C21 The Suspect Who Was Scared to Death

"Anna, what's happening to you? Somebody, help, put out the fire! Anna's ablaze!" Bao Guo bellowed, stripping off his jacket to beat out the flames engulfing Anna.

With a whoosh, the fire seemed to be drawn into Anna herself, her body glowing like a red-hot poker, radiating an orange-red light and intense heat that stopped Bao Guo in his tracks, two meters away, too fearful to draw any closer.

"I'm sorry, Master. I was just trying to find my way, groping in the dark because I don't have a mentor to guide me, so, so..." Anna's words trailed off as the light and heat retracted into her body with each step she took towards him. By the time she stood before Bao Guo, she appeared completely normal.

Well, perhaps too normal. She was stark naked, not a scrap of leather or fabric on her, and Bao Guo's nosebleed shot up three meters in response.

"Ugh, find some clothes—quick! No, wear this instead. I bought it for you." Bao Guo averted his gaze, tossing a pink short-sleeved T-shirt and black shorts to Anna without considering the fit. He had picked them up on a whim while wholesale shopping.

Blushing, Anna hurriedly dressed in the garments. She hadn't anticipated that her secret training spot in the village would be discovered by Bao Guo. It was an incident beyond words.

"You just called me 'master.' What do you mean by that? How did I become your master?" Bao Guo, dabbing at his nosebleed with a tissue, looked at Anna with a puzzled expression.

"Father gave me to you, didn't he tell you? From now on, I belong to you, Master. Father said your arrival turned Black Stone Village into the focal point for all the nearby villages around Black Stone Mountain. Haven't you noticed the smoke rising from the surrounding villages? They've relocated closer to us, all because of you. Father believes he can never repay your kindness, so he sent me, along with Allen and the others, to serve you wholeheartedly from now on."

Anna's voice grew fainter with each word, her head nearly disappearing into her new clothes. Bao Guo, however, was not moved. "What is all this about? Come on, I need to have a talk with your father."

With a dull thud, a plume of green smoke billowed from the mud house a short distance away, turning Bao Guo's face an instant shade of green. That was Hu Da's laboratory, hastily erected using the Earth Sacrifice Technique to conjure up the structure in a blink. Hu Da had boasted it was the ideal spot for a lab. But for all its merits, it clearly wasn't blast-proof.

The air inside the forty to fifty square meter mud dwelling was thick with a stinging odor. Hu Da's blond hair was a mess, resembling a bird's nest, yet he was giddy with excitement, like a child with a new toy. Clutching a bizarre vessel, slightly larger than a beer bottle, he erupted into maniacal laughter. "I'm a genius, a true genius! This is the bat potion! Just take the sap from a tree turned to wood, mix in any bat's skin or bones, add a dozen or so ingredients like Anti-Spirit Grass, and voilà! It works! I'm so tempted to try it myself. And with the special Invisible Medicine—oh, the thrill of it all!"

"Hold off on the self-experimentation for now. What was that explosion? I thought you, the great master, had been blown to smithereens," Bao Guo quipped from the doorway, waving away the pungent air.

"Here, this is the first potion you asked for. I'm short on materials for the other two; I need her assistance," Hu Da said, thrusting the potion into Bao Guo's hands and nodding toward Anna.

Bao Guo exhaled a resigned sigh. It figured that 'her' referred to Anna. He was well aware of Anna's capabilities, yet something about the situation didn't sit right with him. It seemed off to have a delicate beauty like her gathering materials and brewing potions for him, as if he were living off a woman. Wasn't someone like her meant to be pampered instead?

"I'm familiar with the sources for these ingredients. It won't take long, masters. Just give me a moment, and I'll have people fetch them," Anna said, taking a scroll of beast skin from Hu Da and departing after a brief look.

Bao Guo, puzzled, leaned in and whispered to Hu Da, "Can she read now? Does she understand the details on that beast skin you showed her?"

"Tsk, I'm going to be staying here for a while, so how could I not have an assistant? Your woman has potential; she's worth investing in. That's why I've also prepared a special Spiritual Enhancement Water for her. Oh, and when you take her to a big town in the future, make sure to enroll her in the college. Otherwise, you'll be squandering her talents."

...

After laboring for over seven hours and failing three times, Hu Da finally managed to concoct the three medicinal potions required by Bao Guo.

"Now, it's time for you two pieces of trash to pay the price." Standing on the 16th-floor balcony of the hospital, Bao Guo consumed the three potions one after the other. Soon, his body began sprouting dense black and gray fur, and his form grew fainter until he vanished from sight.

"What a weird taste—sour and reminiscent of raw lettuce, with a hint of spoiled sweet potato. Not pleasant at all." Bao Guo critiqued the combined scent of the three potions. One could only wonder what Hu Da would think if he heard this.

Approaching midnight, Bao Guo transformed into an enormous bat with a wingspan of nearly ten meters—an invisible bat, to be precise. With a powerful flap of his wings, he soared off toward the eastern outskirts of the city.

Meanwhile, in a warehouse at an abandoned vehicle scrapyard in the eastern suburbs of Ye County, two young men were merrily drinking and feasting.

"Brother Zhang, we really hit the jackpot today. Starting a fight on purpose and walking away with twenty thousand yuan, plus a few thousand more we snatched—what a rush! Make sure you remember me for any future gigs like this." Hu De was the materials manager of the scrapyard, a lackadaisical fellow who only respected Zhang Meng, the head of security at the yard, who was four years his senior. The only other security guard was a man in his sixties who paid him no mind.

These two were cut from the same cloth, often sneaking into nearby villages to pilfer or selling off scrap metal for some quick cash and a night with a lady of the night. They never missed an opportunity for mischief.

Zhang Meng let out a belch and chuckled, "Let's worry about the future later. The bosses want us to lay low for now, promising a reward once we sort things out. I bet this family has crossed them, and they'll be counting on us to handle it. We'll take our time. Once we've got the cash, we won't have any trouble finding women to entertain us. Haha."

"Absolutely, Brother Zhang, you're spot on. Here's to you. Ha! Cheers! I'll drink to that," Hu Deyou said, taking a small sip from his bowl. His eyes caught a glimpse of the warehouse door gaping open. When had that happened?

"Uh, Brother Zhang, look behind you. When did that door get opened? I could've sworn you shut it," slurred Hu Deyou, staggering to his feet, intent on closing the door, only to be chilled to the bone by a sudden blast of cold air.

Regaining his composure, he realized he was somehow suspended in midair, his left shoulder throbbing with pain, eliciting a scream from him. Beside him, Zhang Meng's eyes had rolled back, his mouth foaming, his head lolling to one side, clearly in shock.

"Help, somebody help! Mom, what's happening? Someone save me!" Hu Deyou cried out in panic, flailing his arms and inadvertently brushing against something cold—yet there was nothing above him.

Most of his drunken haze had lifted, and he knew all too well that they were being carried aloft by someone or something invisible to them.

After his cries and shouts proved futile, Hu Deyou shut his eyes in resignation, only to be abruptly dropped. As he nearly collided with the ground, he was whisked back up into the sky, over and over, countless times. Zhang Meng had come to by now, completely petrified, his body trembling uncontrollably, his gaze vacant. Hu Deyou was in even worse shape, babbling incoherently and wetting himself.

With a couple of splashes, they hit the water. Hu Deyou choked and lost consciousness, while Zhang Meng seemed to be knocked out by the impact. Both men were unresponsive as Bao Guo dragged them ashore.

Regardless of whether the entity that had snatched them up and flown for miles was human or spectral, it was clear that it harbored no intention of killing them. That was a stroke of luck. Hu Deyou, feigning ignorance, was far from foolish. His mind raced as he plotted his escape from the night's ordeal.

Just then, Zhang Meng stirred to consciousness, perhaps jolted awake by the icy lake water. He shivered and asked, "Deyou, where are we? What just happened? I feel like I was flying a moment ago."

"Stop, don't talk about it. We must have crossed some deity, and they've taken us for a ride—literally. We've been tossed around and flown far. Hurry, we need to bow down and worship!" Hu Deyou urged Zhang Meng to kowtow, but as he tried to bow, his head struck something invisible before them.

Where there had been empty space, their collision revealed a massive bat head mere inches from their faces. Its blood-red eyes, with a vertical slit pupil, black fur, and sharp fangs, dripped saliva as if signaling their time as prey had come.

"Wow, mama, help!"

"Uh—"

Watching Hu Deyou and Zhang Meng cling to each other in tears and howls, Bao Guo felt a wave of frustration. The effects of the Invisibility Potion had worn off far too soon, in less than half an hour. Little did he know that his invisibility had been dispelled by the accidental touch.

"Speak up, who sent you to vandalize the jade shop today? Confess, and I'll let you live. Otherwise, I'll be dining on you two tonight." Bao Guo's voice turned sinister and deep, unrecognizable even to those who knew him, let alone to the two strangers.

Overwhelmed by fear, the pair blurted out their confession. Bao Guo learned that a few nights ago, Zhang Meng had gambled and encountered a mysterious boss who handed them 20,000 yuan to commit the deed. They didn't know the boss's name or address. While Zhang Meng had toyed with the idea of pocketing the money and not doing the job, the boss's impressive martial arts skills had left them with no choice but to comply.

"Alright, since you two are of no further use to me, you might as well become my meal. Go ahead, bicker all you want inside my stomach." With those chilling words, Bao Guo sent the pair into utter despair. Weeping and pleading for mercy, they tried to flee, but Bao Guo effortlessly snatched them up, soaring into the sky before plunging them into the reservoir. This torment continued well into the night, until finally, around three or four in the morning, he dumped them at the entrance of the county police station. To top it off, he used Zhang Meng's phone to call Wang Fushun, the fortunate officer, confessing to the assault on the jade shop owner with a voice so hoarse and icy, it scarcely resembled a human's.

When Wang Fushun arrived at the station from his home early in the morning, he found the on-duty officers in a state of shock. The two terrified suspects, having soiled themselves, were sprawled on the ground, alternating between sobs and hysterical laughter, completely unable to communicate. What horrors they had faced that night was anyone's guess.

Meanwhile, the orchestrator of this nightmare casually flapped his wings, perched atop the hospital roof before slipping away to another realm. It was time for him to set his plans in motion.