Chapter 1 The Imp

Fu Jun?

That definitely wasn't addressing him. Zhou Ze's ID clearly stated his name in the first column, and the second column unambiguously stated his position as "Temporary Ghost Messenger."

Moreover, it couldn't possibly be a respectful title, like how commoners in the Republic of China era would call any soldier "Old Chief." If a temporary Ghost Messenger could be addressed as Fu Jun, then such a fine title would be too common and worthless in Hell, right?

So,

the problem must lie in this little booklet he just got.

This ID used to have an owner. Even though it was "refreshed" now because Zhou Ze obtained it, it should still have some information left from its previous owner.

In short,

he picked up the relic of a very impressive fellow, and obtained it in a way that required absolutely no effort.

Of course, at this moment, Zhou Ze didn't have time to gloat or splurge on a glass of red wine to celebrate. Instead, he felt a little disappointed. After all, he didn't get to fight that ugly version of the Monkey King.

But since his opponent conceded, Zhou Ze wouldn't be so foolish as to squat down and encourage him to quickly regain his confidence in life and stand up to fight him, fight him,

fight him!

Since this was a beautiful misunderstanding, then let it continue.

Zhou Ze walked silently toward the monkey, one hand behind his back, subconsciously imitating the little loli's cool pose, to prolong the other party's misunderstanding.

When he reached the monkey, it was still kowtowing incessantly. Its skull must have been opened, as it was hollow inside. In fact, the only part of its body that was in good condition was its ****. The rest was decayed and damaged.

Zhou Ze reached out a hand, his fingernail touching the center of its brow.

"Hand over your soul blood."

Zhou Ze said calmly.

"As you command, Fu Jun."

The monkey looked fearful and sincerely convinced, and a black earthworm appeared between its eyebrows.

Zhou Ze pinched the earthworm with his fingernail and began to pull it out. The earthworm grew longer and thicker.

Xu Qinglang had once suggested that Zhou Ze collect Bai Yingying's soul blood, which would be equivalent to grasping Bai Yingying's lifeline. Zhou Ze now planned to use the same method to completely control this monkey while it was still disoriented.

However, this monkey's soul blood was truly thick and strong, which also showed how terrifying it was.

Why would this monkey suddenly appear in the city?

Just then, the soul blood suddenly got stuck. Zhou Ze pulled hard, but couldn't move it.

The monkey, who had looked so reverent, also froze for a moment, its eyes suddenly becoming incredibly clear!

The lofty Fu Jun wanted to extract its soul blood. This was its honor, an edict it couldn't resist. But why was the lofty Fu Jun having so much trouble even extracting its soul blood?

Suddenly, the monkey's mouth split open, and it let out a sharp roar. Its claws slammed directly at Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze felt as if he had been hit by a large truck. But as he was being thrown back, his fingernails instantly exerted force, directly severing the other party's soul blood.

"Crash..."

Zhou Ze smashed through the glass behind him and fell into the shards. He raised his head, his chest heaving, blood overflowing from the corner of his mouth. His whole body was in excruciating pain.

"Damn it, you're not Fu Jun!

You bastard, you dare impersonate Fu Jun!"

The monkey began to go crazy. Although its soul blood hadn't been completely extracted by Zhou Ze, the fact that it had been severed by Zhou Ze, even if it didn't kill it immediately, was enough to destroy its cultivation foundation.

Zhou Ze struggled to get up, his body covered in cuts from the glass shards, looking very disheveled.

However, the monkey, like a crazed beast, pounced on Zhou Ze again.

"Thump!"

The two collided, but this time the monkey's force was much weaker than before. The two of them rolled around on the ground, entangled.

"This is my destiny, my karma, allowed by the heavens. Debts must be repaid, it's the natural order!

You're just a small Ghost Messenger, why do you interfere? Do you really think you're one of the Ten Kings of Hell?"

Zhou Ze didn't answer. Instead, he stabbed his fingernails hard into the monkey's body. Pus constantly evaporated from the monkey's body. Even if you wore a gas mask, the smell probably wouldn't help.

Finally, after a round of fighting, the monkey's body collapsed powerlessly to the side. Zhou Ze staggered to his feet, his fingernails having been corroded for the most part.

He was a person who cherished his fingernails. Even in his previous life, when he wasn't wielding a scalpel, he often trimmed his nails. Not to mention how much more important and cherished his nails were to him in this life.

But now wasn't the time to worry about that. Zhou Ze felt a little apprehensive. If it weren't for the ID in his hand deceiving the other party, allowing him to gain the upper hand and sever the other party's soul blood, he might be the one lying on the ground right now.

This wasn't a ghost.

This was a demon.

Zhou Ze cursed himself many times in his heart.

Why did he follow it up here? He almost got himself killed.

Humans are such complex animals. They can be spurred by a moment of righteousness and so-called conscience to do things without regard for the consequences, but then they often regret it,

feeling like an idiot.

Zhou Ze felt that next time he encountered something like this, he should call the police and let them handle it, so he could leave with peace of mind.

Madam Bai had stayed in Tongcheng for two hundred years, and wasn't the little loli turning a blind eye?

Shaking his head, Zhou Ze discarded the miscellaneous thoughts in his mind and looked at the monkey beside him.

The monkey's mouth was open, its eyes beginning to cloud over. Its body was also slowly deflating like a leaky balloon, but it wasn't dead yet, because it could still talk.

"I cultivated for three Jiazi (A Jiazi is a cycle of 60 years), obtained opportunities, bestowed good karma, became a demon, glimpsed the Great Dao... As a heteromorph, to attain enlightenment in the Yang world is truly not easy."

Everyone seems to like reminiscing about their past before they die, exaggerating how awesome and difficult their life was. The monkey's mentality was actually not much different from humans.

"Cultivating for so many years, and you still can't control yourself." Zhou Ze spat out a mouthful of blood, his teeth also covered in blood.

"One Jiazi, one physical body, one Jiazi, one rebirth." The monkey's voice began to weaken, but it still sounded extremely resolute.

"I reincarnated and cultivated anew every Jiazi, starting from scratch, from the beginning, rescuing lost wanderers in the mountains, picking and delivering medicinal herbs to villagers at the foot of the mountain, and driving away nearby mountain monsters and ghosts.

Although there is no temple, I performed the duties of a mountain god, protecting generations of mountain villagers. Even now, there is still my stone statue in that small town, and the story of the Monkey God helping people is still circulating."

Zhou Ze wiped his fingernails on his clothes, looking at his damaged nails with regret in his heart. Of course, Zhou Ze only showed a sneer at what the monkey said.

A Monkey God?

A mountain god protecting the villagers?

Helping others for fun?

You've been helping others a little too much, haven't you? Other people's husbands go out to work, and you even go to comfort their wives who are alone in their rooms?

Moreover, thinking about what this thing was like when he came upstairs, it's really hard to associate it with a Monkey God.

"Stop singing your own praises, only picking the nice things to say." Zhou Ze raised his hand again, preparing to finish off this monkey.

"It was them, during my fourth cycle of reincarnation, who captured my newly reincarnated body. At that time, I was just a little monkey. Her husband was working as a lumberjack in the mountains, fell and injured himself in a canyon. It was I who brought him fruits and dew, it was I who led his workmates to his rescue.

But he, upon being rescued, used the rope he used for logging to bind me, and said to his workmates:

'A narrow escape from death is sure to be followed by good fortune. I've heard monkey brains are very beneficial, let's take it and give it to his wife to try, it has a miraculous effect on infertility!'"

The last part was spoken by the monkey in classical Chinese, which could express its anger, and also show that it was on the verge of death, its consciousness gradually chaotic, subconsciously using the way it was most used to speaking.

"Open my head, take my marrow, cut my flesh, and divide it among everyone to eat, saying it is very nourishing!"

As the monkey spoke, it began to tremble, now shrunk to the size of an ordinary monkey. This was a gnashing, bone-deep anger!

Three Jiazi of cultivation, doing good deeds and accumulating virtue, protecting one side, but on the eve of great success, it was ruined, not by its own enemies, but by the very people it saved.

This would be a monstrous hatred for anyone.

"My physical body has been destroyed, my Great Dao has collapsed, but the resentment in my heart is hard to quell!

The cause of the past, the effect of today!

I have already died and my Dao has vanished, I wish to enter reincarnation, to be reborn into the animal realm, but the resentment in my heart cannot be dispelled, my soul cannot enter Hell, I can only go down the mountain to seek revenge, to understand karma, before I can be completely free."

"Is that your reason for violating other people's wives?" Zhou Ze asked.

"You are human, I am animal, it is only natural for you to feed on livestock!

But for livestock to repay people with resentment is intolerable by the heavens, is that so?"

Zhou Ze hesitated for a moment, then nodded, "Yes."

He didn't want to deny it, and he didn't want to deny it.

Of course, eating monkey brains is illegal, is the wrong behavior, but from Zhou Ze's own emotional inclination, this monkey came down the mountain to take revenge, almost causing one corpse two lives, Zhou Ze still couldn't accept it.

It's like you see people in a restaurant eating braised pork, and you think, "Oh, that looks delicious."

But if you saw a group of pigs in a restaurant gnawing on human flesh, as a human, what would you think?

A very selfish position, a very distorted **, but that's the way it is, everyone has a different position, and naturally their perspective on things is also different.

Moreover, Zhou Ze felt that no matter what, the child in the pregnant woman's belly was innocent.

"You must be in a lot of pain. Let me help you get free, and then I'll see if I can send your soul to Hell."

"Thank..." The monkey said the last word.

Zhou Ze's fingernails pierced into the monkey's body again.

The monkey's body trembled,

and its body completely lost its vitality.

But Zhou Ze searched for a long time, and waited for a long time, but he didn't find the monkey's soul.

This probably meant that the monkey's soul had already scattered, because its revenge hadn't been completed, so its soul couldn't enter Hell.

Standing up, Zhou Ze noticed a faint layer of black mist dissipating around him. This was like a barrier, preventing the events here from being perceived by the outside world. Otherwise, the commotion of his fight with the monkey would have attracted many people long ago.

Zhou Ze carried the monkey's corpse, holding onto the stairwell, and slowly walked downstairs.

At the same time, he told himself in his heart to remember today's lesson. He was just a Ghost Messenger, managing ghosts. Mountain spirits and monsters were beyond his scope of business.

Taking advantage of the night, Zhou Ze dug a pit for the monkey in a park outside the hospital with a shovel left over from the gardener's room and buried its corpse.

Then he simply treated his wounds. After doing all this, Zhou Ze leaned against a large tree, feeling a little exhausted.

He took out his phone, which was cracked but still usable, and sent a message to Doctor Lin:

"Did the pregnant woman and her child survive?"

Five minutes later, Doctor Lin replied:

"They survived. Mother and child are safe."

Zhou Ze lit a cigarette, took a hard puff, and immediately felt a sharp pain in his lungs, coughing violently.

But soon, Doctor Lin sent another photo and a text message:

"However, the child is a deformed baby with three legs."

Zhou Ze looked at the photo on his phone.

The thin, premature baby was lying there quietly, breathing evenly.

But its lower body had three legs.

That extra leg,

looked like a monkey's... tail.