As Zhu Yan cried, she reflected on the many hardships she and Shen Du had faced together. Uncertain about their future, she felt a surge of melancholy and anxiety. Her crying intensified, and she sat up, taking out a handkerchief to wipe her tears while continuing to sob.
Her cries filled the room, seeping through the window lattice and drifting outside into the rain.
Zhu Yan wept unrestrainedly. Shen Du desperately wanted to embrace and comfort her but forced himself to resist.
Suddenly, in the center of the pitch-dark room, a cloud of purple-white smoke arose. Within the mist, a vague human figure appeared.
Shen Du realized someone had arrived but remained still, observing.
As the mist gradually dissipated, the figure within silently emerged. Step by step, it approached the bed. Upon reaching the bedside, a knife was raised, its cold glint flashing as it prepared to strike.
Shen Du had been prepared, but Zhu Yan reacted even faster. As she cried, she detected an unusual yet familiar scent. Sensing the killing intent in the darkness, she drew a dagger hidden in her sleeve and leaped up to strike, instinctively trying to protect Shen Du.
“Zhu Yan?!” Shen Du called out, using his qi to repel the attacker. However, Zhu Yan had already been thrown back by the assailant’s qi and fell to the ground.
Zhu Yan and Shen Du simultaneously recognized the intruder—it was the last person they expected to see: Wang Buzui.
Wang Buzui approached them, his eyes fierce and glowing with a faint green light, giving him an eerie and terrifying appearance.
Zhu Yan’s consciousness began to blur, likely from inhaling a bewitching incense. Shen Du quickly shielded Zhu Yan behind him, forming his fingers into claws to attack Wang Buzui.
Unexpectedly, when he touched Wang Buzui’s arm, his hand passed right through—it was an illusion. But the knife was real, forcing Shen Du to dodge aside.
This angered Wang Buzui’s apparition. He turned to face Shen Du, raising his knife and charging straight at him, aiming for Shen Du’s vital points.
But Shen Du deftly avoided it.
After a series of exchanges, Shen Du still couldn’t affect this illusory form, and the phantom Wang Buzui was equally ineffective against him.
As they reached a stalemate, the windows on all sides suddenly burst open from the outside, and the light from torches flooded into the room.
“Wang Buzui?” Pan Chi’s gaze fell on the newcomer, his voice filled with surprise.
Hearing the name “Wang Buzui,” Lin Jing and the others turned to look at the phantom. Indeed, it was Wang Buzui, but his form was ethereal, with a sense of faintness and weakness.
It was undoubtedly Wang Buzui, but they had seen his corpse in the mortuary earlier that day and had even participated in the autopsy.
Feeling certain, Lin Jing found it mystifying: “How could he come back to life? It’s an illusion.”
Lin Jing took the lead, drawing his sword and slashing at Wang Buzui. The shadowy figure simply split apart and reformed after the sword passed through.
Pan Chi joined Lin Jing in the attack, but the result was the same.
Striking like this, they could hack away until dawn without killing this strange entity.
This extraordinary situation left the present imperial guards feeling terrified. In all their years of case-solving, they had never encountered anything so bizarre.
“Is there any way to find a weakness?” Pan Chi asked urgently.
This was also Shen Du’s thought. The phantom could attack people, and humans had many weak points, but this illusion was neither truly real nor false, showing no apparent vulnerabilities.
The phantom wouldn’t give them time to think carefully. The shadowy figure, wielding a long sword, charged at him with full force. It didn’t strike him, as Shen Du had already dodged behind it, but constantly evading was not a solution.
Sooner or later, they would be exhausted and ultimately die by the phantom’s sword.
Nearby, Lin Jing and Pan Chi took this opportunity to observe the phantom from the left and right, trying to find a weakness.
The phantom, feeling invincible, not only didn’t hold back but attacked even more fiercely, forcing Shen Du to retreat. Behind him was the wall, and before Shen Du could realize it, he was cornered by Wang Buzui’s phantom with a killing move. He hit the wall hard, and the phantom’s knife flashed in a tricky maneuver, stabbing directly into Shen Du’s left abdomen and then violently pulling out. Fresh blood gushed forth uncontrollably.
Then came Wang Buzui’s maniacal laughter.
“Grand Commander!” everyone cried out in unison.
Zhu Yan, lying on the ground, struggled to see clearly what had just happened. She only saw a white blade go in and a red blade come out, suddenly filled with panic.
But having inhaled the bewitching incense, she couldn’t focus her mind. It had taken all her effort just to avoid collapsing completely.
The dagger had been knocked away by Wang Buzui’s phantom, and in the chaos, the autopsy bag had been thrown near Zhu Yan’s feet. She crawled a few steps to rummage through the bag for a cutting tool, precisely finding the autopsy knife. She stabbed it into her forearm—the pain instantly cleared her mind. Gasping for air, she looked towards Shen Du.
Shen Du was looking down at the stab wound on his left abdomen, his expression cold and unchanged. He reached out to press his acupoints to stop the bleeding and shouted:
“Lin Jing, form the battle array!”
Lin Jing immediately ordered the imperial guards to form the Four Symbols and Eight Trigrams array, positioning themselves at Wang Buzui’s various vital points, determined to leave Wang Buzui nowhere to escape.
Seeing that Shen Du was unharmed, Wang Buzui spoke with a surprised tone: “You’re uninjured?”
A bolt of lightning struck outside the window, causing Wang Buzui’s phantom to flicker. Shen Du sneered, “After so many attempts to poison me, did you think I was made of paper?”
His gaze fell on Zhu Yan, and seeing she was unharmed, Shen Du’s expression softened slightly. He then raised his sword, focusing his mind to deal with Wang Buzui.
Tears welled up in Zhu Yan’s eyes as she looked at him, still bleeding profusely. Her heart pounded with fear and disbelief at the reality before her.
Could the dead truly come back to life?
A cold glint appeared in her eyes as Zhu Yan steadied herself and stood up. Raising the autopsy knife, she charged at the phantom. Before anyone could react, the phantom smiled eerily and dodged to the side.
Shen Du’s blood surged, “Zhu Yan, come back!”
Zhu Yan was determined to prove her suspicions. Seeing that the autopsy knife had missed the phantom, she turned and stabbed again. The phantom waited until she was close before faintly dodging, its eyes suddenly glowing a deeper green. Zhu Yan’s heart raced, sensing something was amiss.
Just as the phantom had dodged, it had sprinkled an unknown powder on her arm wound. At first, Zhu Yan only felt some pain.
“Zhu Yan, you’re too reckless!” Pan Chi stepped forward in one swift move and pulled Zhu Yan aside, his concern leading him to scold her.
But Zhu Yan shook her head slightly, looking towards Shen Du. Shen Du was also deeply anxious, and seeing Pan Chi grabbing her, he wished he could immediately fly over and kick Pan Chi away, pulling Zhu Yan into his arms.
He had barely moved a step when blood gushed forth uncontrollably from his abdominal wound.
What was happening? Why couldn’t this bleeding be stopped?
Zhu Yan’s heart felt as if it were being cut by a knife. Before she could ask, a wave of nausea came over her. She felt an intense heat inside her body, and then her skin began to secrete silk. Her vision blurred, and she curled up and fell to the ground.
Shen Du no longer cared about the mysterious phantom or the supposedly dead Wang Buzui. He leaped over to examine her injuries.
There was a cut on her forearm but no other wounds. The symptoms of cocooning were obvious. Shen Du reached out to lightly touch her skin, which was now wrapped in silk threads. His fingers trembled uncontrollably.
“Look what you’ve done,” Pan Chi glared at Shen Du, his anger also rising. “Why didn’t you have her leave earlier?”
Knowing there was danger, yet still keeping her here.
Shen Du’s thin lips were tightly pressed together, the pain in his eyes too obvious. He stared at Zhu Yan in a daze, then looked up at Pan Chi: “Now is not the time to argue—Lin Jing, come here and look after her.”
Hearing the call, Lin Jing broke free from the phantom’s entanglement and moved toward Shen Du. The phantom followed close behind him.
“Let’s deal with this first.” Shen Du stood up, placing himself between the phantom and Lin Jing. Seeing this, Pan Chi also stood up to join him.