Chapter 2 Soul-binding
Fan Wujiu and Xie Bian had worked together for a thousand years, and they were close friends even before their death.
Fan Wujiu knew Xie Bian all too well. He understood that the man, in life and in death, was consistently cold and reserved, dealing with sorrow and joy on his own, his emotions hard to read. Whether happy or sad, one could never tell.
But it was precisely because of this familiarity that he could sense something different from his usually calm and detached tone, as if he was angry.
What could have made Xie Bian angry?
Was he angry because Fan Wujiu met a beauty?
Fan Wujiu thought that maybe he was overthinking. His own secret desires for his sworn brother made him wishfully imagine that Xie Bian reciprocated those feelings, leading him to interpret Xie Bian’s behavior as jealousy. But he still had some rationality left and knew that Xie Bian could never like him. Even if he were angry, it wouldn’t be for that reason.
Most likely, it was the noise of the music, the pungent scent of alcohol, the crowd, the overpowering perfume…… All these things could make Bai Wuchang, who preferred peace and cleanliness, feel uncomfortable.
So, the real question was, why had Xie Bian come to the bar? What urgent matter made him willing to endure such an environment to come here?
Fan Wujiu scratched his nose and explained, “You misunderstand. I just met him by chance.”
“Met by chance, and the next step is a one-night stand?” Xie Bian’s tone was cold and harsh, almost biting. He spoke bluntly, but his words were so calm that it was hard to discern his emotions.
Fan Wujiu was momentarily stunned, then frowned and said, “Lao Bai, don’t joke like that.” Although they were close friends, he didn’t want Xie Bian to tease him about such matters. It’s like having feelings for someone, but they want you to pair up with someone else. You’re not going to be happy about that.
Xie Bian was briefly taken aback, secretly annoyed at himself for speaking out of turn and inadvertently revealing his concern.
He had no pressing reason for coming here.
It was simply that after two hours, twelve minutes, and thirty-six seconds without seeing Fan Wujiu, he found himself missing him.
Such a sentimental reason could never be spoken aloud.
He had always been inseparable from Fan Wujiu and knew that Fan Wujiu wasn’t fond of bars. It had piqued his curiosity when he suddenly went today. Xie Bian had hesitated for a long time before deciding to come and check. Upon arriving, he saw Fan Wujiu laughing and chatting with a foreign beauty from afar. Even when the beauty went upstairs, Fan Wujiu’s gaze lingered on the other person’s back.
Xie Bian’s expression immediately turned cold. But since he was always distant, it wasn’t very obvious.
As heaven and earth could witness, Fan Wujiu had only been struck by the unfairness of how Venus could get something for free simply by being beautiful. Aside from bending over backward for Xie Bian, he was a man of iron and steel in all other aspects.
Unfortunately, Xie Bian was unaware of what kind of thoughts Fan Wujiu harbored in his heart. He only felt a pang of bitterness and frustration, accompanied by a slight fear, when he saw such a scene.
He suddenly realized that Fan Wujiu might have fallen for someone else.
He had thought that being known as the Black and White Impermanence alongside Fan Wujiu, with their names forever linked in people’s minds, was already good enough. But what if Fan Wujiu had someone else in his heart and wanted his name to be linked with someone else in the Book of Fated Marriage?
What could he do then?
He was helpless.
As a brother, all he could do was offer his blessings.
He thought for a moment and felt that he probably wouldn’t be too willing to bless him.
“Is that the God of Beauty, Venus?” Xie Bian looked toward the empty staircase, sighed lightly, and said, “The name truly lives up to its reputation. While you and I need soul-binding chains, he can capture souls just with his looks.”
Fan Wujiu immediately responded, “She is objectively beautiful, but you are subjectively beautiful. I subjectively think you’re beautiful.”
No need for a soul-binding chain, you’ve already bound my soul.
Xie Bian gave him a cold glance and said, “I know I’m not as good-looking as him objectively, so shut up.”
Fan Wujiu: “……” That wasn’t what he meant.
But perhaps it was just his imagination, he felt like Lao Bai looked a little happy when he said that.
The music changed again to something even more intense. The entire venue erupted, the atmosphere became fiery, and screams pierced the sky. Xie Bian subtly furrowed his brow.
Seeing this, Fan Wujiu set up a soundproof barrier, and the loud voices and music immediately disappeared, no longer tormenting Xie Bian’s ears.
“You still haven’t answered me. What made you think of coming here? Look at you, you can’t even stand the noise. Did you come here to suffer?” Fan Wujiu asked.
Of course, Xie Bian wouldn’t say the real reason. He pressed his lips together, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic bar before settling on a perfectly plausible excuse.
“He’s about to die,” Xie Bian said lightly. “I’m here to collect his soul.”
Fan Wujiu followed his gaze and saw a young man with a shifty look, exuding a strong aura of death.
He pulled out the Book of Life and Death and checked. The name was Li Dongqiang, died on June 15, 2024, at 9:24 PM, at the age of 27.
The current time was 9:04 p.m.
—
Li Dongqiang had come to the bar with the intention of taking advantage of Venus, but who knew that the beauty was so stunningly beautiful that he was not the only one bewitched. When he entered, he saw the beauty surrounded by a group of tall men, all fawning over her. At his height of just over 1.7 meters, he was stuck at the back, unable to see anything.
Later, the men began fighting over who would win her favor. In the chaos, Li Dongqiang was caught in the crossfire, taking a few punches to the face without knowing who had hit him. He ended up bruised and battered, feeling incredibly unlucky, and then received a thunderclap of a revelation.
Damn it, the foreign beauty was a man!
With that appearance, that long hair, wearing a dress, how could it be a man? Were men this perverted nowadays?
The only true straight man in the whole venue, Li Dongqiang, felt disgusted. Mainly because he hadn’t really seen Venus’ face yet. He was only attracted by a beautiful back and a pair of snow-white long legs. Now that he knew the other party was a man, he immediately lost interest.
But since he was already here, he couldn’t leave empty-handed.
As he looked around the first floor of the bar, he saw that there were still plenty of beautiful women. Li Dongqiang searched for a new target, his gaze sweeping over the row of long legs on the circular sofa. His eyes immediately widened.
The women on the sofa each had their own charm: the glamorous mature beauty, the sexy and hot girl, the pure and sweet one, the cute and adorable girl…… Li Dongqiang stared fixedly, his eyes nearly popping out.
At the booth, the girls were also looking at him and giggling.
“How unusual, there’s a mortal who wandered in.”
“He must have slipped in behind the person from earlier, right? The entrance barrier can only be exited. To enter, you need spiritual power to tear it open for a moment, which mortals can’t do.”
“No need to think about it. Hey, the scent of human flesh is making me hungry. Can we call him over?”
“Take it easy, this is King Yan’s domain. The two Impermanence Immortals are still sitting at the bar, do you dare make a move?”
“Sigh, I’m just calling him over to smell him……”
Originally, Venus had been the center of attention, with no one even giving Li Dongqiang a second glance. But now that Venus had gone upstairs, this sole human in the venue was receiving quite a few ill-intentioned stares.
It should be known that in this place, the beings present were either demons and spirits or various gods. The latter were rare visitors, while the former made up the majority. Humans, being on the menus of many creatures, were bound to be targeted.
However, the local demons understood the rules. Everything that carried the characters “Yanluo” was truly related to King Yan. All fights and killings must be done outside. No one was allowed to behave recklessly on King Yan’s turf. Not to mention humans, there was also a food chain among monsters. Foxes eat rabbits, but now a fox spirit and a rabbit spirit were sitting on the same sofa drinking wine, which was quite a spectacle.
The glamorous mature beauty licked her lips. “Alright, call him over to play with.”
The cute girl immediately waved at him. “Hey, you over there, come here. We’ll buy you a drink.”
Li Dongqiang froze for a moment, incredulously pointing at himself. “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Li Dongqiang was overjoyed, feeling like he was in a dream. He hadn’t even gone to flirt with them, and yet these beauties had already invited him for a drink? Could it be that he was really going to have a romantic encounter tonight?
He quickly hurried over and was pulled by a group of girls to sit in the middle of the sofa. They all competed to pour him wine, but in reality, they were using the excuse to greedily absorb the scent of humanity from him.
Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu watched but had no intention of stopping it.
They had no doubt that these girls wouldn’t dare to cause trouble in King Yan’s turf. Even if Li Dongqiang died, it wouldn’t be at the hands of these demons.
As for how he would die, they weren’t concerned. They only needed to collect the soul at the time written in the Book of Life and Death, and would not interfere in anything in the meantime. They would neither save him in advance nor delay it by half a point. If it was clearly stated that he would die at 9:24, they would never collect the soul at 9:23.
Over there, Li Dongqiang was surrounded by a group of beautiful women, enjoying himself and drinking glass after glass. The alcohol at Yanluo Bar contained a bit of spiritual power. While humans who drank it couldn’t gain magical abilities, it allowed them to briefly see the true forms of the demons.
As Li Dongqiang drank, ready to reach out and touch the leg of the beauty next to him, his hand landed on something furry. His blurry eyes froze, and he suddenly saw an animal’s paw handing him a wine glass. A fluffy fox tail stretched down from his shoulder, making him instantly sober. Stiffly turning his neck, he realized that the cute girl beside him was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a huge rabbit head.
Looking around the room, he saw people with deer antlers, others with snake tails, some whose human legs had turned into scorpion legs, and even the two fierce-looking security guards were ox-headed and horse-faced…
This wasn’t a bar, it was practically an animal kingdom! There wasn’t a single normal person in the whole place!
“Monsters! Aaaaaah!” Li Dongqiang screamed, pushing the demons beside him out of the way and hastily running for the exit. As he passed the bar counter, he caught a glimpse of two young men who looked perfectly normal. But he didn’t have time to pay attention to them. He just wanted to escape this bizarre world as quickly as possible.
At 9:22 PM, Li Dongqiang left the bar.
Fan Wujiu finished his juice, placed the empty cup on the bar, and said, “Let’s go, Lao Bai, time to go to work.”
—
9:24 PM.
Li Dongqiang stood in the rain, or perhaps he should say, floated. The rain had not stopped. It poured down relentlessly, but it passed through him and fell to the ground, no longer touching him.
What happened to him?
It seemed like he had drunk a little and started hallucinating, seeing a group of monsters. In a panic, he rushed back to his car, inserted the key, and tried to start the engine to drive away. And then…… then……
In the car, which was now deformed from crashing into a wall, the man in the driver’s seat was motionless, his eyes tightly closed, blood flowing profusely.
The person in the car was him.
Li Dongqiang felt that the events of today were beyond his imagination. The sound of the rain in his ears became increasingly unreal, replaced by the growing sound of chains, coming closer and clearer with each passing moment.
In the night, two immortals walked toward him, both wearing wide robes and tall hats. One was in black, the other in white. The black hat bore the inscription “Peace to the World,” while the white one said “Become Rich Upon Encountering Me.” They each held a chain, walking side by side.
“Those who commit crimes will have no salvation,” “Those who make amends will always be at peace,” these two phrases corresponded to the two Impermanence Immortals. [T/N: In folklore, the White Impermanence’s name, Xie Bi’an (謝必安; 谢必安; Xiè Bì’ān), can be interpreted as “Those who make amends (“Xie”) will always be at peace (“Bi’an”)”. The Black Impermanence’s name, Fan Wujiu (范無咎; 范无咎; Fàn Wújiù), means “Those who commit crimes (“Fan”) will have no salvation (“Wujiu”)”. ]
Eighth Master Fan Wujiu and Seventh Master Xie Bian were soul collectors, the Black and White Impermanence.
The two immortals approached. Their faces were both youthful and handsome, especially the one in white, whose complexion was strikingly pale. The more Li Dongqiang looked, the more familiar they seemed. Wasn’t this the same two who still looked human at the bar just a moment ago……
In the moment of distraction, Li Dongqiang’s hands and feet were already bound with chains. He heard Bai Wuchang sigh and say, “Don’t drink and drive, and don’t drive after drinking.”
Hei Wuchang added, “If you drive recklessly, your loved ones will shed two lines of tears.”
Bai Wuchang continued, “I’ve always disliked this uniform. The color is okay, but the style hasn’t been updated in five hundred years.”
Hei Wuchang replied, “Then I’ll go propose a new design to King Yan.”
Li Dongqiang: “……”
After death, one gained another layer of understanding of the world.
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