After an Infinite Flow Player Retires

Outside the window, dark clouds hung low, looking particularly ominous.The room was dark.Ye Jia sat cross-legged on the ground with papers filled with writing scattered across the floor before him.He had his eyes lowered, his long eyelashes hiding his scarlet eyes, as his gaze silently stopped on the papers in front of him. He seemed to be thinking about something.In the darkness, the young man was completely still. His chest didn’t rise and fall with his breathing, he just sat there in the darkness like a sculpture.Suddenly, as if sensing something, he suddenly looked over at the door.In the corridor.The shadow ghost walking at the front said cheerfully, “It should be right ahead!”Chen Qingye and Blast followed behind it. Their expressions were calm but both of them had a slightly dazed look in their eyes as they mechanically followed the ghost before them.A’Mi’s voice pulled them back to their senses.Blast turned stiffly to Chen Qingye and saw that the other party was also looking at him. They each saw the same look of shock in each other’s eyes.…..What that ghost said just now…..was a lie….right?It can’t be true, right?Or….was this some kind of conspiracy….perhaps?Suddenly, the shadow ghost ahead stopped in its tracks. Blast and Chen Qingye behind it also quickly come to a stop ---- They didn’t sense any changes ahead but that alone made them instinctively turn vigilant.In the darkness ahead, a young man’s tall and slender figure could vaguely be seen.His face was hidden in the shadows and the air around him was restrained and concealed but he was somehow still able to give off a sense of oppressiveness.The young man took a step forward. The shadows made his features appear more prominent. His scarlet eyes that were half narrowed looked in their direction.There were not many emotions in those eyes, as if they belonged to something that wasn’t human.The muscles in Chen Qingye’s body tensed. The feeling one would have when they’re facing a strong opponent slowly crept up his spine. He subconsciously reached into his sleeve and used his finger to touch A’Chang’s head in his attempt to settle the unease inside him.After all…..all the information he had came from Blast.It wasn’t that he didn’t trust this companion of his, but……Even Chen Qingye had to admit that Ace was very good at deceiving people.The other party faintly knitted his brows.Chen Qingye’s breathing eased.“You all actually made it to this place.”Ye Jia silently sighed. His pale face revealed a familiar expression that belonged to humans ----- Lazy, gentle, with a hint of detachment.Chen Qingye was stunned. The fingers that were petting A’Chang stopped.Ye Jia turned and moved away from the door, “Come in.”The room was a mess.This wasn’t M City. Ye Jia had just randomly found an uninhabited place to temporarily settle in. The light from the computer lit up the room.The small black hand stuck its head out from the screen and just happened to see the papers on the floor being mercilessly stepped on by the young man.It exclaimed, “Hey! Aren’t those things useful?”Ye Jia looked down, “Oh, this?”He raised his finger and an invisible force swept through the air, sweeping aside all the scattered pieces of paper on the ground, “I don’t need them now.”“Oh, have you finished deciphering it?” The small black hand immediately understood.Ye Jia made a sound of affirmation but didn’t continue to say anything.He turned to look at the two humans and one ghost standing at the door and asked, “How did you guys get in?”Chen Qingye and Blast unanimously pointed in the same direction.Ye Jia followed their fingers and fixed his gaze on the shadow ghost’s indistinct figure.A’Mi, “……”For some reason…..it felt a little guilty……A’Mi cleared its throat, “Uh, well, I’m here to pass on a message from King!”“So uh,” It sorted out its thoughts, “King asked me to tell you that the matter of the two hundred thousand souls have been sorted. You don’t need to worry about it.”Ye Jia let out an ‘oh’ and seemed to be lost in thought. Even despite A’Mi bringing such good news, he didn’t show any particular reactions.“Two hundred thousand souls?” The two other people present were taken aback, “What’s going on?”The shadow ghost very considerately explained it to them, “Mother asked King and….Ace to slaughter the cities and bring her two hundred thousand human souls. It’s probably for the sake of opening the door completely. We believe Mother will soon take action and move ahead with her plans.”Chen Qingye was startled. He looked towards Ye Jia, “So all those dark clouds outside are….?”Ye Jia nodded, “Yes, I did it.”Blast scratched his head, “Then….what about those screams we heard?”Ye Jia pointed at the computer next to him.The small black hand waved at the two people present and proudly showed them the horror movie clips it had collected.Blast and Chen Qingye, “….”Ah, so that was it.This small black hand was really…..quite useful.After recovering from the shock, Chen Qingye asked:“So, is what that fierce ghost said just now true?”About….Mother moving ahead with her plans.The shadow ghost who was suddenly asked enthusiastically stretched out its hand, “A’Mi.”Chen Qingye, “…..Huh?”Shadow ghost, “My name is A’Mi!”The two humans standing before it fell silent, “……….”What kind of name is that?!A’Mi giggled and asked mysteriously, “Do you….like cats?”The two of them. “……………”???Thanks to Ye Jia’s timely interjection, this awkward silence was broken, “Yes, we believe it won’t be long before Mother takes action.”Hearing this, the two of them were stunned.For a while, the room was silent.“Oh, that’s right!” Blast seemed to have suddenly thought of something and proceeded to leave the room. Soon afterwards, there were muffled grunts coming from outside and a few seconds later, Blast returned dragging a tied-up middle-aged man in. He very easily threw him before Ye Jia, “Here.”Ye Jia was surprised. His eyes fell on the man’s slightly swollen face and it took him a few seconds to recognise the other party.This is that…..director?Blast and Chen Qingye briefly recounted what they did and what they discovered.The middle-aged man lying on the ground let out a muffled cry and twisted around on the ground like a maggot.Ye Jia looked at him thoughtfully.No wonder. With this, many things can be explained ---- Whether it was the Bureau’s complacent reaction at the beginning or the other party unexpectedly cooperating that night…..and even the subsequent attack directed at the headquarters, it all could be reasonably explained. After all, based on what he had observed during this time, although there was a strong connection between Mother and her direct descendants, it was still absolutely impossible for her to know their locations accurately.Seeing the other party squirming around, Blast rudely kicked him, “Settle down.”He looked back at Ye Jia with an ‘aren’t I very useful’ expression on his face and asked:“How was it?”Chen Qingye added, “But he kept his lips firmly shut and hasn’t revealed anything the whole time.”Ye Jia shook his head, “It doesn’t matter.”The two of them were surprised.Huh?Ye Jia, “I’ve basically got all the information I need now. It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t plan on saying anything.”Blast’s expression fell, “Is that so………”He lowered his head and proceeded to kick the director again in frustration.The other party grunted in pain and curled up. His brown and black eyes glared at Blast as if he wanted to eat him up.Blast, “So, he’s useless?”His expression carried some disappointment.It was all for nothing.But unexpectedly, as if he thought of something. Ye Jia’s calm and unwavering eyes looked down at the man ----- The moment his gaze stopped on him, the person on the ground seemed to tremble.He retracted his gaze and looked towards A’Mi, “Take him to Ji Xuan.”“Mmmmmmnnnnn----” The man on the ground let out a muffled cry and seemed to be very against it.Ye Jia’s expression didn’t change.A’Mi laughed, “No problem.”It bent down and the shadow behind it spread open and proceeded to swallow up the man.“Then I’ll be heading off first.” A’Mi turned around but before it could take more than a few steps, it seemed to have suddenly remembered something. It looked back at Ye Jia, “By the way, do you need me to bring back a message to King?”Those words were spoken without much thought but those who heard it couldn’t help but think more of it.Blast and Chen Qingye immediately remembered what they heard on their way here…..and the terrifying information they had gained from it.Their faces contorted slightly, turning into strange expressions.Ye Jia didn’t notice this change in them.He thought for a while and said, “Tell him to stay there. To prevent raising Mother’s suspicions, he shouldn’t come and look for me for the time being.”The expressions of the other two turned even more indescribable.“Okay.” A’Mi responded cheerfully and proceeded to dissipate into the air.Ye Jia turned to look at the other two, “You two……”He was surprised by their strange expressions, “What’s wrong?”Blast and Chen Qingye, “N-nothing.”----- We just heard some gossip about the love and hate relationship between you and the ghost king on our way here.It was quite impressive.Ye Jia looked at the two of them suspiciously for a moment before skipping over the topic.His expression improved, “I know how to stop Mother.”Chen Qingye and Blast were taken aback. They asked in disbelief, “W-what?”“That’s right,” Ye Jia nodded and pointed at the notebook as well as the piles of papers around him, “I have deciphered it all.”“T-there really is an answer to this problem in there?!” Blast’s eyes lit up.Although he had been looking forward to this outcome, it was a notebook that was written who knows how many years ago. He didn’t dare be too hopeful.“Yes.”Ye Jia gave him an affirmative answer.Chen Qingye, “What’s the method?”“Only if there is enough malice in the real world, can Mother be released from the other side.” Ye Jia gently rubbed the cover of the notebook with his fingers and continued, “So what I’m going to do is to address the issue from the roots and destroy the basic conditions that would allow the other party to enter the real world.”“But,” Blast frowned, “I saw those malice with my own eyes…….”That sticky, black liquid containing a foul and ominous odour. It was a liquid that could contaminate almost anything in the world.Even fierce ghosts didn’t dare approach it. As long as they touched it, their minds would be corrupted instantly.“Don’t worry.” Ye Jia smiled lightly.“I have a way to purify malice.”Blast and Chen Qingye, “!!!”“However,” Ye Jia’s voice interjected before they could get too excited, “I will need your help.”“No problem!” Blast patted his chest in reassurance, “Speak. What do you need?”Ye Jia narrowed his eyes slightly, his scarlet eyes gleaming in the dark, “To be more precise, I need the Bureau’s help.”He paused for a moment and said, “The sooner the better.”----- They must do it before Mother starts her plans..After Blast and Chen Qingye left, the small black hand also went back into the ghost domain to continue sorting out clips from horror movies and replaying them.Only Ye Jia was left in the room.The sky outside was dull and gloomy with thick dark clouds obscuring the sky. Under the flickering streetlights, empty streets could vaguely be made out. It was almost impossible to tell the time of the day based on how the sky looked.Ye Jia withdrew his gaze from the sky.The pieces of paper filling the corner of the room were scattered by the wind entering from the window, some stopping by Ye Jia’s feet.He paused, bent down and picked up one of them.The writing on it was messy. Almost no one could read it except him.Ye Jia knew exactly what was written on it.It was about malice.In the real world, there normally exists a certain amount of malice. The more tragic deaths there are, the more malice there are. This malice however doesn’t continue to accumulate as time passes and a stable balance is maintained.If a fierce ghost wants to resist the passage of time, it must continue to devour other souls so that malice would gather inside its body.As a result, it would gradually lose its reason and become an evil spirit who had lost its mind and a target humans hope to eliminate.The malice it consumed would ultimately disappear along with its death.And the amount of malice produced when it is killed is the same as the amount produced when a normal soul is destroyed.Therefore, the act of ghosts mutually devouring each other is a way to control the amount of malice in the world.And the involvement of the Bureau had completely disrupted this cycle.Malice isn’t just something that is artificially produced. More importantly, malice without a soul cannot be consumed by a fierce ghost so it can only sink into the ground and continue to accumulate there, eventually becoming a spring.In fact, Ye Jia had lied just now.His method wasn’t to purify malice.Instead….it was to find a new vessel for it, and then let it re-enter the natural cycle.Ye Jia raised his hand and the tip of his finger shone a cold light as a blade emerged. He saw his scarlet eyes reflected on its surface, looking back at him silently.Those eyes were calm, as if he had already made up his mind.He will become the vessel.Ye Jia raised a hand and placed it onto his icy cold chest. Under that silent chest, he could feel Mother’s ball of flesh continue to release energy --- He had in fact only been temporarily transformed into a fierce ghost. That ball of flesh had been tightly covered in Ji Xuan’s yin energy to ensure that the transformation process could be reversed.So, as long as that ball of flesh is taken out, he could turn back into a weak human who could easily die as long as he was shot in the brain or the heart.And his ability was to consume. So even if he became a vessel, he wouldn’t immediately die.No one was more suitable for this role than him.…..And so, Ji Xuan must never find out about this plan of his. He mustn’t come near him and mustn’t be involved.Ye Jia wasn’t just worried about the other party disrupting his plans.In addition to this, there was something else…..It was a deeply hidden reason even he himself was unwilling to admit.Ye Jia looked out the window again.The sky was overcast with no light in sight.Thick layers of dark clouds were reflected in his eyes. Although there were no particular expressions on his face, he looked a little sad.…..After all, he still felt a little melancholic.But fortunately he had asked the shadow ghost to help him pass on that message.Ye Jia lowered his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief ---- At least Ji Xuan listened to him well. He probably wouldn’t come and disrupt his plans any time soon.Suddenly-----“Why are you sighing?” A low and magnetic voice belonging to a man sounded from not far behind him. That voice was so familiar, he almost thought he had imagined it.Ye Jia was startled.He looked back in surprise.----- He saw a man who shouldn’t be here standing at the doorway, looking like he had come straight out of his mind.Ye Jia, “………”Ji Xuan walked closer. The presence his tall figure gave off was almost impossible to overlook. It couldn’t be mistaken to be his imagination.Ji Xuan looked questioningly at the young man not far ahead, his scarlet eyes reflecting the other persons undisguised look of surprise:“What’s wrong? You’re this surprised to see me?”Ye Jia, “……..”What do you think??He looked expressionlessly at the other party, almost doubting life itself.This guy doesn’t have any special abilities, does he?…...It was just too scary!