After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

Chapter 17

In a dark and messy small rom.

A grotesque and swollen face was attached to an old man's corpse which was gradually starting to emit a rotten stench.

It sucked out the remaining nutrients from the corpse. The face that was originally only the size of a fingernail had now grown into the size of an adult's hand.

It seemed to be waiting for something.

Suddenly, the temperature in the air began to drop without warning.

As if the wind had blown the clouds over to obscure the sun, the room suddenly dimmed.

Deep darkness slowly spread across the corridor, swallowing up all sources of light along the way. It was like a large shadow, gradually engulfing the entire residential building.

That face stopped sucking out the nutrients and its black eyes moved slightly to stare in the direction of the corridor.

It shuddered.

It could tell that some kind of extraordinarily powerful existence had come.

That enormous amount of power almost distorted the space around it and the dreadful oppressive feeling it brought along made all the low-levelled fierce ghosts in the vicinity feel fear and trepidation inside.

A look of shock quickly flashed across its face.

It didn't expect that……..King would come personally.

"Clack."

"Clack."

"Clack."

The rhythmic sound of footsteps sounded like it was both far and near. It echoed through the empty corridor and each sound made that face shrink back even further. Its expression switched between greed and fear several times. Its eyes continued to look in the direction of the sound.

The closer the footsteps got, the darker the surroundings became.

When the footsteps stopped at the door, almost the entire room was shrouded in suffocating darkness.

The door was pushed open.

The expression on that face became slightly distorted with the conflicting emotions. Its dark eyes protruded out and the mouth that carried a strange smile exclaimed excitedly, "King! King! You're here! That's right….That's right, I saw Ace. I am willing to provide you with information….."

Clack.

The man unhurriedly stepped into the room. The soles of his shoes hit the floor at a regular pace.

When it finally saw that man's face clearly, its expression suddenly froze. The frozen expression looked a little funny and strange.

This…….this….

The man before it was tall. With his eyes lowered slightly, he looked down at it from above.

Please read this from kk translates

His features were deep and defined. Under those high brow bones were a pair of dark crimson eyes which appeared even more vivid at night. Even despite being expressionless, it still carried three parts cold ruthlessness.

But…..This wasn't the reason for its reaction.

What made it panic was that the facial features of the man before it was five or six parts similar to the young boy it had previously pretended to be.

W-what was going on……?

The mans gaze fell onto the face that was attached to the corpse, and the feeling of oppression in the air grew stronger.

The air that felt like it could be cut through by a cold blade made it freeze in place. It felt as if it was being dissected little by little, bit by bit, and all the dark thoughts hidden in its heart was exposed.

When it returned to its senses, it realised that it had spilled out everything it knew without any reservation.

The face asked cautiously.

"K-King…….May I ask, my reward……."

Ji Xuan raised his hand. His pale fingertips swiped across the air.

The next second, the face felt a powerful force suddenly pouring into its body. It was overjoyed and it quickly began to greedily devour and digest this power, its own power growing rapidly at the same time. It could even faintly sense that it was about to break through to the next level.

The face became even more grotesque as a result of its excitement: "Thank you…."

Ji Xuan, "This is the reward you deserve."

However, before it could say anything else, the floor below suddenly swelled up and a large monster made of bones slowly emerged from below the ground. In the goat-like skull, the lower jaw was open, as if it was holding something in its mouth.

Ji Xuan stretched out his hand.

The monster gently placed the item in his palm.

Now the face could see what it was. It was a drop of blood floating in the air.

It seemed to have half-solidified, but it was still bright red. On the man's pale palms, the contrast made it stand out even more.

A bad feeling began to rise in its heart.

Ji Xuan raised his eyes. His gaze that carried no emotional fluctuations fell onto the fierce ghost. He spoke calmly.

"But, he was hurt."

…….W-what?

"My conditions for the reward have always been very clear." Ji Xuan didn't move and even his expression didn't change much but the face could clearly sense that the overbearing pressure in the room had increased several folds. It was overwhelmed and could only press itself against the ground in fear.

"——Do not hurt him."

The face tried to argue but it was horrified to find that its mouth couldn't be opened at all and it couldn't even let out a single sound.

Ji Xuan retracted his gaze.

He rubbed the skull of the beast waiting quietly beside him and said, "Go."

The beast turned its head. The two dark holes in the skull looked at the frozen evil spirit before it and slowly swam closer.

Nononononono—–

The face howled miserably inside but in reality it couldn't make a single sound. Its eyes reflected the beast slowly approaching its way. Those pitch-black eyes almost fell out of its eye sockets and the corners of its trembling lips almost reached its ears. The expression on the face became even more unsightly as a result of extreme fear and despair.

The next second, the monster opened its large mouth, revealing sharp jagged teeth.

No——–

The terrible and bloody scene in front of him seemed to be unable to attract Ji Xuan's attention. He had his eyes lowered as he stared fixatedly at the floating drop of blood.

It carried warmth and fragrance unique to humans.

He gathered his fingers and carefully closed it around that drop of blood in his palm.

Ji Xuan curled the corners of his lips. His scarlet eyes flashed with extreme possessiveness.

—– Mine.

.

The first day of work after a vacation was always the worst.

Ye Jia sat in his cubicle, staring blankly at the unprocessed reports stacked into a large pile on his desk. He felt like his soul was about to come out of his body.

Why……

Why was there such an inhuman thing like working in this world……

When can we retire…….

He raised his head and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. His gaze followed the movement of the second hand bit by bit, counting the time until the end of work with great anguish.

Almost there. Three more hours until he would be off work.

Suddenly, an angry shout sounded behind him.

"Ye Jia!"

Ye Jia was startled. He immediately sat up and quickly adjusted his expression so that he looked like he was looking at the documents spread out across his desk seriously.

Liu Zhaocheng: "……"

Do I look like I'm blind?

He stared down at Ye Jia who continued to diligently slack off and could feel his eyelids twitching.

Liu Zhaocheng squeezed the bridge of his nose in exasperation and decided to free himself from the fate of having a heart attack at a young age, "You, and also Cheng Cezhi. Pack up and get ready to go to the hospital."

Ye Jia: "?"

Hearing his name called, Cheng Cezhi raised his head from a large pile of documents and looked blankly in their direction.

Liu Zhaocheng only expressionlessly snorted and pointed at the basket of fruits and gifts piled up on the table beside him, "This was bought by all of us in the department. You two are responsible for bringing it to Zhao Dong."

Is this what it feels like to leave work early?!

Ye Jia became spirited, "Thank you chief!"

"Thank my ass." Liu Zhaocheng rolled his eyes, "Rather then letting you be in the way here, it's better to send you out on an errand. At least I wouldn't be angered to death at the sight of you."

Ye Jia: "….."

He didn't have to be so truthful.

At the hospital.

The arms of the two men were filled with gifts from the logistics department as they squeezed with difficulty into the elevator one after another.

"Which floor?" Ye Jia who was closer to the panel asked.

Cheng Cezhi's voice sounded from behind the basket of fruit, "The highest floor."

Please read this from kk translates

Ye Jia paused slightly.

This was a hospital that had been cooperating with the bureau for a long time. If anyone was to receive any injuries during work or be affected by yin energy, they are often arranged to the stay in the intensive care units on the floors below. Although the location was separate from the general wards, the overall difference wasn't big.

The eighth floor and above were designated for patients with extremely serious conditions after contact with a paranormal event.

It was like treating a patient with a dangerous infectious disease who needed to be carefully isolated from the others.

He pressed the button for the tenth floor.

Five minutes later.

After a series of cumbersome checks and identify verifications, Ye Jia and Cheng Cezhi were finally let in.

The floor was very deserted.

Most of the wards were almost empty and there were no nurses walking in the corridors. The air was filled with the strong smell of disinfectant.

It was unknown if it was because the air conditioning was too strong, the temperature on this floor was clearly much lower than the other floors.

Standing by the door at the end of the corridor were two people. They both wore civilian clothes but the bag at their waist couldn't be overlooked.

They were personnel from the Combat Division.

Despite being so short-staffed, the Combat Division actually sent two of their personnel to guard a patient?

Ye Jia lowered his eyes to cover the faint change that flickered across his eyes.

One of them straightened up and helped them open the door.

The ward was very bright. Through a layer of glass, you could see Zhao Dong sitting alone on the hospital bed by the window. The snow-white sheets were pulled up to the waist. Apart from looking a little thinner, he seemed to be in good spirits as he flipped through a thin book.

He looked over with surprise, "Ye Jia? Xiao Cheng? Why are you here?"

They placed down the gifts they were carrying.

"Of course, we came to see you!" Cheng Cezhi looked through the isolation glass before him with a worried expression, "Are you feeling okay??

Ye Jia still had his usual lazy expression. He raised his finger and pointed at the small mountain of gifts and fruits.

"Here, from the department."

"Jeez, I made you spend money." Zhao Dong rubbed the back of his head and said while feeing troubled, "I already told the Chief that he didn't need to do that….You should take it back later….."

"No can do." Cheng Cezhi shook his head stubbornly, "This is what everyone wanted to do for you. It's a pity that I found out about it too late. I would've definitely contributed too."

Zhao Dong sighed. He then changed the subject, "How's the Bureau?"

"Still very busy." Cheng Cezhi's expression scrunched up, "Especially….."

Ye Jia narrowed his eyes slightly and suddenly interjected. He cut off their exchange of pleasantries, "So, what happened to you?"

There was a short moment of silence in the ward.

Zhao Dong looked at Ye Jia and shook his head with a smile, "It really is your style."

He didn't seem to have any intention to hide it. He just sighed and raised his hand to remove the blanket covering his lower body.

The eyes of Cheng Cezhi who stood closest widened instantly.

"This……this……"

Ye Jia slowly stepped forward.

Below the man's waist were two legs that were swollen like radishes. The skin was completely dark and the toes on the two feet were so swollen they were squished together and purplish red in colour. Under the skin were uneven protrusions that seemed to be squirming around. It looked like there was something inside trying to burrow out of his skin.

The sight was quite horrific.

"When I first arrived, only my ankles were like this."

Zhao Dong smiled bitterly.

"It is estimated that…..in a few days, they will hatch out of my body."