Xu Fang found Zhang Empty in the basement.

The old Taoist priest was locked in a cage, his hair a mess and his clothes filthy. He looked like he’d suffered for days. Obviously, he’d been eating, drinking, and relieving himself in that cage the whole time. Xu Fang couldn’t smell it, but he could imagine how foul it must’ve been.

In his energy vision, there were no golden specks of light around the Taoist priest. He wasn’t an author at the moment—he might’ve been a Singularity Individual, or just an ordinary person.

The sound of the door opening jolted the Taoist priest awake. He looked over instinctively, but the sunlight was so bright he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

“Who’s there?”

“Taoist priest, do you remember me?”

“Y-You’re… Xu Fang?!” Empty realized who it was, and tears immediately streamed down his face. He’d been waiting for Xu Fang to come save him, just as he’d once prayed for a rescuer in the Strange World. “You’ve gone to so much trouble to come find me.”

“Can you still see this website?” Xu Fang took out his phone and brought up the Horror Novel Web page.

Xu Fang studied the Taoist priest’s expression closely.

The Taoist priest glanced at it and shook his head. “I don’t think I’m an author anymore. My memories of the website… they’re all gone.”

As he spoke, the Taoist priest clutched his head, his face turning frightened. “A demon’s possessed me. It’s come back for revenge!”

“Zhen Kui?” Xu Fang pried open the iron cage.

“That’s right…” After crawling out of the cage, the Taoist priest’s head spun, and he nearly fell over. He’d been squatting for days, and his legs could barely straighten. On top of that, he was in this frail old body. Once again, the Taoist priest felt the helplessness of old age, and sorrow welled up inside him.

“The demon controlled me and brought me here. Then it left me alive so it could torture me slowly!”

Xu Fang steadied the Taoist priest and asked, “Why would it do that?”

“Sigh. How would I know what goes on in a monster’s mind…”

As soon as he said it, he shuddered. Perhaps he’d remembered that the person beside him was also a ‘monster.’ He quickly straightened his back. “That demon is devious and cunning. It must have some ulterior motive.”

Xu Fang recalled the few things Zhen Kui had said.

“Zhang Empty was afraid of me and wanted to run… He entered the Strange World… I can help you…”

—It didn’t seem to be lying. The Taoist priest really was afraid of Zhen Kui, and he really had entered the Strange World. If Xu Fang tried to verify Zhen Kui’s claims through the Horror Novel Web, he might well get a misleading result.

But how could it be so sure Xu Fang would believe it? If Xu Fang saw through the lie, wouldn’t its credibility hit rock bottom?

The Taoist priest wiped his face with a dirty hand and glanced around nervously. “We shouldn’t stay here. We’d better leave quickly, before the demon realizes we’re here.”

Before he’d even finished speaking, a gray-black rat crawled out of a crack in the wall and leaped onto a dusty wooden table. It opened its mouth, and a shrill, grating human voice came out:

“Zhang Empty, you’re being rather rude. People in the old days respectfully called me an ‘Immortal.’ I’ve granted countless people’s wishes, and now you idiots call me a devil.”

“Uwaaah…”

Zhang Empty almost dropped to his knees and begged for mercy on the spot. As the author of *The Demon-Exorcising Scripture*, he knew better than anyone how terrifying Zhen Kui was. But when he caught sight of Xu Fang’s calm expression, the Taoist priest’s heart steadied. No matter how frightening the demon was, it couldn’t compare to the Immortality Faction. Xu Fang had personally overthrown their rule and led him out of the Immortality World. That alone took much of the sting out of Zhen Kui’s threat.

“Don’t believe a word it says. It’s best at tempting people. Once you fall for it, you’re done for,” the Taoist priest warned.

“Then how do we destroy it?” Xu Fang asked casually, as if they were discussing some trivial matter.

The Taoist priest’s mouth twitched. He glanced at the strange, upright rat and thought, Zhen Kui’s right there watching. Can you really ask that in front of it?

“What did the protagonist in your book use to defeat Zhen Kui? Some kind of item, or a spell? You said he won.”

“I…” The Taoist priest was just about to speak when Zhen Kui cut him off.

“Heh. There was no divine artifact, and no magical technique. The protagonist in his book was just an ordinary person. He exploited a loophole in my principle of ‘equivalent exchange’ and caused me a little trouble. He destroyed all my anchors—that’s all.” Zhen Kui’s shrill voice came from the rat it was controlling. “I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t make the same mistake again. I have no weaknesses now.”

The Taoist priest’s face turned deathly pale.

Xu Fang rubbed his chin. “Someone who’s invincible doesn’t go around insisting they’re invincible.”

Zhen Kui said, “Xu Fang, we’re the same kind. We’re natural allies. I know how to advance your ‘soul power,’ and I have all kinds of secret knowledge you need. You can help me, too. I’m willing to make an equivalent exchange with you.”

The Taoist priest furrowed his brows and warned him, “Zhen Kui uses ‘equivalent exchange’ as a pretext to swindle people. We can’t trust it.”

Xu Fang nodded. Ignoring the rat on the table, he and the Taoist priest walked out of the basement.

It felt wonderful to see the sun again. The Taoist priest took a deep breath of the fresh air outside. Remembering the torment he’d endured over the past few days, he nearly burst into tears again.

A tabby cat suddenly darted in front of them and spoke in a human voice. “How can you call that swindling? I help people fulfill their wishes and take a fair reward in return. I’ve always been honest and kept my word. Humans, on the other hand, are always showing their greedy faces and breaking their contracts.”

Xu Fang said to Empty, “Taoist priest, why don’t you describe the plot of *The Demon-Exorcising Scripture* in more detail? Maybe there’s a way to deal with Zhen Kui.”

“I’d be glad to. It’s just that… I haven’t had a proper meal in days.”

“I have—”

“I’ll take you to get something to eat. We can talk while we eat.” As he spoke, Xu Fang hailed a taxi.

The tabby cat watched the two of them drive away, completely ignored. It made a humanlike face. “I’ve got fresh cat meat here…”

...

The county town was quiet, and most restaurants weren’t open in the morning. The two found a nearby open-air breakfast stall and ordered soy milk, baozi, and youtiao. The morning rush had just died down, so the stall was peaceful, with steam rising slowly into the air.

Xu Fang could eat, but he’d lost interest in animal feed with fewer than ten calories per gram. So he sat across from the Taoist priest, watching him wolf down his food as he listened to him tell the story of *The Demon-Exorcising Scripture*.

The plot of *The Demon-Exorcising Scripture* wasn’t very complicated. It was told in episodic arcs, but one main storyline ran through the whole thing. Broadly speaking, it could be divided into three volumes.

The first volume was set in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. It laid out the rise of the protagonist’s family and the evolution of various supernatural beings—foxes, ghosts, demons, immortals, and the like. With the help of supernatural powers, the first-generation protagonist gradually built the family’s foundations.

The second volume moved forward to the twenty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign. With the fall of the Dzungar Khanate, a demon named Zhen Kui entered the historical stage. Zhen Kui wreaked havoc everywhere, drawing crowds of followers. No supernatural being of that age could stand against it. In the end, the second-generation protagonist also fell at Zhen Kui’s hands.

The third volume moved into the early twentieth century, where the third-generation protagonist made his debut. He rallied the surviving members of the family and used the underlying logic of Zhen Kui’s ‘equivalent exchange’ to destroy it in one fell swoop, completing a revenge that had spanned generations.

As Xu Fang listened to the Taoist priest’s story, a message from Gussy suddenly came in. He opened it and was immediately at a loss for words.

「⛽️😢✍️，[C↓] {he:Me} 4G&→#1，K=0 ; ? -(￣ω￣)/」

Xu Fang had been the first to message Gussy. He’d figured that, given how well Gussy understood him, there was no need to spell things out. Gussy had taken the same approach and run with it. Not only had it learned to be ‘concise,’ it had taken things a step further without asking. At first, it paired images with baffling text. Eventually, it stopped using human language altogether and just sent a pile of abstract symbols.

Though Xu Fang could still understand it.

The first three emojis were easy enough to understand: Zhou You had reluctantly signed the contract.

[C↓] {he:Me}, the letters and the arrow… Did that mean he and Gussy had arrived somewhere? C stood for City… Had they returned to the city?

Did 4G&→#1 mean that, under Gussy’s direction, Zhou You had gathered up the assets scattered across the four major conglomerates?

After the horrific purge of the upper ranks, everything was in a state of total collapse. If someone influential and unafraid of death had stepped up to restore order, the conglomerate elites with nowhere else to turn would’ve flocked to them like people grabbing a lifeline, quickly coming together as a new force. As for the conspiracy theories or the mess that followed, anyone with a little sense could handle them.

But the influential were busy fleeing for their lives, while those unafraid of death were too busy taking advantage of the chaos. That was exactly why Zhou You’s arrival could be called a ray of dawn.

Zhou You had made it onto the board of directors. He was no ordinary man. With the right moves, uniting the four major conglomerates under his ‘Zhou Family’ wasn’t so far-fetched. So when Zhou You signed the contract, Gussy simply kept swinging the stick. Clever people would find the golden carrot on their own.

K=0. So there was still no sign of Organization K? They were probably watching the situation from the shadows.

Xu Fang and Gussy planned to find Organization K’s headquarters. Completely wiping it out would be difficult, but purging its upper ranks or using an author’s privileges to cause some damage were both options. Xu Fang had considered asking customer service, too. But when he saw the price—148 points—he quietly said, “Never mind,” and exited the consultation center.

Ordinary people would probably think that last sticker was just being cute. But Xu Fang knew Gussy had gone chuunibyou again. It was giving him a ‘salute’ with its hand raised, seriously asking what orders he had.

Xu Fang: “?”

Gussy: “?”

Forget it. Xu Fang gave up on getting it to speak like a normal person.

Xu Fang: “Keep waiting. Be careful.”

Gussy: “(￣▽￣)ゞ”