On a stormy night, a water delivery order sent Song Yin's three-wheeled cart veering into an old opera house, its steps swallowed by weeds.
He wiped the rain from his soaked ID badge and looked up. The copper ring on the vermilion gate faced him. It wasn't the wind making it move. Blood was dripping from the red cord tied to it.
"Ding! Host compatibility detected: 99%. The Record of Ten Thousand Spirits and Evil Suppression activated."
When the water deliveryman's palm touched the mold-streaked opera costume, all the frustration he'd swallowed when customers called him "too slow," all the laughter he'd stifled when coworkers stole his orders, suddenly became the sharpest of blades.
He glanced at the System panel, where the Nine Netherworld Ghostfire Spell had fused, and listened to the urgent message from the Zhenling Bureau headquarters: "A ghost infant is crying on the roof of an apartment building." Tilting his head, he smiled at the empty air. "Mr. Bai wants to see me fall apart? Let's have this ghost test your limits first."
That water deliveryman who was always saying, "Sure thing, please wait a moment," was now using his gentlest voice to reveal the most blood-soaked secrets of the hidden exorcist world.
The rain kept beating against the window. Another alert popped up on the delivery order. This time, it was a request to deliver "special water" to Zhenling Bureau headquarters.
Song Yin hoisted the water barrel. His ID badge flashed coldly against his chest. "On my way."
This time, he wasn't delivering water.
He was delivering the case records he'd spent twenty years perfecting, ready to expose every conspiracy.
