FIMA Ch63: Train

The black bulletproof car stopped in front of a sprawling manor in the suburbs.

Looking from afar in the night, the tree shadows in the manor were mottled. Two bright red lanterns hung on the large trees on both sides of the cobblestone path. There was no sound of human voices or any silhouettes; an inexplicably gloomy and eerie feeling emanated from the silence.

However, this place should be a rather good ley line. Even with Gu Siyuan’s metaphysical cultivation, which couldn’t even be considered half-baked, he could feel the exceptionally vigorous spiritual energy. As soon as he approached, he felt completely comfortable all over.

This place was the ancestral home of the Xie family in S City.

In the back seat of the car, Gu Siyuan slightly raised his chin and said faintly: “Go on. Once you’ve made things clear, you can start your job.”

“…” Xie Xuanxing’s head was still buzzing with confusion even now.

Perhaps losing to Xie Yuchen today had broken his brain. Otherwise, how could he, the dignified number one talisman-making genius of S City—uh, alright, former number one genius—agree to be someone’s lackey?

Pouting slightly, he raised his head, just happening to meet Gu Siyuan’s indifferent and solemn gaze, which seemed as if it could see right through a person.

…His heart suddenly stirred again. Actually, maybe it wasn’t that bad.

Xie Xuanxing grasped the door handle on his side, pushed it open, and stepped out of the car.

Just as he was about to head into the Xie family manor, he saw the main gates suddenly pushed open. A familiar elderly figure walked out first, followed closely by several ugly, mocking laughs from behind: “Third Elder—oh, wait, not anymore. Just leave obediently on your own. Otherwise, if this really turns into a scene, it’ll be you losing face…”

“Hahahaha, exactly! Look at you, you’re already at such an old age, soon you won’t even be able to walk. Let me point you to a clear path: hurry up and take your grandson to find a place to peacefully live out your retirement!”

That elderly figure was extremely unyielding. He had already been preparing to leave, but hearing this, he immediately turned his head and cursed angrily: “You two little bastards, have you forgotten the times when you bowed your heads and begged this old man and Xuanxing for guidance? …A bunch of bullies who pick on the weak and fear the strong! Back then…”

“Grandpa!” Xie Xuanxing’s expression drastically changed, and he immediately broke into a sprint toward the main gate.

Xie Cang stopped his cursing and turned his head. Seeing his beloved grandson return, a rare hint of awkwardness arose on his face, and he muttered: “Xing-er… where did you go earlier?”

Xie Xuanxing looked coldly at the other two people at the door: “You dare treat my grandpa like this?”

Xie Xuanxing had always held prestige in the Xie family. Those two instantly had their hearts skip a beat under his gaze.

However, when they recovered their senses, an inexplicable wave of anger and irritation rose up.

“What kind of airs are you putting on? Do you still think you’re that number one genius of the Xie family? Hmph, you’re not even fit to carry Young Master Yuchen’s shoes!”

“Hmph, over a decade of your practice doesn’t even compare to Young Master Yuchen casually studying for a few months. In the past, you were only relying on the fact that Young Master Yuchen’s bloodline was damaged, otherwise, when would it ever be your turn to speak!”

“Now that Young Master Yuchen has followed Young Master Han to the capital, you won’t even be able to catch up to him on horseback in the future! Let me tell you, you and your grandpa have already been kicked out of the Xie family for disrespecting the family head!”

Xie Xuanxing narrowed his eyes and gave a cold sneer: “Kicked out of the Xie family?”

“Yes! Now that you know, hurry up and get lost!” Those two waved their hands disdainfully, as if shooing away a fly.

Xie Xuanxing stared blankly at their faces, his fingers slowly reaching toward his waist.

“This is just perfect!”

Right at this moment, a cold, deep male voice sounded.

Xie Xuanxing turned his head and looked at Gu Siyuan, who had walked over at some unknown time, his gaze softening slightly.

Gu Siyuan raised his eyes to look at him, his expression clear and cold: “This saves me from having to discuss it with your family. It seems this young master was quite farsighted.”

Watching these two speak in riddles, Xie Cang pulled at Xie Xuanxing and asked: “This is…?”

“His name is Gu Siyuan,” Xie Xuanxing said softly. After thinking for a moment, he added an explanation: “Gu Beilin’s younger brother.”

Xie Cang immediately realized: “The Northern Heavenly Wolf’s younger brother? Isn’t he a piece of tra—” Halfway through his sentence, meeting his grandson’s gaze, Xie Cang stopped himself.

However, looking at the person in front of him—his appearance stern and cold, his expression indifferent, aloof and proud like a green pine on a cliff peak, emitting an awe-inspiring, solemn aura with every gesture—he indeed didn’t look like the rumored useless spendthrift, right?

Gu Siyuan gave a scoffing laugh, ignoring the old man’s prejudice.

He merely turned his head to look at the two people at the door, his eyebrows sharp, saying with a half-smile: “Since they are no longer members of your Xie family, from this moment on, this grandfather and grandson are hired by our Special Control Bureau.”

The two furrowed their brows, not knowing how to respond.

However, Gu Siyuan clearly didn’t need them to respond either; they were just mouthpieces.

He tilted his head toward Xie Xuanxing, his pitch-black eyes holding a hint of amusement amidst their indifference: “Let’s go. Good luck today—buy one get one free!”

“…” Xie Xuanxing.
Put it this way, with his grandpa’s fiery temper, if he knew the inside story, he would probably die of anger!

In the next moment, Xie Cang grabbed Xie Xuanxing and said aggressively: “Let’s go! If this place won’t keep this lord, there are naturally other places that will! The Special Control Bureau, right? This old man will join right away!”

“…” Xie Xuanxing.
Grandpa, you’d best not regret this.
The Special Control Bureau is just a cover; being a lackey is the reality.

Gu Siyuan ignored the exchange between them and directly strode his long legs toward where the car was parked.

Xie Cang also tugged at Xie Xuanxing: “Let’s go, what are you spacing out for?”

“Oh,” Xie Xuanxing nodded.

However, before leaving…
Xie Xuanxing turned his head and calmly glanced at the main gates of the Xie family manor.

A long while later, Xie Cang sat in the passenger seat, while Xie Xuanxing and Gu Siyuan were back in their original seats.

Just as Bodyguard Brother Li stepped on the gas and drove away, they happened to hear a “boom” coming from behind, seemingly from the direction of the Xie family’s main gates.

Gu Siyuan leaned against the car window, slightly raised his eyes, and cast a cold, faint glance at Xie Xuanxing.
Tsk, still a spicy beauty.

Inside the Xie family manor.
A group of people was hastily putting out a fire and replacing the main gates and the signboard.

After the Family Head, Xie Hao, listened to the report from those two, he narrowed his eyes and sneered coldly: “The Special Control Bureau? So what if it’s the Special Control Bureau? How many people do they even have? They’re all half-baked amateurs. If a major supernatural case truly happens, won’t the Special Control Bureau still have to ask those aristocratic families and sects for help?”

Someone next to him immediately chimed in with a laugh: “Exactly! Young Master Yuchen is currently with Young Master Han. The Han family is the head of the Four Great Aristocratic Families. Even if that grandfather and grandson join the Special Control Bureau, can they really turn the world upside down? That ‘Northern Heavenly Wolf’ is rumored to be miraculous, but isn’t he just a greenhorn!”

Someone else asked: “The Special Control Bureau is also in the capital. Should we notify Young Master Yuchen about this matter?”

Xie Hao shook his head, saying without a care: “No need to specifically notify him. Chen-er went to the capital for better cultivation and to improve his talisman arts; there’s no need to distract him with these things. Later, when he calls back, I’ll just mention it casually.”

“Yes.”

Two hours later.

On a regular-speed train passing through S City with its final destination in the capital, inside a relatively quiet carriage, a forcefully suppressed low roar suddenly sounded: “What?! You want our grandfather and grandson to be your lackeys?!”

Gu Siyuan lazily raised his arm, pushed away the rough, old finger pointing in front of his eyes, and said faintly: “Not quite.”

Xie Cang exhaled a breath, nodded, and sat back down: “That’s more like it.”

“I don’t want you; I only want him,” Gu Siyuan glanced at Xie Xuanxing and added with a cold, ruthless expression.

“…” Xie Cang.
What, from your tone, you even look down on this old man?!
Pah, is that the main point?!
He was almost spun in circles by this brat. Isn’t the main point still that he wants his precious genius grandson to be a lackey?!

Xie Cang felt even angrier.

Beside him, Xie Xuanxing, who was holding a thermos cup and leisurely drinking tea, having witnessed Gu Siyuan’s talent for infuriating people, hurriedly grabbed his grandpa, lowered his head, and began to whisper some explanation to him.

Gu Siyuan shot the two a glance, said nothing, and directly closed his eyes to rest.

They still had seven or eight hours before arriving in the capital.

Bodyguard Brother Li had originally booked high-speed rail tickets; traveling from S City to the capital would only take a little over four hours.

But he was firmly rejected by the old man Xie Cang, who stated that he would absolutely never ride a high-speed train in his life. If something happened, there wouldn’t even be a chance to cast a spell to escape.

Bodyguard Brother Li told him that regular trains were also very fast nowadays.

The old man, however, vowed confidently that he could handle the speed of a regular train. Once, on a train in a certain place, he had encountered a gang of petty thieves using the ‘Five Ghosts Transporting Technique’ to steal things.

At that time, he had chased the person and jumped right off the train. He then actively expressed that if they didn’t believe him, after he got on the train later, he could give them a live demonstration.

Bodyguard Brother Li was a retired special forces soldier with remarkable combat power, but he was just an ordinary person who had always harbored an inexplicable yearning for metaphysical cultivators.

Therefore, he directly betrayed Gu Siyuan and surrendered to the old man, buying four tickets for a regular-speed train that took eight hours for the whole journey—and they were hard seats, too.

Inside a regular-speed train, dragons and snakes were mixed together.
However, because the journey was long, combined with the fact that it was already late at night when they boarded, the carriage had gradually quieted down after the initial burst of noise and chaos. Everyone was seizing the time to rest, to ensure they could step onto the capital’s soil in the best mental state early tomorrow morning.

Because it was quiet, everything in this carriage became exceptionally clear in Gu Siyuan’s ears.

For example, Xie Xuanxing’s clear voice next to him; Bodyguard Brother Li’s snoring; and seven rows of seats behind him, the people waiting in line for the bathroom who were already getting very impatient.

Almost half an hour had passed since the previous person closed the door.

Gu Siyuan suddenly opened his eyes.

The train seats existed in two columns by the windows.
At the same time Gu Siyuan opened his eyes, in the opposite seat across the aisle in the same row, a curly-haired young man who had originally been holding his phone playing a game also paused his game and narrowed his eyes toward the bathroom not far away.

The older, bearded uncle sitting next to him whispered: “Go take a look. I’ll stay here, maybe it’s a ‘luring the tiger off the mountain’ tactic?”

The curly-haired guy nodded, stood up, and tucked his phone into his chest, not caring in the slightest that his teammates were about to dig up his ancestors to the eighteenth generation and scatter their ashes.

Gu Siyuan had some thoughts in his mind.
However, he didn’t stare at them. Instead, pretending to look down and play with his phone, he casually swept his peripheral vision over that curly-haired guy. These two weren’t ordinary people; staring too bluntly would attract attention.

The curly-haired guy went and called the railway police, exaggeratingly stating that the person in the bathroom had been in there for almost an hour and their bladders were about to explode from waiting. The people waiting nearby also chimed in in agreement.

The railway policeman was also a young man, probably not long on the job. Hearing this, he immediately knocked on the bathroom door and called out to the person. As a result, after banging for a long time, not only did the person not open the door, but there wasn’t even a sound of response.

Instantly, the young railway policeman grew somewhat nervous, deeply afraid that the person had suffered a sudden illness or something, fainted inside, or perhaps even…

The curly-haired guy patted his shoulder to remind him, telling him to get the key to open the door.

A moment later, with a click, the bathroom door was pushed open.

The young railway policeman, along with several passengers who had been waiting outside to use the bathroom, looked at the scene inside and were all instantly startled. They retreated several steps in a row, followed by several screams of “Ah!” as they belatedly reacted.

The people sleeping or playing on their phones in the carriage were frightened by this commotion and asked repeatedly: “What happened?”
“What’s going on?”

Several bold passengers close to the bathroom’s location even stood up directly, wanting to go over and see the drama.

The curly-haired guy hurriedly patted the young railway policeman’s shoulder again and frowned: “Why are you still dazing out? Hurry and call your superior over, then go block the passengers so a stampede doesn’t happen.”

“Oh… right, right!” The railway policeman couldn’t care less about being frightened anymore. He immediately pulled out the radio at his waist, hurriedly said a few sentences, and then spread his arms to block the spectating passengers, preventing them from approaching this spot.

However, the carriage had two ends; he alone was clearly lacking in strength to handle it.

Someone from the other carriage saw something and immediately started screaming loudly as well.

Gu Siyuan glanced at Bodyguard Brother Li, who had been jolted awake: “Go help him for a bit.”

Brother Li nodded.

After Gu Siyuan spoke, he also stood up behind him.

Xie Xuanxing naturally also sensed the bizarre smell coming from the bathroom. He took out a stack of talismans from the bag beside him, stood up, and followed behind Gu Siyuan.

Brother Li’s frame was tall and burly, revealing a terrifying set of muscular flesh. Quite a few people backed away immediately.

The three of them walked to the bathroom side completely unimpeded.

Brother Li said to the young railway policeman: “You go to that side, I’ll keep an eye on this side.”

Perhaps sensing a familiar, reassuring scent from Brother Li, the railway policeman nodded and dashed off like a wisp of smoke to the exit on the other side to start dissuading passengers. Thus, his pressure was drastically reduced.

It was summer right now; everyone was dressed very thinly.

The uncle in the bathroom was the same. Therefore, the appearance of him collapsed on the ground right now looked extremely terrifying.

His entire body was curled up and deformed, like a puddle of mud sprawled on the ground. On his exposed skin, inch-wide alternating black and red marks coiled around, as if someone had taken a fading broad black cloth, wrapped it around his body over and over, and finally yanked hard from both ends, squeezing him alive until he was deformed, his bones cracking and shattering to death.

But this was clearly impossible, because the bathroom had been locked from the inside earlier; only the uncle was inside.

Furthermore, there was no black cloth at all. Those black marks on the corpse sank directly into the skin, like some kind of corrosive poisonous gas.

Gu Siyuan raised his eyebrows slightly.
First day arriving in this world. Without even giving a transition period, directly facing this kind of bizarre event—quite stimulating.

The curly-haired guy currently inspecting the corpse in the bathroom saw Gu Siyuan and Xie Xuanxing standing at the door—one aloof, proud, and stern; the other bright and clear as the moon. He couldn’t help but cast a sidelong glance: “Which family do you belong to?”

As he spoke, he saw the handful of talismans in Xie Xuanxing’s hands. How extravagant. “You guys seem to have boarded in S City too. I heard there’s a Xie family there that knows how to draw talismans?”

Xie Xuanxing gave a soft hum of agreement, looked at the corpse again, and said warmly: “It was done by a Shadow Demon. But Shadow Demons have a mild temperament and don’t like crowds. How could it have boarded a train and killed someone?”

The curly-haired guy also furrowed his brows.

Gu Siyuan raised his hand, rubbed his nose, and pointed at the corpse, saying indifferently: “This person has two distinct smells on him. One is the smell of that black aura, and the other is a smell of rotting soil, as if he just dug something out from somewhere. Did he have something on him that the Shadow Demon coveted?”

Hearing this, the curly-haired guy’s eyes changed, and he immediately reached out and started feeling around the corpse.

As a result, apart from a phone dropped on the floor, a pack of tissues, and a squeezed, deformed train ticket from H City to L City, he found nothing.

Right at this moment, some commotion happened in the carriage they were in. Successive sounds of messy disturbances rang out, mixed with the loud crying of a child.

The curly-haired guy pocketed the deceased’s phone, immediately stood up, and walked out. With a bang, he pulled the bathroom door shut, asked the railway policeman for the key to lock it from the outside, and instructed: “Don’t open this bathroom for now.”

After speaking, he ran toward the carriage.

Xie Xuanxing drew out a talisman, lightly pinched it between two fingers, muttered something in his mouth, and smack, stuck the talisman onto the bathroom door.

After finishing, he said to Gu Siyuan: “Let’s go too!”

Gu Siyuan nodded. He picked up the deformed train ticket from the ground, took a look, gathered the mere traces of spiritual energy the original owner had once cultivated into his eyes, and walked back toward the carriage.

This time, looking over at a glance, their carriage was simply a wild dance of demons.

On the carriage ceiling, under the dim projection of the night lights, a massive black shadow could be seen clinging and slowly squirming. At the same time, it extended something like a tentacle and touched a passenger holding a cup of hot instant noodles. Caught off guard, the passenger splashed the boiling water and noodles directly onto the head of the person in front, triggering a burst of miserable howls and screams.

On the small cart selling sunflower seeds and soda in front, a little girl in red clothes sat with her legs crossed. Her face was ghastly pale as if she had applied an unknown number of layers of powder. Right now, her hollow eyes were staring at a few children in the seats, giggling incessantly. Children had weak astrological alignments (light BaZi) and were frightened into endless crying, yet their parents couldn’t find the cause no matter how hard they looked.

And on the sealed train windows on both sides, at some unknown time, several weirdly shaped ghosts—men, women, old, and young—were completely plastered over them, all staring fixedly at the passengers inside the carriage who were brimming with Yang energy.

Among them, several enthusiastic ghosts seemed to receive Gu Siyuan’s glance and immediately broke through the glass, directly phasing their way inside.

Left with no choice, the old man Xie Cang fished out several talismans from his pocket and cast spells to stick them onto the windows one by one. This behavior drew sidelong glances from the oblivious passengers.

As for the chief conductor and attendants who had arrived not long ago, it seemed they had been warned of something in advance. They ignored Old Man Xie’s actions and just immediately and methodically divided their tasks, patiently helping the passengers who had encountered accidents.

Gu Siyuan walked all the way without looking sideways, passing through the carriage crawling with ghosts. He didn’t even stop when he passed his own seat, walking straight until he stopped at seat number 34/35.

He looked at the two-person seat. Only the inner seat had a middle-aged man with a mustache leaning crookedly against the window, his eyes closed, snoring in a deep sleep. Gu Siyuan said coldly: “Hello, is anyone sitting here?”

That person seemed to be sleeping very deeply, with no reaction at all.

Gu Siyuan narrowed his eyes, kept a cold face, and called out again: “Is anyone sitting here?”

The snoring person finally turned his head groggily, looking at him with half-open eyes. While reaching out to wipe his mouth, he mumbled: “En… no, sit wherever…”

With this turn of the head, Gu Siyuan fully saw his appearance. He was about forty years old, sporting a neat mustache, with a shallow scar near his right eye.

What a coincidence.

The corner of Gu Siyuan’s mouth hooked into a cold sneer, and he said sternly: “Hand over the item.”

The mustached man leaned against the window and fell asleep again, as if he hadn’t heard anything.

Xie Xuanxing furrowed his brows.

After being silent for a moment, Gu Siyuan’s toe moved slightly.

The mustached man thought he was about to leave and breathed a slight sigh of relief in his heart.

In the next instant, a powerful force struck. Bang! The mustached man was directly kicked flying out from the inner seat and crashed onto the floor of the carriage, unable to get up for a long time.

Gu Siyuan casually sat down in the seat, the two of them swapping places.

This sudden commotion caused the already restless carriage to jump once again.
Why are they suddenly fighting out of nowhere? Why does this young man’s aura look so terrifying? Is he some kind of train bandit or mafia thug?

Everyone was panicked and at a loss. A female passenger in the opposite seat was even frightened into screaming out loud.

Consequently, the emotions of those ghosts plastered around the carriage also became agitated.

Xie Xuanxing didn’t know why Gu Siyuan suddenly attacked this person so mercilessly. However, he quickly reacted, loudly pacifying the crowd in the carriage: “Passengers, there is no need to panic! We are state civil servants here to execute a special mission. We are currently apprehending a bandit. Please remain quiet and sit back in your original seats.”

Hearing this, the tension inside the carriage barely subsided a few degrees.

The curly-haired young man from before also pacified the attendants who wanted to come over and see the situation, choosing instead to stride over himself.

Gu Siyuan watched Xie Xuanxing’s actions, his thin lips curving up slightly into a faint smile.

Under the dim lights, it was as if a magnificent flower had suddenly bloomed on a ten-thousand-year-old ice sheet that never saw the sun.

Xie Xuanxing paused, and it felt as if flowers instantly bloomed in his heart as well.

Right at this moment, Gu Siyuan gave a slight nod and said faintly: “Well done. You’re a qualified lackey.”

“…” Xie Xuanxing.
Actually, you could just not speak.

Gu Siyuan turned his head to look at the scarred mustached man on the floor, saying coldly: “Situ Qi, hand over the small cauldron.”

As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the entire carriage seemed to shift.

The mustached man’s body jolted, but the moment he opened his mouth, he hastily explained: “What… what Situ Qi? I don’t know him! And I’m not some bandit either. Has this gentleman made a mistake…?”

The heel of Gu Siyuan’s leather shoe moved slightly, “accidentally” stepping onto his fingers, and then ruthlessly grinding down: “Cut the crap.”

The mustached man’s entire face contorted in pain.

The curly-haired guy happened to walk over and heard their conversation. Narrowing his eyes at the person on the ground: “Hmph, so you are Situ Qi! You made us look so hard! Hand over the item!”

“…” The mustached man.
Are all young people nowadays this virtuous? They just don’t listen no matter how you explain!

On the other side, Xie Xuanxing had already picked up the bag from the mustached man’s seat, rummaged through it, and finally, at the very bottom, dug out an item wrapped in layers of rough straw paper.

His eyes lit up, and he handed it to Gu Siyuan: “Is it this?”

The mustached man’s face drastically changed.
Young people really lack martial virtue! Not only do they not listen to people speak, but they also bully the few with numbers, and casually rummage through people’s bags!

Gu Siyuan reached out and took it, peeling off the straw paper layer by layer, revealing a hidden, fist-sized bronze-colored small cauldron. It still carried the traces of being freshly unearthed.

The moment the small cauldron was exposed, all the ghosts and monsters in the carriage instantly became restless.

Right at this moment, Gu Siyuan’s hand suddenly relaxed, and the small cauldron was snatched away.

He looked up with a cold face.

It was that bearded, burly man who had been sitting with the curly-haired guy earlier. Right now, holding the small cauldron in his hand, he laughed loudly at Gu Siyuan: “Not bad, not bad, thanks for the hard work! You brat are still somewhat useful. I’ll tell your brother later!”

Gu Siyuan was just about to say something when a sweet announcement sounded over the train’s broadcast. They had arrived at the intermediate stop, L City, which was also the destination of the deceased person in the bathroom earlier.

He turned his head and said to Xie Xuanxing: “Get the old man, we’re getting off early.”

The four of them stood in the empty, silent train station late at night.

Gu Siyuan raised his eyebrows in displeasure and gave a cold snort: “They ran really fast!”

Xie Xuanxing looked at him: “Are you talking about that bearded guy and the curly-haired guy?”

Gu Siyuan nodded. That small cauldron was related to a half-finished Ghost King located in H City.

“It’s fine, they will come back looking for us,” Xie Xuanxing’s voice was calm and clean.

Gu Siyuan looked at him.

Xie Xuanxing held an item wrapped in straw paper in his hand, his expression entirely at ease: “They will come back. When we were getting off the train, I pickpocketed it back. How could I just casually let them have the thing you found?”

“…” Gu Siyuan.
Very satisfying!
But… why do I inexplicably feel like I’m eating soft rice again?

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