I Am Your Natural Enemy

Chapter 491: Chapter 200: Minister of Scorching Sun Headquarters, No Cowards in Fuyu Mountain! (5k)

After the Water Ghost left, he put on a miserable face and looked around nearby, then quietly borrowed a phone, checked the map, and his face got even more miserable.

Only now did he realize, this is the price of being uneducated, and the price of not being observant enough.

Back then, he’d casually picked a small river to go underwater, but that river turned out to be an upper tributary of the Huai River.

He followed the current all the way down, merging from a tributary into the main river, and then, at some point, got noticed by the Water Monarch, who led him over.

Now he was really screwed, been targeted by the Water Monarch.

After getting out, his first thought, of course, was to just give up.

As long as he got away from the Huai River and went somewhere else, it should be fine.

But as soon as he left the Huai River water area, he felt the ring around his wrist, ever so slowly, begin to tighten.

He could sense it, because his entire Nether Soul felt the pressure from the ring’s constriction.

He could clearly feel, that once it tightened to a certain point, he might not die right away.

Which meant, after prolonged agony, he’d eventually get squeezed to death, the kind of death where even his soul body wouldn’t be able to burst out.

The words his father used to say to him as a kid echoed in his ears right now.

”If you don’t study hard, you’ll regret it when you grow up.”

And then the last time he lost his temper, he’d said,

”I’ll never regret it, even if I die.”

He never would’ve thought, the boomerang from back then would, after his death, smack squarely into his forehead.

Regret was killing him right now—regret that he hadn’t studied geography properly.

If only he’d studied even a little, at least he’d know where the Huai River was.

He held the borrowed phone and searched for stuff about the Scorching Sun. Clearly, there was nothing valuable to be found.

He quietly found the entrance to the Ghost Market, went in, wanting to ask around.

But everything related to ”Scorching Sun” basically pointed to the Scorching Sun Department.

He sat in a street corner, leaning back against the wall, eyes vacant. No matter how much he thought about it, he could only come up with one possibility.

Anyone called the contemporary Scorching Sun had to be an extremely important figure.

So, that had to be some particularly big shot in the Scorching Sun Department?

Right now, he really understood how Benbo’erba felt when he heard, ”Go take care of Tang Monk and his disciples.”

Water Monarch, you’re giving me way too much credit.

I’m just a little Water Ghost. If I didn’t have to eat and couldn’t starve, someone like me would’ve died of hunger ages ago.

What am I supposed to do?

Maybe I should go to the entrance of the Scorching Sun Department, pick out some tough-looking field agent, and give him a big slap.

Maybe that way I’d die quicker?

In the teahouse diagonally across the street, Mai Conggui, who was listening to someone brag, turned his head, leaned on the railing, scanned around, then looked at the blank-eyed Water Ghost slumped in the corner.

A glint flashed in his eyes, and he felt a jolt of surprise inside.

In the midst of the noisy crowd here, he suddenly picked up on key words.

Water Monarch, Water Ghost, Scorching Sun Department.

Any one of those three terms shouldn’t be showing up in the Ghost Market, let alone all three at once.

He stared hard for a long time at that vacant-eyed guy sitting on the ground, before he was pretty sure—this dude was actually a Water Ghost!

A thought exploded in Mai Conggui’s brain.

This was it!

Even if he’d heard things like this before, he’d never really considered what to do with it.

But now, he was on the payroll as an informant—aside from his salary, he could get bonuses too.

Of course, he knew bonuses weren’t guaranteed, it depended directly on the intel he provided.

And this Water Ghost before him—even if he didn’t have anything earth-shattering, there’s no way he had zero value.

The boss was from the Forbidden Land, but apparently had ties to the Scorching Sun Department too.

Over the past couple days, he’d almost figured it out: maybe the crazy big shot slaughtering Evil Ghosts in the Forbidden Land wasn’t his boss at all.

His boss seemed like a pretty good guy—not at all the type to hang over two hundred Evil Ghosts from lampposts as decorations.

So he guessed, maybe the Scorching Sun Department in Nanwu County caved, tried to ease things up with the Forbidden Land, and maybe his boss was the one brokering stuff in the middle.

Anyway, that didn’t matter. As long as it could count toward his achievements, all intel was worth sending in to try.

After all, he’d watched plenty of TV dramas, and knew that with intel, whether it was used or not was one thing—whether you reported it or not was another.

Thinking this, he picked up his wine jug and two cups, and walked over to the Water Ghost.

He set down the cups and poured out two drinks.

”Brother, come have a drink.”

The Water Ghost turned his head, looked at Mai Conggui, a bit dumbfounded—he couldn’t figure out why Mai Conggui was offering him a drink out of nowhere.

Mai Conggui grinned, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lit two, and handed one to the Water Ghost.

The Water Ghost hesitated and didn’t take it.

Mai Conggui just smiled and said,

”These are the good goods, made just for us. Cigarettes we can light ourselves, wine brewed with Yin Qi in the teahouse, stuff only we get to enjoy.”

Mai Conggui took a deep drag, exhaling clouds of smoke.

”Ah, brother, don’t mind me. Seeing you reminds me of my first time in the Ghost Market.

I was the same—sitting here, totally lost, wanting to find a job but couldn’t.

Back then I sat in this very corner, thinking the world was huge but there was no place for me in it.”

It was also then, another brother came by and offered me a drink.

Asked me, ’We’re already dead, why try to find work, why try to make money?’”

Mai Conggui paused, raised his little cup, and tossed back his drink.

The Water Ghost was intrigued now and asked,