted. Staying with them, if the killer mistook them for Hanayu Kaori's bodyguards and caused unnecessary trouble, would be a joke.

Even with the Evil God nearby, no matter how powerful the killers were, they would be defeated. However, Aicheng Hualian always adhered to the principle of less trouble is worse than more trouble. Now, filling the Evil God's stomach was the top priority.

If the other party was not carrying the heavy pressure of business war, Aicheng Hualian would like to have a chat with Ishido Futaba, the girl who has lived here for six years, to find out the strangeness of the Black Water Swamp, a gathering place of D-level evil spirits. But now he can only sigh and regret.

Unexpectedly, when she wanted to separate, Hua Liu Xiangzi's eyes turned cunningly, her eyebrows slightly raised, and she looked at Ai Cheng Hua Lian and said, "Investigator Chi Yan, I see that you are not here for tourism this time. If my guess is correct, you are here to scout this D-level restricted area?"

"A certain company's cargo transportation route passes through here, so they hired you to come here to investigate the situation."

The scouting mentioned by Hua Liu Xiangzi refers to the fact that some large companies, in order to shorten the journey when transporting goods, will choose some dangerous routes, such as roads near places where evil spirits gather (or forbidden areas). To be on the safe side, companies often hire private investigators to explore the restricted areas before the goods pass through.

Generally speaking, this kind of reconnaissance mission is not difficult. You just need to take a quick look outside the gathering place of evil spirits, collect some data and the situation inside the restricted area, and send this information to the employer. The mission is considered completed. If the reward is doubled, it is not impossible to let the employee escort the transportation of supplies throughout the journey.

Many private investigators will take on such missions, which are considered rare low-risk, high-reward missions.

Thinking of the strength displayed by Aicheng Hualian and the mysterious woman beside him, Hua Liu Xiangzi couldn't help but come up with a plan. "How about this, since you are not those killers and you have to stay in this black water pond like me, why don't we travel together? We can just make some extra money."

"I will pay you."

Traveling together?

Aicheng Hualian shook his head.

"We're not here to scout the area, but to completely eliminate this gathering place of evil spirits, so that these three towns will no longer be plagued by evil spirits."

Hanayu Kaori blinked, thinking there was something wrong with her ears. She looked at Aijo Karen, but her eyes were fixed on the mask, making it impossible to see the expression underneath.

Her ability to read people's expressions, which always worked for her, was useless at this moment, so she took the words seriously and cried out in surprise, "Clear this evil gathering place? Did I hear correctly, Inspector Chiyan?"

"You don't think that a D-class gathering place of evil spirits can be eliminated with the strength of a D-class person, right?"

"The classification of evil gathering places into different levels simply means that only psychics of that level have the strength to operate within them. For example, this Blackwater Hollow is classified as D-level because only psychics above D-level can enter and emerge unharmed."

"You said you wanted to eliminate it? Even a C-rank official investigator wouldn't be able to say that with absolute certainty. Otherwise, Donghua City's evil spirit response department would have removed this thorn in their side long ago."

Hua Liu Xiangzi did not scare people.

In order to clear out a gathering place of evil spirits, the psychic's level must be at least one level higher than that of the gathering place.

Unless the Aicheng Hualian in front of him is a C-level psychic, then he has the qualifications to brag.

Aicheng Hualian didn't give any unnecessary answers. She secretly asked the evil god in her heart: "Xiaoguang, can you do it?"

【…】

The evil god glanced at her with a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

"It's just a very basic domain structure. Hualian, you're looking down on me by asking such a question."

[Hehe, that's good. What is the domain structure?]

[Life forms that reach a certain level will establish their own territories. This applies to gods, and even to beings of lower levels. According to your human classification, beings of level C and above are eligible to establish their own territories.]

"Then why don't I have it? I'm also at rank C." Aijo Karen was puzzled.

[Uh…I don’t know.]

The girl turned her head away slightly, as if hiding something.

……

Looking at the backs of the two people leaving, Hua Liu Xiangzi, who was sitting on the chair, thought in her heart, then gritted her teeth and stood up.

"Come on, Futaba, we're going to follow them."

"Follow? They're going to enter that restricted area!"

"Idiot! If that Investigator Chi Yan really wiped out this evil gathering place, then those killers chasing us wouldn't be a problem at all!"

Chapter 110: Devouring Heat

[Those two humans are following us. Should we shake them off?]

Walking on the streets of Shanghe Village, Aicheng Hualian looked at the polluted houses around him. Their eaves were covered with black dust, and the air was filled with a slight but unignorable stench. Everyone's face was gray, as if they had rolled in the sand, and was clinging to pollutants in the air.

[Get rid of them?] Glancing behind her, Aicheng Hualian discovered with some amusement that at the corner of the street, behind an old workshop, two heads, one Ying and one Lan, were poking out and quietly looking in their direction.

Realizing her gaze, the two heads immediately shrank back, but the shadows that slipped out from under the house betrayed their location.

"Haha... really..." Shaking his head helplessly, Aishiro Karen said to Kagura Hikaru in his heart.

【Get rid of them, using quiet methods. 】

The two continued to walk forward. Behind them, the air began to distort, and the figures of Aishiro Karen and Kagura Hikaru began to fade gradually until they disappeared, like salt dissolving in water.

The strange thing was that the passers-by around did not seem to notice that two healthy girls disappeared in front of their eyes, but Hanagi Kaori and Ishido Futaba, who were further behind, covered their mouths to muffle their screams.

"Futaba! Did you see that? They disappeared!" Hanayu Kaori reached out and pinched the waist of the cherry-haired girl beside her, causing her to grimace in pain. "My equipment didn't detect any psychic fluctuations at all! If we had such a method, hmph, we could turn around and kill all those killers!"

"Oh, Xiangzi! Let go!" Pulling away the young lady's hand that was pinching her waist, Ishido Futaba looked at the street in front of her.

There was just a slight shake in the air, and the two private investigators disappeared.

"Hey Xiangzi..." His tone was a little shaken. Ishido Futaba advised: "I think those two psychics are too mysterious. Why don't you separate from them and stop thinking about tracking them."

"What? I haven't seen you in a few years. I didn't expect Futaba to become so timid." With a pair of raised eyebrows, Hanayu Xiangzi put her hands on her hips, looking like a teacher scolding a student. "The more mysterious they are, the greater the chance we can use them to escape our pursuers!"

At this point, Hua Liu Xiangzi's business mindset kicked in again. The greater the risk, the greater the reward.

Now they are facing the pursuit of the top killer organization "Shadow Thorn". It can be said that every step is thrilling. Any disturbance outside is hiding a deadly murderous intention.

What's even worse is that she still doesn't know who hired the killer organization behind the scenes. As the nominal successor of the Hualiu Group, the forces that want to eliminate her are so numerous that she can't even count them on four hands.

Before meeting Aicheng Hualian, her only option was to hide in this evil gathering place and wait for the arrival of family reinforcements.

But this is too passive. The adventurous spirit flowing in Hua Liu Xiangzi's veins does not allow her to wait passively like this.

The appearance of Aicheng Hualian gave her a glimpse of hope.