He Fenghua felt utterly bewildered. Why on earth would a ghost suddenly appear while he was taking a bath in a tub? It wasn’t like he was bathing in a river.
His mind went blank for a second before he snapped back to reality and reacted with a mix of shock and anger. With a palm infused with thick True Qi, he struck fiercely at the bald-headed female ghost in the water.
Boom!
The strike sent water splashing everywhere, and the wooden tub shattered into pieces. He Fenghua stood there completely naked, but the ghost had vanished.
“Gone? How is that possible?” He Fenghua’s face was filled with disbelief. He had clearly sensed through the ghost’s aura that her strength was not formidable. By all logic, she shouldn’t have been able to dodge his strike. Yet, she had disappeared right before his eyes, just as suddenly as she had appeared.
This bizarre turn of events set off alarm bells in He Fenghua’s mind. He scanned his surroundings cautiously but found nothing.
Just then, the sound of a servant running came from outside the door.
“Master He, what happened?” the servant shouted in panic, clearly startled by the noise of the tub shattering.
He Fenghua was about to respond when he suddenly realized he wasn’t wearing any clothes. He quickly roared, “I’m fine! Don’t come in!”
As he spoke, he turned around to grab the clothes he had left nearby, only to freeze.
“Where are my clothes!?” He Fenghua was stunned. He distinctly remembered taking off his clothes and placing them beside the tub before his bath, but now they were gone!
Could ghosts really steal clothes now?
Of course, ghosts wouldn’t steal clothes, but humans might.
He Fenghua’s clothes had already been stolen by a mirror image clone, which had quietly teleported outside the room.
He Fenghua frantically searched every corner of the room, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find his clothes.
The servant stood anxiously outside the door, hearing the sounds of rummaging inside but having no idea what was going on.
“Master He, are you alright? Should I come in and help?”
“Don’t come in!” He Fenghua grew increasingly agitated and couldn’t help but shout. But immediately after, he felt he had lost his composure, which was unbecoming of a high-ranking official. He quickly added, “My clothes got wet. Go fetch me a clean set.”
“Yes, Master He. I’ll be right back,” the servant replied before running off to get the clothes.
The mirror image clone watched the servant run away with a sinister grin, then glanced at the wooden house and casually set it on fire.
Inside the room, He Fenghua stood naked, anxiously waiting while also pondering the origins of the ghost. How could she appear and disappear so mysteriously? What was her purpose?
Surely she didn’t come just to steal his clothes, did she?
Or was she here specifically to spy on him while he bathed?
As he pondered, He Fenghua suddenly sniffed the air. “What’s that burning smell?”
He looked around and was shocked to see flames outside the door!
The bright, scorching fire had ignited the wooden window and was consuming the door. The flames were growing rapidly, and He Fenghua was dumbfounded. Why did the fire have to start now, of all times, when he wasn’t wearing any clothes?
Who the hell did this? How utterly shameless!
He instinctively wanted to run out to escape the fire, but after taking two steps, he remembered he was naked.
As a Dark-rank Demon Eliminator and the head of the Yinshan County Demon Suppression Bureau, if he were to run out stark naked and be seen, it would be the most ridiculous scandal imaginable, enough to keep the village gossips busy for days.
He Fenghua stopped in his tracks, deciding he couldn’t run. After all, with his True Qi protecting him, ordinary fire couldn’t harm him.
However, as the window burned away, He Fenghua suddenly realized that while the fire couldn’t hurt him, it could destroy the house! If the house collapsed, he’d be standing there completely exposed, forced to bare it all to everyone.
What should he do?
He couldn’t run, but he couldn’t stay either. He Fenghua felt like an ant on a hot pan, utterly frantic.
Suddenly, he smacked his forehead, cursing himself for being so panicked. Why not just put out the fire?
He Fenghua began gathering his True Qi and struck at the flames with powerful palm strikes. The intense True Qi instantly extinguished a portion of the fire.
Encouraged, He Fenghua started unleashing his True Qi without restraint, desperately trying to put out the fire.
But the mirror image clone, hiding in the shadows, had no intention of letting him succeed.
Taking a deep breath, the mirror image clone filled its chest with air and then shouted at the top of its lungs, “Help! Fire!”
Of course, before shouting, the clone altered its voice to prevent He Fenghua from recognizing it.
The loud cry, louder than a rooster’s crow, instantly woke everyone in the Demon Suppression Bureau.
The Bureau had many people, including Yellow-rank Demon Eliminators and their subordinates, all living in the dormitories. The clone’s shout brought them all running.
Inside the room, He Fenghua cursed under his breath.
Who the hell was that!?
Now he had no time to put out the fire. To avoid social suicide, he bolted out of the burning room, running stark naked.
To prevent being seen and ruining his reputation, He Fenghua unleashed all his True Qi, accelerating to an incredible speed. But he still felt it wasn’t enough, so he gritted his teeth and activated a body-draining secret technique, increasing his speed even further. He was so fast that he nearly left afterimages, and in the darkness, all that could be seen was a flash of pale, naked skin, making it hard to identify him.
He was running faster than he ever had, even in life-and-death situations. It just went to show that social death was even more terrifying than actual death.
Even at this speed, He Fenghua didn’t feel safe, so he covered his face as he ran, afraid someone might recognize him.
This was He Fenghua’s brilliance—he didn’t care about being naked; he cared about hiding his face.
He ran toward the darkest areas, planning to hide in a small grove of trees.
But running into the darkness played right into Gu Qingfeng’s hands. With a sly grin, Gu Qingfeng controlled the mirror image clone to use a teleportation technique.
Whoosh!
The clone suddenly appeared in front of He Fenghua’s path and stuck out a leg.
Running at full speed, He Fenghua didn’t notice the sudden appearance of the clone. He tripped over the leg, and the momentum sent him flying forward, landing face-first on the ground in a classic “dog eat dirt” pose.
By then, the Demon Eliminators had arrived. As martial artists, their eyesight was exceptional.
From a distance, they saw a naked figure lying on the ground, his pale buttocks reflecting the moonlight with a glossy sheen.
The Demon Eliminators were shocked, wondering whose buttocks could be so radiant.
Due to the force of his fall and the strain of using the body-draining technique, He Fenghua was dazed, his ears ringing and vision blurring. It took him a couple of seconds to recover, and he struggled to get up. But just as he did, he heard the approaching footsteps and instinctively turned his head...
The world fell silent in that moment.