Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

"I don't know whether they have anything to do with us, but if someone like that has appeared nearby, we must be careful and find out exactly who it is. Know the enemy and know yourself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat," Zhang Zhishen said.

Yang Shuoxuan did not understand. Since Zhang Zhishen had made it sound so serious, Yang Ce might as well sit nearby and watch how things unfolded.

A long while passed, and Zhang Zhishen still made no move. Yang Moyi grew puzzled and could not help asking, "Zhishen, that gu-user you mentioned—still hasn't shown up?"

"No. I've only sensed that familiar aura, but before he actually releases his gu technique, I can't determine his exact location," Zhang Zhishen said.

Yang Yuting nodded and asked no more, simply staying quietly where he was. To be honest, Yang Minlan was rather interested in mysterious things like gu arts—perhaps because of Lan Ling, or perhaps because of the heart-gu inside his own body.

Yet although Yang Ce stayed put, he was hardly idle. Zhang Zhishen searched by feel, while Yang Jiyan searched with his special ability, sweeping back and forth over the area for several li to see if there was any suspicious target.

When Yang Ce spotted a familiar figure, he gave a start—Chen Afu!

That was right, it was Chen Afu. Chen Afu was hiding behind a display board near the bus stop not far away, concealing himself in the darkness. He was not at all conspicuous; looking from outside, one would never notice anyone was there.

What was this kid doing out in the middle of the night? Yang Ce wondered in confusion. Could he be out to scare people again? Could the earlier haunted-traffic case have been this fellow's doing?

Chen Afu was good at playing ghosts and gods to frighten people, and Yang Ce had caught him at it more than once—so it seemed he had a record. Only, the haunted-traffic case was rather bizarre; it was not something ordinary ghost-play could achieve. Yang Ce therefore doubted whether the culprit really was Chen Afu.

That day, the scene he and Xia Xue had encountered had been very strange. Judging from the way Chen Afu had looked on previous occasions, such a crude ghost-impersonation ought not to produce such a sophisticated effect.

But just now Zhang Zhishen had said there was the aura of a gu-user nearby, and according to the results of his own search, the only person he had found was Chen Afu. Then, connecting it with the bizarre scene he and Xia Xue had encountered that day, Yang Ce gave a sudden start.

That was it—on the day the gu was planted, his own sensation had been as if he had fallen under some kind of witchcraft. Judging by his body's reaction, it must have been a form of gu art. Could the one who planted the gu be Chen Afu?

This bold idea left Yang Ce astonished and shaken. Small wonder, too—after three years as Chen Afu's classmate, Yang Ce knew exactly what this kid was like: the sort who bullied the weak and feared the strong, with no particular ability, nothing more than Wang Lin's errand boy. That he should suddenly become someone who could plant gu—how could that not shock Yang Yongjin?

Still, this was only conjecture; Yang Ce had no proof. Yang Shuoxuan very much wanted to grab Chen Afu right now and question him, but Zhang Zhishen over here seemed not to have found his target yet, and Yang Shuoxuan did not dare act rashly.

If his judgment was wrong and the person Zhang Zhishen was looking for was not Chen Afu, would he not be tipping off the enemy? So Yang Ce decided it was better to wait a while and see how things developed before making a decision.

But Yang Juehuan's gaze was fixed on Chen Afu, never leaving him for a moment. Yang Ce wanted to see what this fellow was actually up to.

Before long, Chen Afu moved. He reached into his coat and drew out a strange round vessel. Yang Ce was immediately alarmed—a gu bowl! That was what gu insects were kept in. After nearly being killed by gu that day, Yang Ce had gone home and studied gu arts with great concentration for a time, so he recognized at a glance what the thing in Chen Afu's hand was for.

"There!" Just as Yang Ce was about to say something, Zhang Zhishen reacted as well. His eyes were shut tight in full concentration, as though sensing something. "Someone is about to use gu! But I still can't be sure of his location!"

Yang Cenbin no longer had any doubt. Though it was incredible that Chen Afu had learned to plant gu somewhere, at this moment he had indeed seen Chen Afu take out a vessel for keeping gu insects—and the instant Chen Afu brought it out, Zhang Zhishen had sensed it too.

Then who else could it be but Chen Afu?

"Come on, let's go catch ourselves a man!" Yang Ce clapped Zhang Zhishen on the shoulder and gave hurried instructions, then flung open the car door and charged out, striding toward where Chen Afu was.

Zhang Zhishen did not know whom Yang Ce was going to catch, but his task was to keep Yang Juehuan safe. He had already sensed the presence of a gu-user nearby, and now Yang Ce had run off alone. How could Zhang Zhishen rest easy? He could not be bothered to pin down the gu-user's location any longer, and dashed out of the car after Yang Juehuan.

Tonight was the deadline the Right Elder had given Chen Afu. If he failed to obtain a freshly dead corpse for him, the Right Elder would kill him—Chen Afu—as a sacrifice for his cultivation.

So Chen Afu could not afford to care about much else. Even with police patrols about, even at the risk of being caught, he had to come out and commit his crime against the wind. Chen Afu had studied the map of Songjiang for a long time, and finally settled on the area near Songjiang Engineering University as tonight's crime scene.

School had not started yet, so pedestrians were especially sparse at night, though the occasional vehicle passed by on the road—just right for his purposes.

Even so, Chen Afu did not dare be careless. He stood here for quite a while, making sure there were no police nearby and no danger, before he began to prepare.

But no sooner had Chen Afu taken the gu powder from his coat than he felt a whooshing wind at the back of his collar. Chen Afu was badly startled and whipped his head around, only to find that his collar had already been seized.

And behind him stood a person—a person Chen Afu would not dream of seeing: Yang Ce.

Chen Afu's expression changed at once, terror written all over his face. "You—what are you grabbing me for?"

Yang Ce was quite simply his nemesis. No matter when, so long as he ran into Yang Ce, nothing good ever came of it—from the time he had tattled on him in class to the later trip to the holiday resort, Chen Afu had always come off badly.

"What am I grabbing you for?" Yang Ce gave a cold laugh and fixed his eyes on the thing in Chen Afu's hand. "You tell me what I'm grabbing you for. What's that you're holding?"

Yang Cenbin's words reminded Chen Afu: what he held was gu powder made from a special kind of gu insect. Scattered into the air, it would make anyone who came into contact with it hallucinate and do strange things.

At that thought, Chen Afu actually felt reassured. With this wondrous gu powder in hand, what did he have to fear? Thinking this, Chen Afu hastily flung the gu powder in his hand at Yang Ce.

"Brother Yang, look out!" Seeing Chen Afu suddenly turn violent, Zhang Zhishen cried out in alarm. He too was well versed in planting gu, so when he saw the object in Chen Afu's hand he understood that this was the man he had been looking for. Though he did not know how Yang Ce had found him first, at this moment he knew only that what Chen Afu had just thrown was dangerous, and so he hastily called out a warning.